Southern Nevada lands off limits to new mining for another 20 years

The Bureau of Land Management will publish a notice today in the Federal Register which immediately withdraws 1,500 square miles of federal land in southern Nevada for 20 years from mining to protect endangered species. The order does not affect existing mining operations, but blocks new mining claims. The area has hosted historical gold mining, and the U.S. Geological Survey says more mineral deposits remain in the region, which encompasses 945,343 acres of Clark and Nye Counties. The BLM identified 24 separate sites as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern in 1998 for the protection of the Mojave Desert Tortoise, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Woundfin Minnow and the Virgin River Chub, and other species. The lands have been temporarily set side since the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 was enacted by the U.S. Congress. The BLM extended that act in 2007. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has already successfully sued to ban uranium mining and exploration on one million acres near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, has advocated the permanent withdrawal of the southern Nevada land to mining...read more

BLM plans to remove 2,500 wild horses in Nevada

Federal land managers are seeking public comment on their plan to remove about 2,500 wild horses in northern Nevada. Bureau of Land Management officials say the proposed gather north of Gerlach in Washoe and Humboldt counties is needed to achieve the "appropriate management level" for mustangs in the area. They maintain it also is needed to prevent further range deterioration stemming from the current horse overpopulation in the areas. Plans call for the gather to begin about Dec. 1 and continue through the end of February 2010...read more

Colorado county copes with methane in water

Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high. The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater. Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West's vital resources: Water and natural gas. "The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption," said Bernice Angely, who's had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007. Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks...read more

Old West echoes in battle between Fountain Creek ranchers, mining firm

There’s a stretch of land along Fountain Creek where the Old West lives on. Cattle move across the brown hills and the cottonwood trees are black against the sky. To motorists speeding on Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, the land seems peaceful. In actuality, it’s a battleground. For six decades, the Frosts and Hannas, two of the ranching families who own land next to Fountain Creek, have been fending off efforts by people who want what’s above, below, or runs through their property. They’ve fought land speculators, developers, oil companies, utilities and toll-road firms. In the process, they’ve lost some ground to the guys in tassel loafers who wheel documents into court in luggage carriers. They’ve also lost ground to the flash floods that have periodically rampaged down Fountain Creek. Now they’re battling Lafarge, a multinational company headquartered in Paris that wants to erect a 745-acre operation adjacent to their ranchlands that will include an asphalt plant, a concrete plant and the extraction of 30 million tons of sand and gravel over 15 years...read more

Toxic waste trickles toward New Mexico's water sources

More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico. Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest. So far, the level of contamination in the Rio Grande has not been high enough to raise health concerns. But the monitoring of runoff in canyons that drain into the river has found unsafe concentrations of organic compounds such as perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket propellent, and various radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission. Much surface contamination, however, becomes embedded in sediment or moves down into groundwater. That subterranean migration poses the greatest long-term danger to drinking-water wells and ultimately the Rio Grande...read more

China to supply turbines and funding for $1.5bn Texas wind farm

A Sino-US consortium yesterday announced plans for a US$1.5bn, 600MW wind farm in Texas, with China supplying all the turbines and most of the funding. The 36,000-acre wind farm, set to be one of the largest in America, is a joint venture between state-backed Chinese firm Shenyang Power Group, US wind farm developer Cielo Wind Power and private equity firm US Renewable Energy Group. Most of the funding for the project will come from Chinese banks, with loan guarantees and grants provided by the US federal government’s economic stimulus package, the consortium said. The wind farm will comprise 240 2.5MW wind turbines that will be manufactured in the Chinese city of Shenyang by Nasdaq-listed turbine maker A-Power Energy. The company, which uses licensed foreign technology, including a turbine patented by Germany's Fuhrländer and General Electric-designed gear box, said that shipments to the US were expected to begin in March next year...read more

Beijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'

Chinese meteorologists covered Beijing in snow Sunday after seeding clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought, state media reported. The unusually early snow blanketed the capital from Sunday morning and kept falling for half the day, helped by temperatures as low as minus 2 Celsius (29 Fahrenheit) and strong winds from the north, Xinhua news agency reported. Besides falling in the northeastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the northern province of Hebei, the eastern port city of Tianjin also got its first snow of the autumn, the report said. "We wont miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought," the report quoted Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, as saying. Chinese meteorologists have for years sought to make rain by injecting special chemicals into clouds...read more

Second Clawless Grizzly Found

Federal wildlife officials say a second dead grizzly bear that had its claws removed has been found along the Rocky Mountain Front. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Brian Lakes said the body of a female grizzly was found Oct. 18 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Lakes said the bear was shot and its claws had been removed, prompting concerns that it was connected to the Oct. 1 discovery of another dead grizzly, also found with claws missing, in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Lewis says there's a black market for grizzly claws...read more

Opponents ask lawmakers to stop Pa. deer hunts

Opponents of a plan to kill hundreds of deer at Valley Forge National Historical Park are asking members of Congress to halt the effort before the shooting starts. Officials at the park, the site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment, want to reduce a deer population now estimated at 1,277 to between 165 and 185 over four years. They say the herd is eating so many plants, shrubs and saplings that the forest cannot regenerate. Under the plan, the animals would be lured to areas baited with apples and grain, and federal employees or contractors would hunt them with high-powered rifles equipped with silencers. Officials have said that the first hunt will take place between November and March but have refused to say exactly when. Opponents, who say the park is ignoring more humane and less costly options such as contraception, have petitioned members of Congress representing the area...read more

Range Wars Over the Lands of the American West

For those of us who had the privilege of growing up and living most of our formative years west of the hundredth meridian, a realization forms pretty early in life that a lot of folks out East fundamentally will never understand the West — and we’re fine with that. Oh, on occasion the West will win a ‘convert’ from the East (Paleoconservative author Chilton Williamson comes to mind, for example), but such individuals really are the exception that proves the rule. Ignoring, for the moment, the further divisions within the broader region (differences with the West are also very real, and rooted in the same realities as the larger divisions), you understand that Easterners will view your land as something in between a theme park and game preserve, which has somehow become infested by undesirables. The federal obsession with locking up so much land out West arises from this sort of mentality; they view the West as essentially a really big Central Park — a nice place to visit, perhaps, but someplace that needs to be protected from the folks who would have the audacity to live there. An experience I’ve enjoyed on several occasions is showing an Easterner the ‘pristine’ forests of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington — you can really get them going with pictures of ‘virgin forests’: “Surely this land must never be despoiled by man!” And then you show them the picture of the sign which identifies when that land was last clearcut. It is a case in point of the theme: “Yes, we know it’s beautiful; we live here. We’re even more interested in taking care of it than you are.”...read more

Cattle tales connect with consumers

Cattlemen tell stories in a lot of ways--across a fence gate, over coffee at the feed store, through the pickup window or atop a good horse in the back of the ropin' pen. Now, producers focused on quality can also tell their stories on the internet's World Wide Web. Ranchers from nearly every state grace the Certified Angus Beef brand's consumer site (www.certifiedangusbeef.com/producers) right next to the product they work to create. "It comes down to consumers making that connection to the stories behind the brand," says Christy Johnson, CAB special projects manager. "This is one way we can help." The site features a diverse set of ranches, from sprawling hundred-thousand-acre Southwestern spreads to quaint New England farmsteads. Despite differences, each producer shares a desire to grow something consumers enjoy and understand...read more

Border Patrol agents thwart cattle theft

U.S. Border Patrol agents, using a mobile surveillance system, recently spotted cattle rustlers trying to steal livestock in a remote location near Ajo, according to a Wednesday report. Agents assigned to the Papago Camp, quickly responded and were able to prevent the theft. The suspected thieves, who were on horseback, reportedly escaped to Mexico. Border Patrol officials say use of Forward Operating Bases, like Papago Camp, allows agents to swiftly disrupt illegal activity in remote areas along the U.S./Mexico Border. ABC

November is National American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month

The accomplishments and traditions of American Indian and Alaska natives are celebrated during November, recognized as National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. American Indian Heritage Month was officially recognized in 1990 when Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush signed it into Public Law. Though, its roots can be traced much further. An early proponent for an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian and director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the "First Americans.” In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call for an official day of recognition. Coolidge issued a proclamation which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens. The year before, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented endorsements from 24 state governments at the White House...read more

Texas Ranger series by Kelton continues

Elmer Kelton, the masterful Western author from San Angelo who passed away in August, completed two more novels in his Texas Ranger series before he died. The first one, “Other Men’s Horses” (Forge, $24.99 hardcover), has just hit the bookstores. It is the eighth novel in the Ranger series. One more is due next year, which should in turn lead to a third repackaged trilogy the following year. Andy Pickard is back as the lead character, still serving as a Texas Ranger in the 1880s but wishing he could retire from the force and spend more time with his young wife, Bethel, on their farm. But rangering provides a more stable income than farming, and at this stage in their marriage they need the money. He is assigned to track down a man who killed a horse thief, which he does in short order only to find the man’s associates ready to kill him. The wanted man saves Pickard’s life and then hightails it, but Pickard warns him that he will still have to hunt him down and bring him to justice...read more

Vaquero Show to ride Nov. 13 to 15

The 25th annual Vaquero Show, planned for Nov. 13 to 15, kicked off earlier this month with an exhibit at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum, featuring photos and memorabilia of its past and present Honored Vaqueros. The popular Vaquero Show, which has been held at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum for 15 years, had its roots at the historic El Roblar Ranch in Los Alamos, where in 1984 a group of ranchers and collectors gathered to swap tall tales and show off their collections of antique hand-made bits, spurs and gear. After several years, the annual gathering outgrew the barn at the El Roblar and moved for a short time south to Santa Paula. Then, in 1994, the Vaquero Show found its home at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum in downtown Santa Ynez. Today, the Vaquero Show attracts artisans and collectors of Western gear, memorabilia, apparel and art in the spirit of honoring the heritage and tradition of the California vaquero...read more

On the edge of common sense: When it comes to teeth, stories abound

I lost a tooth today. It was the molar on the northwest side, next to the only wisdom tooth of mine that ever came in. Which explains why sometimes I go over the edge of common sense. I mean, how many wise men would pass a policeman on a double yellow line, pass up an opportunity to invest in USTRC at its beginning, and put big-as-boxcars brown Swiss bulls in with a pen of replacement heifers? I was born with no teeth ... really. And four of the permanents never came in. It's genetic, because my father and uncles were missing lateral incisors. We were born to take a bit. I asked my dentist if I was evolving up or down the food chain - he said people's jaws were getting smaller and we don't need as many teeth as Adam and Eve, therefore I was in the fast lane! Which reminds me, I also got a ticket for going too slow in the fast lane in California...read more

Bear Vegan Diet

Song Of The Day #170

Ranch Radio will get your heart pumpin' and your feet tappin' this Monday am with Chicken Don't Roost Too High by Grandpa Jones

It's available on the Grandpa Jones - 28 Greatest Hits CD.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The ghost stallion of Llano Estacado

Julie Carter

The white stallion was sky-lighted on the ridge top, his proud head held high. Poised, his beautiful body stood still for a fleeting moment before he took one mighty jump and landed fully 25 feet away in an alkali bog that would become his grave.

It is an old story told around campfires for 100 years. Its origins came about in 1879 when some cowpunchers rode into the camp of a buffalo hunter who was known to be quite the spinner of tales.

That night around the campfire the grizzled hunter pointed a roughened finger in the direction of a heavily loaded wagon of buffalo hides he was preparing to freight to market and said, "I would gladly give every hide for the 3-year-old white stallion I have seen upon these plains. He's as fleet as the wind and is a purebred, not a native mustang."

"I've been trying to catch him for two years without any luck. He ranges from here to the Black Water Draw, south, and as far as the Tierra Blanco on the north.
I first saw him when he was a yearling running with his mother. Both were pure white."

The hunter went on to say he didn't see the mare and colt for a year and when he caught sight of them, the mare had a filly by her side and the young stallion, now a yearling , was still running with her, wilder than ever and fast as an antelope.

After a failed attempt to capture the mare and colts, the stallion disappeared, "as if a mirage."

The hunter never saw him again.

The tale of this ghost-white stallion held the cowboys spellbound and they knew they'd never be satisfied until they could ride the plains and hunt the white mirage.
After the fall works were done, they traveled to Fort Sumner to meet with the Trujillo brothers, Pedro and Soledad.

The brothers said they had often seen the white stallion on the plains "He is too fast to catch; we have all tried and failed," they said. When we get close to him, he vanishes, so we have named him "The Ghost."

Agreeing to help hunt the stallion, the brothers told the cowboys to meet them at Gato Montes Spring on the Blackwater Draw in March. "We'll find him if he's still alive."

True to their word, when the cowboys got to the spring, the brothers were not only there, but they had learned where the white stallion was watering with his band of heavy-bred mares.

The next morning they saw the horses out ahead of them feeding on lush grass but quickly scattering as the men approached.

Pedro took in after them while Soledad marked the grazing spot with a long pole with a red flag on the end.

In the distance, "The Ghost" dashed over the plains, his white mane and tail blowing in the breeze.

Pedro was away all day and said he must have chased the horses 70 miles. They made a huge circle, eventually returning to their home range. The following day, one of the cowboys chased them all day, returning late to say the band was now near Spring Lake.

The cowboys, Trujillo brothers, two other vaqueros and a half-blood Apache with a reputation for his ability to rope, headed out the next day.

When they spotted the horses, they didn't crowd them, but struck a long lope and followed behind.

They ran by the old buffalo hunter's camp near Running Water and headed north. By noon, they had reached Tule Draw, the south prong of the Red River, and headed west. Sometimes they'd slacken down to a trot and then return to a lope or a run. The mares began to fall out as they tired, but The Ghost never weakened.

By sundown, all but 10 mares had dropped out, soon to be only three and then none. The Ghost was headed south to Yellow House Lake and just when they thought they had him headed off, he turned south.

Yellow House Lake is a big alkali sink on the Llano Estacado. Its water, not fit for man or beast, covered a bottomless bog by a bare few inches. A large animal could never conquer the horror that loomed below the deceivingly tranquil surface.

For four days, The Ghost had been running in the lead, but when he headed down the backbone of the ridge that lead to the lake, cold chills ran up the spines of his pursuers.

They turned back from the chase, hoping that perhaps then the stallion would turn as well.

The animal's free, intelligent, noble spirit preferred death to capture, and the stallion knew as well as his men, that death lay in Yellow House Lake.

He floundered briefly as the bog sucked him under. The bitter water filled his nostrils and oozed into his mouth. A few bubbles was all that was left on the surface and The Ghost of Llano Estacado was no more.

A tragic end to a free spirit, but even ghosts should have their freedom.

This story in it's original telling appears in Frank Collinson's "Life in the Saddle."

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

It's The Pitts: A Can Of Worms

Lee Pitts

If one goose is a geese shouldn't a gang of geese be geeses? Definitely, but somewhere in the corruption of the King's English a group of geese on the ground became a gaggle and a skein in the air. Besides devotees of crossword puzzles and the game Trivial Pursuit who knows that? If I had my way a muster of mongeese would be mongooses and a family of fish would be trouts or salmons.

Phrases for farm animals are okay to a point. A collection of cattle or horses is a herd and a group of sheep is a flock. Everyone knows that. But who knew that a group of pigs is a passel or a sounder of swine? Poetic sure, but hard to remember.

This naming of animal plurality is confusing. Besides cattle, the term herd can refer to deer, elephants, seals and whales, despite the fact they have little in common. When we speak of a colony we could be referring to ants, penguins, gulls, rabbits, bats or a group of nudists. And why should we attribute warlike tendencies to "armies" of herons, caterpillars, frogs, and herring? Sure, caterpillars have declared war on farmers in the past, but what country have frogs ever invaded?

I must admit that some of the words we use to describe groups of animals are perfect. A group of giraffes is known as a tower, two porcupines are a prickle, a faction of hippopotamuses are a bloat, and multiple rhinoceroses are a crash. All excellent names. Cockroaches are an intrusion, lions a pride, sharks a shiver, apes a shrewdness, hyenas a cackle, jays a scold, otters are a romp, gnats a cloud, and a contingent of moles are a labor. You'll agree, if you ever try getting rid of them.

Then there are the terrible terms we've adopted. I'm sure that groups of foxes don't appreciate being called a skulk, we slander crows by calling them a murder, and I'm sure that a sloth of bears would change their name in a heartbeat if they could.

A society of parrots, flies or widgeons is known as a company. I don't even know what a widgeon is, nor do I know what business these companies are in. And speaking of company, a group of ferrets is known as one. Some of the worst terms are a smack of jellyfish, a troop of monkeys, a knot of toads, a barren of mules, a building of rooks and a bale of turtles. A bale of turtles? That's gonna make PETA mad.

For some reason birds have incited excessively flowery speech. We have an unkindness of ravens, an exaltation of larks, a murmuration of starlings, a richness of martens, congregation of plovers, convocation of eagles, watch of nightingales, charm of finches and a mustering of storks or peacocks. One wonders why these birds have wonderful sounding names while a group of lapwings is a deceit and a throng of hawks is known as a kettle, cast or boil. And I think calling a group of owls a parliament is not very complimentary at all. To the owls, that is.

If I were in charge of the English language I'd change some of the terminology we use when referring to groups of animals. A herd of elephants would be a trunk, a wake of buzzards would become a stench, a descent of woodpeckers would be a headache, a sord or brace of mallards would be a quack, a dray or scurry of squirrels would henceforth be a plague, and a pack of wolves would be a disaster. A warren of rabbits would be a multiplication, a troop of kangaroos would be a jump, a school or hover of fish would be a limit, a grist of bees would be a stinger, a clowder of cats would become a nuisance, a gang of buffalo would be a Ted (as in Turner), a chain of bobolinks would be a Bobby or a Robert, a kindle of kittens would be a burden, a brood of chickens would be a bucket (as in KFC), a tribe of goats would become a kindergarten (for the kids), and a rafter of turkeys would be a stupid. All these new names would be much easier to remember.

The term I hate most of all is a "pace" of asses. What does that mean? From now on I think a group of asses should be known as a congress. Perfect, don't you think?