EPA, Interior Dept. Chiefs Will Be Busy Erasing Bush's Mark Few federal agencies are expected to undergo as radical a transformation under President-elect Barack Obama as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, which have been at the epicenter of many of the Bush administration's most intense scientific and environmental controversies. The agencies have different mandates -- the EPA holds sway over air and water pollution, while Interior administers the nation's vast federal land holdings as well as the Endangered Species Act -- but both deal with some of the country's most pressing environmental concerns, such as climate change. And over the past eight years, many career employees and rank-and-file scientists have clashed with Bush appointees over a number of those of issues, including whether the federal government should allow California to regulate tailpipe emissions from automobiles and how best to prevent imperiled species from disappearing altogether. In June 2007, Obama told reporters in Reno, Nev., that he would not hesitate to reverse many of the environmental policies Bush has enacted by executive order. "I think the slow chipping away against clean air and clean water has been deeply disturbing," Obama added. "Much of it hasn't gone through Congress. It was done by fiat. That is something that can be changed by an administration, in part by reinvigorating the EPA, which has been demoralized." Global warming policies are expected to mark one of the sharpest breaks between the Obama and the Bush administrations....

Group seeks Pickens' wife's help to save rangeland Conservationists are looking to the wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to help push for federal reforms that they say will help thousands of wild horses and save rangeland in the West. Madeleine Pickens recently announced plans to create a refuge for wild horses. She came up with the idea after hearing that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was considering euthanizing some of the animals to control the herds and protect the range. WildEarth Guardians wants to take Pickens' plan further by proposing a solution the group believes would resolve public land grazing conflicts that have resulted in the horses needing a home. WildEarth Guardians is advocating congressional legislation that would allow ranchers who have grazing permits on federal public land to relinquish the permits in exchange for compensation. The idea is that livestock would be removed from the allotment, leaving a refuge for wild horses and other native animals and plants. Mark Salvo, director of WildEarth Guardians' campaign to protect the West's sagebrush landscape, said he believes voluntary grazing permit buyouts are catching on with ranchers....

U.S. Moves Ahead on Oil, Gas Leases on Public Land Over the last four fiscal years, a Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Land Management records shows, the government has dramatically accelerated the pace of awarding oil and gas drilling permits on federal land. The total for the period is nearly triple the number issued in the corresponding years under former President Clinton, and the number of new wells sunk on federal land is more than double Clinton's record over the comparable period. In the latest skirmish, the bureau announced Tuesday that it will proceed with most of a proposed sale of oil and gas leases on nearly 500 square miles of public land in eastern Utah, which had sparked protests from environmental advocates and National Park Service officials. Opponents fear the drilling activity will damage air quality in several nearby popular national parks. The lease sales, due to take place next month, could pose a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which will have to decide shortly after taking office whether to honor the contracts, seek to undo the leases or pay millions in taxpayer dollars to buy them back....

BLM backs off plan to issue drilling permits in Utah's redrock country Drilling leases on the road to Dinosaur National Monument and on lands visible from Utah's iconic Delicate Arch and near Canyonlands National Park are off the block. In the face of intense opposition from the National Park Service, members of Congress and a top official from President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management backed down Tuesday from its plan to sell oil and gas leases near national parks and wilderness-quality areas in Utah on Dec. 19. The BLM also promised to consult with the Park Service on any future changes to environmental protections built into long-range plans for lands near the parks, said Mike Snyder, director of NPS' Intermountain region....

Man convicted in eagle deaths grateful for pardon Leslie Owen Collier was surrounded by cattle at a livestock auction when his cell phone rang. It was the White House. Twelve years after pleading guilty to federal charges in the deaths of three bald eagles, Collier learned his name was cleared: He was pardoned by President George W. Bush. "I guess I was humbled is the best way to say it — I never thought it would happen," Collier, 50, said in a phone interview this week. "It was emotional. I almost came to tears, really." The 1995 incident that changed the life of the farmer from the Charleston area of southeastern Missouri began when he noticed an increasing number of wild turkeys, which were believed to have died away. "I got it in my head that if I eliminated some of the coyotes it would give the turkeys a jump-start," on their comeback, Collier said. So he put out hamburger meat laced with the pesticide Furadan in an effort to kill the coyotes. It worked; seven coyotes died. The problem occurred when the eagles fed on the coyotes' carcasses. They died, too. So did a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl, among other animals. The birds are federally protected and killing them is illegal. Collier said the crime became a felony when the second eagle died. He pleaded guilty in late 1995 and received two years of probation. While he didn't go to jail, the conviction was hard on Collier. He was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution. As a convicted felon, the longtime hunter had to give up his guns....

Unhappiness After Stream in Montana Is Open to All A group of landowners, including several wealthy out-of-staters, are none too happy that their exclusive use of a scenic trout-rich stream in the Bitterroot Valley is coming to an end. The Montana Supreme Court ruled here recently that the 16-mile-long stream, Mitchell Slough, is open to the public and that the landowners are not entitled to fence it off as part of their private sanctuaries. Montana law is firm in allowing the public access to streams and rivers that flow through private land, up to the high-water mark. The law states that fishermen can walk in a stream or along the bank up to the high-water mark if they enter the waterway from public land like a bridge. They may not cross or walk on private land above the mark without permission. In this case, though, two dozen landowners — including the rock singer Huey Lewis and Charles R. Schwab, founder of the brokerage firm that bears his name — argued that irrigation diversions had so thoroughly altered Mitchell Slough that it was no longer a natural waterway and that therefore the stream access law should not apply. To reinforce that belief, they began calling it Mitchell Ditch. But in a unanimous ruling, the State Supreme Court here ruled that in spite of the changes, the slough was still a “natural perennial flowing stream” and public access was warranted....

Wilderness creation opposed Counties in the Bighorn Basin say preserving the Western way of life is their top priority. The county commissions of Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties recently submitted 22 pages of comments to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management outlining their vision of how federal land should be managed in the future. "There is concern our Western culture is being destroyed or detrimentally changed," the counties said. The four county commissions submitted remarks together. They were compiled by Ecosystem Research Group, a Missoula, Mont., environmental consulting firm. The counties' comments emphasize the importance of grazing in the basin. If grazing is reduced, "the highest value of these lands ... is to sell to developers and 'hobby' ranchers," they wrote. The commissions also came out against designating any federal lands as wilderness in the basin. Wilderness areas typically are remote, undeveloped and largely roadless. Motorized travel is usually prohibited in an area once Congress designates it as wilderness. "Millions of acres in the west are designated as wilderness," the counties wrote. "We oppose designating any of the lands within the (planning area) as wilderness." The BLM is studying 12 areas as potential wilderness sites. The agency places restrictions on those study areas and the commissions asked that the federal government return those areas to general management....

Mining claim occupancy rules are about to change After growing frustrated with their inability to move illegal squatters off federal forest land because regulations were unclear, the U.S. Forest Service has put teeth into the laws that regulate residential occupancy on mining claims. The changes, which take effect nationally on Dec. 8, also revise the definition of an operating plan for miners. The revisions clarify that a criminal citation can be issued for illegal occupancy, said Bob Fujimoto, group leader for minerals and geology for agency's Region 6 which includes Oregon and Washington. "When we went down the civil side (of enforcement), it would take years before we would get very far with a case," he said. "When we use a criminal citation, the process is much shorter." The revised residential occupancy regulations spell out what constitutes residency through construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance and use or presence of a temporary or permanent structure....

Study causes shift in wolverine management Wolverine researchers in Greater Yellowstone say protecting overlaps between the region’s three populations is crucial to ensuring the species’ long term survival. Greater Yellowstone wolverines consist of three so-called “metapopulations,” one in northern Montana, one in central Idaho and one in northwest Wyoming, according to Bryan Aber, a carnivore biologist with Idaho Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Maintaining connections between these metapopulations is difficult because wolverines rely on high elevation terrain, exist in extremely low densities and maintain huge home ranges. Female wolverines average a 155-square-mile home range, while males average a 460-square-mile home range. “The overlap of those three populations is critical in ensuring genetic transfer,” Aber said. “Because they exist at such low densities, the area where these three metapopulations overlap is extremely important.”....

The spotted owl disappearing act Across their entire range in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and British Columbia, there are thought to be fewer than 5,000 northern spotted owls left. In the dense forests of the Olympic Peninsula last year, spotted owls were found in 19 of the 54 sites they had once populated. Their numbers have declined by a third since the 1990s, when old-growth logging across the Pacific Northwest came to a virtual halt in an effort to protect their habitat. The declines have been so persistent -- averaging 4% a year -- that a growing number of scientists have come to think the most immediate culprit is not logging but the aggressive barred owl, which has crept into the West Coast forests from Canada over the last few decades. Bigger, more fertile and with an appetite less finicky than its threatened cousin, the barred owl has taken over in forest after forest, experts say -- claiming spotted owls' nests in the warmer, lower elevations. Now, as the spotted owl continues to decline, the federal government is taking what many conservationists say is the worst step possible: reopening more of the bird's forests to logging. In what is likely to be one of the final environmental battles of the Bush administration, 18 environmental groups filed motions in federal court last week to block a massive remapping of federal lands in the Pacific Northwest. Proposals by the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which officials hope to have in place by the end of the year, would open up for logging large tracts that had been set aside as breathing space for the owls -- nearly 1.8 million acres....

Killing two pintails with one shot is illegal If you'd shot two pintails with one shot, the consequences of this error would differ depending on how you handled the situation. Mike Carion, assistant chief at the state Department of Fish and Game, said here's what you might expect: If you'd picked them both up and put them in your bag and the warden found that you had two in possession, you may be cited for having an overlimit. If you didn't tell the warden you had two and failed to reveal both birds to the game warden when asked, you might additionally be cited for failing to show the extra duck when asked. If you'd left the other bird in the pond, buried it or hid it, you could have been cited for an overlimit and wanton waste of game. The best way to avoid any of these consequences in the future would be to not shoot when the birds are so close that you don't have a clear shot and be able to identify what you're shooting before pulling the trigger....In California, you can't kill two birds with one stone.

Feds hurt Wyoming's efforts to settle wolf issue The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had an opportunity recently to make real progress on the seemingly unending wolf de-listing issue - and they blinked. Instead of a careful response to litigation triggered by earlier efforts to remove wolves from Endangered Species Act protections, the agency is pushing for a careless new plan in a rushed process designed to fail. Instead of addressing genetic-diversity concerns by enhancing natural dispersal, the USFWS is proposing to set a dangerous precedent by using expensive, heavy-handed methods that include trucking wolves from state to state, artificial insemination and pup-swapping. Instead of helping Wyoming shore up the deficiencies in its management plan, the agency is telling us to fend for ourselves.They doom us to many more years of court haggling on an issue that already has exhausted us all. In short, instead of taking Wyoming a step forward, the Fish & Wildlife Service is attempting to knock us three steps backward....

Feds not complying with act passed 18 years ago I recently asked a spokesperson for the nation’s largest public power company about thousands of American Indian bones and funeral objects in the federal corporation’s possession. The Tennessee Valley Authority spokesperson seemed to think I was pulling his leg when I told him the TVA had bones belonging to more than 8,000 individual Indians and nearly 21,000 funeral objects. The bones and items were removed from Native archeological and burial sites as part of the TVA’s economic development project spanning seven states. “Where do we keep them?” said John Moulton, TVA’s senior news bureau manager. “Do we have them buried somewhere?” He said he’s worked with the TVA for 22 years and never heard such a story. The TVA’s bone collection is part of a recently released report that outlines enforcement and oversight problems among federal agencies charged to abide by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a law passed 18 years ago in November. The “Federal Agency Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act” report concludes government agencies have “no apparent enforcement mechanisms or incentives” to comply with NAGPRA. Today, agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and TVA have more than 118,000 human remains in their possession. The bones are stockpiled on shelves at universities and museums across the country. After making an inquiry, the TVA spokesman learned the power company stores most Indian remains at the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama....Imagine that, federal agencies not complying with federal law. What are the consequences to these agencies for noncompliance? What would be the consequences to you or I?

County demands seat at table with federal agencies The Jefferson County Commission flexed its political muscles, Tuesday, unanimously passing a resolution seeking an equal voice with federal agencies on planning activities within the county. The county commission is sending a letter to federal and state agencies asserting the county’s legal standing and requesting coordination with all federal and state agencies with jurisdiction over lands in Jefferson County. Public lands comprise about 70 percent of the county’s land mass. “We have good relationships with most federal agencies,” said County Attorney Mathew Johnson. “But we’re not treated equally. We’re treated as subordinates.” The latest issue that brought this to a head, Johnson said following the meeting, is the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest Travel Plan. But the major impetus was a Forest Service plan in the Clancy-Unionville area several years ago that closed some roads, he said. Disputes over these road closures led to county efforts in 2005 and 2006 to seek legal jurisdiction over all rights-of-way in the county. At that time, the county claimed legal authority under a provision of the 1866 Mining Law. Butte Bureau of Land Management Field Manager Rick Hotaling said he had not yet been informed of the resolution. Another issue is that county commissioners are required under Montana’s sunshine laws to make public documents they receive. But under the federal agencies rules, committee members can’t share internal planning documents, Hotaling said, because these change from week to week. Circulating early drafts to the public would just cause confusion, he said....Thanks for not confusing the public by giving them timely information. Knowing what changes were made, and when and by whom would be oh so confusing. Just keep the poor bastards in the dark.

Animal rights activists seek export-for-slaughter ban as number of US horses sent abroad rises In about 30 minutes, Barnes bought 25 so-called "killer horses." Their new owner would subject them to what animal rights groups say is a growing type of abuse: trucking them nearly 700 miles to Canada for slaughter, circumventing a U.S. ban on the practice. Much of the meat is eventually exported to countries in Europe and Asia for human consumption. Stacy Segal, a horse specialist at the Humane Society of the United States, and other animal rights activists want a ban on exporting U.S. horses for slaughter abroad. "They're jammed onto trailers with no regard for breed, size, age, temperament or sex and get no feed or rest," Segal said. Last year, when state-imposed bans closed the last three U.S. horse slaughterhouses, a record 78,000 horses were exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics compiled by the Humane Society. That's a 138 percent increase from 2006. Statistics show that 76,100 horses have been slaughtered in Canada and Mexico so far this year. But the actual figure is likely higher because Canada hasn't yet reported two months' worth of slaughter numbers. Barnes and others acknowledge that the long trip is stressful on the animals, but they blame animal rights activists who successfully pushed for all U.S. horse slaughterhouses to shut down. They say the increased exportation of horses is better than the alternative: horses being neglected and abused by owners who don't want them or can't afford to take care of them....

A World of a Different Color HORSES AT WORK: Harnessing Power in Industrial America By Ann Norton Greene. Once upon a time, America derived most of its power from a natural, renewable resource that was roughly as efficient as an automobile engine but did not pollute the air with nitrogen dioxide or suspended particulate matter or carcinogenic hydrocarbons. This power source was versatile. Hooked up to the right devices, it could thresh wheat or saw wood. It was also highly portable — in fact, it propelled itself — and could move either along railroad tracks or independently of them. Each unit came with a useful, nonthreatening amount of programmable memory preinstalled, including software that prompted forgetful users once it had learned a routine, and each possessed a character so distinctive that most users gave theirs a name. As a bonus feature, the power source neighed. But in the fall of 1872, almost all these power units, better known as horses, came down with the flu, and America faced an energy crisis. In what became known as the Great Epizootic, horse influenza spread from Ontario down the East Coast of the United States, across the South and into the West, eventually reaching as far as California and Nicaragua. Forty-eight hours after it hit Boston, seven out of every eight of the city’s horses were feverish and coughing. In “Horses at Work,” Ann Norton Greene describes Philadelphia at a standstill: “Streetcar companies suspended service; undelivered freight accumulated at wharves and railroad depots; consumers lacked milk, ice and groceries; saloons lacked beer; work halted at construction sites, brickyards and factories; and city governments curtailed fire protection and garbage collection.”....

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

.The Christmas letter not to write

Julie Carter

The weenie dog in the tutu leisurely leaning back on a sofa pillow did it for me.

Over-the-top Christmas greetings have gone, literally, to the dogs, cats, horses and even a parakeet.

I know it is the season and all that, but geeez Louise, have people gotten that desperate for a life to share? In reading some of them, I wonder why they haven't died of boredom.

It is my belief that a Christmas letter is intended to catch the reader up on the year's highlights, provided there are some, in the life of the sender.

Somehow that has gotten to be such a chore that there are now tutorials on how to write a proper Christmas letter.

These lessons come with tips, suggestions and the inference that bragging isn't really acceptable.

We've all gotten at least one like this:

Sara, 8, has the lead in our community play, Aaron, 10, was recently voted the most gifted and talented child in school and now that Emily is 3, she's started reading. Between ferrying the kids around to school, church and extracurricular activities, Beth gave birth to our fourth child in September. He's already beginning to crawl! Howard has been promoted to CEO of the World. We took three vacations last year to tropical paradises (see photos).

There is no doubt in my mind that the budding Rhodes Scholars and Julliard graduates are in all honesty, just average kids leaving their underwear on the bathroom floor every time they shower, never flushing the toilet and whining when they have to unload the dishwasher.

Mentioning births, deaths, marriages and relocations are quite important, but not if that involves only the pets and not the people.

My favorites are the ones that provide a laugh while the writer laughs at himself:

Tom here! Wow, 2008 has shaped up to be one of those years for the Shoemaker family. So much has happened that it's hard to know where to begin. First, there was that business with the IRS; then the trial, wherein a co-worker's husband accused me of adultery, followed by my third arrest for DUI. And all that happened before June!!

Finding a way to bring interest to a "quiet" life isn't easy, but sharing the lackluster does nothing to quicken the holiday heart of the receiver.

If your story leaves you flat, it won't look any better to the reader on the other end. Make no apologies, just don't write it. Perhaps a Hallmark card is your best bet to "send your very best."

Know when to quit. If someone hasn't sent you a Christmas greeting for three years, take them off your list.

You can tell yourself they are too busy to write, but who are you fooling? They are wondering how long before you take the hint.

Now don't get me wrong, and you will, but here it is. I love my pets. You love your pets. However, you aren't required to love mine any more than I will love yours, most of whom I have never met.

Honestly folks, and I say this at the risk of not hearing from many of you ever again, that Chihuahua has no idea why you dressed him up in that stupid Santa suit for a photo.

Keeping that in mind, if I ever start writing Christmas letters that are signed with the name of my pets, paw prints included, and in the body of the letter, I discuss their annual veterinary needs and issues, just shoot me.

If I talk about the highlight of my year’s work as being the installation of new ceiling fans and how good the new tin looks on the old trailer house, just shoot me.

There is a reason my Christmas letters are mostly family photos. Those, indeed, are worth a thousand words and none of them a lie. We really are hillbillies!

Julie hasn't yet created her 2008 Christmas letter that will contain shameless self-promotion of her new book, Cowboys -You Gotta Love 'em, found through her Web site at www.julie-carter.com.

Buyer beware - seller, too
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

The holiday season, shopping frenzies, sales galore and all that goes with that. The crowds begin to swarm the retail outlets for the bargain of the century, but let me caution you about regular-looking cowboy types, wearing worn, tattered clothing, who are out to make a good deal.

Jess was an honest man, but he had been in the cattle business a long time. Long enough to know that when you go trading, a man needed every advantage he could get. That accounted for his apparel when he left the ranch.

Today's objective was to trade a saddle he didn't use for one that suited both him and his horse a little better. Both were big old boys. He also had in mind to look at a new horse trailer while he was in town.

The Western store, more than city block long, stocked everything from bling T-shirts to horse trailers. This prestigious place carried quality inventory and took pride in their customer service.

Jess walked in and, as luck would have it, the owner was standing by the front counter. Not a rookie at wheeling and dealing, the owner, under usual circumstances, would have immediately recalled an intervening commitment when he saw Jess coming.

However, this particular day, he was somewhat tethered to the spot by his own knee-high kid hanging to his leg.

"Need to swap you a wonderful saddle that I just cannot use for one that wouldn't be anywhere near this good, but would fit me," Jess said as he put forth the saddle he'd carried in the door.

The storeowner got a gleam in his eye, thinking today might just be the day he could make a good deal with Jess. "Let's see this old saddle you got."

Jess allowed that it wasn't really an old saddle - it was one he had won, but he just hadn't used because it was a little small.

"Well, we can't really sell trophy saddles," said the storeowner, "nobody wants something they didn't win themselves."

"Got that figured out," Jess said. "Took that burden off you. I would let your saddle man back there swap out the fenders on this new wonderful saddle for the fenders on one of your new saddles here in the store. Wouldn't cost you any boot or anything."

The light went on in the owner's head. This wasn't going to be any easy trade. His inventory in the story included top-shelf, expensive saddles. While he was figuring his next move, his kid pulled on his leg. "Daddy, I'm ready to go home."

The trade banter went on awhile, and they were getting pretty close to the finish when Jess threw in the comment that he needed a bunch of things from the other side of the store.

This was where the hats, boots and high-dollar clothes, tack and trailer accessories were displayed. The owner looked Jess over, noted that his hat was showing some "experience," and his boots had duct tape holding them together.

With that added information and the fact his kid now needed to go to the bathroom, he came down another hundred dollars on the trade.

They continued jarring a little longer and finally the storeowner set his heels.

Jess then pulled out his ace. He was also planning to look at a new trailer that day. The owner caved and offered a figure that Jess already had determined.

They shook hands and while they were walking up to the counter to write up it up, the owner asked him, "Now, what was it you needed from the other side of the store?"

"Two feed buckets and a pooper scooper," Jess replied.

"That's it?" blurted out the merchant. "I thought you were going to get a new hat, new boots and a trailer."

Knowing he'd been had, the owner wobbled on off, suddenly needing to take his kid home. The girls behind the counter wrote up the ticket and Jess told them, "Now, don't you all forget me in case I lose this ticket. I'll be back in a little bit to pick up my saddle when they get the fenders swapped."

The girls laughingly assured him no one in the store would forget him. In the meantime, Jess went on down the road and bought a two-horse-slant aluminum trailer from the competition.

He still had on his trading apparel, but that's another story.

‘I’m Shocked, Shocked To Discover Land Use Going On Here’

Vin Suprynowicz

Once you’ve passed through the entrance gate to one of America’s magnificent national parks or monuments, what do you see?

Nothin’.

In most cases, mile upon mile of nothin’.

The sweeping grandeur of the Grand Canyon is not visible from any common entrance point to the national park of that name. Expect to drive several miles before you see the first signs directing you to various hotels and overlooks. (Entering from the north, LOTS of miles.)

Florida’s Everglades area the same way. Yes, the historic wetlands have been shrunken by unwise water projects further north, but many a child has gazed out upon the sweep of mostly dry grasslands after passing the “now entering” sign, asking, “Where’s the swamp? Where’s the gators?”

The traveler does not come upon these scenic wonders immediately, because those who planned these vast impoundments understood the concept of a “buffer zone.” With few exceptions, the scenic vistas are surrounded by five to 10 miles – or more – of empty space. This was done so that those enjoying the scenery would not have to gaze upon carnivals and trailer parks and used car graveyards teetering at the edge of Bryce Canyon or Yosemite Falls.

Outside the parks and monuments, the federal government may control even vaster acreage. But those lands are turned over to the U.S. Bureau of land Management, which has a different mission, seeing that those less sensitive lands are used in ways that benefit the nation.

Yet listen now to the green extremists, complaining that mining or tree-cutting or grazing is “allowed, only one valley away” or “once ridge line away” from a national park or monument.

On Nov. 4, the BLM announced that on Dec. 19 they will auction off the rights to drill for oil or gas on more than 50,000 acres of BLM land close to or adjoining three national parks in Utah: Arches, Dinosaur, and Canyonlands.

“This is a fire sale,” shrills Stephen Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.”

“We find it shocking and disturbing,” says Cordell Troy, chief National Park Service administrator in Utah. “That’s 40 tracts within four miles of these parks.”

Read it again. Four miles outside the parks’ existing buffer zones.

Franklin Seal, spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR, contends “If you’re standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you’re looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That’s how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is.”

See people earning an honest wage, working to heat our homes and fill our gas tanks … by using binoculars, perhaps?

In an era when economically struggling Americans actually celebrate when gasoline prices fall below three dollars a gallon – when this nation needs to develop all its domestic resources to reduce its dependence on foreign oil – there’s nothing “silly” about creating wealth and real jobs by allowing entrepreneurs to risk their own capital developing our own resources.

If the borders of the Arches National Park were not properly drawn to create an adequate buffer, it’s odd no one noticed this before. In such specific cases, the BLM might certainly compromise on a parcel or two.

But these protests are like complaining someone “almost broke” the 65 mph speed limit by driving 63 mph, or that they “almost violated” the drinking age by serving beer to a 23-year-old.

“I’m puzzled the park Service has been as upset as they are,” Selma Sierra, BLM director for the state of Utah, tells The Associated Press. “There are already many parcels leased around the parks.”

Details, details. What does that matter, when there’s serious posturing to be done?

Soon we’ll be hearing about unsightly land uses “within a hundred miles of a national park!” Since many national parks sit in closer proximity to each other than that, here in the West, such an “exclusionary zone” would bar millions of acres of deserts scrub from any productive use.

Which, one begins to suspect, is precisely what the green extreme has in mind.

Vin Suprynowicz [send him mail] is assistant editorial page editor of the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of The Black Arrow.

A Turkey

.

Ramirez