NEWS ROUNDUP

Coyote killing contest prompt howls from foes The barren, wind-swept buttes surrounding this small ranching town will offer scant places for coyotes to hide this weekend, as some 180 hunters from across the country converge for a "calling" contest to see who can shoot the most coyotes over three days. Part predator control, part economic development ploy, the annual event began five years ago in a bid to pique outside interest in Baker, by way of a $6,000 purse funded by entrance fees, local businesses and the Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. While organizers see success in the event's rapid growth, the increasing popularity of such contests is prompting a backlash from animal-rights groups and even some hunters, who contend that the shooting events trivialize the sport by turning it into a cash-fueled spectacle. For the coyote, the hunts reflect the lowly place the animal holds across the American West. As a debate rages between state and federal officials over whether its high-profile cousin, the gray wolf, should be removed from the endangered species list, the coyote is stuck with the tag of undesirable varmint, to be killed on sight....
Lawsuit aims to stop wild turkey hunt on California island An animal rights group has sued the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy in an attempt to stop the eradication of wild turkeys on Santa Cruz Island off the Central California coast. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by In Defense of Animals and a private citizen in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges the defendants have hired an Australian company called ProHunt to eradicate the turkeys in an attempt to protect the island's natural habitat. Wild turkeys were introduced to the 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara in 1972 by a rancher. Scientists have said the kills are necessary because turkeys provide prey for golden eagles, who also kill the island's endangered foxes. Thousands of feral pigs have been killed on the island during the past 18 months for the same reason. The Nature Conservancy owns about 76 percent of the island, while the National Park Service owns the rest....
Ask the Dust Carla Scheidlinger drives her little truck down a maze of dirt roads eastward toward the looming Inyo Mountains, looking for the Owens River. Or what was once the Owens River and has been, for generations, just an empty ditch. The roads are so dry here, just north of the town of Independence, California, that even in winter the dust billows up like cold powder. The thousands of Angelenos who traverse this valley en route to Mammoth Mountain and Tahoe never see this quiet devastation. We’re on the floor of what should be a lush valley, in the flood plain of a still-powerful river with bone-saw mountains on both sides raking huge amounts of snow out of the sky, but there is no water here. There hasn’t been water in the river since Los Angeles began sucking it up 93 years ago. And then the city pumped out all the groundwater, too, and purposefully killed every plant on the valley floor from Aberdeen to Owens Lake. Scheidlinger, an environmental consultant with a group called Agrarian Research, gestures toward a series of dry irrigation canals over 100 years old, dust-filled oxbows, and depressions that should be tule ponds – wide and shallow spots in the river that fill with the reedy species of bulrush....
Who's to blame for James Kim's death? Just after Thanksgiving of 2006, a young family of four from San Francisco went missing in the rugged mountains of southwestern Oregon. James Kim, his wife, Kati, and their two daughters took a risky journey into the wilderness, and only three of them made it out alive. As most Americans know, 35-year-old technology editor James Kim died of hypothermia after setting out on foot in the snow to seek help. Some are now calling on authorities to remedy the supposed shortcomings in search and rescue procedure and federal law that were exposed in the effort to rescue the Kims. The most notable and emotionally charged voice is that of James Kim's father. In an opinion piece in Saturday's Washington Post, Spencer Kim blasted, in turn, the local authorities who conducted the search, the legal barriers to procuring crucial credit card and phone-use information in a timely way, interference from the national media, and -- especially -- the fact that a gate across a road on federal land was left unlocked. If the gate had been properly signed and locked, he argued, his son would never have driven 21 miles down a long, deserted logging road. Several days before Kim's article, Sen. Feinstein, D-Calif., sent a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne complaining about the gate and demanding an investigation. But, sadly, even if the search and rescue effort had been flawless, the results might not have changed....
Forest Service addresses open space U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has called the loss of open space in national, local and privately owned forests and grasslands "one of four great threats facing our nation's forests and grasslands," according to a Dec. 7, 2006 Forest Service announcement in the Federal Register. "Loss of open space is an issue that affects the sustainability of both the National Forests and Grasslands and private forests," according to the document. "Open space -- including public and private land, wilderness and working land -- provides a multitude of public benefits and ecosystem services we all need and enjoy." To conserve open space being lost to private land sales, industrial use, road-building and destructive land use practices, the agency says it seeks to work with a variety of organizations to develop a national plan titled the "USDA Forest Service Open Space Conservation Strategy and Implementation Plan."....
Round-up opponents make voices heard Federally-contracted cowboys continue to gather wild horses and burros from the Spring Mountains Range despite a request for an injunction filed by a wild horse advocacy group. U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson refused to stop the U.S. Bureau of Land Management gather from proceeding as scheduled. The gather began last Wednesday near Johnnie. The action has since moved to Cold Creek by the middle of this week, another part of the Spring Mountains Herd Management Complex. BLM Spokesperson Jo Lynn Worley said Tuesday they've gathered 204 burros and 196 horses as of the end of the day Monday. The BLM rounded up 125 burros on the first day alone near Johnnie. America's Wild Horse Advocates filed an emergency motion arguing that the environmental assessment, which was released before the gather started, was flawed, inaccurate and lacked a solid grounding in legitimate, rangeland science. Judge Dawson ruled the advocates' filing failed to include scientific or technical knowledge to support their allegations. He scheduled a hearing Jan. 30 on the request for a temporary restraining order, which would be almost two weeks after contractors are scheduled to complete the gather. Worley said it may not be too late to hear the request, though the gather will be over. "We'll still have all the animals segregated. If the judge said put them all back (on the range) we could do it," she said....
Uncovering the (Sky)Truth About Wyoming’s Gas Fields When I think of oil and gas drilling, I start with OPEC – especially Saudi Arabia/Nigeria/Venezuela on the oil side and Russia on the natural gas front. What I tend to overlook is the fact that there’s serious petroleum production happening in the United States, often in areas close to major population centers or wildlife refuges. After spending some time this morning exploring SkyTruth, I don’t think I’ll overlook the impact of domestic petroleum production again. SkyTruth uses remote sensing and digital mapping technology to promote environmental awareness and sustainable resource management. With innovative technologies such as Google Earth at its disposal, SkyTruth makes scientifically robust information come alive. To better understand what they do, I spent some time browsing through their most recent project, a series of videos, images, and Google Earth downloads about the impact of natural gas drilling in the Upper Green River Valley of western Wyoming. Last year, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released plans to significantly expand natural gas drilling on the Pinedale Anticline, in the Jonah Field, and in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of western Wyoming. This week, SkyTruth – in partnership with the local Upper Green River Valley Coalition – offered a release of its own. It’s a web-based video and interactive media toolkit that allows the viewer to take a simulated flight over the gas fields – and to see, using time lapse technology, the impacts of historic, current and proposed drilling in some of the fastest-growing gas fields in the United States....
Big plans for little bunnies After six years of trial and error, the Oregon Zoo’s successful breeding efforts may help bring North America’s smallest rabbit back from the brink of extinction. This March, the zoo will release 12 of Washington state’s pygmy rabbits into the wild. This will be the first introduction of the endangered rabbits into their natural habitat since their removal for emergency captive breeding. Since 2000, the Oregon Zoo has worked to save pygmy rabbits through captive breeding. During this year’s breeding season, the zoo had a record number of births, with 32 kits. Washington’s Columbia Basin is geographically isolated from other pygmy rabbit populations, which makes inbreeding a problem. A lack of genetic diversity affects the number of successful litters when pygmy rabbits breed each spring and summer. Their diet consists primarily of sagebrush, which is becoming scarce in eastern Washington. Finally, wildfire is a constant threat to their habitat....
Golden Globes going green with eco-friendly party Hollywood environmentalists are throwing the first "green" Golden Globes awards bash for celebrities next week, complete with organic food, recycled paper decorations and tables made of reclaimed wood. The Environmental Media Association (EMA) and entertainment network E! will host the January 15 "Golden Green" party in Beverly Hills to mark the annual movie and television awards ceremony. Actresses Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eva Longoria, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel Weisz and socialite Paris Hilton are among the celebrities scheduled to attend the event in a former department store set to become an eco-friendly apartment building. "Green living has become a way of life for many of today's celebrities," said Debbie Levin, EMA president. "We are proud to be the first ones to step up and create a party that unites talent and social responsibility." The party will be set in a landscape of plants and flowers in a bid to promote awareness of green issues, and the group TreePeople will plant one tree for every attendee....
Dead birds rain down on towns half a world apart It could be the plot of a horror film, but in two towns on opposite sides of the world the mysterious phenomenon of thousands of dead birds dropping out of the sky is all too real. Officials are baffled by the unexplained deaths which have affected Australia and the U.S. Three weeks ago thousands of crows, pigeons, wattles and honeyeaters fell out of the sky in Esperance, Western Australia. Then last week dozens of grackles, sparrows and pigeons dropped dead on two streets in Austin, Texas. As birds continue to die in Esperance and the town's dawn chorus remains eerily silent, vets in both countries have been unable to establish a cause of death - despite carrying out a large number of autopsies on the birds....
Expert: Cattle face problems beyond blizzards The cattle that survived the two recent blizzards aren't out of the woods just yet, according to a professor of animal science at Colorado State University-Fort Collins. "Certainly, the critical phase where there was no access to the feed has passed," said Jack Whittier, a Colorado State Cooperative Extension beef specialist and animal science professor. "But there may be some long-term effects as a result of the back-to-back blizzards and colder temperatures." Whittier said the stress that cattle suffered during the two storms could continue to have negative effects on the animals well after winter ends. Whittier said in the next month or two, it won't be uncommon for many of the cows that are pregnant and expected to deliver this spring to abort their fetuses. "Most of the cows on the open range are pregnant and in the process of gestation. If a cow undergoes a lot of stress during this time, that can cause an abortion," he said. "In a cow, it's kind of a hierarchy thing. When it (stress) reaches a point when the fetus starts to take priority over the life of the cow, the cow will abort the fetus."....
High-tech tracking meets old-time Western ranching More and more computer chips are being used to identify livestock in Colorado and elsewhere, bringing a high-technology boost to an industry with roots in the Old West. The National Animal Identification System, a voluntary program coordinated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and local government agencies, can be used as a safeguard to protect against the spread of animal disease, proponents say. Information gathered in the system can also be used in marketing and animal management, among other applications. In Colorado, information from the system helped quickly identify and assist ranchers in southeastern Colorado whose stock were trapped in snow by a recent wave of blizzards. Since most roads were snowed over, National Guard helicopter pilots, who were airlifting feed, couldn't visually follow highways to ranches. But coordinates of ranches registered with the system allowed rescuers to quickly and methodically find snowbound ranches. "That's what we used in the blizzard situation," said John Heller, NAIS director with the Colorado State Veterinarian's Office. "We were able to get feed to animals and ask ranchers: 'Are you guys OK? What do you need?"' More than 5,500 ranchers and livestock operators in Colorado, about 25 percent of the total, have agreed to take part in the system....
Head of the class The one-room school on Hall Meadow Lane in the Sierra Nevada mountains has just one student this year, 6-year-old Garrett Lipe. The rambunctious first-grader spends each school day learning reading, writing and math from teacher Judy Fusi, who also is his kickball playmate and lunch buddy. There just aren’t many folks living near Pole Corral Elementary School, and no wonder: The school, at an elevation of 7,200 feet, is 45 minutes on a winding road from Shaver Lake and about two hours from Fresno. The area is so remote that the road leading to the school has a locked gate to keep outsiders from driving down it during the winter. Pole Corral school dates back to at least the mid-1940s, when cattle ranchers and their families lived in the area and as many as 60 children attended, said Norman Saude, a board member for Sierra Unified School District. The school likely was named for a flat area nearby that provided a good place to corral cattle, he said....
James Addison Reavis was one of Arizona Territory's most colorful swindlers He altered and forged historic documents to prove ownership of an 11-million-acre "Spanish land grant" that included Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Florence, Globe, Safford, Superior, Miami, Ray, Morenci and the surrounding mines, railroads and farms; most of the Gila River Indian Community; most of the San Carlos Indian Community; all of the Salt River and Fort McDowell Indian communities and the Gila, Salt, Blue, Black, San Carlos, Verde, San Francisco, San Simon, San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers. His forgeries were so good that lawyers, congressmen, businessmen and industrialists were convinced his claim was valid. Between 1880 and 1895 Reavis coerced homeowners, landowners, mine owners, farmers, ranchers, railroad magnates and city and county governments to pay him for the right to continue to live or do business on "his land." The Silver King Mine paid $25,000. Southern Pacific Railroad paid $50,000. "The federal government reportedly offered Reavis $100 million to quiet his claim," Don Dedera wrote in 1959. "Reavis held out for $300 million."....
It’s The Pitts: Enough’s Enough Is it just me or are there getting to be far too many people on this patch of earth we call home? Don’t get me wrong, I like people, at least some of them some of the time, but there’s getting to be far too many of us. The signs are everywhere. The population in this country is now over three hundred million and every 13 seconds we add another resident. And that’s just in my town, or at least it seems like it. It took 1,000 years for the U.S. to reach one hundred million people, 52 years to reach the second hundred million and 39 years to reach three hundred million. At this rate we’ll reach four hundred million by 2040 and I sure hope I’m not around to see it. Potholes and traffic jams are signs we’ve already overrun our infrastructure and yet another immigrant arrives every 30 seconds and another baby is born every eight seconds. The number of cars and trucks on our highways has doubled since 1970 and every one of them is on the road whenever I try to go some place. Any rancher worth his salt understands the concept of carrying capacity....

Let There Be 'Blight' - Welcome to the post-Kelo world

The city of Burien, Wash., recently decided that a piece of property owned by the seven Strobel sisters that had long housed a popular diner-style restaurant was not upscale enough for the city's ambitious "Town Square" development, which will feature condos, shops, restaurants and offices. Rather than condemn the property for a private developer and risk a lawsuit, Burien came up with a plan--it would put a road through the property, and the city manager told his staff to "make damn sure" it did. When a subsequent survey revealed that the road would not affect the building itself, but only sideswipe a small corner of the property, the staff developed yet another site plan that put the road directly through the building. A trial court concluded that the city's actions might be "oppressive" and "an abuse of power"--but allowed the condemnation anyway. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Washington Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Welcome to the post-Kelo world. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision made clear that the federal courts would not stop local governments across the country from condemning private property for economic development. While the court noted that states were free to provide greater protections for homes and small businesses if they chose, Washington state stands as evidence that a strong state constitution means little if the courts do not enforce it and local governments disregard it. When Kelo came out, local governments and their lobbyists eagerly explained that ours was not a "Kelo state," and that the legislative efforts to restrict eminent-domain abuse in other states were unnecessary here. The Washington Constitution explicitly provides that "private property shall not be taken for private use" (except in very limited circumstances). "It can't happen here" became the oft-repeated message used to placate home and small business owners seeking legislative protections for their property....

Electric Choices

Deregulation and the Future of Electric Power, Edited by Andrew N. Kleit, Foreword by Pat Wood III. In the late 1970s, the regulatory landscape in the United States began to change significantly as competition and deregulation were introduced to telecommunications, airlines, trucking, natural gas and oil transportation, financial services, and other industries—with impressive results. Competition increased, the pace of innovation accelerated, prices fell, and the reforms were viewed as successful. Economic restructuring and liberalization eventually came to the electric power industry but in a more piecemeal fashion. The results have prompted a host of questions from policymakers and the public: What lessons can be learned about the successes and failures of past restructurings? How much regulation does the electric industry need? Are coordination and distribution best handled public or privately? If the latter, would for-profit or non-profit organizations better serve consumers? In Electric Choices: Deregulation and the Future of Electric Power, edited by Andrew N. Kleit (Pennsylvania State University), fifteen leading experts addresses these and other key issues that will determine whether electricity will become cheaper and more reliable, or more expensive and prone to blackouts....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Proposal to send drones over Idaho raises hackles A U.S. government agency is considering using unmanned surveillance planes, or drones, to help oversee remote areas of eastern Idaho, raising concerns in a region deeply wary of outside interference. Officials the Bureau of Land Management office responsible for most of eastern Idaho may initially buy one hand-launched drone for an estimated $15,000 to help keep track of the vast, thinly populated area. They said the unpiloted aircraft, with a wingspan of about 4 feet, would monitor vegetation and streams in areas used largely for grazing and recreation and there were no immediate plans to use them for law enforcement. But with Americans already concerned over increased government surveillance under President George W. Bush's war against terrorism, the mere suggestion of a camera-equipped plane over public areas sparked controversy in this intensively independent region. "It would be like the environmentalists sneaking up on you," said Wayne Butts, a member of the County Commission in Custer County, where 96 percent of the land is publicly owned. "They may be taking pictures of a plant or two, but where does it stop? Do we have to grab our pitchforks and our guns?" Conservationists applauded the idea, saying there should be greater oversight of federal grazing and other leases. "More supervision to ensure the terms and conditions of permits to use public lands is always a good idea," said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group that focuses on federally managed lands in California, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Terrance Booth, a rangeland scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Wyoming, said remote controlled planes already fly above New Mexico and Maryland for similar purposes....We can't secure the border but by God we can monitor every blade of grass on these ranches. Instead, let's put camera's in every Federal building and monitor the activity of these Federal employees. We'll have plenty of tape for "America's Funniest Video's".
Embattled fire crew boss cited for drugs A former U.S. Forest Service crew boss was cited for possession of marijuana hours after he appeared in federal court in Spokane on involuntary manslaughter charges in the deaths of four firefighters, the Washington State Patrol said. The citation issued Thursday to Ellreese Daniels may have violated conditions a judge set for his release pending trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Hopkins said Tuesday. Scott Morse, chief federal probation officer for Eastern Washington, said he could not comment on an ongoing pretrial case. The issue could surface during a previously scheduled court hearing Jan. 30. Daniels, 46, of East Wenatchee, was a passenger in a car pulled over Thursday on Interstate 90 west of Moses Lake, the patrol said in a release issued Monday. He was cited for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia....
Bush Lifts Oil-Drill Ban in Alaska's Bristol Bay The Bush administration yesterday moved to boost U.S. oil and gas supplies by lifting a long-standing moratorium on drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, as OPEC accelerated plans to reduce supplies in order to prop up sagging crude prices. Days before the House is expected to roll back oil industry tax breaks, the Bush administration also decided to boost royalty rates by a third for ultra-deep-water oil and gas drilling. The action eliminates extra incentives that had been given to offset some of the high costs of operating in those offshore areas. The Interior Department said the change would generate an additional $4.5 billion over 20 years. In Washington, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that the administration would open 5.6 million acres in Alaska's North Aleutian Basin for oil and gas development. Congress first barred drilling in Bristol Bay in 1989 after the huge Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill damaged Alaska's coast. Congress lifted the ban in 2003 at the urging of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). But a moratorium President Bill Clinton declared on drilling in the area in 1998 remained in effect, so it took Bush's action yesterday to open it to development. Bush also lifted a presidential moratorium on part of the Gulf of Mexico that Congress opened for drilling in December....
Four Appeals Court Choices Dropped From Consideration President George W. Bush, bowing to the Senate's new Democratic majority, dropped efforts to win confirmation of four appeals court nominees who generated partisan opposition. Bush won't resubmit the nominations of Terrence W. Boyle, Defense Department counsel William J. Haynes II and William G. Myers III to seats on federal appeals courts, said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. A fourth nominee who also sparked controversy, Michael Wallace, withdrew last month from consideration for a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Myers, 51, a mining and ranching lobbyist nominated in 2003 to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, was accused by environmentalists of promoting corporate interests over enforcement of federal conservation laws when he was the Interior Department's solicitor....
Gas Wells Exempt From Needed Water Regulations Without water, rancher Melvin Barnes said his registered Brangus Cattle operation would close. In the last 30 years, the water level in his well has dropped 30 feet, about a foot a year. “That tells me the western part of Parker County is in a water crisis,” Barnes said as he surveyed his water well. “You know, I think we're going to have to go to some type of regulation.” Regulation is exactly what Parker County Commissioners discussed in a public meeting Tuesday in Weatherford. County leaders think if they don't regulate water use, the state will. The catch is that gas well drillers are exempt from water conservation districts. Gas wells dot the landscape in Parker County. Drillers can use 6 million gallons of water in the “fracking” process of extracting gas from the ground. Rancher Wade Davidson listened intently at a recent public meeting. He owns a 10 acre hay farm northwest of Weatherford. In the last two years of the drought, Davidson said his hay production has dropped by more than 60 percent. He pointed to 3 gas wells within a mile of his property....
Bill aims to give voice to landowners Much of the hunting in Montana takes place on private land, so it is essential that a landowner's voice be part of the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, a legislator said Tuesday in trying to change requirements for one of its seats. Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter, is the chief backer of a bill to require at least one of the commission's five members be actively engaged in livestock breeding and management, derive most of his or her income from that work and have an ownership stake in at least 1,280 acres. Current law requires that at least one member of the commission, which sets hunting regulations, "be experienced in the breeding and management of domestic livestock." Bales, a cattle rancher, said in an interview that the need for the bill became evident two years ago when Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointed Billings attorney Shane Colton to the commission post requiring livestock involvement. That was done on the strength of Colton's relatively brief stint on an in-law's ranch, Bales said....
Learn more from those who know, about wolves Bill stated that he lived in rural upper Michigan and has hunted the area for whitetail deer since he was a child and was always successful. Since wolves have moved into the area, the whitetail population has been devastated. He also recounted that several weeks ago, a man (unarmed) had ventured into the woods to exercise his four dogs. All of the dogs had been killed by wolves. The most chilling part of our conversation was when he told me that his wife, who had been a cross-country skier for years, had given up her sport for fear of her life. They also would not let their small children or dogs outside unless he was present. He always carries a gun. Unfortunately, this could be the scenario in the future that many of our residents will face in eastern Washington. Not a pretty picture, for sure....
Cutthroat trout to be stocked near Durango When early settlers moved through the West, some brought live fish along with them to stock waterways for future food, supplanting native fish along the way. Their intentions were good, Forest Service fisheries biologist Dave Gerhardt said, but the introduction of brook, rainbow and brown trout overtook the habitat of the native Colorado River cutthroat trout and decimated its ranks in the San Juan mountains. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are trying to reverse that trend by building a fish barrier on Hermosa Creek west of Durango that eventually will lead to the reintroduction of Colorado River cutthroat trout....
Tree sitter lawsuit dismissed A federal magistrate has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against law enforcement officers by a Wild Rockies Earth First! activist. The lawsuit, which alleged a variety of civil rights violations, was filed by Rebecca Kay Smith, one of two activists who camped out in trees scheduled to be cut down in 2002 on the Bitterroot National Forest as part of the Bitterroot Burned Area Recovery plan. Smith, who was 22 at the time, was arrested after a month of tree-sitting and eventually convicted in federal court of a handful of misdemeanors, including camping too long on national forest land and resisting arrest. In 2003, she was sentenced to three years on probation and spent 30 days in a prerelease center in Butte. Smith has now completed the terms of her probation, but during that time she also filed suit against two law enforcement officers - Dale Brandeberry of the Bitterroot National Forest and a Missoula County sheriff's deputy, Dave Ball. Smith claimed the officers violated her civil rights primarily by using excessive force in dealing with her, but also deprived her of her First Amendment rights and unreasonably seized her property....
A Victory For Species Dependent on Old-Growth Habitat Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court provided good news to wildlife species dependent on old-growth forest habitat by refusing to accept the timber industry's appeal of a 9th Circuit ruling in a case (Ecology Center vs. Austin) questioning how much scientific review is necessary for industrial logging projects in national forests. Back in 2002 the Ecology Center - now called the WildWest Institute - challenged the Lolo National Forest's Lolo Post-Burn logging project, claiming the 4,600 acre logging project would result in the loss of valuable wildlife habitat created by the fires that burned in the Lolo National Forest in 2000. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the conservation organizing saying the Forest Service provided scant evidence to prove the agency's claim that logging in old-growth forests would benefit wildlife. Rather, the 9th Circuit said it was unclear whether the proposed logging would benefit old-growth dependent species like the northern goshawk and pileated woodpecker. The Court also said the Forest Service should have conducted soil tests in the actual proposed logging areas to determine if soil quality would be affected, indicating that the agency's method of testing similar soil types in other non-logging areas was not enough. “The timber industry petitioners wrongly claimed that the National Forest Management Act does not impose a 'mandate to maintain wildlife viability' on the Forest Service,” explained Jeff Juel, WildWest Institute's Ecosystem Defense Director....
Canadian pleads guilty to sabotage A Canadian eco-saboteur pleaded guilty Monday to his role in the Earth Liberation Front firebombing of a federal wild horse corral five years ago in northeastern California. Darren Thurston acknowledged before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Portland that he sneaked into the United States in October 2001 to take part in the front's first major act of eco-sabotage after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The defendant acknowledged a series of covert actions that ended in the destruction of a barn and 250 tons of hay at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro corral near Litchfield, Calif. The sabotage was nothing new for the 36-year-old activist. In the early 1990s in Alberta, he was convicted of setting fire to fish trucks and stealing 29 cats destined for medical experiments, according to news accounts. In 1998, Thurston and a close friend, David Barbarash, were charged with mailing letters booby-trapped with razors to hunting guides and fur industry officials. But the charges later were dropped when police refused to disclose their informants....
County tries development-rights buy as a new tactic for state land preservation Voters rejected revisions in state trust land law. And competing with developers at auction can be a losing proposition. So Pima County is trying a new approach to preserving state trust land. It's trying to buy the development rights to two parcels, one southwest of Tucson near the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and the other in Davidson Canyon, where Arizona Portland Cement is seeking permission to mine state trust land. Buying development rights means the county would control the ability to put buildings on state trust land, preventing any development on the sites. But the State Land Department still would own the land and still could draw revenue from grazing leases or utility easements. State law allows the sale of development rights, provided the Land Department still has a way to make money from the land....
Study: Pinedale wells would hurt wildlife Additional oil and gas wells on the Pinedale Anticline would create barriers to wildlife and fragment habitat, according to an environmental impact statement released in December. The Bureau of Land Management is proposing 4,399 new wells on 12,278 acres and allowing winter drilling in crucial big game habitat. The BLM’s plan came in tandem with a mule deer study, focusing on the northern half of the Pinedale Anticline, that shows a 46 percent decline in the mule deer population since drilling began in the area. This year, the herd’s population numbers held steady after four years of decline. According to the supplemental environmental impact statement, the project would likely “create additional barriers to wildlife movements with increased fragmentation ... within former contiguous habitats.” The document states that big game would continue to be “adversely affected” by the construction of wells and the direct loss of habitat, including crucial winter range....
Chavez Trail to find new life It would seem that major place names and roads should remain the same over time, but they don't. Most Verde Valley residents probably never heard of the Chavez Road or for that matter, Antelope Springs (Flagstaff), Del Rio Springs (Prescott), the San Francisco River (Verde), Salinas River (Salt) or Sunset Crossing (Winslow). Those names and places are all part of the pioneering of the Verde Valley. The Forest Service has been surveying a section of the old Chavez Trail. Once complete, the historic trail that also has pre-historic significance will be identified with stone cairns and described as a contemporary trail with cultural and historic significance. Bill Stafford of the Red Rock Ranger District says, "This is the most historic wagon road in the Verde Valley and actually all the way from Winslow area to Prescott. This is the real McCoy. This is the one that is the old timer."....
Big game outlast blizzard's blow When a Colorado Division of Wildlife plane finally landed toward dusk Tuesday after a day-long survey of storm-ravaged southeast Colorado, it brought back more good news than bad. With a few exceptions, big game animals appear to have survived the epic New Year's blizzard better than officials expected. "Antelope have made their way to higher ridges where the snow was blown off," said Dan Prenzlow, director of DOW's Southeast Region. "They're in as good a spot as they can be." Lamar-area biologist Trent Verquer, who spent the day airborne and passed his observations along to Prenzlow, saw groups of dead pronghorn near Pritchett, but not large numbers....
The Democrats' Best Shot at Reform In 1996, a newly Republican Congress ended welfare as we knew it. In doing so, the Republicans improved a New Deal program that had become archaic, counterproductive, and dependency-forming. They also improved the public's image of Republicans. By defining the GOP as a party of ideas rather than interests, they burnished its reformist credentials and helped propel George W. Bush to the White House. Fast-forward a decade. Once again, Congress has changed hands. Once again, the new majority needs to signal that it stands for more than business as usual. Once again, an archaic, counterproductive, and dependency-inducing New Deal program is ripe for reform. Once again, a consensus has emerged on the general direction for reform. This time, the opportunity is to end farm welfare as we know it. In 2007, agricultural subsidies come up for reauthorization. Numbingly complex and arcane, farm bills have traditionally been of interest mainly to the agriculture lobbyists and farm-region legislators who wrote them in the Capitol's back rooms. In 2007, however, all Democratic lawmakers, not just the farm groupies, would be well advised to pay attention....
First cattle rustling charges in decades The Sulphur Springs Valley in Cochise County is a pastoral world where neighbors still wave to one another and doors stay unlocked. Renowned for its birding and marked by alfalfa farms and orchards, the valley, about 90 minutes southeast of Tucson, represents the spirit of the American West. But this throwback to Arizona's frontier needed 21st century DNA technology to crack the county's first charge of cattle rustling in at least 40 years. Late last month, rancher Larry Hubbard was charged with five felony and one misdemeanor counts of rustling after four of a neighbors' calves and a cow were found on his property. Four of neighboring rancher Doug Kuhn's cattle had wandered onto Hubbard's property some time before. Although Hubbard eventually called Kuhn to return three cows, he neglected to mention, or return, four calves that had been born in the interim, or a fourth cow that was pregnant. When Hubbard denied the calves came from Kuhn's cattle, court-ordered DNA testing showed otherwise....
Murder Charge Dropped in Rancher's Death Charges against a man accused in the slaying of a Grant County rancher have been dismissed. James Michael Snyder, 36, had been charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the death of John Edwards, 62, whose body was found Dec. 30, 2005, on a forest road near his pickup truck. The District Attorney's Office on Monday dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled later. ''The reason this is being done is the investigation is still ongoing. We still have a material witness that has not been located,'' said Deputy District Attorney George Zsoka. Snyder's girlfriend, Tammy Patrick, has been missing since shortly after the killing. Sheriff' deputies went to arrest Patrick the same day Snyder was arrested in early January 2006, but she had disappeared....
Herd of chilled spectators braves drifts for parade Sun-splashed viewing spaces along 17th Street in downtown Denver were at a premium Tuesday, packed with spectators as cowboys, cowgirls and livestock marched in a chilly National Western Stock Show & Rodeo parade. Dirty, weeks-old snow piled along curbsides didn't deter parade goers, many of whom flocked downtown with children in tow. "I'm going to the parade. I'm going to ride a cow," announced 3-year-old Devin Nieto, who was bundled in warm clothing and strapped into a stroller. Devin's mother, Lindsay Nieto of Thornton, said the toddler is a National Western veteran, having attended his first stock show when he was just a week old. Nineteen-year-old Anni Graefe of Black Forest, Germany, attended her first stock show parade Tuesday dressed in Western boots, bluejeans, a cowboy hat and a flashy Western shirt - worn under a warm down vest and jacket. Graefe, who is visiting relatives in Denver, snapped photographs with a digital camera and was "wowed" by the flashy costumes on some of the cowgirls....
Hannah ‘Wrangles’ a Wish Come True An extraordinary little girl from Louisville recently enjoyed an exciting dream come true thanks to Kids Wish Network, an organization in Florida that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. 11-year-old Hannah, who suffers from a severe seizure disorder, had the time of her life on her special trip to Coffee Creek Ranch in beautiful California! Hannah's adventure out West began soon after her mother, Andrea, learned about Kids Wish Network from a close relative. She began the application process with the charity in hopes that her brave daughter would qualify for a wish. Hannah had been through a lot in her young life and Andrea wanted her to have something fun to look forward to. A huge animal lover, Hannah is especially fond of horses and loves to ride whenever she can - it's also great therapy for her! So it was no surprise when, after Hannah was approved for a wish with Kids Wish Network, that she decided what she wanted most of all was to visit a dude ranch and ride with some real cowboys!....

Horse killed by Aspen pack in it's own corral

From: "Laura"
Subject: Horse killed by Aspen pack in it's own corral
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 18:44:34 -0700

This evening there was a confirmed livestock kill by the Aspen pack. The pack, formerly the menacers of Blue AZ, have now been allowed to kill 6 dogs in the past 6 months, one attack occurred in the presence of a terrified little girl on her families deeded land.

Now, the pack has killed a horse at the Link camp. Said horse belongs to the same little girl and her family. The horse was killed in the pens at the barn about 40 feet from the house. The family was not home at the time of the attack or they would have been within their legal rights to shoot every wolf involved in the killing of the horse which would have been horrific to watch if you can imagine.

When will FWS get off their backsides and deal with this problem pack? Does every livestock owner in the area have to donate their hard earned animals their livelihood, their peace of mind, their kids welfare to this program. The answers are simply they will not deal with it....

My advice to everyone dealing with wolf problems that the Agency refuses to deal with is this.

Move your livestock onto your deeded land and wait. It is legal to kill these wolves if they are on private land and in the act of attacking your livestock. if evidence of the attack is there, nothing can be done to you. You will not go to jail. Kill every one of them that shows up on your deeded land and lays a tooth on your livestock.

Do not kill one attacking your dog. Dogs are considered collateral damage by the program managers even on deeded land. You may also kill a wolf in defense of your life or the life of another so if you are threatened and the animal or animals are coming towards you or towards another person kill it. If you live in wolf country do not go anywhere unarmed.

FWS can no longer be trusted to make reasonable decisions for your safety, your property and your livelihood. They do not care about the damage to your family your well being or your property and civil rights. After months of reports of escalating problems with this pack, nothing has been done about them. They have created a living hell for the people living in the area.

The ranchers and rural residents pay the food bill for this program and get nothing but misery and threats in return. If this is the only way to fight back so be it. FWS manipulates the rule and regulations when it suits them, they threaten the residents with their attitudes and bully them with their wolves.

Most of us are law abiding citizens and we have to comply with the rule but there are ways to protect your property written into that rule and we need to deal with the animals that will not leave deeded land and livestock owners alone. Call me if you need documentation of the rule requirements I will be happy to send them to you.

Laura Schneberger
Gila Livestock Growers Association

Laura@gilaranchers.fatcow.com
www.gilalivestockgrowers.org
www.mexicanwolf.0catch.com

The Paragon Foundation invites you to see and hear a special presentation entitled: “The Social and Economic Impact of the Wolf Recovery Program in Catron County, New Mexico”.

Why is this important to you?

Today, the Wolf Recovery Program is directly affecting ranchers and communities both inside and outside the current Wolf Recovery Area boundaries of the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona and the Gila National Forest in New Mexico (BRWRA) and plans are in the works to begin the process of extending the boundaries to include areas surrounding the Gila. Wolves are already having an impact in Catron, Socorro and Sierra Counties as well as Apache and Greenlee Counties in Arizona.

What you need to know!

Direct losses are easy to document but what about the indirect losses? This presentation will not only address the direct impacts but will also clearly demonstrate the social impact and the environmental justice impact that the Endangered Species Act can have on property, lives and rural communities. It will have an impact on everyone!

The Presentations will include:
• The Economic Impact of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, by Range Improvement Task Force Economist, Nick Ashcroft.
• The Social and Psychological Impact of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program report by Alex Thal with Western New Mexico University’s Southwest Resource Analysis Center.
• Reality Bites, a rancher’s perspective and experience on the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program and the regulatory process by Laura Schneberger, President of the Gila Livestock Growers Association.

Is there a solution?

The power to disable this destructive regulatory program is with the people….we just need to learn how to apply it. We will discuss our options.

When and Where
• Saturday, January 20th, at the Sierra County Fair Building.
• Presentations will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m.
• Join us for coffee and doughnuts at 8:30. Lunch will be served at noon.

For more information and to RSVP
Joe Delk (505) 644-3082 jdelk525@yahoo.com.

NEWS ROUNDUP

State considers strategy on wolves The state Department of Fish and Wildlife says it expects increasing numbers of gray wolves to migrate into Washington from neighboring states and Canada, and officials want to know what to do about it. The department has named 18 people to a working group to come up with a conservation and management strategy for dealing with the wolves. The group includes ranchers, farmers, government workers, conservationists, biologists and hunters. Gray wolves were largely eradicated in Washington by the 1930s, but sightings have increased since federal wolf-recovery efforts began in Idaho and Montana in the mid-1990s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing gray wolf populations from the federal list of endangered species in three states and parts of four other states, including Washington....
Creating a home for pure bison to roam The animals certainly looked like bison, with the characteristic humps and beards. But just to make sure, a bison wrangler shot a drug- filled dart into one of several calves. A few minutes later the anesthetized animal was on the ground, grunting and squirming. Several men warily moved in to hobble the animal and take blood samples. This bison wrangling was being done to test the genetics of a herd of 39 animals that is being used by the American Prairie Foundation as seed stock to re-create a large-scale native prairie landscape. The researchers want animals with only pure bison genes, which are not so easy to find. "The majority of public herds have some level of hybridization with cattle," said Kyran Kunkel, a World Wildlife Fund biologist who is doing the sampling. "You can't see any difference visually. But we don't know what the long-term ecological or biological impacts would be."....
4 feed grounds receive permits Bridger-Teton National Forest granted temporary permits for four existing feed grounds Friday, including Muddy Creek, where the Game and Fish Department plans to continue a test-and-slaughter program later this month. The permits come as U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson deliberates a lawsuit by conservation groups, including Earthjustice, that seeks to close feed grounds on federal land. The groups say the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management illegally granted permits for 12 feed grounds and the Muddy Creek test-and-slaughter program without the proper environmental review. In addition to Muddy Creek, Bridger-Teton officials also granted permits to Game and Fish for the Pritchard and Fish Creek feed grounds in the Jackson Ranger District and the Fall Creek feed ground in the Pinedale Ranger District. The permits will expire April 15. Abigail Dillen, staff attorney for Earthjustice, said the decision ignores the dangers of brucellosis and chronic wasting disease....
Reid’s ‘earmark’ gets veto of home county From securing money for a modern national park visitors’ center to landing an alternative-energy grant for a local school, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has come through over the years for rural and cash-poor White Pine County. But a White Pine lands bill that Reid attached to the 109th Congress’s final legislation lost the official endorsement of the very county it affects, leaving disappointed Nevadans in its wake. White Pine officials wanted funding added to the bill for a study of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s (SNWA) plan for a 285-mile pipeline snaking through their region, sending groundwater south to glittering Las Vegas. County commissioners said Reid and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) told them the addition would sink the bill, but the commission was willing to take the risk. Both senators and several local groups praise the bill for designating more than a half-million acres of newly protected wilderness. But some in White Pine and elsewhere in the West contend that the requested water study fell victim to Reid’s support for a pipeline sought by Clark County, home of Las Vegas, where the majority leader’s son Rory is board chairman....
Corps stiffens dam control The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has tightened its management protocol for Libby Dam in northwest Montana. The change comes six months after widespread flooding downstream from the dam near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The corps said the flooding might have been avoided had the dam been operated in strict accordance with a program known as variable discharge. Some residents living near the river and local government officials, however, want the corps to abandon the program entirely and revert to more conservative dam management operations. The variable discharge program attempts to control flooding while also mimicking the Kootenai River's ancient flow patterns. This means storing more water behind the dam in winter to provide higher river flows when threatened and endangered fish spawn in spring....
Cook Inlet belugas under "considerable" extinction risk, report says The beluga whales swimming off Alaska's largest city are at considerable risk of going extinct unless something changes, a federal study says. The study by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle says if the Cook Inlet belugas go extinct, another group of the white whales probably won't come in to swim the silty waters off Anchorage. "The population is discrete and unique with respect to the species, and if it should fail to survive, it is highly unlikely that Cook Inlet would be repopulated with belugas," the study says. The study found there is a 26 percent chance the Cook Inlet belugas will be extinct in 100 years and a 68 percent chance they'll be gone in 300 years. To make matters worse, it finds that the whales are becoming increasingly vulnerable to a catastrophic event because they are tending to gather in a restricted area in the upper Cook Inlet....
No Protection for Slickspot Peppergrass The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it won't list the slickspot peppergrass for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The plant grows almost exclusively in the Snake River Plain and the foothills in southwestern Idaho. A separate population grows on the Owyhee Plateau. The federal agency said a review shows that while the plant's known habitat has decreased, the current population does not appear to have been impacted by habitat degradation. Instead, the agency attributed less-than-robust population growth to a lack of spring rains....
Bush Administration Suppressed Scientific Panel Recommendation to Keep Arizona Bald Eagle on Endangered Species List The Center for Biological Diversity and the Maricopa Audubon Society filed suit today challenging the Bush administration's suppression of scientific reports concluding that the Arizona Bald Eagle should remain on the endangered species list. The suit seeks an injunction barring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing the Arizona eagle from the endangered list and requiring it to incorporate the scientific studies in its management plans. Nationally, the bald eagle has experienced an extraordinary recovery, growing from just 416 pairs in 1963 to about 10,000 pairs today. The recovery of the Arizona population, however, has been much more modest. Historically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managed the Arizona bald eagle as a population distinct from all other eagles in the U.S. It has its own recovery plan and recovery program. In 1999, however, the agency proposed to treat all eagles in the lower 48 as a single population and remove them from the endangered list. The agency convened a seven-member scientific panel to peer-review the delisting proposal. On Aug. 11, 2006, the panel approved of the national delisting effort but recommended that the Arizona population not be delisted....
U.S. Sportsmen's Foundation Joins Lawsuit to Save Hunting The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation has filed to represent sportsmen in a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by animal activists to derail hunting, fishing and trapping for abundant game wherever endangered or threatened species exist. On Jan. 4, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation (USSAF) asked U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. for permission to join a federal lawsuit brought by the Animal Protection Institute against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. In October 2006, the animal rights group sued to expand endangered and threatened species protections to healthy and abundant wildlife populations. "Our goal is to prevent the animal rights movement from manipulating the Endangered Species Act to ban hunting, fishing and trapping," said Rob Sexton, USSAF vice president for government affairs. "The case could set a precedent that affects the future of hunting, fishing and trapping and how they are used as wildlife management tools."....
'Cover your deer' bill sparks debate In a place where the right to hunt is in the state constitution, some hunters believe it is poor manners to display dead, bloody animals on their vehicles as they're hauling them home. Others say the state has no business forcing hunters to throw a tarp over their game when they're traveling down North Dakota's highways. Rep. Duane DeKrey, R-Pettibone, said he expected to provoke a debate when he introduced a bill last week that sought to require hunters to cover their game. But he said he did not anticipate the uproar that ensued, one that he said was so extensive that he withdrew the measure Monday. Neither the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies nor the Wildlife Management Institute tracks the number of states that have carcass-covering rules. But Steve Williams, president of the institute and a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the nationwide trend in the past couple of decades has been to promote the covering of dead animals, and not just to remove the possibility of offending someone....
Dormant Yuma desalting plant to get restart A $250 million desalting plant west of Yuma that has sat dormant since shortly after it was completed in the early 1990s is set to restart for a test run by June. Engineers have been getting the plant ready to operate, doing pressure testing on plumbing and checking valves and motors, said Jack Simes, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The plant was built to reduce salt in agriculture runoff to help meet a water delivery treaty obligation with Mexico, but ran for only a six-month test in 1992-93. Since then, the U.S. has been able to meet its obligations because of high Colorado River flows that diluted the salt.
The ongoing drought in the West and increased water demand because of growth now require the plant to be ready to operate....
Keeping rivers flowing As New Mexico’s state engineer, John D’Antonio has legal power over all the state’s streams, rivers and underground waters. Balancing that authority with the political and social realities of water is like walking through a mine field, D’Antonio said. “You want to make enough progress that you keep the momentum going forward without going so far that you step on a land mine, like a lawsuit, that stops everything,” D’Antonio said. Three decades of booming population growth and the recent drought are forcing the state to deal with water in a way it hasn’t had to previously, D’Antonio said. “The drought opened our eyes that we’re way behind in putting tools in place to actively manage our water resources,” he said. “We have to put water masters in the field. We have to (enact) rules and regulations for water. We have to have those tools in place before we can go out and stop over-diversions (of water), illegal diversions and start enforcing by priority.”....
What bonds bought Most of the $68 million spent on open space under a 2004 bond program has bought ranch or farm property in Pima County. In what has been a hot real estate market, an incentive offered to ranchers and farmers has lowered the price of land that might have otherwise been too expensive for the county. The county allows ranchers and farmers continued use of the land while stopping further development, a goal of the county's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. The deals have helped Pima County protect important plants and wildlife and preserve a ranching tradition dating back to the area's settlement, officials say. The county has spent a little under half of the $164 million approved for open space purchases in the May 2004 bond election. Of that, $50 million has bought land on seven ranches and a farm, property that makes up 92 percent of the land acquired under the bond program. But some environmentalists say the ranch deals have come with another cost: cattle grazing, which is destroying some of the species intended for protection....
Colorado Group Estimates up to 15,000 Cattle Killed in Storm Up to 15,000 cattle may have been killed by a snowstorm that buried southeastern Colorado under several feet of snow and built drifts up to 15 feet high, a Colorado Cattlemen's Association official said Monday. That would be more than four times higher than the 3,500 cattle that state officials estimated were killed, but the smaller number included only range cattle and did not account for thousands of livestock in feedlot pens. Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the state Cattlemen's Association, said he estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 cattle died. He said he based his estimate on conversations with ranchers and feedlot owners. "We're waiting on pins and needles" to hear whether ranchers will receive federal disaster aid as requested by the state, Fankhauser said. State officials have said many ranchers will not have an accurate count of their losses until more snow melts. Fankhauser estimated that up to one-third of ranchers in the area have not located all their cattle....
Officials count up losses, especially among cattle Area Farm Service Agency offices - the grass-roots level of the U.S. Department of Agriculture - are still awaiting notification of assistance that may be available to ranchers as the result of President Bush's declaration of an emergency in the year-end record snowstorms in Southeastern Colorado. Whatever the government does, he added, ag producers will have to give documentation of their damages. He advised owners to take digital pictures of dead livestock or damaged property. "And if they have dead mother cows, most of them have ear-tags," Hanagan said. "We're advising people to cut the ears off and keep them to document the loss." Hanagan estimated that 1,000 head of cattle are known to be dead in Otero County, "but we still have several producers who haven't found their animals yet," he said. "We've probably got eight to 10 producers who are actively looking for some large numbers of stock, south of Highway 350 down toward the Kim area. But there is still some hope that cattle may have gotten down in a draw with a little shelter and survive."....
Feds pushing for a national livestock ID tracking system After a single cow in Washington state was diagnosed with mad cow disease in 2003, it took investigators four months to track down all cattle that had come in contact with the diseased animal. Since that outbreak, about 25 countries shut off or threatened to close their markets to U.S. beef exports, said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, speaking Monday to the American Farm Bureau Federation's convention, which has drawn 5,000 farmers and ranchers to Salt Lake City. Had a national animal identification tracking system been in place, supporters say, an investigation to contain the disease could have been completed within 48 hours. Yet efforts to implement such a system bogged down when producers argued over whether registering their livestock should be mandatory or voluntary. "We needed to move beyond the debate," said Undersecretary Bruce Knight, so a voluntary system was adopted. Knight predicted that as U.S. restaurants, retail outlets and consumers demand information, more producers will voluntarily register. Still, only 24 percent of the nation's livestock owners have joined the first phase of the program, which lists only a contact person and business address. In contrast, Utah has moved to the top 10 states in numbers of farmers and ranchers signing on to the infant U.S. system (64 percent). Terry Menlove, director of the state's Animal Industry Division, credits the comparatively high numbers in Utah to a level of trust built between state inspectors and individual ranchers....
Rescued animals help kids recover In the quiet hills of Castro Valley, children in crisis and rescued horses help each other heal. Many children at SonRise Equestrian Foundation come from troubled homes or have suffered violence, depression or serious illnesses. Others have experienced the illness or loss of a family member. SonRise founder and Director Melanie Buerke believes the kids and horses are attracted to each other because they've had similar pasts. SonRise horses have had their own traumas and were rescued from abuse or neglect. One horse was aptlynamed Cougar after he was attacked by his namesake. Once the horses are taken in, they undergo a health screening and evaluation to see if their temperament is suitable for working with children. "Horses have an uncanny ability to heal the human heart," Buerke said....
It's All Trew: Bankers heroes of early cattle industry The history of the cattle industry in the Old West is filled with accounts of cattlemen whose holdings were almost unbelievable in size and scope. Famous names like Goodnight, King and Anderson stand out as leaders in the ranching world. However, the real heroes of the industry were the early day bankers and backers of these large operators. The book "Great Plains Cattle Empire, the Story of the Thatcher Brothers & Associates, 1875-1945" by Paul Patterson and Joy Poole details the careers of the quiet bankers and often silent partners of many of the famous early day ranching giants. John Thatcher traveled west from Pennsylvania in the early 1860s to establish a small store in Pueblo, Colo. He had experience in merchandising from working in his father's store. John tried school teaching for a short time, but the lure of the West brought him to Pueblo. He unloaded his wagon full of goods into a small 10-foot-by-10-foot board-and-batten building with a sod roof sprouting weeds and grass. The counter consisted of wooden planks laid across two empty whiskey barrels. Back in a corner stood a metal safe that was too heavy to lift and carry....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolves Hamper Wyo Efforts To Avoid Cattle Disease Outbreak Wolves have hindered efforts to keep elk and cattle separated in the Buffalo Valley area, where the state game managers recently noticed a spike in brucellosis prevalence among elk. Since Dec. 20, state Game and Fish Department officers have hazed between 50 and 150 elk out of Buffalo Valley into nearby Spread Creek in an effort to keep the elk from mingling with cattle. Bill Long, North Jackson game warden, said officers used firecrackers and snowmobiles to chase the elk from two cattle ranches in Buffalo Valley. “I go up every single day,“ Long said. “ It’s just a matter of if the elk are in a bad place or hitting a hay stack.“ Long said he has been hazing elk in the Buffalo Valley on a regular basis during his 17-year career. But problems with elk hitting cattle feed has increased since wolves entered the area in recent years, he said. “There’s a new wild card there, and everything we do can be undone overnight,“ Long said. “Before we had wolves, you could put elk on a feed ground and they would stay,“ he said. “Now they chase them off and they make the commingling problem even worse. That’s the brave new world. Wolves have their place, clearly, but they have certainly caused some problems in terms of damage and commingling.“....
Payouts for wolf depredations hit record Compensation paid to ranchers who lost livestock to wolves set a record in 2006, a newspaper reported Sunday. Defenders of Wildlife, a national environmental group that pays ranchers for confirmed or probable kills of livestock by wolves, wrote checks for $154,000 last year, the highest amount the group has paid, according to a report in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Most of the deaths _ with compensation totaling $148,000 _ took place in the Northern Rockies states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. The rest were in New Mexico and Arizona, where a fledgling group of Mexican gray wolves has been reintroduced. Across the West last year, Defenders paid for the losses of 158 cattle, 204 sheep and eight other animals, mostly guard dogs but also a couple of horses. In 2005, the group paid $101,000 for depredations. It paid $137,000 in 2004. The Defenders' Bailey Wildlife Foundation Compensation Trust is now in its 20th year....
Caribou forest eyes energy leasing The search for natural gas in western Wyoming could soon spill into neighboring Idaho, which to date has been essentially devoid of petroleum production. The U.S. Forest Service is drafting a plan to lease areas of the Caribou National Forest and Curlew National Grassland along Idaho's southeastern border for oil and gas exploration. The agency is reviewing potential lease sites on the forest's 970,000 acres in Idaho and 17,000 acres that extend into Wyoming and Utah. There are no known petroleum deposits in Idaho. Every test well drilled in the state over the past 25 years has come up dry, but as gas prices soar and available resources become scarce, energy companies are hoping the vast basins of oil and gas discovered in Wyoming, Montana and other Rocky Mountain states might extend to Idaho's fringes. Several national forests, including the companion Targhee National Forest in Idaho and Wyoming, have already developed plans to open areas to drilling....
Nature reclaims Yosemite route Winding lazily into the Sierra Nevada, California 140's two asphalt lanes for generations served as the busiest road to Yosemite, with more than 1 million visitors each year rolling up the route to the magnificent granite valley. But of late, the natural world has gotten in the way. A dozen miles from the park, the old road has disappeared, its once-bustling blacktop buried under a rubble pile broad as two football fields. With a geologic shrug of the shoulders, Mother Nature last spring sent roughly 90,000 cubic yards of boulders and debris sliding off Ferguson Ridge, blocking the highway and causing consternation from Yosemite's west gate to the downtown streets of Merced. For now, the big rocks have mostly stopped raining down, and the slide appears to have stabilized in a precarious angle of repose, its foot buried deep in the swirling waters of the Merced River. Experts admit they can't predict exactly how the rocks of Ferguson Ridge will behave....
That was then, this is now If a single photograph is worth a thousand words, Paul Hosten figures two photographs can tell a whole story. Particularly if the second photograph is taken from the same site a century or so later. For the last couple of years, the ecologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District has been collecting historic photographs taken by the likes of early-day forest ranger John Gribble and pioneer photographer Peter Britt, tracking down the sites where the shots were taken and snapping new ones. He is employing what is called "repeat photography" to compare the old and new vegetation as part of a research project to better understand the regional landscape....
Flathead snowmobile plan challenged as threat to grizzlies Environmentalists have challenged a collaborative snowmobiling plan for the Flathead National Forest, saying it endangers grizzly bears by allowing late-season sledding. On Thursday, Swan View Coalition and Winter Wildlands Alliance filed an appeal of the forest's latest wintertime motorized recreation plan, criticizing new spring-season snowmobiling that in some areas extends through May. “The appeal will go to our regional office,” said Denise Germann, spokeswoman for the Flathead. “They'll look at it and follow the process to decide what needs to be done.” In their appeal, the activists charge that federal land managers admit the late season poses a threat to female grizzlies and their cubs as bears emerge from winter denning sites. The Flathead already has rules in place prohibiting snowmobiles in grizzly bear habitat once bears are out of their dens, but Swan View Coalition's Keith Hammer says the new plan circumvents those rules....
Western Shoshone keep fighting for land The way Allen Moss sees it, most of the riches of Nevada -- from the Las Vegas Strip to the state's gold mines -- belong to an American Indian tribe. Keep Las Vegas, he said. But the Western Shoshone tribal leader wants to reclaim ancestral lands stretching from California through Nevada and Utah to Idaho. Time after time, in lawsuit after losing lawsuit, the Western Shoshone National Council and its members have been turned aside as they try to use a 19th-century treaty to win back what they say has been improperly taken by the U.S. government. The tribe never used lines on a map until the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, which the Shoshone say gave them to up to 93,750 square miles of ancestral lands. Las Vegas would tuck into a notch on those lines. Tribe members insist the treaty, ratified by Congress in 1866, grants the Shoshone, not the federal Bureau of Land Management or other agencies, royalties and final say over water, mineral and property rights in an area the size of the state of Maine....
BLM Begins Winter Wild Horse Gather A roundup is under way to reduce two overpopulated herds of wild horses in eastern Sweetwater County, Wyo. The roundup started Friday and is expected to take four to five weeks. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to capture 1,760 horses from the two herds, which together have about 2,200 animals. The goal is to make available for adoption 1,399 of the captured horses. The BLM also plans to give a birth-control drug to about 200 mares and return those horses to the wild. A member of a wild-horse advocacy group said the wintertime roundup could cause the horses to become wet and fall ill. Ginger Kathrens, volunteer executive director of the Cloud Foundation Inc., also said snow can cause the horses to fall while running during the roundup. "You can't not expect to have some slips and falls and potential broken legs from the bad footing if it's muddy or snowy or wet or whatever," she said. "It's very unusual in a cold climate to run any horse."....
Senator wants probe of BLM in Kim family tragedy U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday called on the Interior Department to investigate the circumstances that led to the death of a San Francisco man stranded with his family in the Oregon mountains. Feinstein, D-Calif., cited the failure of federal employees to lock a gate on a logging road. Lost in the mountains of Southern Oregon, James Kim, 35, drove his family down the road before getting stuck in the snow. She commended Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for the search efforts by the Bureau of Land Management for Kim, whose body was found Dec. 6 after he left his family in their snowbound car to find help. But, she wrote Kempthorne, "I am disturbed by what appears to be a failure to follow instruction and a deviation from agency policy that contributed to cause this incident."....
Hotel showdown: U.S. military could use supremacy to build hotel in Park City's open space A new developer in this resort town has rare power. It is exempt from local zoning laws. So it soon may build a huge hotel/condominium project on a pristine hillside that the city had long planned to preserve as open space. Since local officials cannot stop it through zoning, they are trying to use millions of dollars to lure the developer to a different site. The developer who may reap such bounty also happens to be heavily armed — with missiles, bombers and fighters, no less. It is the U.S. Air Force. Why is the Air Force suddenly in the Park City hotel business? It "would benefit service members worldwide from all branches" with "an affordable way ... to visit Park City and enjoy its R&R opportunities," says a written statement from Hill Air Force Base. Terry Morris, Hill's director of plans and programs, adds the military seeks to build a big, world-class hotel resort there — on par with a few big ones that the military now operates with discounts for its personnel at Walt Disney World and in Hawaii, the German Alps and Korea....Do you think the average foot soldier will benefit from this? Neither do I. Not only should the military not do this, they should sell their other resorts and use the funds to adequately equip military personnel in harms way.
Energen opposes $14.9M judgment Attorneys for Energen Resources Corp. have asked a judge to reduce a $14.9 million judgment to a Farmington family or grant the company a new trial. Energen attorney Bradford Berge called the judgment "grossly excessive" in court documents filed Wednesday in Santa Fe. Energen was ordered Dec. 6 to pay the family of 19-year-old John Stapleton, $13 million in punitive damages and more than $1.92 million in compensatory damages after a Santa Fe jury found that the company was 65 percent responsible for the teen's death because its wells were not fenced. Stapleton and Cody Amezcua, 20, died July 21, 2002, when the car they were riding in backed into a natural gas wellhead, which exploded into flames in the Glade Run Recreation Area in Choke Cherry Canyon, north of Farmington. Stapleton, who was driving the car, died on scene. Amezcua died the following day in Albuquerque at University of New Mexico Hospital from burns sustained in the accident....
Tiny owl could be bred in captivity Pygmy owls, numbering barely two dozen known adults in Southern Arizona, might be bred in captivity starting this spring. The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are considering breeding 10 owls, five per sex, now living two to a cage in a wildlife rehabilitation center north of Phoenix. In the wild, the rust-colored, cream-streaked owls nest in saguaro cavities. The tiny birds — less than 7 inches tall and weighing 2.5 ounces — need about 280 acres of territory, where they prey on creatures including lizards, rodents and birds. But they live in lush Sonoran Desert areas where people want to build, and where competition is the apparent reason behind the owls' diminished numbers. If an advisory body of scientists and other interested parties supports the idea, captive propagation could start about a year after the wildlife service removed the bird from the endangered species list — citing a healthy population in nearby Mexico — in April 2006. The breeding is hardly a new technique, having been done with dozens of endangered species around the country. But like virtually every government action involving the pygmy owl since it was listed as endangered in 1997, captive breeding appears likely to be steeped in controversy....
Montana studies plan to allow falconry Offspring of a swift, crow-size raptor removed from the federal endangered-species list in 1999 could be captured in limited numbers for the sport of falconry, under a proposal the Montana wildlife agency is considering. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is taking public comment until Jan. 15 on the plan to let falconers take fledgling peregrine falcons from nests - perhaps removing about half a dozen birds a year. In falconry, trained birds circle above the falconers, take high-speed dives at flushed prey such as grouse, then try to capture the prey. The Montana Falconers Association wants this state to join six others in the West that allow removal of peregrines from the wild, within a federal framework. If the proposal advances, Fish, Wildlife and Parks will prepare an environmental assessment....
DAVE FOREMAN: IT'S STILL ABOUT POPULATION, STUPID The day was ballyhooed as symbolizing the death of Malthus and proof that Julian Simon had won the bet with Paul Ehrlich. There were rumors that Julian Simon’s waxy corpse was teased out of his glass sarcophagus to dance with giddy young ladies and plump, pink-faced young men at the Club for Growth. Even a spokesperson for the Environmental Defense Fund explained that population growth wasn’t a problem, that the problem was just where people chose to live. Terrible and foreboding as our country’s population explosion to 300 million is, more terrible and foreboding is how Americans > across our beautiful land are reacting. For almost forty years, I’ve supported slowing and then halting human population growth. It hasn’t been my main issue, but I have always woven it in—especially in my Earth First! Journal and Wild Earth writings. During these four decades I have seen the world’s thinkers and leaders degenerate from taking population growth seriously and trying to find practical ways to slow the explosion to flippant brush-offs: “Oh, don’t you know? Ehrlich was wrong. Everyone knows that. Population isn’t a problem anymore. Julian Simon proved that.” And they say this in growing numbers, even within the environmental movement; they say this while standing in the knife-edged, roaring winds of climate change, mass species extinctions, gut-wrenching poverty and hunger around the world, resource-shortage-driven wars of unspeakable brutality and inhumanity....
Trying to lead stranded bull to water The storm and horrible winds had whipped the land into a Siberian landscape that faded against the horizon in every direction. Left in its swath was some 50 inches of heavy snow on the level ground and great sweeping ivory drifts that easily covered six-foot barbed wire fences. Now, five days after the crushing storm had moved on, the snow still reached almost to the thick shoulders of the big, black bull. Each step brought a heavy grunt from the animal's whiskered jowls. Jets of condensation shot from his nostrils as his hot breath collided with the icy air. He had lived for several years in this wild place on the eastern Colorado plains. Breeding was his mission. He ruled the land. But for five days now he had only nibbled on sagebrush and tumbleweed. Even his heavy hooves couldn't penetrate the thick cover of snow. He could not get to any water. The massive muscle that carried him across the bluffs and arroyos was withering fast. The bones of his hips pushed against his skin. He was alone. And he was dying....
Editorial - An era rides into the sunset Like the dying embers of a cowboy campfire or the final shimmer of a crimson sunset, an era is fading in Arizona. In many ways it already is long gone, called to mind now only because its final stalwarts, its last two holdouts, still hold seats in the Arizona Legislature. In a recent, poignant story - his last for this newspaper before moseying off into the world of PR - reporter Robbie Sherwood wrote about state Sen. Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, and his friend, state Rep. Jack Brown, D-St. Johns, under the headline "Capitol's last cowboys ride on." Flake and Brown, you see, are ranchers, the only two among the Legislature's 90 members and the remnant of perhaps 120 rancher-lawmakers who've ridden off the range and into Arizona's Capitol over the years. Their presence today, as the Legislature begins a new session, may evoke a certain nostalgia, a wistful and romantic longing for the Old West, but there was a time when the predominance of rural interests in the Legislature had real-world consequences....
Ethanol boom divides farmers, ranchers From corn fields to Wall Street, enthusiasm for ethanol is at an all-time high. But not everyone is enthusiastic. Demand for the corn-based fuel is driving up the cost of feed corn, making it more expensive to feed cows, chickens and pigs. "It's hard to see where the future is, if corn keeps going up," said Kerby Barker, a cattle rancher in southwestern Wyoming. "Anytime you jack up the price of fuel, anytime you jack up the price of corn, it just drives up our bottom line." Long-term, it could drive up the cost of food, which is alarming to meat producers and food companies. Like many ranchers, Barker questions the 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit created by Congress to encourage growth of the ethanol industry. "The feeling in our area is that all the subsidies going to support ethanol production is really hurting livestock production," Barker said....
Farm Bureau chief wants an overhaul of labor system The federal raid on a northern Utah meat-processing plant that nabbed 154 undocumented workers last month proves the U.S. labor and immigration systems are broken, according to members of a national agricultural group meeting in Salt lake City. And if they're not fixed, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said, it could cost farmers and ranchers $5 billion annually from labor shortages. Speaking on Sunday to some 5,000 farmers and ranchers meeting at the Salt Palace, Stallman said his organization is working to pressure the Bush Administration and Congress to enact immigration reform. "Swift was using a state-of-the-art federally sanctioned worker ID program, but even that system apparently could not prevent a federal raid," he said at the start of the three-day national convention. "This serves as further proof that the system is broken." Stallman said the only way to fix the system "is to enact a comprehensive bill that addresses all aspects of the immigration process, including U.S. agriculture's need for an adequate legal workforce."....
Activists Attack Animal Agriculture Aggressive anti-animal agriculture campaigns have created conflict, not only within agriculture, but also among U.S. consumers, most of whom are generations removed from any agricultural roots and context, according to experts who addressed farmers and ranchers at the American Farm Bureau annual meeting. Although critics are intensifying their efforts, producers are attempting to accurately inform the general public of the facts of farming by using science to validate claims, unlike activists. More specifically, the Coalition to Support Iowa Farmers (CSIF) is making great strides within Iowa, as well as joining forces with like-minded individuals in other states. “We in agriculture are giving too much credit and power to these extremists,” CSIF executive director Aaron Putze said. “Instead we need to take them on.”....
New Congress means new look at single food agency One hundred years ago this week, the nation's first extensive food safety laws went into effect. Inspired by Upton Sinclair's stomach-churning novel "The Jungle," President Theodore Roosevelt bullied Congress into passing the Food and Drug Act. Its key inventions were federal food inspections and mandatory food labeling. A century later, consumers, food makers, farmers and ranchers will likely face a major overhaul of Roosevelt's landmark handiwork. Key food safety advocates in Congress, spurred by last year's veggie scares and November's election, promise hearings and legislation on new approaches to food safety. The push will come from two, newly powerful Democratic members, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin. In 2005, each introduced identical legislation in their respective chambers to create a national "Food Safety Administration." This new, single office would combine and then direct "the administration and enforcement of food safety laws," from today's tangled alphabet soup of food-watching federal agencies. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has at least four sub-departments either conducting or implementing food promotion, safety, research and inspection: FSIS, GIPSA, AMS and APHIS. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the EPA, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Customs Service, the National Maries Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms have pieces of the food safety pie.
Ranchers brave element to attend show Ranchers from the across the country braved roads left icy and snowy from a recent series of storms to make it in time for opening day Saturday at the 101st edition of the National Western Stock Show, one of the country's premier livestock showcases. As cattle producers from Oregon to Tennessee were scooping snow out of pens in the stockyards at the north-Denver stock show complex, ranchers in southeast Colorado, northern New Mexico and western Kansas were still digging out from under several feet of snow. Despite back-to-back blizzards that crippled parts of the plains, the number of animals registered for exhibits and contests at the National Western was running near last year's record-high of more than 15,000. "It's a still a day-to-day thing," National Western spokeswoman Kati Anderson said. "We've had some calls, cancellations....
'Last Cattle Drive' gem then and now "The Last Cattle Drive" by Robert Day (University Press of Kansas, 252 pages, $45) One mark of a classic novel is how well it holds up over time. After 30 years, "The Last Cattle Drive" remains fresh and funny, as if it could have been written last week. Fed up with high trucking costs, rancher Spangler Tukle decides to drive his herd of 250 steers (and one bingy heifer) from Hays to Kansas City. As in, on horseback, down dirt roads, past little towns, under interstates and eventually through downtown Kansas City to the stockyards. His wife, Opal, his old ranch hand, Jed, and his city-slicker summer helper, Leo (who is the book's narrator), assist in this endeavor, not entirely convinced that it's a good idea but caught up in the romance of the ride anyway. "I never could get used to the idea that I was a real scout for a real cattle drive," Leo thinks, daydreaming one day on the trail. "There weren't any Indians, though. Only cars." Humorous, poignant, earthy and definitely not politically correct, "The Last Cattle Drive" is a romp of a story with nuanced characters and scenes that will stick in your memory, as when Spangler Tukle shoots a balky old lawn mower to put it out of his misery, and when spectators line the streets of Kansas City to cheer on the cowboys....

Angels in cowboy boots

By Julie Carter

The year 2007 started with the plains of eastern New Mexico and Colorado buried in several feet of snow and 10 -12 foot drifts separating ranchers from their livestock.

Hay is being dropped from helicopters to stranded cattle and the event has made national news. Like a fingernail across the blackboard, Eastern newscasters slur Western pronunciation of words like La Junta and Hereford while cameras roll documenting the blizzard.

It is times like these that stories emerge telling of miracles that can't be explained and people helping people with a kindness most of the world has never seen. One ranch family in eastern New Mexico opened the doors of their small house and it became home to 44 people stranding during the blizzard. Divine providence provided that one of those guests was driving a truck loaded with foodstuffs, providing basic sustenance for all for several days.

Every now and then, something happens to all of us that gives us cause to know we aren't alone in this world even when it appears that way.

Some years back, out in the middle nowhere New Mexico, in the middle of the night, two cowboys were headed home from one ranch to another to the south. It was past 11 p.m., on a dead-cold winter night. They had been lion hunting all day, but as the norm, dark wasn't a deadline for a hunting dogs. The pair had to wait late into the night for the hounds to return to the pickup so they could head home.

Snow had fallen the day before and a good amount of it was still on the ground when they left the other ranch headquarters and headed south. About half-way into the 14-mile drive, one of the cowboys was beckoned by the call of nature. Having just left one ranch headquarters and so near another, it didn't seem like it should be urgent but apparently it was. They stopped and stepped out into the cold starlit night to "visit" the backside of the horse trailer.

Out of the darkness, back a distance from the road and from beneath a big cedar tree, came a weak voice repeatedly calling "help, help." Both men looked at each other, not sure if they were hearing things or if perhaps one of them was losing their mind.

One cowboy with a tad of streetwise instinct was sure it was an ambush and a set up. He reached into the pickup for his pistol. The other cowboy wandered toward the voice, without pause, wondering, "Who in the world would be out here in the middle of the night?"

Frail, thin and 80-something, John had taken a drive through the back country roads, headed nowhere, but as he later told them, he did this often just to see the country. That afternoon he had gotten his car soundly stuck in the mud and snow on one of those remote dirt roads. He wasn't sure where he was but soon decided to attempt to walk somewhere for help. He had no idea where the nearest ranch house was or which direction he should go.

It was a warm afternoon when he started out so he didn't take a coat with him. He wore only a light shirt, cardigan sweater, dress slacks and dress shoes with thin socks. His footwear got wet early in the afternoon and as the sun began to set and temperatures dropped, a chill settled over him. But John kept walking.

The thermometer fell into the teen temperatures that night. After walking for hours in the dark, cold, miserable and totally disoriented, he said he curled up in a tree and prayed. He later told his rescuers he believed he would die that night and be found huddled in the cedar branches.

Sometime later, he heard the cowboys' pickup and trailer as it rattled down the road. Summoning what little strength he had left, he again began calling for help, knowing his prayers had been answered.

In the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, and from someone that, under normal circumstances, would never have been there at that place at that time, he was rescued.

No one involved that night thought anything that had happened was a coincidence. The cowboys, unable to vocalize their thoughts, shrugged it off as best they could. But John never quit giving praise for his answered prayers. He knew his prayers had summoned two angels to save him - and this time, those angels wore cowboy boots.

© Julie Carter 2006


Choices

I write this as my farewell to you, the readers of this column.

I will return to my real life soon – my life as a husband, father, grandfather, West River rancher. Calving season will be in full swing March 28th, and I plan to be there.

I had originally planned to continue the column until I retired as secretary, but the column was a team effort. It just isn’t the same now that some of the team members are gone.

The purpose of this column has been to make people think. While attempting to keep it factual, I admit it is written with a rancher’s bias. I hope you have found it interesting, sometimes humorous, but most importantly thought provoking.

A goal of the column has been to weaken resistance to change. And I sense that we are making progress – giving more young people a reason to stay in South Dakota. It is all about opportunity – the same opportunities that made this state and country great.

The column has even had an impact in our nation’s capitol. I was one of the first to oppose the bill to stop the slaughter of horses for human consumption. It’s not that I want to eat my horse, but if someone wants to eat horse meat, is it wrong? Is it better or worse than letting horses die of abandonment?

I have also taken strong positions regarding the management of our federal lands – insisting that the manager of the land also be the steward of the land. And that pests, weeds, bugs, and even prairie dogs be managed or controlled. And that forest health be a priority so that we aren’t left with a sick and dying forest – one that will surely burn. While I support pristine areas, places of pure beauty, I do not support wilderness areas. That designation ties the hands of the land managers. Landowners, public or private, should be good neighbors.

I have supported animal agriculture of various shapes and sizes, but never at the expense of the environment. Science can and is being utilized to protect our precious water and minimize and manage odor. It is all part of being a good neighbor.

I continue to argue for certainty in planning and zoning. Develop the rules and then follow the rules without discrimination, as is demanded by the Equal Protection Clause of both the U.S. and South Dakota Constitutions.

It is fitting that I close with words I heard my first summer as your Secretary of Agriculture –“Change is imminent. We can either oppose change and most likely be consumed by that change, or we can approach change and try to shape it for our own benefit. The choice is ours.”

I hope the column has caused you to think – the best decisions are products of thorough thinking.

Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Your Money or Your Land: Didden v. Village of Port Chester - An important Post-Kelo eminent domain case

[T]wo Port Chester [New York] property owners joined with the Institute for Justice (the public-interest law firm that litigated the Kelo case) to ask the Supreme Court to look again at the issue of eminent domain abuse and ensure that lower courts do not read Kelo to completely eliminate judicial review. The case illustrates the dangerous results of the Kelo decision and asks what should be an easy question: Does the Constitution prevent governments from taking property through eminent domain simply because the property owners refused to pay off a private developer? In 2003, private developer [Gregg Wasser] approached Bart Didden and Domenick Bologna with a modest proposal: they could either pay him $800,000 or give him a 50 percent interest in their proposed business, or he would cause the Village of Port Chester to take their property from them through eminent domain. Outraged, they refused. The Village condemned their property the very next day. Bart and Domenick filed suit in federal court, arguing that the taking violated the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which only allows property to be taken for a “public use.” Shockingly, the trial court threw out their case, and the Second Circuit agreed. Because their property lay within a “redevelopment area,” a region the Village had designated as subject to its eminent domain power, the Constitution didn’t protect them from condemnation, even though they had alleged that they were condemned solely because they resisted the developer’s attempted extortion.... “What the developer and Village of Port Chester did is nothing short of government-backed extortion,” said Didden. “I had an agreement to develop a pharmacy, a plan fully approved by the Village, and in the eleventh hour I was told that I must either bring this developer in as a 50/50 partner or pay him $800,000 to go away. If I didn’t, the City would condemn my property through eminent domain for him to put up a pharmacy. What else can you call that but extortion? I hope the Supreme Court sets things right.” The crucial legal issue involves an ambiguity in Kelo. It's not clear whether or not Kelo permits pretextual condemnations within "redevelopment areas." Kelo held that condemnations for "economic development" purposes should get nearly absolute deference from judges so long as they are part of an "integrated development plan;" moreover, courts are not supposed to "second guess" the quality of the plan, so even very poor plans that have little chance of achieving their objectives and blatantly favor private interests can still immunize condemnations from challenge. However, Kelo also emphasized that "pretextual" takings - where the stated public interest rationale is just a cover for the true purpose of benefiting a "private party" - are still forbidden. In an important concurring opinion to the 5-4 decision, Justice Kennedy called for heightened judicial scrutiny of condemnations where there is a legitimate suspicion of "favoritism" towards a private party....


Polar Bear Meltdown?

This week the Bush administration proposed to list the polar bear as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. It’s a futile gesture that only signals a weakening in the Bush administration’s heretofore strong stance against global warming hysteria. The proposal resulted from a lawsuit settlement the Bush administration reached in February with Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In return for these groups dropping their effort to force the Bush administration to grant polar bears “threatened” status under the ESA, the administration agreed to commence a rulemaking to list the bears. This doesn’t sound like much of a “deal” – and it’s not. Though the proposal doesn’t legally bind the Bush administration to list polar bears as threatened and the proposal will simmer for at least 12 months during which time the administration says it will seek more information and public comment, based on the fanfare accompanying the proposal’s roll-out, it seems the listing is all but final. Rather than issuing the proposal in a tentative and low-key manner, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued a media release and reigned over a press teleconference where he and the director of Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) touted the proposal. But they quickly lost control of the affair – not to mention their message. The major issue at the press conference became not whether the polar bear was truly endangered, but whether the rulemaking was a signal that the Bush administration was beginning to melt on global warming. Before we get to the dominant issue of the press conference, however, let’s first answer the key questions raised by the proposal. Are polar bears endangered? What would the proposal accomplish, given that we already protect polar bears under several laws and treaties? There are no data indicating a downward trend in U.S. or global polar bear populations – that’s according to the FWS’ own fact sheet for the proposal. There apparently are some reports of lower-weight polar bears and reduced cub survival in certain areas, but there are no firm explanations for these reports and their significance is unknown....


The Eminent-Domain Origin of Shenandoah National Park

The establishment of Shenandoah National Park in 1926 is one of the greatest abuses of eminent domain in our country’s history. With the Commonwealth of Virginia condemning the entire area and removing more than 450 families, many by force, the park would eventually encompass 196,000 acres. After people were evicted, Virginia transferred the property to the federal government and Shenandoah National Park was born. The history books have forgotten the episode, but it is one that needs to be remembered. Just as with politics today, the main force behind the establishment of Shenandoah National Park (SNP) was a special-interest group, for it was not a federal bureaucracy that pined for the park but local Virginians themselves. In 1924, the secretary of the Interior had established a committee to investigate a potential site for a national park in the southern Appalachians. Knowing that it would be a boon to tourism, many residents in the Shenandoah Valley of central Virginia began lobbying for the park to be located there. That same year, nearly 1,000 local residents gathered in Harrisonburg and established Shenandoah Valley, Inc., whose slogan was “A National Park Near the Nation’s Capital.”... The bill that Coolidge signed stipulated that no federal funds could be used to acquire the land the park would comprise. The job of obtaining the land therefore fell to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The idea of buying the land from the owners was immediately ruled out, as it was thought too difficult an undertaking... It is clear that government officials at the time considered these property owners as nothing more than obstacles. Their concern was not for their rights, but simply for the difficulty that they would present in bringing the national-park project to fruition. Indeed, many people, including the press, thought they were doing the property owners a favor by running them off their land. The general consensus was that the people who inhabited these mountains were living as animals and needed to be civilized. National Park Service official Arno Cammerer stated, “There is no person so canny as certain types of mountaineers, and none so disreputable.” SNP official James R. Lassiter stated in 1935 that residents suffered from a lack of “independence and resourcefulness” and from their “dependence on outside help.” So in order to avoid the slow and painful process of negotiating prices with each landowner, Virginia passed the Public Park Condemnation Act. The act simply confiscated all the lands that would make up the park. Officials then formed a three-man committee to assess the value of each property that the owner would be paid. Once the condemnation had been signed into law, the next task was to remove the inhabitants....


Don’t Tell Anybody But We Can All Breathe Easier Now

A lot of people have a vested interest in making you think air pollution is getting worse. Rather than put themselves out of jobs, air quality regulators make standards for safe levels of pollution stricter — continuously. In response, environmental reporters ladle out bad news about what SUVs are doing to the lungs of our children, hyperbolize about the occasional mid-summer ozone violation by this city or that, or distill reports by groups like the American Lung Association that get funds through fear-mongering. But please, gentle reader, know this: Air pollution is at an all-time low. And this fact is made all the more incredible by another fact: There are more vehicles on the road than ever. According to a new National Center for Policy Analysis report by environmental scientist Joel Schwartz, we can all breathe a little easier now. Consider some of these stunning highlights. Between 1980 and 2005: * Fine particulate matter dropped 40 percent. * Nitrogen dioxide levels decreased by 37 percent, sulfur dioxide decreased by 63 percent, and CO concentrations by 74 percent. * Lead levels dropped 96 percent. * Peak eight-hour ozone levels declined 20 percent, and days-per-year exceeding the eight-hour ozone standard fell 79 percent....


ENERGY DIET FOR A STARVING WORLD?

Former Vice President Al Gore considers it immoral to oppose the Kyoto Protocol, energy taxes or other coercive schemes to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions linked to global warming. But in reality, it is immoral to put an energy-starved world on an energy diet, says Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Energy poverty is a scourge, shortening the lives and impairing the health of untold millions of people around the globe, says Lewis. For example:

* An estimated 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity, and some 2.4 billion people still rely on biomass -- wood, crop waste and dung -- for cooking and heating.
* Daily indoor air pollution in energy-poor countries is much dirtier than outdoor air in the world's most polluted cities and kills about 2.8 million people a year, most of them women and children.

Even in the United States, high energy prices inflict hardship on low-income households. Millions of families already feel pinched by the high cost of gasoline, natural gas, and home heating oil. A Kyoto-style system would push energy prices even higher.

Overall, there is no known way to meet the developing world's energy needs without increasing use of CO2-emitting fossil fuels, says Lewis. Forcing developing countries to go on an energy diet would condemn them to decades of continuing poverty, backwardness and misery.

Source: Marlo Lewis, "Energy Diet for a Starving World?" Washington Times, January 2, 2007.

For text:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070101-111214-3977r.htm