NEWS ROUNDUP

Editorial: Feds, Wyoming split over drilling rules The Bush administration's rush to develop oil and gas across the West gives short shrift to the environment and causes anguish among ranchers and farmers whose properties are being overrun by drill rigs. Rather than resolve legitimate complaints, federal officials are trying to sidestep reasonable efforts to restore some balance. Wyoming's legislature this year enacted modest protections for surface owners. The new law calls for landowners to be properly notified when their land is slated for oil or gas drilling and to be reasonably compensated for any loss of their land's value. Last week, Wyoming's oil and gas commission finalized rules to implement the law. Instead of supporting Wyoming's efforts, the feds took the side of the drillers....
Operators worry about split-estate burdens under new law These worries include the necessity of posting a bond to both the federal Bureau of Land Management and the state of Wyoming if the operator cannot reach a surface use agreement with the landowner. In split estate cases regarding federal minerals, operators unable to obtain a signed surface use agreement are already required to post a $1,000 bond per patent of land to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Under the new law, operators in this circumstance will also have to post a $2,000 bond per well site to the state of Wyoming. Operators are also worried about the difficulty of adhering to a deadline requirement stipulated within the law. The law regulates that operators must notify the landowner no later than 30 days and no earlier than 180 days before operations start on the land....
Column: Let science, not politics, help the wolf The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program is at a critical crossroads. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to restrict further releases of wolves into the wild and plans to trap and shoot more of them. Conservationists have been criticized for only questioning management of the program and have been urged to emphasize the progress that has been made. Unlike its management for other endangered species, the Fish and Wildlife Service pledged to confine wolves to a politically, and not biologically, constricted recovery area. And unlike in the reintroduction of wolves to Idaho and Wyoming, ranchers in the Southwest are allowed to leave out dead cattle and horses that die of non-wolf causes with the knowledge that any wolf that begins killing livestock after scavenging on such carcasses will be removed. Given such constraints, the wolves themselves have proven resilient survivors....
Help! Beetles invading forests in the West The mountain views along Red Stone Road suggest early autumn, with splashes of red, orange and a rusty brown dotting the green hillsides above the homes and condominiums of this Colorado resort town. But this is July and those colors represent hundreds of pine trees that have been killed by beetles. The tree mortality rate around Vail is striking, but it's even worse in other parts of Colorado and around the West. It's a problem that has grown sharply over the past several years: According to Forest Service figures, the acres of forest killed by beetles in 12 Western states jumped from 1.4 million in 1997 to 8.6 million last year. Experts blame the infestations on a series of mild winters, hot summers and drought. These stands of dead trees - from the Apache National Forest in western Arizona to Washington's Olympic National Park and extending into Canada and Mexico - are also prime fuel for catastrophic wildfires....
Grizzly may lose protection The grizzly bear, considered by many as a totem of the American West, may soon lose protection under the Endangered Species Act. Positioned as the "summit" species in the North American food chain, grizzlies fear no other animal. For the past 30 years, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team has been trapping, radio-collaring and studying hundreds of the great bears throughout the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem as their number increased. Their work is evaluated by a committee made up of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana fish and game departments, and Montana State University. With more than 600 grizzlies now in the Yellowstone ecosystem, the committee believes it's time to declare the recovery a success and delist the great bear from Endangered Species protection....
Natural resources also campaign resources When the Bush administration proposed last year to overturn a ban on road construction and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest, senior officials traveled to Boise for the announcement. Idaho was a logical setting for then-Agriculture secretary Ann Veneman to unveil a new direction in managing the nation's "roadless" forests. The plan, made final in May, gives governors a big say in determining how to use the federal land — whether to open parts for commercial use or keep areas natural. Idaho has 9.3 million acres of undeveloped national forest, second only to Alaska. Idaho also was the first state to challenge the ban on development in roadless forests, which was imposed in the waning days of the Clinton administration. Boise was pertinent for another reason. Idaho's governor, Republican Dirk Kempthorne, helped finance his re-election by receiving about $86,000 — about 8 cents of each dollar — from timber, mining and energy industries that could benefit from greater access to national forests in his state....
Battle over development at rustic ski area set for court hearing With a federal environmental review pending, a contentious proposal for a large resort at the base of one of Colorado's most rustic and remote ski areas faces the more immediate challenge of defending its building permits. Lawsuits by two environmental groups and the operators of the Wolf Creek ski area near South Fork in southwestern Colorado accuse Mineral County of being a rubber stamp for Texas billionaire developer Billy Joe "Red" McCombs. They claim the county violated state laws and its own rules by neither taking public comment nor giving public notice of meetings on the Village at Wolf Creek, which is proposed on nearly 300 acres of private land that's surrounded by national forest. Colorado Wild and the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council will make those arguments during a state district court hearing Tuesday in Creede, an historic mining town and seat of Mineral County. They and Davey Pitcher, president of Wolf Creek Ski Corp., believe the county commissioners caved in to McCombs when they agreed to the $1 billion project that includes 222,100 square feet of commercial space, hotels and homes for up to 10,500 people....
The Mountain vs. The Village Randall "Davey" Pitcher wears Birkenstock sandals. Bob Honts sports tall-Texan cowboy boots. Each regularly leaves footprints atop Wolf Creek Pass, the epicenter of a bitter fight over the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. Pitcher presides over the Wolf Creek Ski Area. Honts is CEO of an idea: the Village, a development under way on an island of private land within the Rio Grande National Forest. Their disagreements are an extension, sometimes philosophical, always economic, of the two powerhouses they represent: skiing patriarch Kingsbury Pitcher and Forbes 400 billionaire Billie Joe "Red" McCombs. And their efforts trigger reactions among activists and observers from Creede to Capitol Hill....
Forest Service to cut down trees that block view of Mt. Shasta U.S. forest officials have agreed to cut down a dozen or more pine trees at the foot of Mount Shasta to restore a historically wide-open meadow where American Indians gather to dance and pray. Coonrod Flat, about 12 miles southeast of the mountain's summit, has always been a gathering point for the ceremonies of the Winnemem band of Wintu Indians. Participants face east to observe the sun rising, then turn toward the mountain while performing cultural dances. An unobstructed line of sight is important because Shasta has special alignment with Coonrod Flat and other sacred sites. But lately encroaching pine trees have blocked the view of the 14-thousand-foot volcano in Shasta-Trinity National Forest....
Forest face-off Three years later, on a September day in 1998, the bearded redhead from Missouri lay curled up on the floor of a Humboldt County forest, rocking and sobbing. Next to him was 24-year-old David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain, his head cracked open from the blow of a tree felled by an enraged logger. Chain had inspired Wilson to disrupt old-growth logging on private land. It was Wilson's first act of civil disobedience. Now, Chain was dead. The legacy of that death, Wilson soon decided, was the weight the Lakota elder had warned of. He vowed to carry it with honor. From that day on, "Shunka" would be his forest name, joining the list of adopted monikers that give Humboldt's logging protesters a blend of anonymity and fairy tale whimsy. Shunka's long struggle to redress Chain's death would depend, more than anything, on a 700-year-old tree the protesters had named "Aradia."....
Column: ESA debate heats up The U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government from forcing a citizen to "quarter" a soldier in time of peace. The Endangered Species Act, however, forces any citizen to "quarter" wolves, panthers, bears, or any of more than 1200 other species the government declares to be "endangered." The U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from "taking" private property for public use, without just compensation. The Endangered Species Act, however, takes away the use of private property from citizens, without paying any compensation at all. Clearly, the Endangered Species Act ignores the private property rights specifically protected by the U.S. Constitution. This contentious 1973 law is, once again, the subject of heated debate in Washington....
Irrigation district controls dam's fate The removal of Chiloquin dam might be blocked. Tearing out the 91-year-old concrete structure on the Sprague River near Chiloquin has passed through federal hurdles and has the support of legislators, environmental groups and the Klamath Tribes, but now this issue rests with the 86 landowners of the Modoc Point Irrigation District. The district owns the dam and holds its fate. "The board is seeking the membership's approval to go ahead," said Doug Tedrick, manager of the dam's fish passage project for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. "If the district doesn't want us to take it out, then we are not going to take it out."....
Endangered Species Act embroiled in court battles More than three decades after the Endangered Species Act gave the federal government tools and a mandate to protect animals, insects and plants threatened with extinction, the landmark law is facing the most intense efforts ever by White House officials, members of Congress, landowners and industry to limit its reach. More than any time in the law's 32-year history, the obligations it imposes on government — and, indirectly, on landowners — are being challenged in the courts, reworked in the agencies responsible for enforcing it and re-examined in Congress. In some cases, the challenges are broad and sweeping, as when the Bush administration, in a legal battle about the best way to protect endangered salmon, declared western dams to be as much a part of the landscape as the rivers they control. In others, the actions are deep in the realm of regulatory bureaucracy, as when a White House appointee at the Interior Department sought to influence scientific recommendations involving the sage grouse, a bird whose habitat includes areas of likely oil and gas deposits....
Endangered plants focus of new study In a review ranging from the Western lily to the Tennessee coneflower, the Center for Plant Conservation is about to embark on a major study of endangered plants to determine their potential for recovery in the United States. The St. Louis-based nonprofit organization, a network of more than 30 botanical institutions around the country, was founded in 1984 to prevent the extinction of native plants. Center officials said an analysis of this scale has never been performed before at a national level. The Center estimates that about 2,000 U.S. plant species, or about 10 percent of the nation's native flora, are at risk of extinction. The roughly $500,000 study will look at endangered or threatened plants and also those being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act....
Endangered Ferret Needs Its Prey, Furthering Ranchers' Woes Yet the ferret, an obscure member of the weasel family, is behind a longstanding battle between conservationists and ranchers over land use and government-sponsored poisoning and the familiar question of what comes first, working people or little animals. It is not that people who live here have any quarrel with black-footed ferrets. Few have even seen one. It is the animal that the ferrets eat that is the problem, its formal name - Cynomys ludovicianus - surfacing in a recent flurry of back-and-forth lawsuits and government reports: the cute and chubby and insatiable prairie dog. As the area has been struck by drought, prairie dogs have scampered over property lines and occupied neighboring ranches, devouring the vegetation on acres where cattle graze. Last fall, after a ban on killing prairie dogs was lifted, the federal Department of Agriculture poisoned 5,000 acres of the public lands in the Canata Basin. Ranchers applauded, saying prairie dogs threaten their livelihood. Conservationists, though, warned against further poisoning, saying it could mean another threat of extinction for the black-footed ferret....
Research shows grizzlies in backyards a lot more than previously thought Despite economic expansion in western Montana, grizzly bear populations are on the rise and grizzly behavior is becoming less of a mystery. Speaking at the Montanans for Multiple Use meeting last night, Chris Servheen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Program Coordinator, presented newly collected data that showed where and when bears move around their habitat, something that was previously misunderstood. Servheen said USFWS has planted Global Positioning System collars on grizzlies in the Swan Valley and discovered that bears move near roadways and houses at night, a time they have learned is less dangerous. "It tells us what bears do in the dark," he said. "It opens the door to understanding animals." Knowing when and where bears move around allows wildlife managers to create strategies on how to deal with problem bears as well as the interaction between humans and grizzlies....
Environmental groups sue feds over grazing at Glen Canyon Two environmental groups are suing the Bureau of Land Management, the Park Service and Interior Secretary Gale Norton over grazing in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The lawsuit filed Friday has implications for ranching in northern Arizona and southern Utah, including for those who ranch in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity and another group that calls itself the Great Old Broads for Wilderness have charged the federal agencies with ignoring their own mission statement to protect natural resources in the parks and with recognizing in 1999 that the cattle were having a negative impact, but doing nothing about it. "The Park Service itself recognized that there was this ecological degradation and they wrote a plan (to mitigate it)," Center for Biological Diversity's Greta Anderson said. "...Now we just want them to follow
it."....
Focus Property Group-Led Consortium Closes on $510 Million Purchase of BLM Auction Parcel in Las Vegas Focus Property Group, along with a consortium of home building companies including KB Home, Kimball Hill Homes, Lennar/US Home, Meritage Homes, Pulte Homes, Ryland Homes, Toll Brothers Homes and Woodside Homes, completed the purchase of the 1,700 acres of land located in the northwest section of the City of Las Vegas for which it was the successful bidder at the Bureau of Land Management auction held last February. The consortium intends to construct a master planned community on the property. The consortium today placed $408 million into escrow for payment to the BLM, which, when added to the $102 million paid on the date of the auction, represents the total price of $510 million it bid for the BLM land. The group simultaneously closed $490 million in acquisition and development financing from a consortium of banks and institutional lenders led by Wachovia Bank and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC. Located just north of Focus Property Group's 1,200 acre Providence master plan, this new community will be adjacent to the City's Northwest Town Center, north of the Las Vegas Beltway, on both sides of US 95. Focus estimates that builders will be ready to open their first model homes in the new community in late 2007....
Exploration for gold debated Conservation groups are joining historians and archeologists in expressing concern about gold exploration on South Pass. "The exploration in and of itself is ... though not welcome, probably not going to be devastating," said Barbara Dobos of the Alliance for Historic Wyoming. "But you don't explore without the intent to develop." Among the group's concerns are possible effects to sage grouse and historic trails. The trails have been called "areas of critical concern" by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The Oregon, California, Pony Express and Mormon Pioneer trails converge in the area proposed for gold exploration....
Column: Huntsman is right to support counties in road dispute Huntsman's support of state and county ownership of these roads is nothing new. The dispute over title to these roads began in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the Utah wilderness debate became a heated national issue. Counties depend on these roads to support their economies and the public's recreation needs. Despite FLPMA's protection of valid existing RS 2477 roads, the BLM has acted as though it can simply ignore these rights. But the BLM is wrong. The BLM, National Park Service and wilderness activists took the issue to the federal courts after mechanical maintenance and improvements were made to the Burr Trail and 16 other roads in Kane, Garfield and San Juan counties. As many decisions were upheld in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, several key RS 2477 points were thought to have been settled, including that it is state law which determines what it takes to establish a right of way and, once established, the rights of way are limited so that the counties cannot take actions that adversely affect adjacent public lands in any significant way....
Shift on MTBE May Clear Way for Energy Bill Congressional negotiators said Sunday they had resolved a dispute over a controversial gasoline additive that had threatened passage of the first overhaul of national energy policy in more than a decade. They said they did not expect the energy bill to include any legal protection for the manufacturers of methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, which helps engines produce less smog but has been blamed for contaminating groundwater supplies across the country. The decision not to shield MTBE manufacturers from environmental lawsuits should clear the way for negotiators to complete work on a final bill, perhaps as early as today, and send it to the House and the Senate for approval by the end of the week....
Congress Approves Far-Reaching Changes in US Geothermal Laws The House-Senate Conference Committee meeting on national energy legislation today approved sweeping changes to the nation's geothermal energy laws. The provisions, titled the John Rishel Geothermal Steam Act Amendments, represent the first major overhaul of the Geothermal Steam Act since 1970. "The geothermal provisions adopted by the Conference Committee are a dramatic improvement in the law," noted Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. "They will encourage the rapid expansion of geothermal energy use in the West." Pointing to some of the highlights, Gawell added, "This bill streamlines some of the most bureaucratic aspects of the law, provides clear direction for the agencies to make geothermal a priority, gives local governments more funding to mitigate impacts, and ensures that the federal agencies will have the resources needed to implement the new law and quickly work-off a 30 year backlog of unfinished studies and ignored lease applications."....
Animal Rights Extremists Still in Business After the horrific events of Sept. 11, some thought that ecoterrorism might fade away. After all, President Bush made it plain that the government would hunt down terrorists and bring them to justice. It didn’t seem like a good time to be vandalizing university labs and government buildings, trespassing on farms to release animals and setting fire to new housing construction. Animal rights and environmental extremists themselves anticipated a lull as they rethought their tactics, determined how the unconscionable act of Sept. 11 would change public opinion and waited to see if more legal pressure would be brought to bear on them. If anyone expected them to just crawl in a hole and hide, however, it hasn’t happened. Only a month after Sept. 11, the Environmental Liberation Front turned wild horses loose from a Bureau of Land Management facility in Susanville, Calif. They also torched barns, a building and vehicles. To Craig Rosebraugh, author of “Burning Rage of a Dying Planet,” the attack was a relief. It meant the war against mainstream America would continue....
Mormons, ACLU at odds over future of sacred site More accustomed to poolside parties and summer jobs at burger joints, the Colorado teens struggled as they pushed the heavy wooden handcarts across Wyoming's dusty prairie. Leaving the carts at the bottom of a hill, the group of 100 or so youngsters walked the final half-mile up a steep slope to Martin's Cove, where 56 Mormon pioneers are said to have died of exhaustion and hypothermia in 1856 while on their way to Salt Lake City. Amalie Brown, 16, had heard stories of this place over and over again in Mormon Sunday school and at church while growing up. But the moment was more powerful than even she had expected. The problem is that, as one of the most revered sites in the Mormon world, a place considered by church officials to be holy ground, Martin's Cove is on a patch of sagebrush and prairie grass administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management....
USDA challenges governor on state cattle inspections The U.S. Department of Agriculture is questioning the legality of an order by Gov. Brian Schweitzer that would result in a $3 to $5 fee on Canadian cattle crossing the border destined for Montana. Schweitzer said on Thursday that he would require additional checks by veterinarians now that cattle shipments from Canada have resumed, and he estimated the cost would be $3 to $5 a head. He cited lingering concerns about importing cattle from a country that has reported three cases of mad cow disease during the past two years. Terri Teuber, a spokeswoman for the USDA in Washington, said on Friday that agency attorneys had reviewed Schweitzer's order. "We don't believe the state has the authority to charge a fee due to the burden it would cause on foreign commerce," she said. "With that said, we've not yet seen any proposed regulations or guidelines they intend to follow to conduct the inspections." Schweitzer dismissed the legal concerns, saying, "We thank them for their advice, but meanwhile we will protect the interests of consumers and the cattle industry in Montana."....Look at the headlines, USDI challenges Wyo. law on split estates and USDA challenges Montana law on cattle inspections. Gee, I thought the Bush folks were believers in Federalism. Hardly....
Saddle up: Billings saddle maker cinches prestigious Academy of Western Artists award After 30 years of molding leather to rawhide trees, Chas Weldon figures he's only halfway through his saddle-making career. Still, the 500 buckaroo-style saddles the Billings native has crafted for horsemen and collectors were enough to win him the Academy of Western Artists' 2005 Will Rogers Cowboy Award for saddle making for a lifetime of achievement. The award was one of 38 handed out to Western performers and artisans, including three from this area, during a July 12 ceremony in a suburb of Dallas. After receiving honorable mentions for the past two years, the award wasn't a total surprise. But Weldon said what pleased him the most was that the winner is picked mostly by saddle makers who have won before....
Drivers to I-84 cows: moove Hundreds of cattle hit the road Friday morning as a local rancher moved them along Interstate 84 toward their summer grazing grounds in Croydon. Both the sheriff's office and the Utah Highway Patrol were notified of the herding in order to stave off any potential problems. Several vehicles from the sheriff's office followed the herd up the freeway from mile marker 103 in Morgan to mile marker 111 in Croydon. Weber County Dispatch Center received several calls Friday morning from motorists taking issue with the traffic backup. "You have people upset because they want to go 70 miles per hour and it slows to about 10," Frandsen said. However, the cow herding is legal because the rancher owned trail rights before the freeway was built, Peay said. The cattle will travel back down Interstate 84 this fall. The cattle herding occurs every year....
Under Bubba's red glare Geneva Houx grew a little nervous as she hit the high notes at Saturday's singing contest in downtown Portland. The judge, after all, was licking his lips. And swooshing his tail. It's not a typical performance, the 27-year-old Hillsboro gospel singer said, when you're trying to please a 3,000-pound Black Angus bull. But to win a spot singing the national anthem at this year's Washington County Fair & Rodeo, that's what you've got to do. Several hundred people gathered in Pioneer Courthouse Square on Saturday afternoon to see Bubba, as well as a petite rodeo queen, judge the five hopefuls belting out "The Star-Spangled Banner." "We're looking to see some expression from Bubba," said Don Hillman, executive director of the Fair Complex. "Some kind of body movement, tail-twitching."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Lite comes before enlightenment Dave is a local rancher in the mountain valleys of central California. May 5, he took three of his buddies into the high country to check the summer range. They four-wheeled up into the Alpine zone and finally reached the line camp at Dripping Spring. The snow-covered peaks were melting like ice cream. The spring was beautiful, the willows were budding. It was still coat cold. Dave checked the corrals, the little outhouse, the tool shed and the spring. To his curiosity, he noticed a black bandanna tied high in a birch tree that overhung the spring. He puzzled over its significance; a hiker's souvenir? A hunter's signal? A cowboy's joke? A talisman? A scarecrow to drive off beavers? He stood on his ATV and was able to reach the bandanna and managed to untie it from the limb. It seemed fresh and clean, no doubt, rain and sun had laundered it well. He put it around his neck. It made him feel dashing! Inside the cabin, the larder was checked. It was kept supplied with canned goods, matches, some firewood and blankets. Notes were made on what was needed. Dave found two cans of Miller Lite beer in the sink....

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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Bein’ neighborly at the Mud Pump Bar

By Julie Carter

Some words are just fightin’ words and there is no way around it. This story is about one of those times.

Four west Texas cowpunchers had spent the week at the end of nowhere gathering and branding cattle. They were tired, cold and running on empty by the time they headed for home.

The eagle had flown that day and with a few spare coins in their pockets they were feeling a little flush. While not believing in government aid, they did believe in being neighborly. It’s the cowboy way.

Their justification was this. Colorado joined Texas making them neighbors. For a good while these four had been neighborly underwriting that pure Rocky Mountain spring water brewery. In fact, another wagon load had just been sent down the hill to Texas and these cowboys were feeling dutiful to their cause.

The first place they came to that looked like it would fit the bill and was in fact the only place between the prairie dog town fork of the Red River and home. It was called the Mud Pump Bar.

Not being totally unobservant, they had seen a little of the oil field activity in the area. Comment was limited to “those pump jacks make a good place for the cattle to shade up in the summer.”

That there might be “oilies” coming with this oil field activity had not yet crossed their consciousness.

The punchers parked their horse trailers out of the wind as best they could and proceeded into this fine establishment in an orderly fashion.

Now the Mud Pump Bar was a high class joint. Just last week they had changed out the sawdust on the floor and there were several new egg crates on the ceiling. There was a jukebox with country music, a waitress in a short skirt and so many beer company clocks you could tell time from Amarillo to Corpus Christi.

When their eyes adjusted to the low ambient light, the problem they didn’t know existed became quite visible. There was a long table in the middle of the room filled with oilies.

Being basically friendly and very thirsty, the foursome decided to ignore this breech of bar hospitality.

Sitting alone at the bar was one old man dressed in Wranglers, boots and a cowboy hat. He struck up a conversation by noting the four newcomers were also cowboys. “Hard life, ain’t it,” he said in more of statement than a question.

The cowboys were about to agree but before they could launch into a hard life story, one of the oiles jumped up to challenge them. This guy evidently for most the day been irrigating an already foolish mind with a sudsy beverage.

“Man you don’t know nuthin’ about hard work. You ought to try following us around one day.”

The table of oilies got quiet and for all appearances, to a man, they intended to back their mouthy buddy.

While seriously outnumbered, the punchers weren’t ready to have some oilie telling them about hard work. But they let it ride this time thinking the moment would pass.

Bent on self destruction the oilie made another run at the cowboys. “So where’d you boys park your little ponies?”

In Texas there are only men and horses. While a cowboy’s hide might shed insults to himself, nobody made fun of their horses.

After the sheriff left and the oilies had paid for the damages to the premises, the four cowboys went on about their business of helping out those Colorado folks.

It’s a dirty job but someone had to do it—they were just bein’ neighborly you know.

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

© Julie Carter 2005

I don't know anything about cowboys and bars, but it does sound like it might be a fun time.

Received via email:

The Atheist and the Bear

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods.

What majestic trees!

What powerful rivers!

What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the
bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 8 foot Alaskan grizzly
charge towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder
and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his
shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. He tripped and fell on
the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear right
on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his
right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out: "Oh my God!..."

Time stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky:
"You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don't
exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me
to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical
of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps
could you make the BEAR a Christian?"

"Very well," said the voice.

The light went out.

The sounds of the forest resumed.

And then the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together
and bowed his head and spoke:

"Lord, bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty
through Christ our Lord, Amen.

I welcome submissions for Saturday Night At The Westerner.

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OPINION/COMMENTARY

Exxon-Mobil Boycott: All Politics, No Science

The boycott of Exxon-Mobil by a coalition of environmental lobbying groups is part of a massive public relations campaign to effect change, but political not environmental change, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. "All groups and individuals are free to express their views in the marketplace, but consumers should also understand that this is a charade,” Dr. Burnett said. “Contrary to environmental lobbyists’ claims, there is still lively scientific debate concerning the extent to which human activities contribute to the earth’s current warming trend. Exxon recognizes that the question is still open, but these environmentalists want to shut-off public debate and muzzle any research that undermines their political goals." The coalition’s public relations campaign brands Exxon-Mobil as an outlaw corporation and asks consumers to boycott Exxon-Mobil products, even though the company has invested heavily in the recent past in renewable energy sources despite a lack of consumer demand and profitability. Specifically, the coalition objects to Exxon-Mobil’s support for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)....

First Step in Fuel Economy Reform Should Be Assessing CAFE’s Lethal Effect

The federal government is about to propose a major reform of its fuel economy standards. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, however, there should be no change in the program until the agency that runs it, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fully analyzes the program’s lethal effect on traffic safety. There is clear evidence that the program, known as CAFE (for corporate average fuel economy) has increased traffic deaths by restricting the production of larger, more crashworthy vehicles. A 2001 National Academy of Sciences’ report found that this downsizing had contributed to approximately 2,000 traffic deaths per year. In 1992, in a case brought by CEI and Consumer Alert, a federal appeals court found that NHTSA had illegally concealed this issue from public debate. “Given that CAFE has been in effect for over a quarter century, its cumulative impact may well make it the government’s single most deadly regulatory program,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “Until NHTSA candidly assesses this impact, it has no business engaging in any type of CAFE reform.” In CEI’s view, the agency’s current approach to reform would vastly increase CAFE’s complexity, encouraging gaming between various vehicle categories. The real purposes of reform should be to reduce CAFE’s deadly effects, increase consumer choice and design flexibility, and minimize the risk of new technologies introduced under government pressure. But any reform is premature until the lethal impacts of the current program are fully assessed....

A Court Rules Prudently... for Now

In the latest setback for global warming activists, the federal Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled last Friday that the Clean Air Act does not require the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The Court did not decide whether the Clean Air Act (CAA) gives EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHG), but merely that, in choosing not to regulate GHGs, EPA made a policy call that was within its legitimate legal discretion. The Court's ruling came in response to a petition from a dozen states' attorneys general, ten environmental groups, and three cities, who are attempting to mandate national GHG reductions through the courts. The goal is to effectively implement the Kyoto Protocol without the approval of Congress or the President. The ruling is good news for those who believe GHG regulations would harm Americans' prosperity, health, and freedom. However, because the Court's ruling was on such narrow grounds, the victory is cause for only a brief celebration. The Court did not address the fundamental issues of whether EPA has legal authority to regulate GHG emissions and whether the Petitioners have standing to file suit in the first place. Both questions are likely to return in some future case....

Energy-Bill Follies

With great fanfare, the Senate passed a $35 billion energy bill earlier this month that has been characterized as a somewhat wiser and greener bill than that passed by the House a few months ago. Although conservatives claim to find much therein to embrace, virtually every section of the bill represents a rejection of free markets and limited government. The most obnoxious aspect is the ten-year, $18.4 billion in tax breaks and incentives for various energy investments. While conservatives like to argue that if you subsidize something, you'll get more of it, that observation is generally used as an admonition against — not as a rationale for — government intervention. In this case, the Senate proposes to subsidize investments that have been unable to attract as much private capital as proponents would like. But what are the chances that 100 senators using other peoples' (taxpayers) money will make better investment decisions than investors using their own money? It's possible that some of the Senate's choices are sound, but in those cases, all that is accomplished is the unnecessary transfer of resources from taxpayers to investors. In short, the Senate isn't subsidizing energy as much as it's subsidizing dubious investments and/or particular investors. The bill also contains specific production and consumption orders. Ten percent of all electricity sold in 2020 must be produced from a list of approved renewable fuels; refineries must churn out 8 billion gallons of ethanol per year by 2012; and the president is called on to reduce oil consumption by one million barrels a day by 2015. Government mandates that "thou shall produce" or face prosecution seem to be more characteristic of Soviet five-year plans than of a free-market economy....

Will Schwarzenegger terminate California's prosperity?

Arnold, how could you? You were the GOP’s great gubernatorial hope. Sure, you had no political experience, were “squishy” on social issues, and had married into America’s foremost Democratic family. But you were going to terminate the state’s financial problems. How could you mandate a global warming program that will leave your people drowning in red ink long after you’ve said, “Hasta la vista, baby!” Bypassing the legislature, Schwarzenegger last month signed an executive order mandating drastic cuts in so-called greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. "The debate is over," Schwarzenegger wrote July 3 in a London newspaper. "We know the science.” But the Governator is thinking with his biceps, and clearly taking cues from his über-environmentalist Cabinet Secretary Terry Tamminen who seems to be living the title of Schwarzenegger’s film, True Lies....

McCain – Wait, this Time It’s Domenici – Packs Climate Hearings with More of the Same Alarmism

Tomorrow’s scheduled Senate hearing on the science and economics of climate change misses an important opportunity to present a balanced, full view of the debate over its topic. Rather than invite experts with different perspectives to present their findings, Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) has chosen to stack the panel with scientists from the alarmist side of the debate. “The choice of witnesses is eerily reminiscent of hearings held in the last Congress by Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-AZ),” said Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Like Sen. McCain, Chairman Domenici appears to have made up his mind and only wants to hear from people who agree with him.” During debate on the energy bill in June, Chairman Domenici announced that he thought an energy rationing proposal by Sen. Jeff Bingaman represented “a middle-ground consensus” on climate policy and that he would help it gain Senate approval. Unfortunately, this hearing will not provide a critical examination of the real costs and benefits of the Bingaman proposal. A brief critical examination, titled “All Cost, No Benefit,” by CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis, Jr. can be found online....

Caught unawares and no bracelet to show for it

I hadn't realized how unaware I was until the woman seated next to me snapped a strip of leather around my wrist and whispered: "This is hottest thing in Hollywood right now." Looking down, I admired my new adornment. Embossed on the soft caramel leather band were the words "Stop Global Warming." Almost immediately, I was aware of wearing a bracelet. I was also aware of an unfamiliar warmth. Not the global sort, but that which radiates from one's Inner Virtue. I could feel other people in the restaurant looking at me and knew that they knew. As I walked down the street later, strangers glanced discreetly at my wrist, whispering and nodding. Their faces betrayed their thoughts: "There goeth forth a woman who opposes global warming," and all were glad. And soon the planet would cool, and the glaciers would freeze again, and Mother Earth would smile upon her diverse and virtuous children. But firsteth, excuse me while I burneth my bracelet....

PETA's Stealth War On Schools

In our report "Your Kids, PETA's Pawns," we detail how People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) indoctrinates children of all ages into the animal-rights movement, both here and abroad. And we've seen nothing to indicate that PETA intends to slow down its ideological assault on America's young people. PETA's "about us" web page now discloses that the group has "reached 235,000 teachers and 11,000,000 students" (eleven million!) with its propaganda materials, some of which don't even bear PETA's name. The Center for Consumer Freedom distributed copies of "Your Kids, PETA's Pawns" to enthusiastic teachers and school administrators at this year's National Education Association and National PTA conventions. PETA was also an exhibitor at the PTA event, distributing its "TeachKind" curriculum materials. But the PETA name and logo were nowhere to be seen. While the standard TeachKind brochure carries PETA's home address in Norfolk, VA, it includes no other acknowledgement that PETA's "total animal liberation" zealots are behind the program. In fact, of the hundreds of educators our representatives spoke with during the three day PTA conference in Columbus, Ohio, none were aware that TeachKind is a PETA program....

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FLE

Civil rights suit underway against park officials in pepper-spray incident; ranger Mayo back on duty A Civil Rights lawsuit is underway in San Francisco Federal District Court against two Point Reyes National Seashore rangers and two superiors for their part in the pepper-spraying last July of a teenage brother and sister from Inverness Park. The incident took place off park property in Point Reyes Station. The teens, who were bystanders at a minor law-enforcement matter, were never charged with wrongdoing. Attorneys for both sides are meeting with a federal judge, making initial disclosures, submitting preliminary motions, and setting up a schedule of conferences and hearings which ultimately will culminate in jury selection and a trial on Feb. 27. 2006. Hearing the case is Judge Susan Illston, US District Court, Northern District of California. Attorneys Dennis Cunningham and Gordon Kaupp of San Francisco on behalf of Chris Miller and his sister Jessica are suing ranger Roger Mayo, who sprayed Chris in the face as he started to leave the scene and extensively sprayed his sister even after she was in handcuffs and kneeling on the ground. Also being sued are ranger Angelina Gregorio, who held Jessica down during the Mayo pepper-spraying, chief ranger Colin Smith, and National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher....
Behind-the-Scenes Battle on Tracking Data Mining Bush administration officials are opposing an effort in Congress under the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act to force the government to disclose its use of data-mining techniques in tracking suspects in terrorism cases. As part of the vote in the House this week to extend major parts of the antiterrorism law permanently, lawmakers agreed to include a little-noticed provision that would require the Justice Department to report to Congress annually on government-wide efforts to develop and use data-mining technology to track intelligence patterns. But a set of talking points distributed among Republican lawmakers as the measure was being debated warned that the Justice Department was opposed to the amendment because it would add to the list of "countless reports" already required by Congress and would take time away from more critical law enforcement activities. The government's use of vast public and private databases to mine for leads has produced several damaging episodes for the Bush administration, most notably in connection with the Total Information Awareness system developed by the Pentagon for tracking terror suspects and the Capps program of the Department of Homeland Security for screening airline passengers. Both programs were ultimately scrapped after public outcries over possible threats to privacy and civil liberties, and some Republicans and Democrats in Congress say they want to keep closer tabs on such computer operations to guard against abuse....
Congress Report: TSA Broke Privacy Laws The Transportation Security Administration violated privacy protections by secretly collecting personal information on at least 250,000 people, congressional investigators said Friday. The Government Accountability Office sent a letter to Congress saying the collection violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from compiling information on people without their knowledge. The information was collected as the agency tested a program, now called Secure Flight, to conduct computerized checks of airline passengers against terrorist watch lists. TSA had promised it would only use the limited information about passengers that it had obtained from airlines. Instead, the agency and its contractors compiled files on people using data from commercial brokers and then compared those files with the lists. The GAO reported that about 100 million records were collected....
House Beats Back Challenges to Patriot Act The House voted Thursday to extend permanently virtually all the major antiterrorism provisions of the USA Patriot Act after beating back efforts by Democrats and some Republicans to impose new restrictions on the government's power to eavesdrop, conduct secret searches and demand library records. The legislation, approved 257 to 171, would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions in the law that were set to expire at the end of this year. The remaining two provisions - giving the government the power to demand business and library records and to conduct roving wiretaps - would have to be reconsidered by Congress in 10 years. The House version of the legislation essentially leaves intact many of the central powers of the antiterrorism act that critics had sought to scale back, setting the stage for what could be difficult negotiations with the Senate, which is considering several very different bills to extend the government's counterterrorism powers under the act....
The Security Pretext: An Examination of the Growth of Federal Police Agencies Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, bureaucrats and special interest groups have been busy repackaging everything from peanut subsidies to steel protectionism under the rubric of "national security." Federal law enforcement agencies have also been expanding their power in the name of combating terrorism, whether or not such expansion has anything to do with enhancing security. One safeguard that exists to prevent such abuse is congressional oversight, but too many members of Congress are too often reluctant to challenge law enforcement officials. For freedom to prevail in the age of terrorism, three things are essential. First, government officials must take a sober look at the potential risk and recognize that there is no reason to panic and act rashly. Second, Congress must stop federal police agencies from acting arbitrarily. Before imposing costly and restrictive security measures that inconvenience thousands of people, police agencies ought to be required to produce cost-benefit analyses. Third, government officials must demonstrate courage rather than give in to their fears. Radical Islamic terrorists are not the first enemy that America has faced. British troops burned the White House in 1814, the Japanese navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Soviet Union deployed hundreds of nuclear missiles that targeted American cities. If policymakers are serious about defending our freedom and our way of life, they must wage this war without discarding our traditional constitutional framework of limited government....
Breaking the Rules Local prosecutors in many of the 2,341 jurisdictions across the nation have stretched, bent or broken rules while convicting defendants, the Center has found. Since 1970, individual judges and appellate court panels cited prosecutorial misconduct as a factor when dismissing charges at trial, reversing convictions or reducing sentences in at least 2,012 cases. The nature of the questionable conduct covers every type attributed to Moss, and more. In 513 additional cases, appellate judges offered opinions—either dissents or concurrences—in which they found the prosecutorial misconduct serious enough to merit additional discussion; some of the dissenting judges wrote that they found the misconduct warranted a reversal. In thousands more cases, judges labeled prosecutorial behavior inappropriate, but allowed the trial to continue or upheld convictions using a doctrine called "harmless error." The Center analyzed 11,452 cases in which charges of prosecutorial misconduct were reviewed by appellate court judges....

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Ferocious Heat Maintains Grip Across the West

A relentless and lethal blanket of heat has settled on much of the western United States, forcing the cancellation of dozens of airline flights, threatening the loss of electrical power, stoking wildfires and leaving 20 people dead in Phoenix alone in just the past week. Fourteen of the victims here are thought to have been homeless, although the heat also claimed the life of a 97-year-old man who died in his bedroom, a 37-year-old man who succumbed in his car and two older women who died in homes without air-conditioning. Daytime highs in Phoenix have remained near 110 degrees for more than a week, and municipal officials acknowledge that it is almost impossible to deal with the needs of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people living on the streets. The city has barely 1,000 shelter beds, and hundreds of them are available only in the winter. Officials of the National Weather Service estimate that more than 200 heat records have been broken in the West during the last two weeks. On Tuesday, Las Vegas tied its record for any date, 117 degrees. Reno and other locations in Nevada have set records with nine consecutive days of temperatures at 100 or higher. The temperature in Denver on Wednesday reached 105 degrees, making it the hottest day there since 1878. The highest temperature for the entire region during the heat wave has been 129, recorded at Death Valley, Calif. The weather forced airlines to cancel more than two dozen flights this week, remove passengers from fully loaded planes, limit the number of tickets sold on some flights and take other measures to withstand the heat....

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Governor seeks inspection of Canadian cattle With Canadian cattle once again crossing the U.S. border, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer ordered Thursday that all animals destined for Montana must be checked to ensure they comply with new federal restrictions. Veterinarians, acting on behalf of the state Livestock Department, will inspect feeder cattle to determine whether they are younger than 30 months, not pregnant and have the mandated "CAN" brand, Schweitzer said. Owners of the cattle will be required to pay the cost of the inspections, which the governor estimated would be $3 to $5 a head. Schweitzer, a rancher himself, cited lingering concerns about importing cattle from a country that has reported three cases of mad cow disease during the past two years. "I am committed to the ranchers and consumers in this state," he said. "We will take every precaution available to us to protect Montanans and the Montana cattle industry." He said he will urge governors in Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming to take similar action....
White House Ties Secure Yates' Drilling Rights to Sensitive N.M. Grasslands For $2 an acre, the Bush Administration has given the rights to drill for oil and gas on New Mexico's Otero Mesa to a company whose White House connections were key to reversing earlier plans to protect much of the area from drilling. On July 20, the Harvey E. Yates Company, or HEYCO, of Roswell, N.M., placed the only bid for drilling rights to 1,600 acres of the environmentally sensitive Mesa in central New Mexico. A 2004 investigation by Environmental Working Group found that the Yates family controlled almost three times as many oil and gas leases on Western public lands as any other entity. In the last three election cycles, HEYCO and other Yates companies have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of President Bush and other Republican candidates. After a former Yates lobbyist was appointed to the No. 2 position at the Interior Department, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revised a draft plan that would have restricted drilling on about 60 percent of the Mesa, to allow drilling in more than 90 percent of the area....
Out on a limb In the forest near Ovando, where larch tower into the sky high above the Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, something new is happening. It’s early on the morning of July 13, and representatives from three Missoula conservation groups, along with volunteers and a crew of sawyers, are surveying yesterday’s work. For the first time, they’ve been given charge of four acres of a 300-acre Forest Service fuel reduction project, with which to demonstrate how they think thinning ought to be done. “We felt like it was important to get our hands on something and show the agency a different approach,” says Jake Kreilick, with the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA). Along with the Native Forest Network, Wildlands CPR and the Sierra Club, NFPA is a partner in the project. Wildland Conservation Services’ crew, headed by local forester and soil scientist Mark Vander Meer, is providing the technical expertise and handling the saws....
Contractor rounds up wild cows in the Gila Wild cows that have been grazing illegally on the Gila National Forest are being rounded up by a contractor working for the US Forest Service. Forest officials says they have been rounding up cattle since 1998 to protect resources in the area. And there may be 35 or more cattle spread throughout the rugged draws and canyons in the upper Gila River. Forest officials say those cattle have escaped past roundups and have evolved into feral cows. The contractor started the roundup last week. So far, six cows have been captured....
Freudenthal seeks roadless answers Wyoming may be better off participating in conventional forest planning to determine roadless areas in the state rather taking advantage of the Bush administration's new roadless rules, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday. Under the new roadless rules issued by the Bush administration, governors can submit petitions to stop road building on some of the 34.3 million acres where it would now be permitted or request that new forest management plans be written to allow road-building on some of another 24.2 million acres. Wyoming has 3.2 million acres of roadless forests. But Freudenthal said the petition process is "essentially meaningless" because the new rule doesn't obligate the federal government to do anything. He sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns asking how much influence the state's petitions would have, how they would be judged and prioritized and who would pay for the environmental analyses....
Alleged gator killer faces charges The South Richmond fisherman who this month allegedly killed a reptile that had been lurking in Chesterfield County's Falling Creek Reservoir will face charges, according to federal wildlife officials. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman said yesterday that the creature has been identified as an American alligator, which is a "threatened species" protected by the Endangered Species Act. "We have referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Richmond, and [criminal] charges have been filed," agency spokeswoman Diana Weaver said. The maximum possible penalty for killing a protected species is a $100,000 fine, a one-year prison term and forfeiture of any equipment used while the animal was killed, she said....
Kit foxes den still has school project on hold Most of the Taft City School District's modernization projects started so far are either completed or well underway - with one exception. The district is still waiting for the go-ahead to continue work on the Taft Parkview library media center. That project was held up when it was found that kit foxes, and endangered species, were living in a den close to where the building was being installed. That forced a complete halt to the project while the district hired a consultant to work out a plan to allow construction to continue....
Ospreys threaten to ruffle feathers at Irondale High A pile of sticks clustered on a platform atop a light pole at the Irondale High School football field drew stares and interest all spring and summer. Science teachers said it was likely the home of an osprey, a federally protected bird of prey with a 5-foot wingspan that makes a habit of nesting at the highest point near wetlands. "I thought it was pretty awesome," recalled Principal Colleen Wambach. "Now I'm just hoping we can co-exist.'' It seems this marvel of nature, with at least one chick in its 3-foot-wide nest, could temporarily halt activities on these athletic fields at the New Brighton school — possibly delaying completion of an artificial turf project and sending the marching band, soccer and football players to practice elsewhere....
Utility plans to remove dam A Utah-based utility will ask federal regulators for permission to remove an aging small dam on the Bear River in Idaho, a move that environmentalists say will help improve dwindling numbers of Bonneville cutthroat trout. The Cove Dam near the southeastern Idaho community of Grace is expected to be removed next year pending approval by the agency that licenses privately operated dams, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A dam removal agreement was signed Wednesday in Pocatello between the utility and various groups and agencies, including the Shoshone-Bannock Indian tribe, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition....
Sen. Salazar aims to prod agencies on Flats plans Sen. Ken Salazar has flexed some procedural muscle in the hope of getting the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge plans moving, but Sen. Wayne Allard's office thinks that could do more harm than good. Salazar, D-Denver, used his senator's prerogative Thursday to place a hold on three nominations for top jobs in the Department of Energy and another in the Department of Interior. It's meant to prod the two agencies into wrapping up their negotiations on a mineral-rights issue that is one of the last hang-ups before the site of a former nuclear weapons plant can be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The move surprised Allard, who has worked on the Rocky Flats issue in Congress since before Salazar took office. "Sen. Allard is concerned this action may have made things more difficult to achieve," chief of staff Sean Conway said. "I think we were literally days away from an agreement. Sen. Allard's concern is these people have been working with us in good faith. All of a sudden, their willingness to work with us gets rewarded by this?"....
Conservancy Buys Riverfront Land The Nature Conservancy has purchased nearly three miles of land along the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, reaching the halfway point in its goal to protect about 20 miles of habitat along the riverbank. The 377 acres near Piru Creek, once slated for aggregate mining, is home to nearly three dozen endangered, threatened or sensitive species, including steelhead trout and the California red-legged frog. "It's really a big deal for us, because we've crossed the 2,000-acre threshold. We've crossed the 10-mile milestone, too. It's motivational," said E.J. Remson of the conservancy, the nonprofit environmental organization that is creating a conservation zone along one of the last free-flowing rivers in Southern California....
Symbol Of Wolf Reintroduction Program Dies A routine capture and checkup for one of the best known wolves in the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program ended in death Thursday after the animal overheated. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the female wolf died despite receiving immediate veterinary care. Officials said she was an integral part of the program to reintroduce the wolf back into its native land. Her photo was used repeatedly for posters and she became recognized as the symbol for Mexican wolf recovery. The wolf was at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro with her mate, four pups and her yearling male....
Wolf pack killed in central Idaho Officials confirmed that six wolves of the Copper Basin pack were killed Wednesday after repeated depredations on cattle. “We are hopeful that this control action will deter any future livestock depredations in this area,” said Carter Niemeyer, wolf recovery coordinator. “If the depredations continue, the rest of the pack will be removed.” The wolves killed two calves this past week on grazing allotments in the Challis National Forest between Mackay and Sun Valley. Last year the pack was responsible for killing four cattle, and livestock producers reported a large number of missing cattle in this area....
Small oil wells to lose discount With oil prices high, small-time oil producers whose wells generate fewer than 15 barrels a day will be required to pay more royalties to the government. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday it will end its discount royalty rate for those who operate low-producing "stripper" oil wells. The Bush administration has been seeking more royalties from energy production, and this decision could bring in more than $50 million a year, split among the federal Treasury and states. It is "just terrible" and could mean jobs lost in some rural areas, said Dewey Bartlett Jr., president of the National Stripper Well Association, an Oklahoma City-based trade group....
Here's the deal on weed woes The ace of hearts is the saguaro. The ace of spades is the salt cedar, or tamarisk. A deck of playing cards making the rounds among the weed-pulling crowd has taken off like, well, a weed. The deck was created to raise awareness about the threat invasive weeds pose to Arizona's desert landscape. Those weeds, such as tamarisk or Sahara mustard, have spread across the landscape and are carrying the fire that has plagued desert areas from Coolidge to Cave Creek. The cards are the creation of the Sonoran Desert Invasive Species Council, a consortium of about two dozen groups from government agencies to botanical gardens....
Bush backs National Day of the Cowboy legislation On the verge of the upcoming “Daddy of ‘em all,” Frontier Days, President Bush issued an official statement supporting Thomas legislation designating July 23rd as the National Day of the Cowboy. The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), will be read Saturday at the opening weekend of Cheyenne Frontier Days. Thomas and his wife, Susan, will be on hand for the reading of the resolution and the announcement of the Presidential message. “I can think of no better place to make this announcement than at Cheyenne Frontier Days, which attracts visitors from all over the nation,” said Wyoming’s senior senator. A supporting message from President Bush said, “We celebrate the cowboy as a symbol of the grand history of the American West. The cowboy’s love of the land and love of the country are examples for all Americans.”....
At end of life's trail In her prime, it wasn't uncommon for LaVonda to be first to aid in the fight against an Arizona wildfire. Thursday, the 34-year-old mule lost a battle of her own. For 22 years, being a pack mule for the Payson Forest Service District was all she knew. Retirement took her out of the Tonto National Forest, but those she spent time with on the trails never forgot her. Bought by the Forest Service in 1977 when she was 6, LaVonda was one of a dozen mules delivered to Arizona from Kansas to be placed among the many forest service districts....
Six-year-old is retiring at the top in mutton bustin' Koby Blunt gently lowered himself into the rodeo chute, climbing down the white fencing until he straddled his opponent: 250 pounds of bleating ovine. He wedged his right hand under the riding rope wrapped around the sheep's chest, squeezed his legs tight around its shaggy flanks and positioned his boots, spurs at the ready. He lifted his left arm into the air and instructed his assistants: "I'm ready, boys, let him out." When that gate flew open at the Winchester Open Rodeo earlier this month, it was a bittersweet moment in Koby Blunt's career. The rodeo was one of the last times Koby will compete in mutton bustin', the event he has dominated in Washington state and the Idaho panhandle. He can't compete after this season because he hit retirement age on July 6: 6 years old. "I'm the goodest sheep rider in the whole world," Koby says. Then he catches himself and adds: "Except Jesus."....

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GAO REPORT

Oil and Gas Development: Increased Permitting Activity Has Lessened BLM's Ability to Meet Its Environmental Protection Responsibilities. GAO-05-418, June 17.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-418

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05418high.pdf

NEWS ROUNDUP

Federal report: Environmental lapses in oil, gas drilling The Interior Department is spending so much time approving oil and gas drilling permits on public lands that it often fails to do an adequate job policing the environment, congressional investigators say. Nationwide, oil and gas drilling permits from the department's Bureau of Land Management more than tripled from 1999 to 2004. But as those rose, from 1,803 to 6,399, bureau officials in five Western field offices complained staffers had less time for field inspections. "A dramatic increase in oil and gas development on federal lands over the past six years has lessened [the bureau's] ability to meet its environmental protection responsibilities," officials with the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The report had not yet been publicly released. The effects can range from removing several acres of vegetation at a drilling well pad to fragmenting tens of thousands of acres of winter range for mule deer, the report said....
Judge spoke volumes in his first opinion In his very first case on the D.C. circuit, a California land developer appealed an order by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove a fence from a property to accommodate the movement of a rare group of California toads. When a three-judge panel rejected the appeal, the developer asked that the case be heard by the entire circuit court. Roberts wanted to hear the case but was outvoted by his colleagues. He wrote a dissent, politely describing what he saw as wrong-headed reasoning. The majority said the federal government could regulate the land developer because the developer was involved in interstate commerce. Roberts, however, said it was the toads that were being regulated. "The hapless toad . . . for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California," wrote the court newcomer. He reasoned that toads who live only in California aren't involved in interstate commerce, so the federal government had no authority to order the developer to remove his fence. Business conservatives were ecstatic. In his first case involving an esoteric dispute, he had shown his conservative constitutionalist colors, and had done so with a spunk that made them positively giddy....
Feds issue kill order for wolves In late June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a kill order for the leader of the Ring Pack after he killed two calves and probably a cow in the Gila National Forest of southwestern New Mexico. The agency later trapped a wolf believed to be the alpha male of the cattle-killing Francisco Pack. He injured his front left leg in the trap and it had to be amputated, according to spokeswoman Vicki Fox. A separate lone male wolf was caught on a Sunday on the Plains of San Agustin near a calf he killed on private land. "It's been a trying week," said John Morgart, coordinator of the wolf recovery program. "We've been working closely as we can with the ranchers and other constituencies and hopefully getting the best possible job done."....
Bear messes with Texas boy, flees after scuffle A 14-year-old Texas boy fought off a marauding black bear that invaded his tent in a private campground east of Salida early Tuesday, suffering minor injuries and gaining a heck of a story. Keelan Patton of Pampa, Texas, was asleep with his cousin about 1 a.m. when the bear crashed through their tent's nylon fabric, biting and scratching the youngster's hand and face. Patton suffered what his mother, Jana, thinks is a bite on his head and a claw scratch on his hand that required 14 stitches. Patton and his cousin, Brendan Rice, were asleep in the tent next to the camper where his mother, sister and grandmother slept at Cutty's Camping Resort in the rural Arkansas Valley community of Coaldale. Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said the bear ran off when Patton started fighting back. "The whole thing was over in less than a minute." Wildlife officials set a trap for the bear and intend to kill it if it is captured, Seraphin said....
Feds propose bison hunting on elk refuge Federal officials will propose changes in the way elk and bison near Jackson, Wyo., are managed, including the hunting of bison on the National Elk Refuge and less reliance on a winter feeding program. The proposed action is the preferred of six alternatives considered by officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The draft management plan and environmental study are set for official release today. A copy of the plan was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Refuge manager Barry Reiswig said the plan looks at the region's burgeoning bison population and the refuge's long-standing supplemental feed program....
Hunters rip feds over refuge Hunters said Wednesday they are fearful that a plan to reduce the number of elk on the National Elk Refuge from 7,500 to between 4,000 and 5,000 will curtail hunting opportunities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released an outline of its plan Wednesday, calling for a reduction in winter feeding, improvement of winter habitat and 1,000 fewer elk summering in Grand Teton National Park. The agency will release today a draft environmental impact statement analyzing the proposal and several other alternatives. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department said its overall population goal for the Jackson herd, including animals that don’t winter on the refuge, would remain steady at about 11,000 elk. At Flat Creek Inn, where hundreds of hunters bunk during the fall, manager Beth Badgerow said fewer elk on the refuge could be bad for business....
Study Says Development Big Threat to Big Thicket A timely new report today by the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) says that the health of Big Thicket National Preserve in East Texas will be compromised by unplanned development and lack of funding if greater attention is not paid to this national treasure. "Despite the efforts of Texas's congressional delegation, Big Thicket is not out of the woods yet," said NPCA Vice President for Government Affairs Craig Obey. "More money is needed to purchase the land that surrounds Big Thicket's scattered units to protect this treasure from the effects of reckless development." Over the past few years, more than 2 million acres of timber- company land surrounding the preserve have been put up for sale. NPCA's new State of the Parks report reveals that ad hoc commercial, industrial, and residential development of this land enables non-native and invasive plants and feral animals to invade the preserve; subjects the preserve's delicate ecosystem to pesticides and fertilizers; interferes with fire management; and cuts off wildlife migration routes....
Utah Legislators Attack Wilderness Group A committee of Utah legislators that set out to discuss energy policy dealt first with an old nemesis: the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Legislators turned against a staff lawyer they invited from the preservation group, accusing SUWA of wielding too much clout and overstating the need for more wilderness. The lawyer, Steve Bloch, is a member of the Legislature’s Energy Policy Working Group and was invited to brief a standing committee. Rep. Michael E. Noel, R-Kanab, said he was bothered that SUWA portrays Utah’s open public lands of being in imminent danger from development, despite federal environmental laws governing energy exploitation. Noel, a former Bureau of Land Management employee, asserted the alliance didn’t deal honestly or credibly with facts, and another legislator complained SUWA avoided dealing with rural leaders....
Hands-On Environmentalism Frontpage Interview’s guests today are Brent Haglund and Thomas Still, the authors of the new book Hands-On Environmentalism. FP: What inspired you to write this book? Haglund: An abiding commitment to replace costly failures with principled approaches that people can benefit from. Government-mandated environmentalism and state directed control of many of our natural resources have often been imposed with the best of intentions. But those resulting rules and regulations and restrictions very often become rigid, cost a great deal, and develop perverse incentives. Instead of telling people what is best for them and requiring landowners, industries, and municipalities to conform to particular practices, "Hands-On Environmentalism" is needed to show that voluntary, bottom-up solutions to pressing environmental concerns and resource issues have had a long history and an even greater future. And they work. Still: The inspiration for this book came from ordinary people who have succeeded in their own "hands on" conservation efforts. The people are not regulators or government officials, but landowners and other private stewards of land and wildlife. Their stories, viewed collectively against the backdrop of command-and-control environmentalism, offer a refreshing contrast and a model for others to follow....
Pro football player invests in rodeo livestock One man stood out at the Rodeo grounds last week, looking more like a football player than a cowboy. Maybe that's because Jeff Zgonina is a football player. Standing at 6'2" and weighing 290 pounds, Zgonina plays for the Miami Dolphins. He raises bulls and came to Cody for a few days to check out his stock. "They're amazing athletes, and being an athlete I was drawn to it," Zgonina said about the bull business. A defensive tackle, he has spent 13 years in the NFL. During his career he has played for Pittsburgh, Atlanta Carolina and St. Louis before going to Miami two years ago. In 1999, he was a part of the Rams team that won Super Bowl XXXIV....

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MAD COW DISEASE

Judge postpones trial on Canadian cattle A federal judge today postponed a trial on whether Canadian cattle should be allowed to enter the United States. Shipments resumed Monday. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull in Billings, Mont., canceled arguments scheduled for July 27 on the lawsuit by Western ranchers against the U.S. Agriculture Department. Cebull had granted a preliminary injunction to ranchers who had sued to keep the border closed to Canadian cattle, saying it presented a risk to the U.S. beef industry as well as to American consumers. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his injunction Thursday, allowing cattle shipments from Canada to resume. The first truckload entered the United States Monday. The three-judge panel issued a brief order but has not yet issued an opinion explaining why it rebuffed Cebull. "After receipt of the court of appeals' opinion, this court will determine whether further hearings are necessary," Cebull wrote in an order today....
Attack on U.S. food supply 'easy,' senators warn An attack on America's food supply using biological agents or disease is easy to do, would spread fast and have a devastating economic effect, a Senate committee heard on Wednesday, as it reviewed protection for U.S. agriculture. Confusion over confirming a second U.S. case of mad cow disease recently may have revealed a flaw in the system, Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Saxby Chambliss said. "I am concerned that since the fact of Sept. 11 we have spent millions and millions of dollars on the issue of homeland security but yet we don't have a lab in the United States of America that's capable of making an instantaneous decision on BSE, which is a fairly common disease," Chambliss said. Conner said the USDA decided to use Britain's Weybridge laboratory because it had more experience with the disease, although it conducted no tests that the USDA could not have done itself....
Chile lifts ban on U.S. beef imports Chile is lifting a mad cow disease-related ban on U.S. beef, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday. Chile was among dozens of countries that banned U.S. beef in December 2003 following the discovery of a cow infected with mad cow disease in Washington state. "This is one more step toward normalized international trade in beef," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement. In the year before the ban, the U.S. sold beef worth $5.3 million to Chile. In contrast, Japan, formerly the biggest U.S. beef customer, purchased $1.5 billion in U.S. beef that year. Japan has not yet lifted its ban despite agreeing to do so last fall....
More BSE-infected cattle found in Britain A cluster of cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Mad cow disease, has raised fears that contaminated feed is still being used in Britain. Three young dairy cows born long after the 1996 ban on contaminated feed are the second such BSE cluster found in England. The first occurred on a farm in Wales, also involving three young cattle born long after all feed possibly contaminated with BSE was banned. Scientists said the occurrence of a second cluster of BSE in young cattle strongly suggests the cases were not a statistical fluke and contaminated feed caused the outbreaks, the Independent reported Wednesday....
EU outlines plans to relax BSE restrictions The European Commission's plan to relax the bloc's rules on mad cow disease provides hope to food companies that they will have wider access to beef suppliers, including those in the UK. The big prize would be the re-opening up of the UK market. Under 1996 rules British beef cannot be exported to the rest of Europe from any animal more than 30 months old. The embargo, in effect since 1996, also prohibits the UK from exporting beef on the bone. Citing the steep decrease in the incidence of BSE within the UK and throughout the rest of the EU, the Commission proposes lifting the additional restrictions the bloc put on imports of live cattle and beef products from the UK. Meat must be deboned and cattle aged over 30 months are excluded from export to the rest of the EU and overseas....
Blood donors warned over mad cow Around 100 people who donated blood to three patients who later developed the human form of mad cow disease are to be warned they may carry the deadly agent, the Department of Health said yesterday. Britain first announced in 2003 what was thought to be the world’s first case of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) via transfusion. On Wednesday, health officials said the 100-odd people concerned, who have a greater chance of carrying the vCJD compared with the general population, will be told not to donate any more blood, tissue or organs. They will also be asked to inform health care professionals so that extra precautions can be taken in case of surgery or other invasive procedures. “When a recipient of a blood transfusion goes on to develop vCJD, we have to consider the possibility that the infection could have been passed on through the transfusion,” Britain’s chief medical officer said....
Reports Call for High-Level Coordination of Animal Health The United States needs a new high-level mechanism to coordinate the currently fragmented framework for confronting new and emerging animal-borne diseases, such as mad cow disease, avian influenza, and West Nile virus, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. Also, a second Research Council report released today says stronger efforts are needed to recruit more veterinarians and other scientists into veterinary research. Both reports note that a growing shortage in the number of veterinary pathologists, lab animal scientists, and other veterinary researchers -- especially those involved in public health -- is making it more difficult to meet mounting challenges in animal health. Currently, dozens of federal and state agencies, university laboratories, and private companies monitor and maintain animal health in this country. Many of the government agencies perform similar functions, while gaps in responsibility also exist, particularly in federal oversight of nonlivestock animal diseases. Animal Health at the Crossroads: Preventing, Detecting, and Diagnosing Animal Diseases says centralized coordination is needed to harmonize the work of public and private groups that safeguard animal health. The coordinating mechanism should facilitate the sharing of information among agencies and connect key databases, as well as improve communication with the public, especially during animal disease outbreaks. The report also calls for stronger links in the network of public and private labs that test for and diagnose animal diseases....

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West's water facing $$ crisis

Call it a not-so-harmonic convergence for water-starved communities in the West. On one hand, the 470 dams, 58 hydroelectric plans and 300 other facilities administered by the Bureau of Reclamation are inching past old age to where some are decrepit. In fact, the average age of the facilities is now more than 50 years, and many are well beyond their expected life span. Coming the other direction is suburban sprawl, which has dramatically increased the demand for more and better quality water. "There will be even greater demands placed on the West's limited water resources and Reclamation's aging projects, many of which are well beyond their designed life," said Tony Willardson, deputy director of the Midvale-based Western States Water Council. "The billion dollar question is how should Reclamation programs and projects be funded?" Water experts from across the nation testified Tuesday before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power, with most telling lawmakers that more federal assistance, not less, is needed to bring existing facilities up to standard and build new facilities to meet the burgeoning demand. Because water facilities are owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, the water associations who deliver the water to farms and homes have no collateral to offer lenders. And without collateral, there is no money to repair the water systems or invest in greater efficiencies. But if the federal government is willing to give up title to the water associations, while still committing some federal assistance, low-interest state and private water development loans could be directed at the problem....
Scorched West puts fire troops in place as heat soars With the mercury blasting into triple digits, nervous wildland fire officials are marshaling resources and monitoring conditions while hoping the remnants of Hurricane Emily will deliver a few days of rain early next week. On Thursday, half of a fleet of military air tankers - some from Colorado and others from as far away as North Carolina - will be called up and stationed in Boise, Idaho, to supplement aerial firefighting capabilities in the parched West. "We're constantly in a chess game of preparedness at this time in the national fire season, moving resources where we predict potential fire behavior," said Mike Apicello, spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. The national fire preparedness level jumped up a notch Tuesday, with fire activity expected to rise with the temperatures....

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Can 'biothreats' be defused?

Standing before an audience of about 100 scientists and entrepreneurs at the Hotel du Pont on Monday, Dr. Nancy Cox showed an image of a virus with a burning fuse attached. "This is a bomb," said Cox, chief influenza official at the Center for Disease Control. "It's the H5N1 virus waiting to explode." Speaking at a conference on how to respond to "biothreats"-- contagious diseases spread by nature or terrorism -- Cox predicted that more Asian countries would soon report human cases of the deadly avian influenza known as H5N1. Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam have reported cases of the flu in humans. "We are at the greatest risk of having a pandemic than any time since 1968, when the last pandemic occurred," Cox said in an interview after her presentation. That global pandemic killed about 1 million people. The worst flu outbreak, in 1917, killed more than 20 million people. One frightening development is that ducks with the virus are not showing symptoms of the flu, Cox said. Those ducks could infect unwitting farmers, and more human cases increase the chance of human-to-human transmission. Monday's conference focused largely on how to formulate and quickly manufacture vaccines in the face of a flu pandemic or terrorist attack....

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Healthy Forests Initiative dealt setback A federal court ruling reversing part of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative has nationwide implications, said the Durango lawyer who filed the complaint against the U.S. Forest Service. Matt Kenna, who represented the Western Environmental Law Center, argued the agency violated the 1992 Appeals Reform Act that allows the public to comment on and appeal all Forest Service projects. He said the Bush administration illegally changed Forest Service regulations in 2003 when it denied public input on projects like hazardous fuels-reductions projects. "The Forest Service tried to turn a law that only exempted actions such as mowing an office lawn from public comment and appeal into one exempting timber sales and other threats to the environment from citizen review," Kenna said. With the July 7 verdict, Judge James Singleton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California upheld the ARA and struck down a provision that allowed projects signed by the secretary or undersecretary of Agriculture to bypass the appeals process....
Environment Lawyers Uneasy Over Roberts' Supreme Court Nomination Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker said that the non-profit environmental law firm he leads is "concerned that Judge Roberts may fail to uphold our key environmental safeguards as a Supreme Court justice." In a key 2003 environmental case, Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, Judge Roberts questioned the constitutionality of Endangered Species Act safeguards, Parker said. "Roberts’s arguments advanced a distorted view of Congressional power that could threaten to undermine a wide swath of environmental protections, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act," said Parker. While Acting Solicitor General, Roberts was the government’s lead counsel before the Supreme Court in Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, a case brought against then Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. by citizens seeking to enforce environmental protections in response to the government’s decision to open 4,500 acres of public land to mining. Despite express statutory authorization for such suits, however, Roberts argued that plaintiffs, members of the National Wildlife Federation, had no right to file the claims, because they had not presented sufficient proof of the impact of the government’s actions on them to give them standing. The Supreme Court agreed with Roberts, tightening standing requirements for federal cases in one of a line of cases making it harder for plaintiffs to challenge governmental actions detrimental to the environment, the Alliance for Justice pointed out....
Environmentalists oppose nomination of Hall Some environmentalists are angry over President Bush's selection of H. Dale Hall as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "This will be a serious threat that species on the brink of extinction simply don't need," said Nicole Rosmarino, conservation director for the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians. "Dale Hall adheres to the junk science approach of the Bush administration." Defenders for Wildlife vice president for conservation litigation Mike Senatore called Hall a "terrible choice." "We've actually had some dealings with him while he was regional director of the Southwest region and through those dealings, it's been extremely unfavorable," Senatore said. "We've had issues where he's actually overruled his own field biologists on environmental matters."....
Population of endangered woodpecker rises The work of Cox and others is part of a massive effort to restore healthy populations of the endangered woodpecker in the South - and it seems to be paying off. "We have turned the corner," said Ralph Costa, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's red-cockaded woodpecker recovery coordinator in Clemson, S.C. Active woodpecker clusters - family groups of about three birds or more - have increased nearly 30 percent, from 4,694 in 1994 to 6,061. The birds once thrived in the longleaf pine forests that stretched from Texas and Oklahoma in the West to Georgia and Florida in the East and up the coast as far as New Jersey. The recovery effort got a boost with habitat conservation plans that allow landowners to move isolated woodpeckers unlikely to survive and safe harbor agreements that provide financial incentives for artificial nests and other habitat enhancements....
Duck forecast is looking up Waterfowlers won't be restricted to shorter hunting seasons or fewer ducks in the bag after all, say biologists who've been building the season framework for the Central Flyway this week in Helena, Mont. Despite rumors the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service might drop the liberal duck-hunting package it has offered for several years, waterfowl managers say few changes are coming. In fact, there could be some additional opportunity, as pintail numbers have risen a bit. The duck count across the northern prairies barely slipped this year, to 31.7 million breeding ducks from 32.2 million ducks in 2004....
Pilot project boosts weed-eating beetles South Dakota's Agriculture Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are among agencies that have joined in a pilot project in eastern South Dakota aimed at reducing the noxious weed leafy spurge. The program lets property owners collect flea beetles from another person's property at no charge. The beetles then can be released on the gatherer's land. Flea beetles slowly eat and kill the spurge, a weed so noxious that cattle sometimes refuse to graze in fields where the bright yellow plant blooms. Adult beetles eat the leaves of leafy spurge, but Ron Moehring of the state Agriculture Department said beetle larvae do even more damage. The larvae strip the spurge of its roots so the canes can't grow, he said....
State stands behind split estate law With little fanfare Tuesday afternoon, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission made several amendments to and adopted final rule changes to implement the new split estates law. But the fireworks may soon follow. For many landowners in Wyoming, the new law means they no longer have to rely on the "luck of the draw" when oil and gas developers want to produce minerals that are below the surface but are not part of the surface ownership. Whether they're good or bad actors, all developers must now comply with notification and good-faith negotiation requirements to strike a private "surface use agreement." But for many in the industry, the new requirements amount to, albeit well-intended, legal traps. Tuesday's amendments aimed at clarifying language to match that of the law, which went into effect July 1. However, it's the changes the commission didn't make that may spark fireworks in the near future. It didn't change a 180-day timeline to strike a surface use agreement, and it didn't bend to pressure from the federal government to exempt development on federal minerals....
Companies propose year-round drilling on big game winter range Shell Exploration and Production and other companies are seeking an exception to allow year-round drilling on big game winter range in the Pinedale area. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management usually prohibits drilling in deer, elk, moose and antelope winter range from Nov. 15 through April 30, when the animals are vulnerable to stress. Shell, Anschutz Pinedale Inc., and Ultra Resources Inc. are proposing up to 45 new wells using directional, or diagonal, drilling from 32 drilling pads. The companies say directional drilling does less harm to wildlife and produces less air pollution, according to the BLM....
Judge sets $1,000 bond for groups' CBM appeal A federal judge has ordered a conservation group and the Northern Cheyenne tribe to post a total bond of $1,000 in their appeal of a ruling in a lawsuit over coalbed methane development. U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson said a nominal amount was appropriate because "these cases are about the public interest. They deserve to be heard on the merits. A nominal bond facilitates this objective.'' Fidelity Exploration and Production Co., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Inc., asked that the NRPC and the tribe post a $9.5 million bond to secure it against losses that an economist estimated could range from $9.5 million to $13.7 million. The NPRC and the tribe are appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals an injunction issued by Anderson allowing up to 500 coalbed methane wells a year to be drilled in the Tongue River watershed in southeastern Montana while BLM studies the environmental effects of phased development....
Dry grass + Days of '47 = fire ban Earlier this summer, heavy rains fueled record crops of wild grasses across Utah's undeveloped open spaces. Then, hot July temperatures dried out those grasses, now averaging 28 inches high and weighing in at 2,000 pounds an acre - four times the usual amount. The numbers worry fire officials. With Days of '47 festivities approaching, fire restrictions are in effect for nearly half of Utah. "When [cheat grass] burns, it lights up like oil and explodes in flames," said Susan Marzec, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management....
Counties and Ranchers Get Heard Kane and Garfield Counties and local ranchers had their day in court last week at the hearing in Kanab on the elimination of grazing permits by the Grand Canyon Trust (GCT). At issue, is whether the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and environmental groups can legally mothball grazing permits forever or whether that concept is against existing laws. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said he felt good about their witness testimonies, "We were able to get out the factual basis of our case, and finally, get our side of the story before the court. We certainly don't know how the final legal decision will fall, but it's a major hurdle to be heard at last." The counties and ranchers have always pointed out the fact that the elimination of grazing permits is against the law, specifically the Taylor Grazing Act (Taylor Act) and Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). They say the attempts to change policy has been driven from the top down by Dept. of Interior (DOI) that oversees BLM, with the blessings and under the direction of DOI Secretary Gale Norton....
Groups sue U.S. over plan to line canal near Mexico border A Mexican organization and two nonprofit groups are suing the U.S. government to stop plans to line a canal near the border that supplies water to farms in California's Imperial Valley. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, seeks class-action status for people in the Mexicali Valley of Mexico, and a declaration that water seeping into the ground north of the border but serving people in Mexico cannot be seized by the United States. At issue is a decades-old federal plan to line the porous All-American Canal with concrete. The canal delivers water from the Colorado River just north of the border to the agriculture-rich Imperial Valley in California. The U.S. government estimates that almost 68,000 acre-feet of seepage could be saved if the canal is lined....
Water Theft: Garkane Energy and Boulder Irrigators under Attack by Federal Regulations The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has Garkane Energy Cooperative (Garkane), Boulder Irrigation Company (BI), and all Garkane customers in a stranglehold that others say cannot be loosened. These real stakeholders stand to foot the bill for the Feds' demands for water rights, diversion, equipment, studies and monitoring, all for a fish named the Colorado cutthroat trout. The project has been underway for four years, but the public is just now learning about it. Garkane is currently in the process of relicensing its hydroelectric operations in Boulder Creek with FERC for the next 30 years. As part of that process, the U.S. Forest Service has flexed its muscles under the Federal Power Act and called for environmental studies, collaborative discussions between Garkane, BI, other Federal and State resource agencies, and Trout Unlimited, a nonprofit group that says its "the nation's leading coldwater conservation organization." The purpose of the discussions, which have actually been ongoing for years, is to find, take and divert at least two cubic feet a second (cfs) of water from Garkane's current operations and BI's shareholders. The water is to be put back into two washes that were supposedly dried up 50 years ago by Garkane's current license....
Panel to subpoena Yucca papers A congressional committee will subpoena documents from the Energy Department about possible paperwork fraud on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a lawmaker said Monday. The department missed a Monday deadline set by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., to hand over documents, including personnel records of scientists on the project, organizational charts and research details. Porter, who chairs a House Government Reform subcommittee, said he met with the chairman of the full committee, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who agreed to subpoena the documents Tuesday....
PBS 'lost its soul' in farm series A coalition of 70 environmental groups announced yesterday that PBS has "lost its soul" over a 20-part series meant to celebrate the traditional values and bedrock appeal of the nation's farm country. In conjunction with Boston-based American Public Television, PBS will air "America's Heartland" on 305 stations this fall, funded by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, four other agricultural trade groups and the Monsanto Company, a Missouri-based manufacturer of seeds and herbicides. And therein lies the rub. "Public television has lost its soul if it can be so easily bought and sold by corporate agribusiness," said Alice Slater of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, which organized the effort....
Wall ranch invites artists to living Wild West scenes The characters decked out in Native American and Wild West regalia are models, and most of the photographers are oil painters, sculptors and water-colorists who specialize in scenes of the Old West. They're all here for the annual Artist Ride, a three-day-long, invitation-only event that re-creates Wild West tableaux for artists. It's life imitating Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt and Charles M. Russell. It's also the largest event of its kind, attracting some of the genre's leading figures to a convivial affair that's as much reunion as tax deduction. On a sprawling campground, two white men pose as Lewis and Clark; a Lakota boy wields a bow and arrow; a Lakota woman cradles her two children. In the distance, Indians pursue a stagecoach; a trio of mountain men pause in a canoe in the middle of the river; a Korean-American portrays an 1860s "Chinaman" panning for gold at the river's edge....
Billy Bob's passion for boots fuelled by hatred BILLY BOB THORNTON has courted controversy by declaring he enjoys wearing lizard-skin boots because he despises the creatures they're made out of. The MONSTER'S BALL star has a pair of lizard-skin boots he wears as often as he can, and he admits his dislike for the creatures drives his passion for the footwear. He says, "I love these boots. I actually got 'em in a store in New York years ago called Buffalo Chips over in SoHo. "The reason I wear boots like this, it has nothing to do with being a cowboy, I just don't like lizards so I'll wear anything made out of 'em."....

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Kelo v. City of New London

States Trying to Blunt Property Ruling

Alarmed by the prospect of local governments seizing homes and turning the property over to developers, lawmakers in at least half the states are rushing to blunt last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding the power of eminent domain. In Texas and California, legislators have proposed constitutional amendments to bar government from taking private property for economic development. Politicians in Alabama, South Dakota and Virginia likewise hope to curtail government's ability to condemn land. Even in states like Illinois — one of at least eight that already forbid eminent domain for economic development unless the purpose is to eliminate blight — lawmakers are proposing to make it even tougher to use the procedure. Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington already forbid the taking of private property for economic development except to eliminate blight. Other states either expressly allow private property to be taken for private economic purposes or have not spoken clearly on the question....

Alabama joins national backlash to court's eminent domain ruling

Alabama will join a growing statehouse backlash over the U.S. Supreme Court's eminent domain decision when the Legislature convenes in special session Tuesday. In addition to offering a state General Fund budget, Gov. Bob Riley's office announced Monday that he is preparing a bill that would prohibit city and county governments from using eminent domain to take property for commercial, retail, office or residential development. The bill would still allow property to be taken for traditional eminent domain projects, such as public roads and schools. Some examples of what's happening elsewhere: •In Delaware, the House and Senate voted unanimously June 30 to impose restrictions on eminent domain. •In Texas, the House and Senate have passed differing versions of legislation to restrict eminent domain and are trying to agree on a bill. •In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue has called it a "kitchen table issue," and he has joined top legislative leaders in promising to take action in the next session of the Legislature. •In Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt created a task force to make recommendations for the next session of the Legislature. Two states — Utah and Nevada — passed bills earlier in the year while the Supreme Court case was pending. Passing such legislation is not always easy. Larry Morandi, a land use expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Minnesota had eminent domain bills introduced in its Legislature after the Supreme Court's ruling, and none passed....

Lawyers Petition Court to Rehear Kelo Case

The Institute for Justice, which represents the plaintiffs in the recently decided Kelo v. City of New London eminent domain case, filed a petition on behalf of the area’s property holders asking the US Supreme Court to reconsider its 5-4 ruling. Similar actions have been taken by the court only a handful of times over the past 25 years. "We will be the first to admit that our chances of success with this motion are extremely small, but if there is any case that deserves to reheard by the Supreme Court, it is the Kelo case," says Scott Bullock, senior attorney at the Washington, DC-based legal group. "Rarely does a Supreme Court decision generate such uniform and nearly universal outrage," adds Chip Mellor, president of the institute. According to the petition, other eminent domain cases are occurring all across the country. In its petition, the institute says that because property owners have to pay their own litigation costs they are at a disadvantage. A second basis asks the court to vacate the judgment of the Connecticut Supreme Court to allow for a re-examination of the facts in light of the new standards set by its decision....

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