Court says New Mexico museum has no standing in Fisk case

Fisk University doesn’t have to give up 101 art works donated by painter Georgia O’Keeffe to a New Mexico museum in her name, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled in a decision filed Tuesday. The ruling overturned a lower court’s decision that barred Fisk from selling paintings to an Arkansas museum. The case now goes back to Davidson County Chancery Court. The school has been trying to sell part or all of the 101-piece Alfred Stieglitz Collection for more than three years in order to rebuild financially after raiding its endowment and nearly shutting its doors. O’Keeffe donated the collection to the school in 1949...Tennessean

Sheriff's deputies investigate well vandalism

The San Juan County Sheriff's Office is investigating several cases of vandalism at wells near Flora Vista owned by Conoco-Phillips. Undersheriff Mark McCloskey said the vandalism happened last weekend and was reported to authorities on Monday. The vandals smashed electrical panels and gauges, damaged wiring, drained fuel tanks and did other damage. Officials with Houston-based Conoco-Phillips estimate the cost of damage, repair, loss of production and environmental cleanup at each well site at about $8,000 to $10,000. Detectives collected evidence at each site and are working on identifying those who were responsible. McCloskey said felony charges for criminal damage to property are pending. AP

Ecosystems respond well to restoration

A new analysis in the June issue of the journal PLoS ONE finds that, if societies commit to cleanup and restoration, ecosystems can recover faster than previously thought. Surveying 240 studies, scientists at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies found that the speed of recovery depended upon the type of ecosystem and the growth rate of the organisms within it. Forests recovered within 42 years, but ocean floors in less than a decade. Polluted ecosystems – those plagued by oil spills, mining, trawling, or invasive species – could recover in just five years. Only 15 percent were deemed beyond recovery. The findings seem to contradict the popular notion that ecosystems take centuries or even millenniums to recover – boosting the rationale for proactive conservation...CSMonitor

Environmentalists and timber companies push big experiments in national forests

Environmentalists' lawsuits and the U.S. Forest Service have choked off timber sales in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, which sprawls across 3.3 million acres surrounding the town. They had their reasons; previous logging had shredded some of the forest, for instance. But it's hurt Anderson's operation. Back in the 1980s, more than 90 percent of the timber he processed came from federal land; now, less than 5 percent does. His costs have increased "tremendously" because he has to pull logs from distant state, private and tribal forests, while bidding against other mills equally desperate for timber. Dozens of Montana mills have closed under the strain. "The economy is cyclical -- ups and downs. Always has been. Timber supply is what's taking 'em out now," Anderson says. "A lot of people depend on this company for their livelihood, so we'll keep on doing this as long as we can." All of that is somewhat predictable news to anyone who tracks forest issues. What's surprising is the logo on a cap that Anderson keeps on a shelf beside his desk: MONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION. It symbolizes Anderson's dramatic shift into collaboration. He's trying to lead Montana's timber industry into a ground-breaking deal with the statewide wilderness group and two national environmental groups. They call it the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership, but it's not as warm and fuzzy as it sounds. They've hammered out some bold goals, determined to make both the Forest Service and more hard-line environmentalists agree to them. They want increased logging, contentious restoration projects and controversial wilderness designat that would break a 26-year-long gridlock in Montana's wilderness politics. Basically, while Anderson and his partners wouldn't state it so frankly, they want to run a national forest...HighCountryNews

Interior secretary: Mining reform a top priority

The Obama administration will make overhauling the nation's 137-year-old hardrock mining law a top priority despite a full plate of higher profile issues, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday. Salazar told a Senate committee considering such legislation that "it is time to ensure a fair return to the public for mining activities that occur on public lands and to address the cleanup of abandoned mines." Reform bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, but past attempts at reform have foundered in the face of opposition from industry and many Western lawmakers. However, a new crop of conservation-minded lawmakers from the West and a new administration sympathetic to reforming the law have generated renewed interest in an overhaul...AP

Oregon Gov.signs bill to pay for removal of dams

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has signed a bill financing most of the cost of removing four dams on the Klamath River to help salmon. Meanwhile, representatives from California, Oregon, PacifiCorp, the Obama administration and others continued to meet Tuesday in Klamath Falls, Ore., to make a September deadline for a binding agreement on the effort to restore 300 miles of salmon spawning habitat. The law calls for building a trust fund of $180 million over the next 10 years through a surcharge on PacifiCorp costumers in Oregon, which amounts to about $1.50 a month for a residential customer. California pays $20 million. If a federal feasibility study shows the dams can be safely torn down, work begins around 2020. AP

Crops, ponds, wildlife habitat destroyed in quest for food safety

In the verdant farmland surrounding Monterey Bay, a national marine sanctuary and one of the world's biological jewels, scorched-earth strategies are being imposed on hundreds of thousands of acres in the quest for an antiseptic field of greens. And the scheme is about to go national. Invisible to a public that sees only the headlines of the latest food-safety scare - spinach, peppers and now cookie dough - ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors. Birds, frogs, mice and deer - and anything that shelters them - are caught in a raging battle in the Salinas Valley against E. coli O157:H7, a lethal, food-borne bacteria. In pending legislation and in proposed federal regulations, the push for food safety butts up against the movement toward biologically diverse farming methods, while evidence suggests that industrial agriculture may be the bigger culprit...SFChronicle

Horse found with brand cut out of hide in Nevada

A domestic horse found loose in Nevada with the brand cut out of its hide is drawing outrage from equine advocates concerned about the growing number of horses abandoned in the wild. Humane Society officials believe the brand was removed so the 2.5-year-old mare couldn't be traced to its owner, representing one of the worst cases of abuse involving an abandoned domestic horse in the country. The animal was found last week near Round Mountain, a remote mining community about 235 miles southeast of Reno. Its brand -- which functions like a car's license plate -- was removed in a 6-by-8-inch patch from its left hip. The horse is expected to recover and was scheduled to be transported Saturday to a sanctuary in Lompoc, Calif., operated by the horse advocacy group Return to Freedom. Nevada agriculture officials have picked up more than 100 domestic horses from the range this year, including 90 in the past three months, Foster said. That's up from a previous high of 63 last year and 12 the year before. Wyoming Brand Commissioner Lee Romsa said his state has handled more than 100 such cases this year, up from 50 last year and an average of six to eight cases before that. Foster said some owners think their horses will be fine in the wild, but that's not the case. Domestic horses are rejected by wild herds and usually die after being unable to find water and forage. In Idaho, Hayhurst said he's dealt with about 70 abandoned horse cases over the past year, compared with the usual handful. He said another factor is the ban on horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. "Unfortunately, slaughterhouses are a necessary evil," Hayhurst said. "Without being able to ship a horse to a slaughterhouse, people turn them loose."...AP

When hell broke loose in Texas

Barbed wire came to Texas in the late 1870s. Though barbed wire was much cheaper than heart-of-pine planks, some cattlemen would have nothing to do with it. Gradually, though, it caught on and fences that were “horse-high, bull-proof and hog-tight” spread across the land. Barbed wire intensified conflicts between ranchers and farmers, cattlemen and sheepmen, free-range men and enclosed-pasture men, small stockmen and big ranchers. They began to cut each others’ fences. Prowlers in gunnysack hoods roamed at night snipping wire. Ranchhands rode the fence lines on guard for fence-cutters. The result was the Fence-Cutting War. Walter Prescott Webb called it a social upheaval. Like the machine-breaking uprising in England half a century before, it was partly a revolt against change. There were real injustices: Some fences closed what had been public right-of-ways, as with S.G. Miller’s fence that closed the Corpus Christi to Gussettville road, and some shut off access to communal watering holes, before the coming of windmills and artesian wells. The conflict became bloody. A headline in a Chicago paper said, “Hell breaks loose in Texas.” Texas Rangers were sent to quell the violence. Ranger Ira Aten, ordered to track down wire-cutters, said he upped his life insurance and oiled his six-shooter. Rangers hated the duty. They had to infiltrate gangs of known cutters, to get inside information, and then stake out lonely stretches of fences at night, concealed in the shadows, waiting for armed cutters to show up and start snipping...Caller-Times

Song Of The Day #083

This morning Little Jimmy Dickens will give us a lesson in the improper use of rural vernacular.

Give a listen to his 1950 recording of Walk, Chicken, Walk ('Cause You're Too Fat To Fly).

This jewel of etiquette is available on his four disc box set Country Boy.

Sierra Club & The Grijalva Letter On Border Mitigation

From: Michael Degnan, Sierra Club [mailto:Michael.Degnan@sierraclub.org]
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 2:15 PM
To:
Subject: Please Sign Borderlands Mitigation Letter to Secretary Napolitano

Dear Congressman _____,

I’m writing to urge you to join Rep. Grijalva in asking Secretary Napolitano to include monitoring, mitigation, and environmental training for border security personnel in her evaluation of border security initiatives.

The text of the sign-on letter to Sec. Napolitano is attached.

This request to the Department of Homeland Security would not interfere with any current or future plans to build walls along our southwest border. Rather, the simple point that the letter raises is that we should be aware of the impacts that border security infrastructure and activities have caused and, where possible, we should repair the damage done.

Border walls have separated families, caused damaging floods and erosion, and fractured habitat and migration corridors vital to wildlife that has been pushed to the brink of extinction. The Department of Homeland Security has recognized the need to mitigate these types of negative impacts, but in order to adequately address the problem, first it must fully cooperate with other applicable agencies to create and fund a robust border-wide environmental monitoring and mitigation program.

For more information or to sign-on to the letter, please contact Gloria Montano in Rep. Grijalva’s office at Gloria.Montano@mail.house.gov or 225-2435.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Michael Degnan
Washington DC Representative
Sierra Club




July 2009
Secretary Janet Napolitano
Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Napolitano:

We write to you today with concern regarding mounting environmental and societal impacts related to border security infrastructure and operations. As you conduct your evaluation of border security initiatives, we encourage you to consider the mportance of monitoring, mitigation, and environmental training for border security personnel in order to quantify, compensate for and avoid the negative consequences of border security infrastructure and operations. We ask that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cooperate with other applicable agencies to create and fund a robust border-wide environmental monitoring program and to provide sufficient mitigation funding for damage caused by border security infrastructure and enforcement activities.

As you are aware, hundreds of miles of new border fences and patrol roads have been constructed by DHS along the US/Mexico border in the past several years. This massive federal project has had deleterious consequences upon natural and cultural public resources, and has caused hardship for private land owners, whose lands have been condemned and livelihoods have been disrupted. Considerable annual maintenance operations will be required for border fencing. The Congressional Budget Office estimates annual maintenance costs will amount to15% of initial construction costs, which are averaging $3 Million per mile. In addition, with DHS adding significantly more Border Patrol personnel, it is becoming increasingly important that impacts related to off-road vehicles, low-level flights and other interdiction activities be quantified and mitigated for, and that DHS provide training for its personnel in techniques to minimize damage to sensitive resources during enforcement activities.

We understand that in 2008 DHS allocated up to $50 Million to the Department of the Interior (DOI) for border fence mitigation. It is our understanding this money will be utilized primarily for off-site mitigation targeted to benefit threatened and endangered species that have been negatively impacted by new border security infrastructure projects. We believe this first round of mitigation for threatened and endangered species, along with the memorandum of agreement signed between DHS and DOI, demonstrate a positive commitment to mitigating negative impacts. However, there are numerous impacts across the border caused by both security infrastructure and operations that will require significantly more resources to properly monitor and mitigate.

For example, the National Park Service issued a report in August, 2008 confirming that border fencing astride the Lukeville Port of Entry has exacerbated seasonal flooding and has caused accelerated scouring and erosion on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument – threatening to permanently alter the hydrology of the area if modifications are not made to rectify the inadequate design. A similar problem was identified at the DeConcini Port of Entry, where tunnel barrier and fence-exacerbated flooding caused extensive property and infrastructure damage in Nogales, Mexico. There are also serious concerns related to border infrastructure construction-induced siltation and resulting degradation of sensitive habitats of the Tijuana River Estuary and the San Pedro River located in southern California and Arizona, respectively. In south Texas, private land owners and agricultural interests have significant tracts of land that have been or will be isolated to the south of border fencing. Yet, DHS has only offered compensation for the exact footprint of the infrastructure – failing to recognize or compensate for fiscal losses of property value and accessibility caused by the construction of border fencing.

To date, there has been a lack of scientifically-based monitoring to quantify the
environmental impacts of border security infrastructure and operations. Information from monitoring will provide objective data on impacts, so that efforts to avoid impacts and mitigate for unavoidable impacts can be targeted appropriately. It is our understanding that such a pilot program has been proposed and is to be led by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). We understand the initiation of this program is pending a memorandum of agreement between DHS and DOI. We are concerned that this monitoring program, currently in a conceptual stage, is not being implemented fast enough; ongoing acute and cumulative impacts continue to go unmonitored. We urge you to ensure that DHS is an active partner in establishing this program and in utilizing the information derived from it to inform a robust, multi-year border mitigation fund.

We appreciate your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,


CC: The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary of the Department of the Interior
The Honorable Nancy Sutley
Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality

Western States To Lose Control Over Transmission Siting?

Newly added provisions to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, next slated to be voted on by the U.S. Senate, give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission final say over the siting of electric transmission lines in Western states—but not in any other part of the country, attendees of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference in Boise learned today. There is a “real threat” of the federal government taking over, said Paul Kjellander, administrator of Idaho’s office of energy resources, noting that seven transmission lines are currently slated to crisscross Idaho. One of the biggest issues is Gateway West, the siting of which is being fought by Parma and Kuna, which found out at recent public meetings that towers up to 180 feet tall along a corridor up to 250 wide were slated to cross the cities’ impact areas...NewWest

EPA to develop rule to ensure hardrock miners will pay for environmental cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency, complying with a court order, will develop a rule to guarantee companies that mine everything from copper to uranium will pay for needed environmental cleanup, not taxpayers. The announcement on Monday comes in the wake of a federal judge's order in February requiring the EPA to close loopholes that allow some companies to get out of paying for such costly cleanups when they file bankruptcy. The agency said it will develop similar financial responsibility requirements for other types of operations but started with hardrock mining because of the size of the operations, the amount of waste and the number of mining sites on its Superfund's national priorities list. The EPA did not release specifics on how it will establish financial assurance requirements but said it will propose the rule by spring 2011. The National Mining Association trade group said the industry already is regulated by other state and federal laws establishing financial responsibility for cleanup. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored critical facts and used inappropriate data in singling out U.S. hardrock mining for financial assurance requirements under Superfund," association CEO Hal Quinn said in a statement...AP

New ag subcommittee rosters

The new roster of chairmen and members announced by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and ranking member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., for its subcommittees today contains some old faces and some new. One of the more familiar ones is that of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who becomes chairman of the Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit after serving a term as chairman of the Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support. Two of the newest are Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Mike Johanns, R-Neb., chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection and Plant and Animal Health. Gillibrand was appointed to former Sen. Hillary Clinton’s New York seat, and former Agriculture Secretary Johanns successfully ran to replace retiring Chuck Hagel in 2008. The subcommittees and their new chairman, ranking members and members:

• Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit: Sen. Blanche Lincoln; Republican designee, ranking member; and Sen. Patrick Leahy D-Vt., Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Bob Casey, D-Pa., John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

Jurisdiction: Legislation and oversight involving rural economic revitalization and quality of life; rural job and business growth; rural electrification, telecommunications and utilities; conservation, protection and stewardship of natural resources; state, local and private forests and general forestry; agricultural and rural credit....DeltaFarmPress

Obama Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock

The Obama administration announced Monday that it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease. And Dr. Sharfstein said farmers should no longer be able to use antibiotics in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian. Both practices lead to the development of bacteria that are immune to many treatments, he said. The hearing was held to discuss a measure proposed by Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the Rules Committee. It would ban seven classes of antibiotics important to human health from being used in animals, and would restrict other antibiotics to therapeutic and some preventive uses. The legislation is supported by the American Medical Association, among other groups, but opposed by farm organizations like the National Pork Producers Council. The farm lobby’s opposition makes its passage unlikely, but advocates are hoping to include the measure in the legislation to revamp the health care system...NYTimes

Note To Readers

You will start noticing a change in my format.

The Westerner was started so that when you fired up your computer in the morning, that day's news and issues were there for you.

Over time a format was developed: National news, regional news, industry news, historical items, and most recently, capped off with The Song Of The Day. This was also done keeping in mind those who receive The Westerner by email.

Now, due to some health issues, The Westerner will start to look a little more like a traditional blog. In other words, when I find something I'll post it right then.

I've also tried to keep my comments to a minimum, and when offered, short and succinct. Now I have no choice. The ms has moved into my left hand and arm to the extent that I'm losing my ability to type with the left hand. I also may have to give up typing the source in each post and instead put the link in the title, which I can do just using the mouse.

Bottom line: The Westerner will still be here, it will just look a little different. You also may want to check in more than once a day.

Range War In the West

There is a range war out West. And unless you live in Idaho or Nevada or any other Western state you probably have no idea what is happening or why should you care. But wherever you live in America you should care because sooner or later it will affect you. This range war isn't about water rights or ranchers against homesteaders or big ranchers versus small ranchers like the Johnson County War in Wyoming in 1892. It is between ranchers who have worked the land raising cattle and sheep for over a century and environmental outlaws whose stated goal is driving them off the very land they need to survive and prosper. And this time the weapon of choice is not a Colt .45 or a Winchester rifle, but something much more deadly and destructive -- the lawsuit. So what's the issue? There are more than a quarter of a billion acres of public lands in the West. For over century a system has been in place to allow cattle and sheep ranchers access to portions of this land so that their animals can graze during certain times of year. Chances are that steak you throw on the BBQ spent some of its life on the range before being sold and sent to feedlots across the country to be fattened up to make sure that steak has some nice marbling. Over the years there have been bitter disputes between ranchers and environmentalists over whether this practice should continue. For the ranchers this was not a philosophical discussion about the best use of the land or saving an endangered species. It was about their very survival and the survival of the cattle and sheep industries that contribute so much to the economies of many Western states...FoxNews

Authorities seek leads in Grant County livestock killing

New Mexico Cattle-Growers and the Grant County Cattle-Growers are working with the New Mexico Livestock Board in conjunction with Crime Stoppers in offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved in the killing of a bull calf and burro on an area ranch. This incident occurred on Separ Road, south of White Signal, on or about July 1. Crimes involving the killing of livestock are taken very seriously by ranchers, as the raising of livestock is their livelihood. Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers at (575) 538-5254. All callers may remain anonymous. SilverCitySunNews

Cattle tick quarantine in Starr, Hidalgo Counties

Andrew Prukop, a Cattle Rancher in McCook, Texas, has had his cattle operation set up for over 20 years with out a problem. Now the Texas Animal Health Commission has moved a growing Fever Tick Quarantine blanket over his ranch. "The quarantine zone is getting bigger,” said Prukop. “I just now moved in to the quarantine blanket area, well the blanket area moved in to me." This new quarantine is designed to help stop the spread of the cattle fever tick. The tick was declared eradicated in the U.S. since 1943, except for some border towns where it’s believed they get them from Mexico. To protect against ticks, Prukop, just like other ranchers in the area have to get their cattle inspected and dipped in Rio Grande City which is 45 miles away from his ranch. “It makes a big difference in how I can market cattle, move and transport them,” said Prukop. “To take them off of this place, usually all cattle have to go through a dipping station. And, my closest dipping station is in Rio Grande City. “ Prukop is in an unusual predicament. He owns property on both sides of the quarantine line. To move his cattle 6 miles from one property to the other, he has to go 90 miles out of his way to go through the dipping and inspection process...ValleyCentral

Baxter Black: Ingenuity a cinch for cowboy

Cowboys can be quite creative when hard times cut into the daily operating expenses. Take Roy's cousin BB. One of BB's heifers had come off his badlands and crossed onto Roy's pasture. On that fateful day, BB had driven his pickup and gooseneck trailer to Roy's place to pick him up. Roy wasn't quite ready. His cinch had worn down to two flimsy cords. "Did you happen to bring an extra cinch?" he asked. "No," said BB, "but I can make one out of a gunny sack." He dumped the tire chains out of a greasy tow sack. Roy thought he had been around, but this ingenious thinking was a new wrinkle to him. Roy watched his cousin slip-knot one end through the offside cinch ring, then fold the other end over the tongue and through the ring on the left side ring and stitch it. "This baling wire makes good thread," he explained. Half an hour later they were pushing the heifer back toward BB's piece of the Pine Ridge Rez. "Keep her to the bad land side," instructed Roy. "Don't let her get over on the prairie dog side or we'll lose her!" Of course, the heifer took off in the direction of the prairie dog town. "Rope her!" yelled Roy. BB missed but Roy was right behind and caught her. He was tied hard and fast...AmarilloGlobeNews