NEWS ROUNDUP
NASA drone aids Zaca firefighting efforts Firefighters battling the stubborn Zaca fire got an assist last week from a high-flying unmanned aircraft, NASA and Ventura County officials said Friday. NASA's Ikhana, a Predator B drone adapted for civil missions, flew over the wide-ranging fire zone once in the morning and again in the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2007 to map where the flames were heading. The fire, which has consumed more than 235,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is 83% contained. Incident commanders said they hoped to have full containment by Sept. 7. Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper called the NASA drone a "great tool," because its sophisticated instruments captured images unseen by conventional aircraft. "It provided intelligence as to where the front was," Roper said in a fire update Friday to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. "Otherwise we would have been blinded by the smoke." Ikhana collected data on Zaca and three other wildfires while flying more than 1,200 miles over 10 hours, according to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base....
Fighting fire like a regular military ground, air war The exasperating, foot-by-foot battle to snuff out the Castle Rock fire comes close to replicating a genuine military ground war against a stubborn, human enemy. Forest Service ground firefighters are the infantry. Earth-moving tractors are armored units. Large and small aircraft and helicopters "bombing" flames and clearing the way for ground troops is the air force. The inscrutable, unpredictable enemy is the Castle Rock inferno sweeping through valley woodlands. Most apparent to residents is the air war: Fixed-wing aircraft zooming low over the flaming terrain to unload water and chemical retardant, while helicopters hover over ponds sucking up more loads of water to shower on flaming woodlands too difficult for fixed wing aircraft to reach....
Wildfires in the West: Myths and Realities One of the frequently repeated “truths” is that fires are more “destructive” than in the past due to fire suppression. By putting out fires, we are told, we have contributed to higher fuel loads in our woodlands that is the cause of the large blazes we seem to be experiencing around the West. But like any scientific fact, the more we know, the more we understand how little we really understand. While fuels are important to any blaze, the latest research is suggesting that weather/climatic conditions rather than fuels drive large blazes. In other words, you can have all the fuel in the world, but if it’s not dry enough, you won’t get a large blaze. On the other hand if you have severe drought, combined with low humidity and high winds, almost any fuel loading will burn and burn well. Despite all the rhetoric about “historic” fire seasons, including several years where more than 7-8 million acres burned, the total acreage burned today is actually quite low by historic standards. As recently as the 1930s Dust Bowl drought years, more than 39 million acres burned annually in the US. And long term research going back thousands of years suggests that the past 50-70 years may be real anomalies in terms of acreage burned as well as fire severity. It may be that the limited fire activity between the 1930s and 1990s was more a reflection of moister climatic conditions than due to any effective fire suppression....
1924 was the summer of endless fires Forest fires have always been a part of the Sierra Nevada. Climate change and man’s hand on the land have changed the nature of fire in the forests. The late 1800s up to the 1920s was a time of wetter winters and cooler summers, and forests that still had many low-intensity fires. The turning point came in the 1920s when drought struck the West. In the Truckee-Tahoe area, dense new-growth forests, now containing more white fir than pine, had grown after extensive logging of the 1800s and could now fuel hotter, larger fires. The winter of 1923-24 was a very dry one with no more than three feet of snow on Donner Summit in early March. March and April had deep powder storms that stacked up snow on the Sierra Crest, but had little moisture for the Truckee River Basin. These storms did not leave a flake for Reno, which went six months without any precipitation. The early 1920s saw a startling increase in large wildfires in California, including large ones on the west slope of the Sierra that destroyed whole watersheds of old growth forests. The year 1923 was one of fire terror in the Coastal Ranges. Fire raged through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley, burning hundreds of homes. All up and down California dry forests and ranges went up in smoke and flames....
Vail creating barrier against wildfire As the color red has grown in the forest, so have Saundra Spaeh’s worries. Her home, near West Vail, is just two doors down from the forest, where as much as 90 percent of lodgepole pines are dead or dying. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has hit her neighborhood hard. Whether it’s a lightning strike or a barbecue sparking a blaze, Spaeh says she understands the risk of a destructive forest fire. So she’s grateful that town, county and the U.S. Forest Service are cooperating to create a layer of “defensible space” — a 200-to-300-foot barrier — that aims to stop the spread of a fire, either from the forest into the neighborhood or vice versa. Trees are being removed on almost 200 acres of land around Vail. Much of that work will happen this fall, and workers are already clearing a landing spot for a helicopter, which will haul out felled trees. Above Intermountain and Matterhorn in West Vail, crews will cut about 8,000 trees, starting in the next couple of weeks....
Product Could Heal Soil After Fires The millions of acres scorched by wildfires and left susceptible to mudslides can be shored up by spreading inexpensive granules that a company says will keep barren soil in place when the rainy season arrives. U.S. Forest Service scientists have been testing Encap LLC's product that bonds the clay inside soil to form a "net" to help vegetation recover. Called PAM-12, it's a synthetic chemical that looks like salt and is wrapped in recycled paper. Soil scientists have found few other ways to control large-scale erosion after a fire aside from straw, which absorbs and retains moisture like mulch but doesn't actually strengthen soil. "The concept of using soil itself to prevent erosion and establish new plant life, it's exciting," said Mike Krysiak, Encap's president and chief officer. Already this year, nearly 7 million acres have burned across the country, and about 40 fires of at least 500 acres each were raging this week, most in Montana and Idaho....
A swimming success: Recovery efforts help bring back trout Apache trout, found nowhere else in the world except the streams and lakes of eastern Arizona's high country, were the first native fish to be placed on the federal Endangered Species List. Now, thanks to the diligent work of Apache tribal fisheries' personnel and a host of other players in a cooperative effort, these yellow-gold fish may become the first to be removed from that list. The White Mountain Apache Tribe recognized more than 60 years ago that the only remaining pure populations of Apache trout lived in just a few streams on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. In 1955, all reservation streams thought to contain pure populations were closed to sport fishing and a federal, state and tribal recovery effort began. ''Initial conservation efforts were not enough,'' according to Bob David, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist and a project leader at the National Fish Hatchery Complex in Whiteriver. ''Apache trout were categorized as 'endangered' and became federally protected in 1973. And stayed endangered for a couple of years until stocking of hatchery-reared fingerlings resumed, recovery hopes brightened, and they were upgraded to the 'threatened' category.'' They've stayed ''threatened'' for a couple of decades while recovery efforts continued, but complete restoration of the species is now close at hand....
Hearing set for plan to pump rural Nevada water to Las Vegas Decisions Tuesday by Nevada's state water engineer could mean less debate during a two-week-long hearing in February on a plan to pump billions of gallons of water from three rural valleys to booming Las Vegas. But even though issues to be discussed during the Feb. 4-15 proceedings will be limited, groups and individuals protesting the plan will be able to argue some key points - that relevant information wasn't made public and that more planning and studies are needed. And anything left out in an effort to streamline the hearings won't be "to the detriment of the (water) resource," Jason King, a deputy state water engineer, said during a conference held to plan for the hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority application. State Engineer Tracy Taylor dropped other issues from the proceedings because they had been discussed in detail in previous applications by SNWA for water from other rural Nevada valleys. The no-debate items include SNWA's justifying of the need to import water and its argument that it has implemented adequate conservation plans in the Las Vegas area. Taylor also won't allow any arguments that Las Vegas is big enough and that growth controls should be established....
Volunteers fight ATV bad image First there was Paul. Then there was Gary. And now, there's Dean. Since the time Rough Country Four Wheelers began volunteering in the Medicine Bow National Forest, they have retired two Forest Service employees in addition to keeping miles of road and trail open. Their third, Dean Lebeda, has been with them for about 15 years. He says the group's work has been instrumental for places like the Muddy Creek Road as well as other areas. Like many agencies, underfunding and understaffing makes it hard for Forest Service employees to keep up. Volunteers have helped ease that burden. "The Muddy Creek Road probably wouldn't be open without the work the Rough Country Club has done," he says....
Off-road Enthusiasts Hit the Highway with Protest You couldn't miss them: protesters perched on the Highway 50 overcrossings sending a message that they want to save access to off-road vehicle trails. Off-road riders are worried the government will block access to a big chunk of roads and trails in the Eldorado National Forest by early next year. "I drive motorcycles and quads. My whole family does," said protester Dennis Maloney. "They've threatened to close, right now, over half the trails and roads that we use and have access in the forest."....
The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains In order to halt the ruination of these untamed places, a concerted effort among the citizens of Colorado must lead the way for the effort to have any real, lasting impact. Colorado Wild, an environmental outfit that focuses its energies on fighting ski hill expansions, has taken the helm and has had more success than the Vail arsonists in fighting the purveyors of unbridled expansion. Right now the group, along with Friends of Wolf Creek, are hoping to stop the construction of a 10,000 person village in the middle of the San Juan Mountains, one of the snowiest regions of Colorado. The investor for the project is Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs who owns the Minnesota Vikings and co-founded Clear Channel Communications. In 2005 Forbes rated McCombs one of the 400 richest Americans. The "Village at Wolf Creek" is to be constructed just below the Continental Divide, where the mighty rivers of the West divide and race to their respective homes. McCombs' vision, not unlike that of Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton who built the township near Vail, is sustained by greed and a rampant disregard for the wild. Like most capitalists, McCombs is in it for the money and status. Nothing more. Right now the fight over the blueprints for Village at Wolf Creek still remain in the courts....
Appeals court upholds Cave Rock climbing ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the U.S. Forest Service-imposed ban on climbing Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock. The rock formation between Glenbrook and Zephyr Cove has long been regarded as sacred by the Washoe Tribe. But its history also includes being part of the original settlers' road around the lake - first as a trestle around the rock and now in the form of two tunnels blasted through the rock as a route for Highway 50. And since the late 1980s, recreational rock climbers have considered Cave Rock one of the nation's premier climbing sites. The lawsuit by Boulder, Colo.-based The Access Fund, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting recreational climbing areas, charged Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson "abruptly and unexpectedly" banned climbing in November 2002. She made the ban permanent in 2004, citing both the historic and cultural value of the rock in the eyes of Washoe tribal members. The Access Fund said the ban is unconstitutional because it gives a religious group exclusive control over public property....
NOAA Helps Small Towns Remove Obsolete Dams An excavator breached a dam on Oregon's Calapooia River Monday at Brownsville, a small town about 20 miles north of Eugene. Soon the dam will be gone and federally listed threatened salmon will be able to swim upstream to their historic spawning grounds once more. This historic dam removal is the first project to be completed under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new Open Rivers Initiative, which provides funding and technical expertise for community-driven, small dam and river barrier removals. Under the initiative, NOAA will work with communities to remove up to 50 obsolete dams and rundown culverts across the nation each year. These projects will begin to repair river systems and also eliminate dangerous conditions that are prevalent at outdated structures....
Burning Man's icon goes up in flames, 4 days prematurely A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said. Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said. Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno. Some 40,000 people are expected to gather in the desert by this weekend for Burning Man, and Thompson said about 15,000 revelers are already at the festival site. Many were on the playa early this morning watching the lunar eclipse when the fire ignited at 2:58 a.m., according to Burning Man organizers....
Feds reconsidering prairie dogs' unprotected status The federal government will reconsider a contested decision not to place the Gunnison's prairie dog on the endangered-species list, officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a public-comment period, seeking new information on the prairie dogs, which are found only in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "We're just asking everybody if you've got any information regarding prairie-dog distribution, about threats to the prairie dogs - anything," said Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for the agency. The move comes after the environmental group Forest Guardians and 73 other plaintiffs reached a settlement last month in their suit over the agency's decision not to put the prairie dogs on the endangered-species list. "The Gunnison's prairie dog desperately needs federal protection if it is to be spared from extinction," prairie-dog biologist Con Slobodchikoff said in a statement after the settlement. The Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the prairie-dog population has declined by 97 percent because of poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague and habitat destruction....
Endangered-species suit planned An environmental organization served notice Tuesday that it intends to sue a federal agency over 55 endangered species in 28 states and seek restoration of 8.7 million acres of protected habitat. The suit includes two birds found in Western Washington: the marbled murrelet and the Western snowy plover. The Center for Biological Diversity said its formal notice of intent to sue the Interior Department is the starting point for the largest legal action in the history of the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act. The action accuses the federal government of illegally removing one animal from the endangered-species list, refusing to put three animals on the list and proposing to downgrade or remove protection from seven others. In addition, it contends that the government's actions stripped protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species from Texas to Washington state. The Tucson-based center claims that Bush administration appointees made the decision based on politics and not science....
Officials say island is on way to recovery after 5,036 pigs killed Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world. Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state. "This is a huge milestone," said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resources for Channel Islands National Park, which co-owns Santa Cruz Island with The Nature Conservancy. More than 150 years ago, farmers ferried pigs to the area as they tried to eke out an existence on California's largest island. Over the years, the pigs escaped from their pens, bred with non-native wild boars and settled into a life of rooting through the vast grasslands for acorns and grubs hidden underneath an array of plants — some found nowhere else on earth....Almost $1,000 per pig? That's a "huge milestone" alright.
A $27 Million Plan For Ivory Billed Woodpecker As inconclusive but tantalizing evidence has mounted that the elusive ivory billed woodpecker still lives in the southeastern swamps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed its first-ever recovery plan for the endangered species. It was listed as endangered 40 years ago, and was even then widely believed to be extinct. That changed when a Cornell University team published an account of seeing the bird in 2004 — prompting an aggressive annual search for evidence that the bird still lives. The plan calls for $27 million, primarily to continue looking for the bird and to understand where and how it lives so that appropriate conservation efforts can be planned. No conclusive evidence has emerged that the bird exists, but a growing number of anecdotal sightings by experienced birders have provided enough evidence that the effort is worthwhile, according to the recovery plan. The dearth of information about the bird, however, prevents the production of a more detailed recovery plan, the likes of which are produced for other endangered species....
Horse killed by wolves A Department of Natural Resources wolf expert confirmed Wednesday that a horse found dead in Kimball earlier this month was killed by wolves. Adrian Wydeven, of Park Falls, a DNR mammalian ecologist, said the death was listed as a "probable wolf kill." Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services conducted an examination at the scene and an autopsy on the horse was later performed, he noted. The animal, owned by Gene Milewski of Ironwood, had been a top racing horse at one time. It was about 20 years old. Milewski raced horses at the Gogebic County Fair in Ironwood for many years. Wydeven said the owner of the property where the horse was killed has been issued a wolf kill shooting permit and a federal trapper is working that area....
U.S. appeals court OKs Canada beef imports A U.S. appeals court gave the green light on Tuesday to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, rejecting a rancher group's effort to impose a ban amid mad cow disease concerns. The Montana-based Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) argued that live Canadian cattle posed a risk of mad cow disease to the U.S. cattle herd and should be banned. "Having reviewed the merits of this case, we conclude that the agency considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and its decision to designate Canada a minimal-risk country," Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "R-CALF's extra-record evidence has failed to convince us that the agency's review was unauthorized, incomplete, or otherwise improper," Judge Hall wrote. The decision went point by point through R-CALF's arguments but found fault in them. "The agency -- at the time it made its decision -- properly relied on studies from both the World Organization for Animal Health and the Harvard Center on Risk Analysis finding that feed bans were the most effective way to prevent the spread of BSE," the court wrote. "It bears repeating that the agency did not assume 100 percent effectiveness of its measures."....
Copper thefts hit farms hard, rising metal prices fuel surge Twice this spring, metal thieves trespassed onto Gary Barton's walnut ranches in the Central Valley, yanked out the copper connecting his irrigation pumps to the power poles, and drove off with thousands of dollars worth of scrap metal. In all, Barton says he's had to spend more than $10,000 repairing and replacing the copper wiring for the seven vandalized pumps. And he considers himself fortunate—other farmers have lost entire crops and had to shell out much more to stay in business. Metal thefts have been on the rise as prices have skyrocketed, and copper thefts are hitting farmers in California and throughout the country particularly hard. Commonly used in electrical wiring, and included in motors for pumps and tractors and other farm machinery, copper is everywhere in agricultural operations and is an increasingly juicy target for thieves, selling for around $3.50 a pound, a more than 400 percent increase from 2001, fueled in part by demand from a building boom in China....
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
A vote for expanding Piñon Sen. Wayne Allard slid slightly off the fence Monday, saying he would support the Army’s plans to buy more than 650 square miles of ranch land in southeast Colorado to expand a training area. But Allard, a Republican whose voice is key in deciding whether Army plans move forward, left a large obstacle in the Defense Department’s path, saying it should get acreage to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site only from those who want to sell. “I’m not willing to pick a fight with my House colleagues, yet,” Allard said during a news conference Monday at Fort Carson. “But we do want people to move forward.” The fight Allard alluded to is brewing over a measure pushed by Reps. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Marilyn Musgrave., R-Colo., that would block Army spending on expansion planning. That measure has passed the House and could come up for Senate consideration in early September....
State says elk herd is bigger than thought A northwest Colorado elk herd is two to three times larger than originally believed, state wildlife officials say. The Bears Ears herd is now estimated at 23,000 to 45,000, state Division of Wildlife officials said. Previous estimates put the herd at 11,000 to 15,000 animals. The new count is based on a spring survey of elk herd ranges using three helicopters and one airplane. "We used a grid system to count the elk on the ground," DOW wildlife biologist Darby Finley said. "We flew over 1,754 miles of winter range and counted 4,119 elk." Some northwest Colorado landowners had complained for years that the DOW elk estimates were faulty. "There's way too many elk in some places," rancher John Smith said. "They move into these meadows too early and rub out the growth. They kill the edible brush."....
River ruckus Congress recognized the unique features of the lower river in 1986 when it passed the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. The act, signed by President Reagan, also designated a 7.7-mile stretch of the White Salmon from BZ Corner to just above Northwestern Lake as a national scenic river that would remain forever free-flowing and buffered by a corridor protecting it from development. The scenic stretch lies upstream from Condit Dam, which is scheduled for demolition next year. The designation was unique for another reason: All 1,874 acres in the protected river corridor were in private ownership. The principal landowner was, and remains, SDS Lumber Co., which owns 725 acres in the protected corridor. SDS initially agreed to exchange that land with the Forest Service for timber land outside the boundary. Last year, SDS logged a key area along Spring Creek, a tributary within the scenic area corridor that had been designated in the management plan for a nature trail and picnic area....
Researcher pins blame for grouse on drought An environmental researcher said Monday that drought "is the big driver" when measuring detrimental effects on sage grouse populations. Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, Wyo., spoke during a presentation to the Montana Petroleum Association's annual meeting in Billings. She listed conclusions of her examination of seven study areas across Wyoming where oil and gas development has occurred over the past 30 to 40 years. She is preparing a professional research paper that should be completed in six weeks and will be made available for critical analysis and peer review, she said. Taylor said sage grouse have maintained their breeding grounds, called leks, over time in existing oil and gas fields. Despite loss of habitat, intense activity and drought, the average number of sage grouse males is basically the same now as in 1970, she said....
Interior Dept. official says action must be taken on sage grouse The federal government must take immediate action to conserve shrinking sage grouse populations _ even as questions remain over the cause of the bird's decline, an Interior Department official said Monday. In recent months, the Interior Department tightened oversight of some new oil and gas activity in Wyoming and Montana in a bid to slow development in areas with high numbers of sage grouse. That came despite questions raised by industry representatives who argue evidence linking sage grouse declines to drilling are inconclusive. Julie Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary for minerals management at the Interior Department, said a lawsuit hanging over the agency has forced it to act before the bird can again become a candidate for the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 rejected a petition to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered. A lawsuit pending before a federal judge in Idaho seeks to force the government to reconsider....
Unofficial race big success - maybe Officially, there were no winners or losers at the unofficial Gore Canyon whitewater festival that might or might not have taken place 10 days ago at the Bureau of Land Management's Pumphouse Recreation Area. Like the sound of one hand clapping or a tree falling in the forest with no one around, it was impossible to determine whether the annual celebration of the classic Class V stretch of the Colorado River south of Kremmling took place this summer, even though it obviously did. From the land management vantage point, the non-permitted, non-event went off without a hitch. Or didn't, depending on your semantic perspective. In the absence of a legal permit necessary to conduct an official river race or group gathering, BLM rangers were present in full force at the river put-in and takeout, enforcing federal codes prohibiting an organized race through Gore Canyon on a par with the semi-organized races that have taken place on the third Saturday of August for nearly 20 years now....
Battling to save a unique species They saved starving pioneers. They were fed to refugees. They were even used to pay Mormon tithing and Salt Lake City public-works employees. "In a way," historian D. Robert Carter said, "the June suckers from Utah Lake helped build Salt Lake City." On Monday, Utah officials made the latest installment on repaying that debt. Department of Natural Resources workers introduced the first of 43,000 hatchery-bred suckers at Utah Lake State Park as part of a recovery plan to pull the species back from the brink of extinction. But Reed Harris, recovery-program director, said there is more to this effort. "We're not talking about saving fish," he said, "but saving an ecosystem."....
Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award The Center for Biological Diversity presented Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne with the first annual Rubber Dodo Award on Friday. Since his confirmation as secretary of interior on May 26, 2006, Kempthorne has not placed a single plant or animal on the federal endangered species list. The last listing (12 Hawaiian picture-wing flies) occurred on May 9, 2006 - 472 days ago. The previous recordholder was James Watt, who listed no species for 376 days between 1981 and 1982. Watt's refusal to list species resulted in a 1982 congressional amendment to the Endangered Species Act, which established firm timelines for listing species and litigation consequences for violating the deadlines. Kempthorne's refusal prompted Ed Markey (D-MA) to introduce H.R. 3459, the "Transparent Reporting Under ESA Listing Act," on August 4, 2007. It would amend the Endangered Species Act to require the secretary to explain the scientific basis of decisions to deny Endangered Species Act protections to imperiled plants and animals....
Activists take aim at lead bullets Lead bullets are the target of those working to save the endangered California condor. State lawmakers and wildlife authorities are on separate paths that could produce a ban on hunters using lead bullets in the condor's range, mostly along the coast from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. “Lead ammunition is probably the No. 1 factor impeding the recovery of the condor,” said Allison Alberts, director of conservation and research for the San Diego Zoological Society. Powerful forces have lined up to block a ban. Hunting and gun-rights advocates say a better course would be to expand voluntary measures to protect condors. They warn that the lead alternative – vastly more expensive copper – has not proven to be safer. They also fear cuts to wildlife programs funded by hunting-related taxes and economic losses in rural communities if large numbers drop out of the sport....
Removal from list was right decision The decision to remove Everglades National Park from the United Nations' list of endangered world heritage sites recognizes and applauds the unprecedented efforts and continuing commitment of South Florida's community, the State of Florida and the federal government to save this world-class ecosystem. Some have misinterpreted the criteria used by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and the administration's support for removing the park from the list. The committee's decision does not in any way signal a lessening of our commitment or an end to the Everglades restoration efforts. This administration wholeheartedly supports the ongoing national initiative to comprehensively restore and preserve the River of Grass and its vital ecosystem. To date, the United States and State of Florida have spent about $7.1 billion for projects designed to improve water quality, increase water supplies, recover threatened and endangered species and restore natural habitat. The Government Accountability Office reports that of the 222 separate Everglades restoration projects that it estimates will cost at least $19.7 billion over the next decades, 43 have been completed, 107 are underway and 26 are in design or planning phases. The remaining 46 projects, to be launched in coming years, will complete the current restoration plan....
Tribe must haul own water Ethel Whitehair ran out of water again over the weekend, emptied every bucket and pot, drained the barrels lined up outside her front door. The community well was closed until Monday. Water from a well at a nearby windmill could supply the sheep, but it was untreated and made Whitehair's skin itch. At another windmill down the road, vandals had torn the cover off the storage tank. Deep inside, a car battery steeped in the soupy dregs, the surface stirred by the bloated bodies of three dead crows. So Whitehair waited, as she had so often during her 87 years on Arizona's Navajo Reservation. She waited for her children to come and haul water from the good well. She waited for someone to end an unthinkable water crisis. It is a wait shared by nearly 80,000 others who must haul water to meet basic needs. They live far from a water pipeline, and their communities barely have enough water to sustain what few lines exist....
Activist ices plans to paint global warming line around US city amid complaints A global-warming activist has withdrawn a proposal to paint blue lines across a swath of the city depicting the level the ocean could rise to if Greenland's ice sheets keep melting. The project, known as "lightblueline," had attracted criticism from some residents who feared their properties would lose value if they were located on the wrong side of the predicted flood zone. "If you're below the line, there's a stigma," resident Jerry Beaver told The Los Angeles Times for its Sunday edition. Beaver is a real estate developer who owns property that would be deluged if sea levels rise 23 feet (7 meters) - a scenario predicted by some scientists if Greenland's ice continues to thaw. Bruce Caron, the activist behind the project, disputed residents' concerns the line would have impacted property values....
With coal production, cleaner skies could mean more landfills As U.S. coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they will likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the hundreds of coal-fired plants in the U.S. is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things. But in a process being used increasingly across America, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It cannot be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening. That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste....
Idaho wildfires cost feds millions Idaho is taking a large chunk of this year's national firefighting budget, and wildfire managers say some of the communities they are defending have done little to protect themselves. The federal government has spent an estimated $125 million to fight large wildfires in Idaho this summer, 12.5 percent of the $1 billion spent so far nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Fire managers say much of that money goes to equipment and firefighters who increasingly find themselves hosing down homes ahead of flames rather than battling wildfires head on. "The bottom line is you've turned these firefighters, these highly trained and experienced firefighters ... into a very expensive maintenance crew," said Jim Smalley, manager of Firewise, a national program that educates homeowners on how to protect their property from wildfires....
Ski resort battles blaze with snow machines The Wood River Valley continues to fight the 33,000-acre Castle Rock Fire by any means available: garden hoses, sprinklers and hand-dug barriers. Sunday, they brought out the snow machines. As the fire advanced toward Bald Mountain, the region's most popular skiing site, the Sun Valley Resort started the machines to protect the mountain and several structures at its summit from embers pushed by high winds. Officials turned on the chairlift when flames began to lick its seats. "The winds are pushing that fire to the east," said fire information officer Bob Beanblossom. "But we've got structure protection in place."....
Horses Killed By Train On Bridge Near Reno Two horseback riders escaped injury but their mounts were killed when they were struck by a Union Pacific train on a bridge west of Reno, authorities said. The unidentified riders were crossing the Truckee River on a railroad bridge when kayakers in the river told them of the oncoming train. The riders dismounted and jumped to safety but were unable to get the horses off the bridge, the Washoe County sheriff's office said. Sheriff's Sgt. Harry Dixon said the horses were owned by a local rancher who had allowed a volunteer caregiver to exercise the animals. He said case would be forwarded to Union Pacific Railroad police, who were considering trespassing charges against the riders.
UFO incident has a life of its own Roswell, N. M., home of a famous UFO incident in 1947 that officially was attributed to a radar experiment, is home to a yearly UFO festival and numerous other activities. But Southwest Nebraska was the site of a similar incident more than a half-century earlier -- the first recorded "UFO crash" in modern history. In case you're not familiar with the Dundy County incident of June 6, 1884, as reported the next day in the Nebraska State Journal, here are the highlights: It seems rancher John W. Ellis, three of his cowboys and several others were rounding up cattle when "they heard a terrific rushing, roaring sound overhead and, looking up, saw what appeared to be a blazing meteor of immense size falling at an an angle to the earth. A moment later, it struck the ground out of sight over the bank. Scrambling up the steep hill, they saw the object bounding along half a mile away and disappear in another draw." Galloping to the scene, they found scorched grass for yards around, and dazzling light so bright that it burned the face of one of the cowboys, singed his hair and blinded him, at least temporarily. After the object cooled somewhat the next day, a party including E.W. Rawlins, a brand inspector, reported finding scattered machinery including what looked like the blade of a propeller screw that looked like brass but was extremely light in weight; as well as a fragment of a wheel with a milled rim....
A vote for expanding Piñon Sen. Wayne Allard slid slightly off the fence Monday, saying he would support the Army’s plans to buy more than 650 square miles of ranch land in southeast Colorado to expand a training area. But Allard, a Republican whose voice is key in deciding whether Army plans move forward, left a large obstacle in the Defense Department’s path, saying it should get acreage to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site only from those who want to sell. “I’m not willing to pick a fight with my House colleagues, yet,” Allard said during a news conference Monday at Fort Carson. “But we do want people to move forward.” The fight Allard alluded to is brewing over a measure pushed by Reps. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Marilyn Musgrave., R-Colo., that would block Army spending on expansion planning. That measure has passed the House and could come up for Senate consideration in early September....
State says elk herd is bigger than thought A northwest Colorado elk herd is two to three times larger than originally believed, state wildlife officials say. The Bears Ears herd is now estimated at 23,000 to 45,000, state Division of Wildlife officials said. Previous estimates put the herd at 11,000 to 15,000 animals. The new count is based on a spring survey of elk herd ranges using three helicopters and one airplane. "We used a grid system to count the elk on the ground," DOW wildlife biologist Darby Finley said. "We flew over 1,754 miles of winter range and counted 4,119 elk." Some northwest Colorado landowners had complained for years that the DOW elk estimates were faulty. "There's way too many elk in some places," rancher John Smith said. "They move into these meadows too early and rub out the growth. They kill the edible brush."....
River ruckus Congress recognized the unique features of the lower river in 1986 when it passed the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. The act, signed by President Reagan, also designated a 7.7-mile stretch of the White Salmon from BZ Corner to just above Northwestern Lake as a national scenic river that would remain forever free-flowing and buffered by a corridor protecting it from development. The scenic stretch lies upstream from Condit Dam, which is scheduled for demolition next year. The designation was unique for another reason: All 1,874 acres in the protected river corridor were in private ownership. The principal landowner was, and remains, SDS Lumber Co., which owns 725 acres in the protected corridor. SDS initially agreed to exchange that land with the Forest Service for timber land outside the boundary. Last year, SDS logged a key area along Spring Creek, a tributary within the scenic area corridor that had been designated in the management plan for a nature trail and picnic area....
Researcher pins blame for grouse on drought An environmental researcher said Monday that drought "is the big driver" when measuring detrimental effects on sage grouse populations. Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, Wyo., spoke during a presentation to the Montana Petroleum Association's annual meeting in Billings. She listed conclusions of her examination of seven study areas across Wyoming where oil and gas development has occurred over the past 30 to 40 years. She is preparing a professional research paper that should be completed in six weeks and will be made available for critical analysis and peer review, she said. Taylor said sage grouse have maintained their breeding grounds, called leks, over time in existing oil and gas fields. Despite loss of habitat, intense activity and drought, the average number of sage grouse males is basically the same now as in 1970, she said....
Interior Dept. official says action must be taken on sage grouse The federal government must take immediate action to conserve shrinking sage grouse populations _ even as questions remain over the cause of the bird's decline, an Interior Department official said Monday. In recent months, the Interior Department tightened oversight of some new oil and gas activity in Wyoming and Montana in a bid to slow development in areas with high numbers of sage grouse. That came despite questions raised by industry representatives who argue evidence linking sage grouse declines to drilling are inconclusive. Julie Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary for minerals management at the Interior Department, said a lawsuit hanging over the agency has forced it to act before the bird can again become a candidate for the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 rejected a petition to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered. A lawsuit pending before a federal judge in Idaho seeks to force the government to reconsider....
Unofficial race big success - maybe Officially, there were no winners or losers at the unofficial Gore Canyon whitewater festival that might or might not have taken place 10 days ago at the Bureau of Land Management's Pumphouse Recreation Area. Like the sound of one hand clapping or a tree falling in the forest with no one around, it was impossible to determine whether the annual celebration of the classic Class V stretch of the Colorado River south of Kremmling took place this summer, even though it obviously did. From the land management vantage point, the non-permitted, non-event went off without a hitch. Or didn't, depending on your semantic perspective. In the absence of a legal permit necessary to conduct an official river race or group gathering, BLM rangers were present in full force at the river put-in and takeout, enforcing federal codes prohibiting an organized race through Gore Canyon on a par with the semi-organized races that have taken place on the third Saturday of August for nearly 20 years now....
Battling to save a unique species They saved starving pioneers. They were fed to refugees. They were even used to pay Mormon tithing and Salt Lake City public-works employees. "In a way," historian D. Robert Carter said, "the June suckers from Utah Lake helped build Salt Lake City." On Monday, Utah officials made the latest installment on repaying that debt. Department of Natural Resources workers introduced the first of 43,000 hatchery-bred suckers at Utah Lake State Park as part of a recovery plan to pull the species back from the brink of extinction. But Reed Harris, recovery-program director, said there is more to this effort. "We're not talking about saving fish," he said, "but saving an ecosystem."....
Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award The Center for Biological Diversity presented Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne with the first annual Rubber Dodo Award on Friday. Since his confirmation as secretary of interior on May 26, 2006, Kempthorne has not placed a single plant or animal on the federal endangered species list. The last listing (12 Hawaiian picture-wing flies) occurred on May 9, 2006 - 472 days ago. The previous recordholder was James Watt, who listed no species for 376 days between 1981 and 1982. Watt's refusal to list species resulted in a 1982 congressional amendment to the Endangered Species Act, which established firm timelines for listing species and litigation consequences for violating the deadlines. Kempthorne's refusal prompted Ed Markey (D-MA) to introduce H.R. 3459, the "Transparent Reporting Under ESA Listing Act," on August 4, 2007. It would amend the Endangered Species Act to require the secretary to explain the scientific basis of decisions to deny Endangered Species Act protections to imperiled plants and animals....
Activists take aim at lead bullets Lead bullets are the target of those working to save the endangered California condor. State lawmakers and wildlife authorities are on separate paths that could produce a ban on hunters using lead bullets in the condor's range, mostly along the coast from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. “Lead ammunition is probably the No. 1 factor impeding the recovery of the condor,” said Allison Alberts, director of conservation and research for the San Diego Zoological Society. Powerful forces have lined up to block a ban. Hunting and gun-rights advocates say a better course would be to expand voluntary measures to protect condors. They warn that the lead alternative – vastly more expensive copper – has not proven to be safer. They also fear cuts to wildlife programs funded by hunting-related taxes and economic losses in rural communities if large numbers drop out of the sport....
Removal from list was right decision The decision to remove Everglades National Park from the United Nations' list of endangered world heritage sites recognizes and applauds the unprecedented efforts and continuing commitment of South Florida's community, the State of Florida and the federal government to save this world-class ecosystem. Some have misinterpreted the criteria used by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and the administration's support for removing the park from the list. The committee's decision does not in any way signal a lessening of our commitment or an end to the Everglades restoration efforts. This administration wholeheartedly supports the ongoing national initiative to comprehensively restore and preserve the River of Grass and its vital ecosystem. To date, the United States and State of Florida have spent about $7.1 billion for projects designed to improve water quality, increase water supplies, recover threatened and endangered species and restore natural habitat. The Government Accountability Office reports that of the 222 separate Everglades restoration projects that it estimates will cost at least $19.7 billion over the next decades, 43 have been completed, 107 are underway and 26 are in design or planning phases. The remaining 46 projects, to be launched in coming years, will complete the current restoration plan....
Tribe must haul own water Ethel Whitehair ran out of water again over the weekend, emptied every bucket and pot, drained the barrels lined up outside her front door. The community well was closed until Monday. Water from a well at a nearby windmill could supply the sheep, but it was untreated and made Whitehair's skin itch. At another windmill down the road, vandals had torn the cover off the storage tank. Deep inside, a car battery steeped in the soupy dregs, the surface stirred by the bloated bodies of three dead crows. So Whitehair waited, as she had so often during her 87 years on Arizona's Navajo Reservation. She waited for her children to come and haul water from the good well. She waited for someone to end an unthinkable water crisis. It is a wait shared by nearly 80,000 others who must haul water to meet basic needs. They live far from a water pipeline, and their communities barely have enough water to sustain what few lines exist....
Activist ices plans to paint global warming line around US city amid complaints A global-warming activist has withdrawn a proposal to paint blue lines across a swath of the city depicting the level the ocean could rise to if Greenland's ice sheets keep melting. The project, known as "lightblueline," had attracted criticism from some residents who feared their properties would lose value if they were located on the wrong side of the predicted flood zone. "If you're below the line, there's a stigma," resident Jerry Beaver told The Los Angeles Times for its Sunday edition. Beaver is a real estate developer who owns property that would be deluged if sea levels rise 23 feet (7 meters) - a scenario predicted by some scientists if Greenland's ice continues to thaw. Bruce Caron, the activist behind the project, disputed residents' concerns the line would have impacted property values....
With coal production, cleaner skies could mean more landfills As U.S. coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they will likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the hundreds of coal-fired plants in the U.S. is now recycled - mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize embankments, among other things. But in a process being used increasingly across America, chemicals are injected into plants' emissions to capture airborne pollutants. That, in turn, changes the composition of the ash and cuts its usefulness. It cannot be used in cement, for example, because the interaction of the chemicals may keep the concrete from hardening. That ash has to go somewhere - so it usually ends up in landfills, along with the rest of the unusable waste....
Idaho wildfires cost feds millions Idaho is taking a large chunk of this year's national firefighting budget, and wildfire managers say some of the communities they are defending have done little to protect themselves. The federal government has spent an estimated $125 million to fight large wildfires in Idaho this summer, 12.5 percent of the $1 billion spent so far nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Fire managers say much of that money goes to equipment and firefighters who increasingly find themselves hosing down homes ahead of flames rather than battling wildfires head on. "The bottom line is you've turned these firefighters, these highly trained and experienced firefighters ... into a very expensive maintenance crew," said Jim Smalley, manager of Firewise, a national program that educates homeowners on how to protect their property from wildfires....
Ski resort battles blaze with snow machines The Wood River Valley continues to fight the 33,000-acre Castle Rock Fire by any means available: garden hoses, sprinklers and hand-dug barriers. Sunday, they brought out the snow machines. As the fire advanced toward Bald Mountain, the region's most popular skiing site, the Sun Valley Resort started the machines to protect the mountain and several structures at its summit from embers pushed by high winds. Officials turned on the chairlift when flames began to lick its seats. "The winds are pushing that fire to the east," said fire information officer Bob Beanblossom. "But we've got structure protection in place."....
Horses Killed By Train On Bridge Near Reno Two horseback riders escaped injury but their mounts were killed when they were struck by a Union Pacific train on a bridge west of Reno, authorities said. The unidentified riders were crossing the Truckee River on a railroad bridge when kayakers in the river told them of the oncoming train. The riders dismounted and jumped to safety but were unable to get the horses off the bridge, the Washoe County sheriff's office said. Sheriff's Sgt. Harry Dixon said the horses were owned by a local rancher who had allowed a volunteer caregiver to exercise the animals. He said case would be forwarded to Union Pacific Railroad police, who were considering trespassing charges against the riders.
UFO incident has a life of its own Roswell, N. M., home of a famous UFO incident in 1947 that officially was attributed to a radar experiment, is home to a yearly UFO festival and numerous other activities. But Southwest Nebraska was the site of a similar incident more than a half-century earlier -- the first recorded "UFO crash" in modern history. In case you're not familiar with the Dundy County incident of June 6, 1884, as reported the next day in the Nebraska State Journal, here are the highlights: It seems rancher John W. Ellis, three of his cowboys and several others were rounding up cattle when "they heard a terrific rushing, roaring sound overhead and, looking up, saw what appeared to be a blazing meteor of immense size falling at an an angle to the earth. A moment later, it struck the ground out of sight over the bank. Scrambling up the steep hill, they saw the object bounding along half a mile away and disappear in another draw." Galloping to the scene, they found scorched grass for yards around, and dazzling light so bright that it burned the face of one of the cowboys, singed his hair and blinded him, at least temporarily. After the object cooled somewhat the next day, a party including E.W. Rawlins, a brand inspector, reported finding scattered machinery including what looked like the blade of a propeller screw that looked like brass but was extremely light in weight; as well as a fragment of a wheel with a milled rim....
Monday, August 27, 2007
DONA ANA WILDERNESS
Wilderness — gain or loss?
Wilderness. The word conjures up images of solitude, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and trees. The ideal of wilderness has a broad appeal. In almost every public discussion on wilderness, the idea of protecting land for our grandchildren is raised. This appeal tugs at our hearts and emotions, but it is irresponsible to make crucial decisions based solely on feelings. Wilderness designation and open space are not the same thing. Over 107 million acres have already been federally designated as wilderness. Legislated prohibitions in the Wilderness Act include "no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other forms of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area," among numerous other restrictions and limitations intended to protect the designated areas. Things as harmless as motorized wheelchairs and mountain bikes are excluded. The restrictions imposed by a wilderness designation are what give many groups and individuals great pause, as they try to understand the scope of implications and impacts. The ranching community does have an agenda. Every acre proposed for wilderness designation lies within an active working ranch, and they want to be able to continue ranching in the areas where they currently ranch. Ranchers fully support open space. They would be a bit foolish not to, because without open space, ranching cannot exist....
Wilderness — gain or loss?
Wilderness. The word conjures up images of solitude, mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and trees. The ideal of wilderness has a broad appeal. In almost every public discussion on wilderness, the idea of protecting land for our grandchildren is raised. This appeal tugs at our hearts and emotions, but it is irresponsible to make crucial decisions based solely on feelings. Wilderness designation and open space are not the same thing. Over 107 million acres have already been federally designated as wilderness. Legislated prohibitions in the Wilderness Act include "no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other forms of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area," among numerous other restrictions and limitations intended to protect the designated areas. Things as harmless as motorized wheelchairs and mountain bikes are excluded. The restrictions imposed by a wilderness designation are what give many groups and individuals great pause, as they try to understand the scope of implications and impacts. The ranching community does have an agenda. Every acre proposed for wilderness designation lies within an active working ranch, and they want to be able to continue ranching in the areas where they currently ranch. Ranchers fully support open space. They would be a bit foolish not to, because without open space, ranching cannot exist....
Gonzales to Spend More Time Eavesdropping on His Family
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, effective immediately, telling reporters that he wanted to spend more time eavesdropping on his family. Mr. Gonzales, a champion of domestic surveillance and warrantless wiretaps while in office, said he was “totally stoked” about turning his prying eyes on his own family. “Domestic surveillance begins at home,” Mr. Gonzales said at a White House press conference. “That means nobody in my family is above suspicion, not even the little ones,” an apparent reference to Mr. Gonzales’ children. Standing by Mr. Gonzales’ side, President George W. Bush praised his former Attorney General, singling out his “courage” for ramping up his domestic spying program on his own family....
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, effective immediately, telling reporters that he wanted to spend more time eavesdropping on his family. Mr. Gonzales, a champion of domestic surveillance and warrantless wiretaps while in office, said he was “totally stoked” about turning his prying eyes on his own family. “Domestic surveillance begins at home,” Mr. Gonzales said at a White House press conference. “That means nobody in my family is above suspicion, not even the little ones,” an apparent reference to Mr. Gonzales’ children. Standing by Mr. Gonzales’ side, President George W. Bush praised his former Attorney General, singling out his “courage” for ramping up his domestic spying program on his own family....
DONA ANA WILDERNESS
For those interested in the Dona Ana Wilderness issues, or for wilderness in general, be sure and checkout the People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website. Lots of good info.
For those interested in the Dona Ana Wilderness issues, or for wilderness in general, be sure and checkout the People For Preserving Our Western Heritage website. Lots of good info.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Panel looks at detail of species law A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming is looking at a provision of the Endangered Species Act that may help maintain agricultural activity and oil and gas development if the sage grouse gains federal protection. The focus is on voluntary conservation efforts that qualify under the "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" provision. Essentially, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase sage grouse and sage grouse habitat are allowed to continue their normal operations if the bird is listed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If those normal operations carried out under a conservation agreement result in the death of one or more sage grouse, it would not result in a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants to establish a conservation agreement with assurances for the entire state, said Ryan Lance, the governor's chief of staff. Lance said the idea is to convince private landowners to voluntarily enroll in the statewide agreement. If the sage grouse becomes listed, then energy developers, whether on private or federal lands, could agree to those same conservation practices....
Judge upholds elk feeding A federal judge ruled Friday against several environmental groups in their attempt to stop Wyoming's program of testing elk for brucellosis and killing those with the disease. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson also denied the groups' request to order an environmental study of a dozen feedgrounds the state operates to help elk survive the harsh winters. Tim Preso, the attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the organizations were still studying the ruling and no decision had been made on whether to appeal. "This ruling doesn't change the fact that the elk feeding in Wyoming is creating a serious disease problem and none of the federal or state agencies are addressing it," Preso said in a telephone interview Friday. But Johnson said he could not find any legal grounds to support the requests sought in the lawsuit. "None of the agencies' actions were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or without observance required by law," he wrote in the 66-page opinion....
Forest officials curb ATVs The U.S. Forest Service has begun imposing travel restrictions on ATVs and other off-road vehicles nationally, ending their long-standing permission to go almost anywhere. The move marks the end of the principle that forest lands are "open unless designated closed" to motor vehicles and instead establishes that they are "closed unless designated open." "People would say, 'Well, look, there's a two-track there, and it's been there for a long time,"' said Paul Cruz, recreation staff officer for the Arapahoe National Forest. "That won't work anymore. Now, the burden is on the user to have a ... map and to follow it." That means that off-road vehicles are allowed only on trails marked on new travel maps being drawn up for each national forest - in some cases excluding popular existing routes. The growing popularity of off-road vehicles has proved to be a difficult trend to control for land managers, who say the growing network of illegal trails created by wayward motor vehicles is among their biggest problems. By 2003, there were 14,000 miles of such "user-created" trails in the national forests....
'Right stuff' mentality may be a factor in wildfire deaths When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers. But the U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters is also to blame. Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study. "Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said. Some of the deadliest fires -- such as Storm King in 1994 in Colorado, which killed 14 firefighters, and the Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in Washington, which killed four -- have focused attention on the role of leadership in such situations, Harris said. The Forest Service asks its crews to fight fires and take risks, but also to focus on safety first, Harris said. That's a contradictory message....
Thinned forests slow spread of pine beetles Thinning ponderosa pines in the Black Hills is helping to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetles, Forest Service officials say. "We know thinning is a good way to keep our forests green and healthy," Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien said. Logging, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burns in dense stands of ponderosas give individual trees better access to water and nutrients, Forest Service natural resources officer Dave Thom said. Larger, healthier trees are better able to reject bug attacks. "Like humans, if they're malnourished, dehydrated and crowded they're more subject to illness," Thom said. Recent Forest Service aerial photographs show patches of reddish-brown trees killed by beetles in dense stands of timber, next to logged and thinned timber where there are no red "bug trees."....
Lawmaker says USFS hesitated in fighting fire, asks why A state legislator wants congressional follow-up on claims that a helicopter available to drop water on a wildfire north of here did not do so because the U.S. Forest Service wanted to let the fire burn. The blaze that began in July and continues to burn in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management Area has blackened more than 43,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, and is nearing containment. Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, has asked Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to investigate the response to the Meriwether fire. Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the senator's staff will do so. Barkus said a state helicopter with a bucket to drop water on the fire was ready to fly after the fire was detected July 21, but at the request of the Forest Service the chopper did not head to the blaze. Helena National Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he is comfortable with the response....
Federal mine claim holders to face new challenges Pending in Congress as we speak is legislation that, if it becomes law, will make exploration and mining on (BLM) public domain and U.S. Forest Service lands so difficult that it will be impossible for anyone to mine on them in the future. The legislation I speak of is H.R. 2262, now pending before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This bill was introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall has been seeking to “reform” the mining law of 1872 for decades, and now he has the votes to do it. Alaska’s Congressman Don Young has been quoted as saying that he lacks the votes to amend or block this bill in the House; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is alleged to have said that he doesn’t have 41 votes to stop it in the Senate; and it is not at all clear that the White House would veto such a bill, especially if the votes to override are there....
Air study delays drilling plan Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado. The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there. The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November....
Prairie dog numbers grow Sharon Lovitt knows she has prairie dogs on her ranch. A town, or population, of the animals covering about 640 acres has been there as long as she can remember. But now that town has grown into well over 1,000 acres, she said, since the drought took hold. “They’ve never expanded like they are now,” she said. Neighbors from the far reaches of Converse County echoed her concerns over rapidly growing colonies and the ensuing ecological damage the prairie dogs wreak. Together, they’ve formed the Converse County Prairie Dog Working Group, and within that, the Pine Ridge Pilot Project, to find an ecological balance -- and a way to live with the prairie dogs. The groups come under the auspices of the Southeast Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development Council, an entity composed of representatives of the governments of Converse, Platte, Albany, Laramie and Goshen counties. Grant Stumbaugh, a Natural Resources and Conservation Service employee in Wheatland, provides guidance and support to the council. “We’ve got about a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations in the last four years (in Converse County),” Stumbaugh said. “A lot of that is attributed to the drought. As natural resource managers and people who care about the land, we strongly believe there needs to be an ecological balance. With a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations, we feel that ecological balance is no longer there.”....
Getting inside bears' brains George Stevenson's brain appeared to be sweating, glistening on a bright red plastic picnic plate there in the heat of the day. It was big as a big man's fist, and all around it, on other picnic plates, were slivers of other brains, like so many thin-sliced neural hors d'oeuvres. Some looked like spreading river deltas, carved deep with winding channels. One looked just like an elk hoof, stuffed tight with morel mushrooms. With them on the table was a bone-white grizzly bear skull, top lopped to show inside, where Stevenson's juicy brown brain used to be. And beside that was a fully furred grizzly head, guillotined with eyes closed, ears perked up, sharp teeth curving over soft black lips. These are the grisly tools Dr. Stevenson needs for his presentation: "Grizzly Bear Brain, Central Nervous System Structures." "These bears are amazing creatures," Stevenson said. "I believe they have the most impressive olfactory system of any animal on the planet. Their nose is the very best."....
Burning Man festival begins tomorrow Protecting the environment is this year's theme for the 22nd annual Burning Man counterculture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert. In addition to solar panels powering the pavilion at the base of the man, Burners will also be able to view demonstrations of things such as bicycles with generators and gasification machines that eat trash and produce flammable gas. More than 45,000 participants are expected to converge on a 5-square-mile patch of the desert for the festival that begins Monday. Their sprawling encampment will rise up along makeshift streets staked out on the playa and arrayed in a half-moon pattern before a central, looming statue of a man, who is set on fire in wild celebration on the next-to-last night of the festival. The event ends Sept. 3....
Roundup in the Great Divide If all goes well, nearly 500 wild horses will be rounded up and removed from the range east of here, according to the Bureau of Land Management. A contract crew has been working to round up the excess horses, which are run into a trap, sorted into pens, loaded into tractor-trailers, and trucked 40 miles to the BLM horse corrals at Rock Springs, where they will later be available for adoption. The wild horses are being removed from the Great Divide Basin herd management area, a huge expanse of checkerboard land ownership north of Interstate 80, where the federal agency has determined the appropriate management level is 415 to 600 horses. With the current population estimate of more than 1,000, the herd is nearly double the level prescribed by land managers, so excess horses must be removed to achieve ecological balance, they say. An environmental assessment for the horse removal plan noted that the population has exceeded the range capacity to sustain wild horse use over the long term. About 400 horses were removed last year, but the population continues to grow....
‘Split estates’ may pit surface-rights owners against mineral-rights owners The cliché “sitting on a gold mine” might not ring true to its positive tone. Gold is just one of the many minerals in Montana that sits below the surface — sometimes deep below — and is sought after for a variety of reasons. The importance of these raw products, whether they’re gold, sapphires, oil or other natural resources, is so powerful that the right to go after them can usurp private homeowners’ rights. That’s becoming an issue in the West with gas and oil exploration, due to the number of so-called “split estates” in which a person may own the surface rights to something, but someone else buys the mineral rights. And as the price of gold, uranium and other minerals climbs, the conflicts between surface-rights owners and mineral-rights owners may also rise. “A mineral estate is the dominant estate on a split estate,” said Steve Welch, administrator for the planning and compliance division of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “If you don’t own the mineral rights on a split estate and there’s something down there, you’re likely to see someone come in there and get it.” Split estates are fairly common in the West, being established in the early 1900s, but their roots go back to the founding of the nation....
Nevada senator urges probe in wild horse deaths Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conduct a "full and thorough investigation" into the nitrate contamination deaths of 71 wild horses in July at the Tonopah Test Range. "There are strong concerns in southern Nevada that these deaths are the result of serious negligence in the management of the test range and the wild horse herds in the area," Reid wrote in a letter sent Friday to the secretary. "In light of this unfortunate event, I believe that this is also an appropriate time to take a close look at the land and wildlife management practices used on the larger Nellis Air Force Range," Reid, the Senate majority leader, suggested. The horses' carcasses were found at a watering hole about a mile from the Tonopah Test Range airfield, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A former Air Force tech sergeant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week that when he worked at the airfield in the 1990s deicing compounds high in nitrogen routinely ran off the runway into the desert. The watering hole is on land restricted from public access....
Ruminants to the rescue A goat’s appetite for almost anything has put them in hot demand by private land owners and government agencies who want an alternative to chemicals for weed control. This summer, the ruminants cleared lands for Woodland, Rocklin, Nevada City, Nevada County and Nevada Irrigation District. “I’m so busy right now,” said Brad Fowler, a Penn Valley resident who owns The Goat Works. Fowler, who started with 150 goats two years ago, has now teamed up with a Woodland rancher. The team collectively dispatches 2,000 animals to clear lands from the foothills to Yolo County. Goats are a sustainable alternative to traditional herbicide sprays that can leach into watersheds or to heavy equipment that compacts soils....
Grasshoppers add to Eastern Oregon farming woes Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers, already hobbled by drought and hay shortages, have a new addition to their list of woes: grasshoppers. Cory Parsons, livestock extension agent for Baker and Union counties, says what the drought missed the grasshoppers are getting, and calls it the area's worst infestation in years. Typically, he says, grasshoppers stay in the rangelands, but wildfires and drought have made rangeland forage scarce in many areas, and grasshoppers are finding food where they can, including alfalfa fields. They are less visible in sagebrush and on rangeland, but they're being noticed now. They also are eating lawns, gardens, leaves from fruit trees and pine needles. This year, the grasshopper infestation covers more than 270,000 acres in Union and Baker counties, with as many as 75 grasshoppers per square yard in the worst places....
Ranchers: Checkoff should support USA beef Recently, Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Michael Kelsey, the CEO of the Nebraska Cattlemen, toured the state trying to drum up support for a 100-percent increase in the Beef Checkoff. At every stop and press opportunity, they claimed that any such increase would be driven by producers, who would then have a chance to ratify it with a vote. Well, Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kelsey, let’s take a look at how 8,000 beef producers voted in a recent survey conducted by the Gallup organization under the direction of the USDA and the Livestock Marketing Association: · Only 5.7 percent said the Checkoff should be increased; 91 percent of the respondents said it should remain at $1 (per head) or be decreased. · 92 percent said Checkoff dollars should be used to promote products from cattle specifically born and raised in the U. S. Under current rules beef can only be promoted as a generic product, with no regard to its origin. · 82.5 percent wanted a mandated periodic referendum. * 66 percent would like to see changes made in the contracting process. So it would seem the “producers” have a much different agenda in mind when it comes to managing their Checkoff contributions....
Government cowboys patrol Rio Grande to protect cattle from resurgent ticks hey're gun-toting, government cowboys who follow an unforgiving and treacherous 500-mile route along the Texas-Mexico border, their .357 Magnums, lariats and machetes well in hand. These cowboys aren't after the wave of drug smugglers or illegal immigrants who cross the border daily: They're inspectors on the lookout for border-crossing, blood-sucking parasites that feed on the region's cattle and deer – small black ticks, or garrapatas. The fever tick was all but stricken from the U.S. more than 50 years ago, after wreaking havoc on the state's beef industry. But experts warn that they are back and stronger than ever after developing a resistance to pesticides that had been used effectively for decades. And left uncontrolled, the parasites could result in losses to the beef industry of up to $1 billion a year, the experts warn. They spread a debilitating disease that destroys red blood cells. Enter the 61-person Fever Tick Force, a group of modern-day cowboys funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who patrol a thin quarantine line along the Rio Grande....
Quality in the fibers Back when Moffat County wool was considered by some to be the king of crops in Colorado, buyers would come to the growers in Northwest Colorado and negotiate a price for their fleece. Rancher John Wellman hopes a recent resurgence of natural fibers in the clothing industry will make wool buyers appreciate the quality of the product coming from his ranch. “Wool is an excellent insulator,” he said. “It can absorb 75 percent of its weight in water without feeling wet.” The Corriedale herd on Wellman’s ranch south of Hamilton produces quality wool that is highly sought after by wool buyers. The Wellman Ranch, on the Moffat and Rio Blanco county line, began when John’s great-grandfather, Harrison Wilber Wellman, purchased the D.D. Ferguson Ranch in 1912. The elder Wellman had already filed on a nearby Milk Creek homestead, but the Ferguson ranch came up for sale and he acquired the property....
Old notebook unearths a tale that needs telling I mentioned in columns after Shoulders' death in June that the 16-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion was one of the greatest storytellers I had ever met. So obviously I couldn't fit all the great stories he shared with me in the story I wrote in 2000. Shoulders was a worker — whether as a cowboy, a stock contractor, a rancher or a pitchman — whatever. Even when I saw him sitting in the stands, he was promoting or supporting bull riding or a rodeo. "I'm not a very good tourist,” he said in that interview. And he backed that up with story after story related to working. Here's one of those stories of the pitchman at work. Shoulders would sometimes take "Buford T,” a Brahma bull weighing about 1,900 pounds, to promotional events for Miller Lite beer. This included taking the bull inside some crowded night spots. "I'd say, ‘Excuse us,' and people would turn around kind of mad that I was being pushy,” he said. "But when they saw Buford, it was like a parting of the sea. They'd be on the pool tables or under the pool tables. We instantly had room. Buford thought he was a person.”....
Piece by piece, Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia sold A Texas antiquer went home from the Prairie Rose bankruptcy auction on Friday with a gun-toting girl's bicycle from the 1950s and a slew of other memorabilia from the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum. The small lamps that Harry King bought for $600 each and the mechanized horse named Sandy destined for one of his grandchildren were among thousands of pieces sold from the museum's collection and scattered to the winds. That's why some people were happy to hear that a local guy had picked up the prize of the Hopalong auction: a 1949 Chevrolet panel truck that had been owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hoppy, which Tommy Devlin snagged for his dad. The truck will be part of the family's classic-car collection in Andover, he said. It features a picture of Hoppy on the side with his horse, Topper, his gun in his hand and the words "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Hi Kids!" written on it in white rope. Horns sit on the roof....
Actors, ranchers hail Western glory Actor Clint Walker believes the Western is a way Americans can connect with their heritage. "It helps us understand the pioneer spirit and that of the miners, loggers and others who helped develop the backbone of this country," Walker said Saturday in this southwest Utah community used for decades as a backdrop for countless movies. The actor, who in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in a slew of Westerns and on the hit television series "Cheyenne," was here to sign autographs and talk to fans attending the ninth annual Western Legends Roundup. The event ended Saturday. Several thousand people descended on Kanab for the festival held to celebrate Western heritage and honor the moviemaking history of the city and the actors who for several decades beginning in the 1920s stayed in town while shooting movies in the surrounding redrock desert....
Wagons Ho! Dressed in bonnets and cowboy hats, dozens of modern-day pioneers set out Thursday on a nine-day journey from the east side of Sonora Pass to Twain Harte. The Historic Sonora Pass Wagon Train, celebrating its 10th anniversary ride, aims to reenact the wagon train crossing originally accomplished by the Clark-Skidmore expedition in 1852. Although taking a different route than the original pioneers, the wagon train will travel roughly 75 miles. "We want our grandkids to learn the history of Tuolumne County," said Willy Evans, a Twain Harte resident and creator of the initial wagon train event in 1997. "The main purpose is to educate the kids about Tuolumne County's history. They study California history, but not enough Tuolumne County history. I want them to be proud of where they live."....
It’s The Pitts: The Walking Of The Cows People in agriculture are always being urged by our government, who want a cheap food policy, to develop other sources of income on our farms and ranches. They insist the way to save small town America is through tourism. But not every urbanite is going to want to spend their vacation touring this country’s tallest grain elevators or visiting collections of rusted old farm implements. But I think I have come up with something that rubberneckers and sightseers will flock to our small towns to see. You’ve no doubt heard of Pamplona’s running of the bulls? Ever since Ernest Hemingway brought the event to the world’s attention millions of tourists have flocked to Pamplona to try and kill themselves for no apparent reason or cause. Believe it or not, the running of the bulls is a religious festival, which in retrospect seems fitting because the idiots who run with the bulls surely must say a lot of prayers. Pamplona is the historic capital of Basque country and every July the residents celebrate the San Fermin Festival by partying nonstop for over a week. The running of the bulls actually began in 1852 when the drovers who brought the bulls to the Plaza de Toros through the narrow streets of Pamplona for that night’s bullfight started running with them. Then some crazy tourists thought it looked like fun to be gored and run over by bulls and so they joined the chase. And the rest is medical history. Now here’s what I’ve been thinking. My initial idea was that prior to the NFR in Las Vegas the rodeo stock for that night’s performance would be run down the Vegas strip to the Thomas and Mack Arena. But I gave up on that idea because the rodeo animals are far too valuable and I don’t think the bus people would leave their slot machines to run with the bulls and risk losing the nickels and quarters in their buckets. Besides, Vegas doesn’t need the money and small town America does. We don’t have bullfight arenas but we do have auction markets and I thought that instead of trucking our culls to auction, once a year ranchers could drive them down Main Street to their local auction yard. Because no rancher wants to get hit by a bullock in the buttocks we’d make a few changes. Instead of running with the bulls we’d walk with the cows. That way there’d be far fewer fatalities. And less shrink!....
Panel looks at detail of species law A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming is looking at a provision of the Endangered Species Act that may help maintain agricultural activity and oil and gas development if the sage grouse gains federal protection. The focus is on voluntary conservation efforts that qualify under the "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" provision. Essentially, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase sage grouse and sage grouse habitat are allowed to continue their normal operations if the bird is listed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If those normal operations carried out under a conservation agreement result in the death of one or more sage grouse, it would not result in a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants to establish a conservation agreement with assurances for the entire state, said Ryan Lance, the governor's chief of staff. Lance said the idea is to convince private landowners to voluntarily enroll in the statewide agreement. If the sage grouse becomes listed, then energy developers, whether on private or federal lands, could agree to those same conservation practices....
Judge upholds elk feeding A federal judge ruled Friday against several environmental groups in their attempt to stop Wyoming's program of testing elk for brucellosis and killing those with the disease. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson also denied the groups' request to order an environmental study of a dozen feedgrounds the state operates to help elk survive the harsh winters. Tim Preso, the attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the organizations were still studying the ruling and no decision had been made on whether to appeal. "This ruling doesn't change the fact that the elk feeding in Wyoming is creating a serious disease problem and none of the federal or state agencies are addressing it," Preso said in a telephone interview Friday. But Johnson said he could not find any legal grounds to support the requests sought in the lawsuit. "None of the agencies' actions were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or without observance required by law," he wrote in the 66-page opinion....
Forest officials curb ATVs The U.S. Forest Service has begun imposing travel restrictions on ATVs and other off-road vehicles nationally, ending their long-standing permission to go almost anywhere. The move marks the end of the principle that forest lands are "open unless designated closed" to motor vehicles and instead establishes that they are "closed unless designated open." "People would say, 'Well, look, there's a two-track there, and it's been there for a long time,"' said Paul Cruz, recreation staff officer for the Arapahoe National Forest. "That won't work anymore. Now, the burden is on the user to have a ... map and to follow it." That means that off-road vehicles are allowed only on trails marked on new travel maps being drawn up for each national forest - in some cases excluding popular existing routes. The growing popularity of off-road vehicles has proved to be a difficult trend to control for land managers, who say the growing network of illegal trails created by wayward motor vehicles is among their biggest problems. By 2003, there were 14,000 miles of such "user-created" trails in the national forests....
'Right stuff' mentality may be a factor in wildfire deaths When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers. But the U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters is also to blame. Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study. "Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said. Some of the deadliest fires -- such as Storm King in 1994 in Colorado, which killed 14 firefighters, and the Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in Washington, which killed four -- have focused attention on the role of leadership in such situations, Harris said. The Forest Service asks its crews to fight fires and take risks, but also to focus on safety first, Harris said. That's a contradictory message....
Thinned forests slow spread of pine beetles Thinning ponderosa pines in the Black Hills is helping to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetles, Forest Service officials say. "We know thinning is a good way to keep our forests green and healthy," Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien said. Logging, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burns in dense stands of ponderosas give individual trees better access to water and nutrients, Forest Service natural resources officer Dave Thom said. Larger, healthier trees are better able to reject bug attacks. "Like humans, if they're malnourished, dehydrated and crowded they're more subject to illness," Thom said. Recent Forest Service aerial photographs show patches of reddish-brown trees killed by beetles in dense stands of timber, next to logged and thinned timber where there are no red "bug trees."....
Lawmaker says USFS hesitated in fighting fire, asks why A state legislator wants congressional follow-up on claims that a helicopter available to drop water on a wildfire north of here did not do so because the U.S. Forest Service wanted to let the fire burn. The blaze that began in July and continues to burn in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management Area has blackened more than 43,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, and is nearing containment. Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, has asked Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to investigate the response to the Meriwether fire. Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the senator's staff will do so. Barkus said a state helicopter with a bucket to drop water on the fire was ready to fly after the fire was detected July 21, but at the request of the Forest Service the chopper did not head to the blaze. Helena National Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he is comfortable with the response....
Federal mine claim holders to face new challenges Pending in Congress as we speak is legislation that, if it becomes law, will make exploration and mining on (BLM) public domain and U.S. Forest Service lands so difficult that it will be impossible for anyone to mine on them in the future. The legislation I speak of is H.R. 2262, now pending before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This bill was introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall has been seeking to “reform” the mining law of 1872 for decades, and now he has the votes to do it. Alaska’s Congressman Don Young has been quoted as saying that he lacks the votes to amend or block this bill in the House; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is alleged to have said that he doesn’t have 41 votes to stop it in the Senate; and it is not at all clear that the White House would veto such a bill, especially if the votes to override are there....
Air study delays drilling plan Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado. The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there. The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November....
Prairie dog numbers grow Sharon Lovitt knows she has prairie dogs on her ranch. A town, or population, of the animals covering about 640 acres has been there as long as she can remember. But now that town has grown into well over 1,000 acres, she said, since the drought took hold. “They’ve never expanded like they are now,” she said. Neighbors from the far reaches of Converse County echoed her concerns over rapidly growing colonies and the ensuing ecological damage the prairie dogs wreak. Together, they’ve formed the Converse County Prairie Dog Working Group, and within that, the Pine Ridge Pilot Project, to find an ecological balance -- and a way to live with the prairie dogs. The groups come under the auspices of the Southeast Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development Council, an entity composed of representatives of the governments of Converse, Platte, Albany, Laramie and Goshen counties. Grant Stumbaugh, a Natural Resources and Conservation Service employee in Wheatland, provides guidance and support to the council. “We’ve got about a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations in the last four years (in Converse County),” Stumbaugh said. “A lot of that is attributed to the drought. As natural resource managers and people who care about the land, we strongly believe there needs to be an ecological balance. With a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations, we feel that ecological balance is no longer there.”....
Getting inside bears' brains George Stevenson's brain appeared to be sweating, glistening on a bright red plastic picnic plate there in the heat of the day. It was big as a big man's fist, and all around it, on other picnic plates, were slivers of other brains, like so many thin-sliced neural hors d'oeuvres. Some looked like spreading river deltas, carved deep with winding channels. One looked just like an elk hoof, stuffed tight with morel mushrooms. With them on the table was a bone-white grizzly bear skull, top lopped to show inside, where Stevenson's juicy brown brain used to be. And beside that was a fully furred grizzly head, guillotined with eyes closed, ears perked up, sharp teeth curving over soft black lips. These are the grisly tools Dr. Stevenson needs for his presentation: "Grizzly Bear Brain, Central Nervous System Structures." "These bears are amazing creatures," Stevenson said. "I believe they have the most impressive olfactory system of any animal on the planet. Their nose is the very best."....
Burning Man festival begins tomorrow Protecting the environment is this year's theme for the 22nd annual Burning Man counterculture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert. In addition to solar panels powering the pavilion at the base of the man, Burners will also be able to view demonstrations of things such as bicycles with generators and gasification machines that eat trash and produce flammable gas. More than 45,000 participants are expected to converge on a 5-square-mile patch of the desert for the festival that begins Monday. Their sprawling encampment will rise up along makeshift streets staked out on the playa and arrayed in a half-moon pattern before a central, looming statue of a man, who is set on fire in wild celebration on the next-to-last night of the festival. The event ends Sept. 3....
Roundup in the Great Divide If all goes well, nearly 500 wild horses will be rounded up and removed from the range east of here, according to the Bureau of Land Management. A contract crew has been working to round up the excess horses, which are run into a trap, sorted into pens, loaded into tractor-trailers, and trucked 40 miles to the BLM horse corrals at Rock Springs, where they will later be available for adoption. The wild horses are being removed from the Great Divide Basin herd management area, a huge expanse of checkerboard land ownership north of Interstate 80, where the federal agency has determined the appropriate management level is 415 to 600 horses. With the current population estimate of more than 1,000, the herd is nearly double the level prescribed by land managers, so excess horses must be removed to achieve ecological balance, they say. An environmental assessment for the horse removal plan noted that the population has exceeded the range capacity to sustain wild horse use over the long term. About 400 horses were removed last year, but the population continues to grow....
‘Split estates’ may pit surface-rights owners against mineral-rights owners The cliché “sitting on a gold mine” might not ring true to its positive tone. Gold is just one of the many minerals in Montana that sits below the surface — sometimes deep below — and is sought after for a variety of reasons. The importance of these raw products, whether they’re gold, sapphires, oil or other natural resources, is so powerful that the right to go after them can usurp private homeowners’ rights. That’s becoming an issue in the West with gas and oil exploration, due to the number of so-called “split estates” in which a person may own the surface rights to something, but someone else buys the mineral rights. And as the price of gold, uranium and other minerals climbs, the conflicts between surface-rights owners and mineral-rights owners may also rise. “A mineral estate is the dominant estate on a split estate,” said Steve Welch, administrator for the planning and compliance division of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “If you don’t own the mineral rights on a split estate and there’s something down there, you’re likely to see someone come in there and get it.” Split estates are fairly common in the West, being established in the early 1900s, but their roots go back to the founding of the nation....
Nevada senator urges probe in wild horse deaths Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conduct a "full and thorough investigation" into the nitrate contamination deaths of 71 wild horses in July at the Tonopah Test Range. "There are strong concerns in southern Nevada that these deaths are the result of serious negligence in the management of the test range and the wild horse herds in the area," Reid wrote in a letter sent Friday to the secretary. "In light of this unfortunate event, I believe that this is also an appropriate time to take a close look at the land and wildlife management practices used on the larger Nellis Air Force Range," Reid, the Senate majority leader, suggested. The horses' carcasses were found at a watering hole about a mile from the Tonopah Test Range airfield, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A former Air Force tech sergeant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week that when he worked at the airfield in the 1990s deicing compounds high in nitrogen routinely ran off the runway into the desert. The watering hole is on land restricted from public access....
Ruminants to the rescue A goat’s appetite for almost anything has put them in hot demand by private land owners and government agencies who want an alternative to chemicals for weed control. This summer, the ruminants cleared lands for Woodland, Rocklin, Nevada City, Nevada County and Nevada Irrigation District. “I’m so busy right now,” said Brad Fowler, a Penn Valley resident who owns The Goat Works. Fowler, who started with 150 goats two years ago, has now teamed up with a Woodland rancher. The team collectively dispatches 2,000 animals to clear lands from the foothills to Yolo County. Goats are a sustainable alternative to traditional herbicide sprays that can leach into watersheds or to heavy equipment that compacts soils....
Grasshoppers add to Eastern Oregon farming woes Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers, already hobbled by drought and hay shortages, have a new addition to their list of woes: grasshoppers. Cory Parsons, livestock extension agent for Baker and Union counties, says what the drought missed the grasshoppers are getting, and calls it the area's worst infestation in years. Typically, he says, grasshoppers stay in the rangelands, but wildfires and drought have made rangeland forage scarce in many areas, and grasshoppers are finding food where they can, including alfalfa fields. They are less visible in sagebrush and on rangeland, but they're being noticed now. They also are eating lawns, gardens, leaves from fruit trees and pine needles. This year, the grasshopper infestation covers more than 270,000 acres in Union and Baker counties, with as many as 75 grasshoppers per square yard in the worst places....
Ranchers: Checkoff should support USA beef Recently, Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Michael Kelsey, the CEO of the Nebraska Cattlemen, toured the state trying to drum up support for a 100-percent increase in the Beef Checkoff. At every stop and press opportunity, they claimed that any such increase would be driven by producers, who would then have a chance to ratify it with a vote. Well, Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kelsey, let’s take a look at how 8,000 beef producers voted in a recent survey conducted by the Gallup organization under the direction of the USDA and the Livestock Marketing Association: · Only 5.7 percent said the Checkoff should be increased; 91 percent of the respondents said it should remain at $1 (per head) or be decreased. · 92 percent said Checkoff dollars should be used to promote products from cattle specifically born and raised in the U. S. Under current rules beef can only be promoted as a generic product, with no regard to its origin. · 82.5 percent wanted a mandated periodic referendum. * 66 percent would like to see changes made in the contracting process. So it would seem the “producers” have a much different agenda in mind when it comes to managing their Checkoff contributions....
Government cowboys patrol Rio Grande to protect cattle from resurgent ticks hey're gun-toting, government cowboys who follow an unforgiving and treacherous 500-mile route along the Texas-Mexico border, their .357 Magnums, lariats and machetes well in hand. These cowboys aren't after the wave of drug smugglers or illegal immigrants who cross the border daily: They're inspectors on the lookout for border-crossing, blood-sucking parasites that feed on the region's cattle and deer – small black ticks, or garrapatas. The fever tick was all but stricken from the U.S. more than 50 years ago, after wreaking havoc on the state's beef industry. But experts warn that they are back and stronger than ever after developing a resistance to pesticides that had been used effectively for decades. And left uncontrolled, the parasites could result in losses to the beef industry of up to $1 billion a year, the experts warn. They spread a debilitating disease that destroys red blood cells. Enter the 61-person Fever Tick Force, a group of modern-day cowboys funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who patrol a thin quarantine line along the Rio Grande....
Quality in the fibers Back when Moffat County wool was considered by some to be the king of crops in Colorado, buyers would come to the growers in Northwest Colorado and negotiate a price for their fleece. Rancher John Wellman hopes a recent resurgence of natural fibers in the clothing industry will make wool buyers appreciate the quality of the product coming from his ranch. “Wool is an excellent insulator,” he said. “It can absorb 75 percent of its weight in water without feeling wet.” The Corriedale herd on Wellman’s ranch south of Hamilton produces quality wool that is highly sought after by wool buyers. The Wellman Ranch, on the Moffat and Rio Blanco county line, began when John’s great-grandfather, Harrison Wilber Wellman, purchased the D.D. Ferguson Ranch in 1912. The elder Wellman had already filed on a nearby Milk Creek homestead, but the Ferguson ranch came up for sale and he acquired the property....
Old notebook unearths a tale that needs telling I mentioned in columns after Shoulders' death in June that the 16-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion was one of the greatest storytellers I had ever met. So obviously I couldn't fit all the great stories he shared with me in the story I wrote in 2000. Shoulders was a worker — whether as a cowboy, a stock contractor, a rancher or a pitchman — whatever. Even when I saw him sitting in the stands, he was promoting or supporting bull riding or a rodeo. "I'm not a very good tourist,” he said in that interview. And he backed that up with story after story related to working. Here's one of those stories of the pitchman at work. Shoulders would sometimes take "Buford T,” a Brahma bull weighing about 1,900 pounds, to promotional events for Miller Lite beer. This included taking the bull inside some crowded night spots. "I'd say, ‘Excuse us,' and people would turn around kind of mad that I was being pushy,” he said. "But when they saw Buford, it was like a parting of the sea. They'd be on the pool tables or under the pool tables. We instantly had room. Buford thought he was a person.”....
Piece by piece, Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia sold A Texas antiquer went home from the Prairie Rose bankruptcy auction on Friday with a gun-toting girl's bicycle from the 1950s and a slew of other memorabilia from the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum. The small lamps that Harry King bought for $600 each and the mechanized horse named Sandy destined for one of his grandchildren were among thousands of pieces sold from the museum's collection and scattered to the winds. That's why some people were happy to hear that a local guy had picked up the prize of the Hopalong auction: a 1949 Chevrolet panel truck that had been owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hoppy, which Tommy Devlin snagged for his dad. The truck will be part of the family's classic-car collection in Andover, he said. It features a picture of Hoppy on the side with his horse, Topper, his gun in his hand and the words "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Hi Kids!" written on it in white rope. Horns sit on the roof....
Actors, ranchers hail Western glory Actor Clint Walker believes the Western is a way Americans can connect with their heritage. "It helps us understand the pioneer spirit and that of the miners, loggers and others who helped develop the backbone of this country," Walker said Saturday in this southwest Utah community used for decades as a backdrop for countless movies. The actor, who in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in a slew of Westerns and on the hit television series "Cheyenne," was here to sign autographs and talk to fans attending the ninth annual Western Legends Roundup. The event ended Saturday. Several thousand people descended on Kanab for the festival held to celebrate Western heritage and honor the moviemaking history of the city and the actors who for several decades beginning in the 1920s stayed in town while shooting movies in the surrounding redrock desert....
Wagons Ho! Dressed in bonnets and cowboy hats, dozens of modern-day pioneers set out Thursday on a nine-day journey from the east side of Sonora Pass to Twain Harte. The Historic Sonora Pass Wagon Train, celebrating its 10th anniversary ride, aims to reenact the wagon train crossing originally accomplished by the Clark-Skidmore expedition in 1852. Although taking a different route than the original pioneers, the wagon train will travel roughly 75 miles. "We want our grandkids to learn the history of Tuolumne County," said Willy Evans, a Twain Harte resident and creator of the initial wagon train event in 1997. "The main purpose is to educate the kids about Tuolumne County's history. They study California history, but not enough Tuolumne County history. I want them to be proud of where they live."....
It’s The Pitts: The Walking Of The Cows People in agriculture are always being urged by our government, who want a cheap food policy, to develop other sources of income on our farms and ranches. They insist the way to save small town America is through tourism. But not every urbanite is going to want to spend their vacation touring this country’s tallest grain elevators or visiting collections of rusted old farm implements. But I think I have come up with something that rubberneckers and sightseers will flock to our small towns to see. You’ve no doubt heard of Pamplona’s running of the bulls? Ever since Ernest Hemingway brought the event to the world’s attention millions of tourists have flocked to Pamplona to try and kill themselves for no apparent reason or cause. Believe it or not, the running of the bulls is a religious festival, which in retrospect seems fitting because the idiots who run with the bulls surely must say a lot of prayers. Pamplona is the historic capital of Basque country and every July the residents celebrate the San Fermin Festival by partying nonstop for over a week. The running of the bulls actually began in 1852 when the drovers who brought the bulls to the Plaza de Toros through the narrow streets of Pamplona for that night’s bullfight started running with them. Then some crazy tourists thought it looked like fun to be gored and run over by bulls and so they joined the chase. And the rest is medical history. Now here’s what I’ve been thinking. My initial idea was that prior to the NFR in Las Vegas the rodeo stock for that night’s performance would be run down the Vegas strip to the Thomas and Mack Arena. But I gave up on that idea because the rodeo animals are far too valuable and I don’t think the bus people would leave their slot machines to run with the bulls and risk losing the nickels and quarters in their buckets. Besides, Vegas doesn’t need the money and small town America does. We don’t have bullfight arenas but we do have auction markets and I thought that instead of trucking our culls to auction, once a year ranchers could drive them down Main Street to their local auction yard. Because no rancher wants to get hit by a bullock in the buttocks we’d make a few changes. Instead of running with the bulls we’d walk with the cows. That way there’d be far fewer fatalities. And less shrink!....
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Putting the definition in normal
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
Cowboys are generally reasonable critters but sometimes their perception of reasonable and normal gets them in a bit of a bind.
Jerry and Donna, husband and wife, were driving down the road to pick up yet another load of wheat cattle to put out on pasture.
This particular morning, Jerry was explaining in great detail to Donna just what his "reasonable expectations" included.
All he wanted was a normal wife, he said. A normal wife would not think crackers were an acceptable substitute for bread and therefore, would not run out of bread. A normal wife wouldn't expect much of a poor wheat-pasture cowboy.
As is often the case in the Texas Panhandle, the weather was despicable, cold and raining right straight down. When they arrived at the pasture where their cattle to be picked up were penned, Jerry pulled up to the gate and waited. Nobody moved.
Finally, he asked Donna, "Aren't you going to open the gate?"
Donna explained, "No normal wife would get out in this mess and get her boots muddy or her hair wet."
Jerry got out and opened the gate with no comment.
He backed up to the chute, got out and opened the trailer gate but as he headed back to the pickup, the wind blew the gate shut.
This happened a time or two more until Jerry got a stick to prop it open.
Like a normal wife, Donna sat warm and dry in the cab of the pickup.
As Jerry got back into the truck, the stick on the gate slipped and it banged shut. Finally, Jerry said, "OK, you made your point. Please get out and hold the gate for me."
Later, thinking to make up, Jerry told Donna that he had noticed she had a flat on the inside dually of her feed truck.
He told her if she would take the tire off, he would fix the flat while she fixed lunch. Donna said she thought a normal wife would be taken to lunch.
That explosion passed as Jerry realized they still had all afternoon to go. They could put out another set of cattle and get them settled before dark.
His thought was that he could go pick them up, Donna could go build a half mile of hot-wire fence he hadn't had time to get to and then they would meet to put the cattle out.
Donna said she had other plans for the afternoon.
She outlined a normal-wife strategy of going to the mall and perhaps getting her hair and nails done. Jerry could then meet her and take to the new restaurant she had heard about.
The following day there were more cattle to get to wheat pasture.
When this was done, Jerry noticed the hay trailer needed loading as snow was forecast. Donna had always tended to this project.
Jerry wasn't that slow. He had become accustomed to her doing certain things.
Today, so far, had contained no reference to "normal wives" and he had forgotten what had prompted him to mention it the day before.
Donna informed him that all four tires on the hay trailer were flat and she recommended that he do something about it because flat tires didn't fall within the parameters of normal wife expertise.
It didn't happen often, but he gave up. He told her he could live without a normal wife, just please get back to doing what she had been doing.
And, while she was at it, when she took the flats off and had them fixed, she may as well rotate the tires around the trailer, too.
As a normal cowboy's wife, she got right on it.
Visit Julie’s Web site and blog, updated weekly at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
Cowboys are generally reasonable critters but sometimes their perception of reasonable and normal gets them in a bit of a bind.
Jerry and Donna, husband and wife, were driving down the road to pick up yet another load of wheat cattle to put out on pasture.
This particular morning, Jerry was explaining in great detail to Donna just what his "reasonable expectations" included.
All he wanted was a normal wife, he said. A normal wife would not think crackers were an acceptable substitute for bread and therefore, would not run out of bread. A normal wife wouldn't expect much of a poor wheat-pasture cowboy.
As is often the case in the Texas Panhandle, the weather was despicable, cold and raining right straight down. When they arrived at the pasture where their cattle to be picked up were penned, Jerry pulled up to the gate and waited. Nobody moved.
Finally, he asked Donna, "Aren't you going to open the gate?"
Donna explained, "No normal wife would get out in this mess and get her boots muddy or her hair wet."
Jerry got out and opened the gate with no comment.
He backed up to the chute, got out and opened the trailer gate but as he headed back to the pickup, the wind blew the gate shut.
This happened a time or two more until Jerry got a stick to prop it open.
Like a normal wife, Donna sat warm and dry in the cab of the pickup.
As Jerry got back into the truck, the stick on the gate slipped and it banged shut. Finally, Jerry said, "OK, you made your point. Please get out and hold the gate for me."
Later, thinking to make up, Jerry told Donna that he had noticed she had a flat on the inside dually of her feed truck.
He told her if she would take the tire off, he would fix the flat while she fixed lunch. Donna said she thought a normal wife would be taken to lunch.
That explosion passed as Jerry realized they still had all afternoon to go. They could put out another set of cattle and get them settled before dark.
His thought was that he could go pick them up, Donna could go build a half mile of hot-wire fence he hadn't had time to get to and then they would meet to put the cattle out.
Donna said she had other plans for the afternoon.
She outlined a normal-wife strategy of going to the mall and perhaps getting her hair and nails done. Jerry could then meet her and take to the new restaurant she had heard about.
The following day there were more cattle to get to wheat pasture.
When this was done, Jerry noticed the hay trailer needed loading as snow was forecast. Donna had always tended to this project.
Jerry wasn't that slow. He had become accustomed to her doing certain things.
Today, so far, had contained no reference to "normal wives" and he had forgotten what had prompted him to mention it the day before.
Donna informed him that all four tires on the hay trailer were flat and she recommended that he do something about it because flat tires didn't fall within the parameters of normal wife expertise.
It didn't happen often, but he gave up. He told her he could live without a normal wife, just please get back to doing what she had been doing.
And, while she was at it, when she took the flats off and had them fixed, she may as well rotate the tires around the trailer, too.
As a normal cowboy's wife, she got right on it.
Visit Julie’s Web site and blog, updated weekly at www.julie-carter.com
FLE
Mandatory deportation has illegals on the run Thousands of Hispanics have fled the Tulsa, Okla., area in the shadow of a looming state law that limits benefits and mandates deportation for illegal aliens, according to a report from KTUL television in Tulsa. The state of Oklahoma recently approved a new law that requires deportation for illegal aliens who are arrested, and limits benefits and jobs to those individuals. The report said in East Tulsa, where a community of Hispanics has grown over recent years, there's been a sudden drop in population. Business owner Simon Navarro has been in business there 11 years, and said the tough law has chased away 30 percent of the state's Hispanic population. "Two months ago I heard 25,000 Hispanics have left Oklahoma," he told the station. "They are leaving. A lot have already left. "People are leaving," he said. "They're scared of the sheriff." Deputies from the Tulsa County sheriff's office are going through training to handle the apprehension and deportation procedures that are being set up. Their training will prepare them to handle the multiple duties of deputy sheriff as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. When they are finished they will be prepared to identify illegal aliens who commit crimes, and make sure they are deported. Officials say many of those departing apparently are heading either to Kansas or Arkansas. But that may not be for long, since Arkansas is about to adopt a law similar to Oklahoma's, and Kansas is considering a similar move....
New hiring law spurs identity-theft fears The fake-document trade is booming in Arizona. It's about to get even bigger. Hundreds of operations around the Valley churn out fake green cards, Social Security cards and driver's licenses by the thousands, authorities say. Their chief customers: illegal immigrants. Some are trying to land jobs in Arizona. Some are passing through Phoenix, a major smuggling hub, on the way to other states. Most of the fake documents bought on the street by undocumented immigrants are made with bogus numbers. But authorities fear the industry will grow as migrants look for ways to circumvent the state's new employer-sanctions law and a new Bush administration crackdown on illegal workers. The push for more documents, especially with authentic numbers, is expected to spur more identity theft....
Justice comes 40 years late as judge blames FBI for two men's wrongful murder convictions For three decades, Marie Salvati and Olympia Limone essentially lived as widows, struggling to make ends meet as each raised four children on her own. Their husbands grew old behind bars after being convicted of a murder the FBI knew they did not commit. Now the women hope a judge's ruling awarding them and two other families nearly $102 million (€76 million) marks the end of their struggle in a long story of love, devotion and survival. For many years, the two women would see each across the visiting room of a state prison. Usually, they just waved or asked after each other's families; they didn't really need words to understand the sad lives they shared. In the days after the judge's ruling last month blaming the FBI for the men's wrongful convictions, the two women and their husbands spoke to The Associated Press about living apart for so long, and the bonds that kept them together. The judge found two Boston FBI agents had allowed Barboza to frame the men because Barboza and his friend, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, one of Deegan's killers, were FBI informants who provided evidence in the agency's highly publicized war against crime bosses....
Editorial - Eye on the Homeland POWERFUL intelligence satellites have been used domestically for years on an ad hoc basis -- for example, to assess damage after a natural disaster, to help with security at major events or for scientific studies. The FBI called in spy satellite help when tracking the Washington area snipers. Now, the Bush administration is forming a unit within the Department of Homeland Security to enable more routine domestic use of satellite imagery -- for purposes such as protecting the borders and helping local law enforcement. The administration's plan makes sense. But it is essential that these capabilities be used carefully, with due regard for Americans' privacy concerns and with careful monitoring, including congressional oversight. There is, we agree with civil libertarians, a creepy, Big Brother feel to the notion of an invisible eye snapping pictures from above. But this kind of technology is less invasive than surveillance cameras in public places, which proved their usefulness after terrorist bombings in London. The intrusive capacity of the spy satellites may be greater than that of the satellites that produce images used by Google Earth, but officials insist that they are nowhere near the detect-activity-through-walls powers imagined by producers of television dramas. "We're not looking inside bunkers, we're not looking inside houses," Charles Allen, chief intelligence officer for the Department of Homeland Security, told us. The greater use of this technology must be accompanied, however, by robust protections for privacy and civil liberties. It must be carefully reviewed within the executive branch and by Congress. Some capabilities may need to remain classified, but a change this significant ought to be publicly debated to the fullest extent possible, and there should be continued public disclosure about how much surveillance is being conducted for what purposes....
Terror Suspect List Yields Few Arrests The government's terrorist screening database flagged Americans and foreigners as suspected terrorists almost 20,000 times last year. But only a small fraction of those questioned were arrested or denied entry into the United States, raising concerns among critics about privacy and the list's effectiveness. A range of state, local and federal agencies as well as U.S. embassies overseas rely on the database to pinpoint terrorism suspects, who can be identified at borders or even during routine traffic stops. The database consolidates a dozen government watch lists, as well as a growing amount of information from various sources, including airline passenger data. The government said it was planning to expand the data-sharing to private-sector groups with a "substantial bearing on homeland security," though officials would not be more specific. Few specifics are known about how the system operates, how many people are detained or turned back from borders, or the criteria used to identify suspects. The government will not discuss cases, nor will it confirm whether an individual's name is on its list. Slightly more than half of the 20,000 encounters last year were logged by Customs and Border Protection officers, who turned back or handed over to authorities 550 people, most of them foreigners, Customs officials said. FBI and other officials said that they could not provide data on the number of people arrested or denied entry for the other half of the database hits. FBI officials indicated that the number of arrests was small. The government says the database is a powerful tool for identifying and tracking suspected terrorists and for sharing intelligence, and that its purpose is not necessarily to make arrests. But the new details about the numbers, disclosed in an FBI budget document and in interviews, raise questions about the database's effectiveness and its impact on privacy, critics said. They argued that the number of hits relative to arrests was alarmingly high and indicated that the threshold for including someone on a watch list was too low, potentially violating thousands of Americans' civil liberties when they are stopped....
Telecom Firms Helped With Government's Warrantless Wiretaps The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that telecommunications companies assisted the government's warrantless surveillance program and were being sued as a result, an admission some legal experts say could complicate the government's bid to halt numerous lawsuits challenging the program's legality. "[U]nder the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us," Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said in an interview with the El Paso Times published Wednesday. His statement could help plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits against the telecom companies, which allege that the companies participated in a wiretapping program that violated Americans' privacy rights, former Justice Department officials said. Warrantless surveillance began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was placed under supervision of a special court in January. An appeals court in San Francisco is weighing the government's argument that these cases should be thrown out on the grounds that the subject matter is a "state secret" and that its disclosure would jeopardize national security. The government has repeatedly asserted that any relationship between the telecommunications firms and the National Security Agency's spy program is classified. The firms' alleged cooperation and other details of the program, government lawyers have argued, are so sensitive that they cannot be disclosed. The government has argued the lawsuits against the telecom firms must be dismissed....
Defense Department drops TALON The U.S. Department of Defense has announced it plans to shut down the TALON reporting system because of a drop in the number of reports. The DoD says it will maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements after TALON closes down by Sept. 17. In 2005 the system came under fire for the improper storage of information about some civilian individuals and non-government-affiliated groups in its database. After a review the DoD removed the information that was deemed unnecessary from the database. Established in 2002, TALON stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz created the system as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. service members and defense civilians at stateside and overseas military installations. A replacement for TALON is currently under way. All information concerning force protection threats in the interim will go to the FBI’s Guardian reporting system, Keck said....
C.I.A. Details Errors It Made Before Sept. 11 A report released Tuesday by the Central Intelligence Agency includes new details of the agency’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attacks, outlining what the report says were failures to grasp the role being played by the terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and to assess fully the threats streaming into the C.I.A. in the summer of 2001. The 19-page report, prepared by the agency’s inspector general, also says 50 to 60 C.I.A. officers knew of intelligence reports in 2000 that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, may have been in the United States. But none of those officers thought to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the potential domestic threat, the report says, evidence of what it calls a systemic failure. The inspector general recommended that several top agency officials, including former director George J. Tenet, be held accountable for their failure to put in place a strategy to dismantle Al Qaeda in the years before Sept. 11, 2001. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the current C.I.A. director, and his predecessor, Porter J. Goss, have declined to seek disciplinary action against Mr. Tenet and others named in the report....
Mandatory deportation has illegals on the run Thousands of Hispanics have fled the Tulsa, Okla., area in the shadow of a looming state law that limits benefits and mandates deportation for illegal aliens, according to a report from KTUL television in Tulsa. The state of Oklahoma recently approved a new law that requires deportation for illegal aliens who are arrested, and limits benefits and jobs to those individuals. The report said in East Tulsa, where a community of Hispanics has grown over recent years, there's been a sudden drop in population. Business owner Simon Navarro has been in business there 11 years, and said the tough law has chased away 30 percent of the state's Hispanic population. "Two months ago I heard 25,000 Hispanics have left Oklahoma," he told the station. "They are leaving. A lot have already left. "People are leaving," he said. "They're scared of the sheriff." Deputies from the Tulsa County sheriff's office are going through training to handle the apprehension and deportation procedures that are being set up. Their training will prepare them to handle the multiple duties of deputy sheriff as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. When they are finished they will be prepared to identify illegal aliens who commit crimes, and make sure they are deported. Officials say many of those departing apparently are heading either to Kansas or Arkansas. But that may not be for long, since Arkansas is about to adopt a law similar to Oklahoma's, and Kansas is considering a similar move....
New hiring law spurs identity-theft fears The fake-document trade is booming in Arizona. It's about to get even bigger. Hundreds of operations around the Valley churn out fake green cards, Social Security cards and driver's licenses by the thousands, authorities say. Their chief customers: illegal immigrants. Some are trying to land jobs in Arizona. Some are passing through Phoenix, a major smuggling hub, on the way to other states. Most of the fake documents bought on the street by undocumented immigrants are made with bogus numbers. But authorities fear the industry will grow as migrants look for ways to circumvent the state's new employer-sanctions law and a new Bush administration crackdown on illegal workers. The push for more documents, especially with authentic numbers, is expected to spur more identity theft....
Justice comes 40 years late as judge blames FBI for two men's wrongful murder convictions For three decades, Marie Salvati and Olympia Limone essentially lived as widows, struggling to make ends meet as each raised four children on her own. Their husbands grew old behind bars after being convicted of a murder the FBI knew they did not commit. Now the women hope a judge's ruling awarding them and two other families nearly $102 million (€76 million) marks the end of their struggle in a long story of love, devotion and survival. For many years, the two women would see each across the visiting room of a state prison. Usually, they just waved or asked after each other's families; they didn't really need words to understand the sad lives they shared. In the days after the judge's ruling last month blaming the FBI for the men's wrongful convictions, the two women and their husbands spoke to The Associated Press about living apart for so long, and the bonds that kept them together. The judge found two Boston FBI agents had allowed Barboza to frame the men because Barboza and his friend, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, one of Deegan's killers, were FBI informants who provided evidence in the agency's highly publicized war against crime bosses....
Editorial - Eye on the Homeland POWERFUL intelligence satellites have been used domestically for years on an ad hoc basis -- for example, to assess damage after a natural disaster, to help with security at major events or for scientific studies. The FBI called in spy satellite help when tracking the Washington area snipers. Now, the Bush administration is forming a unit within the Department of Homeland Security to enable more routine domestic use of satellite imagery -- for purposes such as protecting the borders and helping local law enforcement. The administration's plan makes sense. But it is essential that these capabilities be used carefully, with due regard for Americans' privacy concerns and with careful monitoring, including congressional oversight. There is, we agree with civil libertarians, a creepy, Big Brother feel to the notion of an invisible eye snapping pictures from above. But this kind of technology is less invasive than surveillance cameras in public places, which proved their usefulness after terrorist bombings in London. The intrusive capacity of the spy satellites may be greater than that of the satellites that produce images used by Google Earth, but officials insist that they are nowhere near the detect-activity-through-walls powers imagined by producers of television dramas. "We're not looking inside bunkers, we're not looking inside houses," Charles Allen, chief intelligence officer for the Department of Homeland Security, told us. The greater use of this technology must be accompanied, however, by robust protections for privacy and civil liberties. It must be carefully reviewed within the executive branch and by Congress. Some capabilities may need to remain classified, but a change this significant ought to be publicly debated to the fullest extent possible, and there should be continued public disclosure about how much surveillance is being conducted for what purposes....
Terror Suspect List Yields Few Arrests The government's terrorist screening database flagged Americans and foreigners as suspected terrorists almost 20,000 times last year. But only a small fraction of those questioned were arrested or denied entry into the United States, raising concerns among critics about privacy and the list's effectiveness. A range of state, local and federal agencies as well as U.S. embassies overseas rely on the database to pinpoint terrorism suspects, who can be identified at borders or even during routine traffic stops. The database consolidates a dozen government watch lists, as well as a growing amount of information from various sources, including airline passenger data. The government said it was planning to expand the data-sharing to private-sector groups with a "substantial bearing on homeland security," though officials would not be more specific. Few specifics are known about how the system operates, how many people are detained or turned back from borders, or the criteria used to identify suspects. The government will not discuss cases, nor will it confirm whether an individual's name is on its list. Slightly more than half of the 20,000 encounters last year were logged by Customs and Border Protection officers, who turned back or handed over to authorities 550 people, most of them foreigners, Customs officials said. FBI and other officials said that they could not provide data on the number of people arrested or denied entry for the other half of the database hits. FBI officials indicated that the number of arrests was small. The government says the database is a powerful tool for identifying and tracking suspected terrorists and for sharing intelligence, and that its purpose is not necessarily to make arrests. But the new details about the numbers, disclosed in an FBI budget document and in interviews, raise questions about the database's effectiveness and its impact on privacy, critics said. They argued that the number of hits relative to arrests was alarmingly high and indicated that the threshold for including someone on a watch list was too low, potentially violating thousands of Americans' civil liberties when they are stopped....
Telecom Firms Helped With Government's Warrantless Wiretaps The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that telecommunications companies assisted the government's warrantless surveillance program and were being sued as a result, an admission some legal experts say could complicate the government's bid to halt numerous lawsuits challenging the program's legality. "[U]nder the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us," Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said in an interview with the El Paso Times published Wednesday. His statement could help plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits against the telecom companies, which allege that the companies participated in a wiretapping program that violated Americans' privacy rights, former Justice Department officials said. Warrantless surveillance began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was placed under supervision of a special court in January. An appeals court in San Francisco is weighing the government's argument that these cases should be thrown out on the grounds that the subject matter is a "state secret" and that its disclosure would jeopardize national security. The government has repeatedly asserted that any relationship between the telecommunications firms and the National Security Agency's spy program is classified. The firms' alleged cooperation and other details of the program, government lawyers have argued, are so sensitive that they cannot be disclosed. The government has argued the lawsuits against the telecom firms must be dismissed....
Defense Department drops TALON The U.S. Department of Defense has announced it plans to shut down the TALON reporting system because of a drop in the number of reports. The DoD says it will maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements after TALON closes down by Sept. 17. In 2005 the system came under fire for the improper storage of information about some civilian individuals and non-government-affiliated groups in its database. After a review the DoD removed the information that was deemed unnecessary from the database. Established in 2002, TALON stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz created the system as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. service members and defense civilians at stateside and overseas military installations. A replacement for TALON is currently under way. All information concerning force protection threats in the interim will go to the FBI’s Guardian reporting system, Keck said....
C.I.A. Details Errors It Made Before Sept. 11 A report released Tuesday by the Central Intelligence Agency includes new details of the agency’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attacks, outlining what the report says were failures to grasp the role being played by the terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and to assess fully the threats streaming into the C.I.A. in the summer of 2001. The 19-page report, prepared by the agency’s inspector general, also says 50 to 60 C.I.A. officers knew of intelligence reports in 2000 that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, may have been in the United States. But none of those officers thought to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the potential domestic threat, the report says, evidence of what it calls a systemic failure. The inspector general recommended that several top agency officials, including former director George J. Tenet, be held accountable for their failure to put in place a strategy to dismantle Al Qaeda in the years before Sept. 11, 2001. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the current C.I.A. director, and his predecessor, Porter J. Goss, have declined to seek disciplinary action against Mr. Tenet and others named in the report....
Saturday, August 25, 2007
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Taxpayers are putting in their two cents worth
The penny is not what is used to be. Congress 25 years ago eliminated most of the copper from the coin due to a big spike in the cost of the metal. Since then, zinc has been the main ingredient — over 97% — with copper being limited to a thin coating into which Abraham Lincoln’s face in engraved. Now, with the price of zinc soaring, it costs taxpayers over 1.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin. In other words, it costs nearly twice as much to make a penny as the thing is worth. The U.S. Mint cranks out roughly 8 billion new ones each year to the tune of well over $100 million annually. (Each nickel also costs about 10 cents in production costs, by the way.) Can you imagine a company continuing to manufacture a product that costs twice as much to produce as it can charge for the product? Just picture a meeting at General Motors where a young, enthusiastic automotive executive provides detailed information about a new SUV that the company would produce at a cost of $40,000 — and market for $20,000. Surely somebody would point out that the young executive had seemingly transposed the figures; that the cost of production and retail appeared to be reversed. Nobody in their right mind would move ahead with such a project …unless they were spending taxpayer money...So why do we keep producing pennies that cost nearly two cents each? As usual, the answer lies in following the money. A Tennessee-based company, Jarden Corp., spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year lobbying to maintain its highly profitable sole source “penny contract.” That company has been paid more than $170 million from 2004 to 2006 under the contract with the Mint, a contract that can be extended through September 2008 and could reach a total of $450 million....
Taxpayers are putting in their two cents worth
The penny is not what is used to be. Congress 25 years ago eliminated most of the copper from the coin due to a big spike in the cost of the metal. Since then, zinc has been the main ingredient — over 97% — with copper being limited to a thin coating into which Abraham Lincoln’s face in engraved. Now, with the price of zinc soaring, it costs taxpayers over 1.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin. In other words, it costs nearly twice as much to make a penny as the thing is worth. The U.S. Mint cranks out roughly 8 billion new ones each year to the tune of well over $100 million annually. (Each nickel also costs about 10 cents in production costs, by the way.) Can you imagine a company continuing to manufacture a product that costs twice as much to produce as it can charge for the product? Just picture a meeting at General Motors where a young, enthusiastic automotive executive provides detailed information about a new SUV that the company would produce at a cost of $40,000 — and market for $20,000. Surely somebody would point out that the young executive had seemingly transposed the figures; that the cost of production and retail appeared to be reversed. Nobody in their right mind would move ahead with such a project …unless they were spending taxpayer money...So why do we keep producing pennies that cost nearly two cents each? As usual, the answer lies in following the money. A Tennessee-based company, Jarden Corp., spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year lobbying to maintain its highly profitable sole source “penny contract.” That company has been paid more than $170 million from 2004 to 2006 under the contract with the Mint, a contract that can be extended through September 2008 and could reach a total of $450 million....
Friday, August 24, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Feds say wolf killed sheep Federal officials say a wolf killed one sheep and wounded another on a ranch northwest of Jordan this week. Wildlife Services investigators said they found tracks of a single wolf at the scene. Ten sheep were also killed on a nearby ranch, but the evidence wasn't conclusive that a wolf was the culprit, state officials said. The area is not known to have any wolf packs. Earlier this year, a "domestic" wolf was caught in the area and was believed to be responsible for killing more than 120 sheep in Garfield and McCone Counties in 2006, according to state officials. After the incident near Jordan this week, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks authorized a shoot-on-sight permit for the rancher, allowing a wolf to be killed....
Judge rules Klamath toxin case against energy company can proceed A group of environmentalists, fishermen and Karuk tribe members filed suit Thursday to force the regional water board to regulate discharges of highly toxic algae in the Klamath River. The lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior Court alleges that the North Coast Regional Quality Control Board has failed to establish limits on discharges from California dams and reservoirs owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp. The plaintiffs - the Klamath Riverkeeper, the Karuk tribe of California and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations - have long pushed for removal of the Iron Gate and Copco dams, which they claim harms water quality and salmon runs in the river along the California-Oregon border. Earlier this year, the groups petitioned the regional water board to regulate PacifiCorp's discharges, but the board said it lacked the authority to regulate the company - a claim the plaintiffs dispute in Thursday's lawsuit....
Montana Legislature unsure how to pay for firefighting expenses Montana's wildfire bill for this summer is already $4 million more than the all the money set aside to pay for fires and other disasters for the next two years, state figures show. As of last Friday, the state had written checks for $2.4 million to pay for the firefighting efforts that began on July 1, the beginning of the state's financial year, said Mary Sexton, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the agency that oversees firefighting. But that's only a fraction of the estimated $20 million firefighting bill the state has racked up since July 1, she said. As is the norm, the 2007 Legislature did not set aside money specifically for firefighting. Instead, the only money easily at hand to will come out of the governor's $16 million emergency account. Even if DNRC spent all the emergency money, an estimated $4 million of the firefighting bill would be unpaid. So far, $14 million of the emergency fund has been allocated for firefighting, said Clayton Schenck, legislative financial analyst....
Film explores the fate of wild horses Filmmaker James Kleinert’s newest documentary, “The American Wild Horse,” gets to the heart of a controversial issue in the West. The 30-minute film, screening at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Missouri Heights Schoolhouse outside of Carbondale, covers the controversy surrounding wild horses and their management. Former Bureau of Land Management employees, historians, wildlife managers, ranchers and land stewards offer their insights on the future of the horses. “It’s a documentary that explores both sides of the issue,” said Nancy Wilhelms, of WestGroup Marketing Communications, the local firm promoting the film. “Some people really are for the wild horses, and some are against them. They want them off their land.” The documentary — not recommended for young children because of some graphic scenes — mixes scenery and substance for an impactful statement on the issue, Wilhelms said....
Gov tells oil industry to back wildlife efforts Though the oil and gas industry in Wyoming has proven itself adept at meeting technological and environmental challenges in the field, it hasn't done as well on the political side, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Freudenthal told industry officials at the Petroleum Association of Wyoming's annual convention on Wednesday that he can't understand why the industry lobbies against fully funding the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Fund. "It is in your best interest" to use the funds that oil and gas injects into state coffers to mitigate the impacts of development, the governor said. The trust fund was created in 2005 to enhance and conserve wildlife habitat in the state. The Legislature appropriated millions of dollars to the fund, and the Nature Conservancy contributed $250,000. Other conservation groups have also anted in, but so far no energy company or energy group has contributed. Freudenthal said industry's lobby should ask legislators to fully fund the program, or the state and the Bureau of Land Management will likely "extract" funding from the companies directly when it comes time to permit oil and gas activity....
Anti-U.N. resolution passed The Otero County commission officially passed a resolution of absolute opposition to the White Sands National Monument being considered as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site at a special meeting on Thursday. Entered as Resolution No. 08-23-07/96-10, the issue drew no opposition whatsoever before its passing. "We have sent a letter to the National Parks Service and to our congressional delegation expressing our official desires that White Sands be removed from the list of those sites being considered as World Heritage Sites," said commission chair Doug Moore. "I think this resolution does a great job in capturing our feelings." Moore also said it has come to his attention the Trinity Site has been on the list of tentative World Heritage Sites since 1990 and that he will encourage the nominating committee to drop that location from the list....
Easement aimed at preventing future development of site A Miles City-area ranch family has put its 14,000-acre ranch into the Grasslands Reserve Program in an agreement in perpetuity with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Terry Haughian said the family loves the open space of Eastern Montana and "we want to keep it that way." "It will always be kept as open rangeland," he said of the ranch at Kinsey. The ranch was founded in 1901, he said, and his three children represent the fourth generation on the land. In the event the land is ever sold, the conservation easement goes with it and cannot be converted to another use such as for a subdivision. "This is a positive exercise of conservation," said Mark Rey, undersecretary of natural resources and environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the land value is decreased by the future encumbrance on the land, but that the property becomes easier to deal with as an estate. Rey said the agreement was a cause for celebration and that the grassland set-aside is the largest in the country....
NASA, U.S. Forest Service Test Technology to Fight Wildfires NASA is testing new technologies that have strong possibilities to evolve as a tool for improving wildlife imaging and mapping capabilities. NASA is working on this project in collaboration with U.S. Forest Service. Currently tests are under way in the area covered by West Coast of United States that has suffered extremely high temperature and drought conditions during this summer. NASA is conducting flights of a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft system for these tests. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is operating the whole project with newly developed imaging and real-time communications equipment. During the first flight of these testing operations on August 16, 2007, NASA captured images of California wildfire and Zaca fire in Santa Barbara County .This first test flight collected important data during its 1,200 miles traverse that lasted for ten long hours. The images captured from this test flight opens up a new hope for fighting the wildfires." This technology captured images through the smoke and provided real time information on what the fire was doing," said Zaca Incident Commander Mike Dietrich. NASA is using "Ikhana" aircraft for these test flights. Ikhana's sensor payload collects detailed and minute data through thermal infrared imagery of wildfires. Unmanned aircraft system is proving itself a substantial alternative to collect data stretched over a long period of 12 to 24 hours continuously. Ikhana will fly for its second round of tests over Idaho on August 23 for about 20 hours....Before you know it, these things will be flying over your ranch, counting livestock and wildlife, measuring ground cover, etc. Get ready.
President orders hunting focus A new presidential executive order has directed federal agencies to promote expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities on federal lands and the management of game species and their habitat. But exactly what that may mean for hunters and wildlife in Wyoming is uncertain. President Bush's order directs the interior and agriculture secretaries to work with the Sporting Conservation Council to develop “a comprehensive recreational hunting and wildlife conservation plan" along with a 10-year agenda for fulfilling the executive order. The council focuses on wildlife conservation issues such as hunting access, education, healthy landscapes and energy development. The Sporting Conservation Council was created by then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton, just before she resigned last year. Members include representatives of the National Wild Turkey Federation, National Rifle Association, Safari Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Boone and Crockett Club, North American Grouse Partnership, Ruffled Grouse Society, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation....Go here to read the Executive Order.
Insurance company sends in private fire crew to protect expensive homes A private fire crew dispatched by a national insurance company that caters to wealthy clients is guarding 22 high-end homes threatened by the Castle Rock Fire, a blaze that has forced the evacuation of hundreds of million-dollar homes west of Ketchum. The crew will protect only homes insured by AIG Private Client Group, an insurance company that offers "loss-prevention services" to its wealthiest customers. A truck and two-man crew sent by AIG from Montana arrived in Ketchum about 2 p.m. Wednesday to start dousing properties with Phos-Chek, the same fire retardant dropped from U.S. Forest Service aircraft. "We're not going out there to fight the fire," said Dorothy Sarna, vice president and national director of risk-management services and loss prevention for the New York-based company. "We're out there to protect our clients." Veteran fire managers now working the Castle Rock fire say they've never heard of a private fire crew protecting individual homes in the midst of a wildfire, said Dave Olson, a spokesman for the Forest Service. The private crew has been granted access to areas closed to residents, but not all officials with public fire agencies were thrilled by the sight of the truck scooting through a smoky web of government fire crews. "That sounds ridiculous to me," said Kim Rogers, a Ketchum Police Department spokesman, "especially since we haven't lost any structures. I mean, this is a Forest Service fire, not a private fire."....That last statement is the most ignorant comment I've read in a long time. I guess "la policia" just can't stand competition from the private sector.
Two groups file lawsuit against Helena Forest Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit this week in federal court in Helena to stop a fuel reduction project in Elliston. The decision by the Helena National Forest to do the so-called “Elliston Face” project was “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and/or otherwise not in compliance with the law,” according to the complaint filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council. Michael Garrity, executive director for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said this isn’t the first time they’ve challenged the Helena National Forest on this project. “The main issue is that the first time we appealed, they had a 2005 document by their biologist saying the project area is in an elk winter range, and we won that appeal,” Garrity said on Wednesday. “The second time they put this project forward, that document had disappeared. We supplied it to them, but they ignored it.” Since the project sits within the winter range for about 100 elk, and calls for winter logging, Garrity said it’s inconsistent with the Helena National Forest’s overall management plan. In addition, he claims the final result of the project wouldn’t provide adequate thermal cover for the elk....The elk will have plenty of "thermal cover" when the whole damn countryside burns up.
Colorado appeals court hears arguments in ski village lawsuit Attorneys for a proposed ski resort told an appeals court that a district judge overstepped when he ruled the development did not have adequate access to a highway. Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture, the Texas-based developer of the Village at Wolf Creek, wants the Colorado Court of Appeals to overturn a 2005 ruling by Mineral County District Judge John Kuenhold that voided county approval of the plan. The appeals court heard oral arguments Tuesday but did not indicate when it would rule. Leavell-McCombs’ plans call for a development at the base of the rustic Wolf Creek ski area that would eventually house up to 10,500 people and include 222,100 square feet of commercial space. Andrew Shoemaker, a lawyer for the Wolf Creek ski area — which opposes the development — told the appeals court the dirt road linking the site to a state highway is closed during snow season and is not suitable for a large development. A second legal battle over the development is under way in federal court, where environmental groups filed a lawsuit alleging the Forest Service approved the project without an adequate review.
Solution to fires: privatize Idaho's forests As forest fires now threaten the homes of the rich and the famous in the Sun Valley area, it's worth taking another look at possible solutions to what has been a catastrophic fire season in Idaho. Common sense tells us that people are inclined to take better care of property they own than property they don't, and, as even the Idaho Statesman's environmental reporter Rocky Barker reveals, perhaps the solution to devastating forest fires is to take timber management out of the hands of the federal government and put it in the hands of private enterprise through lease arrangements or sales. Barker revealed in a story that appeared in the Sunday edition of the Statesman that the number of fires burning in private forests in Idaho is "effectively zero." Private forest fires are extinguished almost immediately by the quick response of owners. One manager of private timber lands says the worst fire he's seen on private land is about 100 acres, which is a long ways from the well over 700,000 acres currently ablaze in national forests in Idaho....
La Cienega: BLM expands area rich in ruins, habitat About 178 acres of rolling hills, basalt cliffs and wetlands eight miles southwest of Santa Fe have been acquired by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. But don’t expect to go hiking or camping there. The land has become part of the 4,500-acre La Cienega Area of Critical Environmental Concern that includes pre-Columbian ruins and rock art as well as sensitive habitat for the Southwestern willow flycatcher along a half-mile of the lower Santa Fe River. The Trust for Public Land recently purchased the property from 23 heirs of the late Alonzo Rael for $2.235 million, then sold it to the BLM for the same amount. The nonprofit often arranges for donations of land for conservation purposes, with the former owners obtaining tax breaks. But in this case, the heirs preferred to be paid, said Karyn Stockdale, the trust’s acting state director. The Rael family previously had used the property, between the villages of La Cienega and La Cieneguilla, to graze cattle....
Cowboy breakfast celebrates historic ranch's salvation From the way his grandson talked of the old days at Steam Pump Ranch, George Pusch would have approved of the shindig on the lawn. “This place was a busy place,” Hank Zipf recalled Wednesday morning as more than 100 guests gathered for a cowboy breakfast to celebrate Oro Valley’s acquisition of the historic ranch. “There was an old dirt road then, and anyone passing by was invited in for a drink of water, sometimes whiskey,” said Zipf, a former Oro Valley council member now retired and living in Tubac. Zipf said the ranch, one of two his grandfather owned in Southern Arizona, attracted a variety of visitors. In addition to ranchers who watered livestock there, prospectors would come in for provisions, and on occasion, a troop from the Army’s Fort Lowell would visit. The ranch gained its fame and attraction as the first ranch in the area to draw water with a steam pump. Oro Valley officials have been working to acquire the land and save the ranch since 2004 when a developer proposed razing the structures and creating a commercial facility....
Cows Are Killed And Butchered In Pasture Authorities in Lincoln County are looking for the people who killed and butchered cattle in a pasture. A neighboring rancher discovered the four dead cattle, valued at approximately $11,000, on a road 6.5 miles south of Maxwell. Sheriff Jerome Kramer said each of the four cows had been shot twice. Three cows and one 400-pound calf were killed, Kramer said. One of the cows was partly butchered, missing a hindquarter. The calf was completely butchered. The two other cows were left untouched, Kramer said. The animals were discovered August 12. The incident could have taken place as early as August 10....
Big Sandy rancher’s novel well worth the read Arnold Hokanson’s saga of Bears Paw Mountain ranchers is a read that transcends Montana. Published by AuthorHouse, the 525-page novel , which came out just before Christmas, proves that quality fiction requires a good storyteller, not a top grammarian. The story is without blemish. And anyone who knows northcentral Montana, the intermingled plots and character development are more than believable; they’re recognizable. The saga spans about 70 years, from the birth of the protagonist, Ace Bowens in 1914, to the surprising climax in the 1980s. Those 70 years are little more than half as long as Hokanson’s family has owned its spread abutting the community of Warrick. The family settled in the Bears Paws in 1892 and has had the same brand — 3 bar reverse B brand — for nearly as long. Hokanson said he had heard a story when he was young about a confrontation between Montana cattlemen and a German spy on a train from Havre to Chicago during World War II. “Some people I got to know in later years were on that train and spoke of the story,” he said. While Hokanson embellished the tale, using it to get the story going, the largest part of the book revolves around Montana family ranch life....
Feds say wolf killed sheep Federal officials say a wolf killed one sheep and wounded another on a ranch northwest of Jordan this week. Wildlife Services investigators said they found tracks of a single wolf at the scene. Ten sheep were also killed on a nearby ranch, but the evidence wasn't conclusive that a wolf was the culprit, state officials said. The area is not known to have any wolf packs. Earlier this year, a "domestic" wolf was caught in the area and was believed to be responsible for killing more than 120 sheep in Garfield and McCone Counties in 2006, according to state officials. After the incident near Jordan this week, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks authorized a shoot-on-sight permit for the rancher, allowing a wolf to be killed....
Judge rules Klamath toxin case against energy company can proceed A group of environmentalists, fishermen and Karuk tribe members filed suit Thursday to force the regional water board to regulate discharges of highly toxic algae in the Klamath River. The lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior Court alleges that the North Coast Regional Quality Control Board has failed to establish limits on discharges from California dams and reservoirs owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp. The plaintiffs - the Klamath Riverkeeper, the Karuk tribe of California and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations - have long pushed for removal of the Iron Gate and Copco dams, which they claim harms water quality and salmon runs in the river along the California-Oregon border. Earlier this year, the groups petitioned the regional water board to regulate PacifiCorp's discharges, but the board said it lacked the authority to regulate the company - a claim the plaintiffs dispute in Thursday's lawsuit....
Montana Legislature unsure how to pay for firefighting expenses Montana's wildfire bill for this summer is already $4 million more than the all the money set aside to pay for fires and other disasters for the next two years, state figures show. As of last Friday, the state had written checks for $2.4 million to pay for the firefighting efforts that began on July 1, the beginning of the state's financial year, said Mary Sexton, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the agency that oversees firefighting. But that's only a fraction of the estimated $20 million firefighting bill the state has racked up since July 1, she said. As is the norm, the 2007 Legislature did not set aside money specifically for firefighting. Instead, the only money easily at hand to will come out of the governor's $16 million emergency account. Even if DNRC spent all the emergency money, an estimated $4 million of the firefighting bill would be unpaid. So far, $14 million of the emergency fund has been allocated for firefighting, said Clayton Schenck, legislative financial analyst....
Film explores the fate of wild horses Filmmaker James Kleinert’s newest documentary, “The American Wild Horse,” gets to the heart of a controversial issue in the West. The 30-minute film, screening at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Missouri Heights Schoolhouse outside of Carbondale, covers the controversy surrounding wild horses and their management. Former Bureau of Land Management employees, historians, wildlife managers, ranchers and land stewards offer their insights on the future of the horses. “It’s a documentary that explores both sides of the issue,” said Nancy Wilhelms, of WestGroup Marketing Communications, the local firm promoting the film. “Some people really are for the wild horses, and some are against them. They want them off their land.” The documentary — not recommended for young children because of some graphic scenes — mixes scenery and substance for an impactful statement on the issue, Wilhelms said....
Gov tells oil industry to back wildlife efforts Though the oil and gas industry in Wyoming has proven itself adept at meeting technological and environmental challenges in the field, it hasn't done as well on the political side, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Freudenthal told industry officials at the Petroleum Association of Wyoming's annual convention on Wednesday that he can't understand why the industry lobbies against fully funding the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Fund. "It is in your best interest" to use the funds that oil and gas injects into state coffers to mitigate the impacts of development, the governor said. The trust fund was created in 2005 to enhance and conserve wildlife habitat in the state. The Legislature appropriated millions of dollars to the fund, and the Nature Conservancy contributed $250,000. Other conservation groups have also anted in, but so far no energy company or energy group has contributed. Freudenthal said industry's lobby should ask legislators to fully fund the program, or the state and the Bureau of Land Management will likely "extract" funding from the companies directly when it comes time to permit oil and gas activity....
Anti-U.N. resolution passed The Otero County commission officially passed a resolution of absolute opposition to the White Sands National Monument being considered as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site at a special meeting on Thursday. Entered as Resolution No. 08-23-07/96-10, the issue drew no opposition whatsoever before its passing. "We have sent a letter to the National Parks Service and to our congressional delegation expressing our official desires that White Sands be removed from the list of those sites being considered as World Heritage Sites," said commission chair Doug Moore. "I think this resolution does a great job in capturing our feelings." Moore also said it has come to his attention the Trinity Site has been on the list of tentative World Heritage Sites since 1990 and that he will encourage the nominating committee to drop that location from the list....
Easement aimed at preventing future development of site A Miles City-area ranch family has put its 14,000-acre ranch into the Grasslands Reserve Program in an agreement in perpetuity with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Terry Haughian said the family loves the open space of Eastern Montana and "we want to keep it that way." "It will always be kept as open rangeland," he said of the ranch at Kinsey. The ranch was founded in 1901, he said, and his three children represent the fourth generation on the land. In the event the land is ever sold, the conservation easement goes with it and cannot be converted to another use such as for a subdivision. "This is a positive exercise of conservation," said Mark Rey, undersecretary of natural resources and environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the land value is decreased by the future encumbrance on the land, but that the property becomes easier to deal with as an estate. Rey said the agreement was a cause for celebration and that the grassland set-aside is the largest in the country....
NASA, U.S. Forest Service Test Technology to Fight Wildfires NASA is testing new technologies that have strong possibilities to evolve as a tool for improving wildlife imaging and mapping capabilities. NASA is working on this project in collaboration with U.S. Forest Service. Currently tests are under way in the area covered by West Coast of United States that has suffered extremely high temperature and drought conditions during this summer. NASA is conducting flights of a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft system for these tests. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is operating the whole project with newly developed imaging and real-time communications equipment. During the first flight of these testing operations on August 16, 2007, NASA captured images of California wildfire and Zaca fire in Santa Barbara County .This first test flight collected important data during its 1,200 miles traverse that lasted for ten long hours. The images captured from this test flight opens up a new hope for fighting the wildfires." This technology captured images through the smoke and provided real time information on what the fire was doing," said Zaca Incident Commander Mike Dietrich. NASA is using "Ikhana" aircraft for these test flights. Ikhana's sensor payload collects detailed and minute data through thermal infrared imagery of wildfires. Unmanned aircraft system is proving itself a substantial alternative to collect data stretched over a long period of 12 to 24 hours continuously. Ikhana will fly for its second round of tests over Idaho on August 23 for about 20 hours....Before you know it, these things will be flying over your ranch, counting livestock and wildlife, measuring ground cover, etc. Get ready.
President orders hunting focus A new presidential executive order has directed federal agencies to promote expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities on federal lands and the management of game species and their habitat. But exactly what that may mean for hunters and wildlife in Wyoming is uncertain. President Bush's order directs the interior and agriculture secretaries to work with the Sporting Conservation Council to develop “a comprehensive recreational hunting and wildlife conservation plan" along with a 10-year agenda for fulfilling the executive order. The council focuses on wildlife conservation issues such as hunting access, education, healthy landscapes and energy development. The Sporting Conservation Council was created by then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton, just before she resigned last year. Members include representatives of the National Wild Turkey Federation, National Rifle Association, Safari Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Boone and Crockett Club, North American Grouse Partnership, Ruffled Grouse Society, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation....Go here to read the Executive Order.
Insurance company sends in private fire crew to protect expensive homes A private fire crew dispatched by a national insurance company that caters to wealthy clients is guarding 22 high-end homes threatened by the Castle Rock Fire, a blaze that has forced the evacuation of hundreds of million-dollar homes west of Ketchum. The crew will protect only homes insured by AIG Private Client Group, an insurance company that offers "loss-prevention services" to its wealthiest customers. A truck and two-man crew sent by AIG from Montana arrived in Ketchum about 2 p.m. Wednesday to start dousing properties with Phos-Chek, the same fire retardant dropped from U.S. Forest Service aircraft. "We're not going out there to fight the fire," said Dorothy Sarna, vice president and national director of risk-management services and loss prevention for the New York-based company. "We're out there to protect our clients." Veteran fire managers now working the Castle Rock fire say they've never heard of a private fire crew protecting individual homes in the midst of a wildfire, said Dave Olson, a spokesman for the Forest Service. The private crew has been granted access to areas closed to residents, but not all officials with public fire agencies were thrilled by the sight of the truck scooting through a smoky web of government fire crews. "That sounds ridiculous to me," said Kim Rogers, a Ketchum Police Department spokesman, "especially since we haven't lost any structures. I mean, this is a Forest Service fire, not a private fire."....That last statement is the most ignorant comment I've read in a long time. I guess "la policia" just can't stand competition from the private sector.
Two groups file lawsuit against Helena Forest Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit this week in federal court in Helena to stop a fuel reduction project in Elliston. The decision by the Helena National Forest to do the so-called “Elliston Face” project was “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and/or otherwise not in compliance with the law,” according to the complaint filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council. Michael Garrity, executive director for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said this isn’t the first time they’ve challenged the Helena National Forest on this project. “The main issue is that the first time we appealed, they had a 2005 document by their biologist saying the project area is in an elk winter range, and we won that appeal,” Garrity said on Wednesday. “The second time they put this project forward, that document had disappeared. We supplied it to them, but they ignored it.” Since the project sits within the winter range for about 100 elk, and calls for winter logging, Garrity said it’s inconsistent with the Helena National Forest’s overall management plan. In addition, he claims the final result of the project wouldn’t provide adequate thermal cover for the elk....The elk will have plenty of "thermal cover" when the whole damn countryside burns up.
Colorado appeals court hears arguments in ski village lawsuit Attorneys for a proposed ski resort told an appeals court that a district judge overstepped when he ruled the development did not have adequate access to a highway. Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture, the Texas-based developer of the Village at Wolf Creek, wants the Colorado Court of Appeals to overturn a 2005 ruling by Mineral County District Judge John Kuenhold that voided county approval of the plan. The appeals court heard oral arguments Tuesday but did not indicate when it would rule. Leavell-McCombs’ plans call for a development at the base of the rustic Wolf Creek ski area that would eventually house up to 10,500 people and include 222,100 square feet of commercial space. Andrew Shoemaker, a lawyer for the Wolf Creek ski area — which opposes the development — told the appeals court the dirt road linking the site to a state highway is closed during snow season and is not suitable for a large development. A second legal battle over the development is under way in federal court, where environmental groups filed a lawsuit alleging the Forest Service approved the project without an adequate review.
Solution to fires: privatize Idaho's forests As forest fires now threaten the homes of the rich and the famous in the Sun Valley area, it's worth taking another look at possible solutions to what has been a catastrophic fire season in Idaho. Common sense tells us that people are inclined to take better care of property they own than property they don't, and, as even the Idaho Statesman's environmental reporter Rocky Barker reveals, perhaps the solution to devastating forest fires is to take timber management out of the hands of the federal government and put it in the hands of private enterprise through lease arrangements or sales. Barker revealed in a story that appeared in the Sunday edition of the Statesman that the number of fires burning in private forests in Idaho is "effectively zero." Private forest fires are extinguished almost immediately by the quick response of owners. One manager of private timber lands says the worst fire he's seen on private land is about 100 acres, which is a long ways from the well over 700,000 acres currently ablaze in national forests in Idaho....
La Cienega: BLM expands area rich in ruins, habitat About 178 acres of rolling hills, basalt cliffs and wetlands eight miles southwest of Santa Fe have been acquired by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. But don’t expect to go hiking or camping there. The land has become part of the 4,500-acre La Cienega Area of Critical Environmental Concern that includes pre-Columbian ruins and rock art as well as sensitive habitat for the Southwestern willow flycatcher along a half-mile of the lower Santa Fe River. The Trust for Public Land recently purchased the property from 23 heirs of the late Alonzo Rael for $2.235 million, then sold it to the BLM for the same amount. The nonprofit often arranges for donations of land for conservation purposes, with the former owners obtaining tax breaks. But in this case, the heirs preferred to be paid, said Karyn Stockdale, the trust’s acting state director. The Rael family previously had used the property, between the villages of La Cienega and La Cieneguilla, to graze cattle....
Cowboy breakfast celebrates historic ranch's salvation From the way his grandson talked of the old days at Steam Pump Ranch, George Pusch would have approved of the shindig on the lawn. “This place was a busy place,” Hank Zipf recalled Wednesday morning as more than 100 guests gathered for a cowboy breakfast to celebrate Oro Valley’s acquisition of the historic ranch. “There was an old dirt road then, and anyone passing by was invited in for a drink of water, sometimes whiskey,” said Zipf, a former Oro Valley council member now retired and living in Tubac. Zipf said the ranch, one of two his grandfather owned in Southern Arizona, attracted a variety of visitors. In addition to ranchers who watered livestock there, prospectors would come in for provisions, and on occasion, a troop from the Army’s Fort Lowell would visit. The ranch gained its fame and attraction as the first ranch in the area to draw water with a steam pump. Oro Valley officials have been working to acquire the land and save the ranch since 2004 when a developer proposed razing the structures and creating a commercial facility....
Cows Are Killed And Butchered In Pasture Authorities in Lincoln County are looking for the people who killed and butchered cattle in a pasture. A neighboring rancher discovered the four dead cattle, valued at approximately $11,000, on a road 6.5 miles south of Maxwell. Sheriff Jerome Kramer said each of the four cows had been shot twice. Three cows and one 400-pound calf were killed, Kramer said. One of the cows was partly butchered, missing a hindquarter. The calf was completely butchered. The two other cows were left untouched, Kramer said. The animals were discovered August 12. The incident could have taken place as early as August 10....
Big Sandy rancher’s novel well worth the read Arnold Hokanson’s saga of Bears Paw Mountain ranchers is a read that transcends Montana. Published by AuthorHouse, the 525-page novel , which came out just before Christmas, proves that quality fiction requires a good storyteller, not a top grammarian. The story is without blemish. And anyone who knows northcentral Montana, the intermingled plots and character development are more than believable; they’re recognizable. The saga spans about 70 years, from the birth of the protagonist, Ace Bowens in 1914, to the surprising climax in the 1980s. Those 70 years are little more than half as long as Hokanson’s family has owned its spread abutting the community of Warrick. The family settled in the Bears Paws in 1892 and has had the same brand — 3 bar reverse B brand — for nearly as long. Hokanson said he had heard a story when he was young about a confrontation between Montana cattlemen and a German spy on a train from Havre to Chicago during World War II. “Some people I got to know in later years were on that train and spoke of the story,” he said. While Hokanson embellished the tale, using it to get the story going, the largest part of the book revolves around Montana family ranch life....
Thursday, August 23, 2007
CLIMATE CHANGE
Western States, BC Agree to 15% Greenhouse Gas Cuts
California, four other western states and British Columbia agreed to cut greenhouse gas output to 15 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020 to curb a forecast rise in global temperatures. California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico in February announced plans to set an emissions target this year and develop a market-based system to help businesses in those states reach that goal next year. In a statement today, the states and British Columbia agreed to the cuts. ``This is the first step to create a regional process to enhance the steps each state is taking on their own,'' Tom Peterson, an adviser to the Western Climate Initiative, said today in a phone interview. ``The states can help each other address climate change in a more cost-effective way.'' Governors of the states, which account for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, said in February they are seeing decreased snowfall, drought and worsening fires from the impact of global warming. Utah and Canada's Manitoba have joined the group and haven't yet adopted the cuts in their plans... The states plan to meet the reductions by increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, forcing automakers to trim tailpipe emissions, and improving efficiency of home appliances and other big electrical equipment. The plans lays groundwork for a European-style system across the region that will limit emissions and allow businesses to buy or sell pollution credits if they exceed, or fall short, of their goals. The states want to link up to other systems, such as the northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and to Europe's trading plan....
New Mexico Joins Seven States, Provinces to Reduce Emissions by 15 Percent Below 2005 Levels by 2020
The eight members of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) today announced the establishment of a regional goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the West to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. n February of this year the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington created the WCI with a long-term commitment to significantly reduce regional GHG emissions thus lowering the risk of dangerous threats to the climate. Since February the state of Utah and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba also have joined the WCI. Presently, four other U.S. states (Colorado, Kansas, Nevada and Wyoming), three other Canadian provinces (Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan) and one Mexican state (Sonora) are participating as observers to the WCI’s deliberations. Some of these entities, as well as others, may seek to join the WCI as full members. "States and provinces are leading the way by working to solve – not just debating – the problem of climate change,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. “Our goal is the most aggressive regional goal in North America – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020. Next the partners in the Western Climate Initiative will develop a cap-and-trade program and do our part to tackle global warming.”
Western States, BC Agree to 15% Greenhouse Gas Cuts
California, four other western states and British Columbia agreed to cut greenhouse gas output to 15 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020 to curb a forecast rise in global temperatures. California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico in February announced plans to set an emissions target this year and develop a market-based system to help businesses in those states reach that goal next year. In a statement today, the states and British Columbia agreed to the cuts. ``This is the first step to create a regional process to enhance the steps each state is taking on their own,'' Tom Peterson, an adviser to the Western Climate Initiative, said today in a phone interview. ``The states can help each other address climate change in a more cost-effective way.'' Governors of the states, which account for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, said in February they are seeing decreased snowfall, drought and worsening fires from the impact of global warming. Utah and Canada's Manitoba have joined the group and haven't yet adopted the cuts in their plans... The states plan to meet the reductions by increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, forcing automakers to trim tailpipe emissions, and improving efficiency of home appliances and other big electrical equipment. The plans lays groundwork for a European-style system across the region that will limit emissions and allow businesses to buy or sell pollution credits if they exceed, or fall short, of their goals. The states want to link up to other systems, such as the northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and to Europe's trading plan....
New Mexico Joins Seven States, Provinces to Reduce Emissions by 15 Percent Below 2005 Levels by 2020
The eight members of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) today announced the establishment of a regional goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the West to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. n February of this year the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington created the WCI with a long-term commitment to significantly reduce regional GHG emissions thus lowering the risk of dangerous threats to the climate. Since February the state of Utah and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba also have joined the WCI. Presently, four other U.S. states (Colorado, Kansas, Nevada and Wyoming), three other Canadian provinces (Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan) and one Mexican state (Sonora) are participating as observers to the WCI’s deliberations. Some of these entities, as well as others, may seek to join the WCI as full members. "States and provinces are leading the way by working to solve – not just debating – the problem of climate change,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. “Our goal is the most aggressive regional goal in North America – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2020. Next the partners in the Western Climate Initiative will develop a cap-and-trade program and do our part to tackle global warming.”
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