NEWS

Rainbow Family Blocked in Forest U.S. Forest Service authorities have denied a permit application for the 2005 National Rainbow Gathering, but campers say they are going in anyway. Meanwhile, a U.S. Forest Service roadblock has separated many campers from family, friends and food supplies. When the counterculture group last gathered in West Virginia 25 years ago, two women hitchhiking to the event were murdered in Pocahontas County. Those murders remain unsolved. The Rainbow Family group announced earlier this month that the gathering would return to West Virginia, bringing thousands of nature lovers to a chosen site. Dozens of the group have arrived in the state as part of a scouting group in advance of a major event at the end of the month, expected to bring thousands to eastern West Virginia. The site they appear to have chosen, however, has left them at odds with the U.S. Forest Service over the safety of several endangered species and the permit process. "They (Rainbows) can come out, they just can't return," U.S. Forest Service's Rainbow Family Incident Team Information Officer Steve Stein said. "This is an unapproved site and they need to come out."....
Land Study on Grazing Denounced The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study. A government biologist and a hydrologist, who both retired this year from the Bureau of Land Management, said their conclusions that the proposed new rules might adversely affect water quality and wildlife, including endangered species, were excised and replaced with language justifying less stringent regulations favored by cattle ranchers. Grazing regulations, which affect 160 million acres of public land in the Western U.S., set the conditions under which ranchers may use that land, and guide government managers in determining how many cattle may graze, where and for how long without harming natural resources. The original draft of the environmental analysis warned that the new rules would have a "significant adverse impact" on wildlife, but that phrase was removed. The bureau now concludes that the grazing regulations are "beneficial to animals." Eliminated from the final draft was another conclusion that read: "The Proposed Action will have a slow, long-term adverse impact on wildlife and biological diversity in general." Also removed was language saying how a number of the rule changes could adversely affect endangered species....
Saltwater spills near Fryburg About 42,000 gallons of saltwater byproduct from oil drilling spilled from a ruptured pipeline near Fryburg, in southwestern North Dakota, the U.S. Forest Service says. Some of the saltwater flowed into Frank's Creek, but the Forest Service said the stream does not contain fish. Denver-based Whiting Petroleum, which owns the pipeline, notified authorities on Wednesday. The company has been flushing the area with fresh water....
Fire: friend or foe? John Muir once described riding a horse around Lake Tahoe without once having to remove his hat. The trees were so tall and spread out, not one branch could have knocked it off. Now, because of a century of fire suppression, Tahoe's forests are much different. Once dominated by wide-open, old-growth forest, with towering sugar and Jeffrey pines, it is now composed more and more of dense white fir. Old growth now makes up only 5 percent of the forest. Tahoe's dense forests have many worried the basin will undergo a devastating catastrophic fire. Still, experts contend fire was once an integral part of a healthy Tahoe ecosystem....
Waging war on the weed The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday deployed a special weapon against a tough weed that has infested portions of the Pike National Forest southwest of Denver. In a rocky canyon bottom carved by the South Platte River, biologists unleashed a quarter- million tiny flea beetles to dine on clusters of leafy spurge that have infiltrated the Buffalo Creek burn. Other releases will turn hundreds of thousands more beetles loose on the weed in other areas of the forest. The beetle offensive is part of a concerted war against leafy spurge, one of the most rapacious invasive plants in the West. The weed has taken over almost 3 million acres, costs ranchers up to $45 million a year, and has been a bane to wildlife and native plants....
Editorial: Governor should petition to protect pristine areas The Clinton administration's Roadless Rule, overturned last month by President Bush, protected 4 million acres of Utah's national forest land. A new policy puts the fate of those forests more squarely into the hands of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. The Clinton rule had its flaws, but the Bush plan could threaten precious water sources and some of the last refuges for recreation and wildlife unless governors make a study of its impacts and petition for continued protection. So far, unfortunately, Huntsman seems content to let the U.S. Forest Service's management plans dictate the future of the forests in Utah. That could lead to more development, primarily by oil and gas companies that, in today's energy market, have a huge economic incentive to move operations into wild areas. We urge the governor to step forward and embrace his role in the far-reaching decisions that will profoundly affect the last of the relatively unspoiled forests that belong to all Utahns and, indeed, to all Americans....
Tadpoles of endangered toad to be released Good news for the endangered Wyoming toad: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to reintroduce several hundred more Wyoming toad tadpoles in Albany County. The Wyoming toad is the only toad in the Laramie Basin, and the basin is the toad's only home. The toad was listed as endangered in 1984 and thought to have gone extinct in 1987, although toads were later found at Mortenson Lake, southwest of Laramie. Thousands of toads have since been bred in captivity and released, with mixed results. The latest release is planned on private land near Centennial and the Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It's part of a "safe harbor" agreement between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the owner of the land, a nonprofit group called the Buford Foundation....
Changes for grizzly death levels sought A group of state and federal officials is recommending changing what is considered an acceptable level of grizzly bear deaths in the greater Yellowstone area. Some conservationists fear changing the so-called mortality thresholds for the region's federally protected grizzlies could lead to more dead bears, particularly in Wyoming, a state that's home to many of the bears and of residents who are less than enthusiastic about their presence. But a federal wildlife official said Friday he doesn't expect deaths to rise much as a result. Rather, Chris Servheen said, the planned change is intended to allow wildlife officials to better track how - and how many - bears are dying. "The goal is to do a better job of accounting for mortalities," said Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials want to change the acceptable mortality limits for bears from 4 percent for both sexes to 9 percent for females and 15 percent for males. A management review would be triggered if the mortality limits were exceeded for two straight years, Servheen said. Servheen said the proposed method, backed by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, would also track all bear deaths, not just those caused by humans....
National Wildlife Federation sues Corps over Florida snail kite The snail kite population around this troubled lake has been nearly devastated and its designated habitat has become significantly impaired in the past decade, the National Wildlife Federation said Friday. The NWF blames the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the setback because it failed to create a program that would have monitored the effects of changing lake levels on the endangered, protected bird. The group said it plans to sue the Corps because it violated rules established by the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect the bird and its 100,000 acres of critical habitat....
'Privacy' a bar to disclosure of electronic GIS maps by FEMA Electronic maps maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency do not have to be given to a non-profit environmental group under the personal privacy exemption of the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver (10th Cir.) ruled Tuesday. FEMA argued and the court agreed that releasing electronic versions of Geographic Information System maps could allow the group, Forest Guardians, to match mapping data with other data to deduce the names and addresses of policyholders under the National Flood Insurance Program. Policyholders' identities are protected by Exemption 6 of the FOI Act, the court said. Forest Guardians first requested the data in January 2001 to geographically trace how federally subsidized flood insurance affects endangered species in New Mexico floodplains. "The government's decision to provide insurance fragments and mars one of our most sensitive and valuable landscapes" by encouraging further floodplain development, Forest Guardians employee John Horning said in an organization news release....
Extra water won't help fish, feds say The federal government is asking an appeals court to throw out a judge's order to spill extra water over Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams to help salmon this summer, arguing there is no hard evidence it will help fish, and claiming that the judge exceeded his authority. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion late Wednesday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on behalf of NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operate the dams. The appeal came after a federal judge in Portland found the government's plan for minimizing the harm to endangered salmon by the hydroelectric system in the Columbia Basin violated the Endangered Species Act....
Policy adds protection for salmon A new federal policy issued Thursday puts 131 strains of hatchery salmon under Endangered Species Act protection along with their wild cousins, but allows those raised artificially to still be harvested by fishermen. While counting hatchery fish along with wild fish under the new policy, NOAA Fisheries decided against taking 15 populations of salmon and steelhead off the threatened and endangered species lists, added lower Columbia River coho to the threatened list, and decided to wait six months before deciding what to do with 10 listed populations of steelhead and Oregon coastal coho. Both the review of Endangered Species Act status for all West Coast salmon and steelhead and the new hatchery policy were prompted by a 2001 federal court ruling that NOAA Fisheries could no longer consider the same strains of salmon and steelhead different just because one spawned naturally in the wild and one was spawned artificially in a hatchery....
A Look At The Forests Three Years After The Rodeo-Chediski Fire It’s hard to believe that three years have passed since the devastating Rodeo-Chediski fire burned a half-million acres of forestland. As the third anniversary of the Rodeo fire is Saturday, the Tribune-News looks back to see what happened, and what has changed since then. The Rodeo fire was reported June 18, near the Rodeo Fairgrounds in Cibecue. At that time, it was suspicious, so fire teams had an arson investigator called in to investigate. By nightfall, more than 1,000 acres had burned. By June 19, the fire had burned 53,900 acres, and many in the Clay Springs, Pinedale, Linden and Fools Hollow areas were placed on high alert. By the following day, 70,800 acres had burned, and many residents in the area were hit with another problem, the Chediski fire, started by a lost hiker trying to signal for help....
Column: Elvis, Wolves, and The Death of Environmentalism In a provocative speech delivered last year to the Environmental Grantmaker's Association, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger declared that environmentalism was dead. Since then, many influential environmental leaders have joined in this "Death Debate." These leaders are disputing the movement's efficacy, especially over the last ten years as anti-environmental sentiment and policy-making have curtailed past environmental gains. Resolution in this debate remains elusive; the only certainty is that environmentalism's death is as questionable as Elvis' but lacks his celebrity appeal. At the same time that environmentalism supposedly died, however, one of the greatest environmental success stories in history was playing out on the landscapes of the rural West. Typical of doom-and-gloom environmentalists, many of us ignored this extraordinary success and focused on other failures. In-so-doing, we missed two things we need most: 1) the lessons our movement's celebrities -- wolves -- can teach us, and 2) hope. The Death Debate has primarily pitted a group of urban think-tank environmentalists against the urban-based leaders of the larger mainstream environmental organizations. While their differences are pronounced, the adversaries are all calling for a realignment of environmentalism with a broader "progressive movement" in America. Pieces of this realignment include more diversity inspired environmental-justice funding, more leftist-inspired anti-globalization campaigns, myriad urban programs focused on transit development and green building, and broad-scale coalitions to address global warming. While debate continues to rage about these urban and suburban issues, participants have ignored discussing rural America and the environmental stories playing out on rural landscapes....

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NEWS

Man Says He'll Leave Treasure Hidden in Desert The family of a man who claims to have found millions of dollars worth of gold and antique guns in a desert cave says he's tired of dealing with the federal government and plans to just leave the cache where he found it. Scott Taylor has been a virtual recluse since news broke this week on two Salt Lake television stations that he allegedly stumbled across a lost fortune while hiking on public land in west Utah about a month and a half ago. Taylor claims he found 280 gold bricks with "U-S Cavalry" stamped on each; two Civil War-era rifles; a six-shooter; and dynamite. But the Bureau of Land Management and others say Scott Taylor is the only who claims to have seen this loot. The Taylors counter the goverment isn't willing to share a finder's fee for the cache. The B-L-M says it's NOT their place to negotiate, and if the gold really has 'U-S Cavalry' on it, then it belongs to the Army....
Feds develop plan to use oil reserve The federal government is launching a process that could lead to oil leases in a reserve encompassing a southwestern section of Alaska's North Slope. The Bureau of Land Management begins a series of public meetings in July to discuss possible uses for the southwestern part of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, a Bureau of Land Management official in Anchorage confirmed Friday. The meetings will focus on use of 9.2 million acres in the southwest portion of the 23-million-acre reserve....
COURT ORDERS BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO RELEASE SOME ENERGY RECORDS, BUT SOME TO REMAIN SECRET In a mixed ruling today, a federal appellate court upheld a lower court decision that the Bush administration improperly withheld documents related to fast-tracking federal energy projects. However, the court also ruled that the administration could continue to withhold the records of key staffers of Vice President Cheney's energy task force. The D.C. Court of Appeals found that Ronald Montagna, a Bureau of Land Management official, remained an employee of the Interior Department while serving on the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining. As a result, the court ordered the agency to search and publicly disclose records related to Mr. Montagna's work on that task force. The streamlining task force has aggressively opened public lands to energy development at the expense of environmental protection and public participation, according to NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). Also in today's decision, the court rebuffed NRDC's efforts to obtain additional documents related to Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force....
New grazing rules mean less down time New rules for livestock grazing on 160 million acres of federal lands were welcomed by ranchers but criticized by environmentalists. The regulations issued Thursday by the Interior Department will require ranchers to either use the grazing lands they lease from the government or give up their permits so others can use them. Any ranchers who leave acreage idle for more than a year could lose their grazing permits, which are generally issued for 10 years. The department’s Bureau of Land Management had been letting people keep the permits as long as they didn’t go more than three years without using the acreage for grazing....

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BLM Publishes Final Environmental Impact Study on Changes to Grazing Regulations

The Bureau of Land Management today announced the availability of a final environmental impact study that concludes upcoming grazing regulation changes will produce long-term benefits for public rangelands. An official notice of the study’s availability will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, June 17, 2005. “This environmental impact analysis underscores grazing’s role as a vital use of public lands in the rural West,” said Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals. “The revisions will improve BLM’s management of public lands ranching, an activity that not only supports rural economies, but also preserves open space and wildlife habitat in the rapidly growing West.” The final environmental impact study, posted on BLM’s national Web site (www.blm.gov/grazing), analyzes the impact of the upcoming grazing regulation revisions, including their ecological, cultural, social, and economic effects. More specifically, the study examines the impact of a grazing management option that tracks with the provisions of the upcoming grazing regulation changes, as well as the effects of two other management alternatives. The new grazing regulations, to be published next month in the Federal Register, are aimed at improving BLM’s working relationships with public lands ranchers. The revisions also reflect the agency’s commitment to managing the public lands for multiple uses, including grazing, while ensuring the health and productivity of these lands. The revisions will retain key elements of the “Rangeland Reform” initiative that revised grazing regulations nearly a decade ago. Specifically, the regulations will continue the role of BLM’s Resource Advisory Councils, composed of citizens across the West who advise and make recommendations to the agency on public-land issues. The revised regulations will also leave intact the rangeland health standards and guidelines developed by the RACs....

Go here(pdf)to view a Fact Sheet on the grazing regs.

Go here(pdf)to view a Q&A on the grazing regs.

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BLM and Forest Service Seek Public Comments on the Fourth Edition of the Gold Book

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) have released a draft updated version of the Gold Book for public review and comments. The official title of the updated fourth edition is Surface Operating Standards for Oil and Gas Development. The revised edition introduces best business practices (BBPs) to help further improve the processing of Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) and environmental best management practices (BMPs) designed to reduce the environmental impacts of energy exploration and production. The public will have (30 days) until July 10, 2005, to comment on the draft. The Gold Book outlines procedures for conducting oil and gas operations on BLM- and USFS-managed lands and split-estate lands. The most recent update of the book was more than 15 years ago. The revised version will include updated drawings, photographs, tables, references, policy, orders and regulations. Copies of the draft Gold Book and instructions for providing comments can be found at: http://www.blm.gov/bmp/ Following the public review and comment period, an interagency team will review submissions and incorporate appropriate changes in the final Fourth Edition. The final version will be available on the Internet prior to being printed....

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MAD COW DISEASE

US cow may have rare BSE strain

A rare and puzzling form of mad cow disease that some believe arises spontaneously may have afflicted the U.S. animal that tested positive for the ailment last week, a senior Agriculture Department scientist told Reuters. The USDA has sent a sample of the suspect animal's brain to an internationally recognized laboratory in England to pinpoint if the animal has bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The USDA said it could take another week to complete final tests. Juergen Richt, a member of the USDA team in Ames, Iowa that already tested the animal, said the unusual test results could point to a relatively new strain of BSE that infects cattle sporadically, instead of from eating contaminated food. But he said it was too early to draw a conclusion about the aging, beef animal was slaughtered last November and incinerated because it was a "downer" unable to walk, and banned from the human food supply. "Nobody knows for sure yet, but the theory is it could be a spontaneous bovine disease," said the veterinarian medical officer. "There are some hallmark signs that this could be an atypical case." Since then, scientists in France, Italy, Japan and Belgium have discovered at least two new BSE strains that differ from the outbreak that swept European herds in the 1980s. Cattle brains infected with the two new strains resemble brains of humans diagnosed with classical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal form of dementia that infects one in a million people worldwide, researchers said. Some experts believe the new BSE strains could arise naturally within cattle, for reasons that remain unknown. "The jury is still out on this," Richt said. "Is it infectious? That's the $100,000 question." Experts expressed concern about the possibility of an animal developing BSE spontaneously. Richt said a naturally occurring BSE strain would probably infect other cattle. "Sporadic BSE in cattle would most likely be infectious for other cattle, but no one can tell you yet if it's infectious for humans," he said. Scientists were years away from answering these questions, Richt added. But he said any carcasses infected with a new strain should be treated as any other BSE-infected animal and segregated from human and animal feed supplies. Richt considered the current suspect animal a good candidate for the atypical strain, with conflicting test results similar to cases in Japan and Belgium....

World's First Live Cattle Diagnostic Test for BSE

Vacci-Test(TM) Corporation today announced that a simple, reliable and economical diagnostic tool for the detection in "live" cattle of infectious Brain Diseases ("BD"), including Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), will soon be available for use on farms and ranches in Canada and around the world. Designed for the measurement of immunity and the presence of infectious diseases in both humans and animals, patented Vacci-Test(TM) allows for the precise evaluation of the immune status very quickly through a simple blood test. Vacci-Test(TM) BD can determine the presence of a protein marker which identifies brain infections such as BSE in cattle. "A single drop of blood will identify the presence of Protein 14-3-3, the marker for brain infections, including BSE," says Bill Hogan, President and CEO. "This will facilitate affordable mass testing of live cattle in the field with results readable in less than 30 minutes. Furthermore, Vacci-Test(TM)platform can diagnose any kind of bacteria-viruses based infectious diseases in livestock and humans. To this end, we now have 6 additional Vacci-Test(TM)In Vitro diagnostic products ready for commercialization," said Hogan....

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NEWS

Forest Service ending some recreation fees The Forest Service is eliminating $5 and $10 recreation fees it charges at about 500 picnic areas and trailheads after outdoor enthusiasts and Western lawmakers complained. The fees also could disappear at other recreation areas among thousands operated by the government but will remain at those with parking lots, restrooms and other amenities under a law Congress passed last year. The new law "raises the bar for sites to qualify for charging fees so the public can enjoy more amenities," said Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. Nationwide, 61 percent of more than 16,000 sites operated by the Forest Service will be free of charge, officials said....
Songbird found in Calif., first sighting in 60 years A chatty songbird thought to have disappeared from the Central Valley 60 years ago has been spotted nesting in a patch of restored habitat along the San Joaquin River. The least Bell's vireo, a little gray songbird that fits in a closed fist, was once widespread in the Central Valley. It disappeared from the area as the riparian habitat it favors was ripped up to make way for development and agriculture. About 90 percent of the valley's historic riverside vegetation has been lost, said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bird was put on the federal endangered species list in 1986, when there were only about 300 pairs left in the low-lying shrubbery along creeks and streams in southern California....
Shooting holes in steel shot myth Roster said approximately 95 percent of all shot fired at waterfowl is steel, so much of the research has focused on steel shot. A long-standing criticism of steel pellets has been it is less dense and loses momentum at longer ranges. Also, hunters feared the harder pellet would damage shotgun barrels and chokes. Roster's conclusion is steel shot is not only an adequate replacement, but is superior to lead in some respects. Research shows steel has better penetration when the shot is the same weight, and actually penetrates better outside of 45 yards. Steel pellets also cause little or no damage to equipment, because the shell wadding is used to protect the barrel from erosion. "Fear not about erosion," Roster said. Roster reminded steel is also the cheapest option, next to lead....
Four Mexican wolves released in Gila Wilderness Federal and state wildlife officials say they have released four Mexican wolves in the Gila Wilderness of southwestern New Mexico. The action comes just before a round of public meetings in the state aimed at reviewing the wolf reintroduction program and considering a one-year moratorium on releases of all but "experienced" wolves. Some area cattle ranchers are upset about the wolf reintroductions, claiming the animals have added to the economic woes of their already precarious industry. "Two adult Mexican gray wolves, one yearling and three pups, were moved to a remote area of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico this week to increase the number of breeding pairs of wolves in the wild and to add genetic diversity to the wild population," the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team say in a joint statement. The pack was moved from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge south of Albuquerque, the officials indicate. The wolves and pups have been in captivity, removed earlier from the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area in Arizona....

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NEWS

Wildlife officials looking for clues in wolf poisoning Wildlife officials say they have no suspects in their investigation into poisoned bait left for wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho. "Poison cases are very hard to make, especially when it's showing up mostly on public land," said Roy Brown, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servie agent based in Wyoming. "Short of seeing someone put it out, how do you tie it back to people?" On June 3, Fish and Wildlife Service agents confirmed that a male gray wolf found dead last month in the wilderness area was killed by eating meat laced with a gray granular pesticide known as Temik. The pesticide is commonly applied to agricultural crops such as potatoes and sugar beets....
Bill to permit shooting of wolves apparently dead A bill permitting Oregon ranchers to shoot wolves that attack their livestock looks to be dead this legislative session, after some ranchers criticized it for imposing too many conditions. The bill would have relaxed an Oregon law that prohibits killing wolves and would pay ranchers for livestock and dogs injured or killed by wolves. It was a compromise arrived at by some environmental groups, hunters and some ranchers who said it balanced wolf protections and controls. But the Oregon Cattlemen's Association and some others argued there were too many limits on when people could shoot wolves. The plan said wolves could be shot only if they're caught attacking livestock, not before or after an attack....
Fine for illegally killing grizzlies hiked to $8,000 Illegally killing a grizzly bear in Montana will cost poachers a lot more than it used to, but still not as much as a trophy bighorn sheep. House Bill 514 increased the fine for illegally killing a bear from $2,000 to $8,000. The bill went into effect immediately upon passage earlier this spring, so it would cover grizzly bear poachings this year. The grizzly bear is also protected from hunting under both state and federal law. Under federal law, it is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But most cases of illegally killed bears in the state are prosecuted under state statute. The earlier fine was seen by some bear conservationists as too lenient, considering the fines for killing game animals that aren't threatened....
REPORT SHOWS U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FAILED TO MAKE PROGRESS PROTECTING NATION’S WILDLIFE The Center for Biological Diversity released a report today demonstrating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is failing to make “expeditious progress” listing known imperiled species as threatened or endangered as required by the Endangered Species Act. There are currently 286 candidate species that have on average been waiting for protection for 17 years. The Report shows that under the Bush Administration, progress by FWS towards protecting these and other species has crashed to the lowest level since the landmark law was passed in 1974. The report calls for sweeping changes to the listing program, including creating and fully funding a “listing swat team” to protect all of the 286 candidate species caught in the listing backlog in the next five years, and an increase in listing funding to 25 million dollars annually. The report documented that FWS under the Bush Administration has listed the fewest number of species of any Administration, only protecting 30 species for a rate of 7 species per year. This compares to listing of 498 species by FWS under the Clinton Administration for a rate of 65 species per year and 2225 under the elder Bush’s Administration for a rate of 59 species per year. The Bush Administration also is the only Administration to only list species under court order....click here(pdf) to view the report....
Governors seek species act changes Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal joined governors from other Western states Monday in asking Congress to relax the Endangered Species Act. The governors want states to be able to combine federal requirements to deal with several species at the same time, among other changes. The Western Governors' Association has proposed four areas where the Endangered Species Act could be improved to make it more workable and effective: * Increase the role for states. * Increase certainty and technical assistance for landowners and water users. * Increase and stabilize funding for the states. * Streamline provisions in the act, for example, by providing for statewide, multi-species strategies....
Yellowstone grizzlies no longer endangered Federal wildlife officials say they plan to propose ending Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make the proposal as early as next month, said Chris Servheen, grizzly recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said delisting is being considered because the bear population has been growing steadily and adequate protections are in place for the bears and their habitat. "We're on the verge of doing what we set out to do," Servheen said. "If I wasn't comfortable, I wouldn't be doing this." Delisting would not automatically make the bears vulnerable to hunting. Instead, states would protect and control the bear population under their existing federally approved bear management plans....
U.S. Supreme Court action good news for cave bugs The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear a case involving Central Texas cave bugs has eaten holes in property rights advocates' arguments that endangered species protection is unjustly applied. The case challenged the Endangered Species Act as it is used under the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. "It's great news," said John Kostyack, National Wildlife Federation senior counsel. "We see this as the final nail in the coffin of the 10-year-long campaign of property rights advocates to have the ESA declared unconstitutional." In the case -- GDF Realty Investments vs. Gale A. Norton, Secretary of the Interior -- property rights advocates argued the clause was being erroneously applied to species found in a single state....
Seventh Circuit Preserves Home Builders' Efficient Storm Water Permit A recent court decision by the United States Court of Appeals’ Seventh Circuit rejected threats to a federal permit that is vitally important to home builders and home buyers. The Construction General Permit, which regulates storm water discharges during the home building process, is viewed by builders as the most efficient available option for achieving the strict requirements for complying with federal storm water rules. “This is a critical victory for home builders because lawsuits like these eat away at housing affordability,” said David Wilson, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Ketchum, Idaho. “Builders want to protect the environment, but we do not want more layers of regulation that cost time and money to fulfill and do little to protect the environment.” Compliance with existing storm water requirements already adds from $1,400 to $4,500 to the cost of every lot, he said. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the Construction General Permit does not violate the Clean Water Act’s requirements for public notice and public hearing. The court also held that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which issues the permit, complied with requirements of the Endangered Species Act and dismissed the remaining permit challenges, saying the petitioner lacked standing....
Colorado governor assails U.S. 'hypocrisy' in mad cow policy Colorado Gov. Bill Owens said Monday it is ``hypocrisy'' for the United States to pressure Japan to lift a ban on U.S. beef over mad cow concerns while banning Canadian beef for the same reason. ``It's this sort of hypocrisy that makes it very difficult for the U.S. to win any sort of trade war,'' Owens said at the Western Governors' Association meeting. Owens and other governors said the U.S. action is encouraging Canada to build its own meatpacking plants, instead of relying on plants south of its border, and taking away jobs in Western states. The premiers of two Canadian provinces told the governors the U.S. ban had gone on long enough....

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NEWS

Federal Lands Suffer From Maintenance Backlog & Limited Tax Bases "My district is 72,000 square miles - half of which are publicly owned - and it contains nine national forests and four Bureau of Land Management Districts. As a result, I know that aside from recreational and environmental benefits, publicly owned land provides obstacles for local governments and communities surrounded by these federally owned areas. I regularly hear from community leaders about issues they face in maintaining basic services such as schools, hospitals, libraries, police and fire departments, and other essential programs needed to maintain a viable community". The subcommittee will examine the impacts continued growth in the federal estate will have at the local levels. From FY 2000 through FY 2004, the BLM disposed of 660,186 acres in the continental United States while acquiring 952,703 acres that contributed to a net gain of nearly 300,000 acres. In that same time period the Forest Service had a net gain of nearly half a million acres....
In The Heat Of The Moment The summer of '94 baked central Colorado in a heat rarely seen on the mountains; drought dried out the earth, leaving it gasping for moisture—and prone to ignition. On the morning of July 2, Storm King Mountain began to burn. By July 4 the resulting fire had spread to perhaps three acres, a relatively small and slow-moving blaze—and one, local officials decided, that could wait while they put out dozens of more serious ones. It was not until the morning of July 5 that the first firefighters ventured up to contain it. Less than 36 hours later, 14 of them were dead. Elite members of a caste of itinerant warriors who battle in hardhats and chainsaws against one of humanity's oldest enemies, these ten men and four women were consumed by a wall of fire that moved almost 20 miles an hour. The crisis on Storm King Mountain was not only a natural disaster, it was also the product of human actions. A firefighter named Don Mackey made several of the big decisions—some good, too many of them bad, at least one of them heroic. Mackey was a product—you might even say a victim—of a system that had failed to teach how to make good decisions....
Feds propose killing barred owls invading spotted owl territory Scientists meeting here Wednesday are planning an experiment that involves shooting a small population of barred owls, a species that migrated across the Great Plains and now threatens to displace smaller northern spotted owls. If the experiment shows removing barred owls allows spotted owls to reclaim lost territory, it could lead to shotgunning thousands of barred owls in Washington, Oregon and California. The northern spotted owls, a threatened species that became a symbol of environmentalist efforts to preserve the old-growth forests where they live, are being pushed out by the larger and more common barred owls, which nest in the same places, prey on the some food and even kill spotted owls....
Rainbow Family Gathering Concerns Officials The Rainbow Family group has chosen the Monongahela National Forest as the location for its peace circle, but forest service officials aren't happy about that decision. They tell 12 news the area the group is occupying, is also home to five different federal endangered species, and with more than 10-thousand people planning to attend the gathering the forest service is concerned about the animals' safety. Officials have gone so far as to suggest other sites for the group to hold their annual festival. The forest service requires any organization with more than 75 members, to apply for a permit 72 hours before they gather. The group did so Tuesday, and that permit is still under consideration....
Spotted owl may get increase in protection The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday it would re-evaluate its 2003 decision to leave California spotted owls off the list of threatened or endangered species, in part because of rule changes that allow more logging in the Sierra's national forests. The agency said it would make a determination by March. Both the subspecies cousins -- the northern spotted owl and the Mexican spotted owl -- are listed as threatened species, designations that engendered heated controversies over logging and management of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest....
Forest Service on verge of complicated land swap The U.S. Forest Service is set to trade 18,200 acres of publicly owned national forest land for 32,000 acres of private property in a deal that involves six counties and three national forests. Forest Service officials also hope to transfer to public ownership about 60 miles of rivers and streams in Eastern Oregon that harbor threatened or endangered salmon, steelhead and bull trout. Most of the property in the proposed Blue Mountain Land Exchange is in Grant, Umatilla and Wallowa counties. Smaller acreages are spread among Baker, Morrow and Union counties. The proposed land exchange involves public land on three national forests: the Wallowa-Whitman, Malheur and Umatilla....
Learning from Mount St. Helens It’s been a quarter century since the big eruption at Mount St. Helens that killed 57 people and devastated 230 square miles of formerly verdant forest. While much of the devastation remains, what has astounded scientists who gathered to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the May 1980 event is the natural recovery of the lands surrounding the volcano. Indeed, findings from the re-growth in the “blast zone” have influenced management practices in other places, including those ravaged by man-made incursions. Fred Swanson, a Forest Service geologist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon, says scientists surveying the devastated landscape following the 1980 eruption were struck by how dead tree snags and fallen logs—so-called “legacy structures”—provided invaluable refuge for the surviving plants and animals while simultaneously serving as base stations for colonizing species. “This dead biological legacy seemed to be performing a wide variety of ecological functions in terms of helping survivors make it through,” says Swanson....
Govenor Huntsman Won't Petition Federal Rule Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman won't petition the federal government to protect Utah's 4 million acres roadless wilderness areas. Huntsman will let the U.S. Forest Service take the lead on roadless issues through a forest management plan revision process already under way in four of the state's six national forests, state public lands policy coordinator Lynn Stevens said. "If their management plans meet the requirements of the state, we may not need to have a petition," said Stevens. "We think most of the state's needs can be met through this process."....

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GAO REPORT

National Energy Policy: Inventory of Major Federal Energy Programs and Status of Policy Recommendations. GAO-05-379, June 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-379
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05379high.pdf

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NMSU RODEO

As you regular readers know, I'm in Casper, Wyo. with the NMSU rodeo team, attending the College National Finals Rodeo. Here' some background on the team and the CNFR. I'll catch up on the news tomorrow night.

GRAND CANYON REGION FINAL STANDINGS

New Mexico State University Placings

Boys Team

2. NMSU

Girls Team

1. NMSU

Men's All-around

9. Tyle Trammell

Women's All-around

1. Bailey Gow
3. Kayla Weiss
4. Krista Norell

Saddle Bronc Riding

3. Clint Phillips
8. Taylor Smith

Bareback Riding

1. Clay Houston

Bull Riding

2. Justin Sanderlin
5. Daren Albrecht

Tie Down Roping

1. Wacey Walraven
5. Tye Trammell
5. Clay Acuna

Steer Wrestling

7. Frank Krentz

Team Roping Header

4. Victor Perez
5. Jared Evans
6. Dusty Penrod
9. Tye Trammell

Team Roping Heeler

2. Nate Mortensen
3. Matt Garza
5. Kody Gentry
6. Arcel Allsup
7. Dan Whitworth
8. Body Baize
9. Brian Bell

Barrel Racing

1. Wylene Penrod
3. Chelsee Byerley
4. Bailey Gow
5. Kasey Talbot
7. Meghan Jo Frie
8. Krista Norell

Breakaway Roping

1. Bailey Gow
2. Janelle Manygoats
4. Kayla Weiss
4. Krista Norell
10.Katrina Stackpole

Goat Tying

3. Kayla Weiss
6. Krista Norell
7. Bailey Gow
10.Rachael Van Cleve

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NMSU To Compete for National Rodeo Honors

Date: 06/10/2005
Contact: Jim Dewey Brown, (505) 646-3659, brownji@nmsu.edu
Reporter: Darrell J. Pehr, (505) 635-2017, pehr@nmsu.edu

LAS CRUCES – The nationally ranked New Mexico State University women’s rodeo team will compete for the national crown June 12-18 at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo. Seven members of the men’s team are also national qualifiers.

“It ought to be a really good rodeo,” said NMSU rodeo coach Jim Dewey Brown. “I have high hopes for the women’s team, and the men should do really well.”

Brown’s advice for his team was simple. “Just ride smart and rope smart.”
It has been more than 20 years since an NMSU women’s team has won a national title. Brown said NMSU women’s teams captured national championships in 1975 and 1976, and a team in the 1980s finished second. He attributes the current success to solid recruiting and multitalented athletes.

“The top ranking shows everybody else that we’re growing up and we’re going to be a force,” Brown said.

Those competing at nationals include barrel racers Wylene Penrod of Laveen, Ariz., and Chelsee Byerley of Gallup; women’s all-around competitor Bailey Gow of Roseburg, Ore.; Kayla Weiss of Great Falls, Mont., in goat tying; and Janelle Manygoats of Winslow, Ariz., in breakaway roping.

NMSU men competing will be bareback rider Clay Houston of Seminole, Texas; saddle bronc rider Clint Phillipps of Douglas, Ariz.; bullrider Justin Sanderlin of Morenci, Ariz.; team ropers Nate Mortensen of Virden and Matt Garza of Mesilla Park; and calf roper Wacey Walraven of Datil. Grand Canyon Region student director Arcel Allsup of Duncan, Ariz., can compete in one event for NMSU.

Contact Information: D'Lyn Ford - dlford@nmsu.edu - phone (505) 646-6528 - fax (505) 646-3513

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College National Finals Rodeo

Schedule
June 12-18, 2005

One of the greatest of all Rodeos on the North American continent, the College National Finals Rodeo is held each year in June in Casper, Wyoming. College cowboys and cowgirls from eleven different regions in the United States and four Canadian Provinces enter the CNFR arena in an effort to win national titles in saddle bronc, bareback, bull riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping, and goat tying. We also have the honor of crowning the All-Around Cowboy and Cowgirl and the National Men and Women Teams.

This year marks the fifty seventh year for the event. The first was held in 1949 in San Francisco, California, at the famed Cow Palace. The year began with what we term a celebration of collegiate athletics and the western heritage we hold dear.

Student athletes will also be competing for over $200,000 in scholarships from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. Scholarship Awards Program.

All performances begin at 7:00 p.m., including the Saturday Championship Round. Slack will be held on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th at 7:00 a.m, with a special 'Bulls N Broncs Only' on Sunday June 12th, at a 4:00 p.m.

The Saturday championship round for 2005 will be televised on the College Sports TV network. Check your local listings for times.

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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER


Things you should never say to a horseshoer

By Julie Carter

With the advance in rural living perpetuated by the invention of 40-acre
ranchettes, trail ride associations and urban horse owner playdays, the
horseshoers of the world have found themselves in a completely new
atmosphere of commerce.

Owning a horse is much like owning a thong bikini-anyone can own one but not
everyone should. Owning either should require some sort of an application
process.

Farriers, or horseshoers as we regular rural people call them, have come
from a long dignified line of blacksmiths. Cowboys at the ranch usually shoe
their own until they either are too old or they become financially sound
enough to justify the cost of hiring it done.

Historically, a farrier was a horse doctor. It is only in the last hundred
years that people who shod horses began calling themselves farriers and
history is not clear on how that transformation came about.

It is unknown who invented the first horseshoe. Early Asian horsemen used
horse booties made from leather and plants. During the first century, the
Romans made leather and metal shoes called "hipposandals" and by the sixth
and seventh centuries, European horsemen had begun nailing metal shoes to
horses' hooves.

Around 1000 AD, cast bronze horseshoes with nail holes had became common in
Europe. The 13th and 14th centuries brought the widespread manufacturing of
iron horseshoes. Hot-shoeing, the process of heating the horseshoe before
shoeing the horse became common in the 16th century. All this before the
first horseshoe was ever patented.

The first notable patent in the U.S. went to Henry Burden in 1835 for a
horsehoe manufacturing machine. Burden's machine made up to sixty horseshoes
per hour.

For those that are new to owning a horse and need the services of these hard
working iron-pounders to keep your animal shod, here are some tips of
etiquette or things you should never say to a horseshoer.

. Good Morning. Glad you are here. Can we reschedule? I have a lot
going today.

. Can you bill me? I left my check book in the car.

. I know I said just a trim, but would you go ahead and shoe'em as
well?

. I know it's been a long day. That's why I saved the worst one for
last.

. I don't understand why the shoes didn't stay on. I had them done
four months ago.

. Does it mean my horses have some sort of deficiency when they chew
the paint off your truck like that?

. Opps, wrong horse.

. My weanling colt needs a trim. Maybe you could halter break him at
the same time.

. I've got a new horse whose feet are in pretty bad shape. The
previous owners said their farrier wouldn't work on him.

. I forgot you were coming. I just turned all the horses out.

. My last farrier couldn't finish. They gave me your name and number.

. If he didn't kick like that, I'd trim him myself.

. Can we shoe him in the arena? If he rears in the barn, he hits his
head.

. Can you make it after 6 p.m. or on Sunday? I have to work.

. Good thing you are slow today or he'd have had shoes on when he
kicked your truck.

. If you will just give each of the dogs a piece of hoof, they will
get out from under the horse and quit fighting.

. Most time when he kicks, he misses.

. Can you shoe him so that he doesn't paw?

. If you get done in 30 minutes you'll be making $160 an hour.

Make every week "Be kind to your horseshoer" week. A good one is hard to
find and harder yet to keep.

Copyright Julie Carter 2005

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

TMDLs: Tall Tale of Fishes and Silt

If streams are found to be “impaired,” federal law requires that a Total Maximum Daily Load of pollutant – sediment in this case – be calculated and applied to restore the stream to its intended use. So the job here is to calculate a load of sediment (TMDL) going into the stream that is small enough to restore the stream and make the fish come back. An updated erosion model was used to estimate sediment delivery to the streams; land use in the watersheds was catalogued and an erosion factor assigned to each land use. The approach was to compare the impaired streams to those in the basin that had plenty of fish, rated as unimpaired. When sediment delivery for the 31 impaired and 42 unimpaired streams was compared, however, there was no difference. Impaired stream watersheds in the Piedmont part of the Chattahoochee basin delivered 0.74 tons of sediment per acre per year; unimpaired streams delivered 0.77 tons per acre. In the Coastal Plain, the corresponding figures were 0.63 tons for impaired streams and 0.88 tons for unimpaired streams. A measure of sediment suspended in the water, turbidity, also did not differ in the two classes of streams. If as much sediment is going into unimpaired streams as into impaired ones, how can sediment be the cause of impairment, and how can setting of a TMDL for sediment on impaired streams correct the situation?....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Color Energy Woes Green

The global economy depends on available, affordable energy. Many place their hopes for abundant energy supplies in yet-to-be-imagined technologies. But while researchers tinker with far-off possibilities, there's something we should do right now to keep our primary energy sources flowing—break the radical environmentalists' chokehold on national energy policy. Regardless of form—oil, gas, coal or nuclear—the Green movement is blocking efforts to harness our accustomed energy sources while leading us down the primrose path of so-called “renewable energy.” The recent increase in gasoline prices is only partly due to higher demand from developing countries like China and India. Price spikes have also been fueled by failure of U.S. refining capability to keep pace with demand. No new gasoline refinery has opened since 1976—thanks to unnecessarily strict government rules and community opposition, both tirelessly orchestrated by the environmental movement....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Bush Should Stay the Course at G-8

As President Bush meets this week with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and prepares for next month’s G-8 Summit in Scotland he should stay the course on global warming, according to scholars with the NCPA’s E-Team project. “Kyoto is an expensive symbol,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. “After eight years and tens of millions of dollars spent, there has been little if any effect on the environment.” Prime Minister Blair and other signatories are expected to push President Bush once more at the G-8 Summit to adopt Kyoto or acknowledge that global warming is a result of human activity. Wisely, the Bush Administration has charted a different course and for several reasons: ---Kyoto won’t help the environment. Swiftly developing economies, like China and India, are not obligated to cut emissions, even though they produce nearly half of all current greenhouse gas emissions and are forecast to produce as much as 85 percent of future emissions. ---According to Dallas Federal Reserve economist Stephen Brown, Kyoto’s emission cuts will reduce U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) between 3.6 and 5.1 percent by 2010. ---The Department of Energy estimates that Kyoto will cause gasoline prices to rise by 52 percent and electricity prices to rise by 86 percent....

OPINION/COMMENTARY

EPA, State AGs Argue Climate Change in Appellate Court

On April 8, 2005, the D.C. circuit court of appeals heard oral arguments in Commonwealth of Massachusetts et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Petitioners, who include the attorneys general (AGs) of 12 states, are suing EPA, which is being supported by 11 states, for rejecting an October 1999 petition by the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) and several other environmental groups asking EPA to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from motor vehicles. In effect, the petitioners are demanding EPA impose the Kyoto Protocol—a non-ratified treaty—on U.S. automakers. The Clean Air Act (CAA) provides distinct grants of authority to administer specific programs for specific purposes. It authorizes EPA to administer a national ambient air quality standards program, a hazardous air pollutant program, a stratospheric ozone prevention program, and so on. Nowhere, however, does it mention carbon dioxide or climate change prevention, except for one mention in the context of non-regulatory provisions. Moreover, the one provision mentioning carbon dioxide explicitly admonishes EPA not to infer authority for carbon dioxide pollution control requirements....

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

House Energy Chair Rejects Carbon Regulation

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) told reporters today that the House would reject outright “almost any” global warming language and a renewable electricity mandate if the Senate includes provisions addressing either issue in its version of the energy bill, according to the environmental news service Greenwire. Barton also said he opposes the Senate’s proposed 8 billion gallon ethanol mandate. “We applaud Mr. Barton’s resolve to keep America Kyoto-free,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Marlo Lewis. “The climate bill recently introduced by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CN), as well as the climate bill soon-to-be introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingman (D-NM), are camel’s-nose-under-the-tent strategies to align U.S. law and policy with the aims and mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol,” Lewis said. “We also applaud Barton’s stance on a renewable electricity mandate and opposition to expanding that trough of corporate welfare known as the ethanol mandate.” Barton’s qualifier—“almost any” global warming language—does not imply a willingness to consider some type of Kyoto-Lite proposal. Rather, as he explained, he was “not familiar” with Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) non-regulatory climate bill, and thus had no position on it at this time....

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MAD COW DISEASE

USDA finds possible 2nd case of mad cow disease

what could be the second U.S. case of mad cow disease, an older beef animal tested positive for the deadly ailment but will undergo another round of tests at a British laboratory to confirm the results, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Friday. Johanns said the new suspected case involved an older beef animal which was chosen for testing because it was a "downer" animal that could not walk when it arrived at the slaughterhouse. The animal's carcass never entered the human food or livestock feed supply, he said. "This animal was a downer animal and did not get into the food or feed chain. There just is no risk whatsoever," Johanns told reporters in a hastily called news conference on Friday evening. The government refused to disclose any information about the suspect animal's origin or where it was slaughtered. "It was getting up in age. It was a beef breed," said John Clifford, chief veterinarian for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It is not unusual to have conflicting test results for BSE, cattle experts said. The USDA said the suspect animal had tested positive for BSE in a rapid, preliminary test in November. When it was retested with a more sophisticated technology, the animal was found free of the disease. But USDA's Inspector General earlier this week asked department scientists to retest the suspect animal, and two others, using yet a third kind of technology known as the "western blot" test. That test showed the beef animal was infected with the brain-wasting ailment, Johanns said....

STATEMENT BY DR. JOHN CLIFFORD REGARDING FURTHER ANALYSIS OF BSE INCONCLUSIVE TEST RESULTS

June 10, 2005

"Since the USDA enhanced surveillance program for BSE began in June 2004, more than 375,000 animals from the targeted cattle population have been tested for BSE using a rapid test. Three of these animals tested inconclusive and were subsequently subjected to immunohistochemistry, or IHC, testing. The IHC is an internationally recognized confirmatory test for BSE. All three inconclusive samples tested negative using IHC.

"Earlier this week, USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has been partnering with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the Agricultural Research Service by impartially reviewing BSE-related activities and making recommendations for improvement, recommended that all three of these samples be subjected to a second internationally recognized confirmatory test, the OIE-recognized SAF immunoblot test, often referred to as the Western blot test. We received final results a short time ago. Of the three samples, two were negative, but the third came back reactive.

"Because of the conflicting results on the IHC and Western blot tests, a sample from this animal will be sent to the OIE-recognized reference laboratory for BSE in Weybridge, England. USDA will also be conducting further testing, which will take several days to complete.

"Regardless of the outcome, it is critical to note that USDA has in place a sound system of interlocking safeguards to protect human and animal health from BSE-including, most significantly, a ban on specified risk materials from the human food supply. In the case of this animal, it was a non-ambulatory (downer) animal and as such was banned from the food supply. It was processed at a facility that handles only animals unsuitable for human consumption, and the carcass was incinerated.

"USDA's enhanced surveillance program is designed to provide information about the level of prevalence of BSE in the United States. Since the inception of this program, we have fully anticipated the possibility that additional cases of BSE would be found. And, in fact, we are extremely gratified that to date, more than 375,000 animals have been tested for the disease and, with the exception of the conflicting results we have received on this one animal, all have ultimately proven to be negative for the disease.

"USDA is committed to ensuring that our BSE program is the best that it can be, keeping pace with science and international guidelines, and to considering recommendations made by OIG and others in this regard. We are committed to ensuring that we have the right protocols in place-ones that are solidly grounded in science and consistently followed. After we receive additional test results on this animal, we will determine what further steps need to be taken and what changes, if any, are warranted in our surveillance program."

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Go here if you are looking for the post on Kit Laney and Federal law enforcement.

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NEWS

Senators Question Conservancy's Practices The Senate Finance Committee issued a report yesterday raising questions about a range of financial practices at the Arlington-based Nature Conservancy and recommending regulatory changes that would affect many of the nation's nonprofit organizations. The report, the result of a two-year investigation into the world's largest environmental organization, questions whether the charity's actions at times may have been "inconsistent" with the policy underlying federal tax laws. The committee raises concerns about the size of tax breaks claimed by the Conservancy's supporters, about the group's shortcomings in monitoring development restrictions on some land under its supervision, and about private "side deals" with Conservancy "insiders." The report refrains from making factual and legal conclusions, stressing a desire to avoid influencing an audit of the Conservancy begun by the Internal Revenue Service in December 2003. But the report spotlights the Conservancy's financial dealings and highlights the organization's failure to fully disclose transactions with Conservancy officials and corporations whose officers sat on the charity's board....
Woman killed by grizzly bear made split-decision to save her life - and lost A woman killed by a grizzly bear Sunday made a split-second decision to climb a tree - a choice that failed to save her life. Isabelle Dube, originally from Cap-St-Ignace near Quebec City, was jogging with two friends Sunday on a popular hiking trail in Canmore, 90 kilometres west of Calgary, when the group came upon the bear. "They came within 20 to 25 metres of the bear when they first saw it," Dave Ealey of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development told reporters. "As they communicated to each other as to 'What do we do?' they started backing up. Isabelle apparently chose to climb a tree. "The other two continued to back up. They backed up out of the area to a point where they were no longer able to see their friend and they said they were going to go get some help because she was basically shouting at the bear because the bear was close to her." The two friends ran almost a kilometre to the clubhouse of the SilverTip Golf Course to get help. A Fish and Wildlife officer responded, and found the bear with Dube....
As rural leaders try to lift a ban on using dogs to track cougars, debate grows over their numbers Oregon lawmakers are maneuvering to let counties roll back a statewide initiative and loose hunting dogs on cougars and black bears, highlighting an escalating question in rural Oregon: Are there too many cougars? Rural legislators say hunting dogs are urgently needed because the big cats are appearing where they never have before, killing pets and livestock and threatening public safety. But conservationists say that no good science proves cougars are multiplying so dramatically, and that fears are exaggerated. State wildlife managers say Oregon now is home to 5,000 to 6,000 cougars, nearly twice as many as a decade ago, despite increased hunting in that time. That's more cougars than ever, they say, and about as many as are believed to roam much larger California, where they are not hunted....
Wyo voices back conservation easements Without conservation easements, the scenic view along Wyoming Highway 22 between Jackson and Wilson likely would not exist today, the director of the Jackson Hole Land Trust told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. And without tax incentives provided under federal law, the high desert and verdant river valleys of Sublette County could be lost to development, Tim Lindstrom testified before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C. "Nobody messes with the ranchers of Sublette County, believe me," Lindstrom said. "However, they are dedicated to their land, and they have been permanently conserving it in 1,000-acre and 2,000-acre chunks over the past decade. This conservation is entirely through conservation easements ... Without the tax incentives, this would not be happening." Lindstrom was among those urging senators to make no changes in the law governing tax incentives for conservation easements....
UW scientists launch study on elk deaths University of Wyoming scientists will attempt to identify a toxin in lichen that resulted in 450 elk deaths last year, and possibly determine the safety of eating game that consumed the lichen. A five-member team from UW's Department of Veterinary Sciences launched the study, which will also attempt to determine whether cattle and sheep can safely graze in lichen-infested areas like the Red Rim of south-central Wyoming where the massive die-off occurred. Researchers were alerted to the problem in February 2004 when hunters searching for coyotes discovered two cow elk unable to stand. Eventually, an estimated 450 elk lost strength and coordination and either died or were humanely destroyed....
Forest Service, San Ildefonso Pueblo settle 50-year-old land claim San Ildefonso Pueblo and the U.S. Forest Service have announced the settlement of a land claim the pueblo filed more than 50 years ago. Under the proposal -- which must be approved by Congress and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims -- the Indian pueblo near Santa Fe would get $6.9 million and the right to buy thousands of acres. The case, first brought in 1951, was the last pending litigation under the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, the Forest Service said. That law involved hundreds of tribal claims. Ratifying the settlement would authorize land transactions affecting San Ildefonso and Santa Clara pueblos, Los Alamos County and the Forest Service. The pueblos would be able to add land to their pueblos, and the county would be able to protect its water wells....
Snowbowl gets nod to make snow from treated wastewater The regional forester for the Southwest on Thursday gave a green light to Arizona Snowbowl for snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area. The decision, by Harv Forsgren, director of the U.S. Forest Service's Southwest office in Albuquerque, follows years of protests by Native American tribes, who contend that development on the San Francisco Peaks interferes with their religious practices. But Forsgren said that the snowmaking, which will use treated wastewater pumped to the ski area from Flagstaff, does not violate the First Amendment rights of Native Americans and "does not preclude the continued use of the San Francisco Peaks for religious beliefs and practices."....
Column: Roadless rage Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer came out swinging this week in a strongly worded letter to President Bush, saying Bush’s recently issued roadless rule is “passing the buck” by “shifting responsibility for management of the nation’s roadless areas to the states.” As the governor said at his Tuesday news conference, if Bush wants Montana to do this work, he had better pony up sufficient federal resources, in terms of both funding and personnel, to analyze Montana’s 6.4 million acres of roadless federal lands. A little background might prove useful to those unfamiliar with the long debate over roadless lands. Back in the waning days of the Clinton presidency, a serious effort to protect the country’s dwindling roadless lands was proposed. As Schweitzer noted in his history lesson to Bush: “Montana went through an exhaustive public process conducted by the Forest Service. During that time, a record 1.6 million Americans participated in a nationwide 15-month effort involving 600 hearings and public meetings....
Wyoming's roadless questions linger Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday Wyoming has "a set of options, none of which are very attractive" on how to deal with roadless areas on national forests and again called the federal government's plan to place roadless responsibilities in the hands of states a "shell game." The governor did not elaborate on the options and said questions remain on whether to wait for local forests to complete their forest plans and then get involved in roadless areas or to spend time and money now to petition the federal government to maintain certain areas as roadless. "I said to the undersecretary (of agriculture Mark Rey), 'If you want to give me control of the land, I'll go to the legislature and I'll get a budget to do this planning, but if I don't get to have any say about the decision, why should I do your job and ask my legislature to fund some unit to go out and plan national forests when in actuality all you're going to do is take the information and run it through your sausage-making system anyway,"' Freudenthal said....
Editorial: Roadless input will be good thing Schweitzer is a Democrat, after all, and he shouldn't be expected to have glowing regards for the Republican president's agenda. In this case, Schweitzer considers the Bush plan to have states petition the Forest Service with recommendations for roadless areas to be an unfunded mandate. Schweitzer wants the feds to pay for a process of gathering input from Montanans, and he wants the Forest Service to pitch in hundreds of resource specialists to help with the process. There's nothing wrong with those wants, but they simply may not be necessary. The governor seems to be under the impression that the state of Montana must produce a new inventory of roadless areas backed up by a colossal environmental impact statement evaluating the ups and downs of every acre recommended for roadless designation. Not so. The Bush administration has given governors an opportunity to gather, in the manner they wish, input from their constituencies regarding roadless areas. The states are not required to provide costly, detailed analysis....
Can ranchers, wolves get along? Wolves will be welcomed back into Utah, providing they don't eat. That was the essence of a plan adopted Thursday by the Utah Wildlife Board at a Salt Lake City meeting that capped a $100,000, 18-month effort designed to bring agriculture, hunting and conservation interests together on wolf management. The plan would allow ranchers to kill wolves that attack livestock; it might even allow hunters, guides and taxidermists also to be compensated for losses....
Groups sue over wolverine status The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to deny wolverines protection under the Endangered Species Act and now should be required to assess their condition, environmental groups say in a lawsuit. The service fell short in studying the forest-dwelling wolverine, a 3- to 4-foot-long weasel that is in steep decline, the groups said in the suit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Missoula. The suit seeks an order that the agency conduct a 12-month study of the wolverine's status....
Utah part of oil shale project The Bush administration moved Thursday to jump-start oil shale development in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming by offering research sites that could be converted to 5,100-acre production leases if companies prove they can turn rock into fuel. The Bureau of Land Management announced it will accept proposals for 160-acre research projects on federal lands across 16,000 square miles in the three states until Sept. 7. Plans to extract the oil would employ techniques ranging from strip mining to a new on-site heating technique being developed by Shell Oil Co. near Rangely, Colo....
An Old West Saga, Told From Both Sides The first Indian massacre on "Into the West" is committed by a herd of stampeding buffalo, not by vigilantes or the United States cavalry. The first scalping of a frontiersman is the work of a grizzly bear, not of an Indian brave on the warpath. Nature is the most fearsome enemy - and coveted prize - in TNT's six-part miniseries about Western expansion, which begins tonight. And that is not a bad canvas for an epic that seeks to sidestep cowboy-and-Indian clichés and deliver a richer portrait of Manifest Destiny. The taming of the wilderness is the nation's founding paradox; the pioneers' struggle forged the nation's character but their ethnic cleansing of American Indians indelibly stained it. "Into the West" tries to weave that dissonance into an otherwise fairly conventional multigenerational family saga....

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FLE

Editorial: Temptation Along the Border Just as surely as the sky is blue, law enforcement in Mexico is corrupt. That assumption may too often be true, but it is incomplete. A federal sting that exposed surprising openness to bribery among U.S. soldiers and law enforcement officers on the U.S.-Mexico border ought to turn on a light bulb. Recent stories by The Times' Ralph Vartabedian showed that Army National Guard Humvees were used to deliver hundreds of pounds of cocaine to an Arizona hotel. A federal inspector waved trucks he believed to be carrying drugs safely across the border. Uniformed national guardsmen lugged kilos of coke into the U.S. in their official vehicles. Even the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration organizers of the sting, which was conducted in stages from 2002 through 2004, were taken aback by the numbers and eagerness of the bribe-seekers. Higher-level officials are apparently not immune. A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted a former immigration service intelligence chief in San Diego on charges of covering up a drug and immigrant smuggling ring. Even Forest Service rangers have been caught smuggling marijuana in Arizona....
Audit Finds Security Dept. Is Lacking Disaster Backups In a nationwide advertising blitz, the Homeland Security Department has urged businesses and families to "Get Ready Now" for potential terror attacks or other disasters. But an internal audit released on Wednesday concluded that the department had fundamentally failed to follow its own advice. Computer systems at 19 department sites that served agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard had no functioning backups or relied on obviously deficient or incomplete backups, the report by the inspector general of the department said. Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is in charge of disaster recovery, was unprepared, the report said....
Reformers Turn Up the Heat on the FBI Pressure to overhaul the FBI mounted Tuesday when House budget negotiators ordered the bureau to embrace the recommendations of a presidential commission on intelligence failures that would likely erode the FBI's independence. The powerful House Appropriations Committee acted a day after a former member of another commission, the bipartisan panel that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, expressed concern that the FBI had failed to make sufficient progress in recasting itself since the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. Tuesday's action by the normally supportive congressional committee, in language attached to an FBI budget bill, sends a blunt message to the bureau that lawmakers consider the progress to be unacceptable....
Ruling Limits Prosecutions of People Who Violate Law on Privacy of Medical Records An authoritative new ruling by the Justice Department sharply limits the government's ability to prosecute people for criminal violations of the law that protects the privacy of medical records. The criminal penalties, the department said, apply to insurers, doctors, hospitals and other providers - but not necessarily their employees or outsiders who steal personal health data. In short, the department said, people who work for an entity covered by the federal privacy law are not automatically covered by that law and may not be subject to its criminal penalties, which include a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison for the most serious violations. The reasoning is that federal regulations establish the standards for medical privacy. The regulations apply just to "covered entities," including insurers and health care providers. Thus, only covered entities can be prosecuted for criminal violations of the law....
Crime Drops, Despite Expiration of Gun Ban So much for "anti-gun hysterics" and predictions of "blood running in the streets," a Second Amendment group says. Nine months after the Clinton-era "assault weapons ban" expired, the FBI has released crime statistics showing a drop in homicides in 2004 -- the first such drop since 1999. The FBI report said all types of violent crime declined last year, and cities with more than a million people showed the largest drops in violent crime. When the Clinton ban on certain semiautomatic weapons expired last September, gun control groups warned that violent crime would escalate, including violence against children. But those "doom and gloom" forecasts have been exposed as "pure clap-trap," said Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) President Joe Tartaro. "Where is the news media on this?" Tartaro wondered. He said if the number of homicides had gone up, reporters would be writing front-page stories linking the rise to the end of the semi-auto ban....
Bush pushes Congress to renew anti-terrorism law President Bush urged the U.S. Congress on Thursday to renew major provisions of the USA Patriot Act and rejected critics who have complained the post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law erodes civil liberties. Sixteen sections of the Patriot Act are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and the Bush administration fears their expiration will weaken law-enforcement tools needed to search for potential terrorists on American soil. "My message to Congress is clear: The terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year, and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act," Bush said during a visit to the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy....
Report Shows FBI Missed at Least Five Chances Before Sept. 11 to Uncover Info About Terrorists The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the Sept. 11 attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn't aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department's inspector general says in a newly released critique of government missteps. The IG faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the Sept. 11 terrorists in the United States and for not following up on an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to U.S. flight training schools. The agent's theory turned out to be precisely what bin Laden did. "The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks," Inspector General Glenn Fine said. When the bureau did discover the presence of hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar in the United States shortly before the attacks, "the FBI's investigation then was conducted without much urgency or priority," the report concluded. The five missed opportunities in regard to the two hijackers stemmed from information sharing problems between the FBI and CIA and problems inside the FBI's counterterrorism program....

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Go here if you are looking for the piece on Kit Laney and Federal law enforcement.

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NEWS

Officials downgrade fire outlook in West Federal forecasters have backed away from predictions for a busy fire season in the West, citing mountain snow and unseasonably cool June temperatures. The Predictive Services Unit of the government's national wildfire coordination center is expected to downgrade its "above normal" prediction to "normal" in the western fire season outlook set for release Friday. "The large fire danger has moderated and it's not going to be as dire as we first thought," said Larry Van Bussum, an official with the National Weather Service....
Owens inks bill creating roadless areas task force Environmentalists said they hope Colorado can keep most of its roadless areas intact after Gov. Bill Owens signed a measure Wednesday that will create a task force to review the use of 4.4 million acres of public land. Owens said the change is better than allowing the federal government to decide. The Colorado bill creates a 13-member task force to examine federal forest that has been considered at some point for roadless designation by the U.S. Forest Service. The task force will hold hearings and make recommendations within 16 months to Owens on which areas the public wants to maintain as roadless. The governor will then have two months to make his recommendations to the federal government....
Agency rejects appeal on mine After losing a final appeal with the U.S. Forest Service, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition is now considering asking a federal judge to block J.R. Simplot Co. from exploring phosphate deposits in southeastern Idaho for a potential new mine. The 400 acres being scouted in the Caribou National Forest includes Crow Creek, a primary spawning stream for the rare Yellowstone cutthroat trout. In a recent decision denying an appeal by environmentalists to Simplot's exploration permit, the Forest Service found that the company's plan was in compliance with federal laws. Greater Yellowstone Coalition Idaho Director Marv Hoyt said the group fears that a new phosphate mine in the Crow Creek drainage will threaten the Yellowstone cutthroat, which has been dwindling in numbers....
Ranch conserves wildlife habitat An innovative conservation easement struck between Fremont County ranchers Tony and Andrea Malmberg, the Wyoming chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Conservation Service will protect almost 5,000 acres of wildlife habitat. By providing protection from future development, the conservation easement means that sage grouse and their chicks can migrate each spring from nests on Twin Creek Ranch south of Lander to summer range in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains n- 20 miles and a thousand-foot climb over the rough hills and rocky escarpments that form a transition zone between the Winds and the Red Desert. "We'll be able to keep a functional ranch intact, without selling off important pieces," said Tony Malmberg, whose family began ranching the property more than 25 years ago. Completed on Wednesday, the conservation easement used the USDA's Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, which is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Nature Conservancy....
Judge says he agrees with environmentalists on increasing spill to save salmon A federal judge indicated Wednesday that he is leaning toward greatly increasing the amount of water spilled over four dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers to boost the survival of threatened and endangered salmon migrating to the ocean. U.S. District Judge James Redden issued his preliminary finding in a statement filed with the U.S. District Court in Portland, just two days ahead of a scheduled hearing to determine how dam operations should be changed to help salmon survive in the wake of his rejection of the Bush administration approach. Environmentalists, Indian tribes and sport and commercial fishing groups have argued that if the spill is not increased greatly, salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act could face extinction....
Everglades oil buyout slammed in government inquiry Hailed by environmentalists as a rare act of conservation by the Bush administration, a deal to prevent oil drilling in the Everglades came under sharp attack Wednesday in a report by investigators at the Interior Department. The report, issued by the department's inspector general, said administration officials were so eager for a shot of good public relations that they were willing to meet almost any terms to buy out oil rights at Big Cypress National Preserve, a vast wilderness inhabited by panthers, manatees and other endangered species. Over the objections of career civil servants, who said the oil rights might be virtually worthless, administration officials agreed to pay the Collier family of southwest Florida $120 million to keep the family from undertaking a major oil exploration project at the preserve....
Groups Seek To Restore Wolverines In an effort to save one of the rarest wilderness wildlife species in the lower-48 states, four conservation groups today filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to consider new legal protections for the wolverine. "Everything we know about the wolverine tells us that this species is under siege from trapping in Montana and habitat disruption throughout its entire range," said Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso, who is representing the groups in the lawsuit. "We shouldn't wait until the last few wolverines are trapped before we take action to protect this rare species."....
Law aims to head off water wars Gov. Bill Owens on Tuesday signed a measure intended to inspire collaboration instead of fresh ammunition in Colorado’s water wars. The measure is patterned after the successful effort of nearly a century ago that resulted in the Colorado River Compact, which divided the waters of the stream among seven states. The bill establishes nine roundtables in each of the state’s main river basins and the Denver metro area and a 27-member interbasin compact committee, which is made up of representatives selected by the roundtables and other selected by legislators and the governor....
Enthusiasts spend billions on boats; fish aren't so popular The National Marine ManufacturerÏs Association estimates that there are 17 million boats on America's waterways, and 69 million people who say they enjoy boating. In 2004, total retail expenditures on boating reached $33 billion, an 8 percent increase over 2003, according to NMMA research. Sales of after-market accessories led with $2.4 billion in sales, a 14 percent increase. Sales of boating accessories have doubled since 1997. Participation in fishing has declined by 4 percent since 1991, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This comes at a time when conservation efforts have improved many of the nation's rivers and lakes. This downturn could seriously affect fishing because fewer anglers translate into fewer dollars for resource-management activities such as hiring biologists, building boat ramps and funding fish-stocking programs....
LGBT group signs agreement with Dept. of Interior Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-owned businesses looking to secure vendor contracts with the Department of the Interior and its eight bureaus signed a groundbreaking agreement to increase their opportunities Wednesday afternoon. The memorandum of understanding (MOU), facilitated by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, aims to boost the agency's outreach efforts to small businesses owned and operated by the LGBT community, and to provide an increased exchange of information regarding program contract opportunities, officials said....
Sea Turtle Lights Spark Controvery Bay County law protects sea turtles and their hatchlings on the west end of Panama City Beach by regulating lights on the coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants the ordinance expanded to include the entire 25 miles of Bay County coastline, but some county commissioners say the policy could put people in danger. Bay County Commissioner Mike Thomas says he's gotten several complaints about the lack of lighting on the beach at night. Since May of 2003, special turtle-friendly lights have been installed along beachfront properties on the western five-mile stretch of Bay's coastline to promote more sea turtle hatchlings. Thomas says the ordinance is extreme and some of the lights should be turned back on....
House vote to end slaughter of horses for food The House voted Wednesday to stop the slaughter of American horses to feed diners in European and Asian nations where the meat is considered gourmet fare. The 269-158 vote on an amendment to a Department of Agriculture spending bill strips funding from the USDA to inspect any horse meat to be shipped overseas for consumption, effectively barring the sale of horse meat for human consumption. Roughly 65,000 wild horses, race horses, work horses and even pet horses are slaughtered every year in the United States to become steaks in other countries. Two plants in Texas and one in Illinois currently slaughter horses for foreign consumption....
Recent deaths on Rio Grande prompt discussions about safety Some river-rafting outfitters are reviewing their policies and government agencies are talking about more stringent training for river guides following the deaths of two rafters along the Rio Grande. Carol Whalen, 61, of Heber City, Utah, drowned Sunday after the raft she was riding in flipped on a section of the river between Pilar and Embudo. All seven passengers were thrown from the raft, including Whalen's sister, Joyce Kraut of Illinois. On Memorial Day, Airman 1st Class Jacob P. Hampson, 23, of Rochester, N.Y., drowned when the raft he was in capsized near Pilar....
House votes to postpone meat labeling The House voted Wednesday to block the government from requiring labels that would tell shoppers from what country their meat comes. Congress already had postponed the labeling from its original date of 2004 to September 2006. The House action would stop the Agriculture Department from spending money on the new requirement. The postponement was part of a $100 billion spending bill for food and farm programs in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. The House passed the bill by 408-18 vote Wednesday. Western ranchers had counted on the labels to help sell their beef, Rep. Stephanie Herseth said. "Instead, the large meatpackers have rallied to kill this program because they don't want American consumers to discover how much meat in the grocery case is actually imported," said Herseth, D-S.D. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a rancher, said Texas cattle producers are fighting the labels because they do not want shoppers to know that the cattlemen buy cheap Mexican calves to fatten and sell in the U.S....
Murders end Florida's range wars The late Leon Thompson of Port Charlotte, a retired U.S. Marine sergeant major, was a survivor of the last range war: "I was 14 years old in February 1933 when my cousin Lincoln Whidden asked me to help him find and butcher a cow. The animal was part of Milton Norton's herd near Old Venus on the prairie east of Fort Ogden. "My father, Lorenzo, had a small sawmill house (rough, unpainted lumber) between Old Venus and Palmdale where he could keep an eye on his horses and cattle. "Those were tough days in the depth of the Great Depression. Men with hungry families might kill somebody else's range-cow to stay alive. ."Cattlemen understood rustling for food and never shot a hungry man — just warned him not to do it again or get shot next time....

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TRAVEL PLANS

Will be travelling from this evening through the 20th, attending the Collegiate National Finals Rodeo in Casper,Wyo.

The trusty laptop will be with me so will blog as I get a chance.

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