NEWS ROUNDUP
Army Hasn't Ruled Out Pinon Canyon Condemnations Sen. Wayne Allard says the Army has told him it prefers to buy land from willing sellers to expand its Pinon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, but it has not ruled out condemnations. Some farmers and ranchers are opposed to the expansion and fear they will be forced to sell their land, which is located along the historic Santa Fe Trail. Steve Wymer, Allard's spokesman, said others in the area are open to selling their land. Te Legislature is debating a bill that would bar the Army from using state eminent domain law to require landowners to sell, but even its backers admit the measure would be more symbolic. Wymer said the Army has long said that forcing landowners to sell "would be a last resort." Rancher Lon Robertson, the leader of a group opposing the expansion, said there are always some ranches for sale in the area but the majority of landowners don't want to sell. He the latest Army statement is nothing new....
Public: Slow Pinedale area gas development No one who spoke during four open houses hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said they backed the agency's plan for energy development in the Pinedale area. The BLM's preferred alternative is to allow a mixture of oil and gas development while making some areas off limits to drilling and related activity. But those who spoke at open houses in Rock Springs, Jackson, Pinedale and Marbleton said they want the agency to slow development and do more to protect wildlife and natural resources. The biggest turnout was in Pinedale, where a crowd spent several hours speaking about the proposed development plan, which remain open for public comment until May 18....
Coal-bed methane water appeals on rise Appeals of coal-bed methane water discharge permits are on the rise, complicating gas development in the Powder River Basin. Coal-bed methane wells extract natural gas by pumping water off underground coal seams. Oftentimes the groundwater is useful for ranchers in arid northeast Wyoming, but other times the water can flood low-lying grazing areas. Terri Lorenzon, director of the state Environmental Quality Council, thinks the shifting areas of the coal-bed methane play may have something to do with the increase in permit appeals. "These discharges are where they impact people more and more," she said. The state Department of Environmental Quality also has noticed an increase in appeals. John Wagner, a water quality supervisor for the agency, said 11 appeals are pending. "We're getting appeals from both sides, environmental and industry," he said. "It's just that coal-bed methane is very controversial, and there seems to be an unwillingness to compromise on both sides."....
Cooperative range monitoring fosters trust in western Wyoming Western Wyoming ranchers who hold permits to graze livestock on federal lands say their relationship with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management has gone from contentious to cooperative. This new sense of goodwill, according to the ranchers, stems from a monitoring program spearheaded by the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service. Livestock producers and personnel from the two federal agencies voluntarily participate. "We get along better with the USFS since we started the cooperative permittee monitoring. We also have a lot more knowledge about the range resource and how to care for it," said Wayne Jensen, who raises cattle near Boulder. "That's allowing us to keep our cattle up there longer, and they are in better shape when they come out." Another Boulder-area rancher, Joel Bousman, said, "Since we started the joint monitoring programs, our working relationship with the Forest Service and BLM improved dramatically." Bousman, president of the Silver Creek Grazing Association, added, "With the help of UW CES, we got out on the grazing allotments and started monitoring based on sound science using quantitative, long-term trend data, not someone's opinion."....
Prairie chickens making comeback The lesser prairie chicken was once prolific across the shortgrass prairies of the Great Plains. The birds were often the only meat on a pioneer family’s table in hard times, which never seemed to go away for the plains sodbuster. Experts say the birds nearly met their demise, not from hunting, but from loss of habitat during the 20th century. Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service includes the species as eligible for listing through the Endangered Species Act. Landowners and several groups working to protect the lesser prairie chicken won a major battle in the last year when the New Mexico Game Commission recommended they not be included on the state’s endangered species list. “It would limit what we do out here because then everything we do would be federally regulated,” said Tish McDaniel, The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Shortgrass Prairie project coordinator. “We don’t want it to become listed because that’s a statement right there that we’re losing.” McDaniel said the key to saving and improving prairie chicken habitat lies with landowners, who ranch on most of the prime land for the birds. She tries to match federal and state programs and other conservation sources to a cattleman’s goals for his land. She said at the same time she’s winning valuable habitat for prairie chickens....
Ranchers get creative with wolves Barbed wire used to be the only thing keeping Emma Ellison's cows from the Baker Mountain wolf pack. This spring, there's a stiffer line of defense: electrified wire draped with red strips of flagging. "It you touch your nose on it, it'll get your attention," said Brian Finnan, Ellison's friend and neighbor who helps keep an eye on the place. The fencing went up last month around a 40-acre pasture as an experiment to see how well it works at keeping hungry wolves from cows and calves. Wolves are suspected of killing a few cows on the ranch two years ago, but it was never officially confirmed. Still, the mere presence of wolves nearby was enough to give the electrified fencing and flagging a try. The strips of red material -- called fladry -- exploit a quirk in wolves' personality that steers them away from new, unfamiliar objects. The 7,000 volts pulsing through the wires, in a souped-up version called "turbo-fladry," add a body-jarring jolt to those bold enough to test it....
Interior probe clears BLM The Department of Interior's chief investigator found no wrongdoing in private discussions Bureau of Land Management officials held with promoters of oil and gas development in Utah. "We found no evidence to substantiate that BLM officials engaged in any behavior that could be characterized as improper dealings for the purpose of promoting local economic interests at the expense of wilderness protections," said Inspector General Earl Devaney. Devaney released his finding in an April 4 letter to U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sponsor of Utah's 9.5 million-acre Red Rock Wilderness Act, a bill held up in Congress for years. Hinchey had asked Devaney to look into an e-mail written by a lobbyist who gave an account of a private meeting in Vernal last summer when, the lobbyist said, BLM officials promised to fix bureaucratic problems holding up oil and gas development on public lands. The federal government owns 64 percent of the land in Utah. In the e-mail leaked by wilderness groups, Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for rural Utah counties, said the Bush administration was "on the same page" with oil and gas interests....
Wildlife conflicts grow After eight years working Wyoming's booming energy fields, truck driver Eric Ransom suddenly finds his future threatened by an unlikely nemesis: a chicken-sized brown bird with a penchant for colorful courtship rituals and an aversion to heavy equipment. Ransom delivers water, gravel and other materials to the sprawling coal-bed methane fields east of Buffalo. In the past, when one company hit a slow period, he jumped easily to another that needed more drivers. No longer. As the methane, or natural gas, is tapped out beneath the flat rangeland of eastern Wyoming, energy companies are migrating west and into richer habitat along the Powder River, where protected birds such as the sage grouse live. Federal rules mandate months-long prohibitions on drilling near sage grouse breeding grounds, leaving contractors like Ransom scrambling to find work. The industry slowdown goes beyond that one bird population, and reflects a broader shift taking place in the debate over domestic energy development. It comes amid new evidence that some wildlife populations are on the decline after almost a decade of intense exploration....
Company faces unusual well problem, too much water Coal bed methane development developers usually face the problem of getting enough water into the ground to get the gas out. EnCana Oil and Gas USA is facing the opposite problem, forcing it to shut 24 coal bed methane wells east of Mamm Creek. There's too much water. "It's one of the things that's going to make us not an economical venture anymore," EnCana land negotiator Greg Ryan told the Daily Sentinel last week during an energy and environment symposium at Western State College. The wells are producing between 300 and 3,000 barrels daily, compared with normal water production of up to 15 barrels. "We can't de-water the coals because we don't know what to do with the water," Ryan said. Treating the water has failed, as has evaporating it. The mineral- and saline-laden water is too dirty. Company spokesman Wendy Wiedenbeck said the company is still working on treating the water or re-injecting it below ground....
Group buys gas leases on Rocky Front Trout Unlimited has bought leases for natural-gas drilling on 4,900 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front, and the conservation group said it will seek to have the leases retired for good. Trout Unlimited announced the purchase Thursday, less than a year after the organization accepted Front leases from Questar Corp. The company donated several petroleum leases, which Trout Unlimited said would be returned to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for retirement. The latest leases were bought from Donald Epperson, a private energy investor from Helena, and are on two tracts of land. Trout Unlimited spokesman Chris Hunt said that under terms of the deal, the purchase price would not be disclosed. The lease transfer allows the land to be used for the benefit of hunters and anglers, Hunt said. "This is land that really isn't appropriate for oil and gas drilling in the first place, so to see these leases given to TU, and to know they'll be retired and never drilled is really satisfying," he said....
Tribe pulls out of water negotiations Two years of water compact negotiations between the Blackfeet Tribe and the state of Montana went into a tailspin on Thursday after tribal council members said they had been blindsided and then declared a negotiation session over. Tribal leaders were disturbed after learning the state had pushed a $140 million authorization through a U.S. Senate committee to build a water diversion project within the Blackfeet Reservation borders without the tribe's consent or knowledge. "We want this issue cleared up before we go any further," said Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person during an ardent speech in which he stood before the negotiation team members. "It's not in our favor. We were not notified. We need to be part of this. ... We need to know how this is going to affect our people." Tribal attorney Jeannie Whiteing reminded commission members that the tribe has repeatedly sought to have its federal reserved water rights quantified before money was set aside to rebuild the St. Mary water diversion project. Tribal members said they only recently learned of the $140 million authorization, which they called a betrayal....
Eberts Ranch deal to close The U.S. Forest Service plans to complete the purchase of the 5,200-acre Eberts Ranch on April 25. That will close the $5.3 million purchase and fold the ranch into the Forest Service's management on the Little Missouri National Grasslands. By April 26, the entire ranch will be available for such activities as hiking, bird watching and any seasonal hunting. The Forest Service had purchased 1,900 acres of the Eberts Ranch in September, and this month's deal will be to acquire the remaining 3,300. The Eberts family has been trying to sell the ranch for public conservation for nearly four years, first to the National Park Service and then to North Dakota as a first-ever state preserve. When the preserve failed for lack of legislative funding in 2005, the Forest Service stepped forward....
Judge allows logging dead trees A U.S. district judge has lifted an injunction on logging beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. 0.U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula issued the order Tuesday, saying a U.S. Forest Service analysis showed the project would not significantly impact soils. Three environmental groups vowed to appeal the case Thursday. "The project is a bad idea," said Jeff Juel of the Wild West Institute, formerly the Ecology Center, in Missoula. "We're committed to following our legal options to bring some good management to the area." The Ecology Center, the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service over its Basin Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project in 2005. The groups said they oppose the project because it included clear-cutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads. Juel said he also believes that claims that the dead trees create a fire hazard are greatly exaggerated....
Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control. The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice". It adds that if "resolute and concerted international action" is not "urgently" taken, global warming will become "largely unmanageable". The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position. The draft warns that "global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating" and that it "will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security"....
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives....
Dozens of nilgai antelope killed to stop tick spread South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a kind of fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the population and threaten the cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" last week to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge that runs along the border....
Rancher says pipes were radioactive A member of one of Texas' oldest ranching families has locked horns with an oil company in a bizarre dispute involving pet rhinos, steel pipe and allegations of radiation poisoning and a corporate vendetta. Rancher Jimmy McAllen, the 10th generation of his family to work the 70,000-acre ranch in South Texas, says that the old pipe he used to build a corral for two African black rhinoceroses in the mid-1990s proved to be loaded with radioactive material. He blames the radiation for the mysterious 1995 death of one of his rhinos. And he says he suspects it caused the rare form of cancer that cost him his lower right leg in 2005. Moreover, he says the Forest Oil Co. - which holds a lease to drill for gas on his property and gave him the old pipe for the corral and other projects around the ranch - deliberately poisoned his land in retaliation for a dispute the two sides had over gas payments....
Baseball flips lid, tosses out wool cap It didn’t stand a chance, utterly alone as it was, with vanquished woolen sportswear littering the playing fields all around it: football jerseys, hockey sweaters, ski jackets, golf pants and the like. Each had long ago succumbed to a tide of manmade textiles boasting superlative stretchiness, stain resistance, insulation, water repellence — innovations that spawned revolutions in sports fashion and fabric terminology alike. (Doubtful that Honus Wagner ever pondered the ‘‘breatheability’’ and ‘‘wicking’’ abilities of his famously rumpled lid.) So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone this winter when Major League Baseball quietly announced it was tossing the wool cap for good. New Era Cap Co., the Buffalo, N.Y.-based manufacturer of baseball’s signature vestment for decades, declared that a new polyester-blend model would debut on opening day. From a business perspective, the immediate impact of the change may only be felt by New Era’s wool suppliers; the larger consequence for wool producers comes in the form of perception. ‘‘It’s significant in the visibility that it’s had,’’ said Rita Samuelson, marketing director for the American Wool Council, a nonprofit association representing U.S. sheep ranchers. ‘‘It was one of the last places in sports where wool was used, and so many people are now hearing that wool is being replaced by high-performance fiber. Samuelson knows of at least one wool producer in Canada that may have to shutter its mill with the decreased demand....
Proposed Texas Body Farm Draws Criticism Plans by Texas State University to create a forensic field laboratory in San Marcos, Texas, have drawn strong opposition from area residents. San Marcos residents allege the facility, which would be used to study the decomposition of human corpses, would draw unwanted attention from area wildlife and possibly contaminate regional rivers, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Saturday. Area rancher Harrell Tietjen also said residents were not informed early enough by the college about the creation of the site, which would be the largest of its type in the nation. "When I went to the school up here, it was a place of higher education," he said. "But I think you've gotten so high, you've fallen off." A university spokesman said the site would likely never keep more than 10 bodies at one time and they would be screened for communicable diseases....
Ranchers find increased profits with natural beef Wyoming ranchers are increasingly marketing natural beef - meaning cattle raised on family ranches instead of corporate feedlots - and happy customers around the country are eating it up. "I'm a little guy raising 80 head," said John Sutherland, a Laramie County rancher whose family came to Wyoming in the 1860s. "We're too small to really compete with the big guys, so we need a niche market." Sutherland's family is among a growing number of Wyoming ranchers who are turning to marketing natural beef. The Sutherlands entered the natural beef market two years ago and last year sold 16 of the 74 cattle they raised as natural beef. The USDA regulates the term "natural beef," which means beef raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. The meat can't contain artificial ingredients and must be minimally processed. It took Sutherland's daughter about 40 hours to fill out the necessary federal paperwork to earn the right to use the term "natural."....
B.'s widow defends herself Already portrayed as a calculating gold digger who manipulated a man mentally crippled by years of alcohol abuse, the widow of South Texas multimillionaire B.K. Johnson took the stand Friday to defend her late husband's will from his children and grandchildren. Accusations of backstabbing and money-grubbing flew inside the packed courtroom, as lawyers asked Laura McAllister Johnson whether she had referred to her stepdaughters as "vile" and "not smart," with children who were "horrible." Yes, she said, indeed she had. Tensions ran high Friday inside Probate Court 1, where the inheritance battle over the King Ranch scion's millions finished its third week. Johnson, a descendent of King Ranch founder Richard King, died in 2001, leaving an estate estimated at more than $40 million — but not to his children. The trial is expected to last up to three months. During the daylong testimony, the lawyer representing the daughters, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of the rancher and businessman known simply as "B." painted Laura Johnson as one who began attending his estate planning meetings even before they married in 1996....
Enid had its outlaws and its tales Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt was a bad guy. He probably was the most written-about bad guy who robbed and killed in the Enid area in the days right after the greatest land run of them all on Sept. 16, 1893. Nelson Ellsworth Wyatt, also was known as Zip Wyatt and Dick Yeager. Nothing is known about Wyatt’s background. He probably made his living stealing horses and selling them, or committing a robbery now and then to support himself. But he was a brawler, too, as well as a killer. He broke out of jail twice at Guthrie; he was involved in a brawl at Mulhall; and he and some friends killed a Kansas sheriff and two settlers who got in their way en route to a hideout. So Wyatt, who might look like a John Wayne-type character with his blue eyes, auburn hair, lean appearance and his Texas drawl, was not one of the nice guys. People, who visited his cell in the Enid jail in August 1895 said he didn’t look like a bad guy, and opined he was not as bad as he was made out to be. There are plenty of stories to the contrary....
Trip to Nevada City takes you back to 1860s You've got to love the place. It has character; it has history; it has local heroes – and it had bad guys. Nevada City, Mont., offers noncommercialized, preserved Old West history at its best. At first, it's a little confusing. This Nevada City is not in the state of Nevada. It was a town of several hundred people whose homes and businesses were leveled in the quest for gold. Yet, there are more than 100 mostly preserved and some restored buildings on the town site. Nevada City was one of a series of towns built along Alder Gulch in what was then Montana Territory. The rush for gold in the 1860s created a demand for mining supplies and services, so a string of towns was mostly thrown together. Other towns along the gulch were Junction City, Adobetown, Central City, Union City, Summit and Virginia City, housing a total population of around 7,000. There was gold – and lots of it. That is where the bad guys come in. These guys were really bad. It is estimated they were responsible for 102 murders and stole $250,000 in gold. They called themselves "The Innocents." One of the bad-guy leaders, Henry Plummer, was elected sheriff. Nevada City was a stronghold for Plummer and his gang. Enter the good guys. In 1863, the townsfolk had had enough and put together a vigilante group called "The Stranglers," who took their name seriously. During 1863, they hanged 23 of the robbers and murderers and ran the rest out of town....
Monday, April 16, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Pigs, kids and how to meet girls
By Julie Carter
The cell phone rang and when answered, the phrase "I'm on my way to a pig sale," could be heard over the roar of the F-350 flatbed pickup as it rolled down the highway.
The digital hi-fi wireless age has allowed people a glimpse into our personal lives and let them find us in places it never occurred to them we would be.
This particular mother was headed out with her husband and son to get new livestock for this year's county fair projects. The guy calling was her computer networking tech.
He was someone from her other life. The one where she is a business owner in skirts demanding efficiency, order and perfection.
None of which she would find at the pig sale.
He politely tried to reason why in the world would she be going to a pig sale?
It is sometimes a little hard for "regular" people to grasp the concept of livestock projects for FFA and 4-H youth headed to the county and state fair.
Their deductive reasoning finds no logic in driving long distances to buy just the right pig or three, spending the next three months buying feed and dispensing it to said animals knowing full well the highest odds are for losing money in the end.
The value of this effort year after year is not tangible because it really isn't about the pig. It isn't about how much he ate, how well he showed or how many cents per pound he'll bring in August. It is all about the kid.
It is about an investment in responsibility. From now until fair time, the kid will be required to daily feed, groom, exercise and clean-up after a pig. (Or other show animals but for the purpose of the lesson, we'll stick with the pig.)
And the most surprising part to those same amazed regular people is that the kid really does like it and so does the pig.
Something happens within the youngster when that animal becomes part of his daily life and dependent upon him.
Psycho-babblers would call it bonding. The pig has no idea about that but he knows that the short person that shows up every day is bringing chow and some attention. That's good enough for a pig.
Just about the time the pig and the kid are into a steady routine and summer seems endless, it is fair time. Again, although it's the pig that gets the kid to the fair, it's still really not about the pig.
Pig pens are cleaned, assigned and move-in day is a flurry of squeals and snorts and some of those from the pigs.
Kids are running, jumping, climbing, laughing and joking. You'd think they'd just arrived in Disneyland instead of the pig barn at the fair grounds.
The teen kids stand in segregated groups with mirrored sunglasses, cool ball caps, bling-bling jewelry and perfect lip-gloss trying to pretend they don't notice each other. Many a long-term marriage's courtship began in such a place - a week in the county fair pig barn.
All the kids, large and small, are giddy with anticipation of the fun they'll have for this one week. Any doubts they may have had in April about whether they wanted to show livestock this year has vaporized into sights and sounds of the pig barn.
My 13-year-old son had some of those momentary doubts. But they quickly vanished when his reasoning skills kicked in.
I was assured of that when he said, "Mom, the fair is a good place to meet girls."
© Julie Carter 2007
See my new website at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass&Savvy book on pre-sale discount for a limited time!
By Julie Carter
The cell phone rang and when answered, the phrase "I'm on my way to a pig sale," could be heard over the roar of the F-350 flatbed pickup as it rolled down the highway.
The digital hi-fi wireless age has allowed people a glimpse into our personal lives and let them find us in places it never occurred to them we would be.
This particular mother was headed out with her husband and son to get new livestock for this year's county fair projects. The guy calling was her computer networking tech.
He was someone from her other life. The one where she is a business owner in skirts demanding efficiency, order and perfection.
None of which she would find at the pig sale.
He politely tried to reason why in the world would she be going to a pig sale?
It is sometimes a little hard for "regular" people to grasp the concept of livestock projects for FFA and 4-H youth headed to the county and state fair.
Their deductive reasoning finds no logic in driving long distances to buy just the right pig or three, spending the next three months buying feed and dispensing it to said animals knowing full well the highest odds are for losing money in the end.
The value of this effort year after year is not tangible because it really isn't about the pig. It isn't about how much he ate, how well he showed or how many cents per pound he'll bring in August. It is all about the kid.
It is about an investment in responsibility. From now until fair time, the kid will be required to daily feed, groom, exercise and clean-up after a pig. (Or other show animals but for the purpose of the lesson, we'll stick with the pig.)
And the most surprising part to those same amazed regular people is that the kid really does like it and so does the pig.
Something happens within the youngster when that animal becomes part of his daily life and dependent upon him.
Psycho-babblers would call it bonding. The pig has no idea about that but he knows that the short person that shows up every day is bringing chow and some attention. That's good enough for a pig.
Just about the time the pig and the kid are into a steady routine and summer seems endless, it is fair time. Again, although it's the pig that gets the kid to the fair, it's still really not about the pig.
Pig pens are cleaned, assigned and move-in day is a flurry of squeals and snorts and some of those from the pigs.
Kids are running, jumping, climbing, laughing and joking. You'd think they'd just arrived in Disneyland instead of the pig barn at the fair grounds.
The teen kids stand in segregated groups with mirrored sunglasses, cool ball caps, bling-bling jewelry and perfect lip-gloss trying to pretend they don't notice each other. Many a long-term marriage's courtship began in such a place - a week in the county fair pig barn.
All the kids, large and small, are giddy with anticipation of the fun they'll have for this one week. Any doubts they may have had in April about whether they wanted to show livestock this year has vaporized into sights and sounds of the pig barn.
My 13-year-old son had some of those momentary doubts. But they quickly vanished when his reasoning skills kicked in.
I was assured of that when he said, "Mom, the fair is a good place to meet girls."
© Julie Carter 2007
See my new website at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass&Savvy book on pre-sale discount for a limited time!
OPINION/COMMENTARY
SCOTUS Emits Scare Pollution The Supreme Court of the United States has arrogantly ruled that the second most vital gas to sustaining life on Earth is a “pollutant.” In doing so, five of nine Justices did the same dirt to climate science last week that twelve OJ jurors did to forensic science in 1995. At issue was the Environmental Protection Agency’s position that it had no power to regulate “greenhouse gases,” such as carbon dioxide, as EPA scientists believed they fail to meet the Clean Air Act’s definition of airborne pollutants. Astoundingly, a majority of non-scientists in robes ruled that they did. In an all-too-obviously politically motivated decision, the Court found [1] that the EPA not only had the authority to regulate “greenhouse gas” (GHG) emissions but actually carried the legal responsibility to do so. And right on cue, judicial ignorance of both the scientific and fiscal pitfalls of the Massachusetts v. EPA ruling incited similar media nescience. Alarmists repeated their erroneous mantra that man’s role in global warming had been “settled,” while the press loudly proclaimed that President Bush’s environmental policies had been properly “rebuked.” But the dire portent of this case far-exceeds the photo-ops it provided gloating greenies. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens opined that “air pollutants” include “all airborne compounds of any stripe” and concluded that: "Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air Act's capacious definition of 'air pollutant' we hold that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases from new motor vehicles.” Capacious? That would seem considerably understated, given that the list [2] includes everything from Asbestos to Radon to Hydrochloric Acid, but fails to mention any gases essential to life – until now that is. Nonetheless, the word is so broadly tossed about that the EPA felt it wise to provide “The Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act” [3] for clarification. There, air “pollutants” are defined as (emphasis added): “UNWANTED CHEMICALS or other materials found in the air. Pollutants can harm health, the environment and property. Many air pollutants occur as gases or vapors, but some are very tiny solid particles: dust, smoke or soot.” In his opinion, Stevens cavalierly declared CO2 to be the “most important species” of greenhouse gases. This, itself, is pure enviro-friendly trash -- most scientists award that honor to water vapor. Nevertheless, as he considers GHGs to be “well within” the CAA’s definition of pollutants, it would follow that CO2 must be “unwanted” in the air. I suspect, however, that huggers of every tree, every blade of grass, and every other form of vegetation on the planet would heartily disagree, as its presence in the air is as essential to the flora as O2 is to us fauna....
Supreme Court Split Decision Opens Door to EPA Power Grab The Supreme Court today, in a 5-4 decision, overturned EPA’s decision not to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new vehicles. EPA must now reconsider its original ruling. The Court’s decision has broad implications, ranging from the judicial standing of environmental plaintiffs to America’s economic future. “The decision implies that Congress ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 1977 when it enacted the Clean Air Act’s Section 202 regulating auto emissions, but somehow forgot to tell anybody. The same groups that sued EPA to regulate CO2 auto emissions under Section 202 will now sue EPA to set national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for CO2,” said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. “However, in previous rulings, the Court has forbidden EPA to consider cost when setting NAAQS. As a result, the potential for economic harm is vast.” “The Court's decision empowers EPA to take control of America's global warming policy. This should certainly be a surprise to Congress, which has been vigorously debating the issue for years,” noted CEI Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “For an agency as unaccountable as EPA to be deputized in this way is bad news for the future of our country.”....
Newt Gingrich on the Environment The Washington Post makes what it calls a Newt Gingrich-John Kerry "debate on the environment" sound like a clash of ideological opposites, but Newt Gingrich aspired to be a handmaiden of the environmentalists while Gingrich was Speaker of the House. The love was unrequited. The environmentalists attacked Gingrich anyway. (They raise money demonizing Republicans.) In private, though, the environmentalists had more luck getting meetings with Speaker Gingrich than conservatives working on environmental issues ever did. The Gingrich-Kerry "debate" event's announcement itself says the two men will explore "the ways in which Congress might be able to resolve its differences on this long-range issue through institutional change, new analytic techniques, and legislative innovation." I expect a conversation in which Gingrich and Kerry discuss ways of getting around people in Congress who support the Fifth Amendment, sound science, and a government at least a smidgeon smaller than the Earth the gaians worship....
Forget Kyoto Then again, Kerry might want to read up on those environmental records before he starts shaming us all. As guilty as we like to feel in this country, we can hold our head up when it comes to greenhouse-gas pollution. It isn’t just that Europe is failing to meet its Kyoto obligations, having increased emissions since 1993. It’s much better than that. The fact is that, in the years after we elected George W. Bush — a man who would presumably knock his own grandmother into a vat of toxic sludge if it allowed him to contaminate another pristine wilderness area — we have soundly beaten the European Union in curbing emissions growth. This despite our having much more population growth and a much stronger economy. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. carbon-equivalent emissions rose by 1.3 percent between 2000 and 2004. During the same period, the U.S. population grew by 4 percent, and our economy grew by 19.5 percent. In the 25 European nations reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, carbon equivalent emissions rose by 2.2 percent during the same period (and by 2.4 percent in the 15 Western European nations). The EU-25 population, meanwhile, grew by 1.6 percent and their collective economy grew by just under 7 percent. Between 2000 and 2004, America had more than twice the population and economic growth of Europe and a little more than half of Europe’s growth in carbon emissions. That’s not so bad, is it? Should we really be looking up to Europe? One would hope that environmental consciousness is not about signing treaties or setting bold goals, but rather about decreasing emissions. That is where we beat everyone....
Mistakes to Avoid in the Global Warming Fight You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and the wind is blowing hard in favor of action on climate change. The Bush administration now agrees that human activities are warming the planet, the Supreme Court says the Environmental Protection Agency has violated the law by not regulating auto emissions, and Democrats in Congress are demanding new measures to cut greenhouse gases. How will we address this new challenge? The most plausible answer is: with a lot of command-and-control programs that micromanage various industries on the assumption that the government knows best. In a word, badly. Reducing the output of carbon dioxide and other substances that trap the Earth's heat is not cheap. But there are expensive solutions, and there are astronomical ones. Any new policy should aim at getting the greatest reductions for the least money. That may sound like a hugely complex task for the government, but it's not. The free market is the best system ever created for providing what we want at the lowest possible cost. The way to get affordable amelioration of climate change is to put the market to work finding solutions. To achieve that, we merely need to make energy prices reflect the potential harm done by greenhouse gases....
Why So Gloomy? Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe. What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week....
The Global Warming Jihad I am a strong defender of the processes of scientific inquiry. And yet, I am aware that most scientists cling to a faith in conclusions that have been widely accepted within their respective communities, and angrily react against any heresies – however well-documented and reasoned – that arise from skeptical minds. When British biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s book, A New Science of Life, was published, the science journal, Nature, editorially described it as “a book for burning?” Nor did most members of the scientific world openly embrace the views of the brilliant science philosopher, Paul Feyerabend, who challenged the idea that there was “a” scientific method. He was of the view that a variety of strategies – including luck, accidents, dream interpretation, fraud, mistakes, and intuition – had played major roles in scientific discoveries. He advocated a theoretical anarchism in the search for truth, believing that such an approach was more consistent with human nature than was adherence to rigid rules of inquiry. I am equally a defender of speculative thinking, wherein emotions, intuitive insights, and an awareness of the need for inner, spiritual expression, inform our empirically-based searches for “truth” about ourselves and the world in which we live. We spend far too little time examining the epistemological basis for our thinking. The question “how do we know what we know” is rarely taken up even by the more intelligent among us. Most of us prefer the leisurely approach to understanding; relying upon self-styled “experts,” or the outcome of public opinion polls, to advise us of the opinions we are to embrace. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the current secular faith in the causes of, and cures for, global warming. Many who eagerly attack the theistically-based religious views of others, have erected their own temporal icons and composed an alternative set of catechisms in furtherance of their creed. The rest of us are expected to accept, without any heretical doubts, that the prophesies of some scientists reflect a core of certainty within the scientific community as firmly grounded as the heliocentric cosmology. Those scientists who doubt the revealed faith, we are told, are but a handful of ignoramuses at such places as Backwater College or Boll Weevil State....
GASOLINE AT $6 VS. WARMING? A recent European Environment Agency (EEA) study reported greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles continue rising due to increased driving, despite heavy fuel taxes that boost prices there above $6 per gallon. Even with gas prices more than twofold that in the United States, Europe falls short of its global-warming goals, says Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Consider: * Gasoline taxes were higher in Europe than the United States even before Kyoto (the 1997 multilateral treaty to combat global warming) and average nearly $4 per gallon, pushing the pump price well above $6. * In comparison, gasoline in the United States is subject to federal taxes of 18.4 cents per gallon and varying state and local taxes, for a total of 42 cents per gallon on average -- putting the price for regular gas in the United States around $2.58 per gallon. * The British, Germans, French, Belgians, Dutch and Italians now shell out $6.55, $6.45, $6.21, $6.44, $7.09 and $6.24 per gallon, respectively, for premium gas; yet they are driving more, not less. Joel Schwartz of the American Enterprise Institute believes that despite the costs of owning and operating an automobile, people choose automobiles the world over because no other form of transportation comes anywhere close to providing comparable speed, flexibility, privacy and convenience. Even at $6 per gallon, many Europeans -- whose per capita incomes are lower than those in the United States -- are willing to cut back on other things rather than cut back on driving. Most European Union nations aren't on track to meet their Kyoto targets because of increasing CO2 emissions, and "the main reason for increases between 1990 and 2004 was growing road transport demand," notes the EEA. It expects the upward trend in driving to continue. Source: Ben Lieberman, "Gasoline at $6 vs. warming?" Washington Times, April 9, 2007. For text:http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070408-103831-5019r.htm
SCOTUS Emits Scare Pollution The Supreme Court of the United States has arrogantly ruled that the second most vital gas to sustaining life on Earth is a “pollutant.” In doing so, five of nine Justices did the same dirt to climate science last week that twelve OJ jurors did to forensic science in 1995. At issue was the Environmental Protection Agency’s position that it had no power to regulate “greenhouse gases,” such as carbon dioxide, as EPA scientists believed they fail to meet the Clean Air Act’s definition of airborne pollutants. Astoundingly, a majority of non-scientists in robes ruled that they did. In an all-too-obviously politically motivated decision, the Court found [1] that the EPA not only had the authority to regulate “greenhouse gas” (GHG) emissions but actually carried the legal responsibility to do so. And right on cue, judicial ignorance of both the scientific and fiscal pitfalls of the Massachusetts v. EPA ruling incited similar media nescience. Alarmists repeated their erroneous mantra that man’s role in global warming had been “settled,” while the press loudly proclaimed that President Bush’s environmental policies had been properly “rebuked.” But the dire portent of this case far-exceeds the photo-ops it provided gloating greenies. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens opined that “air pollutants” include “all airborne compounds of any stripe” and concluded that: "Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air Act's capacious definition of 'air pollutant' we hold that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases from new motor vehicles.” Capacious? That would seem considerably understated, given that the list [2] includes everything from Asbestos to Radon to Hydrochloric Acid, but fails to mention any gases essential to life – until now that is. Nonetheless, the word is so broadly tossed about that the EPA felt it wise to provide “The Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act” [3] for clarification. There, air “pollutants” are defined as (emphasis added): “UNWANTED CHEMICALS or other materials found in the air. Pollutants can harm health, the environment and property. Many air pollutants occur as gases or vapors, but some are very tiny solid particles: dust, smoke or soot.” In his opinion, Stevens cavalierly declared CO2 to be the “most important species” of greenhouse gases. This, itself, is pure enviro-friendly trash -- most scientists award that honor to water vapor. Nevertheless, as he considers GHGs to be “well within” the CAA’s definition of pollutants, it would follow that CO2 must be “unwanted” in the air. I suspect, however, that huggers of every tree, every blade of grass, and every other form of vegetation on the planet would heartily disagree, as its presence in the air is as essential to the flora as O2 is to us fauna....
Supreme Court Split Decision Opens Door to EPA Power Grab The Supreme Court today, in a 5-4 decision, overturned EPA’s decision not to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new vehicles. EPA must now reconsider its original ruling. The Court’s decision has broad implications, ranging from the judicial standing of environmental plaintiffs to America’s economic future. “The decision implies that Congress ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 1977 when it enacted the Clean Air Act’s Section 202 regulating auto emissions, but somehow forgot to tell anybody. The same groups that sued EPA to regulate CO2 auto emissions under Section 202 will now sue EPA to set national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for CO2,” said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. “However, in previous rulings, the Court has forbidden EPA to consider cost when setting NAAQS. As a result, the potential for economic harm is vast.” “The Court's decision empowers EPA to take control of America's global warming policy. This should certainly be a surprise to Congress, which has been vigorously debating the issue for years,” noted CEI Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “For an agency as unaccountable as EPA to be deputized in this way is bad news for the future of our country.”....
Newt Gingrich on the Environment The Washington Post makes what it calls a Newt Gingrich-John Kerry "debate on the environment" sound like a clash of ideological opposites, but Newt Gingrich aspired to be a handmaiden of the environmentalists while Gingrich was Speaker of the House. The love was unrequited. The environmentalists attacked Gingrich anyway. (They raise money demonizing Republicans.) In private, though, the environmentalists had more luck getting meetings with Speaker Gingrich than conservatives working on environmental issues ever did. The Gingrich-Kerry "debate" event's announcement itself says the two men will explore "the ways in which Congress might be able to resolve its differences on this long-range issue through institutional change, new analytic techniques, and legislative innovation." I expect a conversation in which Gingrich and Kerry discuss ways of getting around people in Congress who support the Fifth Amendment, sound science, and a government at least a smidgeon smaller than the Earth the gaians worship....
Forget Kyoto Then again, Kerry might want to read up on those environmental records before he starts shaming us all. As guilty as we like to feel in this country, we can hold our head up when it comes to greenhouse-gas pollution. It isn’t just that Europe is failing to meet its Kyoto obligations, having increased emissions since 1993. It’s much better than that. The fact is that, in the years after we elected George W. Bush — a man who would presumably knock his own grandmother into a vat of toxic sludge if it allowed him to contaminate another pristine wilderness area — we have soundly beaten the European Union in curbing emissions growth. This despite our having much more population growth and a much stronger economy. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. carbon-equivalent emissions rose by 1.3 percent between 2000 and 2004. During the same period, the U.S. population grew by 4 percent, and our economy grew by 19.5 percent. In the 25 European nations reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, carbon equivalent emissions rose by 2.2 percent during the same period (and by 2.4 percent in the 15 Western European nations). The EU-25 population, meanwhile, grew by 1.6 percent and their collective economy grew by just under 7 percent. Between 2000 and 2004, America had more than twice the population and economic growth of Europe and a little more than half of Europe’s growth in carbon emissions. That’s not so bad, is it? Should we really be looking up to Europe? One would hope that environmental consciousness is not about signing treaties or setting bold goals, but rather about decreasing emissions. That is where we beat everyone....
Mistakes to Avoid in the Global Warming Fight You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and the wind is blowing hard in favor of action on climate change. The Bush administration now agrees that human activities are warming the planet, the Supreme Court says the Environmental Protection Agency has violated the law by not regulating auto emissions, and Democrats in Congress are demanding new measures to cut greenhouse gases. How will we address this new challenge? The most plausible answer is: with a lot of command-and-control programs that micromanage various industries on the assumption that the government knows best. In a word, badly. Reducing the output of carbon dioxide and other substances that trap the Earth's heat is not cheap. But there are expensive solutions, and there are astronomical ones. Any new policy should aim at getting the greatest reductions for the least money. That may sound like a hugely complex task for the government, but it's not. The free market is the best system ever created for providing what we want at the lowest possible cost. The way to get affordable amelioration of climate change is to put the market to work finding solutions. To achieve that, we merely need to make energy prices reflect the potential harm done by greenhouse gases....
Why So Gloomy? Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe. What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week....
The Global Warming Jihad I am a strong defender of the processes of scientific inquiry. And yet, I am aware that most scientists cling to a faith in conclusions that have been widely accepted within their respective communities, and angrily react against any heresies – however well-documented and reasoned – that arise from skeptical minds. When British biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s book, A New Science of Life, was published, the science journal, Nature, editorially described it as “a book for burning?” Nor did most members of the scientific world openly embrace the views of the brilliant science philosopher, Paul Feyerabend, who challenged the idea that there was “a” scientific method. He was of the view that a variety of strategies – including luck, accidents, dream interpretation, fraud, mistakes, and intuition – had played major roles in scientific discoveries. He advocated a theoretical anarchism in the search for truth, believing that such an approach was more consistent with human nature than was adherence to rigid rules of inquiry. I am equally a defender of speculative thinking, wherein emotions, intuitive insights, and an awareness of the need for inner, spiritual expression, inform our empirically-based searches for “truth” about ourselves and the world in which we live. We spend far too little time examining the epistemological basis for our thinking. The question “how do we know what we know” is rarely taken up even by the more intelligent among us. Most of us prefer the leisurely approach to understanding; relying upon self-styled “experts,” or the outcome of public opinion polls, to advise us of the opinions we are to embrace. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the current secular faith in the causes of, and cures for, global warming. Many who eagerly attack the theistically-based religious views of others, have erected their own temporal icons and composed an alternative set of catechisms in furtherance of their creed. The rest of us are expected to accept, without any heretical doubts, that the prophesies of some scientists reflect a core of certainty within the scientific community as firmly grounded as the heliocentric cosmology. Those scientists who doubt the revealed faith, we are told, are but a handful of ignoramuses at such places as Backwater College or Boll Weevil State....
GASOLINE AT $6 VS. WARMING? A recent European Environment Agency (EEA) study reported greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles continue rising due to increased driving, despite heavy fuel taxes that boost prices there above $6 per gallon. Even with gas prices more than twofold that in the United States, Europe falls short of its global-warming goals, says Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Consider: * Gasoline taxes were higher in Europe than the United States even before Kyoto (the 1997 multilateral treaty to combat global warming) and average nearly $4 per gallon, pushing the pump price well above $6. * In comparison, gasoline in the United States is subject to federal taxes of 18.4 cents per gallon and varying state and local taxes, for a total of 42 cents per gallon on average -- putting the price for regular gas in the United States around $2.58 per gallon. * The British, Germans, French, Belgians, Dutch and Italians now shell out $6.55, $6.45, $6.21, $6.44, $7.09 and $6.24 per gallon, respectively, for premium gas; yet they are driving more, not less. Joel Schwartz of the American Enterprise Institute believes that despite the costs of owning and operating an automobile, people choose automobiles the world over because no other form of transportation comes anywhere close to providing comparable speed, flexibility, privacy and convenience. Even at $6 per gallon, many Europeans -- whose per capita incomes are lower than those in the United States -- are willing to cut back on other things rather than cut back on driving. Most European Union nations aren't on track to meet their Kyoto targets because of increasing CO2 emissions, and "the main reason for increases between 1990 and 2004 was growing road transport demand," notes the EEA. It expects the upward trend in driving to continue. Source: Ben Lieberman, "Gasoline at $6 vs. warming?" Washington Times, April 9, 2007. For text:http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070408-103831-5019r.htm
Friday, April 13, 2007
GAO
Oil and Gas Royalties: Royalty Relief Will Cost the Government Billions of Dollars but Uncertainty Over Future Energy Prices and Production Levels Make Precise Estimates Impossible at this Time. GAO-07-590R, April 12.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-590R
Oil and Gas Royalties: Royalty Relief Will Cost the Government Billions of Dollars but Uncertainty Over Future Energy Prices and Production Levels Make Precise Estimates Impossible at this Time. GAO-07-590R, April 12.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-590R
NEWS ROUNDUP
Endangered rabbits in US state are being eaten by predators; only 6 remain alive Most of a group of 20 endangered rabbits that were reintroduced to the wild with great fanfare last month have been killed by predators, state officials said. Only four of the rabbits released on March 13 remained at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area in this northwestern state as of Tuesday, said David Hays, pygmy rabbit coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hays said two males were removed earlier this month and will be returned at the end of April. The other 14 rabbits are believed to have fallen victim to predators, mainly coyotes, but also hawks and owls, Hays said. The rabbits, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, eat sagebrush and are the only rabbits in the United States that dig their own burrows....
Commentary: Land base is wealth to be used wisely The first principle of regional land planning is that our land base is our wealth! Fifty-eight percent of our land base is owned by the United States and managed, by the U.S. Forest Service. We, as citizens must not walk away from the responsibility of that management, we must hold the feet of our national leadership to the fire and demand that we be given the opportunity to manage for the health of these watersheds. Our national forests, and rangelands, which provided for the very life and vitality of people for over 10,000 years now, sit mostly unavailable and uncared for all around us. The fuels in our forests are growing beyond the historic norms as suppressed unhealthy stands compete for sunlight, water and nutrients; growing on slopes so steep that, in the event of fire, the intensity would sterilize the soils and destroy all forms of life that hold the mountain in place. For generations, our people and the native tribes have survived by our human energy and time to eek life from these lands. We now sit impotent to the ability to survive from productivity on these lands. We go to planning meetings, and workshops and trainings to try to find the way. Now, we must do so much more than talk the talk. We must begin to walk the walk needed to provide for the continuation of the custom and culture of our people and the symbiotic relationship to these incredible lands....
USGS Launches Land Cover Data Web Tool Today the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced the launch of the new USGS Land Cover Visualization and Analysis Tool, which allows users to analyze, in specific detail, how land cover has changed over time. Designed for both novice and expert users, the web-based system provides an intuitive interface able to selectively view and analyze land cover data from any web browser. The USGS is soliciting users to evaluate the preview release of the application. For more information, go to http://emmma.usgs.gov/landcover. "Land cover data has been a largely untapped information resource. With increasing population and the challenging prospect of climate change, comprehensive information about the condition of our land, and how it is changing, becomes more and more vital," said Barbara Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography. "An easy-to-use Web-based application that delivers national land information assets to a wider audience and clearly demonstrates how our environment is changing broadens opportunities to incorporate land cover data in decision making." Land cover, the pattern of natural vegetation, agriculture, and urban areas, is shaped by both natural processes and human influences. Information about land cover is needed by managers of public and private lands, urban planners, agricultural experts, and scientists for studying such issues as climate change or invasive species....
Forestry Panel Addresses Fire Policy and Partnerships In the West, water is the wonky issue, urbanism is the sexy issue and energy is that cyclical issue that rears its big head every few decades. Meanwhile, forestry just seems to plod along through our history, never forgotten, but only in the spotlight when big fires erupt. But forest issues are now more important than ever, according to researchers at Colorado College and a panel at the State of the Rockies Conference, which just ended in Colorado Springs. Student and faculty researchers at the school presented their baseline date for the health of the region’s forests, noting the increasing problems with insects and fires. You can read about that report here on NewWest.net. At the conference’s panel on forestry, a divers group lead a discussion about fire policy and the increasing importance of partnerships and collaboration in addressing forest issues. Legal scholar Phillip Kannan critiqued the federal Healthy Forests Initiative, and said it reduces public input and weakens environmental laws, rather than discouraging development in at-risk areas. But James Hubbard, Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry with the U.S. Forest Service, defended the legislation, saying it is used by communities to protect themselves. Yes, it does lessen some environmental reviews, he admitted, but it has only been used to treat 1 million acres of the 24 million acres treated for fires since the National Fire Plan came out a year prior to the Healthy Forests Initiative....
In Colorado, a Skirmish Between Ranchers and Army Some ranchers in southeastern Colorado are doing battle with the Army over controversial plans to expand a military base, and state legislators are taking steps to protect the threatened ranchlands. “You have the military fighting for the freedom of other people overseas, and we’re losing our own back home. It makes no sense,” rancher Lon Robertson told the New York Times. He’s the president of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, a group of 1,100 opponents of the Army’s plan to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site at Fort Carson. The Army is eyeing condemnation on nearly a half-million acres around the site in southeastern Colorado. That prompted the state House of Representatives to pass a bill to block the move. The state Senate is considering a similar bill, which passed a subcommittee on Monday. However, cautions the Times, it’s not clear if the federal government would be bound by state law. Ranchers worry the expansion could threaten 40 to 80 ranches. And they’re not the only ones concerned. The expansion includes hundreds of dinosaur tracks preserved in Picketwire Canyonlands, and a chunk of Comanche National Grasslands. Not everyone opposes the move, though. Fort Carson is the state’s second-largest employer, writes the Denver Post, and an El Paso County commissioner and the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce feared the legislature’s meaure would sent(sic) a “harmful message.”....
New study sheds light on long-term effects of logging after wildfire A new study on the effects of timber harvest following wildfire shows that the potential for a recently burned forest to reburn can be high with or without logging. Recently published in the journal, Forest Ecology and Management, the study demonstrates that the likelihood of a severe reburn is affected by the timing – not just the amount – of fuel accumulation after fire. The study examines fuel accumulation with and without logging after a large wildfire in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. Three treatments were examined: commercial logging that removed only dead trees with value for wood products, commercial logging plus thinning that removed all dead trees larger than 4 inches in diameter, and unlogged sites. The year after logging (3 years after the fire), sites that were logged and thinned had four times more fine fuels on the ground, as a result of logging residue, compared to unlogged sites. Those same sites also had fewer snags– which provide habitat for woodpeckers, owls, and other animals that nest in tree cavities – and contribute to large woody debris on the ground. However, logging activity caused no change in the litter or duff, the upper soil organic layers that also affect how a fire burns. The study was led by James McIver of Oregon State University and Roger Ottmar of the Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Forest Service....
Former owner raps plan for ranch The man who sold a 6,439-acre Converse County ranch to the state of Wyoming last year has criticized some parts of a proposed management plan for the property. Hugh Duncan, who sold the Duncan Ranch to the state in hope of protecting it from subdivision, said he wants to see more opportunities for public recreation. “My greatest disappointment in this particular plan is the lack of a coherent plan for the recreational use of the ranch,” he said, citing the potential of an area known to his family as Sawmill Canyon, near the Converse County Park, for a few picnic tables. “When my soul needs refreshing ... I go up there and walk down that canyon,” he said, telling of green meadows, wildflowers, a tumbling stream and a succession of small waterfalls. “It would be very simple to build a trail down that canyon,” he said, also suggesting a small corral for people who wish to ride horseback over the land....
Grizzlies' champion says delisting is sound conservation Chris Servheen makes an improbable eco-villain. While conservation groups prepare the lawsuit they have vowed to file to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing Yellowstone's grizzly bears from the endangered species list, the 56-year-old wildlife biologist finds himself called upon again and again to defend the federal government. And all he ever wanted to do was save the bears. Servheen was chapped by my column last month about conservationists' objections to delisting the bears. He took it personally. After listening to him, I can see why. He is the first and only grizzly bear recovery coordinator for Yellowstone since the bears were designated as threatened on the endangered species list. His doctorate is in grizzly bear research. He lives in Montana, has crawled all over bear habitat and has monitored dozens of radio-collared bears for years, and his hand was on every one of the 500 pages of conservation strategy that accompanied the decision to delist. "I wouldn't support this if I didn't think it was the right thing to do," he said....
Ritter offers revisions to roadless protections Gov. Bill Ritter asked the federal government for an "insurance policy" Wednesday to protect 4.1 million acres of roadless areas in Colorado from development, modifying a petition submitted last year by former Gov. Bill Owens. Ritter told the Agriculture Department and the U.S. Forest Service that he wants interim protection for Colorado's roadless areas while the federal government reviews whether to keep wilderness-style protections for the lands. He also said he wanted the state Department of Natural Resources and Division of Wildlife to be able to work with federal land managers on any proposed activity within the roadless areas. In addition, he asked that some areas in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests be classified as roadless, with limited exceptions for temporary roads and other activities associated with coal exploration and development....
Celebrity wolf stirs up passionate debate This is a story about pets, the owners who love them and a lone, black wolf that has for the past four winters, depending on who you talk to, either harassed or entertained the community they all live in. This is also a story about life in a town on the edge of the wilderness and what some say can be the sometimes fine line between observing and interacting with nature. Four years ago, when a black wolf began roaming the snow and ice playground that is the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, wildlife watchers and photographers such as Nick Jans were thrilled. In the morning, the animal could be seen walking on frozen Mendenhall Lake, crisscrossing the ski tracks and running over to the edge of this capital city's famous attraction, the Mendenhall Glacier. Talk about the wolf's escapades spread quickly. After all, Juneau is a political town - and a small one to boot - in which gossip and chatter can seem like a sport in their own right....
Pilot in Kim family rescue posts warning sign; feds want it down The helicopter pilot who spotted three members of the stranded Kim family in the Rogue River Canyon of Southern Oregon put up an urgent warning for drivers, but a federal agency says it is in a federal right of way and must come down. “You could get stranded and die!!!” read the bright red sign, warning drivers headed for the mountain passage connecting Grants Pass and the Oregon Coast. “I've had the idea for several months,” John Rachor, a Medford restaurant owner, told the Grants Pass Daily Courier. “I thought the (Bureau of Land Management) was going to be able to do something.” Rachor, flying his own helicopter, spotted Kati Kim and her two young daughters on Dec. 4, and they were rescued. Kati's husband, online editor James Kim of San Francisco, was found dead two days later. He had left the family to seek help. The sign got an endorsement from local officials such as Sheriff Gil Gilbertson and Sara Rubrecht, Josephine County emergency services director. “I love that man,” Rubrecht told the Grants Pass paper. “He just got tired of waiting.” Jim Roper, an engineer for the Bureau of Land Management, said the government is adding signs and making them bolder. “We're doing a lot,” Roper said. “We're just not there yet.”....And there you have it: Federal rules come first and the safety of the public comes second. Just wait till BLM can get "there".
Molycorp mine: an 80-year development, controversy Since its inception as a small-scale underground mining operation 87 years ago, the Molycorp mine, located 11 miles west of Red River and four miles east of Questa, has brought forth a myriad of complex issues — from economic development to health and environmental hazards — to area residents. Molycorp began producing molybdenum — a mineral, along with sulphur, found in a soft, metallic blue mineral called molybdenite, and used in lubricant applicants and to improve properties of stainless and alloy steels — in 1920. In 1965, the company developed an open pit that allowed for waste rock to be excavated and deposited in large piles surrounding the mine. In 1983, when use of the pit was discontinued, Molycorp turned to large-scale underground mining. Today, the mine is owned by Chevron. Because of its longevity, the Molycorp mine is undoubtedly a historical facet to the area. In 1914, two prospectors known as Fahey and Johnson staked 10 claims in the mine’s Sulphur Gulch. The metallic material they discovered was initially thought to be graphite, but in 1918 when the R&S Mining Company entered the valley, molybdenum excavations began. According to historical data from Molycorp, the ore was hauled several miles by horse and mule drawn wagons to the June Bug Mill, the relocated gold mill from Elizabethtown....
Air Force cuts access to pristine Point Sal beach Public access to the pristine beach at Point Sal has been permanently restricted by the Air Force for safety reasons. The beach has actually been closed since January, but the military didn't make an announcement until Wednesday. The concerns include steep cliffs and potential landslides due to coastal erosion, the Air Force said in a statement. Santa Barbara County officials questioned the Air Force's authority to deny access. The county holds the easement that gives the public the right to pass except during missile launches. "The county is going to work diligently with the Air Force to get that restriction lifted," Supervisor Joni Gray said. Also complicating the issue is that Point Sal is a state beach. The county, Bureau of Land Management and private properties also have land in the area.
Do-over on land preservation A proposed ballot initiative aimed at preserving sensitive state land may not be the silver bullet conservationists and local leaders are searching for — but it might be the best way to protect ecologically rich areas around Tucson, officials said. Much like two ballot measures that voters shot down in November, the proposed initiative would set aside state lands that have been targeted for conservation, including areas on Tucson's Northwest and Southeast sides. House Continuing Resolution 2039 is a scaled-back version of what voters saw in Propositions 105 and 106. Gone are the complicated changes to the State Land Department. Also trimmed is the amount of land that would be preserved — 196,000 acres — compared with 690,000 acres proposed in Proposition 106. While the bill might be a compromise that could gain voter approval, its passage would push local governments to come up with huge volumes of cash quickly to pay for the land, most likely through bonds....
State sees week with no new wells No new coalbed methane wells were drilled in Wyoming over the week that ended Wednesday, the longest the state has gone without a new well since 1998, according to Don Likwartz, supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Likwartz suspects that regulations imposed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect breeding sage grouse are responsible for the lull. The BLM rules forbid drilling and related activity within two miles of a sage grouse lek, or strutting ground, each March 1 to June 15. The rules have hit the Powder River Basin coalbed methane fields especially hard this year while drilling progresses westward into more sage grouse habitat....
Grijalva, Giffords seeking status for Santa Cruz River Two congressional representatives agreed Tuesday that the land along the Santa Cruz River is so rich in history that it should be a nationally recognized heritage area. U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raœl Grijalva, both Arizona Democrats, stood at the Tumac‡cori National Historical Park and said they’d offer a bill to Congress to create the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area. The area would stretch from the Mexican border to the Pinal County line north to south, and from the Pima County and Santa Cruz County lines on the east roughly to a line that generally parallels the Santa Cruz River and Anza Trail on the west. It’s rich in history, starting before the Spaniards came here in the 1500s. There are mountains, deserts, the lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and an international border. Tucson, a metropolitan area of about a million, is within the proposed area....
The Supreme Court as Umpire?: How the Global Warming Decision Illuminates the Role We Ask the Justices to Play Chief Justice John Roberts gave a memorably smooth performance during his confirmation hearings. The moment for which his testimony may be most vividly remembered, is one where he used a metaphor to describe the judicial role: Judges are like baseball umpires, Roberts said. Their job is simply to call balls and strikes, applying the strike zone defined by the Constitution and the laws the Congress enacts. At the time, many observers -- including myself -- criticized Roberts for dismissing the role that interpretation and political judgments inevitably play in judicial decision-making, where there sometimes (indeed, perhaps often) is no objectively "right" answer to the questions posed by cases. This is especially true with the kind of disputes that make their way to the Supreme Court: close and complicated cases over which lower courts are already in disagreement. However, the Court's recent decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (in which the Court rejected the EPA's claim that it had no authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases) has caused me to revisit the much-discussed umpire metaphor -- as I will explain....
NFIB escalates opposition to eminent domain The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) hosted the event, due mostly to increasing concerns from their membership. "Clearly, our members have communicated the message that eminent domain is one of their biggest concerns, and we are responding," said Andrew M. Langer, regulatory policy manager and chief property rights activist from NFIB's Washington, D.C., office. Langer was the keynote speaker at the event and stated that 80 percent of the NFIB membership voted to include eminent domain as a legislative priority. Several business owners from Long Branch, who are currently battling the city over property rights, attended the forum and expressed outrage at what is happening there. One landowner, who asked that his name be withheld, said, "Eminent domain is a terminal disease, which never goes away." He said he has spent more than $400,000 in his effort to keep his property from being taken through eminent domain for a redevelopment project. NFIB is a proponent of stronger eminent domain laws and believes that current legislation is doing little to protect the business community. "The legislation being considered now has no teeth at all," said Laurie Ehlbeck, director of NFIB's New Jersey office. "Businesses will literally lose their livelihood if they are displaced."....
A living ghost town It was the discovery of gold in 1873 that first made the town of Liberty possible. But it is the persistence of its people that allows it to exist today. They have survived the ebb and flow of gold mining, an assault on the town by a mining company and, in the 1970s, an effort by the U.S. Forest Service to force the occupants out. It took an act of Congress to allow the 19 occupants of the town to buy their property from the government, which finally happened in 1981. But it wasn’t the persistence of the inhabitants that impressed Harry Kirwin, an itinerant journalist who lived in Liberty from 1939-1941. It was the Saturday night dances at the Wildcat Dance Hall that caught his attention. The people in Liberty mostly kept to themselves, except for the Saturday night dances, when they “get cockeyed drunk and holler all night long,” he wrote friends in Seattle. “Now and then there is the occasional melee in the only street we have and the next day the boys go around with shiners and busted noses,” Kirwin wrote. “The ladies also swing haymakers side by side with their kinfolk.” Although he lived a block and a half from the dance hall, he only attended one dance. “It is too close to nature to suit us,” he wrote....
Endangered rabbits in US state are being eaten by predators; only 6 remain alive Most of a group of 20 endangered rabbits that were reintroduced to the wild with great fanfare last month have been killed by predators, state officials said. Only four of the rabbits released on March 13 remained at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area in this northwestern state as of Tuesday, said David Hays, pygmy rabbit coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hays said two males were removed earlier this month and will be returned at the end of April. The other 14 rabbits are believed to have fallen victim to predators, mainly coyotes, but also hawks and owls, Hays said. The rabbits, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, eat sagebrush and are the only rabbits in the United States that dig their own burrows....
Commentary: Land base is wealth to be used wisely The first principle of regional land planning is that our land base is our wealth! Fifty-eight percent of our land base is owned by the United States and managed, by the U.S. Forest Service. We, as citizens must not walk away from the responsibility of that management, we must hold the feet of our national leadership to the fire and demand that we be given the opportunity to manage for the health of these watersheds. Our national forests, and rangelands, which provided for the very life and vitality of people for over 10,000 years now, sit mostly unavailable and uncared for all around us. The fuels in our forests are growing beyond the historic norms as suppressed unhealthy stands compete for sunlight, water and nutrients; growing on slopes so steep that, in the event of fire, the intensity would sterilize the soils and destroy all forms of life that hold the mountain in place. For generations, our people and the native tribes have survived by our human energy and time to eek life from these lands. We now sit impotent to the ability to survive from productivity on these lands. We go to planning meetings, and workshops and trainings to try to find the way. Now, we must do so much more than talk the talk. We must begin to walk the walk needed to provide for the continuation of the custom and culture of our people and the symbiotic relationship to these incredible lands....
USGS Launches Land Cover Data Web Tool Today the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced the launch of the new USGS Land Cover Visualization and Analysis Tool, which allows users to analyze, in specific detail, how land cover has changed over time. Designed for both novice and expert users, the web-based system provides an intuitive interface able to selectively view and analyze land cover data from any web browser. The USGS is soliciting users to evaluate the preview release of the application. For more information, go to http://emmma.usgs.gov/landcover. "Land cover data has been a largely untapped information resource. With increasing population and the challenging prospect of climate change, comprehensive information about the condition of our land, and how it is changing, becomes more and more vital," said Barbara Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography. "An easy-to-use Web-based application that delivers national land information assets to a wider audience and clearly demonstrates how our environment is changing broadens opportunities to incorporate land cover data in decision making." Land cover, the pattern of natural vegetation, agriculture, and urban areas, is shaped by both natural processes and human influences. Information about land cover is needed by managers of public and private lands, urban planners, agricultural experts, and scientists for studying such issues as climate change or invasive species....
Forestry Panel Addresses Fire Policy and Partnerships In the West, water is the wonky issue, urbanism is the sexy issue and energy is that cyclical issue that rears its big head every few decades. Meanwhile, forestry just seems to plod along through our history, never forgotten, but only in the spotlight when big fires erupt. But forest issues are now more important than ever, according to researchers at Colorado College and a panel at the State of the Rockies Conference, which just ended in Colorado Springs. Student and faculty researchers at the school presented their baseline date for the health of the region’s forests, noting the increasing problems with insects and fires. You can read about that report here on NewWest.net. At the conference’s panel on forestry, a divers group lead a discussion about fire policy and the increasing importance of partnerships and collaboration in addressing forest issues. Legal scholar Phillip Kannan critiqued the federal Healthy Forests Initiative, and said it reduces public input and weakens environmental laws, rather than discouraging development in at-risk areas. But James Hubbard, Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry with the U.S. Forest Service, defended the legislation, saying it is used by communities to protect themselves. Yes, it does lessen some environmental reviews, he admitted, but it has only been used to treat 1 million acres of the 24 million acres treated for fires since the National Fire Plan came out a year prior to the Healthy Forests Initiative....
In Colorado, a Skirmish Between Ranchers and Army Some ranchers in southeastern Colorado are doing battle with the Army over controversial plans to expand a military base, and state legislators are taking steps to protect the threatened ranchlands. “You have the military fighting for the freedom of other people overseas, and we’re losing our own back home. It makes no sense,” rancher Lon Robertson told the New York Times. He’s the president of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, a group of 1,100 opponents of the Army’s plan to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site at Fort Carson. The Army is eyeing condemnation on nearly a half-million acres around the site in southeastern Colorado. That prompted the state House of Representatives to pass a bill to block the move. The state Senate is considering a similar bill, which passed a subcommittee on Monday. However, cautions the Times, it’s not clear if the federal government would be bound by state law. Ranchers worry the expansion could threaten 40 to 80 ranches. And they’re not the only ones concerned. The expansion includes hundreds of dinosaur tracks preserved in Picketwire Canyonlands, and a chunk of Comanche National Grasslands. Not everyone opposes the move, though. Fort Carson is the state’s second-largest employer, writes the Denver Post, and an El Paso County commissioner and the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce feared the legislature’s meaure would sent(sic) a “harmful message.”....
New study sheds light on long-term effects of logging after wildfire A new study on the effects of timber harvest following wildfire shows that the potential for a recently burned forest to reburn can be high with or without logging. Recently published in the journal, Forest Ecology and Management, the study demonstrates that the likelihood of a severe reburn is affected by the timing – not just the amount – of fuel accumulation after fire. The study examines fuel accumulation with and without logging after a large wildfire in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. Three treatments were examined: commercial logging that removed only dead trees with value for wood products, commercial logging plus thinning that removed all dead trees larger than 4 inches in diameter, and unlogged sites. The year after logging (3 years after the fire), sites that were logged and thinned had four times more fine fuels on the ground, as a result of logging residue, compared to unlogged sites. Those same sites also had fewer snags– which provide habitat for woodpeckers, owls, and other animals that nest in tree cavities – and contribute to large woody debris on the ground. However, logging activity caused no change in the litter or duff, the upper soil organic layers that also affect how a fire burns. The study was led by James McIver of Oregon State University and Roger Ottmar of the Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Forest Service....
Former owner raps plan for ranch The man who sold a 6,439-acre Converse County ranch to the state of Wyoming last year has criticized some parts of a proposed management plan for the property. Hugh Duncan, who sold the Duncan Ranch to the state in hope of protecting it from subdivision, said he wants to see more opportunities for public recreation. “My greatest disappointment in this particular plan is the lack of a coherent plan for the recreational use of the ranch,” he said, citing the potential of an area known to his family as Sawmill Canyon, near the Converse County Park, for a few picnic tables. “When my soul needs refreshing ... I go up there and walk down that canyon,” he said, telling of green meadows, wildflowers, a tumbling stream and a succession of small waterfalls. “It would be very simple to build a trail down that canyon,” he said, also suggesting a small corral for people who wish to ride horseback over the land....
Grizzlies' champion says delisting is sound conservation Chris Servheen makes an improbable eco-villain. While conservation groups prepare the lawsuit they have vowed to file to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing Yellowstone's grizzly bears from the endangered species list, the 56-year-old wildlife biologist finds himself called upon again and again to defend the federal government. And all he ever wanted to do was save the bears. Servheen was chapped by my column last month about conservationists' objections to delisting the bears. He took it personally. After listening to him, I can see why. He is the first and only grizzly bear recovery coordinator for Yellowstone since the bears were designated as threatened on the endangered species list. His doctorate is in grizzly bear research. He lives in Montana, has crawled all over bear habitat and has monitored dozens of radio-collared bears for years, and his hand was on every one of the 500 pages of conservation strategy that accompanied the decision to delist. "I wouldn't support this if I didn't think it was the right thing to do," he said....
Ritter offers revisions to roadless protections Gov. Bill Ritter asked the federal government for an "insurance policy" Wednesday to protect 4.1 million acres of roadless areas in Colorado from development, modifying a petition submitted last year by former Gov. Bill Owens. Ritter told the Agriculture Department and the U.S. Forest Service that he wants interim protection for Colorado's roadless areas while the federal government reviews whether to keep wilderness-style protections for the lands. He also said he wanted the state Department of Natural Resources and Division of Wildlife to be able to work with federal land managers on any proposed activity within the roadless areas. In addition, he asked that some areas in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests be classified as roadless, with limited exceptions for temporary roads and other activities associated with coal exploration and development....
Celebrity wolf stirs up passionate debate This is a story about pets, the owners who love them and a lone, black wolf that has for the past four winters, depending on who you talk to, either harassed or entertained the community they all live in. This is also a story about life in a town on the edge of the wilderness and what some say can be the sometimes fine line between observing and interacting with nature. Four years ago, when a black wolf began roaming the snow and ice playground that is the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, wildlife watchers and photographers such as Nick Jans were thrilled. In the morning, the animal could be seen walking on frozen Mendenhall Lake, crisscrossing the ski tracks and running over to the edge of this capital city's famous attraction, the Mendenhall Glacier. Talk about the wolf's escapades spread quickly. After all, Juneau is a political town - and a small one to boot - in which gossip and chatter can seem like a sport in their own right....
Pilot in Kim family rescue posts warning sign; feds want it down The helicopter pilot who spotted three members of the stranded Kim family in the Rogue River Canyon of Southern Oregon put up an urgent warning for drivers, but a federal agency says it is in a federal right of way and must come down. “You could get stranded and die!!!” read the bright red sign, warning drivers headed for the mountain passage connecting Grants Pass and the Oregon Coast. “I've had the idea for several months,” John Rachor, a Medford restaurant owner, told the Grants Pass Daily Courier. “I thought the (Bureau of Land Management) was going to be able to do something.” Rachor, flying his own helicopter, spotted Kati Kim and her two young daughters on Dec. 4, and they were rescued. Kati's husband, online editor James Kim of San Francisco, was found dead two days later. He had left the family to seek help. The sign got an endorsement from local officials such as Sheriff Gil Gilbertson and Sara Rubrecht, Josephine County emergency services director. “I love that man,” Rubrecht told the Grants Pass paper. “He just got tired of waiting.” Jim Roper, an engineer for the Bureau of Land Management, said the government is adding signs and making them bolder. “We're doing a lot,” Roper said. “We're just not there yet.”....And there you have it: Federal rules come first and the safety of the public comes second. Just wait till BLM can get "there".
Molycorp mine: an 80-year development, controversy Since its inception as a small-scale underground mining operation 87 years ago, the Molycorp mine, located 11 miles west of Red River and four miles east of Questa, has brought forth a myriad of complex issues — from economic development to health and environmental hazards — to area residents. Molycorp began producing molybdenum — a mineral, along with sulphur, found in a soft, metallic blue mineral called molybdenite, and used in lubricant applicants and to improve properties of stainless and alloy steels — in 1920. In 1965, the company developed an open pit that allowed for waste rock to be excavated and deposited in large piles surrounding the mine. In 1983, when use of the pit was discontinued, Molycorp turned to large-scale underground mining. Today, the mine is owned by Chevron. Because of its longevity, the Molycorp mine is undoubtedly a historical facet to the area. In 1914, two prospectors known as Fahey and Johnson staked 10 claims in the mine’s Sulphur Gulch. The metallic material they discovered was initially thought to be graphite, but in 1918 when the R&S Mining Company entered the valley, molybdenum excavations began. According to historical data from Molycorp, the ore was hauled several miles by horse and mule drawn wagons to the June Bug Mill, the relocated gold mill from Elizabethtown....
Air Force cuts access to pristine Point Sal beach Public access to the pristine beach at Point Sal has been permanently restricted by the Air Force for safety reasons. The beach has actually been closed since January, but the military didn't make an announcement until Wednesday. The concerns include steep cliffs and potential landslides due to coastal erosion, the Air Force said in a statement. Santa Barbara County officials questioned the Air Force's authority to deny access. The county holds the easement that gives the public the right to pass except during missile launches. "The county is going to work diligently with the Air Force to get that restriction lifted," Supervisor Joni Gray said. Also complicating the issue is that Point Sal is a state beach. The county, Bureau of Land Management and private properties also have land in the area.
Do-over on land preservation A proposed ballot initiative aimed at preserving sensitive state land may not be the silver bullet conservationists and local leaders are searching for — but it might be the best way to protect ecologically rich areas around Tucson, officials said. Much like two ballot measures that voters shot down in November, the proposed initiative would set aside state lands that have been targeted for conservation, including areas on Tucson's Northwest and Southeast sides. House Continuing Resolution 2039 is a scaled-back version of what voters saw in Propositions 105 and 106. Gone are the complicated changes to the State Land Department. Also trimmed is the amount of land that would be preserved — 196,000 acres — compared with 690,000 acres proposed in Proposition 106. While the bill might be a compromise that could gain voter approval, its passage would push local governments to come up with huge volumes of cash quickly to pay for the land, most likely through bonds....
State sees week with no new wells No new coalbed methane wells were drilled in Wyoming over the week that ended Wednesday, the longest the state has gone without a new well since 1998, according to Don Likwartz, supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Likwartz suspects that regulations imposed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect breeding sage grouse are responsible for the lull. The BLM rules forbid drilling and related activity within two miles of a sage grouse lek, or strutting ground, each March 1 to June 15. The rules have hit the Powder River Basin coalbed methane fields especially hard this year while drilling progresses westward into more sage grouse habitat....
Grijalva, Giffords seeking status for Santa Cruz River Two congressional representatives agreed Tuesday that the land along the Santa Cruz River is so rich in history that it should be a nationally recognized heritage area. U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raœl Grijalva, both Arizona Democrats, stood at the Tumac‡cori National Historical Park and said they’d offer a bill to Congress to create the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area. The area would stretch from the Mexican border to the Pinal County line north to south, and from the Pima County and Santa Cruz County lines on the east roughly to a line that generally parallels the Santa Cruz River and Anza Trail on the west. It’s rich in history, starting before the Spaniards came here in the 1500s. There are mountains, deserts, the lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and an international border. Tucson, a metropolitan area of about a million, is within the proposed area....
The Supreme Court as Umpire?: How the Global Warming Decision Illuminates the Role We Ask the Justices to Play Chief Justice John Roberts gave a memorably smooth performance during his confirmation hearings. The moment for which his testimony may be most vividly remembered, is one where he used a metaphor to describe the judicial role: Judges are like baseball umpires, Roberts said. Their job is simply to call balls and strikes, applying the strike zone defined by the Constitution and the laws the Congress enacts. At the time, many observers -- including myself -- criticized Roberts for dismissing the role that interpretation and political judgments inevitably play in judicial decision-making, where there sometimes (indeed, perhaps often) is no objectively "right" answer to the questions posed by cases. This is especially true with the kind of disputes that make their way to the Supreme Court: close and complicated cases over which lower courts are already in disagreement. However, the Court's recent decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (in which the Court rejected the EPA's claim that it had no authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases) has caused me to revisit the much-discussed umpire metaphor -- as I will explain....
NFIB escalates opposition to eminent domain The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) hosted the event, due mostly to increasing concerns from their membership. "Clearly, our members have communicated the message that eminent domain is one of their biggest concerns, and we are responding," said Andrew M. Langer, regulatory policy manager and chief property rights activist from NFIB's Washington, D.C., office. Langer was the keynote speaker at the event and stated that 80 percent of the NFIB membership voted to include eminent domain as a legislative priority. Several business owners from Long Branch, who are currently battling the city over property rights, attended the forum and expressed outrage at what is happening there. One landowner, who asked that his name be withheld, said, "Eminent domain is a terminal disease, which never goes away." He said he has spent more than $400,000 in his effort to keep his property from being taken through eminent domain for a redevelopment project. NFIB is a proponent of stronger eminent domain laws and believes that current legislation is doing little to protect the business community. "The legislation being considered now has no teeth at all," said Laurie Ehlbeck, director of NFIB's New Jersey office. "Businesses will literally lose their livelihood if they are displaced."....
A living ghost town It was the discovery of gold in 1873 that first made the town of Liberty possible. But it is the persistence of its people that allows it to exist today. They have survived the ebb and flow of gold mining, an assault on the town by a mining company and, in the 1970s, an effort by the U.S. Forest Service to force the occupants out. It took an act of Congress to allow the 19 occupants of the town to buy their property from the government, which finally happened in 1981. But it wasn’t the persistence of the inhabitants that impressed Harry Kirwin, an itinerant journalist who lived in Liberty from 1939-1941. It was the Saturday night dances at the Wildcat Dance Hall that caught his attention. The people in Liberty mostly kept to themselves, except for the Saturday night dances, when they “get cockeyed drunk and holler all night long,” he wrote friends in Seattle. “Now and then there is the occasional melee in the only street we have and the next day the boys go around with shiners and busted noses,” Kirwin wrote. “The ladies also swing haymakers side by side with their kinfolk.” Although he lived a block and a half from the dance hall, he only attended one dance. “It is too close to nature to suit us,” he wrote....
Thursday, April 12, 2007
NEWS
New Jersey boy foils coyote attack on baby nephew Wildlife officials are investigating what could be the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey following a backyard attack on a toddler that was foiled by an 11-year-old. Playing in the back yard of his Middletown Township home with his 22-month-old nephew over the weekend, 11-year-old Ryan Palludan first thought the animal that bolted into the yard just before dark was a deer. But when it grabbed little Liam Sadler in its jaws, Palludan instinctively sprang into action, yelling and kicking at the attacker which was later determined to be a coyote. ”It ran real fast, and in 10 seconds it was on Liam’s back, biting the back of his head and his neck,” Palludan said. ”My dad and I chased it into the woods, and my sister got Liam inside. ”My dad turned to walk away and it came running back at him. I yelled, ’Dad, it’s coming for you!’ and he chased it away again. But it didn’t go all the way into the woods,” Palludan explained. ”It was kind of staying on the edge. It wanted its food.”....
Lawmakers consider payments for wolf kills Though they have to fight to find customers in a competitive global market, most ranchers in Montana have one steady client they’d rather not do business with. “I’m not in the business of livestock to feed the wolves,” said John Helle, a third-generation Montana sheep rancher from Dillon. For the past 20 years, a private environmental organization – Defenders of Wildlife – has paid ranchers for losses they can prove are wolf-related. But that compensation may not be available after Interior Department removes wolves from the endangered species list – perhaps by the end of 2007 - and ranchers haven’t always been happy with the way Defenders distributes the awards. That’s why the Montana Legislature is considering House Bill 364, a measure that would set up a permanent state-run board to pay ranchers for the wolves’ dinners, and help them keep wolves away from livestock. The bill passed the Senate on third reading on Tuesday, 75-22. There’s only one problem: Money to run the board is scarce, and it’s hard to tell just how much it would need....
Committee urged to support lawsuit for wolf delisting Montana's Legislature should send $150,000 to a Wyoming law firm to have a say in a possible future lawsuit over delisting wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, a Republican legislator said Tuesday. Rep. Diane Rice, R-Harrison, told the Senate Finance and Claims Committee that the animals were decimating the state's ranching and hunting industries. "This is the most serious issue before all of us," Rice said. A bill sponsored by Rice would send the money to help the Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd challenge the federal government over its failure to delist wolves. A law firm based in Cheyenne, Wyo., represents the group. Rice and supporters of the measure said Montana needs to be involved in the lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, because the delisting issue likely will be resolved in court and Montana should have a say in any decision. Ranchers, hunters and outfitters told the committee that wolves have not only killed vast amounts of game and livestock, but have also spread disease and pose a threat to humans....
Ruling blocks company's bid to ship methane water to Wyoming A Montana official issued a ruling that would block a natural gas company's bid to transport water produced during coal-bed methane development across the state line into Wyoming. In a decision, state hearing examiner David Vogler denied a permit sought by Fidelity Exploration and Production to transport out of Montana 3,000 acre feet of water annually from the company's operations in the Tongue River basin. The decision is not final, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton said a second hearing in the case is likely. If Vogler's ruling holds, Tom Richmond with the state Oil and Gas Conservation Board said it could put a damper on coal-bed methane activity along the Wyoming-Montana border. Vogler approved a second Fidelity permit allowing Fidelity to use about 3,800 acre feet of water on irrigation projects within Montana. An acre-foot of water, roughly 325,000 gallons, is enough to cover one acre of land with water one foot deep. Disposing of the vast amounts of poor-quality water that are a byproduct of coal-bed methane production has become a nagging problem for the industry....
Ranchers look to lawmakers to save their way of life Her family’s ranch could be swallowed up by the Army as it looks to expand its Pinon Canyon training site but each night Lisa Doherty said she and her two sons offer prayers for the nation’s soldiers and its leaders. Doherty said she and her family live a “blessed life” on the wide open plains of southeastern Colorado even though it means working from dawn to dusk with no vacations. She’d like to give her boys the chance to become the fifth generation to work that land but fears the Army’s plans could stop that. “I love my country but I also love my home,” Doherty told a Senate committee Monday before they voted to back a bill aimed at telling the Army that ranchers can’t be forced to sell their land to make way for the project. The full Senate will debate the measure (House Bill 1069) next even though lawmakers acknowledge they’re not sure if a state law can stop the Army from using eminent domain. Despite that, ranchers and others who oppose the expansion think it would still send a strong message to Washington that Colorado is concerned about the expansion. They think that could make it harder for the Army to win congressional should it move ahead with the plans to acquire 418,000 acres — or 653 square miles — nearly tripling the site it now has in southeastern Colorado....
We Ought Not Grow Cows In Dry West he West is a powerful place. Soaring mountains. Vast plains. Boisterous rivers. Huge spaces. But one attribute defines the West more than any other—aridity. Aridity imposes limitations and costs on human enterprises. Nowhere are the limitations and costs of aridity less apparent, yet reaping more degradation and destruction than the failed attempt to create a viable livestock industry in this dry region. Livestock production--which includes not only the grazing of plants, but everything it takes to raise a cow in the arid West including the dewatering of rivers for irrigation, the killing of predators to make the land safe for cattle, the fragmentation of landscapes with hay fields and other crops grown to feed livestock, combined with the pulverization of riparian areas under cattle hooves, and the displacement of native wildlife--is by far the worse environmental catastrophe to befall the West....
Gov. Ritter plans roadless petition Gov. Bill Ritter will send a petition to Washington on protecting Colorado's roadless forests. People familiar with Ritter's petition say it will be largely the same as one sent by his predecessor, Bill Owens, to the dismay of some environmentalists and sportsmen. "I'm expecting there's not going to be many changes," said Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, who sponsored a bill in 2005 that set up a roadless task force to advise Owens. Environmentalists had hoped Ritter would drop the petition entirely, because a federal court has reinstated a stronger, Clinton administration rule, and Colorado's petition would weaken the Clinton standard. "We don't see any need to go through a whole new public process to get where we are now," said Brian O'Donnell of Durango, director of Trout Unlimited's Public Lands Initiative. The federal government could take up to two years to get the Colorado rule in place. In the meantime, Ritter wants full protection for all of Colorado's roadless areas....
Lawmakers Try To Rein In Conservation Easements Lawmakers tried to rein in a multimillion-dollar program that grants tax breaks for land conservation Tuesday after state officials ran down a litany of abuses, including people getting tax credits for agreeing to preserve their back yards. State revenue officials said the program got so far out of control they had to ask the Internal Revenue Service to step in and audit people who claimed tax credits for which they didn't qualify. Under the program, property owners get federal and state tax breaks by granting conservation easements that guarantee the land will not be developed. They can write off the easement as a charitable contribution and they also get to keep the land. John Vecchiarelli, director of the taxation business group at the state Department of Revenue, said the state now gives up $85 million a year in revenue to the program, up sharply from the $2.3 million when the program started in 2000....
Dire predictions in climate report Rising global temperatures could melt Latin America's glaciers within 15 years, cause food shortages affecting 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa's wheat crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. The report, written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including rising sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disasters. It said 30 percent of the world's coastlines could be lost by 2080. Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined details of the report in news conferences around the world Tuesday, four days after they released a written summary of their findings. he report is the second of three being issued this year; the first dealt with the physical science of climate change, and the third will deal with responses to it....
Rural Aid Goes to Urban Areas All told, the USDA has handed out more than $70 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees since 2001 as part of its sprawling but little-known Rural Development program. More than half of that money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commuting distance of a midsize city, including beach resorts and suburban developments, a Washington Post investigation found. More than three times as much money went to metropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or more ($30.3 billion) as to poor or shrinking rural counties ($8.6 billion). Recreational or retirement communities alone got $8.8 billion. Among the recipients were electric companies awarded almost $1 billion in low-interest loans to serve the booming suburbs of Atlanta and Tampa. Beach towns from Cape Cod to New Jersey to Florida collected federal money for water and sewer systems, town halls, and boardwalks. An Internet provider in Houston got $23 million in loans to wire affluent subdivisions, including one that boasts million-dollar houses and an equestrian center....
Fire destroys Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside Tennessee home Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside home, a showcase where he wrote much of his famous music and entertained U.S. presidents, music royalty and visiting fans, was destroyed by fire on Tuesday. Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the 13,880-square-foot (1,289-square-meter) home from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003. "So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house - everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," said singer Marty Stuart, who lives next door and was married to Cash's daughter, Cindy, in the 1980s. Stuart said the man who designed the house, Nashville builder Braxton Dixon, was "the closest thing this part of the country had to Frank Lloyd Wright."....
Bucking bulls reign over pro rodeo Beefy, all-American males, with a bounce in their stride, don't-mess-with-me attitudes and a challenging glint in their eyes will swagger into the arena for a king-size dose of the physical mayhem they utterly relish. Plenty of cowboys should be on hand, also. However, for many rodeo fans, the grand stars will be those bucking bulls, each more than a half-ton of grunting, snorting, dirt-kicking, drool-flinging, horn-hooking, rolling-eyed rage. These bulls, many with ratings posted on the Professional Bull Rider (PBR) association's Web page, are trailed closely in popularity by the battered men who dare to mount them. Riders speak with awe of potent critters such as Reindeer Dippin', a black bull with a white face last successfully ridden in 2005. Since then, Reindeer Dippin' has bucked all challengers to the dust well before the eight-second whistle. In fact, of 31 career "outs" from the steel-barred starting chute, this 1,550-pound, black and white Brahma cross has allowed only two cowboys to complete a full ride....
Villa Steala Ah, Villa's stolen skull. No macabre Mexican legend is more mired in intrigue, distortion and looniness — and in a country where many believe that the United States stole half of its land, that's saying something. Here are the accepted facts about Pancho's purloined pate: On February 6, 1926, someone raided Villa's tomb in Parral, Chihuahua, and scurried away with the famed general's three-years-dead head. Mexican authorities quickly arrested Emil Holmdahl, a gabacho mercenary who fought for various factions during the Mexican Revolution and had been seen around Villa's tomb. Holmdahl denied any responsibility, and the Mexican authorities released him for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, stories of Holmdahl boasting about his crime (read Haldeen Braddy's "The Head of Pancho Villa" in the January 1960 edition of Western Folklore for more details) soon spread on both sides of la frontera. Flash forward to the mid-1980s. In 1984, Arizona rancher Ben F. Williams declared in his memoir Let the Tail Go With the Hide that Holmdahl not only admitted to stealing Villa's skull but also said he received $25,000 for the deed. Williams shared this information with a friend who belonged to the Order of Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society that counts three generations of the Bush dynasty as members; the friend told Williams that Holmdahl sold he group Villa's skull. Two years after Williams published his book, Skull and Bones members (among them Jonathan Bush, Dubya's uncle) met with some Apaches and offered them a skull. Tribal leaders had recently discovered an official Skull and Bones log claiming that Dubya's granddaddy Prescott Bush and other Bonesmen stole the skull of Geronimo from his burial grounds in 1918....
I'm back and will try to catch up on the news as time allows.
Thanks for all the thoughtful and supportive emails I received from you readers of this blog. It meant alot.
New Jersey boy foils coyote attack on baby nephew Wildlife officials are investigating what could be the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey following a backyard attack on a toddler that was foiled by an 11-year-old. Playing in the back yard of his Middletown Township home with his 22-month-old nephew over the weekend, 11-year-old Ryan Palludan first thought the animal that bolted into the yard just before dark was a deer. But when it grabbed little Liam Sadler in its jaws, Palludan instinctively sprang into action, yelling and kicking at the attacker which was later determined to be a coyote. ”It ran real fast, and in 10 seconds it was on Liam’s back, biting the back of his head and his neck,” Palludan said. ”My dad and I chased it into the woods, and my sister got Liam inside. ”My dad turned to walk away and it came running back at him. I yelled, ’Dad, it’s coming for you!’ and he chased it away again. But it didn’t go all the way into the woods,” Palludan explained. ”It was kind of staying on the edge. It wanted its food.”....
Lawmakers consider payments for wolf kills Though they have to fight to find customers in a competitive global market, most ranchers in Montana have one steady client they’d rather not do business with. “I’m not in the business of livestock to feed the wolves,” said John Helle, a third-generation Montana sheep rancher from Dillon. For the past 20 years, a private environmental organization – Defenders of Wildlife – has paid ranchers for losses they can prove are wolf-related. But that compensation may not be available after Interior Department removes wolves from the endangered species list – perhaps by the end of 2007 - and ranchers haven’t always been happy with the way Defenders distributes the awards. That’s why the Montana Legislature is considering House Bill 364, a measure that would set up a permanent state-run board to pay ranchers for the wolves’ dinners, and help them keep wolves away from livestock. The bill passed the Senate on third reading on Tuesday, 75-22. There’s only one problem: Money to run the board is scarce, and it’s hard to tell just how much it would need....
Committee urged to support lawsuit for wolf delisting Montana's Legislature should send $150,000 to a Wyoming law firm to have a say in a possible future lawsuit over delisting wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, a Republican legislator said Tuesday. Rep. Diane Rice, R-Harrison, told the Senate Finance and Claims Committee that the animals were decimating the state's ranching and hunting industries. "This is the most serious issue before all of us," Rice said. A bill sponsored by Rice would send the money to help the Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd challenge the federal government over its failure to delist wolves. A law firm based in Cheyenne, Wyo., represents the group. Rice and supporters of the measure said Montana needs to be involved in the lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, because the delisting issue likely will be resolved in court and Montana should have a say in any decision. Ranchers, hunters and outfitters told the committee that wolves have not only killed vast amounts of game and livestock, but have also spread disease and pose a threat to humans....
Ruling blocks company's bid to ship methane water to Wyoming A Montana official issued a ruling that would block a natural gas company's bid to transport water produced during coal-bed methane development across the state line into Wyoming. In a decision, state hearing examiner David Vogler denied a permit sought by Fidelity Exploration and Production to transport out of Montana 3,000 acre feet of water annually from the company's operations in the Tongue River basin. The decision is not final, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton said a second hearing in the case is likely. If Vogler's ruling holds, Tom Richmond with the state Oil and Gas Conservation Board said it could put a damper on coal-bed methane activity along the Wyoming-Montana border. Vogler approved a second Fidelity permit allowing Fidelity to use about 3,800 acre feet of water on irrigation projects within Montana. An acre-foot of water, roughly 325,000 gallons, is enough to cover one acre of land with water one foot deep. Disposing of the vast amounts of poor-quality water that are a byproduct of coal-bed methane production has become a nagging problem for the industry....
Ranchers look to lawmakers to save their way of life Her family’s ranch could be swallowed up by the Army as it looks to expand its Pinon Canyon training site but each night Lisa Doherty said she and her two sons offer prayers for the nation’s soldiers and its leaders. Doherty said she and her family live a “blessed life” on the wide open plains of southeastern Colorado even though it means working from dawn to dusk with no vacations. She’d like to give her boys the chance to become the fifth generation to work that land but fears the Army’s plans could stop that. “I love my country but I also love my home,” Doherty told a Senate committee Monday before they voted to back a bill aimed at telling the Army that ranchers can’t be forced to sell their land to make way for the project. The full Senate will debate the measure (House Bill 1069) next even though lawmakers acknowledge they’re not sure if a state law can stop the Army from using eminent domain. Despite that, ranchers and others who oppose the expansion think it would still send a strong message to Washington that Colorado is concerned about the expansion. They think that could make it harder for the Army to win congressional should it move ahead with the plans to acquire 418,000 acres — or 653 square miles — nearly tripling the site it now has in southeastern Colorado....
We Ought Not Grow Cows In Dry West he West is a powerful place. Soaring mountains. Vast plains. Boisterous rivers. Huge spaces. But one attribute defines the West more than any other—aridity. Aridity imposes limitations and costs on human enterprises. Nowhere are the limitations and costs of aridity less apparent, yet reaping more degradation and destruction than the failed attempt to create a viable livestock industry in this dry region. Livestock production--which includes not only the grazing of plants, but everything it takes to raise a cow in the arid West including the dewatering of rivers for irrigation, the killing of predators to make the land safe for cattle, the fragmentation of landscapes with hay fields and other crops grown to feed livestock, combined with the pulverization of riparian areas under cattle hooves, and the displacement of native wildlife--is by far the worse environmental catastrophe to befall the West....
Gov. Ritter plans roadless petition Gov. Bill Ritter will send a petition to Washington on protecting Colorado's roadless forests. People familiar with Ritter's petition say it will be largely the same as one sent by his predecessor, Bill Owens, to the dismay of some environmentalists and sportsmen. "I'm expecting there's not going to be many changes," said Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, who sponsored a bill in 2005 that set up a roadless task force to advise Owens. Environmentalists had hoped Ritter would drop the petition entirely, because a federal court has reinstated a stronger, Clinton administration rule, and Colorado's petition would weaken the Clinton standard. "We don't see any need to go through a whole new public process to get where we are now," said Brian O'Donnell of Durango, director of Trout Unlimited's Public Lands Initiative. The federal government could take up to two years to get the Colorado rule in place. In the meantime, Ritter wants full protection for all of Colorado's roadless areas....
Lawmakers Try To Rein In Conservation Easements Lawmakers tried to rein in a multimillion-dollar program that grants tax breaks for land conservation Tuesday after state officials ran down a litany of abuses, including people getting tax credits for agreeing to preserve their back yards. State revenue officials said the program got so far out of control they had to ask the Internal Revenue Service to step in and audit people who claimed tax credits for which they didn't qualify. Under the program, property owners get federal and state tax breaks by granting conservation easements that guarantee the land will not be developed. They can write off the easement as a charitable contribution and they also get to keep the land. John Vecchiarelli, director of the taxation business group at the state Department of Revenue, said the state now gives up $85 million a year in revenue to the program, up sharply from the $2.3 million when the program started in 2000....
Dire predictions in climate report Rising global temperatures could melt Latin America's glaciers within 15 years, cause food shortages affecting 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa's wheat crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. The report, written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including rising sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disasters. It said 30 percent of the world's coastlines could be lost by 2080. Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined details of the report in news conferences around the world Tuesday, four days after they released a written summary of their findings. he report is the second of three being issued this year; the first dealt with the physical science of climate change, and the third will deal with responses to it....
Rural Aid Goes to Urban Areas All told, the USDA has handed out more than $70 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees since 2001 as part of its sprawling but little-known Rural Development program. More than half of that money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commuting distance of a midsize city, including beach resorts and suburban developments, a Washington Post investigation found. More than three times as much money went to metropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or more ($30.3 billion) as to poor or shrinking rural counties ($8.6 billion). Recreational or retirement communities alone got $8.8 billion. Among the recipients were electric companies awarded almost $1 billion in low-interest loans to serve the booming suburbs of Atlanta and Tampa. Beach towns from Cape Cod to New Jersey to Florida collected federal money for water and sewer systems, town halls, and boardwalks. An Internet provider in Houston got $23 million in loans to wire affluent subdivisions, including one that boasts million-dollar houses and an equestrian center....
Fire destroys Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside Tennessee home Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside home, a showcase where he wrote much of his famous music and entertained U.S. presidents, music royalty and visiting fans, was destroyed by fire on Tuesday. Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the 13,880-square-foot (1,289-square-meter) home from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003. "So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house - everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," said singer Marty Stuart, who lives next door and was married to Cash's daughter, Cindy, in the 1980s. Stuart said the man who designed the house, Nashville builder Braxton Dixon, was "the closest thing this part of the country had to Frank Lloyd Wright."....
Bucking bulls reign over pro rodeo Beefy, all-American males, with a bounce in their stride, don't-mess-with-me attitudes and a challenging glint in their eyes will swagger into the arena for a king-size dose of the physical mayhem they utterly relish. Plenty of cowboys should be on hand, also. However, for many rodeo fans, the grand stars will be those bucking bulls, each more than a half-ton of grunting, snorting, dirt-kicking, drool-flinging, horn-hooking, rolling-eyed rage. These bulls, many with ratings posted on the Professional Bull Rider (PBR) association's Web page, are trailed closely in popularity by the battered men who dare to mount them. Riders speak with awe of potent critters such as Reindeer Dippin', a black bull with a white face last successfully ridden in 2005. Since then, Reindeer Dippin' has bucked all challengers to the dust well before the eight-second whistle. In fact, of 31 career "outs" from the steel-barred starting chute, this 1,550-pound, black and white Brahma cross has allowed only two cowboys to complete a full ride....
Villa Steala Ah, Villa's stolen skull. No macabre Mexican legend is more mired in intrigue, distortion and looniness — and in a country where many believe that the United States stole half of its land, that's saying something. Here are the accepted facts about Pancho's purloined pate: On February 6, 1926, someone raided Villa's tomb in Parral, Chihuahua, and scurried away with the famed general's three-years-dead head. Mexican authorities quickly arrested Emil Holmdahl, a gabacho mercenary who fought for various factions during the Mexican Revolution and had been seen around Villa's tomb. Holmdahl denied any responsibility, and the Mexican authorities released him for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, stories of Holmdahl boasting about his crime (read Haldeen Braddy's "The Head of Pancho Villa" in the January 1960 edition of Western Folklore for more details) soon spread on both sides of la frontera. Flash forward to the mid-1980s. In 1984, Arizona rancher Ben F. Williams declared in his memoir Let the Tail Go With the Hide that Holmdahl not only admitted to stealing Villa's skull but also said he received $25,000 for the deed. Williams shared this information with a friend who belonged to the Order of Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society that counts three generations of the Bush dynasty as members; the friend told Williams that Holmdahl sold he group Villa's skull. Two years after Williams published his book, Skull and Bones members (among them Jonathan Bush, Dubya's uncle) met with some Apaches and offered them a skull. Tribal leaders had recently discovered an official Skull and Bones log claiming that Dubya's granddaddy Prescott Bush and other Bonesmen stole the skull of Geronimo from his burial grounds in 1918....
I'm back and will try to catch up on the news as time allows.
Thanks for all the thoughtful and supportive emails I received from you readers of this blog. It meant alot.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
GONE FOR AWHILE
As some of you know, I have multiple sclerosis.
Today I will enter a rehab hospital, and won't know how long I will be there until they complete their evaluation.
The RN who called me last night didn't know if I would have internet access from my room.
So check back, I may be able to continue while there.
Frank
As some of you know, I have multiple sclerosis.
Today I will enter a rehab hospital, and won't know how long I will be there until they complete their evaluation.
The RN who called me last night didn't know if I would have internet access from my room.
So check back, I may be able to continue while there.
Frank
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
The Daylight Saving change: no savings, no point The US government's plan to boost energy savings by moving Daylight Saving Time forward by three weeks was apparently a waste of time and effort, as the technological foibles Americans experienced failed to give way to any measurable energy savings. While the change caused no major infrastructure problems in the country, plenty of electronics and computer systems that were designed with the original DST switchover date (first Sunday in April) failed to update. The inconvenience was minor, and the potential savings were great. Or so we were told by the politicians behind the move. As it turns out, the US Department of Energy (and almost everyone else except members of Congress) was correct when they predicted that there would be little energy savings. This echoed concerns voiced after a similar experiment was attempted in Australia. Critics pointed out a basic fact: the gains in the morning will be offset by the losses at night, and vice-versa, at both ends of the switch. That appears to be exactly what happened. Reuters spoke with Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co. power, who said it plainly: "We haven't seen any measurable impact." New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group said the same thing: "no impact" on their business....
If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks. So what's wrong with these programmes? Only that they are a formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster. Since the beginning of last year, the price of maize has doubled. The price of wheat has also reached a 10-year high, while global stockpiles of both grains have reached 25-year lows. Already there have been food riots in Mexico and reports that the poor are feeling the strain all over the world. The US department of agriculture warns that "if we have a drought or a very poor harvest, we could see the sort of volatility we saw in the 1970s, and if it does not happen this year, we are also forecasting lower stockpiles next year". According to the UN food and agriculture organisation, the main reason is the demand for ethanol: the alcohol used for motor fuel, which can be made from maize and wheat. Already we know that biofuel is worse for the planet than petroleum. The UN has just published a report suggesting that 98% of the natural rainforest in Indonesia will be degraded or gone by 2022. Just five years ago, the same agencies predicted that this wouldn't happen until 2032. But they reckoned without the planting of palm oil to turn into biodiesel for the European market. This is now the main cause of deforestation there and it is likely soon to become responsible for the extinction of the orang-utan in the wild. But it gets worse. As the forests are burned, both the trees and the peat they sit on are turned into carbon dioxide. A report by the Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics shows that every tonne of palm oil results in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, or 10 times as much as petroleum produces. I feel I need to say that again. Biodiesel from palm oil causes 10 times as much climate change as ordinary diesel....
Increased timber harvests urged as budgetary solution A local property-rights group thinks the time has come to increase timber harvests on federal forest land to end Jackson County's budget crisis. "Let's end the environmental lawsuits and get everybody together," said Bryan Baumgartner, president of the Jackson County chapter of the People for the U.S.A. Grange. The organization will hold a rally in front of Medford's Central Library at noon Friday, just hours before all 15 of the county's library branches are forced to close because of Jackson County's $23 million budget shortfall. Baumgartner, a Central Point rancher, says years of environmental lawsuits dramatically have reduced timber harvests on what are known as "O&C lands" — millions of acres of forest land originally given to the Oregon and California Railroad that reverted to public ownership when the railroad went bankrupt. The O&C lands, now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, amount to 2.6 million acres in Oregon. Congress passed a law in 1937 directing the land be managed for timber production to earn money for the counties to compensate for lost property tax revenues....
Rancher shoots wolf in Picabo area A Picabo-area rancher shot and killed one of three wolves seen harassing his cattle in late March, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game official has confirmed. "The wolves had been in the cattle for a few days," IDFG Large Carnivore Manager Steve Nadeau said Tuesday. "They had been chasing the cattle and he shot one." The wolf, shot by the unnamed rancher on March 19, was an approximately 80- to 90-pound female, Nadeau said. After the wolf was killed, Fish and Game officials worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate the incident. The investigation determined that the wolf was legally killed, Nadeau said. "They (the USFWS) cleared the rancher of any wrongdoing," he said....
No Longer Waiting for Rain, an Arid West Takes Action A Western drought that began in 1999 has continued after the respite of a couple of wet years that now feel like a cruel tease. But this time people in the driest states are not just scanning the skies and hoping for rescue. Some $2.5 billion in water projects are planned or under way in four states, the biggest expansion in the West’s quest for water in decades. Among them is a proposed 280-mile pipeline that would direct water to Las Vegas from northern Nevada. A proposed reservoir just north of the California-Mexico border would correct an inefficient water delivery system that allows excess water to pass to Mexico. In Yuma, Ariz., federal officials have restarted an idled desalination plant, long seen as a white elephant from a bygone era, partly in the hope of purifying salty underground water for neighboring towns. The scramble for water is driven by the realities of population growth, political pressure and the hard truth that the Colorado River, a 1,400-mile-long silver thread of snowmelt and a lifeline for more than 20 million people in seven states, is providing much less water than it had....
Water crisis possible here within 3 years Tucson businesses, apartment complexes and industries may face water-use restrictions by 2010 because of the relentless drought, the city's water chief said Tuesday. Tucson Water Director David Modeer's prediction came after a warning from federal officials that this spring's runoff into Lake Powell — which stores Colorado River water — will be barely 50 percent of normal. Because spring runoff into Powell has been below normal for nine of the past 11 years, a state water official said Tuesday that the Central Arizona Project could have its first shortage as early as three years from now. That would trigger restrictions for many Tucson Water customers, although not homeowners....
Denial in the Desert Some climatologists have not hesitated to call this a "mega-drought," even the "worst in 500 years." Others have been more cautious, not yet sure whether the current aridity in the West has surpassed the notorious thresholds of the 1930s (the Dust Bowl in the southern Plains) or 1950s (devastating drought in the Southwest). But the debate is possibly beside the point: The most recent and authoritative research finds that the "evening redness in the West" (to invoke the portentous subtitle of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian) is not simply episodic drought but the region's new "normal weather." In startling testimony before the National Research Council last December, Richard Seager, a senior geophysicist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, warned that the world's leading climate modelers were cranking out the same result from their super-computers: "According to the models, in the Southwest a climate akin to the 1950s drought becomes the new climate within the next few years to decades." This extraordinary forecast--"the imminent drying of the U.S. southwest"--is a byproduct of the monumental computational effort that has been mounted by nineteen separate climate models (including the flagship outfits at Boulder, Princeton, Exeter and Hamburg) for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPPC, of course, is the supreme court of climate science, established by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to assess research on global warming and its impacts. Although President Bush now grudgingly accepts the IPCC warning that the Arctic is rapidly melting, he has probably not yet registered the possibility that his ranch in Crawford might someday become a sand dune....
State recruits public to eye water Public involvement is key to solving Colorado's looming water crisis, a senior Ritter administration official said Friday. Harris Sherman, director of the Department of Natural Resources, threw his support behind a system of roundtables that brings together people in each major river basin. The Ritter administration is committed to the new process, Sherman told members of the Interbasin Compact Committee. The committee eventually is supposed to reach an agreement among the river basins for planning Colorado's water future. Colorado cities and towns face a 20 percent water shortage in the next 25 years. Population pressures are greatest on the Front Range, but even the relatively wetter Western Slope is expected to have problems finding enough water for newcomers. Farmers and ranchers will come under increasing pressure to turn over their water to cities....
Nevada bill targets federal protests of water applications A rural Nevada lawmaker wants Cabinet-level approval of what he considers frivolous government protests to certain water rights applications, a move he said would protect water that belongs to people of the state. Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday that his AB425 is a response to many protests by the National Park Service and federal Bureau of Land Management to water rights applications in southern Nye County. "It's having a devastating impact on the rural communities who do depend upon the lawful, legal use of their appropriation of groundwater that I believe belongs to the people of the state of Nevada," Goedhart said. "One of the most important things we can do is preserve citizens' rights to their property." AB425 prohibits the state water engineer from considering a protest filed by any government agency unless it's signed by the head of that agency, including the Interior secretary, who oversees the BLM, Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Agriculture secretary, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service....
Trails on private property to remain on map Despite opposition from farmers and environmental leaders, the Marin Planning Commission on Monday refused to remove maps of proposed hiking trails across private property from the countywide plan. Property owners, including many West Marin farmers and ranchers, object to the map, which they say encourages hikers to trespass on their property. Some environmental leaders have agreed, saying the county already has enough trails through its wildest areas. "We have a lot of trails in Marin County," said Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Audubon Society. "We don't have to go across privately owned land."....
Editorial - High court seduced by global warming hysteria The most potent argument against judicial activism is that parties who have failed to achieve their political objectives through the legislative process, or by petitioning administrative or regulatory agencies, turn to sympathetic or malleable judges to try to get what they have failed to get through the political process. Unfortunately, in Massachusetts et. al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et. al., a majority on a divided Supreme Court engaged in precisely the kind of judicial activism that people on all sides of the ideological spectrum correctly deplore. In short, the popular passions around global warming carried the day, rather than calm legal precedent and thought. The Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended most recently in 1990, says that the EPA administrator “shall by regulation prescribe (and from time to time revise) . . . standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant . . . which in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution” coming from new cars. Despite the trendiness of concern about global warming, the EPA has so far declined to regulate carbon dioxide, a “greenhouse gas” coming from automobile tailpipes. Its reasons have not been trivial. The science on how much human-produced greenhouse gases contribute to global warming is unsettled, and U.S. motor vehicle emissions contribute about 6 percent of global carbon dioxide, with new cars contributing only a fraction of that. So the EPA administrator, “in his judgment,” has decided that setting standards for new-car CO2 emissions is neither required by law nor a policy likely to help much. The fact that Congress has not passed legislation mandating regulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and that the Senate never ratified the Kyoto treaty, provide some underpinning for this judgment....
Editorial - Saving the ranchlands Arizona's cowboy-and-cattle heritage is vanishing as subdivisions and "ranchettes" take over grazing land. Fortunately, there's a growing push to save some remnant of ranching. And a growing understanding that this open space is more than a picturesque backdrop. The grasslands are vital to maintaining our wildlife habitat and water supplies. Sunset magazine recently included Pima County and Arizona Open Land Trust among its "champions of the West," an annual environmental award, for their work in preserving a pair of ranches. The non-profit land trust helped in negotiations with the family that owned the Santa Lucia Ranch and Rancho Seco, which lie southwest of Tucson in the mesquite-dotted Altar Valley. Pima County supervisors in 2005 approved $18.5 million to buy 9,500 acres at the ranches, plus acquire grazing rights on 27,000 acres of federal and state trust land. Family members have a lease to continue running cattle there, while the county will monitor the health of the rangeland. What's the alternative? Consider the nearby Sopori Ranch. It was sold just a year earlier - to Phoenix-based First United Realty, which is now selling lots in a subdivision there....
New USDA initiative will help ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region Ducks Unlimited (DU) says a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiative will help restore critical duck habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region. The region is known as the nation’s “duck factory.” According to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the new initiative is part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The initiative is called State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement. It allows state FSA offices to address local wildlife conservation needs in conjunction with the needs of farmers and ranchers. "This new practice will allow states to focus CRP on wildlife concerns specific to their state, whether it is a game species, such as ducks or pheasants, or an at-risk species, such as the sage grouse” said John Johnson, deputy administrator for farm programs, for FSA. Johnson says the initiative is the latest in a series of steps to refine and target CRP, so it achieves specific and measurable environmental objectives....
Study: Reforestation Rich After Fires Scientists looking at the aftermath of wildfires in the forests of southwestern Oregon and Northern California found that after five to ten years even the most severely burned areas had sprouted plentiful seedlings without any help from man. Though natural regeneration generally took longer to produce pines and firs, it created a more varied forest, even after brush had become established, which is likely to benefit wildlife, concluded to the study by scientists from Oregon State University appearing in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Forestry. "When time is not a factor in achieving the goals, then natural regeneration appears to be a very good approach to reforestation," said David Hibbs, a professor of ecology and silviculture at Oregon State University who took part in the study. The study is the latest to address the contentious issue of whether to harvest trees killed by wildfires on national forests and replant, or let them regenerate on their own....
Gila trout back, cutthroat coming The state Department of Game and Fish will work with partners starting this summer on a project to restore pure-strain native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. The goal of the 10-15-year project will be to restore Rio Grande cutthroats to about 125 miles of streams and 20 lakes in the species' historic range in northern New Mexico. Work on Comanche Creek and its feeder streams is scheduled for this summer and fall. The Rio Costilla restoration project also includes the U.S. Forest Service, the New Mexico chapter of Trout Unlimited and private landowners next to the Valle Vidal unit of the Carson National Forest. The state will offer limited fishing for Gila trout starting July 1 in some southwestern New Mexico streams that have been closed to fishing since 1966. The Gila trout was listed as a federal endangered species in 1966. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently designated the fish as threatened rather than endangered. The state Game Commission has approved fishing changes based on that decision. The new regulations allow the state Department of Game and Fish to open angling for Gila trout in certain streams that had been closed to all fishing.
Jonah Field appeal rejected The federal government has rejected an appeal from conservationists who say a planned expansion of the Jonah Field would degrade air quality and hurt wildlife. The U.S. Department of Interior's Interior Board of Land Appeals on Friday ruled that it would not overturn a previous order denying a petition to halt the project. Several conservation groups had petitioned to stop an "infill" drilling project at the 30,000-acre field, about 32 miles southeast of Pinedale. The appeals board rejected the conservation groups' contention that new information showed deficiencies in the federal analysis of the project's effect on air quality. The infill plan, approved by federal regulators last year, calls for drilling an additional 3,100 wells over 76 years. The plan calls for allowing up to 128 wells per square mile. The Wyoming Outdoor Council, Upper Green River Valley Coalition, The Wilderness Society and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition filed an appeal early last year of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's approval of the infill project....
Conservation groups plan to challenge grizzly move Conservation groups on Tuesday challenged the federal government's plan to remove Yellowstone-area grizzly bears from protection under the Endangered Species Act. In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal of the grizzlies from the list of "threatened" animals effective April 30, capping what officials described as a successful three-decade effort to recover the animal from near-extinction. The change would remove some federal protections and open the door to future public hunting of grizzlies for the first time in decades. On Tuesday, eight groups notified the Fish and Wildlife Service that they intend to file a lawsuit in 60 days if the delisting is not reversed. The groups argue that the 500 bears now living in and around Yellowstone National Park are too few to guarantee long-term survival of the population in the face of global warming, habitat loss and other pressures....
Editorial - Land's End The federal government is making a novel argument in the Supreme Court in a Fifth Amendment case. If the justices buy it, then the state will be granted the powers of trespass and intimidation. The Court likely won't issue a ruling until early summer, but what it heard in the March arguments in Wilkie v. Robbins is enough to boil the blood of any property rights advocate. Robbins' lawsuit against Charles Wilkie and other BLM agents on Fifth Amendment grounds, and racketeering and organized crime law, has not yet been to trial because the government has been tied up in appeals seeking a dismissal. So it's difficult to separate the facts from the accusations made by both sides. But this much we do know, and it is disturbing: In representing the government, Solicitor General Paul Clement wrote a brief that includes the heading: "There Is No Fifth Amendment Right Against Retaliation For The Exercise Of Property Rights." Or, in less legalistic terms used by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe when arguing on Robbins' behalf before the Supreme Court, "The position of the government here is that there is no constitutional limit on the kind of retaliation they can engage in." Last June, the Supreme Court gravely erred when it ruled in Kelo v. New London that governments are free to seize private land and sell it to private developers. If it strays from the Constitution yet again by taking the government's position, it will have done more to erode property rights in the last 24 months than had been done in the previous 200 years. We hope this time there are more justices than jesters on this court....
Gov: No wolf plan by May 1 Gov. Dave Freudenthal wrote to the regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday saying it would be virtually impossible for the state to adopt a new wolf management plan by May 1. Federal officials, meanwhile, say it's critical for Wyoming to submit a wolf management plan soon if the state is to be included in federal regulations scheduled to be released next year spelling out how the wolves will be removed from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Freudenthal, in his letter to Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Mitch King in Denver, wrote that the state's wolf management statutes won't change until the federal agency meets requirements spelled out in a bill the Legislature passed and the governor signed last month. The legislation that Freudenthal signed gives his administration authority to negotiate with the federal government the boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in northwest Wyoming. The state legislation will expire next February if the federal government hasn't by then removed wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act and given Wyoming the authority to manage wolves in the state....
Ala. Woman on Horseback Charged With DUI A woman who went for a horseback ride through town at midnight and allegedly used the horse to ram a police car was charged with driving under the influence and drug offenses, police said Tuesday. "Cars were passing by having to avoid it, and almost hitting the horse," said Police Chief Brad Gregg. He said DUI charges can apply even when the vehicle has four legs instead of wheels. Police in the northeast Alabama town received a call around midnight Saturday about someone riding a horse on a city street, Gregg said. Officer John Seals found Melissa Byrum York, 40, of Henagar on horseback on a nearby road and attempted to stop her. Seals asked the woman repeatedly to get off the horse, but she kept trying to kick the animal to make it run, the chief said. "She wouldn't stop. She kept riding the horse and going on," Gregg said. After ramming the police car with the horse and riding away, the woman tried to jump off but caught her foot in a stirrup, Gregg said....
Five cowboy poets invite us into their world Cowboy poetry? Is that an oxymoron? Not at all, says poet Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and a BBC commentator. "I think it's terrific." Gioia, author of the controversial book Can Poetry Matter?, contends that cowboy poetry — along with hip-hop and poetry slams — propels poetry into mainstream culture, out of the musty world of academics. "That's not to say (best-selling cowboy poet and National Pubic Radio commentator) Baxter Black is W.B. Yeats," Gioia said. But he notes approvingly that cowboy poetry typically includes rhyme, meter and narrative — traditional poetic devices out of fashion in other literary circles. But those traditions were squarely in evidence at the recent Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, where cowpunchers recited poems, played music and told far-fetched stories. This year's gathering attracted an estimated 1,000 people, a record for the event. The Alpine festival is only one of an estimated 200 U.S. cowboy poetry gatherings held each year. For such a traditional-seeming form, the gatherings are relatively new: The first was held in 1985, when the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev., launched the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering....
The Daylight Saving change: no savings, no point The US government's plan to boost energy savings by moving Daylight Saving Time forward by three weeks was apparently a waste of time and effort, as the technological foibles Americans experienced failed to give way to any measurable energy savings. While the change caused no major infrastructure problems in the country, plenty of electronics and computer systems that were designed with the original DST switchover date (first Sunday in April) failed to update. The inconvenience was minor, and the potential savings were great. Or so we were told by the politicians behind the move. As it turns out, the US Department of Energy (and almost everyone else except members of Congress) was correct when they predicted that there would be little energy savings. This echoed concerns voiced after a similar experiment was attempted in Australia. Critics pointed out a basic fact: the gains in the morning will be offset by the losses at night, and vice-versa, at both ends of the switch. That appears to be exactly what happened. Reuters spoke with Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co. power, who said it plainly: "We haven't seen any measurable impact." New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group said the same thing: "no impact" on their business....
If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless. In theory, fuels made from plants can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by cars and trucks. Plants absorb carbon as they grow - it is released again when the fuel is burned. By encouraging oil companies to switch from fossil plants to living ones, governments on both sides of the Atlantic claim to be "decarbonising" our transport networks. So what's wrong with these programmes? Only that they are a formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster. Since the beginning of last year, the price of maize has doubled. The price of wheat has also reached a 10-year high, while global stockpiles of both grains have reached 25-year lows. Already there have been food riots in Mexico and reports that the poor are feeling the strain all over the world. The US department of agriculture warns that "if we have a drought or a very poor harvest, we could see the sort of volatility we saw in the 1970s, and if it does not happen this year, we are also forecasting lower stockpiles next year". According to the UN food and agriculture organisation, the main reason is the demand for ethanol: the alcohol used for motor fuel, which can be made from maize and wheat. Already we know that biofuel is worse for the planet than petroleum. The UN has just published a report suggesting that 98% of the natural rainforest in Indonesia will be degraded or gone by 2022. Just five years ago, the same agencies predicted that this wouldn't happen until 2032. But they reckoned without the planting of palm oil to turn into biodiesel for the European market. This is now the main cause of deforestation there and it is likely soon to become responsible for the extinction of the orang-utan in the wild. But it gets worse. As the forests are burned, both the trees and the peat they sit on are turned into carbon dioxide. A report by the Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics shows that every tonne of palm oil results in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, or 10 times as much as petroleum produces. I feel I need to say that again. Biodiesel from palm oil causes 10 times as much climate change as ordinary diesel....
Increased timber harvests urged as budgetary solution A local property-rights group thinks the time has come to increase timber harvests on federal forest land to end Jackson County's budget crisis. "Let's end the environmental lawsuits and get everybody together," said Bryan Baumgartner, president of the Jackson County chapter of the People for the U.S.A. Grange. The organization will hold a rally in front of Medford's Central Library at noon Friday, just hours before all 15 of the county's library branches are forced to close because of Jackson County's $23 million budget shortfall. Baumgartner, a Central Point rancher, says years of environmental lawsuits dramatically have reduced timber harvests on what are known as "O&C lands" — millions of acres of forest land originally given to the Oregon and California Railroad that reverted to public ownership when the railroad went bankrupt. The O&C lands, now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, amount to 2.6 million acres in Oregon. Congress passed a law in 1937 directing the land be managed for timber production to earn money for the counties to compensate for lost property tax revenues....
Rancher shoots wolf in Picabo area A Picabo-area rancher shot and killed one of three wolves seen harassing his cattle in late March, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game official has confirmed. "The wolves had been in the cattle for a few days," IDFG Large Carnivore Manager Steve Nadeau said Tuesday. "They had been chasing the cattle and he shot one." The wolf, shot by the unnamed rancher on March 19, was an approximately 80- to 90-pound female, Nadeau said. After the wolf was killed, Fish and Game officials worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate the incident. The investigation determined that the wolf was legally killed, Nadeau said. "They (the USFWS) cleared the rancher of any wrongdoing," he said....
No Longer Waiting for Rain, an Arid West Takes Action A Western drought that began in 1999 has continued after the respite of a couple of wet years that now feel like a cruel tease. But this time people in the driest states are not just scanning the skies and hoping for rescue. Some $2.5 billion in water projects are planned or under way in four states, the biggest expansion in the West’s quest for water in decades. Among them is a proposed 280-mile pipeline that would direct water to Las Vegas from northern Nevada. A proposed reservoir just north of the California-Mexico border would correct an inefficient water delivery system that allows excess water to pass to Mexico. In Yuma, Ariz., federal officials have restarted an idled desalination plant, long seen as a white elephant from a bygone era, partly in the hope of purifying salty underground water for neighboring towns. The scramble for water is driven by the realities of population growth, political pressure and the hard truth that the Colorado River, a 1,400-mile-long silver thread of snowmelt and a lifeline for more than 20 million people in seven states, is providing much less water than it had....
Water crisis possible here within 3 years Tucson businesses, apartment complexes and industries may face water-use restrictions by 2010 because of the relentless drought, the city's water chief said Tuesday. Tucson Water Director David Modeer's prediction came after a warning from federal officials that this spring's runoff into Lake Powell — which stores Colorado River water — will be barely 50 percent of normal. Because spring runoff into Powell has been below normal for nine of the past 11 years, a state water official said Tuesday that the Central Arizona Project could have its first shortage as early as three years from now. That would trigger restrictions for many Tucson Water customers, although not homeowners....
Denial in the Desert Some climatologists have not hesitated to call this a "mega-drought," even the "worst in 500 years." Others have been more cautious, not yet sure whether the current aridity in the West has surpassed the notorious thresholds of the 1930s (the Dust Bowl in the southern Plains) or 1950s (devastating drought in the Southwest). But the debate is possibly beside the point: The most recent and authoritative research finds that the "evening redness in the West" (to invoke the portentous subtitle of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian) is not simply episodic drought but the region's new "normal weather." In startling testimony before the National Research Council last December, Richard Seager, a senior geophysicist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, warned that the world's leading climate modelers were cranking out the same result from their super-computers: "According to the models, in the Southwest a climate akin to the 1950s drought becomes the new climate within the next few years to decades." This extraordinary forecast--"the imminent drying of the U.S. southwest"--is a byproduct of the monumental computational effort that has been mounted by nineteen separate climate models (including the flagship outfits at Boulder, Princeton, Exeter and Hamburg) for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPPC, of course, is the supreme court of climate science, established by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to assess research on global warming and its impacts. Although President Bush now grudgingly accepts the IPCC warning that the Arctic is rapidly melting, he has probably not yet registered the possibility that his ranch in Crawford might someday become a sand dune....
State recruits public to eye water Public involvement is key to solving Colorado's looming water crisis, a senior Ritter administration official said Friday. Harris Sherman, director of the Department of Natural Resources, threw his support behind a system of roundtables that brings together people in each major river basin. The Ritter administration is committed to the new process, Sherman told members of the Interbasin Compact Committee. The committee eventually is supposed to reach an agreement among the river basins for planning Colorado's water future. Colorado cities and towns face a 20 percent water shortage in the next 25 years. Population pressures are greatest on the Front Range, but even the relatively wetter Western Slope is expected to have problems finding enough water for newcomers. Farmers and ranchers will come under increasing pressure to turn over their water to cities....
Nevada bill targets federal protests of water applications A rural Nevada lawmaker wants Cabinet-level approval of what he considers frivolous government protests to certain water rights applications, a move he said would protect water that belongs to people of the state. Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday that his AB425 is a response to many protests by the National Park Service and federal Bureau of Land Management to water rights applications in southern Nye County. "It's having a devastating impact on the rural communities who do depend upon the lawful, legal use of their appropriation of groundwater that I believe belongs to the people of the state of Nevada," Goedhart said. "One of the most important things we can do is preserve citizens' rights to their property." AB425 prohibits the state water engineer from considering a protest filed by any government agency unless it's signed by the head of that agency, including the Interior secretary, who oversees the BLM, Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Agriculture secretary, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service....
Trails on private property to remain on map Despite opposition from farmers and environmental leaders, the Marin Planning Commission on Monday refused to remove maps of proposed hiking trails across private property from the countywide plan. Property owners, including many West Marin farmers and ranchers, object to the map, which they say encourages hikers to trespass on their property. Some environmental leaders have agreed, saying the county already has enough trails through its wildest areas. "We have a lot of trails in Marin County," said Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Audubon Society. "We don't have to go across privately owned land."....
Editorial - High court seduced by global warming hysteria The most potent argument against judicial activism is that parties who have failed to achieve their political objectives through the legislative process, or by petitioning administrative or regulatory agencies, turn to sympathetic or malleable judges to try to get what they have failed to get through the political process. Unfortunately, in Massachusetts et. al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et. al., a majority on a divided Supreme Court engaged in precisely the kind of judicial activism that people on all sides of the ideological spectrum correctly deplore. In short, the popular passions around global warming carried the day, rather than calm legal precedent and thought. The Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended most recently in 1990, says that the EPA administrator “shall by regulation prescribe (and from time to time revise) . . . standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant . . . which in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution” coming from new cars. Despite the trendiness of concern about global warming, the EPA has so far declined to regulate carbon dioxide, a “greenhouse gas” coming from automobile tailpipes. Its reasons have not been trivial. The science on how much human-produced greenhouse gases contribute to global warming is unsettled, and U.S. motor vehicle emissions contribute about 6 percent of global carbon dioxide, with new cars contributing only a fraction of that. So the EPA administrator, “in his judgment,” has decided that setting standards for new-car CO2 emissions is neither required by law nor a policy likely to help much. The fact that Congress has not passed legislation mandating regulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and that the Senate never ratified the Kyoto treaty, provide some underpinning for this judgment....
Editorial - Saving the ranchlands Arizona's cowboy-and-cattle heritage is vanishing as subdivisions and "ranchettes" take over grazing land. Fortunately, there's a growing push to save some remnant of ranching. And a growing understanding that this open space is more than a picturesque backdrop. The grasslands are vital to maintaining our wildlife habitat and water supplies. Sunset magazine recently included Pima County and Arizona Open Land Trust among its "champions of the West," an annual environmental award, for their work in preserving a pair of ranches. The non-profit land trust helped in negotiations with the family that owned the Santa Lucia Ranch and Rancho Seco, which lie southwest of Tucson in the mesquite-dotted Altar Valley. Pima County supervisors in 2005 approved $18.5 million to buy 9,500 acres at the ranches, plus acquire grazing rights on 27,000 acres of federal and state trust land. Family members have a lease to continue running cattle there, while the county will monitor the health of the rangeland. What's the alternative? Consider the nearby Sopori Ranch. It was sold just a year earlier - to Phoenix-based First United Realty, which is now selling lots in a subdivision there....
New USDA initiative will help ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region Ducks Unlimited (DU) says a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiative will help restore critical duck habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region. The region is known as the nation’s “duck factory.” According to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the new initiative is part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The initiative is called State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement. It allows state FSA offices to address local wildlife conservation needs in conjunction with the needs of farmers and ranchers. "This new practice will allow states to focus CRP on wildlife concerns specific to their state, whether it is a game species, such as ducks or pheasants, or an at-risk species, such as the sage grouse” said John Johnson, deputy administrator for farm programs, for FSA. Johnson says the initiative is the latest in a series of steps to refine and target CRP, so it achieves specific and measurable environmental objectives....
Study: Reforestation Rich After Fires Scientists looking at the aftermath of wildfires in the forests of southwestern Oregon and Northern California found that after five to ten years even the most severely burned areas had sprouted plentiful seedlings without any help from man. Though natural regeneration generally took longer to produce pines and firs, it created a more varied forest, even after brush had become established, which is likely to benefit wildlife, concluded to the study by scientists from Oregon State University appearing in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Forestry. "When time is not a factor in achieving the goals, then natural regeneration appears to be a very good approach to reforestation," said David Hibbs, a professor of ecology and silviculture at Oregon State University who took part in the study. The study is the latest to address the contentious issue of whether to harvest trees killed by wildfires on national forests and replant, or let them regenerate on their own....
Gila trout back, cutthroat coming The state Department of Game and Fish will work with partners starting this summer on a project to restore pure-strain native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. The goal of the 10-15-year project will be to restore Rio Grande cutthroats to about 125 miles of streams and 20 lakes in the species' historic range in northern New Mexico. Work on Comanche Creek and its feeder streams is scheduled for this summer and fall. The Rio Costilla restoration project also includes the U.S. Forest Service, the New Mexico chapter of Trout Unlimited and private landowners next to the Valle Vidal unit of the Carson National Forest. The state will offer limited fishing for Gila trout starting July 1 in some southwestern New Mexico streams that have been closed to fishing since 1966. The Gila trout was listed as a federal endangered species in 1966. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently designated the fish as threatened rather than endangered. The state Game Commission has approved fishing changes based on that decision. The new regulations allow the state Department of Game and Fish to open angling for Gila trout in certain streams that had been closed to all fishing.
Jonah Field appeal rejected The federal government has rejected an appeal from conservationists who say a planned expansion of the Jonah Field would degrade air quality and hurt wildlife. The U.S. Department of Interior's Interior Board of Land Appeals on Friday ruled that it would not overturn a previous order denying a petition to halt the project. Several conservation groups had petitioned to stop an "infill" drilling project at the 30,000-acre field, about 32 miles southeast of Pinedale. The appeals board rejected the conservation groups' contention that new information showed deficiencies in the federal analysis of the project's effect on air quality. The infill plan, approved by federal regulators last year, calls for drilling an additional 3,100 wells over 76 years. The plan calls for allowing up to 128 wells per square mile. The Wyoming Outdoor Council, Upper Green River Valley Coalition, The Wilderness Society and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition filed an appeal early last year of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's approval of the infill project....
Conservation groups plan to challenge grizzly move Conservation groups on Tuesday challenged the federal government's plan to remove Yellowstone-area grizzly bears from protection under the Endangered Species Act. In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal of the grizzlies from the list of "threatened" animals effective April 30, capping what officials described as a successful three-decade effort to recover the animal from near-extinction. The change would remove some federal protections and open the door to future public hunting of grizzlies for the first time in decades. On Tuesday, eight groups notified the Fish and Wildlife Service that they intend to file a lawsuit in 60 days if the delisting is not reversed. The groups argue that the 500 bears now living in and around Yellowstone National Park are too few to guarantee long-term survival of the population in the face of global warming, habitat loss and other pressures....
Editorial - Land's End The federal government is making a novel argument in the Supreme Court in a Fifth Amendment case. If the justices buy it, then the state will be granted the powers of trespass and intimidation. The Court likely won't issue a ruling until early summer, but what it heard in the March arguments in Wilkie v. Robbins is enough to boil the blood of any property rights advocate. Robbins' lawsuit against Charles Wilkie and other BLM agents on Fifth Amendment grounds, and racketeering and organized crime law, has not yet been to trial because the government has been tied up in appeals seeking a dismissal. So it's difficult to separate the facts from the accusations made by both sides. But this much we do know, and it is disturbing: In representing the government, Solicitor General Paul Clement wrote a brief that includes the heading: "There Is No Fifth Amendment Right Against Retaliation For The Exercise Of Property Rights." Or, in less legalistic terms used by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe when arguing on Robbins' behalf before the Supreme Court, "The position of the government here is that there is no constitutional limit on the kind of retaliation they can engage in." Last June, the Supreme Court gravely erred when it ruled in Kelo v. New London that governments are free to seize private land and sell it to private developers. If it strays from the Constitution yet again by taking the government's position, it will have done more to erode property rights in the last 24 months than had been done in the previous 200 years. We hope this time there are more justices than jesters on this court....
Gov: No wolf plan by May 1 Gov. Dave Freudenthal wrote to the regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday saying it would be virtually impossible for the state to adopt a new wolf management plan by May 1. Federal officials, meanwhile, say it's critical for Wyoming to submit a wolf management plan soon if the state is to be included in federal regulations scheduled to be released next year spelling out how the wolves will be removed from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Freudenthal, in his letter to Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Mitch King in Denver, wrote that the state's wolf management statutes won't change until the federal agency meets requirements spelled out in a bill the Legislature passed and the governor signed last month. The legislation that Freudenthal signed gives his administration authority to negotiate with the federal government the boundaries of a permanent wolf management area in northwest Wyoming. The state legislation will expire next February if the federal government hasn't by then removed wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act and given Wyoming the authority to manage wolves in the state....
Ala. Woman on Horseback Charged With DUI A woman who went for a horseback ride through town at midnight and allegedly used the horse to ram a police car was charged with driving under the influence and drug offenses, police said Tuesday. "Cars were passing by having to avoid it, and almost hitting the horse," said Police Chief Brad Gregg. He said DUI charges can apply even when the vehicle has four legs instead of wheels. Police in the northeast Alabama town received a call around midnight Saturday about someone riding a horse on a city street, Gregg said. Officer John Seals found Melissa Byrum York, 40, of Henagar on horseback on a nearby road and attempted to stop her. Seals asked the woman repeatedly to get off the horse, but she kept trying to kick the animal to make it run, the chief said. "She wouldn't stop. She kept riding the horse and going on," Gregg said. After ramming the police car with the horse and riding away, the woman tried to jump off but caught her foot in a stirrup, Gregg said....
Five cowboy poets invite us into their world Cowboy poetry? Is that an oxymoron? Not at all, says poet Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and a BBC commentator. "I think it's terrific." Gioia, author of the controversial book Can Poetry Matter?, contends that cowboy poetry — along with hip-hop and poetry slams — propels poetry into mainstream culture, out of the musty world of academics. "That's not to say (best-selling cowboy poet and National Pubic Radio commentator) Baxter Black is W.B. Yeats," Gioia said. But he notes approvingly that cowboy poetry typically includes rhyme, meter and narrative — traditional poetic devices out of fashion in other literary circles. But those traditions were squarely in evidence at the recent Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, where cowpunchers recited poems, played music and told far-fetched stories. This year's gathering attracted an estimated 1,000 people, a record for the event. The Alpine festival is only one of an estimated 200 U.S. cowboy poetry gatherings held each year. For such a traditional-seeming form, the gatherings are relatively new: The first was held in 1985, when the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev., launched the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering....
Wilkie v. Robbins
For those interested in this important case before the Supreme Court, here are the links to the various briefs:
Petioner
Petioner's Brief
National Wildlife Federation, et. al.
Respondent
Respondent's Brief
Brooks Realty and Burgett Geothermal Greenhouses, Inc.
Mountain States Legal Foundation
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Assoc., et al.
Oregon Cattlemen's Assoc. and Nevada N-6 Grazing Board
Pacific Legal Foundation, et al.
Paragon Foundation, Inc.
Public Lands Council, et al.
Go here for the decision of the 10th Circuit.
For those interested in this important case before the Supreme Court, here are the links to the various briefs:
Petioner
Petioner's Brief
National Wildlife Federation, et. al.
Respondent
Respondent's Brief
Brooks Realty and Burgett Geothermal Greenhouses, Inc.
Mountain States Legal Foundation
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Assoc., et al.
Oregon Cattlemen's Assoc. and Nevada N-6 Grazing Board
Pacific Legal Foundation, et al.
Paragon Foundation, Inc.
Public Lands Council, et al.
Go here for the decision of the 10th Circuit.
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