NEWS ROUNDUP

Delicate operation: Cougar tracking project maps ecosystem The plan on this March outing is to tree the mother lion and tranquilize her. They will then replace her old, dead radio collar with a new one that has a Global Positioning System device that will better track her movements. The collar is one of four GPS units the biologists are deploying as part of the Teton Cougar Project, an ongoing study of mountain lions around Jackson Hole. The project's overriding goal, however, extends beyond cats. Quigley, who initiated the project in late 1999, wants to combine what he learns from these GPS collars with similar data being collected by researchers tracking wolves, grizzly bears and black bears. Already, researchers have collars on 20 to 30 bears and two wolves in this region, he said. If all goes well, by the end of this summer researchers could have up to 20,000 locations of where some members of the ecosystem's four large carnivore species have been, he said. Quigley worked on a similar project near Yellowstone National Park, researching grizzlies that left Yellowstone seeking carcasses of elk killed by hunters. Mountain lions, in contrast, moved into the park, away from the bears. Wolves didn't appear to alter their movements....
West ripe for fires after winter extremes It was a dry, warm winter across the Northwest, with observers in some areas saying they can't remember the last time the snowpack was this low. It was just the opposite in the Southwest, with record winter rainfall that flooded deserts and caused deadly landslides. Strangely, both face the same worry: Conditions are ripe for a bad wildfire season. Along with the dry forests in the Northwest, all that rain in the Southwest has fed lots of tall grass and brush that will become tinder when it dries this summer. In parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, the snowpack is 25 percent to 50 percent of normal. The U.S. Drought Monitor, which tracks conditions across the country, rates vast tracts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho as "exceptional drought," the worst of five drought categories....
Federal judge blocks northern Wisconsin timber sales Two planned sales of timber from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin have been blocked by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee said the U.S. Forest Service didn’t properly assess the impact on certain hawks and martens that inhabit the forest. The rulings Thursday and Friday by Adelman require that the forest service consider the cumulative impacts of six national forest timber sales approved by the agency in 2003, instead of assessing the sales individually....
Logging the Fiddler salvage sale Lumbering machines danced a clanking ballet atop the Fiddler Mountain log landing as Rick Parrett considered his gut reaction to protesters he saw on the way to work that morning. No anger, shrugged the soft-spoken logger. "I guess they just don’t see our side of it," said the Canyonville-area resident. "We’re coming out here to get rid of the dead trees and get a forest going again. "It isn’t only our jobs — we’re doing this for the future," he added. "This is a renewable resource. If you don’t come in here and take care of it, you’re going to lose 50 years of growth, maybe more." Parrett, 48, who has been working in the woods for 30 years, is a "siderod" — the boss of the logging operation at this particular site. Several logging "shows" are occurring simultaneously on this mountain a half-dozen air miles northwest of Kerby in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest....
Protesters vow larger effort against roadless-area logging If you think the protests over the Fiddler timber salvage sale are a headache, be prepared for a migraine when logging starts in the roadless areas burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire, activists warn. "When they move into the roadless areas, there is going to be more resistance," predicted Illinois Valley resident Annette Rasch, one of 20 women arrested March 14 for trying to block access to the Fiddler sale. "This movement is going to continue to grow nationally," she said. "This is not the ‘fringey far left’ like some in the media are saying. Mainstream people are involved." Nearly 50 people have been arrested since logging began on Fiddler Mountain, including a protester arrested last week in Portland for blocking a street near the Forest Service’s regional office. Police had to lower his 30-foot-high tripod to arrest the protester, a member of a group called Stumptown Earth First! Portland was once known as Stumptown....
Controversy clings to vacant Tahoe mansion A long-vacant mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe is set for the wrecking ball, ending years of controversy over a government land swap involving boomtown desert land and the former property of a finance giant. The 10,000-square-foot home built by mutual-fund executive Jack Dreyfus, founder of the Dreyfus Fund, will be demolished, probably sometime next year, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which now owns the mansion. Leveling the home returns the 81-acre property on the lake's southeast shore to its natural state. That's been the goal of the Forest Service since it agreed eight years ago to trade desert property in southern Nevada for the lakefront spread then owned by a private development company. The Forest Service will offer the demolition job to a salvage company, largely for the cost of the salvage, at minimal or no taxpayer expense, Norman said. The Forest Service, however, already paid $575,000 for the house, which includes three-quarters of a mile of lakefront....
Forest Service, environmentalists at odds over Smokey's message For 60 years, Smokey Bear has been the voice of caution to hikers and campers across the country, saying: "Remember, only you can prevent forest fires." Now, the U.S. Forest Service finds itself at odds with environmentalists in interpreting that message. Both point to Smokey Bear as the reason foresters should or should not set controlled fires in public woodlands in the eastern United States. The Forest Service says Smokey approves of controlled fires because they help eliminate invasive species and burn ground clutter that could contribute to catastrophic wildfires. Environmentalists say Smokey is opposed to controlled burns because fire kills trees and leaves animals homeless regardless of whether it's caused by lightning strikes, arsonists or federal foresters....
Wild horses leave range for new homes For 24 wild horses in New Mexico, the arrival of spring has signaled some dramatic lifestyle changes. Corralled at the Browning Ranch in Farmington, these horses are trading their 75,000-acre home on the Carson National Forest for the urban life of Four Corners ranches, barns and pastures. The wild herd, which traces its ancestry back to a horse supplier for the cavalry in the late 1800s, now numbers around 275 animals. But drought conditions and an annual reproduction rate of 15 percent to 22 percent have overwhelmed the range and spurred the Forest Service to address the situation....
Panel wary of tortoise effort A new research arm of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to pinpoint reasons for the decline of the desert tortoise and bring an end to its status as an endangered species. But members of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's California Desert District Advisory Council are skeptical about the ambitious goals of the new Desert Tortoise Recovery Office, based in Reno, Nev. Looking back 11 years, council members said here Saturday that efforts by state and federal wildlife agencies and other groups to reverse the decline of the endangered tortoise have fallen flat....
Where Eagles Die Last February, a woman walking her dog in the woods of North Vancouver stumbled upon a grotesque find: the mutilated carcasses of 26 bald eagles. The discovery set in motion a major investigation involving law enforcement and conservation officials in both Canada and the U.S. Now, TIME has learned, authorities have identified suspects in a poaching and smuggling ring that they say annually slaughters more than 500 of the protected animals on British Columbia's southwestern coast alone, with perhaps hundreds more killed each year elsewhere in the province. Officials are expected to make a formal announcement of their progress in the case early next week. Killing eagles is illegal in Canada and the U.S. In addition, it's against the law for Americans to possess bald-eagle parts unless they are registered tribal members with special government permits. But with feathers and talons a major feature in traditional aboriginal dance regalia—which is popular on a competitive circuit that offers rich prizes for the best outfits—there's a hot black market for eagle parts in the U.S....
Alaska’s long-studied wolf pack threatened The demise of this family of wolves, known to tens of thousands of park visitors as the Toklat group, would end a unique stream of longitudinal research. For nearly six decades, Haber and other scientists have chronicled the hunting techniques, mating habits and social interdependence of generations of a geographically stable group of wolves. Trapping the Toklat wolves also raises questions about the ethical treatment of animals that for decades have been cosseted inside a park, where they have been regarded as prime tourist attractions and have learned to associate people with harmless curiosity — not with the slow, lethal torment of a trap. At the urging of wildlife preservation and animal rights groups in the lower 48, three Democratic senators — Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Carl M. Levin (Mich.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) — wrote last Monday to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, citing a "biological emergency" and imploring her to take immediate steps to save the Toklat family....
Editorial: Parks in Peril resident Bush made the troubled national parks system the centerpiece of his rather modest environmental agenda during the 2000 campaign, chastising the Democrats for allowing the parks to decay and pledging to spend $1 billion a year in new money over five years to eliminate a backlog of repairs, then estimated at $4.9 billion. It seemed an easy enough promise at the time, but Mr. Bush would dearly love to have it back now. Just two weeks ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service pegged the probable backlog at half again that amount, and administration officials - most recently, Fran Mainella, the beleaguered National Park Service director - have been forced to concede that the best Mr. Bush can do is to "address" the backlog. Yet to dwell exclusively on Mr. Bush's failed promise is diversionary. It is true that he has provided, at best, $900 million or so in new money, and that any other claims made on his behalf involve highly creative accounting. But it is also true that presidents before him, with the possible exception of Dwight Eisenhower, have been no more attentive to park needs, and that Congress has been even worse....
Welcome mat pulled for many at monument Target shooters, paintball enthusiasts and hikers with unleashed pets are no longer welcome in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. Regulations against the activities were approved in 2004 by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and went into effect last week. The restrictions are designed to protect the area's natural resources, as well as visitors' safety, said Jim Foote, outdoor recreation planner for the BLM Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office. The rules prohibit the use of gas- and air-propelled weapons, such as paintball weapons, and target shooting on public lands within the Monument. Hunting, which is not regulated by the BLM, is permitted, Foote said....
As Yucca project stalls, Utah nuke waste dump hits fast track The fates of proposed nuclear waste dumps in Nevada and Utah are heading in opposite directions. The Yucca Mountain project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is already years behind schedule. And this week, a House oversight panel will hold a hearing on allegations of falsified scientific data on the project, which could further delay it. Meanwhile, an arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already approved a plan to temporarily store nuclear waste on an Indian reservation about 50 miles west of Salt Lake City. Utah officials will appeal that decision next week, but experts expect the Private Fuel Storage project to win final approval and start operating by 2007....
E-mails suggest data faked on nuclear dump project E-mails by several government scientists on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project suggest workers were planning to fabricate records and manipulate results to ensure outcomes that would help the project move forward. "I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names," wrote a U.S. Geological Survey employee in one e-mail released Friday by a congressional committee investigating suspected document falsification on the project. "This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff." In another message the same employee wrote to a colleague: "In the end I keep track of 2 sets of files, the ones that will keep QA happy and the ones that were actually used." QA apparently refers to "quality assurance." The e-mails, written from 1998 to 2000, were in a batch of correspondence released in advance of this week's hearing by the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, headed by Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.). The Energy and Interior Departments revealed the existence of the e-mails March 16, and inspectors general of both departments are investigating. The FBI also is conducting a probe, according to a subcommittee staffer....
Drilling on the Roan The future of the Roan Plateau may be as contentious an issue for Colorado as the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seems to be for the nation. The plateau is not as pristine as ANWR. The Roan is bordered by busy Interstate 70, the surrounding country is dotted with towns and ranches, and energy development is a long-established industry in Garfield County, which covers most of the Roan. At issue are drilling on top of the plateau - how much and when - and the impact of various drilling options on wildlife and air quality. The debate also involves larger trends such as local communities demanding a say in energy development, and tourism and recreational interests asserting themselves against the energy industry....
Regulatory issues cloud North Coast catch as season opens The recreational salmon season opens today, but the signs aren't auspicious for a good catch. The problem isn't with the population of chinook salmon offshore. By all accounts, it is a big one, the result of a bumper class from the Sacramento River system. Instead, the issues are regulatory ones. The salmon swimming off California's coast originate from two different river systems: the Sacramento and the Klamath. Because of low water conditions on the Klamath River system and a huge fish kill on the main river in 2002, Klamath salmon stocks are critically low. Any significant harvest of the Klamath fish that remain could threaten future runs. Because Sacramento fish mingle with Klamath fish off much of the North Coast, regulators have expressed concern about the 2005 catch....
Column: A Political Football ... With Fins If the great salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest become another dodo bird, you can't blame the Columbia River Indian tribes or their allies in the scientific world. But the portents of the summer of 2005 are ominous. The snowpack in the northern Cascade Range is near a record low, and the National Weather Service predicts the third-lowest runoff in a century. Fisheries biologists warn that endangered salmon stocks swimming home from their five-year migration to Japan face a tragic die-off. Determined to avoid another disaster made possible by federal fisheries policy, three Columbia River tribes last week joined state and federal scientists and conservationists in calling for a legal showdown with the Bush administration over the fate of the salmon stocks. They asked federal courts to force the government to provide enough water this summer for the fish to migrate to their upstream spawning beds. The administration is equally determined to use the water to generate hydroelectric power, a move that would, in effect, dismantle provisions of the Endangered Species Act....
Law boosts lower Colorado with native fish and wildlife Interior Secretary Gail Norton is to launch a half-century effort today to return native trees, fish and wildlife to a lower Colorado River system profoundly altered by humankind's thirst. Environmental groups are skeptical, however, that the transformation can stick without fundamental changes in the river's flow. By the time the Colorado flows past the baking scrub and farm land of California's southeastern corner, it has been tamed and used many times over and is known more for its fatal speedboat accidents than for its natural splendor. But the beleaguered native fish and wildlife of the lower Colorado will get help when Norton signs final documents adopting a 50-year, $626 million program to offset some of the damage done by dams and pumping that supply river water to millions of residents of Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. About 8,130 acres of habitat will be created and maintained along portions of a 400-mile length of the Colorado running from Lake Mead to the Mexican border....
Roosevelt Lake level is highest on record By the fall of 2002, during one of the Southwest's deepest dry spells of the past millennium, Roosevelt Lake had bottomed out at 9 percent full. A good chunk of the Tonto Basin looked as it did centuries ago: The Salt River was confined to a narrow channel and surrounded by thousands of acres normally underwater. Now, after a soggy winter, boat ramps are no longer a half-hour hike from the water, and local anglers are boasting that Roosevelt is on the verge of becoming the best bass fishing spot in the West, if not the nation. Water managers expect the lake to be nearly full by month's end. At 92 percent, the reservoir is already submerging saguaros because it's nearly 9 feet higher than it has ever been. The record levels are due to a construction project that added 77 feet to the dam in the early 1990s. Only in the past month has the lake absorbed enough runoff to take advantage of the extra capacity....
Concerns raised over plan to turn oil platforms into fish farms Thousands of oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be converted into deep-sea fish farms raising red snapper, mahi mahi, yellow fin tuna and flounder, under a plan backed by the Bush administration. For years, marine biologists and oil companies have experimented using the giant platforms as bases for mariculture, but commercial use of the platforms as fish farms never got off the ground because of the federal government's reluctance to open up the oceans to farming. Yet in December, President Bush proposed making it easier to launch fish farms off the nation's coasts. That could be done by resolving a "confounding array of regulatory and legal obstacles," the White House said....
EPA Refuses to Release Results of Scientist Surveys The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is illegally blocking the release of internal surveys of its own scientific staff, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). PEER had requested copies of extensive employee surveys conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2003 within the EPA Office of Research and Development. ORD consists of a network of laboratories and research centers comprised of approximately 2000 scientists in which much of the agency's basic and applied science concerning pollution monitoring, toxicological effects and other public health issues. According to agency scientists, the surveys covered a range of topics concerning how EPA conducts its science, including questions on scientific integrity and quality, the adequacy of resources and the effects of management practices on employee morale. The three sets of surveys taken over six years would also allow comparison of scientist perceptions during both the Clinton and Bush Administrations....
Jewish group rallies around Earth he thick blond- and maple–toned limbs of a tree sculpture stretch toward the ceiling of Temple Emanuel, offering the effect of a miniature forest growing through the suburban Maryland synagogue. The sculpture resembles a banyan tree, which grows so stout and wide that it was used for shelter centuries ago. For a congregation whose mission is to spread respect for the environment among fellow Jews, the tree is an apt symbol. A tour of the synagogue marked the second day of the eighth annual Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life leadership institute in Washington, D.C. The three-day conference included speakers on environmental and Jewish topics, such as eco-feminism, the role of religion in environmental policy, conflicts between Jewish and environmental values, and creating synagogues that are sensitive to the environment. Participants also lobbied members of Congress on Capitol Hill....
Editorial: Conservatives for conservation But a more progressive -- and realistic -- approach may be emerging from several remarkable new alliances between environmentalists and groups that ordinarily focus on religious and defense issues. These organizations are uniting to promote a reduction in gasoline consumption as vital to national security. "I just think reasonable people are more inclined right now to start thinking about ways our country's future isn't dependent on ... oil from a region where there are a lot of very bad actors," Gary Bauer, former head of the conservative Family Research Council, recently told The Washington Post. Bauer and activists across the political spectrum have teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmentalists to create an alliance called Set America Free. They're lobbying the Bush administration and Congress to invest more money in encouraging the use of gas-electric hybrid vehicles and in exploring alternative-energy sources....
Giving Hybrids A Real Jolt Is there a car that can cut America's oil imports to a trickle, dramatically reduce pollution, and do it all with currently available technology? Greg Hanssen thinks so. His company has already built one such car -- a converted Toyota Prius that gets 100 to 180 mpg in a typical commute. Andrew A. Frank thinks so, too. The University of California at Davis professor has constructed a handful of such vehicles. His latest: a converted 325-horsepower Ford Explorer that goes 50 miles using no gas at all, then gets 30 mpg. "It goes like a rocket," he says. These vehicles are quickly becoming the darlings of strange bedfellows: both conservative hawks and environmentalists, who see such fuel efficiency as key to ensuring national security and fighting climate change. Reducing dependence on the turbulent Middle East "is a war issue," says former CIA Chief R. James Woolsey, who calls the cars' potential "phenomenal." What's the secret? It's as simple as adding more batteries and a plug to hybrids such as the Prius. That way, the batteries can be charged up at any electrical outlet -- letting this so-called plug-in hybrid travel 20 to 60 miles under electric power alone. Since most Americans drive fewer than 30 miles a day, such a car could go months without visiting the filling station....
Glitzy ride In 1993, the year Ty Murray won the fifth of his seven world championships in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, he earned $297,896 - a PRCA single-season earnings record that still stands. Last year, Mike Lee won the Professional Bull Riders world championship, paying no entry fees, traveling mostly on weekends and subjecting himself to far fewer jaw-jarring bulls. His paycheck for the season? A cool $1.4 million. Riding bulls used to mean doing what you did for love, not money - because there wasn't much money to be had. But with the advent of the Professional Bull Riders circuit in 1993 - begun by a visionary group of riders who believed the event could stand alone and be marketed like other major league sports - all that changed. A skilled rider in the PBR can now make more money, get on fewer and more competitive bulls, and expend far less money and travel time....
Have stethoscope, will travel Shortly after the morning coffee crowd thinned at The Fields Station cafe, Sandra Downs used the lull to come out from behind the red lunch counter and get some minor surgery done. She didn't have to go far. In the parking lot out front, Dr. Robert Morrison waited with a nurse and a ready supply of scalpels, forceps and gauze. While tourists filled their tanks at nearby gas pumps, Downs sat on a small examining table inside the converted Sportsmaster trailer with "Harney Dist. Rural Health" painted on its side. The 79-year-old doctor, dressed in all-black western wear, numbed Downs' toe, removed an ingrown toenail and sent her back to work with a slight limp. Every two months, Morrison parks the trailer in Fields, a rural pit stop with cafe, motel and store at the base of Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon. He also makes similar trips to Crane, Drewsey and Denio, Nev., with his son, Kern, hauling the trailer....
On The Edge of Common Sense: Uncle Leonard had his priorities straight Yes, Virginia, things have changed. A 20-something couple I know has occasionally sought my counsel. They are married, both animal science graduates and still seeking direction. He is a typical ag boy: strong, honest, has a good work ethic with a background in purebred cattle, fitting, showing, and can weld. He's doing graduate school but keeps busy with his Dodge dually and 20-foot Featherlight hauling livestock from purebred sales. She grew up running a few gummer cows with her dad, working at the feedlot processing cattle and weighing grain trucks, president of the FFA and won the team penning three years in a row at the county fair. She wears the Top Cowhand buckle with pride. She's working at a feed mill and going to night school getting a master's degree to get a teaching certificate....

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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Know the cowgirl by the swish of her fringe and the jingle of her spur

By Julie Carter

Much of the reputation of a cowboy or cowgirl relies on perception. It’s a sad commentary to the world of high top boots but it’s a fact.

Let me explain.

Set the scene in the panhandle of Texas where it snows sideways and the top soil relocates daily with every norther that blows through to freeze the buns off the man and beast.

It is the land of wheat fields and millions of miles of electric hot wire strung as “fencing”. Operators who lease wheat pasture for cattle are checker boarded across the plains of Texas with other misguided souls who want to run cattle in the worst weather this side of polar bear country.

Misery and hard work make strong friendships among those foolish enough to think that is an honorable way to make a living. The wives are often fully half of the entire hired hand crew and take at least their fair share of the head count to ride through and check daily.

Depending on who is telling the story, from his perspective he is sure he has bigger circles to ride, sicker cattle to doctor, fences are worse and longer drives to get it all done.

As happens in the small close community of 100,000 square miles, one wife will sometimes meet up with another wife in their daily ride through the cattle and decide to have lunch at the local Ptomaine palace aka café.

When Billie Jo and Lynn walked into the café, everyone there knew them. On entering Billie Jo would develop a slight limp and rub her shoulder. In casual conversation she would tell her stories that all began with “that Eddie Griego colt” or “that Hank Wiescamp condemned colt” –either of which had bucked her down and she was a little sore.

She always filled in the story with details of how he had “grabbed aholt of himself, swallowed his head, sunfished, jumped every which way” and finally got the best of her after an Etbauer style ride. (Etbauer’s are world champion saddle bronc riders.)

No body every witnessed these rides, but nobody ever questioned those lash batting blue eyes.

Lynn, on the other hand, regularly rode a Pasamonte Paul-Blondie’s Dude horse, with justifiably reputed breeding for bucking. She admittedly was bucked off as soon as the horse pinned his ears back and as you might figure, there was always a witness.

“I saw you get bucked down the other day, but I came back by that place about an hour later and you were gone, so I figured you were all right.”

There were two reasons why people always took Billie Jo at her word. She had story telling down to an art and she always wore the correct costume.

The women both wore the same basic functional clothing just with different style. Lynn’s scarf (rag) to protect her neck from the cold was always cotton, large and wrinkled. Billie Jo’s was bright colored silk and always looked clean.

Both wore chinks (a short version of regular chaps) but Lynn’s were decorated with manure and orange marker chalk while Billie Jo’s had silver conchos and long swishy fringe. Lynn’s spurs had regular length shanks with adequate rowels while Billie Jo sported long shanks with pizza cutter rowels that jingled when she walked.

Lynn always had a piggin’ string (small rope) in her belt in case she needed to tie up a gate or the muffler on the pickup to keep it from dragging. Billie Jo had two in her belt and two more bandolier style across her shoulder.

Bottom line is Billie Jo was regarded as a real deal, turkey feather in her hat, britches in her boots puncher. Lynn was labeled as her husband’s little helper.

Never underestimate the power of good story telling or dressing for success.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

© Julie Carter

I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner.

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Forever Is A Long Time

For awhile there it looked like The Nature Conservancy had plans to buy up all the land in this country. But they realized that even they didn't have quite that much money. Besides, the more land they bought the more they had to pay to take care of it. According to writer Tom Knudson, "from 1990 to 2000, administrative overhead at the Conservancy jumped from $14.8 million to $40.2 million -- up 170 percent. Its fund-raising bill, which includes membership solicitations, went from $8.8 million to $45.7 million, up 420 percent." If The Nature Conservancy wants to brag half a century from now about the same kind of growth it achieved in its first fifty years, then they had to change their business model. This was clear to TNC's new president Steve McCormick, a lawyer and former head of the California arm of TNC. While he ran the Nature Conservancy in California, McCormick changed that group's focus from trying to buy up all the land to merely being able to control it. His first year at the national organization has been spent trying to instill that same philosophy. McCormick has said that "nature preserves are not sufficient to heal an ailing planet. Our mission speaks to preserving biological diversity, not creating nature preserves. Land acquisition alone will not enable us to work at the scale we have to work at." To McCormick the problem was clear: Almost half of the group's income was going toward taking care of properties they already owned, and as they purchased more land there would be less and less money left over to satiate their desire for more real estate. "Custodial maintenance is an Achilles' heel for us," McCormick said. McCormick now wants to shed some Nature Conservancy property by selling it or gifting it so the group can turn their efforts to protecting much larger regions of this country and the world. To do this The Nature Conservancy doesn't have to own all the land, merely control it. Why buy the land when you can effectively control it through conservation easements?....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Half-Baked Alaska

The inexorable drumbeat of climate disaster stories goes on, but no one seems interested in checking the facts. The most recent assault on common sense comes from Alaska. There, Republican senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski are said to be favoring onerous climate change legislation sponsored by Arizona's John McCain. McCain thinks he can ride global warming all the way to the 2008 presidential nomination, by grabbing the horde of green-leaning California and Pacific Coast delegates that will be off-limits to his Southern competition, Bill Frist (Tennessee) and George Allen (Virginia), who oppose McCain's expensive, ineffective bill. McCain's bill will do absolutely nothing measurable about global warming for the foreseeable future. It's nicknamed "Kyoto Lite" in Washington, because it is an imitation of the infamous Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Even Al Gore's scientists conceded that, over 50 years, with full participation by every nation involved, the change in global temperature caused by Kyoto would be a teeny thirteen-hundredths of a degree, an amount impossibly small to measure. Given that McCain's staff surely knows this fact, the hidden agenda for his presidential strategy becomes obvious. McCain's bill only went down 55-43 on Halloween, 2003, so the addition of Alaska's two conservative Republicans is ominously significant, and, as we say in academic circles, counterfactual. Stevens and Murkowski are largely concerned that the Inuit (to old timers, "Eskimo") culture is being damaged by warming....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Federalizing Invasive Species

Political observations are something to be avoided because of all the baggage they generate but sometimes they cannot be avoided. Granted there are good and bad Democrats and Republicans. It is however, a fact that most recent Democrats support animal rights activities, endangered species programs, Wilderness, non-management of public lands or natural resources, non-use of natural resources, government land acquisition, and more national authority for the Federal government. I say this as a dispassionate observation of fact. Currently, Republicans are perceived to be somewhat less enthusiastic about these matters but alas this is a mirage. Today the Republicans control the White House, the US House of Representatives, and the US Senate. One would think that property owners (from dog owners and farmers to homeowners and rural residents), natural resource users (from home builders and loggers to miners, ranchers, hunters, fishermen, trappers, car drivers, and businessmen), public land users, and supporters of specifically limited government would be less threatened by government but such is not the case. For whatever reasons, the Republican appointees in the US Department of the Interior and the Republican Senators and staff in the US Senate are little different than their current or recent Democrat counterparts regarding animal rights, environmental extremism, larger and more powerful Federal government, and all the other topics I have mentioned. But this article is not about the AWOL Republican legislators ignoring needed reforms. It is about the environmental ACTIVIST Republican majority in the US Senate and the US Department of the Interior. It is about wording placed surreptitiously in the current Senate version of the Transportation Bill by no one knows who. It is about US Department of the Interior Republican appointees that compose the wording and are little more than environmental stooges for those that would destroy this nation. It is about Senators and Senate staff that will not return calls about the wording. It is about seeing the Republican Senators and US Department of the Interior Republican appointees as Democrats-Lite and not as any alternative to the environmental and animal rights legislative fiascoes of the last 35 years. They believe they will get more votes by throwing environmental bouquets to those like the Sierra Club and the Humane Society of the US who would gladly cut their throats tomorrow. They are in the midst of a fight and they think their role is to be nice to both sides. Hello, is anyone home? In short this is about the stealth amendment of the US Senate version of the US Transportation Bill to include the creation of a Federal responsibility to eliminate INVASIVE SPECIES....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Utah bans eminent domain use by Redevelopment Agencies

Despite heavy lobbying by Utah's mayors, Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed into law Senate Bill 184, which effectively removes eminent domain power from all redevelopment agencies within the state. The only exemption in the law allows the agencies to use eminent domain to take the private property from individuals who serve on the boards of redevelopment agencies. Utah may be the first state to take legislative action to curb the use of eminent domain by cities and municipalities. The practice has grown over the last 30 years, as cities have taken private property from one owner to give, or sell to another private owner, whose proposed use promises increased tax revenue or other economic benefits. The Michigan state supreme court ended the practice in Michigan, by reversing the infamous 1981 Poletown decision, which allowed a Michigan city to remove more than a thousand private homeowners from land that was given to General Motors. The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering a similar case brought by Susette Kelo against the New London Development Corporation, created by the city of New London, Connecticut. New London is trying to use its eminent domain power to take Kelo's home to give, or sell to another private developer....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

New PRI Study Finds No Link Between Global Warming and Air Quality

A comprehensive new study by top air quality and climate experts discredits recent claims that global warming will lead to more bad air days in California and other states. The analysis shows that the air quality throughout the nation has dramatically improved over the last 30 years despite generally increasing urban temperatures. Regulation of greenhouse gas emissions will have no effect on air quality. Air Quality False Alarm: An Analysis of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Heat Advisory” Report was published today by the Pacific Research Institute, United for Jobs, The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives, and The John Locke Foundation. “The Natural Resource Defense Council’s “Heat Advisory” study claims that bad air days and global warming are linked - this is false and misleading,” said Dr. Steven Hayward, a PRI senior fellow. “Parts of California have the worst air quality in the nation, but California has also made the greatest improvements. For example, the Los Angeles area has reduced exceedances of the 1-hour and 8-hour ozone standards by more 90 and 80 percent, respectively, since the 1980s,” said Joel Schwartz, co-author of Air Quality False Alarm. According to EPA ozone monitoring data, over the last 30 years ozone levels have declined even though urban temperatures have increased. On average, U.S. cities have achieved a 95 percent decrease in the number of “red alert” days (1-hour ozone exceedances) per year and a 75 percent decrease in the number of “orange alert” days (8-hour ozone exceedances). Increasing urban temperatures are attributable to the “urban heat island” effect, rather than global warming....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Solution to Oil Problem is Multi-Step

Step one in determining how to solve the current oil problem is to assess the problem. Petroleum is expensive and gas prices are hurting the American consumer. As Lakely continues to report, "The United States imports 62 percent of its oil, up from 58 percent just five years ago." Much of our imported oil comes from the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia. This is a huge problem because although the United States is on somewhat friendly terms with the Saudis, they are not really our 'friends'. America is sending money into a country that harbors people who live for America's destruction. The worst part is that America is dependent upon them. America needs to cease its dependence on Middle Eastern oil, to prevent hard times in the event of countries like Saudi Arabia turning their backs on us. Step two in fixing this oil situation is to formulate a goal. Where does this country want to go in terms of energy independence? Factors to keep in mind include environmental health, petroleum independence (as it's being depleted), and maximization of the U.S. economy. A major concern with alternative sources of energy is that switching to these sources may harm the economy. The solution is a gradual process. While America is switching to cleaner, renewable sources of energy such as solar and biodiesel, we need to relieve our dependence on the Saudis. A domestic source of oil with huge potential is ANWR. In Alaska, ANWR covers 19 million acres of territory. A big concern about drilling in ANWR is the environmental harm it may cause. Mr. Bush has proposed drilling on just 2,000 acres. New technology allows companies to drill horizontally once they're underground, thus limiting the surface destruction. Mr. Bush, a Texan, explained that we can access all of the oil in ANWR by drilling on those 2000 acres. To better understand this size ratio, here's an analogy from Neal Boortz: Imagine ANWR is a 9 X 12 foot rug. Flip two quarters onto the rug. That's the size of the proposed drilling. That's not much. According to the Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc., ANWR could potentially produce one million barrels of oil per day. This production would dramatically reduce oil prices as well as the potential for oil to raise in price. In addition, it would relieve some foreign oil dependence on other countries. The website www.anwr.org provides details on how many jobs (up to 735,000) would be created by employment in ANWR, as well as what time of year drilling occur. Plans for drilling intend to drill only in the winter time, when wildlife is absent from the region. ANWR is not the solution to the problem, however. ANWR is only a temporary alleviation to the problem. The solution is to convert to cleaner and more economical sources of energy that are renewable. A combination of ANWR drilling and conversion to alternative sources of energy is essential to maintaining and progressing the American economy. Neither one by itself will solve the problem....

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Feds kill five wolves Federal wildlife officials killed five wolves in Sublette County earlier this week in response to chronic livestock depredations. Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the wolves were members of the Daniel wolf pack, which has been implicated in the killing of at least 21 head of livestock in the last few years. Five members of the pack were killed last year as well, and federal officials do not know how many members of the pack are still roaming. One night last week, the wolf pack entered a Daniel-area ranch pasture where pregnant cows were located, bringing two of the animals down. One of the cows was alive but severely wounded when found early the next morning and was destroyed by the ranch owners. Both of the cows were due to give birth, as calving in the herd had already begun, doubling the losses for the ranch....
Aggressive bobcat killed near Horseshoe Lake found to have rabies A bobcat that was killed after attacking two vehicles near Horseshoe Lake tested positive for rabies on Friday. Tonto National Forest wildlife specialist Todd Willard warns recreationists heading to the Mesquite Campground area to be especially alert for wildlife exhibiting odd behavior. Willard said that on Wednesday a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy noticed the bobcat on a dirt road leading to the popular campground, about 15 miles northeast of Carefree. The deputy slowed his vehicle, and the bobcat continued to trot alongside it like a dog. When the deputy stopped, the bobcat attacked a tire. The deputy called a forest service officer to the scene, and the bobcat attacked his vehicle, too. The animal was shot and bagged....
Lynx protection plan revised White River National Forest managers have reworded their plan for protecting the endangered lynx after objections from higher-ranking officials in Washington, but they said safeguards will not be weakened. Environmentalists were skeptical and accused forest managers of circumventing established rules for changing their management plans. The revision, which changes the White River's management plan, was released Friday. Don Carroll, acting supervisor of the 2.3 million-acre forest in western Colorado, said Thursday the change merely avoids duplication by deleting rules from the White River plan that are already in force under Forest Service manuals....
Plan to control ravens may stir things up A federal agency familiar with controversy is likely to stir up more flak with a plan to shoot or poison ravens that prey on young desert tortoises that are battling for survival in the Mojave. It is among several proposals to control ravens outlined in a habitat-conservation plan for the 9.3‚million-acre western Mojave Desert, just released by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, San Bernardino County and the city of Barstow. The BLM's 15-member California Desert District Advisory Council discussed the plan Friday at its meeting in Barstow. Meanwhile, the BLM lifted its prohibition Friday on off-highway vehicle use in the eastern desert in a move that will actually protect the tortoise, said Linda Hansen, the bureau's California desert district manager....
Endangered Species Act provisions appear to benefit imperiled organisms An analysis of the conservation status of 1095 species that have been protected under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) indicates that those that have been given more protection under the act are more likely to be improving in status and less likely to be declining than species given less protection. The study, "The Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: A Quantitative Analysis," by Martin F. J. Taylor, Kieran F. Suckling, and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, affirms the effectiveness of some controversial aspects of the act for conservation. The results could inform various efforts now under way in Congress to amend the act. The study finds that the longer species were listed under the act, the more likely they were to be improving in status and the less likely to be declining, suggesting ESA conservation measures act cumulatively over time. Separately, species for which "critical habitat" had been designated for two or more years appeared more likely to be improving and less likely to be declining than species that did not have critical habitat for at least two years. Likewise, species that had recovery plans for two or more years appeared more likely to be improving and less likely to be declining than others, and species with dedicated recovery plans appeared to fare better than species protected by multi-species recovery plans. Other protections afforded by the ESA, such as protection of individual animals from unregulated "take," also had apparently beneficial effects on species' conservation status....
Study shows salmon spawned, thrived above Klamath dams Based on a review of historical and archaeological evidence, a group of federal biologists has concluded that salmon definitely spawned in waters far above a series of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River that have blocked fish since 1917. The report comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers whether to grant the utility Pacificorp a new license to operate four dams straddling the Oregon-California border as they are, or go along with American Indian tribes, commercial fishermen and conservationists who want the dams removed or altered to open access to hundreds of miles of spawning habitat. Besides being the focus of intense political battles about allocations of water between fish and farms, the Klamath River is a keystone for setting annual salmon harvests in the Pacific Ocean....
Jurassic-era 'Popeye' pops out An amateur paleontologist hunting for fossils in a quarry near his home in Grand Junction has found something no one had ever seen before. G.W. "Wally" Windscheffel, 77, a retired Navy master chief and electrical contractor with a passion for writing and paleontology, discovered the fossil remains of a termite-eating mammal that lived in Colorado 150 million years ago. The Jurassic-era creature was found in a clump of bentonite near Fruita, west of Grand Junction. Windscheffel's discovery, reported this week in the journal Science, was formally named Fruitafossor windscheffeli - "Fruita" for where it was found; "fossor," which is Latin for digger; and "windscheffeli" in honor of its discoverer. The small, powerful mammal evolved highly specialized techniques for feasting on termites, according to the Science report....
Mormon crickets may threaten rangelands Large outbreaks of Mormon crickets and grasshoppers are expected once again to threaten rangelands and crops in parts of southern Idaho. "We're anticipating a busy year, based on the surveys we did last fall," said Ben Simko, program manager for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. Authorities are particularly concerned about Mormon crickets in southwest Idaho, where large infestations occurred last year. Hardest hit was Owyhee County with some 1.65 million acres infested. "We think that for now the cricket problem will continue to be significant," said Dave McNeal, state plant health director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture....
Ranch too expensive for state, North Dakota House decides An offer to buy a 5,225-acre ranch in North Dakota's western Badlands is a "shakedown" and "rip-off," the sale's critics said as the state House voted to scuttle the deal. "If the state wants to buy this ranch, I'm putting mine on the table today ... for the same amount. This is not right," said Rep. Rod Froelich, D-Selfridge, a rancher who represents a rangeland district in south-central North Dakota. The $3.52 million proposal to buy the Eberts' rural Medora ranch, which is adjacent to land that former President Theodore Roosevelt once worked, was offered as a way to keep the federal government from buying the property or imposing restrictions on how the land could be used. During House debate Friday on legislation to buy the land, lawmakers were skeptical that any federal offer was forthcoming. Western North Dakota legislators objected to any state purchase of private land, and said the $674-an-acre price was too rich, given its limited value for ranching....
Livestock Producers Watching Bill Myers Vote Closely As Congress returns to Washington next week, producer-members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) are watching for any political maneuvering against judicial candidate William Myers as a vote on his confirmation in the U.S. Senate draws closer. Myers is nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over nine Western states and over 485 million acres of federal lands. “This could be one of the most critical votes of this Congressional session, and one that we’re watching closely,” says NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Truitt. “A vote or any action against Mr. Myers is clearly a vote for special interests, and turns a blind eye to the needs of Western communities. Attempts to block his confirmation represent political maneuvering at its worst.”....

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IN-VITRO MEAT

In-vitro meat and the animal welfare movement I predict that the animal welfare movement will expand dramatically in the next several decades as in-vitro meat becomes widely available. In-vitro meat is "made in the laboratory" meat - it's real meat but grown in "vats" rather than on animals. In-vitro meat has already been grown in thin slices, thick steaks are harder because fresh meat must be fed nutrients by a blood supply and that requires an incredibly complicated network of capillaries and veins. But really, who is going to notice the difference in a McDonald's patty? I bet thin meat tastes a lot better than tofu. I think that many people have an idea in the back of their minds that something is not quite right about the treatment of animals (see Tyler's post) but so long as they taste good and there are few substitutes why bring the idea to the forefront when it will just make you feel bad? In-vitro meat will change this equation. With a ready substitute suppression will no longer be necessary and the question of animal welfare will explode into the public consciousness. Forget PETA, animal welfarists should be sending their money to researchers working on in-vitro meat....This is an excerpt from a post at Marginal Revolution

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Live polar bear mascot kills one in bloody mauling Excitement turned to disaster this weekend at a UAF Nanook hockey game when a live polar bear was substituted for the bear-suited mascots. At least five people were killed and dozens more injured, both by the bear and a stampede that followed the attacks. About five minutes before the game was scheduled to start, after the players of both teams had just come back out to the ice, Grumpy, a 1200 pound polar bear loaned from the Anchorage Zoo, broke out of his enclosure near the Zamboni. Grumpy was apparently attracted to the smells coming from one of the concession stands, as he ambled up through the stands to the second level of the Carlson Center....
Send in the clones - A secret project for America's elite makes Idaho a hunter's paradise But the real star of this year's summit is far from Sun Valley, or even sunlight. He lives in a tiny 10-foot by 10-foot fenced pen, deep inside a windowless brick compound in remote Central Idaho. Rather than caviar or Cristal, he dines on a precisely calculated blend of native Idaho grasses and potent nutritional powders. And as for his name, it's anything but instantly recognizable. Among the scientists who tend to him, the first-ever successfully cloned Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, he is known fondly as "Horny." Horny doesn't look much like other members of his highly endangered species. He's bigger, first of all, clocking in at a hefty 436 lbs-almost 23 percent larger than the average male bighorn. His name, partially a joke by a community of lonely lab technicians, also refers to his super-sized full-curl horns, just one of several controversial "adaptations" to help Horny's descendants survive in the unforgiving wilderness. Other changes, carefully crafted using several decades' worth of gene-isolation research, include increased resistance to disease and to intense heat and cold. To top it all off, Horny matures almost twice as fast as wild bighorns, and requires a fraction of the food. He is, in almost every way, the first ever super-strain of bighorn sheep. But these "improvements" come at a price....
Official: Landowner legally kills wolf A landowner near Yellowstone National Park legally shot and killed a wolf caught chasing his mules, a state wildlife official said Thursday. It was the second wolf shooting in the state under new federal rules meant to give landowners more flexibility protecting their livestock from wolves, said Carolyn Sime, wolf management coordinator for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. An earlier incident, near Dillon, remains under investigation, she said. The more recent shooting occurred Wednesday, near Jardine in southern Montana. The landowner reported it to federal law enforcement authorities, who investigated and determined the wolf was legally killed, Sime said. She did not identify the landowner....
Protect rare plant, judge says A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that a tiny white flower that now grows on only two sites, including Newhall Ranch, should be recognized as a federally threatened or endangered species. Ruling in favor of the five environmental organizations that filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department in 2003, Judge James Robertson said the federal Fish and Wildlife Service failed to provide a good-enough reason for excluding the San Fernando Valley spineflower, once believed extinct, from being listed for full protection under the Endangered Species Act. The flower is found at Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County and at the Newhall Ranch site where almost 21,000 homes are proposed in northern Los Angeles County....
Editorial: Wyoming needs to join the pack God bless state's rights, but the great state of Wyoming has been rudely elbowing its neighbors for the last few years when it comes to wolf management. And it looks like Montana and Idaho will have to endure more elbowing for some time to come. Wyoming officials announced this week that they intend to appeal a recent court order that dismissed the state's claims that the federal government had wrongfully rejected Wyoming's wolf management plan. An appeal, of course, is Wyoming's right. The problem here is that Wyoming, Idaho and Montana are joined at the hip when it comes to the formal process of delisting wolves....
Biologists Planning Long Look at Pelicans Federal biologists trying to solve the mystery of why 28,000 pelicans left Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge last year have bought electronic tracking devices for the birds. But for the plan to work, the pelicans will have to return to the refuge near Medina. Wildlife officials are confident they will come back -- and earlier than normal. The big birds returned last April to nest, as they have for at least a century. But they took off in late May and early June, abandoning their chicks and eggs. The 4,385-acre Chase Lake refuge had been the site of the largest nesting colony of white pelicans in North America. Biologists checked air, water and soil quality at the site. They also have checked for diseases, food supply, predators and other possible factors to solve the mystery of why the pelicans abandoned their young. Biologists are still baffled. "We may never know," Torkelson said....
PETA URGES USFWS TO BLOCK PLAN TO SEND TIGER INTO WAR ZONE After learning of a request by a Colorado veterinarian, previously posted at the Baghdad Zoo with the U.S. military, to send a tiger from the U.S. to the zoo in war-torn Baghdad, PETA is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to refuse to issue a permit to ship the tiger. The animal is intended to replace a tiger who was shot and killed at the zoo in 2003 by a U.S. soldier, but conditions at the zoo are reported to be deplorable and dangerous, and the animals remain threatened by continued fighting and unrest in the city. Complicating the matter, the Baghdad Zoo is believed unlikely to have a consistent source of funding to care for the animals. Since the war began, hundreds of animals at the zoo have been injured, killed, stolen, eaten, or let loose by looters....
Coast project faces delays because of threatened Gulf sturgeon Construction of a new fishing pier in the Pass Christian harbor has been halted due to concerns that it would affect the habitat of the Gulf Sturgeon, a fish considered a threatened species. The decision came less than a month after Hancock County was asked to delay a $500,000, five-mile beach renourishment project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has delayed permits on similar projects in other coastal cities because of the Gulf sturgeon, an ancient species of fish that can grow up to 9 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds. In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries designated coastal areas from Louisiana to Florida as critical habitats for the threatened fish....
Deal for horse sanctuary falls through A private company's proposal to help create a wild horse sanctuary on the Crow Reservation fell through with the passing of its deadline Wednesday. "Our deal with the Crow is dead," Merle Edsall said Thursday. Edsall and his company, ETH Inc., had signed a letter of intent with the Crow tribe in February to pay the tribe more than $1 million per year to look after 4,000 wild horses. The company planned on buying the horses from the Bureau of Land Management, which has been directed by a new law to sell wild horses and burros that are more than 10 years old and have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption at least three times....
Opponents of Rocky Mountain Front drilling heighten efforts Attempting to strengthen its gains against petroleum development along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, a coalition of activists distributed a brochure in newspapers this week extolling the region's assets. The color brochure from the Coalition for the Rocky Mountain Front includes a history of efforts to restrict petroleum development on the Front -- where the mountains meet the -- and explains how to join ongoing work. Distribution of the brochure in the Front communities of Choteau, Valier, Cut Bank, Browning and Shelby coincides with the coalition's launch of a new Web site featuring information about the area, including its wildlife and opportunities for recreation. "I hope the brochure and Web page help Montanans keep pace with events and allow us to work toward protecting the Front," said Chuck Blixrud, a Choteau guest-ranch operator profiled in the brochure....
Editorial - Federal lands fees: Investment in future, Montana Much has been said and written about the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act that was enacted as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that President Bush signed into law last December. It's the provision that allows five federal agencies to continue charging modest fees at some campgrounds, boat launches, picnic areas, visitor centers and other amenity-laden recreation sites, or areas that require special attention. The ink was hardly dry on the authorization before the rumors gained traction, and BLM and its sister agencies were fending off misstatements fueled by misunderstanding. While much was said and written about FLREA, unfortunately, most of it had little to do with the truth. The federal agencies, it was stated, will charge you whenever you crossed public land. You'll be assessed a fee merely for pulling over to the side of the road and taking in a scenic view. Ranchers will pay for moving livestock across federal land. The money collected from the fees will be sent to Washington, D.C., never to be seen in Montana again. And so went those rumors, plus many more....
Logging of Burnt Trees Spurs Clash in Oregon Stan Chronister and the young man calling himself Purusha were probably never going to see eye to eye anyway. But they were certainly not doing so the other day, what with Purusha crouched 70 feet up in a Douglas fir tree, and Chronister pacing around on the ground below with a chain saw, cutting other trees here in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Chronister is a 44-year-old logger with a dirt-caked face, a 25-year veteran of the woods, salvaging burned old-growth trees from the 2002 half-million-acre Biscuit fire, one of the largest fires in U.S. Forest Service history. Purusha, who says he is in his 20s, is a wool-cap-wearing "tree sitter," one of several hundred environmental protesters who have gathered here in opposition to the operation, which they describe as an ecological travesty in old-growth forests that should be left alone....
Report: Water bank meets goals; will cost $65 million The government will have to spend about $65 million to continue its program designed to reduce the demand for water in the Klamath Reclamation Project over the next six years, a new federal study shows. The study released Wednesday found the government shelled out $12 million from 2002 to 2004 for the water bank program, in which Project irrigators are paid to let fields go fallow, to switch to well water or to pour well water into Project canals. The study by the General Accountability Office also found that while the water bank program has met its goals, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation needs to improve its communication with stakeholders. Responding to a request from Congress, GAO investigators scoured through water bank documents, reviewed laws and regulations pertinent to the bank, and interviewed federal officials and stakeholders in the Klamath water issue....
EPA loses suit on ballast water Environmental groups won a major victory this week in their quest to keep invasive organisms out of U.S. waters -- including San Francisco Bay -- in a decision that will force ships to comply with the Clean Water Act when they dump ballast water. A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can't exempt ship operators when they release ballast water -- a move that could have nationwide implications. Under the Bush administration, the agency had declined to intervene, saying the Coast Guard was a more appropriate enforcement arm. The agency will decide within a month or two whether to appeal. ``This will hopefully be a landmark decision that will dramatically reduce the introduction of invasive species into U.S. waters,'' said Warner Chabot, the San Francisco-based vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, one of the plaintiffs in the case....
Hoping to Reverse History and Pollution On March 11, the community filed a federal lawsuit claiming ownership of a 3,100-square-mile swath of New York State, stretching from Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Pennsylvania border. The Onondagas contend that the State of New York illegally acquired the land in a series of treaties in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and have asked the Federal District Court in Syracuse to declare that they still hold title to the land. The lawsuit is the largest Indian land claim ever filed in New York. The Onondaga Nation has about 1,500 members, and its federally recognized territory is an 11-square-mile parcel in a valley south of Syracuse and about eight miles from the southern end of Onondaga Lake. The community maintains its own customs, language and laws and is governed by a Council of Chiefs, which meets in a traditional longhouse, a large, open room that serves as the spiritual and political center of the community....
Ford to Study How Steps to Curb Global Warming Might Affect It Ford Motor Co., in the latest move by a big U.S. company to talk up the issue of global warming, is expected to announce today that it will produce a report on how the environmental issue could affect its global business. Ford's move is a concession to shareholder activists who have been pressuring the auto maker for several years to do more to address global warming. Automobiles are a big source of carbon dioxide, a chief suspected global-warming gas. The main way to reduce automotive carbon-dioxide emissions is to improve the fuel economy of cars and trucks. Ford is just the latest big American company to give in to activists' pressure to state publicly how it plans to address global warming amid potential emissions limits. In recent weeks, ChevronTexaco Corp. and several smaller U.S. oil companies agreed to shareholders' demands for public statements of global-warming concern; in return, the activists dropped resolutions they had planned to put before the companies' shareholders this spring. On Tuesday, Cinergy Corp. -- a big coal-fired electricity producer that agreed last year to produce such a report -- released its glossy annual report, with global warming as the focus. These corporate concessions on global warming, at least so far, are more about political signals than about tangible corporate emissions cuts....
"Rustle the Leaf" Environmental Comics and Whole Foods Markets Team Up for Earth Day Poster Giveaway “Rustle the Leaf,” the nationally-distributed environmental comic strip that has received widespread acclaim from environmentalists, educators and the science community, is partnering with the North Atlantic region of Whole Foods Market for a special Earth Day promotion. During the week of April 16-22, Whole Foods Market locations in New York, New Jersey and New England will give away copies of the colorful new “Rustle the Leaf’s Earth Day Pledge” poster. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to reach out with a message that’s both thought-provoking and beautiful,” said Dave Ponce, creator and co-writer of the comic strip. The poster features a poem written by Ponce, “Earth Day Pledge,” which is directed toward children ages 5 through preteen. The poster also features what Ponce calls “stunningly beautiful illustrations” of the Rustle the Leaf cast, created by the strip’s artist and co-writer Dan Wright. “Even if the poster contained no words, Dan’s illustrations of the characters in their natural settings is reason enough to pick up a copy."....
Column: All pumped up for conservation Don't look now, but conservation may be cool again. People I know who could afford gas-guzzlers are starting to brag about their new hybrids. If this keeps up, we'll soon be back to gauging status in miles per gallon rather than cup holders per seat. A recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans now think it's patriotic to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle. Even in polarized Washington, smarter energy use is reemerging as a cause both left and right can embrace. The Washington Post reports the formation of a lobbying coalition that includes both red-meat conservatives and tree-hugging environmentalists, called "Set America Free." The group plans to push for tax breaks that encourage alternative fuels in order to reduce our dependence on crude oil, particularly the imported-from-the-Middle-East kind....
Column: It's the end of the world, and I feel fine The bad news is that a new United Nations report says the world's coming to an end. But, first, some good news: America's doing great! Seriously, forests are breaking out all over America. New England has more forests since the Civil War. In 1880, New York State was only 25 percent forested. Today it is more than 66 percent. In 1850, Vermont was only 35 percent forested. Now it's 76 percent forested and rising. In the South, more land is covered by forest than at any time in the last century. In 1936 a study found that 80 percent of piedmont Georgia was without trees. Today nearly 70 percent of the state is forested. In the last decade alone, America has added more than 10 million acres of forestland. There are many reasons for America's arboreal comeback....
Horse babies: Arabian breeding program featured on satellite TV Suzy Foss's first word as a baby was "horse." And next week her Egyptian Arabian breeding program will be featured on a program called "Horse Babies" on satellite television. Foss, co-owner of Gold Creek Arabians, has had a love affair with horses almost her entire life, and in 1971 the equine enthusiast began breeding Arabians. Seventeen years ago she focused her efforts on straight Egyptian Arabians. Today, along with her sidekick, Jeannie Simpson, Foss breeds, raises and trains what she believes are some of the finest horses in the world from a working ranch bordering the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness that's been in her husband's family for generations. It was perhaps all of these factors - the horses' champion blood line, the picturesque beauty of the Bitterroot Valley and the mystique of a real Montana working ranch - that led filmmaker Steve Ellis of Vigilante Films to include Gold Creek Arabians in an eight-week mini-series about owners and operators who are living out their dreams with horses. "Horse Babies" airs on the RFD-TV network and can be seen on Dish Network channel 9409 and DirecTV channel 379 on Thursdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Fridays at 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. and Sundays at 3:30 p.m....
Hitch Up The Team; Lawmakers Designate Office Vehicle Of Texas The Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution designating the chuck wagon as the official vehicle of Texas. "There is one vehicle that was actually invented in the state of Texas and that's the chuck wagon," said bill sponsor Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo. "It has long been the symbol, one of the symbols, of the American West and part of Texas culture and tradition." Seliger said the chuck wagon was developed around 1866 as rancher and Civil War veteran Charles Goodnight was trying to drive cattle and had to find a way to feed the cowboys that were driving the cattle. Gooodnight used an Army surplus Studebaker wagon and added a chuck box to it and was able to provide sustenance to the cowboys....
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MoveOn.Org/Sierra Club

The following is from an action alert sent out today by MoveOn.Org:

Dear MoveOn member,

Are you a Sierra Club member? The future of the Sierra Club is at stake.

Last year, Sierra Club members voted in record numbers to defeat a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups hoping to use the Club's democratic processes to push their own anti-immigration agenda. Now, these groups have forced an anti-immigrant measure onto the 2005 Sierra Club ballot that would require the Club to advocate for new restrictions on immigration into the U.S.—a policy that will do nothing to protect the global environment but will cripple the Sierra Club at a time when all progressives need them to be powerfully focused on righting the environmental wrongs of the current administration.

Why are we getting involved? Groundswell Sierra, a network of Sierra Club members and former staff, asked us to tell the hundreds of thousands of Club members in the MoveOn community, many of whom are in the dark because by-laws keep Club staff from discussing this issue. It's such a serious threat to the progressive movement we felt we needed to pass it on.

If right-wing anti-immigrant groups succeed in their stealth drive to change the Club's agenda, it would drive a wedge between environmental groups and millions of Americans, including Latinos who have led the environmental justice movement and are an important part of the progressive community. It would be a serious setback for the larger progressive coalition, and make the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization, much less effective in blocking President Bush's anti-environmental agenda....
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NEWS ROUNDUP

Column: Landowners always lose with drilling As a former rancher from south of Silt, I would like to relate to you my personal experience in dealing with drilling. Even though most mineral rights have been severed from the surface rights in Colorado, in this case, we were in possession of the mineral rights as well as being the surface owners and occupants. We purchased our ranch in 1995, knowing that the existing mineral lease would expire in 1998. We assumed we were safe when that deadline passed. However, in 2003, we received notice that the company wanted to drill several wells on our ranch. When we protested that the lease had expired, we were informed that our ranch had been "unitized" - a federal designation that pools tracts of land into a "unit" for the convenience of the drilling company. Unitization changes two aspects of the lease: Any well spacings that have been previously negotiated are negated (the density of the wells is now controlled by the BLM); and, the lease becomes, essentially, a lease in perpetuity....
Colorado split-estate bill dies A bill that would have given landowners more control over oil and gas drilling on their property died in the Colorado Legislature Wednesday because opponents on both sides of the issue said it didn't strike the right balance. A similar bill was approved by Wyoming lawmakers earlier this year. The oil and gas industry said the Colorado bill was unnecessary because the state already has laws that address disputes that arise when drilling rigs roll onto someone else's land. Environmentalists and property owners said the bill didn't go far enough. Landowners with surface rights only have complained that their fields have been trampled and crops damaged as oil and gas companies holding mineral rights rushed to dig new wells. The bill would have required landowners and mineral owners to come to the bargaining table to discuss limits to the damage being done to surface property and compensation. If either party refused to sign, an appraiser would be hired to estimate the damage. If that figure was rejected, both sides would be forced into binding arbitration....
Judge voids approval of Montana mine A proposed copper and silver mine challenged by environmental groups - and by jeweler Tiffany & Co. - has been sidelined by a judge who found federal officials gave approval without adequately considering potential harm to imperiled bears and fish. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said that in analyzing the Montana mining proposal of Revett Silver Co., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inadequately weighed the possible effects on grizzly bears and bull trout, both protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Revett proposed developing the Rock Creek mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area in northwestern Montana. In a full-page advertisement last year in The Washington Post, New York's Tiffany demanded the federal government reject the mine and change the nation's mining law written nearly 135 years ago. On Wednesday, environmental groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the mine cheered the ruling Molloy issued two days earlier....
Anti-logging protester hangs out, snarls traffic A man protesting the salvage logging of timber burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire suspended himself from a tripod in a downtown Portland intersection Wednesday, blocking traffic for about 90 minutes. Police pulled down the 20-foot tripod at the intersection of S.W. 2nd Avenue and Stark Street and carried the man to a police car. About 30 supporters gathered outside the Northwest regional offices of the U.S. Forest Service, the same building where Michael Scarpitti, known as Tre Arrow, stayed perched on a ledge for 11 days in July of 2000 to protest logging on national forests. The protest by Stumptown Earth First! was over the logging of fire-killed trees on the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon that burned in the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire....
Colorado Chafes Under Lynx Restrictions Three decades after Colorado's native lynx disappeared, scores of the tufted-eared, long-haired cats are prowling across the western part of the state and roaming into Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. Citing the success of a six-year, $2.5 million state program to transplant the endangered lynx from Canada, state officials want the federal government to lift restrictions on construction and logging designed to protect lynx habitat. But so far, they've been disappointed and frustrated. "There is still no guarantee that we will get out from under the Endangered Species Act," state Division of Wildlife lynx expert Rick Kahn told the Colorado Legislature Wednesday....
Lawsuits challenge species protections A conservative legal foundation has filed twin federal lawsuits challenging federal protections for 42 species — 15 of which live only in shallow seasonal pools across much of California and in far southern Oregon. The Pacific Legal Foundation says the critical habitat designations, which together cover 1.5 million acres in 42 counties, drive up housing costs and taxes and harm private property rights without doing much to save species. The suits, filed simultaneously Wednesday in Fresno and Sacramento federal courts on behalf of building and agriculture associations, challenges the critical habitat designations of 27 species — of which 21 are plants — and requires the agency to correct habitat areas for 15 vernal pool species. The suits claim the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designations are haphazard and impose "huge social and economic costs" on property owners. The Sacramento-based legal foundation has filed other suits challenging what it says are flawed Endangered Species Act protections for hundreds of species....
Report: 17 species of Kansas fish endangered A group of experts has identified 17 species of fish native to Kansas that could be considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act. In a report to be published next month in the "Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science," the nine biologists, water quality experts and others also listed 28 more species that could be elevated from their current risk categories in Kansas. "We published the paper with the intent of providing information to organizations and agencies at the federal or state level," said Joseph Collins, an adjunct professor at the Kansas Biological Survey in Lawrence and co-author of the paper. "We are not actually making recommendations to anyone. We're not a governing body. We just get the data and analyze it."....
Snowplaners sue for park access Calling the elimination of snowplanes on Jackson Lake "arbitrary and capricious," a group of snowplaners has filed suit against the federal government calling for a reinstatement of the activity. "Save Our Snowplanes" and its attorney, Karen Budd-Falen of Cheyenne, filed suit in U.S. District Court Tuesday calling for, in part, an immediate elimination of the ban on snowplane use and a declaration from the National Park Service that it violated several laws in eliminating the activity. "In making its decision to eliminate snowplane use on Jackson Lake after the 2001-2002 winter season, the National Park Service failed to supply a reasoned analysis for the total elimination of snowplane use following their historic use on Jackson Lake," the lawsuit said. "It is also apparent that members of the public, who support the use of snowplanes on Jackson Lake, were not provided sufficient notice that they may be directly affected" by the winter use plans....
FAA gives Grand Canyon aircraft new rules The Federal Aviation Administration has issued new regulations that encourage air sightseeing tour operators to use newer, quieter aircraft in Grand Canyon National Park. Existing regulations restrict the number of flights and require tour operators to stay within specified flight routes. Under the new rules, posted Tuesday, operators who lessen noise will qualify for incentives that could include more flights with fewer restrictions. The exact incentives have yet to be determined....
Dugway expansion a mystery Does the Army want to expand its Dugway Proving Ground in Utah so it can forcibly obtain nearby land it contaminated with chemical weapons but has refused to clean? Or does it want to keep UFO-hunting groups farther away from the secretive base because they now closely watch it, suspecting that it stores and works on alien spacecraft as a "new Area 51"? Pick either theory or one of your own because the Army isn't going to say. Five months after being asked, the Army has officially refused to release documents explaining why and where exactly it might expand Dugway. In a letter denying a Freedom of Information Act request filed in October by the Deseret Morning News, Brig. Gen. James R. Myles, commander of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, states that the Army had identified "a number of documents ... regarding proposals to enlarge the boundaries of Dugway Proving Ground," confirming it is indeed looking at expanding the base that is already larger than Rhode Island....
Rare coalition backs Utah wilds plan Strange bedfellows — from the governor to military backers and from a congressman to some of Utah's strongest environmentalists — were prepared to announce support for a wilderness bill today. The measure, to be introduced by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is designed to protect the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range. It would designate a 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness in Tooele County. Backers believe it also could block construction of the proposed Private Fuel Storage nuclear-waste facility in Skull Valley, Tooele County. Lawson LeGate, the Sierra Club's Southwest representative, noted that Bishop had introduced the bill in the House last year. "Part of his interest in it is dealing with the Skull Valley issue," LeGate said. "He is united with most Utahns in opposing the nuclear waste above-ground storage there."....
Klamath farmers pursue water claims Farmers from Northern California and Oregon tried to convince a federal judge Wednesday that they should be compensated for water the government diverted from irrigation in 2001 to protect Klamath River salmon. But a government attorney argued that the irrigation districts don't have property rights that allow compensation if they don't get as much water as they're supposed to. "There is simply no state law-based water right that has attributes of property rights,'' Justice Department attorney Kristine Tardiff told U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Francis M. Allegra. Roger Marzulla, representing the water users, disagreed, contending legal precedent "has squarely held that the plaintiffs hold a property right.'' "There is as of today no water right for fish'' under Oregon law, he added. Wednesday's argument was a step in determining whether the two dozen Klamath Basin irrigators and property owners will collect $100 million they claim they are owed for the 2001 water diversions that sent about one-third of their allotted water to help the threatened coho salmon....
Column: Nature's Crisis In my 35 years as a conservationist, I have never beheld such a bleak and depressing situation as I see today. The evidence for my despair falls into three categories: the state of Nature, the power of anticonservationists, and appeasement and weakness within the conservation and environmental movements. I fear that on some level we must recognize that this state of affairs may be inevitable and impossible to turn around. That is the coward's way out, though. The bleakness we face is all the more reason to stand tall for our values and to not flinch in the good fight. It is important for us to understand the parts and pieces of our predicament, so we might find ways to do better....
Column: Days of Whine and Posers So begins the worst paragraph in the history of conservation writing, the most sniveling piece of crap I have ever read. Let's be clear, all of us who are trying to save this planet know it is bad, but none of the bad news is new news. And there is some good news. The international conservation movement has grown into one of the largest, most widespread and diverse social movements in the history of civilization. Facing the crisis of extinction is at the core of its mission. The fact that some of the movement's largest institutions are not always on the front lines of this fight is not news either, and neither are many of the other things Foreman cites in his dreary piece. Earth to Foreman: the fact that we are losing the war is not news! David Brower said back in 1980 that all the environmental movement had achieved so far was to slow the rate of things getting worse....
Column: U.S. environmental movement's dying A couple of weeks ago, I listened to a program on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. The subject of the program was: "Is the environmental movement dead?" Even the most optimistic speaker said that the movement was a faint shadow of its former self, while the most pessimistic pronounced the movement dead and buried. As proof of the demise of the movement they cited the recent Senate vote to OK drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A decade ago, such a vote would have produced thousands of protesters converging on the Capitol, but today there was scarcely a whine, let alone a hearty protest. Another example of loss of power by the environmentalists was their inability to lobby successfully to raise the mileage rating for cars and pickup trucks. Though the documentation of the decline in power by the environmental movement was interesting, the next part of the program tried to discover why the movement had lost power. Some of the explanations offered were flimsy at best and threadbare at worst. I so wanted to pick up the phone and call the announcer and say, "I know why the environmental movement has gone belly up. It is mainly due to the alienation of the average outdoors person. The movement stopped identifying with causes that the average hiker, hunter, angler and bird watcher supported - the movement lost the middle ground and pursued some far left agendas."....
FL FWS Biologists Ordered To Approve All Development The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service orders its biologists to approve all development projects in south Florida regardless of the consequences to wildlife, according to a letter by 20 current and former agency scientists released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The biologists also write that a key supervisor in the FWS Vero Beach office called the Florida panther a “zoo species” and forbade scientific staff from raising concerns about threatened or endangered species. The letter from 20 former co-workers of Andrew Eller, the FWS panther biologist who was fired one week after the November 2004 election, maintains that —....
Column: Conservation economics 101 It is commonplace in modern conservation planning to hear that people who live in the vicinity of endangered species habitats need to have an economic investment in the protection of those species. The theory, based mostly on western ideas of private property, is that without an economic incentive -- providing motel rooms, giving wildlife tours, selling alligator-skin boots, silk-screening sea-turtle T-shirts, whatever -- the people who live with or near endangered animals simply will wipe them out if they cannot make money from them. Writing in his magnificent book on large predators, "Monster of God," author David Quamman expels the great, long, exasperated sigh that anyone who covers the world biodiversity crisis eventually feels welling up after hearing this argument for the thousandth time....
Under Siege You couldn't find a better place to have lunch than this cramped, dusty Cochise County cook shack. It has every bit of ambience that Arizona ranch country can offer, including a wood-slat ceiling covered with strips of tin from a dismantled pigpen. In ranching, nothing goes to waste, so when Ruth Evelyn Cowan had the opportunity to collect some scrap from her parents' New Mexico ranch, she grabbed it. The tin might rattle in the wind and drum in the rain, but those sounds create a symphony for Cowan, who loves this place and this life. She was born into it 57 years ago, and you can see that it suits her down to the mud on her boots. You don't have to listen hard to hear the contentment in her voice when she goes on about her American Brahman cattle--big, silver, hump-backed animals with floppy ears that she talks to as if they were her kids. But this is Southern Arizona under siege, so there really is only one subject on the agenda, one issue that dominates all others here: the border with Mexico and the invasion of illegals who, every day and every night, rush to fill this yawning vacuum....
Ranch wives stay involved to avoid depression Leslie Hendry lives 75 miles from Casper on her family ranch near Lysite. Shopping and socializing are an hour-and-a-half drive. The nearest neighbor is five miles away. Her older son is away at college, and her younger boy, a high school freshman, has to ride a school bus three hours a day, not getting back until suppertime. During busy seasons, like calving, Hendry works outside with her husband and the hired men, but right now, she's inside, dealing with the piles of paperwork needed to run the business of a ranch. All day, alone, without even the radio on for company. That's how she likes it....
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Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up' The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself. "Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says. The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:....
Study highlights global decline The most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations. The report says the way society obtains its resources has caused irreversible changes that are degrading the natural processes that support life on Earth. This will compromise efforts to address hunger, poverty and improve healthcare. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over a period of four years. It reports that humans have changed most ecosystems beyond recognition in a dramatically short space of time. The way society has sourced its food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel over the past 50 years has seriously degraded the environment, the assessment (MA) concludes. And the current state of affairs is likely to be a road block to the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, it says....

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MAD COW DISEASE

Canada Retreats From Broad U.S. Beef Import Plan Canada has backtracked from a plan to allow the import of a broad range of U.S. cattle and beef in the wake of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, a veterinary official said on Wednesday. Canada had planned to allow import of U.S. cattle born in 1998 or later, and meat from cattle of any age from which the brains, spines and other mad-cow disease risk materials had been removed. "It was determined that it would be premature to completely remove the prohibitions as proposed ... as this time," said Billy Hewett, director of policy with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's international affairs division. Instead, Canada has decided to allow imports of U.S. feeder cattle under 30 months of age, according to a regulation made effective late on Tuesday. Young U.S. cattle bound for Canadian slaughterhouses were never banned, and those imports can continue, Hewett said. Cattle under 30 months of age are considered to be at low risk of developing bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. A ban on breeding stock and beef from older U.S. animals will continue, Hewett said....
Standard set for cattle to cross borders Canada, the United States and Mexico have agreed to a single North American import standard related to mad cow disease, Federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell said yesterday. The standard, negotiated at a recent meeting in Mexico City, reflects guidelines laid out by the World Organization for Animal Health. It says that, as long as the materials most likely to cause mad cow disease are being removed from the animal at slaughter, and as long as animals are not being imported from herds where the disease has been found, then it should be safe for animals to move across borders. "It's a very important agreement between the three countries," Mitchell said. "You can trade cattle between countries so long as you take certain steps and we are pleased that we have all three countries on side." With the new standard, Mexico has indicated that it will begin a regulatory process that will eventually lead to the opening of its border to live Canadian cattle. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency estimates that will begin within three or four months. Canada will also re-open its borders to American cattle. Mitchell said that will take effect tomorrow....
More than 1 million petition for resumption of U.S. beef imports More than a million people and restaurants have signed a petition urging the government to drop a ban on U.S. beef imports prompted by mad cow disease, organizers said Wednesday. Nearly 1.2 million people nationwide signed the petition, which was submitted to the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday to urge the early resumption of U.S. beef imports, campaign spokesman Yasuharu Tagaya said. "We want U.S. beef back so we can enjoy dishes such as 'gyu-don' (beef and rice) and barbecued tongue," Tagaya said. "American beef tastes good, almost like homegrown beef." U.S. beef is crucial for restaurants serving such cheap dishes, because they use cow parts that are unpopular in the United States and are inexpensive to import....
California cattle ranchers divided on Canadian beef import ban California cattle ranchers are deeply divided over whether the United States should lift a ban on Canadian beef imports put in place nearly two years ago after mad cow disease was discovered in Canada. "There has never been an issue as divisive and emotionally charged as this ban on Canadian imports," said Ben Higgins, executive vice president of the California Cattlemen's Association. "We're concerned that permitting unrestricted trade with that country would have an adverse effect on our live cattle marketplace." Some California ranchers are worried that reopening the U.S. northern border would result in a flood of Canadian beef imports that would lower cattle prices at a time when the lucrative Japanese market is closed to American cattle producers. Lifting the ban also could jeopardize efforts to persuade Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries to buy U.S. beef if they believe Canadian cattle isn't safe, they say. Other ranchers say reopening the border would help American meatpackers that are suffering without Canadian cattle. It also could help persuade Japan and other countries to reopen their markets by demonstrating that mad cow disease can be controlled and eradicated. "The Japanese are turning the tables on us," said Livermore rancher Darrel Sweet, the president of the cattlemen's association until last year. "They're saying, 'You want us to open up our markets to you, but you don't want to open up your markets to the Canadians?'" California is the country's seventh largest beef producer and the nation's No. 1 dairy state....
Illegal meat trade is uncovered Some butchers in south London are trading in illegal meat which could cause mad cow disease, a BBC Watchdog investigation has revealed. Three shops were selling the African delicacy smokies, a carcass blow torched with the skin and fleece on for a chargrilled flavour. They are illegal because they are sold with the brain and spinal cord. When confronted one butcher denied the allegation while the other claimed not to know smokies were illegal....

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service to raze Dreyfus Estate A 10,000 square-foot mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe will be torn down, ending nearly eight years of debate and controversy over the scenic estate’s future, federal officials announced Tuesday. The decision to “decommission” the lakeside estate once owned by stock market magnate Jack Dreyfus represents the best use of the property and will improve public access to the lake, said Maribeth Gustafson, supervisor of the U.S. Forest Service’s Tahoe unit. “I thought they had more intelligence,” said former Douglas County Commissioner Don Miner, who in 2001 called for a grand jury investigation into the matter. “Unfortunately, it’s a continuation of the schizophrenic nature of the Forest Service. They tease the public with possibilities and then turn around and put it to a use totally not contemplated in the years they manipulated the public.” Formerly known as the Dreyfus Estate, the Zephyr Shoals property is composed of 81 acres, including a near three-quarter-mile stretch of Tahoe’s shoreline. Structures on the site include a luxury 10-room mansion, a caretaker’s cottage and a six-car garage....
Flaming Gorge requires portable toilets Campers won't be allowed to run off into the bushes to do nature's business under new regulations that are being implemented at the popular Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming. Camping on the shores of Flaming Gorge outside developed campgrounds will now require portable toilets or self-contained vehicles under the new rules, Acting Ashley National Forest Supervisor Eileen Richmond said....
Salmon-timber deal? In return for sparing the chain saw on 5 percent of its land, should Washington's timber industry get 50 years of protection against Endangered Species Act prosecutions for killing or harming endangered salmon? Federal officials are asking the public to speak up today on that question at a hearing in Seattle on the so-called Forests and Fish plan. It covers more than 9 million acres -- about one-fifth of the state. It would be the largest such deal in the West. Hailed by the timber industry, government officials and some tribes, the plan was criticized by independent scientists, environmentalists and other tribes when it was unveiled five years ago. In the months ahead, federal officials will decide how to transform it into a "habitat conservation" plan, a way to legally allow industries to kill and harm protected animals in exchange for taking specified steps to help the species....
Closed military bases can leave behind pollution problems When the Army's Fort Ord in California was put on the federal base closure list in 1991, real estate developers salivated. If "location, location, location" is the credo of real estate development, then Fort Ord appeared to have it all - 28,000 acres located along the spectacular Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and San Francisco, including three miles of beachfront. Local government planners and developers envisioned housing developments and shopping plazas, office complexes and hotels that would enhance the tax base and compensate for revenue lost when the Army pulled out. Today, only a small fraction of the site has been developed, largely because of environmental concerns, including scarce freshwater and contamination of existing supplies; the presence of endangered species; fear that development would increase sprawl and traffic; and a vast legacy of unexploded munitions from decades of training exercises....
Skis carve a path of controversy in Arizona Dividing two worlds, the pearl-white loft of the San Francisco Peaks hovers as a dwelling place for powerful earth gods, at least in the eyes of native peoples living on the nearby Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations. But for athletic denizens of urban Flagstaff, those same mountains rising overhead have come to mean something else: a rare opportunity to alpine ski on the arid Colorado Plateau. Today, those differing views, one modern, the other ancient, have created a clash of cultures that now reverberates across Western Indian country. A recent decision by the US Forest Service to allow expansion of a commercial ski area and use of treated sewage water for artificial snowmaking in the San Francisco Peaks has incited an emotional debate about spiritual desecration....
Wildlife area could see drilling BP American Production Inc. wants to drill for oil and natural gas within a small portion of the Chain Lakes Wildlife Habitat Management Area in southwest Wyoming, according to federal and state officials. The company is seeking to develop its mineral leases on about 8,960 acres within the larger, approximately 62,566-acre Chain Lakes habitat area. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released an environmental assessment of the proposed development for public review. Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials said the proposal, if approved, would mark the first actual drilling program on one of the agency's wildlife habitat management units. "This is still one of our WHMAs ... but it's one of those split-estate things, and we don't control what happens with the mineral rights," Game and Fish Habitat Program Coordinator Vern Stelter said in a phone interview....
Historic trail restrictions bother Mormons Treks along the Mormon Pioneer and Oregon trails in central Wyoming by large groups will be curtailed to reduce environmental damage, federal land managers announced Monday.
The decision will most affect members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who often re-enact journeys their ancestors made west during the 19th century. Groups of as many as 400 sometimes dress in period clothing and pull belongings in handcarts along the trail. Under the new rule, a maximum of 200 people would be allowed in one group, and large groups would have to apply for and agree to conditions of a special recreation permit....
Wilderness group lists top 10 endangered California wildlands In remote northwestern California, where the Salmon River flows into the Klamath on its way to the Pacific, the Karuk tribe gathers each year for a world renewal ceremony at what its culture holds to be the center of the universe. The rivers, subject to ongoing battles between tribes, farmers and fishermen over too-scarce water, are the most threatened wild places in Northern California on the top 10 list released Tuesday by the California Wilderness Coalition. The Oakland-based nonprofit has compiled the list the last four years based on a survey of other environmental groups, scientists and experts. The Klamath River was on last year's list, but the tributary Salmon River watershed is among four new danger zones this year because of the potential for logging, mining and new roads there....
Cougar hunts may be OK'd With their numbers rising, mountain lions are considered an increasing threat to wilderness hikers and bikers as well as livestock. Cougars have been reported in the Hesperia area recently and are blamed for the deaths of about 36 goats. Since 1994, mountain lions have been blamed for three human deaths in California, including one in Orange County. New legislation, which goes before a committee of the California Assembly today, would authorize limited hunting of the lions throughout the state to help keep their population in check....
Column: How Not to Fix Conservation Easements One of the most useful, cost-effective methods of conserving land in America is in serious crisis. A series of scandals has revealed major abuses of conservation easements -- a legal tool increasingly used to protect private land from development by compensating landowners for development rights. It is true that some landowners who donate easements to nonprofit land trusts have used inflated appraisals to take huge tax write-offs at the expense of taxpayers. Others have used easements to protect swamps and mountainsides that could never be developed, or golf courses and private lots that have little or no conservation value. Congress is now rightly considering how to crack down on these abuses. But rather than fixing the problems, some of the proposals could destroy a tool that in most cases has worked well. It has protected important wildlife habitat, open space, forests, ranch and farm lands on more than 17,000 properties totaling more than 5 million acres across the country....
Nez Perce Tribe approves historic water deal with Idaho, feds The Nez Perce Tribe has agreed to give up its claims to most of the water in the Snake River Basin under a multimillion dollar agreement with the state and federal governments. The 6-2 vote by the tribe's executive committee came Tuesday afternoon, after a meeting in which tribal members spoke out both for and against the plan. The agreement has already been approved by the state and federal governments, and the tribe's ratification was the last step needed for the plan to take effect. The agreement grants the tribe rights to 50,000 acre-feet of water in the Clearwater River, plus $80 million in cash and land and a pledge from the state and federal governments to provide tens of millions of dollars for fish habitat and other environmental improvements. The agreement would protect irrigators in the Upper Snake River Basin and some loggers and landowners in the Clearwater and Salmon river basins from endangered species-based lawsuits....
New York, Other States Sue EPA Over Mercury Rule New York, California and seven other states sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today to challenge new rules on mercury emissions from power plants that the states say fail to protect the public. ``It is an established medical fact that mercury causes neurological damage in young children, impairing their ability to learn and even to play,'' New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said in a statement. The EPA two weeks ago set the first limits on airborne mercury pollution from coal-fired plants, the largest man-made source of the poison. Under the new rules, utilities that don't meet pollution standards can buy credits from those who do rather than upgrade equipment. Other states that joined the suit are Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Vermont....
Columnn: Clearing the air No matter. Environmentalists and some members of Congress are alleging the new EPA rules don't go far enough and will put thousands of unborn babies and children at risk of neurological damage because of higher methylmercury levels in fish. Their rationale is that the release of mercury from coal-burning power plants contaminates our seafood. Here's where the shell game comes in. Emissions from U.S. incinerators and other sources have been declining for decades. U.S. power plants now contribute less than 1 percent of the global atmospheric mercury. In fact, the U.S. discontinued mercury mining altogether in 1991 and domestic use of mercury fell more than 75 percent just between 1988 and 1996. Our air is cleaner than ever. Methylmercury has always been found naturally in fish and in our bodies, but the trace levels of human exposure haven't increased in centuries; in fact, they're dropping. And research that has followed thousands of pregnant women and their children for nearly 15 years has found no evidence the amounts of methylmercury in our fish put children or newborn babies at risk. Even among populations eating 10 times or more the amounts of fish Americans consume, scientists have found no credible evidence of neurotoxicity, let alone brain damage, developmental delays, retardation or learning disabilities....
Study: Salmon from farms breed sea lice Salmon farms help stock supermarkets but also breed parasitic sea lice that infect young wild salmon and could endanger other important ocean species such as herring, scientists said Tuesday. Even a single farm can have far-reaching effects, Canadian researchers Martin Krkosek, Mark Lewis and John Volpe found. The study adds fuel to the clamor over farmed versus wild salmon, a debate that extends along Pacific Northwest coastlines. "We know that the lice do infect other species," said Krkosek, a University of Alberta mathematical biologist. "The transmission from farmed fish to wild fish is much larger than what was previously believed." Adult salmon can survive such infections, but the younger salmon are more vulnerable....
Experts Warn Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Putting Global Development Goals At Risk A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years. “Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded,” said the study, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report, conducted by 1,300 experts from 95 countries. It specifically states that the ongoing degradation of ecosystem services is a road block to the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the world leaders at the United Nations in 2000. Although evidence remains incomplete, there is enough for the experts to warn that the ongoing degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem services examined is increasing the likelihood of potentially abrupt changes that will seriously affect human well-being. This includes the emergence of new diseases, sudden changes in water quality, creation of “dead zones” along the coasts, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate....a tip of the hat to The Uneasy Chair for the link....
Column: Don't Think of the Environment George Lakoff may be the new darling of the Democratic Party, but how sweet is he on the environmental movement? A onetime adviser to Howard Dean, who hails him as "one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement," Lakoff is author of the election-year best-seller Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, which solidified his rep as a top-tier Democratic strategist. A professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, he is widely seen as the meta-thinker who can rearticulate liberals' core values and help invigorate the flagging progressive movement. Environmental leaders, too, are turning to Lakoff for guidance as they grapple with a values dilemma similar to that of progressives at large. The past few months have seen much heated debate about how best to revive environmentalism, if it can be revived at all. But even before Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus's much-ballyhooed "Death of Environmentalism" paper spurred a combustive mix of introspection and vitriol, green leaders last year signed a high-dollar contract with Lakoff to help them revamp their messaging strategy and increase their political power....
Column: Support ANWR Drilling – Save Wildlife Habitats The U.S. Senate budget bill would finally open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. Environmentalists are shocked and outraged. “This battle is far from over,” they vowed. Indeed, the 51-49 margin underscores the ideological passion of drilling opponents, their party-line determination to block Bush Administration initiatives, the misinformation that still surrounds this issue, and a monumental double standard for environmental protection. Many votes against drilling came from California and Northeastern senators who have made a career of railing against high energy prices, unemployment and balance of trade deficits – while simultaneously opposing oil and natural gas development in Alaska, the Outer Continental Shelf, western states and any other areas where petroleum might actually be found. Drilling in other countries is OK in their book, as is buying crude from oil-rich dictators, sending American jobs and dollars overseas, reducing US royalty and tax revenues, imperiling industries that depend on petroleum, and destroying habitats to generate “ecologically friendly” wind power....

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GAO REPORT

Invasive Species: Coordination and Cooperation Are Important for Effective Management of Invasive Weeds. GAO-05-185, February 25. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-185
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05185high.pdf

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