With wolves entrenched, debate has shifted

For Ed Bangs, 2009’s first wolf hunting season in Montana and Idaho proved that the federal Endangered Species Act works. As one of those instrumental in their reintroduction in the Northern Rockies in 1995, Bangs said the season was evidence that the wolves have advanced from a species threatened with extinction due to poisoning and trapping in the early 1900s to a predator whose numbers are so abundant that they need culling through hunting. That abundance comes with a high price tag for ranchers like Kathy Konen near Dillon, who lost dozens of ewes and lambs over the past decade to wolves, including more than 120 mature, prized Rambouilette rams in one attack last summer. Yet to others, such as Louisa Willcox and Matt Skoglund with the National Resource Defense Council, the claims of wolf recovery remain premature. They believe the reintroduction of wolves in the Rocky Mountain region is a success story in that wolf numbers are back from the brink and people are now talking about how to live with wolves, not whether to live with them as was angrily debated a decade ago...read more

Disquiet on the Western Front

Wage Hage was the man to see if you really wanted to know what motivated the Wise Use Movement’s battle against environmentalists and the federal government. Hage was reluctant to meet on this blistering day in early June. He said he’d been hammered by the press too often, especially by the liberal press with an ax to grind against the Wise Users. The Wise Use Movement consists of more than a thousand local organizations across the country, representing roughly three million people—people who fear the infringement of their property rights, mostly by what they see as oppressive federal government regulations. These are Palin people-- rural, gun-packing Christians. Some of these groups are simply out for money: they want the federal government to pay them considerable sums in exchange for changing traditional uses of their property that have run afoul of federal laws or even in exchange for cutbacks in the commercial use of public lands or resources. Custom and culture, they call it. Other Wise Use groups have congealed as a political force to demand unrestricted access to federal lands, whether it be to log, run cattle, or for less than environmentally friendly recreational pursuits, such as off-road motorcycling or snowmobiling...read more

There are several errors in this piece. It's Wayne Hage, not Wage Hage and I believe Pollot worked for Reagan at the Justice Dept., not Interior.

First in a series attacking the Wise Use movement. Stay tuned.

As hunt for Zulu continues, searchers parties run afoul of some ranchers

After nearly eight hours of hiking and searching for Zulu on Friday, no sign of the dog was found. "We did all the things we could," said Wendy Hoggard, Robert Sumrall's stepdaughter. "We did not find her." After seven days in the frigid mountains of west-central New Mexico, two ranchers found Sumrall on Dec. 4 with 3-year-old Zulu on the east side of the Mimbres Valley near San Lorenzo. Sumrall, an El Paso resident, was lying down semi-conscious with Zulu on top of him, but as the two people approached them, Zulu ran away and is still missing in the mountains. Sumrall continues to recuperate in El Paso. A group of six - three Mesilla Valley Search and Rescue volunteers and their search dog, plus Hoggard, and two more search and rescue volunteers on ATVs - spent from early morning until about 6:30 p.m. Friday night combing the area where Zulu, a black Labrador mix, and Sumrall were lost over a month ago. They searched the area where Zulu was picked up on a trail camera a little over two weeks ago. The story of Zulu and all the media attention it has attracted has fueled interest from people as far away as Iraq, the Netherlands, and Taiwan - and offers of help from Albuquerque to El Paso. But all that attention has been nothing but a headache for area ranchers who have had to deal with trespassers on their land, spinning out on their ATVs, cutting locks off their gates and breaking into their homes and cabins...read more

Rustlers take advantage of vast empty Great Basin country to plague cattle ranchers

Arriving at the corrals at Three Mile Creek, Davies opens the tailgate on the gooseneck trailer hitched to his pickup, leads his horse into the cold hard sunshine, and swings up into the saddle to cut out cattle destined for shipment to market. Two springs ago, Davies pulled up to these same corrals to find that dozens of weaned calves were gone, rustled, with truck tracks half-stomped by the remaining cattle the only clue to what had happened. Out of pride and a reluctance to point a finger at neighbors, ranchers in the vast Great Basin outback where Oregon, Idaho and Nevada come together have been slow to admit that someone in their midst, perhaps even someone they know from barbecues and brandings, has been stealing cattle. Just who is doing it, and how they have gotten away with it for at least three years, remains a mystery. "There's a lot of men who have worked these various ranches, moved from ranch to ranch and know this country well, who would be capable of such activity," said Davies, manager of Roaring Springs Ranch, which covers 1.1 million acres of private and federal range. "They know when we are at ballgames, they know when we're at church. They know where the animals are at."...read more

More clues in the case of the horse with no name

The mystery of a decades-old horse skeleton found complete with a saddle and tack in a North Bay state park is drawing attention within equestrian circles because it is so unusual. “Of all the horses we have dealt with since 1997, I can't think of any that have had saddles on unless they were lost or threw the rider, all of the others were bareback,” said Debi Metcalfe of Stolen Horse International, Inc., a registry for stolen horses. It's also intriguing for Penngrove saddle-maker Jay Palm, who thinks his father, the late Jim Palm, may have worked on the saddle that was found. “It's interesting, it's like a treasure hunt,” Palm said. The almost complete skeleton of a horse with saddle, bit and other tack was found a month ago on a steep hillside at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, which is popular for hikers and riders. Who the horse belonged to and how it got there is a puzzle, however, which state parks senior archaeologist Breck Parkman is trying to unravel...read more

Roy Rogers, Gene Autry Riding High Again

The singing cowboy may be a thing of the past, but two of the most influential — Roy Rogers and Gene Autry — are being recognized once again by the U.S. government. The Library of Congress is adding Under Western Stars, the movie that gave Roy his first starring role, to the National Film Registry, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Released in 1938, the picture had Roy portraying a Dust Bowl rancher who runs for Congress to bring water to his constituents. Naturally, Roy sang a few songs, too. Among the titles he’s credited with at IMDb.com is “Listen To The Rhythm Of The Range,” which Gene and his associate Johnny Marvin authored. Both Gene and Roy were signed to Republic Pictures, which distributed Under Western Stars. That’s just one of many times Gene and Roy have been linked — as they were in the chorus of Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been A Cowboy.” They’re also connected at perforated corners in a stamp series that the U.S. Postal Service will roll out April 17. Under the banner “Cowboys Of The Silver Screen,” the four-stamp bloc pays homage to the two actors — both of whom are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame — as well as to Tom Mix and William S. Hart...read more

Texas general store has centurylong tradition

This sturdy, 100-year-old red brick landmark just off U.S. 79 in Robertson County is testament to a family's entrepreneurism and the evolution of the consumer society. In 1906, the Schultz family expanded its mercantile and grocery business by building a 10,000-square-foot rectangular building from bricks kilned across the street. Considering New Baden at that time had a population of about 150, this was a bold attempt to create a regional hub for an agrarian community. Employing the slogan, "We buy and sell everything," four generations ran the family business from the dawn of the 20th century until 1984. They used the building for a post office, funeral home, feed store, shipping point and automobile dealership. The Schultzes sold Studebakers, Star and Maxwell automobiles. (Maxwell was one of the big three automobile manufacturers of the early 1900s, behind only Buick and Ford.) When ranchers were still fencing large sections of Robertson County, the Schultzes bought barbed wire by the railroad car, marked it up and sold it to area ranchers. During the Great Depression, the Schultzes bought local farmers products with store credit. They paid a couple of cents more per pound for chickens, or tomatoes or cotton than their competition. In return they built their customer base and saw increased sales. The Schultz family shipped 2.25 million pounds of black-eyed peas in 1938, so says the Houston Chronicle in a 1940 feature story...read more

Temple Grandin Biopic To Debut On HBO On Feb. 6

The U.S. beef industry will be front and center of America on Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. (EST). That marks the premiere on HBO of a biopic entitled “Temple Grandin.” The work chronicles the developmental and early professional years of Temple Grandin, the noted animal behaviorist and designer of livestock-handling facilities. Probably no person has had a greater effect over the past few decades on livestock handling in the U.S. or worldwide than Grandin, a Colorado State University professor of animal science. Grandin-designed facilities are in use throughout the world; in North America, almost half of all cattle are handled in a center-track restrainer system she designed for meat plants. Her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling. But Grandin’s accomplishments are particularly noteworthy because she’s one of the world’s highest functioning autistics. “I think the beef industry comes across very well in this movie. I had a lot of input into making my cattle stuff accurate and they showed a feedyard as a door to opportunity, so the beef industry was presented very well,” Grandin says...read more

My Comprehensive Review Of 2009 For The West

It Sucked.

Song Of The Day #214

Ranch Radio's foot tappin' Monday tune is Somebody Else Will by Ray Price and The Cherokee Cowboys.

The song is available on his 10 disc box set The Honky Tonk Years 1950-1966.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

2010 Completion - behind and ahead

Julie Carter

We are here again - the dawning of a new year with new numbers, new opportunities.

It is traditionally a time when many re-evaluate their lives, make resolutions and look with great hope to the months ahead.

Experience says we humans don't usually keep those promises that we make to ourselves.

Personally, I've learned to circumvent that disappointment in myself by not making any resolutions that aren't already part of my character.

You know, those things like breathing, sleeping, eating. I promise to do all those things in 2010.

I will admit to taking a bit of time to think about what I should do for my health, wealth, happiness and the greater good of mankind.
It can be an exhausting process due to the length of the mental journey required using limited resources.

Firewood splinters, fireplace ash dust everywhere on everything and a perpetual lingering smell of cedar smoke mark the season.

With cold, snow and gloomy skies dominating the weather surrounding many of us, we handle it by eagerly anticipating
the wonders of the spring season that is surely just around the corner. Across the country, there is much discussion given to the new numbers we will write in every date - 2010.

Biblically, the number 10 means "completion," giving the year a numerical stamp of prophecy. Those things that have begun will be brought to completion.
Looking for God's promise in the coming year gives hope and raises spirits. Hope renewed - never a shortage of those needing that. I'm at the front of that line.

In our humanness, we have all, at one time or another, wandered in the proverbial wilderness. Perhaps simply deciding on a direction is the completion we can hope for in 2010.
My promise to myself is the same as it was in prior years. I resolve to be happy, laugh more and try to infect every person I meet with the same. Let that be a warning.

2010 -- which decade?

The great controversy for this calendar change is whether 2010 is the end of the first decade or the beginning of the second in this 21st century.

It is the end of a decade, as is the 10th year of the preceding 10 years, and it is the beginning of the decade of the "10s," allowing us to move on from saying "oh-eight" or 'oh-nine."

The mathematics for determining if it is end of the first decade or the beginning of the second involve understanding there was no year zero and that the calendar went directly from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.

Had that happened in today's world, Homeland Security, the INS, IRS, Congress, the Senate and the White House would have been called to emergency sessions with hearings, audits, background checks and high alert warnings.

Based on the premise that we start counting with the number one, then 2010 is the end of the first decade.

Twitter users have sent the argument far and wide and one comment seemed particularly appropriate.
"Decades are largely irrelevant to the calendar: the ‘60s began in November 1963 and continued until the Beatles broke up."

In any event, what will you start saying in this New Year, "Two thousand ten or Twenty-ten?"

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

Nevada Environmental Chief’s Unwitting Remarks About Ag Pumping Draws Attention To Controversial Las Vegas Water Imports From Eastern Counties

Ramona Morrison, Vice Chairman, Nevada Board of Agriculture

Drawing what may have been an unintended comparison of water use priorities, Allen Biaggi, Director of Nevada’s Department of Natural Resources, whose agency recently authorized the controversial mining and export of up to 60,000 acre feet of water from Spring Valley to Las Vegas, recently told AP News that agriculture negatively impacts water for wildlife. He was quoted saying, “[W]here agriculture is present, springs and streams have dried up (water) that would otherwise be available for wildlife,” in an AP story about the Nevada Board of Agriculture’s investigation into the legality of unpermitted wildlife guzzlers.

The State environmental chief’s sweeping characterization of the comparatively minimal drawdown of water tables by irrigation pumping, which his department authorized, draws stark contrast to the drawdown that is sure to occur once Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) turns on the pumps for its massive 300-mile pipeline constructed to transport up to 200,000 acre feet of water annually from eastern Nevada to Las Vegas. Biaggi’s remarks confirm environmentalist and rancher’s concerns about the SNWA project.

Meanwhile Biaggi ignored the documented parallel between the development of water sources for cattle and sheep as well as irrigation agriculture and the corresponding dramatic increases in wildlife in the once barren Great Basin. Nevada’s ranchers and farmers are almost singlehandedly responsible for the State’s thriving wildlife populations. Contrast today’s abundance of deer, elk, big horn sheep, and sage hen for example to the written accounts of the early explorers to this state who were lucky to find a rabbit to eat, and some of whom survived their visit to Nevada by butchering their dogs and horses. Were it not for ranchers and farmers developing springs and wells, grubbing water-depleting willows from stream banks, building ditches, and irrigating meadows, wildlife still would not have the habitat or water necessary to thrive in the arid Great Basin.

A more likely cause for the disappearing streams and springs that Mr. Biaggi alludes to is the overgrowth and encroachment of pinion and juniper pine trees throughout the Great Basin into places never before documented. Heavy utilization of this renewable resource for energy and building materials by the early settlers significantly reduced competition for water in the aquifer, causing countless springs to “spring up” in the remote reaches of the Great Basin. Common sense tells us that if one mature pinion or juniper consumes an average of 15 gallons of water a day, thinning 1,000 trash pines for example potentially sends 1,500 gallons a day directly back to the aquifer, causing dry springs to run once again, even during a drought. Yet the environmental policies of Mr. Biaggi’s Department discourage this simple solution to developing additional water sources, and by extension forage.

While Nevada struggles economically, racking up some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates nationally, Biaggi’s unfounded allegations against one of the state’s few stable industries are incredibly irresponsible and damaging. Ranchers and farmers consistently generate well over one billion dollars annually to Nevada’s coffers.

Mr. Biaggi, the highly trained career bureaucrat charged with allocating Nevada’s scarce water resources and protecting the environment cannot be ignorant of the differences between developing and spreading water within a basin, and mining and exporting the same water to golf courses in Las Vegas. Instead, his agency’s permitting of inter-basin transfers may convert parts of the Great Basin into a “great Saharan desert” of sand dunes and dust storms. Then we will have a true measure of how well wildlife thrives when the rancher and farmer are eliminated from the water equation.

# # #

Ramona Morrison serves as Vice Chairman of the Nevada Board of Agriculture. Her family has been involved in ranching and farming in Nevada since the 1860’s.

Song Of The Day #213

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this am is Loves Me Like A Rock performed by Alison Krauss & The Cox Family.

It's available on their 12 track CD I Know Who Holds Tomorrow on Rounder Records.

Calls for Full-Body Screening Devices Grow After Terror Attempt

A suspected terrorist’s attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner may override privacy concerns and intensify a push for full-body scanning equipment at airports. Metal detectors currently used to screen passengers wouldn’t have found the explosive allegedly carried aboard by the suspect, said former Federal Aviation Administration security chief Billie Vincent. Only more sophisticated devices such as low-level X-rays and millimeter-wave technology would work, Vincent said. Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, called for more widespread use of the full-body scanners after the aborted attack. “We were very lucky this time but we may not be so lucky next time, which is why our defenses must be strengthened,” Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement yesterday. The committee said it would hold a hearing next month on airline security and how the alleged terrorist got onto the plane...read more

New Hi-Tech Scanners Would Not Have Detected the Underpants Bomber

Many are advocating the new "millimetre-wave" body scanners as the ultimate preventive measure to stop attacks such as the one attempted by the underpants bomber. These scanners use waves to create a three-dimensional virtual naked image of passengers. They have been opposed by some due to privacy concerns. A British expert who helped develop the scanners for airport use claims they wouldn't have detected this type of device anyway. Think about it for a minute. If the devices don't see clothing, they don't see low density objects such as powders and chemicals. They are designed for higher density objects such as metal knives, guns and dense plastic such as C4 explosive. This leaves us with a couple options. We can show up at the airport wearing hospital gowns and prepared for a body cavity search or we can start profiling passengers like the Israelis do. The Israelis haven't had a successful airline attack in decades, but they do profile and conduct extensive interviews of some passengers...read more

Homeland Security Touts 2009 Accomplishments, Including ‘Secure Flight’ Program

Just days before a Nigerian man tried to blow up a U.S. airliner as it descended into Detroit, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released its “2009 Accomplishments & Reforms” fact sheet, touting its “Secure Flight” passenger vetting program. The Obama administration has confirmed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on the U.S. government terrorist watch list, but the 23-year-old man was still able to board a Northwest plane in Amsterdam bound for Michigan. On the DHS fact sheet, issued on Dec. 15, the “Secure Flight” program is second on the list and is described as a program that “prescreens name, date of birth and gender against government watch lists for domestic and international flights.”...read more

Man chosen to review government watch list system helped to design it

President Barack Obama promised a “thorough review” of the government’s terrorist watch list system after a Nigerian man reported to U.S. government officials by his father to have radicalized and gone missing last month was allowed to board a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit that he later allegedly tried to blow up without any additional security screening. Yet the individual Obama has chosen to lead the review, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, served for 35 years in the CIA, helped design the current watch list system and served as interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center, whose role is under review. In the three years before joining the Obama administration, Brennan was president and CEO of The Analysis Corp., an intelligence contracting firm that worked closely with the National Counterterrorism Center and other U.S. government intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security agencies on developing terrorism watch lists...read more

Secret mobile phone code cracked

Computer hackers this week said they had cracked and published the secret code that protects 80 per cent of the world’s mobile phones. The move will leave more than 3bn people vulnerable to having their calls intercepted, and could force mobile phone operators into a costly upgrade of their networks. Karsten Nohl, a German encryption expert, said he had organised the hack to demonstrate the weaknesses of the security measures protecting the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and to push mobile operators to improve their systems. “This shows that existing GSM security is inadequate,” Mr Nohl told an audience of about 600 people at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, a four-day conference of computer hackers. “We have given up hope that network operators will move to improve security on their own, but we are hoping that with this added attention, there will be increased demand from customers for them to do this,” he told the Financial Times. “This vulnerability should have been fixed 15 years ago. People should now try it out at home and see how vulnerable their calls are.”...read more

Cell Phone Application Points Illegal Border Crossers to Water

A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the U.S. Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water. It also pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on Ellis Island. The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law...read more

Taser ruling sets standards for police, claims

Police need reasons to believe a suspect is dangerous before firing a Taser and can't use their stun gun simply because the person is disobeying orders or acting erratically, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets judicial standards for police and for people who claim they were victims of excessive force after police hit them with a Taser dart. "The objective facts must indicate that the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public," Judge Kim Wardlaw said in the 3-0 ruling. Though stun guns may offer a valuable, nonlethal alternative to deadly force in defusing dangerous situations, Wardlaw said, they inflict a "painful and frightening blow" and must be used only when substantial force is necessary and other options are unavailable...read more