BLM denies it sent mustangs to slaughter auction

Wild horse advocates are asking the federal government to investigate allegations that the Bureau of Land Management sent 172 Nevada mustangs to an auction attended by "slaughter buyers" in July. The horses were rounded up by the BLM in the Pilot Creek Valley area near Wendover and auctioned off in Fallon on July 10. By law, federally-protected horses can't be sold for slaughter, but the agency says the horses sent to the auction were abandoned domestic horses or their offspring, not federally-protected mustangs. Such "estray" or "feral" horses aren't covered by the 1971 law that protects established herds of free-roaming mustangs. Federally-protected wild horses can't be legally sold for food, but estrays can be sold for eventual slaughter in Mexico or Canada, where firms provide horse meat for human and animal consumption. "I'm disgusted the BLM did what it did with these horses," said Jill Starr, president of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue. Starr bought 169 of the horses at the auction. Six have been adopted and the remainder will be offered for adoption or released in a sanctuary, she said. "The BLM makes the majority of the decisions on estrays based on physical appearance and or brands on the animals as well as history of unauthorized horse activity in the area," said Bryan Fuell, field manager of BLM's Elko District Office...more

Forest Service will spend $10 million to return Cold War site to nature

The U.S. Forest service says it will spend $10 million to raze a former Cold War defense facility and return its mountaintop site to nature. On a 5,960-foot mountain peak 40 miles east of San Diego, the Laguna Mountain Air Force base was a busy place in the Cold War as hundreds of personnel -- technicians, radar scanners and military brass -- tracked Soviet submarines cruising off San Diego, prepared to alert the nation in case of nuclear attack, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The federal government wants to raze the mountaintop complex of nearly a dozen gutted and derelict structures closed for 25 years. The Forest Service will stage a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday to open the restoration project, which is expected to be completed by early 2012...more

Your "stimulus" funds at work. A more complete story is here.

Tucson-based advocacy group makes industry of suing on behalf of wildlife

Wearing a rakishly unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt and two days’ worth of stubble, Kieran Suckling looks more like an auto mechanic than one of the most influential and polarizing wildlife conservationists in the country. But when he talks about how he came to devote a career to animal advocacy, he betrays an academic career steeped in philosophy and biological diversity. It’s a philosophy that has catapulted Suckling – and the Tucson-based group he co-founded and now directs, the Center for Biological Diversity – to the forefront of the 21st century conservation movement. The group has achieved its high profile in part through its litigation-based approach to conservation. Since July 1, for example, the center has filed 12 lawsuits to prevent development around the country that it contends would threaten various endangered species. Even the center’s detractors, however, concede that it is remarkably successful at effecting change through litigation. Suckling boasts that the center has achieved a favorable outcome in 93 percent of the lawsuits in which it has participated...more

"rakishly unbuttoned"? My, my.

Wal-Mart Accused by Labor Union, Farmers of Suppressing Agriculture Prices

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the target of an unlikely alliance between a labor union and farmers and ranchers who say the world’s largest retailer is using its power to hold down prices in the agriculture industry. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has tried unsuccessfully to unionize Wal-Mart’s employees, is urging the Obama administration to broaden its antitrust inquiry into meat, dairy and seed businesses to include the retailer. Wal-Mart’s defenders say its policies benefit consumers, ensuring them low prices. The viewpoint of the union, the UFCW, is echoed by such groups as the National Farmers Union, a 190,000-member organization. Until recently, farmers and ranchers had mostly been directing their ire at meat producers such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc. Now some are saying Wal-Mart, whose motto is “Save money. Live better,” is unfairly cutting food costs at their expense. “We’ve got to really join forces if we’re going to win against this abusive market power,” Mike Callicrate, a rancher based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said in an interview. Wal-Mart’s critics said they anticipate, after years of government reluctance to regulate farming, that President Barack Obama will inject more competition into the food-producing business. Antitrust investigators usually are concerned about rising, not falling prices, which are a cornerstone of Wal-Mart’s business strategy, said Andrew Gavil, a law professor at Howard University in Washington...more

Trapping Ban in New Mexico

Lame duck governor Bill Richardson, Democrat, recently ordered a six month ban on legal furbearer trapping throughout the Gila and Apache National Forests in New Mexico because of reintroduced Mexican gray wolves. The reasoning within Executive Order 2010-029 states that the wolves are “suffering from human development, reduction in habitat, and hunting”. Yet no provisions in the order were made to address any of those so-called impediments to the constantly faltering reintroduction effort. Trapping was singled out instead. The order directs the Game & Fish Department to “undertake a study of the various traps” used in the so-called “wolf recovery area” and “pursue appropriate regulations to allow trapping within the Recovery Area …and…pose minimum risk of harm or injury to the Mexican gray wolf”. Well, this has already been done for legal citizen trappers, but it has NOT been regulated for wildlife agencies and their minions routinely trapping these same wolves. But the governor either doesn’t know of or care about such a discrepancy. When I worked for the Arizona Game & Fish Department, for example, shooting from vehicles and across roads, as well as the use of traps that were deemed illegal for citizens were considered “biologically justifiable” and were standard actions. Close scrutiny of the Mexican wolf reintroduction doesn’t hold up very well in this department either; and doesn’t help Governor Richardson’s reasoning at all. The federal Wildlife Services (APHIS/WS) was given the responsibility of trapping these wolves for a variety of reasons from the inception of the reintroduction program. The animals were trapped to put or change radio collars on them; to inoculate them; to relocate them or possibly to euthanize them. All of these captures were and still are done with #7 McBride foothold traps, a rig that is illegal for citizens of either Arizona or New Mexico to use...more

Court Clears NM Headwaters Protection Hearings

Hearings on protecting New Mexico's headwaters will go on as planned today. That was the word from the state Supreme Court late Monday, after the court rejected a request from the Cattle Growers Association to stop the hearings. The association is concerned about a proposal from the Environment and Game and Fish Departments to designate 700 miles of rivers and streams, 29 lakes, and about 6,000 acres of wetlands in the state as "outstanding national resource waters," and how that might interfere with grazing allotments on Forest Service land. If the proposal is approved, the U.S. Forest Service would be required to protect the current water quality of those waters, which are mostly located in wilderness areas, and include some key headwaters, according to Lorimier. "Those are streams that originate in the Gila, to streams that are ephemeral, and originate in foothills, or in higher elevations that don't have spring activity."...more

Also see this from the Cattle Growers.

NM State Fair administrator nabbed for DWI

One of the New Mexico State Fair's leading administrators was picked up late last night for drunk driving on a street just off the fairgrounds. Chief Financial Officer Joseph McIntyre was charged with his 2nd DWI Offense, but State Fair leaders aren't talking publicly about it. According to the criminal complaint, the 42-year old McIntyre was picked up on Central Avenue near Louisiana, which is located just outside of the State Fairgrounds. An Albuquerque Police officer saw McIntyre's vehicle make a U-turn in the middle of Central Avenue. When the officer tried to pull the vehicle over, the driver "came to a jerking stop in the middle of Central Avenue." Police say McIntyre had bloodshot eyes with the smell of alcohol coming from his face. He also had slurred speech...more

County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops

DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call “Cabbagegate.” Fig trees, broccoli and cabbages are among the many greens that line the soil on Steve Miller’s more than two acres in Clarkston, who said he has spent fifteen years growing crops to give away and sell at local farmers markets. “It's a way of life, like it's something in my blood,” said Miller. In January, Dekalb County code enforcement officers began ticketing him for growing too many crops for the zoning and having unpermitted employees on site. Miller stopped growing vegetables this summer and the charges were put on hold as he got the property rezoned. Two weeks after approval, however, his attorney said the county began prosecuting the old charges, saying he was technically in violation before the rezoning. Miller faces nearly $5,000 in fines, but he said he plans to fight those citations in recorders court later this month...more

Los Payasos - gov't at work.

Charlie Daniels, Unsung Singing Hero

It was some thirty years ago when I first caught a Charlie Daniels concert. He was the back-up to the Marshall Tucker Band at the old Capital Centre outside Washington D.C., and that night, he stole the show. When he finished his blazing set the audience erupted and brought him back for an encore. When the Marshall Tucker Band finished their rather good performance, it made no difference: the capacity crowd roared for yet another performance from Charlie Daniels. It’s a metaphor for his life. At a time when he should, deservedly be disappearing into the shadows, he’s back – with the crowd roaring once again. Despite recovering from a stroke and nearing his 74th birthday, Charlie still plays about 100 concerts a year, including Sean Hannity’s “Freedom Concerts” to benefit the children of our fallen and disabled U.S. soldiers through Ollie North’s Freedom Alliance. So much has Charlie become ingrained in the “Freedom Concerts” (he performed in all eight shows this year) and in the effort to support our military worldwide that he deserves his own tribute. He is America’s unsung singing hero...more

Song Of The Day #405

In honor of Charlie Daniels, the Unsung Singing Hero, Ranch Radio will continue Swingin' Monday right on into Tuesday, and bring you two Daniels tunes: The South's Gonna Do It Again and Wichita Jail.

Many enjoy reading Charlie's Soapbox Articles.

New Book and Related Campaign on CAFOs

NEWS ADVISORY

Date: September 13, 2010

From: Cyndie Sirekis, Director of News Services, AFBF

Topic: New Book and Related Campaign on CAFOs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A new 400-page hardcover photo/essay book, CAFO (Concentration Animal Feeding Operation): The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, will be released on Oct. 1. In addition to 450 photos, the book includes essays by dozens of writer-activists including Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Tim Philpot, Anna Lappe and Wendell Berry. A collection of 30 essays from the hardcover book were published in July in a smaller, paperback version, The CAFO Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories. Both books were edited by Dan Imhoff (author of Food Fight, Farming with the Wild, Paper or Plastic, Building with Vision, and Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature) and may be ordered online from University of California Press and Amazon.com.

The books strive to expose “the horrors of industrial food production.” Referring to CAFOs, the publisher notes, “It is quite possible to banish these animal factories from the face of the Earth; it only takes the will and determination of citizen activists.”

According to promos for the books, “Industrial livestock production is now a leading source of climate-changing emissions, a source of both freshwater and ocean pollution, and a significant contributor to diet-related diseases such as obesity and the spread of foodborne illnesses. The intensive concentration of animals in such crammed and filthy conditions dependent on antibiotic medicines and steady streams of subsidized industrial feeds poses serious moral and ethical concerns for all of us.”

A section of essays in the books is the basis for a related educational campaign, “Putting the CAFO out to Pasture.” Through this effort, activists are calling for major reforms to modern production agriculture, including an end to CAFOs. Consumers are urged to make changes to their diets and support public policy that fosters pasture-based farming for livestock of all types. Additional information is available online at www.cafothebook.org.

The following messages should prove helpful in the event you receive media calls regarding the books and related campaign:

• The treatment, health and well-being of farm animals are of utmost importance to farmers and ranchers. Proper animal care leads to production of high-quality milk, meat and eggs.
• Farmers and ranchers are committed to providing high-quality, healthy food products such as milk, meat and eggs. They know that healthy animals result in healthy food for consumers and that starts with top-notch animal care.
• Nutritious diets, healthy living conditions and good medical care are among the many animal welfare practices routinely used by farmers and ranchers.

In addition, AFBF’s Conversations on Care website contains additional information about how the vast majority of farmers and ranchers care for their animals. That includes the following messages:

• Healthy animals mean healthy food for you and your family.
• For animals to produce meat, milk and eggs, America’s farmers and ranchers must take all possible steps to ensure that animals are well cared for seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
• As farmers and ranchers, we recognize that superior animal welfare practices lead to the production of high-quality, safe and wholesome meat, milk and eggs, and we’re constantly seeking ways to improve the well-being and comfort of our animals.
• Simply put, without healthy and content animals, farmers and ranchers would not be in business.
• Farmers and ranchers care deeply about the health, well-being and safety of our animals, and we ensure our animals’ well-being through proper management and shelter.
• Farmers and ranchers provide adequate food, water and medical care to protect our
animals’ health.
• We also provide appropriate shelter to ensure livestock can exhibit normal behaviors at rest and remain protected from disease, competition, injury and predators.
• Quality Assurance programs at the national and state levels provide farmers and ranchers with guidelines for the production of safe, wholesome animals, including recommendations on necessary animal handling and facilities.
• Standards for animal care should be based on the expertise of veterinarians, farmers, ranchers and animal scientists -- the people who work with farm animals daily.
• American farmers and ranchers have been working with veterinarians, animal scientists, agricultural engineers and animal well-being experts to continually develop and support reasonable science-based guidelines and audits.
• As the people who work with livestock 24/7, farmers and ranchers, as well as veterinarians and animal care scientists, provide the voices of experience and reason in addressing animal welfare issues.
• Changes to animal well-being guidelines should be based on data, expert analysis and economic feasibility.
• Adding unnecessary costs to U.S. production will increase the amount of food imported from places that have an inferior record on food safety and animal well-being.
• Overzealous standards will increase the price of food, negatively affecting all families trying to make ends meet.
-30-

The Thrill of Victory... The Agony of Quash / ONRW Hearing to Go Forth

For years the NMCGA and others have fought a sweeping designation of Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) on forest lands in New Mexico. Even the New Mexico Legislature joined in the war passing a memorial sponsored by Representative Debbie Rodella directing the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) to make ONRW designations on a stream by stream basis, as determined by science.

Driven by the WildEarth Guardians (formerly the Forest Guardians) and an Executive Order by Governor Bill Richardson on Earth Day 2008, the NMED has doggedly pushed forward a petition that defies logic. At every stage of the process the NMCGA has attempted to bring reason to the situation and to get the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) to follow its’ own rules in accepting petitions for hearing. One of the main necessities for an ONRW is baseline water quality data. The NMED has it on less than 25% of the waters it is nominating. Additionally the petition has changed since it was first accepted for hearing.

Late last Thursday a suit was filed in the Thirteenth Judicial District, Sandoval County, New Mexico, requesting a temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt the hearing because of the flaws in the process. The TRO was granted on the spot. The final order did not become available until late Friday.

This morning the NMED filed a motion with the New Mexico State Supreme Court to quash the TRO. In an amazing feat of judicial process, they were able to get a telephonic hearing at 3p.m. TODAY. The NMCGA attorney was given less than 30 minutes notice for this hearing. It was really no surprise that the NMED got what it wanted.

The NMED followed exactly the same path in moving forward with greenhouse gas regulations this summer.

The ONRW hearing will commence tomorrow, September 14 and is scheduled to run through the rest of the week. If it is not completed, it will reconvene on October 12.

If you have ANY time this week, please sit in on the hearing in room 307 of the State Capitol. We need all the support we can get!

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that pretty well expresses my thoughts at this point … “I can see November from my house.”

Caren Cowan
Executive Director
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association
POB 7517
Albuquerque NM 87194

'Part of having wolves is having to kill wolves'

The re-establishment of wolf populations in the Northern Rockies was a laudable wildlife goal, and programs to protect them as they came back were necessary. But notice our use of the past tense. Wolves are back, and now they need to be managed just like any other wild critter. Last we heard, at least 1,700 wolves roam the three-state ecosystem, roughly a third of them in Montana. That's a pretty healthy population, and it exceeds the targets of recovery plans. Among the tools wildlife officials have employed to manage them are hunting seasons and, in the case of livestock depredations, trapping and sometimes killing by the managers themselves. Unfortunately, one of those tools was removed by a federal judge who blocked the 2010 wolf season in Montana and Idaho. The officials now are looking at ways to put the hunts back in place. "You just have to accept that part of having wolves is having to kill wolves," said Mark Collinge, Idaho director of the federal Wildlife Service. "As the wolf populations increase, the depredations increase and the number of wolf removals will increase," he told a reporter recently. "It's very logical." The fact is, there's been plenty of wolf killing since the first 66 wolves were carted down to Yellowstone in the '90s. It's estimated that about 1,400 have been killed by wildlife agents and ranchers since the recovery effort began...more

Tribes, ranchers may suffer if Idaho holds to threat of wolf management

Idaho’s ranchers and the Nez Perce tribe may be left to their own devices if Idaho holds to its governor’s promise of pulling out of wolf management. After meeting with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter sent Salazar an ultimatum to vent his frustration with having to manage wolves under federal rules. He said Salazar should ignore a U.S. district court ruling putting wolves under federal protection and restore state management of wolves by Oct. 7. Otherwise, the state would refuse to fill the monitoring and investigation role it’s carried out since shortly after wolves were introduced. On Friday, Idaho congressmen Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick also sent a letter to Salazar, asking him to immediately address allowing the states to manage wolf populations. Montana and Idaho managed their wolf populations for a year before a district court judge Donald Molloy ruled that endangered species cannot be managed on a state-by-state basis. Because wolves in Wyoming remained on the endangered species list, the court relisted all wolves. Since setting the Oct. 7 date, the Otter camp has backpedaled. Otter’s chief counsel, David Hensley, told the Idaho Statesman that deadlines can be moved and it’s not really a line in the sand. But should Otter hold firm, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t yet know what would happen with wolf management, leading to some uncertainty for ranchers on who would investigate wolf kills or eliminate problem packs. David Potts of the USFWS Pacific region, which oversees Idaho, said the service would initially step in to manage the wolves and look into options of managing with other agencies or entities...more

Wolves in the Midwest vs. the West. What’s the Difference? Us.

While the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone in 1995 stirred up a regional, political firestorm that is hottest in the Cowboy State of Wyoming, the gradual comeback of Midwestern wolves happened with much less political heat or controversy. Why is that? Midwestern wolves are not any different--in behavior, appearance or genetics--from the Canadian wolves that were reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem more than a decade ago. “Wolves have been studied to death,” said Bangs. “We’ve got a ton of research about them from all over the world.” What’s unique about the Northern Range wolves is that scientists have a front-row seat on rapidly changing ecosystems, as plants and animals alike respond to the presence of a top predator, absent for many decades. How people feel about wolves generally depends on where people are from, agree Bangs and other researchers. Hunter-gatherers like Native Americans and Alaska trappers generally have a positive opinion about wolves, admiring their pack loyalties and cooperation, said Bangs. But they also harvest wolves for their pelts. “If livestock are economically important where you live, then predators are not well thought of,” said Bangs, explaining the hostility toward wolves among ranchers. Urban dwellers, particularly those with higher incomes and educations, are generally more supportive of wolf conservation. Adrian Treves and Lisa Naughton, researchers at the University of Wisconsin, have found that public attitudes break down in quarters – one quarter don’t care, one quarter are intensely opposed to wolves, one quarter intensely support wolves and one quarter are “swing voters,” just like in politics. Hunters have more complicated views of wolves, agree Bangs and Treves. “Hunters are willing to share (with wolves),” said Bangs, “but not everything.”...more

Deal made to help sage grouse in West

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior are teaming up to help out the greater sage grouse. An agreement signed Tuesday by the two departments calls for the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to work together with states and landowners to protect the chicken-size bird and its habitat. As an example, ranchers could keep cattle from grazing sage grouse areas during the bird’s breeding times. There will be monetary incentives to conserve the bird as well. About $16 million will be available this fiscal year that landowners could use to reduce threats to the birds, such as disease and invasive species, or to preserve habitat. Alan Clark, assistant director for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said Tuesday he hopes the federal government will work with land managers, states and private interests to better protect the birds. Clark said a key is to assure landowners that they will not be penalized or hurt if they take measures to protect sage grouse on their land...more

Alan Simpson, Social Security, and the Welfare Barons of the Livestock Industry

Alan Simpson, co-chair of President Obama's Deficit Commission, likens Social Security to "a milk cow with 310 million tits." But Simpson, a Wyoming rancher, is certainly familiar with a welfare "tit" that is a con game of continental magnitude maintained for "permittees," mostly ranchers like himself, who lease grazing allotments on America's public lands. This fleecing carried out on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and national forests is immense in scope. BLM alone has 18,000 permits on 157 million acres -- an area equal in size to Montana and Wyoming combined. In addition, the Forest Service manages 93 million of its public forests for some 8,000 permits. Although this land belongs to all Americans in common, it's managed primarily for a minority of permittees producing just 3% of the nation's beef. Cowboy history notwithstanding, cattle are not suited for ecosystems of the West. As Donald Peters put it in 1990, "Trying to fit European cattle into arid North American ecosystems is like putting a size-12 foot into a size-8 shoe." Aside from the well-documented ecological damage wrought by domestic livestock, and their displacement of wild native animals, the financial setup alone should incense taxpayers. Here's the rub: Permittees pay a fraction of the market. The unit used for grazing livestock is an "Animal Unit per Month" (AUM), equal to a cow and her calf (or five sheep). To graze livestock on private land, the current market now runs about $20, but permittees pay $1.35, so $18.65 for each AUM that should go into the federal till is compensated for by U.S. taxpayers -- a sum running into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. How ironic that many haters of "big guv'ment" are major-league welfare recipients...more

I'm pretty good at "reading between the lines", and I believe Bill Willers, a retired professor of biology, is really not a fan of livestock grazing in the West.

Farmers caught in fight over buffers

In 2002, a U.S. district court judge ruled a federal agency violated the Endangered Species Act in the way it registered pesticides. The ruling set in motion a dispute now entering its ninth year involving federal and state agencies, environmental organizations, pesticide makers and farm, ranch and forestry groups. In the case brought by the Washington Toxics Coalition and other environmental organizations, Judge John Coughenour ruled that before the Environmental Protection Agency cleared for use certain pesticides, it first should have consulted with federal fisheries managers on their effects on salmon. Given that Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies consult when their actions could affect a threatened or endangered species, the ruling wasn't surprising, said Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, which advocates for agricultural interests on pest management issues. "But there really is no simple way to (consult)," Hansen said. "Pesticides are used in agriculture, in homes, on flea collars. So how do you consult on that?" The original wording of the law didn't take complex scenarios into account, she said. "The ESA was written thinking in terms of: If you build a dam, it's in one spot at one time and you consult on that one action," Hansen said. "That is how the consultation process was envisioned: One action, one spot, one time." As the EPA prepares to restrict use of many common pesticides, farmers, ranchers and foresters appear to be the big losers. According to figures from NMFS, under currently proposed actions -- which involve no-spray buffers around streams, lakes and other water bodies -- pesticide use will be restricted on 61 percent of Washington state's total land area. Fifty-five percent of Oregon, 32 percent of California and 26 percent of Idaho would also be restricted...more

Lair of the Beasts: Chupacabras vs. Chupacabras

Over the course of the last year or so, I have found myself doing more and more radio, newspaper, magazine, and TV interviews on the phenomenon of the so-called “Texas Chupacabras” – those admittedly very strange-looking, hairless beasts that have predominantly been reported within woods and fields in and around the Austin and San Antonio areas, but that are now being seen with increasing frequency in the vicinity of the city of Dallas, very near to where my wife and I live. One of the questions that keep on surfacing during those same interviews is how, and under what particular circumstances, did these mysterious beasts manage to migrate from the island of Puerto Rico – where the Chupacabras reports began to surface in the mid-1990s – to the heart of the Lone Star State? Well, the answer to that question is very simple: they didn’t. I have been on a number of expeditions to Puerto Rico in search of the island’s blood-sucking beasts, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they exist. I have interviewed numerous ranchers, veterinarians, civil-defense employees, and members of the public who have either seen the creatures, or who have been witness to their blood-sucking activities. In most cases, the Chupacabras of Puerto Rico are described as bipedal creatures with large eyes, vicious claws and teeth, hairless monkey-like bodies, row of spikes running down the backs of their heads and necks - punk-rock Mohawk-style – and even, occasionally, sporting membranous bat-like wings. As for their mode of attack, most of the interviewees stated that the Chupacabras kill their prey by a bite to the neck and then proceeds to drink the blood...more

The Western Lit Blues

I don't like to gut fish. I grant you that a trout's fluorescent-colored guts are interesting to poke with a stick, but only for a short time, and only once in a great while. Mostly they are just slimy and smelly and get your hands all germy, which, if you are camping, say, in the Colorado mountains, is an annoying problem, because stomach ailments at 8,000 feet are never fun. There, I said it. I'll even repeat it: I do not like to gut fish. Usually I have better things to do. You may now dismiss me from the Cool Western Women's Club. I'm a writer who writes about the West and the people out here. You know, the tough outdoorsy folks who populate Western books. People who hunt, camp, ride horses, and love to gut fish. Men and women who live on ranches or fall in love with ranchers. Or the folks who have a kayak on their Subaru and suntan marks on their feet from Chaco sandals, and the people who fall in love with suntanned, Subaru-driving kayakers. I write about them because, in part, I'm that sort of person myself. I'm a ranch kid who now owns a Subaru and has crisscrossed suntan patterns on my feet all summer long. I write what I know and what I see. But I have to say: Even though I am similar to my fictional counterparts, I am also not them. There's more going on with life out here in the West than is often rendered in books. We Westerners are more complex and worldly and unique than what I sometimes find on the page, frankly. And as a writer, a reader, an observer, and a half-assed cultural critic, I'm starting to get a little worried...more

Raising sheep: a way of life

Five generations of John Noh's family have used the same Sawtooth National Forest land to graze their sheep. Some of the ancient grey wood of the corral, used year after year, is as old as the rancher's permit. The Nohs had already shipped some lambs raised in an area near Monument Peak the previous week. Now, on the morning of Aug. 30, they were across the valley bringing in sheep from Bear Hollow. Friends — many sheep ranchers themselves — showed up the night before to share food and gossip, and to help load the lambs in the morning. Starting in April, the band's 1,000 ewes were released onto public land so their lambs could grow and fatten in the high meadows. Noh employs three shepherds from South America who watched the sheep throughout summer. Now, Chilean Lorenzo Saldivia whacked his cane against the corral rails to keep the sheep moving through chutes leading into the first of two tractor-trailers, one driven by sheep rancher Mike Secrest. The Idaho sheep community is fairly small and getting smaller. Two or three ranchers recently found themselves in tough straits when the Long Butte Fire burned their winter grazing areas. Idaho has no commercial processing plants, and Noh fears the industry may lose more packers. So ranchers have assumed many roles to help each other out...more

Harris has second thoughts about cow ban

By the summer of 1887, editor Frank Harris of the Ocala Banner was beginning to feel the heated reaction to his determined campaign to get cows off the streets of Ocala, and the tone of his published comments began to shift somewhat under peer pressure. It was during his regime as mayor that the city council adopted an ordinance that would have banned cows from the streets during the day and night. These were mostly milk cows that furnished milk and butter for families and, as such, had staunch defenders to their right to wander where they pleased. Cows found on the streets were to be impounded by the town marshal, and once the ordinance was on the books, it appeared that virtually nobody wanted it. Or so it seems from published comments by Editor Harris, as he started edging backward. Confronted by an irate public, the city council backed down somewhat and amended the ordinance to ban cows only during the daylight hours. It was all right to turn them out at night, after they had been milked. After all, there was plenty of grass along the streets to feed them adequately. One of the greatest irritants, however, was the congregating of cows on the courthouse square in the center of town. Harris reserved his strongest language against that and, as a result, a fence was built around the square. Even the fence became contentious...more

Trew: Digging post holes by hand was hard work

Among the hundreds of jobs associated with farming and ranching, digging postholes by hand is by far my least favorite. Today, most postholes are dug by equipment powered by tractors, motors and hydraulics. Iron tee posts driven into the ground have pretty well replaced the need for digging post holes. But not so long ago all postholes were dug by hand with a pair of diggers. Of interest is the fact the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean has approximately 60 patented post hole diggers on display all showing different designs and mechanisms to make the job easier. I can guarantee a long hot day on a pair of diggers in hard dry ground will conjure up many ideas to make the dreaded job less work. Among the first post-hole-digger-haters were the old dyed-in-the-wool cowboys who believed any work not carried out on the back of a horse was a sin, an embarrassment and beneath their dignity. If the truth were known, the famous "Cowboy Strike" carried out at Old Tascosa was probably as much in protest of building barbed wire fences as demanding higher wages and better working conditions on the ranches. The new-fangled barbed wire fences of the Old West were a joke at first. When finally accepted as a legitimate ranch improvement it was no easy chore to construct. First, trying to establish the correct legal boundary before building was almost impossible due to the many incorrect early day surveying methods. Once surveyed and staked someone had to spend weeks with an axe and saw in a cedar canyon somewhere cutting fence posts and hauling them to the site...more

Song Of The Day #404

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio, where we bring up-tempo tunes to get your heart started for the week.

Today's selection is bluegrass fiddler Hunter Berry performing the swing number Kansas City Kitty.

The song is on his 12 track CD Wow Baby.

Storm

Helluva storm here tonight...power has gone out twice...may not be able to publish.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Lonesome for the old days

by Julie Carter

In some phase of the moon, or maybe it's the calendar, there seems to be yearning among a number of my acquaintances to find a piece of their past and return to the "fun" that they remember it to be.

"I'm lonesome for the old days," are the words that resonate around any conversation about said "old days" and the memories of the good times.

Class reunions and family reunions are a given for collecting people that have a history with each other. They offer a one-shot period of time to catch up on one or many years and then everyone goes home and life resumes.

Then there are those times when a simple action by one person starts a movement that gathers momentum with each day as the people involved start opening their memories to those "good old days."

Clay Mac may not know it yet, but he has done such a thing simply by agreeing to play at a benefit dance in the Rio Grande Valley later this fall. A New Mexico band legend in the honky-tonk hall of fame, Clay isn't just awesome with his music, he has a good time doing it and his fun rolls right off the platform and into the crowd.

Not far from the upcoming designated dance hall is a locally historical honky tonk called the Red Carpet, or the "Red Rug" as it was fondly referred to in the height of its day. Now just an empty building with its own ghosts, just the mention of the name invokes memories of two-stepping, beer-drinking, pool-playing wild nights. It remains a monument to the good times of decades ago.

Such are the "fun" memories of one veteran of the "good old days" who said that sometimes he gets a six-pack and pulls in the parking lot of the Red Rug and just sits there and remembers while he sips.

Built around those good old days are friendships that endure far into the future. Sadly and all too often, they are kept dormant by life and distance and the recall is locked away in the cedar chests of their honky-tonk minds.

The key to that lock can be as simple as the sound of a fiddle bow pulled across the strings. That soulful sound explodes into a song that invokes whoops, hollers and the rush of boots and jeans to the dance floor.

The phone lines have been burning up for weeks in the process of making plans for a Red Rug Reunion at the fairgrounds dance barn and Clay Mac's guaranteed good-time music.

Only briefly does any of the Red Rug alumni lament the toll that 20 years has taken on waistlines and backsides, hair color or ability to hang past midnight.

Wiser planning brought by inevitable maturity involves nearby motel reservations, designated drivers and subtle warnings to spouses that they could possibly meet a new side of their life-partner, if only briefly.

Probability is high that the recall of the good old days will be enhanced by differing stories and confusing memories.

Already the arguments have begun involving statements like, "No, that wasn't me, that was Sheila and it was at Cowboys, not at the Red Rug. Get your memories right, keep your bars straight and don't confuse my stories."

Yeeeee haw ... here comes the Red Rug gang.

‘Clunkers,’ a classic government folly

IN THE market for a used car? Good luck finding a bargain: The price of “pre-owned’’ vehicles has climbed considerably over the past year. According to Edmunds.com, a website for car buyers, a three-year-old automobile today will set you back, on average, close to $20,000 — a spike of more than 10 percent since last summer. For some popular models, the increase has been much steeper. In July, a used Cadillac Escalade was going for around $35,000, or nearly 36 percent over last July’s price. But an even bigger part of the answer is that the supply of used cars is artificially low, because your Uncle Sam decided last year to destroy hundreds of thousands of perfectly good automobiles as part of its hare-brained Car Allowance Rebate System — or, as most of us called it, Cash for Clunkers. That was the program under which the government paid consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in an old car and bought a new one with better gas mileage. The traded-in cars — which had to be in drivable condition to qualify for the rebate — were then demolished: Dealers were required to chemically wreck each car’s engine, and send the car to be crushed or shredded. Even on environmental grounds, Cash for Clunkers was an exorbitant dud. Researchers at the University of California-Davis calculated that the reduction of carbon dioxide attributable to the program cost no less than $237 per ton. In contrast, carbon emissions credits cost about $20 per ton in international markets...more

Los Payasos.

Lubbock man files federal gun suit

A Lubbock man is the plaintiff in a National Rifle Associationlawsuit claiming the federal ban on 18-to-20 year-olds buying handguns is unconstitutional. The suit claims the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms, doesn't specify that it only applies to those age 21 and over. James D'Cruz of Lubbock claims in his suit that he is trained in the proper use of handguns and believes thatif 18 year olds can vote and serve in the military, they should be able to buy a handgun from a registered dealer. Fox

Song Of The Day #403

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday morning is Jesus Help Me To Stand by Alison Krauss & Union Station.

The song is on her 14 track CD Every Time You Say Goodbye.

Obama - Federal zoning for oceans, rivers, bays, estuaries

As if the sputtering U.S. economy weren’t in enough trouble already, the Obama administration is cooking up a new scheme that will extend the heavy hand of Washington to somewhere it has never gone before. Unveiled with precious little fanfare on July 19 in the form of an Executive Order, the White House’s Ocean Policy Initiative will subject America’s waterways — oceans, rivers, bays, estuaries, and the Great Lakes — to federal zoning. Under the scheme, these areas would be managed according to the Orwellian-sounding notion of “coastal and marine spatial planning.” As an unnamed administration official told the Los Angeles Times: “This sets the nation on a path of much more comprehensive planning to both conservation and sustainable use of [ocean] resources.” An elaborate, multi-layered bureaucratic structure would oversee all of this. Nine regional commissions, composed of federal, state, and tribal officials, would decide which commercial and recreational activities are appropriate. Their recommendations, however, would have to be approved by a newly created National Ocean Council, which the White House says will “strengthen ocean governance and coordination.”...more

Alaska GOP Candidate Pledges to 'Take Power' -- and Land -- From Federal Government

Joe Miller, Alaska's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, says he came to the 49th state 16 years ago to slake his love for the outdoors, seeking opportunities to hunt and fish Alaska's abundant wildlands. The problem, says the Yale Law School graduate and Gulf War veteran, is that most of those lands remain in the tight grasp of the federal government, which has prevented the state from tapping its vast natural resource base. The answer, according to Miller, is for Alaska to take over management of those federal lands -- including national parks -- and seek responsible development of oil and gas, minerals and timber that could help wean the state off of its dependence on federal subsidies. "The resource base in this state is extraordinary," Miller recently told CBS's "Face the Nation." By handing lands over to Alaska, the federal government would take a huge step toward shrinking the national deficit by shifting the cost of managing those lands to state agencies, Miller said. Federal lands cover roughly two-thirds of the state, but generate virtually no mineral royalties from onshore production. Miller's calls echo the sentiment of the Sagebrush Rebellion that swept through parts of the West in the late 1970s after Congress adopted a new policy allowing land disposals only if it served the national interest. The rebellion took off in 1979 with the Nevada General Assembly's passage of a bill calling for state control of lands held by the Bureau of Land Management, but had largely petered out by the early 1980s. Miller has said there is no constitutional basis for the federal government to own lands in his state that, when combined, are larger than the state of Texas...more

U.S. not 'sovereign' over federal lands, Utah GOP Senate candidate says

An attorney seeking to replace Utah Sen. Robert Bennett (R) has pledged to push legislation to curb the Interior secretary's authority to cancel oil and gas leases and argued that the United States may only exercise sovereignty over federal lands with the consent of the state's Legislature. Republican Mike Lee, a week after narrowly defeating opponent Tim Bridgewater in the state's GOP primary, said he believes the Constitution grants Utah authority to use eminent domain to seize federal lands within its boundaries, a position that worries environmental groups working to protect national monuments and other sensitive lands in the state. Lee, a legal scholar and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito who served briefly as legal counsel under former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), said he would promote public land management policies in Congress that place a greater emphasis on extracting the vast amounts of mineral resources lying underneath his state. The 39-year-old lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney is considered an early favorite to defeat Democrat Sam Granato in the November general election. Utah has not elected a Democratic senator since 1970. "The so-called enclave clause of the Constitution gives Congress exclusive legislative jurisdiction over federal lands within state boundaries that have been acquired by Congress with the consent of the state," said Lee. "Unless such consent has been granted by a host state's Legislature, the federal government owns those lands not as a sole sovereign lawmaker but as more of a proprietor."...more

Idaho gives Salazar Oct. 7 deadline on wolf pact

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter says he'll negotiate until Oct. 7 with the federal government on a plan to manage wolves in his state. If no pact comes about, however, Otter says Idaho will no longer be designated agent for monitoring, providing law enforcement support or investigating wolf deaths. Otter delivered the ultimatum in person to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in Washington, D.C., this week. At their meeting, they discussed a U.S. District Court decision in August that restored federal protections to wolves in Idaho and Montana - over both of their objections. Otter says he pledged to continue working with federal agencies on a plan for Idaho to manage its roughly 850 wolves, including increased flexibility to kill them when they eat livestock or too many elk. He also wants the federal government to pay for state management efforts. AP

Alaska sues to halt US offshore drill moratorium in state

The state of Alaska filed suit Thursday in US District Court to overturn what it called a de-facto federal moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the state's Outer Continental Shelf. Governor Sean Parnell and state Attorney General Dan Sullivan said the Obama administration's decision to implement a ban on new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of BP's Macondo well blowout imposed a de facto moratorium on OCS drilling in Alaska. Such a move, they said, violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and other laws because Interior Secretary Ken Salazar did not consult with Parnell, or involve the state in the decision. "There was no notice, no consultation. We were never told that a moratorium would be coming," Parnell said in a press briefing. Salazar acknowledged during a visit last week to Anchorage that while Alaska was not included in the formal moratorium implemented after Macondo, an informal moratorium on the Arctic OCS was in effect because no approvals would be given on federal permits until safety reviews of deepwater drilling are complete...more

U.S. Government Loaned Mexican Government More Than $1 Billion to Drill Oil in Gulf of Mexico Last Year

The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency, loaned more than $1 billion to the Mexican state oil company PEMEX in 2009 to support the company’s oil drilling in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The bank has another $1 billion in loans in the pipeline for 2010, unless Congress objects. On May 27, after the British Petroleum oil spill, President Obama imposed a moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf, effecting 33 deepwater drilling rigs in the region. PEMEX was the Export-Import Bank’s largest borrower in 2009 and has borrowed $8.3 billion from the U.S. federal government since 1998. Under the 2009 loan agreements, PEMEX agreed to contract with American firms and purchase equipment from American manufacturers in exchange for the money...more

Forest Service Chief Mum on Why He Imposed Gag Order

The Chief of the U.S. Forest Service is wrongfully withholding documents explaining why he imposed a "gag order" forbidding all staff from responding to media inquiries without headquarters approval, according to a lawsuit filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The policy prevents timely release of crime, fire and accident reports, as well as adding weeks to the response time for even routine reporter inquiries. On August 25, 2009, Thomas L. Tidwell, Chief of the Forest Service, issued an order to his leadership directorate concerning "National Media Contacts" in which he forbade any employee from responding to "a member of the national media on any subject; or...a local or regional reporter seeking information about a national issue, including policy and budget issues" without prior clearance from the National Press Office (emphasis in original). In this memo, Chief Tidwell also stated that "I have received disturbing information concerning contacts by some employees with national media, without coordination" and cited the need for "consistent and coordinated messaging."...more

Some say the "wild" in wilderness will be lost if broad cellular service reaches the BWCA

Blackberries won't be just on the bushes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness if a giant cell phone tower gets built nearby. AT&T's proposal to build a 450-foot tower makes Minnesota's premier wilderness the latest to feel the pressure to extend the reach of cell phones to the great outdoors. Disputes have erupted from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to Acadia National Park in Maine about towers and their visual impact. But even outdoor lovers can feel torn between the desire to get away from it all and the need to call for help. "If one life could be saved by [better] cell phone coverage it would be worth it," said Carrie Cartier of Shoreview. "But I do not want to hear nine cell phones ringing across the bay from my campsite because a group of teens has to be able to keep in touch with all of their friends." AT&T proposes to build the tower on a ridge east of Ely, about 1.5 miles from the wilderness boundary...more

OHV clash: Monument river fence draws heated debate

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management faced strong local opposition Wednesday to its plan to fence off part of the Agua Fria River near Cordes Junction. While some in the packed audience supported the idea, numerous local residents said that part of the river is a popular place to drive their off-road vehicles and they don't want that to change. "We all ride down in the riverbed," local resident Jeff White said. "You guys are taking the main area we all go to hang out." He contended flash floods inflict more damage to the riverbed than off-road vehicles. BLM officials responded that federal laws and regulations give them no choice but to try to stop the illegal off-road vehicles from driving up and down the river on the Agua Fria National Monument in what they call the "River Bend" area. "You guys have got your minds made up, so why did you call us out here?" one audience member asked. More than 100 people crowded into the Cordes community center...more

The Founders on property rights, markets and money

In the Founding era, defenses of property rights proceeded along two main lines: justice and utility. The justice approach treats property as a fundamental right that it would be morally wrong to infringe, regardless of whether it served a useful purpose. The Continental Congress declared in 1774, for example, that “by the immutable laws of nature,” the people “are entitled to…property.” In the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), property is an “inherent” right. Massachusetts (1780) called it a right “natural, essential, and unalienable.” Four other states used similar language.[6] Viewed in this way, to deprive someone of his property is to violate a right—to commit an injustice. The Founders’ argument from justice rests ultimately on the claim that “all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights,” one of which is “the means of acquiring and possessing property.”[8] All six of these early state declarations of rights use almost the same language. In this understanding, all are born free; that is, they own their own minds and bodies. Since all are free, all may freely use their talents to acquire property and to keep or use the property they acquire. For individuals or government to forcibly prevent someone from acquiring property, or to use coercion to transfer property from one person to another, deprives that person of the fruits of his labor. It is a violation of his liberty as well as his property. From the point of view of justice, deprivation of property rights is immoral. Property rights were also understood and defended in terms of their usefulness to life and society, independently of the question of justice...more

Unfortunately, the U.S. now ranks 40th in the world when it comes to recognizing property rights according to the World Economic Forum.

Christo vs. Colorado

Known professionally by his first name, Christo is famous for draping entire buildings, valleys and New York's Central Park in colorful fabric. Now, at age 75, he's trying to convince a swath of southern Colorado to let him temporarily suspend flat sections of silvery fabric over a 42-mile-long stretch of the area's Arkansas River. For two weeks, people will be able to drive alongside this mirror-like ribbon or raft underneath it, he says. He has spent $7 million and 18 years working out the logistics of the project, "Over The River," and he is campaigning hard for the permits to pull it off. Christo is a hot topic in the region: Admirers are eager for the global attention and tourism dollars the artwork could draw in; detractors worry such a circus could clog traffic, disrupt the river and spook wildlife. The main opposition group, Rags Over The Arkansas River, calls Christo an eco-terrorist. Last month, the federal Bureau of Land Management held a weeklong series of hearings in a few towns along the river's edge in Colorado so that locals could debate the project's potential impact on the environment...more

Mandate on light bulbs closes last American factory

The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s. The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs. What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs. The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences. Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China...more

Watch For It - The Mexican Incandescent Light Bulb Cartel

So says William Jacobson. See my previous post.

Song Of The Day #402

Ranch Radio is in the mood for some early Merle, so here is Haggard's 1964 recording of Sam Hill.

Border problems putting the United States at risk

Imagine the federal government closing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Black Hills National Park or Yellowstone due to the presence of drug and human smugglers. By the way, the parks would be closed indefinitely because the drug cartels and human smugglers are so dangerous and prolific that the entire law enforcement community cannot stop them. Sounds outrageous, doesn’t it? Like something out of a fictional movie, maybe? Impossible scenario on US soil, right? This exact scenario is reality in entire sections of southern Arizona, where parts of five federal lands – including two designated national monuments – are posted with travel warnings or are outright closed to Americans who own the land because of the dangers of “human smugglers and drug trafficking” along the Mexican border. Federal land managers have placed some 48 signs throughout southern Arizona warning American citizens and property owners of the danger of entering selected areas due to illegal immigration traffic, armed drug runners and human smugglers. Since 2001 the bodies of over 1,750 men, women and children have been found in Arizona’s southern mountains and desert. Although the arrests of illegals have declined, immigrant deaths are increasing. In July 2010, Pinal County alone recorded 59 suspected deaths of individuals trying to cross the desert from Mexico. In March 2010 Arizona’s controversial 1070 legislation was sparked for passage when Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was murdered by a suspected illegal alien crossing his ranch. Warning signs have been posted at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Coronado National Forest, which covers nearly 1.8 million acres in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Dennis Godfrey, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management’s Arizona office, said roughly a dozen signs were posted in early June 2010 along the Sonora Desert National Monument advising that travel in the area is not recommended due to “active drug and human” smuggling. The signs are not far from where a Pinal County deputy was shot and wounded during a confrontation with marijuana smugglers in April and the fatal shooting of two men suspected to be drug smugglers...more

Illegal alien invasion impacts wildlife, hunters

One of the things that we as sportsmen should look at is the impact on wildlife and outdoor recreation, including hunting, that is affected by the constant flow of illegal aliens into Arizona. I, for one, have quit even applying for any big-game tags down south, as I have no desire to deal with illegal aliens and human smugglers sneaking into the country. Then there are the drug smugglers. Those folks are well armed most of the time, and as we have seen recently, they have no qualms about shooting anyone including ranchers and law enforcement officers who try and interrupt their illicit business. This isn't a new problem. It's been going on for some time now and has caused some real problems for wildlife and sportsmen. Besides displacing wildlife from the historical places where they live, the illegals and drug smugglers also bring in tons and tons of trash, which they leave in the desert. Drop sites all over Arizona have produced thousands of pounds of discarded clothes, water bottles, backpacks, food and other items. It has gotten so bad that one group of Southern Arizona sportsmen do annual cleanups of the major drop sites. The Arizona Game and Fish Commission passed a rule that now allows archers to carry handguns on their archery hunts. Why? For protection against illegal aliens, drug and human smugglers mainly in Southern Arizona. Nothing like running into some bad guys when all you have is a sharp-pointed stick, right? We as citizens and sportsmen in Arizona ought to be outraged at what is going on in our state...more

McCain Rips Into Feds Over Border

The federal government has failed to secure its border with Mexico, and that means local police and deputies have to pick up the slack, Sen. John McCain told a group of border state sheriffs meeting here Wednesday. The Arizona Republican took some direct shots at President Barack Obama, who defeated McCain in the 2008 presidential election. In particular, he singled out the administration's opposition to Arizona's controversial immigration law. "If the federal government had carried out its responsibility, the state of Arizona wouldn't have felt compelled to (pass the law)," he said. McCain spent the first few minutes of his speech talking about the murder of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz, who was killed in March while checking on water lines on his ranch near the Arizona/Mexico border. Authorities believe Krentz was killed by a drug smuggler. "Nobody would consider this being a border that is under control," he said. The people of southern Arizona, McCain said, feel like they live in a "no-man's land."...more

Let's see Senator, you blast the feds for not securing the border, while voting for Bingaman's S. 1689 which would designate a quarter of a million acres on or near the border as wilderness? You accuse the feds of not carrying out their responsibility while at the same supporting legislation that would tie their hands behind their back? What a pile of b.s.

And how do you propose to bring further security to the border? The same Albq. Journal article states:

Event organizer Jim Burleson said McCain was invited because members of the coalition wanted to learn more about a recently passed bill that appropriates $600 million for border security. In an interview with local media, McCain said the bill will also help battle any dangers associated with the drug war in Mexico. "I think it's helpful, it's just not enough," McCain said. He said he planned on introducing new legislation that would appropriate even more money.

Your plan appears to be: a) appropriate more money to hire more border patrol and give them better equipment, and b) designate more land along the border where they are prohibited from patrolling and can't use modern equipment.

In other words, your plan is pure, unadulterated b.s.

Expect the USDA inspectors in your office tomorrow.

After 20 years of protection, owl is declining but forests remain

Twenty years after northern spotted owls were protected under the Endangered Species Act, their numbers continue to decline, and scientists aren't certain whether the birds will survive even though logging was banned on much of the old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest where they live in order to save them. The owl remains an iconic symbol in a region where once loggers in steel-spiked, high-topped caulk boots felled 200-year-old or even older trees and loaded them on trucks that compression-braked down twisty mountain roads to mills redolent with the smell of fresh sawdust and smoke from burning timber scraps. Regionwide, the owl populations are dropping 2.9 percent a year. In Washington state, they're declining at 6 to 7 percent a year. While that may seem like a small number, it adds up, said Eric Forsman, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Ore., who's studied the owl since 1968. "Nothing we do seems to work for the spotted owl," Forsman said...more

GAO will probe Forest Service's handling of Station fire

Acting on a request by California lawmakers, the investigative arm of Congress has agreed to conduct a broad inquiry into the U.S. Forest Service's handling of last year's devastating Station fire, officials said Wednesday. The state's two U.S. senators and several House members last month urged the Government Accountability Office to examine the Forest Service's decisions and tactics in the fire fight, including its use of aircraft and whether enough was done to protect homes that burned in Big Tujunga Canyon. In addition, a U.S. inspector general is investigating the Forest Service's failure to release recordings of telephone dispatch calls to a federal review team and the public. The Times sought the recordings last year and again this year under the Freedom of Information Act, but Forest Service officials said they did not exist. The inspector general's probe could lead to criminal charges, depending on its findings. The Station fire was the largest in Los Angeles County history, burning 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest and destroying scores of homes and other structures. Two county firefighters were killed while defending their camp on Mt. Gleason. The Times reported that the Forest Service misjudged the threat posed by the fire at the end of Day 1, scaled back its attack that evening and did not fill its own commander's order for a heavy aerial assault shortly after sunup the following morning. The lawmakers asked the GAO to investigate all those matters...more

Interior Department: Oil Regulators Overworked, Undertrained

The U.S. government's top regulator for offshore oil and gas drilling rarely conducts surprise inspections, routinely fails to follow up on noncompliance violations and has not adequately trained its work force, according to a new report from the U.S. Interior Department. The 37-page report, released Wednesday by the department's Outer Continental Shelf Safety Oversight Board, provides a bare-bones look at a group of regulators who are often overworked and undertrained and yet are charged with approving multibillion-dollar drilling projects and enforcing safety and environmental rules. Bromwich said in the conference call with reporters that his bureau had already begun tackling some of the problems identified in the report, calling the findings "relevant and extremely timely." The report takes a particularly close look at the permitting process, in which government staff are plagued by an increasingly large workload...more

I guess the new name wasn't enough.

GOP House Candidate Opposes Grasslands Wilderness

Republican congressional candidate Kristi Noem said Wednesday she opposes a bill that would designate a part of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in southwestern South Dakota as a wilderness area. The designation could reduce or eliminate cattle grazing by ranchers who lease the land, and it could interfere with control of forest fires, prairie dogs and noxious weeds in the area, Noem said. "I believe this federal land grab is a solution in search of a problem," Noem said in a written statement. "Multiple use management of these lands has been successful. We should continue what has worked in order to preserve and protect these lands and to ensure these lands are available to be enjoyed by the public." South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson, who sponsored the bill to designate the land as a wilderness area, said Noem is spreading false information about his proposal. The Democrat said his proposal would provide stronger protection of grazing and give the U.S. Forest Service, which already manages the land, tools to deal with fire, invasive weeds and prairie dogs. Noem's opponent, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, has not taken a public position on the wilderness bill...more

DeFazio questions use of foreign workers on forest-thinning projects

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio says he wants a federal agency to scrutinize companies that employ foreign workers on Oregon tree-thinning projects financed by federal stimulus funds. DeFazio sent a letter last week to the Department of Labor's acting inspector general, Daniel Petrole, asking him to investigate. The Springfield Democrat said foreign workers should not be hired at the expense of qualified Oregonians. Last month, The Bulletin newspaper in Bend reported that several companies awarded U.S. Forest Service contracts funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act filed applications to use foreign workers. Four companies that sought permission to employ 300 foreign workers in Oregon received a total of $10 million to thin forests. Under the temporary worker program administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the Department of Homeland Security, employers must report that there aren't enough U.S. workers available...more

Sheep shot with arrow in Volusia County, deputies say

A sheep was found dead in a pasture in Volusia County on Tuesday with an arrow stuck in its back, deputies said. Investigators were called to a ranch on Lake Winona Road in DeLeon Springs, after a rancher reported finding the sheep lying dead under a tree in the pasture. Deputies said the sheep had a black arrow stuck in its back near its shoulder. The rancher said he'd last seen the herd of sheep at about 1 p.m. the day before...more

87th annual Zozobra: The lives and deaths of a beloved bogeyman

Born in 1924, he has suffered a fiery demise every year since and remains Santa Fe's equivalent of the bogeyman. A large crowd is expected today to celebrate the 86th birthday (and death) of Zozobra, aka Old Man Gloom, as the Santa Fe Kiwanis presents his annual burning at Fort Marcy Park. The late artist Will Shuster (1893-1969) is credited with giving birth to Zozobra back in 1924, although former New Mexican editor E. Dana Johnson is reportedly the one who named him. For the first two years, the effigy was known as Old Man Groucher. Though he's put on weight and grown some over the years — he was 18 feet tall in 1924; now he's close to 50 feet — not much has changed with Zozobra, whose conflagration precedes the Fiesta de Santa Fe weekend. Zozobra originally burned in an open field somewhere between what is now the Main Library and the current offices of The Santa Fe Reporter, Sena said. There was a fire station nearby at the old City Hall, which reassured everyone. Zozobra moved to Fort Marcy in either 1939 or 1940. Accounts vary, though Shuster, in a 1964 interview, said it was December 1940, because he recalled that it was snowing, and film star Errol Flynn torched the marionette...more

Gunslinging? It's a gal thing

When Judy Rhodes founded a group more than a decade ago to encourage women to shoot and hunt, her own outsize personal ity guaranteed that members would be a force to be reckoned with in the outdoors. The group - DIVA . . . Women Outdoors Worldwide, or DIVA WOW - now counts more than 1,500 members around the world. Rhodes, the daughter of a Texas rancher who learned how to handle a BB gun at age 4, said that about half of the women who join also have strong outdoors backgrounds, while the other half haven't picked up a gun before. "That was just second nature to me to see a shotgun or a rifle in the gun rack," said Rhodes, a feisty blonde with a Southern accent. "Whenever something slithers, crawls or hops, you've got to pop it." The group offers clinics and seminars in fishing, archery, dog training, and how to handle handguns, shotguns and even an AR-15. They also organize hunts all over the world. Statistics from the National Sporting Goods Association show that the number of women hunting and shooting has been on the rise. According to the latest statistics, women hunting with firearms have increased from about 2.7 million in 2000 to about 3 million last year, and the number target shooting reached about 4.7 million...more

N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame earns national honor

The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame will be honored Thursday as the western museum of the year for 2010. The award, among the group’s American Cowboy Culture Awards, will be presented in Lubbock, Texas, at the 22nd annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration. Darrell Dorgan, executive director for the hall of fame, and Phil Baird, president, will be among North Dakota representatives on hand at the event. Dorgan said the nomination was somewhat of a surprise, coming from a visitor to the hall of fame’s center in Medora while researching a cattle trail running from Texas through Medora. “It’s one of those nice things that just happens,” Dorgan said. The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame joins an impressive list of past recipients of the award including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. “This is a pretty healthy honor,” Dorgan said. “This puts us in a different league.” Dorgan said the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame differs from others in that displays and exhibits featured there are dedicated to telling the story and history of the state. “We tell the story of the plains horse culture,” he said, whether it relates to cowboys, American Indians, ranchers or former presidents of the United States...more

Song Of The Day #401

Yesterday I posted Creator of TV western "Bonanza" dead at 93 and a commentor wrote:

In tribute, might I suggest that you offer as "Song of the Day" Lorne Greene singing the theme song from Bonanza. On second thought, it would probably cause your readership to plummet.

I thought this was a great idea, and agree about Greene's singing. So instead here is Al Caiola playing the theme from Bonanza. It turns out that in 1963 both Faron Young and Johnny Cash recorded versions of the song with lyrics. I prefer Cash's version so offer it here also.

Ranch Radio doesn't want to offend any Lorne Greene fans so the third selection is his 1964 recording of Ringo which I liked and was a minor hit.