Fish invaders causing dramatic downturn in birds

Biologist Linda Beck stands in water halfway to her knees, gazing out on a lake strangely empty of waterfowl. Cormorants, pelicans, gulls and terns by the millions once wheeled and shrieked above Malheur Lake while ducks bobbed and dove for insects. Now, the lake and sky are eerily empty. "I mean, there are no birds," said the 35-year-old fish biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, splashing to dry ground on the north shore on a recent afternoon. "We still should be seeing some birds." There's a one-word explanation for the dramatic downturn in waterfowl on the shallow 50,000-acre lake 30 miles south of Burns: carp. Their ranks have exploded over the course of decades -- and nothing, not even a succession of wholesale poisonings, has beaten them back for long. Carp out-compete the waterfowl for Sago Pondweed, aquatic invertebrates, insects and other food. They also root on the lake bottom, stirring up sediment and diminishing the sunlight necessary for the growth of lake grasses. "It's a giant carp pond," said Bob Sallinger , spokesman for the Audubon Society of Portland. "That lake is basically a dead lake."...more

Approval of pipeline delayed

Construction of a $3 billion gas pipeline from Wyoming through northern Utah and Nevada to Oregon has been pushed back amid work to protect cultural sites and endangered species. Houston-based El Paso Corp. initially hoped to begin work on the 42-inch Ruby Pipeline this spring. The federal Bureau of Land Management said it hopes to approve the project in early July, after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission works out agreements with each state along the route to protect historic and cultural sites. The pipeline will run 675 miles from Opal in western Wyoming to Malin, Ore., crossing parts of Rich, Box Elder and Cache counties as well as Nevada. FERC has drafted agreements with the state historic preservation offices in Utah and Wyoming and should have agreements for the other two states soon, said Mark Mackiewicz, manager of the project for the BLM in Utah. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working on a plan to protect endangered species. The BLM can approve the project following approval of the various agencies, Mackiewicz said, perhaps in July. Some environmental groups oppose the pipeline. The route crosses too many undeveloped lands when the pipeline could be built along highways and other developed corridors, said Katie Fite, with Hailey, Idaho-based Western Wastern Watersheds Project...more

Anti-whaling activist pleads guilty but denies assault

New Zealand anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune appeared in a Tokyo court this morning facing five charges related to his boarding of a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic earlier this year. Bethune is charged with trespass, vandalism, obstructing commercial activity, being armed with a weapon and, most seriously, assault causing injury. The assault charge stems from allegations Bethune threw tubs of rancid butter onto one of the whaling ships and in the process slightly injured a Japanese crewman. Bethune pleaded guilty to four of the charges but denied the assault. If convicted he faces up to 15 years in jail. The charges arose after Bethune tried to make a citizen's arrest on the whaling ship's captain and was also trying to serve him with a multi-million-dollar damage bill. Bethune was the captain of the powerboat, the Ady Gil, that was destroyed in a confrontation with the Shonan Maru 2 in January...more

Ex-BLM manager who was charged with sex abuse commits suicide

A former field manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Kanab office who was scheduled to stand trial next month on charges of child sex abuse shot and killed himself Thursday after police arrived at his door with a warrant for a new charge. Rex Lee Smart, 60, was charged Thursday with witness tampering. Kanab police arrived at his house to serve an arrest warrant and a search warrant for his computer, on the belief that he had sent e-mails to a witness. "Officers made contact with Mr. Smart and advised him why they were there. Mr. Smart stepped into an adjacent office in the home to retrieve his shoes. After only seconds, Mr. Smart was able to gain access to a handgun and fire one round, hitting himself," according to a statement from Kanab police...more

Backers say wilderness proposal ready for Congress

Supporters of the proposed Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act — a bill that would designate approximately 86,000 acres of new wilderness and protect an additional 218,000 acres from most new road construction along the Rocky Mountain Front — say the measure is ready for congressional consideration. However, critics of the proposal said the measure falls far short of adequately protecting what many people believe are some the nation's last best wildlands. Last fall, the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front, the group spearheading the measure, set out to ease concerns of interested stakeholders by holding a series of public meetings around the region. The group hosted meetings in Great Falls, Helena, Choteau and Augusta to explain the details of the measure to the public and solicit feedback. Supporters said those efforts culminated in a re-worked draft of the bill that attempts to strike a balance between the concerns of area ranchers, landowners, conservationists, sportsmen and outdoor recreationists...more

20th annual Silver City rodeo kicks off

Here come the cowboys. They're from New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Wyoming and California. Professional rodeo riders from all over the West will ride into Silver City today to take part in Silver City's 20th annual Southwest Horseman's Association PRCA Rodeo. "Rodeo is a major part of Silver City's heritage," said organizer Pat Bearup. "It's also a cultural thing all over the West. There's been a rodeo in Grant County for the past 100 years." Bearup is chairman of the rodeo for the Southwest Horseman's Association and vice president of the association, and has been organizing the rodeo for the past five years. It takes a year of planning, a core group of about 10, and about 100 volunteers to plan and pull off each year's rodeo, he said. "We couldn't do it without them.". About 10,000 people will come to the rodeo over the next four days. They'll come from all over the Southwest - and from further - with about half being from the Southwest region. Money raised goes to putting on next year's rodeo, making capital improvements to the arena and to charitable donations...more

Westward ho for Amish

Custer County Commissioner Jim Austin knew life was changing in his little corner of rural Colorado when they had to put up buggy crossing signs on Highway 69. "This is a farming and ranching community. We're used to our slow-moving vehicles. But a buggy?" the 68-year-old with a flowing white ponytail and turquoise earring asked. "Now that was something different." The unlikely arrival of the Amish to this former frontier town, population 560, was a gradual thing. First, there was the occasional horse-drawn wagon Austin would pass as he drove his school bus route. Then there was the growing number of men in long beards and women in crisp, white prayer caps who came to town for supplies. Before long, the supermarket installed a hitching post. It all started in the spring of 2002 when Enos Yoder, an Amish hay farmer and horse trainer from Iowa, first laid eyes on the green valley at the foot of the spectacular Sangre de Cristo Mountains three hours south of Denver. Yoder had come to deliver horses to a rancher and couldn't get the isolated, unspoiled beauty out of his head. His Amish community in Bloomfield, Iowa, had begun to feel too cramped for his tastes. The West, with its lure of cheaper land and open spaces, was calling. The Amish population in Colorado went from zero in 2002 to more than 400 in 2008, the last time anyone counted. More arrive each month. "I'm kind of partial to them because they are stewards of the land, which is consistent with my own heritage," said Austin, who is Native American. Coexistence is just a shrug in these parts. "They play by the rules, and they pay their taxes. They are hard-working, polite, quiet people who are excellent neighbors. What's not to like?"...more

Do fence me in

Sitting along a lonely stretch of highway in the Texas Panhandle, McLean isn't so small that you'd miss this hamlet in the blink of an eye. It would take probably five or six blinks to blow through this town, which has never recovered from being bypassed by Interstate 40. McLean's heyday coincided with Route 66's, when a seemingly endless stream of vehicles sped through. Each day, thousands of motorists drove by a large cinder-block building on the south side of the highway. Inside, a mostly female work force turned out brassieres for Sears. The bra factory shut down in 1970, a presage of the hard times that would come with the opening of the new four-lane several years later. "I think probably for the town of McLean, Route 66 being closed was worse," recalls Delbert Trew, a retired rancher. "Within a month or two after it closed, McLean lost 16 businesses. They were mostly filling stations and garages." The town limped along, and civic leaders such as Trew realized the battered economy needed help. "We didn't have anything to draw people, to advertise or brag about," Trew says of those lean years. He settled on a museum, which opened in the bra factory in 1990 with a theme so obscure that it stumped a contestant — a Texan, no less — on "Jeopardy." "The Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas, is devoted to the history of this material," read the Daily Double answer. The contestant just shook his head. Host Alex Trebek provided the correct question: "What is barbed wire?" Barbed wire? You don't need to be on a game show to pose that question incredulously. Yet in the last 20 years, more than 100,000 people have ventured off I-40 and into McLean to visit this shrine to spiked strings of steel...more

It's All Trew: 'The West' full of myth, mystery

If I may squander a guess, I believe the term "the West" has generated more words or volumes of words than any other subject with which I am familiar. In reality the West is like a chameleon, always changing colors. It can be a geographical location like a territory, state, town or maybe a ranch. Sometimes it is merely a direction, like "out there" and at other times it means "anywhere west" of where the speaker or writer is standing at the moment. To many it is a period of time, like an hour, a year or maybe a generation. It can be a destination, a place to go to, or a place to be from. Others consider it a goal to be reached or the reason for failing. The West has been called a deity like a heavenly place or can be compared to hell. It can be a renewal of life or for many in the past, it was the end. No doubt there is a western direction existing on every continent, in every country, ocean and location in the world. But, only in America does the term have such distinctive form and fabulous myth and mystery. Of interest, many believe this vast and sometimes vague period of time only lasted 35 to 40 years. Others believe the West lasted only from the gold strike at Sutter's Mill until the massacre at Wounded Knee. Those of a cowboy-bent-of-mind believe the West is limited to the heyday of the cowboy which only lasted for 30 years or so...more

Song Of The Day #323

Ranch Radio missed swinging Monday because of the holiday. However we're sure after a three day holiday you need something to get your heart started. So we'll have a toe-tapping Tuesday with Mike Auldridge playing Swing Scene.

The tune is on his great, 13 track CD Eight String Swing.

Stolen oil fueling Mexico's drug war

Mexico's violent drug cartels are getting into the oil business, tapping into underground pipelines and siphoning off tons of crude, gasoline and other fuels, some of which is ending up in the United States. The stolen fuel has created a huge income stream, as much as $715 million a year, that gangs can use to buy weapons, bribe officials and bankroll their bloody battle against the Mexican government, experts warn. They sell the fuel through their own gasoline stations; sell it to unscrupulous manufacturers or trucking firms in Mexico; use it to pump up profits at front companies owned by the cartels; or sell it to foreign refiners on the international black market. Last year, thieves stole an average of 8,432 barrels of petroleum products each day, enough to fill 39 tanker trucks. The thieves are leaving a trail of environmental devastation, with broken pipelines poisoning farm fields and leaking into Mexican rivers...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Growing old with Willie Nelson

by Julie Carter

Haircuts don't generally make national news, but when Willie Nelson's braids hit the cutting room floor this week, newsfeeds went rampant with the report.

His fans have come to expect a touch of eccentricity from the legendary crooner, but he pulled off a shocker this time.

However, there is a generation of followers who find it somewhat humorous because we recall when Willie's hair was banker-short and shoe-black dark, and he wore a suit and tie to the stage. Tell that to a Willie fan under the age of 40 and a resounding "Nooooo, never," is their response.

Of course at the time, gas was 25-cents a gallon and America was giving birth to the decade of the "hippie."

He was only 7 when he wrote his first song, "Family Bible" and sold it for $50.

Turning 77 last month, Willie can again say "Funny how time slips away," another of the many songs he wrote that someone else made famous. In that same time period, he penned Faron Young's "Hello Walls" and Patsy Cline's rendition of "Crazy."

His gritty, roadhouse sound didn't fit into the traditional Nashville music style in the 1960s and it wasn't until he ditched Tennessee for Texas in the '70s, that his unique brand of outlaw country music took off.

Wearing a little more hair, looking somewhat like the Beatles-gone-to-Austin, Willie launched album after album defining himself in both lyric and title, like "Shotgun Willie" and "The Red Headed Stranger."

In a decade when Glen Campbell and Bobby Goldsboro were crooning the softer side of life, Willie, along with the like-minded and hard-partying Waylon Jennings, made an indelible mark on the Austin music scene.

He took it by storm when he teamed up with Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter and Tompall Glaser for the Outlaw albums, answering a call to a honky-tonk era that had crossed over the rural-urban boundaries and shouted for some boot-stompin', whiskey-drinkin' music.

In the '80s, Willie sought to recreate that success by making more albums with industry greats.

The "Honeysuckle Rose" sound track album for the movie of the same name was a rowdy rendition of Willie's life "On the Road Again."

Willie and his down-home Texas buddies, including Western-swing fiddle legend Johnny Gimble, songwriter Hank Cochran and the sultry songbird Emmy Lou Harris gave the album a good-timin' vibe that has people, still today, humming the signature song every time they pull out on the highway.

Willie cranked out al-bums with Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Roger Miller, Faron Young, Hank Snow, Webb Pierce and Kris Kristofferson.

With Merle Haggard in the "Pancho and Lefty" album, the duo gave musical notes to their bad-boy personas with a series of boozer-loser ballads that packed a wallop right up to the "Reasons To Quit" and "No Reason To Quit" double play.

Dubbed the "supergroup" of them all was The Highwaymen, Willie's 10-year gig with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. These four legends of outlaw country music recorded three major label albums and a number one hit penned by Kristofferson, called, of course, "Highwayman".

Willie has written more than 2,500 songs and recorded hundreds of albums. Aside from his brilliance as a song writer and musician, he's funny and charming with a charisma that emanates from the very core of his powerful and oftentimes rebellious nature.

From the 1985 Farm Aid benefit concerts that raised money for American farmers, to the Willie-Aid album, "Who'll Buy My Memories?" made to help him pay off his IRS debts, to his confession of smoking pot before his appearance on "The Larry King Show", Willie continued to perpetuate his personification of the country rebel.

Gray, grizzled and without the signature braids, Willie's unmistakable voice, the one that Nashville turned its back on a half a century ago, is still without equal in its uni-quely "just Willie" way.

The evolution of Willie. You don't have to be a Willie Nelson fan to recognize the legend in his story.

But it seems now, that it was only yesterday
Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away.

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

It's The Pitts: On The Horns Of A Dilemma

by Lee Pitts

Auction markets solve a lot of our problems. Not only do they provide the best form of price discovery, they also give us a place to send our waspy critters. Like weary parents who celebrate when their bratty kids are old enough to send to school, (where they become the problems of some poor teacher), we celebrate when we finally get our wild cows corralled and the Gooseneck door is closed. When that trailer door is next opened the crazy cows, belligerent bulls and horny heifers become the problem of the courageous folks at the auction market. In many instances our bad actors do far more damage to the sale barn facilities than they bring in commission.

While cattlemen in northern climes may laugh at the lop earred, multicolored, horned cows of the great southwest, be advised that they are that way for a reason. These cattle have more enemies than their northern cousins and they use their horns as a weapon against pumas and people. Their hides are mobile air conditioners and their ears remind us that in many parts of cow country the best cow is a cross between two distinct species: the Bos Taurus and Bos Indicus. Laugh at their ears if you want ye northern cowpokes but plop down one of your good looking, hornless beasts in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in the middle of summer and you’ll see what I mean.

Having said all that, it doesn’t mean that these cattle can’t be a challenge at the auction market. One of the most important services that sale barns provide is sorting our cattle into uniform lots for the buyers. Many times I have sent a mixed load of stockers to the local auction and when they were sold I hardly recognized them. I quickly learned as a young rancher that one talented person with a sorting stick may bring your biggest premium of all. But the person doing the sorting might get killed in the process!

Years ago I got to a sale the day before and went to hang out at the auction market where we’d be dispersing a big herd the next day. Being aware of my vast judging team experience and my encyclopedic knowledge of cattle the sale manager asked if I’d be willing to help, as he was a little short handed in the labor department. I puffed out my chest, said I’d be glad to share my knowledge and was promptly told to, “Get on a gate, open it when I tell you to and try hard not to mess things up.”

The alleys that day were no place for a coward and I was put over the fence several times. The cattle weren’t crazy, just a tad bit independent, I’d say. I have one memorable cow to thank for introducing me to the solar system during those festivities. I am told it’s quite rare for anyone to see as many constellations of stars as I did that day, especially at three o’clock in the afternoon! That cow also taught me a valuable lesson: never get to a sale a day early. If you must, stay away from the auction yard.

The next day, after we had sold the cows, we sold the bulls. We ran them in as groups and on the very first pair the buyer wanted to avail himself of buyer’s choice. This put the auctioneer on the horns of a dilemma. Due to space limitations out back we’d expected to sell the bulls in groups but this guy was the biggest cow buyer and the auctioneer didn’t want to offend him. So he caved in which meant the ring men had to sort the one bull off in the ring and in doing so they put themselves in grave danger. Emphasis on the word “grave.” Then we sold the second bull to the same guy for $25 more! Sometimes it works that way.

The audience was like a bullfight crowd, seeming to love every second of the ring men’s dance with death that day. After the sale I asked one of the brave ring men if he wasn’t a little upset at the crowd for being so bloodthirsty. He looked up to the sky where a band of buzzards were making their daily rounds and said, “Those people on the seats came to see a show and they are just like those buzzards in many ways. They don’t care if the ring men or the cattle die, just as long as something does!”

Liagra - Obama's favorite drug

Dairy cow slaughter program announced

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) announced its tenth herd retirement program since 2003, accepting bids from May 28 through June 25. CWT, funded by dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers, said the decision was made after reviewing economic benchmarks including cull rates and cull cow prices. The most recent prior retirement program was conducted in the fall of 2009. "With beef prices very strong, and replacement cow and springer prices still relatively low, CWT has determined that it will consider bids up to, but not to exceed, $3.75 per hundredweight (of milk production)," said Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which manages CWT, in a news release. As was the case in 2009's herd retirement rounds, CWT has no set target for the volume of milk or the number of cows to be removed in this herd retirement...more

USDA wants to increase food stamp participation

The United States' food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is currently used by 39.7 million people each month, according to a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) news release. This number is likely to rise as the USDA is trying to increase participation in the SNAP program as part of the Obama Administration's larger goal reducing hunger and improving nutrition nationwide. According to the USDA news release, among the new resources designed to increase participation is a new sign retailers will display that proclaims "'We Welcome SNAP Benefits."' Additionally, the USDA is putting in place a SNAP retailer locator, which is an online search tool designed to help recipients locate the retailers closest to them that accept SNAP benefits. Among the retailers that will post the sign, according to Alan Bjerga's article in Businessweek online, is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is the largest grocer in the nation. Others joining Wal-Mart are Safeway Inc. and Kroger Co...more

Song Of The Day #322

Ranch Radio tries to not repeat songs, but today's Gospel tune seems to fit perfectly with our weeks tribute to Memorial Day.

The song is Mother I Thank You For The Bible You Gave by the Louvin Brothers.

You'll find the tune on their 8 CD box set Close Harmony on the Bear Family label.

Armed Mexican Pirates Terrorize Texas Lake

Mexican drug cartel pirates have made their debut on Falcon Lake in Zapata County, Texas. Texans have reported seeing armed boatmen on the lake, which hosts some of the largest bass fishing tournaments in the U.S. and shares a border with the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Not unlike the infamous Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, pirates on this lake have reportedly wielded high-powered rifles and automatic weapons. After several incidents in the past month, including armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Zapata County Sheriff's Department are urging all boaters to stay out of Mexican waters. (The international border is in the middle of the lake.) "It's piracy," said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez. "It may not be on the high seas, but they are taking advantage of people on this lake by threatening and robbing them."...more

Illegal immigrants gravitate toward Arizona border

Along a rugged stretch of the Mexican border here in southern Arizona, U.S. authorities captured 687 illegal immigrants in a 24-hour period last week, three times the number captured near San Diego. During the past eight months, agents have apprehended 168,000 migrants along this sector of the border. The border crossers are so determined, and so impervious to a long-running buildup of federal agents and technology, that few here think President Obama's recent decision to dispatch 1,200 National Guard soldiers and $500 million will make much difference. Nogales is the heart of a 262-mile stretch of border defined by sharp rises, steep ravines and brutal desert heat. As border controls are tightened elsewhere, including through the construction of a border fence in parts of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico, Mexican migrants and smugglers have gravitated to the 90,000-square-mile area known by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as the Tucson Sector. "When you plug a hole in the wall, the water looks for another spot to flow through. Arizona is that spot," said Nogales police chief Jeff Kirkham, who reported that immigrants are "going over the wall, going through the wall or through tunnels." Others try to make their way though the remote desert where the high fence stops. Once across the border, they face a daunting trek that can stretch 30 miles or more in heat approaching 100 degrees. Agents staff checkpoints and crisscross the area, supported by millions of dollars worth of sensors, cameras, surveillance aircraft and computer technology. Since 2006, staffing of the Tucson Sector has increased 30 percent, to about 3,200 officers. But immigrants from across the globe keep coming over the border -- alone or in groups, sometimes guided by smugglers, sometimes arriving at official crossings neatly dressed and with fake papers. On a typical day, nearly 1 million people cross from Mexico into the United States, according to U.S. government figures. Roughly 270,000 vehicles cross the Southwest border every 24 hours, along with about 57,000 truck, rail and sea containers. Sixty percent of the Mexican fruit and vegetables entering the United States comes through Nogales...more

Sheriff deputies to accompany livestock scale inspectors

Livestock scale inspection begins July 26, in New Mexico, by New Mexico Department of Agriculture inspectors certifying scales. Given concern about border safety, inspectors in the Luna, Hidalgo and Grant County areas will be escorted by sheriff's deputies. Area members of the New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association met Wednesday night at La Fonda Restaurant to discuss concerns. "They are no less safe this year than last year, but the murder of Robert Krentz has brought it more into focus," said Caren Cowan, association executive director, said of the inspectors. There are 30 or more scales in the corridor -- south of Interstate 10 from Las Cruces to the Arizona border. Through the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement in the border area receives Operation Stonegarden money, partnering law enforcement with Border Patrol. "We're working with the Livestock Board and where they're using people to certify scales for shipping cattle, we'll be sending deputies so they can concentrate on their work instead of worrying about security," Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos said. Deputies work overtime paid through the Stonegarden program, so they won't be taken from regular patrols to escort inspectors. "It'll be good for deputies to get an idea of where these operations are. A lot of these are areas where we don't normally patrol," Cobos said. Cobos will be liaison/coordinator with the Hidalgo and Grant County sheriff's offices and the inspectors on this program...more