FLE
Administration Pulls Back on Surveillance Agreement Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January. Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants. As a result of the January agreement, the administration said that the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for the wiretapping of American citizens and others inside the United States. But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants. During a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. McConnell was asked by Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, whether he could promise that the administration would no longer sidestep the court when seeking warrants. “Sir, the president’s authority under Article II is in the Constitution,” Mr. McConnell said. “So if the president chose to exercise Article II authority, that would be the president’s call.”....
Record Number of Secret Warrants in 2006 A secret court approved all but one of the government's requests last year to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies, according to Justice Department data released Tuesday. In all, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed off on 2,176 warrants targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations or spies. The record number is more than twice as many as were issued in 2000, the last full year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One application was denied in part, and 73 required changes before being approved. The disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law. It was released as a Senate intelligence panel examined changes to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that could let the government more easily monitor homegrown terrorists. But in its three-page public report, sent to Senate and House leaders, the Justice Department said it could not yet provide data on how many times the FBI secretly sought telephone, Internet and banking records about U.S. citizens and residents without court approval. The department is still compiling those numbers amid an internal investigation of the FBI's improper — and in some cases illegal — use of so-called national security letters. The letters are administrative subpoenas that do not require a judge's approval....
States Wiretap Far More Often Than Feds State investigators listened in on more than 3 million phone conversations last year as local prosecutors sought a record number of wiretaps, mostly to investigate drug crimes. As the federal government has focused its resources on national security investigations, the responsibility for drug investigations — the focus of 80 percent of wiretaps — has fallen to state and local authorities. A decade ago, federal and state investigators sought about the same number of wiretaps. Last year, state prosecutors obtained nearly three times as many wiretap authorizations as their federal counterparts: 1,378 to 461, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Before tapping someone's phone, prosecutors must persuade a judge there is probable cause to believe the person is breaking the law. No federal or state judge denied such a request last year. Of the more than 15,000 applications filed in the last decade, only five were denied. Technological advances have made it easier for local investigators to tap telephones and cell phones....
Privacy Laws Slow Efforts on Gun-Buyer Data Momentum is building in Congress behind a measure that would push states to report their mental health records to the federal database used to conduct background checks on gun buyers. But a thicket of obstacles, most notably state privacy laws, have thwarted repeated efforts to improve the reporting of such records in the past and are likely to complicate this latest effort, even after the worst mass shooting in United States history at Virginia Tech last month. Federal law prohibits anyone who has been adjudicated as a “mental defective,” as well as anyone involuntarily committed to a mental institution, from buying a firearm. But only 22 states now submit any mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, against which all would-be gun purchasers must be checked. The erratic reporting is a problem to which gun-control advocates, law enforcement officials and others have sought to draw attention for years. “We’ve had these wake-up calls for years, and all we ever do is push the snooze button,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The federal system, in fact, contained only about 235,000 mental health records as of January 2006, even though it is estimated that as many as 2.7 million people have been involuntarily institutionalized nationwide....
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolf killed following recent livestock attack A rancher west of Springdale shot and killed a gray wolf on Monday, about two weeks after wolves fatally injured one of the rancher's cows. The year-old male wolf was shot under a federal shoot-on-site permit issued last week to the rancher, whose name was not released. One of the rancher's heifers had been attacked April 17 and was later put down due to its injuries, said Jon Trapp, a wolf management specialist with the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks. It was unknown if the wolf shot Monday was involved in the attack. The state's policy is to remove wolves "as close in time and space as possible" to such an attack, Trapp said. Trapp said the rancher's permit was for one wolf only, although federal rules allow the taking of additional wolves if caught in the act of harassing or injuring livestock. "If the rancher comes out now and sees a wolf crossing his property he cannot shoot it. If he comes out and sees one chasing livestock he can shoot," Trapp said. Wolf-rancher conflicts have been on the upswing in recent years as packs expand their territories in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In 2006, a record 142 wolves were killed by ranchers or federal wildlife agents in response to livestock attacks....
Fish poison plan goes on display Fisheries biologists are preparing to save native trout populations deep in the Bob Marshall Wilderness by poisoning several lakes, a complex and controversial plan four years in the making. “This project has been through years and years of review,” said John Fraley, spokesman for the Kalispell office of the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “Our intent is to begin implementation this October.” Specifically, the intent is to poison Black and Blackfoot lakes, both located in the remote Jewel Basin hiking area. Those lakes, and 19 more in and around the wilderness area, are home to hybrid fish, genetic cross-breeds mixing the genes of native westslope cutthroat trout with nonresident Yellowstone cutthroats and rainbows. The plan is to apply fish toxins that attack trout gills, leaving other aquatic residents unharmed. The poison, Fraley said, breaks down in a matter of days and dissipate. (Its half-life is about two weeks.) Still, he said, “we've had a lot of people interested in this project.” Some are anglers who enjoy fishing the 21 targeted lakes. Some are wilderness advocates opposed to toxins in the wilds. And some are critics of motors and machines, saying the planes and boats that will be used to apply the toxins have no place in designated wilderness areas. Forest Service officials have granted special permits allowing some machines in areas otherwise off-limits, Fraley said, making the backcountry work possible....Special permits to poison fish is ok, but just let a rancher request a special permit to clean out a dirt tank, haul in fencing supplies or doctor a sick cow and see what happens.
Davenport can't scale Forest Service rules Aspenite Chris Davenport’s plan to show a film of him skiing 14,000-foot high peaks in Colorado has run into a challenge as great as the feat itself. The White River National Forest and five other national forests in Colorado denied two requests by Davenport and filmmaker Ben Galland to commercially film him skiing high peaks within wilderness, White River Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson announced Monday. The U.S. Forest Service concluded the film would not promote the wilderness characteristics of solitude and untrammeled nature, according to a statement released by the agency. Davenport, 36, successfully completed a goal to climb and ski all 54 of the “fourteeners” in Colorado within one year. He accomplished his goal on Jan. 19 with three days to spare. Rich Doak, the acting recreation staff officer in the White River, headquartered in Glenwood Springs, said the agency wasn’t discrediting Davenport’s accomplishment. However, agency officials felt the film does not promote wilderness values or ethics but rather focuses on the concept of the “ski challenge." “Really good skiing doesn’t promote wilderness,” Doak said....Doak is right. Only using a helicopter to poison fish does that.
Counting On Trees: Scientists Are Creating A National Biomass And Carbon Dataset For USA After completing a two-year pilot phase, scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center are expanding the scope of the "National Biomass and Carbon Dataset" for the year 2000 (NBCD2000), the first ever inventory of its kind, by moving into the production phase. Through a combination of NASA satellite datasets, topographic survey data, land use/land cover data, and extensive forest inventory data collected by the U.S. Forest Service -- Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), NBCD2000 will be an invaluable baseline data set for the assessment of the carbon stock in U.S. forest vegetation and will improve current methods of determining carbon flux between vegetation and the atmosphere. Work on the remaining 61 mapping zones will be completed at a rate of roughly one zone every seven working days. According to Josef Kellndorfer, an associate scientist at the Center who is leading the project, "Understanding this flux is critical for the quantification and prediction of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, a major determinant of the greenhouse warming effect in the climate system. Thus, this initiative will directly support the North American Carbon Program, which is a major component of the U.S. Climate Change Research Program."....
Lawmakers rush to slow oil-shale push When energy company executives gather in a room and start talking about trillions of barrels of oil, most of it locked within oil shale conveniently located near the junction of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, they appear overcome with a firm sense of optimism, as they did in April at the Utah Energy Summit. The Piceance Basin, Utah’s Uinta Basin and Wyoming’s Green River Basin, they say, could be a one-stop shop for answers to America’s energy independence. “There’s enough oil reserves in the United States (primarily those in the Green River Valley) to satisfy us at present energy demands for the next 400 years,” Dan Elcan, chief executive of Oil Shale Exploration Co., or OSEC, said at the summit. One hundred days into Ritter’s first term, he and his staff are trying to grasp the full impact of commercial oil-shale development within a congressionally mandated time frame the Ritter administration sees as far too narrow. A change in the Energy Policy Act may be needed just for the state to get a handle on what full-scale commercial oil shale production might mean for Colorado, he said. The Ritter administration will soon begin discussions with the Interior Department and the state’s congressional delegation to try to buy the state more time to understand the impacts of oil shale production before it goes commercial in Colorado, Sherman said....
White River oil-shale mine to reopen in Utah The Bureau of Land Management on Monday gave its blessing to Oil Shale Exploration Co.’s plans to reopen the White River oil-shale mine in Utah about 20 miles west of Rangely. The BLM approved the environmental assessment for the company’s multiphase, oil-shale research project at White River Mine, clearing the way for the agency to issue the sixth and final 160-acre oil-shale research and development lease. The other five leases have been issued to energy companies in Colorado. In the first phase, oil shale already mined from the site will be sent to Canada to be processed in a surface retort originally developed for the processing of tar sands. The BLM will be able to determine from OSEC’s Canadian retorting operation whether spent shale at White River Mine would need to be isolated from the environment. Later, the retort will be moved to the mine site....
Fire restrictions announced for Colorado River area until Oct. 31 Roughly 2.5 million acres of public lands along the Colorado River in Arizona and California have fire restrictions, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. To curtail what could be a devastating fire season, land management officials began the restrictions Monday on the BLM's Yuma and Lake Havasu field office jurisdictions. In effect through Oct. 31, subject to being extended or withdrawn based on the severity ratings, "The restrictions are the result of the extreme potential for wildfire within this region," stated Chris Delaney, acting fire manager officer. The BLM is asking the public to use extreme caution when visiting public lands this summer. Currently there are no plans to close any areas along the Colorado River area to public use....
BLM Suicide Underscores Bureaucratic Inhumanity Bureaucratic indifference and official callousness contributed to a suicide by a Bureau of Land Management national monument manager, according to an internal investigation report released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, workplace surveys show deepening distrust and plummeting morale within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other agencies within the Interior Department. On May 2, 2005, Marlene Braun, the manager of the Carrizo Plains National Monument in California killed herself, leaving a suicide note citing abuse, humiliation and unprofessional conduct by her chain-of-command. The Inspector General "Report of Investigation", dated April 19, 2006, found that "BLM did not take action to resolve longstanding differences... or to diffuse inter-office conflict, despite the availability of alternative dispute resolution methods." As a result, the report concludes "a breakdown in trust, communication and cooperation…adversely affected management of the Carrizo Plains…" The report, extracted by PEER nine months after its first Freedom of Information Act request to the Inspector General's office, leaves lingering questions....
Beak to the future In this sparsely populated town, where the gas station and cafe are boarded up, locals are pinning their hopes for the future on a sandy-brown bird with skinny legs. The mountain plover is a desert bird that likes to nest in wide-open fields of prairie-dog towns and cow pies. A few months ago, ranchers realized the bird's economic potential to draw bird lovers who want to add the mountain plover to their lifetime birding lists. So last weekend, this Eastern Plains town of a few hundred people hosted the inaugural Mountain Plover Festival, drawing bird lovers to Karval for a $75 package of educational sessions about the bird, morning viewings and meet-and-greets with locals. "We tried to come up with something that we could capitalize on," said rancher Carl Stogsdill, 63. "And open space and wildlife is about all we have." The festival drew 14 birders. Organizers called it a success, since they had expected only seven. The festival is part of an eco- tourism trend in rural America aimed at preserving the small- town way of life. Galeton, Pa., is drawing astronomers with its star-filled skies. In western Oklahoma, bleachers have been set up near the Cimarron River for spectators to watch freight trains. In the Flint Hills of Kansas, tourists come to ignite prairie fires. City dwellers are paying for Western experiences such as building fences, saddling horses and branding cattle. "There are an amazing number of things that Americans are interested in, particularly Americans who are interested in the authentic," said Ted Eubanks, of Austin, Texas, founder of Fermata Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in nature tourism. With 70 million birders in the nation, birds are proving to be a top eco-tourism lure, he said....
White House seeks more coastal drilling The Bush administration moved yesterday to open an area off the Virginia coast to oil and gas drilling, a step that environmentalists warned could lead to the weakening of the long-standing ban on new energy exploration off much of the U.S. coast. That ban was inspired by a devastating oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969. But with high gasoline prices and concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, pro-drilling forces are more hopeful of persuading Congress -- even with its Democratic majority -- to relax the drilling ban. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne unveiled yesterday a five-year plan that calls for offering drilling leases in an area off Virginia that has been off limits since the 1980s, a move that is subject to presidential and congressional approval. He also proposed expanding drilling off Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. Gasoline prices continued to rise yesterday, hitting a nationwide average price of $2.95 for a gallon of self-serve regular, according to AAA. California prices rose 4.3 cents in the past week to set a record high average of $3.359 a gallon. Environmental groups vowed to lobby Congress to block the proposed drilling off Virginia and in an area off Alaska that President Bush previously moved to open to exploration....
Grizzly's delisting affects mostly bureaucrats Yellowstone grizzly bears stepped into a new era at 12:01 a.m. Monday. That's when the rule to remove them from the endangered species list officially took effect. Not that the bears caught on. The switch - the product of 30 years of recovery efforts - will do little to change the immediate management of the 500 or so grizzlies that live in and around Yellowstone National Park. "The bears are noticing no difference," said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For many, delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly is a major success story under the Endangered Species Act. When the bears were first listed in 1975, there were between 136 and 312 in the Yellowstone ecosystem, according to government estimates. But in recent years, the population has been growing and rebounded enough to remove it from the endangered list, federal officials said. The change means bears will be managed under a "conservation strategy" approved by state agencies in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming along with the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The plan governs the treatment of bears and bear habitat over 9,200 square miles. Delisting also means state agencies can authorize grizzly bear hunts. Game agencies in Montana and Idaho have expressed an interest in a hunt but have said it's not going to happen immediately....
Freudenthal skeptical of Range drilling Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal says he "doubts the veracity" of a Texas energy company's claim that it intends to drill just three exploratory wells in the Wyoming Range. In comments filed with the U.S. Forest Service on Monday, Freudenthal says he's concerned that allowing an initial exploratory drilling project in the Wyoming Range could be the "first domino" toward industrialization of national forest land in the state. Freudenthal wrote to Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark asking his agency to consider delaying a proposed drilling project because of concerns over its effect on the Wyoming Range. He commented on a document called the Plains Exploratory Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Plains Exploration and Production Co. of Houston is seeking permission to drill three exploratory oil and gas wells on leases located about seven miles southeast of Bondurant. An attempt to reach Plains Exploration after business hours on Monday was unsuccessful, and company officials did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press. In addition to opposition from Freudenthal, the drilling project proposed in north Sublette County has drawn fire from conservationists and others who say oil and gas development doesn't belong within the Bridger-Teton National Forest's Wyoming Range....
Timber Industry Uses Draft Bush Endangered Species Act Regulations On March 27, 2007, the media published draft Bush administration regulations that radically undermine the Endangered Species Act, causing a public uproar. In response, the administration asserted that it did not intend to implement the draft as written. In legal papers filed today, however, environmental groups show that Mark Rutzick, a former Bush official now representing the timber industry, has filed a lawsuit based on the draft regulations. “The Bush administration’s draft regulations gutting the Endangered Species Act haven’t even been publicly proposed yet, but the timber industry is already trying to strip the nation’s wildlife of protection,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney with Earthjustice. “Once again, the Bush administration is undermining protection of our nation’s endangered species to benefit their friends and campaign contributors in the timber industry.” The timber lawsuit was filed on March 7, 2007, nearly one month before the draft regulations surfaced. Industry lawyers are trying to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the marbled murrelet from the federal threatened list under a provision of the draft regulations. Current regulations contain no such requirement....
Wyden to Hold Interior Nominee Until Ethics Concerns are Addressed Citing serious ethics transgressions committed by a high-ranking Interior Department official, Julie MacDonald, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced today that he will place a hold on Senate confirmation of Lyle Laverty, the President’s nominee for Assistant Interior Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, until he is satisfied that such transgressions will not happen again. In his letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (see below), Wyden references a recent report by the Interior Department’s Inspector General, Earl Devaney, which documents MacDonald’s actions as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. According to the Inspector General’s findings, Ms. MacDonald repeatedly leaked internal Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) documents to business groups who opposed the FWS and its environmental decision making in court. Some of these internal documents later surfaced as evidence in lawsuits filed against FWS. President Bush nominated Mr. Laverty to be Assistant Interior Secretary on March 26th....
Changes to US laws threaten endangered species As many as 80% of protected US species may be threatened by federal plans to amend the nation's Endangered Species Act, environmental activists say. The US government says it is making the move so that its conservation activities are not driven by lawsuits. "In the last decade, 95% of our activities have been driven by court order deadlines and lawsuits," Valerie Fellows, a spokesperson for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), told New Scientist. "Because of lack of funding, the Fish and Wildlife Service have been in a bit of a bind," says Mike Parr, Vice President of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). "They have been unable to list species, therefore in order to get species listed groups have had to resort to litigation." Parr says the lack of funding has led to a vicious circle, with the USFWS spending its limited funding on litigation, thereby further restricting their budget and increasing the number of law suits. "To be honest, the amendment proposals that are floating around do not seem to be very clear," says Par. "My overall sense is there is an attempt to weaken the act by giving more initiative to the states and rather than having the Fish and Wildlife Service responsible for everything."....
Korean wolf cloning confirmed The authors of a study describing the first-ever cloning of endangered gray wolves have been cleared of intentional data manipulation by investigators at Seoul National University (SNU), where the research was conducted. On Friday (April 27), SNU's Research Integrity Committee proclaimed the two wolves, Snuwolf and Snuwolffy, genuine clones after two labs -- one at SNU and the other outside of the university -- used tissue testing to confirm successful cloning. However, the university said that the SNU researchers who conducted the study made several "unintentional" mistakes when writing the manuscript, including three data entry errors in two tables listing the microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA sequences of the study animals....
Wyo joins in water deal Wyoming and six other Colorado River states signed a landmark water supply plan Monday that, if approved by the federal Interior Department, will allow Wyoming and other upper-basin states to deliver less water if the drought continues. Under existing rules, the upper-basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico must deliver 8.23 million acre feet of water per year to the remaining three lower-basin states: Nevada, Arizona and California. Under the new agreement, the lower-basin states would have to make adjustments by augmenting their supplies by created water surpluses. California might “bank” agricultural water for future use, by holding it in Lake Mead, then use it later. There are also incentives for desalinization projects, protection of canal water from seepage or evaporation, and removal of water-gulping salt cedar and Russian olive trees. According to Wyoming State Engineer Pat Tyrrell, “This agreement reduces the risk of both equitable apportionment and interstate river litigation as well as the risk of Wyoming water users having to curtail uses."....
La. Plan to Reclaim Land Would Divert the Mississippi Over two centuries, engineers have restrained the Mississippi River's natural urge to wriggle disastrously out of its banks by building hundreds of miles of levees that work today like a riverine straitjacket. But it is time, Louisiana officials propose, to let the river loose. To save the state from washing into the ocean at the astonishing rate of 24 square miles per year, Louisiana officials are developing an epic $50 billion plan that would rebuild the land by rerouting one of the world's biggest rivers. The proposal envisions enormous projects to provide flood protection and reclaim land-building sediment from the river, which now flows uselessly out into the Gulf of Mexico. The cost of the project, which was initiated by the legislature after hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed the dangers of the sinking coast, dwarfs those of other megaprojects such as the $14 billion "Big Dig" in Boston and the $8 billion Everglades restoration. "This will be one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century -- on the order of the Channel Tunnel or the Three Gorges Dam," said Denise J. Reed, a scientist at the University of New Orleans who has focused on the river. "What is obvious to everyone is that something has to be done." Specifics are still being worked out, but the plan calls for allowing the Mississippi to flow out of its levees in more than a dozen places in Louisiana, creating, at seven or more sites, new waterways that would carry a volume of water similar to that of the Potomac River. At least three of those waterways, in fact, would run many times as fast as the Potomac....
Wolf killed following recent livestock attack A rancher west of Springdale shot and killed a gray wolf on Monday, about two weeks after wolves fatally injured one of the rancher's cows. The year-old male wolf was shot under a federal shoot-on-site permit issued last week to the rancher, whose name was not released. One of the rancher's heifers had been attacked April 17 and was later put down due to its injuries, said Jon Trapp, a wolf management specialist with the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks. It was unknown if the wolf shot Monday was involved in the attack. The state's policy is to remove wolves "as close in time and space as possible" to such an attack, Trapp said. Trapp said the rancher's permit was for one wolf only, although federal rules allow the taking of additional wolves if caught in the act of harassing or injuring livestock. "If the rancher comes out now and sees a wolf crossing his property he cannot shoot it. If he comes out and sees one chasing livestock he can shoot," Trapp said. Wolf-rancher conflicts have been on the upswing in recent years as packs expand their territories in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In 2006, a record 142 wolves were killed by ranchers or federal wildlife agents in response to livestock attacks....
Fish poison plan goes on display Fisheries biologists are preparing to save native trout populations deep in the Bob Marshall Wilderness by poisoning several lakes, a complex and controversial plan four years in the making. “This project has been through years and years of review,” said John Fraley, spokesman for the Kalispell office of the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “Our intent is to begin implementation this October.” Specifically, the intent is to poison Black and Blackfoot lakes, both located in the remote Jewel Basin hiking area. Those lakes, and 19 more in and around the wilderness area, are home to hybrid fish, genetic cross-breeds mixing the genes of native westslope cutthroat trout with nonresident Yellowstone cutthroats and rainbows. The plan is to apply fish toxins that attack trout gills, leaving other aquatic residents unharmed. The poison, Fraley said, breaks down in a matter of days and dissipate. (Its half-life is about two weeks.) Still, he said, “we've had a lot of people interested in this project.” Some are anglers who enjoy fishing the 21 targeted lakes. Some are wilderness advocates opposed to toxins in the wilds. And some are critics of motors and machines, saying the planes and boats that will be used to apply the toxins have no place in designated wilderness areas. Forest Service officials have granted special permits allowing some machines in areas otherwise off-limits, Fraley said, making the backcountry work possible....Special permits to poison fish is ok, but just let a rancher request a special permit to clean out a dirt tank, haul in fencing supplies or doctor a sick cow and see what happens.
Davenport can't scale Forest Service rules Aspenite Chris Davenport’s plan to show a film of him skiing 14,000-foot high peaks in Colorado has run into a challenge as great as the feat itself. The White River National Forest and five other national forests in Colorado denied two requests by Davenport and filmmaker Ben Galland to commercially film him skiing high peaks within wilderness, White River Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson announced Monday. The U.S. Forest Service concluded the film would not promote the wilderness characteristics of solitude and untrammeled nature, according to a statement released by the agency. Davenport, 36, successfully completed a goal to climb and ski all 54 of the “fourteeners” in Colorado within one year. He accomplished his goal on Jan. 19 with three days to spare. Rich Doak, the acting recreation staff officer in the White River, headquartered in Glenwood Springs, said the agency wasn’t discrediting Davenport’s accomplishment. However, agency officials felt the film does not promote wilderness values or ethics but rather focuses on the concept of the “ski challenge." “Really good skiing doesn’t promote wilderness,” Doak said....Doak is right. Only using a helicopter to poison fish does that.
Counting On Trees: Scientists Are Creating A National Biomass And Carbon Dataset For USA After completing a two-year pilot phase, scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center are expanding the scope of the "National Biomass and Carbon Dataset" for the year 2000 (NBCD2000), the first ever inventory of its kind, by moving into the production phase. Through a combination of NASA satellite datasets, topographic survey data, land use/land cover data, and extensive forest inventory data collected by the U.S. Forest Service -- Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), NBCD2000 will be an invaluable baseline data set for the assessment of the carbon stock in U.S. forest vegetation and will improve current methods of determining carbon flux between vegetation and the atmosphere. Work on the remaining 61 mapping zones will be completed at a rate of roughly one zone every seven working days. According to Josef Kellndorfer, an associate scientist at the Center who is leading the project, "Understanding this flux is critical for the quantification and prediction of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, a major determinant of the greenhouse warming effect in the climate system. Thus, this initiative will directly support the North American Carbon Program, which is a major component of the U.S. Climate Change Research Program."....
Lawmakers rush to slow oil-shale push When energy company executives gather in a room and start talking about trillions of barrels of oil, most of it locked within oil shale conveniently located near the junction of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, they appear overcome with a firm sense of optimism, as they did in April at the Utah Energy Summit. The Piceance Basin, Utah’s Uinta Basin and Wyoming’s Green River Basin, they say, could be a one-stop shop for answers to America’s energy independence. “There’s enough oil reserves in the United States (primarily those in the Green River Valley) to satisfy us at present energy demands for the next 400 years,” Dan Elcan, chief executive of Oil Shale Exploration Co., or OSEC, said at the summit. One hundred days into Ritter’s first term, he and his staff are trying to grasp the full impact of commercial oil-shale development within a congressionally mandated time frame the Ritter administration sees as far too narrow. A change in the Energy Policy Act may be needed just for the state to get a handle on what full-scale commercial oil shale production might mean for Colorado, he said. The Ritter administration will soon begin discussions with the Interior Department and the state’s congressional delegation to try to buy the state more time to understand the impacts of oil shale production before it goes commercial in Colorado, Sherman said....
White River oil-shale mine to reopen in Utah The Bureau of Land Management on Monday gave its blessing to Oil Shale Exploration Co.’s plans to reopen the White River oil-shale mine in Utah about 20 miles west of Rangely. The BLM approved the environmental assessment for the company’s multiphase, oil-shale research project at White River Mine, clearing the way for the agency to issue the sixth and final 160-acre oil-shale research and development lease. The other five leases have been issued to energy companies in Colorado. In the first phase, oil shale already mined from the site will be sent to Canada to be processed in a surface retort originally developed for the processing of tar sands. The BLM will be able to determine from OSEC’s Canadian retorting operation whether spent shale at White River Mine would need to be isolated from the environment. Later, the retort will be moved to the mine site....
Fire restrictions announced for Colorado River area until Oct. 31 Roughly 2.5 million acres of public lands along the Colorado River in Arizona and California have fire restrictions, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. To curtail what could be a devastating fire season, land management officials began the restrictions Monday on the BLM's Yuma and Lake Havasu field office jurisdictions. In effect through Oct. 31, subject to being extended or withdrawn based on the severity ratings, "The restrictions are the result of the extreme potential for wildfire within this region," stated Chris Delaney, acting fire manager officer. The BLM is asking the public to use extreme caution when visiting public lands this summer. Currently there are no plans to close any areas along the Colorado River area to public use....
BLM Suicide Underscores Bureaucratic Inhumanity Bureaucratic indifference and official callousness contributed to a suicide by a Bureau of Land Management national monument manager, according to an internal investigation report released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, workplace surveys show deepening distrust and plummeting morale within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other agencies within the Interior Department. On May 2, 2005, Marlene Braun, the manager of the Carrizo Plains National Monument in California killed herself, leaving a suicide note citing abuse, humiliation and unprofessional conduct by her chain-of-command. The Inspector General "Report of Investigation", dated April 19, 2006, found that "BLM did not take action to resolve longstanding differences... or to diffuse inter-office conflict, despite the availability of alternative dispute resolution methods." As a result, the report concludes "a breakdown in trust, communication and cooperation…adversely affected management of the Carrizo Plains…" The report, extracted by PEER nine months after its first Freedom of Information Act request to the Inspector General's office, leaves lingering questions....
Beak to the future In this sparsely populated town, where the gas station and cafe are boarded up, locals are pinning their hopes for the future on a sandy-brown bird with skinny legs. The mountain plover is a desert bird that likes to nest in wide-open fields of prairie-dog towns and cow pies. A few months ago, ranchers realized the bird's economic potential to draw bird lovers who want to add the mountain plover to their lifetime birding lists. So last weekend, this Eastern Plains town of a few hundred people hosted the inaugural Mountain Plover Festival, drawing bird lovers to Karval for a $75 package of educational sessions about the bird, morning viewings and meet-and-greets with locals. "We tried to come up with something that we could capitalize on," said rancher Carl Stogsdill, 63. "And open space and wildlife is about all we have." The festival drew 14 birders. Organizers called it a success, since they had expected only seven. The festival is part of an eco- tourism trend in rural America aimed at preserving the small- town way of life. Galeton, Pa., is drawing astronomers with its star-filled skies. In western Oklahoma, bleachers have been set up near the Cimarron River for spectators to watch freight trains. In the Flint Hills of Kansas, tourists come to ignite prairie fires. City dwellers are paying for Western experiences such as building fences, saddling horses and branding cattle. "There are an amazing number of things that Americans are interested in, particularly Americans who are interested in the authentic," said Ted Eubanks, of Austin, Texas, founder of Fermata Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in nature tourism. With 70 million birders in the nation, birds are proving to be a top eco-tourism lure, he said....
White House seeks more coastal drilling The Bush administration moved yesterday to open an area off the Virginia coast to oil and gas drilling, a step that environmentalists warned could lead to the weakening of the long-standing ban on new energy exploration off much of the U.S. coast. That ban was inspired by a devastating oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969. But with high gasoline prices and concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, pro-drilling forces are more hopeful of persuading Congress -- even with its Democratic majority -- to relax the drilling ban. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne unveiled yesterday a five-year plan that calls for offering drilling leases in an area off Virginia that has been off limits since the 1980s, a move that is subject to presidential and congressional approval. He also proposed expanding drilling off Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. Gasoline prices continued to rise yesterday, hitting a nationwide average price of $2.95 for a gallon of self-serve regular, according to AAA. California prices rose 4.3 cents in the past week to set a record high average of $3.359 a gallon. Environmental groups vowed to lobby Congress to block the proposed drilling off Virginia and in an area off Alaska that President Bush previously moved to open to exploration....
Grizzly's delisting affects mostly bureaucrats Yellowstone grizzly bears stepped into a new era at 12:01 a.m. Monday. That's when the rule to remove them from the endangered species list officially took effect. Not that the bears caught on. The switch - the product of 30 years of recovery efforts - will do little to change the immediate management of the 500 or so grizzlies that live in and around Yellowstone National Park. "The bears are noticing no difference," said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For many, delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly is a major success story under the Endangered Species Act. When the bears were first listed in 1975, there were between 136 and 312 in the Yellowstone ecosystem, according to government estimates. But in recent years, the population has been growing and rebounded enough to remove it from the endangered list, federal officials said. The change means bears will be managed under a "conservation strategy" approved by state agencies in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming along with the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The plan governs the treatment of bears and bear habitat over 9,200 square miles. Delisting also means state agencies can authorize grizzly bear hunts. Game agencies in Montana and Idaho have expressed an interest in a hunt but have said it's not going to happen immediately....
Freudenthal skeptical of Range drilling Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal says he "doubts the veracity" of a Texas energy company's claim that it intends to drill just three exploratory wells in the Wyoming Range. In comments filed with the U.S. Forest Service on Monday, Freudenthal says he's concerned that allowing an initial exploratory drilling project in the Wyoming Range could be the "first domino" toward industrialization of national forest land in the state. Freudenthal wrote to Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark asking his agency to consider delaying a proposed drilling project because of concerns over its effect on the Wyoming Range. He commented on a document called the Plains Exploratory Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Plains Exploration and Production Co. of Houston is seeking permission to drill three exploratory oil and gas wells on leases located about seven miles southeast of Bondurant. An attempt to reach Plains Exploration after business hours on Monday was unsuccessful, and company officials did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press. In addition to opposition from Freudenthal, the drilling project proposed in north Sublette County has drawn fire from conservationists and others who say oil and gas development doesn't belong within the Bridger-Teton National Forest's Wyoming Range....
Timber Industry Uses Draft Bush Endangered Species Act Regulations On March 27, 2007, the media published draft Bush administration regulations that radically undermine the Endangered Species Act, causing a public uproar. In response, the administration asserted that it did not intend to implement the draft as written. In legal papers filed today, however, environmental groups show that Mark Rutzick, a former Bush official now representing the timber industry, has filed a lawsuit based on the draft regulations. “The Bush administration’s draft regulations gutting the Endangered Species Act haven’t even been publicly proposed yet, but the timber industry is already trying to strip the nation’s wildlife of protection,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney with Earthjustice. “Once again, the Bush administration is undermining protection of our nation’s endangered species to benefit their friends and campaign contributors in the timber industry.” The timber lawsuit was filed on March 7, 2007, nearly one month before the draft regulations surfaced. Industry lawyers are trying to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the marbled murrelet from the federal threatened list under a provision of the draft regulations. Current regulations contain no such requirement....
Wyden to Hold Interior Nominee Until Ethics Concerns are Addressed Citing serious ethics transgressions committed by a high-ranking Interior Department official, Julie MacDonald, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced today that he will place a hold on Senate confirmation of Lyle Laverty, the President’s nominee for Assistant Interior Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, until he is satisfied that such transgressions will not happen again. In his letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (see below), Wyden references a recent report by the Interior Department’s Inspector General, Earl Devaney, which documents MacDonald’s actions as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. According to the Inspector General’s findings, Ms. MacDonald repeatedly leaked internal Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) documents to business groups who opposed the FWS and its environmental decision making in court. Some of these internal documents later surfaced as evidence in lawsuits filed against FWS. President Bush nominated Mr. Laverty to be Assistant Interior Secretary on March 26th....
Changes to US laws threaten endangered species As many as 80% of protected US species may be threatened by federal plans to amend the nation's Endangered Species Act, environmental activists say. The US government says it is making the move so that its conservation activities are not driven by lawsuits. "In the last decade, 95% of our activities have been driven by court order deadlines and lawsuits," Valerie Fellows, a spokesperson for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), told New Scientist. "Because of lack of funding, the Fish and Wildlife Service have been in a bit of a bind," says Mike Parr, Vice President of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). "They have been unable to list species, therefore in order to get species listed groups have had to resort to litigation." Parr says the lack of funding has led to a vicious circle, with the USFWS spending its limited funding on litigation, thereby further restricting their budget and increasing the number of law suits. "To be honest, the amendment proposals that are floating around do not seem to be very clear," says Par. "My overall sense is there is an attempt to weaken the act by giving more initiative to the states and rather than having the Fish and Wildlife Service responsible for everything."....
Korean wolf cloning confirmed The authors of a study describing the first-ever cloning of endangered gray wolves have been cleared of intentional data manipulation by investigators at Seoul National University (SNU), where the research was conducted. On Friday (April 27), SNU's Research Integrity Committee proclaimed the two wolves, Snuwolf and Snuwolffy, genuine clones after two labs -- one at SNU and the other outside of the university -- used tissue testing to confirm successful cloning. However, the university said that the SNU researchers who conducted the study made several "unintentional" mistakes when writing the manuscript, including three data entry errors in two tables listing the microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA sequences of the study animals....
Wyo joins in water deal Wyoming and six other Colorado River states signed a landmark water supply plan Monday that, if approved by the federal Interior Department, will allow Wyoming and other upper-basin states to deliver less water if the drought continues. Under existing rules, the upper-basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico must deliver 8.23 million acre feet of water per year to the remaining three lower-basin states: Nevada, Arizona and California. Under the new agreement, the lower-basin states would have to make adjustments by augmenting their supplies by created water surpluses. California might “bank” agricultural water for future use, by holding it in Lake Mead, then use it later. There are also incentives for desalinization projects, protection of canal water from seepage or evaporation, and removal of water-gulping salt cedar and Russian olive trees. According to Wyoming State Engineer Pat Tyrrell, “This agreement reduces the risk of both equitable apportionment and interstate river litigation as well as the risk of Wyoming water users having to curtail uses."....
La. Plan to Reclaim Land Would Divert the Mississippi Over two centuries, engineers have restrained the Mississippi River's natural urge to wriggle disastrously out of its banks by building hundreds of miles of levees that work today like a riverine straitjacket. But it is time, Louisiana officials propose, to let the river loose. To save the state from washing into the ocean at the astonishing rate of 24 square miles per year, Louisiana officials are developing an epic $50 billion plan that would rebuild the land by rerouting one of the world's biggest rivers. The proposal envisions enormous projects to provide flood protection and reclaim land-building sediment from the river, which now flows uselessly out into the Gulf of Mexico. The cost of the project, which was initiated by the legislature after hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed the dangers of the sinking coast, dwarfs those of other megaprojects such as the $14 billion "Big Dig" in Boston and the $8 billion Everglades restoration. "This will be one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century -- on the order of the Channel Tunnel or the Three Gorges Dam," said Denise J. Reed, a scientist at the University of New Orleans who has focused on the river. "What is obvious to everyone is that something has to be done." Specifics are still being worked out, but the plan calls for allowing the Mississippi to flow out of its levees in more than a dozen places in Louisiana, creating, at seven or more sites, new waterways that would carry a volume of water similar to that of the Potomac River. At least three of those waterways, in fact, would run many times as fast as the Potomac....
Monday, April 30, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
EU demands cows change their diets BARMY Euro MPs are demanding new laws to stop cows and sheep PARPING. Their call came after the UN said livestock emissions were a bigger threat to the planet than transport. The MEPs have asked the European Commission to “look again at the livestock question in direct connection with global warming”. The official EU declaration demands changes to animals’ diets, to capture gas emissions and recycle manure. They warned: “The livestock sector presents the greatest threat to the planet.” The proposal will be looked at by the 27 member states. The UN says livestock farming generates 18 per cent of greenhouse gases while transport accounts for 14 per cent....
Bangkok hosts key climate summit A major climate change conference which will spell out what needs to be done to combat global warming has got under way in the Thai capital Bangkok. It is the third such summit this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It aims to be the key guide to climate change technology and economics. A final draft seen by the BBC will say nations can protect the climate, but only if they make policies to halt the global growth in emissions by 2030. The draft refers to stabilising emissions between 450 and 550 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere....
Rancher uses easements in land fight Bob Patterson knows that it will take more than a conservation easement to stop the Army from taking his ranch south of Kim. He’s convinced, however, that such easements are a powerful tool for protecting agricultural land in Southeastern Colorado. “I don’t know if I’ll go up or down, but whichever way I go, I want to be looking at a ranch with cattle on it,” he joked last week at a seminar on conservation easements. About 75 people - a mix of real estate agents, landowners, bankers, appraisers and public officials - attended the seminar sponsored by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, the Colorado Ag Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy and Community Banks of Colorado. Patterson was a sort of pioneer for conservation easements in the region, working on protecting the 20,000-acre spread he and his wife Bunny bought in the 1960s. Along with his children, he worked for four years with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust to donate a conservation easement in 2001. A member of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association board, Patterson has helped fight the expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, which could aim for his property, “depending on which direction they’d go.”....
Colorado may say no to Fort Carson expansion Colorado, a state that has long been friendly toward the military, is poised to try to stop the Army from using eminent domain to vastly expand a troop training ground on the southeastern Plains. At the urging of ranchers who live near Fort Carson’s Pinon Canyon maneuver site, state lawmakers approved a bill that withdraws Colorado’s “consent” for the federal government to acquire more land for Pinon Canyon. The measure is now on the desk of Gov. Bill Ritter. Spokesman Evan Dryer wouldn’t comment Friday on whether Ritter will sign it but said the governor has “very serious concerns about the use of eminent domain” for the expansion. While military bases have faced closure elsewhere, Colorado Springs’ Fort Carson is adding 10,000 soldiers and will be home to 25,000 troops by 2009. It will also be a training site for National Guard units from around the West. The post has sent over 13,000 soldiers to Iraq, many on multiple tours, and many of the new soldiers arriving from Fort Hood have served in Iraq....
Yellowstone grizzlies ‘recovered’ One of the most pristine expanses of wilderness in the lower 48 states grew even wilder over the last two decades, with the resurgence of grizzly bears across 9 million acres in and around Yellowstone National Park. Starting today, those grizzlies will be cut loose from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The move is being hailed by the Bush administration as a landmark in the drive to protect the bears’ vast habitat. But a lawsuit to reverse the administration’s ruling already is being drafted, illustrating that the bitter fight over grizzlies — and the wild lands they roam — is far from over. The preservation groups behind the pending legal challenge claim the administration is delisting grizzlies as part of its agenda to expand logging, oil and gas exploration and grazing on Western lands. They also argue the administration is ignoring new perils for grizzlies, in global warming and the boom in vacation home construction that is sweeping across the West. Federal wildlife officials and some conservation groups say the litigation could throw a cloud over the entire endangered species program, obscuring one of the program’s rare success stories....
Views differ on warming's effect on grizzlies Yellowstone grizzlies need a lot of fuel. At its hungriest, one might consume 20,000 calories a day - the rough equivalent of snarfing 1½ Big Macs every hour. But for the 500 or so grizzlies that live in and around Yellowstone National Park, the Earth's warming climate may change what's on the menu. All four of the most important food groups for the bears - whitebark pine nuts, moths, cutthroat trout and winter-killed elk and bison - could potentially be affected by global warming. The difficulty, though, is predicting how. That will be one of the central questions looking forward as Yellowstone grizzly bears today are removed from the endangered-species list. Federal bear biologists who proposed delisting say grizzlies are highly adaptable and that managers will keep an eye on the bears and do what they can to make sure they can survive. Climate change or no, though, grizzlies have found ways to survive again and again in unstable environments, bear officials said. Their omnivorous tastes run from bugs and roots to meat, garbage and nearly everything in between....
Benzene surfaces Benzene has been found in water wells in two Sublette County natural gas fields. Federal land managers say the benzene probably came from trucks used to siphon water out of the wells. They say there is no threat to human health or livestock. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said benzene was found in four industrial water supply wells on the Jonah Field and on the Pinedale Anticline last August and September. Benzene is a hydrocarbon that can cause human health problems if ingested. There has been no drinking water contaminated," said Rey Adame, public affairs officer for the BLM. "There is no threat to human health or livestock. There are no threats to people working in the field. I don't want to create a panic with this, because it's not." A local conservation district tested the wells last summer, Adame said. The contamination was reported to BLM in January. Adame said he didn't know why there was a delay in reporting it. John Wagner, water quality administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said he didn't think operators would fined because the matter is still under investigation....
Colo. withdraws objection to water rights stipulations Nearly two weeks after filing objections to an agreement reached between Upper Gunnison Basin water users and the federal government in 2003, the state’s attorney general has filed a motion to withdraw it. “It was done because a number of parties in the Gunnison River Basin made it very clear they felt the filing of those objections would prevent further negotiation,” said Alexandra Davis, First Assistant Attorney General for the water rights unit. The agreement in question regards stipulations protecting the water rights of ranchers and other users from the government’s reserved water right for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Davis said the motion was filed to allow the state to withdraw its objection with “leave of the court to file them again later.” Frank Kugel said he believes there was “a broad base of support” for those who filed the stipulations and they felt the state had not lived up to its original commitment when it filed the objections. The state was closely involved with and provided input to those stipulations when they were filed, he said....
Well crackdown intensifies in Summit Kent Gloor wasn’t exactly happy when he recently received a letter telling him that state officials may revoke his well permit and curtail his use of water. “The tone of the letter was a little direct,” said the Breckenridge Heights property owner. “I’m sure there will be some homeowners who will be pretty upset.” Gloor referred to several hundred residents and property owners targeted by the continued crackdown on unauthorized well-water use. At issue are state laws that limit well water use to indoor, domestic purposes for certain types of wells. The general idea is, if you use groundwater to irrigate a lawn or wash a car, at least a portion of that water doesn’t make it back into surface streams. In effect, that water is lost to a potential downstream user with senior water rights. The problem has grown as more well users get hooked up to sewer systems, resulting in an even greater net loss to groundwater flows. “If you’re using water outside the conditions of your permit, you’re using someone else’s water,” said state water commissioner Scott Hummer. “The water that trickles down the mountain and fills the fissures in the rock where the well is goes down into a stream, where a rancher or a municipality may have senior rights to that water.”....
The big, dirty list When you think of water pollution, you might picture industrial waste, chemicals, sewage or some type of toxic sludge pouring out of an old rusty pipe into a river. That's the kind of water pollution you'll typically find in the Eastern United States. It's usually easy to detect and to stop: There's the sludge, there's the pipe it's pouring out of that should be turned off, and there's the offender who should be fined. But in New Mexico and other Western states, it's a very different story. Almost all water pollution in the West comes from the activities of animals and people. The sources are difficult to identify, even harder to stop, and almost impossible to issue fines for to the responsible parties. Contamination from these so-called nonpoint sources are often subtle and cumulative, taking place over many years. The pollution caused by nonpoint sources often has multiple origins and offenders, and takes much, much longer to clean up....
Elk foundation buys timber, grazing land The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has purchased 367 acres of timber and grazing land in the southern Bitterroot Valley and transferred the property to the state. The property, which sold for $688,000, supports some 1,000 wintering elk, the foundation said. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will wind up with the property after a swap with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for other land in the Bitterroot. "We're going to be celebrating this one. It was a real accomplishment made possible by a lot of great people," said Mike Mueller, senior lands program manager for the elk foundation. The property, on Lyman Creek northeast of Sula, is surrounded by the Sula State Forest on three sides. U.S. Forest Service land borders it on the east....
Closure of 2,450 miles of trails proposed Tahoe National Forest is proposing to close 2,450 miles of unauthorized off-highway-vehicle trails that have been used for years to halt problems such as erosion and impacts on wildlife. In turn, 50 miles of so-called OHV trails not previously in the forest's inventory will be added to a developing designated route system. The crackdown is part of a nationwide effort that began three years ago to identify motorized roads and trails on federal lands and control unmanaged riding. Unmanaged recreation from OHVs is one of the "four key threats facing the nation's forests and grasslands," according to a report by the U.S. Forest Service. "This kind of damage is just not acceptable," said Phil Horning, forest landscape architect with the Tahoe National Forest....
A new way to beautify canyons? Future upgrades to Providence Canyon could lie in the pocketbooks of city residents. That’s if a first-of-its-kind arrangement between the city, U.S. Forest Service and its nonprofit arm is approved by councilmembers. Under a proposal floated by Logan District Ranger Rob Cruz, Providence homeowners would be given the option to tack $1 on to their monthly utility bills. The money would be funneled into an interest-bearing account maintained by the National Forest Foundation until city and Forest Service officials come up with a project worthy of the money that’s donated. “We’ve never tried it anywhere in the country before this program. We’re on the cutting edge here,” Cruz said. “If it works out well, we want to take it to other places and see if other communities would like to jump in.” The funds could help pay for the construction of restrooms in the canyon, shutting off illegal ATV trails, fencing off the city’s water source or additional patrols by law enforcement at night....
Park fee hikes questioned A four-year program to increase national parks entrance fees and make them more uniform could discourage many Americans from visiting their national parks — especially parks that are close to home, some parks boosters say. The federal government's move in January to replace the National Park Service's $50 annual pass with a new $80 multi-agency pass is also drawing fire. The National Parks Conservation Association, a non-partisan group that lobbies on behalf of national parks, recently called on Congress to allow the park service to bring back the less expensive pass, which allowed free entry to the 145 parks that charge fees. Another 246 national park sites do not have entrance fees. The new America the Beautiful Pass can be used at about 2,000 recreation sites operated by the park service, the U.S. Forest Service and several other federal agencies. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to the national parks has been falling....
Many views on wild lands
Heritage farmers reap riches money can't buy It's easy to understand what lured Lorenz F. Bading back to work the rolling pastures northeast of New Braunfels that have been in his family since 1852. It's in his voice as he gently prods one of his Red Limousin cattle out from in front of his range vehicle or quietly recalls the days long ago when he helped make sorghum cane into molasses on a mule-driven press, parts of which still stand near the home where he was born in 1916. Bading, Wood and their families are part of a group of 81 families recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture for keeping Texas land in farming or ranching for at least 150 years. Another 4,100 Texas farmers and ranchers have been honored in the state's Family Land Heritage Program since it began in 1974 for keeping land in agricultural production for at least 100 years. And five families, all in Jim Hogg or Starr counties of the Rio Grande Valley, have stayed active in agriculture for 200 years or more, going back to the Spanish land grants of the 18th century....
EU demands cows change their diets BARMY Euro MPs are demanding new laws to stop cows and sheep PARPING. Their call came after the UN said livestock emissions were a bigger threat to the planet than transport. The MEPs have asked the European Commission to “look again at the livestock question in direct connection with global warming”. The official EU declaration demands changes to animals’ diets, to capture gas emissions and recycle manure. They warned: “The livestock sector presents the greatest threat to the planet.” The proposal will be looked at by the 27 member states. The UN says livestock farming generates 18 per cent of greenhouse gases while transport accounts for 14 per cent....
Bangkok hosts key climate summit A major climate change conference which will spell out what needs to be done to combat global warming has got under way in the Thai capital Bangkok. It is the third such summit this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It aims to be the key guide to climate change technology and economics. A final draft seen by the BBC will say nations can protect the climate, but only if they make policies to halt the global growth in emissions by 2030. The draft refers to stabilising emissions between 450 and 550 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere....
Rancher uses easements in land fight Bob Patterson knows that it will take more than a conservation easement to stop the Army from taking his ranch south of Kim. He’s convinced, however, that such easements are a powerful tool for protecting agricultural land in Southeastern Colorado. “I don’t know if I’ll go up or down, but whichever way I go, I want to be looking at a ranch with cattle on it,” he joked last week at a seminar on conservation easements. About 75 people - a mix of real estate agents, landowners, bankers, appraisers and public officials - attended the seminar sponsored by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, the Colorado Ag Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy and Community Banks of Colorado. Patterson was a sort of pioneer for conservation easements in the region, working on protecting the 20,000-acre spread he and his wife Bunny bought in the 1960s. Along with his children, he worked for four years with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust to donate a conservation easement in 2001. A member of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association board, Patterson has helped fight the expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, which could aim for his property, “depending on which direction they’d go.”....
Colorado may say no to Fort Carson expansion Colorado, a state that has long been friendly toward the military, is poised to try to stop the Army from using eminent domain to vastly expand a troop training ground on the southeastern Plains. At the urging of ranchers who live near Fort Carson’s Pinon Canyon maneuver site, state lawmakers approved a bill that withdraws Colorado’s “consent” for the federal government to acquire more land for Pinon Canyon. The measure is now on the desk of Gov. Bill Ritter. Spokesman Evan Dryer wouldn’t comment Friday on whether Ritter will sign it but said the governor has “very serious concerns about the use of eminent domain” for the expansion. While military bases have faced closure elsewhere, Colorado Springs’ Fort Carson is adding 10,000 soldiers and will be home to 25,000 troops by 2009. It will also be a training site for National Guard units from around the West. The post has sent over 13,000 soldiers to Iraq, many on multiple tours, and many of the new soldiers arriving from Fort Hood have served in Iraq....
Yellowstone grizzlies ‘recovered’ One of the most pristine expanses of wilderness in the lower 48 states grew even wilder over the last two decades, with the resurgence of grizzly bears across 9 million acres in and around Yellowstone National Park. Starting today, those grizzlies will be cut loose from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The move is being hailed by the Bush administration as a landmark in the drive to protect the bears’ vast habitat. But a lawsuit to reverse the administration’s ruling already is being drafted, illustrating that the bitter fight over grizzlies — and the wild lands they roam — is far from over. The preservation groups behind the pending legal challenge claim the administration is delisting grizzlies as part of its agenda to expand logging, oil and gas exploration and grazing on Western lands. They also argue the administration is ignoring new perils for grizzlies, in global warming and the boom in vacation home construction that is sweeping across the West. Federal wildlife officials and some conservation groups say the litigation could throw a cloud over the entire endangered species program, obscuring one of the program’s rare success stories....
Views differ on warming's effect on grizzlies Yellowstone grizzlies need a lot of fuel. At its hungriest, one might consume 20,000 calories a day - the rough equivalent of snarfing 1½ Big Macs every hour. But for the 500 or so grizzlies that live in and around Yellowstone National Park, the Earth's warming climate may change what's on the menu. All four of the most important food groups for the bears - whitebark pine nuts, moths, cutthroat trout and winter-killed elk and bison - could potentially be affected by global warming. The difficulty, though, is predicting how. That will be one of the central questions looking forward as Yellowstone grizzly bears today are removed from the endangered-species list. Federal bear biologists who proposed delisting say grizzlies are highly adaptable and that managers will keep an eye on the bears and do what they can to make sure they can survive. Climate change or no, though, grizzlies have found ways to survive again and again in unstable environments, bear officials said. Their omnivorous tastes run from bugs and roots to meat, garbage and nearly everything in between....
Benzene surfaces Benzene has been found in water wells in two Sublette County natural gas fields. Federal land managers say the benzene probably came from trucks used to siphon water out of the wells. They say there is no threat to human health or livestock. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said benzene was found in four industrial water supply wells on the Jonah Field and on the Pinedale Anticline last August and September. Benzene is a hydrocarbon that can cause human health problems if ingested. There has been no drinking water contaminated," said Rey Adame, public affairs officer for the BLM. "There is no threat to human health or livestock. There are no threats to people working in the field. I don't want to create a panic with this, because it's not." A local conservation district tested the wells last summer, Adame said. The contamination was reported to BLM in January. Adame said he didn't know why there was a delay in reporting it. John Wagner, water quality administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said he didn't think operators would fined because the matter is still under investigation....
Colo. withdraws objection to water rights stipulations Nearly two weeks after filing objections to an agreement reached between Upper Gunnison Basin water users and the federal government in 2003, the state’s attorney general has filed a motion to withdraw it. “It was done because a number of parties in the Gunnison River Basin made it very clear they felt the filing of those objections would prevent further negotiation,” said Alexandra Davis, First Assistant Attorney General for the water rights unit. The agreement in question regards stipulations protecting the water rights of ranchers and other users from the government’s reserved water right for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Davis said the motion was filed to allow the state to withdraw its objection with “leave of the court to file them again later.” Frank Kugel said he believes there was “a broad base of support” for those who filed the stipulations and they felt the state had not lived up to its original commitment when it filed the objections. The state was closely involved with and provided input to those stipulations when they were filed, he said....
Well crackdown intensifies in Summit Kent Gloor wasn’t exactly happy when he recently received a letter telling him that state officials may revoke his well permit and curtail his use of water. “The tone of the letter was a little direct,” said the Breckenridge Heights property owner. “I’m sure there will be some homeowners who will be pretty upset.” Gloor referred to several hundred residents and property owners targeted by the continued crackdown on unauthorized well-water use. At issue are state laws that limit well water use to indoor, domestic purposes for certain types of wells. The general idea is, if you use groundwater to irrigate a lawn or wash a car, at least a portion of that water doesn’t make it back into surface streams. In effect, that water is lost to a potential downstream user with senior water rights. The problem has grown as more well users get hooked up to sewer systems, resulting in an even greater net loss to groundwater flows. “If you’re using water outside the conditions of your permit, you’re using someone else’s water,” said state water commissioner Scott Hummer. “The water that trickles down the mountain and fills the fissures in the rock where the well is goes down into a stream, where a rancher or a municipality may have senior rights to that water.”....
The big, dirty list When you think of water pollution, you might picture industrial waste, chemicals, sewage or some type of toxic sludge pouring out of an old rusty pipe into a river. That's the kind of water pollution you'll typically find in the Eastern United States. It's usually easy to detect and to stop: There's the sludge, there's the pipe it's pouring out of that should be turned off, and there's the offender who should be fined. But in New Mexico and other Western states, it's a very different story. Almost all water pollution in the West comes from the activities of animals and people. The sources are difficult to identify, even harder to stop, and almost impossible to issue fines for to the responsible parties. Contamination from these so-called nonpoint sources are often subtle and cumulative, taking place over many years. The pollution caused by nonpoint sources often has multiple origins and offenders, and takes much, much longer to clean up....
Elk foundation buys timber, grazing land The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has purchased 367 acres of timber and grazing land in the southern Bitterroot Valley and transferred the property to the state. The property, which sold for $688,000, supports some 1,000 wintering elk, the foundation said. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will wind up with the property after a swap with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for other land in the Bitterroot. "We're going to be celebrating this one. It was a real accomplishment made possible by a lot of great people," said Mike Mueller, senior lands program manager for the elk foundation. The property, on Lyman Creek northeast of Sula, is surrounded by the Sula State Forest on three sides. U.S. Forest Service land borders it on the east....
Closure of 2,450 miles of trails proposed Tahoe National Forest is proposing to close 2,450 miles of unauthorized off-highway-vehicle trails that have been used for years to halt problems such as erosion and impacts on wildlife. In turn, 50 miles of so-called OHV trails not previously in the forest's inventory will be added to a developing designated route system. The crackdown is part of a nationwide effort that began three years ago to identify motorized roads and trails on federal lands and control unmanaged riding. Unmanaged recreation from OHVs is one of the "four key threats facing the nation's forests and grasslands," according to a report by the U.S. Forest Service. "This kind of damage is just not acceptable," said Phil Horning, forest landscape architect with the Tahoe National Forest....
A new way to beautify canyons? Future upgrades to Providence Canyon could lie in the pocketbooks of city residents. That’s if a first-of-its-kind arrangement between the city, U.S. Forest Service and its nonprofit arm is approved by councilmembers. Under a proposal floated by Logan District Ranger Rob Cruz, Providence homeowners would be given the option to tack $1 on to their monthly utility bills. The money would be funneled into an interest-bearing account maintained by the National Forest Foundation until city and Forest Service officials come up with a project worthy of the money that’s donated. “We’ve never tried it anywhere in the country before this program. We’re on the cutting edge here,” Cruz said. “If it works out well, we want to take it to other places and see if other communities would like to jump in.” The funds could help pay for the construction of restrooms in the canyon, shutting off illegal ATV trails, fencing off the city’s water source or additional patrols by law enforcement at night....
Park fee hikes questioned A four-year program to increase national parks entrance fees and make them more uniform could discourage many Americans from visiting their national parks — especially parks that are close to home, some parks boosters say. The federal government's move in January to replace the National Park Service's $50 annual pass with a new $80 multi-agency pass is also drawing fire. The National Parks Conservation Association, a non-partisan group that lobbies on behalf of national parks, recently called on Congress to allow the park service to bring back the less expensive pass, which allowed free entry to the 145 parks that charge fees. Another 246 national park sites do not have entrance fees. The new America the Beautiful Pass can be used at about 2,000 recreation sites operated by the park service, the U.S. Forest Service and several other federal agencies. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to the national parks has been falling....
Many views on wild lands
Heritage farmers reap riches money can't buy It's easy to understand what lured Lorenz F. Bading back to work the rolling pastures northeast of New Braunfels that have been in his family since 1852. It's in his voice as he gently prods one of his Red Limousin cattle out from in front of his range vehicle or quietly recalls the days long ago when he helped make sorghum cane into molasses on a mule-driven press, parts of which still stand near the home where he was born in 1916. Bading, Wood and their families are part of a group of 81 families recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture for keeping Texas land in farming or ranching for at least 150 years. Another 4,100 Texas farmers and ranchers have been honored in the state's Family Land Heritage Program since it began in 1974 for keeping land in agricultural production for at least 100 years. And five families, all in Jim Hogg or Starr counties of the Rio Grande Valley, have stayed active in agriculture for 200 years or more, going back to the Spanish land grants of the 18th century....
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Wolf Kills Cows, Wolf Bites Human, Wolf Goes to Town, Wolf Released to Kill Again
She wasn’t born to a normal pack, no not AF 924, she was born in a den in Catron County during the spring of 2005. This wolf was born at the height of a spate of cattle killing that was occurring on what is now known to the locals as the Catron County Killing Fields. Her mother was the famous AF 511, or the Brunhilda wolf, an animal best known as Fish and Wildlife Services cover girl for their wolf recovery publications. For those who don’t know, Brunhilda was a Frankish queen who was known for her love for of torturing her prisoners. The name itself means ready for battle. Perhaps the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) chose the name wisely knowing something that most rural folks don’t. AF 511 lived up to her name and after several years of releases and cattle depredations that had nearly ruined several ranches, she was finally slated for permanent removal from the wild. She and her pups including f-924 were finally taken out the summer of 2005...Her daughter now grown and trap wise AF 924 is back in the Gila wilderness and carrying on the family name, along with a belly full of pups. Just last week, she was trans-located for the second time into New Mexico barely six months after her second removal from the wild. Two releases in less than two years, that seems to be an oddity but due to her hereditary penchant for killing cattle, she too was briefly removed from the wild for [management purposes]. That means that if she had been left on the ground to kill one more cow or calf or colt, she would have been handed a death sentence or if lucky, trapped and taken into captivity forever. FWS and the Mexican wolf recovery team cut their losses and picked her up before it was too late and they lost her forever....
She wasn’t born to a normal pack, no not AF 924, she was born in a den in Catron County during the spring of 2005. This wolf was born at the height of a spate of cattle killing that was occurring on what is now known to the locals as the Catron County Killing Fields. Her mother was the famous AF 511, or the Brunhilda wolf, an animal best known as Fish and Wildlife Services cover girl for their wolf recovery publications. For those who don’t know, Brunhilda was a Frankish queen who was known for her love for of torturing her prisoners. The name itself means ready for battle. Perhaps the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) chose the name wisely knowing something that most rural folks don’t. AF 511 lived up to her name and after several years of releases and cattle depredations that had nearly ruined several ranches, she was finally slated for permanent removal from the wild. She and her pups including f-924 were finally taken out the summer of 2005...Her daughter now grown and trap wise AF 924 is back in the Gila wilderness and carrying on the family name, along with a belly full of pups. Just last week, she was trans-located for the second time into New Mexico barely six months after her second removal from the wild. Two releases in less than two years, that seems to be an oddity but due to her hereditary penchant for killing cattle, she too was briefly removed from the wild for [management purposes]. That means that if she had been left on the ground to kill one more cow or calf or colt, she would have been handed a death sentence or if lucky, trapped and taken into captivity forever. FWS and the Mexican wolf recovery team cut their losses and picked her up before it was too late and they lost her forever....
Cowboy tales - horses and snakes top the list
By Julie Carter
There are some very fine stories that never make the history books.
Storytellers keep Native Americans' legends through the generations. It's the job of a gifted tribe member to be the keeper of the stories and to pass them on to the next generation from the many generations that came before.
Cowboys do much the same thing. The Native American storyteller will have a name like Grandmother Two Bears or Old Father Story Teller, the cowboy will simply be named Ben, Joe or Charlie. But if they were to be in a tribe somewhere, they might be named something like Man with Crooked Legs or Hitch In Get Along.
Old cowboys tend to be shorter than they were in their youth, a bit bow-legged and they waddle when they walk because their parts don't move like they should. The days of the long-legged strolling stride left when arthritis arrived.
What they no longer have in athletic ability, they have maintained with humor and the passing of the legends, otherwise known as cowboy wild and wooly tales.
The number of topics from the old days when cowboys were king is endless.
Always, things were bigger, better and wilder "back then." They may not be able to give you their wife's full name accurately and certainly the date of her birth, but they can name every single ill-headed horse they ever rode in a 50-year period.
Guaranteed, they can name the horse in every story of every wild and woolly wreck they ever had that involved a rope and cow.
And for some reason, each horse will either be the best he ever rode, or the sorriest. Recall has managed to sort out the possibility of any mediocre saddle horses from days gone by.
Another topic that will bring on the windy stories is snakes. There are generations of big ugly diamondbacks that slithered into a bedroll, traveled up a catch rope to meet the roper or fell out of a tree on an unsuspecting cowboy.
Snakes, in their mystical ability to strike fear in the hearts of all men, garner a corner of cowboy history all by themselves. Ask any bowlegged cowboy-booted hombre you run into for his best snake story. I promise you he'll have at least one.
Then there are the "goin' to town" stories. Not so long ago cowboys went to town only occasionally and that trip involved buying some groceries and other supplies.
On that same sojourn, they might eat a steak at the local restaurant, spring a few bucks for a haircut and spend some time at the local watering hole imbibing in some cool spring-water beverages.
One of my favorite cowboy storytellers had a great tale that involved both a trip to town and a horse.
During one of those supply trips to town, he decided a cool one was in order. No sense tying up outside; he just rode the green-broke colt into the bar.
Things were going seemingly well until, suddenly, the jukebox music stopped. When the place got quiet, the horse got wide-eyed and made every attempt to get to somewhere else.
In doing so, he fell over onto the pool table breaking his rider's foot. For decades, the cowboy blamed the jukebox for his injury that kept him gimpy the rest of his life.
Cowboys in the last half of the last century lived a kind of cowboy way that, for the most part, has faded from the landscape.
The new West is continually inspired by their stories.
Web site blog is updated weekly. Stop by and visit : www.julie-carter.com
By Julie Carter
There are some very fine stories that never make the history books.
Storytellers keep Native Americans' legends through the generations. It's the job of a gifted tribe member to be the keeper of the stories and to pass them on to the next generation from the many generations that came before.
Cowboys do much the same thing. The Native American storyteller will have a name like Grandmother Two Bears or Old Father Story Teller, the cowboy will simply be named Ben, Joe or Charlie. But if they were to be in a tribe somewhere, they might be named something like Man with Crooked Legs or Hitch In Get Along.
Old cowboys tend to be shorter than they were in their youth, a bit bow-legged and they waddle when they walk because their parts don't move like they should. The days of the long-legged strolling stride left when arthritis arrived.
What they no longer have in athletic ability, they have maintained with humor and the passing of the legends, otherwise known as cowboy wild and wooly tales.
The number of topics from the old days when cowboys were king is endless.
Always, things were bigger, better and wilder "back then." They may not be able to give you their wife's full name accurately and certainly the date of her birth, but they can name every single ill-headed horse they ever rode in a 50-year period.
Guaranteed, they can name the horse in every story of every wild and woolly wreck they ever had that involved a rope and cow.
And for some reason, each horse will either be the best he ever rode, or the sorriest. Recall has managed to sort out the possibility of any mediocre saddle horses from days gone by.
Another topic that will bring on the windy stories is snakes. There are generations of big ugly diamondbacks that slithered into a bedroll, traveled up a catch rope to meet the roper or fell out of a tree on an unsuspecting cowboy.
Snakes, in their mystical ability to strike fear in the hearts of all men, garner a corner of cowboy history all by themselves. Ask any bowlegged cowboy-booted hombre you run into for his best snake story. I promise you he'll have at least one.
Then there are the "goin' to town" stories. Not so long ago cowboys went to town only occasionally and that trip involved buying some groceries and other supplies.
On that same sojourn, they might eat a steak at the local restaurant, spring a few bucks for a haircut and spend some time at the local watering hole imbibing in some cool spring-water beverages.
One of my favorite cowboy storytellers had a great tale that involved both a trip to town and a horse.
During one of those supply trips to town, he decided a cool one was in order. No sense tying up outside; he just rode the green-broke colt into the bar.
Things were going seemingly well until, suddenly, the jukebox music stopped. When the place got quiet, the horse got wide-eyed and made every attempt to get to somewhere else.
In doing so, he fell over onto the pool table breaking his rider's foot. For decades, the cowboy blamed the jukebox for his injury that kept him gimpy the rest of his life.
Cowboys in the last half of the last century lived a kind of cowboy way that, for the most part, has faded from the landscape.
The new West is continually inspired by their stories.
Web site blog is updated weekly. Stop by and visit : www.julie-carter.com
Friday, April 27, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Canada won't meet Kyoto emission targets Canada's conservative government acknowledged Thursday it will not meet its Kyoto Protocol targets and announced a new environmental plan with a less ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the 1997 Kyoto accord on climate change, the former Liberal government committed to a 6 percent cut in greenhouse emissions from 1990 levels by 2012. But the country's emissions are now 30 percent above 1990 levels. The new goal of a national environmental initiative announced Thursday is to reduce the level of current emissions 20 percent by 2020. That means Canada will not meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol — which requires 35 industrialized countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that act like a greenhouse, trapping heat in the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. "I can't take responsibility for 10 lost years, but I can fully, and our government is prepared to fully, accept our responsibilities today," Environment Minister John Baird said in blaming the former Liberal government. The plan to tighten emissions controls on industry will cause Canada some economic pain, Baird warned. The government predicts price increases for cars, home appliances, electricity and fuel....
2008 Candidates Rely on Private Jets A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season. For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall. No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions. Thursday's debate, set on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., made for some whirlwind scheduling. Clinton, for instance, was scheduled to return to Washington Friday morning for an 8 a.m. address to the New York State United Teachers 35th Annual Representative Assembly, then fly back to South Carolina for an 11 a.m. event in Greenville....
Poll Finds Majority See Threat in Global Warming Americans in large bipartisan numbers say the heating of the earth’s atmosphere is having serious effects on the environment now or will soon and think that it is necessary to take immediate steps to reduce its effects, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds. Ninety percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans said immediate action was required to curb the warming of the atmosphere and deal with its effects on the global climate. Nineteen percent said it was not necessary to act now, and 1 percent said no steps were needed. The poll also found that Americans want the United States to support conservation and to be a global leader in addressing environmental problems and developing alternative energy sources to reduce reliance on fossil fuels like oil and coal. But when it comes to specific steps to foster conservation or produce more energy, the public is deeply torn, the poll found. Respondents said they would support higher gasoline prices to reduce dependence on foreign oil but would oppose higher prices to combat global warming. By large margins, respondents opposed an increase in pump prices of $2 a gallon, or even $1, to deal with environmental and energy-supply concerns. Three-quarters said they would be willing to pay more for electricity generated by renewable sources like solar or wind energy....
Panel weighs effects of oil, gas projects Westerners affected by oil and gas development on public lands testified Thursday about proposed changes in how the federal government handles leasing and permitting of energy projects. The hearing focused on the use of exemptions from some environmental analysis for certain projects and the problems that can arise when the government leases mineral rights under land lived on by private owners. Two House Natural Resources subcommittees jointly held the oversight hearing on land-use issues arising from energy development. Two federal officials testified in favor of the continued use of certain exemptions, but a representative of Western governors advocated for changes to it. A section of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows "categorical exclusions" to be used to exempt certain drilling projects from requirements to prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. John Emmerich testified on behalf of the Western Governors Association and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies that changes are needed. He and the WGA want the 2005 act to be modified so that categorical exclusions cannot be used in crucial habitat areas and wildlife corridors. Steve Adami, a rancher and certified public accountant in Buffalo, Wyo., testified that 12 of those wells are on his ranch. Adami did not know about the subsurface mineral rights when he bought his ranch in 1993. He told his story of a company coming onto the land and beginning development even while he waited for his appeal to be heard. Adami, who testified on behalf of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, asked for surface-owner input and accommodation as well as compensation for damages to be required in split-estate situations. He urged passage of a new federal split-estate law....
Industry: Relax wildlife rules Coal-bed methane industry representatives on Thursday asked federal regulators to loosen wildlife restrictions that shut down much of the industry's operations in Wyoming's Powder River Basin this spring. During breeding periods for sage grouse, eagles and other wildlife, the federal Bureau of Land Management imposes monthslong shutdowns of coal-bed methane work to prevent disturbance of the birds' nests and mating grounds. Researchers from the University of Montana say sage grouse populations in the Powder River Basin have suffered a sharp decline inside active coal-bed methane fields over the last decade. As coal-bed methane production shifted onto federal land during the last year, the restrictions meant to protect the birds came into play more often. That curtailed the drilling of new wells and prompted layoffs of some industry contractors. In response, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming this week hosted a two-day "sage grouse workshop" in Casper involving coal-bed methane companies, state and federal regulatory agencies and independent researchers. BLM officials would not comment on the request to modify its restrictions but agreed to work with the industry in the future....
Government renews focus on cross-Nevada rail line to nuclear dump The Energy Department is refocusing plans for a cross-Nevada railroad to a national nuclear waste repository, after an Indian tribe said it won't let radioactive waste cross its reservation, a top Yucca Mountain official said. A north-to-south railroad corridor that would have crossed the Walker River Paiute reservation in Mineral County no longer will be considered, Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said Wednesday. The department will instead focus on completing studies of the so-called Caliente rail corridor, a 319-mile route that would be built from eastern Nevada across the state to the Yucca Mountain repository at a projected cost of more than $2 billion. Sproat made his comments during a presentation in Washington, D.C., to a conference organized by the U.S. Transport Council, whose members are tied to the shipping of nuclear materials. Sproat, the Energy Department's Yucca project chief, said it was too late to remove the 280-mile Mina corridor from an environmental impact study the department expects to make public in October. He said the Mina route could have been cheaper and faster to build, but said planners now expect the decision will favor the Caliente route. The Walker River Paiute tribe announced April 17 that it was withdrawing from environmental studies of the Mina route, named after a site south of Hawthorne. The tribe's participation was key to Energy Department plans to use existing railroad rights-of-way through old mining districts to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas....
Backers await Army's response on Pinon Canyon Supporters of the Army's plan to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site believe the Pentagon will be able to make a compelling case to increase the training area - despite the growing list of state and federal lawmakers who are opposed to the expansion. "Once the Army has identified its area of interest around Pinon Canyon, they can begin to have a dialogue with area landowners," said retired Air Force Col. Brian Binn, president of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Division. "Tomorrow's Army needs larger training areas and Pinon Canyon and Fort Carson are inextricably linked." That's an argument that didn't persuade Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who sent the Army a letter on Wednesday spelling out his opposition to any expansion of the 238,000-acre training area southwest of La Junta. Pinon Canyon is in Salazar's 3rd Congressional District and he joins Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., in sending the Army a blunt refusal to support expanding Pinon Canyon by 418,000 acres. Musgrave's 4th Congressional District includes Eastern Plains areas that could be affected by the expansion. "My decision has been coming for some time now," Salazar said Thursday, saying his own analysis of the proposed expansion indicates it would ruin the agriculture and ranching economy of the area. "The Army has broken a lot of promises over the years about Pinon Canyon. The fact is, the agriculture community doesn't have much voice in government and I couldn't stand by and let this happen to them again."....
Pair of endangered wolves released into remote area of Gila Two more endangered Mexican gray wolves have been released into a remote area of New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that the pair, a male and a female from the Durango Pack, had been transferred from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge wolf facility to a staging area at the edge of the wilderness. They were released Tuesday. The female is pregnant and was released prior to birthing to increase chances that the wolves will den in the area, the agency said....See below for Catron County's reaction to the release of the male wolf.
AZ Senate Balks at Requiring Permits for Off-Highway Vehicles Another push to require owners of off-highway vehicles to pay for a new annual sticker has fallen short at the Legislature. The Senate on Thursday voted 14-13 for the bill (HB2443) but 16 votes were required for passage. The house had previously passed it overwhelmingly in March. Similar to programs in use in states such as Utah and California, Arizona's program would have provided money for development of trails and other access routes, grants for local enforcement of off-highway vehicle laws, mitigation of damage caused by OHVs and creation of maps, signs and educational material. Opponents said the mandatory sticker amounted to a tax increase, with one saying it would apply broadly but only benefit some....
Spotted owl in protection quarrel again The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a plan to recover the northern spotted owl on federal lands Thursday amid charges the plan is politically designed to dismantle old-growth forest protections afforded by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. Federal officials defended the proposal, saying it will take 30 years and $198 million to stabilize and recover an owl population that still is on the decline 17 years after it was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. But a member of the recovery team said the team’s work was undermined by Bush administration political appointees in Washington, D.C., who wanted less emphasis on preserving habitat and the Northwest Forest Plan. “The level of interference from Washington, D.C., is unprecedented,” said Tim Cullinan, an Audubon Washington wildlife biologist who participated on the owl-recovery team assembled by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “They’ve used the recovery plan as a crowbar that wrecks the Northwest Forest Plan.”. The recovery team originally tried to mesh the owl-recovery plan with the Northwest Forest Plan in establishing 37 owl- conservation areas encompassing about 7.7 million acres, Cullinan said. But the plan completed in September 2006 was rejected by the so-called Washington Oversight Committee, which consisted of former timber lobbyist and current Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett and 11 others. The oversight committee directed the recovery team to de-emphasize the Northwest Forest Plan in the original option and told team members to add a second recovery option that gives local land managers more flexibility to create owl-conservation areas....
Disease divides fed agencies There’s a deep division between two federal agencies over eradication of brucellosis in the bison and elk of Yellowstone National Park. That divide was the 800-pound gorilla for the Wyoming Governor's Brucellosis Coordination Committee here on Thursday. {M3Bret Combs, the area veterinarian in charge of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services, acknowledged that his group and the National Park Service “are not on the same page” regarding the eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone wildlife. Combs also acknowledged that until that gap is closed, Wyoming’s efforts to eliminate the disease in wildlife are likely doomed to failure. John Keck, the Wyoming state coordinator for the National Park Service, didn’t say much before the committee, but explained in a separate interview how complex the brucellosis problem looks from the Park Service's perspective. Keck said the agency divide exists in part because the Park Service does not regard its wildlife as a form of livestock. Indeed, the “wildness” of elk and bison are valued, and Park Service leadership balks at the suggestion from APHIS and ranchers that elk and bison be rounded up and processed through a test-and-slaughter program....
Editorial - Take the money TALK ABOUT your unintended consequences. A spokesman for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office says many Southeastern Colorado ranchers may be prohibited from taking private aid for the two holiday blizzard because of Amendment 41. The amendment, a so-called ethics in government measure, was passed last November by voters. It prohibits people in government or individuals directly related to government officials from taking more than $50 in gifts in any year. This would eliminate families that work for public schools, state colleges or counties. Because many of the households affected by the blizzards have family members who may work part time or full time for government, they may not be eligible for private assistance because of Amendment 41. Operation Blizzard Benefit, which featured a concert in Pueblo by Michael Martin Murphey and other entertainers, has raised more than $680,000 to help ranchers with their losses. Preliminary estimates pegged the number of fallen cattle at 10,000 head. It’s money from the benefit, not public aid, that might be construed as unlawful for certain families to receive. That’s certainly not what voters had in mind when they supported Amendment 41 at the polls....
House, Senate panel reject horse meat Congress moved on two fronts Thursday to prevent the slaughter of horses, wild and domesticated, for human consumption. The U.S. House voted 277-137 to repeal the so-called "Burns rider" to the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which banned the commercial sale and slaughter of equines found on public lands primarily in the West. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., in 2004, slipped an amendment into an omnibus spending bill allowing for the commercial processing of horses. Animal protection groups have worked since then to get the ban restored. Burns lost a bid for re-election to the Senate in November. The House voted in 2005 and 2006 to restore the ban, but the Senate did not address the issue. In the Senate, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday voted 15-7 to ban the slaughter of all horses for human food. The legislation would prohibit the movement of horses anywhere in the country for the purpose of slaughtering them for human consumption. Until last year there were only three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. - two in Texas and one in Illinois. All three have since closed. The bill appears to pre-empt transporting the animals to Canada or Mexico. There are three horse-packing plants in Canada, the nearest in Fort McLeod, Alberta, which processes horse meat for export to eastern Canada, Europe and Asia....
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? ... Not Anymore Imagine a proposal to scatter millions of pounds of poisoned meat around the United States, close to human populations. Much of it would be accessible to scavengers including eagles, hawks, coyotes, foxes and badgers, as well as to dogs and cats. An animal feeding on the poisoned meat would probably die. This scenario is likely, now that the opponents of slaughtering horses are having their way. For many years, unwanted horses have routinely been sent to slaughter. Some horse meat becomes pet food, but much goes for export to Europe for human consumption. Horse-slaughter opponents tend to think of horses as beloved pets, much like cats or dogs, and in America, the last thing we would do is eat a pet. In Europe, however, horse meat is a staple, and it’s found on many menus. The opponents of horse slaughter have concentrated their efforts on stopping the export of horse meat for human consumption. Since “filet of filly” is a dish that repels Americans, this argument has generated some sympathy. Exporting American horses to feed foreign palates has also been labeled unpatriotic, with critics calling the practice contrary to American values. Now, the poison-meat scenario has become the alternative to government-regulated horse slaughter. On March 29, the last U.S. horse-slaughter plant was closed down by order of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. A circuitous path led to shutting the doors — and summarily dismissing 55 employees — at the DeKalb, Ill., plant. Until a few months ago, three plants operated in the United States, and last year they slaughtered about 100,800 horses. What do slaughter opponents advocate? Their Political Action Committee, aptly called HOOFPAC, says it all in a slogan: “Keep America’s horses in the stable and off the table.” This is a catchy phrase, but it doesn’t address whose stable, and at whose expense....
Human Risk Played Down in Bad Feed The potential risk to humans who might have eaten meat contaminated with melamine is extremely low, and the Food and Drug Administration believes that only 6,000 hogs may have eaten the reconstituted feed. But concern has shifted to encompass melamine-related compounds that include cyanuric acid, which can be used as a pool cleaner, and mixed with melamine could cause crystal formations that damage kidneys and could in some cases cause the organ to fail, an F.D.A. official said. Melamine, a compound used to make plastic utensils and as a fertilizer in some countries, has been found in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that came from two Chinese suppliers starting as far back as July 2006....
Permits put cattle drive out to pasture It's OK to drive cattle through Angels Camp. But only in a great big truck. If you want whooping cowboys and the thunder of cow hooves on pavement, you'll need a permit. It's too late to get one from the California Department of Transportation in time for Italian Heritage Day on May 5, say event organizers. And a few old cowpokes around here are a bit blue about it. "This is my heritage," said Emily Stemler, 85, member of a longtime local ranching family and grand marshal for Italian Heritage Day. "It was just one of those things. You drove cattle on the highways all the time. We didn't have trucks to truck them." This year's Heritage Day is in part a revival of Angels Camp Living History Day. As recently as 2000, a morning cattle drive was part of Living History Day so folks would have some entertainment while they enjoyed flapjacks and java at the event's breakfast....
Canada won't meet Kyoto emission targets Canada's conservative government acknowledged Thursday it will not meet its Kyoto Protocol targets and announced a new environmental plan with a less ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the 1997 Kyoto accord on climate change, the former Liberal government committed to a 6 percent cut in greenhouse emissions from 1990 levels by 2012. But the country's emissions are now 30 percent above 1990 levels. The new goal of a national environmental initiative announced Thursday is to reduce the level of current emissions 20 percent by 2020. That means Canada will not meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol — which requires 35 industrialized countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that act like a greenhouse, trapping heat in the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. "I can't take responsibility for 10 lost years, but I can fully, and our government is prepared to fully, accept our responsibilities today," Environment Minister John Baird said in blaming the former Liberal government. The plan to tighten emissions controls on industry will cause Canada some economic pain, Baird warned. The government predicts price increases for cars, home appliances, electricity and fuel....
2008 Candidates Rely on Private Jets A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season. For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall. No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions. Thursday's debate, set on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., made for some whirlwind scheduling. Clinton, for instance, was scheduled to return to Washington Friday morning for an 8 a.m. address to the New York State United Teachers 35th Annual Representative Assembly, then fly back to South Carolina for an 11 a.m. event in Greenville....
Poll Finds Majority See Threat in Global Warming Americans in large bipartisan numbers say the heating of the earth’s atmosphere is having serious effects on the environment now or will soon and think that it is necessary to take immediate steps to reduce its effects, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds. Ninety percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans said immediate action was required to curb the warming of the atmosphere and deal with its effects on the global climate. Nineteen percent said it was not necessary to act now, and 1 percent said no steps were needed. The poll also found that Americans want the United States to support conservation and to be a global leader in addressing environmental problems and developing alternative energy sources to reduce reliance on fossil fuels like oil and coal. But when it comes to specific steps to foster conservation or produce more energy, the public is deeply torn, the poll found. Respondents said they would support higher gasoline prices to reduce dependence on foreign oil but would oppose higher prices to combat global warming. By large margins, respondents opposed an increase in pump prices of $2 a gallon, or even $1, to deal with environmental and energy-supply concerns. Three-quarters said they would be willing to pay more for electricity generated by renewable sources like solar or wind energy....
Panel weighs effects of oil, gas projects Westerners affected by oil and gas development on public lands testified Thursday about proposed changes in how the federal government handles leasing and permitting of energy projects. The hearing focused on the use of exemptions from some environmental analysis for certain projects and the problems that can arise when the government leases mineral rights under land lived on by private owners. Two House Natural Resources subcommittees jointly held the oversight hearing on land-use issues arising from energy development. Two federal officials testified in favor of the continued use of certain exemptions, but a representative of Western governors advocated for changes to it. A section of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows "categorical exclusions" to be used to exempt certain drilling projects from requirements to prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. John Emmerich testified on behalf of the Western Governors Association and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies that changes are needed. He and the WGA want the 2005 act to be modified so that categorical exclusions cannot be used in crucial habitat areas and wildlife corridors. Steve Adami, a rancher and certified public accountant in Buffalo, Wyo., testified that 12 of those wells are on his ranch. Adami did not know about the subsurface mineral rights when he bought his ranch in 1993. He told his story of a company coming onto the land and beginning development even while he waited for his appeal to be heard. Adami, who testified on behalf of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, asked for surface-owner input and accommodation as well as compensation for damages to be required in split-estate situations. He urged passage of a new federal split-estate law....
Industry: Relax wildlife rules Coal-bed methane industry representatives on Thursday asked federal regulators to loosen wildlife restrictions that shut down much of the industry's operations in Wyoming's Powder River Basin this spring. During breeding periods for sage grouse, eagles and other wildlife, the federal Bureau of Land Management imposes monthslong shutdowns of coal-bed methane work to prevent disturbance of the birds' nests and mating grounds. Researchers from the University of Montana say sage grouse populations in the Powder River Basin have suffered a sharp decline inside active coal-bed methane fields over the last decade. As coal-bed methane production shifted onto federal land during the last year, the restrictions meant to protect the birds came into play more often. That curtailed the drilling of new wells and prompted layoffs of some industry contractors. In response, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming this week hosted a two-day "sage grouse workshop" in Casper involving coal-bed methane companies, state and federal regulatory agencies and independent researchers. BLM officials would not comment on the request to modify its restrictions but agreed to work with the industry in the future....
Government renews focus on cross-Nevada rail line to nuclear dump The Energy Department is refocusing plans for a cross-Nevada railroad to a national nuclear waste repository, after an Indian tribe said it won't let radioactive waste cross its reservation, a top Yucca Mountain official said. A north-to-south railroad corridor that would have crossed the Walker River Paiute reservation in Mineral County no longer will be considered, Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said Wednesday. The department will instead focus on completing studies of the so-called Caliente rail corridor, a 319-mile route that would be built from eastern Nevada across the state to the Yucca Mountain repository at a projected cost of more than $2 billion. Sproat made his comments during a presentation in Washington, D.C., to a conference organized by the U.S. Transport Council, whose members are tied to the shipping of nuclear materials. Sproat, the Energy Department's Yucca project chief, said it was too late to remove the 280-mile Mina corridor from an environmental impact study the department expects to make public in October. He said the Mina route could have been cheaper and faster to build, but said planners now expect the decision will favor the Caliente route. The Walker River Paiute tribe announced April 17 that it was withdrawing from environmental studies of the Mina route, named after a site south of Hawthorne. The tribe's participation was key to Energy Department plans to use existing railroad rights-of-way through old mining districts to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas....
Backers await Army's response on Pinon Canyon Supporters of the Army's plan to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site believe the Pentagon will be able to make a compelling case to increase the training area - despite the growing list of state and federal lawmakers who are opposed to the expansion. "Once the Army has identified its area of interest around Pinon Canyon, they can begin to have a dialogue with area landowners," said retired Air Force Col. Brian Binn, president of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Division. "Tomorrow's Army needs larger training areas and Pinon Canyon and Fort Carson are inextricably linked." That's an argument that didn't persuade Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., who sent the Army a letter on Wednesday spelling out his opposition to any expansion of the 238,000-acre training area southwest of La Junta. Pinon Canyon is in Salazar's 3rd Congressional District and he joins Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., in sending the Army a blunt refusal to support expanding Pinon Canyon by 418,000 acres. Musgrave's 4th Congressional District includes Eastern Plains areas that could be affected by the expansion. "My decision has been coming for some time now," Salazar said Thursday, saying his own analysis of the proposed expansion indicates it would ruin the agriculture and ranching economy of the area. "The Army has broken a lot of promises over the years about Pinon Canyon. The fact is, the agriculture community doesn't have much voice in government and I couldn't stand by and let this happen to them again."....
Pair of endangered wolves released into remote area of Gila Two more endangered Mexican gray wolves have been released into a remote area of New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that the pair, a male and a female from the Durango Pack, had been transferred from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge wolf facility to a staging area at the edge of the wilderness. They were released Tuesday. The female is pregnant and was released prior to birthing to increase chances that the wolves will den in the area, the agency said....See below for Catron County's reaction to the release of the male wolf.
AZ Senate Balks at Requiring Permits for Off-Highway Vehicles Another push to require owners of off-highway vehicles to pay for a new annual sticker has fallen short at the Legislature. The Senate on Thursday voted 14-13 for the bill (HB2443) but 16 votes were required for passage. The house had previously passed it overwhelmingly in March. Similar to programs in use in states such as Utah and California, Arizona's program would have provided money for development of trails and other access routes, grants for local enforcement of off-highway vehicle laws, mitigation of damage caused by OHVs and creation of maps, signs and educational material. Opponents said the mandatory sticker amounted to a tax increase, with one saying it would apply broadly but only benefit some....
Spotted owl in protection quarrel again The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a plan to recover the northern spotted owl on federal lands Thursday amid charges the plan is politically designed to dismantle old-growth forest protections afforded by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. Federal officials defended the proposal, saying it will take 30 years and $198 million to stabilize and recover an owl population that still is on the decline 17 years after it was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. But a member of the recovery team said the team’s work was undermined by Bush administration political appointees in Washington, D.C., who wanted less emphasis on preserving habitat and the Northwest Forest Plan. “The level of interference from Washington, D.C., is unprecedented,” said Tim Cullinan, an Audubon Washington wildlife biologist who participated on the owl-recovery team assembled by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “They’ve used the recovery plan as a crowbar that wrecks the Northwest Forest Plan.”. The recovery team originally tried to mesh the owl-recovery plan with the Northwest Forest Plan in establishing 37 owl- conservation areas encompassing about 7.7 million acres, Cullinan said. But the plan completed in September 2006 was rejected by the so-called Washington Oversight Committee, which consisted of former timber lobbyist and current Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett and 11 others. The oversight committee directed the recovery team to de-emphasize the Northwest Forest Plan in the original option and told team members to add a second recovery option that gives local land managers more flexibility to create owl-conservation areas....
Disease divides fed agencies There’s a deep division between two federal agencies over eradication of brucellosis in the bison and elk of Yellowstone National Park. That divide was the 800-pound gorilla for the Wyoming Governor's Brucellosis Coordination Committee here on Thursday. {M3Bret Combs, the area veterinarian in charge of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services, acknowledged that his group and the National Park Service “are not on the same page” regarding the eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone wildlife. Combs also acknowledged that until that gap is closed, Wyoming’s efforts to eliminate the disease in wildlife are likely doomed to failure. John Keck, the Wyoming state coordinator for the National Park Service, didn’t say much before the committee, but explained in a separate interview how complex the brucellosis problem looks from the Park Service's perspective. Keck said the agency divide exists in part because the Park Service does not regard its wildlife as a form of livestock. Indeed, the “wildness” of elk and bison are valued, and Park Service leadership balks at the suggestion from APHIS and ranchers that elk and bison be rounded up and processed through a test-and-slaughter program....
Editorial - Take the money TALK ABOUT your unintended consequences. A spokesman for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office says many Southeastern Colorado ranchers may be prohibited from taking private aid for the two holiday blizzard because of Amendment 41. The amendment, a so-called ethics in government measure, was passed last November by voters. It prohibits people in government or individuals directly related to government officials from taking more than $50 in gifts in any year. This would eliminate families that work for public schools, state colleges or counties. Because many of the households affected by the blizzards have family members who may work part time or full time for government, they may not be eligible for private assistance because of Amendment 41. Operation Blizzard Benefit, which featured a concert in Pueblo by Michael Martin Murphey and other entertainers, has raised more than $680,000 to help ranchers with their losses. Preliminary estimates pegged the number of fallen cattle at 10,000 head. It’s money from the benefit, not public aid, that might be construed as unlawful for certain families to receive. That’s certainly not what voters had in mind when they supported Amendment 41 at the polls....
House, Senate panel reject horse meat Congress moved on two fronts Thursday to prevent the slaughter of horses, wild and domesticated, for human consumption. The U.S. House voted 277-137 to repeal the so-called "Burns rider" to the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which banned the commercial sale and slaughter of equines found on public lands primarily in the West. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., in 2004, slipped an amendment into an omnibus spending bill allowing for the commercial processing of horses. Animal protection groups have worked since then to get the ban restored. Burns lost a bid for re-election to the Senate in November. The House voted in 2005 and 2006 to restore the ban, but the Senate did not address the issue. In the Senate, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday voted 15-7 to ban the slaughter of all horses for human food. The legislation would prohibit the movement of horses anywhere in the country for the purpose of slaughtering them for human consumption. Until last year there were only three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. - two in Texas and one in Illinois. All three have since closed. The bill appears to pre-empt transporting the animals to Canada or Mexico. There are three horse-packing plants in Canada, the nearest in Fort McLeod, Alberta, which processes horse meat for export to eastern Canada, Europe and Asia....
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? ... Not Anymore Imagine a proposal to scatter millions of pounds of poisoned meat around the United States, close to human populations. Much of it would be accessible to scavengers including eagles, hawks, coyotes, foxes and badgers, as well as to dogs and cats. An animal feeding on the poisoned meat would probably die. This scenario is likely, now that the opponents of slaughtering horses are having their way. For many years, unwanted horses have routinely been sent to slaughter. Some horse meat becomes pet food, but much goes for export to Europe for human consumption. Horse-slaughter opponents tend to think of horses as beloved pets, much like cats or dogs, and in America, the last thing we would do is eat a pet. In Europe, however, horse meat is a staple, and it’s found on many menus. The opponents of horse slaughter have concentrated their efforts on stopping the export of horse meat for human consumption. Since “filet of filly” is a dish that repels Americans, this argument has generated some sympathy. Exporting American horses to feed foreign palates has also been labeled unpatriotic, with critics calling the practice contrary to American values. Now, the poison-meat scenario has become the alternative to government-regulated horse slaughter. On March 29, the last U.S. horse-slaughter plant was closed down by order of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. A circuitous path led to shutting the doors — and summarily dismissing 55 employees — at the DeKalb, Ill., plant. Until a few months ago, three plants operated in the United States, and last year they slaughtered about 100,800 horses. What do slaughter opponents advocate? Their Political Action Committee, aptly called HOOFPAC, says it all in a slogan: “Keep America’s horses in the stable and off the table.” This is a catchy phrase, but it doesn’t address whose stable, and at whose expense....
Human Risk Played Down in Bad Feed The potential risk to humans who might have eaten meat contaminated with melamine is extremely low, and the Food and Drug Administration believes that only 6,000 hogs may have eaten the reconstituted feed. But concern has shifted to encompass melamine-related compounds that include cyanuric acid, which can be used as a pool cleaner, and mixed with melamine could cause crystal formations that damage kidneys and could in some cases cause the organ to fail, an F.D.A. official said. Melamine, a compound used to make plastic utensils and as a fertilizer in some countries, has been found in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that came from two Chinese suppliers starting as far back as July 2006....
Permits put cattle drive out to pasture It's OK to drive cattle through Angels Camp. But only in a great big truck. If you want whooping cowboys and the thunder of cow hooves on pavement, you'll need a permit. It's too late to get one from the California Department of Transportation in time for Italian Heritage Day on May 5, say event organizers. And a few old cowpokes around here are a bit blue about it. "This is my heritage," said Emily Stemler, 85, member of a longtime local ranching family and grand marshal for Italian Heritage Day. "It was just one of those things. You drove cattle on the highways all the time. We didn't have trucks to truck them." This year's Heritage Day is in part a revival of Angels Camp Living History Day. As recently as 2000, a morning cattle drive was part of Living History Day so folks would have some entertainment while they enjoyed flapjacks and java at the event's breakfast....
US Fish and Wildlife Services Releases Dangerous Mexican Gray Wolf; Catron County Demands Removal
The Mexican Gray Wolf pack called the Durango pack was officially translocated to the Gila National Forest. US Fish and Wildlife Services decided to release this pack on the 24th one day earlier than the scheduled April 25th release date from their soft holding pen. Today, Catron County New Mexico has requested immediate removal of this wolf in their following statement “Notice of Finding of Imminent Danger, Wolf Durango F924” due to this wolf’s history of biting and drawing blood on a human...This letter is a Notice of Finding of Imminent Danger by the Catron County Commission and constitutes a demand for immediate removal of Mexican wolf F924 from the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery program as per Catron County Amended Ordinance 001-2007 and pursuant to 63 C.F.R. § 1752 and 1759 and 50 C.F.R. § 17.84(k). For the reasons set forth herein and pursuant to Amended Catron County Ordinance 001-2007 (“Ordinance”), the Catron County Commission has determined that Mexican wolf F924 (“wolf”) is by definition a threat to human safety and a problem wolf as per the ordinance and federal regulation. Specifically this wolf has a known history of causing imminent danger to humans, including children or other defenseless persons, domestic animals and/or livestock pursuant to Section 1 and Section 2 of the Ordinance. Because of this wolf’s past behavior, pursuant to section 4 of Ordinance 001-2007, Catron County submits this demand for immediate removal of this wolf from the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery program. The facts surrounding this request are as follows....
The Mexican Gray Wolf pack called the Durango pack was officially translocated to the Gila National Forest. US Fish and Wildlife Services decided to release this pack on the 24th one day earlier than the scheduled April 25th release date from their soft holding pen. Today, Catron County New Mexico has requested immediate removal of this wolf in their following statement “Notice of Finding of Imminent Danger, Wolf Durango F924” due to this wolf’s history of biting and drawing blood on a human...This letter is a Notice of Finding of Imminent Danger by the Catron County Commission and constitutes a demand for immediate removal of Mexican wolf F924 from the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery program as per Catron County Amended Ordinance 001-2007 and pursuant to 63 C.F.R. § 1752 and 1759 and 50 C.F.R. § 17.84(k). For the reasons set forth herein and pursuant to Amended Catron County Ordinance 001-2007 (“Ordinance”), the Catron County Commission has determined that Mexican wolf F924 (“wolf”) is by definition a threat to human safety and a problem wolf as per the ordinance and federal regulation. Specifically this wolf has a known history of causing imminent danger to humans, including children or other defenseless persons, domestic animals and/or livestock pursuant to Section 1 and Section 2 of the Ordinance. Because of this wolf’s past behavior, pursuant to section 4 of Ordinance 001-2007, Catron County submits this demand for immediate removal of this wolf from the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery program. The facts surrounding this request are as follows....
Thursday, April 26, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
State may sue EPA over clean air law Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday said California will sue the federal government if the state is not allowed to implement its landmark law slashing greenhouse gases from vehicles within six months. "The clock is ticking…. If we don't see quick action from the federal government, we will sue the U.S. EPA," said Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. "I just had a conversation with [EPA Administrator] Steve Johnson, and I said we are going to sue him," the governor said. "I put him on notice that the federal government is moving too slow." Environmental Protection Agency officials countered that they were moving "expeditiously" on California's request. But in a move that provoked immediate criticism, they also said Wednesday that they may link a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on greenhouse gases to California's request. If they do, it could delay the waiver decision yet again. Under the federal Clean Air Act, California is allowed to pass its own air pollution laws but must first obtain a waiver from the EPA. The state submitted its waiver request in December 2005, after the law was passed. After California receives permission, other states can follow its lead. Eleven other states have adopted similar tailpipe greenhouse gas laws....
Rep. Salazar says no to expanding Pinon Canyon The Army lost a battle Wednesday in its long campaign to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site when Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., sent a letter to the Defense Department stating his opposition to any expansion of the 238,000-acre training site southwest of La Junta. The Pinon Canyon training area is within Salazar's 3rd Congressional District and Salazar spelled out his opposition to expanding the training area in a four-page letter to Keith Eastin, assistant Army secretary for installations. Salazar said that adding 418,000 more acres to the Pinon Canyon site would "decimate" the area's ranching economy, take needed tax revenue from the rural counties that would be affected. He said the Army has failed to justify why the Army cannot conduct training at other Defense Department sites. "Furthermore, Pinon Canyon has been underutilized since its inception," Salazar said, noting that area residents report the training is used only a few times a year. "Simply put, the Army has neglected to make a compelling reason to acquire an additional 418,000 acres."....
Forest Service to Padlock Privies Toilets in the great outdoors can be an oasis for hikers, anglers, dirt-bikers and horseback riders, so the threat of padlocking them has created a little anxiety. The Tahoe National Forest, one of the nation's busiest, is running short on money to maintain its portable toilets. Each of the non-flushing privies sits on a 1,000-gallon concrete tank that has to be emptied, typically once a season. A bunch of dirt-bikers are offering to pay for pumping out one of them so it can stay open. But that's just one. Another 10 or so toilets, mostly serving trailheads in the forest, face padlocking. The problem of shrinking budgets for outdoor maintenance is crucial in California's national forests because operating costs are relatively higher than in the rest of the country, said Bonnie Petitt, recreation officer for the Tahoe forest. In 2006, the Forest Service got $54,500 through a special California fund collected from off-road vehicle fees that go to trail maintenance, which includes servicing 19 toilets in the trail areas. The forest needs at least $12,000 annually just to keep the toilets pumped out, Petitt said....Well, looks like my ol' Dad was right -- the Forest Service really can't manage shit.
State says feds should step up to the plate and fix Forest Service roads Nearly 2,170 miles of primitive roads meander through the Olympic National Forest, but poor maintenance and inadequate funding have left nearly half of those roads one big storm away from a washout. The state Department of Ecology, environmental groups and tribal leaders say the problem is pandemic throughout Washington’s six national forests. They fear washouts and gradual erosion could flood rivers with sediment, harming fish habitat and water quality. Now, they’re asking Congress for a tenfold increase in funding for the Forest Service to either fix or decommission the 22,000 miles of Forest Service roads in the state....
Ranchettes to replace wild horse plots? An Arizona real estate developer appears to be using the lure of wild horses to sell 40-acre ranchettes at a rural development near the Snowy Range, a Humane Society of the United States official charged this week. Wild Horse Ranch at Lake Hattie’s web site proclaims that “the wild horse” is “the heart and soul of the ranch. ... Dedication to their freedom and care is an ongoing priority and will always be an outstanding and unique quality of this property.” The web site contains numerous pictures of wild horses and herds. Dave Pauli, Humane Society regional leader in Billings, said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming citizens should be “deeply concerned” about the developer’s practice of “utilizing the horses’ charismatic beauty to sell the ground out from under their hooves.” Pauli said the BLM “should be taking the lead to ensure there is no appearance of commercialization of the horses and no misdirection of government funds intended to provide for the humane care of the wild horses placed on the ranch." Alan Shepherd, a BLM wild horse official in Cheyenne, said the BLM does not consider the activities of the developer as a violation of a standard clause in the adoption contract which prohibits “commercially exploiting a wild horse or burro.”....If this becomes a commercially successful venture, it will lead to additional wild horse sanctuaries being created. Why would the horse advocates oppose that?
Bill seeks oversight of conservation areas Much of the federal land set aside for conservation in southern Arizona has patchwork management which critics say is underfunded and can change greatly from administration to administration. Four members of Congress have sponsored a bill to give national conservation areas, national wilderness areas and national monuments more security under permanent management. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, whose job has been more about doling out land for economic ventures than environmental protection, has been stuck managing these lands. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson, would establish the National Conservation Land System and make protection of these lands permanent and create an agency specifically to oversee them. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate last week by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. "It designates that system as an important system and it gives the lands status important for protection," Grijalva said. The bill, if approved, represents the last step in turning the Wilderness Act of 1964 into hard and fast conservation, said Matt Skroch, executive director of a Tucson-based environmental group, Sky Island Alliance....
Democrats demand a say in changes to species protection Key Senate Democrats expressed concern yesterday about an Interior Department proposal they say will weaken the Endangered Species Act and demanded the Bush administration include Congress in any attempt to rewrite the 30-year-old law. "We have seen reports of a document reflecting extensive draft revisions" and "additional documents that have surfaced recently suggest that major rule revisions remain under active consideration," the senators told Interior Secretary Dirk Kemp-thorne in a letter yesterday. "We are concerned about any attempt to overhaul the Endangered Species Act program administratively, without the involvement of Congress," the lawmakers wrote. The letter includes 15 questions the lawmakers are demanding be answered before the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service moves forward with any changes. The letter is signed by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, and independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont. The 90-page proposal limits the number of species protected and the acreage of habitat preserved for those species, and includes a timeline for protection. It also shifts more power and funding from the federal government to the states, and gives local officials veto power over what plants and animals will be protected....
Navajo President Explains Why New Mexico Was Selected As Location For First Casino Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. outlined the reasons for changing the location of the tribe’s first casino from Arizona to New Mexico during his State of the Nation Address on April 16. “…as you well know, the Pinta Road exit at Nahata Dziil (near Sanders) was selected as a casino site,” Shirley said. “The selection was based upon land availability and access. However, we have discovered that the Navajo Nation does not own the sub-surface rights.” Shirley went on to explain that the tribe had hoped to work with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in a “friendly condemnation” of the sub-surface rights, but the BLM advised the Navajo Nation to seek the rights by other means, such as through congressional action or “by simply relying upon Arizona state law.” The president stated, “Protection of our interests under state law is limited, and I believe that we must have unfettered use of the site if we are to invest millions in a gaming facility there. Even though Shirley indicated that a casino would likely still be built in the Nahata Dziil, or Sanders, area, he explained that the tribe’s first casino is now planned for Church Rock, N.M., just outside of Gallup. “We have prioritized this location because of land availability, and because the market study provided by GVA Marquette Advisors shows that the Gallup area is an excellent location to maximize our revenue generating potential,” he said....
Artist sees profit in recycling of park Rich Holstein, who has salvaged large amounts of reclaimed wood from the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, has another grand plan he says could benefit the National Park Service and the local economy. Holstein proposed a large-scale reclamation plan for national parks across the country. Under his plan, all buildings being remodeled or in the throes of demolition would have wood and other building products saved to create keepsakes and art. The National Park Service would continue to pay for reclamation costs. But, he said, the they would get 25 percent of the profits from sales of products created from recyclables crafted by Holstein and his employees. Since 2005, Holstein has harvested wood from the Old Faithful Inn to create picture and mirror frames. Holstein said folks want to purchase treasures from their visits, not knickknacks with "Made in China" stamped on the bottom. "Everybody is looking to take something home made from the park," he said. Those treasures could include throw rugs recycled from park carpets, brass key rings from pipes and wires, and picture frames from walls and floors....
Yellowstone wolf diet returns to normal Call it a change in taste. After an early-winter preference for young elk, wolves in Yellowstone National Park have turned their attention to killing older bulls. Doug Smith, the park's lead wolf biologist, said the wolves' out-of-the-ordinary emphasis on elk calves in November and December was followed by a more typical diet of large male elk last month. "This is right in line with what they do in March," Smith said. The wolves' diet late last year raised a few eyebrows. A survey by park biologists showed about 75 percent of the wolf kills were calves, 15 percent were bulls and about 10 percent were females. There was some speculation that the early mild conditions made it harder for wolves to get adult elk, so they turned to calves. But in March, about half of the kills were bulls, roughly 25 percent were calves and 25 percent were adult females, Smith said. The surveys are conducted every December and March to get an idea of what wolves are eating and how the overall population is faring....
Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’ Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place. Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway. The FT investigation found: ■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions. ■ Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially. ■ Brokers providing services of questionable or no value. ■ A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits. ■ Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts....
CoStar Green Report: Grassroots, Part II We’ve may have traded Rachel Carson for Al Gore, swapped "Kumbaya" with Kyoto and we’re talking green buildings instead of clean water, but there appears to be more than a few similarities between today's fight against global warming and the environmental movement of yesteryear. Roused by Carson’s searing expose, "Silent Spring," and taken up by an already restless nation embroiled in Vietnam, the environmental movement blossomed into a historic inaugural Earth Day in 1970, followed by a decade of sweeping, unprecedented period of environmental legislation and reform. Now, enmeshed in another controversial war and spurred by an inconvenient truth, people are talking environmentalism again, in a volume not heard since Cuyahoga and Love Canal made headlines. And while Gore hardly pioneered the science of global warming, his message is having the same rallying effect and evoking the same collective awareness that Carson marshaled in the dawn of the grassroots movement. If these historical parallels hold, we may once again be on our way down the path that led to the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), all within about a decade....
State rodeo queen quits her position Reba Buchholz, of Bismarck - who officially started her reign Jan. 1 as Miss Rodeo North Dakota 2007 - has resigned, says Nancy Jo Bateman, president of the Miss Rodeo North Dakota Pageant Association. Bateman said the several issues that the association directors considered before accepting Buchholz's resignation had to do with requirements not upheld by Buchholz in the agreement she signed after winning the title. That agreement includes rules ranging from dress code requirements to conduct expectations, required appearances and the prohibition of alcohol and drugs. "Obviously, it's been a really uncomfortable situation for Reba and the directors," Bateman said. She said Buchholz and pageant officials have agreed the details that led to the resignation will remain among them, "and that's where they need to stay." Bateman said Buchholz has had to return the saddle she won, as well as other prizes. She said the board received Buchholz's resignation letter at the end of March....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Mechanic, doc do their best My mechanic has a lot in common with my mother's doctor. When the steering wheel locked up on my 1969 Ford F-250 3/4-ton, four-speed with split rims and a manual choke, we cajoled it down to George's garage in town. On my truck's last visit to George's, he replaced the power steering pump, so I figured I was good for a while, but ... not so! I left it over the weekend with instructions to please fix it. My sweet mother has had a long relationship with her doctors. They have kept her ticking through the Great Depression, World War II, four children and two husbands, as more than her share of afflictions struck away at her health. She still has an ongoing schedule of doctor's appointments. Sometimes she has a complaint, or the visit is just for a checkup. But no matter the purpose of the visit, it seems the doctors can always find something that's not quite right that requires an additional test or pill. I have found that I have to be specific when I take my truck to George's. If I just said, "If you see anything wrong, fix it," George could retire to the Bahamas after I paid the bill! The motor has been rebuilt, but the runnin' gear is wearing out. Kinda like Mother. She has a strong heart but her tie rods are loose....
State may sue EPA over clean air law Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday said California will sue the federal government if the state is not allowed to implement its landmark law slashing greenhouse gases from vehicles within six months. "The clock is ticking…. If we don't see quick action from the federal government, we will sue the U.S. EPA," said Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. "I just had a conversation with [EPA Administrator] Steve Johnson, and I said we are going to sue him," the governor said. "I put him on notice that the federal government is moving too slow." Environmental Protection Agency officials countered that they were moving "expeditiously" on California's request. But in a move that provoked immediate criticism, they also said Wednesday that they may link a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on greenhouse gases to California's request. If they do, it could delay the waiver decision yet again. Under the federal Clean Air Act, California is allowed to pass its own air pollution laws but must first obtain a waiver from the EPA. The state submitted its waiver request in December 2005, after the law was passed. After California receives permission, other states can follow its lead. Eleven other states have adopted similar tailpipe greenhouse gas laws....
Rep. Salazar says no to expanding Pinon Canyon The Army lost a battle Wednesday in its long campaign to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site when Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., sent a letter to the Defense Department stating his opposition to any expansion of the 238,000-acre training site southwest of La Junta. The Pinon Canyon training area is within Salazar's 3rd Congressional District and Salazar spelled out his opposition to expanding the training area in a four-page letter to Keith Eastin, assistant Army secretary for installations. Salazar said that adding 418,000 more acres to the Pinon Canyon site would "decimate" the area's ranching economy, take needed tax revenue from the rural counties that would be affected. He said the Army has failed to justify why the Army cannot conduct training at other Defense Department sites. "Furthermore, Pinon Canyon has been underutilized since its inception," Salazar said, noting that area residents report the training is used only a few times a year. "Simply put, the Army has neglected to make a compelling reason to acquire an additional 418,000 acres."....
Forest Service to Padlock Privies Toilets in the great outdoors can be an oasis for hikers, anglers, dirt-bikers and horseback riders, so the threat of padlocking them has created a little anxiety. The Tahoe National Forest, one of the nation's busiest, is running short on money to maintain its portable toilets. Each of the non-flushing privies sits on a 1,000-gallon concrete tank that has to be emptied, typically once a season. A bunch of dirt-bikers are offering to pay for pumping out one of them so it can stay open. But that's just one. Another 10 or so toilets, mostly serving trailheads in the forest, face padlocking. The problem of shrinking budgets for outdoor maintenance is crucial in California's national forests because operating costs are relatively higher than in the rest of the country, said Bonnie Petitt, recreation officer for the Tahoe forest. In 2006, the Forest Service got $54,500 through a special California fund collected from off-road vehicle fees that go to trail maintenance, which includes servicing 19 toilets in the trail areas. The forest needs at least $12,000 annually just to keep the toilets pumped out, Petitt said....Well, looks like my ol' Dad was right -- the Forest Service really can't manage shit.
State says feds should step up to the plate and fix Forest Service roads Nearly 2,170 miles of primitive roads meander through the Olympic National Forest, but poor maintenance and inadequate funding have left nearly half of those roads one big storm away from a washout. The state Department of Ecology, environmental groups and tribal leaders say the problem is pandemic throughout Washington’s six national forests. They fear washouts and gradual erosion could flood rivers with sediment, harming fish habitat and water quality. Now, they’re asking Congress for a tenfold increase in funding for the Forest Service to either fix or decommission the 22,000 miles of Forest Service roads in the state....
Ranchettes to replace wild horse plots? An Arizona real estate developer appears to be using the lure of wild horses to sell 40-acre ranchettes at a rural development near the Snowy Range, a Humane Society of the United States official charged this week. Wild Horse Ranch at Lake Hattie’s web site proclaims that “the wild horse” is “the heart and soul of the ranch. ... Dedication to their freedom and care is an ongoing priority and will always be an outstanding and unique quality of this property.” The web site contains numerous pictures of wild horses and herds. Dave Pauli, Humane Society regional leader in Billings, said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming citizens should be “deeply concerned” about the developer’s practice of “utilizing the horses’ charismatic beauty to sell the ground out from under their hooves.” Pauli said the BLM “should be taking the lead to ensure there is no appearance of commercialization of the horses and no misdirection of government funds intended to provide for the humane care of the wild horses placed on the ranch." Alan Shepherd, a BLM wild horse official in Cheyenne, said the BLM does not consider the activities of the developer as a violation of a standard clause in the adoption contract which prohibits “commercially exploiting a wild horse or burro.”....If this becomes a commercially successful venture, it will lead to additional wild horse sanctuaries being created. Why would the horse advocates oppose that?
Bill seeks oversight of conservation areas Much of the federal land set aside for conservation in southern Arizona has patchwork management which critics say is underfunded and can change greatly from administration to administration. Four members of Congress have sponsored a bill to give national conservation areas, national wilderness areas and national monuments more security under permanent management. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, whose job has been more about doling out land for economic ventures than environmental protection, has been stuck managing these lands. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson, would establish the National Conservation Land System and make protection of these lands permanent and create an agency specifically to oversee them. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate last week by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. "It designates that system as an important system and it gives the lands status important for protection," Grijalva said. The bill, if approved, represents the last step in turning the Wilderness Act of 1964 into hard and fast conservation, said Matt Skroch, executive director of a Tucson-based environmental group, Sky Island Alliance....
Democrats demand a say in changes to species protection Key Senate Democrats expressed concern yesterday about an Interior Department proposal they say will weaken the Endangered Species Act and demanded the Bush administration include Congress in any attempt to rewrite the 30-year-old law. "We have seen reports of a document reflecting extensive draft revisions" and "additional documents that have surfaced recently suggest that major rule revisions remain under active consideration," the senators told Interior Secretary Dirk Kemp-thorne in a letter yesterday. "We are concerned about any attempt to overhaul the Endangered Species Act program administratively, without the involvement of Congress," the lawmakers wrote. The letter includes 15 questions the lawmakers are demanding be answered before the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service moves forward with any changes. The letter is signed by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, and independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont. The 90-page proposal limits the number of species protected and the acreage of habitat preserved for those species, and includes a timeline for protection. It also shifts more power and funding from the federal government to the states, and gives local officials veto power over what plants and animals will be protected....
Navajo President Explains Why New Mexico Was Selected As Location For First Casino Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. outlined the reasons for changing the location of the tribe’s first casino from Arizona to New Mexico during his State of the Nation Address on April 16. “…as you well know, the Pinta Road exit at Nahata Dziil (near Sanders) was selected as a casino site,” Shirley said. “The selection was based upon land availability and access. However, we have discovered that the Navajo Nation does not own the sub-surface rights.” Shirley went on to explain that the tribe had hoped to work with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in a “friendly condemnation” of the sub-surface rights, but the BLM advised the Navajo Nation to seek the rights by other means, such as through congressional action or “by simply relying upon Arizona state law.” The president stated, “Protection of our interests under state law is limited, and I believe that we must have unfettered use of the site if we are to invest millions in a gaming facility there. Even though Shirley indicated that a casino would likely still be built in the Nahata Dziil, or Sanders, area, he explained that the tribe’s first casino is now planned for Church Rock, N.M., just outside of Gallup. “We have prioritized this location because of land availability, and because the market study provided by GVA Marquette Advisors shows that the Gallup area is an excellent location to maximize our revenue generating potential,” he said....
Artist sees profit in recycling of park Rich Holstein, who has salvaged large amounts of reclaimed wood from the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, has another grand plan he says could benefit the National Park Service and the local economy. Holstein proposed a large-scale reclamation plan for national parks across the country. Under his plan, all buildings being remodeled or in the throes of demolition would have wood and other building products saved to create keepsakes and art. The National Park Service would continue to pay for reclamation costs. But, he said, the they would get 25 percent of the profits from sales of products created from recyclables crafted by Holstein and his employees. Since 2005, Holstein has harvested wood from the Old Faithful Inn to create picture and mirror frames. Holstein said folks want to purchase treasures from their visits, not knickknacks with "Made in China" stamped on the bottom. "Everybody is looking to take something home made from the park," he said. Those treasures could include throw rugs recycled from park carpets, brass key rings from pipes and wires, and picture frames from walls and floors....
Yellowstone wolf diet returns to normal Call it a change in taste. After an early-winter preference for young elk, wolves in Yellowstone National Park have turned their attention to killing older bulls. Doug Smith, the park's lead wolf biologist, said the wolves' out-of-the-ordinary emphasis on elk calves in November and December was followed by a more typical diet of large male elk last month. "This is right in line with what they do in March," Smith said. The wolves' diet late last year raised a few eyebrows. A survey by park biologists showed about 75 percent of the wolf kills were calves, 15 percent were bulls and about 10 percent were females. There was some speculation that the early mild conditions made it harder for wolves to get adult elk, so they turned to calves. But in March, about half of the kills were bulls, roughly 25 percent were calves and 25 percent were adult females, Smith said. The surveys are conducted every December and March to get an idea of what wolves are eating and how the overall population is faring....
Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’ Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place. Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway. The FT investigation found: ■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions. ■ Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially. ■ Brokers providing services of questionable or no value. ■ A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits. ■ Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts....
CoStar Green Report: Grassroots, Part II We’ve may have traded Rachel Carson for Al Gore, swapped "Kumbaya" with Kyoto and we’re talking green buildings instead of clean water, but there appears to be more than a few similarities between today's fight against global warming and the environmental movement of yesteryear. Roused by Carson’s searing expose, "Silent Spring," and taken up by an already restless nation embroiled in Vietnam, the environmental movement blossomed into a historic inaugural Earth Day in 1970, followed by a decade of sweeping, unprecedented period of environmental legislation and reform. Now, enmeshed in another controversial war and spurred by an inconvenient truth, people are talking environmentalism again, in a volume not heard since Cuyahoga and Love Canal made headlines. And while Gore hardly pioneered the science of global warming, his message is having the same rallying effect and evoking the same collective awareness that Carson marshaled in the dawn of the grassroots movement. If these historical parallels hold, we may once again be on our way down the path that led to the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), all within about a decade....
State rodeo queen quits her position Reba Buchholz, of Bismarck - who officially started her reign Jan. 1 as Miss Rodeo North Dakota 2007 - has resigned, says Nancy Jo Bateman, president of the Miss Rodeo North Dakota Pageant Association. Bateman said the several issues that the association directors considered before accepting Buchholz's resignation had to do with requirements not upheld by Buchholz in the agreement she signed after winning the title. That agreement includes rules ranging from dress code requirements to conduct expectations, required appearances and the prohibition of alcohol and drugs. "Obviously, it's been a really uncomfortable situation for Reba and the directors," Bateman said. She said Buchholz and pageant officials have agreed the details that led to the resignation will remain among them, "and that's where they need to stay." Bateman said Buchholz has had to return the saddle she won, as well as other prizes. She said the board received Buchholz's resignation letter at the end of March....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Mechanic, doc do their best My mechanic has a lot in common with my mother's doctor. When the steering wheel locked up on my 1969 Ford F-250 3/4-ton, four-speed with split rims and a manual choke, we cajoled it down to George's garage in town. On my truck's last visit to George's, he replaced the power steering pump, so I figured I was good for a while, but ... not so! I left it over the weekend with instructions to please fix it. My sweet mother has had a long relationship with her doctors. They have kept her ticking through the Great Depression, World War II, four children and two husbands, as more than her share of afflictions struck away at her health. She still has an ongoing schedule of doctor's appointments. Sometimes she has a complaint, or the visit is just for a checkup. But no matter the purpose of the visit, it seems the doctors can always find something that's not quite right that requires an additional test or pill. I have found that I have to be specific when I take my truck to George's. If I just said, "If you see anything wrong, fix it," George could retire to the Bahamas after I paid the bill! The motor has been rebuilt, but the runnin' gear is wearing out. Kinda like Mother. She has a strong heart but her tie rods are loose....
FLE
Mexican Officials Coached Witnesses In Border Patrol Murder Case The key prosecution witnesses in the case of the Border Patrol agent charged with murder for shooting a confrontational illegal immigrant are themselves illegal aliens related to the shot man and coached by the Mexican government before U.S. authorities even spoke to them. When prosecutors in Arizona’s Cochise County proudly announced the first-degree murder charges against Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett this week, they failed to mention some important details that could prove damaging to their case. First is the fact that their key witnesses are the two brothers and a sister-in-law of the shot man, who incidentally joined him on his illegal border crossing journey. Secondly, is the fact that Mexican Consul officials were allowed to interview and coach the already biased witnesses before they gave statements to U.S. authorities. Mexican officials were granted unrestricted access to the apprehended illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol agent in charge of the Naco station where they were detained immediately after the January shooting. The senior agent, Darcy Olmos, has a long history of pandering to Mexico and Mexican aliens and refers to illegal immigrants as “my people.” In fact, when ranchers near the border complained of vandalism by illegal aliens, Olmos said that ancestors of the ranchers had stolen the land from her people....
Border sheriffs plead with lawmakers for funds Southwest sheriffs frustrated with federal efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border pleaded with Bush administration officials and lawmakers for funds to lessen the local burden of fighting drug trafficking and illegal immigration. “I think the sheriffs are frustrated that this is going kind of slow,” said Joe Pollock, president of the Sheriff's Association of Texas. “The local taxpayers don't have the money to afford it. The federal government does.” Pollock, sheriff of Burnet County, was joined by two dozen law enforcement officers representing 26 counties in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Tuesday's meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Bush administration officials was arranged by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who have worked with the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition to fight crime and improve border security without impeding trade. It was the first time the coalition of sheriffs met with Chertoff. He has made numerous trips to the border to hear complaints first hand about the lack of funds. “It's important to hear some of their front-line observations,” Chertoff said....
The Corridor of Killing The killers wrapped the cop's head in silver duct tape, using a knife to plant a message in his chest. As a final touch, they left a hand grenade by the corpse--a calling card, of sorts. Three hours north, another group of killers hunted drug mules and migrant smugglers in the hills of Santa Cruz County. There was a heavy U.S. response--armored agents and Blackhawk helicopters descended on them near Sonoita. A group of five killers was found three days later--but yet another hit went down close to Pima County. It was calm for a few weeks; cops started thinking they may have finished the group off. Then the hunters killed again, this time near Green Valley. Federal agents say the two theaters of murder, one in Sonora, another in Arizona, are not related; the narcos are staying on their side of the border, while opportunistic thugs wreak havoc on the well-worn illegal trails in the desert of the Tumacacori Mountains. Then again, maybe they are related--tied together by the fact that they exist at all, a corridor of killing stretching from Sinaloa to Sonora and into Arizona. People familiar with the situation reveal an uncomfortable truth: Years of federal neglect of the Arizona border have compromised the line. Killings are spilling out of control, hit men moving in to fill the gaps left by American law enforcement....
Mexican Officials Coached Witnesses In Border Patrol Murder Case The key prosecution witnesses in the case of the Border Patrol agent charged with murder for shooting a confrontational illegal immigrant are themselves illegal aliens related to the shot man and coached by the Mexican government before U.S. authorities even spoke to them. When prosecutors in Arizona’s Cochise County proudly announced the first-degree murder charges against Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett this week, they failed to mention some important details that could prove damaging to their case. First is the fact that their key witnesses are the two brothers and a sister-in-law of the shot man, who incidentally joined him on his illegal border crossing journey. Secondly, is the fact that Mexican Consul officials were allowed to interview and coach the already biased witnesses before they gave statements to U.S. authorities. Mexican officials were granted unrestricted access to the apprehended illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol agent in charge of the Naco station where they were detained immediately after the January shooting. The senior agent, Darcy Olmos, has a long history of pandering to Mexico and Mexican aliens and refers to illegal immigrants as “my people.” In fact, when ranchers near the border complained of vandalism by illegal aliens, Olmos said that ancestors of the ranchers had stolen the land from her people....
Border sheriffs plead with lawmakers for funds Southwest sheriffs frustrated with federal efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border pleaded with Bush administration officials and lawmakers for funds to lessen the local burden of fighting drug trafficking and illegal immigration. “I think the sheriffs are frustrated that this is going kind of slow,” said Joe Pollock, president of the Sheriff's Association of Texas. “The local taxpayers don't have the money to afford it. The federal government does.” Pollock, sheriff of Burnet County, was joined by two dozen law enforcement officers representing 26 counties in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Tuesday's meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Bush administration officials was arranged by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who have worked with the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition to fight crime and improve border security without impeding trade. It was the first time the coalition of sheriffs met with Chertoff. He has made numerous trips to the border to hear complaints first hand about the lack of funds. “It's important to hear some of their front-line observations,” Chertoff said....
The Corridor of Killing The killers wrapped the cop's head in silver duct tape, using a knife to plant a message in his chest. As a final touch, they left a hand grenade by the corpse--a calling card, of sorts. Three hours north, another group of killers hunted drug mules and migrant smugglers in the hills of Santa Cruz County. There was a heavy U.S. response--armored agents and Blackhawk helicopters descended on them near Sonoita. A group of five killers was found three days later--but yet another hit went down close to Pima County. It was calm for a few weeks; cops started thinking they may have finished the group off. Then the hunters killed again, this time near Green Valley. Federal agents say the two theaters of murder, one in Sonora, another in Arizona, are not related; the narcos are staying on their side of the border, while opportunistic thugs wreak havoc on the well-worn illegal trails in the desert of the Tumacacori Mountains. Then again, maybe they are related--tied together by the fact that they exist at all, a corridor of killing stretching from Sinaloa to Sonora and into Arizona. People familiar with the situation reveal an uncomfortable truth: Years of federal neglect of the Arizona border have compromised the line. Killings are spilling out of control, hit men moving in to fill the gaps left by American law enforcement....
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