Ruling on management of roadless wilderness areas will cause more destructive forest fires

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The usual enviromental groups sued in the Ninth District Court and, in 2006, Magistrate Laporte concluded that the State Petitions procedure violated NEPA because it was not accompanied by an EIS. In the strangest twist of legal logic, she then reinstated the illegal Roadless Rule, and ordered that the USFS comply with its terms. She made that ruling despite Judge Brimmer's earlier decision, despite the fact that Judge Brimmer reached his conclusions after a comprehensive review of the Administrative Record, and despite the fact that she had no idea as to whether the Roadless Rule complied with NEPA or not. Her decision was odd to say the least, which is confirmed by the fact that the State Petitions procedure was not an environmental action per se but a remedy to fix the original defective and illegal Roadless Rule EIS. Requiring an EIS to fix an EIS sets up an infinite loop of EIS's. Wyoming again filed suit in an attempt to fix the mess created by Magistrate Laporte's decision. In August 2008, Judge Brimmer issued yet another permanent national injunction against the Roadless Rule...In short, Judge Brimmer found that the USFS was more concerned about the political legacy of President Clinton than it was in complying with NEPA and the Wilderness Act...Judge Brimmer is the only federal judges that has reviewed the Administrative Record related to the Roadless Rule. Magistrate Laporte has never reviewed the Roadless Rule Administrative Record because it was never before her. Her analysis was supposed to be limited to whether the State Petition procedure passed legal muster. While she may have had the authority to look at that issue, she surely never had the authority to evaluate the legality or enforceability of the Roadless Rule....

Skepticism on climate change

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THE MAIL brings an invitation to register for the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change, which convenes on March 8 in New York City. Sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank, the conference will host an international lineup of climate scientists and researchers who will focus on four broad areas: climatology, paleoclimatology, the impact of climate change, and climate-change politics and economics. But if last year's gathering is any indication, the conference is likely to cover the climate-change waterfront. There were dozens of presentations in 2008, including: "Strengths and Weaknesses of Climate Models," "Ecological and Demographic Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears," and "The Overstated Role of Carbon Dioxide on Climate Change." Just another forum, then, sounding the usual alarums on the looming threat from global warming? Actually, no. The scientists and scholars Heartland is assembling are not members of the gloom-and-doom chorus. They dispute the frantic claims that global warming is an onrushing catastrophe; many are skeptical of the notion that human activity has a significant effect on the planet's climate, or that such an effect can be reliably measured or predicted. Some point out that global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have been falling since then. Indeed, several argue that a period of global cooling is on the way. Nearly all would argue that climate is always changing, and that no one really knows whether current computer models can reliably account for the myriad of factors that cause that natural variability....

Ban lifted on loaded guns in national parks

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The Bush administration has officially lifted a 25-year ban on licensed possession of loaded concealed weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges – and the new rule is set to be published in the Federal Register Wednesday. The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a Dec. 5 statement announcing it has updated its regulations to allow individuals with concealed weapons permits to carry their loaded guns into parks if allowed to do so under their state law. "America was founded on the idea that the federal and state governments work together to serve the public and preserve our natural resources," said Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty. "The Department’s final regulation respects this tradition by allowing individuals to carry concealed firearms in federal park units and refuges to the extent that they could lawfully do so under state law. The restrictive regulations were adopted in 1981 for national wildlife refuges and in 1983 for national parks. It required permit holders to keep their guns unloaded and stowed. However, since the regulation was adopted, 48 states have passed laws allowing legal possession of concealed weapons. The National Rifle Association and almost half of the U.S. Senate sent a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne calling the old rules "confusing, burdensome and unnecessary" and asking for a policy revision....

Feds laud conservation deal with private entities

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The federal government signed agreements Monday with an oil and gas company and a rancher to help protect two rare New Mexico species, deals that federal officials hope will pave the way for cooperative conservation efforts across the country. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management reached agreements with Lea County rancher Chris Brininstool and Marbob Energy Corp. of Artesia. The deals are aimed at helping the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard, both candidates for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. Brininstool and Marbob agreed to take actions to protect the species and their habitat, including modifying fences to reduce collision by prairie chickens and relocating well sites to limit habitat disturbance. In return, Brininstool and Marbob have assurances they will be able to continue using the land even if the species should be placed under ESA protection. Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett called the agreements "nationally significant," saying that until now federal wildlife managers had no legal framework to partner on conservation efforts with ranchers who have federal grazing permits or energy development companies that lease public land.

Rare white bison at Calgary zoo

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The Calgary zoo held a special ceremony to welcome a new, rare resident on Monday morning. Blizzard, the white bison, is on loan to the Calgary zoo from the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg for the next five months. The 3-year-old male bison is leucistic and not an albino, meaning that he has a defect in pigment cell differentiation that results in his white hair color. White bison's have a special significance for First Nations Plains People and elders from several Treaty 7 Nations were on hand to welcome Blizzard. "It's a rarity and it's very powerful and very spiritual to us just like the eagle," said Kelly Good Eagle from the Indian Events Committee. Blizzard was born in March of 2006 on the farm of an anonymous rancher who gave him to the Assiniboine Park Zoo as a calf in recognition of his spiritual significance.

Navajo cowboys traveling to Las Vegas to make their mark at National Finals Rodeo

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The Navajo Nation has two young cowboys riding into history. Spud Jones and Derrick Begay have reached the pinnacle of professional rodeo, competing for the next week in the 50th Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nev. Navajo Parks and Recreation Department Manager Ray Russell beams with pride at the prospect of seeing two Navajo cowboys competing in the “Big Show.” In addition to the Navajo competitors, Russell is also happy with the nomination of Dave James as Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Committeeman of the Year. “We have two of our own in the national finals. The intent was to get some of our Navajo rodeo athletes to that level and now we’re beginning to see that,” he said. Beyond the two Navajo cowboys making their mark in Vegas this week, the PRCA has always recognized the Navajo fans as the best in the business....

Obama's lists for Interior, Energy are starting to narrow

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President-elect Barack Obama's choice for Interior secretary might come down to two Western House Democrats: a three-term Hispanic lawmaker and a five-term Blue Dog backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva appears to be the leading contender, but California Rep. Mike Thompson has Pelosi in his corner. While Pelosi might have pushed for her fellow Californian before speculation accelerated about Grijalva, Thompson has also been endorsed by two of Pelosi's closest allies -- Reps. Anna Eshoo and George Miller, both of California. Thompson has the backing of hunting and fishing groups, while Grijalva is favored by environmental groups. Former two-term Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber -- another finalist to head Interior -- told the Associated Press this week he would bet on Grijalva. Several other sources following the Obama transition team's deliberations also cite Grijalva -- who chairs the House Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee -- as the likely favorite. But the importance that the Interior Department holds for Western governors, as well as his executive experience, makes Kitzhaber a sleeper pick. A fourth finalist -- Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. -- has also been mentioned in a long list of potential nominees to be Energy secretary. Grijalva was widely praised by environmentalists in October when he issued a 23-page indictment of Bush administration policies on national parks, forests and public lands. This showed "the breadth and depth of his passion about conservation and public lands" and also shows off his experience as head of the subcommittee, according to a Dec. 1 letter to Obama from 56 conservation scientists. Obama's nomination of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be Commerce secretary has not diluted the call from Hispanic leaders for more representation in the Cabinet....

Next on Obama's Dance Card, Mother Nature

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There's been a very crowded field in the running for interior secretary. Inslee seems to have faded in the stretch, while former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber and Richard Moe, former vice presidential chief of staff to Walter Mondale and now president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, appear to still be contenders. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), had been edging up a bit, but his rise may now have stalled. There's talk that Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) may be making a move and could land the job. It's not lost on transition officials that Thompson is an avid hunter and angler whose candidacy has been endorsed by sportsmen's associations. President-elect Barack Obama told Field & Stream magazine in September that he wants a sportsman or sportswoman in the post. "I think that having a head of the Department of Interior who doesn't understand hunting and fishing would be a problem," Obama told the magazine....

The Cost Of Green

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Both Obama and congressional Democrats believe we can move to a new carbon-free future by "investing" in "green" technologies and infrastructure, while creating millions of new jobs. As it stands, Obama is eyeing $100 billion in "green stimulus" as part of a much bigger package — as much as $700 billion or more — of conventional stimulus. He reckons this will create up to five million "green-collar jobs" and "jolt" the economy back to life. How will the money be spent? "School repairs," according to a Bloomberg report, "could be required to meet green building standards, including low-energy boilers and weatherization. Transportation spending could emphasize public transit, and support for new power sources such as wind . . . could go hand in hand with spending on an efficient electricity superhighway." Sounds great. But it'll take money — plus new regulations that will make it more expensive to do anything with oil, even if there are no reasonable alternatives. Nowhere is it mentioned that these "green-collar jobs" would be terribly costly, and that the planned "investments" are really just subsidies. And, as we know, things that require subsidies aren't competitive in the market, and thus aren't profitable. Claims that such "investments" will create five million jobs are false. It's likely more jobs will be killed than created due to higher costs and increased inefficiency of the U.S. economy. A recent report from the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation found that limiting CO2 emissions under recent proposed legislation would destroy 900,000 net jobs....

Subsidies Spur Crops on Fragile Habitat

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The ducks arrive in early April, zeroing in on thousands of shallow ponds fed by melting snow amid a vast prairie. As the pintails, mallards and blue-winged teal make nests in the grass and feed their young on abundant aquatic insects and freshwater shrimp, a 276,000-square-mile area reaching across five states and into Canada is transformed into one of the world's greatest habitats for migrating birds. Now this swath, known as the Prairie Pothole Region because of the depressions formed long ago by retreating glaciers, is threatened by the steady advance of farming. Spurred by federal subsidies and two years of surging commodity prices, farmers increasingly are digging up the grass to plant crops, raising concerns among cattle ranchers, hunters and environmental groups about the future of land where Sioux hunters chased grazing buffalo a mere century and a half ago. Today, signs of change are clearly visible. Emerald fields of ripening crops stand out against a sea of tawny grass in which a single square yard can hold 100 plant species. Rock piles tell the tale of fields cleared to make way for corn, soybeans, sunflowers or wheat. Whether U.S. taxpayers should be underwriting these changes has emerged as a controversial issue in farm country and in Washington....

Government files first brief in Navajo trust case

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The outgoing Bush administration filed its first brief in the contentious Navajo Nation trust case last week, raising a new claim about the handling of a botched coal lease. Solicitor General Gregory Garre, a Bush nominee, told the U.S. Supreme Court that the tribe engaged in the same type of behavior at the center of the long-running dispute. The government's brief said the tribe learned through ex parte, or one-sided, communications that the lease dispute was likely being resolved in its favor. The tribe had accused Reagan administration officials of ex parte contacts with a lobbyist for Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company. The tribe said it was forced into signing a bad deal with Peabody as a result of such behavior. But now the Department of Justice says information developed more recently in the case shows the tribe spoke with government attorneys and officials and believed Peabody would have been ordered to pay a higher royalty rate on a valuable coal deposit in northeastern Arizona....

Domestic horses being set loose

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State and local officials in Nevada say they're seeing an increasing number of domestic horses being turned loose because their owners can no longer afford to care for them. But experts warn that domestic horses left to fend for themselves likely will end up being hit by cars, killed by predators or dying of starvation because they lack skills to survive in the wild. "They have no survival skills at all," Bonnie Matton, president of the Wild Horse Preservation League, said of domestic horses. Rather than being adopted by wild bands, domestic horses are often attacked. "It's not very often that you find a domestic that is not being torn up or kicked out of the herd," he said. "They can't compete for food; they're not used to that."....

Trail Dust: United against a hostile force

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To readers of colonial New Mexico history, the names of Coronado, Espejo, Oñate, Vargas, Escalante and De Anza are quite familiar. Not so another name, that of Gov. Antonio de Valverde (1717-1722) who led a grand expedition against the Comanches and Utes in 1719. At the beginning of the century, those two allied tribes migrated from the northwest into the Southern Rockies. Their first hostilities against the Spanish and Pueblos occurred in the Taos area in 1704. A series of small raids followed. Then in July 1719, the Comanches struck hard at Taos and Cochiti pueblos, killing a number of residents. That awakened Velarde to the serious nature of this new threat. Fueling his concern also were reports that Comanches who supported by Utes were invading the eastern buffalo plains, displacing the Jicarilla Apaches, nominal allies of the Spaniards. Officers in the Santa Fe presidio warned the governor that an army should be sent against these enemies "to punish them for their grave robberies and atrocities." Valverde agreed. Valverde detached 60 soldiers from the presidio and added 45 settlers that "offered voluntarily to serve His Majesty on this campaign." Some 30 Pueblo Indians came in, fully armed, and also volunteered....

Alice King, 1930-2008: Former first lady said children were her legacy

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Popular three-time former New Mexico first lady Alice King died Sunday night after suffering a stroke last week. She was 78. "She was a wonderful mother and we got to share her with lots of other kids in New Mexico," said her son, Attorney General Gary King. "She cared about all the other kids in New Mexico. She spent most of her time and energy working on to improve kids' lives in New Mexico." King was married to former Gov. Bruce King, who was with her at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when she died, along with sons Gary and Bill. King, a major supporter of the Carrie Tingley Children's Hospital, was also chairwoman of the New Mexico Children's Trust Fund. She is credited with creating the state's Children, Youth and Families Department. King, whose 1948 Moriarty High School class had just 13 people, is probably one of the few New Mexicans to go straight from her farm to the governor's mansion. In a recent interview with The New Mexican at the King Ranch near Stanley, she said the adjustment at first proved a little tough. "At the time, I was a young farm girl that had not been off the farm, to tell the truth," she said. "And (I was) changing from living on a farm and rural life. "New Mexico was very rural at the time; we had less than a million people. ... It was very wide open, a long ways in between every town, but there were lots of little towns," she said. "People did things as a community a lot more than they did now. They didn't get far out of the area where they lived." "They" included Alice. And her arrival in Santa Fe from Stanley with Bruce raised more than a few eyebrows. "Well, they didn't just understand ranch life, and they thought a rancher always had dirt on his boots and this sort of the thing, and that was some of the things we'd hear people say, that we don't want someone carrying cow manure in on the rugs in the governor's residence and things. It was just a kind of an attitude that people felt like you just didn't know the city life, I guess. I'm not sure what they felt," she said. "But anyhow, they soon got over that...

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

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Here it comes, ready or not

Julie Carter

Twenty shopping days until Christmas and then it's almost time to file your income taxes.

Right after I looked up from the dinner table on Thanksgiving, I realized that the following Monday brought the first day of December and with it, a landslide of ideas, lists, projects, events, commitments and deadlines.

As soon as I recovered from that particular mental avalanche, which was days later, I realized the first week of December was almost gone. As usual, I'm behind before I even start.

I've had my eye out for clever Christmas gifts all year, but like most years, I either forgot about it if I thought of it in March or I bought it, hid it and don't remember where.

Early gift buying has its disadvantages. While spreading the cost of the holiday throughout the year, it also increases the odds of you paying more for the same thing that will be on sale later. Or, in my case, you find out that perfect gift is no longer perfect because the recipient proudly bought it for herself about the same time you did.

Useful gifts never go out of style and every year they take on a facet that makes them a little different from last year, but still very utilitarian.

Fad colors, embroidered phrases and rhinestones turn a regular cap into something that makes a fashion statement. While the market for "gimme" caps from feed, seed and implement dealers is still quite viable, nothing says cutting edge like a cap that announces, "Jesus ropes here."

Spur straps, once just a piece of leather with a function, now come in colors, animal print and of course, more bling. Some of them are so fashionable that the livestock will need sunglasses to stop the glare.

A favorite gift among the working cowboy set is the thoughtful offering of the cowboys' favorite beverage, usually in aluminum cans but sometimes upgraded to a glass bottle. The ropers refer to it as "aiming fluid," and have determined that the proper amount not only improves their roping but makes pastures greener and girls prettier.

This year's twist is the camouflage container that convincingly offers to those that imbibe the ability to become invisible if enough is consumed.

Then there is the never-ending list of "new" ideas for gifts designed to entice the giver to give to the guy that already has everything.

My choice this season is a giant beach-type umbrella with a base that attaches over the gooseneck trailer ball in the bed of the pickup. This allows spectators to sit in the shade next to the beverage cooler, and watch the roping from the back of the truck.

In these days and times, I sometimes spot something that just won't compute in my cowgirl brain. With decades of thinking I've seen it all, always, something proves me wrong.

Recently it was seeing a big black Hummer pulling an aluminum horse trailer going south through town. The oddity of that combination left me speechless. As my son would say, “That’s messed up.”

Maybe I just need to get out more.

Julie’s new book, Cowboys You Gotta Love 'em, is available for purchase. Visit Julie's Web site for details at www.julie-carter.com.

Note to readers

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When it's a choice between the National Finals Rodeo and blogging, blogging comes in second.

Obama's ag secretary prospects emerging from mainstream

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There are those in the larger world of agriculture who believe that one of President-elect Barack Obama's most important appointments is secretary of agriculture. Some activists see the choice as one that should echo the change theme sounded by the Obama campaign, and would move agriculture in a whole new direction, first tackling issues like subsidies, organics and food safety. Given the list of candidates for the top U.S. ag job, it appears that the Obama team is looking for experienced people who know how to work in Washington. On Thursday, though, word in the Washington Post was that three candidates were leading the pack: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, former U.S. Representative Charles Stenholm (D-TX) and Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture and a dairy farmer. Other names still appear to be in the hopper, according to Washington sources, including U.S. Representatives Sanford Bishop (D-GA), who headed Obama's Georgia campaign, and John Salazar (D-CO), a farmer-rancher....

Hispanic caucus wants John Salazar in ag job

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is lobbying for the selection of Colorado's Rep. John Salazar to be the next agriculture secretary. Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., chairman of the 21-member group, said Thursday that the caucus sent a letter to Barack Obama's transition team backing Salazar last week. He said he's also urged members to follow up by calling members of the team, including former Denver mayor Federico Pena, to make their pitch for Salazar. The potato farmer and rancher from Manassa in the San Luis Valley won re-election to a third term last month.

Obama & USDA

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On the campaign trail, President-elect Barack Obama said his administration would help small family farms, end childhood hunger and upgrade roads and bridges in rural areas. His commitment to the rural and impoverished parts of America helped secure critical victories for him in Midwestern Corn Belt states, such as Iowa and Minnesota, and has heightened expectations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Obama prepares to appoint an agriculture secretary to oversee wide-ranging efforts. In cash-strapped times, the challenges of mounting new initiatives are daunting. And the USDA is still battling long-running problems: subsidy programs that give huge sums to ineligible, millionaire farmers; a food inspection system that puts Americans at risk for food-borne illnesses; and nutrition programs that fail to identify more than 30 percent of Americans who live in poverty and are at risk of hunger every month. Many of the problems that Obama wants to tackle have been controversial for several decades. Improper payment of crop subsidies -- intended to help struggling family farmers -- is a prime example. Last week, a report by the Government Accountability Office asserted that the USDA continued to give federal subsidies to ineligible, wealthy farmers despite a series of congressional reforms. Between 2003 and 2006, more than 2,700 farmers who were earning more than the cutoff of $2.5 million annually continued to receive subsidies. Unwarranted payments totaled $49 million....

Judge orders full review of Duke's Cliffside unit

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A federal judge ordered Duke Energy Corp. on Tuesday to undergo a full environmental assessment of a coal-fired generator under construction in western North Carolina, giving the company 60 days to comply with regulations initially ignored by the Bush administration. The federal judge allowed Duke to continue building its Cliffside unit but dismissed the company's argument that it doesn't need a full assessment to ensure it is using the best-available technology. U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg wrote that ongoing construction without the review could result in "emissions capable of causing serious health problems, or the shut down of construction and/or in costly retrofitting that would result in unnecessary rate increases." Environmental groups, which led the lawsuit, hailed the decision and said it could serve as precedent to alter the building plans of perhaps a dozen U.S. power plants that began construction during a three-year period. "This is the cleanest, purest legal victory we could have," said John Walke, director of the clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is part of the lawsuit...

Environmentalists want new wolf recovery plan Environmentalists say the federal government's current plan for re-establishing the Mexican gray wolf in the wild is outdated and legally invalid, and petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday to revise it. "We're managing a very imperiled population of wolves based on planning that's over 20 years old and didn't imagine actual recovery goals — the threshold at which we can say we've done enough and we can take the animal off the (endangered species) list," said Rob Edward, director of carnivore recovery for WildEarth Guardians in Denver. The current recovery plan was completed in 1982 — 16 years before any wolves were released into the wild in the Southwest. It focused heavily on captive breeding and said little about how to manage wolves in the wild or the process of developing a viable wild population, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Pinos Altos. The center, WildEarth Guardians and the Rewilding Institute petitioned Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall for clear goals and deadlines for delisting the species with attention to the wolves' genetic pool. Amendments to the Endangered Species Act in 1988 established standards for recovery plans that were not met in the 1982 Mexican wolf plan, the groups said....

Environmentally minded cowboys run a green ranch in Arizona Mr. Heyneman is the ranch manager at the Kane and Two Miles Ranches, which cover 850,000 acres of mostly public land on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The ranches are a partnership between the Grand Canyon Trust and the Conservation Fund, which together spent $4.5 million for the land as an investment in conservation. But the parcels came with a controversial catch: cows. Yet here, the cattle have gone green. Or, if you prefer, the conservationists have gone cowboy. It’s an unlikely partnership between ranchers and environmentalists, two groups usually on opposite sides of the fence. Then again, those fences don’t usually come in 3,000-foot-high red rock. The project isn’t about nourishing cattle with ecofriendly feed or building wooden instead of barbed-wire fences. These cowboy-conservationists aren’t that kind of green. What they are doing, instead, is asking whether cattle ranching can be successful and environmental. Actually, this may be the more revolutionary question. Environmental groups have been buying up land in the West to control the 80-year-old grazing permits it comes with. The idea is to retire the permits, and with them, the cows. That, eco-activists hope, will save the land. The Trust didn’t have that option. If it retired its permits, Heyneman says, the government would just reallocate them. So if it wanted to preserve a quintessential American vista, it had to get in the cattle business. What began as an environmental initiative therefore became a ranching operation that defies the conventions of two sciences: ecology and economics....

Truckee Carson Irrigation District indicted A federal grand jury indicted the Truckee Carson Irrigation District and four of its employees on Wednesday for allegedly falsifying records to secure additional water supplies from the U.S. government. The four indicted include David Overvold, 58, project manager for the irrigation district based in Fallon, and Lyman McConnell, 64, the district's lawyer. They and two others are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, falsification of records, false claims and false statements. If convicted, they could face 20 years or more in prison. McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for eastern California, said the four allegedly were part of a scheme to inflate data from 2000 through 2005 regarding the efficiency of the district's water deliveries so as to secure additional water credits from the bureau to boost supplies primarily for Nevada farmers and ranchers. Under a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, the district operates the irrigation system in northern Nevada's Newlands Project created more than a century ago. As part of a water efficiency incentive policy adopted in 1988, the bureau agreed to provide credits to the district that would allow it to boost its share of water supplies from area dams and reservoirs owned by the bureau....

Parks Pick-Me-Up? As our National Parks emerge from eight years of pinched budgets, drooping morale and dreadful political appointees, conservationists hope for a turnaround with the Obama administration--even amidst economically turbulent times. "We recognize there's a zone of opportunity with the transition, with new leadership in the White House, the Department of Interior and in Congress," says David Nimkin, Southwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. "But there are also profound financial constraints. So our message and our focus must change accordingly." The change? Trying to steer economic-stimulus efforts toward the parks, through back-to-work and service programs. It also means highlighting these preserves as sound investments in tough times, given the vital tourism revenue they generate for surrounding communities....

Alaska is battleground for Endangered Species Act At the Resource Development Council’s annual conference in Anchorage, Denby Lloyd, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, projected a large map of the state on an overhead screen. One at a time, swathes of red marking the habitat of Cook Inlet beluga whales, Steller’s sea lions, spectacled eiders, polar bears, Kittletz’s murrelet, bowhead whales, Aleutian shield fern, Lynn Canal herring and other species protected by the Endangered Species Act were layered on top of one another, encroaching further and further in on Alaska’s familiar coastline until all but a small bubble in the Interior remained. “God,” uttered a man seated at a linen-covered table close to the podium, audibly sucking in his breath. “I guess I was impressed when I saw these graphs,” said Lloyd. “It appears that the ESA will blanket Alaska’s coastline, with potential to smother human activities.” In a session entitled “The Endangered Species Act: Should Alaska’s Natural Resource Economy be Listed as Endangered?” state, environmental and industry officials weighed in on the impact that new ESA regulations would shape Alaska’s future in resource development. It was perhaps appropriate that what loomed largest in the panel discussion was the Arctic’s most massive land-based predator, the polar bear....

Despite deaths, grizzly population grows The number of grizzly bear deaths in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem increased markedly this year, but the population still continued to grow. According to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, an estimated 80 grizzlies died in the Yellowstone area in 2008. In 2007, 49 grizzlies died. The numbers of grizzly deaths are estimated from known, probable, estimated unknown and unreported deaths from a variety of causes, according to Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team figures. Despite the deaths, the grizzly population in the ecosystem increased an estimated 4 percent this year. In 2007, there were an estimated 571 grizzlies. In 2008, the number increased to an estimated 596 grizzlies. Based on those figures, the population will double in 20 years, said Chuck Schwartz, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader in Bozeman, Mont....

Obama Teams Are Scrutinizing Federal Agencies Wearing yellow badges and traveling in groups of 10 or more, agency review teams for President-elect Barack Obama have swarmed into dozens of government offices, from the Pentagon to the National Council on Disability. A typical approach has been playing out at the Environmental Protection Agency, where the Obama team is led by Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Robert Sussman, a former Clinton official and now a lawyer and fellow at the Center for American Progress. Both are considered front-runners for senior administration jobs (Jackson as EPA administrator, Sussman as a top EPA deputy). On a recent Monday, the pair arrived at an 11 a.m. EPA senior staff meeting. Both had worked at the agency under President Bill Clinton, so they fit in easily, fully acquainted with the acronym-laden lingo. Their team's questions have been specific, trained on a handful of issues, according to employees and other sources interviewed. A top concern is climate change, an issue they want to address with several EPA program initiatives. They also are asking how much money the enforcement divisions need to go after polluters. The team also has focused on drinking-water standards, asking about how to reduce children's and mothers' exposure to perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel that is leaching into groundwater near military bases. Jackson, Sussman and their team members hope to interview 100 staffers before filing their report, but they will do so with agreed-upon "rules of engagement," as the EPA's lawyers call them....

Grijalva for Interior Secretary Now that President-elect Barack Obama has put together his administration's economic, foreign-policy and national-security teams, the transition process comes to the interesting part. How about Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva as Secretary of the Interior? Grijalva is reportedly under serious consideration for the post that far more important than the attention usually accorded it by a neglectful media would suggest. As a westerner, he fits what would appear to be the first requirement: 15 of the past 16 Interior secretaries have come from the region where the federal government is a major land owner. But there is a lot more to Grijalva than his region. The five-term congressman currently chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. And he has been a genuine activist in that position, challenging giveaways to agribusiness and big ranchers who have taking advantage of ridiculously cheap grazing permits on federal lands in the west and exploring the role that oil and gas development on federal property has played in the decline of hunting habitats in the west. And when it comes to voting in the House, the congressman from the Tuscon area has been a steady defender of environmental interests -- his lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters is 95 percent positive....

Ranchers using plan to help endangered species Federal officials have approved a habitat conservation plan that will let a group of southwestern ranchers improve and maintain their lands while helping several species considered threatened or endangered. The plan will enable ranchers affiliated with the Malpai Borderlands Group in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico to continue using their lands for cattle-raising activities while providing long-range benefit to plant, fish and animal species that are threatened or endangered. And it will let them address endangered species issues in a more efficient way than on a project-by-project basis, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services spokesman Jeff Humphrey. ``It's so hard not to be reactive when you're a landowner when it involves endangered species,'' said Bill McDonald, chairman of the Malpai group, which includes more than 20 of about 30 ranching families spread across 828,000 acres in the two states. Their plan, finally approved in October, is designed to let ranchers improve grasslands and watersheds and enable them to manage their ranching functions. Fish and Wildlife has issued a permit that allows Malpai members to ``take,'' or kill, a threatened or endangered species if it is incidental to their lawful operations and if the taking will not jeopardize the population's survival....

Judge scales back ruling on roadless nat'l forests A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development on millions of acres of national forest would apply only to 10 western states. Two years ago, Judge Elizabeth Laporte invalidated a 2005 Bush administration rule that overturned the 2001 "Roadless Rule," which protected 58.5 million acres of federal land in about 40 states. But in August, a federal judge in Wyoming invalidated President Bill Clinton's Roadless Rule, leading the Bush administration to request that the two judges modify their conflicting rulings. In response, Laporte reduced the geographic scope of her 2006 ruling. The move is only a temporary fix. Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Denver are expected to rule on the case next year, and road construction rules also could change under President-elect Barack Obama's administration....

States blast feds' sheep rule The Bush administration is attempting to usurp wildlife management authority from Western states through an end-of-term, under-the-radar move on bighorn sheep, state officials and wildlife advocates charge. Without consulting or even notifying any state agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have drafted an agreement that would, in effect, take jurisdiction over the transplantation of bighorn sheep on national forests. That's according to documents provided to the Star-Tribune by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the state of Wyoming. Although the federal action was drafted sometime in September, regional wildlife agencies didn't find out about it until the third week in November, state officials said. According to the written agreement itself, it was created out of concern for the declining bighorn sheep population in the West. But critics say the real reason for the move is to protect domestic sheep producers, at the expense of bighorns. In a letter sent Monday to USDA Undersecretaries Mark Rey and Bruce Knight, the wildlife agencies' association condemned the agreement for being "drafted without input from any state wildlife agency, whose statutory authority to manage resident wildlife is clearly established." As written, the action "contravenes existing law and policy, is unworkable in day-to-day management of the states' wildlife resources and produces a host of undesirable (and perhaps unintended) consequences," the letter contends. Member agencies of the group know of no law or regulation providing the Forest Service with the authority to require disease testing of bighorn sheep or any other native resident wildlife, the group argues....

West Slope pushing BLM on health study Western Slope communities are pressing the federal Bureau of Land Management to add a comprehensive health study of oil and gas drilling to its environmental assessment for managing public lands. The request is in response to worries voiced repeatedly by residents as oil and gas development grows in the region. "What we need is adequate data to know how things are changing and where change is coming from," said Keith Lambert, the mayor of Rifle and one of those asking for the assessment. The request comes after a string of health studies released this year found no immediate health risk — but raised questions. Outside the Front Range, volatile organic pollution from oil and gas operations is projected to rise to 69 percent of all sources in 2010, up from 35 percent in 2005, according to a state Air Pollution Control Division analysis. The question is whether those emissions will have, either locally or regionally, health effects....

Solar thermal projects gather steam -- and opposition Just up the road, past pump jacks bobbing in California's storied oil patch, look sharp and you'll catch a glimpse of the state's energy future. Rows of gigantic mirrors covering an area bigger than two football fields have sprouted alongside almond groves near California 99. This is a power plant that uses the sun's heat to produce electricity for thousands of homes. Owned by Palo Alto-based Ausra Inc., it's the first so-called solar thermal facility to open in California in nearly two decades. It's part of a drive to build clean electricity generation using the sun, wind and other renewable sources with an urgency not seen since the days of environmentalist Gov. Jerry Brown. Add President-elect Barack Obama's stated intention to push for more renewable power and you've got the equivalent of a green land rush. At least 80 large solar projects are on the drawing board in California, more than in any other place in the country. The scale of some is unrivaled on the planet. One facility planned for the Mojave Desert is projected to take up a land mass the size of Inglewood....

Government backs off plan to drill in Utah canyons A section of whitewater rapids tucked between high cliffs, little changed since explorer John Wesley Powell boated through in 1896, and a canyon decorated with thousands of ancient rock art panels have been pulled off the auction block by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. For the second time in a week, the bureau announced late Tuesday that it was pulling auction parcels from an expanded oil-and-gas leasing program in Utah. The latest tracts include land inside Nine Mile Canyon and Desolation Canyon on the Green River. The bureau didn't say why it was pulling the lease tracts, but the prospect of drilling near Utah's scenic treasures brought condemnation from conservation groups. Together with previous deferrals, the BLM has pulled nearly 100,000 acres from an auction set for Dec. 19, leaving more than 276,000 acres up for bid....

Activists sue to shut down Delta pumps Reaching back to the laws of ancient Rome, environmentalists sued Monday to cut off Delta water operations and dramatically shake up the long-term balance between economic and environmental needs in the region. If it succeeds, the lawsuit would shift the focus from the worsening conflict between individual species of fish and the amount of water pumped out of the Delta to a comprehensive attempt to balance competing interests. "The only things that are already protected are already endangered," said Michael Jackson, a lawyer for the environmental groups. "But what's happening is the whole bottom is falling out of the ecosystem. You cannot list everything (as an endangered species) and you can't protect species by species." By invoking the public trust doctrine, a legal concept that dates to the Roman Empire, the environmental groups seek to force regulators to consider the environment, recreation, aesthetics and other values to be passed to future generations in the Delta much more rigorously. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network and retired federal biologist Felix Smith, seeks to stop water deliveries from the Delta until the massive state and federal pumping stations near Tracy come into compliance with laws that the environmentalists say are being broken....

New Trade Case Welcomed As Cattle Producers Lose Over One Million Dollars Per Day The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) fully supports the announcement today that the Government of Canada is requesting consultations with the United States, pursuant to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, concerning the U.S.’ implementation of mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations for meat products. CCA President, Brad Wildeman stated, “We have been working with the federal government to prepare a possible trade challenge for some time now. We congratulate federal Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz, and Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade for initiating this process to stand up for Canadian cattle producers. This is the first formal step that must be undertaken before a trade dispute settlement panel can be established under WTO rules.”....

How’s this for a job? So, you think you’ve got a big job, keeping down the weeds in your yard? Meet Mike Berry of Whitewater, Colo., who operates Remote Weeds, a weed spraying business that takes him into the far reaches of the remote wilderness on almost a daily basis throughout the summer months. At the beckoned call of the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Park Service, oil companies, and private landowners, Berry has covered thousands of acres in Colorado and surrounding states in an effort to wipe out the plague of noxious weeds invading the West. He’s worked as far north as the Tetons, west into Utah, and was leaving to work the site of the Hayman fire over by Woodland Park, when he hung around long enough to be interviewed. Although he sometimes carries out his duties on a 4-wheeler or with a truck-mounted sprayer, he prefers to be horseback, even though it’s more work, and most jobs find him mounted on his trusty saddle horse, Red, and leading a molly mule by the name of – you guessed it – Molly! This outfit takes the place of five or six people with backpack sprayers, and it’s quicker and more economical for the agency or person footing the bill. Molly’s Decker pack saddle is loaded with four spray tanks, each holding five gallons of chemical containing a water-soluble blue dye, which allows Berry to see where he’s been and not miss any places and not waste time or chemical by overlapping his 30-foot swaths. Also in the mule’s pack is a 12-volt battery. Attached to his wrist Berry wears a small remote control that operates the spray nozzle, so he can turn it off and on at will. One advantage of the battery-powered remote control is that the spray is not under pressure, as it might be with a CO2 system, which some folks use....

Green card holders will be fingerprinted and photographed at U.S. borders

The Bush Administration has issued final rules, which will become effective two days before Barack Obama's inauguration, that will require millions of "Lawful Permanent Residents" -- non-citizens who hold green cards and are allowed to live in the U.S. -- to be fingerprinted and have their faces photographed by DHS whenever they return from abroad at a U.S. airport or land border entry point. The new rules will treat lawful permanent residents (LPRs) more like visiting foreign nationals, who currently are required to submit their fingerprints and facial photos under the US-VISIT program, than U.S. citizens, who are not required to be fingerprinted or photographed. Approximately 4.4 million lawful permanent residents – as well as 33 million U.S. citizens – arrive at U.S. airports and seaports each year, according to DHS....

When the Warmest in History Isn't In that spirit, many papers (including The Chronicle) have reported on a UC San Diego science historian who reviewed 928 abstracts of peer-reviewed articles on global warming published between 1993 and 2003, and concluded, "Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position." Over 10 years, not one study challenged the orthodoxy -- does that sound right to you? If that were true, it would strongly suggest that, despite conflicting evidence in this wide and changing world, no scientist dares challenge the politically correct position on the issue. No wonder, David Bellamy -- an Australian botanist who was involved in some 400 TV productions, only to see his TV career go south after he questioned global warming orthodoxy -- wrote in The Australian last week, "It's not even science anymore; it's anti-science." Bellamy notes that official data show that "in every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased." Exhibit B: Richard S. Lindzen, the MIT Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, recently wrote, "There has been no warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995." Such findings rarely are reported, even as, Marc Morano, communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee told me, "Scientists keep coming out of the woodwork" to challenge the so-called consensus. "It's almost like a bandwagon effect." The Global Warming Petition Project urges Washington to reject the Kyoto international global warming pact as there is "no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." So far, The Politico reports, more than 31,000 scientists have signed it....

Criminalizing Carbon A British jurist wants to form an international court for the environment with the power to punish states and businesses. Will fossil fuels soon become controlled substances? The United Nations Climate Change Conference kicked off in Poznan, Poland, on Monday with representatives from around the world working to negotiate the framework for a successor to the failed Kyoto Protocol. Stephen Hockman, the former head of the British Bar Council and a deputy High Court judge, has an idea why Kyoto failed to reach its emission goals and has proposed a remedy: creating a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The new court would have the ability to sanction and perhaps even punish those who violate or fail to obey climate change treaties such as Kyoto. It's tempting to dismiss this as the pipe dream of a barrister who also supports bringing Shariah law to Britain. But the idea of enforcing greenhouse gas reductions through legal means has been voiced by others and could easily snowball into widespread acceptance....

Drought deepens strain on a dwindling Colorado The drought gripping Utah, Southern California and the rest of the Southwest this century shows no sign of ending. Scientists see it as a permanent condition that, despite year-to-year weather variations, will deepen as temperatures rise, snows dwindle, soils bake and fires burn. That's grim news for all of us in the West, perhaps most especially for the 10 million residents along the northern stretch of the Colorado River -- Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado -- whose water rights are newer, and therefore junior, to those in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Making matters worse, the Colorado -- the 1,450-mile-long lifeline that sustains more than 30 million souls and 3.5 million acres of farmland in seven states, 34 tribal nations and Mexico -- is in decline, scientists warn. Even so, demand for the Colorado's water echoes from city leaders, industry giants, oil drillers, farmers, fishers, ranchers, boaters, bikers and hikers -- along with silent pleas from wildlife and the ecosystem. Trend analyses by federal scientists, probably conservative, predict the population dependent on the river will reach at least 38 million during the coming decade....

Plague spurs prairie dog die-off in grasslands An outbreak of the plague is killing off the black-tailed prairie dogs on the Comanche National Grassland in southeast Colorado, in a dramatic die-off that has raised concerns for the future of the species in one of its richest habitats. The U.S. Forest Service, which runs the 443,750-acre grassland, said Monday that prairie dog colonies decreased from 16,000 acres in 2005 to just 3,607 this year. The plague occurs regularly among prairie dogs throughout their range, spreads quickly through colonies, and can infect pets and humans that come into contact with them, the agency said. The news comes at a time of scrutiny on the small, plains rodent. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to determine, possibly as soon as today, whether the prairie dog should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Conservation groups, who sued to try to get the agency to reverse an earlier decision not to protect the prairie dog, say the Comanche population was one of the largest and best-documented in the state, and the die-offs indicate the species needs the federal protection....

Confession tossed for Forest Service coercion tactics Agents with the U.S. Forest Service broke an accused Cherokee National Forest arsonist's spirit to glean a confession too tainted to be used against him, a judge ruled Monday. In a massive 65-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton painstakingly painted the line between investigative creativity and police coercion. He then opined that forestry agents employing what has been dubbed by defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs as the "Save Jane" ruse stepped over it in the case of alleged firebug John Wesley Irons. "The court finds that in this case law enforcement took their ruse too far," Guyton ruled. In his ruling, Guyton tossed out as evidence against Irons his alleged confession to setting hundreds of fires in the Coker Creek community in Monroe County and surrounding Cherokee National Forest. In so doing, he backed Isaacs' assertion Irons rattled off an involuntary confession to protect the women he loved - his estranged wife and U.S. Forest Service Agent Jane Wright. Irons allegedly told forestry agents his compulsion to set fires began when he was a teenager. Now 61, Irons allegedly admitted torching woods using candles and setting ablaze structures including the home of a U.S. Forest Service agent who was inside with his family at the time. But Guyton questioned just how "voluntary" that statement was given that it was gleaned when a "distraught" Irons lay handcuffed beside Wright, also handcuffed as part of a fake arrest, and murmured words of "unrequited" love, unaware he was being tricked into believing his confession would set her free....

Lawyers call for international court for the environment A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change. Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment. The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year. But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment". Mr Hockman, a deputy High Court judge, said that the threat of climate change means it is more important than ever for the law to protect the environment. The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland this month is set to begin negotiations that will lead to a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen next year. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has agreed the concept of an international court will be taken into account when considering how to make these international agreements on climate change binding....

‘America is Back’ as a Leader on Climate Change, Sen. Kerry Says After eight years of resisting cap-and-trade proposals as offered in the Kyoto Protocol, for instance, America is back as a leader on the issue of climate change and will press ahead with policy changes that address environmental and economic challenges that are now interlinked, according to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) Kerry, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made those comments in speaking with reporters during a conference call Tuesday. The call was organized to address an upcoming climate change conference (Dec. 1-12) in Poznan, Poland. With scientific evidence weighing in favor of the idea that global warming is man made, it is imperative for the global community to shift away from dependence on fossil fuels and to a green economy as a matter of survival, Kerry said. The PolandClimate Change Conference should be viewed as a “steeping stone” to help set up a framework for future discussions and is not meant as a substantive negotiation session, said Kerry. The December meetings will instead lay the groundwork for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark where a treaty could be produced, he said....

The recession's here. Let's tax carbon! The first hundred days of any presidency rarely go off as planned, but, for now, Barack Obama seems to know what's at the top of his to-do list. In late October, he told Time's Joe Klein that "a new energy economy" would "be my number-one priority when I get into office." But then, as if to cut off a lurking objection, Obama quickly tacked on a qualifier: "assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation." The caveat seemed to nod at a nascent conventional wisdom: Now that the United States is staring down the barrel of a nasty recession, many Washington types wonder if Obama will have to tear up that to-do list and rein in his ambitious climate and energy proposals. True, not all of Obama's green ideas are controversial: You can't pick up a newspaper op-ed page these days without seeing yet another economist argue that government spending on clean energy and eco-friendly infrastructure could provide the Keynesian boost necessary to haul the economy out of its mire. But the linchpin of Obama's energy platform wasn't new spending; it was an economy- wide cap on carbon-dioxide emissions, in which a decreasing number of tradeable pollution permits would be auctioned off each year, so as to ratchet down greenhouse gases and help avert drastic global warming. Energy experts tend to agree that it's not enough for the government to fund alternative-energy sources; the only way to usher in the "new energy economy" Obama envisions is to make it costlier to burn fossil fuels. But that's the catch: Since Obama's cap-and-trade proposal would essentially act as a tax and increase the price of oil, gas, and coal, he downplayed this aspect of his plan on the trail--and it's the one idea that now looks most vulnerable. The queasiness is understandable. On the surface, it really doesn't sound like a hot idea to impose broad new regulations on a struggling economy. In this case, though, the fear is misguided. Global warming is urgent enough that the next administration will need to go all-out on the issue, passing not just a green stimulus package but especially a cap on carbon. And, not only is the recession a poor excuse to hold back, it may even be all the more reason to act....

The True Costs of EPA Global Warming Regulation Legislation designed to address global warming failed in Congress this year, largely due to concerns about its high costs and adverse impact on an already weakening economy. The congressional debate will likely resume in 2009, as legislators try again to bal­ance the environmental and economic considerations on this complex issue. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pursuant to a 2007 Supreme Court decision, has initiated steps toward bypassing the legislative process and regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) is nothing less than the most costly, compli­cated, and unworkable regulatory scheme ever pro­posed. Under ANPR, nearly every product, business, and building that uses fossil fuels could face require­ments that border on the impossible. The overall cost of this agenda would likely exceed that of the legisla­tion rejected by Congress, reaching well into the tril­lions of dollars while destroying millions of jobs in the manufacturing sector.[1] The ANPR is clearly not in the best interests of Americans, and the EPA should not proceed to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and final rule based upon it....

Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim. The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe. Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea. Turbines and water mills need an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots. The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs. As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity....

EPA, Interior Dept. Chiefs Will Be Busy Erasing Bush's Mark Few federal agencies are expected to undergo as radical a transformation under President-elect Barack Obama as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, which have been at the epicenter of many of the Bush administration's most intense scientific and environmental controversies. The agencies have different mandates -- the EPA holds sway over air and water pollution, while Interior administers the nation's vast federal land holdings as well as the Endangered Species Act -- but both deal with some of the country's most pressing environmental concerns, such as climate change. And over the past eight years, many career employees and rank-and-file scientists have clashed with Bush appointees over a number of those of issues, including whether the federal government should allow California to regulate tailpipe emissions from automobiles and how best to prevent imperiled species from disappearing altogether. In June 2007, Obama told reporters in Reno, Nev., that he would not hesitate to reverse many of the environmental policies Bush has enacted by executive order. "I think the slow chipping away against clean air and clean water has been deeply disturbing," Obama added. "Much of it hasn't gone through Congress. It was done by fiat. That is something that can be changed by an administration, in part by reinvigorating the EPA, which has been demoralized." Global warming policies are expected to mark one of the sharpest breaks between the Obama and the Bush administrations....

Group seeks Pickens' wife's help to save rangeland Conservationists are looking to the wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to help push for federal reforms that they say will help thousands of wild horses and save rangeland in the West. Madeleine Pickens recently announced plans to create a refuge for wild horses. She came up with the idea after hearing that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was considering euthanizing some of the animals to control the herds and protect the range. WildEarth Guardians wants to take Pickens' plan further by proposing a solution the group believes would resolve public land grazing conflicts that have resulted in the horses needing a home. WildEarth Guardians is advocating congressional legislation that would allow ranchers who have grazing permits on federal public land to relinquish the permits in exchange for compensation. The idea is that livestock would be removed from the allotment, leaving a refuge for wild horses and other native animals and plants. Mark Salvo, director of WildEarth Guardians' campaign to protect the West's sagebrush landscape, said he believes voluntary grazing permit buyouts are catching on with ranchers....

U.S. Moves Ahead on Oil, Gas Leases on Public Land Over the last four fiscal years, a Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Land Management records shows, the government has dramatically accelerated the pace of awarding oil and gas drilling permits on federal land. The total for the period is nearly triple the number issued in the corresponding years under former President Clinton, and the number of new wells sunk on federal land is more than double Clinton's record over the comparable period. In the latest skirmish, the bureau announced Tuesday that it will proceed with most of a proposed sale of oil and gas leases on nearly 500 square miles of public land in eastern Utah, which had sparked protests from environmental advocates and National Park Service officials. Opponents fear the drilling activity will damage air quality in several nearby popular national parks. The lease sales, due to take place next month, could pose a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which will have to decide shortly after taking office whether to honor the contracts, seek to undo the leases or pay millions in taxpayer dollars to buy them back....

BLM backs off plan to issue drilling permits in Utah's redrock country Drilling leases on the road to Dinosaur National Monument and on lands visible from Utah's iconic Delicate Arch and near Canyonlands National Park are off the block. In the face of intense opposition from the National Park Service, members of Congress and a top official from President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management backed down Tuesday from its plan to sell oil and gas leases near national parks and wilderness-quality areas in Utah on Dec. 19. The BLM also promised to consult with the Park Service on any future changes to environmental protections built into long-range plans for lands near the parks, said Mike Snyder, director of NPS' Intermountain region....

Man convicted in eagle deaths grateful for pardon Leslie Owen Collier was surrounded by cattle at a livestock auction when his cell phone rang. It was the White House. Twelve years after pleading guilty to federal charges in the deaths of three bald eagles, Collier learned his name was cleared: He was pardoned by President George W. Bush. "I guess I was humbled is the best way to say it — I never thought it would happen," Collier, 50, said in a phone interview this week. "It was emotional. I almost came to tears, really." The 1995 incident that changed the life of the farmer from the Charleston area of southeastern Missouri began when he noticed an increasing number of wild turkeys, which were believed to have died away. "I got it in my head that if I eliminated some of the coyotes it would give the turkeys a jump-start," on their comeback, Collier said. So he put out hamburger meat laced with the pesticide Furadan in an effort to kill the coyotes. It worked; seven coyotes died. The problem occurred when the eagles fed on the coyotes' carcasses. They died, too. So did a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl, among other animals. The birds are federally protected and killing them is illegal. Collier said the crime became a felony when the second eagle died. He pleaded guilty in late 1995 and received two years of probation. While he didn't go to jail, the conviction was hard on Collier. He was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution. As a convicted felon, the longtime hunter had to give up his guns....

Unhappiness After Stream in Montana Is Open to All A group of landowners, including several wealthy out-of-staters, are none too happy that their exclusive use of a scenic trout-rich stream in the Bitterroot Valley is coming to an end. The Montana Supreme Court ruled here recently that the 16-mile-long stream, Mitchell Slough, is open to the public and that the landowners are not entitled to fence it off as part of their private sanctuaries. Montana law is firm in allowing the public access to streams and rivers that flow through private land, up to the high-water mark. The law states that fishermen can walk in a stream or along the bank up to the high-water mark if they enter the waterway from public land like a bridge. They may not cross or walk on private land above the mark without permission. In this case, though, two dozen landowners — including the rock singer Huey Lewis and Charles R. Schwab, founder of the brokerage firm that bears his name — argued that irrigation diversions had so thoroughly altered Mitchell Slough that it was no longer a natural waterway and that therefore the stream access law should not apply. To reinforce that belief, they began calling it Mitchell Ditch. But in a unanimous ruling, the State Supreme Court here ruled that in spite of the changes, the slough was still a “natural perennial flowing stream” and public access was warranted....

Wilderness creation opposed Counties in the Bighorn Basin say preserving the Western way of life is their top priority. The county commissions of Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties recently submitted 22 pages of comments to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management outlining their vision of how federal land should be managed in the future. "There is concern our Western culture is being destroyed or detrimentally changed," the counties said. The four county commissions submitted remarks together. They were compiled by Ecosystem Research Group, a Missoula, Mont., environmental consulting firm. The counties' comments emphasize the importance of grazing in the basin. If grazing is reduced, "the highest value of these lands ... is to sell to developers and 'hobby' ranchers," they wrote. The commissions also came out against designating any federal lands as wilderness in the basin. Wilderness areas typically are remote, undeveloped and largely roadless. Motorized travel is usually prohibited in an area once Congress designates it as wilderness. "Millions of acres in the west are designated as wilderness," the counties wrote. "We oppose designating any of the lands within the (planning area) as wilderness." The BLM is studying 12 areas as potential wilderness sites. The agency places restrictions on those study areas and the commissions asked that the federal government return those areas to general management....

Mining claim occupancy rules are about to change After growing frustrated with their inability to move illegal squatters off federal forest land because regulations were unclear, the U.S. Forest Service has put teeth into the laws that regulate residential occupancy on mining claims. The changes, which take effect nationally on Dec. 8, also revise the definition of an operating plan for miners. The revisions clarify that a criminal citation can be issued for illegal occupancy, said Bob Fujimoto, group leader for minerals and geology for agency's Region 6 which includes Oregon and Washington. "When we went down the civil side (of enforcement), it would take years before we would get very far with a case," he said. "When we use a criminal citation, the process is much shorter." The revised residential occupancy regulations spell out what constitutes residency through construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance and use or presence of a temporary or permanent structure....

Study causes shift in wolverine management Wolverine researchers in Greater Yellowstone say protecting overlaps between the region’s three populations is crucial to ensuring the species’ long term survival. Greater Yellowstone wolverines consist of three so-called “metapopulations,” one in northern Montana, one in central Idaho and one in northwest Wyoming, according to Bryan Aber, a carnivore biologist with Idaho Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Maintaining connections between these metapopulations is difficult because wolverines rely on high elevation terrain, exist in extremely low densities and maintain huge home ranges. Female wolverines average a 155-square-mile home range, while males average a 460-square-mile home range. “The overlap of those three populations is critical in ensuring genetic transfer,” Aber said. “Because they exist at such low densities, the area where these three metapopulations overlap is extremely important.”....

The spotted owl disappearing act Across their entire range in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and British Columbia, there are thought to be fewer than 5,000 northern spotted owls left. In the dense forests of the Olympic Peninsula last year, spotted owls were found in 19 of the 54 sites they had once populated. Their numbers have declined by a third since the 1990s, when old-growth logging across the Pacific Northwest came to a virtual halt in an effort to protect their habitat. The declines have been so persistent -- averaging 4% a year -- that a growing number of scientists have come to think the most immediate culprit is not logging but the aggressive barred owl, which has crept into the West Coast forests from Canada over the last few decades. Bigger, more fertile and with an appetite less finicky than its threatened cousin, the barred owl has taken over in forest after forest, experts say -- claiming spotted owls' nests in the warmer, lower elevations. Now, as the spotted owl continues to decline, the federal government is taking what many conservationists say is the worst step possible: reopening more of the bird's forests to logging. In what is likely to be one of the final environmental battles of the Bush administration, 18 environmental groups filed motions in federal court last week to block a massive remapping of federal lands in the Pacific Northwest. Proposals by the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which officials hope to have in place by the end of the year, would open up for logging large tracts that had been set aside as breathing space for the owls -- nearly 1.8 million acres....

Killing two pintails with one shot is illegal If you'd shot two pintails with one shot, the consequences of this error would differ depending on how you handled the situation. Mike Carion, assistant chief at the state Department of Fish and Game, said here's what you might expect: If you'd picked them both up and put them in your bag and the warden found that you had two in possession, you may be cited for having an overlimit. If you didn't tell the warden you had two and failed to reveal both birds to the game warden when asked, you might additionally be cited for failing to show the extra duck when asked. If you'd left the other bird in the pond, buried it or hid it, you could have been cited for an overlimit and wanton waste of game. The best way to avoid any of these consequences in the future would be to not shoot when the birds are so close that you don't have a clear shot and be able to identify what you're shooting before pulling the trigger....In California, you can't kill two birds with one stone.

Feds hurt Wyoming's efforts to settle wolf issue The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had an opportunity recently to make real progress on the seemingly unending wolf de-listing issue - and they blinked. Instead of a careful response to litigation triggered by earlier efforts to remove wolves from Endangered Species Act protections, the agency is pushing for a careless new plan in a rushed process designed to fail. Instead of addressing genetic-diversity concerns by enhancing natural dispersal, the USFWS is proposing to set a dangerous precedent by using expensive, heavy-handed methods that include trucking wolves from state to state, artificial insemination and pup-swapping. Instead of helping Wyoming shore up the deficiencies in its management plan, the agency is telling us to fend for ourselves.They doom us to many more years of court haggling on an issue that already has exhausted us all. In short, instead of taking Wyoming a step forward, the Fish & Wildlife Service is attempting to knock us three steps backward....

Feds not complying with act passed 18 years ago I recently asked a spokesperson for the nation’s largest public power company about thousands of American Indian bones and funeral objects in the federal corporation’s possession. The Tennessee Valley Authority spokesperson seemed to think I was pulling his leg when I told him the TVA had bones belonging to more than 8,000 individual Indians and nearly 21,000 funeral objects. The bones and items were removed from Native archeological and burial sites as part of the TVA’s economic development project spanning seven states. “Where do we keep them?” said John Moulton, TVA’s senior news bureau manager. “Do we have them buried somewhere?” He said he’s worked with the TVA for 22 years and never heard such a story. The TVA’s bone collection is part of a recently released report that outlines enforcement and oversight problems among federal agencies charged to abide by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a law passed 18 years ago in November. The “Federal Agency Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act” report concludes government agencies have “no apparent enforcement mechanisms or incentives” to comply with NAGPRA. Today, agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and TVA have more than 118,000 human remains in their possession. The bones are stockpiled on shelves at universities and museums across the country. After making an inquiry, the TVA spokesman learned the power company stores most Indian remains at the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama....Imagine that, federal agencies not complying with federal law. What are the consequences to these agencies for noncompliance? What would be the consequences to you or I?

County demands seat at table with federal agencies The Jefferson County Commission flexed its political muscles, Tuesday, unanimously passing a resolution seeking an equal voice with federal agencies on planning activities within the county. The county commission is sending a letter to federal and state agencies asserting the county’s legal standing and requesting coordination with all federal and state agencies with jurisdiction over lands in Jefferson County. Public lands comprise about 70 percent of the county’s land mass. “We have good relationships with most federal agencies,” said County Attorney Mathew Johnson. “But we’re not treated equally. We’re treated as subordinates.” The latest issue that brought this to a head, Johnson said following the meeting, is the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest Travel Plan. But the major impetus was a Forest Service plan in the Clancy-Unionville area several years ago that closed some roads, he said. Disputes over these road closures led to county efforts in 2005 and 2006 to seek legal jurisdiction over all rights-of-way in the county. At that time, the county claimed legal authority under a provision of the 1866 Mining Law. Butte Bureau of Land Management Field Manager Rick Hotaling said he had not yet been informed of the resolution. Another issue is that county commissioners are required under Montana’s sunshine laws to make public documents they receive. But under the federal agencies rules, committee members can’t share internal planning documents, Hotaling said, because these change from week to week. Circulating early drafts to the public would just cause confusion, he said....Thanks for not confusing the public by giving them timely information. Knowing what changes were made, and when and by whom would be oh so confusing. Just keep the poor bastards in the dark.

Animal rights activists seek export-for-slaughter ban as number of US horses sent abroad rises In about 30 minutes, Barnes bought 25 so-called "killer horses." Their new owner would subject them to what animal rights groups say is a growing type of abuse: trucking them nearly 700 miles to Canada for slaughter, circumventing a U.S. ban on the practice. Much of the meat is eventually exported to countries in Europe and Asia for human consumption. Stacy Segal, a horse specialist at the Humane Society of the United States, and other animal rights activists want a ban on exporting U.S. horses for slaughter abroad. "They're jammed onto trailers with no regard for breed, size, age, temperament or sex and get no feed or rest," Segal said. Last year, when state-imposed bans closed the last three U.S. horse slaughterhouses, a record 78,000 horses were exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics compiled by the Humane Society. That's a 138 percent increase from 2006. Statistics show that 76,100 horses have been slaughtered in Canada and Mexico so far this year. But the actual figure is likely higher because Canada hasn't yet reported two months' worth of slaughter numbers. Barnes and others acknowledge that the long trip is stressful on the animals, but they blame animal rights activists who successfully pushed for all U.S. horse slaughterhouses to shut down. They say the increased exportation of horses is better than the alternative: horses being neglected and abused by owners who don't want them or can't afford to take care of them....