Coyotes Spotted on Some Golf Courses

A Pinehurst golfer has a novel excuse for a lost ball - a coyote ran off with it. Recent sightings of coyotes on and near golf courses Pinehurst No. 5 and No. 6 and in Pinewild are bothering residents with small pets, but animal control and wildlife officials report that there is no serious danger to human beings. Earle Hightower, a Pinewild resident who grew up with coyotes in Utah and Colorado, said coyotes pose little danger to humans." With small pets, it is a different story. However, Hightower said, coyotes usually leave large dogs alone. Sgt. Mark Dutton, the commission's enforcement officer in Moore County, said coyotes are expanding their territory throughout North Carolina because the region offers no natural predators to keep their numbers under control. It is legal to hunt coyotes six days a week, Monday through Saturday, in North Carolina. Dutton said the hunter can use a firearm or a trap during daylight hours, beginning half an hour before sunrise and continuing until half an hour after sunset. Hunting is prohibited on Sunday and at night. Dutton said local regulations apply, however, and this means that no one can shoot a coyote in most municipalities. Pinehurst, like most municipalities, has an ordinance prohibiting the discharge of a firearm within village limits. Trapping regulations likewise apply in many jurisdictions...read more

Brand inspection rules a boon for rustlers

Rustling cattle may seem like an activity straight out of the Old West, but it still exists and advances in transportation have made it easier for thieves to get out of the brand inspection area to sell the animals. Counties in the eastern one-third of the state do not require brand inspection. Cattle in that part of Nebraska often are left unbranded, and individuals who may steal cattle in west or central Nebraska need only to spend a few hours on the road to sell them in a non-brand inspection area. Brands have been recorded in Nebraska since the 1800s, but the Nebraska Brand Committee wasn’t formed until 1941. At that time, Harvey said, it was a county by county decision on whether brand inspection would be required. Since 90 percent of the cattle in Nebraska were in the western two-thirds of the state, those counties elected to take part while the eastern ones did not. Knox County falls into both categories, as brand inspection is required in the western three-quarters of the county but not in the eastern quarter. Furnas County in south central Nebraska is surrounded by brand inspection counties but elected not to become part of the inspection area. Harvey said the idea of making the brand inspection area statewide has come up on numerous occasions, but there are mixed feelings about it. There are more cattle in the eastern part of the state today, but owners there have never had to worry about branding and brand inspection and don’t necessarily want to start. Cattle owners who already live in brand inspection areas, on the other hand, often think it only makes sense to extend the law statewide...read more

2010 Versatility Ranch Horse World Champion

Mike Major of Fowler, Colorado, uses “phenomenal” to describe two things. First – his horse, Smart Whiskey Doc. As of January 14, Mike’s longtime equine compadre carried him to a back-to-back world championship in versatility ranch horse at the 2010 Fort Dodge Versatility Ranch Horse World Championship Show in Denver. “We were taking a chance because I won the world on him last year, and everybody said, man, you shouldn’t do it twice because if you lose, that’s not a good deal for this horse,” Mike said. “I thought, well, this is a great horse, and God’s been on my side. He’s just a phenomenal horse.” To capture the title, Mike and “Whiskey” won the ranch riding, ranch horse conformation, ranch cutting, finished second in ranch trail and third in working ranch horse. Kris Wilson and Chic Packin took the overall reserve title. A rancher from Fowler, Colorado, Mike and his wife, Holly, purchased the 1999 son of Paddys Irish Whiskey as a yearling from the S Ranch Ltd. In addition to the 2009 versatility ranch horse title, Whiskey’s list of accomplishments includes the 2008 reserve versatility ranch horse world championship, several high-point awards, and the 2006 Select world championship in working cow horse. The Majors have been especially pleased with Whiskey’s colts; they don’t sell many, but “sure like the ones we raise.” Mike is a 40-year breeder of American Quarter Horses. On January 12, he won the National Western Versatility Ranch Horse Classic on Black Hope Stik, a daughter of Whiskey’s and a fourth-generation home-bred mare named Hope Stik...read more

Gun control group gives Obama failing grade

President Barack Obama received a failing grade this year from The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on Monday. The Brady Campaign blasted the president, whom the group endorsed in 2008, for not having taken significant steps to advance gun control laws. "It's been a very disappointing year for us, especially considering what he campaigned on," the group's president, Paul Helmke, said during an appearance on MSNBC. "This year they ran away from the issue, and actually signed two repeals of good gun legislation." Those changes, which would allow guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains, were attached as amendments to larger pieces of legislation the president generally supported. Obama got an "F" on every issue the Brady Campaign scored, according to its report card...read more

Colorado/New Mexico wildlife corridor initiative a gift for holiday season

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson delivered an early holiday present this year - the new wildlife corridor initiative between southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. In the beginning of December, these two governors agreed to work together to identify and protect key wildlife travel and migration corridors across their shared border. The agreement sets out a plan to use the best scientific geospatial mapping systems available to help conserve several key habitats and migration areas. In addition to the economic, educational and cultural impacts of this wildlife corridor project, this joint initiative has positive political implications. Challenges that arise from unprecedented population growth, energy development, air quality degradation and climate change do not occur neatly within state boundaries. On the contrary, key habitats, resources and the air we breathe exist across political boundaries. Coordinating wildlife protection across state lines is a great example of how elected officials from different states can and should collaborate to solve our complex problems. Continued cooperation between Richardson and Ritter will surely help our region create innovative and effective solutions to our shared challenges...read more

According to the MOU, the states will:

° Identify key habitat connectivity, travel and migration corridors used by elk, deer, pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep, and, as identified by the two states, other key species of wildlife that migrate across the shared border between the State of Colorado and the State of New Mexico;
° Evaluate and prioritize these corridors, using the best available science, in respect to their importance and identify key habitat connectivity, travel and migration corridors to be further evaluated;
° Consult with and involve the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Tribe, and/or Jicarilla Apache tribal governments when a key habitat connectivity, travel and migration corridor crossing tribal land is identified;
° Map the key habitat connectivity, travel and migration corridors to the greatest extent possible using a mutually agreeable geospatial mapping system and consistent protocols to inform the decision-making processes in both States;
° Identify existing and potential land use changes and other impediments that are limiting, may limit or may eliminate the viability of key wildlife corridors;
° Develop and prioritize strategies that will positively contribute to the protection of key wildlife corridors, consistent with shared conservation objectives;
° Share recommended strategies with land management agencies, counties, municipalities, non-governmental entities, and the public, to inform and guide future decision-making processes.

Notice it will apply to "existing and potential" land use. Basically, if you are an entity that conducts an activity on federal, state or private land that requires a permit, you could be impacted. The general public could also be affected as access could be restricted or totally excluded.

Thanks to the two Governors Bill, you just got slapped by Santa.

By the way, this whole thing has been a project of the Western Governor's Association since 2007. To see what your illustrious leaders are doing for you, both Republican & Democrat, see their Wildlife Corridors and Crucial Habitat Initiative.

I had previously posted about the MOU between the WGA, USDI & USDA here. I had also previously posted Groups Pushing For For A Joint Secretaral Order: Wildlife Corridors. Who was pushing for this? Certain staffers in the WGA and "American Wildlands, Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC), Center for Native Ecosystems, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, Freedom to Roam, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, Sierra Club, Sonoran Institute, The Wilderness Society, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Western Environmental Law Center, Western Wildlife Conservancy, Wildlands Network, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative."

This is a mapping project, pure and simple (with each state wanting $1 million dollars for their "Decision Support System"), and the maps will be used to influence land use decisions.

Interestingly, the current NM map for "Sensitive" habitat shows that 95%+ of it is south of Santa Fe. When it comes to wildlife habitat, Santa appears to be more interested in the South Pole than the North Pole. I'm sure that was caused by "climate change".

What Santa doesn't realize is that when all these projects are completed both he and his sleigh will be excluded from these areas and not even Rudolph will be able to save him.

NM Cattle & Calves Shot, Killed & Maimed - Two Video Reports

NM rancher's cattle maimed, killed A Socorro County cattle owner and sheriff's investigators are trying to figure out who shot, injured and dragged several cattle over the last few months. Three cattle belonging to the Barela family have suffered from horrific injuries over the past five months. One cow was shot, another was punctured by an arrow and the third was run down by a truck. All of the incidents occurred in Bernardo, a quiet area South of Belen...

KRQE Video Report



Cows shot, killed in Valencia Co. A Valencia County rancher is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can help him determine who is shooting his cattle and leaving their bodies to rot on the side of a road. A neighbor found four dead calves Sunday morning on ranchland west of Belen. Deputies say they were shot point-blank with a shotgun...

KOB Video Report

World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown

A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change...read more

Writer, rancher shaped by grazing dispute

Ed Marston and Scott Bedke come from far different worlds, but they share a link that changed both of their lives. Their connection was Don Oman, a feisty Forest Service ranger who stood up to Idaho ranchers, political leaders and his own bosses in 1990 while seeking to protect the streams and wildlife habitat. Oman showed that livestock grazing had degraded both. Marston, the son of a tailor and a hatter from New York City, had a Ph.D. in physics and wrote a story about Oman in High Country News, which he published about environmental issues in the West. Bedke, then and now, is a member of a four-generation ranching family who run their cattle in the Goose Creek watershed on the desolate Idaho-Nevada-Utah border. Marston interviewed Bedke for a story in the High Country News that eventually was picked by People magazine, bringing the growing battle over public land grazing to a national audience. The two men got together for the first time in nearly 20 years Tuesday in Boise to reminisce about that early dispute and its impact on their lives. Their conversation said a lot about how far we have come in the West in a generation. The Oman dispute started Bedke on a path that led him off the ranch and eventually into politics. Today he is the assistant majority leader of the Idaho House of Representatives. It led Marston to two other ranchers, Doc and Connie Hatfield in Oregon, who changed the way he viewed ranching and environmentalism in the West. The couple not only were seeking to leave a lighter touch on the land and helping to rehabilitate the streams, but also were promoting a new way to market beef that empowered ranchers. That meeting was one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands that have led to a collaborative movement of land management across the West that continues to evolve. Marston has been one of the movement's leaders, using High Country News as a forum where both grazing opponents and ranchers could express their views...read more

Some 390 tons of U.S. ground beef recalled

Some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting, U.S. officials said on Monday. The beef was produced by Huntington Meat Packing Inc of Montebello, California, and shipped mainly to California outlets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food safety arm said. An initial problem, in ground beef shipped by the plant from January 5 to January 15, was discovered during a regular safety check, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said. It said it had received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of the recalled products. During a follow-up review of the company's records, government inspectors determined additional products produced and shipped in 2008 to be of concern because they may have been contaminated with E.coli, the service said in a notice on its web site...read more

America's Agricultural Angst

In this high-tech information age few look to the most basic industries as sources of national economic power. Yet no sector in America is better positioned for the future than agriculture--if we allow it to reach its potential. Like manufacturers and homebuilders before them, farmers have found themselves in the crosshairs of urban aesthetes and green activists who hope to impose their own Utopian vision of agriculture. This vision includes shutting down large-scale scientifically run farms and replacing them with small organic homesteads and urban gardens. Troublingly, the assault on mainstream farmers is moving into the policy arena. It extends to cut-offs on water, stricter rules on the use of pesticides, prohibitions on the caging of chickens and a growing movement to ban the use of genetic engineering in crops. And it could undermine a sector that has performed well over the past decade and has excellent long-term prospects. Despite the perceptions of a corporatized farm sector, this entrepreneurial spirit remains. Families own almost 96% of the nation's 2.2 million farms, including the vast majority of the largest spreads. And small-scale agriculture, after decreasing for years, is on the upswing; between 2002 and 2009 the number of farms increased by 4%. This trend toward smaller-scale specialized production represents a positive trend, but large-scale, scientifically advanced farming still produces the majority of the average family's foodstuffs, as well as the bulk of our exports. Overall, organic foods and beverages account for less than 3% of all food sales in the U.S.--hardly enough to feed a nation, much less a growing, hungry planet...read more

A taste of the West

Much like country music, Western art can be unfairly lumped into one take-it-or-leave-it category. Which is a shame, because people who are turned off by the concept of Western art would miss out on innovative artists like Theodore Waddell. Yes, Waddell paints horses, landscapes and horizons — which are about as common in the genre as a country musician singing about pick up trucks and patriotism. But it’s the way that Waddell approaches and creates his art that sets him apart. “It’s not just about the cows and the landscape,” said Nikki Todd of Visions West Gallery. “I think this work is ultimately about paint and painting.” Waddell, a native Montanan cattle rancher, embraces a sophisticated modernist style with his art, according to the Visions West Gallery. In person, his paintings are notable for their often-vast scale and massive clumps of paint. In 1976, Waddell took a job as a manager for a large ranch. His experiences at the ranch proved an artistic inspiration. “The subject matter appeals to the whole Western art crowd,” said Todd. “But he has an entirely different take on his subject matter than what you usually see.”...read more

Together, from Day 2 to 27,394

The young man was the son of a rancher from southern Colorado, and one day, while driving through town, he spotted a girl walking down the street. She sang in church, and it was there they would strike up their first conversations. When he embarked upon a more formal courtship, he visited her home and sat on a chair at a distance deemed appropriate by her father. "One day, I saw her and I asked her if she'd be interested in marrying me, and she said, 'yes,' " the man, no longer young, recounts. "Wait," his daughter says, interrupting the story. "Just like that?" "No dating?" asks his other daughter. "My father was a very strict man," their mother says. "He never let me go anywhere. We never dated or did anything. I was even embarrassed when I married him." Their daughters erupt in laughter. When the then-young man declared he had found his future wife, his parents dressed in their best clothing and went to visit her father to present their son's case. It was the custom of the day to say that when a proposal had been rejected, the prospective groom had been given a pumpkin. Upon their parents' return, the young man's siblings searched for, but did not find, any member of the squash family. Shortly thereafter, the bride-to-be was brought to her future in-laws' house, where they had her sit in the middle of the living room for the family's inspection. They were married at St. Augustine church in Antonito. Ruben Salazar was 21. Emma Lucero was almost 19. On Thursday, they will have been married 75 years...read more

Roswell, Aliens, Kidnapping, And The Cover-up

arlier today, a cache of startling documents, audio tapes, and old 16mm film recordings were uncovered by workers renovating the cellar of famed WWII General George Douglas Marshall, US Army (1921-2009). Before a wall of secrecy was put up—ostensibly under the Official Secrets Act of 1911—these documents revealed blockbuster information. The following was revealed by the CMN Cable News Network, as I watched it unfold, and made notes. The tape has since been pulled from Youtube.com. In 1945, after WWII, the US Government had seized Nazi scientists and their science in something called Operation Paper Clip. They were brought to America with their knowledge, designs, and some super weapons. These were actually war criminals, but the USA let that slide. By 1944, the Nazis had developed a particular super-weapon. It was a twin-jet fighter-bomber so advanced it was invisible to radar. The Horten GO-229 was a flying wing, boomerang-shaped, like a modern B-2 bomber. The one that looks like the bat plane. It was made of composites and special rubber paint that absorbed radar; it had no radar reflection. It was invisible. This was in 1944, super science, lost knowledge not rediscovered until the 1980’s. The Horten even used an advanced gold-cadmium alloy to de-ice its wings, a memory-metal that if deformed could spring back and reset its shape. It was Star Wars stuff, Buck Rogers to them in 1944. Two years after the war ended—around early 1947—the U.S. Government was reportedly actually operating—flying—these captured secret Luftwaffe warplanes. The incarcerated pilots had been members of a Nazi ‘ghost unit’—so secret it only became known to Allied Intelligence after the war. Something called Luftwaffe Wing 500, the most privileged and knowledgeable of the SS. They worked directly for Oberkommando, High Command. They knew the secrets—where everything was, and how it all worked...read more

Read this to find out what really happened at Roswell...

Song Of The Day #223

This morning Ranch Radio brings you Carl Smith and his 1953 recording of Back Up Buddy.

The tune is available on his 20 track CD Don't Just Stand There: 20 Greatest Hits.

Endangered species deal spurs concerns in rangeland owners

Due to concerns of landowners, the California Cattlemen's Association recently pulled out of a deal with wildlife agencies for a "safe harbor" agreement on habitat and endangered species. While the draft plan is still in the works through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game, the Cattlemen's Association is no longer planning to serve as administrator for the program. The safe harbor program is geared toward the counties of Butte, Glenn, Tehama and Shasta. Property owners would voluntarily enter agreements that enhanced or restored habitat for threatened or endangered species. Then, the property owner would be protected from increased regulations if protected species moved to that habitat and were harmed by routine agricultural and rangeland management. Biologists would also document "baseline conditions" so property owners could return their property to that baseline. Matt Byrne, executive vice president of the state Cattlemen's Association, said his group had planned to serve as administrator of the program to help protect ranchers who are "doing all the right things for species habitat." After more than two years in the works, landowners have been looking at the plan more closely. "It didn't meet muster in terms of making landowners feel fully comfortable," he continued. One of the worries was that if one landowner took part, and protected species moved in, nearby landowners would risk increased regulations. Also, there have been questions about confidentiality of data provided by landowners...read more

Curious as to what is really going on here. Did staff get out ahead of the industry and need to be reined in? Was CCA to be paid for being "administrator"? Has there ever been a case where a species was declared endangered and those having safe harbor agreements were "protected from increased regulations"?

Fort Carson expansion will play into contest, one GOP candidate says

The race between two Republicans for the party’s nomination for governor will come down to their differences over the handling of the Army’s desire to expand Fort Carson, Evergreen businessman Dan Maes said Friday. He and Scott McInnis, the front-running former U.S. representative from Grand Junction, have different views on the issue, Maes said in an interview after he spoke to the monthly luncheon of the Mesa County Republican Party at Two Rivers Convention Center. Ranchers and others in southeastern Colorado oppose the Army’s efforts to expand Fort Carson’s 35,000-acre training area by at least 100,000 acres. McInnis “is clearly in favor” of the Army’s plans, Maes said, and “I feel there should be a resolution between the Army and the ranchers.” The contest, he said, will be decided by the difference between the two on private-property rights...read more

Bighorn plan approved

The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has gotten approval for the first-ever statewide plan for managing bighorn sheep in Montana. The FWP Commission last week approved the plan, which seeks to keep better tabs on bighorns in the state and find new habitat for the animal. Today there are 5,700 bighorns in 45 herds in Montana, and FWP estimates the population could be expanded by almost 1,000. The conservation strategy won approval from some bighorn advocates, who said it gave clear direction to state biologists on how to keep the bighorn population viable. However, it was criticized by others for handing too much power to domestic sheep producers when it comes to finding new habitat for bighorns. Bighorn sheep can contract pneumonia and other diseases from domestic sheep, and wildlife officials manage bighorns to keep them away from domestic sheep. At issue is a line in the plan that ensures woolgrowers FWP will not lobby federal land managers to remove domestic sheep from public land in order to make room for bighorns, unless the rancher is on board with the plan...read more

Unethical Greenpeace actions threaten the livelihoods and lives of millions

Should corporate ethics principles apply only to profit-making companies? Or should they also cover nonprofit corporations, especially those that badger for-profits to be more “socially responsible”? Should corporations be judged partly on creating jobs, supporting communities, or improving and saving lives? And should nonprofit corporations be penalized for impeding the enhancement of human life? The answers should be self-evident. But they’re not, as US nonprofits and politicians have repeatedly demonstrated. Consider Greenpeace. This self-proclaimed paragon of virtue constantly harasses companies that it deems insufficiently virtuous in advertising their products, protecting the environment and promoting their public image. But the Rainbow Warriors’ own actions would frequently merit fines or even jail time if committed by profit-making businesses. Greenpeace publicity stunts, anti-corporate campaigns and fund-raising appeals are often laden with false and misleading claims about companies and their operations. The Warriors justify their actions as necessary to advancing their legal, legislative and regulatory agenda – and getting people and foundations to write a check or click their website’s “donate now” button. Almost anything goes, because Greenpeace and its comrades in eco-warfare are apparently beyond the reach of the Lanham Act and mail fraud or tax laws that apply to ordinary corporations and citizens...read more

Ranchers aim to protect water

Polly Rex holds water rights dating back more than a century. But the Absarokee-area rancher wonders what they’ll be worth if the state doesn’t change its policy regarding new wells. “My water rights are probably the most important component on my place,” she said. “I’ve been told since I was a little kid that they’re like gold. Now I’m finding they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.” Her neighbor Betty Lannen agrees. The octogenarian remembers her grandfather taking pride in his senior water rights. “That’s what they talked about,” she recalls. Now, they say, Montana’s time-honored doctrine of “first in time, first in right” is threatened by a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation rule that applies to “exempt wells.” The rule, as it currently stands, allows for the drilling of any number of new exempt wells — without regard for their impact on existing water rights...read more

N.M. ranch a glimmer of what renewable energy can mean to Arizona

When you turn on a light in Phoenix, you might be connecting with windmills on Steve Tapia's land in New Mexico. The 77-year-old rancher and his wife are among the property owners leasing out sites for 90 giant wind turbines on the stark Aragonne Mesa, halfway between Albuquerque and the Texas line. "It's been good wind since I was born," he says. "Now, we're making money from it." Arizona Public Service buys the energy output, enough to power about 25,000 homes. Tapia had his doubts about the towering white structures with three whirling blades. With his substantial belt, hefty bola tie and a face with the same hard lines as the rocks on the mesa, the former sheriff is a picture of the traditional West. But now, he likes the windmills' sleek silhouettes along the ridge line. Especially since the extra income helps keep his ranching operations going. This is the new West, where alternative energy is a growing business and a small but a growing source of power...read more