Californians' power bills to bankroll climate institute Are you willing to pay 12 to 30 cents more a month on your utility bill for an institute coordinating energy and climate change technology research across the state? Actually, you don't have a choice. The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved the $600 million California Institute for Climate Solutions, which will be paid for by money from ratepayers' monthly electric bills, to the tune of $60 million a year. The institute aims to speed up research into cutting greenhouse gas emissions, such as auto exhaust, that contribute to pollution. This work is already under way at laboratories as well as universities such as University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford. The idea is that the institute will help the various entities work together. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the decision, saying it was another important step toward battling global warming and "will bring together the state's pre-eminent colleges, universities and laboratories to fight climate change." Commission representatives Thursday estimated the additional charge to utility customers at 12 to 30 cents a month. "Electric bills are becoming blank checks," said Mark Toney, executive director of San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network. Toney decried the decision to fund the institute via utility bills, while lauding the goal of reducing global warming....
Panel: EPA smog rule fails to protect young, old An advisory panel of scientists told the Environmental Protection Agency that its new air quality standard for smog fails to protect public health as required by law and should be strengthened. In a stern letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the advisers expressed frustration that their unanimous recommendation for a more stringent standard was ignored when Johnson set the new smog requirements last month. Johnson on March 12 lowered the amount of ozone that should be allowed in the air for it to be considered healthy from 80 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. That meant 345 additional counties nationwide are in violation of the federal air quality standards for ozone, commonly known as smog, and must find ways to reduce the pollution. While business lobbyists wanted the smog requirement unchanged, most health experts had argued that even stronger measures were needed. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, created by Congress to advise the EPA, had urged the EPA to set a standard for ozone of between 60 parts per billion and 70 parts per billion....I'm sure these scientists are very smart, but I have to wonder why they don't understand the meaning of "advisory".
The Biofuel Brew Ha-Ha In Germany, they call it "liquid bread." Here in the U.S., frat boys and hipsters cultivating an ironic air call them brewskies. Most of us just refer to it as "beer." But whatever your name for the stuff, there's little point in denying that people in both countries love their beer. The difference right now, however, is that while we Americans can continue to toss 'em back as we always have, German beer prices are skyrocketing. Who or what is the culprit? Corporate greed, perhaps, or an alcohol tax designed to push German beer drinkers to kick their six-pack habit? It's something far less spectacular, but potentially more insidious: biofuel subsidies that are pushing more farmers to ditch their barley crops—which are necessary to make beer*—in favor of crops that earn them lucrative subsidies from regulators trying to fight global warming. Topping the list of these subsidized crops are rapeseed and corn, ingredient which are used in the creation of biodiesel and ethanol-gasoline fuel blends which supposedly reduce the greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. Thanks to these crop shifts, the price of barley has doubled in the past two years, an increase that eventually gets passed along to consumers. Some brewers have raised their prices already, and many others are planning on raising them soon....
Owyhee Canyonlands protections back before Congress Sen. Mike Crapo on Thursday introduced a new version of his bill to protect wilderness, wild rivers and ranchers in the Owyhee Canyonlands. The bill includes new ways to compensate ranchers and removes provisions Senate Democrats had said would prevent them from supporting it. A hearing is scheduled for April 22. "Without this hearing, we would not be able to move the Owyhee Initiative legislation this year," said Crapo, R-Idaho. The original bill was first shaped by a panel of environmentalists, ranchers, outfitters, local officials, motorcyclists and snowmobilers brought together by Owyhee County commissioners. Crapo has been working with the county on the bill since 2002. Grant, a longtime champion of ranchers' rights, acknowledged he had to make painful compromises to get Democrats on board. But he still thinks the bill is good for ranchers and Owyhee County. "I'm satisfied (that) the way this bill is now can make the Owyhee Initiative agreement work," he said. The Owyhee Public Land Management Act of 2008 would still protect 517,000 acres of prime sagebrush habitat as wilderness, where motorized use is not allowed. It also would designate 315 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers that run through the desolate area's deep, verdant canyons, which are carved into spires, benches and colorful chasms. The bill would release more than 200,000 acres of wilderness study areas back to multiple-use management. Like the 2006 version, the latest bill offers compensation for ranchers who would give up their rights to graze on the protected lands....
Wolf de-listing: A look at both sides of the issue Montana wildlife officials welcomed the official removal of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. Wolf conservation and management in Montana is now officially the responsibility of the state. "Montana's wolf population is healthy, growing and firmly established in Montana," said Jeff Hagener, director of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. "Montanans have shown patience and cooperation with this recovery effort. FWP supports wolf delisting and we're proud of the role the people of Montana have played in the recovery." With delisting now official, the line separating Montana into the northern Endangered Area and the southern Experimental Area no longer exists. FWP will move to reclassify wolves throughout Montana as a species in need of management under state law, which also offers wolves legal protection much like other managed wildlife. "It's important to understand that wolves are now an official part of the Montana wildlife environment," Hagener said. "The wolf will be managed like Montana's other wildlife species." For instance, wolves can only be purposely killed legally during an official hunting or trapping season; when a wolf is killing, attacking or harassing livestock; and to protect human life, Hagener said....
In the West, a Fierce Battle Over Wolves Gray wolves have entered the spin cycle. Since March 28, when the wolf was taken off the list of federally protected species in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, a fierce battle of perceptions and posturing has unfolded on the Web and in the news media as pro-wolf and anti-wolf forces stake out sometimes hyperbolic positions concerning where in the West animals and humans should exist. The backdrop is a running time clock and a lawsuit. On April 28, a coalition of environmental groups has said it will to go federal court challenging the decision to lift protections. Until then, the court of public opinion is in session, as cases are built for how the new system of state management is working or not. One wolf lover in California, in a forum posting on the Web site Yellowstone.net, proposed that tourists boycott Wyoming to protest the policies in a state where at least 10 wolves were shot in the first week after the rule change, according to state figures. Some Wyoming residents responded that such an action would be just fine by them, especially if more Californians stayed home. Some ranchers and hunters urge caution in killing wolves unnecessarily, to avoid inflaming emotions that could haunt the legal process later on. Pro-wolf forces, meanwhile, say that wolf killers may have created a martyr. On the first day protections were lifted, a partly crippled and much photographed radio-collared wolf named 253M was legally shot near the town of Daniel in western Wyoming. The killing made headlines as far away as Utah, where 253M had wandered in 2002, before being transported back to Wyoming. A story in The Salt Lake Tribune quoted a woman as saying she had wept at the news of the animal’s death....
Mountain lions spotted in Tucson It's the time of year when wild animals start moving out of the mountains and into the city. People who live in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains report seeing mountain lions in their yards. Tina Baba, who lives on the far east side off of Redington Road, says she's seen mountain lions twice. Baba says the first time was in her yard. "I was looking out that window and I saw it calmly walk across there. Then it just went across to my neighbors." The second time she was walking with her young daughters and dog on Redington Road. "It was just like 20 feet away from me. That did scare me a bit and I panicked because I had my two girls in the stroller." In the past two months, Arizona Game and Fish confirmed five mountain lion sightings at homes next to the Coronado National Forest. Aninna Thornburg, Game and Fish Public Information Officer, says, "The five sightings have been between Pima Canyon and Redington Road. This is not odd. This is not unusual. It's starting to get dry. The lions are coming in looking for quick food, water out of people's pools..."....
Fremont rancher says mountain lions killed sheep Just two days ago, Bob Garcia was almost positive that dogs had invaded his property and killed four of his sheep — a reasonable conclusion, given his 30-year history of raising the animals. But after coming within 10 feet of a fierce mountain lion early Thursday, Garcia is changing his tune. He's now positive that mountain lions are responsible for the most recent killings. "I'm 100 percent certain," he said. Garcia, 55, spotted a mountain lion on his Morrison Canyon property just after midnight, and authorities now are alerting the public about the sighting — and reminding them to be aware of their surroundings. The rancher said he was in his home watching the end of "The Tonight Show" when his dog, Tamika, began barking. "It was like she was telling me, 'Come, come,'" he said. Moments later, Garcia said, he was looking right at a mountain lion in his pepper tree. "I'm looking at it, and it was looking at me. We were face-to-face. I could see his eyelashes," Garcia said. "It was amazing, like something out of National Geographic." Garcia then retreated to his home and called authorities. But by the time he went back to the tree with police, the cat was gone....
Study begins on coal-bed methane water More than a year after the deadline, federal officials are starting work on a study exploring some of the effects of the Rockies' energy boom on water. A panel of the National Academy of Sciences met Tuesday in Denver with state and federal regulators to review what's known about the effects of coal-bed methane drilling on surface and groundwater and determine what needs to be studied further. The 2005 federal energy bill said the study should be completed within a year. Three environmental groups sued the Interior Department in February to force some action. "The (Environmental Protection Agency) has looked at the issue somewhat several years ago, but their analysis was very incomplete," said Robert Ukeiley of WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that sued. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees mineral development on federal lands, asked the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to review information about coal-bed methane's effects on water and determine the need and scope for further analysis. he study would focus on coal-bed methane production in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and North Dakota. The report is supposed to analyze what companies are doing to minimize the impacts on water and recommend any changes. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter last October to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, urging him to comply with the law and commission the National Academy of Sciences to write an analysis....
Ozone: 'A significant concern' Gov. Dave Freudenthal says the state must be involved in any independent investigation into the health effects of increased natural gas drilling in southwest Wyoming. In addition, the process must be driven by the local community, he said in a written response this week to a petition by more than 40 citizens in Sublette County calling for an independent agency to assess plans to expand gas drilling in the Pinedale Anticline. The state Department of Environmental Quality issued a series of ozone warnings for the Pinedale area this winter and spring. Health officials blamed the intense oil and gas activity. "From the data that has been collected, there is little doubt that ozone is a significant concern," Freudenthal wrote in a letter to the petitioners. The Bureau of Land Management has proposed allowing 4,400 additional natural gas wells to be drilled in the Pinedale Anticline. Some county residents say the BLM plan doesn't adequately address potential health consequences of more drilling activity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has voiced concerns about elevated ozone levels, groundwater contamination and decreased visibility from the proposed new drilling....
Lt. Governor talks energy: Denish puts oil and gas high on priority list Pending action on the pit rules that regulate oil and natural gas producers during the drilling process, and a possible moratorium on new drilling in Río Arriba County are high on Lt. Gov. Diane Denish's radar screen. Denish visited San Juan County Friday for separate meetings with the San Juan Leadership Council and ConocoPhillips. "People are looking at responsible drilling," Denish said. "The real issue of the pit rules is whether real proof exists that harm has been done." The Commission is scheduled to meet April 16 in Santa Fe and may announce its recommendation then. Local producers claim the pit rules would add millions in extra expenses that are not necessary. Sticking to her statement that New Mexicans want to see responsible drilling, Denish raised the possibility they might drill directionally rather than create separate well pads and roads to them for each site. "I think a lot of this is spurred by the Galisteo Basin moratorium and the realization that a county can put on additional standards," she said regarding the seemingly new focus on where drilling is allowed, and to what regulations it should adhere. At issue in Río Arriba County is Fort Worth, Texas-based Approach Resources' plan to drill for oil in an 8- by 10-mile area east of Tierra Amarilla. The company is leasing 90,000 acres of mineral rights in Río Arriba County....
Ugly black buzzards finding Texas buffet in young stock Maybe if they were pretty, the ubiquitous buzzards that soar over Texas and elsewhere before landing to dine on some carcass wouldn't be viewed with such repugnance or considered a nuisance. "Unquestionably, they're as ugly as sin," says Ian Tizard, a Texas A&M University professor of immunology and director of the school's Schubot Exotic Bird Center. The birds range over much of the United States, and their March return to Hinckley, Ohio, for instance, is welcomed annually as a sure sign of spring. But their proliferation as pests is making them unwelcome from high-rises in Florida to ranches in Texas, denying the misnamed buzzards — they're really vultures, and either turkey or black vultures — the respect as Mother Nature's vacuum cleaners that they might deserve. Ranchers all around Texas increasingly are telling wildlife authorities that black vultures in particular, considered the more aggressive version of the bird and can reach 25 inches in length and have a wingspan of 5 feet, are responsible for killing young cows, sheep and goats. "They're prospering," Tizard said. "Clearly if they're killing cows that otherwise would live, that indeed is a cause for some significant concern. In Madisonville, about 100 miles north of Houston, city commissioners gave their blessing in January to shoot vultures blamed for destroying property as long as folks obtained the proper federal permits. Vultures, like virtually all birds, are federally protected. Just last month, officials in Barstow, Fla., moved to include them in their Noxious Birds Ordinance of 2008, removing them from protection on a bird sanctuary island....
The Sheep Incident It was half past midnight on March 17th, 1968. Keith Smart, the director of epidemiology and ecology at Utah's Dugway Proving Grounds, was awakened by the ringing of a phone. On the other end was Dr. Bode, a professor at the University of Utah, and the director of the school's contract with Dugway. There was a problem. Calls had been coming in. About 27 miles outside of the base, in the aptly-named Skull Valley, thousands of sheep had suddenly died. There were some survivors among the flocks, but it was clear that their hours were numbered. Veterinarians were dispatched to euthanize the few remaining animals. Army officials began drafting their official denial. A few days earlier, one of their planes had flown high over the Utah desert at Dugway with a bellyful of nerve agent. The plane's mission was simple: using a specially rigged delivery system, it was to fly to a specific set of coordinates and spray its payload over a remote section of the Utah desert. This test was a small part of the ongoing chemical and biological weapons research at Dugway, and it was one of three tests held that particular day. The flight would soon prove to be far more important than anyone could have guessed at the time. On March 13th, Dugway ran a series of three tests using VX. The tests were routine, like any of the thousands of weapons tests that were conducted there over the previous twenty years. In the first test, an artillery shell packed with VX was fired onto the range; and in the second, 160 gallons of the compound were burned in an open pit. Both tests were completed without incident. The third test involved delivery via airplane, with over a ton of a special VX mixture sprayed over the desert. Unbeknownst to the pilot, the spray nozzle that controlled the flow of the chemical had broken. As he climbed to a higher altitude, the chemical continued to seep from the plane. Winds that day were blowing between 5-20 mph, with gusts reaching 35 mph. These strong easterly winds carried the VX straight to Skull Valley. The next day, the sheep grazing in the area began to die, and within days thousands of them had perished. The government and local numbers differ, but anywhere between 3,483 and 6,400 sheep died in the aftermath of the test....
Giddy up for westerns by women The West may have been won by men, but women played a vital role in the settlement of the frontier and the lives of the men they loved. Westerns written by women give a bold, new slant to the American West that will appeal to female and male readers. Set in 1854 in Texas Hill Country, "Texas Rain" by Jodi Thomas, is a historical western. Texas Ranger Travis McMurray has to deal with ambush, horse thievery and an arranged marriage. A must-read for the committed western enthusiast. The "Hearts of Horses" by Molly Gloss tells all there is to know about the rigors of ranching, broncos and the colorful characters of the plains and mountains of the great American West, circa World War I. The story revolves around a 19-year-old "horse whisperer," Martha Lessen, a strong-willed woman working in a field that, until then, was the exclusive realm of men. Gloss brings the West to life with unforgettable characters from bygone times....
Cowboys, gals find their calling at Pasco gathering Rough-hewn poetry, and a whole lot of strumming and singing, filled the Pavilion at TRAC in Pasco on Saturday during the fifth annual Columbia River Cowboy Gathering. "The good Lord's tugging on my lead rope, and I soon will be heading home," sang Rod Erickson of Spirit Lake, Idaho, while hundreds of people smiled back. Some were eating hamburgers and hot dogs, while others were savoring the songs and the one-liners. "You can be a rancher's wife if your husband opens the door for the dog and drops the tailgate for you. You're a rancher's wife if you have to fight the dog to sit next to your husband at the drive-in movie," quipped Sam Deleeuw, a real rancher's wife and standup cowboy comic from Utah. Erickson and Deleeuw were two of 25 entertainment acts booked for the three-day gathering that began Friday, and ends later today after the conclusion of a Cowboy Church service.

Barrel Racers – the arena darlings
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

A horse race of a different kind. That's barrel racing.

The event that was once open only to the ladies has found its own place in the major leagues beyond rodeo in co-ed futurities and other series events.

Through the ages, barrel racing, the clover-leaf pattern around three barrels, was heralded as the "beauty event" of rodeo.

While indeed the competitors represent the prettier side of the sport, they are no less committed to their event than those that pay big-buck entry fees to throw their rope in the dirt or have their head stuck in the same by a bull or bronc.

What appears to be hard-lined independence in these women is actually, more accurately, necessary capability. It takes a fair measure of intimidating grit to maintain the pace to keep self, horse and rodeo rig ready for the road.

While young boys were riding stick horses and wearing pot-metal pistols planning to be the Lone Ranger, girls in braces and braids dreamed of being a barrel racer. That included pretty clothes, fast horses and a cheering crowd as she raced through her pattern, riding hard to be the champion.

That dream grew to the reality that included a drained checking account, a four-legged sorrel standing in the corral eating a hole in her wallet with feed bills, vet bills and assorted expenses such as tack, a horseshoer and, of course, entry fees.

It has never been a secret to any barrel racer that barrel horses plot 24/7 to find a way to ruin your day. Winning the world in the practice pen on Friday can become dashed hopes the next day when that prize equine comes completely untrained to the rodeo.

When the champ runs by the first barrel like he doesn't see it, all there is left to do is begin with the rodeo queen wave as you loop the arena before making an exit out the gate.

Even though it is a highly frustrating sport because so much of the ability lies with the horse, barrel racing has done nothing but grow in numbers and popularity.

That happened in great proportions when a place for them to compete as a stand-alone sport was created. Barrel racers have never had the reputation of playing well with others.

Veterinarians and farriers are privy to the most demanding side of "can chasers." Vets will attest to the need for a degree in equine pediatrics as there isn't a horse in the world that gets babied more than barrel horse.

Paranoia lives at the same address as every barrel racer. She can spot a limp, a cough, a twitch or a belly rumble in her horse before it even happens. And she lives in constant fear it will - just before she's supposed to be at a "big one" 500 miles away.

Ask any shoer who has put iron on a barrel horse how much "retraining" he received from the owner. When things go wrong in the arena, the shoer is at top of the list to get the blame, and the first phone call.

Every barrel racer carries with her on the road a complete veterinary pharmacy to ward off any possible ache, pain or ailment in her steed.

To find where she parked at the rodeo, one needs only to smell the air for a whiff of an assortment of liniments and secret concoctions surely cooked up in a cauldron.

On a more serious side, decades ago, Chris LeDoux recorded a song about barrel racers called "Round and round she goes." In it he said, "Silver buckle dreams don't leave time for standing still."

The chorus summed up the spinning world of a down-the-road barrel racer.

Round and round and round she goes
Where she stops nobody knows.
The miles are getting' longer,
The nights they never end.
Old rodeos and livestock shows
Keep the lady on the go.
Lord, she loves to run those barrels,
And it's the only life she knows.

There isn't a die-hard can chaser anywhere that doesn't identify with the truth in the song, or with the final lines:

As she drove into the morning
It slowly dawned on me
How hard it is to tell a dream goodbye.

And so it is.

Julie is a recovering can-chaser in a 12-step program. Visit her Web site a www.julie-carter.com

FLE

A Wave of the Watch List, and Speech Disappears Steve Marshall is an English travel agent. He lives in Spain, and he sells trips to Europeans who want to go to sunny places, including Cuba. In October, about 80 of his Web sites stopped working, thanks to the United States government. t turned out, though, that Mr. Marshall’s Web sites had been put on a Treasury Department blacklist and, as a consequence, his American domain name registrar, eNom Inc., had disabled them. Mr. Marshall said eNom told him it did so after a call from the Treasury Department; the company, based in Bellevue, Wash., says it learned that the sites were on the blacklist through a blog. Either way, there is no dispute that eNom shut down Mr. Marshall’s sites without notifying him and has refused to release the domain names to him. In effect, Mr. Marshall said, eNom has taken his property and interfered with his business. A Treasury spokesman, John Rankin, referred a caller to a press release issued in December 2004, almost three years before eNom acted. It said Mr. Marshall’s company had helped Americans evade restrictions on travel to Cuba and was “a generator of resources that the Cuban regime uses to oppress its people.” It added that American companies must not only stop doing business with the company but also freeze its assets, meaning that eNom did exactly what it was legally required to do. Peter L. Fitzgerald, a law professor at Stetson University in Florida who has studied the blacklist — which the Treasury calls a list of “specially designated nationals” — said its operation was quite mysterious. “There really is no explanation or standard,” he said, “for why someone gets on the list.” Susan Crawford, a visiting law professor at Yale and a leading authority on Internet law, said the fact that many large domain name registrars are based in the United States gives the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, control “over a great deal of speech — none of which may be actually hosted in the U.S., about the U.S. or conflicting with any U.S. rights.” “OFAC apparently has the power to order that this speech disappear,” Professor Crawford said....
Power to Build Border Fence Is Above U.S. Law Securing the nation’s borders is so important, Congress says, that Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, must have the power to ignore any laws that stand in the way of building a border fence. Any laws at all. Last week, Mr. Chertoff issued waivers suspending more than 30 laws he said could interfere with “the expeditious construction of barriers” in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The list included laws protecting the environment, endangered species, migratory birds, the bald eagle, antiquities, farms, deserts, forests, Native American graves and religious freedom. The secretary of homeland security was granted the power in 2005 to void any federal law that might interfere with fence building on the border. For good measure, Congress forbade the courts to second-guess the secretary’s determinations. So long as Mr. Chertoff is willing to say it is necessary to void a given law, his word is final. The delegation of power to Mr. Chertoff is unprecedented, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. It is also, if papers filed in the Supreme Court last month are correct, unconstitutional. People can disagree about the urgency of border security and about whether it is more or less important than, say, the environment. Congress is entrusted with making those judgments, and here it has spoken clearly. In the process, it has also granted the executive branch more of the sort of unilateral power the Bush administration has so often claimed for itself. No one doubts that Congress may repeal old laws through new legislation. But there is a difference between passing a law that overrides a previous one and tinkering with the structure of the Constitution itself. The extraordinary powers granted to Mr. Chertoff may test the limits of how much of its own authority Congress can cede to another branch of the government....
State high court shoots down S.F. handgun ban The state Supreme Court dealt a final blow Wednesday to San Francisco's voter-approved ban on handguns, rejecting the city's appeal of a lower-court ruling that sharply limited the ability of localities to regulate firearms. The court's unanimous order was a victory for the National Rifle Association, which sued on behalf of gun owners, advocates and dealers a day after the measure passed with 58 percent of the vote in November 2005. The initiative has never taken effect. The ordinance, Proposition H, would have forbidden San Francisco residents to possess handguns, exempting only law enforcement officers and others who needed guns for professional purposes. It would have also prohibited the manufacture, sale or distribution of any type of firearms or ammunition in San Francisco. Lower courts ruled that the measure interfered with a statewide system of gun regulation, which bars certain types of weapons and allows others. The rulings did not address the scope of the constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, the focus of a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving a handgun ban in Washington, D.C. The state courts recognized that "law-abiding citizens are part of the solution, not part of the problem of violent crime," said Chuck Michel, lawyer for the plaintiffs in the NRA suit. "The authority of local cities to over-regulate firearms is very limited." Alexis Thompson, spokeswoman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said the court's action was disappointing....
IRS Faulted for Lax Identity Theft Protection Efforts With just a few days left to go in the tax season and filers frantically filling out forms and returns, the likelihood that their personal information could be stolen or misused increases dramatically -- and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has admitted that its efforts to protect personal data from identity theft and fraud could use some improvement. In a new report, the Treasury Department's Inspector General (TIGTA) found that, "the IRS has not placed sufficient emphasis on employment-related and tax fraud identity theft strategies." "Specifically, its prevention strategy does not include pursuing individuals using another person's identity, unless their cases directly relate to a substantive tax or conspiracy violation...the actual crime of identity theft will only be investigated...if it is committed in conjunction with other criminal offenses having a large tax effect," the auditors said. According to the auditors' findings, although the IRS received over 92,000 complaints related to identity theft during 2005 and 2006, only 100 cases of criminal investigation recommended for prosecution over the two-year period contained a charge or count of identity theft. The IRS told TIGTA that it lacked the resources to pursue enforcement of cases involving identity theft....This is a good example of where the average citizen stands with the feds. They have the resources to collect your taxes, confiscate your property, freeze your assets and garnishee your wages. They just don't seem to have the resources to protect the information you are required by law to send them. They come first, you come second.
China protester is torched by critics The brainy South Bronx activist who stirred an Olympic torch-bearing ruckus in San Francisco said Thursday her conscience fueled her surprise anti-China protest. A day after she used her torch-toting turn for a headline-grabbing pro-Tibet shoutout, Majora Carter was being showered with cheers and jeers. One of three New Yorkers chosen to bear the Beijing Olympic torch in San Francisco on Wednesday, Carter foiled an elaborate attempt by police to avoid thousands of demonstrators by pulling a Trojan horse-type ploy. Once she got her hands on the Olympic flame, she pulled a Tibetan flag from her sleeve to protest China's human rights abuses in the Himalayan province. A Chinese paramilitary squad escorting the torch quickly snatched it from her, and cops pushed her into the crowd....Dear President Bush - What is a "Chinese paramilitary squad" doing on U.S. soil, infringing on the First Amendment rights of a U.S. citizen?
Stolen military equipment sold on Web Stolen and sensitive U.S. military equipment, including fighter jet parts wanted by Iran and nuclear biological protective gear, has been available to the highest bidder on popular Internet sales sites, according to congressional investigators. Using undercover identities, investigators purchased a dozen defense-related items on the auction site eBay and the online network Craigslist from January 2007 through last month and received the items "no questions asked." The Defense Department regards much of the stolen equipment to be on the U.S. Munitions List, meaning there are restrictions on their overseas sales, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. The equipment could land in international brokers' hands or be transferred overseas, said the GAO, Congress' investigative arm. The Army recognizes that the U.S. military has had "property accountability and visibility challenges," said Sarah H. Finnicum, director of supply at the Office of Deputy Chief of Staff for the Army, in testimony to a House subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs....Dear President Bush - Why are you constantly pushing to limit our Constitutional liberties to "protect" us from terrorists when your own Administration can't keep our military inventory out of the hands of this same enemy?
Torches, bungee cords used to breach border fence Illegal immigrants armed with torches, hacksaws, ladders and even bungee cords are making it around a section of the border fence hailed as the most efficient way to stop them. In the 10 months since the section was put up, the only method federal agents haven't seen is a tunnel — "Yet," said Victor Guzman, the supervisory Border Patrol agent responsible for the stretch of close-together 15-foot cement-filled steel poles planted three feet into the ground. Agents responsible for guarding the stretch of border here "almost immediately" started seeing cuts in the fence. The towering gray and rust colored posts are marked with bright orange spray paint in areas believed to have been breached, Guzman said. Guzman, who has worked in the area for nearly a decade, said agents have found holes cut with acetylene torches, hacksaws and even plasma torches — a high-powered tool that uses inert gas or condensed air to quickly cut through steel and other dense metals. "We see it once or twice a week," Guzman said of the holes along the 1.5-mile stretch of fencing about 80 miles west of El Paso. Officials monitoring cameras in the area have seen at least one group using a massive ladder to scale the south side of the fence. The group tried to drop into the U.S. with bungee cords before agents caught them. But it's not just illegal immigrants worrying the Border Patrol. The fence itself — built by the National Guard and Border Patrol — is starting to settle into the ground and gaps between the posts are widening. In one spot, an average sized woman could wedge herself through one of the gaps....
Chertoff Defends Immigration Enforcement Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he feels the pain of employers pinched by intensified efforts to control illegal immigration, but adds that until Congress enacts broad immigration reforms they shouldn't expect any changes in enforcement. In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said this week that the rising complaints from businesses offer some evidence the Bush administration's approach is working. "This is harsh but accurate proof positive that, for the first time in decades, we've succeeded in changing the dynamic and (are) actually beginning to reduce illegal immigration," Chertoff said. "Unfortunately, unless you counterbalance that with a robust system to allow people to come in temporarily and legally, you're going to wind up with an economic problem." Chertoff defended the actions of his agency, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We're enforcing the law as it is, but Congress has not yet given us the authority to really expand the temporary worker program," he said in the Tuesday interview. "If we could do that, then most of these businesses could find legal solutions."....Prior to this I had only suspicioned that Bush was cracking down on illegal immigration to influence immigration reform. Now we know it's a fact.
Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S. The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications. His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department's new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response. But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses....
The Martial Law Act of 2006 Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist “incident.” It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he or other federal officials label a shortfall of “public order” — whatever that means. It took only a few paragraphs in a $500 billion, 591-page bill to raze one of the most important limits on federal power. Congress passed the Insurrection Act in 1807 to severely restrict the president’s ability to deploy the military within the United States. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 tightened those restrictions, imposing a two-year prison sentence on anyone who used the military within the United States without the express permission of Congress. (This act was passed after the depredations of the U.S. military throughout the Southern states during Reconstruction.)But there is a loophole: Posse Comitatus is waived if the president invokes the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act aim to deter dictatorship while permitting a narrow window for the president to temporarily use the military at home. But the 2006 reforms basically threw any concern about dictatorial abuses out the window. Section 1076 of the Defense Authorization Act of 2006 changed the name of the key provision in the statute book from “Insurrection Act” to “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act.” The Insurrection Act of 1807 stated that the president could deploy troops within the United States only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” The new law expands the list of pretexts to include “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition” — and such a “condition” is not defined or limited....

Go here to see a video about gun confiscation after Katrina.

Lake Tahoe resident could face prison over tree removal Environmental cops at Lake Tahoe say Patricia Vincent deserves a prison sentence and a huge fine. Her alleged crime: chopping down three trees on federal land that improved her backyard view of the lake. Vincent says it was an honest mistake, but now she's believed to be the first target of criminal charges of illegally cutting Tahoe trees. It's the clearest signal yet of how serious coniferous crime has become as regulators fight to preserve the Sierra Nevada jewel Mark Twain once deemed "the finest view the world affords." Since 2002 the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has fined violators a combined $1 million for such violations. "People up here have an emotional, gut reaction to the cutting of trees. It offends people," TRPA spokesman Dennis Oliver said on a recent afternoon, driving his Toyota Prius through a neighborhood of illegally pruned pines. Critics of government management of Tahoe's prized forest lands have long said regulators go too far in telling property owners what they can do in their own backyards. The issue for Vincent, however, is what she cut in the backyard of her neighbor, the U.S. Forest Service. Vincent, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with theft and damaging government property. She's scheduled for trial April 29 in U.S. District Court in Reno. She declined requests for interviews, but her attorney, Scott Freeman of Reno, said the government is out to make an example of the 58-year-old retired technology worker. He said Vincent is an otherwise law-abiding citizen who made a mistake and is "completely and utterly freaked out by this." "We're not talking about 250 trees, we're talking about 2 1/2 trees," said Freeman, noting that two of the ponderosa pines in question sprouted from the same stump....Coniferous crime? We need McGruff the coniferous crime dog on this. Uh oh, what if McGruff lifts his leg on one of those trees? Will Smokey Bear get pissed off and arrest McGruff? I guess we need a "Tree Strikes And Your Out" law.

Public land agencies could join services A study was launched by the Government Accountability Office in Washington D.C. last month to determine whether moving the U.S. Forest Service under the umbrella of the Department of the Interior is feasible. “While I have not had the opportunity to fully consider the implications, when I look at the unequal treatment of the Forest Service compared to the Department of the Interior when it comes to budget, it makes me wonder whether such a move might be worth some serious thought,” Allard said in a prepared statement. Allard is the ranking Republican leader of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee. Stephanie Valencia, a D.C.-based spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, noted that the GAO study is something the senator has his eye on. Bureaucratic brethren of the Forest Service include the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manage 84 million acres, 96 million acres and 258 million acres of public lands. The latter three are within the Interior Department. The four agencies have overlapping missions that include fire prevention and suppression, natural resource conservation, fostering recreational uses, and regulating commercial activities such as logging, drilling, mining and livestock grazing....
New rules for forest planning adopted The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday adopted a new version of the basic planning rules that made it possible for conservation groups in the 1990s to win court orders drastically cutting back logging to protect the northern spotted owl and salmon. Associate Chief Sally Collins said from Washington, D.C., that she hopes the rule will lead to less conflict and better planning to meet the challenges of global warming and wildfire while providing resources such as clean water and timber on the 192 million acres of national forest. "We have the most transparent, inclusive (forest planning) process anywhere in the planet," Collins said. Conservation groups said they will be back in federal court to again challenge the rule, which was tossed out by a federal judge last year on procedural grounds. They argue that the Forest Service refuses to analyze the potential for causing harm to the environment after taking out a long-standing system of protections for fish and wildlife habitat. "This is the same clown in different shoes," said Pete Frost, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, which represents some of the plaintiffs in the case....
Vandals Damage Property On Colorado Grasslands U.S. Forest Service officials are looking for vandals who have reportedly caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage each year on the Pawnee National Grassland in northern Weld County. Investigators said a small fraction of shooters are responsible for the damage. The Forest Service said every year it costs at least $7,000 to replace signs that have been shot up. An electronic company spent $42,000 recently after shooters blasted transformers. And there is a problem with windmills. "They've shot holes in the casing on the head there and when that happens the oil leaks out and its pretty tough to repair those," Tom Baur, vice president of Crow Valley Grazing Association. Baur said the shooting vandalism is costing the association $20,000 a year. The windmills pump water for cattle that graze on the grassland. "It's gotten worse over the last few years I think," said Baur. "The repairs on just one windmill alone are going to cost us $7,000 and we have two of them, so were gong to investigate this as a felony," said Terry Baxter of the Forest Service....
More money sought for national parks A conservation group warns that unless the White House and Congress provide more money to buy private land within national park boundaries, there could be logging at Washington state's Mt. Rainier, commercial development in Valley Forge, and similar problems at national parks from Golden Gate to Gettysburg. A National Parks Conservation Association report Tuesday said money to buy so-called in-holdings within the parks has declined sharply over the past decade, from a high of nearly $148 million annually to $44 million now. "Of the 391 units in the national park system, a significant and growing number face some threat to wildlife habitat or the preservation of cultural treasures because of development on privately owned land within national park boundaries," the report said. Though some of the private landowners have been willing to sell to the National Park Service or to conservation groups, the report said the Park Service has "lacked funding to close the deals, and even the most public-spirited owners cannot be expected to forgo their own financial needs indefinitely."....
Grant County eyes solutions for rabies State and federal representatives have told Grant County officials that initially, there will be a fairly large number of rabies cases from a strain new to New Mexico, but that the number should taper off. Officials from the state Department of Game and Fish, state Health Department, U.S. Wildlife Services, the U.S. Forest Service and others met Tuesday in Grant County to look at the spread of rabies in the southwestern New Mexico county, particularly among foxes. A Silver City woman was bitten by a fox last Thursday outside her home. The animal was captured and tested positive for rabies. A woman bitten by a fox March 18 on the Catwalk National Scenic Trail near Glenwood received rabies treatment as a precaution after the animal couldn't be found. A fox bit a Silver City man March 4 outside his home. Rabies generally comes in cycles, with high years followed by years in which the virus seems to disappear, Ettestad said. "The real issue is getting people to vaccinate their pets," he said. A Silver City veterinarian, John Wenzel, said many people refuse to vaccinate pets and livestock, but he urged ranchers and horse owners to vaccinate their animals....Do wolves get rabies?
Wilds bill may please many A Washington County lands bill that has been revised to include more wilderness areas may garner support from environmental groups. The once controversial bill has been revived, with the changes, by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. The Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2008, as it is called, would allow a little more than 9,000 acres of non-environmentally sensitive public land to be sold under local guidelines developed through a smart growth initiative called Vision Dixie, Bennett said. This is a decrease from the 24,300 acres proposed in the 2006 version of the bill, but "that number was always a cap and not a goal," Bennett said. That bill received committee hearings but never was voted on in either the House or Senate. The highlights of the bill include: • 264,394 acres of land would be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System, increasing the amount of wilderness acreage in the county from 3.5 percent to 20.5 percent. • The creation of two National Conservation Areas to provide 140,000 acres for the protected desert tortoise, as well as recreational uses. • 123,000 more acres of permanently protected land than was included in the previous bill. • 9,000 acres of public land would be sold to private developers, with all of the money either going to the county or being used locally by the Bureau of Land Management....
Say your prayers, cane toads Though Australian scientists are working to engineer a virus to control the invasive pests, an Aussie politician has suggested a less subtle solution: kill 'em all. Shane Knuth, a legislator in the northeastern state of Queensland (where cane toads thrive), has proposed and official day for residents to hunt down and kill the exotic invaders. Cane toads have plagued the land down under for decades, and their increasing numbers and toxic skin threaten the survival of native Australian animal species. For a feature in this month's issue of The Scientist, Brendan Borrell traveled to Australia and met some of the researchers aiming to modify a Ranavirus that could decimate toad populations. He also visited with "Toadbusters" seeking to exterminate the pest using brute force. Knuth's proposal for a day of amphibian massacre, which he dubbed "Toad Day Out," calls for an even wider effort. The plan has gained the approval of Australia's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which told the Associated Press that the hunt was acceptable as long as the toads were killed humanely....
Stem cell rx wins another horse race Earlier this year, we reported on a company called Vet-Stem which has devised a treatment for horses using the animal's own stem cells to heal tendon and ligament injuries. In some cases it's been an unqualified success. One of those successes was part of our story - a big gray gelding named Greg's Gold. When we posted the story online, Greg's Gold had just won a race on opening day at Santa Anita racetrack, pushing his earnings close to the million dollar mark. The past weekend Greg's Gold ran again, for the ninth time since his treatment. He won easily, beating two other Grade I winners handily (Grade I winners are the top in racehorse land) and pushing his earnings to $1, 067,923. This achievement appears to answer one of the questions skeptics have about the treatment - namely, how long will the previously injured leg hold up? Trainer David Hofmans says, "Yes, the old boy showed up again, he came out of the race great, cleaned out his feed tub, looked around for more." Plans are to run twice more to tune up for the Breeders Cup Sprint and a championship, all on that Vet-Stem repaired leg.

Climate Change Brings Health Risks A top government health official said Wednesday that climate change is expected to have a significant impact on health in the next few decades, with certain regions of the country — and the elderly and children — most vulnerable to increased health problems. Howard Frumkin, a senior official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a detailed summary on the likely health impacts of global warming at a congressional hearing. But he refrained from giving an opinion on whether carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, should be regulated as a danger to public health. Frumkin, director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, outlined the range of "major anticipated health" issues as a result of climate change. Among them, the prospects of more heat waves that are of special danger to the elderly and the poor; more incidents of extreme weather posing a danger of drought in some areas and flooding in others; increase of food-borne and waterborne infectious diseases; more air pollution because of higher temperatures; and the migration into new areas of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, malaria or dengue fever as seasonal patterns change....
Will Global Warming Harm Human Health? “We are skeptical that the warming predicted by activists will ever appear, but even if it does, the available evidence suggests that slightly warmer temperatures would be a boon for human health and well being,” said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. “The threats from extreme cold dramatically outweigh those from extreme heat, and whatever possible influence future warming may have on extreme weather, the record of the 20th century—allegedly a period of ‘unprecedented’ global warming—is clear: Both mortality rates and aggregate mortality related to extreme weather have declined dramatically since the 1920s.” In addition to fewer cold-related deaths, a slight warming caused, in part, by increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, would increase agricultural productivity, reduce heating costs and improve transportation safety. Despite dramatic rhetoric that a warmer world would represent a categorical disaster for mankind, most people would likely experience an increase in overall well being. “Not only do global warming alarmists ignore the advantages of a warmer world, but, even more troublingly, they advocate policies that we know would make the world poorer and less resilient to changes of any kind,” said Lewis. “The central policy they advocate – limiting access to affordable energy – would have a far worse impact on poor and vulnerable populations around the world than any expected rise in average global temperatures.”....
How the Olympics Change the Diplomacy of Global Warming Now, China is important enough to host the Olympics, which means that it is rich enough to be criticized. Today, it’s the “Sinefication” of Tibet. But tomorrow, it will be global warming. After all, China is the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases. Before, Chinese officials were spared the obloquy heaped upon the world’s #2 emitter, the United States, because they were “developing.” After the Olympics, that argument won’t work anymore. This revolution in public relations has profound consequences for the diplomacy of climate change. To date, no country has been willing to “do something” about global warming because no rational leader would put his or her no country at a disadvantage by adopting costly emissions controls alone while all other states go on emitting. In practice, this has meant that Europe won’t act without the U. S., which won’t act without China. So far, the U. S. has been the odd man out. The EU could point the finger at America, and China could point a finger to its “right to development.” The U. S., however, had no excuse. The Olympics changes all that, because “developing nation” and “Olympic host” are incompatible modifiers for China. You can’t have your cake, and eat it, too. As a result of the Beijing Olympics, China, which overtook the U. S. as the world’s #1 emitter only last year, will also overtake the U. S. as the global climate scapegoat....
The War on Animal Research "Excuse me," I said, cutting to the front of the line of passengers at the airport departure gate counter. "I have an emergency and need you to call the police right now!" Two airline agents stopped checking seating charts and looked at me. "I am a medical researcher and some people are protesting my visit to Tampa. They're not passengers," I explained. (This was in 2001, shortly before 9/11, when security measures allowed nonpassengers into boarding areas.) One desk agent examined my boarding pass, and then looked at my pursuers. I knew what she saw: five people with T-shirts that read: "KEEP PRIMATE TESTER Dr. P.M. CONN OUT OF U.S.F." She let me through. Ten minutes later, when the pilot boarded and asked if I was okay, and I heard the outer doors close, my blood pressure and heart rate slowly began to sink into normal ranges. I was en route from Tampa where I had been selected as a final candidate for the position of vice president for research at the University of South Florida (USF). The people following me were animal rights activists, who had learned of my visit on an animal rights listserv. I currently don't use animals in my research, but I am associated with people who do. Hat tip OpenMarket.Org

Imbalance Of Powers Imagine a group of lawyers at work on guidelines for instituting an imperial presidency. There would be an uproar, and rightly so. But what if the goal is to blunt global warming? Well, then, in that case it's OK to bypass the checks and balances between the branches of the federal government, right? We can't think of a single proposal on the right side of the political spectrum in which academics could construct a manual to help the president unilaterally fast-track policy because the legislative and judicial gears of government move too slow. The media and law professors would storm the White House if President Bush decided the executive branch alone would cut taxes or privatize Social Security, bypassing Congress. But global warming? Now that, they believe, is a threat the president should be able to deal with without the constraints of limited power. With that in mind, a team of researchers at the University of Colorado Law School spent six months assembling a 213-page handbook that will provide the next president, should he choose to use it, a blueprint for rapidly addressing climate change issues through executive authority. Part of the law school's Presidential Climate Action Project, the report suggests that "there exists significant authority, without further action by Congress, for the president to take action by executive order to implement various aspects of climate change policy." President Bush has been accused of running an imperial presidency by fighting an "illegal" war in Iraq and asking for more authority in the struggle against terrorism. But nothing in America's post-revolution experience could be more imperial than a White House going beyond its constitutional limits to repel a nonexistent threat....
The Biggest Green Mistake Are rising food prices the result of the economic dynamism of China and India, in which newly prosperous consumers are demanding more food—especially more meat? Perennial doomsters such as the Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown predicted more than a decade ago that China's growing food demand would destabilize global markets and signal a permanent increase in grain prices. But that thesis has so far not been borne out by the facts. China is a net grain exporter. India is also largely self-sufficient in grains. At some time in the future, these countries may become net grain importers, but they are not now and so cannot be blamed to for today's higher food prices. If surging demand is not the problem, what is? In three words: stupid energy policies. Although they are not perfect substitutes, oil and natural gas prices tend to move in tandem. So as oil prices rose above $100 per barrel, the price of gas also went up. Natural gas is the main feedstock for nitrogen fertilizer. As gas prices soared, so did fertilizer prices which rose by 200 percent. As a report from the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (ICSFAD) notes, applying the fertilizer derived from 1000 cubic feet of natural gas yields around 480 pounds of grain. That amount of grain would supply enough calories to feed a person for one year. Rising oil prices also contribute to higher food prices because farmers need transport fuel to run their tractors and to get food to urban markets. Even worse is the bioethanol craze. Politicians in both the United States and the European Union are mandating that vast quantities of food be turned into fuel as they chase the chimera of "energy independence." For example, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed misbegotten legislation requiring fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022-which equals about 27 percent of the gasoline Americans currently use each year and is about five times the amount being produced now. And the European Union set a goal that 10 percent of transport fuels come from biofuels by 2020. The result of these mandates is that about 100 million tons of grain will be transformed this year into fuel, drawing down global grain stocks to their lowest levels in decades. Keep in mind that 100 million tons of grain is enough to feed nearly 450 million people for a year....

Wildlife group targets N.M. Senate race A national group dedicated to protecting wildlife today begins airing a television commercial blasting both Republican U.S. Senate candidates in an effort to help Democrat Tom Udall win the seat being vacated by Republican Pete Domenici. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which lists the New Mexico Senate seat as one of its top priorities, calls the ad "Two Bad for New Mexico" and says it will "shed light on the anti-conservation congressional records" of U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce of Hobbs and Heather Wilson of Albuquerque. The group also has created a Web site, scheduled to go online today, www.2Bad4NM.org, that promises to point out "the links between big oil campaign contributions to both the candidates and their anti-conservation voting records." The organization's Web site has a Feb. 21 news release that says electing Udall will be one of its "main areas of focus during the 2008 elections." Quoting the group's president, Rodger Schlickeisen, the statement says Udall "has a stellar conservation record and we know he'd be a true champion for New Mexico in the Senate. Conversely, Representatives Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson both have atrocious conservation records....

Global warming mascot left out in cold Temperatures are rising over the delay in deciding whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. "The polar bear cannot wait much longer," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the three litigants. "As our greenhouse emissions increase and the Arctic sea ice melts, the window of opportunity to save the polar [bear] is closing rapidly." The problem, say Bush administration officials, is that the polar bear is no longer just a shaggy, white mammal with a taste for seal. The species has become a proxy for the debate on global warming, and the implications of a listing decision stretch far beyond its U.S. habitat in northern Alaska. "The world is watching," Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Valerie Fellows said. "It"s been fascinating. In the eyes of the public, the polar bear has really become the face of global climate change."....
Holding the Earth hostage As Christopher Booker and Richard North detail in "Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares Are Costing Us the Earth," recent decades have witnessed a flurry of scares that have gripped the public. These scares exact high costs: Wrong-headed policies are put in place that make us more vulnerable instead of less; costly measures are taken that disrupt economies and the public needlessly worries and changes their lives to response to the latest media bogeyman. Mr. Booker and Mr. North identify a dynamic through which a marginal public concern mushrooms into a full-blown scare — from salmonella and mad cow disease to DDT and asbestos, and focus on what may be the greatest, most costly scare of all: Global warming. Competing factions drive a scare's progress. There are pushers "whose interest is to promote the scare and to talk it up, such as scientists for whom it provides the promising of winning public attention or further funding," and blockers whose interest is to downplay it. The lay reader is unlikely to be surprised at the role that the media and politicians play in sensationalizing a threat. More jarring is the role that the scientific community plays. As the authors write: "At the heart of every scare we have looked at has been a group of scientists or technical experts making a wrong or exaggerated guess on the basis of what eventually turns out to be inadequate data."....
Water for smelt equals water supply for over 1 million homes Cannon Michael, the water watchdog for the family-owned Bowles Farming Company, Los Banos, Calif., kindly pointed out in an e-mail that I missed the mark by a mile. It is more like 300,000 acre feet that have been precluded from moving through the Delta and into the state and federal water projects delivering water to Central and Southern California since last Dec. 12. This is because of a federal district court judge’s ruling last fall protecting the Delta smelt. The revised estimate came from Steve Chedester of the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority in Los Banos who said the inflow into the San Luis Reservoir is now at a trickle. The outflow is rapidly drawing down the reservoir three months before the peak irrigation season begins. That ups the ante to representing 300,000 California households. If you figure a household is four people who use an acre foot of water (326,000 gallons) per year, then schools of minnows have basically taken the water supply equal to what is used by the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Riverside for one year. Of course radical environmentalists do not want to put it in those terms. They’d rather put it in terms of water used by farmers. It always amazes me when farmers are criticized for using water. What do people think farmers are using water for; brushing their teeth or washing pickups? It is used in their business to produce food. Let’s put 300,000 acre feet of water in true “farming” perspective — the production of food people like to eat. The 300,000 acre feet represent the water supply to irrigate 100,000 acres (assuming 3 acre feet of water per crop season). That is high for some crops listed below and low for others. However, allow me to use it for the following points. Let’s translate 100,000 acres of food for the people of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Riverside and the judge and the people who love minnows. If that lost water was used to produce 10,000 acres of romaine lettuce, we’re talking roughly 168 million heads of lettuce; 10,000 acres of wheat would produce at least 60 million loaves of bread; and 10,000 acres of processing tomatoes would produce roughly 350,000 tons of tomatoes. I have no idea how many bottles of ketchup that represents....
Environmental hysterics Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley recently warned that failure to take action on global warming could mean the extinction of the human race. Over the last few years, we've been repeatedly warned we are in the midst of a climate crisis that threatens our survival. Al Gore calls it a "planetary emergency." We might take this concern more seriously if the doom-mongering wing of the environmental movement weren't burdened by a long history of false prophecies. In the mid- to late-1960s, the leading environmental concern was overpopulation. The 1967 book "Famine 1975!" warned "by 1975 a disaster of unprecedented magnitude will face the world ... famines will ravage the undeveloped nations ... this is the greatest problem facing mankind." A sober review of the book in the scholarly journal Science characterized the prediction of mass starvation as "self-evident," argued that technological solutions were "unrealistic," and concluded that catastrophe was unavoidable. The reviewer concluded "all responsible investigators agree that the tragedy will occur." More widely read was Paul Ehrlich's shrill screed, "The Population Bomb" (1968). Mr. Ehrlich began with the infamous words "the battle to feed all of humanity is over," and claimed that "in the 1970s ... hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." "We must have population control," Mr. Ehrlich argued, because it is the "only answer." Mr. Ehrlich followed "The Population Bomb" in 1969 with publication of the essay, "Eco-Catastrophe," in which he predicted the Green Revolution would fail and that the "ignorance" of the Cornucopian economists would be exposed. By 1980, environmental degradation would wipe out all "important animal life" in the world's oceans, people would choke to death from air pollution by the hundreds of thousands, and life expectancy in the United States would fall to 42 years. "Western society," Mr. Ehrlich proclaimed, "is in the process of completing the rape and murder of the planet for economic gain." In 1975, the news media informed us that a new Ice Age was imminent. An article in the Chicago Tribune titled "B-r-r-r-r: New Ice Age on way soon?" noted "It's getting colder." The Tribune interpreted a number of ordinary weather events "as evidence that a significant shift in climate is taking place — a shift that could be the forerunner of an Ice Age." The New York Times chimed in, warning their readers that "a major cooling may be ahead." Famed science reporter Walter Sullivan announced "the world's climate is changing ... a new ice age is on the way." Within 10 years, the imminent calamity of global cooling was replaced by global warming. And the mass famines predicted by Paul Ehrlich and others never happened....
Gail Norton defends her record As secretary of the interior, Gale Norton was criticized by environmentalists for allowing the energy development that is booming in the Rockies. In front of an audience of mostly Colorado College students Monday night, Norton defended her environmental record and that of the Bush administration, and said the successes of her "cooperative conservation" policy were not widely reported because of a lack of conflict. "It was intensely frustrating when we did things that I was very proud of and got no coverage," she said. "There's no conflict. It's only when people criticize that you get conflict." Norton was the keynote speaker for the 2008 State of the Rockies conference, an annual report and conference led by students that focuses on social, economic and environmental issues affecting the region. Two-term attorney general for Colorado before she became secretary of the interior in 2000, Norton oversaw decisions that gave greater access on federal lands to many of the factors identified as threats in the State of the Rockies - mining, oil and gas drilling and offroad vehicles....
As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Out on the farm, the ducks and pheasants are losing ground. Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government’s biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Environmental and hunting groups are warning that years of progress could soon be lost, particularly with the native prairie in the Upper Midwest. But a broad coalition of baking, poultry, snack food, ethanol and livestock groups say bigger harvests are a more important priority than habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife. They want the government to ease restrictions on the preserved land, which would encourage many more farmers to think beyond conservation. Now, because of a growing global middle class as well as federal mandates to turn large amounts of corn into ethanol-based fuel, food prices are beginning to jump. Cropland is suddenly in heavy demand, a situation that is fraying old alliances, inspiring new ones and putting pressure on the Agriculture Department, which is being lobbied directly by all sides without managing to satisfy any of them. Born nearly 25 years ago in an era of abundance, the Conservation Reserve Program is having a rough transition to the age of scarcity. Its 35 million acres — about 8 percent of the cropland in the country — are the big prize in this brawl....
Open space district awards grazing lease for San Mateo property Reversing a no-cow trend, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is awarding a five-year grazing lease for its Tunitas Creek property to San Mateo Coastside rancher Doug Edwards. This is the second grazing lease awarded by the district in the past year. Last December, a five-year grazing lease was awarded to rancher Vince Fontana for the former Big Dipper Ranch at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. The old paradigm was to kick cattle off property when acquired by conservation groups. Overgrazed, eroded and trampled pastures had alarmed the region's environmentalists. But further research brought a turnaround in thinking. Removing cattle from San Jose's Silver Creek Hills in the 1990s, for instance, led to depletion of wildflowers that are food for the endangered bay checkerspot butterfly. Inspired by successful grazing on San Jose's Coyote Ridge, district managers seek to reduce wildfire risk in an area that is too big to mow and too dangerous to burn - and fend off the encroachment of forest. The district's adoption of "conservation grazing" - the use of livestock to boost the diversity of native plants and animals, control the spread of invasive non-native plants and prevent fire - may eventually reintroduce cattle to 5,000 grassy acres in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Both Edwards and Fontana are longtime ranchers in the region....
Wilderness advocates 'overplayed their hand' Rep. Dean Heller said a proposal by the Nevada Wilderness Project will make it difficult to do a lands bill of any sort for Lyon and Mineral counties. "This has played out very poorly," Heller, R-Nev., told The Record-Courier on Monday. "The special interest groups have made this process very difficult. They've overplayed their hand is the bottom line." The wilderness project is proposing that 195,638 acres in Lyon County and 497,251 acres in Mineral County be set aside as wilderness. Heller said the proposal was supposed to be worked out between the project and others who use the land, such as ranchers and those using it for recreation. "The Nevada Wilderness Project was supposed to be negotiated between local cattlemen, county commissioners and the people involved," he said. "It was supposed to be done in good faith and it wasn't." Heller said he met with Lyon County commissioners and held a town hall meeting in Hawthorne to hear what residents had to say about the proposal. "I've traveled around quite a bit over this issue," he said. "People are very vocal and for good reason. They are very concerned about a bill that doesn't have community buy-in. I believe they have every reason to be upset."....
County joins opposition to Pinon Canyon expansion The Pueblo County Board of Commissioners made official its opposition to the U.S. Army's plans to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site Tuesday. In a resolution passed unanimously by the three-member board, the county joined ranchers and other opponents of a plan to expand the Army's training grounds by 414,000 acres. Commissioner Jeff Chostner, a retired Air Force colonel, expanded on his comments from a March 27 meeting in which the commissioners indicated they would stand with the ranchers and other county officials against the Army's plans. "I took the opportunity to drive (Colorado 10) and it gave me further resolve to support this resolution," Chostner said. "This is an absolutely gorgeous part of Southern Colorado and I'm afraid it will be completely cut off from the public." Chostner mentioned states like Nevada and New Mexico, where the federal government and military operations have gobbled up scores of acres over the years. "I don't want to see that happen in Southeastern Colorado," he said. Chostner added that he believed that allowing the site to expand was an economic gamble, trading the predictable economic benefits of longtime ranching operations with what he termed "nebulous" benefits of soldiers coming to the area from Fort Carson and other points in El Paso County. Finally, Chostner noted that he believed the Army doesn't need the extra acreage because the soldiers currently deployed in the Middle East and other areas are already adequately trained for their jobs.
Easement proposal fails A failed attempt to amend a conservation-easement bill in the legislature would have required the state Division of Real Estate to review applications for easement holders within 180 days of receiving them. Lobbyist Erik Groves of Integrated Legislative Solutions LLC was pushing the amendment on behalf of Family Farmers and Ranchers to Protect Open Space, a group of Eastern Plains farmers formed Feb. 27. Groves formed the lobbying firm last July while working as a law clerk at the Denver firm Zak hem Atherton LLC. In 2007, Groves was a registered lobbyist for Zakhem Atherton, according to records from the Colorado secretary of state's office. A partner in the firm, Rodney Atherton, helped engineer a conservation-easement deal being investigated by the Division of Real Estate. He couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. "I find it interesting that an entity that we are investigating would attempt to push legislation that attempts to restrict our efforts to protect the conservation-easement program," said Erin Toll, executive director of the Division of Real Estate. "That smells really bad to me. I also think legislators will be able to see through that ploy."....
Merger may be bad news for ranchers Sen. Jeff Bingaman is warning that the acquisition of two beef processors by the world's largest beef producer could have a significant impact on cattle ranchers in Otero County. The Brazilian-owned JBS Corporation announced last month that it has arranged to purchase Smithfield Beef Group and National Beef Packing Company, which will make JBS the largest beef producer in the United States. "JBS' proposal to acquire these two U.S. beef processors would give a single company control of about one-third of the domestic market and a monopoly in many areas of the county," Bingaman said in an interview Tuesday. "I am concerned about the possible antitrust implications of the acquisition, as well as its impact on competitive market access for the many small and independent cattle growers (including) those in Otero County, who are vulnerable to unfair market pricing." Bingaman, D-N.M., said that with no competition, JBS could offer ranchers less for cattle, knowing they have nowhere else to go. There were a total of 622 cattle ranchers in the county according to 2006 government figures....
USDA Finds Violations in Slaughterhouses A federal audit of 18 beef slaughterhouses following the nation's largest beef recall found humane handling violations in four of them, including one serious enough for the plant to be temporarily suspended. The audit by the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service concluded that a plant was insufficiently stunning animals, failing to make them insensible to pain on the first attempt. That plant has taken corrective actions and its suspension has been lifted, said Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer. None of the plants was identified. The audit, which covered slaughterhouses that supply beef to the National School Lunch Program and other federal food assistance programs, was requested by Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the Senate Appropriations agriculture subcommittee. Schafer provided the results to Kohl in a letter for a hearing on the beef recall Tuesday. The USDA's audit didn't uncover problems with downer cattle, but it did issue "noncompliance" records to plants for excessive use of electronic stunning prods; overcrowding of animals in the pens; and bunching up of cattle going into the stunning area. Those three were in addition to the plant that was suspended for insufficient stunning. In addition, one plant received a "letter of concern" for using a high-powered hose to wash cattle before slaughter. While not a violation, FSIS informed the plant that care should be taken to avoid undue stress or excitement to the animals....
Corn prices eating away cattle profits High prices for corn have farmers smiling, but those same prices are wiping out profits for feedlot operators who have to buy corn to feed cattle, ag specialists say. Many feedlot operators have lost money over the past year because they’ve had to buy ever more expensive corn, according to Ken Olson, beef specialist at South Dakota State University’s West River Ag Center in Rapid City. Next on the hit list will be ranchers who raise the calves to sell to those feedlots, Olson said. “The folks in the feedlot business are losing a lot of money right now because the cost of corn is so high,” Olson said. “They’re not going to be able to pay the kind of prices that they have for calves in the past.” Most of the feedlots in South Dakota are in central and eastern South Dakota. But most West River ranchers focus on raising calves for the feedlots. Wall area rancher Myron Williams is in both parts of the cattle business, raising his own calves, and feeding grain and hay to them and calves he buys. Williams said he hasn’t bought much corn of late because he uses dried distillers grain, a byproduct of the ethanol process. Dried distillers grain has been a cheaper option than corn in recent years, but it now is in short supply, driving prices up, Olson said. “It used to be less than $100 a ton delivered, but now it’s well in excess of $200 a ton delivered to the ranch,” he said....
Cattle Brands: The Long Rail CHISUM, JOHN SIMPSON (1824-1884). John Simpson Chisum, pioneer cattleman, son of Claiborne C. and Lucinda (Chisum) Chisum, was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, on August 16, 1824. Claiborne Chisum, probably the earliest settler in Paris, Texas, was public-spirited and wealthy. John Chisum worked as a store clerk in Paris, served briefly as a road overseer in Hopkins County, accumulated land, operated several small grocery stores, was a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge, and held the office of Lamar county clerk from 1852 to 1854. With Stephen K. Fowler, a New Orleans investor, he filed on land in northwestern Denton County, purchased a partnership herd, and entered the cattle business with the Half Circle P brand. Chisum also managed herds for neighboring families and various partners and shared in the calves. He became an active cattle dealer in search of markets and drove a small herd to a packing house in Jefferson. Chisum and his partners soon had 18,000 head grazing along the Colorado. In the fall of 1866 he joined Charles Goodnight and others driving cattle to feed the 8,000 Navajos on the Bosque Redondo Reservation near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Chisum wintered 600 steers near Bosque Grande, below Fort Sumner, and in the spring sold his herd and contracted to furnish additional cattle. Chisum arranged to supply Goodnight, now ranching in Colorado, with Texas cattle for markets there and in Wyoming. For three years he delivered 10,000 head annually to Goodnight crews at Bosque Grande, for one dollar a head over Texas prices. During this period he the Long Rail brand which was a horizontal line across the entire side of the cow and the Jinglebob earmark for his herds. In 1872 Chisum abandoned his base in Texas and established his headquarters at Bosque Grande; he claimed a range extending more than 100 miles down the Pecos. In November of 1875 he transferred his livestock holdings, estimated at over 60,000 head of cattle, to Hunter, Evans, and Company, a St. Louis beef-commission house, which assumed his indebtedness, mostly for Texas cattle, of over $200,000. Chisum settled at South Spring River, near Roswell, New Mexico. As he helped Hunter and Evans gather cattle for markets, horse thieves and renegade Indians struck branding crews and horse herds. Lincoln County authorities and the army at Fort Stanton offered little help. Simultaneously, Chisum was drawn into the Lincoln County range war of 1878 by festering difficulties generated by his attorney, Alexander A. McSween, and rancher John H. Tunstall, who defied Judge Lawrence G. Murphy's economic stranglehold on the county. In the summer of 1878, with both Tunstall and McSween dead and the county in chaos, Chisum and Hunter and Evans cleared their cattle from the Pecos....

Wolf kills reach at least 10 At least 10 gray wolves have now been killed in Wyoming since the animals were removed from the federal endangered species list. All of the canines have been killed in the state's new wolf predator management area, where it is now legal to shoot the animals on sight. All 10 have been taken in Sublette County. Four wolves were destroyed by USDA Wildlife Services agents Monday on a ranch near the border of the state's new trophy game zone for the animals, a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department confirmed Tuesday. The wolves reportedly killed four or five calves inside a rancher's cow pen over the weekend, starting Friday morning, said Cat Urbigkit, a Sublette County predator management board member. The cows and calves were being kept in a barbed-wire-lined pen, Urbigkit said, and two of the calves were almost completely consumed. "The depredations actually started there Friday morning, and the wolves were returning nightly," Urbigkit said....
Probe finds uranium mine violations What has been considered Wyoming's "model" in-situ uranium mine, and the only operational uranium facility in the state in recent years, is under scrutiny by state regulators for what they describe as an alarming volume of environmental violations. Following an investigation last fall, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has issued a notice of violation to Power Resources Inc., which operates the Smith-Highland Ranch in-situ leach uranium mine north of Douglas. The six-page investigation report details several "long-standing" environmental concerns at the mine. Among them are delayed restoration of groundwater, "routine" spills, and a seriously inadequate bond to cover restoration. "Given that PRI's operation has for many years been the major uranium producer in Wyoming, there is an expectation that the operation might serve as a model for excellence in (in-situ leach) mining. Unfortunately, this is not the case," DEQ land quality District 2 supervisor Mark Moxley wrote in a Nov. 21, 2007, report....
Dam breaching or not, fish recovery will be pricey The $900 million deal federal agencies have made with tribal foes may not end a long-running court battle over endangered salmon and the big federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. But it does represent progress, because it does two things: It implicitly recognizes that four controversial dams on the Snake River are not going away anytime soon, and it spends ratepayer money on action instead of lawyers. Under the agreement announced Monday, four Northwest tribes would abandon their legal opposition to federal fish management policies in exchange for $900 million earmarked for habitat improvement and other salmon recovery efforts. The tribes and the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets power from the dams, hailed the settlement as a landmark agreement that could help move beyond litigation to collaboration. If they’re right, it would be a boon for a region that has spent money and time fighting over endangered and threatened fish runs that could have been better invested in actually restoring them. As truces go, this one is incomplete. Tribes that are party to the settlement could not sue for 10 years, in the hopes that will allow enough time for demonstrable progress toward recovery of vulnerable salmon runs. But plenty of others stand ready and willing to continue the pursuit of a goal that’s just not going to happen: partial removal of four dams on the lower Snake River....
Congressmen challenge DHS' waiver authority Three years after Congress granted the federal government unprecedented authority to waive laws, 14 congressmen are challenging how that authority is being used to construct a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., led a group of his colleagues, including South Texas U.S. Reps. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi and , to file a brief in Supreme Court which questions the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's waivers. Last week's waivers filed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would suspend more than 30 laws, which Chertoff said could interfere with "the expeditious construction of barriers." It was the fourth set of federal waivers aimed at accommodating DHS' plan to finish 700 miles of fencing before 2009. Chertoff suggests that his waiver authority is vested in the Real ID Act of 2005, which Congress passed in 2005 - more than a year before the border fence was signed into law. But Thompson and his congressional colleagues - along with environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife - maintain that DHS' authority is unconstitutional. The Real ID Act deals mainly with improving the security of state driver's license to prevent counterfeiting. But one section grants nearly unlimited power to the executive branch to hasten fence construction....
Wild salmon at $40 a pound? Will this be the year we see fishmongers charging $40 a pound for salmon? Some fear that the answer is yes, given the ominous signs: Federal officials are meeting near Seattle this week to slash or even halt salmon fishing off California and Oregon. Washington's salmon catch also looks iffy, prompting Gov. Chris Gregoire this week to contemplate calling for emergency federal aid. And Alaska's bountiful wild salmon catch is expected to be trimmed by one-third from last year's bumper harvest. Overall, expect a boost in prices for the famously cyclical catch of wild salmon, say government officials and fishing-industry observers. That's particularly true for the highly sought-after chinook -- or king -- salmon, whose numbers in California collapsed this year. But once Alaska's commercial salmon fisheries kick into high gear next month, there will be salmon available. More than 90 percent of North America's wild salmon harvest comes from Alaska. While the salmon catch there is being slashed by about 35 percent from last year, 2007 marked Alaska's fourth-biggest salmon catch ever....
Scientists Share Findings After Glen Canyon Water Release One month after a massive release of water into the Grand Canyon, scientists are out with some of their preliminary findings. The goal of the experiment was to see if new sandbars and eddies could be created to help protect endangered fish species. But -- did it work? It was officially called a high flow experiment. A massive release of water from the Glen Canyon Dam, which feeds both the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead. One month after the experiment, scientists are seeing mixed results. The goal was to mimic natural floods which occurred before the dam was completed in the 1960's -- to redistribute sediment to help with habitats for endangered species like the Humpback Chub. The U.S. Geological Survey has just released dramatic time lapse images spanning the month following the 60-hour experiment which began on March 5. At river mile 45, the high flow experiment clearly appears to be a success. Where there once was no sand bar at all -- one was created. But the opposite appears to be the case up river, closer to the dam. In the images from river mile 3, scientists say it appears the rush of water actually eroded an existing sandbar....

MEXICAN WOLF

From: Laura
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 9:28 AM
Subject: FW: Another Calf Confirmed killed by wolves

The Middle fork pack has never to my knowledge, killed livestock until the past two to three weeks. Why did they start? They had a territory staked out, the alpha's were both wild born, they were firmly mated and had produced at least 4 litters of pups. They were never fed never coddled and didn't need it.

What changed to get them into ranch country? In December agency personnel removed the Middle fork pack Alpha female. She had a fully healed but flopping leg, likely broken by an elk. They amputated the leg and kept her in captivity for 6 weeks. During that time, her pack made wider and wider circles apparently searching for her. They ended up on a ranch in a calving pasture. When the female was placed back with the pack, they kept making those wider and wider circles. Now they are permanently located on the ranch and eating cattle and have been for the past two to three weeks. This is their first confirmed depredation, there have been many others but eaten up too soon to retain evidence for confirmation. Soon they will be killing adult cows and the kills will be easier to find.

Manipulation of this wolf pack by emotional agency decisions has caused them to shift territory and move to ranch country. This will likely lead to eventual permanent removal of the pack as it should be according to the rule. There are 6-7 members in the pack. Two adults, two 2 year old pups (even though in 06 they were not deemed a breeding pair during the count) and 2-3 young of 07. Witnesses say they are somewhat smaller than the captive raised wolves probably due to a normal wolf diet. We know the three collared wolves were vaccinated for rabies probably the others were not.

The wolf team cannot seem to take their personal agenda's out of the program long enough to do what is best for it. Feeling sorry for a single animal has led to the ruining of an entire pack of wolves that were formerly the only pack that was behaving naturally. The agency personnel should have left them alone and let the female's fate take it's course, there were plenty of wolves to replace her naturally if she died. As it was she was showing no signs of faltering due to her condition, this is hardly professional management.

Laura

Laura's weblog is Wolf Crossing.