Kane County's legal wrangling with environmental groups over access to and ownership of roadways in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument made a return trip Tuesday to a federal appeals court. In 2005, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society sued the county after it ordered the removal of more than 30 road-closure signs posted by the Bureau of Land Management and then dumped the markers at a BLM office in Kanab. The county then posted its own signs, indicating the roads were public and open to motorized vehicles. Kane's unilateral action triggered a host of lawsuits, most of which the county has lost. Last September, a three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Teena Campbell's 2008 ruling that the county's actions created conflicting management plans for the area. The federal government, she said, pre-empted local authority. But the appellate court agreed to revisit several issues surrounding the case, setting the stage for Tuesday's review by the full circuit court. Among the issues is whether the environmental groups -- as private entities -- had legal standing to challenge the county's actions. Kane County's attorney, Mike Lee, who is running against Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, argued Tuesday before the 11-judge panel that for decades the county has maintained and regulated the area's roads and that locals use them to get to and from their homes...more
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Kane takes its road fight to court -- again
Kane County's legal wrangling with environmental groups over access to and ownership of roadways in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument made a return trip Tuesday to a federal appeals court. In 2005, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society sued the county after it ordered the removal of more than 30 road-closure signs posted by the Bureau of Land Management and then dumped the markers at a BLM office in Kanab. The county then posted its own signs, indicating the roads were public and open to motorized vehicles. Kane's unilateral action triggered a host of lawsuits, most of which the county has lost. Last September, a three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Teena Campbell's 2008 ruling that the county's actions created conflicting management plans for the area. The federal government, she said, pre-empted local authority. But the appellate court agreed to revisit several issues surrounding the case, setting the stage for Tuesday's review by the full circuit court. Among the issues is whether the environmental groups -- as private entities -- had legal standing to challenge the county's actions. Kane County's attorney, Mike Lee, who is running against Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, argued Tuesday before the 11-judge panel that for decades the county has maintained and regulated the area's roads and that locals use them to get to and from their homes...more
Wolf recovery target has changed, feds acknowledge
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official answered allegations from hunters and outfitters Tuesday by acknowledging that the agency has changed the goal for wolf recovery in the northern Rocky Mountains to keep up with the best available science. The statement from Ed Bangs, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf recovery coordinator, comes before U.S. District Judge from Montana Donald Molloy is scheduled to hear arguments June 15 in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups over taking wolves off the Endangered Species List. Under the Endangered Species Act, a species that is in trouble can be restored and removed from federal protection once biological criteria are met. Sixty-six wolves were transplanted from Canada to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996. The recovery goal has changed several times since the original 1987 proposal for a total of 30 breeding pairs in three locations in the northern Rocky Mountains – central Idaho, Greater Yellowstone and northwest Montana. Those changes include a more stringent definition of a breeding pair and a buffer, implemented by Bangs, that requires 15 breeding pairs and 150 wolves in each of the three states to ensure that populations don’t fall below the recovery goal of 30 breeding pairs and 300 wolves in the entire region. Today there are an estimated 1,702 wolves in 242 wolf packs and 115 breeding pairs in the central Idaho and Greater Yellowstone areas and in northern Montana, where they recolonized naturally...more
Aerial wolf kill to protect caribou
A collective of Canadian environmental groups has written an open letter to Premier Gordon Campbell decrying the provincial government's proposal for an aerial wolf kill in efforts to protect the dwindling mountain caribou population. In the letter, sent Monday, 16 environmental groups state they are strongly opposed to the killing of wolves — as well as other carnivorous animals including cougars and bears — arguing human activities such as the logging of old-growth forests and snowmobiling are the main causes of mountain caribou population decline. The provincial goal is to increase the mountain caribou population — now estimated at 1,800 to 1,900 animals — to the pre-1995 level of 2,500 animals within 20 years. The proposal for the aerial wolf kill first surfaced in February...more
Suit: USFS skirted law on timber sale
Two environmental groups are claiming in a lawsuit that officials with the Helena National Forest coaxed a state agency into changing the designation of an area as elk winter range in order to get a timber sale near Elliston under way. In the complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council say they have copies of e-mails that show the federal agency pressured Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials to “help them evade the law” by changing the elk designation from winter range to summer range. The two groups claim that with the change by FWP, the Forest Service won’t have to comply with its own requirements for projects on elk winter range, and it will allow the federal agency to move forward more easily with the 763-acre tree-thinning project...more
Environmental agency, Gov. Christie discuss privatizing N.J. forests, parks
The state Department of Environmental Protection and Gov. Chris Christie’s administration are in discussions about having private vendors, rather than state personnel, manage state forests and parks. "We are barely getting by this year with enough funding to run the parks, so we are looking for ways to ensure that our parks stay open and that all residents of New Jersey have an opportunity to be able to use the parks and recreation sites," said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin today. The Garden State is not the first state to consider the idea, which the DEP stressed was only in the talking stage and part of a larger effort to figure out efficient ways to manage state parks and forests. The DEP also offered no specifics on which, if any, of the 50 state parks and dozens of other forests would be eligible for private management. Several environmentalists said they fear the consequences of privatization, including whether fast-food chains would be allowed. Privatizing public parks and forests is not new. Private firms have managed many federal, county and local lands for years, such as Ocala National Forest in Florida. Vendors charge entrance and other user fees and pay government a percentage as they handle all maintenance and park operations. State parks, however, have been slow to catch on, said Warren Meyer, owner of Recreation Resource Management, an Arizona firm that operates 175 federal, county and local park and forest facilities in 13 states...more
Automakers Seek to Delay Ethanol Blending Raise
Citing new test data, the auto industry says the federal government’s plan to raise the amount of ethanol mixed into gasoline will damage cars and increase the amount of pollution they emit. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue a rule in the next few weeks that would permit oil companies to increase the percentage of ethanol in automotive fuel to 15 percent, up from the current level of 10 percent, so they can meet E.P.A. quotas for renewable fuels. Automakers have opposed the change since the E.P.A. first signaled it last year. But now the industry says it has conducted tests that confirm the higher-ethanol blend will cause problems in many cars. Half of the engines tested so far have had some problems, said C. Coleman Jones, the biofuel implementation manager at General Motors, who spoke on behalf of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers...more
Racetrack Developer Loses Gaming License In New Mexico
The state of New Mexico was looking forward to the tax revenue that would come from a new racetrack and casino in Raton. On Tuesday, however, the plans for that facility were put on hold by the New Mexico Gaming Control Board. The Board voted to revoke the license issued to racino owner Michael Moldenhauer because the developer missed a deadline to have a temporary casino up and running. Moldenhauer claims the casino was set to open in a tent in less than a month. In addition to the Control Boards decision, the New Mexico Racing Commission is expected to revoke the racing license at a meeting on May 19th. In New Mexico, it is not legal to operate a racetrack without a casino. Moldenhauer is planning on appealing the ruling...more
Last American Cowboy to air on Animal Planet
Hidden amid the mammoth- Montana landscape are three family-owned and operated cattle ranches and the setting of Animal Planet's newest original series, LAST AMERICAN COWBOY. This epic adventure follows three families of tough, tenacious and headstrong cowboys through freak storms, deadly outbreaks of disease, hungry predators and forest fires that threaten their livelihood. Each ranch will need to rely on family bonds and personal strength to keep this tradition of the American West alive. Premiering Monday, June 7, at 10 PM (ET/PT), LAST AMERICAN COWBOY shares the highs and lows of life on a ranch for the Hughes, Galt and Stucky families. From the multi-generational ranch family committed to working only on horseback to the modern rancher who uses high-tech equipment, all-terrain vehicles and even a helicopter to manage his massive operation to the small nuclear family determined to persevere against all odds, all must struggle to make ends meet and all are deeply committed to this classic way of life lived close to the land. The Hughes family, the smallest of the three ranches, is as close to "Little House on the Prairie" as you can get. Scott and Stacey Hughes, along with their three-year old son and nine-year-old daughter, live on a 12,000-acre ranch and manage their herd of 500 Black Angus all alone. Comparatively, the Galt Ranch is one of the largest cattle ranches in Montana with over 100,000 acres, 5,500 cattle and 100 horses. It is so vast that owner Bill Galt manages it from the sky in his own helicopter. Bill and the rest of the Galt family believe technology is the future of ranching and necessary to efficiently run a ranch of this size and caliber. Contrary to the Galt family, the Stuckys are traditional ranchers choosing horseback over ATVs and doing most of the work by hand. Keeping these traditions alive is deeply important to the entire clan, and as the ranch continues to grow and expand, the Stuckys hope it will be passed down through generations...more
White Sands Festival Honours 'Nokota Heart'
'Nokota Heart', a feature documentary by Irish writer/director Sean Garland, walked away from this year’s White Sand’s International Film Festival with the title of Best Feature Documentary. The Awards Ceremony, held recently in New Mexico, USA, was attended by ‘Nokota Heart’ producer Lawrence Fee from Yard Ireland who also edited the piece. Lawrence collected the Best Feature Documentary Award on behalf of himself and Sean Garland who is the film’s director and director of photography. The feature doc tells the true story of Leo Kuntz, Vietnam vet turned horse rancher, his life and loves out on the Great Plains of North America and his fight to save the legendary Nokota horse of Sitting Bull from extinction in the inexorable onslaught of the 21st century. Lawrence describes the project for IFTN saying: “Intimate and raw, grand and daring, this is W.B.Yeats meets Sam Shepard, the vanishing American frontier through the prism of an Irish storyteller, suffused with the quiet mysticism and unassuming humanity of an everyman, humble onto himself yet unquestionably an unsung hero left behind by time.”...more
The Clanton Gang’s Former New Mexico Stomping Ground to Be Sold at Auction May 25
A piece of our nation’s history will be sold at auction this month. Land frequented by the notorious Clanton Gang as they ran their cattle across the west, and located just 15 miles from the site of Geronimo’s 1886 surrender, will be offered with no starting bids on Tuesday, May 25. The sale of New Mexico’s 680-acre Painted Pony Ranch offers a rare opportunity to own part of America’s history. The Painted Pony Ranch is situated between the Chiracahua and Peloncillo mountains, former home to the Chiracahua Apache Indians and their most prominent leader, Geronimo. During that time, the land now known as the Painted Pony Ranch, was part of the area then referred to as the Robber’s Path due to its frequent use by the infamous Clanton Gang (The Cowboys), outlaws who used the land throughout the 1870s and 1880s leading up to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881. Painted Pony Ranch is located in Rodeo, N.M., a quiet community located between Tucson, Ariz., and El Paso, Texas...more
Song Of The Day #304
Ranch Radio continues the week with modern artists who are "sticking with tradition."
In today's selection Justin Townes Earle gives us the traditional sound and instrumentation in his Ain't Glad I'm Leaving.
The tune is available on his 2008, 10 track CD The Good Life.
Click on the music player and enjoy.
In today's selection Justin Townes Earle gives us the traditional sound and instrumentation in his Ain't Glad I'm Leaving.
The tune is available on his 2008, 10 track CD The Good Life.
Click on the music player and enjoy.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Forest Service to fight obesity
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service will contribute $500,000 this year to the “More Kids in the Woods” program for projects that promote active lifestyles and connect kids to nature. “If we are going to put an end to childhood obesity, we must promote healthy, active lifestyles and encourage our kids to get off the couch and go outside,” Vilsack said. “Our More Kids in the Woods challenge not only promotes physical activity, it fosters environmental awareness and stewardship among young people as we face critical environmental challenges, such as the effects of climate change.” Vilsack said the initiatives supported by the program will help children make a connection among “healthy forests, healthy communities and their own healthy lifestyles.”...MoreAll you parents step back - the Forest Service is taking over teaching your kids how to eat, how to enjoy nature and how to be more "active". Yes sir, your kids will grow up buff and as good little greenies who support larger budgets for the Forest Service.
If anything is obese its the Forest Service and I don't remember Smokey being all that slim either. However, we should all get ready for "ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT OBESITY".
So I consulted with Gus & Woodrow and they said the parents should do their job without the help of any federal agents and that the real trimming needs to be done at the federal table. I got them to back off on the dally and drag thing, but it was clear they don't want the federales messin' with our kids.
Beetle outbreak may close forests
Some national forests in Colorado and Wyoming may have to be closed if the U.S. Forest Service cannot hasten cleanup of beetle-infested trees, Regional Forester Rick Cables said Tuesday. Testifying here before the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, Cables said he expects 100,000 trees a day to fall in the national forests in the two states over the next 10 years. "The trees are falling," Cables said. "We've had several near misses already where falling trees have come close to hurting people."...more
I can't figure out how those trees missed all those fat folks out there.
On the other hand, what a great way to get exercise. Just round up all those tubbly teens, turn 'em loose in the forest and let them dodge 100,000 trees a day. They'd also learn pretty damn quick about healthy forests.
I can't figure out how those trees missed all those fat folks out there.
On the other hand, what a great way to get exercise. Just round up all those tubbly teens, turn 'em loose in the forest and let them dodge 100,000 trees a day. They'd also learn pretty damn quick about healthy forests.
Collaboration Leads to Protection of Colorado's James Peak Wilderness
The Wilderness Land Trust, in partnership with the Colorado Conservation Trust, has protected approximately 320-acres of private land located in the stunning glacial cirque on the edge of the James Peak Wilderness, the partners announced today. The protected area, which includes Little Echo Lake, riparian areas along Mammoth Gulch, and a broad ridge extending from James Peak, was not included in the 2002 James Peak Wilderness Area designation due to potential conflicts between management of the public and private lands. Eventually the partners plan to transfer ownership to the U.S. Forest Service for an eventual addition to the wilderness so that the entire region can be managed together for public benefit. The $725,000 purchase was made possible in part due to a $600,000 loan from the Colorado Conservation Trust. The Wilderness Land Trust works with willing sellers to eliminate private lands within the National Wilderness Preservation System. More than 400,000 acres of privately held lands remain within designated Wilderness areas which can lead to fragmentation of pristine ecosystems, degradation of the wilderness experience for visitors, and more costly and time consuming challenges for public land management agencies. The Trust is the national leader in securing Wilderness Areas for future generations to enjoy...more
Another example of the land trusts working as stalking horses for federal land acquisition.
All that "collaborating" brought us was less private property.
Gus & Woodrow say we need a land trust with the same tax breaks to work on disposing of federal property. I'm thinking they're gonna have to do a big bunch of dallyin' and draggin' before that can happen.
Another example of the land trusts working as stalking horses for federal land acquisition.
All that "collaborating" brought us was less private property.
Gus & Woodrow say we need a land trust with the same tax breaks to work on disposing of federal property. I'm thinking they're gonna have to do a big bunch of dallyin' and draggin' before that can happen.
Federal Judge Upholds Drilling In SW Colorado
A federal judge has upheld approval of gas wells in parts of the southwestern Colorado mountains, rejecting arguments by environmentalists that the plan doesn't adequately protect sensitive areas and wildlife. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch said in his ruling, issued Monday, that any flaws in the plan authorizing about 140 natural gas wells in the San Juan National Forest are "minor in proportion to the full context of the agency action under review." Environmental groups contend the project conflicts with the forest management plan. They say federal agencies' pledges to avoid old growth forests and protect key wildlife habitat and waterways on the public land have been ignored. Of special interest are the HD Mountains, which include roadless areas and make up roughly 45,000 acres of the 125,000-acre project area. Environmentalists also argued in a December hearing that the environmental assessment of the project didn't adequately consider the potential effects on air quality, particularly on nearby federal wilderness areas and national parks in Colorado and New Mexico...more
Court upholds timber sales in Tongass Nat'l Forest
Two conservation groups have failed to stop four timber sale offerings they say threaten a rare species of wolf that lives in the Tongass National Forest. Greenpeace and Cascadia Wildlands Project filed a lawsuit two years ago accusing the U.S. Forest Service of violating federal environmental laws when planning for the sales. Together, the timber sales amount to 30 million board-feet of Tongass timber — about the same as was harvested last year from the nation's largest national forest. U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline found no wrongdoing on the part of the Forest Service, describing the problem as more of a "scientific disagreement" rather than an error by the agency. He said the Forest Service conducted an extensive environmental analysis of the four projects in the national forest that covers about 26,500 square miles — more than the entire state of West Virginia...more
Capitan residents remember Smokey Bear
It was 60 years ago this week that his dad brought home in a shoebox a tiny black bear cub that would become the incarnation of a national icon - but Donald Bell still remembers it vividly. A typical 15-year-old, Donald wasn't much impressed by the arrival of the injured bear at his Santa Fe home; his father, Ray Bell, was a game warden, and routinely brought home injured animals, got them medical care and found homes for them at area zoos. It wasn't until some photos of the bear, his blistered feet bandaged, made their way into newspapers across the country that little Hotfoot Teddy, as he had been named, caught the attention of the U.S. Forest Service and became Smokey Bear - the living symbol of the fire prevention mascot that debuted in 1944. Nowadays, Smokey Bear, in his dungarees and ranger's hat, is one of the most recognizable characters in the U.S. But in May of 1950, he was just a 5-pound cub that frolicked around the Bell home in the evenings with their cocker spaniel puppy...more
Song Of The Day #303
Continuing to honor those who "stick with tradition", Ranch Radio offers you Dang These Texas Honky Tonks performed by Bill Green.
You can find the tune on his 11 track CD Dang These Texas Honky Tonks.
You can find the tune on his 11 track CD Dang These Texas Honky Tonks.
Warnings Ignored as Arizona Sheriff Deputy Shot by Drug Smugglers on Federal Wilderness Lands
Only weeks after Republican Committee Ranking Members introduced legislation to ensure Border Patrol agents’ operational control of the border isn’t compromised by Department of Interior environmental policies, a shooting occurred on public lands near the border. On Friday, April 30, Pinal County Sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll was ambushed and shot by five drug smugglers in the Table Top Wilderness Area, federal land just south of Phoenix, Arizona. Puroll, on foot patrol for drug smugglers, was forced to abandon his vehicle as he entered Table Top due to the prohibition of motorized vehicles in Wilderness Areas. This is the latest violent crime to occur on federal Wilderness areas along the U.S. border where Border Patrol is unable to effectively monitor the land due to environmental policies enforced by Department of Interior (DOI) land managers. According to Bureau of Land Management sources there have been 11 shooting incidents in Table Top Wilderness Area in 2010. Action needs to be taken by the Department and Congress before another incident occurs...more
Border Patrol Agent Union Strongly Supports Bill to Improve Border Security on Public Lands
he National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), a professional union representing more than 17,000 Border Patrol Agents and support staff, sent a letter yesterday in support of H.R. 5016, a bill to prevent the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture from implementing policies that restrict or impede Border Patrol from carrying out their mission to secure the U.S. border on public lands. The need for this legislation has recently been highlighted by the tragic murder of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz and the non-fatal shooting of Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll. The suspects in both incidents are believed to have entered the U.S. on federal lands near the border. The President of the NBPC, T.J. Bonner wrote the following in support of the legislation: “Achieving the elusive goal of securing our Nation’s borders is complicated by numerous obstacles, including rugged, terrain, extreme climatic conditions, an overwhelming amount of illegal traffic, and escalation violence perpetrated by smugglers and other criminals. Bureaucratic regulations that prevent Border Patrol agents from utilizing vehicles and technology on public lands should be the least of their concerns, but unfortunately are not....more
Border policies continue to jeopardize national security
by Congressman Mike Coffman
The March 27 murder of Arizona rancher Rob Krentz in Cochise County, 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border made headlines in Arizona, sparked significant unrest in border communities, and, in part, led to the enactment of the new controversial illegal immigration law in that state.
Although catalyzed by the killing of Mr. Krentz, Arizona’s rebellion has its roots in failed federal policies and a woeful neglect of federal responsibilities. The new Arizona law aimed at controlling illegal immigration is an understandable response to the failures of the federal government to secure our borders and protect our national security.
What has incensed so many is the baffling reality that our porous borders are not the result of neglect or lack of resources. Rather, they’re unsecured because the federal government currently prioritizes protecting ecosystems and wildlife along the border over controlling access and preventing illegal entry. In effect, current policy allows other federal agencies to obstruct the Department of Homeland Security’s mission.
The Mexican drug smuggler who shot Mr. Krentz on his ranchlands entered the U.S. from Mexico using a heavily trafficked trail in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge (SBNWR), which sits 25 miles east of border town of Douglas. Everyone in Cochise County knows smugglers, many of whom are armed, use that route regularly. What angers and instills fear in local residents as much as the murder itself is the harsh reality that residents are powerless to do anything about the situation.
At the highest levels our federal government is jeopardizing out national security by not adequately resolving the well documented disputes between federal agencies over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to patrol the border on federally owned lands. Essentially, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is encouraging and assisting illegal entry by restricting and obstructing DHS Customs and Border Patrol access to federal lands – as a matter of official policy.
By law, Customs and Border Patrol has unrestricted access to private lands within 25 miles of the border with the exception of private dwellings. However, on public lands managed by the National Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Border Patrol must negotiate access agreements with those “sister agencies.”
The SBNWR has no pedestrian fence barring smugglers from entering the U.S. across its international border. The reason there is no barrier is that DOI continues to assert the priority of its mission of protecting wildlife as a priority over the need to prevent unlawful entry.
Not only is there no barrier on the international border, Border Patrol is expressly prohibited from doing routine patrols within designated wildlife areas including the SBNWR and may only enter for certain limited purposes, such as “life threatening circumstances.” Pursuing or apprehending unauthorized border trespassers is not one of the approved purposes.
Appallingly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently spent over $200,000 of “stimulus funding” to upgrade 11 miles of perimeter fencing to keep Border Patrol out of the SBNWR. Just this past month, a high-ranking Border Patrol officer told a local rancher that their access to the area has never been worse.
Similar policies and interagency agreements restrict Border Patrol access to other federal lands across the southern border. Drug smugglers, human traffickers, and even potentially terrorists have free entry into a hundred square miles of national forest land—and the towns and cities beyond.
This problem is not new. In 2002, an internal DOI report, “Public Lands Threat Assessment,” documented the dangers and degradation to the public lands caused by unlawful traffic by drug smugglers and tens of thousands of unlawful entrants. The report was buried, never distributed to agency managers, and never acted upon.
To address this stunning problem of misaligned federal priorities, I have co-sponsored legislation recently introduced by Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah. The bill, H.R. 5016, would prohibit the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture from taking actions on public lands, which would impede the activities of the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border on such lands.
It is up to the federal government to prioritize securing our homeland and protecting our borders. The federal government is failing to secure our borders, failing to protect our national security, and failing to pick the right priorities. Congress needs to act and pass H.R.5016 to ensure securing our borders is a top priority. The killing of Mr. Krentz and the subsequent enactment of Arizona’s new law are but two consequences of those federal government failures. [link]
Congressman Mike Coffman represents the 6th District of Colorado. A small business owner for more than 17 years and Marine Corps combat veteran, he is the only member of Congress to have served in both the first Gulf War and the Iraq War. Coffman serves on the House Armed Services Committee, House Natural Resources Committee, and the House Committee on Small Business.
The March 27 murder of Arizona rancher Rob Krentz in Cochise County, 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border made headlines in Arizona, sparked significant unrest in border communities, and, in part, led to the enactment of the new controversial illegal immigration law in that state.
Although catalyzed by the killing of Mr. Krentz, Arizona’s rebellion has its roots in failed federal policies and a woeful neglect of federal responsibilities. The new Arizona law aimed at controlling illegal immigration is an understandable response to the failures of the federal government to secure our borders and protect our national security.
What has incensed so many is the baffling reality that our porous borders are not the result of neglect or lack of resources. Rather, they’re unsecured because the federal government currently prioritizes protecting ecosystems and wildlife along the border over controlling access and preventing illegal entry. In effect, current policy allows other federal agencies to obstruct the Department of Homeland Security’s mission.
The Mexican drug smuggler who shot Mr. Krentz on his ranchlands entered the U.S. from Mexico using a heavily trafficked trail in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge (SBNWR), which sits 25 miles east of border town of Douglas. Everyone in Cochise County knows smugglers, many of whom are armed, use that route regularly. What angers and instills fear in local residents as much as the murder itself is the harsh reality that residents are powerless to do anything about the situation.
At the highest levels our federal government is jeopardizing out national security by not adequately resolving the well documented disputes between federal agencies over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to patrol the border on federally owned lands. Essentially, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is encouraging and assisting illegal entry by restricting and obstructing DHS Customs and Border Patrol access to federal lands – as a matter of official policy.
By law, Customs and Border Patrol has unrestricted access to private lands within 25 miles of the border with the exception of private dwellings. However, on public lands managed by the National Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Border Patrol must negotiate access agreements with those “sister agencies.”
The SBNWR has no pedestrian fence barring smugglers from entering the U.S. across its international border. The reason there is no barrier is that DOI continues to assert the priority of its mission of protecting wildlife as a priority over the need to prevent unlawful entry.
Not only is there no barrier on the international border, Border Patrol is expressly prohibited from doing routine patrols within designated wildlife areas including the SBNWR and may only enter for certain limited purposes, such as “life threatening circumstances.” Pursuing or apprehending unauthorized border trespassers is not one of the approved purposes.
Appallingly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently spent over $200,000 of “stimulus funding” to upgrade 11 miles of perimeter fencing to keep Border Patrol out of the SBNWR. Just this past month, a high-ranking Border Patrol officer told a local rancher that their access to the area has never been worse.
Similar policies and interagency agreements restrict Border Patrol access to other federal lands across the southern border. Drug smugglers, human traffickers, and even potentially terrorists have free entry into a hundred square miles of national forest land—and the towns and cities beyond.
This problem is not new. In 2002, an internal DOI report, “Public Lands Threat Assessment,” documented the dangers and degradation to the public lands caused by unlawful traffic by drug smugglers and tens of thousands of unlawful entrants. The report was buried, never distributed to agency managers, and never acted upon.
To address this stunning problem of misaligned federal priorities, I have co-sponsored legislation recently introduced by Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah. The bill, H.R. 5016, would prohibit the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture from taking actions on public lands, which would impede the activities of the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border on such lands.
It is up to the federal government to prioritize securing our homeland and protecting our borders. The federal government is failing to secure our borders, failing to protect our national security, and failing to pick the right priorities. Congress needs to act and pass H.R.5016 to ensure securing our borders is a top priority. The killing of Mr. Krentz and the subsequent enactment of Arizona’s new law are but two consequences of those federal government failures. [link]
Congressman Mike Coffman represents the 6th District of Colorado. A small business owner for more than 17 years and Marine Corps combat veteran, he is the only member of Congress to have served in both the first Gulf War and the Iraq War. Coffman serves on the House Armed Services Committee, House Natural Resources Committee, and the House Committee on Small Business.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Legal battle brews over protection of jaguars in southwest
A conservation group is threatening to go another round in court over whether the federal government is doing enough to keep the endangered jaguar safe in the Southwest. The Center for Biological Diversity is targeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services division, alleging that the traps, snares and poisons used by the agency to deal with unwanted predators and invasive species could injure or kill jaguars and smaller endangered cats known as ocelots. The group claims Wildlife Services and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to consult with each other on activities that might affect the jaguar and ocelot. The group sent a notice of intent to sue to the agencies on Friday. The 18-page notice points to a 1999 biological opinion that authorizes predator-control efforts in the Southwest as long as Wildlife Services minimizes the use of traps and snares in occupied jaguar habitat. Robinson argues that the opinion is outdated and data collected in recent years shows jaguar habitat stretches beyond the areas highlighted on the decade-old maps and the measures outlined in the opinion for minimizing the take of jaguars are no long enough to avoid risk to the cats. Wildlife Services had not received the group's notice by late Friday, but spokeswoman Carol Bannerman said the agency always takes precautions whenever conducting projects in areas where there are threatened or endangered species. She said Wildlife Services has consulted with the Fish and Wildlife Service about impacts to jaguars and that neither a jaguar nor ocelot has been inadvertently killed by the agency in many years. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Buckley acknowledged that the two agencies have not consulted about potential impacts to ocelots because there have been no confirmed sightings of the small cats in Arizona in more than 40 years...more
Nev. Rancher Loses Bid to Reinstate Grazing Permit
The 9th Circuit upheld the U.S. Forest Service's decision to cancel the grazing permit of a Nevada cattle rancher who repeatedly violated boundary regulations and ignored warnings and suspensions. The judges rejected the rancher's claim that the agency never gave him a fair hearing. Kenneth Buckingham sued the Forest Service in federal court in Nevada after it canceled his grazing permit in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest for repeatedly letting his cattle graze on allotments that were off-limits. Buckingham was first issued a grazing permit in 1983. Five years later, he began repeatedly violating the terms of the permit and ignoring numerous warnings and suspensions, according to the ruling. The Forest Service eventually canceled Buckingham's permit altogether, prompting him to sue the agency for allegedly denying him a fair hearing. Buckingham also argued that the agency failed to issue a permit that clearly defined the boundaries of the off-limit allotments. The district court ruled that Buckingham failed to exhaust his administrative remedies and that his due process rights had not been violated. The three-judge panel in Portland, Ore., agreed. The panel acknowledged that "Buckingham's livelihood depends, at least in part, upon the right to graze his livestock on national forest lands," but said protecting those lands and their resources trumps Buckingham's claims. "Cattle control is a vital aspect of protecting that governmental interest," Judge Milan Smith wrote. The judges agreed that "by the time the administrative appeal process concluded, the Forest Service had given Buckingham sufficient pre- and post-deprivation procedures to satisfy any due process concerns." Courthouse News
Military installations make amends to endangered species
When on-the-ground soldiers, supported by Apache helicopters overhead, creep and clamber through the live-fire area of Fort Hood, they needn't worry about the fate of the endangered golden-cheeked warblers that like to roost there. That's because the Department of Defense, working with researchers from nonprofits and Texas A&M University, has paid off nearby landowners to build up their own nesting grounds to offset the ones lost on Fort Hood. The Fort Hood pilot program, which just got positive marks in a three-year review, is one way that military installations in Central Texas are coping with endangered species on their territory. Military officials say that besides paying for the landowner program, they are reducing the number of trees they cut down to better replicate forest conditions in conflict zones. In the early 1990s, Congress directed the military to obey endangered species laws. Suddenly, large and frequently remote installations found themselves having to figure out how to offset the killing or harassment of endangered species. Camp Bullis, in Bexar County, is also home to the endangered warbler and the black-capped vireo, another songbird, as well as three endangered invertebrates. Last year, the Nature Conservancy announced that it was partnering with the Army to conserve important undeveloped areas of habitat outside of Camp Bullis for the golden-cheeked warbler. Across the country, 420 endangered or threatened species can be found on military installations, according to L. Peter Boice, the Pentagon's deputy director of natural resources. The Department of Defense spent $306 million between 2004 and 2008 on protecting the species, he said...more
A grolar? A pizzly? Scientists confirm grizzly-polar bear cross
An odd-looking bear shot a few weeks ago by an Inuit hunter in the High Arctic is a rare grizzly-polar bear cross, scientists have confirmed. Moreover, the animal -- with the creamy white fur of a polar bear, but with the big head, long claws and ring of brown hair around its hind common to the grizzly -- may be the first recorded second-generation "grolar bear" found in the wild, said the N.W.T. Environment and Natural Resources Department in a news release. "A wildlife genetics laboratory has since conducted DNA testing on the samples, and the results of the testing point to the animal being a second generation hybrid bear which resulted from the mating of a polar/grizzly bear female with a male grizzly bear," said the release. Hunter David Kuptana shot the bear on April 8 while it roamed the sea ice just west of Ulukhaktok, on Victoria Island. Polar bear-grizzly hybrids -- known as either "pizzly" or "grolar" bears -- are very rare. Although several suspected sightings have been made in that past few years, only one hybrid -- shot by a U.S. hunter in 2006 -- had been confirmed in the wild...more
Sixth Wright brother earns championship check
Saddle bronc rider Spencer Wright, competing on his permit, won his first PRCA rodeo April 30-May 1, sharing first place with Frank McKay at the Kern County Sheriff Reserve Stampede Days Rodeo in Bakersfield, Calif., to become the sixth of seven Wright brothers to have secured at least a share of a PRCA rodeo title. Wright, a 19-year-old who goes by the nickname “Red,” won his first PRCA paycheck (for $661) a week earlier at the Auburn (Calif.) Wild West Stampede – at the second professional rodeo he entered. In Bakersfield, Wright scored 76 points on Salt River Rodeo’s Good Night Irene to equal McKay’s effort on JK Rodeo Company’s Jingle Bob, and each man earned $1,157. Red will compete part time this year because he is a senior at Milford (Utah) High School. Cal Wright, a 29-year-old rancher, also competes part time, and it is possible this summer that rodeo fans may see as many as six Wright brothers at the same rodeo. Cody, 33, Alex, 22, and twins Jake and Jesse, 20, are competing full time in saddle bronc riding. Jake leads the PRCA Rookie Standings, while Jesse, the reigning PRCA Rookie of the Year, leads the brothers in the PRCA World Standings in 10th place. Stuart, the youngest Wright brother, is just 13...more
Three Telluride sisters keeping family history alive
When Angie, Pam and Crissy Aldasoro were growing up in the family's single-wide trailer on a mesa outside Telluride, they likened it to being in Antarctica. Peering into the dark in the mid-1960s, they could never see lights. There were no neighbors near the 5,000-acre Aldasoro Brothers Ranch where herds of sheep made the mountain valleys look snow-covered in July. Their outside links were a radio station from faraway Oklahoma City and one TV station that would fade when an antenna was turned in the down-on-its- luck town of Telluride. Fast forward. The Aldasoro girls — now Pam Bennett, Angie Petersen and Cristine Mitchell, or "the sisters," as they are known around Telluride — are the executives in a slew of commercial property-management corporations. Part of their ranch is now the largest star-studded subdivision in this high- dollar region. Another piece is the highest commercial airport in the country. But the sisters are most proud of being the keepers of an agricultural legacy. The 735-acre heart of the ranch that their Basque grandfather bought as prime sheep pasture is still theirs, treasured for its colorful history. The sisters named the roads in homage to Basque ancestors. Joaquin Road refers to Jose Joaquin Aldasoro, who came to the United States from the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain in 1913 to work for a Utah rancher. The family's immigration story nearly ended there. Joaquin was dropped off outside Green River, Utah, and told to walk to his sheep camp 18 miles away. He walked until exhaustion prompted him to bed down in the dark. In the morning, he discovered that if he had kept walking another 200 feet, he would have fallen over a cliff. Joaquin did not just survive. He thrived. He married Cristina Aguirre, another Basque immigrant, and, with his brother Prudencio and cousin Serapio, started buying up homesteads on Deep Creek Mesa, near Telluride, in 1926. By the mid-1950s, they had acquired 12 homesteads and pastured 5,000 head of sheep there...more
Song Of The Day #301
Ranch Radio will continue the week with modern artists that stick with tradition.
Today's selection will slow things down with a western swing ballad, Don't Cry Baby, by the Red Stick Ramblers, a band from southwest Louisiana.
The tune is available on their 12 track CD Made in the Shade from Sugarhill Records.
Today's selection will slow things down with a western swing ballad, Don't Cry Baby, by the Red Stick Ramblers, a band from southwest Louisiana.
The tune is available on their 12 track CD Made in the Shade from Sugarhill Records.
Latest violence spasm claims 25 lives near Mexico-US border
Mexico's bloody drug wars saw a new spasm of killings late Saturday into Sunday, with 25 people fatally shot in the northern state of Chihuahua bordering the United States. Seven of the deaths occurred in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital, bringing to 62 the number of people killed in the city over the past week. The 18 other slayings overnight included four people fatally shot by automatic weapons fire in a bar in the town of Camargo, near the state capital Chihuahua City, and two women whose bodies were found stuffed in the trunk of an abandoned car in the same town, prosecutors said. So far this year, more than 850 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million, while more than 2,660 were killed there in 2009, according to official figures...more
News report on rancher's killer irks Cochise sheriff
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever on Monday denounced a news report that said the March murder of southern Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was not random and was committed by an American or a person recently in the United States. Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said Dever characterized the story in Monday's Arizona Daily Star as "inaccurate and irresponsible." The newspaper, quoting unnamed, "high-ranking government officials," at first reported that the killer is believed to be an American. That was corrected with an editor's note saying that the nationality of the shooter remains unknown. A subsequent Associated Press story, also based on an unidentified source, said the killer is a Mexican citizen. Still, the Star's report appears to conflict with statements by Dever and others who have speculated that the assailant was an undocumented immigrant working for Mexican drug cartels. Capas said detectives have no leads on a suspect - not even the person's nationality or gender. "The information that we have is still the same as what we released early on," she added. "The investigation is active and ongoing." She said the Sheriff's Office continues working on leads, some of which were generated by a $45,000 reward for information leading to a suspect's arrest and conviction...more
Update From Cochise County, Arizona
Saturday morning the headlines in all the area papers covered the shooting of a Pinal County Deputy by drug smugglers. The reports indicated the officer was ambushed by drug smugglers using AK-47 rifles. How do we know these things? This time the ambush failed and the officer survived. But there is a lot of news in this report that destroys the liberal reports of those grandmothers crossing the border so they can make beds in cheap hotels. First, the Sheriff called it an ambush. This destroys the idea that drug violence has not crossed the border. Next, the drug runners used AK-47s. Last time I checked (and my military training confirmed this), the AK-47 was made in Russia by Kalashnikov. But what happened to all those reports of American guns going south to the drug cartels? Perhaps that is another bit of mass media misinformation...more
Mexico's illegals laws tougher than Arizona's
Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced as "racial discrimination" an Arizona law giving state and local police the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and vowed to use all means at his disposal to defend Mexican nationals against a law he called a "violation of human rights." But the legislation, signed April 23 by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, is similar to Reglamento de la Ley General de Poblacion — the General Law on Population enacted in Mexico in April 2000, which mandates that federal, local and municipal police cooperate with federal immigration authorities in that country in the arrests of illegal immigrants. Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals. The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," violate Mexican law, are not "physically or mentally healthy" or lack the "necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents...more
Obama's Border Breakdown
“The border security implications are frightening,” said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for the front-line officers. Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, criticized the administration’s spending priorities for next year which he says includes no funding for new detention beds, no increase to find and deport immigration fugitives or criminal aliens, no additional special agents to investigate workplace immigration violations, no funding to expand the visa security program, and no funding for new border-fence construction. The administration is looking to eliminate 180 administrative border patrol jobs in the coming year even as violence along the Southwest border continues to escalate -- an Arizona sheriff’s deputy was shot by drug suspects last week, following the murder weeks earlier of an American rancher by border crossers on his own property. “The Border Patrol catches about one-third (of illegal aliens) that come across, that is not border security, that is a joke,” Bonner said. “But to say we are just going to maintain that level of control is unacceptable.” The administration has also proposed cuts for border agents to work overtime, Bonner said. “Weekends and holidays are peak smuggling periods. And if we’re in the middle of a pursuit at the end of a shift, are we just supposed to stop?” Bonner asked. “America deserves and needs far better.”...more
Hearings revive border violence debate as troops requested
Drug violence in Mexico is expected to get a renewed focus in the Senate this week as a bevy of House members from the southwest region push to send more troops to the border. The Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control takes the lead on Wednesday as it holds a long-awaited hearing on the drug trafficking violence in Mexico and the immediate implications for the U.S. At the same time, the Senate Homeland Security Committee is set to examine the government’s crackdown on gun smuggling operations between the U.S. and Mexico during its Wednesday hearing on terrorists and guns. The renewed attention from the upper chamber comes as a bipartisan group of 17 House lawmakers from the southwest region sent a letter last week to President Barack Obama calling on him to deploy National Guard troops to their home states as part of the “swift and decisive” action needed to combat the violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which “continues to increase at an alarming rate.”...more
Armed Narco-Terrorists Caught on Tape Where Arizona Deputy Shot on Friday
Hidden camera footage captures armed scouts leading a group of drug “mules” toting bales of marijuana through a desert wash 50 miles southwest of Phoenix, Ariz. This stunning video was recently captured in the very area where an Arizona sheriff’s deputy was shot by narco-terrorists last Friday -- about 70 miles north of the border in a well-known drug and human trafficking corridor...more
Here's the video:
Here's the video:
A border-area home invasion has forced residents to take action
Howard and Rosie Hunt might be the luckiest people in Arizona—and that's saying something for an elderly couple who lived through a home invasion on Jan. 20. Two young men from Chihuahua, Mexico, one carrying a machete, allegedly pushed their way into the Hunts' home, bound them and searched for valuables. The Hunts live right off State Highway 80, 15 miles south of the Chiricahua Mountains town of Portal, along the notorious smuggling route known as the Chiricahua Corridor. For some time, residents here have been fighting to keep themselves and their property safe from cross-border smugglers and illegal aliens, who—cut off from their groups, lost and desperate—often break into homes. Life around Portal and its sister town of Rodeo, N.M., 12 miles away across the state line, has become a grim litany of cut phone lines, roof vents removed to get inside, barking dogs at night, trucks stolen, half-eaten food in the kitchen and men peering in windows. "Thirty years ago, we had workers moving through, and they'd ask for water and a sandwich," says Nancy Cloudt, who runs Rodeo Grocery and Cafe. "Then they started demanding water and a sandwich. Then they didn't like peanut butter. Then they wanted to use your phone to call New York. "Now, if you hear something at night, you don't even go out to check. It gets worse all the time." On Friday, Jan. 22, Cloudt says, Border Patrol arrested 63 illegals near her store in one shift. Lousy weather brought them out of hiding places in the mountains and washes. They wanted to be captured and sent home. But the Hunt episode has left people here really shaken. Rosie Hunt, 74, was cooking supper at about 5 p.m. when she heard a knock at the front door. When she responded, she saw two men, one an English speaker, who asked if Rosie would drive them to town. Through his booking photo, she later identified the suspect as 21-year-old Eriberto Marquez. She said no to the request, and so did Howard, who'd joined her at the door. Marquez kept asking, and Howard kept saying no. "I says, 'It's only two miles up the road. You can walk.'" When Rosie moved to return to the kitchen, Marquez pushed her into the house. Howard turned to protect his wife and felt a sharp object poking his back. The object was an 18-inch machete held by the second suspect, identified as 19-year-old Martin Chavira-Morquecho...more
Monday, May 03, 2010
Common ground
Ken Salazar was in the neighborhood last week and dropped in to visit with Utah officials and Gov. Gary Herbert's Balanced Resource Council. By all accounts, the Interior secretary, representing President Barack Obama, got along just fine with the Republicans who are so dominant in Utah government. Some might have predicted there could be no such meeting of the minds after the spectacle some Utahns were making a few weeks ago when an Interior Department memo was leaked that included some parts of Utah on a list of possible future national monuments. Some might have been surprised that Salazar would venture into the country's reddest state when anti-government, anti-Democratic feelings have been running so high. The Legislature in March passed a law allowing the state to use eminent domain to take federal land and secure state access to coal and other resources. But Salazar said he got the message from this "message legislation" and will work to open dialogue about access. And he promised to listen to Utahns "on the ground" before designating more national monuments. He said he is willing to collaborate to resolve the question of whether the feds or Utah counties have authority over roads on public lands. "Maybe we can figure out a way to move forward," Salazar said, pointing out he is not only a former Colorado Democratic senator but also a Colorado rancher. Collaboration aside, current law requires local governments to prove their right-of-way claims in court, and that law should stand. It seems Salazar did much to soothe the anger and lay groundwork for Utah and federal agencies to work together on the myriad issues of public-land management. Or, at least, to talk to one another...more Salazar was doing pretty good till I got to the "collaborate" part. Then to top it off The Salt Lake Tribune editorial pulls out the old "build consensus" pablum, but then shows their true colors by closing with, "Salazar has an obligation to tip the scales back toward environmental preservation."
Wiktionary gives us two definitions for collaborate:
1. To work together with others to achieve a common goal.
Let's collaborate on this dictionary, and get it finished faster.
2. To cooperate treasonably as with an enemy occupation force in one's country.
If you collaborate with the occupying forces, you will be shot.
Wikipedia further instructs us:
Since the Second World War the term "Collaboration" acquired a very negative meaning as referring to persons and groups which help a foreign occupier of their country—due to actual use by people in European countries who worked with and for the Nazi German occupiers. Linguistically, "collaboration" implies more or less equal partners who work together—which is obviously not the case when one party is an army of occupation and the other are people of the occupied country living under the power of this army.
Since the feds occupy 57% of Utah, I'll just let you guess which definition me, Gus and Woodrow would apply in this case.
The primary actor for the state is the Governor. Will Utah's Herbert become a "collaborator"?
Probably so.
I'll have the bullshit detector ready for the next time Herbert & Salazar get together, and for any Trib editorial about it.
Idaho at forefront of collaboration on public land use
Similar collaborations have changed the dynamics of public land management across the American West, speakers said at a conference Saturday convened by the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. Successes in the Owyhees and in the Henrys Fork of the Snake River basin, along with ongoing efforts in the Payette and Clearwater national forests and in Lemhi County, are putting Idaho at the forefront of a national shift from confrontational conservation to collaboration. It comes at a time when climate change is causing rapid changes on the land, increasing the call for restoring forests, range and watershed health, said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. "This may be the best opportunity for conservation since (Theodore Roosevelt's) time," Tidwell said. Tidwell was joined Saturday by U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey. Ideas included a state incentive program to help ranchers and other large landowners protect habitat; more funding sources for wildlife management beyond hunters and anglers; and turning federal lands over to the state to manage...moreLt. Governor Little brought a little caution to the table:
Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little pointed to the state's unsuccessful effort to draft a conservation plan to prevent the listing of the desert plant slickspot peppergrass -- evidence, he said, that collaboration doesn't always work. But in that case, no environmental groups were on board. Little also cited a state and federal agreement with wool growers as part of reintroducing bighorn sheep to Hells Canyon. The Forest Service later reversed itself and forced ranchers to remove domestic flocks from public land. "For collaboration to work," Little said, "people need to know the rules aren't going to change." Little cautioned that the federal conservation dollars that have made collaborative programs possible are drying up because of a rising federal deficit. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a major source of land protection money, is dependent on offshore oil drilling, which may slow instead of grow after the recent Gulf oil spill...
We're really gonna need Gus and Woodrow's help on this collaboration stuff. It's getting way out of hand. Dally and drag, dally and drag.
Chief Tidwell may be right about this being "the best opportunity" since Roosevelt for the enviros. After all, it was Roosevelt who ripped millions of acres out of the public domain and created 150 national forests. It was also Roosevelt who with the stroke of a pen created 18 national monuments. Kinda makes you see why Tidwell makes the comparison.
Wolves kill horse, calf
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say wolves northwest of Pinedale killed a cow calf and one horse, and injured another horse, marking the first livestock deaths by wolves in 2010 in Wyoming. Wolves from the Black Butte pack killed the cow calf at a ranch in mid-March. Agents with Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services subsequently killed three wolves from the group, a radio collared adult wolf, a pup and a yearling. Black Butte wolves then attacked horses at another ranch last week. “We think there are probably two [wolves] left in this group,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Wyoming wolf management project leader Mike Jimenez said. “We will go back in and take those out.” According to Jimenez, the Black Butte pack is the same pack that was responsible for killing roughly 37 sheep and one steer last summer. The area is prone to wolf attacks. “In this ... area in Pinedale, there’s been a ton of work,” he said. “These ranchers have cleaned up their operations and they don’t leave dead livestock around. But, a lot of these ranchers have had repeated problems.” “In this area [livestock depredations have] been chronic,” Jimenez continued. “All the packs that have been in there have come to the same fate: They’ve killed livestock and we’ve removed them.” This aggressive management of wolves that chronically feed on domesticated animals is a tactic that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf managers said works to keep both livestock deaths and wolf removals down. Jimenez said tough management of chronic livestock killers has the added benefit of maintaining public tolerance for wolves...more This is what happens when livestock "collaborate" with wolves.
Wyoming GOP Candidates For Governor Square Off
Several speakers at Saturday's Wyoming State Republican Convention in Sheridan emphasized that they would be happy to see any of the current four GOP candidates for governor win the seat. The four GOP candidates for governor this year are: Matt Mead, former U.S Attorney for Wyoming; State Auditor Rita Meyer; Ron Micheli, a former state legislator and former head of the state agricultural department; and House Speaker Colin Simpson. Micheli, of Fort Bridger, stressed the need to reduce the size of state government. Although he didn't mention the abortion issue in his speech, his campaign signs posted in the auditorium stated that he's "Pro-Life & Proud of it." Micheli drew applause from the audience when he quoted former president Ronald Reagan about the need for smaller government. Micheli said the state needs to fight federal intrusion into the state's business on issues such as health care and regulation of carbon emissions...more
Don't know the other three, but do know Micheli is a quality guy. We both served as Secretary of Agriculture for our respective states. When you'd go to a national meeting, Micheli was one of the few "real ones" there. Not just a political appointee, but a bonafide cattlemen. Plenty smart too.
Besides, it would sure stroke my ego. I also served with Rick Perry when he was the Commissioner of Ag in Texas. Would be cool to be friends with two Governors.
Of course, the Governor of NM knows me, but harbors a dislike of the kid. Perhaps that will change in November too.
Don't know the other three, but do know Micheli is a quality guy. We both served as Secretary of Agriculture for our respective states. When you'd go to a national meeting, Micheli was one of the few "real ones" there. Not just a political appointee, but a bonafide cattlemen. Plenty smart too.
Besides, it would sure stroke my ego. I also served with Rick Perry when he was the Commissioner of Ag in Texas. Would be cool to be friends with two Governors.
Of course, the Governor of NM knows me, but harbors a dislike of the kid. Perhaps that will change in November too.
Judge rules coal bed methane wastewater ponds unconstitutional
State District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena, Mont., this week affirmed that dumping wastewater from coal bed methane development into evaporation pits violates the Montana Constitution. He said such “water impoundments” are not a beneficial use of the billions of gallons of water that are brought to the surface and dumped into pits or into rivers and streams, calling such practices “a waste of one of Montana’s natural resources.” In 2003, the Northern Plains Resource Council, the Tongue and Yellowstone Irrigation District, and other allies sued the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation and Fidelity Exploration and Production Company. The suit alleged that allowing ground water to be wasted by dumping it into evaporation pits violates Article IX, Section 3 of the Montana Constitution. The suit did not challenge legitimate beneficial uses of the water, such as stock watering, wildlife habitat, dust suppression and other uses. In affirming that evaporation pits are unconstitutional, Shylock said, “This Court has no choice but to conclude that such use is not beneficial and, therefore, a waste of one of Montana’s natural resources,” Sherlock said in his decision. “No party to this action has presented any beneficial use that might be gained from causing water to evaporate and be lost from any and all beneficial use.” Fidelity had argued that public trust duties to protect water enshrined in the Constitution only applied to recreational use of surface waters. Shylock rejected that saying, “The constitutional provision specifically refers to all waters of the state.”...more
Grijalva Declines to Answer, Walks Away When Asked If He’s Committed to Sealing Border Against Drug Traffic
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who represents a congressional district that includes 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, turned and walked away and did not answer when CNSNews.com asked him whether he was committed to sealing the border against the influx of illegal drugs. “Are you committed to sealing the border against the influx of illegal drugs?” CNSNews.com asked Grijalva, who had stopped for an interview. Rather than answer, Grijalva walked away, eventually shouting back at the reporter that it was “punkish” to ask the question. CNSNews.com interviewed Grijalva as he left a press conference that had been called by a group of congressmen to protest a new Arizona law that requires local law enforcement officers to check whether someone is legally in the United States when they legally come into contact with a person and there is a reasonable basis to suspect the person is an illegal alien. Grijalva has called for a targeted boycott of his own state. “I have not called for a general ‘boycott’ of Arizona,” he said Wednesday, while answering online questions from readers of The Washington Post. “I have called for a targeted ban on conventions and conferences in the state for a limited time. The idea is to send a message, not grind down the state economy...moreGrijalva has actually introduced legislation which would strip the Border Patrol of their authority to waive environmental laws to construct barriers and roads in a limited area along the border.
Tax on Oil May Help Pay for Cleanup
The federal government has a large rainy day fund on hand to help mitigate the expanding damage on the Gulf Coast, generated by a tax on oil for use in cases like the Deepwater Horizon spill. Up to $1 billion of the $1.6 billion reserve could be used to compensate for losses from the accident, as much as half of it for what is sometimes a major category of costs: damage to natural resources like fisheries and other wildlife habitats. Under the law that established the reserve, called the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the operators of the offshore rig face no more than $75 million in liability for the damages that might be claimed by individuals, companies or the government, although they are responsible for the cost of containing and cleaning up the spill. The fund was set up by Congress in 1986 but not financed until after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in 1989. In exchange for the limits on liability, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 imposed a tax on oil companies, currently 8 cents for every barrel they produce in this country or import...more
Effects of grazing on grouse habitat
ARS rangeland scientists David Ganskopp (now retired) and Chad Boyd studied cattle grazing patterns on sagebrush communities. They found that cattle first preferred to graze on perennial grass growing between sagebrush plants. These grasses between sagebrush plants were called "interspace" tussocks, which are the individual grass plants. When cattle consumed around 40 percent of the interspace tussocks, they then began to graze on the tussocks growing beneath sagebrush itself. The researchers also noted that grass tussocks under spreading, umbrella-shaped shrub canopies were less likely to be grazed than tussocks beneath erect, narrow canopies. Boyd and Ganskopp concluded that ranchers could preserve grouse habitat by monitoring the rate at which cattle were consuming interspace tussocks and moving them to new grazing lands when 40 percent of the interspace tussock had been consumed. Their findings also suggest that cattle impacts on grouse nesting habitats may be affected by site factors like sagebrush shape and stature that are not readily controlled with grazing management...more
Feds doing 1st investigation of major meatpackers
The federal government is conducting its first investigation into whether the handful of large meatpackers that slaughter most of the nation's cattle are illegally or unfairly driving down cattle prices, according to an official representing independent beef producers nationwide. The investigation is under way as the Justice and Agriculture Departments hold a series of antitrust hearings on competition in agriculture, and the USDA is expected to release sweeping antitrust rules covering the meat industry this spring. Many ranchers and critics of the meatpacking industry are cautiously hopeful the investigation and more aggressive action by a little-known federal agency will force meatpackers to competitively bid for more cattle. 
That, they say, could help slow a 15-year trend in which several thousand ranchers are forced out of business every year, resulting in the smallest U.S. cow herd in several decades and threatening a way of life that has kept the nation supplied with beef for more than a century. Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, said the federal Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration has been speaking with his group's members for months and is "clearly asking questions in the context of an investigation."...more
It's All Trew: Vibrating 'critter' frightens rattlesnake-wary cowboy
Old Jake wasn't completely over the hill yet but he was a little long in the tooth. He still rode horseback daily by himself as he and his wife Sally lived way out in the hills working for a big ranch. The kids were gone and the house was empty, but Sally knew Jake would never be satisfied working at any other occupation. She worried about him working alone and purchased a cell phone for him to carry as he rode in case he was ever injured or left afoot out on the range. Now Jake did not understand modern technology nor did he trust anything technical. He called the cell phone "the critter" and refused to take it with him, stating the loud ring would booger his horse and get him bucked off. After 50 years of marriage to Jake, Sally finally worked it out. To ease his mind she put the phone on vibrate instead of ring, but Jake did not understand fully with the explanation going over his head like the prairie breeze. Finally, after long arguments he agreed to carry the critter but "technically" never promised to use it. It looked expensive so in order to prevent loss he pushed it down deep in his front Wranglers pocket. As usual Jake mounted up before sun-up and began his daily ride. The day progressed as he and his mount attended the ranch work Along about mid-afternoon they kicked up a mad rattlesnake in heavy sagebrush...more
Song Of The Day #300
It's song #300 on Ranch Radio and it's swinging Monday, so we better have something special.One of my favorite western swing instrumentals is The Beaumont Rag and my favorite modern version of the tune is by an Irish fiddler. That's right...Irish.
Give a listen to Natalie MacMaster playing the tune found on her No Boundaries CD and see if it won't get your heart started and your foot tappin'.
And turn up that volume so your neighbors can enjoy it too!
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Cat wrangling and cowpony dancingby Julie Carter
The hallmark of a cowboy is long days, stupid stunts and never forgetting the story. Laughing at themselves is one of the things they do best.
The agitated cowboy was kicking up dust with his boot while he was paced a small circle, recalling the day with disgust.
His bride had promised to deliver a barn cat to a friend in need of one and his job was to catch it and put it in the pet carrier. No step for stepper, he thought.
The feline was overdue to have a new batch of kittens and the cowboy was sure her cumbersome load would slow her enough for him to get ahold of her and as he promised, carefully place her in the cage that would deliver her to the other side of the county.
As far as he was concerned, a good cat was a long-gone cat.
The noise from the barn was a mixture of snarls, screeches and cussing, all of which came from the cowboy and only some of which came from the cat.
Crashing, banging and at last, the barn door flew open and a flash of fur gave meaning to "running like a scalded cat."
Moments later the cowboy wandered into the daylight wearing a dazed look with his hat sitting slightly askew.
He examined the blood running down his arm and with a cautious hand felt of the claw marks across his face.
"I've been to a hundred county fairs and a goat roping or two," he said, "but I ain't never been as humiliated as I am right now. I've been bit, scratched, hissed at, run over and outsmarted by a cat too stupid not to get pregnant every time she passes by a tomcat."
His degradation plummeted to rock-bottom when his bride came from behind the house still in her bathrobe and slippers, carrying the cat, petting and cooing goodbyes to her as she tucked her inside the carrier.
Where's your horse
The cowboy was day working the area ranches and not one for wasting any daylight, he decided he was up for a little fun when he heard there was a team roping in town that night.
With his horse already in the trailer, he headed to the arena just as thunderheads opened up. Even after entries were taken, the downpour continued so the roping was cancelled. The cowboys got their entry fee money back for another day.
Cash in their pockets and time on their hands is always an ingredient for cowboy mischief.
The Prairie Dog, a local watering hole, filled up fast with the rejects from the rained-out roping. Some lively fun was "fixin' to commence."
Blayke walked in still wearing his chaps and spurs from the day's work. The barmaid, a new hire, was a little on the lippy side and not particularly well-versed in cowboys.
As Blayke headed to the bar, she shouted across the room, "Well cowboy, where's your horse?"
He answered, "Out in the trailer."
"Yea, right!" she said with obvious doubt based on the ignorance she had about cowboys.
"You'll believe me when I ride him around the bar," Blayke said.
"That'll be the day," she naively challenged.
That's all it took. Blayke walked out the door and directly to his trailer, unloaded his bay cowpony and headed back to the bar.
He had to tie his stirrups up so the horse could fit through the door but once inside he let them down again, and stepped up into the saddle.
He began loping slow figure eights around the pool tables while the barmaid stood dumbfounded, mouth open in shock and shaking her head.
The yee-haws from the cowboys leaning on the bar only encouraged the show.
With a glance toward the dance floor, Blayke's intentions were apparent. Some-one handed him a beer as he passed by and the barmaid grabbed a Polaroid camera.
She snapped a picture just as Blayke spun his mount around the floor with his beer held high as if to toast the crowd.
The photo was pinned to the wall for all to see, even years later.
It was documented proof that there isn't much you can challenge a cowboy with that he won't make his best, if unwise, effort to try to meet.
Julie, witness to and part of many unwise cowboy moments, can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
Deputy shot; illegal immigrants suspected
A veteran sheriff's deputy was shot and wounded Friday after encountering a group of suspected illegal immigrants who apparently had been hauling bales of marijuana along a major smuggling corridor in the Arizona desert- a violent episode that comes amid a heated national debate over immigration. State and federal law enforcement agencies deployed helicopters and scores of officers in pursuit of the suspects after the deputy was shot with an AK-47 on Friday afternoon, and the search continued into the night. Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, had a chunk of skin torn from just above his left kidney, but the wound was not serious. He was released Friday night from Casa Grande Regional Medical Center. The shooting was likely to add fuel to an already fiery national debate sparked last week by the signing of an Arizona law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the state. Puroll was found in the desert after a frantic hourlong search, suffering from a gunshot wound, Pinal County sheriff's Lt. Tamatha Villar said. The 15-year department veteran had been performing smuggling interdiction work before finding the bales of marijuana and encountering the five suspected illegal immigrants, two armed with rifles. "He was out on his routine daily patrol in the area when he encountered a load of marijuana out in the desert. He obviously confronted the individuals and took fire," Villar told The Associated Press...more
17 caught in search for Ariz. deputy's attackers
Authorities searching for drug smugglers who shot and wounded an Arizona sheriff's deputy in the desert south of Phoenix said they captured 17 suspected illegal immigrants Saturday, including three who may have been involved in the incident. Several hundred officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, assisted by several helicopters, scoured a 10-square-mile area of rugged desert about 50 miles south of Phoenix on Saturday. The search was called off as darkness fell. The U.S. Border Patrol searched areas outside the perimeter and made additional arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. "Their numbers are much, much higher," Villar said. A Border Patrol spokesman said he couldn't immediately ascertain how many detentions his agency made...more
This shows the resources that exist and how they can be deployed. Would the response be the same for a civilian?
This shows the resources that exist and how they can be deployed. Would the response be the same for a civilian?
Drug violence kills 14 in Mexico border state
Drug violence in Mexico's Chihuahua state has claimed 14 lives just across the US border, eight of them in the crime capital Ciudad Juarez, local authorities said Saturday. The latest slayings, which took place on Friday, brought the Monday-to-Friday death toll to 55 in Ciudad Juarez alone, the Chihuahua deputy attorney general's office told reporters. Some 850 people have been killed in this border city of 1.3 million so far this year, while more than 2,660 were killed there in 2009, according to official figures. Officials blame the violence on a battle for control of key drug trafficking routes into the United States between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug gangs...more
Women - Victims of Silence and Invisibility along U.S., Mexican Borders
Three young women aged 16, 17 and 20 reported having been raped by masked men. Civilian border-watchers heard their cries, less than 100 yards from the Arizona border. They were helpless, but the reports didn't slow deportation proceedings against them. It was early May in 2008, and a few days later, two more women were found alive but badly beaten near Arivaca, south of Tucson. During the same week, yet two more women reported having been raped. The rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies. According to Tim Vanderpool of The Tuscon Weekly, under the desert’s cloak of night, rape is the norm and the "Price of Admission" for women wanting illegal entry into the United States. As dawn approaches, for many of these migrant women, daylight brings the brutal harshness of reality, triggering the memory of what they’ve lost in their desperate journey north, in hopes of finding a better life. On Wednesday, April 28, 2010, Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers reports that Amnesty International released its INVISIBLE VICTIMS: MIGRANTS ON THE MOVE IN MEXICO report, which reveals that as many as six out of every 10 Central American women and girls are raped as they pass through Mexico hoping to cross illegally into the United States...more
Mexico's crime syndicates increasingly target authorities in drug war's new phase
As a public safety chief was riding home last weekend after an evening of political schmoozing at the state fair, a stolen tractor-trailer burst onto the highway -- and another high-profile ambush began with a blast of light. They were lobbing grenades at her. Over the next six minutes -- as the official, Minerva Bautista, screamed into a police radio, "They're killing me!" -- up to 40 heavily armed commandos unleashed more than 2,700 rounds at her three-vehicle convoy of armor-plated sport-utility vehicles. Some of the weapons were capable of penetrating a vehicle's engine block or knocking down a helicopter. Mexico's crime syndicates appear to be escalating their attacks against the state, according to law enforcement officials. No longer content to fight police officers and soldiers when confronted with arrest, the drug organizations are increasingly targeting police commanders and public officials. "In the last few weeks, the dynamics of the violence have changed," said Interior Minister Fernando Gómez-Mont, the country's top security official. "The criminals have decided to directly confront and attack the authorities."...more
Border States Deal With More Illegal Immigrant Crime Than Most, Data Suggests
Arizona lawmakers say their new immigration enforcement law will help them fight an illegal immigrant crime wave that is sweeping the state, a claim that is backed by studies and statistics that suggest border states have a disproportionately high number of criminals who are illegal immigrants. "We've been inundated with criminal activity. It's just -- it's been outrageous," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told Fox News. "Crime is off the chart in this state," added Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, president of the Arizona Association of Sheriffs. While the correlation between illegal immigrants and crime is almost impossible to quantify precisely, the available numbers indicate that Arizona -- as well as California and Texas -- are dealing with increased crime as a result of high illegal immigrant populations and activity. In 2004, the year when the data was most recently available, 12.4 percent of California prisoners were illegal immigrants, as compared with an estimated 6.9 percent of the state population. In Arizona, 11.1 percent of the prison population was undocumented, compared with 7 percent of the overall state population. In Texas, the percentage was also slightly higher in the prisons than it was statewide. A Government Accountability Office study from 2005 also found that most illegal immigrant arrests were happening in California, Texas and Arizona. The study sampled a prison population of more than 55,000 illegal immigrants, and found that 80 percent of all the arrests were in those three states...more
Mexico: the real war next door
It bewilders me that my fellow citizens don't take the disintegration of government authority in northern Mexico seriously. As I've written repeatedly, no country is more important to us socially, economically and security-wise than Mexico. Afghanistan's fluff by comparison. Precisely 100 years ago, in 1910, the Mexican Revolution erupted in northern Mexico -- already the most prosperous and industrially developed portion of the country. That revolution lasted a bloody, destructive decade. It wasn't the bandido affair beloved of Hollywood knuckleheads, but a complex contest for power with large armies, strategic campaigns, major battles, trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns. In 1915, the military vision of the self-taught Gen. Alvaro Obregon -- destined to become Mexico's president -- was more sophisticated than that of the US Army. Mexico pioneered the 20th century's revolutions. Since then, northern Mexico -- from the border cities southward through the industrial powerhouse of Monterrey -- has continued to be the country's primary agent of change. Influenced by its proximity to America, the north long has been a different country from the impoverished states south of the capital. Now a new Mexican revolution is underway in the vital north. In 1910, idealists struggled to change an autocratic regime. In 2010, criminal syndicates fight to wrest power from a democratic government and to grab market share from each other. (In an eerie parallel, a bloody strike in the northern mining center of Cananea helped ignite the 1910 revolution; today, a three-year-long strike in Cananea by mining and metal workers signals a new generation's impatience with the status quo -- and we're just not paying attention.) During that earlier revolution, the citizens of El Paso, Texas, and Douglas, Arizona, gathered to watch the battles just across the border as Pancho Villa's troops drove out the Federals, then as the Constitutionalists defeated Villa. Those spectators were confident in their immunity as American citizens. We're no longer immune...more
How Arizona became center of immigration debate
The frustration had been building for years in Arizona with every drug-related kidnapping, every home invasion, every "safe house" discovered crammed with illegal immigrants from Mexico. The tensions finally spilled over this month with passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, a measure that has put Arizona at the center of the heated debate over how to deal with the millions of people who sneak into the U.S. every year. Arizona is the biggest gateway into the U.S. for illegal immigrants. The state is home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants - a population larger than that of entire cities such as Cleveland, St. Louis and New Orleans. Over the past three years, Border Patrol agents have made 990,000 arrests of immigrants crossing the border illegally in Arizona, or an average of 900 a day. The figures represent 45 percent of all arrests of illegal immigrants along U.S. borders. Authorities routinely come across safe houses and vehicles jammed with immigrants across the vast Arizona desert. Last week, 67 illegal immigrants were found crammed inside a U-Haul truck - a fairly typical scenario in the state. The volume of drugs coming through the Arizona border is also eye-popping. Federal agents seized 1.2 million pounds of marijuana last year in Arizona. That amounts to an average of 1.5 tons per day. Pot busts have become so common that until recently federal prosecutors in Arizona generally declined to press charges against marijuana smugglers caught with less than 500 pounds...more
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