NEWS ROUNDUP
State agency proposes paying compensation due to wolf kills State wildlife officials are beginning to work out the details for a program that would pay ranchers for livestock lost to wolves, the first such program in Montana. How the program would work, and how much it would cost, are unknown at this time, said Chris Smith, chief of staff for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. However, officials are hoping to improve on similar programs in other states and Canadian provinces and on the existing program in Montana, which is funded voluntarily by the environmental group, Defenders of Wildlife....
Hage Case to Go To Judge For Judgement Wayne Hage, a Tonopah, Nevada rancher reported at the last Nevada Live Stock Association’s (NLSA) Directors’ meeting on December 10, 2004 that his case is now squarely before Judge Loren Smith of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Judge Smith, at the completion of closing arguments in Reno, Nevada in October of this year, had strongly urged the parties to enter into settlement discussions. At the NLSA meeting, Wayne Hage and his wife, NLSA Chairman, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who was conducting the meeting, received confirmation from their attorneys in San Francisco that settlement was impossible; the two parties were too far apart. Chairman Chenoweth-Hage told the directors and others present that many people had been contacting them asking them not to settle, to “please take this case to completion.” Now that will be possible....
Enviros sue over bull trout habitat Two Montana environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's decision to cut habitat protection for bull trout by 90 percent. They contend the administration relied on uncertain local protections, ignored economic benefits of restoring fish, and did not consider the best science. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan, two Montana environmental groups filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. It seeks an injunction to compel Fish and Wildlife to designate adequate habitat for bull trout, allowing the bull trout to be removed from threatened and endangered species lists. This is the latest development in a continuing fight between environmental groups and the Bush administration over enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, particularly the provision that calls for earmarking habitat critical to getting a species off the threatened or endangered species lists....
Decision by federal court holds up growth rule Even though the Bush administration last Friday reissued a rule that is key to western Riverside County's growth plan, officials said this week the county's plan cannot yet count on the controversial "no surprises" rule. That rule gives a blanket assurance to the county and developers that they will face no further requirements once they have a federally approved plan to set up a reserve system to protect endangered species. The rule's aim is to speed up development outside the reserves with fewer environmental restrictions. But earlier this year, a federal judge sided with environmental groups and blocked the no-surprises rule, saying it lacked adequate public comment, just as the county was getting federal approval for its plan....
Grizzly arguments take shape Conservationists Wednesday criticized a U.S. Forest Service proposal outlining habitat criteria for grizzly bears, saying the agency's preferred plan doesn't go far enough. At the same time, county commissioners in Fremont County passed a second resolution saying bears are not wanted in their area, even though the northwest part of the county is known habitat for the bear. Commissioners in Sublette County are expected to pass a similar resolution next week....
Environmental group petitions to protect shovel-nose snake An environmental group on Wednesday petitioned federal wildlife officials for protection of the Tucson Shovel-nosed snake. Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has one year to determine whether the snake is eligible to be listed as threatened or endangered. The Center for Biological Diversity and Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection contend the snake's population has been driven into decline by urban sprawl and agriculture....
Drilling Fears Not Addressed, Groups Say Federal biologists had concerns about protections for wildlife and plant habitat on Otero Mesa early in the planning for oil and gas drilling there. Environmental groups now charge that many of those concerns were never addressed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in its plan to expand resource development in the southern New Mexico area. The BLM insists that the concerns were taken into consideration and that adequate protections have been incorporated in the proposed plan. Handwritten notes, taken by Fish and Wildlife Service biologists during meetings with the BLM, were obtained by Earthjustice and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance through a Freedom of Information Act request. "The Fish and Wildlife Service had serious questions with the BLM and the BLM ignored their inquiries as they ignored our inquiries," said wilderness alliance Executive Director Stephen Capra....
Wyoming joins suit against ban on snowmobiles The state of Wyoming has joined a tourism group's lawsuit that challenges National Park Service snowmobile rules in Yellowstone National Park. The lawsuit, originally filed last month by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association in U.S. District Court, seeks to loosen restrictions that limit the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone and nearby Grand Teton National Park. The Park Service has issued temporary rules that restrict the number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone to 720 a day and would require all recreational snowmobile users in the park to travel with a commercial guide. The rules allow 140 snowmobiles, with no guiding requirement, in Grand Teton and on the parkway connecting the two parks....
Leadership puts Eberts ranch buy on fast track Money to buy the Eberts ranch in the Badlands for a first-ever state preserve could be one of the first items taken up by the Legislature in January. Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, said he'll try to fast-track a bill to appropriate the state's share of the $3.5 million purchase. Stenehjem said it's possible the bill could be heard in committee by Jan. 7, the opening week of the 2005 session....
Loads of 'history' on D.C. to-do list The 108th Congress has turned out the lights for the year with some important business left undone. No, we're not talking about intelligence reforms, federal finances or the like; lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill to take care of those issues. Rather, left in Congress' "to do" stack was a massive package of bills, passed by the Senate but ignored by the House, that would designate a potpourri of national historic sites, trails, districts, heritage areas, wilderness and even boundary adjustments for national parks. Most, if not all, will be reintroduced next year....
Column: Green bigots international First they destroyed the gasoline station, so that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies more than 2 million people with water. No, these are not al-Qaeda terrorists. These are our own home-grown fanatics -- and the places mentioned are all in Yosemite National Park. They call themselves environmentalists but a more accurate term would be green bigots. What makes someone a bigot is that he wishes to deny other people the same rights he has. That is the hallmark of the environmental zealot....
Column: The Prophets, False Prophets, and Profiteers of Kyoto Actual satellite and weather balloon data – as well as historic and geologic records of numerous warming and cooling cycles – contradict computer models, theories and assertions that humans are causing disastrous weather events and climate shifts. Arctic temperatures were even higher in the 1930s, before cooling again for several decades. Science’s editors didn’t mention countless studies that analyze natural warming and cooling cycles – or the fact that 18,000 scientists have signed a petition saying they see “no convincing scientific evidence” that humans are disrupting the earth’s climate. All the countries in the world together are responsible for less than 3% of the Earth’s total greenhouse gas emissions (the rest are natural), and the U.S. emits only 1/5 of this. The Kyoto treaty would force the U.S. to slash emissions and fossil fuel use by some 25% over the next decade – an impossible task that would cost millions of jobs and over $300 billion annually, according to government and other studies....
Kyoto format should be ditched if US, China, India remain outside: Italy The Kyoto Treaty may have to die a natural death after 2012 and be replaced by bilateral deals if the United States and big developing countries refuse to make specific promises about curbing greenhouse-gas pollution, Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli was quoted on Wednesday as saying. In its present format, the UN's climate-change pact is opposed by the United States, the world's biggest carbon polluter, and it does not require fast-growing developing countries like China and India to make targeted cuts in their emissions....
Mistletoe: It's not just for kissing Mistletoe - the white-berried and green-leafed cluster commonly found hanging above doorways during the holidays - is part of a fairly old kissing ritual for people, but it's also important in other ways. Mistletoe provides essential food, cover and nesting sites for an amazing number of critters in the United States and elsewhere, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In fact, USGS researcher Rob Bennetts said, some animals couldn't even survive without mistletoe, including some birds, butterflies, and insects....
Water war begins to brew "In California, whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting over," said Jim Edmondson of California Trout. In the Eastern Sierra, they're ready to rumble. The fight is over whether water from Mammoth Creek should be irrigating golf courses and flushing toilets in new $1 million condominiums in the ski town or be left in streams to sustain wild trout. CalTrout, an anglers' conservation group that works to protect and restore the state's wild trout and steelhead, said this amounts to a water grab that will seriously hurt the area's prime fishing streams....
Big farms found to get most water subsidies California's corporate farms are guzzling a disproportionate share of subsidized federal water, a new study concludes. The report by the Environmental Working Group analyzed federal and state records from 2002 to compile a list of the top recipients of subsidized agricultural water from the Central Valley Project, the huge federal water delivery system that supplies roughly one-fifth of the state's domestic and irrigation water - about 7 million acre feet annually. About 6,800 farms use project water, accounting for about 2.7 million acre feet of the deliveries. Central Valley farmers typically pay a fraction of the cost south state urbanites pay for the federal water....
Nevada study looks at paying California to desalinate water Nevada doesn't have an ocean, but it has money and a thriving thirsty city where officials are beginning to consider paying Southern California to convert salt water to fresh water. The idea would be to seek in return some of California's allocation of water from the Colorado River, said McClain Peterson, a Colorado River Commission of Nevada natural resources manager. Peterson presented what he called a first-ever comparative analysis of such a dollars-for-water trade to a conference that ended Tuesday at the Caesars Palace hotel-casino....
New Rawhide is movin' out to Wild Horse Pass Casino The Gila River Indian Community has lured Rawhide Western Town & Steakhouse, the faux-1880s cow town, which is closing its Scottsdale home of 33 years. Details are scheduled to be disclosed this morning at a news conference near the Wild Horse Pass Casino, said Gary Bohnee, spokesman for the community. The new Rawhide will be north of the casino and will include a new Native American village. "We'll almost rewrite history," said Letha Lamb, board member of the Wild Horse Pass Development Authority, about locating a cowboy town in an Indian community....
Bin Laden's horse survives at modest stables The horse Osama bin Laden used to ride now lives in the run-down stables of a colonial-era racetrack on the edge of Khartoum. Her name is Swift Like the Wind, but a more appropriate one might be Victim of Circumstance. At 12, she's too old to race. Last year she almost starved to death. Now she spends her days in a small caged area, next to a grimy pool of water turtles. There was a time when the spirited white mare, dusted with gray spots, was one of a dozen prized horses that galloped in glory along the dusty stretch of track. In bin Laden's heyday here, as a wealthy exile in the mid-1990s, Swift ran in Sudan's most prestigious races....
El Último Vaquero Habla Español (The Last Cowboy Speaks Spanish) When René Alberto Vera Reyes got on a bus to come to the United States, he was 21 years old. He left the village of Cochrane—in Chilean Patagonia, population 2,000—in April 1999, carrying only a duffel bag that contained two pairs of pants, a pair of riding boots, a couple of shirts, a wool poncho, an awl, and several yards of horsehide pita, thin strips used to weave bridles and bullwhips. What he wanted, though, was to be an American cowboy. He wanted to wear a big belt buckle and Wrangler jeans, and to make enough money to trade his horse for a pickup and to buy land someday back in Chile. To get these things, he'd signed a three-year contract with the Western Range Association, a 200-member Citrus Heights, California–based consortium of sheep ranchers that imports hundreds of South Americans a year to work on ranches all over the West....
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
State releases plan for prairie dogs South Dakota officials have released a prairie-dog management plan that calls for the state to poison prairie dogs encroaching from federal land onto nearby private land, just as it did this summer and fall. The plan also would require landowners to poison prairie dogs on their property if the rodents are moving onto a neighbor's land. But it also would stop poisoning if the prairie-dog population drops below a threshold level....
State Police to enforce local forest closure laws An agreement reached between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Forest Service officials will improve enforcement of laws intended to protect wildlife and watersheds from unauthorized motor vehicle use. The agreement, signed this month, will allow the Oregon State Police, in cooperation with the Forest Service and ODFW, to cite road closure violators within the Metolius Basin mule deer winter range on the Crooked River National Grassland and the South Boundary Road Closure Area of the Lookout Mountain Ranger District. It also allows officers to enter and patrol the areas....
Conservation groups push for more snowmobile restrictions Conservation groups, which say snowmobilers are harming caribou in both the United States and Canada, have pledged to fight for greater recreation restrictions on both sides of the border. Representatives from groups in the two countries met Monday in Spokane, Wash., with state, federal and provincial scientists to discuss caribou recovery efforts. Mark Sprengel, executive director of the Priest Lake, Idaho-based Selkirk Conservation Alliance, said protecting old growth forest remains the best hope for caribou's long-term survival. But Sprengel said action is needed now to safeguard the shy animals from snowmobiles penetrating deep into the backcountry....
Editorial: Better, not weaker, is key to reform The act sometimes seems to protect bureaucracy more than species. It relies far too much on sticks and far too little on carrots to encourage compliance. It sometimes asks individuals to bear too much of the cost or sacrifice needed to serve public interests. It puts too much emphasis on process and not nearly enough on results. But few of the would-be reformers bother to feign interest in saving more species, much less manage to convey a sincere desire to make the popular but underperforming law work better. Reformers will gain traction in their efforts when they abandon the hopeless cause of persuading Americans to agree that property rights must always trump mankind's moral obligation to husband Creation....
Agencies at odds over river permit One federal agency has asked another to deny permission for a large riprap and diversion-barb project proposed for the Yellowstone River east of Big Timber. If completed, the 500 feet of riprap and 10 barbs, each of which would extend 40 feet into the river along a 1,500-foot reach, would have big impacts on the river and on the fish and wildlife that depend on it, according R. Mark Wilson, field supervisor in Helena for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service....
Mormon cricket control strategy in the works Traveling at 15 miles a year, an infestation of Mormon crickets could reach Susanville in three years and county, state and federal officials are working to slow them down. Regional ecologist Don Armentrout, of the Susanville Bureau of Land Management office, agreed on Thursday, Dec. 2 to sit down with county and federal agriculture officials and start work on a strategy. The idea is to control the infestation that may reach 250,000 insects in the Honey Lake area in the summer of 2005. Armentrout said the strategy must follow the bureau direction to not do anything to increase chances the sage grouse will be listed as an endangered species....
Fish and Wildlife Service estimates costs of conserving the endangered Lane Mountain milk vetch The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft analysis that estimates costs associated with the conservation of Lane Mountain milk-vetch (Astragalus jaegerianus), a plant found in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County. Between 1998 - when the milk-vetch was listed as an endangered species - and the final critical habitat designation in 2005, costs for the conservation of the species are estimated between $1.6 million and $2 million. From 2005 to 2025, costs for the species' conservation are estimated between $5.8 million and $13 million. The Service proposed 29,522 acres as critical habitat for the Lane Mountain milk-vetch in April of this year in response to a lawsuit filed against the Service by the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society....
Tribes, state to sign Bison Range deal today The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will sign a controversial and quite likely precedent-setting agreement Wednesday, allowing the tribal government to take over important management functions at the National Bison Range Complex on the Flathead Reservation. The tribes will be reimbursed for their work by the federal government, with the money taken out of the Fish and Wildlife Service budget for the Bison Range. Both governments say the consequences to taxpayers will be negligible. The agreement will automatically take effect in 90 days unless Congress intervenes....
Off-roaders win one, lose one in disputes over trail use An off-road vehicle advocacy group has won one and lost one in an ongoing battle to maintain motorized access on Utah public lands. The Utah Shared Access Alliance, a coalition of off-highway vehicle (OHV) organizations, filed suit earlier this year to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's decision to close 23 miles of trails in Uinta National Forest, and declared victory Tuesday following the agency's recent decision to reopen most of those trails. But the OHV advocates also suffered a setback Tuesday when a federal judge rejected their complaint against the Bureau of Land Management over off-road restrictions on public land in northern Box Elder County....
TNC buys Pahsimeroi ranch
A 1,800-acre ranch acquired by The Nature Conservancy-Idaho this month includes roughly 40 percent of the active wild salmon spawning habitat in the Pahsimeroi Valley, but the non-profit organization doesn't plan to hold on to the ranch for long. As part of its acquisition blueprint, the conservancy will transfer river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. This portion of the property, which will amount to approximately 200 acres, will be managed as a public fishing, hunting and recreation area. The remainder of the property will be saddled with conservation easements to protect wildlife habitat, ranching characteristics and in-stream water flows, and then sold to local ranchers....
BLM official says some plans for Roan Plateau would hurt recreation Recreation would be ''dramatically reduced'' on western Colorado's Roan Plateau under two possible plans for energy development, a government official says. Greg Goodenow, planning and environmental coordinator in the Glenwood Springs office of the Bureau of Land Management, said the loss of undeveloped areas would be caused in part by natural gas-related activities. Goodenow made the comment on Monday during a public meeting to discuss the draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the 73,602-acre area west of Rifle. The plan includes several options; he said two would hit backcountry recreation hard....
Scientists Warn of Global Warming Results Scientists warned Tuesday that a long-term increase in global temperature of 3.5 degrees could threaten Latin American water supplies, reduce food yields in Asia and result in a rise in extreme weather conditions in the Caribbean. The warnings came in a report by a group of European scientists on the sidelines of an annual U.N. conference on climate change....
Water Contract Renewals Stir Debate Between Environmentalists and Farmers in California The time has come for thousands of farmers in California to renew their water contracts with the federally run Central Valley Project, the country's largest irrigation system and for many years a major source of friction between the state's powerful agricultural and environmental interests. The farms served by the Central Valley Project cover nearly 4,700 square miles and get about 20 percent of California's water supply. That has made the new contracts, some for 25 years and some for 40 years with options to renew, the center of a debate over how much water in the state should be dedicated to growing crops and at what price. When construction of the Central Water Project began in 1937, the idea was to protect the state's farmland from water shortages and floods and provide cheap water for family farmers. But as the state has grown in population, there has been a growing push by cities and environmentalists to break the farmers' grip on the water, or at least make them pay more for it....
Mad cow feed still a problem, Cantwell says A year after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was reported, Sen. Maria Cantwell says the Food and Drug Administration still has not fulfilled its promise to tighten animal feed rules to help prevent future cases. "The beef industry and other federal agencies have worked overtime to restore confidence in the world's safest beef supply, but the FDA has failed to act on its promise to close loopholes in the mad cow feed ban," Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a news release yesterday. Last January, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced new FDA proposals to close loopholes that allow cattle to be fed such things as cow blood, restaurant scraps and chicken litter....
"How Cold WAS It?" How cold was it on that December morning 23 years ago at Lamar Ranch in Terrell, Texas? It was cold. At zero degrees with a 30 mile-an-hour wind out of the north, I, along with my crew of four cowboys, couldn’t seem to get on enough clothes to get warm. I know some of you gentle readers are sayin’ to yourself, “Heck, that ain’t cold, Mad Jack, I remember the time it was 40 below and I was stripped down to my underwear tryin’ to pull a calf.”....
State releases plan for prairie dogs South Dakota officials have released a prairie-dog management plan that calls for the state to poison prairie dogs encroaching from federal land onto nearby private land, just as it did this summer and fall. The plan also would require landowners to poison prairie dogs on their property if the rodents are moving onto a neighbor's land. But it also would stop poisoning if the prairie-dog population drops below a threshold level....
State Police to enforce local forest closure laws An agreement reached between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Forest Service officials will improve enforcement of laws intended to protect wildlife and watersheds from unauthorized motor vehicle use. The agreement, signed this month, will allow the Oregon State Police, in cooperation with the Forest Service and ODFW, to cite road closure violators within the Metolius Basin mule deer winter range on the Crooked River National Grassland and the South Boundary Road Closure Area of the Lookout Mountain Ranger District. It also allows officers to enter and patrol the areas....
Conservation groups push for more snowmobile restrictions Conservation groups, which say snowmobilers are harming caribou in both the United States and Canada, have pledged to fight for greater recreation restrictions on both sides of the border. Representatives from groups in the two countries met Monday in Spokane, Wash., with state, federal and provincial scientists to discuss caribou recovery efforts. Mark Sprengel, executive director of the Priest Lake, Idaho-based Selkirk Conservation Alliance, said protecting old growth forest remains the best hope for caribou's long-term survival. But Sprengel said action is needed now to safeguard the shy animals from snowmobiles penetrating deep into the backcountry....
Editorial: Better, not weaker, is key to reform The act sometimes seems to protect bureaucracy more than species. It relies far too much on sticks and far too little on carrots to encourage compliance. It sometimes asks individuals to bear too much of the cost or sacrifice needed to serve public interests. It puts too much emphasis on process and not nearly enough on results. But few of the would-be reformers bother to feign interest in saving more species, much less manage to convey a sincere desire to make the popular but underperforming law work better. Reformers will gain traction in their efforts when they abandon the hopeless cause of persuading Americans to agree that property rights must always trump mankind's moral obligation to husband Creation....
Agencies at odds over river permit One federal agency has asked another to deny permission for a large riprap and diversion-barb project proposed for the Yellowstone River east of Big Timber. If completed, the 500 feet of riprap and 10 barbs, each of which would extend 40 feet into the river along a 1,500-foot reach, would have big impacts on the river and on the fish and wildlife that depend on it, according R. Mark Wilson, field supervisor in Helena for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service....
Mormon cricket control strategy in the works Traveling at 15 miles a year, an infestation of Mormon crickets could reach Susanville in three years and county, state and federal officials are working to slow them down. Regional ecologist Don Armentrout, of the Susanville Bureau of Land Management office, agreed on Thursday, Dec. 2 to sit down with county and federal agriculture officials and start work on a strategy. The idea is to control the infestation that may reach 250,000 insects in the Honey Lake area in the summer of 2005. Armentrout said the strategy must follow the bureau direction to not do anything to increase chances the sage grouse will be listed as an endangered species....
Fish and Wildlife Service estimates costs of conserving the endangered Lane Mountain milk vetch The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft analysis that estimates costs associated with the conservation of Lane Mountain milk-vetch (Astragalus jaegerianus), a plant found in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County. Between 1998 - when the milk-vetch was listed as an endangered species - and the final critical habitat designation in 2005, costs for the conservation of the species are estimated between $1.6 million and $2 million. From 2005 to 2025, costs for the species' conservation are estimated between $5.8 million and $13 million. The Service proposed 29,522 acres as critical habitat for the Lane Mountain milk-vetch in April of this year in response to a lawsuit filed against the Service by the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society....
Tribes, state to sign Bison Range deal today The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will sign a controversial and quite likely precedent-setting agreement Wednesday, allowing the tribal government to take over important management functions at the National Bison Range Complex on the Flathead Reservation. The tribes will be reimbursed for their work by the federal government, with the money taken out of the Fish and Wildlife Service budget for the Bison Range. Both governments say the consequences to taxpayers will be negligible. The agreement will automatically take effect in 90 days unless Congress intervenes....
Off-roaders win one, lose one in disputes over trail use An off-road vehicle advocacy group has won one and lost one in an ongoing battle to maintain motorized access on Utah public lands. The Utah Shared Access Alliance, a coalition of off-highway vehicle (OHV) organizations, filed suit earlier this year to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's decision to close 23 miles of trails in Uinta National Forest, and declared victory Tuesday following the agency's recent decision to reopen most of those trails. But the OHV advocates also suffered a setback Tuesday when a federal judge rejected their complaint against the Bureau of Land Management over off-road restrictions on public land in northern Box Elder County....
TNC buys Pahsimeroi ranch
A 1,800-acre ranch acquired by The Nature Conservancy-Idaho this month includes roughly 40 percent of the active wild salmon spawning habitat in the Pahsimeroi Valley, but the non-profit organization doesn't plan to hold on to the ranch for long. As part of its acquisition blueprint, the conservancy will transfer river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. This portion of the property, which will amount to approximately 200 acres, will be managed as a public fishing, hunting and recreation area. The remainder of the property will be saddled with conservation easements to protect wildlife habitat, ranching characteristics and in-stream water flows, and then sold to local ranchers....
BLM official says some plans for Roan Plateau would hurt recreation Recreation would be ''dramatically reduced'' on western Colorado's Roan Plateau under two possible plans for energy development, a government official says. Greg Goodenow, planning and environmental coordinator in the Glenwood Springs office of the Bureau of Land Management, said the loss of undeveloped areas would be caused in part by natural gas-related activities. Goodenow made the comment on Monday during a public meeting to discuss the draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the 73,602-acre area west of Rifle. The plan includes several options; he said two would hit backcountry recreation hard....
Scientists Warn of Global Warming Results Scientists warned Tuesday that a long-term increase in global temperature of 3.5 degrees could threaten Latin American water supplies, reduce food yields in Asia and result in a rise in extreme weather conditions in the Caribbean. The warnings came in a report by a group of European scientists on the sidelines of an annual U.N. conference on climate change....
Water Contract Renewals Stir Debate Between Environmentalists and Farmers in California The time has come for thousands of farmers in California to renew their water contracts with the federally run Central Valley Project, the country's largest irrigation system and for many years a major source of friction between the state's powerful agricultural and environmental interests. The farms served by the Central Valley Project cover nearly 4,700 square miles and get about 20 percent of California's water supply. That has made the new contracts, some for 25 years and some for 40 years with options to renew, the center of a debate over how much water in the state should be dedicated to growing crops and at what price. When construction of the Central Water Project began in 1937, the idea was to protect the state's farmland from water shortages and floods and provide cheap water for family farmers. But as the state has grown in population, there has been a growing push by cities and environmentalists to break the farmers' grip on the water, or at least make them pay more for it....
Mad cow feed still a problem, Cantwell says A year after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was reported, Sen. Maria Cantwell says the Food and Drug Administration still has not fulfilled its promise to tighten animal feed rules to help prevent future cases. "The beef industry and other federal agencies have worked overtime to restore confidence in the world's safest beef supply, but the FDA has failed to act on its promise to close loopholes in the mad cow feed ban," Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a news release yesterday. Last January, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced new FDA proposals to close loopholes that allow cattle to be fed such things as cow blood, restaurant scraps and chicken litter....
"How Cold WAS It?" How cold was it on that December morning 23 years ago at Lamar Ranch in Terrell, Texas? It was cold. At zero degrees with a 30 mile-an-hour wind out of the north, I, along with my crew of four cowboys, couldn’t seem to get on enough clothes to get warm. I know some of you gentle readers are sayin’ to yourself, “Heck, that ain’t cold, Mad Jack, I remember the time it was 40 below and I was stripped down to my underwear tryin’ to pull a calf.”....
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Gray wolves lope toward Colo. release In three to five years, wolves could hit the ground running in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico, according to several members of the federal recovery team. And the wolf that appears headed for reintroduction in the Four Corners region, including perhaps the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, is the imperiled Mexican gray. Although nothing has been finalized, scientists on the team are leaning toward release of the smaller and greatly endangered Mexican gray wolf rather than the northern grays released in Yellowstone National Park....
Column: Wild Spending No Way To Corral Wild Horse Problem So then where does the money go? Last year, $11.6 million dollars was spent on the Adopt a Horse Program. Americans adopted 6,165 horses. The average person paid $185 to adopt their new equine. Now let's do some cowboy arithmetic. Over one third of the total Wild Horse budget was spent adopting 6,165 horses which means the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent nearly $2000 per horse to find it a new owner. This excessive cost has lead some to believe that it is time to end the Adopt a Horse program. A few years ago a horse contraceptive program was investigated and has been deemed effective, but too little too late. This is being administrated today in some herds but will not address the immediate problem. So what is the answer? Before last week, the answer by authorities looked to be what the BLM calls "Long term holding facilities". These facilities are where horses that were not adopted go to live out the rest of their lives. They are located in Kansas and Oklahoma and the BLM is now entering long-term contracts with landowners. The contracts pay the landowners $1.65 to $1.90 per day to house the horses. There are currently about 15,000+ horses in these facilities. The BLM reports a cost of $465 per year per animal to warehouse these otherwise unwanted hay burners....
Group rallies against Gallatin off-road proposal A group of bikers, snowmobilers and all-terrain vehicle riders is fighting a proposal by the Gallatin National Forest to close significant areas to motor vehicles. The forest wants to ban snowmobiles from 356,000 of its 1.8 million acres under a revised travel plan due out in January. Motorcycle trails would fall by about 50 percent and ATV trails by 40 percent. The plan also calls for 34,000 fewer off-trail acres for horseback riders in alpine areas of the Beartooth Plateau, and a drop in off-road access for mountain bikers. A weekend rally against the proposal by Citizens for Balanced Use, a new group formed by motorized use advocate Kerry White, drew more than 200 people, including several local and county officials....
Federal plan may not end river boater duel A federal plan to manage boating on a wild section of the Rogue River is unlikely to end the battle between commercial jet boat operators and float tours, officials say. Federal river managers, under court order to examine commercial use of the lower Rogue, are proposing a status quo plan that calls for no cutbacks in permits for tour companies, fishing guides or wilderness lodges — the businesses that run most of the jet boats. River activists, who filed the 2001 lawsuit that prompted the court order, say the plan continues to favor motorboats over float boats in violation of the 1968 law that made the Rogue one of the nation's first congressionally designated wild rivers....
New sales reignite timber battles This is the Meteor timber sale, one of a series of controversial timber sales authorized by the Bush administration for the Klamath, Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino national forests, all in northwest California. Biologists consider the northwest forests one of the richest terrestrial ecosystems in the hemisphere, supporting a vast array of temperate woodland species. Heavily logged in the 1970s and 1980s, the forests have been slowly healing. But new sales such as the Meteor, say environmentalists, are threatening that recovery. They say the sales are an under-the-radar attempt by the administration to gut the Northwest Forest Plan -- a view rigorously countered by the U.S. Forest Service....
Effects of oil spill in Alaska could linger in remote bay It took a few hours for the Selendang Ayu to spill thousands of gallons of oil into a remote Alaska bay. The effects could linger for years. The immediate damage has already become apparent, as biologists tell of at least one sea otter and various birds swimming amid oil and thick goo along the western side of Unalaska Island. But the toll of oil lingering amid rocks or settling on the sea bed could prove much harder to gauge, measured in damage to otters' livers and subtle survival problems for fish....
Editorial: A water giveaway WHO OWNS California's water? That issue, which has shaped California's history, is at the heart of a legal battle that could gut implementation of the Endangered Species Act in California and place insurmountable hurdles in the state's ability to manage its water. The controversy dates back to the extended California drought in the early 1990s, when the federal government held back water from two San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts to protect the Chinook salmon and delta smelt populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta....
UN Climate Conference Called 'Meeting About Nothing' The United Nations climate change conference here is being panned as a "conference about nothing" by a free market advocate. "The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty about nothing. It's the Seinfeld (TV sitcom) conference," declared Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the free market environmental group Competitive Enterprise Institute. Horner was referring to the former NBC sitcom that billed itself as a show about nothing. Horner, a skeptic of alarmist global warming claims, is attending the conference along with a delegation of international free market activists who oppose the United Nation's economic and environmental policies. "This is a conference where on the very first day, the participants agreed that they would not issue an agreement at the end of the conference -- which is the only thing they typically produce [at these conferences] besides lots of C02," Horner told CNSNews.com on Sunday....
Column: Global Warming Extremists on the Run This week, 5,400 delegates from 189 countries have gathered in Buenos Aires for what's called COP 10, the 10th annual conference of the parties to the United Nations agreement to combat climate change. That agreement spawned the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed nations to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels like petroleum and coal) 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. I have been attending these extravaganzas for five years now, and they are an exercise, in the grandly self-important style of the U.N., in wheel-spinning and America-bashing. But something is changing. While a superficial glance indicates the extremists are winning, they are, in fact, on the run. They've failed -- largely because opponents like MIT climatologist Richard Lindzen, who has called warming theory a "religious belief" rather than sound science, haven't been intimidated. Now, a consensus is building to tackle global warming the right away....
Crichton fans will embrace 'Fear' State of Fear is sure to rile liberals, conservatives, environmentalists, the media, academics, lawyers, politicians, celebrities and average citizens as Crichton challenges commonly held beliefs about global warming and the environment. Are the self-proclaimed guardians of the planet, he wonders, acting on data-backed principles or reacting to inaccurate information fed to the masses by irresponsible journalists, well-meaning but ignorant tree-huggers and self-serving celebrities, scientists and lawyers? State of Fear follows the global adventures of four heroes, led by geo-environmental scientist John Kenner. They fight eco-terrorists who use technology to manipulate nature to cause tsunamis, flash floods and killer storms and to break up glaciers....
White House to Push 'Clear Skies' Legislation The White House plans to push Congress to retool the nation's air quality laws early next year, according to administration and industry officials. The move has alarmed environmentalists, who fear that President Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal -- which has not moved in Congress since he unveiled it in 2002 -- would undercut existing federal standards more than the administration's pending plan to revise pollution controls through regulation....
Ecoterror - a clearer threat WHEN ARSONISTS torched a 206-unit housing project under construction in an environmentally sensitive area of San Diego last year, they left behind a 12-foot banner declaring: "If you build it, we will burn it. The ELF's are mad." The acronym is for Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized ecoterrorism group that FBI officials say is setting a rising number of fires nationally targeting urban sprawl, SUVs and other symbols of harm to the environment. The ELF has avoided killing or injuring people, but it usually leaves a sign to make a political statement, according to the FBI. Last week, when 26 new homes were burned near an environmentally sensitive area in Charles County, investigators found no signs of ELF or similar groups, no spray paint and no e-mails to media claiming credit....
Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trapping Policies Set Stage for Modern Environmental Struggles The Pacific Northwest has seen its share of major environmental battles. Now a new historical study of the fur trade indicates that early Europeans and Americans in the region struggled with similar issues nearly two centuries ago as they sought to exploit and preserve the area's natural resources. In a pilot study examining the historical record for the National Park Service, a University of Washington researcher has found that the Hudson's Bay Company, the dominant outside force in the region during the early years of the 19th century, set the stage for later environmental struggles through its own sometimes conflicting policies. In addition, it forever altered the Northwest landscape with the introduction of European farming methods and crops to supply its far-flung fur-trading empire. And later, when the supply of beaver pelts began to decline, the company began switching its focus from furs to firs. Export of commodities such as timber, fish and agricultural products from its farms became increasingly important sources of revenue....
Bootmaker crafts a legacy EL PASO — Tres Outlaws makes cowboy boots the old-fashioned way, and owner Jerry Black isn't modest about the quality. "I think I make the best boots in the country," said Black, who operates a 10-person shop near the Mexican border. "We make them the way they were made 100 years ago. ... They'll last forever and fit perfect. If you can't wear them all day the first day, then there's something wrong." Tyler Beard, a leading authority on cowboy boots who's written three books on the subject, called Black and his partners "mad but brilliant wizards." He counts Tres Outlaws among the top three bootmakers in a world where cowboy boots have acquired a "cult following." "Their work confounds and astounds other bootmakers. They have incredible visions," said Beard, whose books include "Art of the Boot."....
Champ upholds family tradition Wesley Galyean, a 21-year-old competing in the open division for the first time, fulfilled a lifetime dream by winning the NCHA World Championship Futurity in front of an overflow crowd in Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum on Sunday night. The Ardmore, Okla., cowboy rode his sorrel stallion Spots Hot to a 225 score, besting the field by three points to pocket $200,000. Roger Wagner finished second with a 222, riding Quintan Blue. In claiming the National Cutting Horse Association's most prestigious trophy, Wesley equaled the feat of his father, Jody Galyean, who won the 1986 Futurity on Royal Silver King. Jody was also in the field Sunday, finishing 10th with a 213 atop A Black Widow....
Etbauer head and shoulders above the rest Billy Etbauer of Edmond, Okla., came into the NFR in fifth spot in saddle bronc but was clearly the best saddle bronc rider, racking up $117,744. Etbauer, who matched his own arena record yesterday with a 93 on Kesler's Cool Alley, ran away with his fifth world crown ($222,591). The other winners were....
It's All Trew: Everything old is new again at Tulsa's Cain Ballroom After parking our cars in the ditch and turning on our parking lights, we waited until 11 p.m. when KVOO, the 50,000-watt station in Tulsa, Okla., broadcast an hour of western swing music by Johnny Lee Wills and all the boys live and direct from Cain's Ballroom. We danced for an hour, allowing cars to pass, sometimes stealing a kiss in between tunes. I can remember it like yesterday in spite of it happening more than 50 years ago. In mid-June of 2004 we attended the International Route 66 Festival in Tulsa and guess what? The kick-off dance was held on Thursday night at Cain's Ballroom just two blocks up the street from the convention. Asleep At The Wheel played Bob Wills music until midnight. Talk about nostalgia at its best. We danced nearly every tune....
Gray wolves lope toward Colo. release In three to five years, wolves could hit the ground running in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico, according to several members of the federal recovery team. And the wolf that appears headed for reintroduction in the Four Corners region, including perhaps the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, is the imperiled Mexican gray. Although nothing has been finalized, scientists on the team are leaning toward release of the smaller and greatly endangered Mexican gray wolf rather than the northern grays released in Yellowstone National Park....
Column: Wild Spending No Way To Corral Wild Horse Problem So then where does the money go? Last year, $11.6 million dollars was spent on the Adopt a Horse Program. Americans adopted 6,165 horses. The average person paid $185 to adopt their new equine. Now let's do some cowboy arithmetic. Over one third of the total Wild Horse budget was spent adopting 6,165 horses which means the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent nearly $2000 per horse to find it a new owner. This excessive cost has lead some to believe that it is time to end the Adopt a Horse program. A few years ago a horse contraceptive program was investigated and has been deemed effective, but too little too late. This is being administrated today in some herds but will not address the immediate problem. So what is the answer? Before last week, the answer by authorities looked to be what the BLM calls "Long term holding facilities". These facilities are where horses that were not adopted go to live out the rest of their lives. They are located in Kansas and Oklahoma and the BLM is now entering long-term contracts with landowners. The contracts pay the landowners $1.65 to $1.90 per day to house the horses. There are currently about 15,000+ horses in these facilities. The BLM reports a cost of $465 per year per animal to warehouse these otherwise unwanted hay burners....
Group rallies against Gallatin off-road proposal A group of bikers, snowmobilers and all-terrain vehicle riders is fighting a proposal by the Gallatin National Forest to close significant areas to motor vehicles. The forest wants to ban snowmobiles from 356,000 of its 1.8 million acres under a revised travel plan due out in January. Motorcycle trails would fall by about 50 percent and ATV trails by 40 percent. The plan also calls for 34,000 fewer off-trail acres for horseback riders in alpine areas of the Beartooth Plateau, and a drop in off-road access for mountain bikers. A weekend rally against the proposal by Citizens for Balanced Use, a new group formed by motorized use advocate Kerry White, drew more than 200 people, including several local and county officials....
Federal plan may not end river boater duel A federal plan to manage boating on a wild section of the Rogue River is unlikely to end the battle between commercial jet boat operators and float tours, officials say. Federal river managers, under court order to examine commercial use of the lower Rogue, are proposing a status quo plan that calls for no cutbacks in permits for tour companies, fishing guides or wilderness lodges — the businesses that run most of the jet boats. River activists, who filed the 2001 lawsuit that prompted the court order, say the plan continues to favor motorboats over float boats in violation of the 1968 law that made the Rogue one of the nation's first congressionally designated wild rivers....
New sales reignite timber battles This is the Meteor timber sale, one of a series of controversial timber sales authorized by the Bush administration for the Klamath, Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino national forests, all in northwest California. Biologists consider the northwest forests one of the richest terrestrial ecosystems in the hemisphere, supporting a vast array of temperate woodland species. Heavily logged in the 1970s and 1980s, the forests have been slowly healing. But new sales such as the Meteor, say environmentalists, are threatening that recovery. They say the sales are an under-the-radar attempt by the administration to gut the Northwest Forest Plan -- a view rigorously countered by the U.S. Forest Service....
Effects of oil spill in Alaska could linger in remote bay It took a few hours for the Selendang Ayu to spill thousands of gallons of oil into a remote Alaska bay. The effects could linger for years. The immediate damage has already become apparent, as biologists tell of at least one sea otter and various birds swimming amid oil and thick goo along the western side of Unalaska Island. But the toll of oil lingering amid rocks or settling on the sea bed could prove much harder to gauge, measured in damage to otters' livers and subtle survival problems for fish....
Editorial: A water giveaway WHO OWNS California's water? That issue, which has shaped California's history, is at the heart of a legal battle that could gut implementation of the Endangered Species Act in California and place insurmountable hurdles in the state's ability to manage its water. The controversy dates back to the extended California drought in the early 1990s, when the federal government held back water from two San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts to protect the Chinook salmon and delta smelt populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta....
UN Climate Conference Called 'Meeting About Nothing' The United Nations climate change conference here is being panned as a "conference about nothing" by a free market advocate. "The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty about nothing. It's the Seinfeld (TV sitcom) conference," declared Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the free market environmental group Competitive Enterprise Institute. Horner was referring to the former NBC sitcom that billed itself as a show about nothing. Horner, a skeptic of alarmist global warming claims, is attending the conference along with a delegation of international free market activists who oppose the United Nation's economic and environmental policies. "This is a conference where on the very first day, the participants agreed that they would not issue an agreement at the end of the conference -- which is the only thing they typically produce [at these conferences] besides lots of C02," Horner told CNSNews.com on Sunday....
Column: Global Warming Extremists on the Run This week, 5,400 delegates from 189 countries have gathered in Buenos Aires for what's called COP 10, the 10th annual conference of the parties to the United Nations agreement to combat climate change. That agreement spawned the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed nations to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels like petroleum and coal) 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. I have been attending these extravaganzas for five years now, and they are an exercise, in the grandly self-important style of the U.N., in wheel-spinning and America-bashing. But something is changing. While a superficial glance indicates the extremists are winning, they are, in fact, on the run. They've failed -- largely because opponents like MIT climatologist Richard Lindzen, who has called warming theory a "religious belief" rather than sound science, haven't been intimidated. Now, a consensus is building to tackle global warming the right away....
Crichton fans will embrace 'Fear' State of Fear is sure to rile liberals, conservatives, environmentalists, the media, academics, lawyers, politicians, celebrities and average citizens as Crichton challenges commonly held beliefs about global warming and the environment. Are the self-proclaimed guardians of the planet, he wonders, acting on data-backed principles or reacting to inaccurate information fed to the masses by irresponsible journalists, well-meaning but ignorant tree-huggers and self-serving celebrities, scientists and lawyers? State of Fear follows the global adventures of four heroes, led by geo-environmental scientist John Kenner. They fight eco-terrorists who use technology to manipulate nature to cause tsunamis, flash floods and killer storms and to break up glaciers....
White House to Push 'Clear Skies' Legislation The White House plans to push Congress to retool the nation's air quality laws early next year, according to administration and industry officials. The move has alarmed environmentalists, who fear that President Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal -- which has not moved in Congress since he unveiled it in 2002 -- would undercut existing federal standards more than the administration's pending plan to revise pollution controls through regulation....
Ecoterror - a clearer threat WHEN ARSONISTS torched a 206-unit housing project under construction in an environmentally sensitive area of San Diego last year, they left behind a 12-foot banner declaring: "If you build it, we will burn it. The ELF's are mad." The acronym is for Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized ecoterrorism group that FBI officials say is setting a rising number of fires nationally targeting urban sprawl, SUVs and other symbols of harm to the environment. The ELF has avoided killing or injuring people, but it usually leaves a sign to make a political statement, according to the FBI. Last week, when 26 new homes were burned near an environmentally sensitive area in Charles County, investigators found no signs of ELF or similar groups, no spray paint and no e-mails to media claiming credit....
Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trapping Policies Set Stage for Modern Environmental Struggles The Pacific Northwest has seen its share of major environmental battles. Now a new historical study of the fur trade indicates that early Europeans and Americans in the region struggled with similar issues nearly two centuries ago as they sought to exploit and preserve the area's natural resources. In a pilot study examining the historical record for the National Park Service, a University of Washington researcher has found that the Hudson's Bay Company, the dominant outside force in the region during the early years of the 19th century, set the stage for later environmental struggles through its own sometimes conflicting policies. In addition, it forever altered the Northwest landscape with the introduction of European farming methods and crops to supply its far-flung fur-trading empire. And later, when the supply of beaver pelts began to decline, the company began switching its focus from furs to firs. Export of commodities such as timber, fish and agricultural products from its farms became increasingly important sources of revenue....
Bootmaker crafts a legacy EL PASO — Tres Outlaws makes cowboy boots the old-fashioned way, and owner Jerry Black isn't modest about the quality. "I think I make the best boots in the country," said Black, who operates a 10-person shop near the Mexican border. "We make them the way they were made 100 years ago. ... They'll last forever and fit perfect. If you can't wear them all day the first day, then there's something wrong." Tyler Beard, a leading authority on cowboy boots who's written three books on the subject, called Black and his partners "mad but brilliant wizards." He counts Tres Outlaws among the top three bootmakers in a world where cowboy boots have acquired a "cult following." "Their work confounds and astounds other bootmakers. They have incredible visions," said Beard, whose books include "Art of the Boot."....
Champ upholds family tradition Wesley Galyean, a 21-year-old competing in the open division for the first time, fulfilled a lifetime dream by winning the NCHA World Championship Futurity in front of an overflow crowd in Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum on Sunday night. The Ardmore, Okla., cowboy rode his sorrel stallion Spots Hot to a 225 score, besting the field by three points to pocket $200,000. Roger Wagner finished second with a 222, riding Quintan Blue. In claiming the National Cutting Horse Association's most prestigious trophy, Wesley equaled the feat of his father, Jody Galyean, who won the 1986 Futurity on Royal Silver King. Jody was also in the field Sunday, finishing 10th with a 213 atop A Black Widow....
Etbauer head and shoulders above the rest Billy Etbauer of Edmond, Okla., came into the NFR in fifth spot in saddle bronc but was clearly the best saddle bronc rider, racking up $117,744. Etbauer, who matched his own arena record yesterday with a 93 on Kesler's Cool Alley, ran away with his fifth world crown ($222,591). The other winners were....
It's All Trew: Everything old is new again at Tulsa's Cain Ballroom After parking our cars in the ditch and turning on our parking lights, we waited until 11 p.m. when KVOO, the 50,000-watt station in Tulsa, Okla., broadcast an hour of western swing music by Johnny Lee Wills and all the boys live and direct from Cain's Ballroom. We danced for an hour, allowing cars to pass, sometimes stealing a kiss in between tunes. I can remember it like yesterday in spite of it happening more than 50 years ago. In mid-June of 2004 we attended the International Route 66 Festival in Tulsa and guess what? The kick-off dance was held on Thursday night at Cain's Ballroom just two blocks up the street from the convention. Asleep At The Wheel played Bob Wills music until midnight. Talk about nostalgia at its best. We danced nearly every tune....
Monday, December 13, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Third body found in Utah avalanches At least three people have been killed in weekend avalanches in Utah’s backcountry, and a fourth man remained missing. Rescue crews Sunday recovered the body of Melvin Denis, 32, who was snowshoeing with a friend a day earlier in Wasatch-Cache National Forest east of Salt Lake City when an avalanche trapped them, police said. A skier was killed Friday when he was swept up in an avalanche in the national forest. Saturday, a man died after being buried in four feet of snow while snowmobiling in Wasatch County....
Editorial: Prioritize land swap It's regrettable that Congress adjourned last week without passing the largest land exchange in Arizona history. The compromise bill was set and ready to go. It cleared the Senate, but the House, ready to adjourn once it passed legislation reorganizing the nation's intelligence community, simply ran out of time. It's little consolation for Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin. For five years he has worked hard, lining up support in the Verde Valley and in other communities in northern Arizona. The Arizona delegation is solidly behind the bill for the right reasons: It's good for economic development. It doubles the amount of U.S. Forest Service land for public access and recreation. And it imposes limits on the amount of groundwater withdrawals....
Judge forbids logging `live' trees A federal judge has ruled that an old growth tree cannot be logged unless it is dead, even if it is in the process of dying. U.S. District Judge Garr King sided with conservation groups Friday when he issued an injunction ordering a halt to a U.S. Forest Service plan to log more than 200 acres of old growth trees in an area of the Malheur National Forest burned in the 2002 High Roberts fire. By law, old growth trees that are more than 21 inches in diameter cannot be logged, unless the tree is dead....
Latinos criticize U.S. Forest Service hiring At the Angeles National Forest, where nearly one in three workers is Latino, employment discrimination may not seem like a big problem. But the forest's work force did not become diverse by accident. In fact, the Angeles and every other national forest in California is operating under a consent decree requiring it to go out of its way to hire and keep Latino employees. This fall, the workers wrote a letter to the Department of Justice asserting the agency is still not doing enough....
Forest users rally Bikers, snowmobilers and ATV riders need to start getting loud if they don't want to lose access to parts of the Gallatin National Forest, about 200 people were told at a Saturday rally. People need to "show up at the meetings and get in the face of the people who make the decisions," motorized use advocate Kerry White told the crowd. "That's what we have to do." White is running a new organization called Citizens for Balanced Use, which is fighting proposals by the Gallatin National Forest to close some significant areas to motor vehicles....
Editorial: McMustang burgers? MORE THAN 4 million head of cattle graze on the remaining open range of the American West. Their owners pay a cut-rate fee of about $1.35 a month for each animal feeding off this publicly owned resource. Yet there doesn't seem to be enough room to also accommodate the 37,000 wild horses for which the land has been home for centuries. Thus, Congress, in a midnight maneuver of which few lawmakers were aware, agreed to sell off some of the horses for slaughter so they can become gourmet meals overseas. They're used for grilled meat mostly, but horse sushi is quite the rage in Japan. This solution to the space squeeze is as simplistic as it is unseemly....
Editorial: Forbes agreement saves land A stunning Colorado landscape will be preserved thanks to an agreement between the non-profit Colorado Open Lands trust and Forbes Inc. to protect more than 80,000 acres on the west side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The monumental deal is more than twice as big as the next largest conservation easement in Colorado. Combined with other easements and public lands, the Forbes pact means most of the western Sangres and eastern San Luis Valley have been permanently protected from development. The Forbes Trinchera Ranch is the largest remaining undeveloped private parcel on what originally was the 1 million acre Sangre de Cristo Mexican land grant of 1843....
Gibbons sees hope for mining reform U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, says the time is right for significant reform of federal mining laws, including changes in demands for reclamation. “We need to do it now, when there is a narrow window of opportunity,” he said at the Northwest Mining Association’s annual convention in Spokane, Wash. Gibbons wants the law to include changes to allow mines in closure to leave the infrastructure behind for another use, rather than the entire site be cleared and reclaimed as now required. He also wants the law to include a “fee” that would be fair and across-the-board, including those who mine on public lands as well as private land. Spreading the fee out to all those who mine should help keep the fee low, Gibbons said....
State preparing for water battle Colorado will spend as much as $2 million in the next two years to build a legal war chest shoring up its rights to the drought-plagued Colorado River. The new initiative comes as Lake Powell and Lake Mead - the river's giant storage ponds - have reached historic lows, triggering anxiety over future supplies from Los Angeles to Denver. The money is being spent on new computer models detailing how the river's supplies will be affected by ongoing drought and on creating a computerized historic archive documenting Colorado's use of the river under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. It also will pay for new legal research to help guide the state in the unlikely event that the lingering drought prompts new claims to Colorado's share of the river's supplies, George said....
Cowboy museum a celebration of Western art Just don't call it the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Not that it's ashamed of its former name. This museum still is proud to wear its spurs and celebrate the riders of the range. But the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum changed its name in 2000 to show it wasn't just a bunch of plaques, said Lynda Haller, director of public relations at the museum. The 220,000-square-foot facility is much more than that. Visitors get a taste of the variety inside the museum when they step into the building and see "End of the Trail." The sculpture, which James Earle Fraser created for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1917, is 18 feet long and weighs four tons....
Third body found in Utah avalanches At least three people have been killed in weekend avalanches in Utah’s backcountry, and a fourth man remained missing. Rescue crews Sunday recovered the body of Melvin Denis, 32, who was snowshoeing with a friend a day earlier in Wasatch-Cache National Forest east of Salt Lake City when an avalanche trapped them, police said. A skier was killed Friday when he was swept up in an avalanche in the national forest. Saturday, a man died after being buried in four feet of snow while snowmobiling in Wasatch County....
Editorial: Prioritize land swap It's regrettable that Congress adjourned last week without passing the largest land exchange in Arizona history. The compromise bill was set and ready to go. It cleared the Senate, but the House, ready to adjourn once it passed legislation reorganizing the nation's intelligence community, simply ran out of time. It's little consolation for Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin. For five years he has worked hard, lining up support in the Verde Valley and in other communities in northern Arizona. The Arizona delegation is solidly behind the bill for the right reasons: It's good for economic development. It doubles the amount of U.S. Forest Service land for public access and recreation. And it imposes limits on the amount of groundwater withdrawals....
Judge forbids logging `live' trees A federal judge has ruled that an old growth tree cannot be logged unless it is dead, even if it is in the process of dying. U.S. District Judge Garr King sided with conservation groups Friday when he issued an injunction ordering a halt to a U.S. Forest Service plan to log more than 200 acres of old growth trees in an area of the Malheur National Forest burned in the 2002 High Roberts fire. By law, old growth trees that are more than 21 inches in diameter cannot be logged, unless the tree is dead....
Latinos criticize U.S. Forest Service hiring At the Angeles National Forest, where nearly one in three workers is Latino, employment discrimination may not seem like a big problem. But the forest's work force did not become diverse by accident. In fact, the Angeles and every other national forest in California is operating under a consent decree requiring it to go out of its way to hire and keep Latino employees. This fall, the workers wrote a letter to the Department of Justice asserting the agency is still not doing enough....
Forest users rally Bikers, snowmobilers and ATV riders need to start getting loud if they don't want to lose access to parts of the Gallatin National Forest, about 200 people were told at a Saturday rally. People need to "show up at the meetings and get in the face of the people who make the decisions," motorized use advocate Kerry White told the crowd. "That's what we have to do." White is running a new organization called Citizens for Balanced Use, which is fighting proposals by the Gallatin National Forest to close some significant areas to motor vehicles....
Editorial: McMustang burgers? MORE THAN 4 million head of cattle graze on the remaining open range of the American West. Their owners pay a cut-rate fee of about $1.35 a month for each animal feeding off this publicly owned resource. Yet there doesn't seem to be enough room to also accommodate the 37,000 wild horses for which the land has been home for centuries. Thus, Congress, in a midnight maneuver of which few lawmakers were aware, agreed to sell off some of the horses for slaughter so they can become gourmet meals overseas. They're used for grilled meat mostly, but horse sushi is quite the rage in Japan. This solution to the space squeeze is as simplistic as it is unseemly....
Editorial: Forbes agreement saves land A stunning Colorado landscape will be preserved thanks to an agreement between the non-profit Colorado Open Lands trust and Forbes Inc. to protect more than 80,000 acres on the west side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The monumental deal is more than twice as big as the next largest conservation easement in Colorado. Combined with other easements and public lands, the Forbes pact means most of the western Sangres and eastern San Luis Valley have been permanently protected from development. The Forbes Trinchera Ranch is the largest remaining undeveloped private parcel on what originally was the 1 million acre Sangre de Cristo Mexican land grant of 1843....
Gibbons sees hope for mining reform U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, says the time is right for significant reform of federal mining laws, including changes in demands for reclamation. “We need to do it now, when there is a narrow window of opportunity,” he said at the Northwest Mining Association’s annual convention in Spokane, Wash. Gibbons wants the law to include changes to allow mines in closure to leave the infrastructure behind for another use, rather than the entire site be cleared and reclaimed as now required. He also wants the law to include a “fee” that would be fair and across-the-board, including those who mine on public lands as well as private land. Spreading the fee out to all those who mine should help keep the fee low, Gibbons said....
State preparing for water battle Colorado will spend as much as $2 million in the next two years to build a legal war chest shoring up its rights to the drought-plagued Colorado River. The new initiative comes as Lake Powell and Lake Mead - the river's giant storage ponds - have reached historic lows, triggering anxiety over future supplies from Los Angeles to Denver. The money is being spent on new computer models detailing how the river's supplies will be affected by ongoing drought and on creating a computerized historic archive documenting Colorado's use of the river under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. It also will pay for new legal research to help guide the state in the unlikely event that the lingering drought prompts new claims to Colorado's share of the river's supplies, George said....
Cowboy museum a celebration of Western art Just don't call it the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Not that it's ashamed of its former name. This museum still is proud to wear its spurs and celebrate the riders of the range. But the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum changed its name in 2000 to show it wasn't just a bunch of plaques, said Lynda Haller, director of public relations at the museum. The 220,000-square-foot facility is much more than that. Visitors get a taste of the variety inside the museum when they step into the building and see "End of the Trail." The sculpture, which James Earle Fraser created for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1917, is 18 feet long and weighs four tons....
Sunday, December 12, 2004
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
Christmas shopping guide for the cowboy on your list
By Julie Carter
Let’s say you have a favorite cowboy you want to buy a gift for this Christmas and let’s say you are new to cowboy shopping. Let me give you an extensive list of cowboy shopping do’s and don’ts.
Keep in mind there are always exceptions to the rule, here are this year’s do not buy:
--Anything made of polyester but certainly not a polyester sport coat.
--Designer socks or silk jockey shorts.
--Tofu anything and white wine.
--A sweater vest
--A salad spinner
--A George Foreman get all the fat off the meat grill
--A vehicle without 4-wheel drive and less than ¾ ton capacity.
--Season tickets to the opera including opera glasses.
--Tennis, backgammon, or croquet lessons
--Complete set of Danielle Steele romance novels
--Driving gloves
--Gold chains and earrings
--Velour, embroidered or lace trimmed articles of clothing.
--Self Help books on how to get in touch with your feminine side.
--Speedos
--Any beverage holder with less than a four finger handle.
--Beano—he won’t use it.
--A manicure set with anything smaller than #9 wire pliers and a hoof rasp.
--Line dance lessons
--A day at the spa
--Subscription to GQ magazine.
--A gourmet cookbook
--Color coordinated shirt and tie by Ralph Lauren
--A smoking jacket
--A set of instructions for anything
Sure-fire pleasers under the Christmas tree for the cowboy are:
--Anything from the feed store.
--Anything from the hardware store.
--Tickets to the National Finals Rodeo and a subscription to ProRodeo News
--Membership to his favorite rodeo association and a gift certificate for a years worth of entry fees in his chosen event.
--Make that vest a leather, canvas duck or nylon down- filled one.
--Anything labeled Wrangler, Levi, Stetson, Tony Lama, Justin, or Carhart.
--Cast iron --especially if it’s a skillet complete with the promise of a years supply of fried steak, potatoes, okra, bacon, eggs, and even refried beans.
--A one-ton flatbed truck complete with a propane fuel tank, grill guard, headache rack, gun rack, mud and snow tires all the way around and a new chain, shovel and axe in a tool box in the back.
--Tools that say “life time warranty, guaranteed forever”
--A good pocket knife, made in the USA and a new whetstone
--Lots of cammo and ammo
--Pinto beans by the gunny sack full.
--Cookbook called 101 ways to cook venison
--A book called “Teach your woman to run a trap line”
--New five-buckle overshoes—boot style
--Heavy duty one-gazillion candle power spotlight for calving season
--A gift basket full of beanie weenies, spam, Vienna sausages, beef jerkey and huntin’ license good for anywhere to shoot anything.
--A roll of Copenhagen or Skoal for his stocking hung by the fire with care
--A tooled leather, belt mounted cell phone case.
These ideas of course are only suggested as guidelines and can be mixed and matched to suit the cowboy in your life. Happy shopping!
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
I would welcome any submissions, just hit the "email me" icon and send me what you would like to have posted. Fiction, non-fiction, short remembrances, poetry, opinion pieces, etc., we will consider posting it.
Christmas shopping guide for the cowboy on your list
By Julie Carter
Let’s say you have a favorite cowboy you want to buy a gift for this Christmas and let’s say you are new to cowboy shopping. Let me give you an extensive list of cowboy shopping do’s and don’ts.
Keep in mind there are always exceptions to the rule, here are this year’s do not buy:
--Anything made of polyester but certainly not a polyester sport coat.
--Designer socks or silk jockey shorts.
--Tofu anything and white wine.
--A sweater vest
--A salad spinner
--A George Foreman get all the fat off the meat grill
--A vehicle without 4-wheel drive and less than ¾ ton capacity.
--Season tickets to the opera including opera glasses.
--Tennis, backgammon, or croquet lessons
--Complete set of Danielle Steele romance novels
--Driving gloves
--Gold chains and earrings
--Velour, embroidered or lace trimmed articles of clothing.
--Self Help books on how to get in touch with your feminine side.
--Speedos
--Any beverage holder with less than a four finger handle.
--Beano—he won’t use it.
--A manicure set with anything smaller than #9 wire pliers and a hoof rasp.
--Line dance lessons
--A day at the spa
--Subscription to GQ magazine.
--A gourmet cookbook
--Color coordinated shirt and tie by Ralph Lauren
--A smoking jacket
--A set of instructions for anything
Sure-fire pleasers under the Christmas tree for the cowboy are:
--Anything from the feed store.
--Anything from the hardware store.
--Tickets to the National Finals Rodeo and a subscription to ProRodeo News
--Membership to his favorite rodeo association and a gift certificate for a years worth of entry fees in his chosen event.
--Make that vest a leather, canvas duck or nylon down- filled one.
--Anything labeled Wrangler, Levi, Stetson, Tony Lama, Justin, or Carhart.
--Cast iron --especially if it’s a skillet complete with the promise of a years supply of fried steak, potatoes, okra, bacon, eggs, and even refried beans.
--A one-ton flatbed truck complete with a propane fuel tank, grill guard, headache rack, gun rack, mud and snow tires all the way around and a new chain, shovel and axe in a tool box in the back.
--Tools that say “life time warranty, guaranteed forever”
--A good pocket knife, made in the USA and a new whetstone
--Lots of cammo and ammo
--Pinto beans by the gunny sack full.
--Cookbook called 101 ways to cook venison
--A book called “Teach your woman to run a trap line”
--New five-buckle overshoes—boot style
--Heavy duty one-gazillion candle power spotlight for calving season
--A gift basket full of beanie weenies, spam, Vienna sausages, beef jerkey and huntin’ license good for anywhere to shoot anything.
--A roll of Copenhagen or Skoal for his stocking hung by the fire with care
--A tooled leather, belt mounted cell phone case.
These ideas of course are only suggested as guidelines and can be mixed and matched to suit the cowboy in your life. Happy shopping!
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2004
I would welcome any submissions, just hit the "email me" icon and send me what you would like to have posted. Fiction, non-fiction, short remembrances, poetry, opinion pieces, etc., we will consider posting it.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
ENVIRONMENTALISTS RESTRICT AMERICANS’ ENERGY CHOICES
Environmental lobbyists opposed to oil production on public lands claim that the oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) equals only a six-month supply. This is true, however, only if one imagines that the United States stopped using oil from any other source -- no imports, no domestic production, nothing else -- which is unrealistic, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis.
---The Energy Information Agency estimates that ANWR contains between 6 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil.
---By comparison, the United States imports 7 million barrels of oil per day; if only 6 billion barrels of oil were recovered in ANWR, in a time of emergency, the United States could cut all imports of foreign oil for two years with little or no effect on our economy.
---Put another way, ANWR could deliver enough oil to the United States to free us from Saudi Arabian oil for more than 20 years.
And, contrary to environmentalists' claims, there is no reason for thinking that oil production and environmental quality are incompatible, says Burnett.
---Caribou herds have expanded in and around Prudhoe Bay and other wildlife have flourished as well, apparently unaffected by the relatively primitive (by today's standards) oil and gas development in the area.
---And environmental groups including the Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society allow oil drilling on some of their most unique properties; as with the rest of the economy, technology has improved in the oil patch.
Environmentalists' objections to drilling on public lands aren't really about protecting pristine places at all. Rather, it is about restricting Americans' energy choices, says Burnett.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, “America can safely seek new oil,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 3, 2004.
For text http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_279173.html
ENVIRONMENTALISTS RESTRICT AMERICANS’ ENERGY CHOICES
Environmental lobbyists opposed to oil production on public lands claim that the oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) equals only a six-month supply. This is true, however, only if one imagines that the United States stopped using oil from any other source -- no imports, no domestic production, nothing else -- which is unrealistic, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis.
---The Energy Information Agency estimates that ANWR contains between 6 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil.
---By comparison, the United States imports 7 million barrels of oil per day; if only 6 billion barrels of oil were recovered in ANWR, in a time of emergency, the United States could cut all imports of foreign oil for two years with little or no effect on our economy.
---Put another way, ANWR could deliver enough oil to the United States to free us from Saudi Arabian oil for more than 20 years.
And, contrary to environmentalists' claims, there is no reason for thinking that oil production and environmental quality are incompatible, says Burnett.
---Caribou herds have expanded in and around Prudhoe Bay and other wildlife have flourished as well, apparently unaffected by the relatively primitive (by today's standards) oil and gas development in the area.
---And environmental groups including the Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society allow oil drilling on some of their most unique properties; as with the rest of the economy, technology has improved in the oil patch.
Environmentalists' objections to drilling on public lands aren't really about protecting pristine places at all. Rather, it is about restricting Americans' energy choices, says Burnett.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, “America can safely seek new oil,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 3, 2004.
For text http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_279173.html
OPINION/COMMENTARY
A Chilling Tale
We know that nature can kill. What most people don't know is that stupid ideas about nature can kill, too. In "State of Fear" (HarperCollins, 603 pages, $27.95), Michael Crichton delivers a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller that turns on a controversial notion: All that talk we've been hearing about global warming—you know, polar ice caps melting, weather systems sent into calamitous confusion, beach weather lingering well into January—might be at best misguided, at worst dead wrong. Think "The Da Vinci Code" with real facts, violent storms and a different kind of faith altogether. The book opens with the murder of an American graduate student studying ocean-wave dynamics. ("State of Fear" is the sort of thriller that makes even nerd-occupations seem daring.) A boatyard owner renting deep-sea submarines in Vancouver is also murdered, as is a man purchasing illicit rocket guide wires in London. We soon learn that such skullduggery is being coordinated, or so it seems, by Nick Drake, a Ralph Nader clone—intense, single-minded and (apologies to Mr. Nader's many fans) unhinged. He is president of the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF), an organization founded by lawyers, not scientists, and devoted to pushing a radical environmental agenda. The fund is clearly modeled on the real-life Natural Resources Defense Council, whose annual budget is about the same: $44 million....
A Chilling Tale
We know that nature can kill. What most people don't know is that stupid ideas about nature can kill, too. In "State of Fear" (HarperCollins, 603 pages, $27.95), Michael Crichton delivers a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller that turns on a controversial notion: All that talk we've been hearing about global warming—you know, polar ice caps melting, weather systems sent into calamitous confusion, beach weather lingering well into January—might be at best misguided, at worst dead wrong. Think "The Da Vinci Code" with real facts, violent storms and a different kind of faith altogether. The book opens with the murder of an American graduate student studying ocean-wave dynamics. ("State of Fear" is the sort of thriller that makes even nerd-occupations seem daring.) A boatyard owner renting deep-sea submarines in Vancouver is also murdered, as is a man purchasing illicit rocket guide wires in London. We soon learn that such skullduggery is being coordinated, or so it seems, by Nick Drake, a Ralph Nader clone—intense, single-minded and (apologies to Mr. Nader's many fans) unhinged. He is president of the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF), an organization founded by lawyers, not scientists, and devoted to pushing a radical environmental agenda. The fund is clearly modeled on the real-life Natural Resources Defense Council, whose annual budget is about the same: $44 million....
Saturday, December 11, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranchers take aim at wolf reintroduction plan Eastern Oregon ranchers complained Friday that a rule to manage the reintroduction of wolves into Oregon places too many restrictions on when ranchers can kill wolves that harm livestock. "You really need to say that we have the right to protect our livestock anytime, anyplace," said Mack Birkmaier, a rancher from the Joseph area. Ranchers, however, said the plan is overly restrictive because it requires that ranchers actually observe a wolf attacking livestock before it could be killed. La Grande-area rancher Bob Beck said it is unrealistic to require that wolves "have to be attacking my stock right before my eyes before I can kill them." "Clearly, your plan seeks to control my behavior in the face of an invasion of large predators into my grazing lands," he said. "I hope you will see that this plan does not give me tools or options to deal with wolves that you insist are coming."....
Animal rights group wants to overturn law that would allow mustang auctioning A coalition of animal rights groups wants to overturn a law signed Wednesday by President Bush that seems to pave the way for the slaughter of thousands of wild horses. Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens of Colorado Springs, co-founder of the Wild Horse and Burro Freedom Alliance, said the coalition in January will urge lawmakers to find a way to overturn an provision in the 2005 budget bill that requires the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to auction off unadoptable or older mustangs. Kathrens said the wild horse alliance, which she said represents 8 million animal lovers, is looking at two strategies: pushing for a long-discussed law that outlaws the slaughter of any horse for commercial purposes, or finding a way to pass follow-up legislation that negates the Burns provision....
Split-estate bill's backers seek broad support Two new amendments to a split-estates bill would reduce the notice requirement for mining activity and change the way the bill addresses how mining might affect land use. The Joint Interim Judiciary Committee unanimously adopted the two amendments Thursday, saying the changes were necessary to ensure the broadest base of support for the bill. Lawmakers have struggled to find a balance on split estates between landowners and those who own the rights to mineral resources underneath the land....
Editorial: Old West icon Wild horses running free on the vast open lands of the West symbolize to many Americans their own independent, self-reliant spirit. Who doesn't love the image of sleek, healthy horses, undomesticated and unfettered? But the practical reality of wild-horse herds is that there are more of them than the public land they live on - and American taxpayers - can support. The Bureau of Land Management's wild-horse adoption program has not been as successful as the agency and animal-rights groups had hoped, due to neglect by the agency and a lack of interest among potential buyers. Ranchers whose cattle must compete for forage with the non-native equines see them more as a pest than a romantic icon. As a result, 14,000 horses are living in poor conditions in BLM corrals, 700 of them in Utah, instead of roaming - and reproducing - with their 37,000 or so luckier cousins that are still free in 10 Western states. That is not protection; it is abuse....
Colorado's snowpack up, easing drought fears Every river basin in Colorado has risen above the 30-year average when it comes to snowpack and experts say the state appears to be bouncing back from a five-year drought. "I think it is too early to say the drought is over. But now I would bet against it becoming a 10- or 20-year drought," federal climatologist Klaus Wolter said today after a snowstorm pounded northern Colorado....
Rey: Bush administration wants increased thinning in national forests The Bush administration plans to double efforts to thin fire-prone Western forests and will emphasize the cutting of trees that can be sold to help pay for the work, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said. Along with increased thinning, the administration wants to reform the Endangered Species Act, streamline national forest management and give states more power in managing roadless areas, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. But Rey, speaking at the annual meeting of the Intermountain Forest Association, did not offer any details on exactly what type of Endangered Species Act reforms the president would support....
"No surprises" endangered-species plan revived The Bush administration yesterday said it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species. The new rules from the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service restore a Clinton-era initiative known as "no surprises." It will allow agencies to give blanket assurances to home builders, timber and mining companies and other developers that they won't have unforeseen requirements to protect rare species once a project has begun. A federal judge had blocked the rules in June, telling the government it needed to hear more ideas from the public....
Blame ESPN for this shortened version. They didn't show the 8th round of the NFR until midnight...
Ranchers take aim at wolf reintroduction plan Eastern Oregon ranchers complained Friday that a rule to manage the reintroduction of wolves into Oregon places too many restrictions on when ranchers can kill wolves that harm livestock. "You really need to say that we have the right to protect our livestock anytime, anyplace," said Mack Birkmaier, a rancher from the Joseph area. Ranchers, however, said the plan is overly restrictive because it requires that ranchers actually observe a wolf attacking livestock before it could be killed. La Grande-area rancher Bob Beck said it is unrealistic to require that wolves "have to be attacking my stock right before my eyes before I can kill them." "Clearly, your plan seeks to control my behavior in the face of an invasion of large predators into my grazing lands," he said. "I hope you will see that this plan does not give me tools or options to deal with wolves that you insist are coming."....
Animal rights group wants to overturn law that would allow mustang auctioning A coalition of animal rights groups wants to overturn a law signed Wednesday by President Bush that seems to pave the way for the slaughter of thousands of wild horses. Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens of Colorado Springs, co-founder of the Wild Horse and Burro Freedom Alliance, said the coalition in January will urge lawmakers to find a way to overturn an provision in the 2005 budget bill that requires the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to auction off unadoptable or older mustangs. Kathrens said the wild horse alliance, which she said represents 8 million animal lovers, is looking at two strategies: pushing for a long-discussed law that outlaws the slaughter of any horse for commercial purposes, or finding a way to pass follow-up legislation that negates the Burns provision....
Split-estate bill's backers seek broad support Two new amendments to a split-estates bill would reduce the notice requirement for mining activity and change the way the bill addresses how mining might affect land use. The Joint Interim Judiciary Committee unanimously adopted the two amendments Thursday, saying the changes were necessary to ensure the broadest base of support for the bill. Lawmakers have struggled to find a balance on split estates between landowners and those who own the rights to mineral resources underneath the land....
Editorial: Old West icon Wild horses running free on the vast open lands of the West symbolize to many Americans their own independent, self-reliant spirit. Who doesn't love the image of sleek, healthy horses, undomesticated and unfettered? But the practical reality of wild-horse herds is that there are more of them than the public land they live on - and American taxpayers - can support. The Bureau of Land Management's wild-horse adoption program has not been as successful as the agency and animal-rights groups had hoped, due to neglect by the agency and a lack of interest among potential buyers. Ranchers whose cattle must compete for forage with the non-native equines see them more as a pest than a romantic icon. As a result, 14,000 horses are living in poor conditions in BLM corrals, 700 of them in Utah, instead of roaming - and reproducing - with their 37,000 or so luckier cousins that are still free in 10 Western states. That is not protection; it is abuse....
Colorado's snowpack up, easing drought fears Every river basin in Colorado has risen above the 30-year average when it comes to snowpack and experts say the state appears to be bouncing back from a five-year drought. "I think it is too early to say the drought is over. But now I would bet against it becoming a 10- or 20-year drought," federal climatologist Klaus Wolter said today after a snowstorm pounded northern Colorado....
Rey: Bush administration wants increased thinning in national forests The Bush administration plans to double efforts to thin fire-prone Western forests and will emphasize the cutting of trees that can be sold to help pay for the work, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said. Along with increased thinning, the administration wants to reform the Endangered Species Act, streamline national forest management and give states more power in managing roadless areas, said Rey, who directs the nation's forest policy. But Rey, speaking at the annual meeting of the Intermountain Forest Association, did not offer any details on exactly what type of Endangered Species Act reforms the president would support....
"No surprises" endangered-species plan revived The Bush administration yesterday said it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species. The new rules from the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service restore a Clinton-era initiative known as "no surprises." It will allow agencies to give blanket assurances to home builders, timber and mining companies and other developers that they won't have unforeseen requirements to protect rare species once a project has begun. A federal judge had blocked the rules in June, telling the government it needed to hear more ideas from the public....
Blame ESPN for this shortened version. They didn't show the 8th round of the NFR until midnight...
Friday, December 10, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bush keeps Norton as Interior secretary President Bush has decided to keep Interior Secretary Gale Norton in his second-term Cabinet, making her one of six top department heads to remain after a post-election shuffle. The news, announced by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, means the former Colorado attorney general will remain at the center of Bush's public lands and energy policies. In an interview last month, Norton said she was happy in her job, but that her future was in the president's hands. She released a brief statement Thursday confirming she had agreed to stay....
Three indicted for trying to thwart lion hunt Three men have been indicted for allegedly trying to disrupt plans to capture and kill mountain lions near Tucson last spring. A federal indictment charges EarthFirst member Matthew Crozier, 32, of Prescott and Rodney Adam Coronado, 38, of Tucson with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which is a felony. They also are charged with trespassing on national forest land, interfering with a forest officer and violation of a special closure order — all misdemeanors. Esquire magazine writer John Hammond Richardson, of Katonah, N.Y., also is charged in the indictment with the same three misdemeanors. He allegedly had accompanied the activists....
Forest Service officials blame log shortage on lawsuits Idaho sawmill owners say they don't have enough trees to cut, and federal forest managers blame it on lawsuits. Dave O'Brien, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, says there are four major North Idaho logging operations currently stalled by legal action. Speaking at a Coeur d'Alene forestry conference Wednesday, he said the litigation is holding back trees that could be helping the mills. Now, mill owners have started bringing in trees from as far away as the Washington coast to keep their workers busy....
Column: Deal for ranchers - and land We all seem to agree: The old ways are not working. Something has to change on the range. We need new ideas and new opportunities to reduce unchecked urban sprawl, provide employment opportunities and protect the beautiful landscapes that make New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. So here is a radical idea: Save taxpayers money by paying ranchers to remove their livestock from public land. Nationwide, ranchers pay about $14 million to lease more than 250 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land, but it costs the agencies more than $100 million annually to manage the program....
Senate Clears Wilderness Bills in Final Hours of 108th Congress In the final hours of the 108th Congress, the U.S. Senate passed a major public lands bill which included two wilderness bills: the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act (S. 738/H.R. 1501) and the Ojito Wilderness Act (S. 1649/H.R. 3176). Both bills had received broad, bipartisan support and the California bill’s sponsors even won praise from Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who oversees the Senate’s public lands panel, for their due diligence in addressing stakeholder concerns....
BLM keeping 3 parcels in auction While the Bureau of Land Management withdrew two parcels near Hovenweep National Monument from an oil and gas lease sale after urging from the National Park Service and environmental groups, three nearby parcels will remain on the block for Friday’s auction. The two parcels directly south of the monument were pulled from the sale Tuesday, but three parcels roughly one mile northwest of the monument will be offered to the highest bidder. “There are other leases already in existence in that area, and there didn’t seem to be any reason why those parcels shouldn’t be leased,” said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the bureau’s Utah office....
The Nature Conservancy buys Moen Ranch Last Thursday, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) closed a deal with Duane Moen and the group now owns 1,800 acres in the Pahsimeroi Valley and Little Hat Creek, plus holds title to the permits for grazing on 45,000 acres of public land. The group doesn’t intend to hold onto most of the property, but will sell the bulk of it to private holders. They will also sell river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for public fishing, hunting and recreation....
Column: Liberal terror The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development under construction in nearby Charles County, MD. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined who the perpetrators were and it is conceivable that simple vandalism or other motives were at work. But the evidence strongly suggests eco-terrorism. The development has been under attack by environmentalists for some time for allegedly disturbing a nearby wetland. Moreover, the arson-and there is no doubt that it was arson-fits a pattern of eco-terrorism that has been seen elsewhere....
Cargo Ship Leaking Fuel Oil Off of Alaska Fuel oil was pouring out of a Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel that grounded off an Aleutian island and split into two nearly equal pieces, threatening a sensitive area of marine habitat, officials said on Thursday. The ship, which lost power and began drifting early Tuesday morning in the stormy Bering Sea, appeared to be losing much of the nearly 500,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil it was carrying, officials said....
Feds offer rewards in wolf killings Federal wildlife authorities are offering rewards of $5,000 for information into each of four separate wolf killings in southern Idaho during the past two months. In each case, the wolves appear to have been shot in October and November, said Scott Kabasa, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Boise. The carcasses has been sent to the service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Wash., for further analysis. Kabasa said it is likely the wolves were killed by hunters....
New book studies 'Grizzly Lessons' Wyoming author Geral Blanchard takes an interesting look at the relationship between grizzlies, wolves and humans in his new book, "Grizzly Lessons." Blanchard, who lives near Big Horn, Wyo., focuses on the Yellowstone National Park and Shoshone National Forest area he loves so much. While the book is full of tales from this area, it is really much more than that. It is a study of the search for coexistence between bears, wolves and people. "Grizzly Lessons" looks at this relationship from historical American Indian perspectives to wilderness explorers to present-day ranchers, hunters and environmentalists....
Large fish ladder opens on Ventura River One of the largest fish ladders in California opened Thursday to the applause of more than 100 environmentalists and local, state and federal officials. The state-of-the-art Robles Fish Passage Facility is located on the Ventura River and will help with the recovery of the endangered Southern California steelhead trout. The total cost of the fish ladder is expected to reach $9 million after an additional $1 million in enhancements to be completed by next year. The fish ladder is more advanced than others in the state because it is designed to allow fish to move both upstream and downstream....
Congress Approves Bald Eagle Commemorative Coin Act While Congress was busy debating and passing a suitable Intelligence bill to help defend our nation's security and freedoms, the very symbol of those rights (and the U.S.A. itself) was also getting a big boost to secure its own future health and welfare. The "American Bald Eagle Recovery & National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act" (H.R. 4116 & S.2889) was unanimously passed by the House and Senate by the end of the 108th Congress on Wednesday evening. When signed into law by the President (within the next 10 days), the legislation would authorize the U.S. Mint to create and market a three-coin gold, silver and clad set ($5, $1 and $.50 pieces) in 2008 (the 35th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)). A surcharge from the sale of each coin sold will be earmarked to create an American Eagle Fund endowment managed by the AEF. If the coin set sells out, it has the potential of raising $10,750,000 for eagles....
Water rationing a possibility if drought keeps up This could be the driest year since 1989, and the second driest since 1953, according to National Weather Service data. While rainfall measured up to an inch in parts of the valley last weekend, no rain is likely in the next three weeks, as the drought that began more than a decade ago continues to worsen. Yet, few are thinking about a time when water is rationed for urban dwellers, endangered species become extinct because habitats dry up or farms become dusty, abandoned fields, said Gregg Garfin, program manager for the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, which studies the environment. It's time they did. Along with scientists, state and local officials are starting to plan for an extended drought....
Authors of Western Fiction Take Advantage of Unique Online Site It has been over sixteen months since WritersWest.com appeared online, making available books about the American West. In that time, the number of authors joining this consortium of western writers has steadily increased. WritersWest.com is an independent consignment bookstore where the books come from the western writers, and not distributors. The author sets the price and receives 75% for each title sold. Many of the authors participate in WritersWest.com's co-op advertising, which increases their visibility in venues that would be price-prohibitive for individual authors....
Joe Montana gets a rush out of competing on cutting horse San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana never played for Dallas, but this week he's a cowboy. The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback even dresses the part. Wearing a black cowboy hat, cowboy boots, spurs and Wranglers, Montana competed in the National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity on Wednesday at Will Rogers Coliseum. Montana, 48, qualified for the second round on two horses, Lookwhatthecatdrugin (215 points) and Dualetta Deville (213)....
Rodeo wary of wrongs in name of animal rights Nearly 50 security specialists from throughout the West Coast are at the Thomas & Mack Center to supplement Las Vegas and UNLV police officers during the National Finals Rodeo. But the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's security effort isn't primarily to protect the nightly crowds of more than 17,000 against an international threat of violence. The PRCA is on alert for domestic foes. One group of animal rights advocates was in Las Vegas for opening weekend, waging a verbal war against rodeo and alleging crimes are committed against the calves, steer, horses and bulls of the PRCA. NFR officials remain on alert for more activist groups, believing an act meant to disrupt the rodeo could occur at any time....
Riding Out The Pain The bull raging beneath Fred Boettcher bucked out of the chute and suddenly spun left, twisting the rider backward and to the right. When the bull bucked again, the cowboy's right leg hit the ground as he started to fall. But his gloved left hand was stuck in the rigging. The bull whipped his head around to see what was hanging from his right side. The 160-pound Boettcher and the 1,500-pound bull stared at each other....
Bush keeps Norton as Interior secretary President Bush has decided to keep Interior Secretary Gale Norton in his second-term Cabinet, making her one of six top department heads to remain after a post-election shuffle. The news, announced by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, means the former Colorado attorney general will remain at the center of Bush's public lands and energy policies. In an interview last month, Norton said she was happy in her job, but that her future was in the president's hands. She released a brief statement Thursday confirming she had agreed to stay....
Three indicted for trying to thwart lion hunt Three men have been indicted for allegedly trying to disrupt plans to capture and kill mountain lions near Tucson last spring. A federal indictment charges EarthFirst member Matthew Crozier, 32, of Prescott and Rodney Adam Coronado, 38, of Tucson with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which is a felony. They also are charged with trespassing on national forest land, interfering with a forest officer and violation of a special closure order — all misdemeanors. Esquire magazine writer John Hammond Richardson, of Katonah, N.Y., also is charged in the indictment with the same three misdemeanors. He allegedly had accompanied the activists....
Forest Service officials blame log shortage on lawsuits Idaho sawmill owners say they don't have enough trees to cut, and federal forest managers blame it on lawsuits. Dave O'Brien, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, says there are four major North Idaho logging operations currently stalled by legal action. Speaking at a Coeur d'Alene forestry conference Wednesday, he said the litigation is holding back trees that could be helping the mills. Now, mill owners have started bringing in trees from as far away as the Washington coast to keep their workers busy....
Column: Deal for ranchers - and land We all seem to agree: The old ways are not working. Something has to change on the range. We need new ideas and new opportunities to reduce unchecked urban sprawl, provide employment opportunities and protect the beautiful landscapes that make New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. So here is a radical idea: Save taxpayers money by paying ranchers to remove their livestock from public land. Nationwide, ranchers pay about $14 million to lease more than 250 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land, but it costs the agencies more than $100 million annually to manage the program....
Senate Clears Wilderness Bills in Final Hours of 108th Congress In the final hours of the 108th Congress, the U.S. Senate passed a major public lands bill which included two wilderness bills: the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act (S. 738/H.R. 1501) and the Ojito Wilderness Act (S. 1649/H.R. 3176). Both bills had received broad, bipartisan support and the California bill’s sponsors even won praise from Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who oversees the Senate’s public lands panel, for their due diligence in addressing stakeholder concerns....
BLM keeping 3 parcels in auction While the Bureau of Land Management withdrew two parcels near Hovenweep National Monument from an oil and gas lease sale after urging from the National Park Service and environmental groups, three nearby parcels will remain on the block for Friday’s auction. The two parcels directly south of the monument were pulled from the sale Tuesday, but three parcels roughly one mile northwest of the monument will be offered to the highest bidder. “There are other leases already in existence in that area, and there didn’t seem to be any reason why those parcels shouldn’t be leased,” said Laura Williams, spokeswoman for the bureau’s Utah office....
The Nature Conservancy buys Moen Ranch Last Thursday, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) closed a deal with Duane Moen and the group now owns 1,800 acres in the Pahsimeroi Valley and Little Hat Creek, plus holds title to the permits for grazing on 45,000 acres of public land. The group doesn’t intend to hold onto most of the property, but will sell the bulk of it to private holders. They will also sell river access to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for public fishing, hunting and recreation....
Column: Liberal terror The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development under construction in nearby Charles County, MD. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined who the perpetrators were and it is conceivable that simple vandalism or other motives were at work. But the evidence strongly suggests eco-terrorism. The development has been under attack by environmentalists for some time for allegedly disturbing a nearby wetland. Moreover, the arson-and there is no doubt that it was arson-fits a pattern of eco-terrorism that has been seen elsewhere....
Cargo Ship Leaking Fuel Oil Off of Alaska Fuel oil was pouring out of a Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel that grounded off an Aleutian island and split into two nearly equal pieces, threatening a sensitive area of marine habitat, officials said on Thursday. The ship, which lost power and began drifting early Tuesday morning in the stormy Bering Sea, appeared to be losing much of the nearly 500,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil it was carrying, officials said....
Feds offer rewards in wolf killings Federal wildlife authorities are offering rewards of $5,000 for information into each of four separate wolf killings in southern Idaho during the past two months. In each case, the wolves appear to have been shot in October and November, said Scott Kabasa, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Boise. The carcasses has been sent to the service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Wash., for further analysis. Kabasa said it is likely the wolves were killed by hunters....
New book studies 'Grizzly Lessons' Wyoming author Geral Blanchard takes an interesting look at the relationship between grizzlies, wolves and humans in his new book, "Grizzly Lessons." Blanchard, who lives near Big Horn, Wyo., focuses on the Yellowstone National Park and Shoshone National Forest area he loves so much. While the book is full of tales from this area, it is really much more than that. It is a study of the search for coexistence between bears, wolves and people. "Grizzly Lessons" looks at this relationship from historical American Indian perspectives to wilderness explorers to present-day ranchers, hunters and environmentalists....
Large fish ladder opens on Ventura River One of the largest fish ladders in California opened Thursday to the applause of more than 100 environmentalists and local, state and federal officials. The state-of-the-art Robles Fish Passage Facility is located on the Ventura River and will help with the recovery of the endangered Southern California steelhead trout. The total cost of the fish ladder is expected to reach $9 million after an additional $1 million in enhancements to be completed by next year. The fish ladder is more advanced than others in the state because it is designed to allow fish to move both upstream and downstream....
Congress Approves Bald Eagle Commemorative Coin Act While Congress was busy debating and passing a suitable Intelligence bill to help defend our nation's security and freedoms, the very symbol of those rights (and the U.S.A. itself) was also getting a big boost to secure its own future health and welfare. The "American Bald Eagle Recovery & National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act" (H.R. 4116 & S.2889) was unanimously passed by the House and Senate by the end of the 108th Congress on Wednesday evening. When signed into law by the President (within the next 10 days), the legislation would authorize the U.S. Mint to create and market a three-coin gold, silver and clad set ($5, $1 and $.50 pieces) in 2008 (the 35th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)). A surcharge from the sale of each coin sold will be earmarked to create an American Eagle Fund endowment managed by the AEF. If the coin set sells out, it has the potential of raising $10,750,000 for eagles....
Water rationing a possibility if drought keeps up This could be the driest year since 1989, and the second driest since 1953, according to National Weather Service data. While rainfall measured up to an inch in parts of the valley last weekend, no rain is likely in the next three weeks, as the drought that began more than a decade ago continues to worsen. Yet, few are thinking about a time when water is rationed for urban dwellers, endangered species become extinct because habitats dry up or farms become dusty, abandoned fields, said Gregg Garfin, program manager for the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, which studies the environment. It's time they did. Along with scientists, state and local officials are starting to plan for an extended drought....
Authors of Western Fiction Take Advantage of Unique Online Site It has been over sixteen months since WritersWest.com appeared online, making available books about the American West. In that time, the number of authors joining this consortium of western writers has steadily increased. WritersWest.com is an independent consignment bookstore where the books come from the western writers, and not distributors. The author sets the price and receives 75% for each title sold. Many of the authors participate in WritersWest.com's co-op advertising, which increases their visibility in venues that would be price-prohibitive for individual authors....
Joe Montana gets a rush out of competing on cutting horse San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana never played for Dallas, but this week he's a cowboy. The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback even dresses the part. Wearing a black cowboy hat, cowboy boots, spurs and Wranglers, Montana competed in the National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity on Wednesday at Will Rogers Coliseum. Montana, 48, qualified for the second round on two horses, Lookwhatthecatdrugin (215 points) and Dualetta Deville (213)....
Rodeo wary of wrongs in name of animal rights Nearly 50 security specialists from throughout the West Coast are at the Thomas & Mack Center to supplement Las Vegas and UNLV police officers during the National Finals Rodeo. But the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's security effort isn't primarily to protect the nightly crowds of more than 17,000 against an international threat of violence. The PRCA is on alert for domestic foes. One group of animal rights advocates was in Las Vegas for opening weekend, waging a verbal war against rodeo and alleging crimes are committed against the calves, steer, horses and bulls of the PRCA. NFR officials remain on alert for more activist groups, believing an act meant to disrupt the rodeo could occur at any time....
Riding Out The Pain The bull raging beneath Fred Boettcher bucked out of the chute and suddenly spun left, twisting the rider backward and to the right. When the bull bucked again, the cowboy's right leg hit the ground as he started to fall. But his gloved left hand was stuck in the rigging. The bull whipped his head around to see what was hanging from his right side. The 160-pound Boettcher and the 1,500-pound bull stared at each other....
Thursday, December 09, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Rancher boots wildlife group off ranch A Paradise Valley sheep rancher has booted a pro-wolf environmental group off his property, accusing it of what he called "pretty much blackmail." Rancher Bob Weber, who lives in the Trail Creek area, has told Defenders of Wildlife it is no longer welcome on his property unless he receives a public apology from the group. He made his statements in a letter printed in Tuesday's Livingston Enterprise and in an interview Wednesday. A Defenders spokeswoman said no apology is planned and that the group had only been trying to help Weber protect his property....
Forest Service worker charged with illegally gathering firewood A U.S. Forest Service maintenance employee who is married to a ranger has been accused of illegally gathering firewood. Federal prosecutors allege Rodney J. Lane of Kooskia gathered enough firewood July 7 to fill a pickup in a prohibited area along U.S. Highway 12, about six miles west of Lowell. The area is within the Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River portion of the Clearwater National Forest....
Timber groups call for more thinning in Idaho forests The leader of a major forestry organization called for the federal government to increase timber-thinning projects and do more to fight forest fires during the group's annual meeting. Neil Smith, the head of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, told members that he sent a message to the White House in August urging the president to send federal troops and more resources to fight forest fires. Much of the Inland Northwest is at risk for a repeat of the 1910 fires, which burned more than 3 million acres and killed 85 people, said Jim Peterson, publisher of the forestry journal Evergreen Magazine. Today, trees continue to struggle to regenerate at some of the sites, he said....
Tapping the Bridger-Teton Conservation groups worry that growing demand for natural gas could mean future visitors to the Bridger-Teton National Forest will gaze at a forest of drilling derricks. But forest officials contend that won't happen. True, forest managers recently OK'd more than 100,000 acres in the forest for oil and gas leasing. But those leases, if sold, will likely come with stringent stipulations for environmental protections....
Charges filed in sheep-release case The couple who allegedly released 24 Navajo-Churro sheep in the national forest up Skalkaho Creek in May pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges Monday. Kathryn and Edward Reiff are charged with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals at large for the incident - one for each sheep that was allegedly released. The news of the released sheep concerned Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks because of the possibility of the rare breed of domestic sheep contaminating the bighorn sheep herd in the area. At least 13 of the released sheep have been killed by FWP officers....
Column: Sneaky Fees Stalk Public Lands Would you still call your town library "public" if a private corporation managed the books your taxes paid for, then charged you a fee to borrow them? Thanks to a provision sneaked into the recently passed federal spending bill, we may face that question about our public lands. Just hours before senators were expected to vote on the $388 billion, 3,000-plus page bill, a rider-- meaning no debate or vote possible -- was inserted, courtesy of Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The rider to the spending bill authorized federal agencies to extend recreation access fees on most public lands for the next 10 years. The tactic avoided an unwinnable vote on a program opposed by more than 300 organizations, four states and many county governments. Now, access fees can be charged on 600 million acres of our public land -- an area more than six times the size of Montana. These fees are more than a nuisance form of taxation. They undermine the very idea of these lands as publicly owned, and they open a path to unprecedented commercialization....
Conservationists seek to protect Jackson Lake snail A coalition of scientists and conservationists have petitioned for federal protection of a rare freshwater snail living in Jackson Lake. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the snail as threatened under the Endangered Species Act it could alter how the Bureau of Reclamation manages the lake, which is located in Grand Teton National Park. The bureau would have to account for it when deciding lake levels and water releases from Jackson Lake Dam....
Wyo sues Interior over wolf documents Wolves continue to multiply, and trees continue to die for more paper in yet the newest legal salvo between Wyoming and the federal government over the reintroduction of Canis lupus. The Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service in November rejected the state's wolf management plan, and now Wyoming demands the release of at least 69 undisclosed records or groups of records to explain the decision, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday by Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank....
Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona Conservationist Trevor Hare stands atop a scarred hillside in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, scoping out another spot of scorched earth in Southern Arizona's ongoing border conflict. Not so long ago, this isolated spot was like most of the surrounding Sonoita Valley countryside about an hour's drive southeast of Tucson, covered with tall grasses and cactus shaded by mesquite, cottonwood and ash trees. Now the hillside, which leads into an area known as The Narrows, is a chewed-up mess of boulders, concrete posts and metal stakes....
Wyo challenges protection of mouse New genetic information on the endangered Preble's meadow jumping mouse led Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday to petition the U.S. Department of Interior to remove the mouse from federal protection. Researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science conducted DNA research on the Preble's mouse, and concluded it is not genetically different than the campestris mouse commonly found in Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Canada. Ironically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday released a statement that previous petitions to remove the mouse from federal protection were unwarranted, due to insubstantial biological information....
Growers hopeful about proposal for fish habitat Mendocino County Farm Bureau President Peter Bradford is just one of many throughout the state who has been dealing with fisheries issues related to the Endangered Species Act. He said that he is cautiously optimistic about recent news brought by a federal fisheries agency that has scaled down critical habitat boundaries for several species of salmon and steelhead. "We are quite pleased with the reduction in area. That is going to be tremendous for a lot of the landowners here," Bradford said. "The regulatory hammer is always poised to come down. NOAA Fisheries still hasn't adequately proven the science to show that any conditions created by landowners are the cause of the species decline. But any reduction at all in impact areas is very good news." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed proposed rules in the Federal Register last week to designate critical habitat areas for species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. A revised version of previous designations, the plan could exclude more than 80 percent of the critical habitat that the agency previously said was necessary to save and strengthen fish populations....
Column: Sacrificing the Sage Grouse How many E Magazine readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration's scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests? That's certainly the way it looks after the New York Times revealed December 5 that a Bush Interior Department political appointee with no wildlife background, Julie MacDonald, inserted herself into the decision-making process. The consequence: USFWS is recommending that the highly endangered bird not be listed as such under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....
USDA is killing marauding wolves Wolf attacks on livestock have become an increasing problem in northern Wisconsin as the wolf population grows, but federal wildlife officials offered hope Tuesday for a solution. David Ruid, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the state Natural Resources Board that removing predator wolves from an area has helped. "This year we implemented our control program on 19 farms and solved this on 17 of those," Ruid said....
Study: Return of Wolves Changes Ecosystem Scientists studying the broader effects of wolf reintroduction said a growing body of evidence suggests that killing off predators such as wolves and grizzly bears in the last century started a cascade of effects that threw ecosystems out of balance. Researchers from Oregon State University found that a thriving wolf population not only changes where and how elk browse it even reverberates down to the number of willows that grow next to streams. The research, published in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management, comes as states begin to wrestle with a problem they haven't faced in nearly a century: how to deal with wolves....
Oil and Gas Development Targeted in National Forest Roadless Area A coalition of conservation and outdoor industry groups has formally asked the Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease over 20,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in Utah's Uinta National Forest. The leasing would allow industrial development in roadless areas along the Wasatch Front that provide valuable opportunities for hiking, fishing, and hunting, as well as habitat for wildlife such as the Bonneville cutthroat trout and northern goshawk. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service yesterday asking the agency to withdraw its consent to leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Conservationists Ask for Public Access to Otero Mesa Development Documents On behalf of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. to acquire documents explaining the Bush administration's proposal to open up New Mexico's pristine Otero Mesa to private oil and gas exploration. The suit is necessary because the BLM shared documents with oil and gas companies but refuses to share all of them with the public. Before the Bush administration came into office, the federal Bureau of Land Management planned to allow limited oil and gas development in Otero Mesa near existing roads. After the Bush administration took over, the BLM suddenly changed its plan to instead encourage widespread oil and gas development in virtually all parts of the largely unroaded natural area....
Swap fails; rancher says he'll build on prime land A northern Arizona rancher says Congress' failure to approve a huge and controversial exchange of private property for public land before adjourning its two-year legislative session on Wednesday means he will proceed with other options for his ranchland. "It is best for my family to concentrate our efforts on other alternatives for the ranch's future," Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin said after it became clear a bill including the land deal was dead. The proposed swap would have turned over 35,000 acres of Ruskin's ranch southeast of Seligman to Prescott National Forest in return for about 2,200 acres near Interstate 17 and Arizona 260 in Camp Verde, where Ruskin wanted to build a shopping center and housing development. With the legislation's failure, Ruskin has no option but to push ahead with his Plan B, which is developing homes on his land, according to Kurt Davis, who has been helping Ruskin lobby for the measure....
Congress intervenes in island wilderness debate, allows motorized tours Much to the chagrin of environmentalists, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to motorized tours of Georgia's Cumberland Island - the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. The congressional directive ends - at least for now - a bitter legal dispute over whether tourists should be able to more easily travel to some of the island's attractions, including a mansion once owned by the Andrew Carnegie family and the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. was married. Environmentalists warned that allowing motorized vehicles - even in limited numbers - would distract from the ambiance of the wilderness as experienced by those who explore it the old-fashioned way: on foot....
Column: Environmentalists Becoming Less and Less Relevant Environmental activists wanted two things to happen on Election Day -- they wanted President Bush to lose and their cause to be a big reason why. They got neither, and that may bode well for the future of environmental policy reform. Surveys taken before the elections showed that the environment was far down on the list of voters' concerns. For example, a Gallup poll taken earlier in 2004 ranked it 11th in importance among 12 issues. The election-day results bore this out, as the environment was barely on the radar compared to security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Overall, it is safe to say that environmental issues played no role in the outcome, and that probably would have been the case even if Bush had narrowly lost....
An Ad Campaign for Beef Rises to the Supreme Court The government went before the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the third time in recent years to defend an agricultural marketing program that requires producers to pay for advertising that not all of them want, and that some have challenged as compelled speech. "Beef: It's What's for Dinner," an advertising campaign financed by a $1 assessment on every head of cattle sold, was at issue this time. A dissident group of ranchers who believe their own beef to be superior and who see no benefit in generic advertising won a ruling from a federal appeals court that the assessment, usually referred to as a checkoff, violated their rights under the First Amendment....
Two brothels vying for 'Mustang Ranch' name No one really won the name "World Famous Mustang Ranch" at Tuesday's meeting of the Storey County brothel licensing board. The board decided to give the name to both parties jostling for it - at least until a federal court rules otherwise. Storey County Commissioner Greg "Bum" Hess said Tuesday that Lance Gilman and David Burgess, both of whom operate brothels in the county, can use the name until the federal court for the Nevada district decides on the trademark case. That decision should determine who owns the notorious name of Nevada's first legal bordello....
Rancher boots wildlife group off ranch A Paradise Valley sheep rancher has booted a pro-wolf environmental group off his property, accusing it of what he called "pretty much blackmail." Rancher Bob Weber, who lives in the Trail Creek area, has told Defenders of Wildlife it is no longer welcome on his property unless he receives a public apology from the group. He made his statements in a letter printed in Tuesday's Livingston Enterprise and in an interview Wednesday. A Defenders spokeswoman said no apology is planned and that the group had only been trying to help Weber protect his property....
Forest Service worker charged with illegally gathering firewood A U.S. Forest Service maintenance employee who is married to a ranger has been accused of illegally gathering firewood. Federal prosecutors allege Rodney J. Lane of Kooskia gathered enough firewood July 7 to fill a pickup in a prohibited area along U.S. Highway 12, about six miles west of Lowell. The area is within the Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River portion of the Clearwater National Forest....
Timber groups call for more thinning in Idaho forests The leader of a major forestry organization called for the federal government to increase timber-thinning projects and do more to fight forest fires during the group's annual meeting. Neil Smith, the head of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, told members that he sent a message to the White House in August urging the president to send federal troops and more resources to fight forest fires. Much of the Inland Northwest is at risk for a repeat of the 1910 fires, which burned more than 3 million acres and killed 85 people, said Jim Peterson, publisher of the forestry journal Evergreen Magazine. Today, trees continue to struggle to regenerate at some of the sites, he said....
Tapping the Bridger-Teton Conservation groups worry that growing demand for natural gas could mean future visitors to the Bridger-Teton National Forest will gaze at a forest of drilling derricks. But forest officials contend that won't happen. True, forest managers recently OK'd more than 100,000 acres in the forest for oil and gas leasing. But those leases, if sold, will likely come with stringent stipulations for environmental protections....
Charges filed in sheep-release case The couple who allegedly released 24 Navajo-Churro sheep in the national forest up Skalkaho Creek in May pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges Monday. Kathryn and Edward Reiff are charged with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals at large for the incident - one for each sheep that was allegedly released. The news of the released sheep concerned Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks because of the possibility of the rare breed of domestic sheep contaminating the bighorn sheep herd in the area. At least 13 of the released sheep have been killed by FWP officers....
Column: Sneaky Fees Stalk Public Lands Would you still call your town library "public" if a private corporation managed the books your taxes paid for, then charged you a fee to borrow them? Thanks to a provision sneaked into the recently passed federal spending bill, we may face that question about our public lands. Just hours before senators were expected to vote on the $388 billion, 3,000-plus page bill, a rider-- meaning no debate or vote possible -- was inserted, courtesy of Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The rider to the spending bill authorized federal agencies to extend recreation access fees on most public lands for the next 10 years. The tactic avoided an unwinnable vote on a program opposed by more than 300 organizations, four states and many county governments. Now, access fees can be charged on 600 million acres of our public land -- an area more than six times the size of Montana. These fees are more than a nuisance form of taxation. They undermine the very idea of these lands as publicly owned, and they open a path to unprecedented commercialization....
Conservationists seek to protect Jackson Lake snail A coalition of scientists and conservationists have petitioned for federal protection of a rare freshwater snail living in Jackson Lake. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the snail as threatened under the Endangered Species Act it could alter how the Bureau of Reclamation manages the lake, which is located in Grand Teton National Park. The bureau would have to account for it when deciding lake levels and water releases from Jackson Lake Dam....
Wyo sues Interior over wolf documents Wolves continue to multiply, and trees continue to die for more paper in yet the newest legal salvo between Wyoming and the federal government over the reintroduction of Canis lupus. The Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service in November rejected the state's wolf management plan, and now Wyoming demands the release of at least 69 undisclosed records or groups of records to explain the decision, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday by Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank....
Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona Conservationist Trevor Hare stands atop a scarred hillside in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, scoping out another spot of scorched earth in Southern Arizona's ongoing border conflict. Not so long ago, this isolated spot was like most of the surrounding Sonoita Valley countryside about an hour's drive southeast of Tucson, covered with tall grasses and cactus shaded by mesquite, cottonwood and ash trees. Now the hillside, which leads into an area known as The Narrows, is a chewed-up mess of boulders, concrete posts and metal stakes....
Wyo challenges protection of mouse New genetic information on the endangered Preble's meadow jumping mouse led Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday to petition the U.S. Department of Interior to remove the mouse from federal protection. Researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science conducted DNA research on the Preble's mouse, and concluded it is not genetically different than the campestris mouse commonly found in Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Canada. Ironically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday released a statement that previous petitions to remove the mouse from federal protection were unwarranted, due to insubstantial biological information....
Growers hopeful about proposal for fish habitat Mendocino County Farm Bureau President Peter Bradford is just one of many throughout the state who has been dealing with fisheries issues related to the Endangered Species Act. He said that he is cautiously optimistic about recent news brought by a federal fisheries agency that has scaled down critical habitat boundaries for several species of salmon and steelhead. "We are quite pleased with the reduction in area. That is going to be tremendous for a lot of the landowners here," Bradford said. "The regulatory hammer is always poised to come down. NOAA Fisheries still hasn't adequately proven the science to show that any conditions created by landowners are the cause of the species decline. But any reduction at all in impact areas is very good news." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed proposed rules in the Federal Register last week to designate critical habitat areas for species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. A revised version of previous designations, the plan could exclude more than 80 percent of the critical habitat that the agency previously said was necessary to save and strengthen fish populations....
Column: Sacrificing the Sage Grouse How many E Magazine readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration's scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests? That's certainly the way it looks after the New York Times revealed December 5 that a Bush Interior Department political appointee with no wildlife background, Julie MacDonald, inserted herself into the decision-making process. The consequence: USFWS is recommending that the highly endangered bird not be listed as such under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....
USDA is killing marauding wolves Wolf attacks on livestock have become an increasing problem in northern Wisconsin as the wolf population grows, but federal wildlife officials offered hope Tuesday for a solution. David Ruid, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the state Natural Resources Board that removing predator wolves from an area has helped. "This year we implemented our control program on 19 farms and solved this on 17 of those," Ruid said....
Study: Return of Wolves Changes Ecosystem Scientists studying the broader effects of wolf reintroduction said a growing body of evidence suggests that killing off predators such as wolves and grizzly bears in the last century started a cascade of effects that threw ecosystems out of balance. Researchers from Oregon State University found that a thriving wolf population not only changes where and how elk browse it even reverberates down to the number of willows that grow next to streams. The research, published in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management, comes as states begin to wrestle with a problem they haven't faced in nearly a century: how to deal with wolves....
Oil and Gas Development Targeted in National Forest Roadless Area A coalition of conservation and outdoor industry groups has formally asked the Forest Service to withdraw plans to lease over 20,000 acres for oil and gas drilling in Utah's Uinta National Forest. The leasing would allow industrial development in roadless areas along the Wasatch Front that provide valuable opportunities for hiking, fishing, and hunting, as well as habitat for wildlife such as the Bonneville cutthroat trout and northern goshawk. The groups sent a letter to the Forest Service yesterday asking the agency to withdraw its consent to leasing based on violations of federal environmental laws....
Conservationists Ask for Public Access to Otero Mesa Development Documents On behalf of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. to acquire documents explaining the Bush administration's proposal to open up New Mexico's pristine Otero Mesa to private oil and gas exploration. The suit is necessary because the BLM shared documents with oil and gas companies but refuses to share all of them with the public. Before the Bush administration came into office, the federal Bureau of Land Management planned to allow limited oil and gas development in Otero Mesa near existing roads. After the Bush administration took over, the BLM suddenly changed its plan to instead encourage widespread oil and gas development in virtually all parts of the largely unroaded natural area....
Swap fails; rancher says he'll build on prime land A northern Arizona rancher says Congress' failure to approve a huge and controversial exchange of private property for public land before adjourning its two-year legislative session on Wednesday means he will proceed with other options for his ranchland. "It is best for my family to concentrate our efforts on other alternatives for the ranch's future," Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin said after it became clear a bill including the land deal was dead. The proposed swap would have turned over 35,000 acres of Ruskin's ranch southeast of Seligman to Prescott National Forest in return for about 2,200 acres near Interstate 17 and Arizona 260 in Camp Verde, where Ruskin wanted to build a shopping center and housing development. With the legislation's failure, Ruskin has no option but to push ahead with his Plan B, which is developing homes on his land, according to Kurt Davis, who has been helping Ruskin lobby for the measure....
Congress intervenes in island wilderness debate, allows motorized tours Much to the chagrin of environmentalists, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to motorized tours of Georgia's Cumberland Island - the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. The congressional directive ends - at least for now - a bitter legal dispute over whether tourists should be able to more easily travel to some of the island's attractions, including a mansion once owned by the Andrew Carnegie family and the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. was married. Environmentalists warned that allowing motorized vehicles - even in limited numbers - would distract from the ambiance of the wilderness as experienced by those who explore it the old-fashioned way: on foot....
Column: Environmentalists Becoming Less and Less Relevant Environmental activists wanted two things to happen on Election Day -- they wanted President Bush to lose and their cause to be a big reason why. They got neither, and that may bode well for the future of environmental policy reform. Surveys taken before the elections showed that the environment was far down on the list of voters' concerns. For example, a Gallup poll taken earlier in 2004 ranked it 11th in importance among 12 issues. The election-day results bore this out, as the environment was barely on the radar compared to security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Overall, it is safe to say that environmental issues played no role in the outcome, and that probably would have been the case even if Bush had narrowly lost....
An Ad Campaign for Beef Rises to the Supreme Court The government went before the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the third time in recent years to defend an agricultural marketing program that requires producers to pay for advertising that not all of them want, and that some have challenged as compelled speech. "Beef: It's What's for Dinner," an advertising campaign financed by a $1 assessment on every head of cattle sold, was at issue this time. A dissident group of ranchers who believe their own beef to be superior and who see no benefit in generic advertising won a ruling from a federal appeals court that the assessment, usually referred to as a checkoff, violated their rights under the First Amendment....
Two brothels vying for 'Mustang Ranch' name No one really won the name "World Famous Mustang Ranch" at Tuesday's meeting of the Storey County brothel licensing board. The board decided to give the name to both parties jostling for it - at least until a federal court rules otherwise. Storey County Commissioner Greg "Bum" Hess said Tuesday that Lance Gilman and David Burgess, both of whom operate brothels in the county, can use the name until the federal court for the Nevada district decides on the trademark case. That decision should determine who owns the notorious name of Nevada's first legal bordello....
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Interior Department's No. 2 Resigns After Controversial Tenure J. Steven Griles, the former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector. Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients. An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies Inc. even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules....
Wolf plan lacks cattle rancher support Continued criticism from ranchers is expected when a wolf management plan that has preliminary approval of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission gets a public airing Friday. The Salem public hearing is the first of three scheduled by the panel before Feb. 11, when it is to make a final decision on the plan that would allow ranchers to kill wolves seen attacking their livestock. Approving the rules to implement the plan won't be the end, though, because the Legislature would need to revise the state's endangered species law. The commission is responding to changes in federal policy that are expected to cause wolves to migrate to Oregon from Idaho....
Agency says ads misinform The Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say some people in western Wyoming are deliberately spreading misinformation about the state's grizzly bear occupancy management plan. An unknown group has borrowed the Game and Fish Department's Grizzly Bear Working Group name and placed ads in several local newspapers. The ads claim the state's plan "would have a devastating effect on ‘multiple use' by area citizens," closing down grazing, logging, roads, trails and campgrounds....
Editorial: Best choice for managing wolves This is, of course, a touchy subject that triggers all sorts of volatile reactions from folks. Some wolf advocates have little trust in the state to manage relatively small populations on the Montana landscape, preferring that task be left to the heavy, protective hands of the federal government. Those who flat-out dislike wolves wonder why the heck the state is taking any role in protecting and managing them. Both positions are off-center, missing the major point: Like it or not, wolves have protected status under the Endangered Species Act, and the state is just plain better suited to manage them than the federal government....
Turtle nests could stall post-hurricane dune restoration Plans to repair sand dunes damaged from Florida's historic hurricane season could be blocked by nesting sea turtles until the end of next year's hurricane season, officials said. State officials have hoped to spend nearly $70 million to make repairs before more storms carve into severely eroded beaches, but local officials say little work can be done before the end of April, when sea turtles return to the Florida shoreline to lay their eggs. When that happens, restoration projects could be stalled at many beaches until November because of federal protections for the endangered species....
Dubois crowd grills G&F on grizzlies A deeply suspicious, rancorous crowd of 150 filled the Headwaters Art and Conference Center here Monday night to learn about the grizzly bear occupancy plan proposed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. During a question and answer session with Game and Fish representatives, the Dubois audience seemed suspicious of the motives of state and federal agencies alike when it comes to managing the tri-state population of grizzly bears after it is removed from Endangered Species Act protection. "When are we going to get our lifestyle back?" was one question shouted from the rear of the hall, voicing widespread resentment toward an expanding grizzly bear population that has made hunters and hikers wary of venturing into grizzly country....
ESA Under Review Western governors convening a two-day summit on the federal Endangered Species Act heard a list of complaints: Too few plants and animals saved. Too many lawsuits filed. The economic costs of the act are too high. Attended by nearly 300 people representing industry, agriculture and conservation groups, the governors' Endangered Species Act summit comes at a time when the Bush administration is changing how the 31-year-old landmark environmental law is interpreted and enforced. The western governors made it clear that they expect to have a voice in future decisions. Of the more than 1,200 species listed by the federal government as threatened or endangered, nearly 70 percent are located in 18 Western states...
Editorial: Reopen forest without the delay WHEN the U.S. Forest Service in late October rescinded its wacky edict and declared it was re-opening the Angeles National Forest, they were telling half- truths. In fact, access to large portions remain closed for reasons that are unclear. Closures continue to deny public access to the upper reaches of Azusa Canyon, closed since the October 2002 Curve-Williams Fire. Closures at the entrance to Glendora Mountain Road and Chantry Flat Road deny millions of visitors each year access to some of the most reachable forest acreage. Chantry Flat Road's closure epitomizes the Forest Service's stubborn preoccupation with keeping forest access roads closed and therefore, keeping people out. Fewer people, less work. Sounds good if you are a Forest Service employee....
Editorial: End to range wars might lie at 'radical center' And it is particularly satisfying to apply Stegner's sunny observation to the long, often bitter spat between New Mexico's ranchers and environmentalists. A three-part series that ended Dec. 4 by Tribune reporter Carrie Seidman, titled "Change on the range," suggests that one of the most innovative and promising strategies for preserving both Western lands and the ranching way of life is being developed right here in the Land of Enchantment. The strategy, promoted by the 7-year-old Quivira Coalition of Santa Fe, appears to be having some success....
BLM Launches Two New Web-Based Tools for Accessing Land Use Records The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the deployment of “Land and Mineral Use Records” and “Federal Land Stewardship,” two new Web-based data tools within its GeoCommunicator website. Part of the BLM’s E-Government initiative, GeoCommunicator (www.geocommunicator.gov) is a website for the distribution of spatial data from the BLM’s Land and Minerals Records System and the joint BLM-U.S. Forest Service U.S. National Integrated Land System (NILS). NILS uses ESRI’s ArcGIS 9 technology and Model Builder to develop and standardize BLM’s land management business processes....
Column: We Need a Green March It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It's proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, whoever happens to be president can jerk around the priorities of key agencies like the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The environmental movement's halt is important in the West, because this is the movement that set aside all the federal land that distinguishes the region, and it defends the bedrock laws that preserve the qualities of the land, wildlife, water and air....
New plan for dams aims to improve salmon runs Two hydroelectric dams once blamed for harming Skagit River and Baker River salmon runs would be managed in a more fish-friendly way under an agreement reached by Puget Sound Energy, tribes, state and federal environmental agencies and environmental groups. The deal would set stricter limits on how much water should be released from two dams on the Baker River, which flows through the North Cascades town of Concrete, Skagit County, before joining the Skagit River. The energy company, which owns the dams that have a combined output of 175 megawatts of power, also would pay for expanding a fish hatchery, transporting fish around the dams, improving habitat, redeveloping a resort along Baker Lake and protecting tribal cultural sites....
Editorial: Horse-trading for more water On Thursday, the Arizona Water Banking Authority is expected to approve a pact that transfers 1.25 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Nevada. In return, Arizona will be paid $330 million over the next 14 years and gain something it has shunned for years: a strategic partner in determining the future of the Colorado River and protecting its own water supply. This deal, tantalizingly close to completion after years of negotiations, creates a water bank in Arizona. The Southern Nevada Water Authority would be able to draw from that bank by taking water from Lake Mead that otherwise would flow downstream to Arizona. Nevada can withdraw as much as 20,000 acre feet -- one year's supply for about 30,000 Las Vegas Valley households -- beginning in 2007. By 2011, the state could draw 40,000 acre-feet per year until the 1.25 million acre-feet credit is gone. The deal was reached, in part, because of the increasing likelihood that both Arizona and Nevada will have their shares of Colorado River water reduced as a result of the West's persistent drought. If federal authorities declare a "shortage condition" on the river, Arizona will absorb the biggest share of that reduction....
Land bared by receded waters sparks Lake Powell debate With the waters of Lake Powell receding because of the drought and its once-submerged canyons re-emerging, has the time come to start looking at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as more than a reservoir? A local environmental group says yes. The Glen Canyon Institute has petitioned the National Park Service to adopt a new management plan for Lake Powell, arguing that the reappearance of the canyon after 40 years mandates a reappraisal of how the agency defines the recreation area....
Energy report aims to move U.S. forward In an attempt to break a deadlock on a national energy policy, a diverse group of environmentalists, academics and former government officials will publish a report today that presents strategies for making the country cleaner, more competitive and less vulnerable to energy shocks. The strategies, intended to be the basis for action by Congress, include policies that are generally anathema to at least some of the constituencies represented by members of the group. It says the government should force increases in efficiency in cars and electrical equipment, stimulate global oil production, regulate ``greenhouse gas'' emissions with a trading system, rapidly expand a new method of burning coal and explore a revival of nuclear power. The $5 million, two-year private study, titled ``Ending the Energy Stalemate,'' is intended to be a package-deal blueprint, akin to a Ford Foundation report 30 years ago that first suggested vehicle mileage standards and a national petroleum reserve....
FBI Considers Ecoterrorism A Growing National Threat Ecoterrorism, suspected in the torching of a tony housing development near a sensitive wetland this week, is a growing national threat, the FBI says. The radical campaign gets less publicity than the sister movement of animal rights activism, known for freeing animals from cages and threatening laboratory employees. But the FBI, which dubs both movements "special interest extremism", blames them for 1,100 criminal acts that have caused $110 million worth of damage since 1976. Both types of extremists have emerged in recent years as a "serious domestic threat", the agency says....
Column: Stealing Property Rights in the Name of Historic Preservation The West Bridgewater Historical Commission announced in early October that it wants to create a "demolition delay bylaw" whereby any property owner who wishes to demolish his old, decrepit home and replace it with a new one, must file a "notice of intent to demolish a significant building" and wait for up to half a year to receive (or not receive) a "demolition permit." Once a property owner files his request to do want he wants to with his property, the Historical Committee schedules a public hearing on the matter and the property owner is required to post a notice of the public hearing that is visible from the nearest public way. After the public hearing, the Commission is given 21 days to cast its judgment and decide whether the property owner’s plans to do what he wants with his property conflict with what South Boston’s The Enterprise describes as "West Bridgewater's historical, cultural or architectural heritage or resources." In other words, the property owner is screwed....
Next on Supreme Court menu: beef and free speech For years, beef was considered the bad boy of American cuisine. Rising health concerns about red meat and soaring prices in the 1980s plunged the beef industry into crisis. The problem got so bad that in 1985, Congress passed the Beef Act - a law aimed at improving the image of steaks, burgers, and even pot roast. The centerpiece of the effort was a generic advertisement: "Beef: It's What's for Dinner." An industry organization, the Livestock Marketing Association, and a group of ranchers are challenging the constitutionality of the Beef Act - saying it forces some beef producers to pay for advertising that they do not support....
WNFR Journal: Round 4 Now that is more like it. Round 4 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was pretty spicy. Guys who needed to get with the program did just that. Even the team ropers got into the spirit of things and posted their strongest overall performance in four rounds. If you are Kelly Timberman and leading in the world standings, the last thing you want to see is reigning champion Will Lowe jumping around in the Thomas & Mack Arena and celebrating a go-round win. Lowe has placed in the last two rounds, but is well back in the aggregate race. Lowe is so much fun to watch. He brings that youthful exuberance with him everywhere he goes. It may take more than boyish charm though to pull out a second straight world championship. Have you ever tried to follow someone through traffic and no matter what you do you can't keep up? That has to be how 14 steer wrestlers feel about Luke Branquinho.... You can also see Medders comments on rounds one, two and three...
Interior Department's No. 2 Resigns After Controversial Tenure J. Steven Griles, the former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector. Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients. An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies Inc. even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules....
Wolf plan lacks cattle rancher support Continued criticism from ranchers is expected when a wolf management plan that has preliminary approval of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission gets a public airing Friday. The Salem public hearing is the first of three scheduled by the panel before Feb. 11, when it is to make a final decision on the plan that would allow ranchers to kill wolves seen attacking their livestock. Approving the rules to implement the plan won't be the end, though, because the Legislature would need to revise the state's endangered species law. The commission is responding to changes in federal policy that are expected to cause wolves to migrate to Oregon from Idaho....
Agency says ads misinform The Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say some people in western Wyoming are deliberately spreading misinformation about the state's grizzly bear occupancy management plan. An unknown group has borrowed the Game and Fish Department's Grizzly Bear Working Group name and placed ads in several local newspapers. The ads claim the state's plan "would have a devastating effect on ‘multiple use' by area citizens," closing down grazing, logging, roads, trails and campgrounds....
Editorial: Best choice for managing wolves This is, of course, a touchy subject that triggers all sorts of volatile reactions from folks. Some wolf advocates have little trust in the state to manage relatively small populations on the Montana landscape, preferring that task be left to the heavy, protective hands of the federal government. Those who flat-out dislike wolves wonder why the heck the state is taking any role in protecting and managing them. Both positions are off-center, missing the major point: Like it or not, wolves have protected status under the Endangered Species Act, and the state is just plain better suited to manage them than the federal government....
Turtle nests could stall post-hurricane dune restoration Plans to repair sand dunes damaged from Florida's historic hurricane season could be blocked by nesting sea turtles until the end of next year's hurricane season, officials said. State officials have hoped to spend nearly $70 million to make repairs before more storms carve into severely eroded beaches, but local officials say little work can be done before the end of April, when sea turtles return to the Florida shoreline to lay their eggs. When that happens, restoration projects could be stalled at many beaches until November because of federal protections for the endangered species....
Dubois crowd grills G&F on grizzlies A deeply suspicious, rancorous crowd of 150 filled the Headwaters Art and Conference Center here Monday night to learn about the grizzly bear occupancy plan proposed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. During a question and answer session with Game and Fish representatives, the Dubois audience seemed suspicious of the motives of state and federal agencies alike when it comes to managing the tri-state population of grizzly bears after it is removed from Endangered Species Act protection. "When are we going to get our lifestyle back?" was one question shouted from the rear of the hall, voicing widespread resentment toward an expanding grizzly bear population that has made hunters and hikers wary of venturing into grizzly country....
ESA Under Review Western governors convening a two-day summit on the federal Endangered Species Act heard a list of complaints: Too few plants and animals saved. Too many lawsuits filed. The economic costs of the act are too high. Attended by nearly 300 people representing industry, agriculture and conservation groups, the governors' Endangered Species Act summit comes at a time when the Bush administration is changing how the 31-year-old landmark environmental law is interpreted and enforced. The western governors made it clear that they expect to have a voice in future decisions. Of the more than 1,200 species listed by the federal government as threatened or endangered, nearly 70 percent are located in 18 Western states...
Editorial: Reopen forest without the delay WHEN the U.S. Forest Service in late October rescinded its wacky edict and declared it was re-opening the Angeles National Forest, they were telling half- truths. In fact, access to large portions remain closed for reasons that are unclear. Closures continue to deny public access to the upper reaches of Azusa Canyon, closed since the October 2002 Curve-Williams Fire. Closures at the entrance to Glendora Mountain Road and Chantry Flat Road deny millions of visitors each year access to some of the most reachable forest acreage. Chantry Flat Road's closure epitomizes the Forest Service's stubborn preoccupation with keeping forest access roads closed and therefore, keeping people out. Fewer people, less work. Sounds good if you are a Forest Service employee....
Editorial: End to range wars might lie at 'radical center' And it is particularly satisfying to apply Stegner's sunny observation to the long, often bitter spat between New Mexico's ranchers and environmentalists. A three-part series that ended Dec. 4 by Tribune reporter Carrie Seidman, titled "Change on the range," suggests that one of the most innovative and promising strategies for preserving both Western lands and the ranching way of life is being developed right here in the Land of Enchantment. The strategy, promoted by the 7-year-old Quivira Coalition of Santa Fe, appears to be having some success....
BLM Launches Two New Web-Based Tools for Accessing Land Use Records The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the deployment of “Land and Mineral Use Records” and “Federal Land Stewardship,” two new Web-based data tools within its GeoCommunicator website. Part of the BLM’s E-Government initiative, GeoCommunicator (www.geocommunicator.gov) is a website for the distribution of spatial data from the BLM’s Land and Minerals Records System and the joint BLM-U.S. Forest Service U.S. National Integrated Land System (NILS). NILS uses ESRI’s ArcGIS 9 technology and Model Builder to develop and standardize BLM’s land management business processes....
Column: We Need a Green March It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It's proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, whoever happens to be president can jerk around the priorities of key agencies like the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The environmental movement's halt is important in the West, because this is the movement that set aside all the federal land that distinguishes the region, and it defends the bedrock laws that preserve the qualities of the land, wildlife, water and air....
New plan for dams aims to improve salmon runs Two hydroelectric dams once blamed for harming Skagit River and Baker River salmon runs would be managed in a more fish-friendly way under an agreement reached by Puget Sound Energy, tribes, state and federal environmental agencies and environmental groups. The deal would set stricter limits on how much water should be released from two dams on the Baker River, which flows through the North Cascades town of Concrete, Skagit County, before joining the Skagit River. The energy company, which owns the dams that have a combined output of 175 megawatts of power, also would pay for expanding a fish hatchery, transporting fish around the dams, improving habitat, redeveloping a resort along Baker Lake and protecting tribal cultural sites....
Editorial: Horse-trading for more water On Thursday, the Arizona Water Banking Authority is expected to approve a pact that transfers 1.25 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Nevada. In return, Arizona will be paid $330 million over the next 14 years and gain something it has shunned for years: a strategic partner in determining the future of the Colorado River and protecting its own water supply. This deal, tantalizingly close to completion after years of negotiations, creates a water bank in Arizona. The Southern Nevada Water Authority would be able to draw from that bank by taking water from Lake Mead that otherwise would flow downstream to Arizona. Nevada can withdraw as much as 20,000 acre feet -- one year's supply for about 30,000 Las Vegas Valley households -- beginning in 2007. By 2011, the state could draw 40,000 acre-feet per year until the 1.25 million acre-feet credit is gone. The deal was reached, in part, because of the increasing likelihood that both Arizona and Nevada will have their shares of Colorado River water reduced as a result of the West's persistent drought. If federal authorities declare a "shortage condition" on the river, Arizona will absorb the biggest share of that reduction....
Land bared by receded waters sparks Lake Powell debate With the waters of Lake Powell receding because of the drought and its once-submerged canyons re-emerging, has the time come to start looking at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as more than a reservoir? A local environmental group says yes. The Glen Canyon Institute has petitioned the National Park Service to adopt a new management plan for Lake Powell, arguing that the reappearance of the canyon after 40 years mandates a reappraisal of how the agency defines the recreation area....
Energy report aims to move U.S. forward In an attempt to break a deadlock on a national energy policy, a diverse group of environmentalists, academics and former government officials will publish a report today that presents strategies for making the country cleaner, more competitive and less vulnerable to energy shocks. The strategies, intended to be the basis for action by Congress, include policies that are generally anathema to at least some of the constituencies represented by members of the group. It says the government should force increases in efficiency in cars and electrical equipment, stimulate global oil production, regulate ``greenhouse gas'' emissions with a trading system, rapidly expand a new method of burning coal and explore a revival of nuclear power. The $5 million, two-year private study, titled ``Ending the Energy Stalemate,'' is intended to be a package-deal blueprint, akin to a Ford Foundation report 30 years ago that first suggested vehicle mileage standards and a national petroleum reserve....
FBI Considers Ecoterrorism A Growing National Threat Ecoterrorism, suspected in the torching of a tony housing development near a sensitive wetland this week, is a growing national threat, the FBI says. The radical campaign gets less publicity than the sister movement of animal rights activism, known for freeing animals from cages and threatening laboratory employees. But the FBI, which dubs both movements "special interest extremism", blames them for 1,100 criminal acts that have caused $110 million worth of damage since 1976. Both types of extremists have emerged in recent years as a "serious domestic threat", the agency says....
Column: Stealing Property Rights in the Name of Historic Preservation The West Bridgewater Historical Commission announced in early October that it wants to create a "demolition delay bylaw" whereby any property owner who wishes to demolish his old, decrepit home and replace it with a new one, must file a "notice of intent to demolish a significant building" and wait for up to half a year to receive (or not receive) a "demolition permit." Once a property owner files his request to do want he wants to with his property, the Historical Committee schedules a public hearing on the matter and the property owner is required to post a notice of the public hearing that is visible from the nearest public way. After the public hearing, the Commission is given 21 days to cast its judgment and decide whether the property owner’s plans to do what he wants with his property conflict with what South Boston’s The Enterprise describes as "West Bridgewater's historical, cultural or architectural heritage or resources." In other words, the property owner is screwed....
Next on Supreme Court menu: beef and free speech For years, beef was considered the bad boy of American cuisine. Rising health concerns about red meat and soaring prices in the 1980s plunged the beef industry into crisis. The problem got so bad that in 1985, Congress passed the Beef Act - a law aimed at improving the image of steaks, burgers, and even pot roast. The centerpiece of the effort was a generic advertisement: "Beef: It's What's for Dinner." An industry organization, the Livestock Marketing Association, and a group of ranchers are challenging the constitutionality of the Beef Act - saying it forces some beef producers to pay for advertising that they do not support....
WNFR Journal: Round 4 Now that is more like it. Round 4 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was pretty spicy. Guys who needed to get with the program did just that. Even the team ropers got into the spirit of things and posted their strongest overall performance in four rounds. If you are Kelly Timberman and leading in the world standings, the last thing you want to see is reigning champion Will Lowe jumping around in the Thomas & Mack Arena and celebrating a go-round win. Lowe has placed in the last two rounds, but is well back in the aggregate race. Lowe is so much fun to watch. He brings that youthful exuberance with him everywhere he goes. It may take more than boyish charm though to pull out a second straight world championship. Have you ever tried to follow someone through traffic and no matter what you do you can't keep up? That has to be how 14 steer wrestlers feel about Luke Branquinho.... You can also see Medders comments on rounds one, two and three...
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