Governor meets with oil and gas industry reps, changes will moderate fiscal impact of compliance
SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson today announced that he is directing Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Secretary Joanna Prukop to work with the oil and gas industry to modify several provisions of the state’s Pit Rule. The proposed changes would allow oil and gas companies to better absorb the costs associated with the stronger regulations, which were implemented last year. Governor Richardson personally met recently with leaders of the oil and gas industry as well as oil patch legislators to discuss their concerns about the financial impact of the rule. “The oil and gas industry is critical to New Mexico’s economy and these changes will help producers weather the financial storm while still protecting the environment,” said Governor Richardson. The Pit Rule was revised last year with the input of industry, the environmental community and many other stakeholders. It is designed to protect the State of New Mexico and its citizens from any future ground water or other environmental contamination from oil field waste pits, and also to protect the operators from the potentially crippling liability of major environmental impacts. “We are not doing anything to diminish the environmental protections gained by the Pit Rule, but we are going to work with industry to ease the financial burden of compliance,” stated Joanna Prukop, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Since it went into effect on June 16, 2008, oil prices hit an all time high of $147 per barrel in July 2008 and have since dropped towards $34 a barrel today. The oil and gas industry plays a critical role in the State of New Mexico, and it is important that government and the private sector work together during these difficult economic times. Therefore, the Oil Conservation Division will propose six changes to the Pit Rule to support the oil and gas industry as they move forward in complying with the Pit Rule:
Proposal #1
Below-grade tanks
The Oil Conservation Division will propose allowing industry to use less expensive field screening techniques instead of in-laboratory testing. This proposal will save substantial operator costs and allow industry to close below-grade tanks faster. This proposal requires administrative action by the Oil Conservation Division, to establish approved alternative testing methods.
Proposal #2
Six month extension for removal of free liquids and closure completion regarding temporary pits
The Oil Conservation Division will propose allowing industry two (2) extensions of three months each, for a total of six months, which extends the timeframe in which free liquids must be removed from a temporary pit and the closure completion timeframe for temporary pits and drying pads for closed-loop systems. This proposal requires administrative action by the Oil Conservation Division.
Proposal #3
Pit Rule Exceptions and Administrative Approvals
The Oil Conservation Division will work with the oil and gas industry to grant exceptions to the Pit Rule where they are warranted. The pit rule provides for an exception to any provision except the requirement of a permit, exceptions and modification or transfer requirements. To date, there has been no application for an exception from the Pit Rule and only one application for administrative approval in a field office. In order to receive an exception to the rule, an operator must make application to the Santa Fe office, provide public notice and show that the exception will provide equivalent or better protection of fresh water, public health and the environment.
Proposal #4
Below-grade tanks and/or lined permanent pits
The Oil Conservation Division will propose changes to extend the application submittal dates for existing below grade tanks and lined permanent pits for two years (19.15.17.17 NMAC). This will allow operators more time to amortize the costs related to generating applications and completing associated construction modifications or retrofits. This proposal will require action by the Oil Conservation Commission.
Proposal #5
Below-grade tanks
The Oil Conservation Division will propose an amendment to the Pit Rule that allows most below-grade tanks that existed prior to June 2008 to be retrofitted or closed upon final closure, sale, or transfer. This proposal will require action by the Oil Conservation Commission.
Proposal #6
Waste material burial closure standards for chloride with regard to on-site trench burial
The Oil Conservation Division proposes to increase the content (waste) burial standard for chlorides and to also include a comparison to background concentrations at the site with regard to the implementation of on-site trench burial closure method pursuant to Paragraph (3) of Subsection F of 19.15.17.13 NMAC. This proposal will require action by the Oil Conservation Commission.
PR hasn't been posted on Guv's website, so no link.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Ranchers in Colorado's Piñon Canyon fight a massive Army land grab
Reason Magazine reports:
But Louden, an activist for the group Not 1 More Acre!, puts up with the inconvenience. What the cause asks for, ranchers like Louden give. The alternative is the end of life as they know it. Publicity is a powerful if uncomfortable weapon for people accustomed to their privacy, for whom property lines and personal space are more important than mere law. In the asymmetrical war these ranchers are fighting, they use any weapon they can, because theirs is an opponent that tends to win: the U.S. Army. The Army already occupies 245,000 acres of Colorado’s desolate Piñon Canyon, which it uses for large-scale, force-on-force mechanized brigade combat exercises involving tanks and armored units. But since 2006 Uncle Sam has had his eye on at least 418,000 acres more, to handle increased demand for maneuvers and the expansion of Fort Carson. Most of that land is private property in the Comanche National Grasslands lying between the rustic ranching towns of La Junta, Trinidad, and Walsenburg. The proposed annexation, which would create a contiguous Army-owned area 85 percent the size of Rhode Island, has attracted loud opposition from local landowners, environmentalists, scientists, and politicians. Their combined efforts were enough to gain a congressionally ordered reprieve in 2007, but the Army appears determined to wear them down. In fact, the training ground expansion may be just the first phase of an enormous land grab potentially involving millions of acres. The Army’s land envy is why Louden, the 58-year-old son and grandson of Colorado ranchers, closed Marty Feeds, a Trinidad landmark for almost a century, in the summer of 2008. He could run a ranch, run a business, or fight the land grab, but not all three at once...I've covered this issue from the beginning. This article provides an excellent history of the issue and is well worth your time.
But Louden, an activist for the group Not 1 More Acre!, puts up with the inconvenience. What the cause asks for, ranchers like Louden give. The alternative is the end of life as they know it. Publicity is a powerful if uncomfortable weapon for people accustomed to their privacy, for whom property lines and personal space are more important than mere law. In the asymmetrical war these ranchers are fighting, they use any weapon they can, because theirs is an opponent that tends to win: the U.S. Army. The Army already occupies 245,000 acres of Colorado’s desolate Piñon Canyon, which it uses for large-scale, force-on-force mechanized brigade combat exercises involving tanks and armored units. But since 2006 Uncle Sam has had his eye on at least 418,000 acres more, to handle increased demand for maneuvers and the expansion of Fort Carson. Most of that land is private property in the Comanche National Grasslands lying between the rustic ranching towns of La Junta, Trinidad, and Walsenburg. The proposed annexation, which would create a contiguous Army-owned area 85 percent the size of Rhode Island, has attracted loud opposition from local landowners, environmentalists, scientists, and politicians. Their combined efforts were enough to gain a congressionally ordered reprieve in 2007, but the Army appears determined to wear them down. In fact, the training ground expansion may be just the first phase of an enormous land grab potentially involving millions of acres. The Army’s land envy is why Louden, the 58-year-old son and grandson of Colorado ranchers, closed Marty Feeds, a Trinidad landmark for almost a century, in the summer of 2008. He could run a ranch, run a business, or fight the land grab, but not all three at once...I've covered this issue from the beginning. This article provides an excellent history of the issue and is well worth your time.
Stimulus package gives a boost to clean energy
The LA Times reports:
The renewable-energy sector got a lift from the economic stimulus package signed Tuesday, with a fix to a crucial tax issue that had stalled projects nationwide. Solar and wind companies said it could take several months for the legislation to get portions of the industry moving again. But some players are already gearing up for growth. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will invest nearly $79 billion in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green transportation, according to a final tally of the legislation by the nonprofit Environment California. Rive and others are hailing a piece of the recovery legislation that allows developers of renewable-energy projects to swap their existing tax credits for cash grants from the Department of Energy. The switch means little to taxpayers, because the cost to the government is about the same. But it removes a huge financing obstacle that has stymied the sector. That's because solar and wind projects are driven as much by tax policy as they are by the weather. Renewable-energy companies historically have relied on tax credits to help them generate competitive returns and attract investors, a process that has been short-circuited by the U.S. financial meltdown...
The renewable-energy sector got a lift from the economic stimulus package signed Tuesday, with a fix to a crucial tax issue that had stalled projects nationwide. Solar and wind companies said it could take several months for the legislation to get portions of the industry moving again. But some players are already gearing up for growth. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will invest nearly $79 billion in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green transportation, according to a final tally of the legislation by the nonprofit Environment California. Rive and others are hailing a piece of the recovery legislation that allows developers of renewable-energy projects to swap their existing tax credits for cash grants from the Department of Energy. The switch means little to taxpayers, because the cost to the government is about the same. But it removes a huge financing obstacle that has stymied the sector. That's because solar and wind projects are driven as much by tax policy as they are by the weather. Renewable-energy companies historically have relied on tax credits to help them generate competitive returns and attract investors, a process that has been short-circuited by the U.S. financial meltdown...
Escape From D.C.
That President Obama waited until Tuesday to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill during a trip to Denver speaks volumes. He wanted to highlight the bill's green provisions, not its "stimulus." It's strange that so few mainstream media outlets have pointed out the obvious: The bill Congress hurried to pass late last week without anyone having read the entire 1,434 pages will in fact not stimulate much of anything. It is a spending bill, pure and simple. Every dollar the government spends must either be borrowed, taken through taxation or printed. Any way you look at it, every dollar comes from the pockets of the people it will be spent on. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had this to say: "In the longer run, the legislation would result in a slight decrease in gross domestic product compared with CBO's baseline economic forecast." Get that? The economy, under this plan, will be smaller than it would have been, while adding $1.7 trillion to our deficits. Obama said there was "no disagreement" over the need for stimulus. In response, more than 200 economists, including several Nobel Prize winners, took out a newspaper ad saying: "With all due respect, Mr. President . . . we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance." Just as with global warming, it's a non-consensus consensus...IBD
Climate Law Institute Launched in San Francisco
The Center for Biological Diversity has launched the San Francisco-based Climate Law Institute with initial funding of $17 million to fight global warming over the next five years. The primary goals of the Climate Law Institute are to: * Establish legal precedents requiring existing environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and the California Environmental Quality Act to be fully implemented to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, land management, and wildlife management * Establish new state and federal environmental laws and policies to rein in global warming * Ensure all new laws and policies are judged against the scientific standard of whether they will lead to a reduction in atmospheric CO2 from 385 ppm to below 350 ppm * Prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants and coal mines while quickly phasing out existing coal-fired power plants * Prevent the creation of an oil-shale or tar sands energy sector...SustainableBusiness.com
Endangered Species Act Protection Sought for 42 Great Basin Spring Snail Species
Today the Center for Biological Diversity and the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society filed a scientific petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect 42 spring snail species from Nevada, Utah, and California as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. “These 42 species of spring snails are severely threatened by groundwater withdrawal proposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and other users,” said Tierra Curry, conservation biologist with the Center and lead author of the petition. “Unsustainable groundwater pumping threatens not just these snails but also hundreds of other desert species and water supplies for rural residents and future generations.” Because spring snails are dependent on consistent groundwater flow, reductions in flow will have an immediate impact on their populations. As such, spring snails are an excellent indicator of declining water tables. The spring snails are found primarily in Clark, Lincoln, Nye, and White Pine counties in Nevada and Beaver and Millard counties in Utah. Fourteen of the species occur at only a single location, and 39 occur at 10 or fewer locations. None are currently protected on state, federal, or private lands...Center For Biological Diversity
Can America’s West stay wild?
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Here, the tale of the pygmy rabbit intersects with a long-raging acrimonious debate in the US West. Just over half the land in the West is public land. And what are public lands for – the preservation of “pristine” nature or resource extraction? Historically, management of these lands by state and federal agencies has favored resource extractors far more than conservationists would like. But as western economies change and demographics shift, this emphasis on extraction makes less and less sense, economists say. Steve Herman, a biologist emeritus at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., says cattle may have pushed the animals over the edge. At the site, scientists observed trampled rabbit burrows and broken sagebrush, which the rabbit needs for both food and protection from predators. When cows were finally removed, “it was too late,” he says. “We’ve lost a life form, and it’s likely that our species [is] responsible.” Matthew Monda, the Washington (State) Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) wildlife program director for Region 2, counters that although observers had noted trampled burrows and the rabbits were in obvious decline, there was no decisive evidence that grazing was responsible. In fact, he adds, since cows and rabbits had coexisted for perhaps 100 years to that point, some worried that removing cows might make things worse. WDFW initiated a study to determine “if the grazing that occurred on the area was good, bad, or ugly.” But when the rabbit populations declined precipitously, the study was halted and the cows removed...
Here, the tale of the pygmy rabbit intersects with a long-raging acrimonious debate in the US West. Just over half the land in the West is public land. And what are public lands for – the preservation of “pristine” nature or resource extraction? Historically, management of these lands by state and federal agencies has favored resource extractors far more than conservationists would like. But as western economies change and demographics shift, this emphasis on extraction makes less and less sense, economists say. Steve Herman, a biologist emeritus at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., says cattle may have pushed the animals over the edge. At the site, scientists observed trampled rabbit burrows and broken sagebrush, which the rabbit needs for both food and protection from predators. When cows were finally removed, “it was too late,” he says. “We’ve lost a life form, and it’s likely that our species [is] responsible.” Matthew Monda, the Washington (State) Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) wildlife program director for Region 2, counters that although observers had noted trampled burrows and the rabbits were in obvious decline, there was no decisive evidence that grazing was responsible. In fact, he adds, since cows and rabbits had coexisted for perhaps 100 years to that point, some worried that removing cows might make things worse. WDFW initiated a study to determine “if the grazing that occurred on the area was good, bad, or ugly.” But when the rabbit populations declined precipitously, the study was halted and the cows removed...
Debate Rages Over Elk Feeding
From the NY Times:
When the mighty elk herds of the West were facing the possibility of extinction from overhunting, settlement and neglect a century ago, people here stepped forward and began what has turned out to be a profound biological experiment. They offered food to the straggling survivors. The Jackson herd, now tens of thousands of animals strong, became the foundation for a resurgent elk population. After the federal government stepped in to run the feeding system in 1912, a self-reinforcing loop of tourism, hunting, ranching and politics emerged. Having lots of elk in one place where humans would feed them, year in and year out, gradually became a goal in itself, shrouded with complex motives and enshrined by time. Now a new and tightening circle of challenges is closing in on the elk and the human system that has sustained them, forcing a debate over the science, emotion and economics of protecting these magnificent animals and the landscape they inhabit. At the center is a critical question: Did human kindness backfire, setting the elk up for disaster? A federal lawsuit filed last year by a coalition of environmental groups charges that feeding the elk violates the Fish and Wildlife Service’s charter to manage refuges for healthy populations and biological integrity. Feeding programs, the suit argues, endanger the elk and create monocultures that degrade the landscape for other creatures, like birds, which can no longer nest on feeding grounds stripped of willows by the ravenous herd...
When the mighty elk herds of the West were facing the possibility of extinction from overhunting, settlement and neglect a century ago, people here stepped forward and began what has turned out to be a profound biological experiment. They offered food to the straggling survivors. The Jackson herd, now tens of thousands of animals strong, became the foundation for a resurgent elk population. After the federal government stepped in to run the feeding system in 1912, a self-reinforcing loop of tourism, hunting, ranching and politics emerged. Having lots of elk in one place where humans would feed them, year in and year out, gradually became a goal in itself, shrouded with complex motives and enshrined by time. Now a new and tightening circle of challenges is closing in on the elk and the human system that has sustained them, forcing a debate over the science, emotion and economics of protecting these magnificent animals and the landscape they inhabit. At the center is a critical question: Did human kindness backfire, setting the elk up for disaster? A federal lawsuit filed last year by a coalition of environmental groups charges that feeding the elk violates the Fish and Wildlife Service’s charter to manage refuges for healthy populations and biological integrity. Feeding programs, the suit argues, endanger the elk and create monocultures that degrade the landscape for other creatures, like birds, which can no longer nest on feeding grounds stripped of willows by the ravenous herd...
Judge backs Utah men in feather possession cases
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:A judge ruled Tuesday that a federal ban on the possession of eagle feathers by non-Indians is too restrictive, a victory for two Utah men who have fought for a decade to use the feathers as part of their practice of Native American religion. The decision could lead to the return of feathers to the men, who are not federally recognized tribal members, and open the door for others like them to apply to get the feathers, according to attorney Joseph Orifici. "The government has to revisit its policy," said Orifici, a Holladay lawyer representing Samuel Wilgus Jr., one of the litigants. Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Tuesday the government is studying the ruling and has not determined its next step. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said Tuesday making non-tribal members ineligible to apply for feathers at a national repository and subjecting them to possible criminal prosecution -- the way chosen by the government to protect both eagles and the Native American culture -- puts a burden on the free exercise of religion. The judge also said the government failed to prove the ban was the least restrictive method possible to achieve those goals, a requirement under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The act requires that religious practices be accommodated unless a compelling governmental interest can be demonstrated...
The Navajo Nation Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in the coming weeks whether to take up an important and interesting case from the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit involving religious liberties and the seminal federal statute – the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) – designed to safeguard them. In this column, we will discuss the issues the case raises; the reasons why the Ninth Circuit's resolution of these issues, while understandable, might not do justice to the complex and competing interests involved; and the problems that both the Supreme Court and lower courts face when trying to implement this well-meaning but imperfectly-drafted Congressional statute. The case, Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Service, involves an effort by a group of Native Americans to block the U.S. Forest Service's plans to allow artificial snow generated from recycled wastewater (containing small amounts of human waste) to be made and placed on federal lands that are leased to ski operators, but which also are used by the Native Americans for sacred rituals and activities. The plaintiff Native Americans contend that use of such "dirty" snow desecrates the mountain, and thus the ceremonies they hold on it, in violation of their religious sensibilities and rights under the RFRA...Findlaw
Bill gives control over pores to land-owners
Property owners might someday earn extra money from leasing the space between rocks under their land to store carbon dioxide and other substances. Storing greenhouse gases underground rather than releasing them into the atmosphere could help reduce global warming. A bill introduced in the state Senate by Clint D. Harden, R-Clovis, would give land owners control over the subsurface "pore space." Under the bill, if the surface land was sold, the rights to the pore space would go with it, unless specifically excluded. The owners of mineral rights would still have the right to mine oil and gas from pore spaces. Wyoming was the first state to pass a pore-space bill. California and Montana are considering similar measures. Pore spaces could also be used to store compressed air, which can be used to turn wind turbine blades to generate power when the wind doesn't blow. Harden's original bill caused some consternation at the Office of the State Engineer and the Oil Conservation Division. Both are working on a substitute bill addressing their concerns...Santa Fe New Mexican
Several states moving toward horse slaughter
Salt Lake Tribune reports:
Utah's resolution supporting the transport of horses out of state for slaughter in Canada and Mexico is one of several efforts in the nation to reinstate the controversial practice. Legislatures in Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota and Wyoming are working on similar resolutions while lawmakers in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Montana hope to open the gate to horse slaughtering facilities within their borders. A court order, in 2007, closed the country's last horse-butchering plant in Illinois. Horse slaughter for human consumption is banned in the United States. Facilities outside the country cater to markets in Asia, Europe and South America that regard horse meat as a delicacy. A federal bill is pending, HR503, that would prohibit the transport of horses out of the country for slaughter. Proponents of the measure support horse-slaughtering, saying it's a humane way for horse owners to dispose of surplus animals. But animal welfare groups stand foursquare in opposition to an industry they view as cruel and cut-throat...
Utah's resolution supporting the transport of horses out of state for slaughter in Canada and Mexico is one of several efforts in the nation to reinstate the controversial practice. Legislatures in Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota and Wyoming are working on similar resolutions while lawmakers in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Montana hope to open the gate to horse slaughtering facilities within their borders. A court order, in 2007, closed the country's last horse-butchering plant in Illinois. Horse slaughter for human consumption is banned in the United States. Facilities outside the country cater to markets in Asia, Europe and South America that regard horse meat as a delicacy. A federal bill is pending, HR503, that would prohibit the transport of horses out of the country for slaughter. Proponents of the measure support horse-slaughtering, saying it's a humane way for horse owners to dispose of surplus animals. But animal welfare groups stand foursquare in opposition to an industry they view as cruel and cut-throat...
The call of the tame
High Country News reports:In 1916, Jack London invited a friend to his ranch in California's Sonoma Valley: "Come to see what I am trying to do with the soil, and with hogs, and with beef-cattle, and dairy-cows, and draft-horses." Who knew that the adventurous, womanizing, hard-drinking public celebrity spent the last years of his short life building a humane "Pig Palace" for his livestock and pouring manure down a slope to avoid using chemicals? London was best known then, as he is now, as a writer. But he wanted his legacy to be in land, not words. He wanted to "leave the land better for my having been," and so he pioneered what we would call today sustainable agriculture on Beauty Ranch, his 1,400-acre farm in Glen Ellen. The ranch, now home to the Jack London State Historic Park, shatters stereotypes...
Rancher cleared of violating rights of illegal immigrants
The Arizona Republic reports:
A federal jury has found that a southern Arizona rancher didn't violate the civil rights of a group of illegal immigrants who claimed he had detained them at gunpoint in 2004, but has ordered him to pay $77,000 in damages for four claims of assault and causing emotional distress. The verdict by the eight-member civil jury on Tuesday also found Roger Barnett wasn't liable on claims of battery and false imprisonment. Barnett declined to comment afterward, but one of his attorneys, David Hardy, said Barnett has a good basis for appeal on the two counts on which he lost because the jury didn't award full damages to the immigrants. For more than a decade, Barnett has been a controversial figure in southern Arizona. He's known for aggressively patrolling his ranch property and areas along highways and roads, often with his wife and brothers, on the lookout for illegal immigrants. The plaintiffs alleged that Barnett threatened them with his dog and told them he would shoot anyone who tried to escape. Barnett's lawyers argued that his land was inundated with illegal immigrants who left trash on his property, damaged his water supply and harmed his cattle. Barnett has been known to wear a holstered 9 mm pistol on his hip and upon encountering groups of migrants, to flash a blue and gold badge resembling that of the highway patrol, with the words: "Barnett Ranch Patrol. Cochise County. State of Arizona." The Barnetts detain and turn over immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2006, Barnett estimated that he had detained more than 10,000 illegal immigrants in 10 years...
A federal jury has found that a southern Arizona rancher didn't violate the civil rights of a group of illegal immigrants who claimed he had detained them at gunpoint in 2004, but has ordered him to pay $77,000 in damages for four claims of assault and causing emotional distress. The verdict by the eight-member civil jury on Tuesday also found Roger Barnett wasn't liable on claims of battery and false imprisonment. Barnett declined to comment afterward, but one of his attorneys, David Hardy, said Barnett has a good basis for appeal on the two counts on which he lost because the jury didn't award full damages to the immigrants. For more than a decade, Barnett has been a controversial figure in southern Arizona. He's known for aggressively patrolling his ranch property and areas along highways and roads, often with his wife and brothers, on the lookout for illegal immigrants. The plaintiffs alleged that Barnett threatened them with his dog and told them he would shoot anyone who tried to escape. Barnett's lawyers argued that his land was inundated with illegal immigrants who left trash on his property, damaged his water supply and harmed his cattle. Barnett has been known to wear a holstered 9 mm pistol on his hip and upon encountering groups of migrants, to flash a blue and gold badge resembling that of the highway patrol, with the words: "Barnett Ranch Patrol. Cochise County. State of Arizona." The Barnetts detain and turn over immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2006, Barnett estimated that he had detained more than 10,000 illegal immigrants in 10 years...
2 former border agents released from prison
Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler were released from prison Tuesday and allowed to return to their homes in El Paso. Jose Compean, 32, and Ignacio Ramos, 40, served roughly two years of their respective 12-year and 11-year prison sentences before President George W. Bush commuted their sentences Jan. 19, his last full day in office. The commutation is scheduled to take effect March 20. Compean, who was held in a federal facility in Ohio, and Ramos, who was housed in Arizona, will serve out the remaining weeks of their prison sentences under home confinement, according to their attorneys. The former agents had been held in solitary confinement for their own safety...Houston Chronicle
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
NM tribal resort off to 'dismal' start
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports:Pojoaque Pueblo Gov. George Rivera on Monday acknowledged that the giant new resort opened last summer on tribal land north of Santa Fe is off to a slow start. However, he declined to discuss a financial publication's report that bondholders are concerned about Buffalo Thunder's revenues. Although he refused to talk specifics, Rivera said the giant hotel and resort is paying off its bond holders. The $245-million Buffalo Thunder resort, with 395 rooms, opened in August, offering gambling, golf, fine dining and other activities. Rivera declined to discuss a recent story in the FT.com, the online version of the Financial Times, that said Buffalo Thunder "could become the first major tribal insolvency this year" because it will be unable to meet its commercial bond payments. One bondholder told the publication that the casino reported $2 million in earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) during the quarter that ended Dec. 31. "The performance was a dismal start for the recently built ... resort and casino," said the bondholder and a market analyst, according to the Financial Times.
The article also said the pueblo would probably not be able to make the next $11.5 million payment, due at the end of June...
Alternative Energy Still Facing Headwinds
The Washington Post reports:The three-year fight over the Sunrise Powerlink, which is designed to carry solar, wind and geothermal energy, typifies the serious challenges facing President Obama and many of the nation's governors as they tout the power of renewable energy to put people to work and rescue the planet from the effects of climate change. The nation's richest resources of renewable fuel -- primarily wind and solar -- lie in distant deserts, vast plains, and remote valleys and hilltops like this one, far from the populous cities where energy is most needed. Thousands of miles of new power lines will be required to bring renewable energy to cities and suburbs, a vast undertaking that will cost untold billions of dollars in public and private money and will require compromise by dueling interest groups and people such as Tisdale...Yet the $2 billion in the stimulus package devoted to transmission lines is a tiny part of what's needed. "I see it as seed money," said Jon Wellinghoff, acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "We need $100 billion to $200 billion worth of investment, and I believe we'll see that money coming from the private sector," he said, though current credit conditions make that difficult. There are other hurdles besides financing, including multiple steps of permitting, as well as logistics and opposition to the transmission lines that would crisscross slabs of unspoiled landscape...
Is environmental journalism endangered?
As news organizations across the country suffer layoffs and pay cuts, and their corporate stock prices sink, industry insiders fear that environmental journalism is becoming an endangered species. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel on the future of science and environmental journalism last week, featuring four speakers: Mother Nature Network columnist Peter Dykstra, Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein, J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer and National Public Radio correspondent Elizabeth Shogren. About a year ago, Borenstein told a reporter at the Columbia Journalism Review that, despite a Harvard report stating otherwise, he did not think environmental journalism was in trouble. The story never ran, and Borenstein is glad - about three months ago, he talked to the reporter and rescinded his statements. In one week, three of his science and environmental reporting friends were laid off. For many of his colleagues, the situation is just as real: the Los Angeles Times' Washington Bureau, where Shogren began her environmental work, lost reporters and was merged into parent Tribune Co.'s Washington bureau. Dykstra was laid off in December, after 17 years with CNN. He is a consultant at the Wilson Center. "It's just a little sign of what's happening across the industry," Shogren said...Scripps-Howard
Obama CEQ head is a seasoned California voice
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Californian Nancy Sutley expects to have the ear of President Obama as his chief environmental adviser, reviving a White House office that lay virtually dormant during the Bush years. The 46-year-old, Harvard-educated Sutley expects to meet regularly with Obama, who has moved to improve vehicle fuel efficiency, supported greenhouse-gas reductions in California and shelved plans to open much of the state's coast to offshore oil drilling. Before her appointment, Sutley, a prominent member of Los Angeles' gay and lesbian community, served as deputy mayor of energy and environment and was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's representative on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's Board of Directors. Over the past decade, she worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the West Coast region and as a special assistant to the administrator in Washington under former President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was deputy secretary for the California EPA, where she supported the state's landmark policy on climate change and advised former Gov. Gray Davis on energy, water and air-pollution issues...
Californian Nancy Sutley expects to have the ear of President Obama as his chief environmental adviser, reviving a White House office that lay virtually dormant during the Bush years. The 46-year-old, Harvard-educated Sutley expects to meet regularly with Obama, who has moved to improve vehicle fuel efficiency, supported greenhouse-gas reductions in California and shelved plans to open much of the state's coast to offshore oil drilling. Before her appointment, Sutley, a prominent member of Los Angeles' gay and lesbian community, served as deputy mayor of energy and environment and was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's representative on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's Board of Directors. Over the past decade, she worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the West Coast region and as a special assistant to the administrator in Washington under former President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was deputy secretary for the California EPA, where she supported the state's landmark policy on climate change and advised former Gov. Gray Davis on energy, water and air-pollution issues...
Biofuels boom could fuel rainforest destruction
From Stanford University:
Farmers across the tropics might raze forests to plant biofuel crops, according to new research by Holly Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. 'If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,' she warned. Policies favouring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said. Such an environmental disaster could be 'just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests,' she added. Gibbs' predictions are based on her new study, in which she analysed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000. The study is the first to do such a detailed characterisation of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region. Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies...
Farmers across the tropics might raze forests to plant biofuel crops, according to new research by Holly Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. 'If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,' she warned. Policies favouring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said. Such an environmental disaster could be 'just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests,' she added. Gibbs' predictions are based on her new study, in which she analysed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000. The study is the first to do such a detailed characterisation of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region. Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies...
8 bald eagles that fed on carcass sick, dead
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:
At least eight bald eagles became sick or died after feeding on a horse that was euthanized near Enumclaw earlier this month, and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating. Fish and Wildlife Officer Bruce Richards said it's unclear who owns the horse, but about a week and a half ago, a renter on the property north of Enumclaw had a veterinarian euthanize the animal. "Anything that's euthanized with a drug needs to be buried or rendered," Richards said. "Even burying them -- unless you went really deep, birds and coyotes can dig them up." A vet told the man how to dispose of the animal, and he tried burying it, Richards said. But apparently the equipment used in the attempt to bury it broke and the eagles began feeding on the dead horse, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife...
At least eight bald eagles became sick or died after feeding on a horse that was euthanized near Enumclaw earlier this month, and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating. Fish and Wildlife Officer Bruce Richards said it's unclear who owns the horse, but about a week and a half ago, a renter on the property north of Enumclaw had a veterinarian euthanize the animal. "Anything that's euthanized with a drug needs to be buried or rendered," Richards said. "Even burying them -- unless you went really deep, birds and coyotes can dig them up." A vet told the man how to dispose of the animal, and he tried burying it, Richards said. But apparently the equipment used in the attempt to bury it broke and the eagles began feeding on the dead horse, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife...
Hoeven denies Ducks Unlimited land buy
Gov. John Hoeven has denied a proposed 598-acre Ducks Unlimited land buy in Kidder County, a decision the conservation group said does not respect private property rights. Hoeven’s decision, announced Monday, follows the recommendation of the Kidder County Commission and the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee, which advises the governor on land purchases by nonprofits. Ducks Unlimited wanted to buy the land from Bismarck resident Judith Hetletved in Kidder County, east of Bismarck. The property includes idle grassland, pasture, wetlands and a 5-acre site with buildings. Members of the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee had said they had reservations about long-term easements and would rather see land sold back to farmers and ranchers than to wildlife interests...Grand Forks Herald
Renewed tribal consultation undertaken by federal agency to avoid discord
Indian Country Today reports: In the wake of criticism over tribal consultation policies, the Fish and Wildlife Service said it has asked tribes to become involved in carrying out new permit regulations concerning bald and golden eagles. Because some tribal nations felt government-to-government consultation regarding changes in eagle rules was inadequate, FWS officials hope this round of review and implementation will be more acceptable. At issue are new rules that allow non-Indians to apply for permits that would allow the incidental take – primarily the disturbing, but in some cases, the unavoidable killing – of eagles under unavoidable circumstances that are, nevertheless, secondary to the need to maintain eagle populations at a survival level, according to the FWS. The new regulations would not change the way in which Natives obtain eagles and eagle parts from the National Eagle Repository, nor would they change the way, rarely implemented, that tribes obtain take permits for religious purposes, the FWS said. Those purposes would be given priority except for emergencies involving human safety...
Call for end to USDA's wildlife killing agency
Conservationists argue in a new report that U.S. taxpayers should stop subsidizing a $100 million program that kills more than 1 million wild animals annually, a program ranchers and farmers have defended for nearly a century as critical to protecting their livestock from predators. Citing concerns about the economy and the potential for a fresh look at the decades-old controversy in the new Obama administration, 115 environmental groups signed onto a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to abolish the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services. The American Sheep Industry Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and more than 70 other livestock production and state agriculture offices in 35 states countered with a letter citing more than $125 million in annual losses to the sheep, goat and cattle industry as a result of predation. A report by conservationists released Tuesday documents significant increases in recent years in both the number of carnivores killed and the size of the agency's budget — $117 million in 2007, up 14 percent from the average from 2004-06. More than 90,000 of the 121,524 carnivores killed in 2007 were coyotes. But the trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning of the predators also is taking an increasing, unintended toll on other creatures, including 511 black bears and 340 endangered gray wolves in 2007, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press...AP
Oregon AG asks FERC to halt LNG action
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to stay its September ruling in favor of a liquefied natural gas project until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the state's challenge. Kroger is leading a state appeal of FERC's decision to approve a proposed LNG terminal on the Columbia River near Astoria. In his motion filed Friday, Kroger wrote FERC must stay its approval because the board didn't comply with the Endangered Species Act and neglected to wait for state approvals before granting the developer a license. The LNG terminal would import, store and process supercooled liquefied natural gas for movement through pipelines. Kroger has said it's a mistake for Oregon to rely on imported natural gas as it seeks energy independence...AP
Salazar shares stimulus impact
New Secretary of the Interior and native San Luis Valley son Ken Salazar told Valley residents on Sunday what the economic recovery package would mean to the Valley, specifically the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Salazar traveled to the sand dunes on Sunday to outline local improvements that will likely be funded by the stimulus approved by Salazar’s former senate colleagues and expected to be signed by President Barack Obama in Denver today. Salazar described the recovery package as “something good for this Valley and something good for this country.” He said the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the Valley’s wildlife refuges will receive about $4 million for “shovel ready” projects, in other words projects that are ready to go when the money is there to fund them. “This is a real deal,” he said...Valley Courier
Stimulus Stirs Debate Over Rural Broadband Access
From NPR:
Former FCC economist Michael Katz didn't hesitate to bash rural life last week when he addressed an American Enterprise Institute panel discussion on the broadband elements of President Obama's economic stimulus bill. "Other people don't like to say bad things about rural areas," Katz began. "So I will." The stimulus package includes $7.2 billion to expand broadband Internet access into "underserved" and rural areas. Katz listed ways that the $7.2 billion could be put to better use, including an effort to combat infant deaths. But he also spoke of rural places as environmentally hostile, energy inefficient and even weak in innovation, simply because rural people are spread out across the landscape...Actually, we're strong enough that we don't need your damned old stimulus. You can waste the money elsewhere.
Former FCC economist Michael Katz didn't hesitate to bash rural life last week when he addressed an American Enterprise Institute panel discussion on the broadband elements of President Obama's economic stimulus bill. "Other people don't like to say bad things about rural areas," Katz began. "So I will." The stimulus package includes $7.2 billion to expand broadband Internet access into "underserved" and rural areas. Katz listed ways that the $7.2 billion could be put to better use, including an effort to combat infant deaths. But he also spoke of rural places as environmentally hostile, energy inefficient and even weak in innovation, simply because rural people are spread out across the landscape...Actually, we're strong enough that we don't need your damned old stimulus. You can waste the money elsewhere.
It's All Trew: Modern red tape outgrew family Bibles, tin boxes
Once upon a time, family records of births, deaths and marriages were kept on a page in the family Bible. Expenditures and income were kept written on the back of a feed store calendar hanging on the wall or in the Farmer's Almanac. None of these entries required more than a few lines of space to be clear and precise. If you were fortunate enough to own land, you might have a few pages of abstracts or deeds denoting your ownership. Since most bills were paid by cash or barter with few receipts involved, most people had few "important papers" to protect and secure. This usually involved placing all in a big manila envelope and storing in a closet. The Crash of '29 came along with the Depression, the Dust Bowl and the New Deal programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which required all types of forms to fill out and keep in order to participate. The New Deal forever changed the way America did business. The "dole" was not free. Most government checks, loans and assistance had to be paid back or at least accounted for. Almost overnight, important papers multiplied. Taxes due were based on the amounts of income and operational expenditures which required good bookkeeping and receipts. These papers were best kept for years in case of audit. Social Security arrived, making more papers. Banks began requiring financial statements before making loans. Suddenly, the storage of important papers grew. Penalties and laws put teeth into the need for secure storage...Amarillo Globe-News
Robert E. Cowan 1934-2009
Life-long Cochise County rancher Robert E. (Bobby) Cowan passed away on February 14, 2009 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Born on April 5, 1934 in Douglas, as Ralph and Mattie Cowan’s youngest son, Bobby called the Cowan Ranch and Cochise County his home for his entire life; first at the 4 Bars near McNeal and then at the JO Bar near Tombstone. In addition to the ranching operation he established Frontier Equipment and Holiday Water Company.
Cowan was a member of the King Solomon Masonic Lodge #5 for more than 50 years serving as Master more than once. He was a member of the York and Scottish Rites and a 50 year member of the Pearl of Venus #6 Chapter of the Eastern Star. He was a member of the Sabbar Shriners where he participated in the Fliver and Mounted Patrols raising funds for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
He served on the Tombstone Unified School District School Board for 32 years, receiving a commendation from President George H.W. Bush, and overseeing the relocation of the new High School. He also participated in the Los Charros Trail Ride for many years.
He was a long-time member of the Cochise Graham Cattle Growers, serving as its president in 2000-2002. He was a member of the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association, serving on its Board of Directors. He was also a member of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Bureau of Land Management Grazing Advisory Board.
He is survived by his daughters, Caren Cowan (Albuquerque, NM), Connie Cowan (LaJolla, California), and Carol Cowan (Tombstone), one grandson, R.W. Cowan Wood, numerous nieces and his wife of more than 35 years, Merle, her daughter and granddaughter Patti and Jenna Bright (Tombstone), and her son Rick O’Steen and his family in Florida.
He was preceded in death by his grandson Jeremy Bright, his parents, his brothers Jim and Bill, and his Aunt Florence Cowan Snure.
Arrangements are being handled by the Hatfield Funeral Home, Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Services for Bobby Cowan will be held in the Tombstone High School Gym located at 1211 Yellowjacket Way, Tombstone, at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.
In lieu of flowers, the families suggests donations be made in Bobby’s name to the:
Mattie Cowan Scholarship Fund, Arizona State Cowbelles Treasurer, Mary Jo Rideout - PO Box 1033, Red Rock AZ 85245; the
Pat Nowlin Memorial Scholarship Fund, Anne Ferguson, PO Box 578 Carrizozo NM 88301; or the
Cattlegrowers Foundation, Inc., POB 7517 Albuquerque NM 87194
Cowan was a member of the King Solomon Masonic Lodge #5 for more than 50 years serving as Master more than once. He was a member of the York and Scottish Rites and a 50 year member of the Pearl of Venus #6 Chapter of the Eastern Star. He was a member of the Sabbar Shriners where he participated in the Fliver and Mounted Patrols raising funds for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
He served on the Tombstone Unified School District School Board for 32 years, receiving a commendation from President George H.W. Bush, and overseeing the relocation of the new High School. He also participated in the Los Charros Trail Ride for many years.
He was a long-time member of the Cochise Graham Cattle Growers, serving as its president in 2000-2002. He was a member of the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association, serving on its Board of Directors. He was also a member of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Bureau of Land Management Grazing Advisory Board.
He is survived by his daughters, Caren Cowan (Albuquerque, NM), Connie Cowan (LaJolla, California), and Carol Cowan (Tombstone), one grandson, R.W. Cowan Wood, numerous nieces and his wife of more than 35 years, Merle, her daughter and granddaughter Patti and Jenna Bright (Tombstone), and her son Rick O’Steen and his family in Florida.
He was preceded in death by his grandson Jeremy Bright, his parents, his brothers Jim and Bill, and his Aunt Florence Cowan Snure.
Arrangements are being handled by the Hatfield Funeral Home, Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Services for Bobby Cowan will be held in the Tombstone High School Gym located at 1211 Yellowjacket Way, Tombstone, at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.
In lieu of flowers, the families suggests donations be made in Bobby’s name to the:
Mattie Cowan Scholarship Fund, Arizona State Cowbelles Treasurer, Mary Jo Rideout - PO Box 1033, Red Rock AZ 85245; the
Pat Nowlin Memorial Scholarship Fund, Anne Ferguson, PO Box 578 Carrizozo NM 88301; or the
Cattlegrowers Foundation, Inc., POB 7517 Albuquerque NM 87194
Monday, February 16, 2009
Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates
The Washington Post reports:
The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. "We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel's 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal in developing countries, he said. Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said several scientists on a panel at the meeting...
The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. "We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel's 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal in developing countries, he said. Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said several scientists on a panel at the meeting...
Former NM astronaut speaks out on global warming
Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming. "I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York. Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making." Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise. Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses — for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers. Schmitt, who grew up in Silver City and now lives in Albuquerque, has a science degree from the California Institute of Technology. He also studied geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and took a doctorate in geology from Harvard University in 1964...From the Boston Herald
Endangered or threatened? Feds review pocket gopher protection request
From the Casper Star-Tribune:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to conduct a year-long status review of the Wyoming pocket gopher to see if the animal requires federal endangered species protections. The small, rare burrowing rodent is known to exist only from Adobe Town through the Atlantic Rim area south of Interstate Highway 80. Agency officials have completed an initial 90-day review of a petition to list the Wyoming pocket gopher as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Pat Deibert, acting director of the USFWS Cheyenne office, said this week that the agency will now undertake a more thorough study of the Wyoming pocket gopher to determine whether the USFWS will propose adding the species to the endangered list at a later date...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to conduct a year-long status review of the Wyoming pocket gopher to see if the animal requires federal endangered species protections. The small, rare burrowing rodent is known to exist only from Adobe Town through the Atlantic Rim area south of Interstate Highway 80. Agency officials have completed an initial 90-day review of a petition to list the Wyoming pocket gopher as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Pat Deibert, acting director of the USFWS Cheyenne office, said this week that the agency will now undertake a more thorough study of the Wyoming pocket gopher to determine whether the USFWS will propose adding the species to the endangered list at a later date...
Conservation areas lauded to protect land
From the Grand Junction Sentinel:
When it comes to protecting Colorado’s public lands and still allowing the public to recreate there, arguably no one has accomplished that goal better than the Western Slope. For that reason alone, Colorado leaders and conservationists said, other communities likely will look to Mesa County and its regional peers when they try to negotiate ways to protect other parts of the state. Former Congressman Scott McInnis said the Western Slope has succeeded in balancing the use of public lands, particularly mountain biking and horseback riding, with land protections through the establishment of national conservation areas. “It’s a model that’s worked very well,” he said. The Western Slope, according to the Bureau of Land Management, is home to the 122,300-acre McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the 62,844-acre Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. To set up these areas, McInnis said local leaders and stakeholders negotiated for months how best to protect the areas while letting the public use the land...
When it comes to protecting Colorado’s public lands and still allowing the public to recreate there, arguably no one has accomplished that goal better than the Western Slope. For that reason alone, Colorado leaders and conservationists said, other communities likely will look to Mesa County and its regional peers when they try to negotiate ways to protect other parts of the state. Former Congressman Scott McInnis said the Western Slope has succeeded in balancing the use of public lands, particularly mountain biking and horseback riding, with land protections through the establishment of national conservation areas. “It’s a model that’s worked very well,” he said. The Western Slope, according to the Bureau of Land Management, is home to the 122,300-acre McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the 62,844-acre Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. To set up these areas, McInnis said local leaders and stakeholders negotiated for months how best to protect the areas while letting the public use the land...
Wyoming's $8.8 million cloud-seeding experiment is drawing big-time attention
The Casper Star-Tribune reports:
The Wyoming project isn't the biggest cloud-seeding operation in the world. But, scientifically, it just may be the most important. Boe is one of several scientists working on the five-year Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project, an $8.8 million research program funded by the state of Wyoming. The project's scientists, along with state water managers, hope to find proof of whether the decades-old practice of seeding clouds -- trying to squeeze more precipitation out of passing storms -- actually works and that it's a practical option for increasing the state's water supply. Members of the world's science community -- cloud-seeing advocates and skeptics alike -- are watching the project closely. "For a scientist doing research, this is it. As far as in terms of the research, it is the biggest in the United States by far," Boe said. The Wyoming project is in its fourth year, only the second winter in which cloud seeding in earnest has actually been performed. The first two years involved mostly taking measurements and weather readings, obtaining permits from the U.S. Forest Service, gathering other statistical data and getting equipment in place. Cloud-seeding scientists estimate that, if done properly, pumping silver iodide into a cloud will increase snowfall in most cases by about 10 to 15 percent. That's roughly the same percentage of natural variability possible in normal weather patterns....
The Wyoming project isn't the biggest cloud-seeding operation in the world. But, scientifically, it just may be the most important. Boe is one of several scientists working on the five-year Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project, an $8.8 million research program funded by the state of Wyoming. The project's scientists, along with state water managers, hope to find proof of whether the decades-old practice of seeding clouds -- trying to squeeze more precipitation out of passing storms -- actually works and that it's a practical option for increasing the state's water supply. Members of the world's science community -- cloud-seeing advocates and skeptics alike -- are watching the project closely. "For a scientist doing research, this is it. As far as in terms of the research, it is the biggest in the United States by far," Boe said. The Wyoming project is in its fourth year, only the second winter in which cloud seeding in earnest has actually been performed. The first two years involved mostly taking measurements and weather readings, obtaining permits from the U.S. Forest Service, gathering other statistical data and getting equipment in place. Cloud-seeding scientists estimate that, if done properly, pumping silver iodide into a cloud will increase snowfall in most cases by about 10 to 15 percent. That's roughly the same percentage of natural variability possible in normal weather patterns....
'Water wolf' could cost Texas billions
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Reliable sources of clean water are the key to a successful economic future for Texas and without them the state and businesses could suffer billions in losses. That was the dire message in a recent report from the office of state comptroller Susan Combs, a longtime West Texas rancher familiar with the agricultural difficulties that come from too little water. "The water wolf is lurking right outside the door," Combs told The Associated Press. "This could actually cost the state a whole lot of money." In the report, Liquid Assets: The State of Texas' Water Resources, Combs' office projected that insufficient water supplies could cost Texans about $9 billion next year and more than $98 billion by 2060. The state also stands to lose tax revenues — about $466 million next year and more than $5 billion by 2060 — if its water needs are not met, according to the report. Among the reasons cited were Texas' rapidly growing population and ongoing drought across much of the state...
Reliable sources of clean water are the key to a successful economic future for Texas and without them the state and businesses could suffer billions in losses. That was the dire message in a recent report from the office of state comptroller Susan Combs, a longtime West Texas rancher familiar with the agricultural difficulties that come from too little water. "The water wolf is lurking right outside the door," Combs told The Associated Press. "This could actually cost the state a whole lot of money." In the report, Liquid Assets: The State of Texas' Water Resources, Combs' office projected that insufficient water supplies could cost Texans about $9 billion next year and more than $98 billion by 2060. The state also stands to lose tax revenues — about $466 million next year and more than $5 billion by 2060 — if its water needs are not met, according to the report. Among the reasons cited were Texas' rapidly growing population and ongoing drought across much of the state...
Robot ranchers will ride herd on wind farms in future
The Earth Times reports:
Robot ranchers will tend the windswept ranges of sprawling wind farms in the future, according to a team of German robotic scientists. Wind turbine generators already dot the horizon for miles in any direction in many parts of the world. Tending the mighty windmills has been an arduous task for human technicians. Rotor blade damage is a routine, but annoying problem which entails many man-hours of maintenance. But now, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) in Germany say they are perfecting a generation of robots which will be able to monitor and maintain wind turbine generators on a round-the-clock basis. Their latest helper is RIWEA, a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters. Primarily made of glass fibre reinforced plastics, rotor blades have to withstand a great deal: wind, inertial forces, erosion, etc. Until now, humans have inspected wind energy converters at regular intervals - not an easy job. After all, the technicians must closely examine large surfaces - a rotor blade can be up to 60 meters in length - in airy heights...
Robot ranchers will tend the windswept ranges of sprawling wind farms in the future, according to a team of German robotic scientists. Wind turbine generators already dot the horizon for miles in any direction in many parts of the world. Tending the mighty windmills has been an arduous task for human technicians. Rotor blade damage is a routine, but annoying problem which entails many man-hours of maintenance. But now, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) in Germany say they are perfecting a generation of robots which will be able to monitor and maintain wind turbine generators on a round-the-clock basis. Their latest helper is RIWEA, a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters. Primarily made of glass fibre reinforced plastics, rotor blades have to withstand a great deal: wind, inertial forces, erosion, etc. Until now, humans have inspected wind energy converters at regular intervals - not an easy job. After all, the technicians must closely examine large surfaces - a rotor blade can be up to 60 meters in length - in airy heights...
Livestock Producers from Mexico, Canada and United States Seek New Trade Policy and Market Reforms
Representatives of consumer groups and livestock producer organizations from Canada, Mexico, and the United States today called on leaders to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and address concentration in livestock markets. The groups have been meeting in Billings to address the challenges faced by family farmers and ranchers from trade policy and uncompetitive livestock markets. "NAFTA is not working for Mexican and Canadian farmers," said Gilles Stockton, a rancher from Grass Range, Mont., representing the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC). "It is certainly not working for U.S. farmers and ranchers. We also learned that it is not working for consumers." Representatives of Mexican hog producers said NAFTA has severely affected agricultural and livestock sectors in Mexico. U.S. exports of pork to Mexico increased about 40% between 2007 and 2008 and now supply about half of the domestic pork consumption in Mexico, said Alejandro Ramirez González, with the Confederation of Mexican Hog Farmers. Powdered milk imports from the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and New Zealand threaten Mexican dairy farmers, which supply only two-thirds of the domestic demand, according to Victor Quintana with the Peasants' Democratic Front of Chihuahua. "Hundreds of thousands of Mexican dairy farmers will be driven into bankruptcy if Mexico's federal government does not change current agricultural and food policies, Quintana said...Press Release
Montana - House takes up bill to approve slaughterhouse
The Great Falls Tribune reports:
The House Agriculture Committee hearing room was packed to capacity on Thursday as lawmakers took up a controversial bill that would authorize equine slaughterhouses in Montana. Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, the bill's sponsor, said Montana is ideally suited to help address a national demand for a horse slaughtering facility. "What we're looking at in this bill is, first of all, trying to solve a problem," Butcher told the committee. That problem, he said, is that the last equine slaughterhouse in the nation closed in 2007, leaving horse owners with few options for disposing of sick, injured and unwanted animals. Butcher said House Bill 418 would create a new industry in the state, while at the same time addressing the state's economy-driven unwanted horse problem. Butcher's bill also prevents Montana courts from issuing an injunction to stop or delay the construction of an equine-processing facility. Supporters of the bill said unwanted horses used to be sold for slaughter when there were facilities to take them. When the last horse-slaughtering facility closed, horse owners were left with few options. Supporters also testified that without slaughterhouses owners are forced to pay to have horses euthanized and disposed of, shoot them and bury them on their property, or illegally abandon them. Several county commissioners said that abandoned horses are creating serious problems in rural counties...
The House Agriculture Committee hearing room was packed to capacity on Thursday as lawmakers took up a controversial bill that would authorize equine slaughterhouses in Montana. Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, the bill's sponsor, said Montana is ideally suited to help address a national demand for a horse slaughtering facility. "What we're looking at in this bill is, first of all, trying to solve a problem," Butcher told the committee. That problem, he said, is that the last equine slaughterhouse in the nation closed in 2007, leaving horse owners with few options for disposing of sick, injured and unwanted animals. Butcher said House Bill 418 would create a new industry in the state, while at the same time addressing the state's economy-driven unwanted horse problem. Butcher's bill also prevents Montana courts from issuing an injunction to stop or delay the construction of an equine-processing facility. Supporters of the bill said unwanted horses used to be sold for slaughter when there were facilities to take them. When the last horse-slaughtering facility closed, horse owners were left with few options. Supporters also testified that without slaughterhouses owners are forced to pay to have horses euthanized and disposed of, shoot them and bury them on their property, or illegally abandon them. Several county commissioners said that abandoned horses are creating serious problems in rural counties...
Utah - Resolution supporting horse slaughter passes
A nonbinding resolution to allow the transport of horses to Mexico or Canada for slaughter passed the Utah Senate on Thursday 19-8 and soon will cross the governor's desk. Sponsors of the resolution -- Rep. Brad Winn, R-Ephraim and Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan -- intended to send a message to the federal government about states rights. Legislation at the federal level would outlaw horse slaughter in the United States and also ban their transport across borders for that purpose...Salt Lake Tribune
Ty Murray & Jewel on "Dancing With The Stars"
They will compete against each other according to this story. The program begins March 9.
Horse therapy helps youth deal with life issues
The teens frantically wave their arms, snap their fingers and make clicking sounds with their tongues in an attempt to get the horse to follow them and step over a piece of plastic pipe suspended across two overturned plastic buckets. Unexpectedly, the pipe rolls from its perch onto the ground and the horse unintentionally steps over it. Psychotherapist and registered nurse Pat Dubois reminds the kids that the verbal instructions were quite simply to get the horse to step over the pipe without touching the animal with their hands or pretending they were holding food. The teens from A New Day Youth & Family Services, a short-term shelter for at-risk children, were engaged in exercises as part of Raising Hands for Horses, a program that Dubois operates out of her Corrales home. The "equine-assisted psychotherapy" program focuses on emotional issues, while a related "equine-assisted learning" program focuses on life skills and issues related to academics and behavior. The interactions between people and horses are useful in helping individuals and families deal with such issues as grief and loss, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, depression, anxiety, learning disorders and more...High Plains Journal
Rooted in rivalry
The Museum of New Mexico was founded 100 years ago this week in a political movida over the use of the Palace of the Governors. Early in the 20th century, the Palace housed two museums — a private one focusing on history and another focusing on archaeology. Lawyer and territorial politician LeBaron Bradford Prince started the history museum in 1883. But in the years leading up to statehood, educator-turned-archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett edged out Prince's dominion over the Palace as the first director of the state museum system. In 1883, Prince got permission for the society to use two rooms for a museum on the east side of the Palace after the Territorial Legislature left for the new Capitol. Four years later, when the Territorial Law Library moved to new quarters, the society expanded into its space. From 1889 to 1893, Prince served as territorial governor — a job that included an apartment in the Palace. Hewett, nicknamed "El Torro," grew up on farms in Illinois and Missouri, attended college in Missouri, taught school and worked as a superintendent of public schools in Missouri and Colorado, and earned a master's degree in "pedagogy" from the Colorado Normal School in Greeley, where he served as a department head. New Mexico rancher and lawyer Frank Springer, head of the Board of Regents of the newly formed New Mexico Normal School (now New Mexico Highlands University) in Las Vegas, N.M., was so impressed by the young educator that he hired him as the school's president in 1898...Santa Fe New Mexican
Amados and the land are one
Freeways and shopping centers sprawl where the cattle once ran, all the way from Nogales to Cortaro. And on those cattle rode the brand "MA," for Manuel Amado, patriarch of a family whose roots run deep in Southern Arizona. The name lives on through the settlement of Amado, off Interstate 19 south of Green Valley. And it lives on in Amado's many descendants, including his great-grandson Henry Amado, who still ranches in Southern Arizona. From Spain and Mexico the family moved north, settling about 1850 into Southern Arizona, then part of Mexico. In 1852, Manuel Amado began ranching south of Tucson between the Canoa and Otero Spanish land grants. With no fences, his cattle roamed from the border to north of Tucson. For a time the family also ranched near Mission San Xavier del Bac, where they ran a dairy. But after what is now the Tohono O'odham Reservation at San Xavier was established in 1874, the Amados were eventually forced out. In the August 1955 issue of Arizona Cattlelog, Manuel's son, Antonio Amado, recounted how, as a 6-year-old in 1880, he was on an errand in Tucson when he saw dense, billowing smoke to the south. Government agents had set fire to the family's ranch. And so they retreated to what would become Amado, on their ranch called El Alamo Bonito, beautiful cottonwood...Arizona Daily Star
Sunday, February 15, 2009
122 Jurisdiction Questions Submitted to DOJ & DOI
Dear NLSA Members and Interested Ranchers:
The attached “Request for Admissions”, or 122 questions, pursuant to Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was submitted to Department of Interior and Department of Justice officials to request their authority to conduct law enforcement actions and confiscate livestock. The cause of action for this Request was federal livestock confiscations in disputes over grazing allotments. However, the federal government’s admissions to their limitations of authority within the republic states have a far broader implication than this narrow cause of action.
As many of you are aware the federal land management agencies continue to seek ways to circumvent state law, confiscate livestock and attempt to extinguish Nevada rancher’s pre-existing and vested property rights within their grazing allotments by extortion and intimidation. Any future federal attempts to round up livestock will require the involvement of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, and therefore the Board of Agriculture, since the federal government will need to obtain a brand clearance certificate before they can move or dispose of livestock.
As a Member of Board of Agriculture and a State Officer, I requested answers to 122 questions ex rel or a relator for the people of Nevada, which by law these officials are required to answer under FRCP 36. I requested the agencies involved to provide their authority for most of the legal issues that arise as a result of these livestock confiscations. The federal government was unable or refused to answer any of the 122 questions after being properly noticed and have by their silence, by law, admitted to the claims made therein. They are now estopped or barred from raising these matters in future judicial and administrative proceedings. This is a public document and self authenticating for the purposes of evidence. A certified copy can be obtained from the Lyon County Recorder’s Office in Yerington (see below) and submitted into any court in the U.S. as evidence of the federal government’s admissions.
This Request is actually 5 documents combined which include not only the 122 questions and their answers but also provide the government with Notice and an Opportunity to Cure. I would recommend reading the 122 questions and their answers beginning at recorder’s page #56 (top right hand corner). Both the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice were asked to respond within a total of 30 days as the law requires, but while they acknowledged receipt of the Request by signing the return receipt, neither of the federal departments answered the letters within the required time.
I have also enclosed the “Response to Deputy Attorney General in Nevada” to provide background to the controversy. For your convenience you can visit the Cornell Law website to easily look up any of the references to the U.S. Code, rules of evidence, etc. referenced herein. While I realize this is an extensive document which will require some reading, I think if you will read it you will find it incredibly valuable and educational to you personally. You also may want to forward it to your attorney and send it by certified mail to your local officials like the sheriff and district attorney. A certified copy can be submitted as evidence if you have any matters pending with the federal agencies.
Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Warmest Personal Regards,
Ramona Morrison
Member, Board of Agriculture
Lyon County Recorder
27 S. Main Street
Yerington, Nevada 89447
775.463.6581
You may contact Ramona at rhmorrison@sbcglobal.net and request copies of the two pdf documents referred to in this post.
The attached “Request for Admissions”, or 122 questions, pursuant to Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was submitted to Department of Interior and Department of Justice officials to request their authority to conduct law enforcement actions and confiscate livestock. The cause of action for this Request was federal livestock confiscations in disputes over grazing allotments. However, the federal government’s admissions to their limitations of authority within the republic states have a far broader implication than this narrow cause of action.
As many of you are aware the federal land management agencies continue to seek ways to circumvent state law, confiscate livestock and attempt to extinguish Nevada rancher’s pre-existing and vested property rights within their grazing allotments by extortion and intimidation. Any future federal attempts to round up livestock will require the involvement of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, and therefore the Board of Agriculture, since the federal government will need to obtain a brand clearance certificate before they can move or dispose of livestock.
As a Member of Board of Agriculture and a State Officer, I requested answers to 122 questions ex rel or a relator for the people of Nevada, which by law these officials are required to answer under FRCP 36. I requested the agencies involved to provide their authority for most of the legal issues that arise as a result of these livestock confiscations. The federal government was unable or refused to answer any of the 122 questions after being properly noticed and have by their silence, by law, admitted to the claims made therein. They are now estopped or barred from raising these matters in future judicial and administrative proceedings. This is a public document and self authenticating for the purposes of evidence. A certified copy can be obtained from the Lyon County Recorder’s Office in Yerington (see below) and submitted into any court in the U.S. as evidence of the federal government’s admissions.
This Request is actually 5 documents combined which include not only the 122 questions and their answers but also provide the government with Notice and an Opportunity to Cure. I would recommend reading the 122 questions and their answers beginning at recorder’s page #56 (top right hand corner). Both the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice were asked to respond within a total of 30 days as the law requires, but while they acknowledged receipt of the Request by signing the return receipt, neither of the federal departments answered the letters within the required time.
I have also enclosed the “Response to Deputy Attorney General in Nevada” to provide background to the controversy. For your convenience you can visit the Cornell Law website to easily look up any of the references to the U.S. Code, rules of evidence, etc. referenced herein. While I realize this is an extensive document which will require some reading, I think if you will read it you will find it incredibly valuable and educational to you personally. You also may want to forward it to your attorney and send it by certified mail to your local officials like the sheriff and district attorney. A certified copy can be submitted as evidence if you have any matters pending with the federal agencies.
Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Warmest Personal Regards,
Ramona Morrison
Member, Board of Agriculture
Lyon County Recorder
27 S. Main Street
Yerington, Nevada 89447
775.463.6581
You may contact Ramona at rhmorrison@sbcglobal.net and request copies of the two pdf documents referred to in this post.
Patricia K. Jennings, May 26, 1955 to Feb. 14, 2009
Patricia K. Jennings died peacefully at her home Saturday morning, Feb. 14, 2009, after a courageous battle with breast cancer. She is survived by her beloved husband, Timothy Zeph Jennings; her children Courtney Ikard, Elliott Ikard and his wife, Melanie, Katherine Ikard, Zeph Jennings and Zachary Jennings; her mother, Marilyn Burcham, and her husband, Neil; her father, Doug Berryman, and his wife, Margaret; her sister, Fredda Blair, and her husband, Rick; her brother, Doug Berryman, and his wife, Rhonda; her brother, Dan Berryman; her brother, Joel Berryman, and his wife, Tish; and her sister, Shelley Petersen, and husband, Eric. She is also survived by Frances Jennings, James Jennings Jr., Mary Maloney, John Jennings, Thomas Jennings and Carol Rolfs, as well as many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. The family wishes to express a special thanks and appreciation to close friends Geneva Bailey, Debbie Armstrong and Michelle Lujan Grisham for their love and care. Patty grew up in Amarillo, Texas, but lived most of her life in New Mexico. She had been a resident of Roswell for 20 years. Patty was a golf enthusiast and enjoyed classical music, with a special fondness for pianist Douglas Montgomery. Patty had a distinguished career as an advocate for early intervention, special education and other services for children and families with special needs. She was instrumental in the creation of the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool, providing health care coverage for New Mexicans who could not obtain or afford health insurance. She was also instrumental in obtaining funding for Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research and numerous other projects to support and enhance the quality of life for New Mexicans. Although Patty was known as a tireless advocate, the truth is her career was second to her love and passion for her family.
A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, at 2 p.m., at the Roswell Convention & Civic Center, 912 N. Main St. Pallbearers will be Jason Sandel, Joe Andreis, Stuart Ingle, John Vincent Morgan, Jesse French, Bill Wolf, Bill Armstrong and Tom Jennings. Honorary pallbearers will be Andres Morales and Alfredo Gomez. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Patricia K. Jennings Foundation, P.O. Box 1797, Roswell, NM 88202.
If friends wish to leave their condolences, they may do so online at www.lagronefuneralchapels.com.
Arrangements are under the direction of LaGrone Funeral Chapel.
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Mi corazón es muy frioJulie Carter
Love on demand. That's my definition of Valentine's Day, a commercial holiday conveniently placed between Christmas and Easter designed to feed retailers and give people a reason to spend money.
I've been on the receiving end of a number of lovely red and white somethings: jewelry, candy, flowers and cards. All appreciated, just not necessary.
The head cowboy got to town late one year and all that was left were the cards written in Spanish. Mine said something about my corazón and forever.
He ate the chocolates on the way back to the ranch and, with no apology, told me he knew I was on a diet and he sure didn't want to contribute to any failure of that effort.
In the meantime, that same day it had snowed about 10 inches after it rained for a few hours.
The corrals were knee-deep in mud covered by a deceivingly benign-looking white blanket of snow. It made a mush that sucked off your boots and hindered any kind of movement other than a determined trudge.
I was on heifer-calving duty while the head cowboy was somewhere else. The weather dictated frequent checks to make sure some new, wet, steaming baby calf wasn't born in a mud hole and chilled down before he ever got a chance at life.
Heifers by their very youth and nature are stupid, skittish and determined to be contrary in spite of what's in their best interest. When weather is bad, the calving kicks into a higher gear just because.
I cut laboring heifers out of the OB corral and penned them in warm stalls as they neared the birthing moment. That in itself was a visual as they ducked and ran and turned and did everything except go through the gate I needed them to go through.
I was in packer boots, every warm piece of clothing I owned, and looked like the Michelin man in a dance competition. Moving fast to cut off a heifer as she tried to cut back was not a pretty sight.
In all this, there was one heifer on the very far end of the corrals, a long alleyway from the barn, that decided to lie down and have her calf in the mud and snow in spite of my efforts. By the time I got to her, she was well into the business of pushing him out into a puddle of ice-cold mush.
She got up the minute she saw me and came at me with definite intent to harm. I deftly jumped (OK, that may be an exaggeration) behind the gate I had just come through.
I let her run through the gate opening, preferable to running over the top of me. I quickly shut a couple gates behind her for safekeeping while I rescued the slimy newborn that was blinking and sputtering trying to get his first breaths.
The calf weighed more than he should have for a first calf and was long, wet and slippery. I lifted him up by his front end, hugging his back to me, my grip tight around his body just behind his front legs. His back legs still touched the ground and I knew all I could do was walk backwards and drag him up the alley to the barn.
In no particular order, I tugged and trudged and grunted and pulled. About 10 feet from the barn door, I went down. My foot had pulled out of my boot and my sock was fast soaking up freezing wet corral muck.
I was sitting on my frozen "corazón" with a slimy calf in my lap, trying to figure out how to get out from underneath him, get my boot and start over.
As perfect as timing could be, it was then the head cowboy came around the corner of the barn.
He first grinned and then with decidedly poor judgment, he laughed. He rescued the calf off my lap while asking, "Was this all you got done today?"
It was probably a week after the snow was gone before things thawed out at the ranch house. Valentine's Day had come and gone but there was no doubt, between the calving events, the card in Spanish and the empty chocolate box, it was destined to be one of the most memorable ones.
Julie says Happy Valentines Day to all those ranch wives working the calving pen. She can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com.
I Stand Corrected...Sort Of
On Thursday I had a post concerning Rep. Maloney's legislation to designate 23 Million acres of wilderness in the Rocky Mountain West.
Part of the article I excerpted stated:
It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests. Old logging roads would be removed, and habitat restored in most of those areas, creating about 2,300 jobs...said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies...
I took Mr. Garrity to task, saying if there was 6,000 miles of road then these areas didn't qualify as wilderness, since wilderness areas are by law roadless.
Friday morning in the comments section, Anonymous wrote the following:
Garrity is not talking about removing roads from designated Wilderness(You are right, there are no roads there). He is talking about roads on other forest service lands.
Today, instead of relying on press accounts I went to Maloney's website and read the bill. Mr. Anonymous was right and I had misread the article. Those roads were on FS lands not proposed for wilderness. It is more accurate to state not currently proposed for wilderness, as you shall see.
Upon reading the bill, I found it to be worse than I expected. It does much more than designate 23 million acres as wilderness.
Title II of the bill creates 7.7 milion acres of "Biological Connecting Corridors." The management prescriptions for these corridors bans timber harvesting, oil and gas development and construction or reconstruction of roads. It even goes so far as to state that road densities should be "as nearly as possible, zero miles of road per square mile of land area" and in no instance should the road density be more than "0.25 miles per square mile."
Title III designates more than 56 Wild & Scenic rivers.
Title IV creates a "National Wildland Restoration and Recovery System" of 1,023,000 acres. Recovery is defined as restoring these lands "to a natural untrammeled condition and the restoration of the undeveloped roadless character of such land." This title also establishes the "National Wildland and Recovery Corps." And what is this corps to do? In addition to planting trees they are to commit "road obliteration." That's right, "road obliteration." What happens after the areas are restored and made roadless? The bill states "the Forest Service shall evaluate the suitability of such component for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System."
So there it is. Designate a million acres for recovery, hire 2,300 people to "obliterate" 6,000 miles of road and once you're done include these now roadless areas in the wilderness system. In my original post I accused them of manufacturing wilderness and that still stands. I can't think of a better example than this bill.
Putting that aside, I am as concerned about unemployment as Rep. Maloney. I know she represents New York City and those folks are as deserving of jobs as anybody. Therefore, I would propose an amendment to her bill which would do the following:
---Create an "Urban Restoration and Recovery System"
---Create an "Urban Recovery Corps"
---Prescribe the "obliteration" of buildings and roads in New York City, and
---Designate the recovered land as "Obama Obliteration Areas"
This would be a much more efficient and cost-effective way of "creating" jobs. After all, you wouldn't have to haul the workers to hell and back to rip out the roads. If this didn't create enough jobs we could throw in Washington, D.C. Come to think of it, I might want to designate the area from NYC to DC as a "Biological Connecting Corridor" and Rep. Maloney could walk or ride horseback to work.
In reality, neither of our programs would work. Lasting jobs are the result of producing something, not of obliterating things.
Part of the article I excerpted stated:
It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests. Old logging roads would be removed, and habitat restored in most of those areas, creating about 2,300 jobs...said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies...
I took Mr. Garrity to task, saying if there was 6,000 miles of road then these areas didn't qualify as wilderness, since wilderness areas are by law roadless.
Friday morning in the comments section, Anonymous wrote the following:
Garrity is not talking about removing roads from designated Wilderness(You are right, there are no roads there). He is talking about roads on other forest service lands.
Today, instead of relying on press accounts I went to Maloney's website and read the bill. Mr. Anonymous was right and I had misread the article. Those roads were on FS lands not proposed for wilderness. It is more accurate to state not currently proposed for wilderness, as you shall see.
Upon reading the bill, I found it to be worse than I expected. It does much more than designate 23 million acres as wilderness.
Title II of the bill creates 7.7 milion acres of "Biological Connecting Corridors." The management prescriptions for these corridors bans timber harvesting, oil and gas development and construction or reconstruction of roads. It even goes so far as to state that road densities should be "as nearly as possible, zero miles of road per square mile of land area" and in no instance should the road density be more than "0.25 miles per square mile."
Title III designates more than 56 Wild & Scenic rivers.
Title IV creates a "National Wildland Restoration and Recovery System" of 1,023,000 acres. Recovery is defined as restoring these lands "to a natural untrammeled condition and the restoration of the undeveloped roadless character of such land." This title also establishes the "National Wildland and Recovery Corps." And what is this corps to do? In addition to planting trees they are to commit "road obliteration." That's right, "road obliteration." What happens after the areas are restored and made roadless? The bill states "the Forest Service shall evaluate the suitability of such component for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System."
So there it is. Designate a million acres for recovery, hire 2,300 people to "obliterate" 6,000 miles of road and once you're done include these now roadless areas in the wilderness system. In my original post I accused them of manufacturing wilderness and that still stands. I can't think of a better example than this bill.
Putting that aside, I am as concerned about unemployment as Rep. Maloney. I know she represents New York City and those folks are as deserving of jobs as anybody. Therefore, I would propose an amendment to her bill which would do the following:
---Create an "Urban Restoration and Recovery System"
---Create an "Urban Recovery Corps"
---Prescribe the "obliteration" of buildings and roads in New York City, and
---Designate the recovered land as "Obama Obliteration Areas"
This would be a much more efficient and cost-effective way of "creating" jobs. After all, you wouldn't have to haul the workers to hell and back to rip out the roads. If this didn't create enough jobs we could throw in Washington, D.C. Come to think of it, I might want to designate the area from NYC to DC as a "Biological Connecting Corridor" and Rep. Maloney could walk or ride horseback to work.
In reality, neither of our programs would work. Lasting jobs are the result of producing something, not of obliterating things.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Green Enough?
Newsweek reports:Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wasn't an instant hit with environmentalists, who said the former Colorado attorney general was soft on the Endangered Species Act, climate change and other important issues. Could some of his first moves soften the opposition? Last week Salazar halted Bush administration leases of federal lands to energy developers and promised a critical review of outstanding leases. And he denounced ethics scandals that broke last fall, including the revelation that some department employees had exchanged drugs and sexual favors with employees of several energy companies that lease public lands. In an interview with NEWSWEEK's Daniel Stone and Daren Briscoe, Salazar suggested critics get to know his record better, and he promised to put science first. Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: A broad collection of wildlife advocacy groups opposed your nomination, saying your record doesn't show a strong-enough stance on species protection. Salazar: I'm not here to please the environmental groups or the oil and gas industries. I'm here to do the right thing. The fact that there's criticism from the left and the right is something I'm very used to. Those environmental groups should educate themselves on the work I have done. In Colorado, I created the most significant state land conservation program in the history of the United States that restored and protected river corridors, which is basically protecting species. I've been involved in crafting programs to recover endangered fish in the Colorado River system. I was one of the architects in crafting an agreement to recover the whooping crane in Nebraska. I have a history of having stood up to recover species in a way that's real. You say you will value science more than your predecessors. What does that mean? There are a number of pods within the department where there are scientists who do their work without a political agenda. Their work has to be honored. It starts with the Fish and Wildlife Service on the endangered-species consultation process. They're the ones that ought to be making the call in terms of what kind of impact will be created as a result of whatever action will be taken. Secondly, we have the U.S. Geological Survey, coupled with the Bureau of Reclamation. They will be hugely helpful for us as we figure out in a real way how we'll address the reality of climate change. We have, in this department, a very strong group of scientists that have been working on these issues and collecting data for a very long time...
Ethanol, Just Recently a Savior, Is Struggling
Barely a year after Congress enacted an energy law meant to foster a huge national enterprise capable of converting plants and agricultural wastes into automotive fuel, the goals lawmakers set for the ethanol industry are in serious jeopardy. As recently as last summer, plants that make ethanol from corn were sprouting across the Midwest. But now, with motorists driving less in the economic downturn, the industry is burdened with excess capacity, and plants are shutting down virtually every week. In the meantime, plans are lagging for a new generation of factories that were supposed to produce ethanol from substances like wood chips and crop waste, overcoming the drawbacks of corn ethanol. That nascent branch of the industry concedes it has virtually no chance of meeting Congressional production mandates that kick in next year. The decline in fortunes has been extreme for both kinds of ethanol since last summer, when $145-a-barrel oil appeared to shift fuel economics in their favor. Only months ago, refiners in some regions were buying up as much corn ethanol as they could to blend with expensive gasoline, effectively keeping pump prices down slightly. Meanwhile, investors seemed willing to finance plants to produce next-generation biofuels. But since the summer, oil and gasoline prices have plunged, while the price of corn, from which virtually all commercial ethanol in this country is made, has remained relatively high. Refiners are limiting their ethanol purchases to a level required to meet federal blending mandates — a level far below the industry’s capacity...
Ethanol's Backers Get Gassed
From an IBD editorial:
A funny thing happened on the way to all the green profits that were supposed to be in the offing thanks to high prices at the gas pump. Corn ethanol plants "are shutting down virtually every week." An alternative energy trade group says at least 10 of the nation's 150 ethanol firms have closed some 24 plants in three months, with a dozen other companies in distress. Little more than a year after the Democratic Congress passed legislation launching a massive national effort to convert farm crops and agricultural wastes into auto fuel, it's become clear that the production deadlines aimed at greenifying your local gas station can't and won't be met. The many investors who were tripping all over themselves to finance biofuel plants last year are finding that going green can mean losing lots of green. Congress had a grand plan: It would double corn ethanol use by 2015. And by 2022, 21 billion gallons of ethanol and biofuels would be made from formerly useless stuff, ranging from corn stubble to switchgrass to municipal waste. But reality has hit like a ton of corn stalks. The inescapable facts are that corn prices remain at a market-set high, and converting the corn alternative cellulose into liquid fuel is prohibitively expensive. And there are other problems. For one, corn ethanol gets worse mileage than gasoline. For another, ethanol's corrosiveness means it can't be shipped through regular pipelines like gasoline...
A funny thing happened on the way to all the green profits that were supposed to be in the offing thanks to high prices at the gas pump. Corn ethanol plants "are shutting down virtually every week." An alternative energy trade group says at least 10 of the nation's 150 ethanol firms have closed some 24 plants in three months, with a dozen other companies in distress. Little more than a year after the Democratic Congress passed legislation launching a massive national effort to convert farm crops and agricultural wastes into auto fuel, it's become clear that the production deadlines aimed at greenifying your local gas station can't and won't be met. The many investors who were tripping all over themselves to finance biofuel plants last year are finding that going green can mean losing lots of green. Congress had a grand plan: It would double corn ethanol use by 2015. And by 2022, 21 billion gallons of ethanol and biofuels would be made from formerly useless stuff, ranging from corn stubble to switchgrass to municipal waste. But reality has hit like a ton of corn stalks. The inescapable facts are that corn prices remain at a market-set high, and converting the corn alternative cellulose into liquid fuel is prohibitively expensive. And there are other problems. For one, corn ethanol gets worse mileage than gasoline. For another, ethanol's corrosiveness means it can't be shipped through regular pipelines like gasoline...
Lawsuit Inc. strikes again
A Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial:
Over at the courthouse, the first environmental attorneys show up with their carry-out coffee cups, just ahead of the crows, waiting for the windows to open so they can file their latest actions, banning any further attempts at human progress in Southern Nevada. First in line today are the grim reapers of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, suing agents of the federal government for allowing plans to proceed for the development of homes and a golf course at Coyote Springs, in northeastern Clark County. The federal agencies should never have allowed owners of the property to make plans to use their own water rights by digging wells on their own lands, the lawyers will argue in court, because such "groundwater withdrawals" could destroy habitat crucial to the Mojave Desert tortoise and the Moapa dace, a finger-length minnow found only in the headwaters of the Muddy River, 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. And the aggressors can't lose -- that's the beauty of it. Oh, this lawsuit may be tossed, eventually. But by then there will be scores of others. And the smug and spike-haired plaintiffs will still be reimbursed for their time and trouble, paid off with tax dollars by the very agencies they're suing. No federal judge has ever ruled, "You're wrong; the minnows won't be harmed; furthermore, I find no evidence that you really care one whit about these minnows -- you never visit or feed them -- that instead you've brought this action for no purpose other than causing expense and inconvenience to others, and therefore I'm charging you with all court costs and defendants' attorney fees -- personally."...
Over at the courthouse, the first environmental attorneys show up with their carry-out coffee cups, just ahead of the crows, waiting for the windows to open so they can file their latest actions, banning any further attempts at human progress in Southern Nevada. First in line today are the grim reapers of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, suing agents of the federal government for allowing plans to proceed for the development of homes and a golf course at Coyote Springs, in northeastern Clark County. The federal agencies should never have allowed owners of the property to make plans to use their own water rights by digging wells on their own lands, the lawyers will argue in court, because such "groundwater withdrawals" could destroy habitat crucial to the Mojave Desert tortoise and the Moapa dace, a finger-length minnow found only in the headwaters of the Muddy River, 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. And the aggressors can't lose -- that's the beauty of it. Oh, this lawsuit may be tossed, eventually. But by then there will be scores of others. And the smug and spike-haired plaintiffs will still be reimbursed for their time and trouble, paid off with tax dollars by the very agencies they're suing. No federal judge has ever ruled, "You're wrong; the minnows won't be harmed; furthermore, I find no evidence that you really care one whit about these minnows -- you never visit or feed them -- that instead you've brought this action for no purpose other than causing expense and inconvenience to others, and therefore I'm charging you with all court costs and defendants' attorney fees -- personally."...
Rancher Wants to Know If Oil, Gas Drilling is Polluting Drinking Water
A Pavillion-area rancher told a House committee Wednesday that he is frustrated with an inability to find out what chemicals from oil and gas drilling are being used around his home. He said he fears those chemicals may be penetrating his and his neighbors' water wells. "There has to be some regulation. There has to be some accountability," John Fenton said. He urged the committee to kill Senate Joint Resolution 5. It asks Congress and the president to preserve the exemption for the process of hydraulic fracturing in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will likely act Friday on SJ 5, said chairman Rep. Tom Lockhart, R- Casper. The committee took testimony Wednesday on the bill, which has passed the Senate. Supporters say it is about maintaining a safe, reliable practice that has been used in 80 percent of Wyoming's oil and gas wells to produce hydrocarbons that would otherwise be unreachable, adding immense amounts of money to state coffers...Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Bill would block killing of wild horses, burros
The Press Enterprise reports:Legislation was introduced Thursday in Congress that would prevent the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from killing otherwise healthy wild horses and burros that roam Western states. "It is unacceptable for wild horses to be slaughtered without any regard for the general health, well-being, and conservation of these iconic animals that embody the spirit of our American West," Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., said in a statement. Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has long been an advocate for wild horses on public lands. "Our wild horses are being harmed by antiquated policies," said the measure's co-sponsor Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee. "These policies must be updated to reflect Americans' desire to see these horses protected." Besides prohibiting the killing of healthy horses and burros that are removed from the range, the bill would allow BLM to revamp and expand public land areas for horses and assist in creating sanctuaries. It also calls for strengthening the agency's adoption program and increasing public involvement in management decisions, the sponsors said...
The Clean Water Act and Nonpoint Source Pollution: Implications for Agriculture
Over the past few decades there has been a significant increase in litigation surrounding western water resources, including Nevada's watersheds. Agriculture has been named as a defendant in several cases. Those involved in agriculture need to acknowledge that water, a primary input in the production process, has become a highly valued and increasingly scarce resource. And, federal legislation prioritizes the improvement and protection of water quality involving water resources nationwide. Farmers and ranchers must understand water issues surrounding agricultural activities and social concerns involving water bodies located near their operations. The first step in accomplishing this level of awareness is to understand federal and state laws regulating water quality, implementation of laws and pollutants identified as harmful to water bodies. This fact sheet explains the provisions outlined in the Clean Water Act that specifically address nonpoint source pollution and implications for agriculture...Reno Gazette-Journal
ND Senate begins debate on big-game baiting ban
Spreading corn, sugar beet waste and other bait to attract big game also could help spread livestock disease that would be devastating to North Dakota's ranching industry, advocates of banning the hunting practice say. "Baiting and feeding has become widespread in this state, and has become part of the culture in many areas," said Sen. Curtis Olafson, R-Edinburg. "It will not be easy for those who have become immersed in that culture to change. But that change must be made, for the greater good of all of our citizens." Studies by state wildlife agencies show baiting carries increased risks for the spread of bovine tuberculosis and other diseases, Olafson said during a state Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing Thursday. Opponents of a baiting ban said it would infringe on their property rights and do little, if anything, to prevent disease. During this year's harsh winter, deer are flocking to the farms for feed in any case, they said...Grand Forks Herald
New Sustainable and Humane Food-Animal Certification Underway
A long-time fixture within the animal-handling issue, Temple Grandin, is launching a new certification program to evaluate both sustainable and humane practices of a food-animal production system. The Colorado State University researcher and animal-handling expert worked with Niman Ranch to develop the program. Starting in August, producers or companies that wish to be certified will be audited on 21 core principles. In the case of a multiple-producer company, all farmers and ranchers must receive certification. There will be a certification seal associated with the audits. The 21 core principles include: * Animals must be given the opportunity to care for, interact with, and nurture their young. In the case of swine, farrowing crates are not allowed. * Practices must be implemented that prevent soil loss or degradation in production areas; minimize unacceptable or unintended poor air quality for family, workers and neighbors; and prevent water quality degradation of surface and groundwater resources. * Animals must be fed a 100 percent vegetarian diet. There must be a feeding plan that will guarantee a sufficient, well-balanced diet to appropriately meet the animals' nutritional needs at their stage in life and maintain required body condition scores. Animals shall have access to feed as long as is necessary for them to satisfy their nutrient requirements...Pork Magazine
North Dakota cattle buyer convicted in $7.8M scheme
The Billings Gazette reports:
A North Dakota cattle buyer who drove bankers around Eastern Montana showing them cattle he falsely claimed were his was convicted Thursday in a $7.8 million scheme to defraud banks. The jury deliberated about an hour and a half in the four-day trial before finding Todd Kenneth Horob, 40, of Williston, guilty of all seven counts in an indictment. The charges included false statements to a bank, bank and wire fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy scheme to defraud and aggravated identity theft. Testifying in his own defense, Horob claimed that other witnesses were wrong and denied providing false brand inspection certificates and other false documents to hide the fraud. Horob's scheme collapsed into bankruptcy, where he continued lying on his petition and in a deposition, Archer said. The investigation by the FBI found that Horob spent money loaned to buy cattle on other things and that he lost more than $2 million in the cattle futures market. Wells Fargo Bank, which loaned Horob $5.8 million, caught on and sent bankers searching for cattle Horob claimed to have purchased with the money, Archer said. "They didn't find cows," he said...
A North Dakota cattle buyer who drove bankers around Eastern Montana showing them cattle he falsely claimed were his was convicted Thursday in a $7.8 million scheme to defraud banks. The jury deliberated about an hour and a half in the four-day trial before finding Todd Kenneth Horob, 40, of Williston, guilty of all seven counts in an indictment. The charges included false statements to a bank, bank and wire fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy scheme to defraud and aggravated identity theft. Testifying in his own defense, Horob claimed that other witnesses were wrong and denied providing false brand inspection certificates and other false documents to hide the fraud. Horob's scheme collapsed into bankruptcy, where he continued lying on his petition and in a deposition, Archer said. The investigation by the FBI found that Horob spent money loaned to buy cattle on other things and that he lost more than $2 million in the cattle futures market. Wells Fargo Bank, which loaned Horob $5.8 million, caught on and sent bankers searching for cattle Horob claimed to have purchased with the money, Archer said. "They didn't find cows," he said...
Not an ordinary horse trader
A friend to Orren Mixer, Jim Thorpe and D. Wayne Lukas, Nick McNair has owned horses that changed the face of the Quarter Horse world. Born in Mayes County near Strang, McNair was always around horses. His father was a horse breeder. “We always had the best looking horses around,” brother Jake McNair said. On Saturday, McNair will be inducted into the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of fame at the Renaissance Hotel in Tulsa. Nominees for induction are chosen by their peers. The rules for nomination state the person “must be or have been, over a period of years, significant in the growth of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse industry, or have been outstanding in his/her area of activity involving the American Quarter Horse in Oklahoma.” McNair doesn’t see himself fitting that criteria. “I’m just a horse trader, and I’ve been lucky enough to come up with some good ones,” he said. “I wish I knew who put me in for this.” Unassuming as he is, horses McNair has owned made a lasting mark in the American Quarter Horse Association. Probably first on that list is Impressive. Impressive is one of the most recognizable halter horses in the world, second as a sire of point-earning halter horses only to Two Eyed Jack...Pryor Daily Times
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