The long road of contention: Forest Service gets an earful from county residents over Travel Management Plan

After hearing from a number of people who were concerned the U.S. Forest Service proposed Travel Management Plan would cut off access to their favorite camping and hunting sites, the agency agreed to facilitate meetings of people familiar with specific areas of the forest to make sure all known roads and trails are marked on maps. When all are marked, the committees would help decide which should remain open, which redundant roads should be closed and which are effectively closed already because they are impassable...An attendee challenged the Forest Service’s ability to work with private land owners, saying it was outside the scope of the project. Monnig disagreed with that assessment, but said he would have agency lawyers review applicable rules. In addition to answering questions, the Forest Service heard criticism from a number of people who questioned the way the process has been handled. Grant Gerber spoke against what he called a “policy of deception that seems unacceptable.” He said the Forest Service intentionally misled people about their plans to close roads, citing Elko Daily Free Press articles and meetings held with county officials. Jarbidge District Ranger Gar Abbas attributed it to miscommunication, which Gerber challenged...Elko Daily Press

I posted an AP story on this issue yesterday.

The Elko Daily Press has done an excellent job in covering this controversy. In addition to the story above, see their:

Forest Service plan calls for some closures in area

County pulls out of road plan: Commissioners won’t work with Forest Service officials on closures

USFS officials: Misconceptions abound

Uh Oh, Obama appointees to auto industry task force drive imports

The vehicles owned by the Obama administration's auto team could reflect one reason why Detroit's Big Three automakers are in trouble: The list includes few new American cars. Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three...Detroit News

Sen. Reid has plan to reform energy infrastructure

To provide a plan to boost the nation's use of clean energy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday he will introduce major legislation this week to reform electric transmission line development. Reid made the announcement at a Washington conference where he, Pickens, former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and others met to discuss guiding principles to reform the United States' energy policy. The forum was titled the "National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy." [Four deep thinkers with a plan] The Obama administration has said it would like 25 percent of the nation's energy to come from renewable sources by 2025, and the billions of dollars provided in the recently signed stimulus package offer the means to get there, Reid said. His bill, he said, will provide more guidance for that funding to be used appropriately. [Washington wants more control, otherwise the billions might be spent productively] The legislation will call for the president to designate renewable energy zones with significant clean-energy-generating potential. Once that occurs, the bill will call for massive planning efforts to site transmission lines around those zones--a process that the federal government will take over if it stalls...[Eminent domain notices will be sent on recycled paper]...CNET News

In a previous article on this issue, the author writes:

Questions remain, however, as to whether the Energy Department and other government agencies will be able to overcome a complex regulatory maze to spend the funds quickly and appropriately, particularly for transmission lines. "Our energy sector is very complicated," Karen Harbert, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, said at the Chamber on Tuesday. "It's become too easy for any project of any hue to get wrapped up in 'green' tape."...

Even the government can't overcome their own regulations.

Not to worry. I believe Reid, Clinton & Gore will fix things.

I also believe there are buffalo chips the size of houses floating down the Rio Grande today.

Salazar to Implement $3 Billion Interior Economic Recovery Plan

Pledging swift, responsible implementation of President Obama's economic recovery plan, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today estimated the $3 billion in funding allocated for the Department could create as many as 100,000 jobs and stimulate business activity in communities across America. Salazar announced that he has established a Recovery Act Task Force that includes the leadership of Interior bureaus to determine which proposed projects should be funded. He also announced that he will soon name a Stimulus Czar to oversee Interior's responsible implementation of the program. Among the major criteria for selecting projects, Salazar noted, are addressing the department's highest priority mission needs; generating the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time; and creating lasting value for the American public...DOI Press Release

It's interesting that Departmental "needs" are first in priority, and jobs are second.

Under the act, the following appropriations are made: BOR $1 billion, NPS $750 million, BIA $500 million, BLM $320 million, FWS $280 million, USGS $140 million, and the IG gets $15 million. Plus, the DOT budget includes $490 million for road construction and repair on DOI lands or facilities.

I'm sure it will all be spent wisely, and after the Department meets it's "needs" there may even be a job or two created.

Someone should set up a system where the number of jobs destroyed by DOI as they go about their normal business could be compared with the number of jobs "created" by this legislation.

Gore Pulls Slide of Disaster Trends

The NY Times reports:

Former Vice President Al Gore is pulling a dramatic slide from his ever-evolving global warming presentation. When Mr. Gore addressed a packed, cheering hall at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago earlier this month, his climate slide show contained a startling graph showing a ceiling-high spike in disasters in recent years. The data came from the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (also called CRED) at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels. The graph, which was added to his talk last year, came just after a sequence of images of people from Iowa to South Australia struggling with drought, wildfire, flooding and other weather-related calamities. Mr. Gore described the pattern as a manifestation of human-driven climate change. “This is creating weather-related disasters that are completely unprecedented,” he said. Now Mr. Gore is dropping the graph, his office said today. Here’s why. Two days after the talk, Mr. Gore was sharply criticized for using the data to make a point about global warming by Roger A. Pielke, Jr., a political scientist focused on disaster trends and climate policy at the University of Colorado. Mr. Pielke noted that the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters stressed in reports that a host of factors unrelated to climate caused the enormous rise in reported disasters (details below)...

US 'CO2 hunter' set for lift-off

Nasa is all set to launch its first mission dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide (CO2) from space. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will help pinpoint the key locations on our planet's surface where the gas is being emitted and absorbed. CO2's increased concentration in the atmosphere will lead to global climate change, say the major institutions and agencies that study Earth sciences. The OCO data is intended to help forecast that change more accurately. Currently, carbon dioxide is regularly sampled at about a hundred sites around the world. The new satellite will be taking roughly 30,000 readings on each orbit. This mass of information should help the OCO science team pinpoint the so-called sources (where CO2 comes from) and sinks (where CO2 is pulled out of the atmosphere by land and ocean processes, and stored) of carbon dioxide. Scientists have calculated that Nature cycles about 330 billion tonnes of carbon every year...BBC News

U.S. May Set Greenhouse Gas Standard for Cars

From the Washington Post:

The Obama administration is considering establishing national rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions for automobiles, according to White House officials, a move backed by both auto manufacturers and some environmentalists. For weeks administration officials have been meeting with car companies as well as green groups and representatives from California -- which is awaiting word on whether it will receive a federal waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles -- to try to broker a deal on the issue. On Sunday Carol M. Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate, said she and others backed the idea of a single standard for cars and trucks. "The hope across the administration is that we can have a unified national policy when it comes to cleaner vehicles," Browner said at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Washington. The administration is already counting on cap-and-trade legislation passing to generate new revenue for the federal government. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag told reporters the budget Obama will unveil this week includes the money that would flow from auctioning off pollution allowances under a cap-and-trade scheme...

Don't suffer biofuels gladly

Tom Philpott writes at Grist:

Imagine you're a policy maker with the power to commit federal cash and rules to a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil-fuel use. You'd want to build in mechanisms to make sure your policies are working toward your goals and not having all sorts of negative unintended consequences ... right? Well, that's what a coalition of green NGOs -- Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Network for New Energy Choices, the Clean Air Task Force, and New York Public Interest Research Group -- are calling for with regard to the nation's biofuel policy. They charge that the U.S. biofuel program actually "exacerbates global warming" because of greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogen fertilizers and the conversion of grasslands and rainforest to cropland. Further, the mass production of monocropped fuel feedstocks like corn, soy, and palm degrades soils, increases water pollution, drives out biodiversity, and endangers the food security of vulnerable populations. In the process of creating these lamentable side effects, biofuels are offsetting a relatively small amount of conventional fuel use -- and are grabbing the lion's share of federal support for alternative energy. In short, biofuels have been an abject failure...

Wolf Pack Kills Woman in Eastern Georgia; Villagers Given Guns

A pack of wolves killed a woman in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia in the third attack in a month, leading authorities to hand out weapons to locals for self-defense. “We are putting Kakheti on high alert,” Governor Gia Chalatashvili said today in televised comments. “Residents will be given guns and ammunition to defend themselves. Police will also be involved.” The woman’s remains were discovered today in the village of Giorgitsminda, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the capital Tbilisi, the Imedi television station reported. The woman had been missing for several days. Several villages in Kakheti have reported wolf attacks on livestock and humans in the last month, Chalatashvili said. About two weeks ago, the animals savaged a woman in the village of Pirosmani, seriously injuring her throat...Bloomberg

Forest Service, Elko County at odds over roads

Despite the Elko County Commission's decision to withdraw its cooperation, Forest Service officials say they will continue to seek the county's input on a plan to identify some national forest roads as priorities and potentially close others. The commission voted 4-1 on Thursday to end its status as a formal cooperating agency in regard to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest's Travel Management Plan, citing concerns about road closures and what they viewed as a refusal of the Forest Service to adequately accept their input. Ed Monnig, supervisor of the forest, said that status signifies a "heightened interest" in an issue and formalizes an agency's "ability to be at the table as we do the analysis." But he said he didn't think it would have any real effect on the project. Commissioner Demar Dahl said the vote would "send a message to the Forest Service" that they don't agree with the decision to close roads. The Elko Daily Free Press reported that he said at Thursday's meeting that the Forest Service had "not one inch of give in their position" since the county entered the cooperating agency status. "They have a predetermined conclusion," Dahl said...San Jose Mercury News

Forest Supervisor Monnig is right. If the FS is already ignoring the county's concerns when they are an official cooperating agency, the withdrawal of the county will make no difference. Apparently the FS will ignore the county in either case and that's unfortunate.

Wilderness bill seeks to protect portion of San Gabriel Mountains

Wilderness enthusiasts call an expanse of forest 30 miles north of La Ca ada Flintridge, and just above Highway 2, one of the most beautiful spots in the San Gabriel Mountains. And if U.S. Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, has anything to say about it, it will stay that way. McKeon is pushing his fellow legislators to support a proposal that would give the approximately 27,000-acre area the highest protection under federal law. No mining, no drilling, no snowmobiling, no roads, no cell phone towers, no power lines would be permitted. Not even mountain biking would be allowed in the what will become the Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness Area. "The idea is to protect it now while it is still natural," said John Monsen, the regional representative for the Sierra Club and San Gabriel Mountains Forever...TMC News

New wilderness proposed on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge

The U.S. Forest Service recommends 322,000 acres of new wilderness in a final management plan released Friday for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The plan, which has been in the works since 2002, recommends nine new wilderness areas, including 73,400 acres on Torrey Mountain in the East Pioneers southwest of Butte and 34,700 acres at Garfield Mountain near Lima. At 92,000 acres, the Snowcrest Range is the largest area recommended as wilderness. The forest plan guides management of the 3.3-million-acre forest and is expected to be implemented beginning March 23...The Missoulian

You can view the plan here.

Glenwood Canyon eyed for protection; water users wary

It’s hard to deny that Deep Creek, slicing through a rugged gorge from the Flat Tops, is wild. And the Colorado River flowing through the towering cliffs of Glenwood Canyon is certainly scenic. But some water users are worried that if they are federally designated as wild and scenic, it could jeopardize water rights along the corridors. A diverse group, which includes Front Range municipalities that want water for their taps and environmental and recreation groups that want it for fish and kayaking, has been working together to try to hammer out their own agreement that could protect the Colorado River without a federal designation. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have been working together to determine if stretches of Deep Creek and the Colorado River deserve protection as wild and scenic rivers. Like wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers can be recommended by land agencies, but they must be dedicated by Congress to protect key waterways. The designation comes with land protections alongside the river in addition to protecting the flowAmong those most concerned is the Glenwood-based Colorado Water River Conservation District, which convened the group. “We feel that a locally run river is better than a federally run stretch of river,” said Mike Eytel, water resource specialist for the district. Eytel said the district is mostly concerned about a federal water right that could stand in the way of water diversions and other projects along the Western Slope. Other water users, including Denver Water, the Northern Colorado Water Conservation District, Colorado Springs and Aurora, also have concerns. Joining them at the table are groups like Trout Unlimited, American Whitewater and commercial rafters who want to keep water in the river...Aspen Daily News

Good luck to these folks. Locally generated land use is superior to all others.

Check out People For Preserving Our Western Heritage, who have come up with an alternative to wilderness. Disclosure: I'm a member of this group.

Paleontologist pleads not guilty to fossil theft

A paleontologist who found one of the world's best-preserved dinosaurs has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge that he stole fossils from Bureau of Land Management property near Malta. Nate Murphy entered his plea Feb. 19 in U.S. District Court in Great Falls. The federal charge alleges Murphy took fossils from BLM land between August 2006 and August 2007 and that the fossils were worth more than $1,000. Court records are not more specific about the items allegedly taken. Murphy also faces a state charge that he took a turkey-size raptor fossil from private land near Malta with the intention of selling replicas of the fossil, which is worth between $150,000 and $400,000. Murphy didn't comment at the federal arraignment, but has previously said he never stole or sold dinosaur fossils...AP

11 wild burros are discovered massacred near Lake Pleasant

Off-road vehicle enthusiasts found 11 wild burros shot to death on public land north of Morgan City Wash near Lake Pleasant, Bureau of Land Management authorities said Monday. The carcasses were found over the weekend by off-road vehicle riders in the area. "We are investigating this crime, and we want people with information to call us," BLM Supervisory Ranger Patrick Brasington said in a news release. A $5,000 reward is being offered, and anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-637-9152. The incident occurred within the past week on public lands north of the metro area where the BLM manages a naturally occurring wild burro heard of 280...Arizona Republic

Closing of Slaughterhouses Depresses Horse Market

Scuorzo and other horse ranchers said the horse market declined after the United States closed its slaughterhouses. Three slaughterhouses killed unwanted horses and shipped the meat to foreign countries, including Japan and France. The last one closed in 2007 after Illinois banned processing horse meat for human consumption. Horses like Charlie could be euthanized or shot, but euthanasia and burial can be expensive, said Betty Jones, Arkansas Horse Council president. Increasingly, owners are abandoning horses or selling them for next to nothing at auction houses. Businesses in Canada and Mexico slaughtered more than 84,000 American horses last year, said Nancy Perry, U.S. Humane Society government affairs vice president. She expects that number to be closer to 95,000 when all the numbers are tallied. Transporting horses to foreign slaughterhouses can be difficult for horse owners who can no longer afford to care for them, said Robert Seay, Benton County extension agent at the University of Arkansas. Horse owners also have trouble selling or auctioning horses because prices are so low, Seay said. A horse from a better blood line that would have brought $2,500 three years ago now sells for about $250, Scuorzo said. A mid-grade pleasure horse will bring between $90 to $250, and some horses aren’t selling at all. Horse owners sometimes lose money at auction, said Gary Thompson, who runs the London Sale Barn in London, near Russellville. That’s because the auction price won’t cover auction fees, mandatory disease tests and the costs for transport, he said...The Morning News (Arkansas)

List of States Introducing Slaughter Legislation Grows

The Horse.com reports:

Twelve state legislatures are now considering measures to express their support of or actively encourage the reestablishment of U.S. horse processing plants. Resolutions indicating opposition to HR 503, the federal Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, which would eliminate horse slaughter nationwide and prohibit the export of horses to slaughter are either under consideration or have already passed in:

* Arizona (SCM 1001)
* Kansas (HCR 5004)
* Minnesota (SF 133)
* North Dakota (HB 1496)
* South Dakota (SCR 2)
* Utah (HJR 7)
* Wyoming (HJR 8)

Bills amending state laws to promote private investor plant development are pending in:

* Arkansas (HCR 1004)
* Illinois (HB 0583)
* Missouri (House, HCR 19 House; Senate, SCR 8)
* Montana (HB 418)
* Tennessee (HB 1361)...

Barn cats: Here, there and everywhere

Barn cats — just about every ranch and farm has them. The name “barn cats” has been given to cats that like to hang out around barns, outbuildings and haystacks. However, today the name “barn cat” is generally used when referring to cats in rural settings, whether there’s a barn or not. Barn cats seek out places where they can get in out of winter weather and hide from predators such as foxes and bobcats. And, of course, they need a place where they can find food, especially in winter when rodents are scarce. Years ago, most ranchers milked cows and shared the milk with barn cats. The ranchers didn’t mind sharing because the cats kept down the mice and rat populations. The same holds true today. Cats and ranchers benefit from this relationship. Some barn cats have gotten to ranches by their owners who needed “mousers.” But in most cases, barn cats are strays, seeking homes after their previous owners moved away or, even more likely, trying to find refuge after people have driven them out into the country and dropped them off. Whatever the reason, ranches are apt to have a bunch of cats of every age, size and color. Some are tame; others are wild. Some arrive with chewed-up ears, bad cuts, matted fur and bad eyes...By Diane Prather in the Craig Daily Press.

Patches The Horse

I hadn't seen this video in quite awhile, but was reminded of it today. Here it is for those who haven't seen it, or for those who would like to view it again.

Nationalizing the cars and bikes of rock collectors — Pending Omnibus land bill’s forfeiture provision has broad reach

At the same time there has been so much talk of government nationalization of troubled big banks, a bill quickly snaking through Congress would allow the feds to expropriate cars, bicycles and other “vehicles and equipment” of everyone from amateur collectors of rocks to kids going on scavenger hunts. In the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which passed the Senate (S. 22) in January and is up for a vote in the House as early as this Wednesday, a “forfeiture” provision would let the government confiscate “all vehicles and equipment of any person” who disturbs a rock or a bone from federal land that meets the bill’s broad definition of “paleontological resource.” The seizures could take place even before a person and even if the person didn’t know they were taking or digging up a “paleontological resource.” And the bill specifically allows the “transfer of seized resources” to “federal or non-federal” institutions, giving the government and some private actors great incentive to egg on the takings. Groups representing those from scientists to rock collectors to other fossil enthusiasts have warned of ominous consequences that could criminalize the exploration and learning about natural history ironically in the name of protecting nature. According to Tracie Bennitt, president of the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, the bill’s language is so vague and the penalties such as forfeiture so severe that it could allow the government to “put scientists in jail and confiscate university vans.” In a letter on the bill to members of Congress, Bennitt warns, “We can visualize now a group of students unknowingly crossing over an invisible line and ending up handcuffed and prosecuted.” Among the problems, critics explain, is that the language is so broad that merely picking up rocks under this bill could be found guilty of “excavating” or “removing” a “paleontological resource.”...OpenMarket.org...Another fine bill from the deep thinkers in Congress