Environmentalists push for massive north-state conservation area

This report is from the Sacramento Bee:

Schneider is board president of Tuleyome, a Woodland-based environmental nonprofit organization working to establish a National Conservation Area – the third in California – encompassing nearly half a million acres in six counties. The country's 13 existing National Conservation Areas create a single, cohesive plan to preserve and manage vast landscapes typically managed by a patchwork of public agencies, including counties. The designation, which must be approved by Congress, provides a more logical way to properly care for an ecosystem, which doesn't acknowledge political boundaries, Schneider said. Some farmers and ranchers, particularly in Glenn and Colusa counties, oppose the conservation area because it could exacerbate existing problems, said Ashley Indrieri, executive director of the Family Water Alliance in Colusa County. Public lands aren't adequately managed to curtail trespassing and other infringements that plague private property owners, she said. If the conservation area expands, so will the problem, Indrieri said. Habitat restoration could also threaten adjacent agricultural land owners, she said. "Restoring the land means increasing pest species," she said. "You bring these critters back to the land."....

Tribal Attempt to Halt Nevada Gold Mine Fails in Court

From the Environmental News Service:

A federal judge has decided not to grant an injunction sought by the Western Shoshone Tribe and four other plaintiffs to stop construction one of the largest open pit gold mines in the United States - the Cortez Hills Expansion Project on Mt. Tenabo. Barrick Gold based in Canada, the world's largest gold mining company, has been granted a permit to construct and operate the mine in an area that the tribes' lawsuit states is "located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation." Judge Larry Hicks of the federal district court in Reno today ruled that because tribal members would continue to have access to areas they claim for religious and spiritual purposes, including the top of Mt. Tenabo, the White Cliffs, and Horse Canyon, the gold mine could go ahead and the mining permit would not be revoked. A key question in this case was whether the permit granted by the Bureau of Land Management imposed a "substantial burden" on the tribe's religious conduct under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Judge Hicks concluded that while tribal members' spiritual experience may be diminished by the project, that does not amount to a substantial burden....

Testimony continues in Esperanza wildfire murder trial

The Desert Sun reports:

Prosecution testimony is slated to resume today in the murder trial of Raymond Lee Oyler, a former Beaumont mechanic accused of igniting the 2006 Esperanza wildfire, which killed five firefighters. Oyler faces five counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Esperanza blaze and is also charged with multiple counts of arson and possessing destructive devices. He could face the death penalty if convicted. In his opening statement Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin told jurors the 38-year-old defendant was ``a man bent on destruction'' when he allegedly lit the Esperanza blaze and 22 other fires in the Banning Pass. The Oct. 26, 2006, Esperanza fire killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters, scorched more than 41,000 acres, destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings, killed livestock and damaged a highway.

Wily in the pursuit of coyotes

The LA Times has this story about the conflicts between wildlife and suburbia:

For years, coyotes have fed on pets in this hilltop neighborhood. When residents complain to the county, the county calls Rizzo. The trapper, born and raised in the hardwood forests of the Mississippi Delta, specializes in California's big predators: coyotes, bears and mountain lions. Bear and lion problems make news. Coyotes make business. Rizzo spends about 80% of his time tracking, trapping and putting down wild canids from Pacific Palisades to Twentynine Palms. His services are at once widely sought and controversial, reflecting suburbia's conflicted relationship with its wildlife. This month, animal rights groups demanded the Huntington Library halt Rizzo's trapping of coyotes in the botanical gardens, threatening in a letter to make a "broader public issue of the case." At the same time, neighbors in San Marino have demanded the library do more to cull the coyotes living on the 207-acre property and feeding on their pets. One woman even sued the Huntington after her Pomeranian was killed a couple of blocks away.

Nature Conservancy Fights Planned Border Fence

National Public Radio reports on this controversy in south Texas:

The Nature Conservancy owns the Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve — a thousand acres that include one of the largest remaining forests of native sabal palm. There, imperiled wildcats like the ocelot and jaguarundi still skulk through the underbrush. Birdwatchers come from around the world to check green jays, chachalacas and black-bellied whistling ducks off their life lists. So last month, when the Department of Homeland Security announced its intention to erect an 18-foot tall, concrete-and-steel barrier for a mile through the preserve, the Nature Conservancy was not happy. Though the fence would be built on mainly nonforested land, conservationists worry it will sever the refuge. "If the fence is constructed, it will trap three-quarters of the preserve between the fence and the river. That includes all of our facilities, includes the home of our preserve manager who lives there full-time," Najera says. The conservancy has refused to accept the government's offer of $114,000 in compensation for the land under the fence. Now, Homeland Security has sued in federal court to force the sanctuary to let it build the barrier.

There’s no ‘moo’ in the word ‘stimulus’

The Hill reports on the proposed dairy buyout:

Stimulus legislation under consideration in Congress may have a little something for everyone, but it won’t include a government buyout of dairy cows. Cattle ranchers who worried that the provision would lower the price of beef lobbied against the buyout, although it is unclear how seriously lawmakers in the Senate or House considered it. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) wrote members of the Senate last week asking that they oppose any effort to use stimulus funds to buy older dairy cows from farmers. Heather Vaughan, a spokeswoman for the group, said they believed an effort to take about 6.5 billion pounds of milk off the market would involve purchasing 320,000 dairy cows. Those cows would then end up in the beef market, probably for use as ground beef, Vaughan said. While this would help dairy farmers by raising the price of milk, NCBA argued it would hurt cattle ranchers by lowering prices by as much as 49 percent.

Ag Secretary's News Conference

For a transcript of the news conference, go here.

Here's what he said on environmental issues:

I also want this Department to be a national leader in climate change mitigation, adaptation efforts. This of course will involve conservation, greater efficiency with the energy that we have, as well as new technologies and expanded opportunities in biofuels and renewable energy. I'm going to work to advance research and development and pursue opportunities to support the development of additional biofuels, wind power, and other renewable energy sources. We need to make sure that the biofuels industry has the necessary support to survive the recent downturn while at the same time promoting policies that will speed up the development of second and third-generation feedstocks for those biofuels that have the potential to significantly improve America's energy security and independence. I expect our farmers and ranchers will play a role in making progress on the great challenge of climate change and on other major environmental challenges. It's important to me that the USDA lead efforts to incentivize management practices that promote and provide clean air, clean water, and wildlife habitat, and to help farmers participate in markets that reward them for sequestering carbon and limiting greenhouse gas emissions. It is my hope that the Farm Bill's provisions in terms of energy and conservation can be implemented promptly and properly and that we see the Forest Service as a new opportunity for us to engage in climate change mitigation/adaptation strategies...

Later, in response to a question, he said:

Meanwhile, I think it is important for us to take a look at the fairly significant set of legislative proposals that were made in the energy title of the Farm Bill and to work very quickly to implement as many of those as possible. We need to create additional demand for advanced biofuels and renewable energy, working with farmers for example to determine how best they could change their operations to embrace renewable energy and fuel in their operations, working with rural communities to encourage the same, working with farmers to encourage them to produce biomass crops, working with the Forest Service to take a look at how the woody biomass operations may be called into play to increase the supply of second and third generation biofuels. There are a series of tax credits, grants, and loan programs designed to expand production facilities and to convert existing production facilities to use these new fuels. All of that is in the realm, if you will, of the USDA, and I think it's important for the USDA to aggressively promote these efforts. I think we are in a position to begin the march which President Obama has laid out of creating new green collar jobs. It can and should and I believe ought to begin in rural America, and I think USDA is prepared to do this.

Global warming effects to last 1,000 years

From the Houston Chronicle:

Carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere today from power plants and cars will affect surface temperatures and sea levels for more than 1,000 years, scientists from the U.S. and Europe reported. Coastal regions and small islands could be submerged for centuries, even if carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped in the next 100 years, according to a new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency’s report appeared on Monday in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Clinton climate change envoy vows 'dramatic diplomacy'

Hillary Clinton, according to this report, has appointed a special envoy to lead U.S. policy on global warming:

Todd Stern, a senior White House official under former President Bill Clinton, will be the administration's principal adviser on international climate policy and strategy and its chief climate negotiator. Stern coordinated climate change policy from 1997 to 1999 in her husband Bill Clinton's administration, acting as the senior White House negotiator in the Kyoto talks. About 190 countries are trying to craft a broader climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that binds wealthy nations to emission targets between 2008 and 2012. The new deal is supposed to be wrapped up in Copenhagen by December.

Obama moves toward regulating greenhouse gases

The AP reports:

For a decade, environmentalists and states have urged the federal government to limit greenhouse gases from automobile tailpipes. On Monday, President Barack Obama took a step toward making it happen. He ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider allowing California, 16 states and the District of Columbia to control the amount of greenhouse gases — mainly carbon dioxide — in truck and car exhaust. It was the clearest signal yet the Obama administration plans to regulate the emissions blamed for global warming.

Officials, Catron residents discuss wolf program

The Silver City Daily Press reports that Benjamin Tuggle, Regional Director of the USFWS met with local citizens concerning the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. Tuggle told the group he was not in favor of any changes to the EIS. Tuggle told the group, “We have to modify the protocol" and "We have to look at the carrying capacity, pack dynamics and enough land space." He also told the crowd said he was seeking interdiction funding to reimburse ranchers for cattle loss.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Alan Tackman, Catron County rancher, spoke with emotion and sometimes seemed on the verge of tears. “One day I was pulling a trailer with cattle in the front and horses in the back, when wolves chased us,' Tackman said. “They aren’t wild. She came right up beside my truck. Female 923 stood looking at me. I told her I wasn’t going to feed her.' Last year, Tackman reported losing 15 grown, productive cows, and 20 to 30 of his 150 calves last year. Between eight and 10 of the cows died due to wolf depredation and the others probably succumbed to bear attacks and eating toxic weeds.
“I was constantly finding dead stuff,' Tackman said. “The country is so rough that it would be two or three days before I would find the carcasses.' In July, he also found five injured calves with bite marks corresponding to the width of wolf teeth. In August, the district ranger allowed him to move one-third of his cattle to a grazing permit 60 miles from his property. At the time, he said, he was told by Matt Wunder of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish that the department did not care how many calves were killed, “they weren’t going to remove the wolves.' Tackman was faced with the Dark Canyon Pack denning on his fence line and raising pups. To protect his cattle, he moved them from the area close to the den. As a result, the wolves moved to the neighboring ranch and that rancher had to move his cattle to his winter grazing area. “So the wolves came back to us,' Tackman said. “The bottom line for us is that wolf depredation is costing me $20,000 a year. “I’ve tried everything,' Tackman continued. “I kept the cows in with the calves. I rode the range and had additional range riders, but the wolves hunt at night. It’s a pretty hard thing to swallow...

...Tackman was approached by John Horning of WildEarth Guardians asking him to retire his permit and the organization would pay him for it. “(My family and I) talked about retiring and selling the permit so we could keep living here,' Tackman said. “I called him back to tell him yes, and he said the organization couldn’t afford it.' Although ostensibly Defenders of Wildlife has a reimbursement program for cattle losses due to wolf depredation, Tackman said he has been paid for one cow in 10 years. “ I don’t even call anymore,' he said. “Build a wolf sanctuary or something, but don’t keep killing us.' Tackman said three of his ranching neighbors have sold their land and moved away because of the wolf.

Bucky Allred, owner of the Blue Front Café in Glenwood, said that late last summer his daughter, Sarah, and a Blue Front Café employee, Dave Hathaway, saw what they believed was a wolf at the Catron County landfill. The next morning, she reported it to the Catron County wolf investigator, Jess Carey, who was in the field investigating a wolf kill. The same day, Allred received a call from a biologist at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish who said he was passing along a message that the site had been checked by a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf officer. The report said he found only quail, skunk, and dog or coyote tracks. Allred asked how the officer how found the site, because only his daughter and employee knew where the wolf had been seen. The biologist told Allred he had no idea and didn’t care. He was just passing on the message. The next day, Carey was shown the place where the wolf had been sighted and he took six castings of a wolf track...

If you're interested in the wolf program and want to know it's impact on people in the recovery area, you need to read this article. It's hard to understand how any elected official, federal or state, would impose this program on these families.

Billions of dollars are spent on "rural development" by one government agency while another is running families off. It's shameful.

If the link has expired, you can read the full article here.

Warming Trends Alter Conservation

From the Washington Post:

As climate change begins to transform the environment in the United States and overseas, policymakers and environmentalists are realizing that the old paradigm of setting aside tracts of land or sea to preserve species that might otherwise disappear is no longer sufficient. It was an idea that worked in 1872, when one of the reasons cited for establishing Yellowstone National Park was to help preserve the few remaining buffalo. But as temperatures rise and animals and even plants migrate to more hospitable habitats, fixed boundaries set years ago no longer provide the protection some species need. Experts are exploring new strategies, focusing on such steps as protecting migration corridors, collecting and transplanting seeds, making sanctuary boundaries flexible and managing forests in novel ways.

...NOAA Assistant Administrator Richard W. Spinrad advocates creation of a national climate service to give agencies across the federal government better access to scientific projections so they can anticipate and plan for eventualities such as extended droughts and changes in water flows.

...Protecting wildlife, these experts say, can involve setting aside more land for species to migrate, protecting higher-elevation habitats that have lower temperatures and rooting out invasive species that threaten native ones.

...Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne created a climate change task force in March 2007 that outlined 80 climate policy options on Dec. 3; the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a more detailed draft climate plan less than two weeks later, urging the agency to find ways to connect broader landscapes and assess which species are at the highest risk because of global warming.

...Academics and conservation groups have just begun to calculate the costs of trying to protect landscapes and species in light of climate change. The Wildlife Federation has called on the government to set aside $7.2 billion annually for the next two decades to help natural resources in the United States adapt to global warming.

That should give you a flavor for what's coming.

When you start hearing about "flexible boundaries", and "protecting landscapes" and "migration corridors", you better get ready to lose your property.

Bush legacy leaves uphill climb for U.S. parks

From the LA Times:

...Cannon has been focusing on this view after the federal Bureau of Land Management decided in November to auction oil and gas leases on 360,000 acres of public land in Utah, including 93 parcels on or near the boundaries of these parks and nearby Dinosaur National Monument. The leasing decision was put on hold by a judge Jan. 17, after protests from the park service and environmentalists who complained that the view from the famed sandstone arches and spires would be despoiled by the new roads, heavy equipment, drilling platforms and veil of dust that would accompany the exploration for fossil fuels. But it is only a temporary victory on the heels of what some in the park service see as a string of defeats in which the nation's parks often acquiesced to the encroachment of commercial interests and energy projects during the eight years of the Bush administration. Among the recently approved projects is a uranium mine two miles from a Grand Canyon visitors center. Critics of the Bush administration -- former park directors among them -- say its emphasis on commerce over conservation left a legacy that the national parks could be grappling with for decades to come.

Few wild horses find homes during BLM auction

362 Horses were brought to the auction and only 8 were sold.

This article in the Salt Lake Tribune quotes a BLM official who says wild horses sold at auction in 2004 and 2006 brought up to $3500 per animal.

So what did they bring this year? The total paid for all 8 horses was $725. That's 90 bucks a horse!

Thank the do-gooders in Congress and state legislatures who killed the horse market, and thank the deep thinkers in Congress whose energy policies have driven up the price of feed. Maybe someday we'll get a total on how many horses they've caused to starve to death.

Stimulus Policy and Western Politics

Joan McCarter of New West gives her take on recent politics in the west and it's impact on environmental policy. I think it's safe to say she doesn't like Republicans.

She's a proponent of the restoration economy and calls for the stimulus package to include "restoration projects" for National Parks, Forest Service lands, etc.

To understand where all this is coming from, you can visit Progressive States Network and Western Progress.

Economic stimulus or just more pork?

Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Zachary Coile has a column questioning whether the Dem's stimulus package will stimulate the economy:

Is $200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall a crucial way to stimulate the U.S. economy? How about $276 million to fix the computer systems at the State Department? And what about $650 million to repair dilapidated Forest Service facilities?...Some of the biggest winners in the package are federal agencies, which would see a huge infusion of money. The Social Security Administration would get $400 million to replace its 30-year old computer system. The Agricultural Research Service would receive $209 million for deferred maintenance at its facilities. The General Services Administration would get $600 million to replace its older fleet of vehicles with new alternative-fuel cars and trucks.

The Park Service will get $1.8 billion to repair it's facilities and the USDA will receive $44 million to repair it's headquarters.

Coile also notes:

...the Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 7 percent of infrastructure money would make its way into the economy by the end of the year, and only 38 percent would be spent by the end of the 2010 fiscal year.

So, are they stimulating the economy or feeding the hog?

Silver City Paper To Tour Ranches

Holly Wise, News Bureau Chief for the Silver City Sun-News, will be touring ranches and getting to know ranch families. Holly says:

I'm going to travel off the beaten path, talk to ranchers, their families and experts, take pictures and report back to you. In the end, I think we're both going to enjoy exploring this cultural way of life and the incredible people who have been at the helm of forming this history. My credentials for writing the series could be questioned, I know. After all, I am from Kentucky, where we are more known for horse racing and bluegrass than our beef cattle. Though I'm relatively new to the New Mexico way of cowboy life, I have been on my fair number of "round-ups," "gatherings," "the works," (whatever name suits you) on my family's ranch in Otero County. Probably more noteworthy than that is the fact that I'm curious and want to learn.

I look forward to reading and linking to these articles.

HSUS adds another animal rights organization

This article lays out the recent action by the Humane Society of The United States:

High feed costs aren’t the only threat facing America's livestock producers today. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR) announced Monday a corporate combination agreement creating the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association. It's the latest effort by HSUS to further the anti-meat agenda of its vegan (vegetarian) leader Wayne Pacelle. A news release from HSUS, announcing the launch of yet another in Pacelle's "family of organizations" explains that both groups have long expressed frustration with the positions taken by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The release points to the stand AVMA has taken on the slaughter of horses for human consumption, the continued use of dogs and cats in research, cruelty to ducks and geese in the production of foie gras, the confinement of veal calves, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens in crates and cages. So what's the big deal? Why should you care? According to HSUS, of the approximately 80,000 veterinarians in this country, 11,000 are already supporters of HSUS. How many large animal vets are located and currently practicing in your community?

Change Agenda for Animals

This is another item brought to us by the Humane Society of the United States and their legislative fund. According to the article, HSUS wants ear of new administration, this organization has issued a report with 100 recommendations.

Among those recommendations are the creation of an Animal Protection Liaison in the White House and an appointment of a new Assistant U.S. Attorney to head a new Animal Protection Division in the Justice Department.

From the article:

The proposed 100-point "Change Agenda for Animals" lists changes at several federal agencies, including 18 at USDA, 20 at Department of the Interior, 5 at EPA, 4 at Department of Justice, 6 at Commerce, 1 at HUD, 1 at FTC, 10 at State Department, 1 at USAID, 7 at USTR, 4 at HHS/NIH, 8 at HHS/FDA/CDC, 7 at DOD, 2 at Transportation, 1 each at Education and Treasury, 2 at U.S. Postal Service and 1 at Consumer Product Safety Commission. What does the U.S. Postal Service have to do with animal rights? HSUS wants to halt the shipment of baby chicks or other agricultural animals through the postal service.

Go here(pdf) to view the report.

Horses, wagons plied Oregon Trail even into 1900s

John Terry, a columnist with The Oregonian, writes that a question he answered several weeks ago about when animal-powered migration ended drew quite a response from his readers:

Though travel on the Oregon Trail subsided substantially with the advent of rails, a good many folks still made their way to Oregon via the method traditionally linked to the great wagon trains of the 1840s and '50s. "My mother . . . traveled with her parents and siblings by mule and horse-drawn wagons from Larned, Kan., in 1878 to Silverton, Ore.," wrote Don Bryant of Lake Oswego. "They settled somewhere in what I believe may have been called Howell Prairie. They were one unit of what was a rather considerable wagon train." "My grandfather, John Ross, and his brother, Clifton Ross, came across the Oregon Trail in 1891 from Nebraska," said Carole Putman of West Linn. "My maternal grandparents started out in Ogallala, Neb., which is on the Oregon Trail, around 1896," said Chuck Barrows of Portland, and, based on birth records, lived in Vernal, Utah, in 1897, Walla Walla in 1899, Laramie, Wyo., in 1900, Mackey, Idaho, 1902, arriving in St. Johns in 1906. They used horses to pull their wagon and buffalo chips to cook with in areas where wood was scarce."

DOD - The Largest Landlord In The World

In a post on Friday I linked to a Denver Post editorial on the Army's proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Training Facility. According to the editorial the Army says its training land shortfall will reach 4.5 million acres by 2013. My comment was "What a laugh."

I decided to look into this further. I knew the military had a bunch of land, but I didn't know exactly how much.

The Base Structure Report(pdf) for FY 2008 contains the land profile for the Department of Defense. The introduction to the report states, "The Depart of Defense remains one of the world's largest 'landlords' with a physical plant consisting of more than 545,700 facilities (buildings, structures and linear structures) located on more than 5400 sites, on approximately 30 million acres."

The land profile further refines that to 29.8 million acres owned or controlled by DOD. More than 98% of the land is in the US, with the Army managing 52% and the Air Force 33%.

29.8 million acres equals 46,562.5 square miles. How do you put that in perspective? Let's try this: Of the Thirteen Original Colonies, six of them (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire & Massachusetts) would fit into the land mass controlled by DOD, with 8359 square miles or 5.3 million acres left over. In other words, you could add another New Jersey.

29.8 million acres and they don't have enough land to practice? They may have a turf problem or a setting of priorities problem, but they don't have a lack of land problem.

This and other proposed military expansions across the west point out another issue. You don't need 29.8 million acres for training if your mission is to defend the U.S. You need that kind of acreage if you are establishing an empire and policing the world. And that has costs beyond the dollars appropriated as witnessed by the landowners being threatened in Colorado. Expansion abroad means an expanding government at home, and less freedom for all.

Go here to learn more about the Pinon Canyon expansion

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Cowboy economics

Julie Carter

As a rule, cowboys are generally so broke they can go through several downturns of the stock market and most of a major recession without noticing much change.

However, let there be an extended drought and they will begin to ponder some serious changes in their business. Sometimes the drought and the recession happen at the same time.

True to form, Dan went to his Uncle Tex for some advice about weathering the current hard times.

Tex thought for a minute and then told Dan that when he personally faced similar economic conditions, he would supplement his income with a little hunting and trapping of varmints, usually coyotes, for the fur market.

Dan thought it was a good idea, but not one that would help him financially at this time because currently, nobody was buying many furs. But, the recreational aspect of such a project was enticing.

That night Dan called his buddies Tim and David and a coyote hunt was organized. They stopped by the beer store for refreshments and nourishment (Slim Jims) and headed for David's back pasture.

David had indicated there was a little heel fly tank on the backside where all kinds of varmints watered. When they got to the tank, it was nearly dry and had crusted over a long ways out to where the little bit of water stood.

David eased the truck down fairly close to the remaining puddle and they set up shop. Coyote calls, guns, snacks and sharp hunter instincts all were ready.

While waiting for the coyotes to respond to the calls, the trio discussed the possible ways of alleviating their cash-flow problems.

The lottery was the best option they could come up with and at the current $43 million - they determined it could help out.

Dreams always come easy to cowboys, so these three quickly moved past the buying of the ticket to planning what to do with their winnings.

David's No.-1 priority was to buy a new deer rifle. Tim thought about it for a while, said Becky Jean had been campaigning for a new house, so he would get that for her.

Both Dan and David quickly cautioned Tim to consider that option very carefully because they'd heard Becky say she wanted the wheels off her next house and they knew they'd be roped into helping with the work.

Dan's frugal nature directed his thinking in that he felt one might need to keep a little in reserve.

He thought he had about all the things he needed, although he did consider buying a new saddle and saving the other $42,998,000 for hard times.

Soon the dedicated hunters spotted a pair of coyotes coming to the call. The plan was for David to ease out of the truck and take a shot.

When he stepped out the door, he was immediately in mud up to his knees.

He looked at the truck. While they had been counting and spending their lottery winnings, it had slowly settled in mud all the way to the axles.

The crust on the banks of the tank has just been a cover for the very sticky, gooey stuff underneath.

It was a long walk back to the road to fetch a tractor, but they managed to carry the cooler with them as well as make a decision as to where they would buy their lottery tickets.

Hard times don't discourage cowboys as long as they keep their priorities in order.

Find Julie on her website – www.julie-carter.com

It’s The Pitts: Color Blind

Lee Pitts

Old timers thought you could tell a lot about a horse just by what color it was. They believed white horses had constitutional weaknesses as a result of inbreeding, bay horses were the meanest and chestnuts were the most easily injured. I wouldn’t dare make such glittering generalities about horses... but I would about the people who ride them. You see, I have the uncanny ability to tell what people are like and to predict their future just by the color of the horse they ride. For example:

Brown: If you ride a brown horse you are the no-nonsense, quiet type whose capacity for hard work is amazing. You are also a tightwad and very boring. As a rule, never travel the rodeo circuit with a cowboy who rides a brown horse; he won’t pay his way and will practically bore you to death. By the time you get to Phoenix you’ll be so depressed you’ll have a death wish and enter the bull riding instead of the team roping.

White: I will try to be gentle with my analysis here because riders of white horses are emotionally vulnerable and have thin skin. You are a good listener and depress easily so you should avoid any long term commitment with anyone who rides a brown horse. Although you and your horse are good swimmers you provide an easy target and attract bad karma like a white horse attracts lightning.

Palomino: Riders of golden horses tend to be wealthy and are more apt to be a member of a Sheriff's posse and ride in parades. If you ride a palomino there’s a good chance you and your horse wouldn’t know a cow from a chicken pot pie and the only thing you or your horse are apt to catch is sleeping sickness. It is a little known fact that those people who ride palomino horses are more likely to show up on The World’s Biggest Loser. Do your horse a favor and enroll in a gym or fitness club today.

Bay: Bays are light red in color and red just happens to be the most frightening color of the spectrum. That ought to tell you something. You and your horse are cunning, alert, stable, and loyal, but can also be vicious. You are both sensitive around the head and ears. Just like your horse, you can be balky at times and like to kick up your heels on occasion. I foresee many solitary long walks in your future.

Gray: You are a slow, plodding unflashy person with a big collection of trophy saddles and buckles won at jackpot and USTRC ropings. You are an easy keeper, slow and steady, good with kids and as emotional as a refrigerator. Even though you often win the race, nobody bets on you because you have a poor marketing campaign. You excel as a spouse and a teacher, but the life of the party you are definitely NOT.

Roans: Strawberry roan riders are cowboy poets and blue roan riders are usually running for, or away, from something. When you buy your next horse beware of roans because they are like beautiful women: more trouble than they’re worth.

Paints and Pintos: You are a show off who likes to be the center of attention. You own the best horse trailer in the parking lot and the silver on your bit, bridle, saddle and spurs would melt down for more than your horse is worth. You are not good with money and don’t keep a tight rein on your spending. Divorce and bankruptcy run in your family. Riders of paints and pintos are either top hands or complete doofuses. I won’t say which one you are.

Black: You have boundless energy, an explosive temper and fall in love blindly. You make hasty decisions which you later feel remorseful about: such as buying a black horse to ride in Tucson in the middle of July. More so than any other rider, you are more likely to be kicked by your horse and spend time in the hospital as a result of being launched so high that birds built nests in your beard before you hit the ground.

Sorrel: People who ride sorrels are original, intelligent, ambitious and have few, if any, faults. They are also easily offended and angry readers should not write nasty letters to them just because they happen to ride a paint, pinto, palomino or roan.

Avian Flu Found In Canada

The Montreal Gazette reports:

Nearly 60,000 turkeys from a B.C. farm will be killed after Saturday's positive test result for avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed the presence of H5 avian flu virus after initial tests showed the turkeys from E&H Farms, in Abbotsford, B.C., were infected. Abbotsford is about 70 kilometres southeast of Vancouver, near the U.S. border. "All birds on the infected premises will be humanely euthanized and disposed of, in accordance with provincial environmental regulations and internationally accepted disease-control guidelines," said the CFIA news release. "Once all birds have been removed, the CFIA will oversee the cleaning and disinfection of the barns, vehicles, equipment and tools to eliminate any infectious material that may remain."

Forest Service Water Policy

The work of Gordon Grant, a USGS groundwater researcher is covered by High Country News. Here's an excerpt that mentions FS groundwater policy and how it will impact land use:

Within the Forest Service, which manages the land that supplies water to over 60 million Americans, very little research is directed toward understanding groundwater systems. Grant is doing the most cutting-edge work "by far," says Christopher Carlson, the agency's national groundwater program leader. But he may soon have company. Carlson is developing a national policy on groundwater management for the 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. It assumes a connection between surface and groundwater resources, and emphasizes sustaining groundwater-dependent ecosystems, home to many threatened and endangered species. Before it was founded in 1905, the Forest Service was directed to secure "favorable conditions of water flows." Carlson's policy may be the first major implementation of that directive. "We're transforming 100 years of Forest Service practices," he says. Grant has already documented the amount of water stored underground in the High Cascades. He can even explain how it got there and why. "What I lose sleep over is what we ought to be doing about it," he says. "This is where water will be in the future."An optimist at heart, Grant is confident that widespread understanding of groundwater and its relationship to river systems will evolve. One day it will be as universally accepted as plate tectonics, he says. Then, he believes, land management will revolve around it: "Clean water will be the single most important commodity produced from national forest lands. It will totally eclipse timber."

West's trees dying faster as temperatures rise

The LA Times is reporting on a USGS study finding that more trees are dying in the west:

Death rates had doubled in British Columbia and the Pacific NW according to the study. California experienced the highest death rates, at 1.5 % per year.Scientists who examined decades of tree mortality data from research plots around the West found the death rate had risen as average temperatures in the region increased by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit. "Tree death rates have more than doubled over the last few decades in old-growth forests across the Western United States," said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Phillip van Mantgem, coauthor of a paper published in today's issue of the journal Science and released Thursday.

The study found the increasing death rates in a wide variety of forest types, elevations and tree sizes.

Trees Die While The Forest Service Is In Court

The Helena Independent-Record reports:

In a decision issued Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Helena forest’s 2003 plan to undertake commercial thinning and other efforts to remove small trees and vegetation on about 1,500 acres. However, Helena District Ranger Duane Harp said the prescription is only good now for about 100 acres containing Douglas fir trees, since about 90 percent of the trees on the remaining 1,400 acres — mainly lodgepole pines — are now dead. “We are obviously extremely pleased that the Ninth Circuit has found in our favor. But it’s bittersweet news because with the current beetle epidemic, the vast majority of the project area, which was proposed for timber harvest, is now dead,” Harp said. “You can’t use the prescription for green trees on dead trees.

What a wonderful way to manage our forests.

Arsonist 's Trial Begins

According to the AP the trial has begun for Robert Lee Oyler, accused of ignitaing a wildfire that killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters in 2006:

In opening statements for Raymond Lee Oyler's murder trial, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin told jurors that Oyler was a serial arsonist who set 25 blazes, including the Esperanza fire, and sometimes as many as three a day during 2006. Hestrin said Oyler was "a man bent on destruction ... a man wanting to be so important, he unleashed disaster on five men." Oyler, 38, has pleaded not guilty to 45 counts including murder and arson. He claimed he had been watching his 7-month-old child at home and then went to a casino when the Esperanza fire began on Oct. 26, 2006, as fierce Santa Ana winds roared through Southern California. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

Pinon Canyon residents deserve a full airing

The Denver Post editorializes:

Turns out it's not just the people of southeastern Colorado who think the Army needs to better explain why it needs to expand its Piñon Canyon training facility. An investigative arm of Congress has now called upon the Army to do just that. It's a welcome voice of reason in a debate that's been clouded by suspicion and an alarming paucity of information. Army leaders should heed the recommendations. At issue is the Army's fervent declaration that it needs to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. First, the plan was to acquire an additional 418,577 acres. After nearby landowners and members of Colorado's congressional delegation raised a stink, the Army announced it needed only 100,000 acres. But as the U.S. Government Accountability Office pointed out, the Army did not explain why it could do with less land or how much of the 100,000 acres would be used for actual training.

In the editorial, the Army claims it will have a 4.5 million acre land shortfall by 2013. What a laugh.

Anyway, it's nice to see the Denver Post take this position.

US lawmakers consider energy measures in stimulus

Reuters is reporting a house committe will approve $25 billion for energy projects as part of the $825 billion stimulus package (they now call it "economic recovery":

The package would also promote the development of so called smart power grid technology to support alternative energy use, plug-in hybrid vehicles and boost energy efficiency. Under the legislation, the government also would provide financial assistance of up to 50 percent of the costs for advanced grid technology necessary for certain electric utilities developing smart grid demonstration projects.

Joe Barton of Texas, ranking minority member criticized the proposal for short changing funding for carbon capture and storage capacity, clean coal development, and for ignoring nuclear energy.

This child thinks the whole thing is a waste. Congress will jump on any "emergency" to spend more money.

Split Estate Leases Hit Speedbump

The Farmington Times reports that while drilling rights were recently sold in San Juan County with little contention, 16,000 acres are being withheld from leasing in La Plata County Colorado:

Much of the property up for lease to developers is private land of which the federal government maintained below-surface mineral rights, known as a split estate, allowing the Bureau of Land Management to sell potential drilling sites to developers without regard to property lines. "Basically it was the fact that (residents) just said, No, we want to have some input in this process,'" said Matt Janowiak, assistant manager for physical resources with the San Juan Public Lands Center, which incorporates both the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service in Southwest Colorado. The BLM is looking to address both environmental concerns and property easement restrictions while seeking comment on the proposed leases. But the question is not if the land will be leased, it's when.

Several western states have enacted split estate legislation, leveling the playing fied between the surface owner and and the owner of the mineral estate. Similar legislation has been introduced in Colorado but hasn't become law. Governor Ritter needs to make this a priority.

A New Deal Gift That Keeps On Taking

The Wall Street Journal writes about Timberline Lodge, a famous New Deal WPA project:

Nestled beneath the peak of Mount Hood in the Cascade Mountain Range lies a bustling resort known as Timberline Lodge. It's part fortress (quarried from local rock), part manor house (complete with a great room) and part log cabin (some of the columns are whole trees). Think Johnny Appleseed meets Beowulf -- rustic, colossal, lots of fireplaces. But Johnny Appleseed didn't build it -- the federal government did. From the weather vane down to the stone foundations, Timberline Lodge is a product of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. President Roosevelt himself came to dedicate the lodge in 1937, "as a monument to the skill and faithful performance of workers on the rolls of the Works Progress Administration."

Roosevelt also said the project would "test the workability of recreational facilities installed by the government itself and operated under its complete control."

So how did this test workout? The Forest Service has had a private operator at the lodge who pays 4.5 % of earnings to the agency. Plus, the FS spends around $1.5 million a year on upkeep, Congress has added another $8 million in earmarks and private philanthropy had thrown in $4 million. The result? Not good. According to the story:

None of this is enough, though. Lodge spokesman Jon Tullis wrote in an email that Timberline hopes to identify some projects that are "deemed 'shovel ready' and worthy for consideration in Obama's stimulus plan."

So, an FDR stimulus project will need a bailout from the Obama stimulus package. Mr. Obama, meet Mr. Roosevelt.

No Avian Flu Found In NM

The avian flu is once again in the headlines. The death of a 19 year old woman in China is the first in that country since 2008, but the Chinese Health Ministry is forecasting an increase in the number of birds carrying the disease this year. Two more deaths in Indonesia (bringing their total to 115), and the recent finding that the flu is becoming more resistant to antiviral drugs is raising concerns among scientists.

However, there are some good news items. Worldwide deaths from the flu have decreased by 55% from 2007 to 2008, and here in New Mexico tests found no asian flu:

Tests at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge have turned up no sign of avian influenza. To date, the H5N1 virus has not been detected in the United States or anywhere in the western hemisphere. The state Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies finished annual testing at the wildlife refuge near Socorro this week, using a rocket net to capture ducks. It's part of a national program to test for avian flu. Migratory waterfowl also were tested at the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge, the Bernardo Wildlife Management Area and New Mexico Tech in Socorro. Officials checked 120 each of mallards, pintails, widgeons, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal.

COOL rule, many others, on hold awaiting review by Obama team

Feedstuffs reports COOL rule is among those delayed by Obama's decision to put a hold on all rules not finalzied (The COOL rule was published on Jan. 15). Feedstuffs also says:

Many other rules at USDA – including an APHIS proposed rule on the official numbering system for the National Animal Identification that was published on Jan. 13 and several rules implementing new provisions in the 2008 farm bill – will go into limbo as well, according to USDA spokesperson Jerry Redding. Additional rules at the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration are included under the White House instructions. But, it is unclear if an EPA rule that clarified when livestock operations were required to report air emissions is impacted by the White House memo. That rule, that includes provisions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) was published on Dec. 18 and was to go into effect on Jan. 20, the same day the memo was issued. Neither is it clear if the FDA's new guidance on genetically engineered animals will be affected.

No matter your position on these rules, it is another example of the incompetency of the Bush Administration. They knew the deadlines and couldn't meet them. What a sad commentary.

Norris to become Vilsack's chief of staff

The Des Moines Register reports:

John Norris, the chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board, is becoming Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s chief of staff. Norris’ wife, Jackie, was President Barack Obama’s Iowa campaign director and already had a job in Washington as chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama. Vilsack was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday and took the oath of office Wednesday afternoon and went to work at his new office at USDA, according to an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. The aide said David Lazarus, a former adviser to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who led an outreach effort to farm organizations during the campaign, will become a special assistant to Vilsack. Vilsack’s deputy chief of staff will be Carole Jett, a longtime employee in USDA’s Natural Resources and Conservation Service who helped direct Obama’s transition work with the department.

NCBA Asks Congress to Oppose Dairy Buyout in Stimulus Package

The NCBA is opposing the dairy buyout in the stimulus package according to this story.

The NCBA says the proposal would use taxpayer dollars to raise dairy prices by buying older dairy cows from farmers, taking approximately 6.5 billion gallons of milk off the market. This would result in nearly 320,000 additional head of cattle entering the beef market, which could drastically reduce the price of beef cattle.

In a letter to the Senate NCBA says:

“The cattle industry is not subsidized by the government, nor do we wish to be,” said NCBA President and Arizona rancher Andy Groseta. “However, we are subject to the unintended consequences of policy directed towards other sectors of agriculture, such as the dairy industry. Flooding the market with beef and driving down the price for our products will be devastating for America’s cattle producers.”

Proponents of the buyout suggest, you guessed it, subsidies for the beef industry:

Proponents of the buyout suggest lessening the consequences for the cattle industry by using United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 32 funds to purchase ground beef.

The same bad idea was tried in 1986 and didn't work.

Horse disease in Wyo.

Local News 8 is reporting:

The Wyoming State Veterinarian is investigating a possible case of a highly contagious equine venereal disease in the state. Officials say a mare in Wyoming has been linked to a Wisconsin stallion that was infected with contagious equine metritis (muh-TRY'-tis). It would be Wyoming's first case of the disease, which can result in temporary infertility and cause mares to abort their young. It does not affect other animals or humans and is treatable. As of Jan. 15, a total of 9 infected stallions have been detected nationwide - four in Kentucky, three in Indiana, and one each in Texas and Wisconsin. Wyoming is among at least 40 states involved in testing of horses that may have been exposed to the disease through natural breeding or artificial insemination.

Don Benito Wilson: Mountain Man to Mayor

Pasadena Now has a short book review on the history of what sounds like an interesting man:

In Don Benito Wilson: Mountain Man to Mayor, author Nat Read tells the story of the West and Los Angeles through a single notable figure, Don Benito Wilson, who was born during the lifetimes of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and who died in a Los Angeles that present-day citizens would begin to recognize. Mr. Read reveals the amazing tale of the “pioneer, beaver trapper and trader, grizzly bear hunter, Indian fighter, justice of the peace, farmer, rancher, politician, horticulturist, vintner, real estate entrepreneur, and one of the great landholders in Southern California.” He faced near death experiences with Indians, grizzlies, and a firing squad. Mount Wilson was named after him...

White House suspends action on gray wolf delisting

The Obama Administration has frozen the Department of Interior effort to take gray wolves off the list of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes regions. In a memorandum issued Tuesday to federal department heads, Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, wrote that no proposed or final regulations should be sent to the Federal Register for publication until they have been reviewed and approved by new agency heads appointed by the president. Emanuel added that all regulations sent to the Federal Register, but not yet published, also should be withdrawn for review and approval. Last week, the Department of Interior, which oversees endangered species, had said it expected to delist gray wolves after publishing a new rule in the Federal Register this week. That rule hadn’t been published as of Wednesday, which means it falls under Emanuel’s memo. Hugh Vickery, an Interior spokesman, said he wasn’t sure why the publication had been delayed, although he noted it often takes a few days for the paperwork to go through. Both Monday and Tuesday were federal holidays, which could have slowed the process. Vickery said that after the review, the proposal could go forward as proposed now; it could go forward with some modifications; or it might not go forward at all....

California expects fast Obama move on car pollution

California's top climate change official on Wednesday predicted President Barack Obama's administration would let the state impose its own tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars by May, in what would be a victory for environmentalists. If the EPA reverses the Bush administration ruling, more than 12 U.S. states could proceed with plans to impose stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars. California wants to reduce the emissions by 30 percent by 2016 -- the most ambitious federal or state effort to address global warming. Environmentalists have said granting California a waiver that allows it to set its own emissions regulations would signal Obama's commitment to tackling climate change. California wants to require carmakers to use paints that reflect more heat, tires that roll smoother and improved air conditioning to boost efficiency beyond the fuel mileage requirements already facing automakers....

Antarctica not immune to warming

The Earth's lone holdout to climate change, Antarctica, is actually warming, says a new study in today's edition of the journal Nature. Scientists had long thought that while some isolated parts of Antarctica had been warming, much of the continent had been cooling over the past 50 years. But the new analysis found that since 1957, when measured as a whole, the continent's temperature has risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit. Perhaps most troubling is that "a fairly large part of West Antarctica is warming more than we realized," says study co-author Michael Mann, a climatologist at Pennsylvania State University.Scientists say West Antarctica is the ice sheet most susceptible to a possible collapse in the future due to warming global temperatures. If the ice sheet collapsed, it would cause cataclysmic sea-level rise around the world....

Editorial - Saving the tortoise

Back in 1973, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act. Fifteen years later, someone looked around and realized there was no way to do a cost-benefit analysis on how much was being spent to "protect" the proliferating list of weeds and bugs in question, so Congress in 1988 added a section to the ESA requiring an annual species-by-species expenditure report. And about eight years later, the appropriate federal agencies finally got around to issuing them. And which endangered species do you suppose these government agencies spend the most tax dollars "protecting"? The grizzly bear? The bald eagle? No. The 2006 report, the latest released by the Fish and Wildlife Service, estimates $884 million were directly spent "protecting" more than 1,100 species on the list. But there's a wide disparity in how money is doled out. The top recipients have been salmon in the Pacific Northwest and the Steller sea lion. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on those species since reporting began in 1996. Another critter ranking high on the list of money spent by state and federal agencies trying to keep it from extinction, according to an Associated Press analysis of the past 11 years of available data, is Southern Nevada's own desert tortoise. From 1996 to 2006, more than $93 million was spent on managing the long-lived reptile, The AP figures. That's more than was spent on the grizzly, the gray wolf or the bald eagle. There are some odd things about the case of the Mojave Desert tortoise, though. For one thing, its "critical habitat" stretches across 9,600 square miles. Jurisdictions include four states, seven military installations, four national parks and scores of federal, state and county agencies. For another, for a supposedly "threatened" species, there seem to be a whole lot of them out there. Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, estimates there are 111,000 to 187,000 adult desert tortoises in areas designated as critical habitat. Government agencies spent $10.5 million on the desert tortoise in 2006 and more than $11 million in 2007 -- on monitoring, fences to keep them from wandering onto highways, studies on a respiratory disease and stacks of long-range plans. Problem is, no one's sure if it's done more good than harm....

Renewable energy permitting process streamlined

Four years ago, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which called for the development of 10,000 megawatts of non-hydropower, renewable energy projects on public lands by the year 2015. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management authorized the establishment of special offices in Wyoming and other Western states to expedite that renewable energy development on federal public lands. BLM officials said Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued a Secretarial Order on Friday that will allow the agency to establish coordination offices in Wyoming, Arizona, California and Nevada.
LM officials said those are the states where the greatest interest has been shown in renewable energy projects, most notably wind power projects. The offices will accelerate the permitting of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy projects, along with needed electrical transmission facilities, on BLM-managed lands, officials said in a release....

Instead of Glory, the Finder of a Rare Dinosaur Fossil Faces Charges of Theft

In October 2006, a respected amateur paleontologist, Nathan L. Murphy, took a large rock containing the well-preserved bones of a new species of dinosaur to be X-rayed at the Dinosaur Field Station here. He called the fossil, a raptor the size of a wild turkey, Sid Vicious. The find was a coup, bringing Mr. Murphy prestige and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars from the rights to cast the fossil for sale to museums and collectors. But Montana law enforcement officials now say that the fossil Mr. Murphy took to the field station in 2006 had actually been found four years earlier on a private ranch and therefore belongs to someone else. In September, after a yearlong investigation by state and federal authorities, Mr. Murphy was charged with felony theft. Federal agents have also questioned his associates about his other fossil discoveries. The investigations have caused consternation in this small town in the middle of some of the world’s richest dinosaur fields....

Valles Caldera trustees warn preserve may need cash

Trustees who oversee the Valles Caldera National Preserve are acknowledging that becoming financially self-sufficient is a challenge to every aspect of managing the former Northern New Mexico cattle ranch. The trustees said in a report to Congress they may have to request funding for maintenance of existing facilities, to meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and for possible new facilities to support public programs on the preserve. "It is our opinion that without adequate infrastructure, the trust will not be able to meet the financial self-sufficient mandate of the (Valles Caldera Preservation) Act," Gary Bratcher, the preserve's executive director, wrote in the report's cover letter. Purchased by the federal government in 2000 for $101 million, the 89,000-acre former cattle ranch is known for its meadows, streams, forests, volcanic domes and huge elk herds. The preserve is managed not by a federal agency, but by the trustees. It's an experiment in the way public lands are managed — only the Presidio in San Francisco, a military base-turned-park, has a similar governance....Most groups and agencies don't want this concept to work, and are making sure it doesn't.

Group recommends DU land buy be rejected

A group that advises Gov. John Hoeven on land purchases by nonprofits is recommending he reject a proposed 598-acre Ducks Unlimited land buy in Kidder County, saying the land would be better off in private ownership. The Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee voted 6-2 Wednesday against the $335,000 purchase. Should Hoeven follow the group's recommendation, it would be the second time in two years that Ducks Unlimited has been denied the chance to buy land in the nation's prime duck production territory. State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, who voted to oppose the land deal, said that North Dakota's anti-corporate farming law "presumes that these acquisitions are not to go forward" unless there are special circumstances, such as the land in question having a unique view or unique vegetation or wildlife. That was not the case with the Kidder County land, he said. Kramer said the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee often follows the wishes of the county governing board. "They are probably more in tune to what is transpiring on that property than we certainly are," he said....I've posted articles about this before. ND apparently has a law that all nonprofit land acquisitions must be approved by the Governor and there is also an advisory board to offer opinions to the Governor. Other states should take a look at this approach.

Could cows heal the West?

When Sid Goodloe bought his ranch half a century ago in south-central New Mexico, it was a dry, desertified mess. The roads leading to homesteads abandoned since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s had eroded into gullies. Overgrazing had stripped away soil-stabilizing ground cover. Where plowing had occurred, precious topsoil had dried up and blown away in the area’s fierce winds. Years of fire suppression had allowed pinyon-juniper forest to supplant grassland. “There was little here except broom weed, cactus, and pinyon-juniper,” says Mr. Goodloe. “And yet, it had tremendous potential.” The soil quality was good. Native American petroglyphs of beavers suggested that the area once supported a more productive ecosystem. With the proper care, the land could recover, Goodloe thought. But that would depend on bolstering its ability to retain water, the limiting factor in much of the semiarid Southwest. Originally from West Texas, Goodloe didn’t come from a ranching family. He had no one to turn to for advice, and no preconceived notions. So when, in the 1960s, he met Rhodesian land manager Allan Savory, he was receptive to Mr. Savory’s somewhat counterintuitive proposition: To heal the land, put more animals on it, not fewer – but move them after a relatively brief interval. If livestock mimicked the grazing behavior of wild herbivores – bunched together for safety, intensely grazing an area for a brief period, and then moving on – rangeland health would improve, Savory said. Today, Goodloe’s land is often referenced as a model of “sustainable ranching,” a phrase many consider an oxymoron in the West. Wild antelopes bound across his pastures, which are thick with an array of grass and browse species. Water now runs intermittently though a willow-lined creek that once lay dry. And in 2004, Goodloe put a conservation easement on the property, preventing its development in perpetuity. But he nonetheless resists the “environmentalist” label. “I’m what you would call an environmentally sensitive rancher,” he says....

Lack of moisture in Oklahoma withers ag hopes

So far, this is the fifth-driest winter in Oklahoma since 1921. The climatological winter is December through February. And the Oklahoma Climatological Survey has records back to 1921. With those facts in mind, the average precipitation statewide has been 0.93 inches since Dec. 1. That puts the current winter in the top five driest at this point, at almost 2 inches below normal. "Even though it is normally a dry season, winter precipitation is still vital for recharge of moisture in the soil,” said Gary McManus, assistant state climatologist for the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. "Things are getting worse with each dry day.” State Agriculture Secretary Terry Peach said we’re seeing and could continue to see a tremendous impact. "The drought this year could have a bigger impact than in years past,” Peach said, "because of the fact the producers have a significant increase in their input costs, from seed costs to fuel costs to fertilizer costs to the crops they have in the ground to the crops that will be planted this spring. "And this impact is also hitting our ranchers with the same severity because their winter feed costs were so expensive that they bought in the fall, their fuel costs were probably twice what they were last year because of early purchases and the volatility of the markets. "The impact will be felt statewide.”....

Central Texas Facing Severe Wildfire Season

The United States Drought Monitor now says Central Texas is suffering from moderate to extreme drought conditions. The Governor’s Division of Emergency Management says the lack of rain coupled with high winds is setting the stage for a severe wildfire season, especially for Central Texas farm lands. “All the pasture land right now is just bone dry and the grass is extremely dry, I mean it wouldn’t take, as they say, a flick of a cigarette and it would just take off,” says farmer Richard Cortese....

Group Urges Vilsack To Immediately Redress 3 Rulemaking Blunders

Today, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was confirmed to be this nation’s next Agriculture Secretary, and R-CALF USA wasted no time in sending Vilsack a formal letter not only to congratulate him on his confirmation, but also to seek his immediate assistance in redressing three fundamental rulemaking-related blunders made by the previous Administration and the previous U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). R-CALF USA members have literally expended millions of dollars over the past several years to fund our intense, heated fight against the previous Administration’s efforts to: 1) willfully expose U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease); 2) prevent U.S. cattle producers from distinguishing beef produced exclusively from their cattle – born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; and, 3) dismantle historically successful disease prevention and control programs and to substitute them with an unproven, intrusive and ill-conceived National Animal Identification System (NAIS) scheme that constitutes a national premises registration for private property, both personal (i.e., livestock) and real (i.e., land). Specifically, R-CALF USA urged Vilsack to take the following actions within the first few days of President Barack Obama’s Administration....I predict 1) The only changes to the trade policy will be to require additional labor and environmental standards, 2)Vilsack will support the already approved definitions in COOL, and 3) Vilsack was pro-NAIS as Governor and will remain so. Obama may shutdown GITMO, but he will let NAIS stand.

Niman Ranch to merge with Chicago investor

Niman Ranch will still be putting out "all natural" and "raised with care" meat, but its days as an independent company are over. The Alameda company is announcing today that it's merging with its chief investor, Chicago's Natural Food Holdings LLC. It was that or go out of business altogether. Financial and other details were not immediately available, but in a statement I received Wednesday afternoon, Jeff Tripician, Niman Ranch's executive vice president said the deal "will provide our company with a significantly stronger balance sheet and the liquidity to grow and expand our business." In its close to 40-year history, Niman Ranch, originally founded in Bolinas by Bill Niman, built a reputation for its high-quality meat produced by a network of small farmers and ranchers who shared Niman Ranch's commitment to humane and sustainable methods of animal rearing. But the company never turned a profit. In fact, it's been up to its eyeballs in debt and defaulting on loans. Without the merger, its cash would have run out completely by the end of next week....

Source of Salmonella Is Confirmed

The source of a salmonella outbreak that sickened almost 500 people around the country and is linked to six deaths is a peanut processing plant in Blakely, Ga., health officials confirmed. The plant is owned by the Peanut Corporation of America. More than 125 products have been recalled, including cookies, cakes, candy, prepared dinners and even dog treats. A list of recalled products is on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site, fda.gov. Health officials warned consumers to check the site before eating anything that might contain peanut products. No peanut butter jars sold in supermarkets come from the plant, officials said.

Laura Chester's quirky 'Rancho Weirdo' may cause you to dream of new possibilities

Everything Chester, who lives part-time in Patagonia, does seems a bit off-kilter, which makes sense, since Rancho Weirdo, her new story collection (actually, many of these works appeared in her 1991 book, Bitches Ride Alone), is about as quirky as contemporary American fiction gets. I mean quirky in a good way, of course. The characters who populate Chester's fictional universe break the rules--of literary realism, for instance--and create tension in the reader's mind about what they'll say and do next. Rancho Weirdo clears the aesthetic sinuses, causing you to wonder what else can be done in the literature of the Southwest, so much of which tends to recycle the same tropes, ideology and earnest multicultural stance. This isn't to say Chester eschews multiculturalism; how could she write about the culture-clash that defines Arizona otherwise? But she is definitely more lighthearted, comical and fun than the vast majority of the university press authors who cover similar territory. There are illegal immigrants, Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers in Chester's fiction, but they are unpredictable and darkly humorous....

Obama halts all regulations pending review

One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days. The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Former President George W. Bush's administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending. In doing so, the Obama administration is taking a page out of Bush's playbook from 2001. Within hours after Bush was sworn in, Bush advisers were seeking to reverse some late-term actions of President Bill Clinton, who in his final 20 days in office issued 12 executive orders, including directives on migratory birds and the importation of diamonds from Sierra Leone....

Idaho rancher fights for livelihood

A rancher from Weiser who blames grazing restrictions designed to protect bighorn sheep for blocking his own access to public grazing lands is asking state lawmakers for help. Sheep rancher Ron Shirts told the Idaho Senate Resources and Environment Committee on Monday that restrictions on domestic sheep grazing in the Payette National Forest have caused 60 percent of his grazing area to be closed. The restrictions were put in place to stem potential disease transmission between domestic and bighorn sheep. The federal government began reintroducing bighorn sheep to Idaho in 1997. Shirts asked the committee to help him preserve a way of life for his three small children. Shirts, one of the last domestic sheep operators in southern Idaho, is fighting for access to public grazing lands that have been taken away to protect bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon area. "It gives me hope to be here so we can let people hear our story and let people understand the hardship and what's happened in this situation, because this should not happen in America," said Shirts, holding his 18-month-old daughter, Ellie. "I make an agreement. I live by that agreement." He referred to a 1997 agreement signed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, among others, that allowed for the reintroduction of bighorn sheep into the region. The agreement, codified by the Legislature that year, declared "the potential risk, if any, of disease transmission and loss of bighorn sheep when the same invade domestic livestock or sheep operations is accepted.".

Payette forest planner Pattie Soucek, 53, said the 1997 agreement does not legally apply to the Payette Forest. Using the 1997 letter to set grazing standards in the forest would be a violation of several federal laws, including the National Forest Management Act....Well then, why did the FS sign the MOU? I'd be willing to bet the FS initiated the MOU. Let all states take notice: You can sign a MOU with the FS, you can have your state legislature codify the MOU, and it means nothing.

More restrictions on domestic sheep in the Payette National Forest could be on their way. The public has until March 3 to comment on a Forest Service proposal on how to protect bighorn sheep. U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Laura Pramuk said the plan has 12 alternatives ranging from no grazing in the forest to no change in the current plan...Notice the only way grazing can go is down. Twelve alternatives and not one of them looks at an increase in grazing. Let's say an opportunity arose to increase permitted numbers by 5 percent. Wouldn't you want to know the impact of that on the resource, the local economy and the bighorn sheep? Is it because the FS doesn't want a public airing of that kind of analysis or is it because everybody knows the FS will never increase grazing, bighorn sheep or no bighorn sheep?.

Last February, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, under pressure from Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, instituted a policy to move or kill bighorn sheep when they mix with domestic sheep. I'll bet there was no MOU on that policy. Way to go Governor Otter. I wish more governors had your...er...strong commitment to sound public policy.

Beyond Belief

According to a Rasmussen poll, 44% of U.S. voters blame long-term planetary trends for the (perceived) global warming; only 41% say human activity is responsible. Those are far different numbers than Rasmussen recorded less than three years ago. In July 2006, Rasmussen found that a mere 35% believed the cause of warming to be part of a natural cycle, while 46% said humans were culpable. It's also starkly different from a poll taken last April, when 47% said man was to blame and 34% said long-term global trends were the cause. Since that survey was taken, Rasmussen says, "the numbers have been moving in the direction of planetary trends." These numbers support the findings of a 2008 survey that questioned 12,000 people across 11 countries. It found only 47% willing to change their lives to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. A year earlier, 58% said they would be inclined to change their lives to cut CO2 emissions. That survey, commissioned by financial institution HSBC and environmental groups, also revealed that last year 37% admitted they were willing to increase the time or effort they put into cutting carbon emissions, a drop-off of 8 percentage points from 2007. The waning faith in the church of global warming seems to have sent one of its apostles into a near panic. James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is saying that time to save the planet from a blistering-hot, ice-cap-melting, sea-rising doom is running out....