NEWS ROUNDUP

Florida landowner fights to keep `hole in doughnut' On a patch of rugged wilderness, with alligators, bears and an occasional panther for neighbors, a partially disabled former Navy frogman is nearing the end of a battle to save his homestead from an $8 billion plan to restore the development-battered Everglades. As the Florida Department of Environmental Protection threatens to acquire the 160-acre property under eminent domain--a process by which a government can seize private property for public use--Jesse Hardy has refused the state's final offer of $4.5 million, and so far has not been satisfied with property offered for a land swap. Florida officials contend that Hardy's land would be threatened by flooding under the plan. But the bearded Hardy said that a private study had determined that his land would be flood free, at 13 feet above sea level, when waters rise because of the state and federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan for Central and Southern Florida. Described as the world's largest ecosystem restoration effort, that program covers an 18,000-square-mile area with the goal of restoring the annual southward flow of rainwater through sawgrass and cypress forests from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. "This is not the Everglades; that's a reference to that river of grass that grows 30 miles thataway," Hardy said, pointing to the ground and then to the southeast. "No, no, no, there's nothing here to restore. I'm 13 feet above sea level. There will never be a sheetflow of water here. There never was any heavy-duty standing water here.".... a tip of the hat to Julie at Property Rights Research....
Turning prairie dogs into a farmer's friend, not foe Conservation groups on Tuesday announced the purchase of 46,000 acres of desert grasslands in northern Mexico, a project aimed at converting pesky prairie dogs into valuable farm tools, while also saving the lives of the potentially endangered creatures. The joint effort between a U.S. nonprofit organization and its Mexican counterpart is to demonstrate that the black-tailed prairie dog — seen as an intrusive rodent in much of the western United States and northern Mexico — can help grazing lands thrive. In Mexico, the Nature Conservancy, with help from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is developing a management plan involving "working" prairie dogs at the El Uno cattle ranch, located outside the small town of Janos, about 45 miles south of the New Mexico border. A "grass bank" will let local ranchers graze cattle at El Uno while allowing the soil on their own lands to rest and recuperate....
Column: Old West vs. New West Life was much simpler when I viewed the battle to "save" the West through a black-and-white lens. As a young environmentalist, it was easier to condemn my adversaries' beliefs without scrutinizing my own. And it was easier to attack my adversaries when I didn't know them. I have agonized over this for years now. At the heart of this land war - and that's what we should call it - is a conflict of cultures. On one side stand the "New Westerners," mostly urbanites who consider themselves environmentalists, but whose connection to the land comes through recreation. On the other side are the "Old Westerners," most of whom live and work in small rural communities and make their living from the land. In the past three decades, each side of the conflict has so caricatured their opponents that they have, in the process, turned themselves into cartoon characters as well....
Judicial Nominee Under Scrutiny Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) called Tuesday for an investigation into whether William G. Myers III, a nominee for the federal appeals court in San Francisco, lied when he told a Senate committee that he was not aware of the terms of a controversial settlement the Interior Department had made with a politically connected Wyoming rancher until months after the deal was signed. Myers was the top lawyer at the department in the first term of the Bush administration, when the agreement was consummated. Feingold said a memo from Karen Budd-Falen, the rancher's lawyer, "directly contradicts Mr. Myers' written response to a question I submitted." A spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he was reviewing the information regarding Myers, who cleared the committee on a 10-8 party-line vote last month. An aide to panel chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the nominee "was thoroughly vetted and investigated by the White House, the Department of Justice, the American Bar Assn. and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee."....
Gov't backs off cutting aid to farmers After two months of fierce resistance from farmers and Congress, the Bush administration has dropped an effort to cut government payments to farmers. Bush asked Congress in February to slash billions of dollars from payments to large farm operations, dropping the maximum farmers are allowed to collect from $360,000 to $250,000 and closing loopholes allowing some growers to obtain millions of dollars. He also proposed to cut all farm payments by 5 percent. On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told key senators that while spending must be reduced to hold down the federal deficit, he is willing to look elsewhere in agriculture programs for cuts. "Perhaps the administration has finally begun to hear the roar from the heartland," said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.... Roar?? Sounded more like a big whine to me....
Public-lands ranchers: Should you trust this man? Andy Kerr, who has been an environmental activist for more than 20 years, was a key figure in the struggle to curtail logging in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, he is the director of the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, which seeks to pass legislation that would allow the federal government to buy federal grazing allotments from ranchers and permanently retire the land from grazing. HCN executive director Paul Larmer recently interviewed Kerr about his transformation from lawsuit-wielding agitator to carrot-carrying negotiator....
A New Line of Defense for Landowners Thanks to the American Land Foundation (ALF), property owners have a new line of defense in the never ending battle to protect their property from state and federal regulation. ALF’s latest program, LandGuard creates a link between the nation’s top property rights attorneys and America’s landowners to provide expert protection and advice. ALF, a non-profit organization, was founded over a decade ago with a goal to educate and help landowners fight government regulation of private property. Over the last decade, ALF president, Dan Byfield, has spent countless hours counseling landowners who found themselves facing threats from government agencies or individual groups intent on taking or controlling their private property. With each phone call, Byfield realized landowners were losing their battles because they waited too long to act or they didn’t have adequate legal counsel. He knew there had to be a better way. Byfield determined that what landowners needed most was access to immediate advice from qualified property rights lawyers, preferably in the landowner’s geographical area and at a price that wouldn’t break the bank....Go here to learn more about LandGuard....
Judge allows timber sale to go forward A federal judge has rejected a challenge to one of the keystones in the White House's Healthy Forests Initiative, allowing a timber sale to continue on the Lolo National Forest without full environmental review. "What he said is that the categorical exclusion is a tool that can be used," said Chris West, "and it can be done quickly - before the value of timber is lost." West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, applauded the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula to allow logging to continue on the Lolo's Camp Salvage timber sale. The sale was administered under new federal regulations that allow for "categorical exclusions," - exemptions from normal environmental reviews and public-comment requirements for sales that fall into a narrow category. To qualify for categorical exclusion status, the sale must be of dead or dying timber, on 250 acres or fewer, with less than one-half mile of temporary road building. Barring any "extraordinary circumstances," the categorical exclusion means there is no need for a full environmental analysis or environmental impact statement....
Wal-Mart, NFWF commended by Norton Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commended the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Wal-Mart for developing an innovative conservation partnership under which the company will contribute $35 million over the next 10 years to conserve and protect vital wildlife habitat across the country. Under the "Acres for America" program, Wal-Mart pledges to conserve at least 138,000 acres of habitat, equal to the footprint of all its stores and facilities in the United States. However, the amount of habitat actually conserved will be much higher, as the Foundation already has reached an agreement to acquire more than 6,000 acres to be added to Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana and a permanent conservation easement on more than 312,000 acres of forests, rivers and wetlands in Maine. "'Acres for America' demonstrates the power of cooperative conservation and partnership," Norton said at a ceremony at the National Geographic Society. "With its generous contribution, Wal-Mart is empowering the foundation to protect and restore important areas of wildlife habitat that otherwise might never be conserved. The company is setting a standard of corporate stewardship that I hope other companies will emulate."....
Land near Grand Canyon to be protected Bolstered by a $1 million grant from retail giant Wal-Mart, conservation groups plan to protect almost 900,000 acres of wilderness, including land stretching along 125 miles of the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Conservationists said the $4.5 million purchase of two private ranches, totaling about 1,000 acres, also will help protect more than 850,000 acres that are attached to the land through grazing permits from the North Rim to the Utah line. The acquisition connects three national monuments, two national recreation areas and eight wilderness areas, shielding them from further development and restoring overgrazed lands to nurture endangered species in the region....
Ranch redefines large-scale conservation Lava Lake Land & Livestock, based near Carey, is redefining the face of Western sheep ranching and conservation. The company, which was recently honored with the Idaho Wildlife Society's special recognition award, was created out of several sheep outfits bought five years ago by a San Francisco couple named Brian and Kathleen Bean. The company's holdings include 24,000 acres of private land and grazing privileges on 730,000 acres of public land allotments. The award was given to the ranch in recognition of the company's work to accomplish "landscape scale conservation" in South Central Idaho. Landscape-scale conservation moves the focus from individual species to an entire landscape to protect plant communities and wildlife, especially species that need large areas to survive, said Tess O'Sullivan, Lava Lake's program manager for science and conservation....
U.S. forests look for sites to close down Your favorite national forest campsite will soon be competing for its survival, while the ranger station down the road may show up for sale on the Internet. The U.S. Forest Service is ranking recreation sites such as campgrounds and trailheads for closure, because it can no longer afford to maintain them all. Oregon's Deschutes and Winema national forests are among the first nationwide to undertake the reviews. The squeeze is driven in part because President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative, a push to thin flammable Western forests, is diverting money away from the upkeep of forest facilities. The Forest Service is also attempting to sell offices and compounds that bustled during the logging heyday decades ago but now sit idle. Its officials hope cash from the sales will help keep other decaying facilities from falling apart....
Wyoming county plans to appeal wolf ruling of U.S. district judge The ability to shoot wolves as predators is worth fighting for, Park County commissioners said Tuesday. They vowed to continue their legal support of Wyoming's dual-classification wolf-management plan by appealing U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson's recent dismissal of the three-party lawsuit filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Interior. Park County will be a "plaintiff intervenor," once again joining forces with the state of Wyoming and the Wolf Coalition. It will appeal Johnson's decision to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. "I feel very strongly about this," said Commissioner Marie Fontaine. "We've been misinformed a number of times along the way. The number of wolves here is overwhelming, especially being so close to Yellowstone National Park." Because Wyoming wants wolves classified both as a trophy game animal and a predator, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not approve Wyoming's management plan. Predator status won't preserve the 15 packs needed to remove the animal from Endangered Species Act protection, the agency says....
Refuge expansion proposed The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is exploring a proposal to add the Barnes Ranch and perhaps the Agency Lake Ranch to the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. Under two proposed additions, the Fish and Wildlife Service would purchase the 2,671-acre Barnes Ranch, which is in private ownership, and either cooperatively manage the 7,125-acre Agency Lake Ranch with the Bureau of Reclamation, or acquire the Agency Lake property. The refuge currently includes almost 15,000 acres of mostly freshwater marsh and open water on Upper Klamath Lake, including habitat for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, and a variety of resident and migratory birds. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the refuge additions would increase water storage in the Upper Klamath Basin, and improve fish and wildlife habitat....
Governor backs industry plan A Bureau of Land Management plan to allow more drilling in the Jonah natural gas field near Pinedale doesn't give companies enough flexibility to tap all the gas that's available, Gov. Dave Freudenthal says. At the same time, the plan's attempt to limit disturbance from development would provide only marginal benefit to wildlife habitat, the governor has concluded. As a result, Freudenthal supports EnCana Oil & Gas Inc.'s proposal to allow drilling of wells with few restrictions within the existing Jonah field, in exchange for a commitment from the company to improve wildlife habitat in areas surrounding the field, according to a Tuesday letter he wrote to the BLM....
U.S. eyes oil shale resources Faced with record-high crude oil imports and prices, U.S. lawmakers held a one-day hearing Tuesday to examine tapping domestic oil shale on federal lands, a resource some geologists say could yield 1.9 trillion barrels of oil. Oil shale formations, largely found out West, release low-grade oil when mined, crushed, and subjected to high temperatures. Companies like Royal Dutch/Shell Group, already armed with the technology to develop oil shale, would be the likely benefactors if the Senate folds legislation to open the fields into a future energy bill. The interest is certainly there. Over the past four months more than 30 companies and individuals have sent recommendations to the Bureau of Land Management on how to go about leasing mineral rights on oil federal oil shale properties. Even the Defense Department has joined in, seeing an opportunity to perhaps boost jet fuel supplies. Senator Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said at the hearing he is looking at tax incentives to encourage developing oil shale....
Colo. River users at odds over flow The seven states that share the Colorado River are unlikely to agree on how much to refill Lake Powell this year, leaving the decision to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Colorado's top water planner said Tuesday. Five of the driest years on record have left Lake Powell, the giant impoundment on the Utah- Arizona line, two-thirds empty. Meanwhile, record precipitation this winter has helped produce a dramatic rebound in Lake Mead, Powell's equally large downstream sibling, which is now nearly two-thirds full. To help restore balance to the system, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming want the Bureau of Reclamation to capture more water than planned behind Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam. They plan to make that request next week....

===

MAD COW DISEASE

U.S. accused of covering up mad cow cases The United States has covered up cases of mad cow disease in the past eight years, a former U.S. agriculture inspector said Tuesday at a House of Commons committee. Leslie Friedlander repeated a claim he has made before that cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy surfaced in the U.S. long before the disease showed up in Canada, devastating this country's beef industry. Friedlander, who was fired from his job as head of inspections at a meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices, says he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove he is telling the truth. Part of the answer could be in a slaughterhouse in Oriskany Falls, N.Y., which eight years ago may have become the home of the first American case of mad cow. Bobby Godfrey, who worked at the plant, remembers a cow that arrived one day. "I thought it was a mad dog, to tell you the truth," he told CBC's Investigative Unit. "Didn't know what the hell it was. Never seen a cow act like that in all the cows I saw go through there. There was definitely something wrong with it." The suspect cow, which was recorded on video obtained by CBC News, was suspected of being the first American case of BSE. Dr. Masuo Doi was the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian in charge of investigating the cow. "Me and my vet, including our inspector, they thought it [the cow] was quite different. They thought it was the BSE," he said. Doi, who recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says he's haunted by fears the right tests were not done and that the case was not properly investigated by his own department. With questions about the first cow still lingering, three months later at the same meat plant there was a second American cow with suspicious symptoms. The second cow's brain was sent for testing and officials were told verbally the tests were negative. Doi made repeated requests for documentary proof of the negative tests. To this day, he's seen nothing. "How many are buried?" he wonders. "Can you really trust our inspection [system?]....
Australian company in Canadian BSE case An Australian stockfeed company has become embroiled in the fallout from the mad cow disease outbreak in North America. Ridley Corporation's subsidiary in Canada is being sued over allegations it allowed ruminant animal products into feed which allegedly caused that country's outbreak. Cattle farmers have launched a $CAN7 billion lawsuit against both the company and the Canadian Government for allegedly bungling the containment of the disease. No one from Ridley Corporation was available for interview, but in a statement the company says it will strenuously defend the court action....
Canadian Cattlemen Organization Says To Sue US Cattle Group A group of Canadian cattle producers is planning to sue the U.S. producer group R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, alleging damages caused by its efforts to keep the U.S. border closed to all Canadian cattle. A spokesman for R-CALF USA dismissed the threatened suit, calling it a low priority for his group. Morrison maintains that Canadian cattle producers are very upset with R-CALF USA, the border closing and the lack of accuracy in some of the statements made by the producers' group. They are particularly incensed with the whole premise that Canadian cattle aren't safe, according to Morrison. Morrison said it could be argued that Canadian cattle and beef are safer than those in the U.S. because his country has a mandatory identification and tagging system already in place while the U.S. is still formulating its plan. In order to put together its class-action suit against R-CALF USA, Morrison said Fair Market Beef wanted to sign up 1,000 cattle producers who had lost money since March 7. This date was chosen because this was when the USDA would have opened the border if it hadn't been for the injunction from Judge Cebull, he said....
U.S. Wants More Easing of Japan Beef Test Rules The United States urged Japan on Tuesday to exclude beef cattle under the age of 30 months from testing for mad cow disease, the latest sign of U.S. pressure on Japan to ease its testing standards, Kyodo news agency said. Under intense pressure, Japan moved a step closer to easing a ban on U.S. beef in March after the government won approval for plans to drop its policy of testing all cattle for mad cow disease -- known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The request by the U.S. government was made in a letter to Japan's Food Safety Commission (FSC), saying that it would "urge Japan to move even further toward harmonisation with international practice by raising the minimum age limit for BSE testing from 20 months to 30 months," Kyodo said. Approval of the easier policy by the food safety watchdog is a precondition for Japan to implement an October 2004 agreement with the United States to resume imports of American beef from cattle aged below 21 months without conducting mad cow testing....

===

9TH CIRCUIT NOMINEE IN THE LOOP ON GRAZING DEAL — New Questions on Myers’ Veracity Warrant Investigation

Public Employess for Environmental Responsibility
For Immediate Release: April 12, 2005
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337

Washington, DC - Contrary to his Senate testimony, William Myers, the controversial former Solicitor for the Department of Interior who has been nominated by President Bush to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was aware of the terms of an improper settlement reached with a politically connected Wyoming rancher, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Community Rights Counsel (CRC). The two groups are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to question one of Myers' former subordinates at the Interior Solicitor's Office.

At issue is whether Myers was telling the truth when he repeatedly assured the Senate that he was not briefed and "did not know" the terms of the controversial settlement with a Wyoming rancher, that was subsequently criticized by the Interior Office of Inspector General. But, according to the rancher's attorney, Myers was fully informed on the progress and key terms by his hand-picked subordinate, Robert Comer, the Regional Solicitor for the Rocky Mountain States. In further support of her contention that Myers was in the loop, the rancher's attorney, Karen Budd-Falen, pointed to a fax directed to Myers, among others, spelling out the settlement terms.

One of the controversies about the settlement was its exclusion of a lawsuit by the rancher against federal employees accusing them of racketeering, under the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). Myers contended that he was unaware of this provision and the Interior Office of Inspector General maintains Comer misled Myers on this point. In a rebuttal prepared by Budd-Falen, she wrote:

"[The OIG] Report assumes that Comer failed to inform his superiors of the status and issues and positions in the Settlement Agreement, including the RICO issue. This is simply not the case…Due to Robert's [the Assistant U.S. Attorney] repeated insistence that the RICO case not be included in the Settlement Agreement, it was eventually removed by Comer…[Interior and Department of Justice officials] and Bill Myers (Solicitor for the Department of Interior) were all notified of this change." (citations omitted)

"Who is telling the truth, Bill Myers or his trusted aide?" asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, who filed the complaint sparking the OIG investigation. "The Senate should hear what Regional Solicitor Comer has to say before it casts a vote on a lifetime appointment for Bill Myers to serve on one of the highest courts in the land."

"This new evidence puts Myers in the Robbins settlement loop," said Doug Kendall, CRC's Executive Director. "It suggests that a central part of Mr. Myers' Senate Judiciary Committee testimony was false. Plainly there needs to be an investigation of these developments."

The settlement agreement virtually immunized the rancher from penalties for grazing violations and left Interior's own employees in legal jeopardy. It was subsequently rescinded. Myers has defended his role in the imbroglio by maintaining that he was not informed about the status or terms of the deal.

###

Go here for pdf documents of PEER's letter, the Budd-Falen memo, etc.

===

Subcommittee Examines Challenges for Grazing and Range Conservation

For Immediate Release
April 12, 2005
Contact Matt Streit or Brian Kennedy at (202) 226-9019

Washington, DC - Tomorrow the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health is holding a hearing on challenges for grazing and range conservation on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. The hearing will be at 3:30 pm in 1334 Longworth House Office Building.

"Ranchers in the West have continued to see a decline in recent years in the amount of land available for public grazing," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA). "It's imperative the public has continued access to these lands as grazing is vital for local economies and is useful as a land management tool."

Livestock grazing was a central part of settling the West and to this day continues to be a central aspect of rural western communities. The Forest Service and BLM administer roughly 27,000 permits on roughly 250 million acres of public land.

"Scientific research shows that grazing on public lands is a compatible use when properly managed, and an effective tool for rangeland health," said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). "We need to make sure that federal policy is appropriate for the range and takes into account the important role ranchers have played in the stewardship of our public lands. I've seen firsthand the good results of positive management practices between public and private lands. Often in the West, the checkerboard landscape of private and public lands necessitates a collaborative partnership to achieve best practices. It's important for the Resources Committee to evaluate what's working and what's not as we strive to make sure our land managers are the best possible stewards of the public lands."

Recently, grazing on public lands has declined. The extended drought in the West, appeals and lawsuits, and compliance with the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and NEPA, have all impacted the amount of livestock grazing on public lands.

###

NEWS ROUNDUP

Mo. pups could boost mexican gray wolf population The endangered Mexican gray wolf population could swell by 10 percent this spring, after two wolves in captivity gave birth this weekend, and three more are expecting. The potential for 26 new pups is a welcome development for those working to preserve the rare wolves at the Wild Canid Survival and Research Center in suburban St. Louis. It's not such good news for opponents in a long-running fight against the wolves' reintroduction into the wild. In the 1970s, the wolves disappeared completely from the United States, canid center director Susan Lyndaker Lindsey said. Beginning in 1998, Mexican gray wolves were reintroduced in the Southwest. There are currently about 60 in Arizona and New Mexico, another 200 or so in captivity, Lyndaker Lindsey said....
Truth in the Wild: A Great Dad That Wanders Wide In the gathering darkness four biologists wearing headlamps surround an unconscious wolverine that is flat on its back, legs akimbo. They check a transmitter implanted in its belly and fit another larger one on a collar around its heavily muscled neck. Then they inject the animal with the antidote to the drug that knocked it out, and place it in a box trap. An hour or so later, when the lid of the trap is opened, the animal clambers out and runs into the forest. Every two hours the position of the wolverine - known as M-1 - is fixed by a geo-positioning satellite and recorded in the collar. A few weeks later the wolverine is recaptured, and a record of its travels is downloaded from the collar into a laptop. The result confirms data that the researchers have accumulated over three years. Wolverines are wildly peripatetic....
Fish-noshing sea lions at Bonneville in for a scare Fireworks bombardment, high-pressure water hoses and irritating sounds broadcast underwater -- these are the means of persuasion in store for a pair of sea lions that have stationed themselves inside fish passage structures at Bonneville Dam. Sea lions are gathering in growing numbers at Bonneville Dam to feast on salmon. Until now, the far-ranging marine mammals have not climbed the fish ladders. One individual this year has made repeated runs up and down both of the fishways, eating a steelhead or two in front of visitors and the workers who count salmon. The new behavior presents a significant problem because the presence of sea lions within the narrow fish passageways could deter large numbers of salmon from entering and heading upstream to spawning grounds....
BLM contends mineral rights on claim valueless The Bureau of Land Management says a man's 161 mining claims on 4,360 acres of public land are worthless and cannot be used as a basis for ownership. After a three-year review the BLM filed a complaint that Joe Freeman's claims along Rough and Ready Creek lack enough mineral value to make mining economical. "Minerals have not been found on any of the 161 mining claims in sufficient qualities or quantities to constitute a discovery," the complaint said. "The lands ... are non-mineral in character." To gain ownership claimants must show mineral validity. Freeman can challenge the findings. "This is huge," said Barbara Ullian of Grants Pass, a member of the environmental group Siskiyou Regional Education Project. "Rough and Ready Creek needs to be permanently protected. It's an exceptional place."....
Loggers hear predictions from global-warming experts Some experts say global warming is changing wooded regions across the nation, and Northwest timber industry workers are among those following the phenomenon amid concern it could eventually affect their livelihoods. Glacier National Park is expected to be devoid of its namesake ice formations by 2040, according to U.S. Geological Survey scientists. What's more, the Earth's northern hemisphere has been growing greener over the last two decades as temperatures rise, according to NASA satellite images. For the region's forests, these changes could have serious consequences, said Steven Running, an ecology professor from the University of Montana who was among speakers who addressed 100 loggers at the Intermountain Logging Conference in Spokane last week. They include increased insect plagues and less snowpack, which acts as a wildfire-prevention blanket....
Reps: Protect top of Roan U.S. Rep. John Salazar on Monday formally called on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management not to approve any drilling on top of the Roan Plateau over the next 20 years. Salazar, D-Colo., represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District. The district includes Garfield County, home to the plateau, which rises to an elevation of 9,000 feet northwest of Rifle. A second Colorado member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., took a like-mannered position Monday. DeGette said drilling should be delayed on the plateau top for the 20-year life of the management plan, or until technology will allow the gas under the top to be accessed from the surrounding base through directional drilling....
Judge rules state can join Salt Creek lawsuit A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the state can intervene in a lawsuit filed by San Juan County against the federal government over ownership of an overgrown road that runs several miles into Canyonlands National Park. Judge Bruce Jenkins last week ruled that the state could become a party in a suit in which the county is claiming the road under RS 2477, a Civil War-era federal statute that grants broad rights-of-way across unreserved federal lands. The trail in question, known as Salt Creek Road, is an unpaved, ungraded trail that crosses Salt Creek, the third-largest source of water in the park. The road leads to Angel Arch, one of the park's most popular attractions. A federal judge ordered Salt Creek closed to traffic in 1998 in response to a lawsuit brought by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which claimed damage caused by vehicles. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the court to reexamine the record, but the National Park Service closed the road last June because of damage. The state claims in its complaint that the county maintained and improved the Salt Creek Road for decades before Canyonlands National Park was established. The state also claims the road was used from the 1920s to the mid-1960s to drive cattle and move trail supplies to cowboy camps, in addition to serving as a jeep road for visitors and uranium prospectors into the 1950s....
State asserts rights to trails Gov. Frank Murkowski went out of his way Sunday to show the federal government that Alaska means business about asserting its rights on historic trails the state has identified as RS 2477 routes. The governor flew from Fairbanks to the remote settlement of Coldfoot, 250 miles north of Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway, where he met Iditarod musher Ramy Brooks of Healy and took a dogsled ride on one of three trails the state will file suit on today in the southern Brooks Range to get the Department of Interior to turn over unrestricted rights of way. The Coldfoot to Chandalar Lake Trail, a mining trail established by prospectors in 1906 seeking to strike it rich in the Chandalar Lake gold fields, is one of more than 650 trails the state has identified as historic routes that should have unrestricted public rights of way. The state will file suit against the Department of Interior today in federal district court in Washington, D.C., for quiet title to three of those trails, all located in the vicinity of Coldfoot, as an attempt to gain control of the three trails "for whatever future need we might want." All three trails cross land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management....
Plan to store natural gas in wildlife refuge gains support Federal officials have given preliminary approval to a request by Unocal Corp. to store natural gas in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The project now is awaiting approval from the Bureau of Land Management. Unocal's proposal calls for storing gas in the Swanson River oil field on the refuge. Company officials say storing gas at the site will ensure there is enough gas for customers, even in high-demand times, such as cold winter days. The company wants to bring gas from wells outside the field and store it in reservoirs there, which would allow quicker delivery to customers. Unocal's lease agreements in the refuge are for exploration and production of oil and gas only, as well as storing some gas found in the refuge. Because gas would be brought into the field from outside sources, federal officials consider the storage proposal a separate use requiring approval....
Pipeline firms get great deals on Indian lands Pipeline companies operating on Navajoland allegedly are getting "sweetheart deals" on rights of ways, according to a December 2004 article published by SmartMoney.com. In August 2003, Alan Balaran, special master overseeing the Cobell v. Norton class-action lawsuit, filed a report in U.S. District Court alleging the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was giving pipeline companies "lowball deals" on Indian land being developed in the San Juan Basin. BIA has denied the charges. A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesman told SmartMoney.com that the Farmington field office has approved more rights of way than any other field office in the United States....
Mobil Fined Nearly $1 Million for Air Pollution on Navajo Lands The U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a settlement with Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S. Inc. worth nearly $1 million for alleged Clean Air Act violations that affected air quality on the territory of the Navajo Nation. The violations took place at Mobil’s oil production facility on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area near Aneth, Utah. The company will pay a $350,000 penalty and spend about $500,000 on operation improvements to control air pollution at its oil field. Mobil will also spend $99,849 on a public health project that will provide X-ray equipment, an X-ray processor and a pulmonary function testing machine to the Montezuma Creek Community Health Center in Montezuma Creek, Utah....
Power plant plans shrink Black Hills Power has scaled back its plan for a 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant to 100 megawatts, according to the company. The downsizing is due to a lack of transmission capacity to properly market the power, and because of ongoing air quality concerns downwind at national parks in western South Dakota. For example, DEQ's Air Quality Division had issued an emission permit to Black Hills Power in 2002, allowing it to construct WyGen No. 2 at 500 megawatts of capacity. But the National Park Service appealed the permit; then both Black Hills Power and the Park Service asked for time to negotiate emission parameters. The concern for the Park Service is that visibility at Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park is so clear that even a modest addition of particulates might be detectable and considered a degradation of visibility. Those negotiations led to an agreement by Black Hills Power to lower the emission design and build what would be the cleanest coal-fired power plant in the nation, according to DEQ. But the Park Service still didn't drop its appeal....
National Park Superintendent Leaves Under Cloud of Controversy Yet is Given 'Prestigious' Award Residents of the Wrangell -- St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST) are outraged to hear of the recent bestowal of the Stephen T. Mather Award on former WRST Superintendent Gary Candelaria by the National Park Conservation Association (NPCA). Candelaria left his position under a cloud of controversy several months ago after allegations of inholder harassment, illegal road and trail closures, destruction of resources, selective enforcement, and other issues surfaced, according to Susan Smith, chairman of Residents of the Wrangells. Landowners were forced to join together to form a community organization, Residents of the Wrangells (ROW), in an effort to address and solve their problems with the National Park Service (NPS) and work with Alaskan legislators. "Most outside observers would consider his departure from Alaska as being under a cloud, yes...even disgraced. But NO! He's a hero to the NPCA and the NPS. They give him accolades and awards!" Smith said....
New Poll Says 3 in 5 Would Donate to National Parks on their Federal Tax Returns According to a new poll conducted by Zogby International on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), 61% of likely voters expressed the likelihood to donate to the national parks if given the option to do so on their federal tax returns. Based on the number of tax returns filed in 2002, survey results indicate that as much as $650 million could be realized annually with the addition of a check-off box benefiting the parks on federal tax returns. “This outstanding support for our national parks comes at a critical time,” said NPCA President Tom Kiernan. “Funding for America’s national parks is at a ‘bear’ minimum. A tax check-off can help to address the parks’ critical maintenance and natural and cultural preservation needs.”....
Protestors decry hunting of feral pigs on Santa Cruz island Sign-toting demonstrators took to the Santa Barbara waterfront to protest what they call the slaughter of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island. Hunters hired by federal park officials began shooting the pigs over the weekend.The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy say thousands of pigs on the island have got to go to save the endangered Santa Cruz Island fox and other imperiled species....
Fishermen seek disaster declaration over tight salmon seasons Commercial salmon fishermen in Oregon and California are seeking federal disaster assistance because of sharp reductions in fishing seasons they blame on continuing water problems in the Klamath Basin. Claiming commercial salmon trollers from Santa Cruz, Calif., to Florence, Ore., could lose up to $100 million from lost fishing opportunities this summer, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations has called on the governors of California and Oregon to support a fisheries disaster declaration from NOAA Fisheries. "This is a disaster of federal making, caused by a policy of letting too little water remain in the Klamath River,'' said Glen Spain of the federation representing about 2,000 boats, most of them from California. "We may be facing future fisheries disasters for the same reasons.'' California Department of Fish and Game biologists have said the likely cause of the low returns this year is the increasing numbers of young fish succumbing to parasites as they migrate to the ocean. Some scientists think the parasites may be proliferating because low wintertime flows no longer flush them out of the river....
N.D. considers Lake of the Woods water transfer North Dakota is considering a plan to transfer water by pipeline from Lake of the Woods, located on the Canada-U.S. border, in the event of a severe drought, which it predicts will occur within 25 years. The proposal is likely to fan Canada-U.S. tensions already simmering over the Devil's Lake project, also in North Dakota, which would transfer poor-quality and parasite-infected water into the Red River running through Manitoba....
Builders, environmentalists set Placer vernal pool pact Developers, environmental groups and federal agencies have agreed to protect fleeting seasonal pools in one of California's fastest-growing areas, south Placer County near Sacramento. Vernal pools and the rare protected species they shelter usually prompt extended fights and delays, but the groups hope the cooperative approach can be repeated elsewhere. This is the first such agreement federal officials could recall in California, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Al Donner. It requires that for every acre of vernal pools that is destroyed by development, two acres are purchased and preserved. The developers agreed to buy three key areas totaling 1,084 acres of seasonal wetlands that are in the immediate path of development, and to pay the Placer County Land Trust to buy at least another 1,000 acres within five years. The agreement also calls for eventually protecting another 3,835 acres. The developers also agree to pay for two studies on the cumulative effects of vernal pool loss in the Central Valley, and whether the current practice of protecting small areas of wetlands around development is enough to maintain the biological diversity of the unique vernal pool species....
A Policy Showdown in Prairie Wetlands The marshes, bogs and seasonal ponds in this heartland state are at the center of a tug of war between two of President Bush's most-valued constituencies — hunters who want to preserved game habitat and farmers who want land they can till. As an avid hunter and the owner of a Texas ranch, Bush has reached out to both groups. Three years ago, he signed a farm bill increasing spending by almost 80%. Last year, Bush invited leaders of several hunting and fishing groups to his ranch to reassure them of his concern for wetlands. Before the election, he vowed: "Instead of just limiting our losses, we will expand wetlands." But interviews and government reports show that, although the administration has offered farmers financial incentives, the primary tools for wetland preservation have been weakened. As the result of a court ruling and administration policy, key Clean Water Act provisions are not being applied in many instances. And an agricultural program that prohibits farmers from draining wetlands has a long history of poor enforcement....
Column: Is Texas' glass half full? You may not see it at first, but if you look closely, you'll see David Dewhurst's size-14 footprint along the banks of the Trinity River. For that matter, you'll see it alongside the Gulf Coast near Galveston and Corpus Christi and in West Texas above the Ogallala Aquifer.Texas' lieutenant governor put his feet down firmly last week on every inch of the state's water policy. So did a bipartisan group of legislators, environmentalists and water experts, led by Democratic Sen. Ken Armbrister of Victoria. If the water reforms they presented pass this year – and let's hope they do – then we Texans will benefit when we turn on the tap, irrigate crops or fish in the Gulf. Senate Bill 3 deals with water conservation, river flows, funding projects and regulating aquifers, among other elements....
Klamath, Salmon Rivers Among Most Threatened A new report, released in Oakland on March 29 by the California Wilderness Coalition, features the Klamath and Salmon River watersheds among California's 10 most threatened wild places. The analysis, the fourth in a series of annual reports, considers the urgency and impact of threats to these landscapes, including water diversions, off road development, logging, and drilling. Several places included in this year's report, such as the Klamath Basin, were listed last year. It is hoped by fishermen's groups, Indian Tribes and environmental activists that the report's release will spur action by the federal and state governments to preserve and restore the Klamath and Salmon rivers and other California wild areas....
Sacramento executives bemoan construction roadblock The Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce began its annual lobbying foray onto Capitol Hill Monday with a dire warning that construction projects - ranging from housing projects to sewer and roads - are grinding to a halt because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' district office is backed up on its processing of wetlands permits. "People use the word delay," said John Hodgson, whose company of the same name oversees large-scale commercial and residential developments in the Sacramento area. "But I'd say that projects are being stopped." Hodgson ticked off a number of projects that, sometimes after years, still don't have the permits from the Corps of Engineers to proceed with construction. These projects involve sensitive wetlands where everyone else, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that oversees the Endangered Species Act, has issued their OK. "The city of Lincoln has been trying to get the Highway 65 bypass out for six or seven years," he said. A new water plant in Elk Grove has been stalled so long that the city could end up in violation of new arsenic standards that the plant was intended to meet, all because a corner of the five-acre property contains a wetlands, he said. And construction at the Sacramento International Airport also is being held up, Hodgson said....
Resurrection Ecology Chases the Red Queen Hypothesis Layered in the sediments of rivers and lakes are the remains of generation upon generation of tiny animals known as zooplankton. In the 1990s, Kerfoot was among a team of scientists studying these creatures in Germany when they made a startling discovery: The zooplankton weren't all dead. Or at least their eggs weren't. "They should have died, but they didn't," Kerfoot said. "They revive, and we don't quite understand how it happens." It doesn't take much to bring them back to life, either. "We just sieve them out of the sediment and wake them up in an incubator," he says. "Then we grow them up. We have entire populations from nearly 100 years ago." A whole new field, termed by Kerfoot resurrection ecology, is emerging from those original discoveries. Its techniques allow scientists to study organisms from the past and compare them with their modern counterparts. As reported recently in the journal Limnology and Oceanography, Kerfoot has been doing just that in Michigan's Portage Lake, reviving eggs from a small, shrimp-like animal, Daphnia retrocurva, from various sediment layers going back to the 1920s....
Ranchers sue Canada over disease Canadian ranchers hard hit by a ban on cattle exports to the United States on Monday sued Canada's federal government, accusing it of negligently allowing mad cow disease to devastate the cattle industry. The coordinated class-action lawsuits, filed in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, seek at least $5.7 billion, the industry's estimated losses to date, and another $81 million in punitive damages. They claim the federal government introduced a regulation in 1990 that specifically allowed the feeding of cattle parts to other cattle, the method through which mad cow disease is transmitted. That was a full two years after Great Britain had banned the practice because of the risk and about three years after Canada banned cattle imports from the United Kingdom and Ireland that were not from farms certified as free of the disease. It was only in 1997 that Canada banned the practice of feeding cattle to other cattle....
Staging a revival A rare relic from a short, colorful episode in Texas history sits dissolving and crumbling into the dirt of a Cibolo Creek flood plain, near where Old Austin Road used to run. Selma residents had long referred to the small building as an old stagecoach stop and post office. But until about five years ago, nobody knew how old or how significant the structure was. Local historian Jean Heide stumbled onto the first real clue while chasing down her family's genealogy. She had found the name of a stagecoach contractor listed in an 1850 census and later learned he had once lived near the Selma stage stop. Heide was excited. Here was a chance to demystify the foggy past of the craggy building. "It had been folklore for years," she said. "Nobody had ever done any research or documentation on it." Heide put her family history project on hold and focused on the stage stop. The structure was probably built in the late 1840s or early 1850s, possibly when the first stagecoach service began between San Antonio and Austin, she learned. Its walls are made from a mix of lime, sand, pebbles, rock and a few corncobs — altogether, an early form of concrete known as tabby — and it is one of four similarly constructed buildings in Texas, according to a preliminary archaeological report. It's also one of just 13 stage stops left in the state....
100 years of growth Friends and family came from all over the country Saturday to help Molly Yeakel celebrate 100 years of happy memories. "I have so many memories," Molly said. "I can go to bed at night and think about them and dream about them." At the age of 100, Molly has had a full life - much of which she's spent living between Rifle and Glenwood Springs ranching and farming. When she was young, Molly helped her father on the family farm. "I worked in the field with Dad," Molly said. "I even helped him dig ditches. We raised sugar beets. We worked hard pulling them out of the ground. I worked really hard." Molly put off getting married until she felt sure her father would have some help. Her two brothers were very young and couldn't do much on the farm. She was the oldest of eight - six girls and two boys. The farm was in Antlers, a rural community between Silt and Rifle. That's where Molly lived from the time she was 14 until she moved to Glenwood at the age of 66....
Home on the range The afternoon sun floods the Florida prairie in warm light as the dogs circle the cattle, barking and nipping them into a tight circle. Cliff Coddington, a sixth-generation Florida cowboy, looks down from in his saddle, bemused by dogs so well-trained he can just sit back and watch them work. Or maybe, there is something about the look of the land in the fading light after a long day of outdoors that thrills him. Or maybe there is something about herding cattle after all these years. He can't say. Coddington is among the last of a generation from this region raised on small family farms, reared by his parents to be a cowboy and raise cattle. Between rapid development in Florida swallowing farmland and a changing agriculture industry, the small family farm over the last several decades has steadily been disappearing, Coddington says. Unable to survive on their own, people have had to seek work at bigger farms or try another profession. On his mother's side, Coddington's family ranching history dates back to Mary Isibell Williams, who along with her husband, James, were among the first to settle along the Manatee River in the mid-1800s. James was handicapped in the Civil War and Mary Isibell, a real pistol as the story goes, ran the cattle. "She was one of the first cattlewomen in Florida. You can check that history book, 'Singing River,' " Coddington says....
It's All Trew: True life tales are stranger than fiction Ralph Wilkinson, an uncle of mine, reached his eighteenth birthday in the year 1915, living with his folks along Wolf Creek in Ochiltree County. Their ranch was about where the Lake Fryer road turns off of Highway 83 south of Perryton. Ralph was out of school, desperately in love, wanting to get married, broke financially but rich in cowboy knowledge. A job came up driving a herd of cattle to Wyoming taking about three months to go and return. He would save his money and promised his love they could marry as soon as he returned. The herd made it to Wyoming where his boss bought a herd of horses and mules to deliver to Fort Union in southern New Mexico. This took another two months but Ralph would have twice as much money for his upcoming marriage. When he finally returned home, his love had moved to another town and married another man....

===

CATTLE CLONING

Cloned Cows' Milk, Beef Up to Standard

Milk and meat from cloned cattle are almost identical in composition to the milk and meat from conventionally bred cattle, according to the first comprehensive assessment of the nutritional value of food from clones. The new findings, by researchers in Connecticut and Japan, bolster industry assertions that food products from clones should be allowed on the market. But other experts criticized the report as incomplete and said that, in any case, social and economic factors argue against the sale of clonal food. The National Academy of Sciences in 2002 concluded that meat and milk from cloned cattle were unlikely to pose human health concerns, but it warned that there were few studies on which to base its conclusion. A year later, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee leaned the same way, but several members expressed reservations and even more voiced concerns about the clones' health and welfare. The new study, described in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compared the chemical composition of milk from clones of a 13-year-old, high-producing Holstein cow with milk from conventional Holsteins raised identically. Tests on more than 1,000 samples found no significant differences in levels of protein, fat, lactose, antibodies and other parameters routinely monitored by the dairy industry. The team also studied clones of the offspring of a prizewinning Japanese bull famed for his superior marbling -- the blend of fat and muscle that contributes so much to a steak's quality. Of more than 100 measures, more than 90 percent were virtually identical for the clones and conventional animals. Of the dozen tests on which clones scored differently, most showed they had higher levels of fats or fatty acids in various cuts -- traits valued by many consumers, the researchers reported. That reflects the high fat levels in the bull that sired the cloned animal -- one of the reasons that semen from that bull has been used to produce more than 165,000 offspring by standard in vitro fertilization methods....

Cloned Cows Yummy and Safe

Companies like ViaGen, a subsidiary of Exeter Life Sciences in Austin, Texas, and Cyagra, which offer livestock-cloning services to ranchers for replicating their most elite sires and dams, have also been waiting for several years for a final say from the FDA. Cloning cattle can eliminate the genetic gamble that comes with more traditional methods of reproduction, proponents say. Ranchers will choose the animals that produce the best meat and the most milk, as well as those that resist disease and reproduce more efficiently. "For the United States agricultural industry, (cloning) can reduce the number of cows necessary for milking," said Jerry Yang, an animal science professor at the University of Connecticut and a co-author of the study, which appears in the April 11 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "They can have a pleasant environment and produce even more milk." Yang's research found that cloned cattle produced better-quality meat and more milk than those conceived through selective breeding. He also said that cloning could be a boon for developing countries where cows produce four to six times less meat and milk than those in the United States, where genetic breeding is more advanced. "If you use cloning technologies to copy the cows in developing countries, you can save them 50 years of breeding," Yang said....

===

NEWS ROUNDUP

Westerners see poetic justice in saving snakehead For years, Alan Gardner has watched Easterners tie up land and scuttle development in the West by asking federal bureaucrats to put various rodents, predators and pests on the nation's endangered-species list. Now it's time for a little payback. Mr. Gardner is leading a band of 13 commissioners from Western counties who have filed to seek protection for a rare new species: the northern snakehead fish, also known as the "Frankenfish." In their application on behalf of the snakehead, the commissioners identify its habitat as a stretch of freshwater and land covering 68 million acres and cutting across 11 Eastern states and Washington, D.C. In the unlikely event that their petition is approved, the snakehead's hangouts would come under strict restrictions on building, transportation and recreation in the name of protecting the famous fish....
Engineers Redesign Roads to Save Moose At night on a dark country road, all that the headlights catch are the shadowy legs the size of tree trunks rising out of the pavement. Standing six feet at the shoulder, weighing up to 1,000 pounds, with massive antlers more than five feet across, moose tower over automobiles and have no fear of them. Increasingly the undisputed giants of the northern forest are tangling with traffic as they expand south. Massachusetts motorists hit 52 moose last year, a more than sixfold increase in four years. But now some traffic engineers around the country are experimenting with redesigning roads to accommodate wandering wildlife and using high tech laser and infrared devices, developed for space exploration and anti-missile systems, to warn motorists when a moose wanders into the road....
Professor protects critters If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Prairie chickens draw crowds More than 100 people flocked from as far as Massachusetts and as close as Clovis this weekend to attend the fourth annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival. The highlight of the weekend is the lesser prairie chicken’s mating ritual. Right before the springtime sunrise, male prairie chickens congregate on raised semi-clearings called “leks.” Here they puff their feathers, their pinnate and their bright red cheeks, as they spar, stomp and scratch to woo the female. The male’s mating “booming” cry can be heard up to a mile away....
All in the name of buffalo Justine Sanchez' maternal instinct fueled her desire to volunteer for the Buffalo Field Campaign. "As a mother, I felt like I have to raise my child to be a conscious human," she said this past week. "That's the only way we're going to be successful, to raise our children to look out for the buffalo." Sanchez, who lives in the mountains near Ward, Colo., started volunteering for the campaign four years ago after she grew frustrated reading about the capture and killing of Yellowstone National Park buffalo. These women, along with hundreds of other volunteers, are the reason the Buffalo Field Campaign is going strong. Now in its eighth year, the group wants to end what it sees as the unjustified slaughter of wildlife, all in the name of protecting cattle....
Devils Tower to keep name If God's eye is on the sparrow, who's keeping tabs on the weasels? Kerry Foresman and Cory Clausen, that's who. Foresman, a University of Montana biology professor, and Clausen, who works for Roscoe Steel and Culvert Co. in Missoula, have patented a handy-dandy anti-roadkill device called the "critter crawl," a metal, mesh shelf that nestles inside a culvert, suspended above any flowing water. It allows furry little fauna such as fishers, martens, weasels, raccoons, skunks, porcupines, marmots — everything from the endangered lynx to the everyday puddy tat — to tiptoe under a highway, safe from the wrath of B.F. Goodrich....
Lawsuit Pits Tribe Against U.S. and Endangered Bighorn Sheep Peninsular bighorn sheep have lived in this sun-drenched oasis and the parched mountains looming above as long as Native Americans have been here. It is an ancient relationship enshrined in the bighorn statue chained securely in front of the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians' downtown administrative offices. But now, the tribe is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking to withdraw special protection of 844,000 acres for the endangered sheep. Tribal officials contend that the "critical habitat" designation could cost them "hundreds of millions of dollars" in future development revenues — even though only 17,000 of the protected acres are on reservation land. An attorney for the tribe said that to challenge the habitat designation on the reservation land, the lawsuit had to target all 844,000 acres. The tribe, which owns half of downtown Palm Springs, says it has no immediate plans to develop the lands, but wants to preserve its right to do so....
Freedom beckons 6 lynx Finally, he went for it. Seconds later, the lynx had vanished, becoming Saturday the newest transplant to a state his species once called home. The $2.5 million lynx reintroduction program the Colorado Division of Wildlife began six years ago is reaching its apex and drawing to an end. Not only is this the last year wildlife officials intend to release large groups of the cats into the San Juan Mountains, but it’s also the first year they will have a real chance of telling whether the reintroduction effort is working. Kittens born in Colorado are old enough to breed, and if they do, it could mean the species is once again taking hold....
Dispute brewing over expansion plans at Little Bighorn Battlefield The current superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near here is at odds with a former superintendent and a National Park Service historian over a proposal to expand the battlefield's museum and visitor center. Current Superintendent Darrell Cook said he is taking a ‘‘very preliminary'' look at adding an indoor interpretive space to the visitor center and expanding the onsite museum. But Robert M. Utley, the former chief historian of the National Park Service, which operates the national monument, said expanding the visitor center at its existing location ‘‘would likely inhibit, perhaps fatally,'' long-term plans to move the center off the site of the 1876 battle. In a letter to the Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Association, Utley said it ‘‘is widely acknowledged'' that the National Park Service chose the wrong site in 1950 by building the museum at the battlefield site. ‘‘It is a major intrusion on the historic landscape and ought to be removed as soon as possible,'' he wrote....
Man rushes to preserve dino tracks Grand Junction resident Andre Delgalvis launched a race against time and the spring runoff to save what may be a significant find of dinosaur footprints at Lake Powell. Several years in a row of drought has drained Lake Powell to roughly one-third its capacity, the lowest it has been since it was filled in the 1960s. Historically low water levels at the lake have revealed hundreds — possibly thousands — of dinosaur tracks embedded in sandstone rocks that now rest on the shoreline, said Delgalvis. When the reservoir is full, the rock and footprints will be submerged. Delgalvis wants to save the dinosaur footprints before they’re inundated with water, covered again perhaps for decades....
Senate panel OKs bill for Mississippi drilling in Gulf Islands Seashore A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would allow the state of Mississippi to explore, develop and produce oil and gas from beneath the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The bill, approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, also could prevent litigation between the National Park Service and the state of Mississippi over the rights to oil and gas under the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The committee is headed by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The bill must pass the Senate and House before it could become law. More than 80 percent of Gulf Islands National Seashore is under water, except for the barrier islands. The seashore stretches 160 miles from Cat Island in Mississippi to the eastern tip of Santa Rosa Island in Florida....
"Fair balance" urged on Roan The federal government has seriously underestimated the impacts of its plan to drill for gas on western Colorado's Roan Plateau and should adopt more environmental protections to avoid a court fight, a coalition of local governments, businesses and environmentalists says. In comments submitted Friday to the Bureau of Land Management, the group urged the federal agency to adopt a competing proposal that would prohibit drilling from the plateau but allow directional wells to access gas beneath it. The coalition, which includes two counties, conservation groups and businesses, claims the BLM study is flawed because it looks at environmental impacts during only the first 20 years of a development cycle that will last much longer....
Gas bonanza shakes dust from Western towns Landscape painter Alfred Jacob Miller set up his easel on the shore of Fremont Lake 168 years ago and rendered one of the most famous romantic portraits ever made of the wild American West. Today, in the small ranching and tourist community that grew up around the venerated lake, motel rooms in Pinedale are sold out, but not from traditional tourists exploring the haunting Wind River range. The influx stems from an unprecedented invasion of oil-patch "roughnecks" creating a round-the-clock beehive of drilling rig crews, pipe layers, roadbuilders, and truck fleets. Indeed, tiny Pinedale represents ground zero in one of the biggest natural-gas booms in the postwar era. Driven by high energy prices and looser government regulations, it is transforming many of the small towns here along the rumpled spine of the Rockies — creating thousands of lucrative jobs, pouring money into local treasuries, and, as always happens with sudden growth, producing new problems ranging from traffic to drug use....
Column: ANWR is a start Sometimes we have to hand it to our greener friends, especially those in the Green Party. To express their horror about the recent Senate vote to open a teeny section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, they raise the global warming specter. Specifically, the March 22 press release says, "Green Party members noted that new drilling not only threatened local lands and wildlife in Alaska, but also risked accelerating the advance of catastrophic global warming." Even if we grant all the globe's average annual warming of 0.017 degree Centigrade in the last 10 years was due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide -- and that's quite a concession -- the numbers on ANWR are a drop in the barrel. According to the Energy Information Administration, in that decade petroleum accounted for about 42 percent of the total human contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That would mean a total petroleum-related warming of about 0.007 degree yearly....
Sand and gravel plant in tight spot Sandia Aggregates may be about to lose it all in an unusual conflict that pits sand and gravel production against the protection of sensitive lands. The company, owned by Pabco Building Products LLC, will begin shutting down this month and will have to lay off at least half of its 20 employees. At the heart of the issue are location and time. Sandia's operations in northeast Clark County abut the Rainbow Gardens Area of Critical Environmental Concern. That site is a 37,620-acre parcel east of Frenchman's Mountain that received federal protected status in 1998, partly because it is a habitat for sensitive plants, such as the bearpaw poppy, and threatened animals, including the desert tortoise....
Column: Tree Huggers Finally Branch Out Some environmentalists are ready to pronounce their movement dead. As evidence they point to the relentless confidence with which President Bush and Republican majorities in Congress attack long-standing environmental goals, such as protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drillers. In truth, though, the environmental movement's vitality depends on how we define the movement. This is more than a linguistic exercise. Take global warming. The "environmentalism is dead" crowd contends that the big environmental groups have failed to get new federal laws passed limiting global-warming gases. The reason, they say, is the green groups' inability to link with labor and social movements and develop a broad coalition to take on such multifaceted issues as global warming. The environmentalists counter they have partners in their quest for energy efficiency. Both sides overlook a new dynamic that is revitalizing and redefining environmentalism: the development of locally and regionally based quality-of-life movements....
A testy case on access Asher's house sits on a low bluff above the John Day. For him, "steelheaders" has become an epithet, synonymous with the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, a group on the opposite side in a long-running dispute over who owns the banks along the Central Oregon river. On Tuesday, the State Land Board is expected to side with the steelhead group and assert the public's ownership over a 174-mile stretch of the John Day as it flows from near Spray into the Columbia River east of The Dalles. In the next several years, the state is set to do the same with at least six more rivers, starting next with the upper Rogue River. And if the experience around Spray is any indication, the other decisions will prove just as fraught with politics, lawsuits and enmity. "They way I see it, we're sort of a test case," Asher said. "Whatever is decided here will apply to the rest of the rivers in Oregon."....
Drought means less water for Klamath farmers Spring rain and snow have been too little, too late to avert irrigation cutbacks on the Klamath Reclamation Project, where farmers will have to tighten their belts to sustain threatened and endangered fish in a drought. The operations plan for the 2005 irrigation season released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cuts back water for farmers by 15 percent on the bulk of the 180,000-acre project straddling the Oregon-California border on the east side of the Cascade Range. ``Since this is shaping up to be the third driest year on record, I am asking all Klamath Basin farmers, both on and off the reclamation project, to really tighten up on their water usage,'' said Dave Sabo, Reclamation's manager for the Klamath Project. Because of the drought, the amount mandated for fish is less than in wet years. A water bank set up to increase flows for fish has ramped up to 100,000 acre feet this year - about a third of what goes to irrigation. Farmers are being paid $7.6 million to leave 25,000 acres dry and divert wells. Nearby wildlife refuges are contributing 15,000 acre feet....
State prepares for water 'call' response Wyoming needs a plan to respond to a "compact call" on the Colorado River, should such a call ever happen, state officials say. Deputy State Engineer Harry LaBonde spoke with members of the Green River Basin Advisory Group here this week about the state's work on such a plan. The planning process focuses on the need for the upper basin states to provide water to the lower basin states under the Colorado River Compact, which was signed in 1922. With five years of drought, major storage accounts are low and could get lower. Wyoming's Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River....
Could Bull Riding Become the Next NASCAR? The wild sport of bull riding has always had its fans, but a group of cowboys wants more. They are trying to do for bull riding what NASCAR did for stock-car racing -- propel it into the big leagues. With high-tech shows and big-money promotions, bull-riding competitions have been filling arenas from California to the Carolinas and building a loyal TV audience of millions of fans. Bull riding advocates say the sport appeals to more than just cowboys. "You don't have to have a cowboy hat, you don't have to be from Wyoming, you don't have to have an agriculture background, it's just the sports fan," said Tuff Hedeman of the Professional Bull Riders Association....
Saddler's craft fits him well Saddler Doug Zinsitz is just about the last of his breed in this part of Texas. But once there was Don Atkinson in Ingram, Leonard Galvan on West Avenue in San Antonio and Don Atcheson in Kerrville. Before that, a rider could get a custom-made saddle in the now-defunct downtown Joske's department store. Even routine saddle-making jobs, once plentiful in Yoakum, are gradually being shifted to Mexico. Now, Doug's Saddlery on Main in Boerne is about the nearest place for locals to get a saddle featuring the leather and designs — called tooling — that they want. "It's a tough business to get into because it's hard to get schooled in this kind of work since you can't get the tools you need," said Zinsitz, 50....
Wild West Expo begins this week From 33 states and four foreign countries, western arena arts experts and fans will gather in Claremore April Wednesday through Sunday for the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo (public events start Thursday morning). If you have ever watched rope twirling, gun spinning or the latest Halle Berry movie, when she cracks a whip in each hand as “Catwoman,” and wondered “how’d they do that,” come to the Claremore Expo Center for the answer. Like explaining how a magic act really works, experts in western arena arts will conduct exhibitions, seminars and lessons and compete during the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo at the Claremore Expo Thursday through Sunday. The Wild West Expo, moving to Claremore after 16 years in Las Vegas, is co-sponsored by the Will Rogers Heritage Trust and Wild West Arts Club....
Trick roper will spin butterflies Charro-style trick riding will be one of the features at the 84th Red Bluff Round-up Rodeo April 15-17 at the Tehama District Fairground. One of the brightest young talents performing the classic charro-style trick roping; Tomas Garcilazo will present La Charreria. Garcilazo was born and raised in his family heritage in the most traditional and pure sport of Mexico La Charreria. He has been champion all around in this sport which is composed of seven different events called Charro Complete. Garcilazo has been traveling all around the world developing horsemanship and roping skills bringing to the United States a Mexican flavor of his tradition and culture....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Black gets nod, not the wave at rodeo parade It's not easy being Queen for a Day. The Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee, numbering in the thousands as far as I could see, chose me to be their grand marshal. I was humbled and excited! It was like being nominated Secretary of Commerce or having Reggie Jackson ask for my autograph. In the interest of public disclosure they informed me that I was not the first choice, which explained the wadded up checklist I found in the rodeo museum trash can. My name was at the bottom. The following names had been crossed out: Sam Elliott, Condie Rice, Martha Stewart, Fred Whitfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Hughes, Lassie, an Elvis impersonator and Garfield. The committee explained I would have responsibilities other than simply riding in the parade. I imagined interviews with National Public Radio, Dan Rather, Rush Limbaugh, a TV spot with Larry King, ribbon cuttings at Hoover Dam, the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame, Chernobyl. Instead, it turned out I was required to bus tables after the volunteers' luncheon, detail the parade chairman's car, and hawk nachos and beer during the slack performances....

===

Will property-rights revolt reverberate beyond Oregon?

In November Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved Measure 37, the nation's most sweeping property-rights law. Since then, hundreds of eager landowners such as Kempema have flooded city halls and county courthouses with claims demanding that government drop restrictions and let them develop their property, or pay them not to. "I never in my life thought I'd see something like this," Kempema marvels. Before Measure 37, their development plans would have been fantasies. They violate Oregon's pioneering land-use laws, often hailed as a national model for curbing sprawl and protecting farms and forests. Measure 37 trumps those laws. No statute in the country more drastically limits government's power to regulate what people can do with their property. Property-rights advocates in Washington, bristling at rules adopted under the state's Growth Management Act, hope to put a similar proposal on the ballot in 2006. Dave Hunnicutt of Oregonians in Action, Measure 37's sponsor, says he's also working with activists in Florida, Wisconsin and South Carolina. "If it can happen in Oregon... it can happen anywhere," writes Portland attorney Edward Sullivan, a leading opponent of Measure 37....

===

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Pop a top again, time for one more round of beef

By Julie Carter

Not long ago I heard that a newly opened local upscale resort - with a high class restaurant housed within- was going to offer Kobe beef on the menu.

Living in the heart of beef country most of my life with a good portion of that life directly affected by the price of beef on the hoof, I was pleased to hear beef would be a choice item even if it was on a pricey menu.

My next project was to figure out just what is Kobe beef? Someone said something about it being Japanese beef that is fed beer and massaged with sake to make them tender. Several parts of that statement piqued my interest beside the vision of drunken cattle.

I wasn’t happy that it was possibly foreign beef when ranchers all around the mountain where this resort resides raise prime beef and are working their third and fourth generation butts off getting it done.

So I did what I usually do when I don’t know what I’m talking about; I look it up in a book, on the internet or ask an old timer about it.

Kobe beef is a special grade of beef from Wagyu cattle raised in Kobe, Japan. They are indeed fed large amounts of beer to stimulate their appetite during the hot summer months when the heat would depress their food intake. I bet I know a few cowboys that will jump on that line of thinking for themselves.

Japanese producers believe that the hair coat and softness of skin are related to meat quality. It is believed that massaging the coat with sake improves the appearance and softness and is therefore of economic importance.

The result of this practice is said to produce meat that is extraordinarily tender, finely marbled, and full-flavored, unlike any produced anywhere any other way. It is also extremely expensive, often costing more than $100 per pound. It’s not your average Big Mac material.

Kobe beef became a home grown product when Wagyu cattle were first introduced to the United States in l976. Kobe Beef America was born in Redmond, Oregon to a fourth generation beef producer, R.L. Freeborn. Others followed with the idea and Kobe beef is available in the U.S. from U.S. producers.

So knowing there is a market for Kobe beef so close by, I began mentally trying to put the local ranchers to work raising it. The more I thought about it the funnier the vision became.

I don’t think they sell sake down at the convenience store on the corner but they do offer plenty of beer there. Most the local cowboys have already established routine pathways to the part of the cooler that houses their brand of choice.

Thinking the locals would want to start small to try the program, a thirty-pack and steer could be the whole program.

Getting the average cowboy to share his cool can of “spring water” with a beef will be the first program hurdle. I’m absolutely positive massaging it with a six pack isn’t going to be a popular idea.

I foresee a problem in the counting while working. One for me and one for the steer. One for me, one for me and one more for me.

I’d say Kobe beef exporters from Nebraska, Oregon or wherever should not feel threatened any time soon by an upstart local producer.

Julie can be contacted for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net. She prefers her beef sober.

© Julie Carter 2005

I welcome submissions for this feature.

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

NTU Supports H.R. 1370, the Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act

On behalf of the 350,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write in strong support of your bill, H.R. 1370, the Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform (FLAIR) Act. This bill would require the federal government to undertake an inventory of all of its federal land holdings and more importantly, the bill stipulates that once the inventory is completed, the data will be used to improve federal land management and sell off federal lands where appropriate. Amazingly, since the federal government is unable to tell exactly how much land it owns, the federal government can only estimate its land holdings (approximately 670 million acres). Worse, the government is often unable to tell exactly what land it owns, how it is being used, and whether it is being used effectively. The sheer size of the federal government's land holdings makes the issue of land ownership incredibly important for taxpayers. Because it owns 86 percent of Nevada, nearly two-thirds of all land in Utah, and an estimated 51.9 percent of land throughout the West as a whole, federal management practices can have a tremendous impact not only on the economies of western states, but on the national economy as well. To ensure that the federal government is using the land it owns in the most cost-effective, taxpayer friendly manner possible, your important legislation requires the Secretary of the Interior to identify property that is no longer needed by the federal government and how much taxpayers would gain through its sale. In addition, the FLAIR Act requires the Secretary to use contracts with the private sector to the maximum extent possible, and it ensures that land owned for duplicative purposes be sold....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Climate Scientist Quits IPCC, Blasts Politicized 'Preconceived Agendas'

Citing a politicized agenda and misrepresentations of climate science, prominent climate scientist Chris Landsea on January 17 resigned his post as a participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Landsea's announcement is the second recent major embarrassment for global warming alarmists, whose "hockey stick" representation of world temperatures during the past millennium was recently exposed as being based on faulty data and misleading statistical methods. (See "Climate Alarmists Playing Shell Game with Data," page 9.) Landsea is one of the world's leading hurricane researchers, specializing in seasonal and climatic relationships of Atlantic tropical cyclones. He served as chair of the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) Committee on Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclones for the years 2000-2002. He was recipient of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Climate and Global Change for the period 1995-1996. In his resignation letter, Landsea documented how the IPCC had sanctioned a "misrepresentation" of hurricane research and issued "unfounded pronouncements" to the media that "subverted and compromised" the scientific assessment of the IPCC's hurricane researchers. According to Landsea, statements made by the IPCC to the media demonstrated "preconceived agendas" that are "scientifically unsound."

The text of Landsea's letter is reproduced below....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Behind the ANWR Scare Tactics

Despite failure of hard-core environmentalist organizations to diminish George W. Bush’s convincing re-election victory, their renewed attacks on the president are clear: to obstruct his second-term environmental agenda. Yet, with sky-rocketing oil prices likely driving gasoline pump prices to new highs, many Americans begin to question the credibility of the extreme green agenda. Consider the current attack on the Bush administration by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is using the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a 19.6-million-acre federal reserve, for its latest membership and fund-raising drive. Even before the U.S. Senate’s recent vote to support the Bush administration’s proposal to allow oil and natural gas production on a small portion of the refuge’s northernmost region, Hollywood icon and council board member Robert Redford signed on to lead the attack. In a mailing, Mr. Redford asserts, “President Bush is now claiming a mandate... to destroy” the Arctic refuge. The actor accuses the president and congressional leaders of turning “America’s greatest sanctuary for arctic wildlife into a vast polluted oil field” for the sake of “oil company profits.”....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Goodbye ANWR, Hello Nukes

I hope environmentalists have learned a lesson from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) vote. ANWR held up President George Bush's energy bill for three years. Conservatives claimed--correctly--that drilling wouldn't have the slightest impact on the 19-million-acre wilderness. As supporters have been pointing out for almost a decade, the entire drilling operation would occupy only 2,000 acres, about the size of Dulles Airport. But Democrats hung on anyway, calling ANWR the "crown jewels of America" and conjuring images of grimy oil derricks fouling pristine nature. Then, suddenly, drilling in the ANWR passed the Senate last month. Sure there was the usual parliamentary maneuvering but very little public protest from environmentalists. What happened?....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Keep Ethanol Out of The Energy Bill

Included in the pending energy bill are provisions requiring the use of ethanol in the gasoline supply. This proposed ethanol mandate would raise the cost of gasoline, running against the original purpose of the energy bill—to make energy more affordable. For that reason, the mandate should have no place in the energy bill. Ethanol, a corn-derived motor fuel additive, has long benefited from favorable tax treatment and federal regulations encouraging its use. But its sales have not grown quickly enough to satisfy the ethanol industry or its allies in Congress. A 5 billion gallon mandate was included in an earlier version of the energy bill that was narrowly defeated, on other grounds, in 2003. The House recently reintroduced its energy bill, with the 5 billion gallon mandate, while the Senate has two proposals in the works—for 6 billion and 8 billion gallons. Any of these targets could become part of the final version of the bill. The President has already signaled his support for increased ethanol use, citing both its domestic origin and benefits to the agricultural sector. While an ethanol mandate would benefit Midwestern corn farmers and ethanol producers, it would make gasoline more expensive for everyone. Indeed, the only reason ethanol needs federal help is that it is too expensive to compete on its own....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

7 Things You Didn't Know About PCRM

# PCRM is an animal rights group. Less than 5 percent of its members are actual physicians. The group's goals are to stop medical research that requires the use of animals, and to remove meat and dairy foods from our diet by demonizing them as “unhealthy.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has already steered more than $1.3 million to PCRM. Animal People News notes that PETA and PCRM are so closely connected that they should be considered “a single fundraising unit.”# When longtime PCRM spokesperson Dr. Jerry Vlasak addressed the “Animal Rights 2003” convention, he openly endorsed the murder of doctors who use animals in their research. “I don’t think you’d have to kill---assassinate---too many,” Vlasak told the assembled activists. “I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives.” # PCRM president Neal Barnard is not a nutritionist, a dietician, or a biochemist. He's a non-practicing psychiatrist who claims that cheese is “dairy crack” and “morphine on a cracker.” Barnard is also PETA's “medical advisor” and president of The PETA Foundation. # The American Medical Association (AMA) has called PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.”....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death

“Ideas and ideologies have consequences. Horrid ideas and ideologies have lethal consequences.” This is the central premise of Paul Driessen’s new book, Eco-Imperialism: Green Power · Black Death. The notion that environmental theories and values should take precedence over the value of human lives has had lethal consequences for millions of people in less developed countries – and the book documents these consequences in all their chilling detail. The methods of present day eco-imperialists consist of numerous fronts from which they press their case invisibly behind the scenes of public policy. Following several intertwined doctrines of social and environmental radicalism, they impose these doctrines as the standard to which all companies, governments and individuals are to expected to conform. These doctrines are not factual evaluations, but projections of desired outcomes based upon nebulous concepts, abstract responsibilities, faulty scientific criteria and fraudulent business models. What Paul Driessen documents in his book is that by fanatically seeking to impose their agenda upon the whole of society, especially in the developing world, eco-imperialists are directly responsible for advocating policies that literally result in the deaths of countless millions of poor and desperate people about the globe....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Radical Greens Further Threaten U.S. Coal Industry

Nine liberal state attorneys general filed a Clean Air Act lawsuit against the Bush Administration that, if successful, would threaten America's energy security and send manufacturing jobs overseas. Led by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the group is challenging the Bush Administration's market-based program to reduce mercury emissions from power plants, instead demanding a judge-imposed, command-and-control regulation that would force many Midwestern coal plants to shut down. The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the attorneys general of New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York and Vermont. With enthusiastic support from radical environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the group seeks to force individual coal plants to reduce mercury emissions 90 percent in 3 years, regardless of coal type or plant configuration--an impossible standard to meet with existing technologies. The only way to meet that standard, according to coal industry experts, is to shut down coal fired plants, which supply 52 percent of the nation's electricity....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Sierra Club Election Hijack Alert (Again)

Meet Christine Garcia, a "vegan animal-rights attorney" who could help Paul Watson turn the Sierra Club into an animal rights group that would dwarf even the gargantuan Humane Society of the United States. In addition to Watson's "Sea Shepherd" group, her candidacy has attracted the support of a radical California group named In Defense of Animals. Garcia set up a personal website less than two weeks ago to tell Sierra Club members that she "work[s] full-time doing environmental and public interest free speech advocacy." She neglected to mention her "Animal Law Office" or "Vegan Attorneys" websites -- where you can find her contradictory statement that she has "been doing 100% Animal Welfare related cases since August of 2001," and a list of her active caseload (consisting entirely of animal-rights matters). Garcia's statement to potential Sierra Club voters says that she is an "environmental attorney."....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Global Warming in a Politically Correct Climate: How Truth Became Controversial

Again and again, these events have occurred, and they're happening once more in the global warming issue, to which Mathiesen devotes the next 70 pages of his book. There's a lot of good science in there, and I learned quite a bit from the author. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of the way CO2 is absorbed by, and released from, the ocean, along with the fallacy of sampling air bubbles in 400,000-year-old ice and assuming that the air has remained inert and stable for that time span. According to Mathiesen, the environmental issues he discuses have had four things in common: 1. They were described as having been caused primarily by mankind. 2. They all led to an unhealthy confusion of politics and science. 3. Those most vociferously involved in the creation of the scares - advocacy groups, politicians, scientists, media, bureaucrats, lawyers and even industry - had a direct self-interest in promoting the mythologies. 4. Each calamity scenario contained a few grains of truth for plausibility, but woven around them was a web of emotional, misleading and scientifically incorrect fables, which ultimately became uncritically accepted elements of "common knowledge."....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

‘I HAVE A NIGHTMARE’

When environmentalists are writing tracts like “The Death of Environmentalism,” you know the movement is in deep trouble. That essay by two young environmentalists has been whirling around the Internet since last fall, provoking a civil war among tree-huggers for its assertion that “modern environmentalism, with all of its unexamined assumptions, outdated concepts and exhausted strategies, must die so that something new can live.” Sadly, the authors, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, are right. The U.S. environmental movement is unable to win on even its very top priorities, even though it has the advantage of mostly being right. Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be approved soon, and there’s been no progress whatsoever in the U.S. on what may be the single most important issue to Earth in the long run: climate change. The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that environmental groups are too often alarmists. They have an awful track record, so they’ve lost credibility with the public. Some do great work, but others can be the left’s equivalents of the neocons: brimming with moral clarity and ideological zeal, but empty of nuance. (Industry has also hyped risks with wildly exaggerated warnings that environmental protections will entail a terrible economic cost.) “The Death of Environmentalism” resonated with me. I was once an environmental groupie, and I still share the movement’s broad aims, but I’m now skeptical of the movement’s “I Have a Nightmare” speeches....

===

OPINION/COMMENTARY

PETA's School Raid Rolled Into Sushi

You would be forgiven for thinking that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) cares more about a school of fish than a school of children. Once again, the group is swimming upstream from common decency by trying to brainwash children with anti-fishing messages. This week PETA activists descended on a Florida middle school. "The only problem was," The Miami Herald reported yesterday, "the kids weren't buying it." Looking unfavorably upon a PETA activist clad in a giant fish costume, one student mustered his finest vocabulary, exclaiming: "What the hell is that? Get that out of here." Notwithstanding the merits (or lack thereof) of PETA's fish-charm offensive, finding people offended by PETA's tactics was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. One parent complained to the Herald: "These are middle school kids and parents should be notified if they are trying to influence anything on them." The school's principal said she wasn't informed about PETA's raid, and responded by calling the school police. She added: "It's against the law to solicit to minors." Finally, one eighth-grader told the stuffed swimmer: "I'll eat you ... You're nothing but sushi to me."....

===