NEWS ROUNDUP
Editorial: Caution on forest land sales The U.S. Forest Service may be getting a green light to sell some properties, but the plan could have disturbing results. The underlying problem is that the Forest Service is short on cash. Its budget has been a mess for years - in fact, its accounting is so convoluted that it has failed past government audits. Congress also chronically shortchanges the agency's operations. Against this backdrop, the U.S. Senate, at the Bush administration's behest, included language in an appropriations bill to let the Forest Service auction off thousands of parcels of national forest. Some of the properties may truly be surplus, but others have important public uses and shouldn't be sold....
Feds seek a better wild horse trap First light of day is just breaking over the sagebrush and juniper-covered scrubland of the Devil's Garden as Rob Jeffers and his crew head out in search of wild horses. By 6 a.m. their work horses are saddled and two helicopters are airborne, and the hunt is on. Scattered somewhere across thousands of acres of rangeland are an estimated 700 wild horses. Federal officials would like to reduce that number by more than half. Jeffers, wild horse manager for the Alturas-based Modoc National Forest and the person in charge of the gather, checks the setup....
Man found in women's outhouse says he lost ring The Maine man police discovered at the bottom of a women's outhouse last month told investigators that he was searching for his wedding ring. Judge Pamela Albee continued bail at $250 personal recognizance and stipulated several bail conditions, including that he stay out of women's restrooms and off U.S. Forest Service property pending his trial on the misdemeanor counts. According to court papers filed by Carroll County Sheriff's Department Capt. Jon Herbert, officers were called to the Lower Falls by a U.S. Forest Service worker on June 26 after a girl entered the restroom and saw a man in the raw sewage vault "looking up at her."....
Officials remove protesters' log cabin A log cabin erected by protesters trying to block logging on a timber sale in southwestern Oregon was removed by logger and U.S. Forest Service officials. Using equipment provided by the loggers, including a skidder and a front-end loader, the Forest Service pushed the logs to one side on Sunday, said Forest Service spokesman Tom Lavagnino. The cabin was erected this past weekend in the middle of the only road leading to the Hobson timber sale in the Siskiyou National Forest, one of the areas burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire, according to Wild Siskiyou Action, the group that undertook the protest....
Report adds up salamander’s effect on real estate A proposal to set aside land for the California tiger salamander could add up to $367 million in lost opportunities to build more houses and businesses over the next 20 years, according to the latest study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But a representative of an environmental group dedicated to saving the amphibian said Friday that the report by Charles Rivers and Associates of Oakland overlooks the economic benefits of saving habitat for rare plants and animals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing that 382,666 acres of land be named as critical habitat for the salamander, listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. Service spokesman Al Donner said a critical habitat label doesn’t necessarily prohibit building on these lands, but it does give environmentalists, open-space advocates and political jurisdictions a federal policy to refer to when critiquing environmental reviews for annexation proposals or public works projects. It also gives agencies like the San Joaquin Council of Governments an idea of which lands are best for conservation easements, where the agency buys land or pays landowners to keep them from selling to developers....
Ducks Out of Water? Waterfowlers traditionally spend their summers wondering if the upcoming duck season will bring more, or less: Will the bag limit be higher or lower? Will the season be longer or shorter? Will there be more greenheads or fewer? But some of the nation’s top waterfowl managers suggest that hunters may soon be adding a sobering new factor to their summer equations: Will there even be a next season? What was once unthinkable—closed seasons—is now a valid consideration due to a chain of legal and political decisions that has stripped federal protection from the continent’s most critical waterfowl habitat: the prairie pothole nesting grounds of the northern plains. This region is responsible for most of the ducks that keep seasons open....
Bat Houses Will Prevent Residents From Going ‘Batty’ Over West Nile Want to cut your citronella costs for the summer and still control mosquitoes? Then why not put Nature to work? With the Center for Disease Control warning that the West Nile Virus may be making a resurgence due to the wet and mild winter just passed, many are turning to an unlikely source for relief from summer pests: bats. Bats, or more specifically the Little Brown Bat ( Myotis lucifugus ) which is common throughout the country, are gluttonous little rodents that can each eat 500 or more mosquitoes per hour. Think about a small colony of 250 bats, feeding for eight hours per night, and you’re looking at tons of mosquitoes destroyed over the course of a summer and without the environmental damage done by other methods. “Unfortunately, many people still see bats in the same context as Dracula,” says Dr. Ed Markin of F. Hooker Products ( F.H.P. ). “They are misunderstood, unnecessarily feared and becoming endangered when they could be put to work for our benefit.” F.H.P. makes commercial bat houses and brood boxes for the National Park Service, U.S. Army, several universities, and virtually every vineyard in the world. Bats are instrumental in wine production as they perform as much as 40% of the pollination of grapes. F.H.P. now offers bat domiciles for private use starting at around $40 for a single chamber box that will house 250 or so bats....
Feds want drillers to pay application fee The Bush administration wants to charge oil and gas drillers to process permits to drill on federal land. The proposal comes amid rising federal deficits, a shrinking Bureau of Land Management budget and a boom in drilling on Western public lands. Currently there is no charge for "applications for permits to drill," or APDs. Drillers do pay rent on leases, and royalties on the oil and gas they take out of the ground. But the BLM doesn't charge for the administrative cost of processing permit applications. The proposal is to be published in today's Federal Register. It calls for a $4,000 fee per APD, to be phased in over five years, starting at $1,600....
Editorial: Silly comparisons by Ward, Noel not helpful in lands dispute There have been good-faith attempts to bring all sides to the table to discuss rural road use in Utah and to set the stage for essential compromises. Comments by Assistant Attorney General Mark Ward and Rep. Mike Noel to the Farm Bureau last week aren't among them. Instead, the two seemed bent on wiping out any progress made a month ago when Kane and Garfield county officials met with representatives of the Bureau of Land Management at the governor's office at the invitation of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. They discussed a dispute over rights of way in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that in 2003 led to Kane County officials destroying BLM signs that restricted access in the area and placing signs welcoming off-road vehicles. The U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating whether there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges. Herbert's meeting did not end the conflict, of course, but may have started a healthy dialogue. Thursday's inflammatory pontificating, on the other hand, encouraged defiance....
Governor backs new split estate law Gov. Dave Freudenthal is resisting pressures to exempt federal minerals from Wyoming's new split estate laws, despite Bureau of Land Management pressures to do so. Split estate laws govern the extraction of minerals, which are usually owned separately from the surface land they lie beneath. State and federal laws give companies the right to reasonable use of the surface to extract the new minerals. Freudenthal said the new laws, which went into effect July 1, give landowners increased "procedural protections." They addressed notification of landowners and payment for damages. For example, federal agencies had become lax on enforcing things such as notifying landowners, he said. But BLM Director Kathleen Clarke challenged the new laws in a letter to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission. According to the preemption doctrine, which says federal laws trump state ones, the new rules don't apply to federal minerals since they impede development of that land, she wrote. Freudenthal said he wasn't worried about future court battles between the state and the federal agency. Clarke's comments seemed to be a "for-the-record-letter," not a harbinger of upcoming legal troubles, he said. If litigation does come, it will most likely come from companies, not the federal government, he said....
Column: Drilling the Wild Rod and gun in hand, and backing the Second Amendment right to own firearms, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have won the hearts of America’s sportsmen. Yet the two men have failed to protect outdoor sports on the nation’s public lands. With deep ties to the oil and gas industry, Bush and Cheney have unleashed a national energy plan that has begun to destroy hunting and fishing on millions of federal acres throughout the West, setting back effective wildlife management for decades to come. In his second week in office, President Bush convened a National Energy Policy Development Group, chaired by Vice President Cheney. Meeting with representatives of the energy industry behind closed doors, it eventually released a National Energy Policy, the goal of which was to “expedite permits and coordinate federal, state, and local actions necessary for energy-related project approvals on a national basis.” Put into practice through a series of executive orders, the policy has prioritized drilling over other uses on federal lands, while relegating long-standing conservation mandates from the 1960s and ’70s to the back burner. For example, in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management has approved over 75 percent of the energy industry’s applications for exemptions to work in critical winter range, heretofore closed to protect wildlife—sage grouse, mule deer, and pronghorns, in particular (the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 gave agencies the means to close critical habitat). The BLM has also continued to issue drilling leases while in the process of writing new resource management plans that still await public comment....
Cattle shipments resume from Canada The first new shipment of Canadian cattle rolled into the United States on Monday, four days after a federal appeals court ended a two-year-old ban originally instituted because of mad cow disease. Thirty-five black Angus cattle crossed the border around noon at Lewiston, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, according to the shipper, Schaus Land and Cattle Co. of Elmwood, Ontario. "We've been waiting for this since the border closed," said company controller Luke Simpson. In the state of Washington, common destination for Canadian cattle, another Canadian shipper has submitted a request to cross the border there....
NHSFR begins week-long run at Gillette Competition at the 57th annual National High School Finals Rodeo enters its second day at the CAM-PLEX with performances at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. today. Rodeo performances continue daily through Sunday. Cowboys and cowgirls from 40 states, five Canadian provinces and Australia are competing for a slot in Sunday's final round that begins at 1 p.m. The top 20 contestants in each event will advance. Called the "World's Largest Rodeo," more than 1,500 contestants are entered in this years' NHSFR....
Casper cowboy leads bull riding Forget waiting around, Clayton Savage was ready. When the draw for the National High School Finals Rodeo was posted on Sunday, Savage knew he would be in the first group of bull riders. He did just that, posting a 76-point ride to win the first performance at the NHSFR at Cam-Plex in Gillette on Monday. Savage wasn't the only one to take advantage of an early draw position in the week-long rodeo. Pole bender Tyler Rose Walton of Raton, N.M., excited the crowd in Morningside Park with a 20.178-second ride, the best of the go so far. Jordan Muncy, Walton's New Mexico teammate, was no slouch either. The Cedarville cowgirl turned in a barrel racing run of 17.64 seconds, which gave her a 0.007-second edge over Shelly Combs of Eltopia, Wash., for the top spot in the first performance....
Six inducted into ProRodeo Hall of Fame The ProRodeo Hall of Fame celebrated its 26th annual induction ceremony on Saturday with six individuals receiving the ultimate honor in professional rodeo. Headlining the Class of 2005 was the late Chris LeDoux of Kaycee, Wyo., who not only won the 1976 world bareback riding title, but also brought attention to rodeo through his music. Joining LeDoux was 1981 World All-Around Champion Jimmie Cooper of Monument, N.M., 1978 World Saddle Bronc Riding Champion Joe Marvel of Battle Mountain, Nev., late team roper Charles Maggini of Hollister, Calif., stock contractor Marvin Brookman of Wolf Point, Mont., and late rodeo clown Slim Pickens of Kingsburg, Calif....
It's All Trew: X-rays once used to ensure the perfect fit for shoes Many readers recalled shoe-buying expeditions of the past where the buyer placed their feet into a machine that showed an X-ray picture of their feet inside the new shoes. This sounded like a pretty-far-out tale to me, but the story is true and here are the facts. The "Shoe-Fitting-Flouroscope" was once a common fixture in better shoe stores from 1930 to 1950. The wooden fixture contained a step near the bottom with a hole in which to insert your feet inside the prospective new pair of shoes. Three viewing ports were located on the top for the customer, the customer's companion or mother and the salesman to see how the shoes fit. A push-button turned the machine on for about 20-second intervals. Inside, the shadowy outline of the bones and shape of the foot could be seen inside the outline of the shoe, thus providing a better fit for the customer....
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Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolf pack blamed for cow killing in Idaho A wolf pack that already has killed six hunting dogs likely killed an adult cow last week, officials said. But the dead cow cannot be positively linked to wolves, so federal wildlife officials say no action can be taken against the pack, which is active between Elk River and Dworshak Reservoir. Still, said Carter Niemeyer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, action will be taken if more livestock deaths are linked to the pack. ''That pack was confirmed to be a problem last year. We would probably engage in some incremental removal of the pack if they are confirmed to be a problem this year,'' Niemeyer said. Rancher Suzanne Beale found the dead cow Monday and saw a wolf run from it as she approached. She called Wildlife Services Agent Dave Thomas to investigate, and though Thomas found it probable that wolves killed the cow, the carcass had no tooth puncture marks - which meant it was impossible to say for certain that wolves were responsible. Federal authorities only authorize killing wolves if it can be proved that the animals were responsible for livestock deaths....
Cougar Kill Chris Catania’s five dogs had a confrontation last month in their rural backyard that has become all too familiar to residents in the Foots Creek drainage. About 5:30 p.m., a cougar apparently hopped a four-foot fence in hopes of turning one of Catania’s five dogs into an evening meal. Dexter, an 8-year-old mix, dashed to the porch and tore a nail trying to scratch his way inside. Reba, a Queensland heeler, stood and fought, suffering a side gash as clean as a surgeon’s scalpel. The other dogs eventually scared off the cougar, which Catania and her husband, Bruce, spotted again last week prowling outside their rural Hosmer Lane house. Area landowners have tried to kill the cougar themselves, and at least two houndsmen have been hired to tree and kill the cougar, Maxwell says. One neighbor wears a side-arm just to mow his lawn, and others have stopped jogging until the offending cougar or cougars are found and killed....
'Trespassing cattle' case comes to close According to the Nevada Department of Agriculture, "years of controversy" ended on June 16 when an Esmeralda County Grand Jury issued a finding of "no indictable criminal activity" was conducted by department personnel in the seizure of Esmeralda County rancher Ben Colvin's cows in 2001. The incident was resolved in favor of the agency and was related to the locally debated confiscation of 64 head of Colvin's cattle in 2001. Colvin claimed he had legal access to the public lands on which the cows grazed and the agency's taking had violated the law. Colvin questioned the issuance of a Nevada brand inspection certificate from the Nevada Department of Agriculture to the Bureau of Land Management in the 2001 cattle seizure....
Access takes center stage Once there was enough room for multiple users of public lands to do what they needed to do with very little conflict. They seldom ran into each other. In the last decade, 8.2 million homes were built on the urban-wildlands interface, bringing with them some 32 million people demanding increased recreation on public lands, developed or otherwise. Access, threatened and endangered species, and invasive species are only a few of the issues around which much conflict is appearing. This is particularly true in five interior Western states that saw the fastest population increases in the 1990s: Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. “It’s tempting to talk about these issues in terms of the Old West vs. the New West. I’m not sure that description is terribly helpful,” said Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Old vs. new suggests a linear progression and perpetuates some conflicts, making it harder to get beyond them.”....
Vegas Water Wars No-limit poker isn't simply the defining prestige game for Las Vegas, it's also a metaphor for the physical structure of the city. For all practical purposes, Las Vegas has no geographic impediments to expansion. It doesn't have an ocean to run into, or a towering cordillera to abut: just the vast and sere desert on all sides, much of it flat and friendly to sprawling tracts. All this elbow room has combined with an explosive economy to create growth that is positively fungoid in character. Greater Las Vegas now has a population of 1.7 million, with about 80,000 new residents added annually. It far outstrips any other U.S. city in employment growth, generating 76,000 new jobs last year alone....
Push is on to preserve desert After years of failed attempts by Arizona lawmakers to reform state trust land laws, a coalition of conservation, education and business leaders is poised to ask Arizona voters to ratify a plan to save hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin desert before developers plow them under. The agreement has been carefully crafted to ensure that Arizona's public schools and the children they serve, the primary beneficiaries of high-priced public land sales, do not suffer a loss of income, coalition members say. A new statewide initiative would alter the Arizona Constitution and, combined with a congressional amendment to the law that created Arizona in 1912, would make conservation a legitimate use of some of the 9.3 million acres of land Arizona holds in trust to help fund education and other state agencies....
Editorial: Shift to placate ranchers could put resources at risk When cattle and sheep graze on fragile public lands, there is a risk of damaging the ecosystem that supports wild plants and animals as well as clean water. To minimize that risk, regulations in the past gave Bureau of Land Management officers authority to step in and quickly assess potential damage and, if necessary, to take action to uphold the standards for protecting rangeland. Public comments were solicited on grazing decisions that affected these lands that are owned by the taxpayers. Unfortunately, the federal BLM has changed the rules, limiting public comment to grazing plans and reports; those who ostensibly own the land - the public - will not be allowed to question decisions that profoundly affect the land. Under the new regulations, local BLM officers must make detailed analyses before they can do anything to prevent or correct the effects of overgrazing on land, water sources and wildlife....
Federal Officials Echoed Grazing-Rule Warnings Federal wildlife managers across the West warned the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that new livestock grazing regulations were potentially harmful to wildlife and water quality, adding their voices to those of BLM scientists who said similar criticism was excised by Washington policymakers. Wildlife experts for the Fish and Wildlife Service's three Western regions, along with Environmental Protection Agency officials, expressed concerns in written comments to the BLM last year. The bureau solicited the comments as it was finalizing the new grazing rules, which go into effect this month. "The proposed revisions would change fundamentally the way the BLM lands are managed, temporally, spatially, and philosophically,'' stated a 16-page Fish and Wildlife Service report. "These changes could have profound impacts on wildlife resources."....
Rural road-sign rage erupting again Just over a month after the Governor's Office brokered a meeting to tone down the rhetoric in the dispute over Kane County's placement of road signs in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a state official and a legislator have turned the heat back up. Speaking at the Farm Bureau's annual midyear conference in Cedar City on Thursday, Utah Assistant Attorney General Mark Ward likened Kane County's defiance of Bureau of Land Management regulations to a fight against tyranny, while Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, called the county's rebellious road signs the "shot heard 'round the world." Ward praised the county for asserting its rights in its conflict with the BLM, which he says are guaranteed by a 19th century law that provides public rights of way across federal land....
Tribes reveal proposalfor land The Klamath Tribes have a new plan for regaining former reservation lands now held by the U.S. Forest Service: Buy them. Tribal leaders floated the idea before the Klamath County Board of Commissioners this week as part of an overall plan to bring together differing stakeholders in the Klamath water issue. A public meeting about the plan is being scheduled for early August. The Tribes gave the commissioners a one-page proposal summary. Its goal is to "unite the people and the economic interest of the Klamath Basin to create a stronger economy and more family wage jobs (through) enhanced local control and careful management of the region's natural resources." It would involve the Tribes paying a fair market price for reservation land....
Grizzly numbers improving: But proposal for delisting still debated Wolves are big business for Pat Phillips' Yellowstone National Park tour company, but nothing compares to spotting a grizzly bear. "It's the top predator in the park. They're really majestic," said Phillips, who spends his summers leading geologic and wildlife tours for Safari Yellowstone. "It's so powerful it's unbelievable." Phillips credits the Endangered Species Act, which has protected grizzly bears since 1975, with helping the grizzly population rebound. But he worries that the federal government's upcoming proposal to delist the bear would reverse that progress. Before the month's end, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to release its draft proposal for delisting the grizzly. That will be followed by a 90-day public comment period and public meetings. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be expected to release their own plans for management of the grizzlies before control of the animal is handed from the federal government to the states....
Polluting Now to Save Trees in the Future Scientists wearing protective face masks roamed a private, remote 80-acre grove, checking the levels of greenhouse gases being sprayed onto the trees. For the last eight years, researcher David F. Karnosky and dozens of scientists have trucked billions of pounds of ozone and other gases to these woods, where aspen and pine trees blanket the surrounding hills. They have sprayed thousands of trees with the gases to simulate what pollution is expected to be 50 years from now. Their goal is to determine how Wisconsin forests will fare with increased levels of pollution. The $8-million project — Aspen FACE — is the world's largest outdoor climate-change experiment....
USFS prepares to revise water regulations The regional office of the U.S. Forest Service is revising a watershed practices conservation handbook that determines how the agency manages projects with potential impacts to streams and wetlands. Although the final outcome is not expected for months, it will ultimately have implications for management of waters in Summit County waters, along with the rest of the region, so environmental groups, state agencies, the EPA and the ski industry are all keeping a close eye on the process. The stakeholders met in Denver in late June for a line-by-line review of the handbook, and several participants said the agency is taking some encouraging steps to ensure stream health, but also expressed concern about some language in the draft version that could weaken protection for some streams....
Editorial: Salvage logging no threat to grizzlies Since when does yanking the paycheck out of someone's hand help with grizzly bear recovery? That's effectively what's happened with a recent restraining order that stopped a good share of salvage logging planned this summer on the Flathead National Forest. Two environmental groups, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition, have argued that helicopter logging in so-called "core" grizzly bear security areas presents an "imminent harm" to grizzly bears. We don't think so. Neither does the Forest Service, nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy stuck by a rather literal interpretation of the Flathead Forest Plan to come up with his ruling. Rather than weigh salient observations about the nature of helicopter logging in areas that used to be prime bear habitat, Molloy agreed with the plaintiffs, for the time being, that "motorized access" is prohibited in core areas during the summer, and that helicopters are indeed motorized. But one should consider that the "core" areas in question were mostly blackened by wildfires in 2003, obviously reducing their attractiveness as hideouts for grizzly bears....
Editorial: Prevention is best cure for forest fires In 1996, during a period of normal snow and rainfall, the Colorado State Forest Service identified only about 13,000 trees statewide that had been killed by mountain pine beetles. But in 2004, with Colorado's woodlands still suffering the aftermath of a seven-year drought, the state forester identified a staggering 1.2 million trees that had been killed by beetles. Bug-killed trees, of course, can feed wildfires. While Colorado's weather returned to a normal pattern this year, what happened a few years ago (the worst drought our region has had in centuries) has left our forests more vulnerable than ever to massive conflagrations....
Plan targets species in need Twelve amphibian, 26 reptile, 40 fish, 19 crustacean, 68 mollusk, 59 bird and 54 mammal species will get a little more conservation attention under a federally mandated plan adopted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. The state's "comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy" aims to keep hundreds of those species in the state and their habitat intact and off the federal endangered species list if possible. "The value of this document is that we can use federal dollars to do monitoring (of those species), not hunter and angler monies," Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said. "We would have no federal money at all earmarked for this unless we have this document." The strategy is a requirement of the federal State Wildlife Grants program....
Spanish Fork highway endangers rare plant One of the world's rarest plants, which grows only along the highway near the ghost town of Thistle in Spanish Fork Canyon, is now the subject of a lawsuit. First discovered in 1909, the Deseret milkvetch, a member of the pea family, was thought to be extinct until BYU botanist Elizabeth Meese stumbled upon it in 1981. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of the plants are believed to exist on about 200 acres, all within 1,000 feet of the highway, said Tony Frates of the Utah Native Plant Society. In 1999, the plant was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done nothing to protect the plant, according to the Utah Native Plant Society and the Center for Native Ecosystems, the two conservation groups that filed the suit....
Endangered Birds Close Beaches Some are worried their businesses will be a wash out this season, not because of the weather, but because of some birds. The park service shut down Cape Point and Hatteras Inlet because of a very small bird called the piping plover. It's on the endangered species list. Both beaches are on Hatteras Island. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park Service is serious. When we visited Cape Point a man trying to take a jog was chased down by a park ranger when he accidentally crossed the barricade....
Editorial: Endangered protections Those lawsuits would have less chance of prevailing under draft legislation being circulated by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) that would weaken the act and appease drilling, timber, fishing and development interests. It would make adding species to the list more difficult, narrow the definitions for invasive species and hamper agencies with new paperwork. Its most troubling provision, though, would free the government from the requirement to restore rare species to self-sustaining populations. Simply heading off extinction would suffice. Condors might arguably be considered protected if they existed only in zoos. But less intervention by government actually means more baby-sitting of species. Hardly any plant or animal populations would grow enough to be delisted — the point at which the government no longer needs to intervene on their behalf. With 5,000 or so pairs of bald eagles nesting in the Lower 48 states, robust populations of California gray whales migrating predictably along our shore and peregrine falcons nesting on New York skyscrapers, it can be too easy to forget how poor and empty our world might have been without the Endangered Species Act....
Cheatgrass growing thick this year, raising risks for explosive wildfires It burns like gasoline and awaits a simple spark. Cheatgrass is flourishing across Nevada’s hills, rangeland and beside many homes, growing in thicker concentrations than some experts say they have ever seen before. Native to Eurasia, cheatgrass was introduced to America through contaminated seed in the 1890s and made its first appearance in Nevada in 1906, said Jim Young, a Reno scientist and cheatgrass expert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cheatgrass — named for its ability to “cheat” water and nutrients from the seeds of native vegetation — can quickly crowd out native grasses and sagebrush. Cheatgrass now dominates about a third of the 48 million acres of Nevada land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and is spreading across the landscape of other states in the Great Basin, including Utah, Idaho and Oregon....
Canada ready to ship cattle, but court date looms Canada is steeling itself for the possibility a Montana court could ban its cattle exports again in a July 27 hearing after a positive ruling from a different court this week, Canada's agriculture minister said on Friday. Andy Mitchell said he was pleased a U.S. appeal court lifted a two-year ban on Canadian cattle on Thursday when it overturned an earlier Montana court injunction against his country's exports, but said Canada's battle was not over. Some cattle and other ruminant livestock like bison, sheep and goats could be exported as early as next week, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency official said. But U.S. rancher group R-CALF will be back in a Montana court on July 27 to argue for a permanent injunction against Canadian cattle -- a ban it wants extended to beef processed in Canada....
More anthrax cases in southeast N. Dakota A spreading anthrax outbreak has killed about 40 cattle so far in southeastern North Dakota, and state animal health officials say ranchers should consider vaccinating their herds. Beth Carlson, the deputy state veterinarian, said Friday that anthrax has been confirmed at 11 locations in Ransom and southern Barnes counties. Possible cases are being investigated in eastern LaMoure and Dickey counties, she said. Infected herds have been quarantined. Most of the affected animals are cattle, but the disease is also hitting bison, farmed elk and horses, she said. Health officials say there is little risk to humans....
Column: Old West violence mostly myth Once again as summer progresses, tourists are trying to recapture the romance of the West. Recalling the violent images fostered by Hollywood, they seek out ghost towns, ride horseback at dude ranches and take part in exciting re-enactments of conflicts among vigilantes, sheriffs, cowboys and Indians. What they don't realize is that the violence of the West is largely a myth. Yes, there were isolated examples of violence, but the true story of the American West is one of cooperation, not conflict. My colleague Terry Anderson and I have been studying the history of the West for nearly 30 years. We found that wherever "people on the ground" got together, they generally found ways to cooperate rather than fight. Let's begin with the mining camps in the Sierra Nevada of California. Several thousand camps sprang up after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848....
Hereford rancher fights high gas prices old-fashioned way When diesel prices went through the roof, truckers went up on their rates. That put ranchers to thinking about ways to save money getting their cattle from one place to another. Guy Walker of Hereford had some cattle grazing on wheat 14 miles away and decided to drive the cattle back home. "We had two obstacles we had to overcome," says Guy."The highway and the railroad. We had to cross U.S. 60, which is a very busy stretch of road. We were driving about 2,500 head of cattle, so we were strung out for a pretty good ways. The highway department helped us with that and got some highway patrolmen to stop traffic while we crossed. "The railroad runs right alongside Highway 60 and we found that the train people were not as cooperative as the highway department. They were not interested in changing their schedule. We got hold of the train schedule and were just hoping we could get there when a train wasn't coming through....Read this article if you want to know how cattle react to trains and mules to helicopters....
Harvey Girls celebrate past A chance for adventure and travel brought Jo Walters and thousands of other proper young women to the still-Wild West as legendary Harvey Girls on the Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Railway. Eagerly responding to advertisements placed in Eastern newspapers by an enterprising restaurateur named Fred Harvey, throngs of girls in their teens and early 20s boarded trains for scattered railroad towns in the 1880s and 1890s. They came to work as waitresses in busy dining rooms at a chain of depots called Harvey Houses. It's estimated as many as 20,000 young women from New York to Kansas City, Mo., and from some foreign countries, went west to seek their fortunes and husbands....
Cowboys are sacred folk Burl “Booger” Mullins was a trainer of horses. He taught them to do tricks that included jumping over cars. Back around 1934, Booger appeared as an American Indian on his horse in Tucumcari, and was photographed by Gene Autry’s film crew, as an “End of the Trail” photo. “End of the Trail” depicted, in a sense, the last of the noble American Indians. Later, the photo was enlarged and made into a painting. The painting hung in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City until Autry built a museum in California and then it was placed there. Booger appeared in many rodeos with his horse “Dimples,” a trick horse. At one rodeo in Clovis — around 1946 — professional horse jumpers entertained the crowd between rodeo acts. The horsemen jumped their horses over the hood of a 1940 “wood” station wagon. Booger, on his horse Dimples, did it too, without any adieu, apparently just to show the professionals up. Booger jumped his horse Dimples over the top of the car. It made the professional horse jumpers mad and they called the police. Booger was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace....
Column: Why My Generation Loved Western Movies The Western is uniquely American. Most of the westerns focused on a brief period in American history, 1865–1890. This was also true of western novels. The western has had tremendous appeal outside the United States. There is something about westerns that appeals to the whole world. But what? I think it has to do with the fundamental themes of the western. Most westerns have at least one of these themes. --cowardice vs. honor --the defense of private property (land) --law enforcement --the moral limits of vengeance. The universality of these four themes points to the foundations of civilization. If most men are cowards, if private property is not defended by the law, if the law enforcement system becomes corrupt and unjust, and if there are no limits on personal vengeance, then civilization is at risk. Society loses liberty....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Young rodeo riders make me proud to be a cowboy I went to the Miles City annual buckin' horse sale. I hadn't seen Montana so green since Noah ran aground! It takes one back to when the West was not civilized. Today, when athletes and audiences are coddled, one is reminded that many modern sports have evolved from more primitive survival skills - rock throwing to baseball, sword fighting to pool, spear to javelin, cannibalism to chili cook-off, alligator wrestling to bulldogging. More than 200 broncs and bulls were bucked out over two days. After each ride, rodeo stock contractors bid on the stock. The riders were young men who were competing for a purse....
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Wolf pack blamed for cow killing in Idaho A wolf pack that already has killed six hunting dogs likely killed an adult cow last week, officials said. But the dead cow cannot be positively linked to wolves, so federal wildlife officials say no action can be taken against the pack, which is active between Elk River and Dworshak Reservoir. Still, said Carter Niemeyer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, action will be taken if more livestock deaths are linked to the pack. ''That pack was confirmed to be a problem last year. We would probably engage in some incremental removal of the pack if they are confirmed to be a problem this year,'' Niemeyer said. Rancher Suzanne Beale found the dead cow Monday and saw a wolf run from it as she approached. She called Wildlife Services Agent Dave Thomas to investigate, and though Thomas found it probable that wolves killed the cow, the carcass had no tooth puncture marks - which meant it was impossible to say for certain that wolves were responsible. Federal authorities only authorize killing wolves if it can be proved that the animals were responsible for livestock deaths....
Cougar Kill Chris Catania’s five dogs had a confrontation last month in their rural backyard that has become all too familiar to residents in the Foots Creek drainage. About 5:30 p.m., a cougar apparently hopped a four-foot fence in hopes of turning one of Catania’s five dogs into an evening meal. Dexter, an 8-year-old mix, dashed to the porch and tore a nail trying to scratch his way inside. Reba, a Queensland heeler, stood and fought, suffering a side gash as clean as a surgeon’s scalpel. The other dogs eventually scared off the cougar, which Catania and her husband, Bruce, spotted again last week prowling outside their rural Hosmer Lane house. Area landowners have tried to kill the cougar themselves, and at least two houndsmen have been hired to tree and kill the cougar, Maxwell says. One neighbor wears a side-arm just to mow his lawn, and others have stopped jogging until the offending cougar or cougars are found and killed....
'Trespassing cattle' case comes to close According to the Nevada Department of Agriculture, "years of controversy" ended on June 16 when an Esmeralda County Grand Jury issued a finding of "no indictable criminal activity" was conducted by department personnel in the seizure of Esmeralda County rancher Ben Colvin's cows in 2001. The incident was resolved in favor of the agency and was related to the locally debated confiscation of 64 head of Colvin's cattle in 2001. Colvin claimed he had legal access to the public lands on which the cows grazed and the agency's taking had violated the law. Colvin questioned the issuance of a Nevada brand inspection certificate from the Nevada Department of Agriculture to the Bureau of Land Management in the 2001 cattle seizure....
Access takes center stage Once there was enough room for multiple users of public lands to do what they needed to do with very little conflict. They seldom ran into each other. In the last decade, 8.2 million homes were built on the urban-wildlands interface, bringing with them some 32 million people demanding increased recreation on public lands, developed or otherwise. Access, threatened and endangered species, and invasive species are only a few of the issues around which much conflict is appearing. This is particularly true in five interior Western states that saw the fastest population increases in the 1990s: Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. “It’s tempting to talk about these issues in terms of the Old West vs. the New West. I’m not sure that description is terribly helpful,” said Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Old vs. new suggests a linear progression and perpetuates some conflicts, making it harder to get beyond them.”....
Vegas Water Wars No-limit poker isn't simply the defining prestige game for Las Vegas, it's also a metaphor for the physical structure of the city. For all practical purposes, Las Vegas has no geographic impediments to expansion. It doesn't have an ocean to run into, or a towering cordillera to abut: just the vast and sere desert on all sides, much of it flat and friendly to sprawling tracts. All this elbow room has combined with an explosive economy to create growth that is positively fungoid in character. Greater Las Vegas now has a population of 1.7 million, with about 80,000 new residents added annually. It far outstrips any other U.S. city in employment growth, generating 76,000 new jobs last year alone....
Push is on to preserve desert After years of failed attempts by Arizona lawmakers to reform state trust land laws, a coalition of conservation, education and business leaders is poised to ask Arizona voters to ratify a plan to save hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin desert before developers plow them under. The agreement has been carefully crafted to ensure that Arizona's public schools and the children they serve, the primary beneficiaries of high-priced public land sales, do not suffer a loss of income, coalition members say. A new statewide initiative would alter the Arizona Constitution and, combined with a congressional amendment to the law that created Arizona in 1912, would make conservation a legitimate use of some of the 9.3 million acres of land Arizona holds in trust to help fund education and other state agencies....
Editorial: Shift to placate ranchers could put resources at risk When cattle and sheep graze on fragile public lands, there is a risk of damaging the ecosystem that supports wild plants and animals as well as clean water. To minimize that risk, regulations in the past gave Bureau of Land Management officers authority to step in and quickly assess potential damage and, if necessary, to take action to uphold the standards for protecting rangeland. Public comments were solicited on grazing decisions that affected these lands that are owned by the taxpayers. Unfortunately, the federal BLM has changed the rules, limiting public comment to grazing plans and reports; those who ostensibly own the land - the public - will not be allowed to question decisions that profoundly affect the land. Under the new regulations, local BLM officers must make detailed analyses before they can do anything to prevent or correct the effects of overgrazing on land, water sources and wildlife....
Federal Officials Echoed Grazing-Rule Warnings Federal wildlife managers across the West warned the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that new livestock grazing regulations were potentially harmful to wildlife and water quality, adding their voices to those of BLM scientists who said similar criticism was excised by Washington policymakers. Wildlife experts for the Fish and Wildlife Service's three Western regions, along with Environmental Protection Agency officials, expressed concerns in written comments to the BLM last year. The bureau solicited the comments as it was finalizing the new grazing rules, which go into effect this month. "The proposed revisions would change fundamentally the way the BLM lands are managed, temporally, spatially, and philosophically,'' stated a 16-page Fish and Wildlife Service report. "These changes could have profound impacts on wildlife resources."....
Rural road-sign rage erupting again Just over a month after the Governor's Office brokered a meeting to tone down the rhetoric in the dispute over Kane County's placement of road signs in and around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a state official and a legislator have turned the heat back up. Speaking at the Farm Bureau's annual midyear conference in Cedar City on Thursday, Utah Assistant Attorney General Mark Ward likened Kane County's defiance of Bureau of Land Management regulations to a fight against tyranny, while Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, called the county's rebellious road signs the "shot heard 'round the world." Ward praised the county for asserting its rights in its conflict with the BLM, which he says are guaranteed by a 19th century law that provides public rights of way across federal land....
Tribes reveal proposalfor land The Klamath Tribes have a new plan for regaining former reservation lands now held by the U.S. Forest Service: Buy them. Tribal leaders floated the idea before the Klamath County Board of Commissioners this week as part of an overall plan to bring together differing stakeholders in the Klamath water issue. A public meeting about the plan is being scheduled for early August. The Tribes gave the commissioners a one-page proposal summary. Its goal is to "unite the people and the economic interest of the Klamath Basin to create a stronger economy and more family wage jobs (through) enhanced local control and careful management of the region's natural resources." It would involve the Tribes paying a fair market price for reservation land....
Grizzly numbers improving: But proposal for delisting still debated Wolves are big business for Pat Phillips' Yellowstone National Park tour company, but nothing compares to spotting a grizzly bear. "It's the top predator in the park. They're really majestic," said Phillips, who spends his summers leading geologic and wildlife tours for Safari Yellowstone. "It's so powerful it's unbelievable." Phillips credits the Endangered Species Act, which has protected grizzly bears since 1975, with helping the grizzly population rebound. But he worries that the federal government's upcoming proposal to delist the bear would reverse that progress. Before the month's end, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to release its draft proposal for delisting the grizzly. That will be followed by a 90-day public comment period and public meetings. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be expected to release their own plans for management of the grizzlies before control of the animal is handed from the federal government to the states....
Polluting Now to Save Trees in the Future Scientists wearing protective face masks roamed a private, remote 80-acre grove, checking the levels of greenhouse gases being sprayed onto the trees. For the last eight years, researcher David F. Karnosky and dozens of scientists have trucked billions of pounds of ozone and other gases to these woods, where aspen and pine trees blanket the surrounding hills. They have sprayed thousands of trees with the gases to simulate what pollution is expected to be 50 years from now. Their goal is to determine how Wisconsin forests will fare with increased levels of pollution. The $8-million project — Aspen FACE — is the world's largest outdoor climate-change experiment....
USFS prepares to revise water regulations The regional office of the U.S. Forest Service is revising a watershed practices conservation handbook that determines how the agency manages projects with potential impacts to streams and wetlands. Although the final outcome is not expected for months, it will ultimately have implications for management of waters in Summit County waters, along with the rest of the region, so environmental groups, state agencies, the EPA and the ski industry are all keeping a close eye on the process. The stakeholders met in Denver in late June for a line-by-line review of the handbook, and several participants said the agency is taking some encouraging steps to ensure stream health, but also expressed concern about some language in the draft version that could weaken protection for some streams....
Editorial: Salvage logging no threat to grizzlies Since when does yanking the paycheck out of someone's hand help with grizzly bear recovery? That's effectively what's happened with a recent restraining order that stopped a good share of salvage logging planned this summer on the Flathead National Forest. Two environmental groups, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition, have argued that helicopter logging in so-called "core" grizzly bear security areas presents an "imminent harm" to grizzly bears. We don't think so. Neither does the Forest Service, nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy stuck by a rather literal interpretation of the Flathead Forest Plan to come up with his ruling. Rather than weigh salient observations about the nature of helicopter logging in areas that used to be prime bear habitat, Molloy agreed with the plaintiffs, for the time being, that "motorized access" is prohibited in core areas during the summer, and that helicopters are indeed motorized. But one should consider that the "core" areas in question were mostly blackened by wildfires in 2003, obviously reducing their attractiveness as hideouts for grizzly bears....
Editorial: Prevention is best cure for forest fires In 1996, during a period of normal snow and rainfall, the Colorado State Forest Service identified only about 13,000 trees statewide that had been killed by mountain pine beetles. But in 2004, with Colorado's woodlands still suffering the aftermath of a seven-year drought, the state forester identified a staggering 1.2 million trees that had been killed by beetles. Bug-killed trees, of course, can feed wildfires. While Colorado's weather returned to a normal pattern this year, what happened a few years ago (the worst drought our region has had in centuries) has left our forests more vulnerable than ever to massive conflagrations....
Plan targets species in need Twelve amphibian, 26 reptile, 40 fish, 19 crustacean, 68 mollusk, 59 bird and 54 mammal species will get a little more conservation attention under a federally mandated plan adopted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. The state's "comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy" aims to keep hundreds of those species in the state and their habitat intact and off the federal endangered species list if possible. "The value of this document is that we can use federal dollars to do monitoring (of those species), not hunter and angler monies," Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said. "We would have no federal money at all earmarked for this unless we have this document." The strategy is a requirement of the federal State Wildlife Grants program....
Spanish Fork highway endangers rare plant One of the world's rarest plants, which grows only along the highway near the ghost town of Thistle in Spanish Fork Canyon, is now the subject of a lawsuit. First discovered in 1909, the Deseret milkvetch, a member of the pea family, was thought to be extinct until BYU botanist Elizabeth Meese stumbled upon it in 1981. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of the plants are believed to exist on about 200 acres, all within 1,000 feet of the highway, said Tony Frates of the Utah Native Plant Society. In 1999, the plant was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done nothing to protect the plant, according to the Utah Native Plant Society and the Center for Native Ecosystems, the two conservation groups that filed the suit....
Endangered Birds Close Beaches Some are worried their businesses will be a wash out this season, not because of the weather, but because of some birds. The park service shut down Cape Point and Hatteras Inlet because of a very small bird called the piping plover. It's on the endangered species list. Both beaches are on Hatteras Island. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park Service is serious. When we visited Cape Point a man trying to take a jog was chased down by a park ranger when he accidentally crossed the barricade....
Editorial: Endangered protections Those lawsuits would have less chance of prevailing under draft legislation being circulated by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) that would weaken the act and appease drilling, timber, fishing and development interests. It would make adding species to the list more difficult, narrow the definitions for invasive species and hamper agencies with new paperwork. Its most troubling provision, though, would free the government from the requirement to restore rare species to self-sustaining populations. Simply heading off extinction would suffice. Condors might arguably be considered protected if they existed only in zoos. But less intervention by government actually means more baby-sitting of species. Hardly any plant or animal populations would grow enough to be delisted — the point at which the government no longer needs to intervene on their behalf. With 5,000 or so pairs of bald eagles nesting in the Lower 48 states, robust populations of California gray whales migrating predictably along our shore and peregrine falcons nesting on New York skyscrapers, it can be too easy to forget how poor and empty our world might have been without the Endangered Species Act....
Cheatgrass growing thick this year, raising risks for explosive wildfires It burns like gasoline and awaits a simple spark. Cheatgrass is flourishing across Nevada’s hills, rangeland and beside many homes, growing in thicker concentrations than some experts say they have ever seen before. Native to Eurasia, cheatgrass was introduced to America through contaminated seed in the 1890s and made its first appearance in Nevada in 1906, said Jim Young, a Reno scientist and cheatgrass expert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cheatgrass — named for its ability to “cheat” water and nutrients from the seeds of native vegetation — can quickly crowd out native grasses and sagebrush. Cheatgrass now dominates about a third of the 48 million acres of Nevada land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and is spreading across the landscape of other states in the Great Basin, including Utah, Idaho and Oregon....
Canada ready to ship cattle, but court date looms Canada is steeling itself for the possibility a Montana court could ban its cattle exports again in a July 27 hearing after a positive ruling from a different court this week, Canada's agriculture minister said on Friday. Andy Mitchell said he was pleased a U.S. appeal court lifted a two-year ban on Canadian cattle on Thursday when it overturned an earlier Montana court injunction against his country's exports, but said Canada's battle was not over. Some cattle and other ruminant livestock like bison, sheep and goats could be exported as early as next week, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency official said. But U.S. rancher group R-CALF will be back in a Montana court on July 27 to argue for a permanent injunction against Canadian cattle -- a ban it wants extended to beef processed in Canada....
More anthrax cases in southeast N. Dakota A spreading anthrax outbreak has killed about 40 cattle so far in southeastern North Dakota, and state animal health officials say ranchers should consider vaccinating their herds. Beth Carlson, the deputy state veterinarian, said Friday that anthrax has been confirmed at 11 locations in Ransom and southern Barnes counties. Possible cases are being investigated in eastern LaMoure and Dickey counties, she said. Infected herds have been quarantined. Most of the affected animals are cattle, but the disease is also hitting bison, farmed elk and horses, she said. Health officials say there is little risk to humans....
Column: Old West violence mostly myth Once again as summer progresses, tourists are trying to recapture the romance of the West. Recalling the violent images fostered by Hollywood, they seek out ghost towns, ride horseback at dude ranches and take part in exciting re-enactments of conflicts among vigilantes, sheriffs, cowboys and Indians. What they don't realize is that the violence of the West is largely a myth. Yes, there were isolated examples of violence, but the true story of the American West is one of cooperation, not conflict. My colleague Terry Anderson and I have been studying the history of the West for nearly 30 years. We found that wherever "people on the ground" got together, they generally found ways to cooperate rather than fight. Let's begin with the mining camps in the Sierra Nevada of California. Several thousand camps sprang up after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848....
Hereford rancher fights high gas prices old-fashioned way When diesel prices went through the roof, truckers went up on their rates. That put ranchers to thinking about ways to save money getting their cattle from one place to another. Guy Walker of Hereford had some cattle grazing on wheat 14 miles away and decided to drive the cattle back home. "We had two obstacles we had to overcome," says Guy."The highway and the railroad. We had to cross U.S. 60, which is a very busy stretch of road. We were driving about 2,500 head of cattle, so we were strung out for a pretty good ways. The highway department helped us with that and got some highway patrolmen to stop traffic while we crossed. "The railroad runs right alongside Highway 60 and we found that the train people were not as cooperative as the highway department. They were not interested in changing their schedule. We got hold of the train schedule and were just hoping we could get there when a train wasn't coming through....Read this article if you want to know how cattle react to trains and mules to helicopters....
Harvey Girls celebrate past A chance for adventure and travel brought Jo Walters and thousands of other proper young women to the still-Wild West as legendary Harvey Girls on the Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Railway. Eagerly responding to advertisements placed in Eastern newspapers by an enterprising restaurateur named Fred Harvey, throngs of girls in their teens and early 20s boarded trains for scattered railroad towns in the 1880s and 1890s. They came to work as waitresses in busy dining rooms at a chain of depots called Harvey Houses. It's estimated as many as 20,000 young women from New York to Kansas City, Mo., and from some foreign countries, went west to seek their fortunes and husbands....
Cowboys are sacred folk Burl “Booger” Mullins was a trainer of horses. He taught them to do tricks that included jumping over cars. Back around 1934, Booger appeared as an American Indian on his horse in Tucumcari, and was photographed by Gene Autry’s film crew, as an “End of the Trail” photo. “End of the Trail” depicted, in a sense, the last of the noble American Indians. Later, the photo was enlarged and made into a painting. The painting hung in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City until Autry built a museum in California and then it was placed there. Booger appeared in many rodeos with his horse “Dimples,” a trick horse. At one rodeo in Clovis — around 1946 — professional horse jumpers entertained the crowd between rodeo acts. The horsemen jumped their horses over the hood of a 1940 “wood” station wagon. Booger, on his horse Dimples, did it too, without any adieu, apparently just to show the professionals up. Booger jumped his horse Dimples over the top of the car. It made the professional horse jumpers mad and they called the police. Booger was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace....
Column: Why My Generation Loved Western Movies The Western is uniquely American. Most of the westerns focused on a brief period in American history, 1865–1890. This was also true of western novels. The western has had tremendous appeal outside the United States. There is something about westerns that appeals to the whole world. But what? I think it has to do with the fundamental themes of the western. Most westerns have at least one of these themes. --cowardice vs. honor --the defense of private property (land) --law enforcement --the moral limits of vengeance. The universality of these four themes points to the foundations of civilization. If most men are cowards, if private property is not defended by the law, if the law enforcement system becomes corrupt and unjust, and if there are no limits on personal vengeance, then civilization is at risk. Society loses liberty....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Young rodeo riders make me proud to be a cowboy I went to the Miles City annual buckin' horse sale. I hadn't seen Montana so green since Noah ran aground! It takes one back to when the West was not civilized. Today, when athletes and audiences are coddled, one is reminded that many modern sports have evolved from more primitive survival skills - rock throwing to baseball, sword fighting to pool, spear to javelin, cannibalism to chili cook-off, alligator wrestling to bulldogging. More than 200 broncs and bulls were bucked out over two days. After each ride, rodeo stock contractors bid on the stock. The riders were young men who were competing for a purse....
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Sunday, July 17, 2005
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
The American cowboy ropes in a day of honor
By Julie Carter
The United States Senate has proclaimed July 23 to be the National Day of the American Cowboy.
The resolution was introduced by Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas and embraced by the agriculture industry.
Recognizing that pioneering men and women helped establish the American West and that the cowboy spirit continues to infuse this country with its solid character, sound family values and good common sense, the day of honor was approved.
The cowboy is declared to be the embodiment of honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect with a strong worth ethic and patriotism.
The resolution recognizes the cowboy as one who loves, lives off of and depends on the land and its creatures for his livelihood. It acknowledges the cowboys’ excellent stewardship, protection, and enhancement of the environment.
Although cowboys and the west are synonymous with each other, ranchers aren’t just found in the west. The agriculture census lists 800,000 ranchers doing business in all fifty states of this country.
Cowboys are definitely not a feature of western bygone days. The senators acknowledged that the rancher cowboy continues to “play a significant role in America’s culture and economy.”
The rodeo cowboy is part of the sixth most-watched sport in America and membership in rodeo and other organizations surrounding the livelihood of cowboy transcend race, gender and spans every generation.
The resolution calls the cowboy an American icon and declares him to be part of America’s ongoing commitment to an esteemed and enduring code of conduct.
It fills my heart with pride to not only be part of such a heritage but to also see it honored in such a way.
But in true form of the cowboy, they will humbly just shrug off the attention and go on about their day. If you ask one what it feels like to be an American icon they will honestly look at you and say, “What’s that?”
They work on holidays, Sundays, their birthday, their wife’s birthday, anniversaries and throughout all four seasons of the year irregardless of weather conditions. A clock is for setting meeting times but governs little of what happens on the ranch.
July 23 will find the majority of the American cowboys stacking hay, checking cattle and their waters, fixing pipeline leaks, pulling a well, branding a few late calves, building fence, mechanic-ing on a pump jack or the feed pickup, waiting on a rain and pondering the cattle market for a timely sale of their calf crop.
If there is a celebration it might be that they are forced to go to the family reunion they would rather avoid. A selection of them will be entered in a summer rodeo somewhere and a few others will simply be horseback in places where he can almost imagine it is still l890.
I don’t know if the suits on Wall Street will acknowledge the honor given the American Cowboy or if the masses in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. will even know about it. It doesn’t matter.
The day is an honor given. It won’t change the cowboy in any way. He is not the dying breed he's said to be by those that drive up and down the road looking for him.
He is as much an enduring part of Americana as baseball, apple pie and Microsoft.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
Does the king have clothes?
by Larry Gabriel
About all one need say is, "the Endangered Species Act" (ESA) and the arguments begin about this "king" of natural resource management. Congress is doing that right now.
Just like ordinary people, most Congressmen already have their minds made up. The difference is many are afraid to say so. I admit my bias up front. ESA makes no sense to me.
First, I know of nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government should regulate state-owned property. All the wildlife here is owned by the State of South Dakota. Giving control to Congress makes no sense to me.
Second, managing a chunk of the environment for the exclusive benefit on one particular critter is exactly what preservationists have been arguing against for a hundred years. The difference is the "one particular critter" is now a rodent instead of a cow. They can't have it both ways.
Third, ESA does not work and everyone knows it. The "isolated wilderness" and "save a single species" ideas were tested for fifty years. They don't work. That is why the conservation movement invented "ecosystem management" twenty years ago and why the United State Forest Service officially adopted it into law ten years ago. We now manage natural resources for the big picture, not for the preservation of just one little thing.
Even members of the "green movement" acknowledged the old system's failure, but they argued for keeping ESA until the new system was in place. Time is up.
Fourth, extinction is a perfectly normal cycle of selection that operated long before man decided he knew better how to run things.
Fifth, the assumption that each one of the millions of critters potentially protected by ESA has some mystical and extraordinary value may create a noble feeling, but it is not rational.
Sixth, Congress says a protected species or subspecies is "unique". The people who collect the money are the people who decide it is unique. For example, the Northern Swift Fox was a protected "unique" subspecies until another group of researchers decided it does not exist.
Last but not least, Congress is generally the worst imaginable manager of natural resources.
If you want millions of acres of scorched black earth, let Congress manage your forests. If you want barren grasslands, give them to Congress.
If you want just about anything (including your money) lost or destroyed without meaningful accountability, normally Congress can help you out.
If you are a real conservationist like me, you may agree that local governments and local owners are better managers of natural resources than Congress ever will be.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture.
Received via email:
Here's a quote from someone who witnessed a recent interaction between an elderly woman and an antiwar protester in a Metro station in DC: "There were protesters on the train platform handing out pamphlets on the evils of America. I politely declined to take one. An elderly woman was behind me getting off the escalator and a young (20ish) female protester offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined. The young protester put her hand on the old woman's shoulder as a gesture of friendship and in a very soft voice said, "Ma'am, don't you care about the children of Iraq?" The old woman looked up at her and said, "Honey, my first husband died in France during World War II, my second husband died in Korea, one of my sons died in Vietnam, a Grandson died in Desert Storm, all so you could have the right to stand here and bad mouth our country. If you touch me again. I'll stick this umbrella up your ass and open it."
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During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director which is the criteria that defines a patient to be institutionalized. "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the bathtub."
Okay, here's your test:
(Those with an abnormal tendency will scroll to the bottom to get the answer before taking the test.)
1. Would you use the spoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?
"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the bucket as it is larger than the spoon."
keep scrolling
"No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull the plug."
So how did "you" do?
I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner
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The American cowboy ropes in a day of honor
By Julie Carter
The United States Senate has proclaimed July 23 to be the National Day of the American Cowboy.
The resolution was introduced by Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas and embraced by the agriculture industry.
Recognizing that pioneering men and women helped establish the American West and that the cowboy spirit continues to infuse this country with its solid character, sound family values and good common sense, the day of honor was approved.
The cowboy is declared to be the embodiment of honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect with a strong worth ethic and patriotism.
The resolution recognizes the cowboy as one who loves, lives off of and depends on the land and its creatures for his livelihood. It acknowledges the cowboys’ excellent stewardship, protection, and enhancement of the environment.
Although cowboys and the west are synonymous with each other, ranchers aren’t just found in the west. The agriculture census lists 800,000 ranchers doing business in all fifty states of this country.
Cowboys are definitely not a feature of western bygone days. The senators acknowledged that the rancher cowboy continues to “play a significant role in America’s culture and economy.”
The rodeo cowboy is part of the sixth most-watched sport in America and membership in rodeo and other organizations surrounding the livelihood of cowboy transcend race, gender and spans every generation.
The resolution calls the cowboy an American icon and declares him to be part of America’s ongoing commitment to an esteemed and enduring code of conduct.
It fills my heart with pride to not only be part of such a heritage but to also see it honored in such a way.
But in true form of the cowboy, they will humbly just shrug off the attention and go on about their day. If you ask one what it feels like to be an American icon they will honestly look at you and say, “What’s that?”
They work on holidays, Sundays, their birthday, their wife’s birthday, anniversaries and throughout all four seasons of the year irregardless of weather conditions. A clock is for setting meeting times but governs little of what happens on the ranch.
July 23 will find the majority of the American cowboys stacking hay, checking cattle and their waters, fixing pipeline leaks, pulling a well, branding a few late calves, building fence, mechanic-ing on a pump jack or the feed pickup, waiting on a rain and pondering the cattle market for a timely sale of their calf crop.
If there is a celebration it might be that they are forced to go to the family reunion they would rather avoid. A selection of them will be entered in a summer rodeo somewhere and a few others will simply be horseback in places where he can almost imagine it is still l890.
I don’t know if the suits on Wall Street will acknowledge the honor given the American Cowboy or if the masses in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. will even know about it. It doesn’t matter.
The day is an honor given. It won’t change the cowboy in any way. He is not the dying breed he's said to be by those that drive up and down the road looking for him.
He is as much an enduring part of Americana as baseball, apple pie and Microsoft.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
Does the king have clothes?
by Larry Gabriel
About all one need say is, "the Endangered Species Act" (ESA) and the arguments begin about this "king" of natural resource management. Congress is doing that right now.
Just like ordinary people, most Congressmen already have their minds made up. The difference is many are afraid to say so. I admit my bias up front. ESA makes no sense to me.
First, I know of nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government should regulate state-owned property. All the wildlife here is owned by the State of South Dakota. Giving control to Congress makes no sense to me.
Second, managing a chunk of the environment for the exclusive benefit on one particular critter is exactly what preservationists have been arguing against for a hundred years. The difference is the "one particular critter" is now a rodent instead of a cow. They can't have it both ways.
Third, ESA does not work and everyone knows it. The "isolated wilderness" and "save a single species" ideas were tested for fifty years. They don't work. That is why the conservation movement invented "ecosystem management" twenty years ago and why the United State Forest Service officially adopted it into law ten years ago. We now manage natural resources for the big picture, not for the preservation of just one little thing.
Even members of the "green movement" acknowledged the old system's failure, but they argued for keeping ESA until the new system was in place. Time is up.
Fourth, extinction is a perfectly normal cycle of selection that operated long before man decided he knew better how to run things.
Fifth, the assumption that each one of the millions of critters potentially protected by ESA has some mystical and extraordinary value may create a noble feeling, but it is not rational.
Sixth, Congress says a protected species or subspecies is "unique". The people who collect the money are the people who decide it is unique. For example, the Northern Swift Fox was a protected "unique" subspecies until another group of researchers decided it does not exist.
Last but not least, Congress is generally the worst imaginable manager of natural resources.
If you want millions of acres of scorched black earth, let Congress manage your forests. If you want barren grasslands, give them to Congress.
If you want just about anything (including your money) lost or destroyed without meaningful accountability, normally Congress can help you out.
If you are a real conservationist like me, you may agree that local governments and local owners are better managers of natural resources than Congress ever will be.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture.
Received via email:
Here's a quote from someone who witnessed a recent interaction between an elderly woman and an antiwar protester in a Metro station in DC: "There were protesters on the train platform handing out pamphlets on the evils of America. I politely declined to take one. An elderly woman was behind me getting off the escalator and a young (20ish) female protester offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined. The young protester put her hand on the old woman's shoulder as a gesture of friendship and in a very soft voice said, "Ma'am, don't you care about the children of Iraq?" The old woman looked up at her and said, "Honey, my first husband died in France during World War II, my second husband died in Korea, one of my sons died in Vietnam, a Grandson died in Desert Storm, all so you could have the right to stand here and bad mouth our country. If you touch me again. I'll stick this umbrella up your ass and open it."
--------------
During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director which is the criteria that defines a patient to be institutionalized. "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the bathtub."
Okay, here's your test:
(Those with an abnormal tendency will scroll to the bottom to get the answer before taking the test.)
1. Would you use the spoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?
"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the bucket as it is larger than the spoon."
keep scrolling
"No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull the plug."
So how did "you" do?
I welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner
===
OPINION/COMMENTARY
G8 Statement Affirms Bush on Global Warming
The Bush Administration’s position on global warming received a strong endorsement in the concluding communiqué to the G8 Summit of industrialized nations this week. The joint statement affirmed concern over the possibility of future climate change and echoed many past statements of U.S. policy that any governmental response to global warming be gradual, be based on technological transformation, and proceed only “as the science justifies.” "The G8 communiqué on climate change is a victory by President Bush on behalf of all the people of the world, especially the poor in developing countries,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming & International Environmental Policy. “The Kyoto Protocol’s dead-end approach of mandatory reductions in energy consumption was hardly mentioned. Instead, the leaders at the G8 summit have recognized that global warming must be put in the context of other, more serious challenges.” While some observers had hoped that Summit host Tony Blair would leverage his relationship with the President to pull the U.S. closer to the European position, the final agreement makes it clear that the opposite is the case. Particularly now that the majority of the nations pledged to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol are realizing that they will fail to reach their reduction targets, the consensus among industrialized nations has shifted definitively against the agenda of energy poverty....
A Change in Climate
One of the key issues discussed at last week's G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, was global warming. Although the conclusions were largely overshadowed by the London terrorist attacks, they demonstrate a huge shift in the way world leaders are addressing climate change. Before the meeting began, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair put US President George Bush under pressure. The US is the biggest emitter in the developed world, said Blair, so it should be responsible and join the European Union in its efforts to decrease and eventually eliminate greenhouse gases emissions. Indeed, the US was and still is the only member of the G8 that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. From the very beginning Bush had made it clear that he had no intention to ratify, because the economic impact of the climate treaty is too high if compared with the dubious environmental benefits that compliance with its targets would bring about. So the expectation was that the meeting would produce a joint "agreement to disagree" on climate policies. In other words, the G8 was expected to result in no significant political change. Instead the group issued a joint statement on climate: the leaders of the eight most industrialized countries agreed (although they didn't put it this way) that seven of them were wrong and just one was right. The one was President Bush. The extent to which the American position on Kyoto has been endorsed by the others doesn't lie just in the fact that the Kyoto Protocol is not even mentioned in the document -- as the White House negotiators had asked long before the meeting. The point is that Kyoto supporters -- especially European leaders -- rejected the very logic behind Kyoto....
Survey shows climatologists are split on global warming
A recent survey of climatologists from more than 20 nations has revealed that scientists are evenly split on whether humans are responsible for changes in global climate; these findings refute a 2004 study that claimed that there is a scientific consensus that global warming is real and primarily caused by humans.
In December 2004, Naomi Oreskes published an article in the Washington Post that summarized her examination of 928 scientific papers on global warming. She claims that:
* A review of scientific literature showed that scientists were in unanimous agreement that global warming is occurring and is being caused primarily by humans.
* Since human activities are part of the reason the Earth's climate is heating up, we need to stop repeating nonsense about the uncertainty of global warming and start talking seriously about the right approach to address it, she adds.
Since then, two separate studies published in the London Telegraph dispute Oreskes' findings, claiming instead that climatologists are evenly split on the issue:
* Benny Peiser conducted his own analysis on the same set of documents as Oreskes and concluded that only one-third backed the consensus view; only one percent did so explicitly.
* Dennis Bray surveyed hundreds of climatologists and asked them the question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic causes?
* He received 530 responses from 27 different countries and reported that more climatologists "strongly disagreed" than "strongly agreed" that climate change is mostly attributable to humans.
The results of these surveys suggest that the consensus is not all that strong and indicate that Oreskes’ conclusion is not as obvious as once stated.
Source: James M. Taylor, "Survey Shows Climatologists Are Split on Global Warming," Heartland Institute, June 1, 2005; Naomi Oreskes, "Undeniable Global Warming," Washington Post, December 26, 2004; and Robert Matthews, "Leading scientific journals are censoring debate on global warming," London Telegraph, May 1, 2005.
For text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17181
For Oreskes text (subscription required):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26065-2004Dec25.html
For London Telegraph text (subscription required):
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/01/wglob01.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/01/ixworld.html
No Blood for Oil
So after London, what next? Al Qaeda may seek to target our energy supply. Last February a message was posted to the al Qaeda-affiliated al Qalah (the Fortress) website entitled "Map of Future al Qaeda Operations." It stated among other things that the terrorists would make it a priority to attack oil facilities in the Middle East. According to the posting, attacking the U.S. energy base in the Gulf would have three effects: Damaging the American economy; embarrassing the United States and emboldening other countries seeking to secure their own energy supplies; and forcing the U.S. to deploy further troops to the region to stabilize the situation. "The U.S. will reach a stage of madness after the targeting of its oil interests," the terrorists reason, "which will facilitate the creation of a new front and the drowning of the U.S. in a new quagmire that will be worse than the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan." The terrorists understand that they can influence oil markets through directed violence, and thus exploit a U.S. critical vulnerability. Furthermore, the more money the United States sends to the region purchasing energy, the more is available to underwrite the terrorists and their beliefs by their state sponsors and other supporters in the region. This is an enduring pattern; since the oil shocks of the 1970s, the United States has sent uncounted billions of dollars into a region that has converted them into weapons of mass destruction programs, globally networked terrorist groups, and a hostile, internationally promoted anti-Western ideology....
Fish and Wildlife Service Agrees to Perform Status Reviews for 27 Species in Response to PLF Lawsuit
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will review the status of 31 listed species in California and Nevada in response to a lawsuit brought by Pacific Legal Foundation earlier this year. PLF charged the federal government with failing to conduct the mandatory status reviews that are required by the Endangered Species Act for 193 California species. Twenty-seven of the 31 species the agency will review were included in PLF’s suit. “We’re pleased the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to comply with the law and perform the required status reviews,” said Pacific Legal Foundation Principal Attorney Rob Rivett. “The agency’s decision is a step in the right direction towards making sure the endangered species list is current and Californians are not being unnecessarily burdened by regulations to protect species that may no longer need special protection.” “We will still be going forward with the lawsuit, however, to ensure that the seriously overdue status reviews of the remaining 166 species also are performed,” Rivett said. Under Section 4(c)(2) of the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. Section 1533(c)(2), the government must perform status reviews of listed species every five years to determine whether, based on current best available science, each listed species should have its status changed (i.e., either lowered from endangered to threatened or raised from threatened to endangered), or have its status as a listed species removed because protection is no longer justified....
Who's Ignoring Science?
For years, Democrats and their environmentalist allies have been accusing the Bush administration of "ignoring the science" they claim shows humanity is warming the planet. It's a debatable accusation that we'll return to in a moment. What's not debatable is the utter hypocrisy of the Democrats, who ever since the Clinton administration have successfully forced pesticide regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency to ignore the science when establishing pesticide regulations. They nearly derailed the appointment of the new EPA Administrator this spring over this issue and now they're advising the Bush administration to defy a 2003 Federal Appeals Court order requiring that the EPA consider human toxicity data if available. Without reliable exposure and human toxicity data, EPA regulators must rely on worst case assumptions and are required to apply additional 10-fold "uncertainty factors" to their risk calculations. All too often this means elimination of specific uses of pesticides, hurting farmers and consumers by making it harder and more expensive to protect our food supply and homes from pests....
The Robber Baron
How much should drivers be forced to pony up at the pump to pay off trial lawyers? A penny a gallon? Two cents? How about $66 million? Most motorists would vote for nothing, and by a pretty wide margin. But unfortunately, motorists aren't organized politically to influence election campaigns. Toxic tort law firms are, and do. And if Fred Baron, ringleader of the infamous Baron & Budd law firm, can keep Republicans and truly consumer-minded Democrats in Congress at bay on the Energy Bill now before Congress, motorists can expect to be stuck paying him and his fellow attorneys a penny or two every time they gas up for decades to come. Now, Baron "all but" hopes his Senate muscle will keep open his pipeline to what he believes is another financial windfall -- municipal lawsuits over MTBE water contamination. The House has passed an Energy Bill that would exempt MTBE makers from liability in suits claiming their product is defective. The Senate has no such provision. Baron wants to keep it out and prevent any compromise such as one now proposed to create a trust fund to deal with contamination from the bill. Why? Not public health, nor municipalities' interests. It's money for him and his firm; they are involved in more than half the 90 outstanding MTBE suits. In opposing the provision to limit defective product claims against oil companies, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., intoned: "It is bad public policy to put special interests above public health concerns. Companies need to be held accountable when their product or their misconduct causes the public harm." Will Boxer, who received $909,033 from lawyers and law firms for her 2000 election run, including $5,500 from Baron & Budd, now apply that standard to Baron & Budd and support a compromise creating a trust fund to clean up the water that would serve everyone but the lawyers? Will other senators?....
Arctic Pollution Linked to Bird Droppings
A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions. Researchers led by Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa studied several ponds below the cliffs at Cape Vera on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. Scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the ponds, which receive falling guano from a colony of northern fulmars that nest on the cliffs, have highly elevated amounts of chemicals. "If long-range transport was the only thing bringing these chemicals north, we would expect to see a very even distribution," Blais said in a telephone interview. But the chemicals are concentrated in some places, he said, "and we have found a reason ... they can follow biological connections." Blais calls it the boomerang effect....
===
G8 Statement Affirms Bush on Global Warming
The Bush Administration’s position on global warming received a strong endorsement in the concluding communiqué to the G8 Summit of industrialized nations this week. The joint statement affirmed concern over the possibility of future climate change and echoed many past statements of U.S. policy that any governmental response to global warming be gradual, be based on technological transformation, and proceed only “as the science justifies.” "The G8 communiqué on climate change is a victory by President Bush on behalf of all the people of the world, especially the poor in developing countries,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming & International Environmental Policy. “The Kyoto Protocol’s dead-end approach of mandatory reductions in energy consumption was hardly mentioned. Instead, the leaders at the G8 summit have recognized that global warming must be put in the context of other, more serious challenges.” While some observers had hoped that Summit host Tony Blair would leverage his relationship with the President to pull the U.S. closer to the European position, the final agreement makes it clear that the opposite is the case. Particularly now that the majority of the nations pledged to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol are realizing that they will fail to reach their reduction targets, the consensus among industrialized nations has shifted definitively against the agenda of energy poverty....
A Change in Climate
One of the key issues discussed at last week's G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, was global warming. Although the conclusions were largely overshadowed by the London terrorist attacks, they demonstrate a huge shift in the way world leaders are addressing climate change. Before the meeting began, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair put US President George Bush under pressure. The US is the biggest emitter in the developed world, said Blair, so it should be responsible and join the European Union in its efforts to decrease and eventually eliminate greenhouse gases emissions. Indeed, the US was and still is the only member of the G8 that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. From the very beginning Bush had made it clear that he had no intention to ratify, because the economic impact of the climate treaty is too high if compared with the dubious environmental benefits that compliance with its targets would bring about. So the expectation was that the meeting would produce a joint "agreement to disagree" on climate policies. In other words, the G8 was expected to result in no significant political change. Instead the group issued a joint statement on climate: the leaders of the eight most industrialized countries agreed (although they didn't put it this way) that seven of them were wrong and just one was right. The one was President Bush. The extent to which the American position on Kyoto has been endorsed by the others doesn't lie just in the fact that the Kyoto Protocol is not even mentioned in the document -- as the White House negotiators had asked long before the meeting. The point is that Kyoto supporters -- especially European leaders -- rejected the very logic behind Kyoto....
Survey shows climatologists are split on global warming
A recent survey of climatologists from more than 20 nations has revealed that scientists are evenly split on whether humans are responsible for changes in global climate; these findings refute a 2004 study that claimed that there is a scientific consensus that global warming is real and primarily caused by humans.
In December 2004, Naomi Oreskes published an article in the Washington Post that summarized her examination of 928 scientific papers on global warming. She claims that:
* A review of scientific literature showed that scientists were in unanimous agreement that global warming is occurring and is being caused primarily by humans.
* Since human activities are part of the reason the Earth's climate is heating up, we need to stop repeating nonsense about the uncertainty of global warming and start talking seriously about the right approach to address it, she adds.
Since then, two separate studies published in the London Telegraph dispute Oreskes' findings, claiming instead that climatologists are evenly split on the issue:
* Benny Peiser conducted his own analysis on the same set of documents as Oreskes and concluded that only one-third backed the consensus view; only one percent did so explicitly.
* Dennis Bray surveyed hundreds of climatologists and asked them the question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic causes?
* He received 530 responses from 27 different countries and reported that more climatologists "strongly disagreed" than "strongly agreed" that climate change is mostly attributable to humans.
The results of these surveys suggest that the consensus is not all that strong and indicate that Oreskes’ conclusion is not as obvious as once stated.
Source: James M. Taylor, "Survey Shows Climatologists Are Split on Global Warming," Heartland Institute, June 1, 2005; Naomi Oreskes, "Undeniable Global Warming," Washington Post, December 26, 2004; and Robert Matthews, "Leading scientific journals are censoring debate on global warming," London Telegraph, May 1, 2005.
For text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17181
For Oreskes text (subscription required):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26065-2004Dec25.html
For London Telegraph text (subscription required):
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/01/wglob01.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/01/ixworld.html
No Blood for Oil
So after London, what next? Al Qaeda may seek to target our energy supply. Last February a message was posted to the al Qaeda-affiliated al Qalah (the Fortress) website entitled "Map of Future al Qaeda Operations." It stated among other things that the terrorists would make it a priority to attack oil facilities in the Middle East. According to the posting, attacking the U.S. energy base in the Gulf would have three effects: Damaging the American economy; embarrassing the United States and emboldening other countries seeking to secure their own energy supplies; and forcing the U.S. to deploy further troops to the region to stabilize the situation. "The U.S. will reach a stage of madness after the targeting of its oil interests," the terrorists reason, "which will facilitate the creation of a new front and the drowning of the U.S. in a new quagmire that will be worse than the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan." The terrorists understand that they can influence oil markets through directed violence, and thus exploit a U.S. critical vulnerability. Furthermore, the more money the United States sends to the region purchasing energy, the more is available to underwrite the terrorists and their beliefs by their state sponsors and other supporters in the region. This is an enduring pattern; since the oil shocks of the 1970s, the United States has sent uncounted billions of dollars into a region that has converted them into weapons of mass destruction programs, globally networked terrorist groups, and a hostile, internationally promoted anti-Western ideology....
Fish and Wildlife Service Agrees to Perform Status Reviews for 27 Species in Response to PLF Lawsuit
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will review the status of 31 listed species in California and Nevada in response to a lawsuit brought by Pacific Legal Foundation earlier this year. PLF charged the federal government with failing to conduct the mandatory status reviews that are required by the Endangered Species Act for 193 California species. Twenty-seven of the 31 species the agency will review were included in PLF’s suit. “We’re pleased the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to comply with the law and perform the required status reviews,” said Pacific Legal Foundation Principal Attorney Rob Rivett. “The agency’s decision is a step in the right direction towards making sure the endangered species list is current and Californians are not being unnecessarily burdened by regulations to protect species that may no longer need special protection.” “We will still be going forward with the lawsuit, however, to ensure that the seriously overdue status reviews of the remaining 166 species also are performed,” Rivett said. Under Section 4(c)(2) of the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. Section 1533(c)(2), the government must perform status reviews of listed species every five years to determine whether, based on current best available science, each listed species should have its status changed (i.e., either lowered from endangered to threatened or raised from threatened to endangered), or have its status as a listed species removed because protection is no longer justified....
Who's Ignoring Science?
For years, Democrats and their environmentalist allies have been accusing the Bush administration of "ignoring the science" they claim shows humanity is warming the planet. It's a debatable accusation that we'll return to in a moment. What's not debatable is the utter hypocrisy of the Democrats, who ever since the Clinton administration have successfully forced pesticide regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency to ignore the science when establishing pesticide regulations. They nearly derailed the appointment of the new EPA Administrator this spring over this issue and now they're advising the Bush administration to defy a 2003 Federal Appeals Court order requiring that the EPA consider human toxicity data if available. Without reliable exposure and human toxicity data, EPA regulators must rely on worst case assumptions and are required to apply additional 10-fold "uncertainty factors" to their risk calculations. All too often this means elimination of specific uses of pesticides, hurting farmers and consumers by making it harder and more expensive to protect our food supply and homes from pests....
The Robber Baron
How much should drivers be forced to pony up at the pump to pay off trial lawyers? A penny a gallon? Two cents? How about $66 million? Most motorists would vote for nothing, and by a pretty wide margin. But unfortunately, motorists aren't organized politically to influence election campaigns. Toxic tort law firms are, and do. And if Fred Baron, ringleader of the infamous Baron & Budd law firm, can keep Republicans and truly consumer-minded Democrats in Congress at bay on the Energy Bill now before Congress, motorists can expect to be stuck paying him and his fellow attorneys a penny or two every time they gas up for decades to come. Now, Baron "all but" hopes his Senate muscle will keep open his pipeline to what he believes is another financial windfall -- municipal lawsuits over MTBE water contamination. The House has passed an Energy Bill that would exempt MTBE makers from liability in suits claiming their product is defective. The Senate has no such provision. Baron wants to keep it out and prevent any compromise such as one now proposed to create a trust fund to deal with contamination from the bill. Why? Not public health, nor municipalities' interests. It's money for him and his firm; they are involved in more than half the 90 outstanding MTBE suits. In opposing the provision to limit defective product claims against oil companies, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., intoned: "It is bad public policy to put special interests above public health concerns. Companies need to be held accountable when their product or their misconduct causes the public harm." Will Boxer, who received $909,033 from lawyers and law firms for her 2000 election run, including $5,500 from Baron & Budd, now apply that standard to Baron & Budd and support a compromise creating a trust fund to clean up the water that would serve everyone but the lawyers? Will other senators?....
Arctic Pollution Linked to Bird Droppings
A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions. Researchers led by Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa studied several ponds below the cliffs at Cape Vera on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. Scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the ponds, which receive falling guano from a colony of northern fulmars that nest on the cliffs, have highly elevated amounts of chemicals. "If long-range transport was the only thing bringing these chemicals north, we would expect to see a very even distribution," Blais said in a telephone interview. But the chemicals are concentrated in some places, he said, "and we have found a reason ... they can follow biological connections." Blais calls it the boomerang effect....
===
Friday, July 15, 2005
U.N. Panel Presents 4 Internet Options
A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information Society" summit. One option would largely keep the current system intact, with a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, continuing to handle basic policies over Internet addresses. At the other end, ICANN would be revamped and new international agencies formed under the auspices of the United Nations. The 40 members of the panel hailed from around the world and included representatives from business, academia and government. Some countries were satisfied with the current arrangement, while others, particularly developing ones, wanted to wrest control from ICANN and place it with an intergovernmental group, possibly under the United Nations. Leaders ducked the issue and directed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convene the working group to come up with a proposal for the second and final phase of the summit, in Tunisia in November....
===
A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information Society" summit. One option would largely keep the current system intact, with a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, continuing to handle basic policies over Internet addresses. At the other end, ICANN would be revamped and new international agencies formed under the auspices of the United Nations. The 40 members of the panel hailed from around the world and included representatives from business, academia and government. Some countries were satisfied with the current arrangement, while others, particularly developing ones, wanted to wrest control from ICANN and place it with an intergovernmental group, possibly under the United Nations. Leaders ducked the issue and directed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convene the working group to come up with a proposal for the second and final phase of the summit, in Tunisia in November....
===
Secretary Norton Praises President’s Intention to Nominate H. Dale Hall as Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton today praised President Bush’s intention to nominate H. Dale Hall to serve as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The announcement is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, once the official nomination is made by the President. A 27-year career employee, Hall has served in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the Southwest Regional Director of the Service since 2001. “Dale brings to the job a wealth of experience and a record of being part of the answer to complex problems,” said Norton....
===
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton today praised President Bush’s intention to nominate H. Dale Hall to serve as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The announcement is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, once the official nomination is made by the President. A 27-year career employee, Hall has served in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the Southwest Regional Director of the Service since 2001. “Dale brings to the job a wealth of experience and a record of being part of the answer to complex problems,” said Norton....
===
NEWS ROUNDUP
EnCana's 'field of dreams' has Colorado locals crying the blues Northwestern Colorado is largely undeveloped and sparsely populated, home to agriculture and ranchers. Many of its people moved there looking for a pristine place to call home and most had no idea that the ground below them held natural gas, a fair assumption given that energy companies didn't see or pursue the potential until recently. That's changed radically. EnCana is pushing hard this year, drilling more than 300 wells, with hundreds more to come. It is an example of what EnCana calls an "unconventional" gas field, where numerous wells are necessary to tap gas that is spread out in small pockets over a large area. One analyst described the region as a "field of dreams." It is EnCana's single most important drilling location and positive community relations will be a key to success. The anger among some residents was stirred principally after a serious misstep by EnCana Corp. in 2004, and it has not abated even though the company is getting credit for recent improvements in its practices. Last summer, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission penalized EnCana $371,200 (U.S.), the largest such fine in the regulator's history, because natural gas containing benzene, a carcinogen, seeped from a poorly completed EnCana well into Divide Creek, about 250 kilometres west of Denver....
Forest throws out grazing plan The supervisor of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest has overturned part of a grazing plan to avoid damaging streams and streamside habitat. The decision, which resulted from an appeal by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, means forest officials must now revise a grazing plan that affects more than 62,000 acres of public lands in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. Authorized last spring, the plan, known as the Upper North Platte Analysis, would have permitted cattle grazing in streams and streamside habitats that are already suffering from drought, erosion and overgrazing, said a Biodiversity Conservation Alliance representative....
Snowbowl won't perform work until suits settled The Arizona Snowbowl has agreed not to begin work on snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area until lawsuits against it by Indian tribes and conservation groups have been settled. That accord was struck Wednesday during a federal court hearing in Prescott seeking a preliminary injunction against the construction before U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt also scheduled a tentative court date for mid-October and consolidated the four suits into one filed by northern Arizona tribes and environmentalists against the U.S. Department of the Interior....
Troy Mine cave-in raises doubts at Rock Creek mine Generally speaking, a hole in the ground is not a problem at an underground mine, which is, after all, a hole in the ground. But an unexpected cave-in at the Troy Mine this spring has raised doubts about the future of a controversial mine proposal nearby. In approving the Rock Creek mine - which would tunnel beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness - Forest Service officials pointed to the Troy Mine as a good example of what might be expected. Responding to cave-in or subsidence concerns, officials noted the existing Troy Mine provided "an excellent analogy for the proposed Rock Creek mining method and risks of subsidence." The geology is much the same at the two sites, they said, as is the mining method proposed....
No end in sight for Biscuit Fire salvage Three years after lightning sparked the biggest wildfire in the nation in 2002, salvage logging is limping along, with no end in sight. The Forest Service said Wednesday it has sold 67 million board feet burned by the Biscuit Fire -- enough to build 15,000 homes -- of which 25 million board feet has been harvested. That compares to 370 million board feet called for in the final logging plans issued a year ago. There is no word on when the bulk of the sales, located in roadless areas that environmentalists still hope to protect from logging, will be offered, if ever. "It's been meaningful volume to the guys who got it, but given the controversy and the hype, it's been a yawner," said Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group....
House panel studies motorized recreation on public lands Off-road vehicle enthusiasts complained to a congressional committee Wednesday that they are increasingly being blocked from enjoying national forests, parks and rangelands. Last year, 51 million of 211 million national forest visitors participated in off-road vehicle recreation, a tenfold increase over 1972, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The service says unregulated recreation, including off-road vehicle use, is a key threat to the national forests. Off-road vehicle users disturb wildlife, hunters, hikers and skiers with their noise and fumes....
Toronto Artist Traded Endangered Species, Canada, U.S. Allege The Internet is being used increasingly to support illegal trade in wildlife specimens and products, according to Canadian and U.S. wildlife officers. The warning came Wednesday as a Toronto man was charged in Canada for selling parts of endangered species on the Internet. Officials of both countries cooperated in the investigation and arrest of Mark J. Gleberzon, age 36, for allegedly selling products containing elephant ivory and parrot feather ornaments to U.S. wildlife officers in New York. After a 15 month investigation, Gleberzon was arrested May 12 by United States Fish and Wildlife Service special agents at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City while attempting to board a return flight to Canada....
World Wildlife Fund Launches Wildfinder, World's Most Powerful Tool to Find Where Wildlife Live The world's only searchable database for all four groups of land vertebrates launches today on World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Web site, http://www.worldwildlife.org. Wildfinder is the only online, map-driven tool to cover the entire globe. "For the first time the geographic ranges of 26,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians can be found at a single site," said Eric Dinerstein, WWF's vice-president for science. "This kind of information is critical for studies in ecology, biogeography, conservation biology and natural history. Before Wildfinder, finding these data might require a time-consuming search of several different references. Now, they are available with just a few mouse clicks." WildFinder allows the user to search for wildlife two ways – by location or by species....
Animal rights group sues over Steller sea lion research An animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing the federal government of using illegal research techniques on threatened and endangered Steller sea lions. The Humane Society of the United States says the National Marine Fisheries Service has approved permits for research activities that include hot branding and tissue sampling of thousands of Steller sea lions each year. Humane Society officials said the research practices violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act....
Bears will be bears U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy dismissed a lawsuit last Thursday dealing with the grizzly bear mauling death of Great Falls hunter Timothy Hilston. The case stems from an Oct. 30, 2001 incident in which Hilston went hunting in the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area about 45 miles east of Missoula. Hilston was successful in downing an elk and was in the process of field dressing the animal when he was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. Believing that the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Wildlife and Parks were “negligent in operation and control, maintenance and management of the grizzly bears” in the wildlife management area, Hilston’s widow sued those agencies for the death of her husband. Lawyers for the state and feds say if Hilston’s widow was successful in her suit, it could have set a precedent that would have opened the floodgates for similar lawsuits and undermined grizzly bear protection....
B.W. Cox Wants to Leave a Land Legacy If you want to learn about plants, soil conditions, water tables, aquifer recharges, what grows where and why, spend at least a day driving around a vast ranch with its owner. Hopefully he’s the type of rancher who knows a thing or two about how to keep the soil rich and the cows fat, how to make sure the eagles, the elk and the bears all get along with him and his cows. B.W. Cox is one of those ranchers. He’s probably a better land steward than his Forest Service neighbors. He’s made his living here all of his long years. It isn’t an easy living, as evidenced by B.W.’s slight limp-and-tilt, his creaky bones. But to be surrounded by his land, his family and his cows is all he really wants. No condos in Florida or even a small house in Socorro. “Those people who do that,” he says, referring to his ranching cohorts who sell off their land and retire, “they’re dead in seven, eight months.” B.W.’s Montosa Ranch is in Magdalena, New Mexico, which sits about 15 miles west of Socorro, north of the Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains, above the plains of St. Augustine....
Planes plant seeds to grow a crop of raindrops Todd Flanagan knows the desperation felt by area farmers and ranchers as sweltering summer days fail to yield any significant rainfall. Flanagan is a meteorologist for a rainmaking project here, and, lately, he's had to answer to a lot of concerned residents wondering where the rain is. There has been no measurable rainfall at San Antonio International Airport for 43 days, according to the National Weather Service. It's the 11th longest period of no rain since 1946, when the agency began tracking such records. But Flanagan isn't discouraged. The South Texas Weather Modification Association sent two planes Thursday into the skies northwest of San Antonio to seed clouds and hopefully produce rain....
Governor rehires brand inspectors Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Thursday upbraided state livestock officials for their "insensitive and callous" dismissal of four brand inspectors due to a budget crunch, then shifted funds to rehire them. State Veterinarian and Wyoming Livestock Board Executive Officer Dwayne Oldham said the layoffs were the last choice to balance the Brand Inspection Program budget and that a sincere effort was made to personally contact the affected employees. The board told the inspectors in late June they would be laid off to help make up a shortfall expected to reach $1.25 million by next summer. On June 27, Freudenthal announced he would not authorize higher fees on ranchers to cover the deficit, saying other options remained. The deficit resulted from fewer cattle being inspected and sold because of drought, and higher travel costs and benefits for brand inspectors....
Hudson rancher held liable for horse that caused accident A $300,000 lawsuit settlement set a standard for livestock owners. Joan and Frank Hunter of Westminster sued Bruce Eastwood, a Hudson-area rancher, because one of his horses escaped through an open gate and ran in front of their car. The Hunters were driving west on Interstate 76 about 11:30 p.m. April 8, 2001, when they hit the horse that shattered the windshield and struck the Hunters. John Case, the Hunters' lawyer, said the settlement amount was the maximum available through Eastwood's insurance policy. "They are not going to be rich because of it," Case said. "They're getting compensated for part of what they lost." Case said state courts used to rule in favor of livestock owners, but times have changed....
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EnCana's 'field of dreams' has Colorado locals crying the blues Northwestern Colorado is largely undeveloped and sparsely populated, home to agriculture and ranchers. Many of its people moved there looking for a pristine place to call home and most had no idea that the ground below them held natural gas, a fair assumption given that energy companies didn't see or pursue the potential until recently. That's changed radically. EnCana is pushing hard this year, drilling more than 300 wells, with hundreds more to come. It is an example of what EnCana calls an "unconventional" gas field, where numerous wells are necessary to tap gas that is spread out in small pockets over a large area. One analyst described the region as a "field of dreams." It is EnCana's single most important drilling location and positive community relations will be a key to success. The anger among some residents was stirred principally after a serious misstep by EnCana Corp. in 2004, and it has not abated even though the company is getting credit for recent improvements in its practices. Last summer, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission penalized EnCana $371,200 (U.S.), the largest such fine in the regulator's history, because natural gas containing benzene, a carcinogen, seeped from a poorly completed EnCana well into Divide Creek, about 250 kilometres west of Denver....
Forest throws out grazing plan The supervisor of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest has overturned part of a grazing plan to avoid damaging streams and streamside habitat. The decision, which resulted from an appeal by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, means forest officials must now revise a grazing plan that affects more than 62,000 acres of public lands in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. Authorized last spring, the plan, known as the Upper North Platte Analysis, would have permitted cattle grazing in streams and streamside habitats that are already suffering from drought, erosion and overgrazing, said a Biodiversity Conservation Alliance representative....
Snowbowl won't perform work until suits settled The Arizona Snowbowl has agreed not to begin work on snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area until lawsuits against it by Indian tribes and conservation groups have been settled. That accord was struck Wednesday during a federal court hearing in Prescott seeking a preliminary injunction against the construction before U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt also scheduled a tentative court date for mid-October and consolidated the four suits into one filed by northern Arizona tribes and environmentalists against the U.S. Department of the Interior....
Troy Mine cave-in raises doubts at Rock Creek mine Generally speaking, a hole in the ground is not a problem at an underground mine, which is, after all, a hole in the ground. But an unexpected cave-in at the Troy Mine this spring has raised doubts about the future of a controversial mine proposal nearby. In approving the Rock Creek mine - which would tunnel beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness - Forest Service officials pointed to the Troy Mine as a good example of what might be expected. Responding to cave-in or subsidence concerns, officials noted the existing Troy Mine provided "an excellent analogy for the proposed Rock Creek mining method and risks of subsidence." The geology is much the same at the two sites, they said, as is the mining method proposed....
No end in sight for Biscuit Fire salvage Three years after lightning sparked the biggest wildfire in the nation in 2002, salvage logging is limping along, with no end in sight. The Forest Service said Wednesday it has sold 67 million board feet burned by the Biscuit Fire -- enough to build 15,000 homes -- of which 25 million board feet has been harvested. That compares to 370 million board feet called for in the final logging plans issued a year ago. There is no word on when the bulk of the sales, located in roadless areas that environmentalists still hope to protect from logging, will be offered, if ever. "It's been meaningful volume to the guys who got it, but given the controversy and the hype, it's been a yawner," said Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group....
House panel studies motorized recreation on public lands Off-road vehicle enthusiasts complained to a congressional committee Wednesday that they are increasingly being blocked from enjoying national forests, parks and rangelands. Last year, 51 million of 211 million national forest visitors participated in off-road vehicle recreation, a tenfold increase over 1972, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The service says unregulated recreation, including off-road vehicle use, is a key threat to the national forests. Off-road vehicle users disturb wildlife, hunters, hikers and skiers with their noise and fumes....
Toronto Artist Traded Endangered Species, Canada, U.S. Allege The Internet is being used increasingly to support illegal trade in wildlife specimens and products, according to Canadian and U.S. wildlife officers. The warning came Wednesday as a Toronto man was charged in Canada for selling parts of endangered species on the Internet. Officials of both countries cooperated in the investigation and arrest of Mark J. Gleberzon, age 36, for allegedly selling products containing elephant ivory and parrot feather ornaments to U.S. wildlife officers in New York. After a 15 month investigation, Gleberzon was arrested May 12 by United States Fish and Wildlife Service special agents at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City while attempting to board a return flight to Canada....
World Wildlife Fund Launches Wildfinder, World's Most Powerful Tool to Find Where Wildlife Live The world's only searchable database for all four groups of land vertebrates launches today on World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Web site, http://www.worldwildlife.org. Wildfinder is the only online, map-driven tool to cover the entire globe. "For the first time the geographic ranges of 26,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians can be found at a single site," said Eric Dinerstein, WWF's vice-president for science. "This kind of information is critical for studies in ecology, biogeography, conservation biology and natural history. Before Wildfinder, finding these data might require a time-consuming search of several different references. Now, they are available with just a few mouse clicks." WildFinder allows the user to search for wildlife two ways – by location or by species....
Animal rights group sues over Steller sea lion research An animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing the federal government of using illegal research techniques on threatened and endangered Steller sea lions. The Humane Society of the United States says the National Marine Fisheries Service has approved permits for research activities that include hot branding and tissue sampling of thousands of Steller sea lions each year. Humane Society officials said the research practices violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act....
Bears will be bears U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy dismissed a lawsuit last Thursday dealing with the grizzly bear mauling death of Great Falls hunter Timothy Hilston. The case stems from an Oct. 30, 2001 incident in which Hilston went hunting in the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area about 45 miles east of Missoula. Hilston was successful in downing an elk and was in the process of field dressing the animal when he was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. Believing that the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Wildlife and Parks were “negligent in operation and control, maintenance and management of the grizzly bears” in the wildlife management area, Hilston’s widow sued those agencies for the death of her husband. Lawyers for the state and feds say if Hilston’s widow was successful in her suit, it could have set a precedent that would have opened the floodgates for similar lawsuits and undermined grizzly bear protection....
B.W. Cox Wants to Leave a Land Legacy If you want to learn about plants, soil conditions, water tables, aquifer recharges, what grows where and why, spend at least a day driving around a vast ranch with its owner. Hopefully he’s the type of rancher who knows a thing or two about how to keep the soil rich and the cows fat, how to make sure the eagles, the elk and the bears all get along with him and his cows. B.W. Cox is one of those ranchers. He’s probably a better land steward than his Forest Service neighbors. He’s made his living here all of his long years. It isn’t an easy living, as evidenced by B.W.’s slight limp-and-tilt, his creaky bones. But to be surrounded by his land, his family and his cows is all he really wants. No condos in Florida or even a small house in Socorro. “Those people who do that,” he says, referring to his ranching cohorts who sell off their land and retire, “they’re dead in seven, eight months.” B.W.’s Montosa Ranch is in Magdalena, New Mexico, which sits about 15 miles west of Socorro, north of the Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains, above the plains of St. Augustine....
Planes plant seeds to grow a crop of raindrops Todd Flanagan knows the desperation felt by area farmers and ranchers as sweltering summer days fail to yield any significant rainfall. Flanagan is a meteorologist for a rainmaking project here, and, lately, he's had to answer to a lot of concerned residents wondering where the rain is. There has been no measurable rainfall at San Antonio International Airport for 43 days, according to the National Weather Service. It's the 11th longest period of no rain since 1946, when the agency began tracking such records. But Flanagan isn't discouraged. The South Texas Weather Modification Association sent two planes Thursday into the skies northwest of San Antonio to seed clouds and hopefully produce rain....
Governor rehires brand inspectors Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Thursday upbraided state livestock officials for their "insensitive and callous" dismissal of four brand inspectors due to a budget crunch, then shifted funds to rehire them. State Veterinarian and Wyoming Livestock Board Executive Officer Dwayne Oldham said the layoffs were the last choice to balance the Brand Inspection Program budget and that a sincere effort was made to personally contact the affected employees. The board told the inspectors in late June they would be laid off to help make up a shortfall expected to reach $1.25 million by next summer. On June 27, Freudenthal announced he would not authorize higher fees on ranchers to cover the deficit, saying other options remained. The deficit resulted from fewer cattle being inspected and sold because of drought, and higher travel costs and benefits for brand inspectors....
Hudson rancher held liable for horse that caused accident A $300,000 lawsuit settlement set a standard for livestock owners. Joan and Frank Hunter of Westminster sued Bruce Eastwood, a Hudson-area rancher, because one of his horses escaped through an open gate and ran in front of their car. The Hunters were driving west on Interstate 76 about 11:30 p.m. April 8, 2001, when they hit the horse that shattered the windshield and struck the Hunters. John Case, the Hunters' lawyer, said the settlement amount was the maximum available through Eastwood's insurance policy. "They are not going to be rich because of it," Case said. "They're getting compensated for part of what they lost." Case said state courts used to rule in favor of livestock owners, but times have changed....
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
MAD COW DISEASE
Appeals Court Overturns Canada Beef Ban
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Canadian cattle can again be imported to the United States, dismissing a lower court decision that resuming the imports could spread mad cow disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will reopen the border within days to Canadian cattle, which were banned in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the government was already working with Canadian food inspectors to certify cattle for shipment. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a Montana judge who blocked the USDA from reopening the border in March, saying it "subjects the entire U.S. beef industry to potentially catastrophic damages" and "presents a genuine risk of death for U.S. consumers." American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle said the industry will be able to resume cattle shipments quickly. "A lot of the preliminary work is already done. I think you'll see the industry move quickly," he said. Boyle said the ruling is also "a win for American consumers who were paying $1.85 a pound for ground beef before the border closed and are paying about $2.55 today." Speaking in Ottawa before the appellate court was released, Boyle blamed the ban for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in the U.S. meat packing industry....
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Appeals Court Overturns Canada Beef Ban
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Canadian cattle can again be imported to the United States, dismissing a lower court decision that resuming the imports could spread mad cow disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will reopen the border within days to Canadian cattle, which were banned in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the government was already working with Canadian food inspectors to certify cattle for shipment. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a Montana judge who blocked the USDA from reopening the border in March, saying it "subjects the entire U.S. beef industry to potentially catastrophic damages" and "presents a genuine risk of death for U.S. consumers." American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle said the industry will be able to resume cattle shipments quickly. "A lot of the preliminary work is already done. I think you'll see the industry move quickly," he said. Boyle said the ruling is also "a win for American consumers who were paying $1.85 a pound for ground beef before the border closed and are paying about $2.55 today." Speaking in Ottawa before the appellate court was released, Boyle blamed the ban for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in the U.S. meat packing industry....
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GAO REPORT
Wildland Fire Management: Timely Identification of Long-Term Options and Funding Needs Is Critical, by Robert A. Robinson, managing director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. GAO-05-923T, July 14.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-923T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05923thigh.pdf
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Wildland Fire Management: Timely Identification of Long-Term Options and Funding Needs Is Critical, by Robert A. Robinson, managing director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. GAO-05-923T, July 14.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-923T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05923thigh.pdf
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Mountain lion shot and killed in Fall River County A Fall River County landowner shot and killed a mountain lion Tuesday about two miles south of Edgemont, according to the state Game, Fish and Parks Department. The rancher, Jamie Lawrence, apparently found the mountain lion under a stock trailer a short distance from his home, said Mike Kintigh of the Game, Fish and Parks Department. "The lion was about 52 feet from the house underneath his trailer," Kintigh said....
Judge rejects effort to halt killing of pigs federal judge rejected a request by animal rights activists to halt the killing of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island, which the park's managers say is necessary to protect an endangered fox population. Animal rights activists filed suit last week seeking a halt to the killings, which they say are unnecessary and inhumane. But the judge rejected their request Monday for a temporary restraining order while the lawsuit is pending. Corey Evans, an attorney for plaintiffs who include two Santa Barbara residents and the group In Defense of Animals, said the plaintiffs will seek a preliminary injunction that requires a more thorough hearing than the request for a restraining order. He said the killings violate both state and federal environmental laws....
Ecologists optimistic about giant cactus' chances after wildfire scorching A giant saguaro cactus scorched by a wildfire that started near Cave Creek might survive after all, experts say. Initially, U.S. Forest Service officials were pessimistic that the "Grand One," thought to be the world's second largest saguaro cactus, would survive the fire last month. Flames jumped from a nearby tree onto the saguaro and spread over much of it, but most of the cactus appears to have escaped fatal damage, said Patti Fenner, U.S. Forest Service plant expert. The cactus, estimated at more than 200 years old, stands about 46 feet high, is nearly 8 feet in circumference at its base and has at least 13 arms....
Enviros, timber industry, predict forest-by-forest battles ahead Environmental groups and the timber industry are gearing up for forest-by-forest court fights over potential development in untouched areas of the nation's national forests under a Bush administration rule. The preparation comes after a ruling this week by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton administration ban on road-building and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land. "What's happening with the environmental movement now is they have had limited success at the national and regional level, and they've taken their battle to a project-by-project status," he said. "I would imagine an appeal of each decision. That's been their tack and I don't see any reason that would be changed."....
Editorial: Feds should acquire Flats mineral rights Cleanup at Rocky Flats, the Colorado Superfund site with the most hazardous wastes, could be basically done by Halloween, although a few environmental projects will continue. Topping the list are private mineral rights that, if developed, could wreck plans to make Rocky Flats a wildlife refuge. Outside the core, the government left about 6,000 acres as a security and safety zone. Today that relatively untouched buffer zone harbors some of the last natural short-grass prairie on the Front Range - prime habitat for several endangered species. In a few years, after environmental reports are finished, the U.S. Department of Interior is slated to manage the old buffer zone as a wildlife refuge. But the feds never acquired rights to gravel, oil and other minerals under the site. Interior officials fret that it will make no sense to operate a wildlife refuge if the property could be mined....
Builders Urge Congress To Update Endangered Species Act The nation’s home builders called on Congress today to update and modernize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in order to protect the environment and allow local communities to grow and thrive. “Clearly, we must find new ways to balance the needs of our growing communities, with the need to protect and conserve species and their habitats,” Paul Campos, general counsel and vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, told the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water. Testifying on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Campos called on the Senate panel to expand landowner incentives under the ESA, and provide certainty to landowners that Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) and other voluntary species management programs will be excluded from critical habitat designations....
House Bill Would Downsize Endangered Species Act The House Resources Committee is poised to consider some of the most sweeping changes ever to the Endangered Species Act with legislation aimed at making it more difficult to list plants and animals and protect their habitat. Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), who has made revamping the act one of his top priorities this year, could possibly move on legislation as early as next week. A staff discussion draft of the bill, leaked to various interest groups, suggests the committee may add more requirements for listing a species, extend deadlines for critical habitat, beef up the requirements for recovery plans, require payments for property owners whose land is affected by the law, offer exemptions for invasive species and cut the entire program in 10 years....
Fungus threatens to put boreal toad on endangered list Once common in the southern Rocky Mountains, the toad has only two viable populations left in Colorado - one in Chaffee County and another in Gunnison County. By September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to place the alpine-dwelling amphibian on the federal endangered-species list, triggering mandatory protection that may include restricted access to the toad's habitat. The toads of Chaffee and Gunnison counties are unique because they are free of the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis - the prime suspect for the deaths of several Western amphibians, including boreal toads and leopard frogs....
At least 8,000 pelican chicks believed dead in N. Dakota The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the deaths of thousands of young white pelicans at a wildlife refuge in central North Dakota, a year after thousands of adult birds abruptly left the same location. At least 8,000 chicks may have died over the last two months, said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge....
Judge rules U.S. government not liable for migrant deaths A federal judge in Tucson refused Wednesday to hold the U.S. government responsible for the 2001 dehydration deaths of 11 undocumented immigrants just because two of its agencies refused to allow a humanitarian group to leave water drums on a national wildlife refuge bordering Mexico. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the wrongful death lawsuit because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the administrators of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge acted within their discretion when they denied an application by the group Humane Borders to install "water stations" for border-crossing migrants. Furthermore, Roll wrote, the government "owed no duty to affirmatively assist trespassers illegally crossing Cabeza Prieta in avoiding the obvious dangers of a hostile desert."....
BLM, agencies critique Roan Plateau plan draft Lack of information and outmoded data are the prime failings of the draft Resource Management Plan for the Roan Plateau, according to some elected officials and government agencies advising the Bureau of Land Management on the plan. Six cooperating agencies — the cities of Rifle and Glenwood Springs, the town of Parachute, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties and state agencies including the Division of Wildlife and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — huddled Wednesday in Rifle to help BLM craft the preferred management plan for the plateau. Although BLM will make the final call on just how much and how quickly natural gas will be developed on the resource-rich plateau north of Rifle, the agency also hopes the agencies and governments will reach consensus by the end of the summer on what the plan would look like....
Gotcha - gator at last is captured After 18 years of surviving in the reeds, putrid mud and stagnant water that make up his oasis in the desert of northwestern Arizona, Clem the alligator has been captured and is about to enter a reptilian paradise. "We found him under some reeds in grungy water [Tuesday] night about 9:30," said Russ Johnson on Wednesday as Clem hunkered down on a wet piece of carpet in a horse trailer that will deliver him to his new home. The Bureau of Land Management earlier this year contracted with Johnson to remove the alligator and provide a comfortable home for him....
Plan would restrict use of thumpers There'll be no "thumper trucks" in the sandstone cathedrals of Adobe Town. However, the 32-ton seismic trucks may be allowed to pound the ground on the fringes and through much of 130 square miles in the southern Red Desert, including Kinney Rim and Powder Rim. The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management this week issued its environmental assessment of the Cherokee West 3D seismic survey proposed by Kerr McGee Corp. and Veritas DGC Land Inc. The companies are looking for pockets of natural gas. No decision has been made on the proposal, and the BLM Rawlins Field Office is accepting public comment on the plan until Aug. 12. "Receiver cables for the project will be placed on the surface in the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area (WSA), but there will be no source points in the WSA itself," BLM officials stated in a press release. That means there will be no vehicle traffic, no shot holes and no vibroseis buggies in the study area. Rather, helicopters will be allowed in the air space above the area. Helicopters will not be allowed to land, but may deploy and retrieve recording equipment from the air. Seismic workers must hike into Adobe Town to set recording equipment....
Residents worry rivers will be hurt by Las Vegas pipeline plan Residents of northeast Clark County farming communities say they fear their lives will change if they lose water from two rivers that thirsty Las Vegas wants to tap. More than 50 people expressed worries here Tuesday about Southern Nevada Water Authority asserting water rights and building a 70-mile pipeline to tap the Muddy and Virgin rivers. "The Southern Nevada Water Authority bought the water. It belongs to them," said Ann Schreiber, a longtime resident of the rural Moapa Valley. "I don't want them taking it where it will hurt people on either river." Many who spoke said the Las Vegas-based water authority should draw water instead from Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam reservoir into which the two rivers flow. The water authority has water rights to the two rivers, but needs federal Bureau of Land Management approval to build the pipeline across federal land....
U.S. court reserves decision on mad cow appeal A U.S. federal appeals court has reserved its decision after being asked to overturn a temporary injunction keeping the border closed to live Canadian cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had been ready to reopen the border on March 7, but the ranchers' lobby group R-CALF convinced a Montana judge to block that decision, arguing that Canada doesn't adequately test for mad cow disease. In two weeks, Cebull will hear R-CALF's application to extend the trade ban indefinitely. "That case is going to proceed on July 27th, and there will probably be an appeal of July 27th, either way it goes," John Masswohl, director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said....
Judges skeptical of Canadian cattle ban The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court here Wednesday to reopen the border to Canadian cattle imports, which were banned from the United States in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. The three judges appeared skeptical of Cebull's ruling, suggesting he went too far. Russell Frye, the ranchers' attorney, told the judges that the USDA "didn't determine what was an acceptable number of infected cattle to come in." The three judges suggested, however, that Cebull should have given deference to the USDA's decision. Judge A. Wallace Tashima said the law "does invest the secretary of agriculture with a certain amount of discretion" and suggested the lower court's order was just "disagreeing with the secretary." Judge Connie Callahan agreed with Tashima, saying the USDA is "entitled to some deference. It's their whole job to keep up with the science to make those decisions."....
Nolan Ryan Serves Up Great Taste Sports stars and celebrities often lend their names to products through paid endorsements. Baseball legend Nolan Ryan took it one step further when he decided to carve out a niche in the beef business. The Hall of Fame pitcher knows his way around a ranch as well as he does a baseball diamond and wanted to provide meat that was a cut above the rest, sort of like his fastball. "Baseball and ranching are two of my passions," Ryan says. "I decided the only way I could guarantee beef that was tender and good every time, was to start my own brand." Nutrition and great taste are important to consumers and important to Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan's Tender Aged Beef delivers on both fronts with nutritious and lean beef cuts that are tender and flavorful....
Tiger tales swish through Atascosa For six months, something has been prowling the countryside along FM 3006 in northern Atascosa County, snatching up dogs, roosters and calves. One night in early May, rancher Brian Beam was baling hay on his tractor when he says he came face-to-face with what could be the culprit: a full-grown tiger, he said, lurking along the creek running through his 27-acre property. "It was huge," Beam said. "I threw (the tractor) into reverse and I was gone. It just took off down the creek." The cat was waist-high with orange fur and black stripes, Beam said. He rallied two neighbors, grabbed some guns and flashlights and took off in pursuit of the creature, which Beam now blames for the March disappearance of two of his calves. "We never could catch up to him, but we found a bunch of hair and tracks," he said....
Antlers of all sizes work into unique pieces for Lee Co. taxidermist Tucked back in a corner of Lee County ranching land, right outside of Lexington, Robert Feller is creating furniture out of antlers, along with his regular taxidermist work. Well, "regular" taxidermy if you consider his work includes the mounting of a 145-pound Alligator Gar! His hobby-turned-real-job branched out when a female rancher in the area approached Feller about using antlers to create furniture. Although he had never thought about this type of work, he figured he'd give it a try. First, Feller took the pile of antlers, divided them by left and right antlers, then decided he needed to sit and think about how to work with the antlers. Needing a structure for sitting, he decided to create his first "antler chair."....
Cheyenne rancher weaves wire into art It's amazing what you can do with a few miles of barbed wire - besides build a fence, that is. Don Berry sculpted statutes of bison and bears out of material found on his property, mostly barbed wire. The folk art figures that are sentinels at the Berrys' ranch 20 miles north of Cheyenne on the Torrington highway include a bison, two bears and a bear cub. The sculptures represent about 700 hours of work and patience. He used carriage bolts for eyes for the bears and old telephone line insulators found on the ranch for the bison's eyes. The axle from a manure spreader was fashioned into the bison's horns. The bison, 6 feet tall and 9 feet long, is full size and live weight, checking in at 1,100 pounds. The bronze-looking sculpture took 2½ to three miles of wire, woven in different patterns....
Staying in touch with cowboy culture Vendors and performers far outnumbered visitors for the Academy of Western Artists convention and trade show this week. But organizers were still as happy as ticks on a sow's ear. That's the central mission of the Academy of Western Artists, which is based in Gene Autry, Okla. The nonprofit organization works to preserve cowboy and Western heritage by supporting, promoting and recognizing its arts and skills. Members include Western and Western swing musicians, cowboy poets, visual artists, chuck wagon operators, gear makers, radio managers and disc jockeys....
Myth or real, West Texas desert lights draw a crowd They start converging about dusk on a desolate spot in the West Texas desert with a ridge view and an expanse of some 20 miles of treeless rangeland. A few bring lawn chairs. Some find a spot on concrete picnic tables. Others lean against a brick wall. With darkness toward to the east and the remnants of a spectacular sunset to the west, the first cries erupt. "Look! Look!" Fingers point. Binoculars get fine tuned. A few cameras click. All the attention focuses on specks of brilliance. Legend? Myth? Natural phenomenon? UFOs? Nevada has Area 51. New Mexico has Roswell. Texas has the Marfa Lights. Whatever's out there sparkling or dancing across Mitchell Flat and toward the Chinati Mountains has both befuddled people and attracted them to this remote area east of Marfa for well over a century....
===
Mountain lion shot and killed in Fall River County A Fall River County landowner shot and killed a mountain lion Tuesday about two miles south of Edgemont, according to the state Game, Fish and Parks Department. The rancher, Jamie Lawrence, apparently found the mountain lion under a stock trailer a short distance from his home, said Mike Kintigh of the Game, Fish and Parks Department. "The lion was about 52 feet from the house underneath his trailer," Kintigh said....
Judge rejects effort to halt killing of pigs federal judge rejected a request by animal rights activists to halt the killing of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island, which the park's managers say is necessary to protect an endangered fox population. Animal rights activists filed suit last week seeking a halt to the killings, which they say are unnecessary and inhumane. But the judge rejected their request Monday for a temporary restraining order while the lawsuit is pending. Corey Evans, an attorney for plaintiffs who include two Santa Barbara residents and the group In Defense of Animals, said the plaintiffs will seek a preliminary injunction that requires a more thorough hearing than the request for a restraining order. He said the killings violate both state and federal environmental laws....
Ecologists optimistic about giant cactus' chances after wildfire scorching A giant saguaro cactus scorched by a wildfire that started near Cave Creek might survive after all, experts say. Initially, U.S. Forest Service officials were pessimistic that the "Grand One," thought to be the world's second largest saguaro cactus, would survive the fire last month. Flames jumped from a nearby tree onto the saguaro and spread over much of it, but most of the cactus appears to have escaped fatal damage, said Patti Fenner, U.S. Forest Service plant expert. The cactus, estimated at more than 200 years old, stands about 46 feet high, is nearly 8 feet in circumference at its base and has at least 13 arms....
Enviros, timber industry, predict forest-by-forest battles ahead Environmental groups and the timber industry are gearing up for forest-by-forest court fights over potential development in untouched areas of the nation's national forests under a Bush administration rule. The preparation comes after a ruling this week by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton administration ban on road-building and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land. "What's happening with the environmental movement now is they have had limited success at the national and regional level, and they've taken their battle to a project-by-project status," he said. "I would imagine an appeal of each decision. That's been their tack and I don't see any reason that would be changed."....
Editorial: Feds should acquire Flats mineral rights Cleanup at Rocky Flats, the Colorado Superfund site with the most hazardous wastes, could be basically done by Halloween, although a few environmental projects will continue. Topping the list are private mineral rights that, if developed, could wreck plans to make Rocky Flats a wildlife refuge. Outside the core, the government left about 6,000 acres as a security and safety zone. Today that relatively untouched buffer zone harbors some of the last natural short-grass prairie on the Front Range - prime habitat for several endangered species. In a few years, after environmental reports are finished, the U.S. Department of Interior is slated to manage the old buffer zone as a wildlife refuge. But the feds never acquired rights to gravel, oil and other minerals under the site. Interior officials fret that it will make no sense to operate a wildlife refuge if the property could be mined....
Builders Urge Congress To Update Endangered Species Act The nation’s home builders called on Congress today to update and modernize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in order to protect the environment and allow local communities to grow and thrive. “Clearly, we must find new ways to balance the needs of our growing communities, with the need to protect and conserve species and their habitats,” Paul Campos, general counsel and vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, told the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water. Testifying on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Campos called on the Senate panel to expand landowner incentives under the ESA, and provide certainty to landowners that Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) and other voluntary species management programs will be excluded from critical habitat designations....
House Bill Would Downsize Endangered Species Act The House Resources Committee is poised to consider some of the most sweeping changes ever to the Endangered Species Act with legislation aimed at making it more difficult to list plants and animals and protect their habitat. Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), who has made revamping the act one of his top priorities this year, could possibly move on legislation as early as next week. A staff discussion draft of the bill, leaked to various interest groups, suggests the committee may add more requirements for listing a species, extend deadlines for critical habitat, beef up the requirements for recovery plans, require payments for property owners whose land is affected by the law, offer exemptions for invasive species and cut the entire program in 10 years....
Fungus threatens to put boreal toad on endangered list Once common in the southern Rocky Mountains, the toad has only two viable populations left in Colorado - one in Chaffee County and another in Gunnison County. By September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to place the alpine-dwelling amphibian on the federal endangered-species list, triggering mandatory protection that may include restricted access to the toad's habitat. The toads of Chaffee and Gunnison counties are unique because they are free of the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis - the prime suspect for the deaths of several Western amphibians, including boreal toads and leopard frogs....
At least 8,000 pelican chicks believed dead in N. Dakota The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the deaths of thousands of young white pelicans at a wildlife refuge in central North Dakota, a year after thousands of adult birds abruptly left the same location. At least 8,000 chicks may have died over the last two months, said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge....
Judge rules U.S. government not liable for migrant deaths A federal judge in Tucson refused Wednesday to hold the U.S. government responsible for the 2001 dehydration deaths of 11 undocumented immigrants just because two of its agencies refused to allow a humanitarian group to leave water drums on a national wildlife refuge bordering Mexico. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the wrongful death lawsuit because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the administrators of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge acted within their discretion when they denied an application by the group Humane Borders to install "water stations" for border-crossing migrants. Furthermore, Roll wrote, the government "owed no duty to affirmatively assist trespassers illegally crossing Cabeza Prieta in avoiding the obvious dangers of a hostile desert."....
BLM, agencies critique Roan Plateau plan draft Lack of information and outmoded data are the prime failings of the draft Resource Management Plan for the Roan Plateau, according to some elected officials and government agencies advising the Bureau of Land Management on the plan. Six cooperating agencies — the cities of Rifle and Glenwood Springs, the town of Parachute, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties and state agencies including the Division of Wildlife and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — huddled Wednesday in Rifle to help BLM craft the preferred management plan for the plateau. Although BLM will make the final call on just how much and how quickly natural gas will be developed on the resource-rich plateau north of Rifle, the agency also hopes the agencies and governments will reach consensus by the end of the summer on what the plan would look like....
Gotcha - gator at last is captured After 18 years of surviving in the reeds, putrid mud and stagnant water that make up his oasis in the desert of northwestern Arizona, Clem the alligator has been captured and is about to enter a reptilian paradise. "We found him under some reeds in grungy water [Tuesday] night about 9:30," said Russ Johnson on Wednesday as Clem hunkered down on a wet piece of carpet in a horse trailer that will deliver him to his new home. The Bureau of Land Management earlier this year contracted with Johnson to remove the alligator and provide a comfortable home for him....
Plan would restrict use of thumpers There'll be no "thumper trucks" in the sandstone cathedrals of Adobe Town. However, the 32-ton seismic trucks may be allowed to pound the ground on the fringes and through much of 130 square miles in the southern Red Desert, including Kinney Rim and Powder Rim. The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management this week issued its environmental assessment of the Cherokee West 3D seismic survey proposed by Kerr McGee Corp. and Veritas DGC Land Inc. The companies are looking for pockets of natural gas. No decision has been made on the proposal, and the BLM Rawlins Field Office is accepting public comment on the plan until Aug. 12. "Receiver cables for the project will be placed on the surface in the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area (WSA), but there will be no source points in the WSA itself," BLM officials stated in a press release. That means there will be no vehicle traffic, no shot holes and no vibroseis buggies in the study area. Rather, helicopters will be allowed in the air space above the area. Helicopters will not be allowed to land, but may deploy and retrieve recording equipment from the air. Seismic workers must hike into Adobe Town to set recording equipment....
Residents worry rivers will be hurt by Las Vegas pipeline plan Residents of northeast Clark County farming communities say they fear their lives will change if they lose water from two rivers that thirsty Las Vegas wants to tap. More than 50 people expressed worries here Tuesday about Southern Nevada Water Authority asserting water rights and building a 70-mile pipeline to tap the Muddy and Virgin rivers. "The Southern Nevada Water Authority bought the water. It belongs to them," said Ann Schreiber, a longtime resident of the rural Moapa Valley. "I don't want them taking it where it will hurt people on either river." Many who spoke said the Las Vegas-based water authority should draw water instead from Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam reservoir into which the two rivers flow. The water authority has water rights to the two rivers, but needs federal Bureau of Land Management approval to build the pipeline across federal land....
U.S. court reserves decision on mad cow appeal A U.S. federal appeals court has reserved its decision after being asked to overturn a temporary injunction keeping the border closed to live Canadian cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had been ready to reopen the border on March 7, but the ranchers' lobby group R-CALF convinced a Montana judge to block that decision, arguing that Canada doesn't adequately test for mad cow disease. In two weeks, Cebull will hear R-CALF's application to extend the trade ban indefinitely. "That case is going to proceed on July 27th, and there will probably be an appeal of July 27th, either way it goes," John Masswohl, director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said....
Judges skeptical of Canadian cattle ban The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court here Wednesday to reopen the border to Canadian cattle imports, which were banned from the United States in May 2003 after a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. The three judges appeared skeptical of Cebull's ruling, suggesting he went too far. Russell Frye, the ranchers' attorney, told the judges that the USDA "didn't determine what was an acceptable number of infected cattle to come in." The three judges suggested, however, that Cebull should have given deference to the USDA's decision. Judge A. Wallace Tashima said the law "does invest the secretary of agriculture with a certain amount of discretion" and suggested the lower court's order was just "disagreeing with the secretary." Judge Connie Callahan agreed with Tashima, saying the USDA is "entitled to some deference. It's their whole job to keep up with the science to make those decisions."....
Nolan Ryan Serves Up Great Taste Sports stars and celebrities often lend their names to products through paid endorsements. Baseball legend Nolan Ryan took it one step further when he decided to carve out a niche in the beef business. The Hall of Fame pitcher knows his way around a ranch as well as he does a baseball diamond and wanted to provide meat that was a cut above the rest, sort of like his fastball. "Baseball and ranching are two of my passions," Ryan says. "I decided the only way I could guarantee beef that was tender and good every time, was to start my own brand." Nutrition and great taste are important to consumers and important to Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan's Tender Aged Beef delivers on both fronts with nutritious and lean beef cuts that are tender and flavorful....
Tiger tales swish through Atascosa For six months, something has been prowling the countryside along FM 3006 in northern Atascosa County, snatching up dogs, roosters and calves. One night in early May, rancher Brian Beam was baling hay on his tractor when he says he came face-to-face with what could be the culprit: a full-grown tiger, he said, lurking along the creek running through his 27-acre property. "It was huge," Beam said. "I threw (the tractor) into reverse and I was gone. It just took off down the creek." The cat was waist-high with orange fur and black stripes, Beam said. He rallied two neighbors, grabbed some guns and flashlights and took off in pursuit of the creature, which Beam now blames for the March disappearance of two of his calves. "We never could catch up to him, but we found a bunch of hair and tracks," he said....
Antlers of all sizes work into unique pieces for Lee Co. taxidermist Tucked back in a corner of Lee County ranching land, right outside of Lexington, Robert Feller is creating furniture out of antlers, along with his regular taxidermist work. Well, "regular" taxidermy if you consider his work includes the mounting of a 145-pound Alligator Gar! His hobby-turned-real-job branched out when a female rancher in the area approached Feller about using antlers to create furniture. Although he had never thought about this type of work, he figured he'd give it a try. First, Feller took the pile of antlers, divided them by left and right antlers, then decided he needed to sit and think about how to work with the antlers. Needing a structure for sitting, he decided to create his first "antler chair."....
Cheyenne rancher weaves wire into art It's amazing what you can do with a few miles of barbed wire - besides build a fence, that is. Don Berry sculpted statutes of bison and bears out of material found on his property, mostly barbed wire. The folk art figures that are sentinels at the Berrys' ranch 20 miles north of Cheyenne on the Torrington highway include a bison, two bears and a bear cub. The sculptures represent about 700 hours of work and patience. He used carriage bolts for eyes for the bears and old telephone line insulators found on the ranch for the bison's eyes. The axle from a manure spreader was fashioned into the bison's horns. The bison, 6 feet tall and 9 feet long, is full size and live weight, checking in at 1,100 pounds. The bronze-looking sculpture took 2½ to three miles of wire, woven in different patterns....
Staying in touch with cowboy culture Vendors and performers far outnumbered visitors for the Academy of Western Artists convention and trade show this week. But organizers were still as happy as ticks on a sow's ear. That's the central mission of the Academy of Western Artists, which is based in Gene Autry, Okla. The nonprofit organization works to preserve cowboy and Western heritage by supporting, promoting and recognizing its arts and skills. Members include Western and Western swing musicians, cowboy poets, visual artists, chuck wagon operators, gear makers, radio managers and disc jockeys....
Myth or real, West Texas desert lights draw a crowd They start converging about dusk on a desolate spot in the West Texas desert with a ridge view and an expanse of some 20 miles of treeless rangeland. A few bring lawn chairs. Some find a spot on concrete picnic tables. Others lean against a brick wall. With darkness toward to the east and the remnants of a spectacular sunset to the west, the first cries erupt. "Look! Look!" Fingers point. Binoculars get fine tuned. A few cameras click. All the attention focuses on specks of brilliance. Legend? Myth? Natural phenomenon? UFOs? Nevada has Area 51. New Mexico has Roswell. Texas has the Marfa Lights. Whatever's out there sparkling or dancing across Mitchell Flat and toward the Chinati Mountains has both befuddled people and attracted them to this remote area east of Marfa for well over a century....
===
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
GAO REPORT
Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA's Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review Program. GAO-05-458, June 13.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-458
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05458high.pdf
===
Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA's Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review Program. GAO-05-458, June 13.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-458
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05458high.pdf
===
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