Funding bill to provide emergency cash to U.S. Forest Service The stopgap measure includes $500 million in emergency spending to cover unexpected U.S. Forest Service firefighting costs, $250 million for hazardous fuels management and $25 million to boost firefighter retention efforts. "We were facing devastating cuts to maintenance, services and even fire prevention in some areas," Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, said in a statement announcing the new funds. "Congress and the President have responded with this emergency funding increase to ensure that we do not create an even worse fire threat in the future." The $500 million, signed just before the close of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, eliminates the need throughout the U.S. Forest Service for cutbacks, Lewis spokesman Jim Specht said Wednesday. The House and Senate passed the bill last week....

4 wolves killed after 2nd attack Four wolves have been killed and efforts to kill a fifth are under way after it was confirmed that the Hog Heaven Pack was responsible for a second attack on livestock in the last week. Two wolves were killed last week, and a federal trapper shot two wolves from a helicopter Tuesday morning in an area not far from Brown’s Meadow west of Kalispell, said Kent Laudon, regional wolf management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The hunt continued for an additional wolf in the pack, which is believed to have a minimum of 10 wolves based on a recent aerial observation. Last year, the pack was responsible for two livestock depredation incidents, prompting Wildlife Services to kill one of the wolves....

Data show bears not so harmless Between 1900 and 2003, there were 52 recorded deaths in North America due to black bears, 50 due to brown and grizzly bears, and five due to polar bears. This information comes from "Fatal Black Bear Attacks" and "Fatal Brown Bear Attacks," Southeastern Outdoors, July 14, 2006; "Grizzly Bear Related Fatalities," Glacier National Park Press Kit, National Park Service, July 14, 2006; and Kerry A. Gunther, "Bear Caused Human Injuries and Deaths in Yellowstone National Park," Bearman's Yellowstone Outdoor Adventures. This is the most recent data that is the most reliable and complete, but does not necessarily include all fatal attacks that have occurred in North America. There have been 23 fatal black bear attacks between 1991 and 2008. There have been seven fatal black bear attacks in North America since 2005....

Trees fly through the skies of Deadwood A huge habitat restoration project is underway in the town of Deadwood along Highway 36. Helicopters are transporting almost 500 conifers from nearby Forest Service land to 14 miles of streams. "We're concerned with not removing habitat for spotted owls so we choose trees with less structure and smaller branches," said fisheries biologist Paul Burns. "We know that birds and other animals won't be using those." Over the next 10 or 15 years the logs will provide spawning grounds and refuge for four different kinds of salmon and other aquatic species. "The stream flow scours and creates pools and the gravel drops out upstream and downstream for spawning habitat," said stream habitat biologist Jason Kirchner. Salmon should benefit from the work....Gotta love that headline.

Pine Beetles Changing Rocky Mountain Air Quality, Weather When pine bark beetles kill trees, scientists believe they may also alter local weather patterns and air quality. For the next four years researchers will study forests from southern Wyoming to northern New Mexico to determine the precise relationship between the beetles, the trees they kill and the atmosphere. A new international field project, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, is exploring how trees killed by the beetles influence rainfall, temperatures, smog and other aspects of the atmosphere. "Forests help control the atmosphere, and there's a big difference between the impacts of a living forest and a dead forest," says NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, a principal investigator on the project. "With a dead forest, we may get different rainfall patterns, for example." Preliminary computer modeling suggests that beetle kill can lead to temporary temperature increases of between two and four degrees Fahrenheit. This is partly because of a lack of foliage to reflect the Sun's heat back into space. Beetle kill stimulates trees to release more particles and chemicals into the atmosphere as they try to fight off the insects, Guenther says. This worsens air quality, at least initially, by increasing levels of ground-level ozone and particulate matter....

County payments stalled in House as close of session looms Despite an overwhelming 93-2 vote in the U.S. Senate last Tuesday evening in support of federal forest payments, the fate of the "safety net" was very much in doubt in the U.S. House of Representatives. County payments was excluded from the House bills because the White House threatened to veto any legislation reauthorizing Secure Rural Schools and requiring mandatory payment in lieu of taxes (PILT). The PILT program compensates states for loss of tax revenue from Federal lands. Full funding of PILT would also provide increased funding for counties in Oregon and around the country that lose tax revenues due to the presence of Federal lands in the state. "This is extraordinarily disappointing to me, and devastating to counties in Southwest Oregon," DeFazio said. "It is outrageous that the President is willing to borrow $465 million for foreign aid, the majority of which is going to the Republic of Georgia and $700 billion to bail out his Wall Street buddies but, he is turning his back on schools, law enforcement, and other vital public services in rural communities," DeFazio continued. Besides the President's promise of a veto, it also appears that DeFazio came out on the short end of some "horse trading" with Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Rangel pulled federal forest payments from the tax extenders package. Apparently, Rangel wanted a provision for certain New York City transportation projects included in the package. His staff told members of the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition that if the money for those projects is included, he will restore federal forest payments....A lame duck President who has an approval rating of 27% threatens a veto and the Dem's cave? I don't think so. Looks more like two Dem's fighting over the goodies has screwed the counties.

Tree Power Could Save Forests From Fires Tree power might sound like a hippie battle cry, but scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have literally tapped into the tiny electrical current carried in trees and created a company, Voltree, to capitalize on it as a power source. "People have known about this phenomena for many years and have tried to explain it by various exotic mechanisms," said Andreas Mershin, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT who is involved in the research. "But the cause of it is a simple pH difference between the tree and the soil," said Chris Love, a senior in chemistry at MIT and Vice President of Voltree. Working with the U.S. Forest Service, Voltree has created cheap sensors that use tree power to monitor temperature and humidity conditions inside forests. The goal is to give forest managers and firefighters better tools to predict and monitor fires....

Conservation summit: overdue debate It's a notion whose time has come, this Colorado Conservation Summit that begins Monday at Keystone Conference Center. Of course, it also might be presumed a decade overdue, but such is the nature of America's current infatuation with management by crisis. In any case, this diverse gathering represents our state's determination to join a movement that may offer outdoorsmen a last, best hope to protect wildlife habitat so important both to our sporting interests and to what we cherish as the Colorado way of life. This flirtation between hunter/fishers and environmentalists, an off- and-on affair, at last has progressed to the hand-holding stage. Where it develops from here, at least in this neck of the woods, depends a great deal on the bonding that occurs next week. At the root of the initiative is the recognition, finally, that those who pursue fish and game have so much more in common with conservationists than separates them. It's an awareness born of hard lessons, bitter defeats and the reality that if something isn't done soon, many things very precious will be lost....

Gold Butte land bill too limiting There was a time when the great thing about living in Southern Nevada was its wide-open spaces, most of it on public land. One could travel in just about any direction and find someplace new and interesting to visit or someplace new and inviting to hunt. Living in the growing city was made tolerable because you always could get away from the crowds by taking a drive into the desert on one of many roads that miners, ranchers and wandering explorers left behind long ago. But that's no longer the case. With the Bureau of Land Management's no off-pavement travel closure surrounding the Las Vegas Valley for miles in every direction, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the east, the Sloan Canyon Conservation Area to the south, the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area to the west and the Desert Wildlife Refuge and Nellis Bombing Range to the north, Southern Nevadans have been hemmed in like cattle with political fences on all sides. Some days I feel like a calf with his head stuck between strands of barbed wire looking for somewhere else to be. Now, with the help of U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, things could get worse. On Friday, Berkley introduced H.R. 1732, a piece of legislation that if passed would create the Gold Butte Conservation Area: more than 565 square miles of rules, regulations and travel closures. Included in the legislation is language that would create another 13 new wilderness areas totaling more than 220,300 acres. More than 91,000 acres of that wilderness would fall within the Lake Mead NRA, where public access to the lake's shoreline already significantly is limited to anyone who does not own a boat....

Huntsman rips into off-trail ORV use Off-road vehicles that stray from trails are doing immense damage to the state, said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has directed state officers to begin cracking down. "It's an abomination, it's an embarrassment," the governor said Wednesday during a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board. Huntsman said that he recently visited the area around Moab with David Bonderman, a prominent venture capitalist and major financier for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to see the damage done by illegal off-road travel. "I wanted to get a sense of what the concern was, and it became a concern to me," he said. So Huntsman - who rides dirt bikes, but sticks to the track - said he has begun a two-part effort to reduce the damage, using enforcement and encouragement. First, he has asked the Department of Natural Resources to step up enforcement on state land. "You penalize them. . . . You give them tickets, you charge them, you fine them, which is what we're going to be doing through DNR," he said....

One-year ban on oil shale regulations expires Time has run out on a congressional ban on issuing final regulations for oil shale development in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The one-year moratorium on issuing the regulations expired Tuesday and efforts to extend it have failed. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a plan to open nearly 2 million acres of public land to development and is expected to issue final oil shale regulations later this year. The agency has said it could be several years before commercial development occurs and that more in-depth analyses will be done as specific projects are approved. The shale in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is thought to contain 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The catch is the technology to squeeze the oil out of the rock is still experimental and commercial production is likely at least a decade off....

Yellowstone National Park speeds up action on snow machines In an about-face, officials at Yellowstone National Park said Wednesday that they would quickly craft a plan to allow snowmobiles and snow coaches into the park in time for the winter season. After a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that Yellowstone's snowmobile-use proposal was unacceptable because it would put the health of visitors and animals at risk, park officials said they would not be able to hammer out a new plan before the season starts Dec. 15. The impasse had threatened to shut down much of Yellowstone's winter operations for the first time in decades. On Monday, park Supt. Suzanne Lewis told a business group in Cody, Wyo., that it was possible that only snowshoers and cross-country skiers would be allowed into Yellowstone. But on Wednesday, park spokesman Al Nash said that an environmental assessment allowing for the use of snow machines would be ready by early next month, followed by a 15-day comment period....

Tribe, groups vow to sue to guard rare fish The Confederated Tribe of Goshutes and two conservation organizations filed notice Wednesday that they plan to sue the Interior Department for not responding to a petition to put a rare Utah fish on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The least chub, a small minnow found only in Utah's Bonneville Basin, now lives in just six fragile wild populations, three in the Snake Valley. Along with the tribe, the Great Basin chapter of Trout Unlimited and Wild Utah Project claim the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to tap Snake Valley groundwater to feed Las Vegas growth threatens the least chub's survival. The groups filed their petition to protect the fish in June 2007. Under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials should have responded with a finding of whether the petition's claims were sufficient to warrant further consideration within 90 days. A decision on whether to list the fish then should have come within a year....

The Cuban Diet The global warming scare isn't about the environment as much as it is about smothering capitalism and forcing Americans to change their lifestyles. A report out of Great Britain confirms this. Basing its recommendation on the theory that the greenhouse gases emitted by meat and dairy production are principal contributors to global warming, the Food Climate Research Network, operating out of the University of Surrey, strongly suggests that meat and milk consumption in developed countries be rationed. This nonsense emanating from an institute of supposedly higher learning is alarmingly similar to the madness spouted by Rajendra Pachauri, the vegetarian chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who wants people to "give up meat for one day (a week) initially, and decrease it from there." The limit prescribed by the British group is four ounces of meat every other day and one liter of milk, "just about enough for cereal in the morning" — or 100 grams of cheese — each week. Americans currently consume roughly 10 ounces of meat a day and drink a little more than 1.5 liters of milk per week. Each of us eats more than 270 grams of cheese on a weekly basis. Fearmongers who want to ration meat and milk would force the world to eat like residents of communist Cuba, where food is rationed by a malevolent regime that has institutionalized scarcity. In that workers' paradise, the average ration of meat — if available and including fish — is two ounces per day. Milk is distributed only to children under 7, and each Cuban gets 12 eggs per month. It wasn't hard to see this coming. The forces that want to scare the world about global warming wish to dictate how the rest of us live, from the homes we live in to the automobiles we drive and, now, to the food we eat. They want people to believe that they have only the public interest at heart, but in reality their goal is to set themselves up as autocrats who can shape the world so that it suits their tastes....And now the Australians have entered the frey, saying eat kangaroo meat be cause kangaroos emit fewer greenhouse gases. It's what's for dinner, mate.

County Unveils Oil and Gas Ordinance Santa Fe County's draft oil and gas ordinance doesn't stop drilling cold, but it proposes hefty requirements before companies could sink a well and start pumping. Among other restrictions in the 126-page document released Tuesday, companies can only use fresh water for fracturing rock to draw out oil or gas. Brine and chemicals typically used in that process would be banned. The draft ordinance also requires companies to prove they have an assured 50-year water supply for any drilling project. Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday approved publishing the ordinance, beginning a formal public-hearing process. The county will hold two public hearings on the ordinance before the County Development Review Committee and at least two more hearings before the county commissioners, according to Stephen Ulibarri, the county's public-information officer. The ordinance also would require companies to help pay the cost, estimated at $61 million, for upgrading roads, hiring more deputies and increasing fire protection, according to attorney Robert H. Freilich of Miller Barondess, who helped prepare the ordinance. Oil and gas development elsewhere in the West has increased the burden on local governments to provide fire and emergency services, he said....

Tester backs bill for beef promotion Tester hopes to force a change in beef marketing through a bill dubbed the Beef Checkoff Modernization Act. Beef Checkoff is a promotion and research program funded through a $1-per-head tax on cattle as well as a per-pound tax on imported beef. The program has had its critics in cattle country, in part because ranchers have wanted the option of periodically voting on whether or not to continue the Beef Checkoff. Also, contracts for promotions have been awarded to beef groups in existence when the Checkoff program was first created. Other groups have been created since then and some cattlemen argue that younger beef groups should be considered for Checkoff contracts. Specifically, Tester’s proposal would: • Require that at least 30 percent of Beef Checkoff money be used to promote U.S. beef. The program currently brings in more than $80 million a year for research and promotions. • Allow cattle producers to hold a referendum every seven years or sooner if petitioned, to change Beef Checkoff. The first vote would be in 2010. Future program changes, including fee increases, would have to be voted on by referendum and approved by a majority of producers. • Allow the creation of an importer’s qualified beef council to promote non-domestic beef. Importers currently pay a per-pound fee into the Beef Checkoff promotion to offset beef research and promotion. • Not increase Checkoff fees or tap the general public for taxpayer support....The bill is S.3404.

Farmer Mac's Amber Waves Of Pain The agricultural sector swept in and bailed out its own Wednesday at a time when farmers are feeling the impact of the credit crunch. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, the rural cousin of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced a $65.0 million capital infusion from a group of banks on Wednesday. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, which is also known as Farmer Mac and was created by the U.S. government as a secondary market for agricultural real estate and rural housing mortgage loans, saw its shares soar 65.6%, or $2.69, to $6.79, on Wednesday, but that will be cold comfort to investors who paid more than $30 for it in August. The shares held up well until last month, when the Treasury took control of Fannie Mae, in which Farmer Mac held preferred shares. The Farm Credit System, which is a federally chartered network of borrower-owned lending institutions, purchased $60.0 million in preferred stock of Farmer Mac. In addition $5.0 million of Farmer Mac senior cumulative perpetual preferred stock has been purchased by Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City....

Bigfoot lore alive in Estacada area While hiking along the snowy banks of the Clackamas River late one January afternoon in 1969, Millie Kiggins of Estacada, her husband and their friend Art Schneider found something that would thrust the Kigginses and the quiet wilderness surrounding Estacada into an international spotlight. “We went to look at a Forest Service cabin up above Squaw Lake on the way to Cold Springs about 20 miles from Estacada,” Kiggins said. “They were going to sell them, and we wanted to look at them. We started out late, and we were in about three feet of snow. There was a gate, and we couldn’t get through. So we started to walk, and it looked like somebody had already gotten through, because there were tracks in the snow.” They noticed the large size of the tracks and their depth. “They were 18 inches deep”, she said. “Whatever had made them was heavy, because ours were a couple inches deep. It had to have been walking on two feet…and its stride was 67 inches.” The path of the tracks was in an unusually straight line, too straight to be man-made footprints, she said....

Feds, Wyoming weigh workable wolf options So what happens next with endangered wolves in the Northern Rockies? If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., remands the case back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as expected, the Bush administration has several options. Wyoming is also weighing its options, including suing the federal government for not delisting wolves. The environmental groups who are the victors are waiting for the agency to make the next move and waiting for a new administration that might be supportive of their goals of placing a higher floor on the number of wolves that must be protected in the region. Start with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice. The Bush administration first proposed delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah, leaving out Wyoming. Only when it could get Wyoming to say it wouldn’t allow hunters to kill so many wolves and it would expand the recovery area did the administration include that recalcitrant state in delisting. To go back to that route, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s biologists will have to show that there is genetic mixing between the wolves in Idaho and Montana and the wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and Wyoming. A new study is expected out soon that insiders say will show there already has been mixing. What about Wyoming? Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg recently wrote to state lawmakers saying the state’s options include filing a lawsuit, leaving management to the federal government or writing a new wolf management plan....

Decision to protect wolves upsets wildlife officials Bob Johnson recently shot and killed a gray wolf attacking his herd of beef cattle at his Rusk County farm. Over a period of several weeks, seven other wolves were trapped and killed on Johnson's property north of Ingram. It would be a federal crime if Johnson shot one today, according to a ruling Monday by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. The judge ruled an estimated 4,000 wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan should return to the endangered species list. The decision is not sitting well with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, who said Tuesday they may appeal the ruling. "Can property owners still shoot wolves attacking livestock? The answer is no," said Jason Holm of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota. "They must now contact DNR or wildlife service officials for assistance."....

Like polar bear, wolverine is threatened by global warming, Montana lawsuit claims Charging that politics have trumped science, conservationists are challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide wolverines with Endangered Species Act protections. Decisions regarding sensitive species, he said, “are supposed to be based on science, not politics.” Preso serves as counsel at Earthjustice, and is representing a coalition of 10 environmental groups in a lawsuit on behalf of the wolverine. On Tuesday, he filed the action in Missoula’s U.S. District Court. According to Preso, plaintiffs have unearthed documents showing that federal officials overruled biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including scientists who had concluded wolverines are “warranted” for protections. The Bush administration, plaintiffs charge, meddled with the science in order to avoid a second Endangered Species Act listing related to climate change. (In May, the polar bear was listed as threatened, largely due to habitat loss resulting from a warming planet.) Wolverines, the groups allege, are likewise at risk from climate change because the animals depend on areas that remain snowbound well into spring, when females dig snow dens to give birth....You just knew it was coming. Thank you "Courageous" Kempthorne.

Feds propose listing 48 Hawaiian species at once The federal government took a new, ecosystem-based approach to the endangered species list on Tuesday, proposing an all-at-once addition of 48 species, including plants, two birds and a fly, that live only on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The action by the Interior Department would designate about 43 square miles as critical habitat for all the species rather than considering each species' habitat separately, which has been the practice for three decades. Officials said considering the species all at once should save time and resources and would help the whole ecosystem. The same approach is planned to help protect rare species on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui over the next several years, and it could be considered for the Arctic, big river systems of the Southwest and areas of the mountain West, according to department officials.... Kempthorne is quoted as saying this will benefit the entire ecosystem. It's coming our way folks.

Federal Scientists: Flood Insurance Program is Pushing Salmon and Orcas to Extinction Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service ( "NMFS" ) today issued a long-awaited regulatory finding that the National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The document, known as a biological opinion, is all but certain to trigger significant improvements in the development codes applicable in cities and counties across Puget Sound to help reduce risks to people and wildlife. Without implementing the changes called for by NMFS, these cities and counties could lose eligibility for federal flood insurance. NMFS issued the biological opinion pursuant to a federal court decision in 2004. In National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal district court in Seattle found that FEMA's flood insurance program encouraged floodplain development and harmed salmon already threatened with extinction. He ordered FEMA to consult with NMFS to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and the document issued today is the result of that process....So you have one federal program doing damage to another federal program and something must be done. Not exactly the approach they use when a federal program damages a private program.

USFS to offer deer permits The U.S. Forest Service is offering a limited number of permits to hunt antlerless deer during the general season Nov. 1, 2008 through Jan. 4, 2009. Youth participating in the general season public hunts by special permit must apply for "youth only permits" if they are between the ages of 8 and 16 at the time of application. The words "youth only permit" must be on the application, along with applicant's 2008-2009 hunting license number and specific hunting area. Hunters are selected by random drawing and only one application per person will be accepted. A drawing will be held in mid-October to select a limited number of permits. Only those chosen will be notified. Permit availability, areas of issuance and application instructions can be obtained from the Forest Supervisor's office in Lufkin....I know things always seem different in Texas, but the USFS issuing hunting permits? Can one of you readers explain this?

Uranium exploration near Grand Canyon sparks battle with Bush administration In the fight to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining and exploration, one battle is over, but another has just begun. Last week, three environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust – announced they had reached a settlement with VANE Minerals, a U.K.-based minerals exploration firm that had previously received approval from the Forest Service to drill 39 exploratory holes in search of uranium deposits in the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. ssentially, VANE is back at square one. If they still want to drill some holes, they will have to go through much more rigorous environmental review than it had previously faced....

Oil drilling hits a preservation snag A Denver energy company's plan to drill more than 800 natural-gas wells in eastern Utah's relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon is in trouble with a top federal historical preservation agency. In letters sent this week to Bureau of Land Management officials in Washington and Salt Lake City, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation questions whether the BLM adequately evaluated potential damage from the drilling project on ancient art and archaeological sites. The agency's involvement likely will slow the project and buttresses claims from tribal and conservation groups that Bill Barrett Corp.'s big-rig traffic along canyon's dirt roads will destroy some of the West's most stunning ancient American Indian rock art. "This is welcome news," said Jerry Spangler, of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance. "It's pretty tough to ignore the advisory council when they get involved." The advisory council acts as a kind of appeals agency that can step in and require a federal agency to reconsider its historical-preservation actions....

Report: Everglades in decline as restoration lags A multibillion-dollar effort to restore Florida's Everglades has made little progress amid funding shortfalls, bureaucratic red tape and disagreements, according to a congressionally mandated report that warns the vast wetland is in peril. The National Research Council, in findings Monday, warned that degradation of the Everglades could become irreversible if action isn't taken quickly. "The Everglades ecosystem is continuing to decline. It's our estimate that we're losing the battle to save this thing," said William Graf, the report's committee chairman and head of the department of geography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration for the state, said in a statement that it agrees with the report's findings "that restoration progress is hampered by limited federal funding and a complex and lengthy federal planning process."....

HipChicas.com Targets Tween Latinas with Eco-Friendly Virtual World Hip Venture Co. is the latest company to enter the crowded virtual worlds market for kids, tweens and teens (KT&T) with the imminent launch of HipChicas.com. But what separates this Flash-based virtual community from some of its competitors is its focus on socially conscious, young Latinas, and its "eco-friendly" stance, differentiators that analysts say may help it stand out from the pack. The world is modeled after real locations in North and South America, including cities like Miami and New York, as well as habitats like the Everglades and the Amazon. Girls learn that their actions directly affect the environment through games and challenges. Adding plants and cleaning up a habitat, for example, will cause a native endangered species to flourish. According to Lazaro Fuentes, founder and CEO of Hip Venture Co., the creative team spent about a year figuring out how to help girls understand the connection between their everyday activities and the environment without being "preachy."....

Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates. It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping. The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind....

New Sustainable Ag Classes Begin, With New Major on the Way A growing student interest in sustainable food and farming systems that are good for people and the environment has led to new classes and development of a new major at UC Davis. Sustainable food and agricultural systems that integrate environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic fairness are becoming universally recognized as the direction society must go, according to UC Davis researchers implementing the new major. Starting this year, new freshman-level courses in food systems and sustainable agriculture and an upper-division course in agroecology, the study of the ecology of the entire food system, will be offered....

Farmer Mac Officials Discuss Strategies to Stabilize Firm Top directors and officials from Farmer Mac, the government-chartered organization that provides funding for agricultural loans across the U.S., met late Tuesday in Washington to discuss ways to stabilize the company. Farmer Mac faces heavy losses due to its holdings of tens of millions of dollars worth of investments that have rapidly lost value, including preferred stock of its cousin, Fannie Mae, which was seized by the government earlier this month, and Lehman Brother Holdings Inc., the collapsed investment bank. The company's options include raising capital by issuing new stock or selling assets. If the company can't raise capital, its regulator, the Farm Credit Administration, could downgrade its rating, the first time this has happened in its history. That could hurt banks that hold equity stakes in the company and could also curb its ability to make new loans. Farmer Mac, which is formally called the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., was created by Congress in 1988. The company buys mortgages and other loans that banks make to farmers and ranchers in rural America. Farmer Mac then repackages the loans into asset-backed securities. That business model has come under pressure this year as credit markets have seized up....

PUBLIC HEARING ON SANTA CLARA COUNTY PROPOSED RODEO ORDINANCE

To: California Rodeo Proponents
From: Cindy Schonholtz, PRCA Animal Welfare
Date: September 30, 2008
RE: Action needed in Santa Clara County

What/When: The Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission will hold a public hearing regarding the adoption of an ordinance to restrict the use of animals in circuses and rodeos in unincorporated Santa Clara County and on County owned property. It is important we get as many rodeo proponents who live in Santa Clara County to contact their commissioner, submit comments and attend the hearing if possible. Additionally, those in adjacent counties may want to weigh in and attend the hearing.

Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission Public Hearing

When: October 9, 2008 at 6:30pm
Where: Gilroy Senior Center, 7371 Hanna Street, Gilroy, CA 95020
Ph: (408) 846-0414

I will be attending; you may contact me on the cell at 719-440-7255 when you arrive if you are able to attend.

There is not a draft ordinance at this time, but we have heard that Commissioner McHugh is recommending, “to prohibit cruel training devices utilized in circuses and rodeos county-wide. These restrictions would prohibit bull hooks or any similar device; chaining of elephants; electric prods or shocking devices; whips, bucking straps or flanks; spurs — sharp or dull; fixed rowels; hot shots; and cattle prods used on animals in rodeos or circuses. In addition, the restrictions would prohibit a person from deliberately tripping, wrestling, tripping or by any other means causing an animal used in the rodeo to fall to the ground in any event.” If McHugh gets his recommendations in the draft ordinance it would ban steer wrestling and roping in rodeos if passed.

This is what we know will be in the ordinance:
Ban steer tailing, require the attendance of a veterinarian at rodeo events, and include a definition of rodeo as “a performance featuring competition between persons that includes one or more of the following events: bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, or team roping;”

THIS WOULD REQUIRE A VETERINARIAN AT ALL TEAM ROPINGS, PRACTICES OF STEER WRESTLING, ETC.

There are also provisions regarding circuses that will be included in the ordinance.

WHO TO CONTACT:
by mail: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Animal Care Commission
Address 70 West Hedding St.
San Jose, CA 95110

by Fax: 408-298-8460 Attention: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors And Animal Advisory Committee

Sent to the Animal Advisory Committee in care of the clerk of the Board, email to: public.comments@cob.sccgov.org

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS EMAIL AND PHONE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Don Gage (408) 299-5010 don.gage@bos.sscgov.org (Chair of Committee)
Blanca Alvarado (408) 299-5020 blanca.alvarado@bos.sccgov.org
Pete McHugh (408) 299-5030 peter.mchugh@bos.sccgov.org (supports a complete ban on circuses and rodeos, term is over in November, will not be running again)
Ken Yeager (408) 299-5040 ken.yeager@bos.sccgov.org
Liz Kniss (408) 299-5050 liz.kniss@bos.sccgov.org

SAMPLE LETTER

Please personalize your letters so they don’t appear to be form letters, but following are some points to consider when writing.

Dear Supervisor ______________________:

I have recently learned that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is considering legislation to regulate the use of animals in rodeos in circuses in Santa Clara County in unincorporated Santa Clara County as well as on County owned property.

We urge you to revisit your definition of rodeo to more closely mirror state law that states a rodeo includes three or more events and considers only commercial events that charge admission. By changing the definition as recommended, this would require a veterinarian on-site for any practice, team roping, small jackpot or other event held on county owned property or private property in unincorporated Santa Clara County. I would anticipate that after a study of the number of large animal veterinarians in the County, you would find this provision nearly impossible to achieve if more than one event is taking place at a particular time and would possibly create a situation where large animals not taking part in rodeo events could have compromised care if veterinarians are required to attend small, non-commercial events.

Rodeos sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) have 60 rules that provide for the proper care and handling of the livestock. The rules require a veterinarian on-site during all competitions and these veterinarians consistently report the livestock is healthy and well-suited to the competition. These veterinarians also assist the PRCA in conducting surveys of the livestock to document the low rate of injury to the animals. This rate of injury through the years has consistently been around five hundredths of one percent. A survey currently being conducted at 2008 PRCA sanctioned events shows that out of 107 rodeo performances and 44 sections of slack, 24 animals were injured, a very low rate of .0005.

We ask that you consider the truth as documented by veterinarians who are experts and consider allowing your constituents to choose their form of entertainment. Please do not let an animal extremist’s agenda of ending all use of animals to dictate policy in your county and take away the rights of cattle ranchers and rodeo enthusiasts to practice and compete in rodeo events on their property as well as County owned property supported by their tax dollars. We ask that you subscribe to animal welfare philosophies as we do – that we have the right to interact with animals in entertainment, industry, sport and recreation but along with that right comes the responsibility to provide proper care.

Please consider fully the issues and reach out to those in your county who are lawfully conducting equestrian and rodeo events on their private property that are already affording proper care and handling for the livestock involved.

Sincerely,

GAO

Climate Change: Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option. GAO-08-1080, September 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1080

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081080high.pdf

Coastal Zone Management: Measuring Program's Effectiveness Continues to Be a Challenge. GAO-08-1045, September 12.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1045

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081045high.pdf

Mobile phones to track carbon footprint Keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment. Carbon Diem's inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller. The system's inventor, Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student of the Royal College of Art in London and chief executive of the Carbon Hero company, said that Carbon Diem is the world's first automated carbon calculator. Because it keeps a constantly updated diary of a person's carbon emissions, Zachariah said that a user can easily track their environmental impact and, if they choose, modify their behaviour to lower-carbon alternatives....

Wildfires force $400M in cuts at Forest Service The cost of fighting summer wildfires in California and the West has forced U.S. Forest Service officials to slash more than $400 million in spending, causing closures of some campgrounds and limiting access to some forests. While the number of fires and acreage involved is down, the amount spent to contain those fires is up. That's because the cost of fighting fires varies depending on where the fires are burning, said Forest Service spokeswoman Donna Drelick. The Forest Service cut $200 million in 2006 and $100 million in 2007 to cover wildfire costs, the agency's budget documents show. Forest Service administrators say the reductions will have a broad impact across the country....

No end in sight for the roadless debate President Bill Clinton sought to end the debate over 58 million acres of roadless national forests with a rule published in the last days of his administration. But because he issued his rule in the face of the outright anger of some Western governors and with little pretext of engaging his opponents, the roadless issue - after nearly eight years - is still no closer to political resolution. On July 14, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne, Wyo., struck down the roadless rule, scolding the former president for trying to stuff his decision down the throats of loggers, miners and other Westerners. It was at least the fifth time courts have ruled on the roadless rule since it was approved, and the second time Brimmer himself has tossed it out. His decision, certain to be appealed, means the next president will have to address an issue that today's hard economic times had more or less resolved. What continues is the values clash over how we manage our least-developed national forests. One possible path to a new consensus has been blazed by the state of Idaho. With Trout Unlimited, the Idaho Conservation League and the Intermountain Forest Industry Association standing in support behind them, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and U.S. Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Mark Rey unveiled a roadless rule only for Idaho on Aug. 29....

Agency dismisses protests of Roan drilling; leases issued The Interior Department on Monday dismissed nearly 15,000 protests submitted by groups and individuals against drilling on the Roan Plateau and the same day issued oil and gas leases on the western Colorado landmark to energy companies. The leases covering nearly 55,000 acres had been auctioned off by the Bureau of Land Management, an arm of the Interior Department, on Aug. 14. But the leases couldn't be issued to the winning companies until the protests had been resolved, the agency said. By dismissing the protests, the BLM also has cleared the way for Colorado to pocket $56 million, or 49 percent of the $113.5 million raised from the lease sale - an onshore record in BLM's history....

Suit targets Roan drilling The federal government issued $114 million in oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau on Monday, and within hours, a legal challenge was filed by environmental groups. The sale was the largest onshore revenue producer ever for the federal Bureau of Land Management. The request for an injunction to bar issuing the leases was filed by Earthjustice and Western Resource Advocates. The two nonprofit environmental law groups are seeking an expedited hearing on their motion. The lawsuit contends the BLM did not follow the National Environmental Policy Act in selling the leases. "We are trying to get BLM to reconsider its drill-everything approach," said Mike Freeman, an Earthjustice attorney....

BLM rebuilds agency The Bureau of Land Management plans to restructure its agency to put more authority in local regions rather than in state offices. The change, approved last year, is expected to transition during the next two years, said John Husband, field manager for the BLM Little Snake Field Office in Craig. It should not affect the general public, he added. For instance, a landowner who wants to talk about grazing on BLM land still would speak with officials in Craig. The only difference, Hus­band said, is that if landowners wanted to appeal the Craig office’s decision, they would take their cases to district office in Grand Junction rather than to Denver, where the state office is located. The federal agency’s decision reverses one made in 1999, when district offices were removed to “flatten the layers and eliminate (bureaucratic) layers,” Husband said. The new structure comes with the risk of adding bureaucratic layers, but it shouldn’t become burdensome or take much authority away from Craig, he added....So Clinton streamlined the agency, and Bush is building back the bureaucracy.

Old growth Sierra junipers felled amid warming debate Moments after he saw the centuries-old junipers on the ground, Glenn Fair felt sick to his stomach. A 60-year-old fishing guide from rural Lassen County, Fair has nothing against thinning forests to protect them from fire and disease. But the barren, dusty swath of stumps and downed junipers logged from public land last year and the adjacent house-high pile of wood chips was not that kind of cut. Not only were trees mowed down across nearly 300 acres, they were leveled under a banner of ecological restoration, energy independence and climate-friendly power. It was portrayed as a win-win by the federal government, which was paying for the removal to undo the legacy of poor land management. But to Fair, burning old-growth junipers in a wood-fired power plant to battle global warming just doesn't make sense....

Thought-provoking film documentary to be shown in Helena Filmmaker Todd Darling pokes holes in the idea that environmental deregulation is good for the average person in a new environmental documentary called "A Snowmobile for George." Darling, 56, is a Los Angeles filmmaker who also has worked in television, including as the director of the popular MTV reality TV series, "Laguna Beach." "The film is the personal stories of people," Darling said. "It's not some college professor telling you to eat your vegetables." Darling said he began the film in 2004, and finished it last year. He logged more than 8,000 miles driving across the country for the project. A "range war" between ranchers and oil-companies in Wyoming is one of the stories highlighted. The battle, according to the film, began "when political appointees in the Interior Department suppressed clean water rules for natural gas drilling."....

Ethanol, Pitting Ranchers against Farmers? In a country where Corn is King, you would assume that rural ranchers and farmers in our countries corn belt would vote for a president who is Pro Ethanol. After all, most ethanol is made from corn and the U.S. Government is paying farmers to grow it. But a growing number of cattle and pig ranchers are seeing the increased price of corn, drive them out of business. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, opposes the Renewable Fuel Standard and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, supports it. Two farmers from Ohio, offered their perspective on how the presidential candidates’ stances will influence their votes in the Nov. 4 election. Tim Blair, who has spent 33 years raising hogs, will be voting for Sen. McCain. Tim predicts he’ll be out of business by year’s end, and said “I’ve basically spent my life savings the past 14 months hoping it would get better.” Speaking of the growing feed prices that are making his hog operation unprofitable, he continued by adding, “I’m losing money because of the government’s policy.” Tom Becker, a 600 acre corn farmer, sees things a different way, and will of course be voting for Sen. Obama. “Ethanol is one of the big things that down the road is going to help farmers more than (Sen. John) McCain’s ideas,” he said....

Stokes resigns as CEO of NCBA Terry Stokes, chief executive officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), announced today he will resign from his position following the 2009 Cattle Industry Convention, January 31, 2009. Stokes said representing cattlemen and championing their cause has been the greatest honor and the most fulfilling job of his career, but he explained it also is all-consuming. He said he is looking forward to spending time with his family and exploring new opportunities. Stokes joined NCBA 12 years ago, in 1996, as chief financial officer. He was appointed CEO in 2002. During his tenure as CEO, NCBA grew revenues 41 percent. Membership grew more than 17 percent in the past three years....

Spam, Still the Mystery Meat, Escapes New U.S. Food-Label Rules U.S. rules requiring meat and fresh produce to be labeled by national origin are falling short of lawmakers' aims, leaving shoppers in the dark about where mixed vegetables, steaks and Spam come from, some lawmakers say. Six years after being adopted by Congress, country-of-origin labeling takes effect today. Concern about unsafe imports from China and Canada helped overcome food industry efforts to delay the measures. They will cost companies $2.5 billion in the first year, with retailers spending more to market beef, pork and lamb, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Industry groups say expenses will be even higher. Some lawmakers and consumer advocates say loopholes will let meatpackers blur the distinction between foreign and domestic meat. Mixed vegetables are exempt from the requirements, as are processed foods ranging from roasted peanuts to Spam, the canned luncheon meat made by Hormel Foods Corp. More regulations may be needed, the lawmakers say. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, is a longtime goal of U.S. farmers and ranchers convinced that identifying imported food may encourage manufacturers to use more U.S. product....

New Mexico's Peppers Pride Seeks Record 17th Win oe Allen’s Peppers Pride has entered a six-furlong allowance race at Zia Park on Saturday afternoon in her attempt to set the record for consecutive wins. The Joel Marr-trained Peppers Pride has won each of her 16 career wins and shares the record for consecutive wins with Triple Crown winner Citation, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, Santa Anita Derby winner Mister Frisky and the Louisiana-bred sprinter Hallowed Dreams. “She’s doing well,” said Marr. “She hasn’t raced since April, but has had two works.” The daughter of Desert God won the Foutz Distaff Handicap at SunRay Park on April 26. She has remained in training since that win in Marr’s stable. Peppers Pride was scheduled to make her record attempt on two occasions this summer at Ruidoso Downs. She was slated to run in the Lincoln Handicap on July 27 but that racing card was cancelled after the remnants of Hurricane Dolly damaged Ruidoso Downs. The Lincoln Handicap was rescheduled for August 31, Peppers Pride was entered and then Marr elected to scratch her due to an off track. She has only raced on fast racing surfaces....

Man attacked by mountain lion at Taos Ski Valley A Taos man is recovering after a mountain lion attack Friday at Taos Ski Valley. The Taos News reports that Adam Wheat, 29, was hiking in the area when the attack occurred. He drove himself to his business in town and then asked his employee, Tony Knief, to take him to a hospital. "I guess he was hiking and he heard this hissing and he turned around and it scratched his chest pretty bad," Knief told the newspaper. "He drove to Jack Wrap It and came in asked me to take him to the hospital. I thought he was joking at first but then I saw he had these scratches in him." Knief added that Wheat also hit his head in the encounter.

Judge may 'sanction' government in Stevens case Sen. Ted Stevens's lawyers have a chance to weaken the case against him as a federal judge will consider sanctioning sanctioning government prosecutors over their handling of a key witness. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia said Monday he was "disturbed" that the government allowed Rocky Williams to return to Alaska without the court's permission and without consulting defense attorneys, who also subpoenaed the witness to testify in the case. Sullivan said arranging Williams's travel back to Alaska raised the appearance of impropriety. "I’m going to sanction if appropriate — I’m just not going to drop that issue," Sullivan said, without specifying the sanctions he had in mind. The case hinges on whether Stevens (R-Alaska) concealed gifts and home renovations from Veco Corp., a now-defunct oil-services company. Williams, a former Veco employee, oversaw the extensive home renovations at the senator's Alaska home. Williams, who left Washington to deal with an unspecified health issue, later told defense attorneys that he did not spend as much time at Stevens's home as has been alleged in court. "I’m concerned that a subpoenaed witness ... was advised to leave the District of Columbia, and assisted in leaving the District of Columbia by the government for reasons not fully explored by defense counsel and the court," Sullivan said....

Delisting endangers wolves It began near here in this high-altitude chaparral. No sooner were gray wolves delisted in March than sportsmen in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming began locking and loading. Wyoming officials declared 90% of the state a "free-fire zone." Hunters from around the state flocked to rural Sublette County to bag a wolf. Rancher Merrill Dana, 57, saw the results right away. Hunters aboard snowmobiles chased wolves across the early spring snow on his sprawling ranch. "The first morning it was opened up, they killed three up here," he said. "Trespassers. We didn't even know they were up here until we heard the snow machines." Dana said he has been offered as much as $2,500 for permission to hunt wolves on his land. He refused. As with many ranchers here, there is no love lost between Dana and wolves. He was mad the interlopers hadn't asked permission to hunt. "I wanted people I know to get them," said Dana, who was among a hunting party that eventually killed a 110-pound male. Through the early summer, an average of a wolf a day was being killed across the region. In all, at least 130 animals died since the delisting, or nearly 10% of the wolf population in the northern Rockies. Then, on July 21, a federal judge stopped the hunt. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service capitulated and began the process to relist wolves....

Group wants wolves in Colo. An environmental group wants to see wolves back in Colorado. WildEarth Guardians of Sante Fe, N.M., has filed papers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calling for wolf reintroduction in four Colorado areas. After being exterminated throughout the West decades ago, wolves have been reintroduced to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. WildEarth Guardians believes Colorado should come next. The group argues that wolves would help thin overpopulated elk herds, which would then lead to more young aspen trees. "We believe that the Southern Rockies needs wolves, and wolves definitely need the Southern Rockies," said Rob Edward, carnivore recovery director for WildEarth Guardians, which also has offices in Denver and Phoenix. Edward told the Aspen Daily News that while solitary wolves from the north and from New Mexico wander into Colorado, no sustainable wolf population is believed to have re-established itself within the state. The group's proposal identifies four Colorado areas for wolf reintroduction -- the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs, the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison national forests near Pitkin County's western border, the San Juan Mountains and Weminuche Wilderness in southwestern Colorado, and southern Colorado's Vermejo Park Ranch and Carson National Forest....

Colorado Environmental Film Festival Aims To Educate If you're passionate about the environment and love watching films, check out the third Annual Colorado Environmental Film Festival, running from Oct. 2 to Oct. 5 at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden. 7NEWS Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson will kick off the festival at 6 p.m. on Thursday, followed by four films: "The Story of Stuff", a look at the underside of America's production and consumption; "Opposing Chums", follows the world series of birding; and two short films, "Once Upon A Tide" and "Recycle." The festival will also include a mix of films showing audiences where oil comes from and explaining where old televisions, computers or cell phones end up. Two noteworthy films showing in the festival focus on the impact of oil and gas drilling on Colorado's landscape and the livelihoods of landowners. In all, 22 films will be shown during the four-day event....

Camp Sherman Residents Vent Fire Frustrations With smoke still looming over the treetops in Camp Sherman, the Forest Service found themselves in the hot seat Sunday morning at a public meeting at the Camp Sherman Community Hall. "Were the winds on Thursday forecasted?" "Was someone there watching?" "When you're done with a controlled burn, do they truly work all that well?" The questions are born from frustration. The Wizard Fire, burning five hundred acres just three miles north of Camp Sherman was started by the Forest Service as a controlled burn before getting away and burning up Green Ridge. On Sunday morning more than three hundred people were fighting the fire, the cost already topping $600,000. All for a fire, the Forest Service started to reduce the risk of future fires. "It seems to me there's just a strategic flaw in this whole thing." "I don't care how thick your manual is there on all of these things, the first chapter should be common sense." The meeting came to an emotional peak when one resident stood up and made a demand of Sister's Forest Ranger Bill Anthony. "Is the forest service planning offering a public apology for this mistake. I'm hearing a lot of justification and a lot of explanation but I'm not hearing an apology."....

Congress Approves $910 million in Emergency Fire Funding The Supplemental Appropriations Bill approved today by the Senate includes $910 million in emergency federal fire funding sought by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The bill, approved earlier in the week by the House of Representatives, now goes to the White House to await the President's signature. Senator Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, has pushed throughout the year for more funding to meet the threat of an unusually active, deadly fire season that has threatened to deplete America's federal firefighting assets. So far this year, wildfires in California burned more than 1.2 million acres and led to 13 firefighter deaths....

Wildlife refuge will shrink The national wildlife refuge at Pathfinder Reservoir is going to shrink by more than 10,000 acres, according to a federal plan that was approved Sept. 18 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Despite objections from the Audubon Society and others, Fish and Wildlife Service planners said a land transfer is needed so popular recreational uses can continue at most of the reservoir and to consolidate the federal migratory bird refuge into one contiguous area of land. The 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act required each of the country's national wildlife refuges to publish a 15-year "comprehensive conservation plan" by 2012 that outlines management objectives and assesses whether certain recreational uses are compatible with the refuge system's mission to manage for migratory birds. The agency began working on a plan for Pathfinder in 2006 and published its final draft this year. This month the agency found "no significant impact" in the environmental assessment of the plan, which is expected to publish as a final version by the end of the year. The plan calls for about 65 percent of the refuge's lands to transfer to the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, reducing the size of the refuge from 16,806 acres to 5,990 acres....

Marines Still Looking Into Possible Land Acquisition Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) located in Twentynine Palms, CA recently submitted a withdrawal application to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to essentially put a hold on 422,000 acres while it studies those areas for possible acquisition into the base. Uses that are currently allowed in the area will continue, but no new uses or projects will be permitted. A large portion of the Johnson Valley OHV area is located in that study area. Besides taking public comment, the purpose of these meetings is to help people understand both the proposed action and the decision making process. Johnson Valley OHV area is approximately 189,000 acres and is located in the high desert of California, just east of Los Angeles. The area is a Mecca for off-road recreation and is home to many events including off-road racing and competitive rock crawling....

Civil case over Idaho grazing can advance In 2006, a Washington state businessman and environmentalist was the high bidder on six Idaho grazing leases. Now the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says Gordon Younger can proceed with his federal civil rights lawsuit against Idaho officials, who awarded the leases instead to ranchers who offered less money in a competitive auction. Younger is a Seattle packaging business owner and head of Lazy Y Ranch Ltd.. He's a contributor to the Western Watersheds Project, a group seeking to end grazing on public land in the Rocky Mountains on grounds it damages the environment. Western Watersheds Project has long challenged the Land Board in court to secure competitive state grazing leases. With the federal appeals court decision, the case now moves toward a trial.

Taking a Human Approach to Conservation For 11 college students living and studying in the Swan Valley for eight weeks, conservation is more than just science and fieldwork. It involves a lot of socializing: chatting with the locals and immersing themselves in the community. It’s called cooperative conservation. The students are part of a field-semester program called Landscape and Livelihood, which is administered by Northwest Connections and accredited through the University of Montana. They earn 15 credits and the program runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 29. The goal is to instill in the students a deep-rooted knowledge of the area’s geographical and cultural history by exposing them to a diverse cross section of people and opinions within a rural community. This helps them to better understand the problems facing interdependent ecosystems, and the dynamic relationships created by mix-use lands, including corporate timber, public multiple-use, wilderness and private residential. It’s a complex issue to take on: incorporating cooperative conservation, sustainability and policy, while maintaining a dialogue with the rural community and involving the local people as part of the solution. Throughout the semester, students work alongside biologists, loggers, ranchers, outfitters and homeowners, taking a hands-on approach to examine how rural communities tie back in to their own lives. These are wildlife biologists and natural resource managers in the making....

Lion Sightings Call for Concern With mountain lion sightings on the rise, the U.S. Forest Service is warning hikers to beware. The Forest Service recently released an advisory warning for Santa Barbara County cautioning hikers of an increase in mountain lion sightings. According to a statement released by the Forest Service, reports of mountain lion sightings involved hikers on the San Ysidro and Romero Trails, located in the nearby Los Padres National Forest. In one case, a mountain lion followed a hiker until scared off by a hurled object. Despite their elusive nature, the Forest Service suggests hikers in mountain lion country follow a few safety guidelines. These include avoiding hiking, biking or jogging alone, especially at dawn, dusk or night, when mountain lions are most active. If a mountain lion encounter should occur, face the animal, make noises and try to appear bigger by waving your arms and throwing rocks or other objects. And if attacked, the advisory states, fight back....

U.S. House action puts Mineral County in $407,000 hole The ink was barely dry on Mineral County's 2009 budget before action by the U.S. House of Representatives left the county with a $407,000 shortfall. The federal payment into the county road fund has been over $400,000 each year since 2000, as part of the U.S. Forest Service payments to forest counties under the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act. According to the budget documents provided by the Clerk and Recorder's Office, the county budgeted $407,000 for its road fund from the Forest Reserve Payment. Last year, it was the U.S. Senate that blocked reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools by just one vote. This past week, the Senate approved a multi-year reauthorization by a vote of 93-2, but the House yanked all funding from the bill the next day. Secure Rural Schools appears dead until the next Congress convenes in January 2009....

Lasater ranch has history Standard-Times: How did your family get into ranching? Laurie Lasater: My grandfather, Edward C. Lasater, founded the South Texas town of Falfurrias when establishing his ranch there in 1890. His ranch grew to 350,000 acres, but the family was forced to sell most of the land following his death in 1930 due to the Depression and mounting debt against the property. Among the assets salvaged were the remnants of my grandfather's upgraded Brahman herd and the remains of his 20,000 purebred Hereford cows. Dad withdrew from Princeton in the middle of his sophomore year in 1931 to come home and help hold things together. His mother and uncle sold him the cattle on credit, and by 1940 he had paid for them. The Beefmaster breed is the result of Tom Lasater experimenting with various combinations of three breeds - Hereford, Shorthorn, Brahman. He quickly discovered that the three-way cross was superior to any other combination and converted his entire herd to that cross. Beefmasters were recognized as a breed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1954. On the other side of the family, my maternal great-grandmother, Sallie Reynolds Matthews, was a member of the pioneer ranch legacy families of J. A. Matthews and George Reynolds, who settled Shackelford and Throckmorton counties. My great-uncle was Watt Matthews, managing partner of the Lambshead Ranch near Albany....

It's All Trew: Bertillion Method early way to track criminals I take great pleasure in learning a new word, a little-known fact or hearing a story I have not heard before. In the book "Texas Gulag" by Gary Brown, the history of Texas prisons, jails and even the early-day chain gangs is presented from the years 1875 to 1925. The book outlined in detail how criminals were identified as they processed through the old systems. No doubt early Texas prisons, as well as prisons all over the world down through time, were brutal and dangerous. The thinking at the time was, if you are convicted of a crime, you have no rights. Treatment of prisoners will always be argued depending on whether you are a prisoner or a victim of a crime. The old saying of "an eye for an eye" seemed to rule much of the thinking. Interestingly, long before fingerprinting, pupil photographing and DNA, prisons used the Bertillion Method to identify prisoners. Research shows in 1883 in Europe, a police clerical officer was recognized for developing the first scientific method of criminal identification used by police....

Green horses and a red wagon
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

Lots of things in a cowboy's life are not fair. Two items on the top of the inequitable list are having to feed in the mud when green grass should be filling that bill and fixing a water gap into a droughty pasture when the guy up the hill got all the rain.

In ranch country, feeding cattle is a standard operation that is driven by opposing weather conditions - the lack of rain or the abundance of snow.

Most outfits have the necessary equipment for feeding cattle in all kinds of weather.

The hands that operate it, and the cattle that depend on it, fall into a routine that continues throughout the season.

One year, this particular ranch had an unusually long rainy spell. Ranchers are known for their mantra of "never turn down a rain or a calf," but fighting the mud sometimes challenges their resolve on the "how much" rain issue.

About this time, two new hands had just hired on, green as the grass that had not yet grown and full of enthusiasm and energy.

The deep mud had rendered the feed truck useless, but these two go-getters had seen pictures of ranchers feeding cattle with a wagon in some northern state.

Fortuitously, the ranch had a rubber-tired wagon, painted bright red, which was generally used for hay rides for the boss' kids. Perfect.

All they needed was a team of horses to pull it.

Their gaze turned to the large horse herd that supplied the saddle horses for the cattle operation. It seemed to them that would be a good place to find some wagon horses.

Smart enough to know the saddle horses wouldn't know anything about being hitched to a wagon, they decided a couple green colts would be "trainable" and wouldn't know any different.

So they gathered up the 3-year-old colts, most of which had never been handled in any way.

They tied a back foot up on each colt and maneuvered them up to the wagon, where harnesses and collars were put in place while the colts stood trembling.

A quick inspection of the wagon revealed a small problem. No brakes. The brighter of the two cowboys decided that a colt tied to the back of the wagon would work just fine for a brake.

When the driver (the honor given to the other cowboy) needed to stop, he could just wave his hat in the face of the colt at the back, making him set up and stop the wagon. Seemed like a fine idea, falling just short of brilliance.

The colts were wild-eyed and not happy about the wagon attached at their backsides.

The lad on the ground untied their hind feet and when the driver slapped the reins on their backs, the colts stood momentarily frozen. Then, with a bolt, they left out like scalded hounds.

The driver didn't need a whole lot of time to decide that the use of a brake might be in order.

He stood up on the wagon seat and waved his hat in the face of the colt tied to the back.

As planned, the colt sat back hard. Not as planned, when the hard jerk hit the rope tied to the wagon, it pulled the entire back end out of the wagon and never even offered a moment of slowing to the run-off team.

The driver, still attached to the fast-exiting horses, unwisely held tight to the reins while most of the hide on his face, and all the way south to his boots, was skidded off in the drag.

Finally, the colts managed to lose their dragger and eventually, they ran out of steam. It still took most of the afternoon to get them caught and retrieve the harnesses.

The green hands, not so green anymore, decided that God had created this mud and He would dry it out.

Wisdom is often born of pain or, in this case, rain. At least one cowboy is now a little wiser.

Politicalspeak 101

by Gary Reed

Since politics has become a year-round hunt with no definable season, this article is offered as a public service for those who want to become political sharpshooters but aren't completely familiar with the vocabulary of this most ancient and ruthlessly brutal of human blood sports.

Politics – The art of manipulating people. This definition can be infinitely refined and redefined but those five words are its essence.

Democracy – A system of thuggary in which the majority enforces its will on everyone else, as opposed to the original United States, which was a constitutional republic featuring a minimal government empowered to protect the rights of individuals from the thuggary of the majority.

Fair Share – A term imposed by the recipient of anything on the supplier of anything to guarantee the highest possible share for the recipient. The term is always defined by the recipient. Politicians define the state's "fair share" of taxpayer's incomes. Socialists define a society's "fair share" of its most productive citizen's efforts. Unions define their employee's "fair share" of corporate profits (and then define their own "fair share" of their member's dues). Welfare beneficiaries define their "fair share" of government largess. The fairness of the share is inevitably enforced by some form of coercion.

Fair Trade – A treaty between two countries in which the more powerful country uses its political clout to enforce its own definition of "fair" on the other country.

Fair Tax – A system of taxation that abolishes the IRS, dramatically simplifies the tax-paying process and is equitable for all economic classes while guaranteeing that nothing of substance will change because citizens will still be forced to cough up nearly half their incomes to corrupt politicians who will continue to spend trillions more in revenue than what they collect.

Level Playing Field – A euphemism concocted by incompetent business boobs demanding special interest legislation designed to drag their skilled competitors down to their own level of ineptitude so they won't have to actually compete with them.

Unfair Trade Practices – A term used by incompetent business boobs to define the sagacious business acumen of their competitors. A typical cure for politically manufactured "Unfair Trade Practices" is called "Antitrust Suit."

Change – An utterly shallow word masquerading as a set of meaningful ideas which, when repeated mindlessly, acts to "energize a whole new generation of voters" because those new voters have just emerged from government-run holding cells known as "high schools" where their brains were successfully stripped of the very concept of meaningful ideas.

Move forward – A meaningless phrase used whenever a candidate gets caught hand-in-cookie-jar. Example: Reporter says, "You passed a syrup subsidy bill after receiving donations from the syrup lobby." Candidate says, "We need to forget the past and move forward." In today's Pabulum Press reportage, candidates usually get away with this.

Libertarian – A concept entailing personal freedom and individual responsibility that scares the living bejesus out of politicians from presidents to dogcatchers because they know that if the idea of actual, genuine, no-lip-service freedom ever catches on they'll all lose their cushy con jobs.

Politicogenic – In the same sense that "anthropogenic" means "human-caused" and is routinely found as an adjective preceding such phrases as "global warming," "climate change," "pollutants," "methane emissions" and "greenhouse gasses," the term "politicogenic" means "politician-caused" and should rightfully be frontloaded onto words and phrases like "inflation," "war," "loss of freedom," "energy crisis," "starvation," "genocide" and so on and on and on.

Envirogenic – A term meaning "Death by Environmentalism," i.e., an international ban on DDT that has allowed 50 million people to die from malaria since 1972, branding bio-engineered crops that resist harsh climates, insects, diseases and don't need chemical pesticides as "Frankenfood" while millions starve worldwide, demanding high-mileage cars which require smaller and lighter construction which increases highway fatalities, and et cetera.

Photogenic – Looking good during a ten second sound bite. What did you think it meant?

Los Payasos - Government At Work

FEMA ice left to melt in Texas and Louisiana; truckers told to keep quiet The San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday, Sept. 24, that hundreds of trucks were pulling in at Randolph Auxiliary Air Field near San Antonio. The trucks were loaded with pallets of ice, and the ice was being off-loaded to melt in the sun. A FEMA spokesman said the excess ice proves the agency was well prepared. But when a reporter started talking to truckers, the Express-News quoted a man in a FEMA shirt as saying, “This conversation is over.” He then reportedly threatened to fire the truckers if they talked to the media. One trucker, who was contacted later by the newspaper, estimated that $1.5 million dollars worth of ice was being dumped on the ground at the Texas air field. And in Carville, LA, trucks full of ice had been sitting parked for more than a week. WVLA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge, reported that nearly 3 million pounds of ice were thrown out at a FEMA staging area.

Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind. Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror. MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers. It has a series of sensors and imagers that read your body temperature, heart rate and respiration for unconscious tells invisible to the naked eye — signals terrorists and criminals may display in advance of an attack....

Justice Dept. to delay new terror-probe rules The Justice Department, in a nod to concerns that Americans could be investigated in terrorism cases without evidence of wrongdoing, said Tuesday it will tweak still-tentative rules governing FBI national security cases before they are issued. The changes represent a small but first victory for skeptical lawmakers and civil liberties groups that want the Justice Department to delay the rules until a new president is elected. Not all of the planned changes were outlined during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, but Assistant Attorney General Elisebeth Cook said they would include limits on the length and kinds of investigative activities used in monitoring demonstrations and civil disorders. "We do anticipate making changes in response to the comments we have received," Cook said. Justice Department and FBI lawyers have been briefing lawmakers and interest groups on the rules for the last six weeks. The short hearing came as three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded "bare-minimum" civil rights protections for U.S. citizens and residents as the Federal Bureau of Investigation expands its power to seek out potential terrorists....With the Republicans supporting the rule and Democrats only wanting to protect our rights to the "bare-minimum", liberty is bound to suffer another loss.

Encrypting Against Department of Homeland Security's New Laptop Search Policy Computer security has never been more necessary. In the past, the threat of a security breach has come in the form of thieves: stolen laptops and PDAs, identity theft, and the like. These days the threat comes from a new ruling by a U.S. court. The Department of Homeland Security will now be allowed to confiscate laptops coming into the U.S. for an indefinite amount of time. Customs and Border Patrol will be able to search laptops or any other electronic device, download entire contents and keep the device for several days. "This policy can create headaches -- or worse -- for unsuspecting travelers who don't plan ahead," says Jamie Brenzel, CEO of online data storage and backup service Data Deposit Box ( www.datadepositbox.com ). Imagine your vital business accounting data being out of reach for days. Worse yet, what if your private financial information was exposed to the wrong people? What if a potential business partnership was leaked before the deal was made? Any of these scenarios is cause for concern. So what can be done? Some experts suggest simply leaving electronics, such as laptops and PDAs, at home. While this strategy is easy enough for someone heading off on vacation, business travelers need more practical options to protect sensitive information. According to Brenzel, encryption is key to data protection...Looks like this will be a boon to the online backup providers. Folks will just transfer their files to the online server, then download the data after they've crossed the border.

City considers options after NRA gun ban lawsuit The Evanston City Council is still discussing what to do next after being "forced kicking and screaming" to amend its handgun ban last month. The change was made following a June 26 Supreme Court ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller, declaring a similar ban in Washington, D.C. to be in violation of the Second Amendment. The day after the landmark decision, the National Rifle Association brought a lawsuit against Evanston alleging its ban was unconstitutional. The City Council chose to change its ban instead of fighting the potentially expensive suit, said city corporation counsel Jack Siegel, who wrote the amendment. Now, Evanston residents can have handguns in their home for the purpose of self-protection, Siegel said. Other uses and other types of guns are still prohibited....

Opponents of Tough Federal Sentencing Rules Take Up Heller for Help The federal judge that sentenced Weldon Angelos to 55 years and one day in prison in 2004 said his hands were tied by mandatory-minimum gun laws, calling his own sentence "unjust, cruel, and even irrational." Now a law professor and a group of Am Law 200 lawyers are challenging the sentence on unique grounds: that Heller v. District of Columbia, the case celebrated as a definitive victory for gun rights, protects Angelos and others like him convicted of gun crimes. Douglas Berman, a law professor at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, devised the strategy with help from attorneys at Steptoe & Johnson and Snell & Wilmer. Angelos is hoping to have his sentence overturned by the U.S District Court in Salt Lake City after a federal appeals court upheld it in 2006 and the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert. Berman knows Heller's core supporters--the National Rifle Association, for example--don't typically overlap with individuals who are tough on criminal sentences. But he believes Heller should make it harder to tack dozens of years on to a prison sentence simply because someone happens to own a gun....

Revenge of the Bitter Gun Owners Last spring, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to arms, Democrats hoped the decision would neutralize the gun issue. Instead the ruling, by inviting debate over which kinds of gun control are constitutional, has made the issue more salient. That's bad news for Barack Obama, who the National Rifle Association says "would be the most anti-gun president in American history." The Democratic nominee pays lip service to Second Amendment rights while calling for "commonsense," "reasonable" restrictions. But Obama's sense of what's reasonable, while common among the left-liberal politicians and activists inside his comfort zone, may seem decidedly unreasonable to the pro-gun voters the NRA is trying to mobilize against him. Since these voters made a decisive difference in the 2000 presidential election and arguably in 2004 as well, this is a threat Obama ignores at his peril. The NRA plans to spend $15 million urging voters in battleground states of the Midwest and Mountain West to "Defend Freedom" and "Defeat Obama." Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is running radio spots in swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia that promise "Barack Obama and John McCain will both make sure we keep our guns."....

Under anonymity, gun licenses soar in Florida The number of Floridians with permission to pack heat has jumped nearly 50 percent in three years. In 2005, one year before the state Legislature's decision to provide anonymity to people holding concealed weapons licenses, there were 347,350 active permits statewide. Now, that number has swelled to about 520,000. Some states ask applicants why they want a concealed weapons license. Florida isn't one of them. That makes it almost impossible to say who is getting licensed and why. But recent changes to the state's gun laws by the Republican-led Legislature suggest Florida is an attractive place to own a gun and privately tuck it away....

Mexico drug crackdown breeds more violence from the cartels It was Mexican Independence Day and the square in this colonial city was packed with revelers. Suddenly, something flew over the head of Angelica Bucio, struck a man in front of her and rolled to a stop on the ground. A second later, the grenade exploded, slamming Bucio against a fountain. Her arms and legs burned with white-hot shrapnel. Smoke and screaming and blood were everywhere. For residents of this city, last week's attack that killed seven people and injured 108 was yet another sign that President Felipe Calderón's nationwide war on drugs, which began in Morelia nearly two years ago, is going poorly. Instead of subsiding, drug-related murders are rising and becoming more gruesome. Once-quiet border towns have become battlegrounds. Police-on-police clashes have left citizens wondering who the good guys are. And the Morelia grenade attack, which the Mexican Attorney General's Office blamed on drug traffickers, has raised fears that smugglers are moving into outright terrorism. The turmoil is in stark contrast to the U.S. side of the border, where Calderón's crackdown looks like a success. The White House has credited Mexico's efforts for a drop in the drug supply. Since 2006, the U.S. has seen an 84 percent jump in methamphetamine prices and a 21 percent increase in cocaine prices. Meth use has dropped 50 percent and cocaine use has decreased 19 percent, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy....