Endangered Species Act Reforms Will Benefit The West, Business Leaders Say The Western Business Roundtable today lauded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service for proposing reforms to the highly troubled Endangered Species Act (ESA). "Reforming the Endangered Species Act has long been a priority of many Westerners who care about the successful recovery of species that are in trouble," the Roundtable said in comments to government. "We applaud the Services for undertaking the challenge of modernizing this key element of ESA. It is important to, among other things, align regulations with recent court decisions and clarify terminology to provide more consistent practices in the field, less confusion for agencies and project proponents, and less of the language ambiguity that so often breeds court battles." Referencing the proposed rule, Roundtable Executive Director Britt Weygandt said the Services' recommended amendments to ESA regulations -- focused specifically on the so-called "Section 7 consultation" process -- make practical changes that will improve the Acts functionality....

Frog pizza ... get it while it's hop A RESTAURANT chain has sparked fury by serving up pizzas with a topping of FROGS’ LEGS. The “Hopper” contains eight limbs on a traditional base with capers and an anchovy sorbet. The £17.95 dish has angered campaigners who slammed it as “barbaric” — because frogs’ legs are amputated while they are still alive. An Animal Aid spokeswoman urged people to boycott London chain Eco. Chef Sami Wasif came up with the idea on a trip to Paris — and called it “refined”. He said: “I’ve been making pizza for more than 20 years and know that London is a city always looking for something new.” He added: “Pizza is something you can experiment with. I might try one with snails on it next.”....I'm thinkin' calf fries pizza. Folks will go nuts over it.

Sims proposes to shut down King County Fair The King County Fair survived the Civil War, the Great Depression and two world wars. But now, because of declining attendance and an ailing county budget, its days may be numbered. King County Executive Ron Sims has proposed shutting down the 145-year-old Enumclaw event, which bills itself as the oldest county fair west of the Mississippi River. It's one of hundreds of belt-tightening measures Sims recommended Monday to the Metropolitan King County Council in his 2009 budget proposal. Closing the fair would save $315,000 in a budget that must be cut by $93 million. Sims said that for years he resisted suggestions that the fair be closed. But its continuing decline convinced him it was time to pull the plug....

Global warming debate heats up While one NASA scientist says man-made catastrophic climate change will cause an apocalypse, another says hysterical pronouncements about carbon dioxide emissions are unwarranted and overblown. James Hansen, a political ally of former Vice President Al Gore, who has popularized the notion the planet is on the verge of calamitous changes as a result of higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, says: "We do have a planetary emergency, but it is difficult because you don't see that much happening. … If we don't bring this under control, we're going to destroy creation." Hansen told a Kansas wind and renewable energy conference last month global warming inevitably will bring about droughts, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and mass extinctions. But Roy Spencer, U.S. science team leader for NASA's collection of satellite temperature data and principal research scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville's Earth System Science Center, says the climate system is not as sensitive to increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide as computer models suggest. This would mean "that we have little to worry about in the way of man-made global warming and associated climate change," Spencer said in testimony to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this summer. "And, as we will see, it would also mean that the warming we have experienced in the last 100 years is mostly natural. Of course, if climate change is natural then it is largely out of our control, and is likely to end – if it has not ended already, since satellite-measured global temperatures have not warmed for at least seven years now."....

Alaska glaciers grew this year Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August. "In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August. "In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years." Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too....

Wolves back on endangered list Federal wildlife officials said Tuesday they want to remove wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list -- again -- by early 2009. That declaration came on the same day a judge restored the predator's endangered status, as part of a lawsuit filed by environmentalists. It's been less than seven months since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stripped wolves of federal protection for the first time since 1974. The decision transferred control over the animals to state game agencies in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. But after wolves were allowed to be shot on sight across most of Wyoming -- and all three states began planning public hunts -- U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in July issued an injunction to block the killings. On Tuesday, Molloy went a step further, restoring the animal's endangered status. That means the public dispute over wolves in the Rockies will drag on. Ranchers and state wildlife agencies want hunting allowed to curb the wolves' tendency to prey on livestock. Meanwhile, environmentalists insist the wolf population remains in peril and could crash if the states get their way. Molloy's Tuesday order came at the request of federal biologists who acknowledged they had failed to prove the animal had fully recovered from near-decimation last century....

Memos tell wildlife officials to ignore global-warming impact New legal memos by top Bush administration officials say that the Endangered Species Act can't be used to protect animals and their habitats from climate change by regulating specific sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming. The assessment, outlined in memos sent earlier this month and leaked Tuesday, provides the official legal justification for limiting protections under the Endangered Species Act. One of the memos, from the Interior Department's top lawyer, concluded that emissions of greenhouse gases from any proposed project can't be proved to have an impact on species or habitat, so it isn't necessary for federal agencies to consult with government wildlife experts about the impact of such gases on species as stipulated under the Endangered Species Act. The Oct. 3 memo from Interior Solicitor David Bernhardt to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, which was released Tuesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, concluded that indirect effects on wildlife can't be traced to emissions from any specific source and that cumulative effects "are of no relevance" under the Endangered Species Act. Another document released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an Oct. 10 letter from James Lecky, the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Office of Protected Species, agreed with a recent EPA finding that the harm from the greenhouse-gas emissions of a single coal-fired power plant would be so remote that it shouldn't provoke government action. The letter also agreed with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which argued in May, when the Interior Department listed the polar bear as a threatened species, that it wasn't possible to establish a link between a single source of carbon dioxide and specific harmful climate impacts....Go here to read the Solicitor Memo and here to read the NOAA letter.

Forest Service has OSHA violations OSHA found serious safety violations at 10 locations in the Salmon-Challis National Forest and cited the U.S. Forest Service for 51 violations and 77 repeat violations of safety regulations. The violations involved fall hazards, emergency egress design and maintenance, machine guarding, storage of compressed gas cylinders, liquefied petroleum gas, and flammable liquids and electrical hazards. “Federal agencies are required by executive order to comply with OSHA standards and must promptly abate unsafe working conditions,” said Richard S. Terrill, regional administrator for OSHA in Seattle. “These citations put the U.S. Forest Service on notice that improvements need to be made.”....The USFS has 77 repeat violations? Someone needs to cancel their permit.

Shadow looms over solar plan A relative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his former cabinet secretaries are part of an investment group that could score a lucrative payoff if regulators approve a solar energy complex near the Mojave Desert Preserve. The personal connections have raised questions about possible favorable treatment for a project being touted as a breakthrough in the development of solar power. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the cousin of first lady Maria Shriver, and former state Environmental Protection Secretary Terry Tamminen were named senior advisers at VantagePoint Venture Partners last year. VantagePoint has a multimillion-dollar stake in BrightSource Energy, which plans to spend up to $2billion to construct solar power plants on nearly six square miles of land along the Nevada border. The project would be the first solar generating station on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property. Companies from Wall Street to Europe are snapping up once-ignored wilderness for energy projects....

Gov calls for revision of federal law Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is once again calling on federal lawmakers to rework a rule that lets agencies bypass painstaking environmental studies in order to fast-track oil and gas drilling. Freudenthal doesn't want the rule eliminated; he simply wants it revised, said Ryan Lance, the governor's deputy chief of staff. "We're going to be active in making sure this is remedied," Lance said. "We've offered specific language to Congress and the energy companies to change this several times over the last few years." The Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, sent auditors to Utah last week -- and tentatively plans to have personnel in Wyoming by the end of this month -- to examine the way the BLM has implemented a legal, but relatively new tool to exempt some oil and gas drilling from environmental review. At issue is a version of what's called a "categorical exclusion," which, in this case, allows land managers to skip in-depth environmental reviews for individual oil and gas drilling projects in areas where three wells have already been drilled, and where a previous environmental analysis was conducted within the past five years....

The “Ill Wind” of Government Policy The federal government encourages development in hazard-prone coastal areas by lowering the risks to residents with policies such as subsidized flood insurance. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) charges premiums that are not sufficient to provide a catastrophe reserve for heavier loss years and thus encourages development in hazard-prone areas. When the NFIP was began in 1968, it was intended to guide development away from flood-prone areas, thus reducing federal disaster relief payments arising from loss of life and property. Unfortunately, the program, which has become an “ill wind that blows nobody any good,” promotes the outcome it was meant to prevent by shifting part of the cost of building in hazard-prone areas to citizens at large. Ordinarily, individuals respond to the rising costs associated with storm damage by moving out of harm’s way, if ever so reluctantly. Governmental policy thus increases damage costs from storms by neutralizing the market incentives that encourage a retreat from the sea and discourage excessive building in high risk coastal zones. In addition, state government policies subvert the message of insurance premiums. Wind damage caused by hurricanes (which is not covered by the NFIP) has imposed heavy costs on insurance companies, thus causing insurance premiums to increase. As coastal residents have seen their wind and hail insurance premiums soar, state governments have been pressured to intervene. All Southeastern state governments have created state-run Windstorm Underwriters Associations, called “wind pools,” that offer coverage where private insurance is not available and generally at lower rates than provided by individual insurers. In addition, there are other government policies, such as beach nourishment and the replacement of public infrastructure, that subsidize coastal development. A better approach is to allow market signals such as insurance premiums to encourage property owners to undertake activities to adapt to living in a hazardous area or to avoid building in such areas altogether. As insurance companies increase property insurance premiums in order to pay for increasing damage costs, homeowners will increasingly build more storm resistant homes and look for less risky locations....

Otters return to upper Rio Grande A native has returned home after nearly 60 years. Five river otters – a species once found in streams and rivers throughout New Mexico – were released Tuesday on Taos Pueblo in the water of the Rio Pueblo de Taos. The otters were trapped in Washington state under a reintroduction program that involves the pueblo, the state Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico Friends of River Otters, a coalition of citizens, agencies and conservation groups dedicated to bringing otters back to New Mexico. River otters – highly social, playful, semi-aquatic members of the weasel family – are believed to have once inhabited the Gila, upper and middle Rio Grande, Mora, San Juan and Canadian river systems. They were occasionally mentioned in the journals of early settlers, but there have been no confirmed sightings of river otters in the state since 1953. Their disappearance was blamed largely on decades of trapping and habitat loss. A larger release of otters is scheduled on the Upper Rio Grande in November....

Developers and Conservationists Battle Over National Parks In a long-running saga that underscores a broader battle over commercial construction in and around national parks, voters in this tiny community just south of the Grand Canyon have thwarted the latest proposal by hotel developers. Tusayan, with just 500 residents and 174 registered voters, last month narrowly defeated a motion to incorporate as a city, a move that would have given it property-zoning power. The outcome deals a setback to Gruppo Percassi, an Italian developer that long has coveted building permits for ranchland and other property it owns in the area. In 2000, a countywide referendum doomed Percassi's previous project: a $300 million hotel and shopping complex in Tusayan. The tussle near one of the world's natural wonders is likely to continue, and it isn't an isolated conflict. In suburban Philadelphia, conservationists are trying to stop a $250 million museum, conference center and hotel from being built on private land inside Valley Forge National Historical Park, site of George Washington's 1777-78 winter military encampment. Backers of the plan say the complex would be a premier Revolutionary War educational center, while opponents say the location would desecrate the site and result in harmful traffic and pollution. The National Parks Conservation Association, an independent nonprofit group that is leading the opposition at Valley Forge, says a growing number of the 391 U.S. national parks face commercial development threats. Some 4.3 million acres of land inside national parks are privately owned tracts that existed when park boundaries were drawn or expanded....

“Worm Grunters” Collect Bait Worms by Inadvertently Imitating Mole Sounds Worm grunting involves going into the forest, driving a wooden stake into the ground and then rubbing the top of the stake with a long piece of steel called a rooping iron. This makes a peculiar grunting sound that drives nearby earthworms to the surface where they can be easily collected for fish bait. Despite a lot of speculation, worm grunters don’t really know why the technique works. But Catania, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt who studies moles, thought that the explanation might lie in Darwin’s remark: “It is often said that if the ground is beaten or otherwise made to tremble worms will believe that they are pursued by a mole and leave their burrows.” So this spring he traveled down to Florida and performed a number of experiments to test this hypothesis with the cooperation of veteran worm grunters Gary and Audrey Revell. His conclusion, that the humans are driving the worms to the surface by unknowingly mimicking the sound of digging moles, is reported in the Oct. 14 issue of the Public Library of Science....

Crockett 's grandson no chip off the old block The Oct. 15, 1876, edition of a New Mexico weekly carried a report from Cimarron detailing the death of a Texas outlaw named Davy Crockett. Just a coincidence? That was what everyone thought until Robert Crockett, son of the famous frontiersman and Alamo martyr, came to visit the grave. David Crockett was born in Tennessee 17 years after his legendary grandfather gave his life for the independence of Mexico's northernmost province. He was still just a boy in the 1850s, when his family moved to Texas and settled on a homestead in present-day Hood County that the state set aside for his widowed grandmother. Davy, as the youth was known, struck out on his own in the early 1870s. He wound up in northern New Mexico, where he bought a small cattle ranch east of Cimarron. Bored with the day-to-day drudgery of punching cows, Davy sold the spread, took a room in town and lived off the proceeds. For companionship he chose his former foreman, a no-count sponge named Gus Heffron, who was happy to help his old boss spend his money. Except for the occasional night in the local drunk tank, Davy managed to stay out of serious trouble. Handsome and generous to a fault, he was well-liked by the residents of Cimarron, who were willing to overlook his growing attachment to the bottle. All that changed on the night of Mar. 24, 1876. Davy, in his usual state of intoxication, reached for the door handle to exit a bar at the same exact moment an army cavalryman tried to enter the watering hole. Enraged by the short but spirited tug-of-war, the inebriated Texan pulled his pistol the instant the door flew open and shot the soldier dead. Remembering three other troopers seated at a table behind him, Davy spun around and emptied his six-gun into the trio. He hit all three cavalrymen, fatally wounding two. When the case came to trial six months later, the defendant blamed the triple murder on booze and his bad temper. Had the victims been white, Davy probably would have hanged. But the fact that they were freed slaves made all the difference in the world to the community and the judge, who let the killer off with a $50 fine and court costs. Davy should have thanked his lucky stars and taken the opportunity to turn over a new - and sober - leaf. Instead, he and his drinking buddy Heffron went on a two-week tear....

Rancher remembered as 'courageous'

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Sunday at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum for Rob Cox, who died Friday, at Mesilla Valley Hospice, after a lengthy illness.

Cremation has taken place. In lieu of flowers, Cox's family requests that memorial donations be made to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

For many years, Cox, 86, has been considered the patriarch of White Sands Missile Range. Prior to 1945, his family owned 150,000 acres on the east side of the Organ Mountains. About 90 percent of it was sold the U.S. government and became White Sands Proving Grounds and eventually White Sands Missile Range.

But the family retained the San Augustine ranchhouse it has owned since 1893 and Rob and his wife of 51 years, Murnie Cox, continued to live there.

"He's a man who had everything," said former WSMR spokesman Larry Furrow, who retired earlier this year. "He's the most courageous man I've known, the most honest man I've ever known, and quite simply the finest man I've ever known."

With the Cox ranch house within a quarter-mile of WSMR's main post, Cox frequently attended WSMR events and ceremonies the past 32 years. The most important building at WSMR, it's range control center, is named after Cox's father, W.W. Cox.

"He was quite patriotic," said Mark Cox, son of Rob Cox. "... He always said that selling the land to the government was the right thing to do. He often said that if we hadn't, we could have all ended up speaking German instead."

But Cox, a humble man, was more inclined to let his actions doing his talking. On a cold day in January 1945, 1st. Lt. Cox, as a member of Company A, 18th Tank Battalion, 8th Armored Division, led his platoon of M-4 Sherman Tanks, which he called "the Indians" in honor of his New Mexico heritage, into serious action on the Mosell River near Sinz, France.

Gunfire set the area ablaze and disabled several tanks, including Cox's. Although crew members were injured, Cox took action to protect his infantry coming up from the rear as well as maintain communications with other pined-down tanks.

In knee-deep snow and under fire, Cox ran from one tank to another to ensure communications were maintained. He also pulled an injured tank man to safety.

For gallantry in action during the Battle of the Bulge, Cox was awarded two Silver Stars and a Purple Heart.

But Cox rarely spoke about the military awards and downplayed his heroism.

"He didn't like talking about it," Mark Cox said. "He said medals didn't mean anything to him."

Cox was born in Las Cruces on Feb. 12, 1922 to Jim and Fannie Cox. He grew up at San Augustine Ranch and attended Las Cruces High School, where he was a star athlete, and a member of Las Cruces High's national champion stock judging team.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at sramirez@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5452.

WSMR patriarch

• Name: Robert C. Cox

• Age: 86

• Hometown: Las Cruces

• Family: Wife Marilyn "Murnie," sons Robert, James and Mark. Six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

• Occupation: Cattleman, rancher, cowboy

• Public service: Former Sierra County commissioner, served on the New Mexico Constitutional Convention of 1970.

• Military service: Served with the Army's 8th Armored Division in World War II. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded two Silver Star medals for gallantry in action.

• Education: Graduated from Las Cruces High School, where he played sports and was a member of the school's national champion stock judging team. Also graduated from Texas A&M University.

Game and Fish panel reaffirms commitment to wild wolves in Arizona The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted to continue supporting the state's role in managing the Mexican wolf-recovery program, which has cost some $18 million since its inception 26 years ago. "We absolutely appreciate how expensive this program is," Terry Johnson, the Game and Fish Department's endangered species coordinator, told the commission in a presentation covering the history of the wolf reintroduction and recovery program. Arizona has borne some $4.6 million of that cost - about half of the state's share coming from federal funds. New Mexico, a partner in the wolf-recovery effort, has paid a tenth of that toward wolf recovery - some $540,000. Reintroducing a predator that was wiped out in Arizona has long been a matter of working with people as much as wolves. Environmental groups and ranchers have often clashed over the program's management. The wolf's recovery area is largely in public lands open to grazing. The program is run under the umbrella of the Active Management Oversight Committee, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the U.S. Wildlife Services and the White Mountain Apache Tribe....