Fox News: Rep. Bishop Discusses Secret DOI Documents

Here's the video report:

New diversity plan for the Interior Department

The Interior Department is implementing new workplace rules for diversity and inclusion amid years of reports that it hasn't done a good job hiring and promoting minorities. A study conducted by the department's black employees last year found that Interior was the only Cabinet-level agency falling below "relevant civilian labor force" representation for African Americans and was experiencing more departures of black employees than new hires. The poor numbers prompted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to call for changes and he announced a series of changes last month, including a decision to link performance evaluations and awards for senior executives to their progress on hiring diversity. He also ordered managers to file monthly diversity reports. On Monday Salazar tapped John Burden -- a veteran of diversity offices at Interior and the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- to serve as the department's first chief diversity officer. Managers across the department also will have to draft their own diversity plans by Sept. 30...more

Politics, public pressure keep firefighting costs high

As the Northern Rockies prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Big Blowup, the fire season is looking pretty tame. It's the second year in a row that the region, which has been burned hard and often since 1988, has had a relatively easy year. That has allowed firefighters to let fires burn to help reduce fuels and restore the ecological integrity of the forests. Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, an organization that has pushed for a shift in fire policy from suppression to letting more fires burn, has released a report by its executive director, Timothy Ingalsbee: "Getting Burned: A Taxpayer's Guide to Wildfire Suppression Costs." It lays out the economic case for reduced suppression in the backcountry in the face of larger fires and increasingly costly and long fire seasons. You may not agree with his conclusions, but the report is filled with good data about what is going on in our forests both near our homes and out in the wilderness...more

PPL Asks US Supreme Court to Hear Dams Case

PPL Montana is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the state of Montana from seizing ownership of riverbeds and forcing rent payments, arguing other states may copy the move. PPL Montana is fighting for relief from a state Supreme Court decision forcing it to pay $40 million in current rent, as well as damages for not paying rent for land its dams sit on from 2000 through 2007, plus even more in future rent. The court decision means the land under the dams is like other public land that is rented out, such as to those who graze cattle or drill for oil. PPL Montana said the state overstepped its authority and asked the nation's high court Thursday to intervene in the case. PPL said the state's high court was wrong in claiming Montana ownership over 500 miles of riverbeds under multiple hydropower facilities...more

Cow pie patrol

What goes up must come down. That’s gravity. What goes in must come out. That’s the rule of mazes, freeway tunnels and, in bovine and all other species I know of, digestion. I’ve been combining my knowledge on the two rules of digestion and gravity as I venture into a new area of modern ranch management and cattle nutrition. Here’s the deal. I walk nonchalantly into a herd of my grazing cows and look for five to 10 fresh cow pies — really fresh cow pies. I reach down for a little piece of each pie, so to speak, about a spoonful, and put it in a resealable plastic bag for a little laboratory analysis. According to the folks at the lab, the sample would be even better and fresher if I could catch a spoonful in midair, or next best, from the pie that just hit the ground that very second. I want to send the best sample I can, so this becomes a waiting game for me and my cows. I stand there amidst the herd with sharpened senses, my eyes furtively searching for a rising tail or a look of alternating bovine concentration and relief, my ears tuned keenly to listen for the sound of a “plop, plop, plop.” Like a stakeout in law enforcement, it’s tedious. The reward is a nice bag full of . . . used grass to send to the college lab down in Texas...more

Song Of The Day #382

Ranch Radio will continue blowing the dust off the old 78s this week.

Today we bring you Texas Sand by the Tune Wranglers and Rhythm In The Hills by Tom Emerson's Mountaineers with Polly Shaffer doing the vocal.

51 people killed in Juárez over weekend

The rampant bloodshed continued today in Juárez with nine homicides by this afternoon, Chihuahua state police said. Fifty-one people were slain during the weekend from Friday to Sunday, including 24 on Sunday, making Sunday one of the deadliest days of the year, a police spokesman said. Victims included two members of the state Cipol police killed Friday when their patrol truck was fired upon. Authorities said investigators were still trying to identify many of the victims and that were was a backlog of cases. Government and federal law enforcement officials will be meeting in Mexico City to come up with strategies to diminish the number of killings. Juárez is known as the murder capital of Mexico and one of the most dangerous cities in the world...more

Obama Border Czar Alan Bersin: Thirty Years to Secure Border Between Mexico and US

Even though the Obama administration admitted they’ve yet to find a “clear definition” on what “secure the border” means, they have come up with a “30 year plan” which was discussed at a recent border security conference at the University of Texas-El Paso, UTEP, a conference sponsored by several corporations which the government has awarded multi-million dollar contracts to “secure the border”. Just in case you haven’t heard, the Obama administration believes it will take the U.S. thirty years to secure the border and fight Mexico’s organized crime, the drug cartels, one of the tidbits revealed at last week’s seventh annual Border Security Conference held by UTEP, the University of Texas at El Paso. Elliot Ness, American Prohibition Agent and his agents, dubbed the Untouchables, by now, are whirling in their graves. Attending the conference, two Obama Czars, Border Czar Alan Bersin, Commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Drug Czar R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy...more

Arizona rancher faces border issues alone - video

An Arizona rancher says he is the one dealing with the border issues that the federal government won't handle. Rancher Jim Chilton spends his days on horseback, tending to his cattle on his 50,000-acre ranch that stretches to the border of Mexico, and he says he’s not the only one navigating the rough terrain. “You can assume that all these mountains have cartel scouts on them,” said Chilton, pointing to the peaks around him. Chilton estimates 20,000 to 30,000 illegal immigrants cross through his ranch every year, and he says he fears for his life, suspecting a criminal from south of the border murdered his friend and fellow rancher, Rob Krentz. “We’re getting really concerned now, because the tables have turned,” said Chilton. “Used to be, it was the coyotes bringing people through. Now, the drug cartels have taken over the people moving business.” His ranch is marked by a visible path beaten by the migrants who cross through the land, and the garbage they leave behind. “I’ve just learned how to ride in garbage, that's all,” said Chilton. But litter is the least of the rancher’s worries. He says he’s always heavily armed because he has no idea who is coming over the mountains on his horizon...more

Here is the ABC video report:

Danger stalks the line: Arizonans are living and dying under the gun

Imagine if, on a regular basis, you had drug runners with machine guns trespassing into your backyard from a foreign country and looking at you as if you're the one with the problem. This is not a fictional scenario. It has happened to several of my friends in Arizona who own ranches near the U.S.-Mexico border and have had the bad luck to be stationed at crossing points for drug runners coming into the United States. Ranchers and others in Arizona deal with these dangerous situations on a regular basis, and when the Border Patrol is called in, the suspects often have disappeared. There's an even worse situation to consider. One friend of mine who has a ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border was awakened late one night by his dog barking. When he went to the window, he saw several men in military helmets and full body armor marching across his land, just a few feet from his house. That was strange enough, but when he heard them speak, a chill ran through him. My friend served with the U.S. Army in the Middle East and clearly recognized that the men were speaking Arabic. Because of his ranch's location near the border, it was logical to assume that they were crossing from Mexico. He shuddered when he thought of where they might be heading and what they might be planning. Once again, when the Border Patrol arrived, the men were long gone, and they were never found...more

Gov: feds should pay for wolves in Wyoming

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday that if the federal government wants to set the rules for wolves in Wyoming, it can pay for their management. Freudenthal made his comments in Jackson before visiting with federal officials from the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service, although wolves were not specifically on his agenda. He spoke a few days after a federal judge put the wolf in Montana and Idaho back under federal Endangered Species Act protection, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not delist the species there while keeping it protected in Wyoming. The ruling hasn’t swayed the governor’s position that wolves should be killed by any means at any time in 80 percent of the Wyoming. If the federal government wants to set the rules, it can pay the price, Freudenthal said. “I don’t want to spend any state money on it,” he said of wolf management. “Let the feds do it. Why should I pay state money to be a toady to the federal government?” Freudenthal said he would rather spend state money on improving wildlife habitat...more

BLM moves forward with state's largest mustang roundup this year

Federal officials have begun a six-week operation to gather horses from one of the state's biggest mustang herds, a roundup that's expected to be California's largest this year and the second largest in the nation. The roundup of wild horses and burros from the 798,000-acre Twin Peaks herd management area – located 25 northeast of Susanville along the California/Nevada state line – began Aug. 11, according to Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Eric Curtis. “Our goal is to round up as many of the horses as we can and leave about 450 of them on the range,” said Curtis. A roundup in the area hasn't taken place since 2006, Curtis said. The operation started the same day the federal Ninth Circuit Court denied an injunction to stop it, the BLM reported. District Manager Nancy Haug said BLM crews found that the more than 2,000 wild horses and more than 200 wild burros due to be rounded up appeared in good condition and showed no visible signs of dehydration. However, Haug stated, “The current population of wild horses and burros remains far above the number the range can handle, and this roundup is necessary to keep both horses and range in that healthy state.” She said the BLM was taking special precautions for the heat during August and early September. Helicopter gathers aren't conducted during the foaling season, which Haug said happens between March 1 and June 30, in order to ensure foals are strong enough to be moved with their mothers...more

Giant fire set pace for Forest Service

Each year major wildfires in the West are fought like military battles, with firefighters deploying by ground and air, bombers dropping retardant on flames, and incident commanders plotting strategy behind the lines. These often epic campaigns are largely the result of the Great Fire of 1910. The largest in U.S. history, it burned an area the size of Connecticut, wiping out whole towns and killing 86 people in remote areas of Idaho, Washington and Montana. This is the 100th anniversary of the Aug. 20-21 firestorm that ended the era when wildfires were often allowed to burn themselves out. The fire, also known as the Big Burn, spawned a wildfire-industrial complex that employs thousands of people to extinguish forest fires each year, even though many think those efforts will likely result in larger, more destructive fires. "For decades, the Forest Service told a clear and compelling story of firefighting as good versus evil, the moral equivalent of war," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in a spring speech in Boise, Idaho, commemorating the Great Fire. Things are different now. Fire is seen as necessary and beneficial, although the decision on when to let it burn and when to put it out continues to spark lots of debate...more

We keep trying to stop the fires

Scorched earth and gnarled oaks lit up like flares. Blackened skies and the whomp-whomp-whomp of helicopters aloft as evacuees huddle in a local school. This quick-cut imagery can mean only one thing in California: The summer fire season has begun. Although the first major fires in the Southern Çalifornia counties of Kern and Los Angeles have been contained, the larger lessons to be drawn from this trio of late-July fires already are obvious. The stunning devastation from last summer's Station Fire, and the political inferno it ignited, is driving a much-more aggressive firefighting response this summer. Take the wind-whipped Bull Fire. It started July 26 in the Sequoia National Forest, and within three days had swept through 16,000 acres of grass and brush along the Kern River, near the town of Kernville. Nearly 2,400 fire-fighting personnel battled the blaze, at their command an impressive arsenal of 124 fire engines, five bulldozers, 16 water tenders, and 14 helicopters. That ground and air technology, combined with 99 hand crews doing the essential back-breaking labor to clear fire lines around the perimeter, was a sign of the seriousness with which this early outbreak was taken...more

Armed rally held near Capitan

It wasn't the largest armed rally in U.S. history, as organizers had hoped, but an estimated 350 people attended the"Restore the Constitution Western Rally," held Saturday near Capitan. The event, held on private land owned by Billy Weddige eight miles north of Capitan on Highway 246, coincided with an Eastern rally staged in Greensboro, N.C. It was broadcast live on at least 12 radio stations, with a feed by Ruidoso's KEDU-FM. Supporters of various political candidates set up booths and passed out pamphlets while prominent members of both major political parties were in attendance. A Nogal-based band, the Longhorn Dance Band, entertained the crowd with county music. At least half the attendees carried weapons, from M-16 rifles to pistols as an affirmation of the Second Amendment that gives citizens the right to keep and bear arms. But the rally reached beyond the Second Amendment in support of states' rights, enforcement of immigration laws, the Bill of Rights and other articles and amendments of the Constitution. Among the speakers was Steve Pearce, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Another speaker was Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, author of the controversial SB 1070 immigration bill...more

When rancher Marie Scott died in 1979, her will ignited a turf war that still rumbles 30 years later

From a cabinet in her china hutch, Frances Talbert pulls out a bundle of papers that is so thick and weighty she needs both hands to lift it. "Parts of this will always be a mystery," says the feisty retiree as she snaps off a rubber band and begins to sift through the yellowed letters, legal forms and check stubs. The mystery — and the attendant hard feelings that years haven't softened — centers on a little flame-haired, bow-legged woman dead for nearly 31 years, the storied Marie Scott. When Scott died in her modest home down Colorado 62 from the Talbert place in the winter of 1979, she was a land baron without equal. But she had no immediate relatives and no shirttail kin — at least that she would claim. In a story told and retold so often that it is worn at the edges of memories like an old book, Scott divvied up what was left of a ranching empire that once stretched for 100,000 acres from Ridgway into Utah. Scott split her estate among a dozen friends, neighbors and business associates. They were mostly hardworking people who had pleased Scott by loving the land as much as she did or by doing things for her as simple as opening gates or stringing straight, strong fence. During her lifetime, Scott never tolerated what she termed "monkey business." And she was often quoted as saying, "The more I know of people, the more I like my dog." That quip may have been prescient. What some people did as soon as Scott was laid to rest under a pine tree — some say even before — would not have pleased her...more

Birthing camel babies is not for the faint of heart, Perry farmers say, video report

It's hard to say who was groaning the most — the baby camel or Wynona Passow. Lanky legs and neck sprawled too far forward, then too far backward. That black, furry newborn was going to stand and nurse somehow, Passow decided. The mother camel blinked long, dreamy eyelashes and watched carefully as Passow coaxed the big baby to the mother's side. "The females are lovely," Ralph Passow said, watching his wife try to turn the baby toward the patient mother. "But the male camels will kill you." About 30 minutes earlier, Ralph Passow had helped the camel deliver by tugging on the baby's legs. Wynona's usual task of getting mom and baby together began soon after and continued, off and on, more than an hour later. Ralph, 72, and Wynona, 69, have been raising camels for a decade. The Passows found that camels are not only good for eating thistles; people rent the dromedaries for birthday parties and other events for $500. Customers from Chile, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and numerous states in the U.S. have bought camels from the Passows. This year, the couple sold 11 camels at $2,500 for the males, which become placid once they're castrated, and $4,500 for the females.....more

Here's the video report:

USDA to ban antibiotics?

A USDA official has told a Congressional panel there is likely a link between agricultural antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance in humans. "USDA believes that it is likely that the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture does lead to some cases of antibacterial resistance among humans and in the animals themselves, and it is important that these medically important antibiotics be used judiciously," Dr. John Clifford, APHIS's deputy administrator for veterinary services, told the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health during a hearing last month. To date, there is no conclusive scientific evidence indicating that the judicious use of antibiotics in cattle contributes to antimicrobial resistance in humans. In fact, the non-scientific removal of antibiotics in Europe actually led to increased animal disease and increased use of therapeutic antibiotics with no demonstrable improvement in human antibiotic resistance patterns. Denmark banned sub therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animal production in 1998. In a column he wrote for Feedstuffs, Trent Loos, a rancher and farm advocate, described "an enlightening discussion" he had with two Danish veterinarians who told him that since 2002, the rate of Danish people who were found to harbor bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics has increased six-fold. They also indicated that antibiotic treatment in the human population has increased from 350mg to 1400mg in order to overcome bacterial infections...more

Cattle 'cloned from dead animals'

Some of the cattle cloned to boost food production in the US have been created from the cells of dead animals, according to a US cloning company. Farmers say it is being done because it is only possible to tell that the animal's meat is of exceptionally high quality by inspecting its carcass. US scientists are using a variety of techniques to assess which animals have exceptional qualities. These attributes include meat quality, productivity or longevity. These exceptional animals are cloned to be used as breeding stock, with the aim of raising the quality of herds on beef, dairy and pig farms in the US. There is a long tradition of resurrecting dead animals for cloning - Dolly the sheep being a case in point. The head of the leading US animal cloning company has said that European farmers will fall behind the rest of the world unless they are allowed to use such techniques to improve the productivity of their livestock. The aim of livestock cloning is to clone the best animals to produce the best beef. But some cattle farmers believe it is impossible to pick the best quality animals until their meat has been properly analysed. That is why there are cloned bulls here that have been produced from the cells taken from the carcasses of dead animals. Brady Hicks of the JR Simplot company in Idaho said his organisation was among many that had tried out the technique successfully...more

The ways of natural horsemanship

I once saw a seahorse and I've seen many sawhorses, but this is a first: a horse seesaw. A teeter-totter for ponies. The heavy tippy timber is one of several teaching tools at a corner of Trail's End Guest Ranch that Chris Benz likes to call the playground for her four-legged staff. Upon the plank, horses develop dexterity and confidence with balance, just as a nearby obstacle course of old tires fine-tunes the rhythm of a trot and a skeletal tunnel of soft PVC pipe anchored with elastic cord helps conquer any fear of entering a trailer or a shed. Many hours are spent here, riders teaching horses -- and horses teaching riders -- in the ways of natural horsemanship, a training philosophy that says humans must work with the instincts of the animals to build a partnership, not break down the will to subservience through harsh discipline...more

Sculpture champions spirit of state fair

Arms raised in triumph with a smile emblazoned across her face, the young girl holds a “grand champion” rosette high in the air as she perches on her father’s shoulders. It’s a touching scene of a moment at the state fair in Douglas. And now it’s captured forever in bronze. “The Champion,” a larger-than-life bronze sculpture of a rancher carrying his prize-winning daughter, will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Monday at the Wyoming State Fairgrounds in Douglas. The sculpture, by Lander artist David Alan Clark, will stand in front of the new horse barn/livestock barn recently constructed at the fairgrounds. Clark, a 1997 graduate of Green River High School, said the sculpture aims to capture the excitement of families competing at the state fair. “Basically, the idea is to kind of celebrate the fact that most of the folks that are involved with the fair are agricultural families,” he said...more

A Look Back: Tarwater Store in Murrieta

A loyal friendship between a Basque sheep rancher and one of the townships' first settlers may have everything to do with one of Murrieta's oldest landmarks. Tarwater Store, known today as the Murrieta Country Market, was built in 1917 on the corner of Washington Avenue and B Street by one of Murrieta's pioneers, B.W. Tarwater. He established the small store after purchasing land from his longtime friend, Juan Murrieta, for whom the township and later the city, was named. A native of Spain, Murrieta moved his sheep farming business from the San Joaquin Valley in the 1870s and joined two partners to purchase 52,000 acres of land (at the cost of $1 per acre) that included Temecula and Pauba Ranchos and what is now the Murrieta Valley. "As the only little store at the time, it served as the main meeting place and the center of activity," said Ayleen Gibbo, chairwoman of Citizens for Historic Murrieta who also lives in the Tarwater family's original Murrieta home, built in 1888. The store sold a little bit of everything, including produce, household goods, supplies for livestock and clothing. It also was a place to discuss politics while grabbing a cup of coffee, which was constantly brewed over a pot belly stove, said Gibbo, who is 79...more

Song Of The Day #381

Ranch Radio will dust off the 78s this week. Its Swinging Monday and Ranch Radio brings you a triple whammy of swinging 78s: Cow Town Swing by the Universal Cowboys, Swing Time Cowgirl by Patsy Montana and the slightly risque Feels Good by Hartman's Heartbreakers.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Have you met a Leatherman?

by Julie Carter

Back in 1975, a man named Tim Leatherman was traveling through Europe on a shoestring budget in a cranky car with leaky pipes.

It was during this trying time he birthed the idea of pocket survival tool. That tool today is known simply as a "Leatherman."

By 1977 the tool had taken on a rough form and in 1980 "Mr. Crunch" was patented.

Through the '90s and with more than 200 employees, new and better designs were released setting the standard in the all-purpose pocket tool industry.

For those of you that are still in the dark ages, the Leatherman tool is a fold up tool that incorporates all the following tools in one handy frame: Needle-nose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutters, hard-wire cutters, clip-point knife,serrated knife, diamond-coated file, wood saw, scissors, extra small screwdriver, small screwdriver, medium screwdriver, large screwdriver, Phillips screwdriver, can / bottle opener, wire stripper and lanyard attachment.

In the West, the land of "real men carry pocket knives", the Leatherman phenomenon was at first slow to catch on. A Leatherman was deemed pretty pricey for a pair of pliers, and "I already have a good knife" made it easy to blow off the multipurpose handy for anything tool.

The tool would sometimes show up under the tree for a Christmas gift and promptly end up in the drawer next to the initial embroidered hankies and ugly boxers.

In the meantime, the world knew something we didn't. Other tool companies began manufacturing acceptable, affordable imitations of the revered original. Gerber, Seber, Sears and an assortment of companies not proud enough to even put their name on the tool, flooded the market in every shape size and color.

Someone even put a teensy version on a key chain, handy for nose picking and nail cleaning.

Then it happened. Some "real" man dared to show up in the branding corral with one of the versions of that "fad" on his belt, neatly snapped in a little case.

He used it to pull cactus out of a horse's leg and change the needles on a vaccine gun. He loaned it to a kid to use for a cooking utensil while they cooked calf fries on the branding iron burner. He twisted and tightened the wire on a gate that was doubling as a hinge. He tightened a screw in the emasculators and popped open the lids on an assortment of things.

That amazing day of demonstration opened the eyes and the dresser drawers of those "real men with pocket knives." No longer did they break the good blades on their high dollar pocket knives prying and digging with them.

No longer did they have to stick their heads under the seat of the pickup breathing unmentionable kinds of dust to find that pair of pliers or a wrench they knew was there somewhere.

Today it's standard equipment on more belts than not. The women wear them or carry them in their purse. You will see the daintiest and most delicate of well-coiffed, finely garbed ladies slip a Leatherman from their fine leather purse and go to work with the tool like she'd been doing it forever.

The list of uses is as varied as the number of tools all hooked up into that one handy dandy tool.

There are stories of lives being saved, babies being birthed and legendary feats all because of a Leatherman.

Tomorrow when you strap yours on your hip, know it just might go down in history next to Smith and Wesson.

Julie can be reached from comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

Activist ‘Green’ Lawyers Billing U.S. Millions in Fraudulent Attorney Fees

by Richard Pollock

Without any oversight, accounting, or transparency, environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable “attorney fees.” The lawsuits they received compensation for had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement.

The activist groups have generated huge revenue streams via the obscure Equal Access to Justice Act. Congressional sources claim the groups are billing for “cookie cutter” lawsuits — they file the same petitions to multiple agencies on procedural grounds, and under the Act, they file for attorney fees even if they do not win the case. Since 1995, the federal government has neither tracked nor accounted for any of these attorney fee payments.

Nine national environmental activist groups alone have filed more than 3,300 suits, every single one seeking attorney fees. The groups have also charged as much as $650 per hour (a federal statutory cap usually limits attorney fees to $125 per hour).

In well over half of the cases, there was no court judgment in the environmental groups’ favor. In all cases, whether there was any possible environmental benefit from the litigation is highly questionable. Most cases were simply based upon an alleged failure to comply with a deadline or to follow a procedure.

A whistleblower who was employed for 30 years by the U.S. Forest Service told Pajamas Media:

Some organizations have built a business doing this and attacking the agencies on process, and then getting “reimbursed.”

This week a bipartisan group of congressional members introduced legislation to end the secrecy of the payments and force the government to open up the records to show exactly how much has been paid to the groups and the questionable attorney fees. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah).

Congressional sources have said the disclosure was necessary to determine the extent of fraud and abuse. The $37 million is considered only a fraction of what has been paid out to the activist groups.

“For too long, taxpayers have unwittingly served as the financiers of the environmental litigation industry,” Rep. Bishop, who also is the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, said.

Rep. Herseth Sandlin remarked: “Simply put, this legislation is about ensuring good and open government.”

“It’s time to shine some light [on the program],” explained Rep. Lummis, who said the groups have created an industry that “supports their ‘stop everything’ agenda.”

The $37 million figure is considered low. It includes less than a dozen groups and only accounts for cases in 19 states and the District of Columbia. There are hundreds of eco-activist groups in the United States.

According to the whistleblower who served in the U.S. Forest Service, environmental activist groups typically file identical lawsuits to multiple agencies on procedural grounds, such as a missed deadline.

The identity of the huge revenue stream was established by the Western Legacy Alliance (“WLA”), along with Wyoming-based attorney Karen Budd-Falen. Western Legacy Alliance was founded in 2008 by ranchers and resource providers who raise beef and lamb on public lands of the West. What they found was astounding.

Examining court records in 19 states and in the District of Columbia, the total amount paid to less than a dozen environmental groups exceeded $37 million. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Budd-Falen. “We believe when the curtain is raised we’ll be talking about radical environmental groups bilking the taxpayer for hundreds of millions of dollars, all allegedly for ‘reimbursement for attorney fees.’ And what is even more maddening is that these groups are claiming that they are protecting the environment with all this litigation when not one dime of this money goes to projects that impact anything on-the-ground related to the environment. It just goes to more litigation to get more attorney fees to file more litigation.”

The whistleblower, speaking anonymously, told Pajamas Media the payments to the activists groups were “quite astronomical.” The former government agent was a line officer in a high-ranking position. That whistleblower added that the filings by the radical groups often were “canned” petitions that contained little research. In this way, environmental groups could pepper government agencies with a flood of lawsuits without much work.

“They will send a myriad of lawsuits across the bow to try to stop a number of projects or programs and then they hopefully will score with one or two,” he said. He saw a lot of the activist lawsuit filings because he had been attached both to the Forest Service’s Washington headquarters and to its field offices. “Then they will send in bills that are quite frankly, quite astronomical compared to the actual work they had to do to file an actual lawsuit. Many of the lawsuits are filed under a lot of canned material, yet the hours and rates that they charge were quite high.”

Here is a sampling of the number of assembly line “lawsuits” filed between 2000 and 2009 that have been painstakingly identified by the Western Legacy Alliance and Budd-Falen. Activist group Western Watersheds Project filed 91 lawsuits in the federal district courts; Forest Guardians (now known as WildEarth Guardians) filed 180 lawsuits; the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed at 409 suits; the Wilderness Society filed 149 lawsuits; the National Wildlife Federation filed 427 lawsuits; and the Sierra Club filed 983 lawsuits. These numbers do not include administrative appeals or notices of intent to sue.

Even local or regional environmental groups have figured out ways to turn on the taxpayer spigot. WLA found the Idaho Conservation League filed 72 lawsuits and the Oregon Natural Desert Association filed 50. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance filed 88 lawsuits. At last count, just eight local groups in nine Western states have filed nearly 1,600 lawsuits against the federal government.

On the national level, over the last decade nine national environmental groups have filed 3,300 cases against the federal government. As is usual, the vast majority of the cases deal with the alleged procedural failings of federal agencies, not with substance or science.

Said the Forest Service officer: “A lot of times they will sue on process, and not on substance. And substance means what difference does it mean for the resource, or what’s going in on the ground? A lot of times, it will be a process lawsuit and a lot of times the agency either missed something. … The bottom line is many, many times, when you look at the results on the ground, it [the environmental group winning the litigation] would have made very little difference.”

Karen Budd-Falen said that the cases amounted to a ripoff of taxpayers and rewarded radical groups with millions of dollars. “Although those of us involved in protecting property rights and land use in the West were aware that radical groups were getting exorbitant fees simply be filing litigation against the government, we had no idea of the magnitude of the problem.”

Budd-Falen highlighted one case that typifies the gravy train that has flowed to environmental groups. In 2009, the Earthjustice Legal Foundation represented the Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, and the Vermont Natural Resources Council in a case dealing with the process used by the Forest Service to adopt some regulations. The Earthjustice Legal Foundation filed for attorney fees for that single case that took only one year and three months to complete.

The same suit was filed by the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of other environmental groups. The seven total attorneys who worked on the case billed the federal government $479,242. They charged between $300 to $650 per hour, far above the statuary federal cap of $125. The case was resolved at the district court level and the federal government did not appeal.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) also files a significant amount of litigation and receives lucrative attorney fees. In Washington State Federal District Court alone, CBD received attorney fees totaling $941,000 for only six cases. In the District of Columbia, it received more than $1 million in fees.

Fourteen groups identified as recipients of the Act’s funding are: the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Colorado Environmental Coalition, Forest Guardians, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Western Watersheds Project, Defenders of Wildlife, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, WildEarth, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Oregon Wild, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and Wyoming Outdoor Council.

One of the fourteen groups, the Center for Biological Diversity, called the two Republicans and one Democrat “rabid right-wingers” and said that the charges of abuse was “patently false and patently ridiculous,” according to Bill Snape, senior council for CBD.

Another study from Virginia Tech University discovered similar findings as a result of a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act request to five federal agencies. The Virginia Tech study also revealed that two of the agencies could provide absolutely no data on the Act’s payments.

Environmental organizations are among the most financially prosperous non-profits in the country. The Sierra Club alone in 2007 reported its total worth as $56.6 million. According to 2007 Internal Revenue Service records, the top ten environmental presidents receive as much as a half million dollars a year in annual compensation. Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, Inc reported $492,000 in executive compensation in 2007. The top ten highest grossing environmental executives all received at least $308,000 in compensation.

Environmental activist groups also have been among the most influential in throwing around political money. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 2000 and this year activist environmental political action committees have given $3.4 million in campaign contributions to candidates for federal office. About 87% of the money went to Democrats.

Richard Pollock is the Washington, D.C., editor for Pajamas Media and the Washington bureau chief of PJTV.

Dodge Makes Monkey Disappear

by Mike Krumboltz

Auto company Dodge recently found itself in PETA's crosshairs after the carmaker aired a commercial starring a monkey dressed up like Evel Knievel. But, unlike many who draw the ire of PETA, Dodge fought back in a most amusing way.

Below, the original ad that inspired PETA to pen an open letter condemning Dodge for using a monkey, "given the well-documented abuse that young chimpanzees and orangutans suffer in the entertainment industry." PETA goes on to write, "Dodge isn't going to dodge a bullet on this one. It needs to pull the ad — and we've contacted the company asking it to do just that." Here's the commercial with the monkey...

Dodge commercial - WITH the monkey @ Yahoo! Video

Dodge apparently got PETA's message and decided to have a little fun. They made another similar commercial touting an upcoming summer clearance sale, only this time, instead of a monkey, they cast ... drumroll, please ... an invisible monkey. The blog Consumerist calls the redux "an act of surreal genius." Check out the new version below. And if the voice sounds familiar, it should. It's none other than Michael C. Hall of Showtime's "Dexter."

Dodge commercial - without the monkey @ Yahoo! Video

Original posted at Buzz Log.

New Hoppe’s No. 9 Air Freshener

Overland Park, KS — In 1903, when Frank Hoppe developed a mix of 9 different ingredients to create the original Hoppe’s No. 9 gun solvent, he had no idea that history was being made. Over the last 107 years the smell of Hoppe’s No. 9 has evoked fond memories of fathers, grandfathers, memorable hunts and great days in the field.

In response to consumer requests, Hoppe’s now has an air freshener with the unique No. 9 smell. The freshener has a string for hanging it in your gun room, car, garage, or anywhere you want the nostalgic smell of Hoppe’s No. 9.

Brett and Kate McKay, authors of the book “The Art of Manliness” list Hoppe’s No. 9 as one of the top 15 manly smells.

The Hoppe’s No. 9 Air Freshener will be available at your favorite sporting goods and/or hunting store and will sell for a suggested retail price of $3.99.

Visit www.hoppes.com for more information on all Hoppe’s and Hoppe’s Elite Products.

HT: Tick

Song Of The Day #380

The Gospel song on Ranch Radio this morning is Drive Another Nail by Marty Raybon. The tune is on his The Gospel in Black and White CD.

College National Finals Rodeo on TV

The CNFR will be played on ESPNU this weekend. Watch some of NMSU Rodeo’s top athletes compete for a national title. (Spoiler- Rodee Walraven & Johnny Salvo finish 3rd in the nation, Men’s team ends up 6th, Staci Stanbrough wins the prestigious Walt Garrison Award and was elected NIRA National Student President, Bo Simpson & JoDan Mirabal get no times but end up 9th & 11th respectively, fellow Grand Canyon Region coach CJ Aragon- Mesalands Comm. College was named 2010 NIRA Coach of the Year)

Tune in or DVR/TIVO the CNFR on ESPNU!

COLLEGE NATIONAL FINALS RODEO ON ESPNU

College Rodeo will be in the television spotlight this August. The best action from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s premiere event, the College National Finals Rodeo, will be featured on ESPN U.

The college rodeo action begins airing on Friday, August 13th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

ESPN U will be airing two hours of collegiate rodeo competition from the 2010 College National Finals Rodeo, held in Casper, Wyoming, this past June.

The exciting action of the finals also includes interviews and features from the entire finals week and portions of the awards ceremony.

Hosting the ESPN U College Rodeo series are Boyd Polhamus and Bob Tallman, with Angie Burton interviewing the contestants on the arena floor. The Wyoming Division of Tourism is the presenting sponsor, with fellow supporters; Wrangler, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, Copper Spring Ranch, Dodge, the Casper Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the ProEquine Group, including Cactus Ropes, Cactus Saddles, Fastback Ropes, and ProEquine.

College National Finals Rodeo on ESPNU

Show #1 - Premieres
Friday, August 13th, 8:00 p.m. ET

Show #2 - Premieres
Friday, August 13th, 9:00 p.m. ET

Additional airings of each show will air throughout the month of August.
Show #1 – Re-Air
Friday, August 13th 4:00 a.m. ET

Show #2 – Re-Air
Friday, August 13th 5:00 a.m. ET

Show #1 – Re-Air
Saturday, August 14th 10:00 a.m. ET

Show #2 – Re-Air
Saturday, August 14th 11:00 a.m. ET

Show #1 – Re-Air
Monday, August 16th, 8:00 a.m. ET

Show #2 – Re-Air
Monday, August 16th, 9:00 a.m. ET

The Real Environmental Disaster

...While publicly expressing deep concern about the impact on the Gulf states, Obama was apparently so preoccupied with loss of complete control that he also lost the competence to tackle the environmental challenges. As Gateway Pundit and others have pointed out: Obama accepted help from only five of 28 countries that offered aid. It took 53 days of gushing oil before the administration accepted help from the Dutch and British. It took 58 days to mobilize military personnel to the Gulf. Crude oil-sucking barges were shut down because of technical fire extinguisher regulations. The administration ignored oil containment-boom manufacturers that had miles of their product available in warehouses. Dredging for sand berms to block the oil from the Louisiana coast was forbidden for weeks. No skimmer boats were sent to Mississippi’s shore. Florida had to hire added skimmer boats because offederal inaction...Surely, the most shameful display of Obama’s eagerness to control all things was his mandate of a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. The New York Times May 27 reported his plan to stop new deepwater drilling for six months, suspend exploratory drilling scheduled off Alaska this summer, and cancel a lease sale off Virginia’s coast. The Interior Department used the flimsy excuse that a moratorium was necessary because of uncertainties about the cause of the oil blowout and the need to write new drilling rules...More than three months after the April oil blowout, “Gulf states and the oil industry are still howling” over unnecessary economic harm, the Christian Science Monitor said July 27. The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee listened to testimony forecasting financial losses of $2.8 billion and moratorium-caused job losses exceeding 10,000. The Bayoubuzz.com in Louisiana reported that before the oil spill and the moratorium, 56 rigs were operating in the Gulf. By the end of July “there are only 12 active rigs. Most have “departed for the Congo and Egypt and more rigs may be leaving very soon…...more

Judge Martin Feldman wants to know more about offshore oil drilling ban

U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman has asked the federal government and Hornbeck Offshore Services, the Covington marine services company that has challenged the offshore oil drilling ban, for additional information to help him decide whether the government's July 12 moratorium is indeed a new policy, or whether it's the same policy that he struck down in June. In doing so, Feldman hopes to answer the question of whether the Hornbeck suit against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar should be dismissed as moot because the government rescinded the original May 28 moratorium that aroused Hornbeck's ire and replaced it with a new policy in July, or whether the Hornbeck suit should continue because the policy is essentially the same. "I'd like to see a comparison of the pre-May 28 information and the post-May 28 information that led to the July 12 directive," Feldman said, saying that he wanted to evaluate claims of whether there really is new evidence that blowout preventers don't work, that the industry is unprepared to stop deepwater blowouts and respond to spills, and that operators other than BP may also engage in unsafe drilling practices...more

Left in Limbo: Businesses Affected by Obama’s Drilling Ban Won’t Get BP Claims Money

As businesses along the Gulf Coast await the expiration of President Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium, they’re faced with a new hardship: Neither BP nor the Gulf Coast Claims Facility appear willing to pay for lost income resulting from the ban. Last week BP announced it was deferring all moratorium-related claims to Ken Feinberg, the Obama-appointed administrator of the $20 billion claims fund. That news came as a surprise to Feinberg, however. He maintains the moratorium claims are BP’s responsibility. “Those claims are not under Feinberg’s jurisdiction with the GCCF,” spokeswoman Amy Weiss told me. She referred questions to BP. But a spokesman for BP said the company is planning to transfer all outstanding claims to Feinberg, including those from businesses that cite the drilling ban. “There are claims in the system that are moratorium-related,” BP spokesman John Curry said. “The entire database will transition to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility when Feinberg gets it up and running.” The uncertainty — and apparent unwillingness of either BP or Feinberg to take responsibility — leaves businesses in the dark about their moratorium-related claims. Those businesses could be mom-and-pop stores that rely on the steady flow of customers working on rigs or suppliers of oilfield equipment. Each is affected by the moratorium in its own unique way...more

How BP may be paying out millions in oil spill compensation to fraudsters

BP could be paying millions in compensation to 'fake fishermen', it has been revealed. So far BP has paid $308million to those whose livelihood has been threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But to receive compensation, fishermen must display a valid fishing licence - and applications for such licenses have spiked by nearly 60 per cent, despite most fishing grounds being closed by the disaster. Three people suspected of abusing the system have been arrested in the past week in the U.S. - but there are fears there could be many more such 'fraudsters' at work. One genuine fisherman even told reporters of being approached by two men who asked him to sign documents for them showing that they had worked for him...more

U.N. Chief Recommends Small Steps on Climate

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Monday that he doubted that member states would reach a new global climate change agreement in December at a conference in Mexico. Mr. Ban, who was the head cheerleader for reaching a deal during the 2009 conference in Copenhagen, suggested that a better approach might consist of small steps in separate fields that built toward wider consensus rather than aiming for one sweeping pact. “Climate change, I think, has been making progress, even though we have not reached such a point where we will have a globally agreed, comprehensive deal,” Mr. Ban said at a news conference. Preliminary negotiations toward some manner of document, involving all 192 member states, ended last week stuck on familiar problems — the working document doubling in size to 34 pages amid protracted wrangling over issues like commitments to cut emissions. There is one more round of talks, in China in October, before the December conference in Cancún...more

Global warming heats up a nuclear energy renaissance

Now, three decades later, Mr. Grecheck is overseeing plans to finally add a third reactor at Dominion Energy Inc.'s North Anna plant that could power up to 375,000 Virginia homes. The company is one of more than a dozen nationwide seeking licenses from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate 22 new reactors. "This point" is the nuclear renaissance that Dominion, and the industry as a whole, seems to be enjoying. Global warming has energized the quest for clean, carbon-free energy that won't add to the greenhouse effect; and the BP oil spill has added to the distaste for fossil-fuel dependence. Public and political acceptance of nuclear power as a logical large-scale alternative to fossil fuel is higher than it has been in a generation. Once mainly associated with mishaps like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl – not to mention bumbling nuclear plant worker Homer Simpson – the energy source now has support from 62 percent of Americans, a Gallup Poll found in March. That's the highest since Gallup began asking about the topic in 1994. Even former foes like Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and an alternative-energy crusader, and Mark Udall, a member of the Udall family Democratic political dynasty that has stewarded natural resources, are rethinking the nuclear energy option...more

Montana aims to settle lawsuit or remove, kill gray wolves

Montana's top wildlife official said Thursday if the state can't settle a lawsuit that has derailed this year's fall wolf hunt, it will press for authority to kill certain wolves to control their population. "The wolf is recovered; more than 500 wolves live in Montana," said Joe Maurier, director of Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "There is a place in Montana for them, but wolves have to be managed, just like other wildlife. Right now we can't do that." Maurier and other state wildlife officials said Montana wants to reduce its wolf population to about 450 animals, and is talking with federal officials, looking for the best and legal way to do it. "We're just trying to figure out what's the best course to take," said agency spokesman Ron Aasheim. "The playing field changes almost daily. ... We've got to find some way to manage wolves, period." Montana may appeal Molloy's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Maurier said, but the state also wants to continue to try to settle the case with the 13 conservation groups that filed suit, including Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies. If the state can't manage wolf packs in the state, wolves will continue to grow and affect ranchers and Montana's wildlife herds, he added. "It's disappointing, when FWP and the people of Montana have worked so hard and done everything we were asked to do, to see a legal technicality upend the intent of the Endangered Species Act, which is to recover a species," Maurier said...more

Obama panel boosts bid to put greenhouse gas emissions underground

An Obama Administration task force today reported that underground storage of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants is technically feasible, but there is little likelihood it will move forward without legislation to put a price on those emissions. Carbon capture and storage – or CCS – has long been heralded by scientists, environmentalists, and even some in the utility industry as perhaps the only real way to prevent climate change while still enabling the United States to continue burning its massive coal reserves in power plants. In February, President Obama ordered a comprehensive study of CCS by 14 federal agencies. Today's report offers fresh momentum not only to the effort to devise cost-effective CCS technologies but also to the push for climate-change legislation...more

Why Landowners Fight Wind And Solar Transmission Lines

But there’s another big problem I ran into when reporting the story in Montana. It turns out even siting transmission lines on private land is difficult — far more difficult than, say, siting a wind turbine. The reason is the way landowners are compensated — or not — for transmission. If a developer wants to put a wind turbine on a patch of private land, he offers to pay a per-acre fee and a percentage of the revenues produced by the turbine. Landowners jump at the chance; siting wind is not a problem in Montana, and ranchers across the state are eager to farm wind along with wheat and cattle. But when a developer wants to build a transmission line, he seeks approval under Montana’s Major Facilities Siting Act. If the project is approved, the state can condemn land if need be. The landowner is paid a one-time fee for the land under the wires, but the fee can be small — 80% to 90% of the land’s fair market value. After all, being able to threaten condemnation does a lot for one’s position at the negotiating table. This is simply not nearly enough to compensate owners for what the wires do to the value of their land, so they fight against it instead of for it. It’s a case of “not in my backyard” – at least at that price. It’s not an issue unique to Montana. This issues have come up in Oklahoma, Kansas and other windy states...more

ObamaCare is an Administrative Nightmare for American Family Farms

This week during The Ag Minute, guest host Rep. Adrian Smith, discusses how President Obama's new health care law negatively affects farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. Section 9006 of the law requires that all businesses file a 1099 with the Internal Revenue Service for every vendor with which it has more than $600 in transactions in a year. Rep. Smith explains that this would be an administrative nightmare for our nation's family farms, and prompted him to cosponsor H.R. 5141, the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, which will repeal this new requirement. "Our nation’s farmers and ranchers could have a pile of paperwork in their near future, thanks to – of all things – the health care bill. "The health care law signed by President Obama requires farmers and ranchers to file a Form 1099 with the Internal Revenue Service for every vendor or contractor from which they purchase 600 hundred dollars or more in goods or services in a calendar year. "In other words, when a farmer or rancher spends $600 on feed corn, seeds, fertilizer, fuel, tractors or nearly every other expense, they will have to research and prepare a 1099 form for each and every purchase. "This will – quite frankly – prove to be an administrative nightmare for our nation’s family farms...more

Legislation introduced on pesticides and clean water

Today, Ranking Member Frank Lucas, along with six of his colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee, introduced a bill (H.R. 6087), which clarifies that the use of a pesticide consistent with its registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) should not be subject to a costly, redundant, and unnecessary permit process under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency has interpreted the act to exclude lawful pesticide applications regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) from National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. However, in January 2009, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that longstanding practice in The National Cotton Council of America, et al., v. United States Environmental Protection Agency. The court ruled the EPA did not have the authority under the CWA to exempt application of pesticides. Last year, Rep. Lucas joined several of his colleagues and supported a petition to the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the petition was rejected. Ranking Member Lucas' bill would make clear that producers who are in compliance with the requirements of FIFRA do not need to obtain Clean Water Act permits. "Instead of challenging the courts' misguided decision, the Obama administration has chosen to leave our farmers, ranchers, foresters, mosquito-control districts, and even States to face an enormous regulatory burden never intended by Congress...press release

Go here to view the court case.

In Montana, a Fight Over Separation of Church and Fairgrounds

Leaders of a Christian organization are convinced a group of atheists were successful in getting annual fellowship services moved from the Missoula County Fair, but church organizers say they’re determined to make the best of their new location. Still, churchgoers who worship at the service resent that any group could get them relocated. Sunday morning church is a long-standing tradition at the Missoula County Fair, thanks to the Missoula Christian Network’s planning. But that tradition fell by the wayside this year after complaints from a national atheist group, which called the service “a violation of civil rights.”...more

Ohio Farmers Lean to Truce on Animals’ Close Quarters

Concessions by farmers in this state to sharply restrict the close confinement of hens, hogs and veal calves are the latest sign that so-called factory farming — a staple of modern agriculture that is seen by critics as inhumane and a threat to the environment and health — is on the verge of significant change. A recent agreement between farmers and animal rights activists here is a rare compromise in the bitter and growing debate over large-scale, intensive methods of producing eggs and meat, and may well push farmers in other states to give ground, experts say. The rising consumer preference for more “natural” and local products and concerns about pollution and antibiotic use in giant livestock operations are also driving change. The surprise truce in Ohio follows stronger limits imposed by California voters in 2008. Hoping to avoid a divisive November referendum that some farmers feared they would lose, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio urged farm leaders to negotiate with opponents, led by the Humane Society of the United States. After secret negotiations, the sides agreed to bar new construction of egg farms that pack birds in cages, and to phase out the tight caging of pregnant sows within 15 years and of veal calves by 2017. Farmers in Ohio have accepted the agreement with chagrin, saying they sense that they must bend with the political and cultural winds...more

Picabo horse auction a gem of the Old West

The dust had no time to settle on the dirt road leading to the B-Bar-B Ranch in Picabo, as trucks pulling trailers one after another were traveling to rancher Katie Breckenridge's horse sale. Men, women and children gathered from all corners of the West to attend the sale on Saturday, July 31, which had not occurred since 2002. "Three years ago, I could see the horse-sale industry collapse," she said. "The number of people buying horses had dropped dramatically caused by the closing of slaughterhouses and the over-producing of horses for the number of buyers. And, the U.S. economy was collapsing." Breckenridge said the majority of horse owners make less than $50,000 a year and the market for selling horses has disappeared. In previous years, she said, people would come to B-Bar-B on their own to buy horses. She was able to sell most of her horses on private consignment at the ranch. "Every year, people would come to buy horses for roping, cow-horse events, top dressage and pleasure riding," she said. "I halter-break every horse," Breckenridge said. "I have 110 horses and breed all of them. I have created athletes." Breckenridge said she breeds her horses to have sound mind, solid bones and good footing for trail use. She wants to maintain the cow breed in them. She said the horse of the future is a cow horse that has been trending to be a smaller horse, but she has added speed to the bloodlines...more

Song Of The Day #379

Ranch Radio will close out our look at 1959 with two more tunes that made the top twenty: I Ain't Never by Webb Pierce and Life To Go by Stonewall Jackson.

Arizona Border Town Home to New Illegal Immigration Tactics

While the entire nation is talking about illegal immigration, the residents of McNeal, Arizona live with it daily. It's a big time problem. And, all three hundred people in McNeal (some say that number is inflated) seem to have a personal story about illegal immigrants and drug or human smugglers. "Just last week, three of them showed up at my back gate. It was three young men...they were from Mexico City," shared Richard Humphries. Stephanie Langham added, "We're dealing with drug wars, human trafficking wars...we're dealing with smuggling...all of this stuff!" "We probably see 30-40 (illegal immigrants) a day between Davis Road and here!" said John Brya, adding, "At least the ones you can see!" See? KGUN9 didn't know exactly what that the local store owner meant. But, we started to figure it all out when McNeal residents Sean and Stephanie Langham took us for a little walk. The couple met our KGUN9 reporter at an anti-SB1070 protest in Tucson and invited us to see what they say really goes on in their border town. "In this area this is where the coyotes are, the drop vehicles ... This is where you see the beginning of the drug smuggling. This isn't just about people trying to find jobs," said S&S Auto owner Sean Langham. A few steps further into the desert and under some desert brush we saw what everyone in town meant when they talked about the illegal immigrants and smugglers you could not see. That's because a lot hide in what appears to be a hole right in middle of the desert. But, the hole we were gaping into wasn't a hole. It was an underground stash house. And, it wasn't discovered by local cops or Border Patrol. "This was found by our children. That's who found it. I know there are a lot of mine shafts around here, but this is not a mine shaft," said Sean Langham. "I've never seen anything like this. This underground stash house has its own running water, its own electric box over here, and even its own address, # 475," recounted KGUN9 reporter Joel Waldman...more

See the KGUN-TV report at the link provided.

Ag Secretary Vilsack: We Need an ‘All-Lands Approach’ to Managing Forests Threatened by Housing

In announcing today the latest in a series of extensive U.S. Forest Service reports about the threat to private forest land, Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack repeated his contention the country needs an “all-lands approach to managing our nation’s forests, whether they are national forests or under the stewardship of state or private entities.” The report, ”Private Forests, Public Benefits,” is part of a larger study called Forests on the Edge. The study uses geographic data to identify watersheds where private forests contribute the greatest amount of goods and services in terms of clean water, timber and wildlife habitat, as well as where these goods and services are most at risk from increased housing density, insects and disease, wildfire and air pollution...more

The USDA press release is here, and you can view the two reports mentioned here and here.

Property owners get ready, the Forest Service and your state forestry division will be planning your land's use for you.

Our View: Connections lost with Forest Service

Hello, Forest Service, can we talk? Apparently the answer is no if the questions are about last year's Station Fire, the largest forest fire in the history of Southern California. The brass at the Angeles National Forest headquarters in Arcadia refer all calls on that topic to Washington, D.C., from now on. That's as more people ask more questions, such as why weren't there more aircraft sent to douse the small outbreak sooner. And what can the Forest Service do differently to prevent the devastating wildfire and resultant mudslides from happening again? The Forest Service has provided fewer answers. In fact, it's clammed up. What does it have to hide? Plenty, especially after revelations spilled out last week that recordings of dispatch calls during the fire were withheld from federal investigators, who released a report on the Station Fire last November that many roundly criticized as incomplete and short-sighted. No wonder the Forest Service has retreated. But the reason for the PR shutdown is not just the questions regarding the response to the Station Fire. It is part of a disconnect from the land that has permeated the administration of Angeles Forest Supervisor Jody Noiron. Several former Forest Service employees, many who still live in the area and want to see the forest flourish, say that employees are afraid to criticize their boss. Many current employees did not participate with investigators for fear of reprisals, including getting fired. That is not the kind of management that should exist anywhere in the federal government. And it's not what we want to see in our forest...more

Interior Releases More of Leaked List of Potential National Monuments

The Interior Department has released the rest of a partially leaked document listing potential sites for new national monuments, but the move did nothing to quell Republican accusations that the Obama administration is plotting to lock up public lands. House Republicans in February received a leaked copy of pages 15 through 21 of a document that details 14 Western sites potentially eligible for national monuments designation under the Antiquities Act of 1906, a law that allows the president to create new monuments without congressional approval. The newly released pages of the document detail the Bureau of Land Management's goals for expanding its National Landscape Conservation System. The agency considers up to 140 million acres of land -- more than half of the 264 million acres it manages -- as "treasured lands," the document says. The document calls on the administration to first support legislative efforts for new conservation designations and turn to executive action "should the legislative process not prove fruitful." Such assurances did little to satisfy Bishop, who said the new details support his charges that the Obama administration is planning to block energy development across millions of acres of Western lands...more

Climate-Change Fight Shifting To Western US Coal Mines

Western U.S. coal producers are increasingly coming under fire by environmental groups that see a chance to fight climate change by curbing output from the nation's largest coal basin. For years environmentalists have lobbied for tougher limits on the emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change from power plants, vehicles and other direct sources. But the collapse of federal climate-change legislation in recent weeks and growth of coal exports to Asia is leading some groups to look past the smoke stacks and aim to quash emissions by stymieing production of fuel. The Powder River Basin, which underlies Wyoming and Montana, is one of the country's largest sources of fossil fuel, accounting for about 40% of U.S. coal output. Combustion of this coal in power plants accounts for about 13% of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Most of the basin's coal is mined through federal leases by the largest U.S. producers such as Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) and Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR). Groups including the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians, a New Mexico-based environmental group, are challenging the legality of a series of new leases the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, has begun issuing. They say the leases could open up as much as 5.8 billion tons of coal reserves for mining, ensuring the basin's dominance for years to come. The environmentalists claim the BLM isn't properly taking into account the impact of burning the coal on the climate...more

It's time rewrite the rules for endangered animals

I never thought I would hear myself say this, much less write it, but the Endangered Species Act needs an overhaul. It's not working as intended and shows no signs of improving. I'm not saying scrap it completely, but it's definitely time to reboot it. If it were a computer, it would crash doing simple math. EXHIBIT A: GRAY WOLF Idaho's wolf population has steadily grown since the predators were reintroduced and has far exceeded minimum recovery goals. Even after successful hunts in Idaho and Montana last year the population is about the same. But a judge ruled the animals are endangered according to the Endangered Species Act. There's plenty of blame to go around on that one. But when the wolf population is above recovery goals, still growing and migrating to other states yet still considered endangered, the act is clearly broken. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation came to the same conclusion...more

Taking the bite out of wolf reintroduction

Today Oregonians face the coming of the Canadian gray wolf -- an icon to some, a threat to others. Whatever the view, it's clear that wolves must be dealt with and the conflicts they create must be addressed. The Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan is currently up for review, and the Oregon Cattlemen's Association seeks reasonable adjustments to it. Many new issues have arisen since the plan's inception five years ago, but one thing remains constant: Ranchers have a great need to protect their livestock. OCA members seek the same types of management tools provided to ranchers in Idaho and other states that have experienced successful wolf reintroductions. They also seek a fair and equitable compensation plan that takes into account unconfirmed kills. Ranchers care deeply for their livestock. They fight tooth and nail to keep them alive every day from birth. It's difficult for a rancher to do nothing when a wolf is threatening his livestock. Wolves are prolific predators, hard to manage and not efficient killers like cougars, which keep bloodshed to a minimum and kill quickly. Wolves often leave their victims partially consumed before the animals finally die of blood loss or violent injuries...more