NEWS ROUNDUP
Coyote bounty passed by House County boards may set coyote bounties under a bill passed by the House on Friday (May 13). Livestock ranchers testified at the Capitol that coyotes were killing their livestock. A Chippewa County sheep rancher told the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Game and Fish that he lost 116 lambs to coyote predation. Each lamb represented a $168 loss, explained Bob Padula, Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association President. Animal bounties were generally discarded nationwide during the 1960s, according to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official....
GRP easement aims at protecting prairie, working ranch Some 216 acres of prairie are now being held in perpetuity as native grassland, the result of an easement granted by the landowner to the federal government. It is the first such easement in Washington state. The acreage, a small part of the original homestead Ignatius Colvin first settled in 1865, will remain part of the family’s working cattle ranch. Present owner Fred Colvin, the great grandson of the founder, joined with his mother, Doris, in signing the easement. Gus Hughbanks, NRCS state conservationist for Washington, represented the federal government. According to Hughbanks, the Grassland Reserve Program is a voluntary effort offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance various forms of grassland, rangeland, pastures and shrub lands....
Senate panel moves ahead on bill to revise Measure 37 A bill that is intended to square the Measure 37 property rights law with Oregon's 30-year history of structured land-use planning was passed by a Senate panel on Tuesday. The bill sets out what type of land is eligible under Measure 37, establishes a compensation fund and develops a claims process. Local governments have been dealing with the claims on their own since they started rolling in last December. The Senate Environment and Land Use Committee passed the bill 3-2 and it will head to the full Senate for a vote as early as Monday. Supporters say it provides clarity for Measure 37 — and will give flexibility to the state's land-use planning system. Passed by 61 percent of the voters in November, Measure 37 requires governments to either pay property owners compensation or waive land-use laws for those whose property has been devalued by laws enacted after they purchased the land....
Montana prepares to sell off land under pilot program The sprawling Eastern Montana ranch holdings of Coffee Cattle Co. have long been dotted with thousands of acres of state land, but now the family-owned business has a chance to own those pieces of pasture. The Miles City-area ranch is among about a dozen lessees of state grazing land taking advantage of a new program that allows government to sell select parcels to stockpile money for buying replacement land offering more public access to state property. The land-banking program, a product of the 2003 Legislature and still in its infancy, already has about 115,000 acres suggested for sale. Bill Coffee, vice president of Coffee Cattle, said his family wants to buy the 3,200 acres of leased state land scattered among the ranch property to end the uncertainty that occurs every 10 years when the leases come up for renewal....
Cattle, critters thrive on parkland Grazing on national seashore is not just for picnickers and daydreaming but an everyday existence for cattle that call Point Reyes National Seashore home. A tour, sponsored by California Grazing Lands Coalition, was offered to grassland ecologists, rangeland management specialists, open space managers, ranchers, policy makers and wildlife experts. The tour was an opportunity to learn first-hand how grazing is used on public lands to achieve both livestock and biodiversity goals and how introduced grazing is enhancing “listed” species. It also showcased how the public and land managers are working together to maintain Bay area grasslands for multiple uses, and to see how conservation practices work....
Colorado County lifts deed restrictions on rural land The two new Mesa County commissioners took steps to make good on a campaign promise Monday, eliminating a damper on landowners’ development rights. Commissioners Craig Meis and Janet Rowland, along with commission Chairman Tillie Bishop, rolled back 10-year development-halting deed restrictions that were placed by the county on rural lands after approval of major subdivisions with density bonuses. Meis and Rowland campaigned for their posts last year saying that they wanted the county to resolve disputes on how to treat development proposals on certain rural lands zoned as agricultural, forested or in transition....
Parties discuss wolf payments When wolves kill livestock in Montana, the owners should be reimbursed. That's the general agreement of a group of about 30 government workers, ranchers, environmentalists and others who met four times in Helena this spring. The question now is how to make it work. "None of us have really been here before, so we're all learning together," said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Aside from the need for reimbursement for livestock losses, the group is also pushing nonlethal preventive measures to decrease conflicts between wolves and livestock. The work is part of Montana's effort to write the next chapter in the return of the wolf to the northern Rocky Mountains....
New salamander identified under canopy of Siskiyous A new species of salamander has been identified in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California, demonstrating the biological richness of the region, researchers say. The Scott Bar salamander, classified as Plethodon asupak, had been considered to be a member of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander species, or Plethodon stormi, until genetic analysis showed a distinct evolutionary line, said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, Ore. "Everyone talks about how biologically rich the tropics are, but we are still discovering species right here in the Klamath-Siskiyou," Vaile said. The word "asupak" is the Shasta Indian name for Scott Bar, an area near the confluence of the Scott and Klamath rivers....
Endangered Species Act failed, report says The Endangered Species Act has failed to help most threatened and endangered species, according to a report released Tuesday by a Republican lawmaker who has made rewriting the law a top priority. Environmentalists and Democrats quickly criticized the report prepared for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, as politically motivated and misleading. The report by the panel's oversight and investigations staff doesn't include independent investigations, but draws on existing federal agency data to highlight the record of the landmark 1973 law. Among its findings: • Only 10 of nearly 1,300 domestic species of plants and animals listed under the act have recovered. • Of the listed species, 77 percent have met 0 percent to 25 percent of the Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery objectives for them. Only 2 percent have met 76 percent to 100 percent of recovery objectives. • The recovery status of 60 percent of listed species is classified as either "uncertain" or "declining," while 30 percent of species are stable and 6 percent are improving. Of the listed species, 3 percent — 35 in all — are classified as possibly extinct....go here(pdf) to view the report....
World-renowned scientists caution senate on endangered species protection Led by Harvard University's E.O. Wilson, ten prominent scientists in biology and other environmental fields today called on the U.S. Senate to strengthen the Endangered Species Act, rather than heed industry calls to weaken it, in order to help stem a worldwide mass extinction crisis. Today's letter stands in stark contrast to a report by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo opposing the Act, noting instead the law's success as an "alarm system" and bulwark against the finality of extinction. Read the letter. "The Endangered Species Act represents our nation's most determined effort to take responsibility for preserving its precious biological diversity. By offering strict federal protections to the species that are included on the list, the government has drawn a line which it will not allow human pressures to cross over. That line is extinction," the letter reads. "In both its scope and its irreversibility, extinction is the most frightening, most conclusive word in our language. When a species has been declared extinct, not only have all its individuals died, but the possibility of any such individuals ever existing again has been foreclosed. The variety of life with which we share the earth is sadly in rapid decline. Life is grounded in biological diversity, and the fate of this diversity, which created and sustains us, is now in our hands."....go here(pdf) to see the letter....
U.S. fish and wildlife service fails to protect mexican garter snake The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) over their failure to list the Mexican garter snake as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in response to a December 15, 2003 petition filed by the group. The species is an aquatic garter snake with a range-wide distribution in Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and Mexico. It is one of hundreds of native riparian species that are threatened by the destruction and degradation of rivers and streams in the Southwest. The Mexican garter snake has been extirpated from most of its U.S. range, including the Colorado, Gila, and much of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. The decline of the Mexican garter snake is closely linked to the deteriorating quality of streamside habitats and the disappearance of native frogs and native fishes. “Widespread degradation of southwest rivers and introduction of dozens of exotic species necessitates protection of the Mexican garter snake under the ESA,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. Populations of the Mexican garter snake are severely fragmented and isolated due to loss and destruction of suitable habitat, which consists of riparian areas with permanent water, streamside vegetation for cover, and native prey species. Livestock grazing, urbanization, pollution, loss of native prey species, and exotic species have resulted in the loss of greater than 90% of the Southwest’s riparian habitat and the listing of 30 species under the ESA. “Southwest rivers have been under massive assault for over a century,” states Greenwald. “To protect southwest riparian species, livestock must be removed from all southwest rivers and streams on public lands, instream flows must be established, and further introduction of non-native species must be prohibited.”....
U.S. fish and wildlife fails to protect 286 threatened and endangered species The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released last week a new “candidate notice of review,” designating 286 species as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. In the review, FWS acknowledges that these species warrant protection, but argues that such protection is precluded by other actions to protect species. Based on an analysis of the list and past lists, the Center for Biological Diversity has determined that most of these species have been waiting for years to receive protection and that the Bush Administration has made little progress towards providing protection to these species. Candidate designation doesn’t provide any protection to species. Of the 286 species currently recognized as candidates, 265 (93%) have been waiting for protection for five or more years, 224 (78%) have been waiting 10 or more years, 178 (62%) have been waiting 15 or more years, 117 (41%) have been waiting 20 or more years, and 73 (26%) have been waiting 25 or more years. On average, these species have been waiting for protection for over 17 years. Delays in protection have real consequences with at least 27 species having gone extinct after designation as a candidate.....go here(pdf) to see the candidate notice of review....
Feds rejected state's earlier request Gov. Dave Freudenthal's request for removal of wolves from lambing grounds marks the second occasion in recent months in which state officials have asked the federal wildlife agency take action to control wolves. In January, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department complained about wolves displacing elk off five western Wyoming elk feedgrounds and onto private property. The state agency asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to relocate or remove the Daniel wolf pack, but Fish and Wildlife declined to take action at that time, stating: "We are not prepared to routinely relocate wolves found on or near the numerous elk feeding grounds in the state..." In his recent letter, Freudenthal noted that "in the absence of state-sanctioned wolf management, the people of the state of Wyoming must recurrently turn to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for day-to-day management of the species, including conflict mitigation."....
Proposal to reclassifying Gila trout is questioned A proposal to reclassify the Gila trout as threatened instead of endangered has drawn questions from a conservation group.
The chairman of Trout Unlimited in New Mexico, Bill Schudlich, says the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service hasn't met its own recovery plan for the fish. The agency reviewed its recovery plan in 2003. The plan lists three criteria that need to be met before the species is reclassified. Schudlich says the agency admits in the document that it didn't meet two of the three criteria. The Gila trout was listed as endangered in 1967....
Horse advocates seek halt to roundups Wild horse protection advocates urged the Bureau of Land Management Tuesday to suspend all roundups of the mustangs in Nevada until Congress makes it illegal again to sell the older, excess, unwanted ones for slaughter. But BLM officials said halting plans to gather as many as 4,000 mustangs from the Nevada range in the coming year would cripple a long-term effort that's within a year of bringing horse numbers down to sustainable levels. The horse advocates are backing an effort in Congress to reinstate a provision of a 1971 law that made it illegal to sell wild horses rounded up on federal land for slaughter....
Online database allows pesticide users to identify wildlife habitat An online database announced Tuesday is replacing the cumbersome paper guides that pesticide applicators must consult to find out if they're within the habitat of protected plants or animals, officials with California's Department of Pesticide Regulation announced. The new tool lets applicators -- and anyone who's interested -- find out with a few clicks of the mouse what endangered, rare or protected species live in an area, and what special precautions they are required to take. "This will make it easier for people to do right by the environment," said DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam. "It also minimizes the excuses people have for not complying."....go here to see the new search tool....
Time running out on a legend On the side of a steep mountain in the Superstition Wilderness, tucked beneath a dense canopy of trees, several men have spent eight months excavating what they hope is an old Mexican mine. These modern-day treasure seekers are not the first to look for gold or silver in the land of the Lost Dutchman Mine, but they likely are the last. And they are racing against time. A rarely granted Treasure Trove permit that allows them to dig in the wilderness east of the Valley expires at the end of this month. "If we find what we're looking for, I don't think the Forest Service would pull the permit. It'd be insanity," said Ron Feldman, who with fellow members of Historic Exploration And Treasures obtained the right to excavate. "If we don't find what we're looking for, it will end."....
Reward offered in search for 'Bart' fire culprit A $5,000 reward was offered Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of whoever started the "Bart" fire, which has swept through 11,500 acres of Sonoran Desert 10 miles northeast of Scottsdale. Roads to both Bartlett and Horseshoe lakes are expected to remain closed until the blaze is contained, possibly by Friday, fire officials said. The fire broke out at 5 p.m. Sunday north of Bartlett Dam Road, mere minutes after crews contained the 1,920-acre "St. Clair" fire to the east. Officials say the St. Clair blaze was sparked by a Jeep Cherokee and are investigating the origins of both fires....
Picuris Pueblo reclaims clay site Capping years of effort, Picuris Pueblo has regained the traditional area where its people gather clay for making pottery. The pueblo announced Monday that it has acquired the mica mine on U.S. Hill from Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals Inc., an Ohio mining company. The Pueblo people had gathered micaceous clay at the site for centuries before mining operations began. Details of the acquisition weren’t released in a joint news release from the pueblo and the company. Oglebay Norton, which has other mineral interests around the country and operates a shipping line in the Great Lakes, filed for federal bankruptcy protection last year. In the news release, Picuris Gov. Richard Mermejo said the recovery of the clay-gathering site was of tremendous cultural significance to the pueblo and its remaining potters....
Water rights dispute settled out of court A talc mine dropped its lawsuit and restraining order Monday that aimed to force a Madison Valley rancher to quit flowing irrigation water through its pond. Luzenac America Inc., which operates the mine in the central Madison Valley, also agreed to pay the attorney's fees for Eugene Walsh, a rancher who owns land next to the mine. "The Walshes understandably feel abused by the process, but reasonably satisfied with the outcome," said Bill Hritsco, a Dillon attorney representing Walsh. "(Luzenac) agreed to leave Mr. Walsh alone." Luzenac's Montana Operations Director Pat Downey said in a telephone interview that the company was glad to settle the case and move on with improving its stormwater control system....
Plan to drain tainted farm water triggers worries A federal plan to drain mineral-laden irrigation water from farms includes a proposal similar to one that caused an environmental disaster more than two decades ago, leading to bird deformities and deaths. Environmentalists fear that leaving the tainted water to accumulate in evaporation ponds, even if it's treated to reduce most of the toxic minerals, could lead to problems similar to what happened in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s, when entire colonies of birds died and many were born with missing limbs. But the federal officials who run the Central Valley Project, a massive irrigation complex that makes farming possible in the arid western half of the Central Valley, remain under court order to find a way to dispose of the tainted water. And forming new evaporation ponds is one of several options outlined in a draft environmental impact report to be released this month by the Bureau of Reclamation. Another option in the draft report is taking poorly drained land out of farming, but that would rob some farmers of their livelihoods and is strongly opposed by the agriculture industry....
Farm Bureau prevails in court ruling on waiver A Sacramento County Superior Court judge last week agreed with California Farm Bureau Federation's position that the State Water Resources Control Board and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) abused their discretion and overstepped their bounds in adopting a waiver for farm-water discharges that violated private property and privacy rights. In addition, the court said the RWQCB must clarify the applicability of the waiver as to natural water courses, constructed drains, or waterways dominated by return flows from irrigated agriculture. The court granted Farm Bureau's petition for writ of mandate and directed the RWQCB to correct the flaws in its regulations within 120 days. The court also granted Farm Bureau the right to file a motion to recover attorneys' fees for having to bring the state to court to settle these matters. "Despite the successful outcome of this litigation, Farm Bureau still believes that self-determined, incentive-based natural resource programs are the best approach to protecting the environment," said Brenda Jahns Southwick, managing counsel for the CFBF Natural Resources and Environmental Division....
US beef industry needs Canadian cattle: USDA head The U.S. beef industry will be permanently hurt if imports of young Canadian cattle do not soon resume because Canada is restructuring its industry and expanding, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Tuesday. "The market is restructuring before our eyes. American producers and processors will be left out in the cold if the border is not re-opened soon," Johanns told reporters. "My concern is that as more and more processing moves to Canada, production follows."....
Trade pact roadblock: Idaho sugar beets U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is traveling the West, stumping for President Bush's free-trade agreement with Central American and Caribbean nations. He's run into a roadblock: Idaho sugar beets. While growers and producers of other agricultural products, including potatoes, wheat, fruit and beef, back the plan, farmers of the bulbous roots are leading a charge to ditch the agreement that Bush lauds as a way of promoting democracy in Latin America and boosting U.S. security by spreading prosperity. They're demanding that the Central American Free Trade Agreement - signed by Bush last May, but still in need of congressional approval - be stripped of provisions allowing 107,000 metric tons of sugar, or about 1 percent of total domestic sugar consumption, to be imported into the U.S....
Editorial: CAFTA would be harvest for Panhandle agriculture NAFTA's aim was to open up trade corridors among the United States, Mexico and Canada. CAFTA could open up potentially huge new markets for agricultural commodities such as beef, corn, cotton and dairy - all of which are produced in abundance throughout the Panhandle. The Texas Farm Bureau has signed on big time to CAFTA, calling it "close to being a no-brainer." Farm Bureau figures show that Texas' farm cash receipts totaled $15.3 billion in 2003, with about 25 percent of all farm exports - estimated at $3.4 billion - going into foreign markets. CAFTA provisions include a 30-percent reduction in beef tariffs, providing a huge new market for the area's enormous fed beef industry....
USTR's Allgeier Defends WTO as House Moves to Vote on Withdrawal A top U.S. trade official has defended continued U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), while members of a congressional panel have predicted that Congress would reject a bill requiring U.S. withdrawal from the WTO. At a May 17 hearing in the House of Representatives, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier testified that U.S. leadership in the global trading system is critical for continuing U.S. prosperity and securing world stability. At issue was a bill submitted by WTO opponents calling for U.S. withdrawal from WTO membership. Under the 1994 law approving U.S. participation in the then just-forming trade organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) must report to Congress once every five years a detailed analysis of U.S. participation’s costs and benefits. The Bush administration submitted its 2005 report March 1. After submission of such a report any member of Congress is allowed to introduce a bill for WTO withdrawal and leaders of Congress must allow a vote on the bill to occur. In the first such vote in 2000, the House rejected a withdrawal resolution 363-56. Supporters of withdrawal argue that WTO membership amounts to a surrender of U.S. sovereignty to an international organization....
Farm Bureau Backs WTO Oversight of Trade U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization is vital to the economic development of agriculture, and successful WTO Doha Round agricultural negotiations are the best way to expand foreign marketing of U.S. agricultural products, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In testimony to the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, Minnesota Farm Bureau President Al Christopherson said U.S. agriculture's best opportunity to address critical trade issues is through the multilateral process. Christopherson is an AFBF board and executive committee member and presented AFBF’s perspective to the subcommittee. “U.S. membership in the WTO provides a trading system based on rules that helps maintain stable markets for our exports,” he said. “With the production of one-third of U.S. cropland destined for foreign markets, U.S. agriculture is strongly export-dependent. The 148-member World Trade Organization operates to provide a stable environment for continued growth in markets for America’s farmers and ranchers” Christopherson said....
COOL styled as packers v. producers Bills to delete mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat animals hit Congress last week, following up on the budgetary knock-out that delayed an October 2004 adoption of most provisions of the three-year-old law. Trade associations followed with their own spins, including several blasts characterizing the latest bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as tailor-made to support the packing industry. Mandatory COOL is part of the 2002 farm bill law. Quietly in early April, USDA started mandatory labeling for fresh fish and shellfish. Under the law, a grocer who mislabels country of origin is subject to up to $10,000 civil penalties. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, led an effort widely supported in Congress, to strip money for implementing fresh produce and meat provisions from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget. There are 34 co-sponsors to H.R. 2068, which requires implementation of a voluntary COOL program in the meat industry....
Subcommittee votes to delay meat labeling again Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., blasted a House subcommittee's approval late Monday night of a spending bill that includes another delay for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat and meat products. Mandatory labeling, originally intended to go into effect in 2004, was delayed last year to 2006. The new COOL provision approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture would prevent the secretary of agriculture from spending any money in fiscal year 2006 to implement the food labeling rule that was originally signed into law as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. The language would delay the start of any preparation for COOL until October 2006, according to Herseth spokesman Russ Levsen. "It would certainly be many months to ramp up a system like that, in effect, delaying implementation until sometime in 2007."....
Certified beef to debut soon The certified beef program approved by the South Dakota Legislature this year is a great idea, said some beef producers selling cattle in Aberdeen on Monday. "It's the coming thing," said Jerome Schaefers of Miller. "We'd be foolish not to." But a good idea is worthless unless it becomes reality, several added. "I hope it's not just political propaganda, and that something actually happens," said cattle rancher Steve Swanson of Clark. And something is, said Mark Johnston, press secretary for Gov. Mike Rounds. An update on the program, which Rounds promoted to the Legislature, is scheduled to be released later this week, Johnston said Monday. He's cautiously optimistic that South Dakota Certified Beef will be available to consumers in a month to six weeks....
Cattle on Computers A fast-talking auctioneer in a cowboy hat closely watches his audience — mostly men in boots, jeans and coveralls — to catch subtle gestures that are bids on the cattle circling a small sale ring that separates wooden bleachers from the sale staff’s elevated desk. Buyers and sellers may break away over the noon hour to get a hamburger basket or hot beef sandwich at the sale barn cafe. But if they want to bid on a specific lot of consigned cattle or watch their cattle sell, they must be in the bleachers when the auctioneer makes his call....
Stage stop in QC preserved The once-thriving rest area and shipping center known as the Desert Wells Stage Stop just outside Queen Creek will forever be memorialized. Earlier this year, developers in the area threatened to tear down the 90-year-old adobe hut to make room for future housing subdivisions, but the San Tan Historical Society's efforts to preserve the stage stop have paid off. The town of Queen Creek recently acquired 32 acres surrounding the historical site, located near Combs and Schnepf roads, for the purpose of building a much-needed retention basin for Sonoqui Wash. Believed to have been built in the early 1900s, the one-room stage stop meant salvation for ranchers moving across the desert from Phoenix to the Florence Highway. Years of neglect have left the building covered with graffiti and littered with debris and garbage. But the stage stop qualifies as historically significant, Mr. Salge said....
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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Old, New West clash on range It's no surprise then, that the county's latest hero is Kit Laney, a rebel rancher who has spent more than a decade fighting federal managers over his right to graze cattle on national forest land. The fact that Laney violated a federal court order, was found guilty of assaulting a Forest Service employee and served five months in federal prison has, if anything, only burnished his reputation. In this part of New Mexico, where the villains' hats are green, not black, Laney's case is a morality tale about how a New West is encroaching upon an old one. "Not all of us agree with everything he did, but we all admire him," said Laura Schneberger, a New Mexico rancher and one of Laney's neighbors. "So many of us who have been in his position have just walked away. He sent a message and got people to pay attention," she said. Laney's case has made few headlines outside the small towns in southern New Mexico, but for ranchers across the West, it has struck a chord. Michael Martin Murphey, the country-western star, has written a song about Laney that will be featured on his next recording, "Storm Over the Rangelands," meant to portray an industry in trouble because of overregulation....
Cow Mutilation Investigator Says Truth Is Out There Human researchers, not Martians, likely mysteriously mutilated cattle in the Southwest during the 1970s and 1980s. That's what a retired police officer tells Action 7 News. He would like to say more, but he says the topic is too "sensitive." "It's solved. I know who did it," said Gabe Valdez, a retired New Mexico State Police officer. "I don't want to go on too much, because it's so sensitive – the research that we're doing." "It's humans," he said, "not UFOs or Satanic groups or people from Mars – it was humans," Valdez said. "It's taken me 30 years to figure it out," Valdez said. "It has been solved as far as I'm concerned." Valdez said he believes researchers carried out the acts – using helicopters. He won't offer any clues as to who specifically killed the cattle....
Desert blooms This spring, it's a dislocating experience to climb one of the big rises of Interstate 70 overlooking the vast desert badlands of western Colorado and eastern Utah. They aren't there. A brilliant green sheen covers what's usually an endless expanse of perpetually parched tan and gray earth. "I've been looking for a spring like this for 75 years," said Waldo Wilcox, a Book Cliffs rancher who just retired to Green River. "It's never been this green. It's the prettiest I've ever seen."....
Using Cattle for Noxious Weed Control For many years sheep and goats have been used to control noxious weeds in various parts of the West; but is it possible to train cattle to eat noxious weeds without starving them to do so? Dr. Frederick D. Provenza, P.I., at Utah State University (USU) has been researching this possibility for the past 20 years in a livestock behavior modification program. Now, a field test at Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Mont., has piqued the curiosity of a number of ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley. USU project coordinator, Kathy Voth, says research and successful demonstrations in other areas indicate that behavior of livestock can be effectively modified and managed as an economical alternative to chemicals to enhance and maintain biodiversity in rangelands, restore pastures dominated by invasive plants, and improve wildlife habitat....
Charting vegetation with satellite-based system will help firefighters determine area's risk That computer will show with pinpoint accuracy what vegetation and fuel loads the Hotshots and hand crews will find at the fire. And if it's right, the chief can thank a bunch of volunteers who were out here last week filling in some gaps for the satellite-based system. It's called LANDFIRE — a $40 million effort by six federal agencies to figure out the fire risk for every inch of the country and map it. California and the West should be mapped by 2006, the rest of the country by 2009. Under the program, aerial maps covering most of the country will be divided into pixels, or dots, and coded. Each pixel represents a different land type, Jeske said: oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, old-growth forest and so on. And that's where the volunteer crew comes in. They are spending the summer verifying the conditions in individual pixels across the West. The information gets fed into a computer, and the program assigns the same information to similar pixels across the United States. "We're filling in the gaps," said Ron Hassel, LANDFIRE crew director for the Student Conservation Association, which was walking grass-covered hills of Mount Diablo State Park last week. A New Hampshire-based group that focuses on career and youth development through conservation, the SCA has teams working throughout the West to "ground truth" the federal program....
U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests The final meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, now under way, could result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreement to continue negotiations. One member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. forum is international environmental policy expert Matthew Auer, who remains guardedly optimistic that the two-week negotiation will conclude with one or more concrete outcomes, such as a fund to help international organizations and countries protect the world's forests. The forum is scheduled to meet May 16 to 27 at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan. The U.N. Forum on Forests was created by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000. For this key, current meeting, members of the forum were asked to collect information on the state of the world's forests, to review the effectiveness of the current legally non-binding arrangement and, ultimately, to bolster international commitments to sustainable forest management....
Airtanker pilots sound rare warning about fleet From the father of aerial firefighting to pilots who recently flew through tornadoes of fiery debris in Southern California, aviators are saying the U.S. firefighting fleet is undergoing fundamental, long-term changes that may cost extra lives and homes especially in this populous state. The federal agencies' shift from troubled, aging big airtankers toward more helicopters and small, single-engine planes rather than finding new large airtankers is based on faulty fiscal conclusions and flawed accident statistics, according to several pilots breaking a 50-year-old code of silence in the wake of news reports. The Aerial Firefighting Industry Association, which represents 15 firms that supply planes, maintenance and pilots to government agencies, also is touting a decade-old National Air Tanker Study that showed an overwhelming benefit-to-cost ratio for big airtankers and envisioned a fleet of more than 40 modern aircraft by now....
Arctic oil search moves to new turf, new controversies One is a long-protected portion of Arctic Alaska where a vast freshwater lake is edged by marshes that draw migrating birds from as far as Mexico and Russia. The other is a national wildlife refuge straddling the Arctic Circle, a watery haven for moose, furry mammals, and waterfowl. But underneath both lie what may be some of the largest untapped pools of onshore oil and natural gas in the US. As a result, the two sites represent one of the next crucial frontiers in the nation's expanding energy wars. In many respects, the fight quietly emerging over the two areas - Teshekpuk Lake and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge - parallels the protracted battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It is energy versus the environment, with elements of caribou and molting birds and native American culture mixed in....
Feedground phaseout proposal takes shape A proposal to phase out some of the state's elk feedgrounds is gaining strength through more details and more answers. But state officials still say there are too many unanswered questions, and critics say the pilot project is too much of a gamble for the state's wildlife. At issue is a proposal to phase out the three feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre River drainage east of Jackson Hole. These feedgrounds, said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other supporters, are the most logical because there is winter range in the area for elk and more can be done to enhance that and additional habitat. What's more, a phaseout of these feedgrounds will serve the state, as it examines another management tool to eradicate brucellosis in wildlife and livestock, supporters say. They say the phaseout would work in concert with a pilot project calling for the capture and testing of elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale. Elk testing positive for brucellosis will be killed. The combination of the two projects would allow the state to examine two different approaches and determine their effectiveness, they say....
Federal agency will try to shield plants in path of St. George growth The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to propose protecting critical habitat for two endangered plants that grow in southern Utah - including habitat in the path of a proposed freeway junction - as part of a legal settlement with a pair of environmental groups. The Center for Biological Diversity and Utah Native Plant Society sued the federal agency in September, demanding it designate critical habitat to protect the Holmgren milkvetch and Shivwits milkvetch, which grow almost exclusively near St. George. Tony Frates, a rare-plant coordinator with the Utah Native Plant Society, said both wildflowers are severely threatened by increasing development....
Arizona's roads being redesigned to protect wildlife Transportation officials are considering redesigning some of Arizona's roads to make them more wildlife-friendly. The changes are being aimed not just at preventing roadkills but at preserving connections for wild animals crossing roads from one large block of desert to another. Four major state highways in southern Arizona could be in line for new, wildlife-friendly designs in the next few years because of a grant just obtained by a Flagstaff researcher. That study will focus on how to make those and other roads in the state more hospitable to birds and mammals. Meanwhile, as much as $10 million could be spent over the next 20 years on making roads safer for wildlife under a plan that appears to be headed to the May 2006 ballot....
Kane sign deadline comes, goes The deadline set by the Bureau of Land Management for Kane County to remove its road signs from BLM-administered lands came and went on Monday. In response, BLM State Director Sally Wisely sent a letter to the Interior Department's regional solicitor requesting that it take legal action to compel Kane County to remove the signs and put back any BLM signs that it has taken out. Kane County began posting signs in February designating off-highway-vehicle (OHV) routes across BLM-administered land, and in March designated a new route through an area northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park that is being studied for potential wilderness designation. Most recently, the county posted an estimated 60 to 80 signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Hole in the Rock Road and its vicinity, directing OHV users into areas the BLM had previously closed to off-road use....
Experimental releases scheduled to aid fish Flaming Gorge Dam will be releasing high flows of water into the Green River in the next few weeks to scour sediment below the dam and improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species. The federal Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program has been working to save native fish in the region. Fish like the Colorado pike-minnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub are under stress from dams, diversions and barriers, the project said. Also contributing to their decline are the introduction of nonnative competitors, plus fishing, parasites and pollutants, it said. Scientists hope the releases will flood some spots to increase fish habitat....
Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules Unsettled by a series of dry winters in this normally wet city, Mayor Greg Nickels has begun a nationwide effort to do something the Bush administration will not: carry out the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Mr. Nickels, a Democrat, says 131 other likeminded mayors have joined a bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level, in an implicit rejection of the administration's policy. The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012....
Atmosphere May Cleanse Itself Better than Previously Thought A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth's atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought. Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thought to produce substances that "scrub" the air of smog. This group of chemicals, after absorbing energy from sunlight, is able to break down smog and other pollutants into far less harmful components. While many such chemicals have long been known to behave in this way - producing natural air cleaners called OH radicals - the chemicals the team studied have for the first time been observed to produce air-scrubbing OH radicals at low ultraviolet wavelengths. This observation has eluded science primarily because photochemistry at these wavelengths has been difficult to study....
It's All Trew: Right lubrication greases squeakiest of wheels Many classic Old West tales are similar in plot but different in location. The following tale has been told many times with the same plot but featuring different ranches, different characters and different tunes. The original story is probably true, but where it happened is anybody's guess. Our version here supposedly happened on the famed XIT Ranch. Among the varied backgrounds of early-day frontier settlers were many gifted musicians. Their talents were much appreciated by entertainment-starved neighbors. Another level of talent, prominent among cowboys and scattered settlers, featured those who ordered both musical instruments and directions of how to play from a catalog or pulp magazine advertisement....
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Old, New West clash on range It's no surprise then, that the county's latest hero is Kit Laney, a rebel rancher who has spent more than a decade fighting federal managers over his right to graze cattle on national forest land. The fact that Laney violated a federal court order, was found guilty of assaulting a Forest Service employee and served five months in federal prison has, if anything, only burnished his reputation. In this part of New Mexico, where the villains' hats are green, not black, Laney's case is a morality tale about how a New West is encroaching upon an old one. "Not all of us agree with everything he did, but we all admire him," said Laura Schneberger, a New Mexico rancher and one of Laney's neighbors. "So many of us who have been in his position have just walked away. He sent a message and got people to pay attention," she said. Laney's case has made few headlines outside the small towns in southern New Mexico, but for ranchers across the West, it has struck a chord. Michael Martin Murphey, the country-western star, has written a song about Laney that will be featured on his next recording, "Storm Over the Rangelands," meant to portray an industry in trouble because of overregulation....
Cow Mutilation Investigator Says Truth Is Out There Human researchers, not Martians, likely mysteriously mutilated cattle in the Southwest during the 1970s and 1980s. That's what a retired police officer tells Action 7 News. He would like to say more, but he says the topic is too "sensitive." "It's solved. I know who did it," said Gabe Valdez, a retired New Mexico State Police officer. "I don't want to go on too much, because it's so sensitive – the research that we're doing." "It's humans," he said, "not UFOs or Satanic groups or people from Mars – it was humans," Valdez said. "It's taken me 30 years to figure it out," Valdez said. "It has been solved as far as I'm concerned." Valdez said he believes researchers carried out the acts – using helicopters. He won't offer any clues as to who specifically killed the cattle....
Desert blooms This spring, it's a dislocating experience to climb one of the big rises of Interstate 70 overlooking the vast desert badlands of western Colorado and eastern Utah. They aren't there. A brilliant green sheen covers what's usually an endless expanse of perpetually parched tan and gray earth. "I've been looking for a spring like this for 75 years," said Waldo Wilcox, a Book Cliffs rancher who just retired to Green River. "It's never been this green. It's the prettiest I've ever seen."....
Using Cattle for Noxious Weed Control For many years sheep and goats have been used to control noxious weeds in various parts of the West; but is it possible to train cattle to eat noxious weeds without starving them to do so? Dr. Frederick D. Provenza, P.I., at Utah State University (USU) has been researching this possibility for the past 20 years in a livestock behavior modification program. Now, a field test at Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Mont., has piqued the curiosity of a number of ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley. USU project coordinator, Kathy Voth, says research and successful demonstrations in other areas indicate that behavior of livestock can be effectively modified and managed as an economical alternative to chemicals to enhance and maintain biodiversity in rangelands, restore pastures dominated by invasive plants, and improve wildlife habitat....
Charting vegetation with satellite-based system will help firefighters determine area's risk That computer will show with pinpoint accuracy what vegetation and fuel loads the Hotshots and hand crews will find at the fire. And if it's right, the chief can thank a bunch of volunteers who were out here last week filling in some gaps for the satellite-based system. It's called LANDFIRE — a $40 million effort by six federal agencies to figure out the fire risk for every inch of the country and map it. California and the West should be mapped by 2006, the rest of the country by 2009. Under the program, aerial maps covering most of the country will be divided into pixels, or dots, and coded. Each pixel represents a different land type, Jeske said: oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, old-growth forest and so on. And that's where the volunteer crew comes in. They are spending the summer verifying the conditions in individual pixels across the West. The information gets fed into a computer, and the program assigns the same information to similar pixels across the United States. "We're filling in the gaps," said Ron Hassel, LANDFIRE crew director for the Student Conservation Association, which was walking grass-covered hills of Mount Diablo State Park last week. A New Hampshire-based group that focuses on career and youth development through conservation, the SCA has teams working throughout the West to "ground truth" the federal program....
U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests The final meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, now under way, could result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreement to continue negotiations. One member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. forum is international environmental policy expert Matthew Auer, who remains guardedly optimistic that the two-week negotiation will conclude with one or more concrete outcomes, such as a fund to help international organizations and countries protect the world's forests. The forum is scheduled to meet May 16 to 27 at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan. The U.N. Forum on Forests was created by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000. For this key, current meeting, members of the forum were asked to collect information on the state of the world's forests, to review the effectiveness of the current legally non-binding arrangement and, ultimately, to bolster international commitments to sustainable forest management....
Airtanker pilots sound rare warning about fleet From the father of aerial firefighting to pilots who recently flew through tornadoes of fiery debris in Southern California, aviators are saying the U.S. firefighting fleet is undergoing fundamental, long-term changes that may cost extra lives and homes especially in this populous state. The federal agencies' shift from troubled, aging big airtankers toward more helicopters and small, single-engine planes rather than finding new large airtankers is based on faulty fiscal conclusions and flawed accident statistics, according to several pilots breaking a 50-year-old code of silence in the wake of news reports. The Aerial Firefighting Industry Association, which represents 15 firms that supply planes, maintenance and pilots to government agencies, also is touting a decade-old National Air Tanker Study that showed an overwhelming benefit-to-cost ratio for big airtankers and envisioned a fleet of more than 40 modern aircraft by now....
Arctic oil search moves to new turf, new controversies One is a long-protected portion of Arctic Alaska where a vast freshwater lake is edged by marshes that draw migrating birds from as far as Mexico and Russia. The other is a national wildlife refuge straddling the Arctic Circle, a watery haven for moose, furry mammals, and waterfowl. But underneath both lie what may be some of the largest untapped pools of onshore oil and natural gas in the US. As a result, the two sites represent one of the next crucial frontiers in the nation's expanding energy wars. In many respects, the fight quietly emerging over the two areas - Teshekpuk Lake and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge - parallels the protracted battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It is energy versus the environment, with elements of caribou and molting birds and native American culture mixed in....
Feedground phaseout proposal takes shape A proposal to phase out some of the state's elk feedgrounds is gaining strength through more details and more answers. But state officials still say there are too many unanswered questions, and critics say the pilot project is too much of a gamble for the state's wildlife. At issue is a proposal to phase out the three feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre River drainage east of Jackson Hole. These feedgrounds, said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other supporters, are the most logical because there is winter range in the area for elk and more can be done to enhance that and additional habitat. What's more, a phaseout of these feedgrounds will serve the state, as it examines another management tool to eradicate brucellosis in wildlife and livestock, supporters say. They say the phaseout would work in concert with a pilot project calling for the capture and testing of elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale. Elk testing positive for brucellosis will be killed. The combination of the two projects would allow the state to examine two different approaches and determine their effectiveness, they say....
Federal agency will try to shield plants in path of St. George growth The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to propose protecting critical habitat for two endangered plants that grow in southern Utah - including habitat in the path of a proposed freeway junction - as part of a legal settlement with a pair of environmental groups. The Center for Biological Diversity and Utah Native Plant Society sued the federal agency in September, demanding it designate critical habitat to protect the Holmgren milkvetch and Shivwits milkvetch, which grow almost exclusively near St. George. Tony Frates, a rare-plant coordinator with the Utah Native Plant Society, said both wildflowers are severely threatened by increasing development....
Arizona's roads being redesigned to protect wildlife Transportation officials are considering redesigning some of Arizona's roads to make them more wildlife-friendly. The changes are being aimed not just at preventing roadkills but at preserving connections for wild animals crossing roads from one large block of desert to another. Four major state highways in southern Arizona could be in line for new, wildlife-friendly designs in the next few years because of a grant just obtained by a Flagstaff researcher. That study will focus on how to make those and other roads in the state more hospitable to birds and mammals. Meanwhile, as much as $10 million could be spent over the next 20 years on making roads safer for wildlife under a plan that appears to be headed to the May 2006 ballot....
Kane sign deadline comes, goes The deadline set by the Bureau of Land Management for Kane County to remove its road signs from BLM-administered lands came and went on Monday. In response, BLM State Director Sally Wisely sent a letter to the Interior Department's regional solicitor requesting that it take legal action to compel Kane County to remove the signs and put back any BLM signs that it has taken out. Kane County began posting signs in February designating off-highway-vehicle (OHV) routes across BLM-administered land, and in March designated a new route through an area northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park that is being studied for potential wilderness designation. Most recently, the county posted an estimated 60 to 80 signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Hole in the Rock Road and its vicinity, directing OHV users into areas the BLM had previously closed to off-road use....
Experimental releases scheduled to aid fish Flaming Gorge Dam will be releasing high flows of water into the Green River in the next few weeks to scour sediment below the dam and improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species. The federal Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program has been working to save native fish in the region. Fish like the Colorado pike-minnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub are under stress from dams, diversions and barriers, the project said. Also contributing to their decline are the introduction of nonnative competitors, plus fishing, parasites and pollutants, it said. Scientists hope the releases will flood some spots to increase fish habitat....
Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules Unsettled by a series of dry winters in this normally wet city, Mayor Greg Nickels has begun a nationwide effort to do something the Bush administration will not: carry out the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Mr. Nickels, a Democrat, says 131 other likeminded mayors have joined a bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level, in an implicit rejection of the administration's policy. The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012....
Atmosphere May Cleanse Itself Better than Previously Thought A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth's atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought. Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thought to produce substances that "scrub" the air of smog. This group of chemicals, after absorbing energy from sunlight, is able to break down smog and other pollutants into far less harmful components. While many such chemicals have long been known to behave in this way - producing natural air cleaners called OH radicals - the chemicals the team studied have for the first time been observed to produce air-scrubbing OH radicals at low ultraviolet wavelengths. This observation has eluded science primarily because photochemistry at these wavelengths has been difficult to study....
It's All Trew: Right lubrication greases squeakiest of wheels Many classic Old West tales are similar in plot but different in location. The following tale has been told many times with the same plot but featuring different ranches, different characters and different tunes. The original story is probably true, but where it happened is anybody's guess. Our version here supposedly happened on the famed XIT Ranch. Among the varied backgrounds of early-day frontier settlers were many gifted musicians. Their talents were much appreciated by entertainment-starved neighbors. Another level of talent, prominent among cowboys and scattered settlers, featured those who ordered both musical instruments and directions of how to play from a catalog or pulp magazine advertisement....
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Monday, May 16, 2005
NEWS RELEASE
MAY 16, 2005
Contacts:
Laurie Rule: 208-342-7024 ext. #8
Jon Marvel: 208-788-2290
Dr. Randy Hermann: 208-726-9781
WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT AND DR. RANDALL HERMANN SUE THE SAWTOOTH NATIONAL FOREST OVER NEW GRAZING MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR 150,000 ACRES ON FOUR SHEEP ALLOTMENTS NEAR KETCHUM, IDAHO
On Friday, May 13, 2005, conservation group Western Watersheds Project and Dr. Randall Hermann filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, alleging that the agency’s new grazing management plan covering over 150,000 acres of the Sawtooth National Forest violates federal law. The Plaintiffs claim that the Forest Service did not adequately assess the environmental impacts of sheep grazing within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and surrounding forest lands, and is allowing excessive grazing that will continue to harm fish and wildlife and conflict with recreation use within this renowned area.
The four grazing allotments at issue occur in or adjacent to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, which is highly valued for its natural resources and recreation opportunities. These allotments contain habitat for bull trout, steelhead, and salmon, which are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, as well as for sage grouse, wolves, and bighorn sheep. In addition, several of the streams in the allotments are eligible for designation as Wild and Scenic Rivers. Due to the natural scenery and diverse ecology of the area, the trails and campsites found throughout the allotments are popular with hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hunters.
The Forest Service acknowledges that sheep grazing in the area has damaged the streams and riparian areas, as well as the upland sagebrush habitat, and has caused conflicts with recreation users. Yet, according to Western Watershed Project’s lawsuit, the new grazing plan fails to adjust levels of grazing across most of these allotments to address this harm. And the plan continues to allow sheep to graze areas that the agency has determined should not be grazed, without even conducting an analysis of the environmental consequences. “The Forest Service is allowing the status quo to continue in order to satisfy the interests of a few livestock owners, while fish and wildlife and the public suffer the consequences,” stated Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
The lawsuit also alleges that the agency did not take a hard look at all of the environmental impacts from continued grazing in this renowned area. For instance, the agency denied any impacts would occur to bighorn sheep, despite the fact that the near-by population of bighorn has been decimated over the last fifteen years due to disease passed to them from domestic sheep. The Forest Service also quickly dismissed any impacts to human health arising from diseases carried by domestic sheep. Randy Hermann, a physician from Ketchum, Idaho who frequently recreates in the area, joined the lawsuit due to his concern about the risk to himself and others of contracting disease from sheep. “The Forest Service did not seriously consider the scientific and medical information that shows that sheep carry and can transmit dangerous diseases to humans,” said Dr. Hermann.
According to Laurie Rule, attorney for Advocates for the West, who represents Western Watersheds Project and Dr. Hermann in this case, “To comply with federal law, the Forest Service must make changes in their grazing plan that will ensure protection of fish, wildlife, vegetation, and recreation resources. At the very least, it must thoroughly assess the environmental impacts of its decision. Because it has not done so, we are asking the Court to set aside the new grazing plan for these four allotments.”
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MAY 16, 2005
Contacts:
Laurie Rule: 208-342-7024 ext. #8
Jon Marvel: 208-788-2290
Dr. Randy Hermann: 208-726-9781
WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT AND DR. RANDALL HERMANN SUE THE SAWTOOTH NATIONAL FOREST OVER NEW GRAZING MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR 150,000 ACRES ON FOUR SHEEP ALLOTMENTS NEAR KETCHUM, IDAHO
On Friday, May 13, 2005, conservation group Western Watersheds Project and Dr. Randall Hermann filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, alleging that the agency’s new grazing management plan covering over 150,000 acres of the Sawtooth National Forest violates federal law. The Plaintiffs claim that the Forest Service did not adequately assess the environmental impacts of sheep grazing within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and surrounding forest lands, and is allowing excessive grazing that will continue to harm fish and wildlife and conflict with recreation use within this renowned area.
The four grazing allotments at issue occur in or adjacent to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, which is highly valued for its natural resources and recreation opportunities. These allotments contain habitat for bull trout, steelhead, and salmon, which are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, as well as for sage grouse, wolves, and bighorn sheep. In addition, several of the streams in the allotments are eligible for designation as Wild and Scenic Rivers. Due to the natural scenery and diverse ecology of the area, the trails and campsites found throughout the allotments are popular with hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and hunters.
The Forest Service acknowledges that sheep grazing in the area has damaged the streams and riparian areas, as well as the upland sagebrush habitat, and has caused conflicts with recreation users. Yet, according to Western Watershed Project’s lawsuit, the new grazing plan fails to adjust levels of grazing across most of these allotments to address this harm. And the plan continues to allow sheep to graze areas that the agency has determined should not be grazed, without even conducting an analysis of the environmental consequences. “The Forest Service is allowing the status quo to continue in order to satisfy the interests of a few livestock owners, while fish and wildlife and the public suffer the consequences,” stated Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
The lawsuit also alleges that the agency did not take a hard look at all of the environmental impacts from continued grazing in this renowned area. For instance, the agency denied any impacts would occur to bighorn sheep, despite the fact that the near-by population of bighorn has been decimated over the last fifteen years due to disease passed to them from domestic sheep. The Forest Service also quickly dismissed any impacts to human health arising from diseases carried by domestic sheep. Randy Hermann, a physician from Ketchum, Idaho who frequently recreates in the area, joined the lawsuit due to his concern about the risk to himself and others of contracting disease from sheep. “The Forest Service did not seriously consider the scientific and medical information that shows that sheep carry and can transmit dangerous diseases to humans,” said Dr. Hermann.
According to Laurie Rule, attorney for Advocates for the West, who represents Western Watersheds Project and Dr. Hermann in this case, “To comply with federal law, the Forest Service must make changes in their grazing plan that will ensure protection of fish, wildlife, vegetation, and recreation resources. At the very least, it must thoroughly assess the environmental impacts of its decision. Because it has not done so, we are asking the Court to set aside the new grazing plan for these four allotments.”
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Protecting the Front for the future Ron and Linda Ingersoll don't want things to change on their ranch, where the prairie gives way to jagged peaks and the guests range from sandhill cranes to grizzly bears. They want to make sure the ranch west of Bowman's Corner off Highway 200 remains a rugged place for wildlife and Western lifestyles — and never ends up subdivided for expensive vacation homes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees. The agency wants to link private property, such as that owned by the Ingersolls, with other land along the eastern edge of the Continental Divide to form the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area. It would create a permanent safe haven for the bounty of wildlife within a 918,000-acre perimeter — an area just slightly smaller than Glacier National Park. Officials stress the proposal — which is already drawing fire from some landowners — does not create more wilderness or a monument, take land off the tax rolls, or prohibit oil and gas development on private land....Also see What is an easement and how does it work? and Who are the easement players?....
Scientists prepare to unveil grasslands report For two years, eight experts have been poring over complex data in search of the best way to manage grazing on North Dakota's national grasslands. Their conclusion, after hundreds of hours of study and discussion, is set to be unveiled this week, and the ramifications likely will extend beyond the state's borders. Ranchers and environmentalists have argued over grazing rules for decades, with the U.S. Forest Service trying to find the proper balance among the many uses of the federal land. "There's a lot of emotions and a lot of issues beyond science," said Rod Backman, a consultant and former North Dakota budget director who serves as administrator for the eight-member scientific grasslands review team. The team's focus is on science, he said. Forest Service officials say the process, if successful, might be used in other parts of the country where there are conflicts over land management plans....
Thinking big about bison When it comes to Yellowstone National Park bison, nothing's ever easy. Now, things are getting even more complicated. State and federal officials want to build a 400-acre brucellosis quarantine facility just south of this Paradise Valley lake popular with both people and wildlife, on state land that was purchased for elk winter range. If it works, the quarantine project could, in about three years, produce certified disease-free animals that could be used to establish wild and free-ranging bison herds in various locations around the West. Across most of their native range, bison are "ecologically extinct."....
Wolf group seeks to find balance on hostile issue Utah's wolf management plan is going on the road this week, and the task force responsible for its creation is more than a little curious about how it will be received. Apprehensive, too. After a year and a half of work, the 13-member wolf working group - a collection of wolf advocates, sportsmen and ranchers - has produced the draft of a plan that sought to strike a balance between competing interests. In other words, how to manage and protect the wolves as they migrate into Utah while preventing livestock depredation and compensating ranchers whose animals fall prey to wolves. The wolf working group began meeting in 2003, after the Legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the creation of a state wolf management plan as a prelude to the expected removal of wolves from the federal government's endangered species list - a move that would shift wolf oversight to the states....
Rare Mexican Gray Wolf Caught in N.M. Trap An endangered Mexican gray wolf that was part of a cattle-killing pack has been captured in the Gila National Forest. Six wild-born puppies, possibly wolf-dog hybrids, were euthanized. The healthy year-old male from the Francisco pack was captured in a trap Thursday and taken to the Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge north of Socorro, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the killing of the pack because it had been preying on livestock in the Gila National Forest. It has killed four animals in the past several weeks. The wolf's parents are still being targeted, said service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown....
Prosecutors drop case against man accused of stealing $25,000 antlers Prosecutors this week reluctantly dismissed felony charges against a Grand Junction man who was accused of stealing a set of giant antlers. Leland Jason Cox, 34, of 609 Starlight Drive, was arrested in late January after police allegedly found enormous elk antlers belonging to a New Zealand man in his home along with evidence he was trying to sell them on the Internet. The antlers, which were about 5 feet tall and weighed about 75 pounds each, were reportedly worth more than $25,000. Cox said he unknowingly traded a large set of typical elk antlers to a California man, who purported that he owned the allegedly stolen nontypical antlers....
New Braunfels buzzards targeted The city is done playing around with the flocks of vultures that roost in Landa Park. Officials expect to start a program of trapping and killing the unwanted residents next week, according to Park Ranger Superintendent Roger Dolle. The black vultures are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Act. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services has a permit granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill a certain number of buzzards every year, said Wildlife Services biologist Vivian Prothro. "We are getting involved with vultures more and more as we speak," she said. "They tend to take up residence. When there are so many concentrated in one area, it can become a health and safety threat." The vultures' droppings could cause a lung infection called histoplasmosis or other diseases and could easily be washed into the Comal River, which runs through the park and is used by thousands of swimmers and tubers every day during the summer....
Rey urges support of Bush roadless plan at Nevada conference Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey urged tourism officials to support the Bush administration's new plan for national forest "roadless areas," saying it would protect most of the acreage. "It's my prediction they'll protect most of the areas" specified under Clinton's 2001 order, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. "We hope to bring the issue to closure once and for all." Rey's remarks came Sunday at the opening of a three-day conference being held by the Western States Tourism Policy Council, which represents 11 states on tourism issues. Rey said past attempts to resolve the fate of roadless areas with a nationwide rule have failed, and that's why the Bush administration is taking a new approach....
Timber towns get federal lift Depressed timber towns in the Northwest will see at least $50 million of new investment in restoring cutover forests through a federal program usually focused on reviving blighted urban neighborhoods. The federal government Wednesday gave $50 million in tax credits to Portland-based Ecotrust, a nonprofit that is changing the conventions of conservation. Ecotrust has begun buying forests to restore their wildlife and other values through careful logging that maintains older and larger trees. Its goal is to cut trees at a sustainable rate that supports low-income, rural communities but also retains the natural role of forests vital to the region, said Bettina von Hagen, vice president of Ecotrust's natural capital fund and forestry program....
Land-grant movement After decades of inaction, fight is gaining traction Momentum is building to transfer federal lands in New Mexico to the heirs of Spanish and Mexican land grants. Descendants of families who received government grants of land before New Mexico was annexed to the United States say that's the only way to correct injustices caused when their ancestors lost control of some of their properties. While the prospect of fencing off forests and streams now open to the public riles many who aren't land-grant heirs, Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Legislature are urging Congress to transfer lands from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land-grant heirs....
A River Rises to Reclaim Its Past A series of short siren blasts signaled a climactic moment in a decades-long battle over the Trinity River, which, like so many rivers in California, has lost much of its water, its fish and its freedom. As a gate lifted on the small concrete Lewiston Dam, about an hour's winding drive west of Redding, water spilled down an apron into the Trinity. Federal dam managers, who have spent the last 40 years sucking water from the river and sending most of its flow to the farm fields of the Central Valley, were letting the Trinity go. The river ran frothy and aqua-green, knocking down willow trees along its banks, muscling over its sandy shoulders and roaring under bridges. It was fast. It was rambunctious. For four days, it was its old self. The water release, which tapered over the weekend, is key to one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts in the West, intended to revive the Trinity's long-suffering salmon and steelhead runs....
Old Foes Soften to New Reactors Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming. Their numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among most mainstream environmental groups. In the past few months, articles in publications like Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wired magazine have openly espoused nuclear power, angering other environmental advocates. Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and the author of "Environmental Heresies," an article in the May issue of Technology Review, explained the shift as a direct consequence of the growing anxiety about global warming and its links to the use of fossil fuel....
Column: Big Banks Green Goof CORPORATE concern about the environment is a fine thing. But there's a growing, and dangerous, trend among corporations to jump into bed with radical environmentalists — people who are intent on destroying the very free-enterprise system that their new-found bedmate represents. The latest industry group guilty of "sleeping with the enemy" is the nation's big banks. Specifically, Citigroup, Bank of America, and, most recently, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., have all adopted new environmental policies, at the behest of the ardently anti-capitalist Rainforest Action Network (RAN). RAN claims to promote "peaceable solutions," but its tactics include ugly protests at CEO's homes. And it was reportedly was among the prime organizers of the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests and the resulting riots....
Column: Battlelines drawn with animal rights groups A new allaiance has been formed to try to take away your hunting heritage. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals have joined together with a $ 96 million 2005 budget. Make no mistake about it, the alliance of these two groups is a huge threat to California hunters. They plan to specifically target archery hunting, as well as other types of hunting, while also focusing on state and federal laws and ballot initiatives that protect animals. Hunters must be aware of the devastating impact the HSUS and Fund for Animals missions could have on California sportsmen and women....
Natural Gas Diesel May Cut Smog The rat's nest of pipes and columns snaking across the desert harbors a secret process that will use cobalt to turn natural gas into a powerful, clean-burning diesel fuel. By next year, rulers of this tiny desert sheikdom hope, these gas-to-liquids (GTL) reactors under construction will bring in billions of dollars while clearing big city smog belched by trucks and buses. In all, some $20 billion has been committed to build an unprecedented array of clean diesel plants in this Gulf shore industrial park. Those chipping in include oil titans Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil, which is making a $7 billion bet on GTL, the largest investment in the corporate history of America's largest company....
Taking Liberty Finally, there is a way to learn how to "connect the dots" between the Wildlands Project, the United Nations, Heritage Areas, and Sustainable Development. Dr. Michael Coffman has developed a fantastic presentation that leads the viewer through the maze of issues that are so confusing. A brand new web site, http://takingliberty.us, presents a concise, comprehensive story, showing exactly how the proponents of land-use control have been able to develop policies at the international level, and implement those policies through federal, state, and local legislation and regulatons. The presentation begins with the master plan, and demonstrates how the government and NGOs are involved, and how the plan impacts private property rights. It discusses GAP Analysis, Greenlining, Conservation Easements, the Endangered Species Act, Roadless Areas, and, using maps, demonstrates how all these initiatives fit into the implementation of the master plan....
Future Unclear on $2 Billion-a-Year US Land Reserve A vast amount of fragile land set aside for a taxpayer-funded conservation program that pays US farmers $2 billion a year is about to lose its protected status, and environmentalists are demanding changes to bring more soil, water and wildlife benefits at a lower cost. Lawmakers have yet to discuss any major changes in the 34.9 million acre Conservation Reserve program. The US Agriculture Department may not decide until later this year how to handle the looming turn-over of land. The reserve pays farmers to retire fragile land that is vulnerable to erosion, needed to filter and improve water quality, or enhance wildlife habitat. Growers are required to plant grasses or trees as permanent ground cover. Five states in the cattle and wheat-growing Great Plains account for 45 percent of land in the reserve....
Haskell Ranch is gone but history remains Before the freeway, fast food row and master-planned communities, ranches covered the San Gorgonio Pass. They had names like Circle C, Barker and Stewart. But most spreads vanished years ago. Today, only a few vestiges survive. And they're fast disappearing. About 10 buildings remain at the former Haskell Ranch -- one of the legendary spreads in the Pass. Now, bulldozers roam the land grading for more homes at Oak Valley. Within about two weeks, demolition crews will have cleared all the buildings from the onetime ranch. But a rich history will live on....
Social activities enlivened Kimberly's earliest days One hundred years ago today the pioneers of Kimberly had a party. The occasion was the arrival of the first building in the new, un-surveyed little town. Water had just come onto the virgin land, and irrigating had begun in earnest, but, nonetheless, more than 50 farm couples from the surrounding area took part in an old-fashioned "hoe down" at the Stockgrowers' Mercantile Company's store. Never mind that the building, which had been hauled from Milner, had been set up in the center of what would become a street, and later would have to "continue its journey a little farther" to get it on the proper lot. At the party, food cooked over a sagebrush fire was served, after which the Twin Falls Land and Water Company's agricultural "superintendent," Alex McPherson, spoke to the farmer's wives about dairying and gardening. Dancing began at 10 p.m. to melodies played by the Swydenski orchestra from Twin Falls....
Jay Walley - in prison - and the Feds didn't do it! J. Zane Walley is in prison. Not a prison made with concrete and iron bars. His agile and creative mind is alive and well, captured inside a body that has malfunctioned. The degree of his recuperation from his stroke of November, 2003, has surprised the doctors, and defied the odds. But, he is still a prisoner. Physically, he works out daily, on five machines that Sarah has installed in their small adobe house. In fact, he told us that she uses a cattle prod to make him stay on those machines, and get his daily exercise! Mentally, he is alert, he understands what's going on around him. He is still driven with a passion for Liberty. But, he cannot speak about it. And, that is his prison. Jay is able to say a few words, then he gets a block, and gets very frustrated. Sarah is the very model of a supportive and loving wife, and it is an inspiration to watch her. He has a little hand-held computerized communicator, "Say it, Sam." He can touch a phrase with a stylus, and it speaks pre-written phrases for him....
Famed gun on display A piece of American history that disappeared for more than 100 years will be on public display today — for the first time since 1847 — at the Army Heritage and Education Center in Middlesex Township. The original air rifle used by Captain Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 has been rediscovered and it will be available for public view for the next six months in Carlisle's backyard. The rifle, considered cutting-edge technology at the time Lewis carried it on his cross-country journey, is often mentioned in journal accounts of the trip. Lewis and Clark journal entries show that the air rifle was used to impress the American Indian tribes the team encountered. The rifle fired a .40 caliber lead ball, but without using powder and without making a sound. "It's one of the most famous guns in American history," says John Giblin, chief curator for the Army Heritage Museum....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Nobody loves you like your mama If you find yourself drivin' down a highway this spring through cow country, it's possible you'll spot a bunch of cows walking along strung out in a line. But, you'll notice none of their little calves are with them. If you are a cow person, you already know that the mamas are not abandoning their babies. They are simply working mothers who have left them in Bovine Daycare. Somewhere back in the pasture you will find 10 to 20 calves lying in their nursery watched over by a keen-eyed mama cow. It is a demonstration of "mothering ability," a trait touted by certain raisers of purebred cattle....
===
Protecting the Front for the future Ron and Linda Ingersoll don't want things to change on their ranch, where the prairie gives way to jagged peaks and the guests range from sandhill cranes to grizzly bears. They want to make sure the ranch west of Bowman's Corner off Highway 200 remains a rugged place for wildlife and Western lifestyles — and never ends up subdivided for expensive vacation homes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees. The agency wants to link private property, such as that owned by the Ingersolls, with other land along the eastern edge of the Continental Divide to form the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area. It would create a permanent safe haven for the bounty of wildlife within a 918,000-acre perimeter — an area just slightly smaller than Glacier National Park. Officials stress the proposal — which is already drawing fire from some landowners — does not create more wilderness or a monument, take land off the tax rolls, or prohibit oil and gas development on private land....Also see What is an easement and how does it work? and Who are the easement players?....
Scientists prepare to unveil grasslands report For two years, eight experts have been poring over complex data in search of the best way to manage grazing on North Dakota's national grasslands. Their conclusion, after hundreds of hours of study and discussion, is set to be unveiled this week, and the ramifications likely will extend beyond the state's borders. Ranchers and environmentalists have argued over grazing rules for decades, with the U.S. Forest Service trying to find the proper balance among the many uses of the federal land. "There's a lot of emotions and a lot of issues beyond science," said Rod Backman, a consultant and former North Dakota budget director who serves as administrator for the eight-member scientific grasslands review team. The team's focus is on science, he said. Forest Service officials say the process, if successful, might be used in other parts of the country where there are conflicts over land management plans....
Thinking big about bison When it comes to Yellowstone National Park bison, nothing's ever easy. Now, things are getting even more complicated. State and federal officials want to build a 400-acre brucellosis quarantine facility just south of this Paradise Valley lake popular with both people and wildlife, on state land that was purchased for elk winter range. If it works, the quarantine project could, in about three years, produce certified disease-free animals that could be used to establish wild and free-ranging bison herds in various locations around the West. Across most of their native range, bison are "ecologically extinct."....
Wolf group seeks to find balance on hostile issue Utah's wolf management plan is going on the road this week, and the task force responsible for its creation is more than a little curious about how it will be received. Apprehensive, too. After a year and a half of work, the 13-member wolf working group - a collection of wolf advocates, sportsmen and ranchers - has produced the draft of a plan that sought to strike a balance between competing interests. In other words, how to manage and protect the wolves as they migrate into Utah while preventing livestock depredation and compensating ranchers whose animals fall prey to wolves. The wolf working group began meeting in 2003, after the Legislature passed a joint resolution authorizing the creation of a state wolf management plan as a prelude to the expected removal of wolves from the federal government's endangered species list - a move that would shift wolf oversight to the states....
Rare Mexican Gray Wolf Caught in N.M. Trap An endangered Mexican gray wolf that was part of a cattle-killing pack has been captured in the Gila National Forest. Six wild-born puppies, possibly wolf-dog hybrids, were euthanized. The healthy year-old male from the Francisco pack was captured in a trap Thursday and taken to the Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge north of Socorro, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the killing of the pack because it had been preying on livestock in the Gila National Forest. It has killed four animals in the past several weeks. The wolf's parents are still being targeted, said service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown....
Prosecutors drop case against man accused of stealing $25,000 antlers Prosecutors this week reluctantly dismissed felony charges against a Grand Junction man who was accused of stealing a set of giant antlers. Leland Jason Cox, 34, of 609 Starlight Drive, was arrested in late January after police allegedly found enormous elk antlers belonging to a New Zealand man in his home along with evidence he was trying to sell them on the Internet. The antlers, which were about 5 feet tall and weighed about 75 pounds each, were reportedly worth more than $25,000. Cox said he unknowingly traded a large set of typical elk antlers to a California man, who purported that he owned the allegedly stolen nontypical antlers....
New Braunfels buzzards targeted The city is done playing around with the flocks of vultures that roost in Landa Park. Officials expect to start a program of trapping and killing the unwanted residents next week, according to Park Ranger Superintendent Roger Dolle. The black vultures are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Act. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services has a permit granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill a certain number of buzzards every year, said Wildlife Services biologist Vivian Prothro. "We are getting involved with vultures more and more as we speak," she said. "They tend to take up residence. When there are so many concentrated in one area, it can become a health and safety threat." The vultures' droppings could cause a lung infection called histoplasmosis or other diseases and could easily be washed into the Comal River, which runs through the park and is used by thousands of swimmers and tubers every day during the summer....
Rey urges support of Bush roadless plan at Nevada conference Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey urged tourism officials to support the Bush administration's new plan for national forest "roadless areas," saying it would protect most of the acreage. "It's my prediction they'll protect most of the areas" specified under Clinton's 2001 order, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. "We hope to bring the issue to closure once and for all." Rey's remarks came Sunday at the opening of a three-day conference being held by the Western States Tourism Policy Council, which represents 11 states on tourism issues. Rey said past attempts to resolve the fate of roadless areas with a nationwide rule have failed, and that's why the Bush administration is taking a new approach....
Timber towns get federal lift Depressed timber towns in the Northwest will see at least $50 million of new investment in restoring cutover forests through a federal program usually focused on reviving blighted urban neighborhoods. The federal government Wednesday gave $50 million in tax credits to Portland-based Ecotrust, a nonprofit that is changing the conventions of conservation. Ecotrust has begun buying forests to restore their wildlife and other values through careful logging that maintains older and larger trees. Its goal is to cut trees at a sustainable rate that supports low-income, rural communities but also retains the natural role of forests vital to the region, said Bettina von Hagen, vice president of Ecotrust's natural capital fund and forestry program....
Land-grant movement After decades of inaction, fight is gaining traction Momentum is building to transfer federal lands in New Mexico to the heirs of Spanish and Mexican land grants. Descendants of families who received government grants of land before New Mexico was annexed to the United States say that's the only way to correct injustices caused when their ancestors lost control of some of their properties. While the prospect of fencing off forests and streams now open to the public riles many who aren't land-grant heirs, Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Legislature are urging Congress to transfer lands from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to land-grant heirs....
A River Rises to Reclaim Its Past A series of short siren blasts signaled a climactic moment in a decades-long battle over the Trinity River, which, like so many rivers in California, has lost much of its water, its fish and its freedom. As a gate lifted on the small concrete Lewiston Dam, about an hour's winding drive west of Redding, water spilled down an apron into the Trinity. Federal dam managers, who have spent the last 40 years sucking water from the river and sending most of its flow to the farm fields of the Central Valley, were letting the Trinity go. The river ran frothy and aqua-green, knocking down willow trees along its banks, muscling over its sandy shoulders and roaring under bridges. It was fast. It was rambunctious. For four days, it was its old self. The water release, which tapered over the weekend, is key to one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts in the West, intended to revive the Trinity's long-suffering salmon and steelhead runs....
Old Foes Soften to New Reactors Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming. Their numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among most mainstream environmental groups. In the past few months, articles in publications like Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wired magazine have openly espoused nuclear power, angering other environmental advocates. Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and the author of "Environmental Heresies," an article in the May issue of Technology Review, explained the shift as a direct consequence of the growing anxiety about global warming and its links to the use of fossil fuel....
Column: Big Banks Green Goof CORPORATE concern about the environment is a fine thing. But there's a growing, and dangerous, trend among corporations to jump into bed with radical environmentalists — people who are intent on destroying the very free-enterprise system that their new-found bedmate represents. The latest industry group guilty of "sleeping with the enemy" is the nation's big banks. Specifically, Citigroup, Bank of America, and, most recently, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., have all adopted new environmental policies, at the behest of the ardently anti-capitalist Rainforest Action Network (RAN). RAN claims to promote "peaceable solutions," but its tactics include ugly protests at CEO's homes. And it was reportedly was among the prime organizers of the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests and the resulting riots....
Column: Battlelines drawn with animal rights groups A new allaiance has been formed to try to take away your hunting heritage. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals have joined together with a $ 96 million 2005 budget. Make no mistake about it, the alliance of these two groups is a huge threat to California hunters. They plan to specifically target archery hunting, as well as other types of hunting, while also focusing on state and federal laws and ballot initiatives that protect animals. Hunters must be aware of the devastating impact the HSUS and Fund for Animals missions could have on California sportsmen and women....
Natural Gas Diesel May Cut Smog The rat's nest of pipes and columns snaking across the desert harbors a secret process that will use cobalt to turn natural gas into a powerful, clean-burning diesel fuel. By next year, rulers of this tiny desert sheikdom hope, these gas-to-liquids (GTL) reactors under construction will bring in billions of dollars while clearing big city smog belched by trucks and buses. In all, some $20 billion has been committed to build an unprecedented array of clean diesel plants in this Gulf shore industrial park. Those chipping in include oil titans Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil, which is making a $7 billion bet on GTL, the largest investment in the corporate history of America's largest company....
Taking Liberty Finally, there is a way to learn how to "connect the dots" between the Wildlands Project, the United Nations, Heritage Areas, and Sustainable Development. Dr. Michael Coffman has developed a fantastic presentation that leads the viewer through the maze of issues that are so confusing. A brand new web site, http://takingliberty.us, presents a concise, comprehensive story, showing exactly how the proponents of land-use control have been able to develop policies at the international level, and implement those policies through federal, state, and local legislation and regulatons. The presentation begins with the master plan, and demonstrates how the government and NGOs are involved, and how the plan impacts private property rights. It discusses GAP Analysis, Greenlining, Conservation Easements, the Endangered Species Act, Roadless Areas, and, using maps, demonstrates how all these initiatives fit into the implementation of the master plan....
Future Unclear on $2 Billion-a-Year US Land Reserve A vast amount of fragile land set aside for a taxpayer-funded conservation program that pays US farmers $2 billion a year is about to lose its protected status, and environmentalists are demanding changes to bring more soil, water and wildlife benefits at a lower cost. Lawmakers have yet to discuss any major changes in the 34.9 million acre Conservation Reserve program. The US Agriculture Department may not decide until later this year how to handle the looming turn-over of land. The reserve pays farmers to retire fragile land that is vulnerable to erosion, needed to filter and improve water quality, or enhance wildlife habitat. Growers are required to plant grasses or trees as permanent ground cover. Five states in the cattle and wheat-growing Great Plains account for 45 percent of land in the reserve....
Haskell Ranch is gone but history remains Before the freeway, fast food row and master-planned communities, ranches covered the San Gorgonio Pass. They had names like Circle C, Barker and Stewart. But most spreads vanished years ago. Today, only a few vestiges survive. And they're fast disappearing. About 10 buildings remain at the former Haskell Ranch -- one of the legendary spreads in the Pass. Now, bulldozers roam the land grading for more homes at Oak Valley. Within about two weeks, demolition crews will have cleared all the buildings from the onetime ranch. But a rich history will live on....
Social activities enlivened Kimberly's earliest days One hundred years ago today the pioneers of Kimberly had a party. The occasion was the arrival of the first building in the new, un-surveyed little town. Water had just come onto the virgin land, and irrigating had begun in earnest, but, nonetheless, more than 50 farm couples from the surrounding area took part in an old-fashioned "hoe down" at the Stockgrowers' Mercantile Company's store. Never mind that the building, which had been hauled from Milner, had been set up in the center of what would become a street, and later would have to "continue its journey a little farther" to get it on the proper lot. At the party, food cooked over a sagebrush fire was served, after which the Twin Falls Land and Water Company's agricultural "superintendent," Alex McPherson, spoke to the farmer's wives about dairying and gardening. Dancing began at 10 p.m. to melodies played by the Swydenski orchestra from Twin Falls....
Jay Walley - in prison - and the Feds didn't do it! J. Zane Walley is in prison. Not a prison made with concrete and iron bars. His agile and creative mind is alive and well, captured inside a body that has malfunctioned. The degree of his recuperation from his stroke of November, 2003, has surprised the doctors, and defied the odds. But, he is still a prisoner. Physically, he works out daily, on five machines that Sarah has installed in their small adobe house. In fact, he told us that she uses a cattle prod to make him stay on those machines, and get his daily exercise! Mentally, he is alert, he understands what's going on around him. He is still driven with a passion for Liberty. But, he cannot speak about it. And, that is his prison. Jay is able to say a few words, then he gets a block, and gets very frustrated. Sarah is the very model of a supportive and loving wife, and it is an inspiration to watch her. He has a little hand-held computerized communicator, "Say it, Sam." He can touch a phrase with a stylus, and it speaks pre-written phrases for him....
Famed gun on display A piece of American history that disappeared for more than 100 years will be on public display today — for the first time since 1847 — at the Army Heritage and Education Center in Middlesex Township. The original air rifle used by Captain Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 has been rediscovered and it will be available for public view for the next six months in Carlisle's backyard. The rifle, considered cutting-edge technology at the time Lewis carried it on his cross-country journey, is often mentioned in journal accounts of the trip. Lewis and Clark journal entries show that the air rifle was used to impress the American Indian tribes the team encountered. The rifle fired a .40 caliber lead ball, but without using powder and without making a sound. "It's one of the most famous guns in American history," says John Giblin, chief curator for the Army Heritage Museum....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Nobody loves you like your mama If you find yourself drivin' down a highway this spring through cow country, it's possible you'll spot a bunch of cows walking along strung out in a line. But, you'll notice none of their little calves are with them. If you are a cow person, you already know that the mamas are not abandoning their babies. They are simply working mothers who have left them in Bovine Daycare. Somewhere back in the pasture you will find 10 to 20 calves lying in their nursery watched over by a keen-eyed mama cow. It is a demonstration of "mothering ability," a trait touted by certain raisers of purebred cattle....
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Sunday, May 15, 2005
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
Breaking in tourists and city kin at the ranch
By Julie Carter
Every now and then the head honcho on the outfit, while he’s in town for supplies, will run into some adoring fan of American cowboy life.
The boss man will be picking up a new belt for the pump jack at the parts store, fueling up the pickup at the filling station or stocking up on ice at the grocery store and some total stranger will strike up a “gee I’ve always admired cowboys” kind of conversation.
And without knowing any better, the fan will suggest that perhaps he and his family could come out to the ranch as they are having a slow day in their vacation time. Overburdened with politeness, the boss man will tell them “Sure, come on out.”
This same type of “invite yourself” that happens most often with shirt tail relatives who want a place to play cowboy, get a good meal and have some tall tales to tell back at the office on Monday. They will insist on coming to “help” during a branding, shipping, or any other fair weather activity that might be going on at the ranch.
They never understand the amount of extra work they require just by showing up. Beside the room and board and necessary shepherding around the ranch, it’s not unusual to have to call out a search party for one or more of them before the day is over.
An entire family will arrive, pour out of the mini-van and sometimes they will even offer up a bag of Fritos to add to the meal to be served later in the day.
Since the gentle horses usually belong to the little woman of the ranch, it is her horses that get assigned to the city kinfolk. These gentle beasts of burden are the only ones on the ranch safe enough for the dudes to fall off and not get walked on and kicked.
The boss won’t cut Momma any slack when it comes pulling her share of the work, so she’ll get to ride the green-broke colt and take the outside circle. “That colt’s been needin’ some miles anyway,” he’ll convincingly tell her.
After getting lunch for 30 cooking in the slow cookers, Momma will assure everyone the day can begin.
During one of these kinfolk invasion days, the young colt objected to getting pushed a little too hard when Momma was trying to be where she needed to be on time. The very physical form of objection, called “watch me buck you off woman!” landed Momma on her backside.
As you would imagine, the colt took off for home at a dead run and Momma had to limp in on foot with her wrist hanging at a funny angle.
Somewhat short on sympathy, the Boss mentioned that old women shouldn’t get bucked off. He even dared seem a little put out that he would now have to pick up the slack to cover for her lack of help.
After the branding was done and most of the Coors gone from the cooler, he got around to taking her to the emergency clinic.
For six weeks hundreds of bologna sandwiches were eaten by the masses. Amazingly, it kept the kinfolk head count to a minimum. The boss, all the ranch hands and the kids swore they would never loan Momma’s horses to the city kin again.
Not long after the cast came off, another crop of tourists showed up for another working. Momma got to ride her own horses that day. It wasn’t Mother’s Day but it well could have been.
May every day be Mother’s Day.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
Do we take them for granted?
by Larry Gabriel
One of the things I frequently see in long drives across our state is something we almost never think about, even though we have more than a thousand of them.
If you drive much our state, you have seen them too. In the middle of a sea of brown grass, you will see a rectangular block of well-trimmed green, fenced in, and marked by a large gate, often of wrought iron spelling out a name…a small rural cemetery.
Some have had no new residents for many years, but few are rundown or overgrown with weeds.
Near a city or town, volunteers of a civic group or the local 4-H club may keep them looking nice.
On the prairie it is different. Frequently they are at the top of a windswept hill and the nearby town is long since gone from the landscape. Surviving relatives may not even know where the little cemetery is located. Some places were "part of the ranch" when the owner bought it.
In such places, it is often just one or two local ranch families who maintain it. No one asks them to do it. No one thanks them for doing it. They just do it because it "needs doing".
We should think about the South Dakotans who built this state. Other than what nature has provided, we owe everything to those who went before us.
Somewhere rests the first farmer to plant winter wheat east of the river, and the first to try sprinkler irrigation, and the first to try soybeans, and the first to try sunflowers, and the first to try organic farming or use various conservation practices.
Somewhere rests those who taught us that buffalo is a good food, and the first rancher to build a fence for rotational grazing, or raise registered cattle, or try a new cross breed of cattle, or try ear tags, or try direct marketing of a specialty product.
Somewhere lie the architects who designed our public works, the laborers who built them, the first entrepreneurs who bought land and platted town sites, built depots, and supplied water to the railroads and people.
It is not easy to be the first to try a new thing. The "safe thing" is to wait until others have failed or acceptance becomes general. South Dakotans have never been like that.
We have an insatiable desire to improve things and the faith to try it, even in the face of critics who claim it is foolish or not sustainable. We owe those traits and values to those who settled and developed this land. The kind of people who "don't believe" stayed "back East".
It is our tradition to remember and pay special honor to veterans and relatives on Memorial Day, and we should.
However, we also should remember the past builders and doers of our state. We have much to appreciate and much to pass to those who will follow.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner.
===
Breaking in tourists and city kin at the ranch
By Julie Carter
Every now and then the head honcho on the outfit, while he’s in town for supplies, will run into some adoring fan of American cowboy life.
The boss man will be picking up a new belt for the pump jack at the parts store, fueling up the pickup at the filling station or stocking up on ice at the grocery store and some total stranger will strike up a “gee I’ve always admired cowboys” kind of conversation.
And without knowing any better, the fan will suggest that perhaps he and his family could come out to the ranch as they are having a slow day in their vacation time. Overburdened with politeness, the boss man will tell them “Sure, come on out.”
This same type of “invite yourself” that happens most often with shirt tail relatives who want a place to play cowboy, get a good meal and have some tall tales to tell back at the office on Monday. They will insist on coming to “help” during a branding, shipping, or any other fair weather activity that might be going on at the ranch.
They never understand the amount of extra work they require just by showing up. Beside the room and board and necessary shepherding around the ranch, it’s not unusual to have to call out a search party for one or more of them before the day is over.
An entire family will arrive, pour out of the mini-van and sometimes they will even offer up a bag of Fritos to add to the meal to be served later in the day.
Since the gentle horses usually belong to the little woman of the ranch, it is her horses that get assigned to the city kinfolk. These gentle beasts of burden are the only ones on the ranch safe enough for the dudes to fall off and not get walked on and kicked.
The boss won’t cut Momma any slack when it comes pulling her share of the work, so she’ll get to ride the green-broke colt and take the outside circle. “That colt’s been needin’ some miles anyway,” he’ll convincingly tell her.
After getting lunch for 30 cooking in the slow cookers, Momma will assure everyone the day can begin.
During one of these kinfolk invasion days, the young colt objected to getting pushed a little too hard when Momma was trying to be where she needed to be on time. The very physical form of objection, called “watch me buck you off woman!” landed Momma on her backside.
As you would imagine, the colt took off for home at a dead run and Momma had to limp in on foot with her wrist hanging at a funny angle.
Somewhat short on sympathy, the Boss mentioned that old women shouldn’t get bucked off. He even dared seem a little put out that he would now have to pick up the slack to cover for her lack of help.
After the branding was done and most of the Coors gone from the cooler, he got around to taking her to the emergency clinic.
For six weeks hundreds of bologna sandwiches were eaten by the masses. Amazingly, it kept the kinfolk head count to a minimum. The boss, all the ranch hands and the kids swore they would never loan Momma’s horses to the city kin again.
Not long after the cast came off, another crop of tourists showed up for another working. Momma got to ride her own horses that day. It wasn’t Mother’s Day but it well could have been.
May every day be Mother’s Day.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
Do we take them for granted?
by Larry Gabriel
One of the things I frequently see in long drives across our state is something we almost never think about, even though we have more than a thousand of them.
If you drive much our state, you have seen them too. In the middle of a sea of brown grass, you will see a rectangular block of well-trimmed green, fenced in, and marked by a large gate, often of wrought iron spelling out a name…a small rural cemetery.
Some have had no new residents for many years, but few are rundown or overgrown with weeds.
Near a city or town, volunteers of a civic group or the local 4-H club may keep them looking nice.
On the prairie it is different. Frequently they are at the top of a windswept hill and the nearby town is long since gone from the landscape. Surviving relatives may not even know where the little cemetery is located. Some places were "part of the ranch" when the owner bought it.
In such places, it is often just one or two local ranch families who maintain it. No one asks them to do it. No one thanks them for doing it. They just do it because it "needs doing".
We should think about the South Dakotans who built this state. Other than what nature has provided, we owe everything to those who went before us.
Somewhere rests the first farmer to plant winter wheat east of the river, and the first to try sprinkler irrigation, and the first to try soybeans, and the first to try sunflowers, and the first to try organic farming or use various conservation practices.
Somewhere rests those who taught us that buffalo is a good food, and the first rancher to build a fence for rotational grazing, or raise registered cattle, or try a new cross breed of cattle, or try ear tags, or try direct marketing of a specialty product.
Somewhere lie the architects who designed our public works, the laborers who built them, the first entrepreneurs who bought land and platted town sites, built depots, and supplied water to the railroads and people.
It is not easy to be the first to try a new thing. The "safe thing" is to wait until others have failed or acceptance becomes general. South Dakotans have never been like that.
We have an insatiable desire to improve things and the faith to try it, even in the face of critics who claim it is foolish or not sustainable. We owe those traits and values to those who settled and developed this land. The kind of people who "don't believe" stayed "back East".
It is our tradition to remember and pay special honor to veterans and relatives on Memorial Day, and we should.
However, we also should remember the past builders and doers of our state. We have much to appreciate and much to pass to those who will follow.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner.
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Gods Are Angry with Michael Crichton
The gods are angry with Michael Crichton. "State of Fear" has left global warming only marginally cooler than tossing virgins in volcanoes or serving parboiled PETA directors as hors d'oeuvres. But what's really put Gaia on Prozac is seeing science sacrificed on the altar of media hype. The latest Earth Day burnt offerings are the New York Times / Discovery Channel's "Supervolcano" and PBS's "Strange Days On Planet Earth". They round out a quadraphonic post-Tsunami barrage of volcanic doom and gloom on educational and cable TV. It includes every eruption you've ever heard of, ranging from Thera to Tambora by way of Pompeii. Why is this 12-hour Gotterdammerung rally hogging PBS and Discovery Channel prime time? The programs use frightening special effects to make a visceral point: environmental change kills, so don't even think about changing the environment....
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The Gods Are Angry with Michael Crichton
The gods are angry with Michael Crichton. "State of Fear" has left global warming only marginally cooler than tossing virgins in volcanoes or serving parboiled PETA directors as hors d'oeuvres. But what's really put Gaia on Prozac is seeing science sacrificed on the altar of media hype. The latest Earth Day burnt offerings are the New York Times / Discovery Channel's "Supervolcano" and PBS's "Strange Days On Planet Earth". They round out a quadraphonic post-Tsunami barrage of volcanic doom and gloom on educational and cable TV. It includes every eruption you've ever heard of, ranging from Thera to Tambora by way of Pompeii. Why is this 12-hour Gotterdammerung rally hogging PBS and Discovery Channel prime time? The programs use frightening special effects to make a visceral point: environmental change kills, so don't even think about changing the environment....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
PETA’s Non-Apology Apology
Ingrid Newkirk, the alpha wolf over at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has just issued a classic non-apology "apology" for PETA's odious "Holocaust on Your Plate" Campaign, which explicitly compared eating meat to participating in the gassing of millions of Jews. The purported equation between the Holocaust and normal practices of animal husbandry wasn't presented between the lines by PETA. Nor was it implied subtly in the hope that the viewer would infer a similarity. Rather, comparing Auschwitz to your corner butcher shop was the explicit and unequivocal theme of the entire international pro-vegan campaign. First there were the photographs. PETA juxtaposed pictures of emaciated concentration-camp inmates in their tight-packed wooden bunks with chickens kept in cages. Worse, in a truly despicable comparison (on several levels), a picture of piled bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims was presented next to a photograph of stacked dead pigs. The text of the campaign was even worse. In a section entitled "The Final Solution," PETA made this astonishing assertion:....
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PETA’s Non-Apology Apology
Ingrid Newkirk, the alpha wolf over at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has just issued a classic non-apology "apology" for PETA's odious "Holocaust on Your Plate" Campaign, which explicitly compared eating meat to participating in the gassing of millions of Jews. The purported equation between the Holocaust and normal practices of animal husbandry wasn't presented between the lines by PETA. Nor was it implied subtly in the hope that the viewer would infer a similarity. Rather, comparing Auschwitz to your corner butcher shop was the explicit and unequivocal theme of the entire international pro-vegan campaign. First there were the photographs. PETA juxtaposed pictures of emaciated concentration-camp inmates in their tight-packed wooden bunks with chickens kept in cages. Worse, in a truly despicable comparison (on several levels), a picture of piled bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims was presented next to a photograph of stacked dead pigs. The text of the campaign was even worse. In a section entitled "The Final Solution," PETA made this astonishing assertion:....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Bush Upholds Roadless Rule of Law
The Bush Administration’s new rule ending the four-year-old ban on developing roadless areas of national forests will improve the environment and the economy, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. The new rule ends a ban on road-building and development imposed by President Clinton in the waning days of his administration. The so-called “roadless rule” created de facto wilderness areas over 58.5 million acres of backcountry in 38 states and Puerto Rico through executive order, and without having to get congressional approval. Most of the land is in 12 Western states. “President Bush sided with the rule of law, upholding the notion that the people, through their elected representatives, should have input into designating what is wilderness,” Dr. Burnett said. There are more than 98 million acres of land designated as wilderness in the U.S. – almost equal to all the land developed in the U.S. since Columbus first reached the New World. Clinton’s rule would have increased that area by more than 60 percent. What’s worse, according to Dr. Burnett, is that the Clinton ban risked massive wildfires by limiting forest management options, and also could harm wildlife over the long-term....
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Bush Upholds Roadless Rule of Law
The Bush Administration’s new rule ending the four-year-old ban on developing roadless areas of national forests will improve the environment and the economy, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. The new rule ends a ban on road-building and development imposed by President Clinton in the waning days of his administration. The so-called “roadless rule” created de facto wilderness areas over 58.5 million acres of backcountry in 38 states and Puerto Rico through executive order, and without having to get congressional approval. Most of the land is in 12 Western states. “President Bush sided with the rule of law, upholding the notion that the people, through their elected representatives, should have input into designating what is wilderness,” Dr. Burnett said. There are more than 98 million acres of land designated as wilderness in the U.S. – almost equal to all the land developed in the U.S. since Columbus first reached the New World. Clinton’s rule would have increased that area by more than 60 percent. What’s worse, according to Dr. Burnett, is that the Clinton ban risked massive wildfires by limiting forest management options, and also could harm wildlife over the long-term....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Global Warming: Critical Thinking About Environmental Issues
Greenhaven Press has launched a new series of books for young people called "Critical Thinking about Environmental Issues." Unlike many environmental books found in schools today, this series offers objective and balanced discussions of controversial issues. PERC Senior Associate Jane S. Shaw is the editor for the series as well as the author of this book. Each book squarely addresses the controversies surrounding its topic. In Global Warming, Shaw examines the issue of whether the earth is warming, and, if so, whether human activity is a cause. She discusses how scientists study these questions and explores the possible outcomes of government efforts to try to control global warming....
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Global Warming: Critical Thinking About Environmental Issues
Greenhaven Press has launched a new series of books for young people called "Critical Thinking about Environmental Issues." Unlike many environmental books found in schools today, this series offers objective and balanced discussions of controversial issues. PERC Senior Associate Jane S. Shaw is the editor for the series as well as the author of this book. Each book squarely addresses the controversies surrounding its topic. In Global Warming, Shaw examines the issue of whether the earth is warming, and, if so, whether human activity is a cause. She discusses how scientists study these questions and explores the possible outcomes of government efforts to try to control global warming....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Times Square Billboard Declares: “PETA Kills Animals”
While loudly complaining about the "unethical" treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been hiding its own dirty little secret. PETA kills animals, and visitors to New York’s famed Times Square during the month of May will see a 60-by-60-foot billboard carrying that message, in a rare splashy advertisement that PETA won’t appreciate. Information obtained from the State of Virginia shows that PETA has a long-standing practice of killing thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. Along with the billboard, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom is unveiling a new website -- www.PetaKillsAnimals.com -- where PETA’s hypocritical death toll is on display. Between 1998 and 2003, PETA put to death over 10,000 dogs, cats, and other creatures that the group publicly calls “companion animals.” Not counting those that PETA held only temporarily -- for spaying or neutering -- the group killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003. “PETA raked in nearly $29 million last year,” said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko, “and much of it was from pet owners who thought their donations actually helped animals....
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Times Square Billboard Declares: “PETA Kills Animals”
While loudly complaining about the "unethical" treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been hiding its own dirty little secret. PETA kills animals, and visitors to New York’s famed Times Square during the month of May will see a 60-by-60-foot billboard carrying that message, in a rare splashy advertisement that PETA won’t appreciate. Information obtained from the State of Virginia shows that PETA has a long-standing practice of killing thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. Along with the billboard, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom is unveiling a new website -- www.PetaKillsAnimals.com -- where PETA’s hypocritical death toll is on display. Between 1998 and 2003, PETA put to death over 10,000 dogs, cats, and other creatures that the group publicly calls “companion animals.” Not counting those that PETA held only temporarily -- for spaying or neutering -- the group killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003. “PETA raked in nearly $29 million last year,” said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko, “and much of it was from pet owners who thought their donations actually helped animals....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Woodpecker Return Raises Worries for Land Owners
Reports this week that a bird thought to be extinct for the last 60 years has been spotted in Arkansas caused bird lovers around the nation to rejoice and highlighted the need for reforming the Endangered Species Act. “The rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a large bird nearly the size of a raven, shows it is possible for a species to survive undetected, even in a modern highly developed and densely populated nation,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Environmental Scholar R.J. Smith. “It shows that the doomsayers who preach that man and nature cannot both survive and that man is a cancer on the planet are totally out of touch with reality,” said Smith. “If we want to save species like the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, we need to start rewarding and compensating property owners rather than punishing them for providing habitat,” said Smith. “The tragic results of Endangered Species Act enforcement have been the biggest challenge to property owners’ natural instinct for stewardship,” said Smith....
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Woodpecker Return Raises Worries for Land Owners
Reports this week that a bird thought to be extinct for the last 60 years has been spotted in Arkansas caused bird lovers around the nation to rejoice and highlighted the need for reforming the Endangered Species Act. “The rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a large bird nearly the size of a raven, shows it is possible for a species to survive undetected, even in a modern highly developed and densely populated nation,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Environmental Scholar R.J. Smith. “It shows that the doomsayers who preach that man and nature cannot both survive and that man is a cancer on the planet are totally out of touch with reality,” said Smith. “If we want to save species like the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, we need to start rewarding and compensating property owners rather than punishing them for providing habitat,” said Smith. “The tragic results of Endangered Species Act enforcement have been the biggest challenge to property owners’ natural instinct for stewardship,” said Smith....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
WAS THE U.S. WISE TO REJECT THE KYOTO CLIMATE CHANGE TREATY? YES.
Contrary to the claims of America's critics, the United States did not kill the Kyoto Protocol -- the agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Rather, the seeds of Kyoto's demise were planted in its very heart when it was created in Japan eight years ago, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis.
According to Burnett:
* If every country that signed the treaty met their greenhouse gas targets, the Earth would be a negligible 0.07 degrees Celsius and 0.19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than absent Kyoto, according to scientists who accept the theory of human-caused global warming.
* One reason is because swiftly developing powerhouses like China and India are not obligated to cut their emissions, even though they produce nearly half of all current greenhouse gas emissions and are predicted to produce as much as 85 percent of the future increase.
* Thus, even if developed countries stopped all their greenhouse gas emissions, levels would still increase.
Kyoto wouldn't help the environment, but it would do immense harm to the economy, says Burnett:
* According to Dallas Federal Reserve economist Stephen Brown, Kyoto's emission cuts would reduce U.S. gross domestic product between 3.6 percent and 5.1 percent by 2010.
* The Department of Energy estimated that Kyoto would cause gasoline prices to rise 52 percent and electricity prices to rise 86 percent.
Neither the Kyoto Treaty, nor the Bush administration's efforts will prevent further human-caused global warming. But at least the administration's efforts have the virtue of promoting continued economic growth, which is necessary if the world is to adapt to the impacts of a warmer world -- regardless of the cause, says Burnett.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "Was the U.S. wise to reject the Kyoto Treaty on climate change? Yes." Provo Daily Herald, May 5, 2005.
For text (subscription required):
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=54299
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WAS THE U.S. WISE TO REJECT THE KYOTO CLIMATE CHANGE TREATY? YES.
Contrary to the claims of America's critics, the United States did not kill the Kyoto Protocol -- the agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Rather, the seeds of Kyoto's demise were planted in its very heart when it was created in Japan eight years ago, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis.
According to Burnett:
* If every country that signed the treaty met their greenhouse gas targets, the Earth would be a negligible 0.07 degrees Celsius and 0.19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than absent Kyoto, according to scientists who accept the theory of human-caused global warming.
* One reason is because swiftly developing powerhouses like China and India are not obligated to cut their emissions, even though they produce nearly half of all current greenhouse gas emissions and are predicted to produce as much as 85 percent of the future increase.
* Thus, even if developed countries stopped all their greenhouse gas emissions, levels would still increase.
Kyoto wouldn't help the environment, but it would do immense harm to the economy, says Burnett:
* According to Dallas Federal Reserve economist Stephen Brown, Kyoto's emission cuts would reduce U.S. gross domestic product between 3.6 percent and 5.1 percent by 2010.
* The Department of Energy estimated that Kyoto would cause gasoline prices to rise 52 percent and electricity prices to rise 86 percent.
Neither the Kyoto Treaty, nor the Bush administration's efforts will prevent further human-caused global warming. But at least the administration's efforts have the virtue of promoting continued economic growth, which is necessary if the world is to adapt to the impacts of a warmer world -- regardless of the cause, says Burnett.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "Was the U.S. wise to reject the Kyoto Treaty on climate change? Yes." Provo Daily Herald, May 5, 2005.
For text (subscription required):
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=54299
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Senate Moves to Kill Anti-Environment Tax
The effort to permanently eliminate the anti-environment “death tax” is moving from the U.S. House to the Senate this week, with the introduction of the Jobs Protection and Estate Tax Reform Act of 2005 by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). A similar measure passed the House last month by a substantial margin of 110 votes, including the support of forty-two House Democrats. “The effort to kill off this burdensome and inefficient tax is long overdue,” said Fred L. Smith, Jr., President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Not only is it a killer for small, family-owned businesses, and extremely unfair to aspiring entrepreneurs, but it has also had a dramatically negative environmental impact.” As chronicled by former CEI Director of Environmental Studies Jonathan H. Adler, the death tax forces many heirs to sell off undeveloped land in order to meet their liabilities. This is especially true for countless rural Americans who are “land-rich and cash-poor.” For them, subdividing or developing inherited land is the only way to pay the death tax. With ever more large tracts of wild land broken up and developed in order to pay federal tax bills, the negative effects on biodiversity and threatened species are clear. Larger species, like the Florida panther, are particularly vulnerable because they depend on large, uninterrupted swaths of habitat. According to Dennis Hammond of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, the estate tax is a major threat to the species survival in that state....
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Senate Moves to Kill Anti-Environment Tax
The effort to permanently eliminate the anti-environment “death tax” is moving from the U.S. House to the Senate this week, with the introduction of the Jobs Protection and Estate Tax Reform Act of 2005 by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). A similar measure passed the House last month by a substantial margin of 110 votes, including the support of forty-two House Democrats. “The effort to kill off this burdensome and inefficient tax is long overdue,” said Fred L. Smith, Jr., President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Not only is it a killer for small, family-owned businesses, and extremely unfair to aspiring entrepreneurs, but it has also had a dramatically negative environmental impact.” As chronicled by former CEI Director of Environmental Studies Jonathan H. Adler, the death tax forces many heirs to sell off undeveloped land in order to meet their liabilities. This is especially true for countless rural Americans who are “land-rich and cash-poor.” For them, subdividing or developing inherited land is the only way to pay the death tax. With ever more large tracts of wild land broken up and developed in order to pay federal tax bills, the negative effects on biodiversity and threatened species are clear. Larger species, like the Florida panther, are particularly vulnerable because they depend on large, uninterrupted swaths of habitat. According to Dennis Hammond of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, the estate tax is a major threat to the species survival in that state....
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Saturday, May 14, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Paradise Valley rancher loses more sheep to wolves Paradise Valley rancher Bob Weber lost 11 sheep to wolves late Wednesday, apparently after leaving a small gate open on a pen built by Defenders of Wildlife. The four-and-a-half acre enclosure was built by the nonprofit group, which compensates ranchers for livestock lost to wolves. Weber's ranch, south of Livingston, has had several wolf attacks over the past 18 months. "The contract I have with the Defenders of Wildlife is that when I am notified or have a depredation I am required to put them in this pen," Weber said Friday. "I have been putting them in for the past few days to get them used to it. (Wednesday) I didn't get around to closing a gate in the corner." Weber said he had 90 ewes and 150 lambs in the pen. Ed Bangs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator, guessed the predator was a yearling lone wolf. "He probably was overly excited -- killing, grabbing biting -- but was not very successful killing the ewes," Bangs said. Weber said he lost four ewes and seven lambs, including some he had to put down because of their injuries....
Wolf bill stirs controversy at Capitol An executive of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association wants to “amend the hell out of it or kill it.” Wolf conservationists oppose it, but for different reasons. They want wolf protections strengthened. House Republicans, meanwhile, said the bill falls short of addressing ranchers’ concerns. Oregon wildlife officials stirred up controversy at the Capitol last week when they introduced a wolf bill based on a management plan developed by a state wolf advisory committee and adopted earlier this year by the state wildlife commission. The bill, House Bill 3478, restricts ranchers from killing wolves and calls for the state to set aside $200,000 to compensate ranchers for losses....
Coyote non-shooting period a lightning rod Are Michigan hunters capable of distinguishing wolves from coyotes? It's a hot topic of debate right now, as state wildlife officials have suggested extending an Upper Peninsula hunting regulation designed to protect wolves to the northern Lower Peninsula. It has been illegal to shoot coyotes in the Upper Peninsula during the firearms deer season (Nov. 15-30) since 1993, as part of the Department of Natural Resources' wolf recovery plan. Because wolves have been found in the northern Lower Peninsula within the last year, the DNR has recommended that same prohibition against shooting coyotes during gun season apply in the northern Lower as well....
Pups believed to be wolf-dog hybrids are euthanized Six pups that wildlife officials believe to be wolf-dog hybrids were euthanized late this week, several days after they were removed from their den in eastern Arizona. John Morgart, coordinator of the Mexican gray-wolf recovery project for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the pups' physical appearance made it clear they were not purebred wolves. The recovery program aims to restore the endangered wolf population, not create a hybrid population, Morgart said, adding that the agency is authorized by federal law to euthanize hybrid pups. Blood samples drawn from the pups Wednesday are being analyzed to determine their parentage. The results are not expected for weeks....
Developer sets his sights on the Wolf Creek ski area As his passengers lurched to and fro, Davey Pitcher expertly drove the Sno-Cat across the slopes of the no-frills southern Colorado ski area his family has run near the Continental Divide for almost three decades. Pitcher wasn't focusing on the thick stands of pine, the chairlifts stretching to the 11,900-foot summit or the deep snow that make this place a popular draw for serious skiers and 'boarders. He was envisioning what Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs wants to build nearby: a $1 billion project with 222,100 square feet of commercial space, hotels and homes for up to 10,500 people. This in a county with just 932 full-time residents....
E-mail message spurs concern over OMB competitive sourcing tactics An e-mail circulated to Forest Service managers last week has triggered concern that the White House is pushing the agency to prematurely open jobs to private sector competition. The Office of Management and Budget threatened to downgrade the Agriculture Department from a yellow to a red - the lowest rating - on the competitive sourcing section of the Bush administration's quarterly management score card, unless the Forest Service allows contractors to bid on at least 100 jobs by the close of the fiscal year, according to the May 3 message, sent from headquarters to update field managers on the Forest Service's competitive sourcing program....
Column: Trees Can Be Just Another Sacred Cow Only God can make a tree, but anyone can ruin a prairie. Consider the celebrated 19th century journalist Julius Sterling Morton. On moving to Nebraska from Michigan in 1854, he found he didn't like the way nature had designed the Great Plains. Accordingly, he summoned forth "a great army of husbandmen…to battle against the timberless prairies." In 1885, Morton's birthday became a state holiday we all just noted called "Arbor Day." A statue of him, paid for in part by the pennies, nickels and dimes of school children from all over the world, now stands in Nebraska City. Arbor Day is celebrated throughout our land, and when you join the National Arbor Day Foundation you get 10 free tree seedlings that may or may not belong in your area. There are or were prairies in most of our nation, not just the plains states. Prairies used to dominate the San Francisco Bay region, but as Arbor Day euphoria swept west, locals planted trees -- including eucalyptus, America's biggest weed -- thereby wiping out native ecosystems. By 1949, the trees had killed off the remnant population of the prairie-dependent Xerces blue butterfly, making the Presidio of San Francisco -- an old Spanish garrison -- the site of the first documented butterfly extinction in North America....
Mount St. Helens erupting with new life 25 years later When Crisafulli first ventured onto the moonscape left behind by Mount St. Helens' May 18, 1980, eruption, Spirit Lake was lifeless. His discovery of a single lupine growing near its shores two years later was cause for wonder. Now, as the U.S. Forest Service ecologist begins his 25th season on the volcano's flanks, thickets of trees shelter a growing number of animals and the lake supports abundant frog, salamander and fish populations. The scales from the trout — and many more like it — will reveal the animals' ages. Biologists in snorkel gear will swim transects in the lake's shallows, counting fish and searching out the gelatinous egg sacs of amphibians....
Land bill battle heats up A bill that could pave the way for Congress to lay claim to millions of dollars from federal land sales in Clark County advanced on Tuesday. The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that Nevada leaders fear could open the door to a loss of $700 million a year the government is required to spend in the state. But as Congress grapples with looming deficits, a Bush administration plan to tap Southern Nevada land profits is proving attractive, several lawmakers said. "We're half a billion dollars in deficit. There's always an interest in money anywhere," said Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. chairman of the panel that sets annual spending for the Interior Department....
Developers cautious about BLM proposal If the federal government is going to take the majority of the money raised in Nevada via Bureau of Land Management land auctions, then just don't have the sales, or drastically reduce what is sold. If we can't have it -- neither can the federal government. That was the idea floated by Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury recently in response to the resurfacing of President Bush's proposal to take 70 percent of revenue from the land sales while leaving 30 percent for the state. He's looking for other local municipalities and county leaders to back his plan. So far Woodbury has received some support and nods of "sympathy" from other county commissioners, he said....
BLM worker pleads guilty A Bureau of Land Management employee accused of stealing from the agency pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanors in federal court. Daniel C. Boechler, 56, pleaded guilty to identity theft and to keeping stolen government records. A third count of retention of stolen government property, a felony, is to be dismissed at sentencing. Boechler, an employee of BLM's fire center, had been scheduled for a jury trial Monday when he pleaded guilty in a plea agreement. The indictment alleged that on Sept. 12, 2003, Boechler had at his home two GPS units, a long-range telephone, binoculars and a fax machine. He also had the identification card/building access card for BLM employees and his supervisor's airport identification/ access card, which had been stolen in July from the shower room of the fire center....
Developers eye Mojave land California's Mojave Desert has long been the scene of controversy and litigation, much of it driven by conflicts over off-road vehicle use, mining, grazing and the Defense Department's fondness for dropping bombs and driving tanks on it. The Mojave is a landscape of deceptive fragility, and defenders of its rare species and harsh beauty have clashed repeatedly with user groups, industry and the military. Suburban sprawl has not been high on the list of threats, but that is changing. Desert development is booming, particularly in the dusty hinterlands of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, thanks to cheap land, soaring housing costs near the coast, and the apparently boundless willingness of Californians to commute long distances on congested freeways....
Plan may keep bird off endangered list State wildlife officials are seeking landowner agreement programs to protect the Gunnison sage grouse before the bird ends up on the federal Endangered Species List. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is under a court order to propose a rule in September aimed at protecting the bird. The agency then has one year to solicit comments and make a final ruling whether to list it as a "threatened" species. In the meantime, state and federal officials are hoping to put protection plans in place that would keep the listing from being necessary. Since 2000, the Gunnison sage grouse has been recognized as a separate species from the greater sage grouse. It is found in only 10 counties in the southwestern part of Colorado and a few areas of Utah. Wildlife officials estimate its numbers in Colorado at 3,200....
Editorial: A vanishing wildlife fund THE DISCOVERY last month in Arkansas that the magnificent ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct after all should prove to Congress the value of land conservation and the protection of endangered species. But Congress is moving in exactly the opposite direction. A House subcommittee has dropped all money for land acquisition from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and other lawmakers are working to strip the Endangered Species Act of much of its authority to protect critical habitats. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is supposed to receive as much as $900 million a year in royalties collected from federal leases for offshore oil and gas drilling. The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee left it with nothing but operating funds. The subcommittee was only slightly less stingy with the Forest Legacy program, approving just $25 million, the lowest amount in six years. This program is a crucial source of money for states seeking to protect privately owned forestlands from development....
U.S. study says water levels dropping A federal review of the water bank that spent $7.6 million this year to buy irrigation water from Klamath Reclamation Project farmers to increase flows for salmon finds it is seriously drawing down the local water table and may not be able to help fish through extended dry periods. In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said a preliminary estimate has found that private wells pumping for the water bank have increased demand on the local groundwater eightfold, causing water levels in other wells to drop between 2 and 20 feet....
Missouri dog wins hero award for saving rancher's life A border collie and golden retriever mix from Missouri has won the National Hero Dog award for alerting her owner that her husband was pinned underneath a tractor. Eight-year-old Shannon, who lives on an 80-acre ranch in Washington, Mo., accepted the 23rd annual National Hero Dog award Friday with her owners Ted and Peggy Mandry. The award does not honor trained rescue dogs. Instead it honors "a companion animal that's well-treated and has bonded with the family, so they somehow know what to do and step up to the plate when there's trouble," said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. Shannon caught media attention last June when firefighters credited her for saving Ted Mandry's life....
Rancher Finds Balloon Cluster With Letter to Heaven on His Property John Meadows was checking for newborn calves Monday morning when he spotted a white patch in the field of green grass on his Estancia area ranch. It was not the white face of a Hereford newborn or a piece of blowing trash that greeted Meadows, but a sheet of white paper tied to a trio of white balloons with blue ribbon. The paper Meadows found on Monday was neatly folded and contained the following words in a child-like scrawl: "Hi Mom I love you. Doo you like Heaven I hope so God willing I will see you one of these days" The paper bore no legible signature, prompting Meadows to think a child wrote it....
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Paradise Valley rancher loses more sheep to wolves Paradise Valley rancher Bob Weber lost 11 sheep to wolves late Wednesday, apparently after leaving a small gate open on a pen built by Defenders of Wildlife. The four-and-a-half acre enclosure was built by the nonprofit group, which compensates ranchers for livestock lost to wolves. Weber's ranch, south of Livingston, has had several wolf attacks over the past 18 months. "The contract I have with the Defenders of Wildlife is that when I am notified or have a depredation I am required to put them in this pen," Weber said Friday. "I have been putting them in for the past few days to get them used to it. (Wednesday) I didn't get around to closing a gate in the corner." Weber said he had 90 ewes and 150 lambs in the pen. Ed Bangs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator, guessed the predator was a yearling lone wolf. "He probably was overly excited -- killing, grabbing biting -- but was not very successful killing the ewes," Bangs said. Weber said he lost four ewes and seven lambs, including some he had to put down because of their injuries....
Wolf bill stirs controversy at Capitol An executive of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association wants to “amend the hell out of it or kill it.” Wolf conservationists oppose it, but for different reasons. They want wolf protections strengthened. House Republicans, meanwhile, said the bill falls short of addressing ranchers’ concerns. Oregon wildlife officials stirred up controversy at the Capitol last week when they introduced a wolf bill based on a management plan developed by a state wolf advisory committee and adopted earlier this year by the state wildlife commission. The bill, House Bill 3478, restricts ranchers from killing wolves and calls for the state to set aside $200,000 to compensate ranchers for losses....
Coyote non-shooting period a lightning rod Are Michigan hunters capable of distinguishing wolves from coyotes? It's a hot topic of debate right now, as state wildlife officials have suggested extending an Upper Peninsula hunting regulation designed to protect wolves to the northern Lower Peninsula. It has been illegal to shoot coyotes in the Upper Peninsula during the firearms deer season (Nov. 15-30) since 1993, as part of the Department of Natural Resources' wolf recovery plan. Because wolves have been found in the northern Lower Peninsula within the last year, the DNR has recommended that same prohibition against shooting coyotes during gun season apply in the northern Lower as well....
Pups believed to be wolf-dog hybrids are euthanized Six pups that wildlife officials believe to be wolf-dog hybrids were euthanized late this week, several days after they were removed from their den in eastern Arizona. John Morgart, coordinator of the Mexican gray-wolf recovery project for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the pups' physical appearance made it clear they were not purebred wolves. The recovery program aims to restore the endangered wolf population, not create a hybrid population, Morgart said, adding that the agency is authorized by federal law to euthanize hybrid pups. Blood samples drawn from the pups Wednesday are being analyzed to determine their parentage. The results are not expected for weeks....
Developer sets his sights on the Wolf Creek ski area As his passengers lurched to and fro, Davey Pitcher expertly drove the Sno-Cat across the slopes of the no-frills southern Colorado ski area his family has run near the Continental Divide for almost three decades. Pitcher wasn't focusing on the thick stands of pine, the chairlifts stretching to the 11,900-foot summit or the deep snow that make this place a popular draw for serious skiers and 'boarders. He was envisioning what Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs wants to build nearby: a $1 billion project with 222,100 square feet of commercial space, hotels and homes for up to 10,500 people. This in a county with just 932 full-time residents....
E-mail message spurs concern over OMB competitive sourcing tactics An e-mail circulated to Forest Service managers last week has triggered concern that the White House is pushing the agency to prematurely open jobs to private sector competition. The Office of Management and Budget threatened to downgrade the Agriculture Department from a yellow to a red - the lowest rating - on the competitive sourcing section of the Bush administration's quarterly management score card, unless the Forest Service allows contractors to bid on at least 100 jobs by the close of the fiscal year, according to the May 3 message, sent from headquarters to update field managers on the Forest Service's competitive sourcing program....
Column: Trees Can Be Just Another Sacred Cow Only God can make a tree, but anyone can ruin a prairie. Consider the celebrated 19th century journalist Julius Sterling Morton. On moving to Nebraska from Michigan in 1854, he found he didn't like the way nature had designed the Great Plains. Accordingly, he summoned forth "a great army of husbandmen…to battle against the timberless prairies." In 1885, Morton's birthday became a state holiday we all just noted called "Arbor Day." A statue of him, paid for in part by the pennies, nickels and dimes of school children from all over the world, now stands in Nebraska City. Arbor Day is celebrated throughout our land, and when you join the National Arbor Day Foundation you get 10 free tree seedlings that may or may not belong in your area. There are or were prairies in most of our nation, not just the plains states. Prairies used to dominate the San Francisco Bay region, but as Arbor Day euphoria swept west, locals planted trees -- including eucalyptus, America's biggest weed -- thereby wiping out native ecosystems. By 1949, the trees had killed off the remnant population of the prairie-dependent Xerces blue butterfly, making the Presidio of San Francisco -- an old Spanish garrison -- the site of the first documented butterfly extinction in North America....
Mount St. Helens erupting with new life 25 years later When Crisafulli first ventured onto the moonscape left behind by Mount St. Helens' May 18, 1980, eruption, Spirit Lake was lifeless. His discovery of a single lupine growing near its shores two years later was cause for wonder. Now, as the U.S. Forest Service ecologist begins his 25th season on the volcano's flanks, thickets of trees shelter a growing number of animals and the lake supports abundant frog, salamander and fish populations. The scales from the trout — and many more like it — will reveal the animals' ages. Biologists in snorkel gear will swim transects in the lake's shallows, counting fish and searching out the gelatinous egg sacs of amphibians....
Land bill battle heats up A bill that could pave the way for Congress to lay claim to millions of dollars from federal land sales in Clark County advanced on Tuesday. The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that Nevada leaders fear could open the door to a loss of $700 million a year the government is required to spend in the state. But as Congress grapples with looming deficits, a Bush administration plan to tap Southern Nevada land profits is proving attractive, several lawmakers said. "We're half a billion dollars in deficit. There's always an interest in money anywhere," said Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. chairman of the panel that sets annual spending for the Interior Department....
Developers cautious about BLM proposal If the federal government is going to take the majority of the money raised in Nevada via Bureau of Land Management land auctions, then just don't have the sales, or drastically reduce what is sold. If we can't have it -- neither can the federal government. That was the idea floated by Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury recently in response to the resurfacing of President Bush's proposal to take 70 percent of revenue from the land sales while leaving 30 percent for the state. He's looking for other local municipalities and county leaders to back his plan. So far Woodbury has received some support and nods of "sympathy" from other county commissioners, he said....
BLM worker pleads guilty A Bureau of Land Management employee accused of stealing from the agency pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanors in federal court. Daniel C. Boechler, 56, pleaded guilty to identity theft and to keeping stolen government records. A third count of retention of stolen government property, a felony, is to be dismissed at sentencing. Boechler, an employee of BLM's fire center, had been scheduled for a jury trial Monday when he pleaded guilty in a plea agreement. The indictment alleged that on Sept. 12, 2003, Boechler had at his home two GPS units, a long-range telephone, binoculars and a fax machine. He also had the identification card/building access card for BLM employees and his supervisor's airport identification/ access card, which had been stolen in July from the shower room of the fire center....
Developers eye Mojave land California's Mojave Desert has long been the scene of controversy and litigation, much of it driven by conflicts over off-road vehicle use, mining, grazing and the Defense Department's fondness for dropping bombs and driving tanks on it. The Mojave is a landscape of deceptive fragility, and defenders of its rare species and harsh beauty have clashed repeatedly with user groups, industry and the military. Suburban sprawl has not been high on the list of threats, but that is changing. Desert development is booming, particularly in the dusty hinterlands of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, thanks to cheap land, soaring housing costs near the coast, and the apparently boundless willingness of Californians to commute long distances on congested freeways....
Plan may keep bird off endangered list State wildlife officials are seeking landowner agreement programs to protect the Gunnison sage grouse before the bird ends up on the federal Endangered Species List. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is under a court order to propose a rule in September aimed at protecting the bird. The agency then has one year to solicit comments and make a final ruling whether to list it as a "threatened" species. In the meantime, state and federal officials are hoping to put protection plans in place that would keep the listing from being necessary. Since 2000, the Gunnison sage grouse has been recognized as a separate species from the greater sage grouse. It is found in only 10 counties in the southwestern part of Colorado and a few areas of Utah. Wildlife officials estimate its numbers in Colorado at 3,200....
Editorial: A vanishing wildlife fund THE DISCOVERY last month in Arkansas that the magnificent ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct after all should prove to Congress the value of land conservation and the protection of endangered species. But Congress is moving in exactly the opposite direction. A House subcommittee has dropped all money for land acquisition from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and other lawmakers are working to strip the Endangered Species Act of much of its authority to protect critical habitats. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is supposed to receive as much as $900 million a year in royalties collected from federal leases for offshore oil and gas drilling. The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee left it with nothing but operating funds. The subcommittee was only slightly less stingy with the Forest Legacy program, approving just $25 million, the lowest amount in six years. This program is a crucial source of money for states seeking to protect privately owned forestlands from development....
U.S. study says water levels dropping A federal review of the water bank that spent $7.6 million this year to buy irrigation water from Klamath Reclamation Project farmers to increase flows for salmon finds it is seriously drawing down the local water table and may not be able to help fish through extended dry periods. In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said a preliminary estimate has found that private wells pumping for the water bank have increased demand on the local groundwater eightfold, causing water levels in other wells to drop between 2 and 20 feet....
Missouri dog wins hero award for saving rancher's life A border collie and golden retriever mix from Missouri has won the National Hero Dog award for alerting her owner that her husband was pinned underneath a tractor. Eight-year-old Shannon, who lives on an 80-acre ranch in Washington, Mo., accepted the 23rd annual National Hero Dog award Friday with her owners Ted and Peggy Mandry. The award does not honor trained rescue dogs. Instead it honors "a companion animal that's well-treated and has bonded with the family, so they somehow know what to do and step up to the plate when there's trouble," said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. Shannon caught media attention last June when firefighters credited her for saving Ted Mandry's life....
Rancher Finds Balloon Cluster With Letter to Heaven on His Property John Meadows was checking for newborn calves Monday morning when he spotted a white patch in the field of green grass on his Estancia area ranch. It was not the white face of a Hereford newborn or a piece of blowing trash that greeted Meadows, but a sheet of white paper tied to a trio of white balloons with blue ribbon. The paper Meadows found on Monday was neatly folded and contained the following words in a child-like scrawl: "Hi Mom I love you. Doo you like Heaven I hope so God willing I will see you one of these days" The paper bore no legible signature, prompting Meadows to think a child wrote it....
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Friday, May 13, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Column: Slapstick politics make slipshod roadless policy "It's a fine mess you've gotten us into again, Stanley." That famous line from the comedy team Laurel and Hardy is reminiscent of the slapstick political maneuvers of the Bush Administration in its seemingly never-ending struggle to build roads into and develop the last slivers of America's wild lands. In a six-year long farcical, on-again-off-again waste of time and taxpayer money, the administration has merrily proceeded down one dead end after another in its whimsical undertaking to undermine the insistence of the American people that our still unroaded public lands remain just as they are-wild. The amateurish high jinks of the current administration began shortly after the swearing in ceremony of George W. Bush. With the sudden announcement that the new president intended to overturn "The Roadless Rule" and at the urging of the extractive industries, the "Rule" was hauled into court. Venue shopping for a friendly judge began. Following several years of legal machinations, an embarrassing loss to Bush before a federal circuit court and on the very eve of a second federal circuit court decision, the White House has rushed to announce its latest convoluted decision....
Drought crimps grazing on federal grasslands Drought is again prompting the U.S. Forest Service to sharply reduce the number of cattle allowed to graze on federal land in western South Dakota this summer. The Forest Service is cutting back on grazing in an attempt to encourage recovery of the grass and other vegetation on the nearly 2 million acres of federally owned land in two national forests and three national grasslands in western South Dakota, range management officials say. The grazing cutbacks will affect more than 600 private ranchers who will have to find other pasture or feed for thousands of head of cattle....
Forest bill altered; governor signs it this time around Nearly one month after vetoing a forest bill, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed an altered version into law Thursday. The bill provides a variety of tax breaks to entice industry to tackle the job of thinning out Arizona's overgrown forests. But unlike last month, when environmentalists cheered the governor's veto, the Sierra Club jeered her approval of Senate Bill 1283. The group said the bill is not targeted at getting rid of the smaller trees and brush that are clogging the forests and would extend the tax breaks to larger trees....
Why Are Coyotes Getting More Aggressive? Coyotes tend to avoid human contact. But recently, coyotes have been getting increasingly aggressive in the eastern United States, including southeastern New York state, attacking neighborhood pets on the fringe of urban and suburban areas. "This kind of aggressive behavior is usually the last stage before coyotes actually start attacking humans -- such as small children that are perceived by the coyotes as a potential food source," says Paul Curtis, associate professor of natural resources at Cornell University. He notes that in the past two decades, several dozen attacks on humans have been reported in California. Coyotes, which are closely related to dogs and wolves, are ubiquitous in North America, but they rarely have been a danger to humans. Fearful of being hunted and trapped, these large carnivores have typically stayed in wooded areas and away from humans. But now that coyotes have started foraging in suburban areas, more research is needed to find out why and how to prevent potential conflicts with people. Curtis and his colleagues are launching a five-year study of coyote ecology and behavior in urban and suburban areas of New York state, thanks to a grant of $428,000 from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)....
Defenders of Wildlife Releases "Living with Black Bears" DVD In celebration of Bear Awareness Week, May 15-21, Defenders of Wildlife is releasing its newest DVD, entitled "Living with Black Bears in the Tahoe Region." This DVD, which includes both English and Spanish versions of the program, was produced for use in employee and volunteer trainings, U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, and elementary school curriculum. "The 'Living with Black Bears' DVD will enhance bear awareness for those who visit and live in bear country," said Cynthia Wilkerson, California Representative for Defenders of Wildlife. "This presentation includes simple tips that residents and visitors can use to minimize conflicts with black bears in the Tahoe area. We hope that people will take responsibility for sharing habitat with bears by adopting these guidelines into their daily lives. Increasing bear awareness in Tahoe will improve the quality of life for both bears and humans."....
Tracking of mysterious wolverines sheds light 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 geopositioning 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....
Meager chinook run leaves fishing industry high and dry Fertilizer salesman Rex Harke had planned to take 12 of his most loyal clients on a salmon-fishing expedition down the Columbia River this week. Usually at this time, the spring chinook are charging up the river in the tens of thousands, heading from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning beds. But in a phenomenon that has puzzled environmentalists and government biologists, this season the fish have failed to appear. The low numbers prompted officials to halt sport and commercial fishing on the river — and Harke reluctantly called his guide to cancel....
Prison program trains wild horses for new homes Inmate Dean Kruk of Reno reined in the wild horse he was riding Wednesday at the Warm Springs Correctional Center’s training area and paused to talk about the prison’s gentling program. “It has changed my life,” the 47-year-old Kruk said as he stroked “Buddy,” a 3-year-old sorrel gelding rounded up by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from the Jackson Mountains northwest of Winnemucca. The saddle-trained horse, and 11 others gathered by the BLM and Nevada Department of Agriculture throughout the state, are set to be adopted Saturday in a public auction at the Carson City minimum security prison....
Billing glitch terminates oil and gas leases Glitch or no glitch, the federal government demands yearly rental payments on oil and gas leases, or the leases may be terminated and re-sold into the market. Richard Ryan of Cheyenne said he and many others with mineral leases in Wyoming and across the West are paying for the Mineral Management Service's failure to send out lease rental notifications in 2002. Without the notification, many lease holders failed to make the $2-per-acre rental payment for that year. However, the federal government considers the notification a courtesy. The Interior Board of Land Appeals ruled in February that regardless of notification, it is up to mineral lessees to make timely rental payments. Ryan and others who failed to make their 2002 rental payments were asked by the Minerals Management Service to either pay a five-fold increase rental fee or lose their leases....
America's unheralded water cleanup With little fanfare, counties, states, and the federal government have collectively spent an estimated $14 billion or more - at least $1 billion a year since 1990 - to restore rivers and streams to their natural condition, not including dollars spent on Goliath restoration projects like the Everglades. Ironically, the move to clean up America's unheralded rivers comes at a time when the condition of the nation's waterways overall is starting to deteriorate. That finding is tempered by growing signs that the nation's rivers are getting dirtier overall - after decades of getting cleaner, the same study notes. From about 1973 to 1998, rivers and lakes in the United States were getting cleaner, but that's now reversed itself, according to American Rivers, which helped organize the new study....
Nevada water bill pits rural governments against urban lawmaker Governments couldn't sell water rights at market value, under a bill debated Wednesday in an Assembly panel - and opposed by rural Nevada officials who said it will keep them from getting what the water's really worth in this arid state. Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said he introduced SB466 to keep local government agencies from sales of water rights at inflated prices that would "drive the fair-market value of water through the roof." Hardy's bill, reviewed by the Assembly Government Affairs Committee, would prohibit state and local government agencies from selling or leasing a water right for more than the appraised value. Currently, the price of the water is left to the market - and scarce supplies and rapid growth have typically kept the price well above the appraised value....
Mouths Where Their Money Is Yesterday, nearly 400 people met at the United Nations headquarters to talk about changing the world. They were upbeat and enthusiastic about their power to get corporate America's attention, and to demand that it take climate change seriously. And not just take it seriously, but do something about it. Who were these people? Global activists? International diplomats? No. They were American state treasurers, city and state comptrollers, and managers of pension and mutual funds, joined by a smattering of their European colleagues. They gathered for the second Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, cosponsored by the United Nations Foundation -- established by billionaire Ted Turner in 1998 to support U.N. causes -- and Ceres, a Boston-based investor-environmentalist coalition. These financial managers collectively control trillions of dollars in investments in U.S. public corporations, and are responsible for seeing to it that millions of retired steelworkers, teachers, state employees, and others do not wake up one day and find themselves not just elderly, but poor. As far as these professionals are concerned, climate change is creating huge investment risks -- but it also holds the potential for enormous financial rewards. It is their professional responsibility to see to it that U.S. corporations deal with both....
Bottlenecks Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jared Diamond. Are our dealings with nature sustainable? Can we expect world economic growth to continue for the foreseeable future? Should we be confident that our knowledge and skills will increase in ways that will lessen our reliance on nature despite our growing numbers and rising economic activity? Jared Diamond, a professor of geography in California, looks for answers to these big questions by examining the societies that collapsed. The body of his book contains accounts of four such societies: the Easter Islanders; the Anasazi; the Mayans; and the Norse in Greenland, who died out six hundred years ago. Diamond demonstrates that the proximate cause of each collapse was ecological devastation brought about, broadly speaking, by one or more of the following: deforestation and habitat destruction; soil degradation (erosion, salinisation and fertility decline); water management problems; over-hunting; over-fishing; population growth; increased per capita impact on the environment; and the impact of exotic species on native species of plants and animals. As might be expected, the relative importance of these factors differs from case to case....
Escape from Ecotopia In the afterword to the 30th-anniversary edition of his 1975 novel, Ernest Callenbach writes, "Looking back, it seems clear that Ecotopia was the first attempt to portray a sustainable society, and that this, more than its modest literary merit, explains its durability." Sadly, there is no false humility in that statement. Ecotopia is ostensibly about a secessionist Northwest -- northern California, Oregon, and Washington -- founded on ecological principles. In this independent land, cars are abolished, everybody recycles, and sewage is turned to fertilizer. More fundamentally, Ecotopia is a "stable-state" society, where old notions of economic progress are retired and "biological stasis" becomes the ultimate goal. That sounds good, as far as it goes; however, the vision is weighed down by so much extraneous cultural baggage -- Marxism, paganism, free love, ritual warfare, communal living, abortion on demand, legalized drugs, gamelan orchestras -- that readers coming to Ecotopia for the first time will find both more and less than they bargained for....
A farewell tribute to Mary Dann On Saturday morning, April 30, 2005, Dann family members, relatives, friends and supporters gathered at the Dann family ranch in Crescent Valley, in the Western Shoshone Territory (Nevada), to honor Mary Dann. As white billowing clouds hovered in the distance above beautiful desert mountain peaks, people gathered to honor Western Shoshone elder Mary Dann, who died on Earth Day, April 22, in an all-terrain vehicle accident while checking a fence line at the Dann ranch. Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney said a prayer in the Shoshone language and blessed the food. He reminded everyone that Mother Earth provides us with all the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the land we live on. He advised everyone to stay mindful of this fact. A number of Mary's immediate family members reminisced about Mary's life and told everyone how much they had learned from her life, her wisdom, and from the powerful example that she set, with her quiet and plainspoken style....
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Column: Slapstick politics make slipshod roadless policy "It's a fine mess you've gotten us into again, Stanley." That famous line from the comedy team Laurel and Hardy is reminiscent of the slapstick political maneuvers of the Bush Administration in its seemingly never-ending struggle to build roads into and develop the last slivers of America's wild lands. In a six-year long farcical, on-again-off-again waste of time and taxpayer money, the administration has merrily proceeded down one dead end after another in its whimsical undertaking to undermine the insistence of the American people that our still unroaded public lands remain just as they are-wild. The amateurish high jinks of the current administration began shortly after the swearing in ceremony of George W. Bush. With the sudden announcement that the new president intended to overturn "The Roadless Rule" and at the urging of the extractive industries, the "Rule" was hauled into court. Venue shopping for a friendly judge began. Following several years of legal machinations, an embarrassing loss to Bush before a federal circuit court and on the very eve of a second federal circuit court decision, the White House has rushed to announce its latest convoluted decision....
Drought crimps grazing on federal grasslands Drought is again prompting the U.S. Forest Service to sharply reduce the number of cattle allowed to graze on federal land in western South Dakota this summer. The Forest Service is cutting back on grazing in an attempt to encourage recovery of the grass and other vegetation on the nearly 2 million acres of federally owned land in two national forests and three national grasslands in western South Dakota, range management officials say. The grazing cutbacks will affect more than 600 private ranchers who will have to find other pasture or feed for thousands of head of cattle....
Forest bill altered; governor signs it this time around Nearly one month after vetoing a forest bill, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed an altered version into law Thursday. The bill provides a variety of tax breaks to entice industry to tackle the job of thinning out Arizona's overgrown forests. But unlike last month, when environmentalists cheered the governor's veto, the Sierra Club jeered her approval of Senate Bill 1283. The group said the bill is not targeted at getting rid of the smaller trees and brush that are clogging the forests and would extend the tax breaks to larger trees....
Why Are Coyotes Getting More Aggressive? Coyotes tend to avoid human contact. But recently, coyotes have been getting increasingly aggressive in the eastern United States, including southeastern New York state, attacking neighborhood pets on the fringe of urban and suburban areas. "This kind of aggressive behavior is usually the last stage before coyotes actually start attacking humans -- such as small children that are perceived by the coyotes as a potential food source," says Paul Curtis, associate professor of natural resources at Cornell University. He notes that in the past two decades, several dozen attacks on humans have been reported in California. Coyotes, which are closely related to dogs and wolves, are ubiquitous in North America, but they rarely have been a danger to humans. Fearful of being hunted and trapped, these large carnivores have typically stayed in wooded areas and away from humans. But now that coyotes have started foraging in suburban areas, more research is needed to find out why and how to prevent potential conflicts with people. Curtis and his colleagues are launching a five-year study of coyote ecology and behavior in urban and suburban areas of New York state, thanks to a grant of $428,000 from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)....
Defenders of Wildlife Releases "Living with Black Bears" DVD In celebration of Bear Awareness Week, May 15-21, Defenders of Wildlife is releasing its newest DVD, entitled "Living with Black Bears in the Tahoe Region." This DVD, which includes both English and Spanish versions of the program, was produced for use in employee and volunteer trainings, U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, and elementary school curriculum. "The 'Living with Black Bears' DVD will enhance bear awareness for those who visit and live in bear country," said Cynthia Wilkerson, California Representative for Defenders of Wildlife. "This presentation includes simple tips that residents and visitors can use to minimize conflicts with black bears in the Tahoe area. We hope that people will take responsibility for sharing habitat with bears by adopting these guidelines into their daily lives. Increasing bear awareness in Tahoe will improve the quality of life for both bears and humans."....
Tracking of mysterious wolverines sheds light 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 geopositioning 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....
Meager chinook run leaves fishing industry high and dry Fertilizer salesman Rex Harke had planned to take 12 of his most loyal clients on a salmon-fishing expedition down the Columbia River this week. Usually at this time, the spring chinook are charging up the river in the tens of thousands, heading from the Pacific Ocean to their spawning beds. But in a phenomenon that has puzzled environmentalists and government biologists, this season the fish have failed to appear. The low numbers prompted officials to halt sport and commercial fishing on the river — and Harke reluctantly called his guide to cancel....
Prison program trains wild horses for new homes Inmate Dean Kruk of Reno reined in the wild horse he was riding Wednesday at the Warm Springs Correctional Center’s training area and paused to talk about the prison’s gentling program. “It has changed my life,” the 47-year-old Kruk said as he stroked “Buddy,” a 3-year-old sorrel gelding rounded up by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from the Jackson Mountains northwest of Winnemucca. The saddle-trained horse, and 11 others gathered by the BLM and Nevada Department of Agriculture throughout the state, are set to be adopted Saturday in a public auction at the Carson City minimum security prison....
Billing glitch terminates oil and gas leases Glitch or no glitch, the federal government demands yearly rental payments on oil and gas leases, or the leases may be terminated and re-sold into the market. Richard Ryan of Cheyenne said he and many others with mineral leases in Wyoming and across the West are paying for the Mineral Management Service's failure to send out lease rental notifications in 2002. Without the notification, many lease holders failed to make the $2-per-acre rental payment for that year. However, the federal government considers the notification a courtesy. The Interior Board of Land Appeals ruled in February that regardless of notification, it is up to mineral lessees to make timely rental payments. Ryan and others who failed to make their 2002 rental payments were asked by the Minerals Management Service to either pay a five-fold increase rental fee or lose their leases....
America's unheralded water cleanup With little fanfare, counties, states, and the federal government have collectively spent an estimated $14 billion or more - at least $1 billion a year since 1990 - to restore rivers and streams to their natural condition, not including dollars spent on Goliath restoration projects like the Everglades. Ironically, the move to clean up America's unheralded rivers comes at a time when the condition of the nation's waterways overall is starting to deteriorate. That finding is tempered by growing signs that the nation's rivers are getting dirtier overall - after decades of getting cleaner, the same study notes. From about 1973 to 1998, rivers and lakes in the United States were getting cleaner, but that's now reversed itself, according to American Rivers, which helped organize the new study....
Nevada water bill pits rural governments against urban lawmaker Governments couldn't sell water rights at market value, under a bill debated Wednesday in an Assembly panel - and opposed by rural Nevada officials who said it will keep them from getting what the water's really worth in this arid state. Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said he introduced SB466 to keep local government agencies from sales of water rights at inflated prices that would "drive the fair-market value of water through the roof." Hardy's bill, reviewed by the Assembly Government Affairs Committee, would prohibit state and local government agencies from selling or leasing a water right for more than the appraised value. Currently, the price of the water is left to the market - and scarce supplies and rapid growth have typically kept the price well above the appraised value....
Mouths Where Their Money Is Yesterday, nearly 400 people met at the United Nations headquarters to talk about changing the world. They were upbeat and enthusiastic about their power to get corporate America's attention, and to demand that it take climate change seriously. And not just take it seriously, but do something about it. Who were these people? Global activists? International diplomats? No. They were American state treasurers, city and state comptrollers, and managers of pension and mutual funds, joined by a smattering of their European colleagues. They gathered for the second Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, cosponsored by the United Nations Foundation -- established by billionaire Ted Turner in 1998 to support U.N. causes -- and Ceres, a Boston-based investor-environmentalist coalition. These financial managers collectively control trillions of dollars in investments in U.S. public corporations, and are responsible for seeing to it that millions of retired steelworkers, teachers, state employees, and others do not wake up one day and find themselves not just elderly, but poor. As far as these professionals are concerned, climate change is creating huge investment risks -- but it also holds the potential for enormous financial rewards. It is their professional responsibility to see to it that U.S. corporations deal with both....
Bottlenecks Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jared Diamond. Are our dealings with nature sustainable? Can we expect world economic growth to continue for the foreseeable future? Should we be confident that our knowledge and skills will increase in ways that will lessen our reliance on nature despite our growing numbers and rising economic activity? Jared Diamond, a professor of geography in California, looks for answers to these big questions by examining the societies that collapsed. The body of his book contains accounts of four such societies: the Easter Islanders; the Anasazi; the Mayans; and the Norse in Greenland, who died out six hundred years ago. Diamond demonstrates that the proximate cause of each collapse was ecological devastation brought about, broadly speaking, by one or more of the following: deforestation and habitat destruction; soil degradation (erosion, salinisation and fertility decline); water management problems; over-hunting; over-fishing; population growth; increased per capita impact on the environment; and the impact of exotic species on native species of plants and animals. As might be expected, the relative importance of these factors differs from case to case....
Escape from Ecotopia In the afterword to the 30th-anniversary edition of his 1975 novel, Ernest Callenbach writes, "Looking back, it seems clear that Ecotopia was the first attempt to portray a sustainable society, and that this, more than its modest literary merit, explains its durability." Sadly, there is no false humility in that statement. Ecotopia is ostensibly about a secessionist Northwest -- northern California, Oregon, and Washington -- founded on ecological principles. In this independent land, cars are abolished, everybody recycles, and sewage is turned to fertilizer. More fundamentally, Ecotopia is a "stable-state" society, where old notions of economic progress are retired and "biological stasis" becomes the ultimate goal. That sounds good, as far as it goes; however, the vision is weighed down by so much extraneous cultural baggage -- Marxism, paganism, free love, ritual warfare, communal living, abortion on demand, legalized drugs, gamelan orchestras -- that readers coming to Ecotopia for the first time will find both more and less than they bargained for....
A farewell tribute to Mary Dann On Saturday morning, April 30, 2005, Dann family members, relatives, friends and supporters gathered at the Dann family ranch in Crescent Valley, in the Western Shoshone Territory (Nevada), to honor Mary Dann. As white billowing clouds hovered in the distance above beautiful desert mountain peaks, people gathered to honor Western Shoshone elder Mary Dann, who died on Earth Day, April 22, in an all-terrain vehicle accident while checking a fence line at the Dann ranch. Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney said a prayer in the Shoshone language and blessed the food. He reminded everyone that Mother Earth provides us with all the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the land we live on. He advised everyone to stay mindful of this fact. A number of Mary's immediate family members reminisced about Mary's life and told everyone how much they had learned from her life, her wisdom, and from the powerful example that she set, with her quiet and plainspoken style....
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