Farmer Mac's Amber Waves Of Pain The agricultural sector swept in and bailed out its own Wednesday at a time when farmers are feeling the impact of the credit crunch. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, the rural cousin of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced a $65.0 million capital infusion from a group of banks on Wednesday. Federal Agricultural Mortgage, which is also known as Farmer Mac and was created by the U.S. government as a secondary market for agricultural real estate and rural housing mortgage loans, saw its shares soar 65.6%, or $2.69, to $6.79, on Wednesday, but that will be cold comfort to investors who paid more than $30 for it in August. The shares held up well until last month, when the Treasury took control of Fannie Mae, in which Farmer Mac held preferred shares. The Farm Credit System, which is a federally chartered network of borrower-owned lending institutions, purchased $60.0 million in preferred stock of Farmer Mac. In addition $5.0 million of Farmer Mac senior cumulative perpetual preferred stock has been purchased by Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City....

Bigfoot lore alive in Estacada area While hiking along the snowy banks of the Clackamas River late one January afternoon in 1969, Millie Kiggins of Estacada, her husband and their friend Art Schneider found something that would thrust the Kigginses and the quiet wilderness surrounding Estacada into an international spotlight. “We went to look at a Forest Service cabin up above Squaw Lake on the way to Cold Springs about 20 miles from Estacada,” Kiggins said. “They were going to sell them, and we wanted to look at them. We started out late, and we were in about three feet of snow. There was a gate, and we couldn’t get through. So we started to walk, and it looked like somebody had already gotten through, because there were tracks in the snow.” They noticed the large size of the tracks and their depth. “They were 18 inches deep”, she said. “Whatever had made them was heavy, because ours were a couple inches deep. It had to have been walking on two feet…and its stride was 67 inches.” The path of the tracks was in an unusually straight line, too straight to be man-made footprints, she said....

Feds, Wyoming weigh workable wolf options So what happens next with endangered wolves in the Northern Rockies? If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., remands the case back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as expected, the Bush administration has several options. Wyoming is also weighing its options, including suing the federal government for not delisting wolves. The environmental groups who are the victors are waiting for the agency to make the next move and waiting for a new administration that might be supportive of their goals of placing a higher floor on the number of wolves that must be protected in the region. Start with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice. The Bush administration first proposed delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Utah, leaving out Wyoming. Only when it could get Wyoming to say it wouldn’t allow hunters to kill so many wolves and it would expand the recovery area did the administration include that recalcitrant state in delisting. To go back to that route, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s biologists will have to show that there is genetic mixing between the wolves in Idaho and Montana and the wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and Wyoming. A new study is expected out soon that insiders say will show there already has been mixing. What about Wyoming? Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg recently wrote to state lawmakers saying the state’s options include filing a lawsuit, leaving management to the federal government or writing a new wolf management plan....

Decision to protect wolves upsets wildlife officials Bob Johnson recently shot and killed a gray wolf attacking his herd of beef cattle at his Rusk County farm. Over a period of several weeks, seven other wolves were trapped and killed on Johnson's property north of Ingram. It would be a federal crime if Johnson shot one today, according to a ruling Monday by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. The judge ruled an estimated 4,000 wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan should return to the endangered species list. The decision is not sitting well with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, who said Tuesday they may appeal the ruling. "Can property owners still shoot wolves attacking livestock? The answer is no," said Jason Holm of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota. "They must now contact DNR or wildlife service officials for assistance."....

Like polar bear, wolverine is threatened by global warming, Montana lawsuit claims Charging that politics have trumped science, conservationists are challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide wolverines with Endangered Species Act protections. Decisions regarding sensitive species, he said, “are supposed to be based on science, not politics.” Preso serves as counsel at Earthjustice, and is representing a coalition of 10 environmental groups in a lawsuit on behalf of the wolverine. On Tuesday, he filed the action in Missoula’s U.S. District Court. According to Preso, plaintiffs have unearthed documents showing that federal officials overruled biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including scientists who had concluded wolverines are “warranted” for protections. The Bush administration, plaintiffs charge, meddled with the science in order to avoid a second Endangered Species Act listing related to climate change. (In May, the polar bear was listed as threatened, largely due to habitat loss resulting from a warming planet.) Wolverines, the groups allege, are likewise at risk from climate change because the animals depend on areas that remain snowbound well into spring, when females dig snow dens to give birth....You just knew it was coming. Thank you "Courageous" Kempthorne.

Feds propose listing 48 Hawaiian species at once The federal government took a new, ecosystem-based approach to the endangered species list on Tuesday, proposing an all-at-once addition of 48 species, including plants, two birds and a fly, that live only on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The action by the Interior Department would designate about 43 square miles as critical habitat for all the species rather than considering each species' habitat separately, which has been the practice for three decades. Officials said considering the species all at once should save time and resources and would help the whole ecosystem. The same approach is planned to help protect rare species on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui over the next several years, and it could be considered for the Arctic, big river systems of the Southwest and areas of the mountain West, according to department officials.... Kempthorne is quoted as saying this will benefit the entire ecosystem. It's coming our way folks.

Federal Scientists: Flood Insurance Program is Pushing Salmon and Orcas to Extinction Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service ( "NMFS" ) today issued a long-awaited regulatory finding that the National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The document, known as a biological opinion, is all but certain to trigger significant improvements in the development codes applicable in cities and counties across Puget Sound to help reduce risks to people and wildlife. Without implementing the changes called for by NMFS, these cities and counties could lose eligibility for federal flood insurance. NMFS issued the biological opinion pursuant to a federal court decision in 2004. In National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal district court in Seattle found that FEMA's flood insurance program encouraged floodplain development and harmed salmon already threatened with extinction. He ordered FEMA to consult with NMFS to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and the document issued today is the result of that process....So you have one federal program doing damage to another federal program and something must be done. Not exactly the approach they use when a federal program damages a private program.

USFS to offer deer permits The U.S. Forest Service is offering a limited number of permits to hunt antlerless deer during the general season Nov. 1, 2008 through Jan. 4, 2009. Youth participating in the general season public hunts by special permit must apply for "youth only permits" if they are between the ages of 8 and 16 at the time of application. The words "youth only permit" must be on the application, along with applicant's 2008-2009 hunting license number and specific hunting area. Hunters are selected by random drawing and only one application per person will be accepted. A drawing will be held in mid-October to select a limited number of permits. Only those chosen will be notified. Permit availability, areas of issuance and application instructions can be obtained from the Forest Supervisor's office in Lufkin....I know things always seem different in Texas, but the USFS issuing hunting permits? Can one of you readers explain this?

Uranium exploration near Grand Canyon sparks battle with Bush administration In the fight to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining and exploration, one battle is over, but another has just begun. Last week, three environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust – announced they had reached a settlement with VANE Minerals, a U.K.-based minerals exploration firm that had previously received approval from the Forest Service to drill 39 exploratory holes in search of uranium deposits in the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. ssentially, VANE is back at square one. If they still want to drill some holes, they will have to go through much more rigorous environmental review than it had previously faced....

Oil drilling hits a preservation snag A Denver energy company's plan to drill more than 800 natural-gas wells in eastern Utah's relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon is in trouble with a top federal historical preservation agency. In letters sent this week to Bureau of Land Management officials in Washington and Salt Lake City, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation questions whether the BLM adequately evaluated potential damage from the drilling project on ancient art and archaeological sites. The agency's involvement likely will slow the project and buttresses claims from tribal and conservation groups that Bill Barrett Corp.'s big-rig traffic along canyon's dirt roads will destroy some of the West's most stunning ancient American Indian rock art. "This is welcome news," said Jerry Spangler, of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance. "It's pretty tough to ignore the advisory council when they get involved." The advisory council acts as a kind of appeals agency that can step in and require a federal agency to reconsider its historical-preservation actions....

Report: Everglades in decline as restoration lags A multibillion-dollar effort to restore Florida's Everglades has made little progress amid funding shortfalls, bureaucratic red tape and disagreements, according to a congressionally mandated report that warns the vast wetland is in peril. The National Research Council, in findings Monday, warned that degradation of the Everglades could become irreversible if action isn't taken quickly. "The Everglades ecosystem is continuing to decline. It's our estimate that we're losing the battle to save this thing," said William Graf, the report's committee chairman and head of the department of geography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration for the state, said in a statement that it agrees with the report's findings "that restoration progress is hampered by limited federal funding and a complex and lengthy federal planning process."....

HipChicas.com Targets Tween Latinas with Eco-Friendly Virtual World Hip Venture Co. is the latest company to enter the crowded virtual worlds market for kids, tweens and teens (KT&T) with the imminent launch of HipChicas.com. But what separates this Flash-based virtual community from some of its competitors is its focus on socially conscious, young Latinas, and its "eco-friendly" stance, differentiators that analysts say may help it stand out from the pack. The world is modeled after real locations in North and South America, including cities like Miami and New York, as well as habitats like the Everglades and the Amazon. Girls learn that their actions directly affect the environment through games and challenges. Adding plants and cleaning up a habitat, for example, will cause a native endangered species to flourish. According to Lazaro Fuentes, founder and CEO of Hip Venture Co., the creative team spent about a year figuring out how to help girls understand the connection between their everyday activities and the environment without being "preachy."....

Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates. It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping. The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind....

New Sustainable Ag Classes Begin, With New Major on the Way A growing student interest in sustainable food and farming systems that are good for people and the environment has led to new classes and development of a new major at UC Davis. Sustainable food and agricultural systems that integrate environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic fairness are becoming universally recognized as the direction society must go, according to UC Davis researchers implementing the new major. Starting this year, new freshman-level courses in food systems and sustainable agriculture and an upper-division course in agroecology, the study of the ecology of the entire food system, will be offered....

Farmer Mac Officials Discuss Strategies to Stabilize Firm Top directors and officials from Farmer Mac, the government-chartered organization that provides funding for agricultural loans across the U.S., met late Tuesday in Washington to discuss ways to stabilize the company. Farmer Mac faces heavy losses due to its holdings of tens of millions of dollars worth of investments that have rapidly lost value, including preferred stock of its cousin, Fannie Mae, which was seized by the government earlier this month, and Lehman Brother Holdings Inc., the collapsed investment bank. The company's options include raising capital by issuing new stock or selling assets. If the company can't raise capital, its regulator, the Farm Credit Administration, could downgrade its rating, the first time this has happened in its history. That could hurt banks that hold equity stakes in the company and could also curb its ability to make new loans. Farmer Mac, which is formally called the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., was created by Congress in 1988. The company buys mortgages and other loans that banks make to farmers and ranchers in rural America. Farmer Mac then repackages the loans into asset-backed securities. That business model has come under pressure this year as credit markets have seized up....

PUBLIC HEARING ON SANTA CLARA COUNTY PROPOSED RODEO ORDINANCE

To: California Rodeo Proponents
From: Cindy Schonholtz, PRCA Animal Welfare
Date: September 30, 2008
RE: Action needed in Santa Clara County

What/When: The Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission will hold a public hearing regarding the adoption of an ordinance to restrict the use of animals in circuses and rodeos in unincorporated Santa Clara County and on County owned property. It is important we get as many rodeo proponents who live in Santa Clara County to contact their commissioner, submit comments and attend the hearing if possible. Additionally, those in adjacent counties may want to weigh in and attend the hearing.

Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission Public Hearing

When: October 9, 2008 at 6:30pm
Where: Gilroy Senior Center, 7371 Hanna Street, Gilroy, CA 95020
Ph: (408) 846-0414

I will be attending; you may contact me on the cell at 719-440-7255 when you arrive if you are able to attend.

There is not a draft ordinance at this time, but we have heard that Commissioner McHugh is recommending, “to prohibit cruel training devices utilized in circuses and rodeos county-wide. These restrictions would prohibit bull hooks or any similar device; chaining of elephants; electric prods or shocking devices; whips, bucking straps or flanks; spurs — sharp or dull; fixed rowels; hot shots; and cattle prods used on animals in rodeos or circuses. In addition, the restrictions would prohibit a person from deliberately tripping, wrestling, tripping or by any other means causing an animal used in the rodeo to fall to the ground in any event.” If McHugh gets his recommendations in the draft ordinance it would ban steer wrestling and roping in rodeos if passed.

This is what we know will be in the ordinance:
Ban steer tailing, require the attendance of a veterinarian at rodeo events, and include a definition of rodeo as “a performance featuring competition between persons that includes one or more of the following events: bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, or team roping;”

THIS WOULD REQUIRE A VETERINARIAN AT ALL TEAM ROPINGS, PRACTICES OF STEER WRESTLING, ETC.

There are also provisions regarding circuses that will be included in the ordinance.

WHO TO CONTACT:
by mail: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Animal Care Commission
Address 70 West Hedding St.
San Jose, CA 95110

by Fax: 408-298-8460 Attention: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors And Animal Advisory Committee

Sent to the Animal Advisory Committee in care of the clerk of the Board, email to: public.comments@cob.sccgov.org

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS EMAIL AND PHONE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Don Gage (408) 299-5010 don.gage@bos.sscgov.org (Chair of Committee)
Blanca Alvarado (408) 299-5020 blanca.alvarado@bos.sccgov.org
Pete McHugh (408) 299-5030 peter.mchugh@bos.sccgov.org (supports a complete ban on circuses and rodeos, term is over in November, will not be running again)
Ken Yeager (408) 299-5040 ken.yeager@bos.sccgov.org
Liz Kniss (408) 299-5050 liz.kniss@bos.sccgov.org

SAMPLE LETTER

Please personalize your letters so they don’t appear to be form letters, but following are some points to consider when writing.

Dear Supervisor ______________________:

I have recently learned that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is considering legislation to regulate the use of animals in rodeos in circuses in Santa Clara County in unincorporated Santa Clara County as well as on County owned property.

We urge you to revisit your definition of rodeo to more closely mirror state law that states a rodeo includes three or more events and considers only commercial events that charge admission. By changing the definition as recommended, this would require a veterinarian on-site for any practice, team roping, small jackpot or other event held on county owned property or private property in unincorporated Santa Clara County. I would anticipate that after a study of the number of large animal veterinarians in the County, you would find this provision nearly impossible to achieve if more than one event is taking place at a particular time and would possibly create a situation where large animals not taking part in rodeo events could have compromised care if veterinarians are required to attend small, non-commercial events.

Rodeos sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) have 60 rules that provide for the proper care and handling of the livestock. The rules require a veterinarian on-site during all competitions and these veterinarians consistently report the livestock is healthy and well-suited to the competition. These veterinarians also assist the PRCA in conducting surveys of the livestock to document the low rate of injury to the animals. This rate of injury through the years has consistently been around five hundredths of one percent. A survey currently being conducted at 2008 PRCA sanctioned events shows that out of 107 rodeo performances and 44 sections of slack, 24 animals were injured, a very low rate of .0005.

We ask that you consider the truth as documented by veterinarians who are experts and consider allowing your constituents to choose their form of entertainment. Please do not let an animal extremist’s agenda of ending all use of animals to dictate policy in your county and take away the rights of cattle ranchers and rodeo enthusiasts to practice and compete in rodeo events on their property as well as County owned property supported by their tax dollars. We ask that you subscribe to animal welfare philosophies as we do – that we have the right to interact with animals in entertainment, industry, sport and recreation but along with that right comes the responsibility to provide proper care.

Please consider fully the issues and reach out to those in your county who are lawfully conducting equestrian and rodeo events on their private property that are already affording proper care and handling for the livestock involved.

Sincerely,

GAO

Climate Change: Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option. GAO-08-1080, September 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1080

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081080high.pdf

Coastal Zone Management: Measuring Program's Effectiveness Continues to Be a Challenge. GAO-08-1045, September 12.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1045

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081045high.pdf

Mobile phones to track carbon footprint Keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment. Carbon Diem's inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller. The system's inventor, Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student of the Royal College of Art in London and chief executive of the Carbon Hero company, said that Carbon Diem is the world's first automated carbon calculator. Because it keeps a constantly updated diary of a person's carbon emissions, Zachariah said that a user can easily track their environmental impact and, if they choose, modify their behaviour to lower-carbon alternatives....

Wildfires force $400M in cuts at Forest Service The cost of fighting summer wildfires in California and the West has forced U.S. Forest Service officials to slash more than $400 million in spending, causing closures of some campgrounds and limiting access to some forests. While the number of fires and acreage involved is down, the amount spent to contain those fires is up. That's because the cost of fighting fires varies depending on where the fires are burning, said Forest Service spokeswoman Donna Drelick. The Forest Service cut $200 million in 2006 and $100 million in 2007 to cover wildfire costs, the agency's budget documents show. Forest Service administrators say the reductions will have a broad impact across the country....

No end in sight for the roadless debate President Bill Clinton sought to end the debate over 58 million acres of roadless national forests with a rule published in the last days of his administration. But because he issued his rule in the face of the outright anger of some Western governors and with little pretext of engaging his opponents, the roadless issue - after nearly eight years - is still no closer to political resolution. On July 14, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne, Wyo., struck down the roadless rule, scolding the former president for trying to stuff his decision down the throats of loggers, miners and other Westerners. It was at least the fifth time courts have ruled on the roadless rule since it was approved, and the second time Brimmer himself has tossed it out. His decision, certain to be appealed, means the next president will have to address an issue that today's hard economic times had more or less resolved. What continues is the values clash over how we manage our least-developed national forests. One possible path to a new consensus has been blazed by the state of Idaho. With Trout Unlimited, the Idaho Conservation League and the Intermountain Forest Industry Association standing in support behind them, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and U.S. Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Mark Rey unveiled a roadless rule only for Idaho on Aug. 29....