Border Security Concerns Have Deputies Escorting Livestock Inspectors

David Martin and David Turning are livestock inspectors for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and every year for about three weeks, they travel around the state checking equipment on ranches. “The ranchers buy and sell across these scales so they need someone to certify them and that's what our department does,” said Turning. However checking scales is not all that's being inspected this year. “We're basically looking for anything that's out of the ordinary, make sure there's nobody out here,” said Deputy Trini Garcia of the Luna County Sheriff’s Office. Trini and Deputy David Justice of the Hildago County Sheriff’s Office were assigned to escort the inspectors Wednesday for security purposes. Turning said they've been denied law enforcement escorts in the past, but since violence along the border has risen, their wish has finally come true. “It allows us to do what we need to do and just check the scale and we're on to the next one,” said Turning. Law enforcement officials said since it's too difficult smuggling humans or drugs at major ports of entries, that's why there's an increase of traffic along the rural areas of the border. “This would be a perfect pickup point to leave your drugs and have someone drive through it and continue on,” said Justice...more

“This would be a perfect pickup point to leave your drugs and have someone drive through it and continue on,” said Justice.

Is our Congressional Delegation listening?

Bear attack in Montana leaves 1 dead, 2 injured

When he heard the first scream in a campground outside Yellowstone National Park, Don Wilhelm thought it was just teenagers, maybe a domestic dispute in the middlle of the night. The wildlife biologist from Texas tried to go back to sleep, stifling thoughts that a beast might be lurking outside his family's tent. Minutes later, another scream — this one coming from the next campsite over, where a bear had torn through a tent and sunk its teeth into the arm of the middle-aged Canadian woman inside. "First she said, "No!' Then we heard her say, 'It's a bear! I've been attacked by a bear!" said Wilhelm's wife, Paige. By that point, the bear already had ripped into another tent a few campsites away, chomping into the leg of a teenager who had been sleeping with his family. Wilhelm later would find out that a solo camper at the other end of the heavily occupied Soda Butte Campground had been killed in a rampage Wednesday that one wildlife officials described as the most brazen bear attack in the Yellowstone area since the 1980s. "It was like a nightmare, couldn't possibly happen," Paige Wilhelm said later. Added Don Wilhelm: "Words cannot describe what it's like to hear someone attacked by a bear." Wildlife officials still were attempting to capture the bear — or bears — late Wednesday evening, with five baited traps set up at the scene of the maulings...more

Judge Rejects Forest Service’s Plan on Fire Retardant

A federal judge has ruled that the federal Forest Service’s plan for using fire retardant to fight wildfires violates the law because it does not ensure protections for threatened and endangered species of fish and other animals. Dropped from airplanes and helicopters, reddish clouds of retardant are often the most visible tool used to fight wildfires, particularly in rugged areas of the West. Yet chemicals in the most common retardants can hurt wildlife, particularly when they miss their mark. In some cases, large numbers of fish have been killed when retardant has been dropped into lakes and streams. The plan encourages pilots not to drop retardant within 300 feet of a body of water, but it allows for exceptions if flying conditions require it or if lives or property are in danger. Late Tuesday, the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court in Montana, ordered the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct more rigorous environmental reviews of the ways retardant affects wildlife and to place more specific restrictions on how it is used. Judge Molloy did not halt the use of retardant but said he would consider doing so if new procedures were not in place by the end of 2011. “The issue requires immediate attention,” the judge wrote...more

CBD petition seeks protection for 2 plants in Cochise County

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition Wednesday under the Endangered Species Act, seeking protection for two Arizona plants. The center says the plants' numbers are withering due to mining, recreation, climate change, and, more predominantly, collection and cattle grazing. The petitioners render the need for federal protection for the Bartram stonecrop and the beardless chinch weed "unquestionable" and go on to explain that the decision to provide assistance for these rare plants should have been made 30 years ago. Though the petition originally started with the proposition to build the Rosemont open-pit mine near the Santa Rita Mountains, it also claims that the Forest Service and cattle ranchers are culpable. Both plants grow in what the biologists refer to as the Sky Islands in the Atascosa, Baboquivari, Chiricahua, Dragoon, Huachuca, Mule, Patagonia, Rincon, Santa Rita and Tumacacori mountains and Canelo Hills in Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties...more

Audit finds agencies fail to identify, repatriate Native American remains

A yearlong audit released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office said no federal agencies with significant historical collections of Native American remains or associated sacred objects are in full compliance with a law mandating documentation and repatriation of the remains, despite passage of the act nearly 20 years ago. Since the early 1800s, federal agencies have amassed archaeological collections numbering in the millions, with the Department of Interior having an estimated 146 million objects relevant to archaeology and other disciplines such as zoology and art. Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service are required to identify the items covered under its provisions, establish cultural affiliations whenever possible, publish required notices and repatriate the items to the tribes...more

Whoop it up for the West

Anyone who thinks art galleries are strictly for well-heeled snobs is in for a few surprises Saturday at Go West Day. The western-themed event at the Bakersfield Museum of Art has everything from ropin' and ridin' to telling tall tales, with sack races, a square dance and a whole lot of country music thrown in for everyone's pleasure. Oh, and you might walk away with a new guitar, or a trip for the family -- just two prizes of the many that will be given away. The price of admission? Just $1. Beth Pandol, marketing director, said the community-oriented program is something she and David Gordon, assistant museum director, have wanted to do for some time. The current Best of the West art exhibit presented the ideal opportunity...more

USA - Smallest cattle herd in 37 years

The U.S. beef-cow herd on July 1 was the smallest in at least 37 years as farmers remained wary of beef demand during the economic recovery after losing money in the past two years. The beef-breeding herd totaled 31.7 million head as the month began, down 1.6 percent from 32.2 million a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a semiannual report. That marked the fewest cows for the date since at least 1973, said Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Six analysts in a Bloomberg News survey expected a 1.4 percent drop, on average. Cattle producers may make about $51.53 per cow this year, after losses in 2009 and 2008 because of high feed costs and declining beef demand, said Erica Rosa, an economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. Uncertainty about economic recovery may be keeping ranchers from expanding herds, she said. “Overall, cow-calf producers continue to reduce herd numbers, rather than expand by retaining heifers,” Rosa said by e-mail. “Although calf and feeder-cattle prices are higher than 2009, input/production costs still remain high and there is still quite a bit of uncertainty currently and about the future.” The overall U.S. beef and dairy herd totaled 100.8 million head at the start of July, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier, according to today’s USDA report. That also marked the smallest size for July since at least 1973, Missouri’s Plain said. The USDA’s estimate matched analysts’ expectations before the report...more

Rancher trampled by 1,200-pound water buffalo in Carver

Two 1,200-pound water buffaloes trampled a 50-year-old man in Carver July 22. The rancher's name has not been released, but the incident occurred on local businessman Terry Emmert's ranch just after 9 a.m. The unidentified ranch worker had loaded the buffaloes into a truck for transport from the 15000 block of S. Springwater Road in the Carver area, but the animals decided that they wanted out of the truck. Before he could get the door latched, the animals charged out, knocking him to the ground and trampling him. After sustaining injuries to his legs, he remained alert and in good humor throughout the incident, according to Clackamas Fire District #1 personnel. Paramedics on scene decided that due to the extent of his injuries and possible internal injuries that he should be flown by Lifeflight to OHSU, where he will be evaluated...more

Police shoot rampaging pregnant at Ca. State Fair

In the second bizarre incident at the State Fair in a week, Cal Expo police shot an agitated, pregnant dairy cow that twice escaped her confines and knocked over an officer as she bolted through the fairgrounds Tuesday morning. Neither the cow nor her calf survived the shooting, which occurred an hour before gates opened to the public. Ultimately, the roughly 1,200-pound cow became a threat to thousands of employees already abuzz in the fairgrounds, police and veterinary officials said. They agreed she had to be put down after a 1 1/2-hour chase. "Obviously, we're in a caring profession and the last thing we want to do is see an animal euthanized," said W. David Wilson, director of the veterinary medical teaching hospital at the University of California, Davis, which oversaw the care of the cow. However, he added, "A very difficult choice had to be made."...more

Now I'm not opposed to shooting a bovine if necessary to protect the public. Read the article though and you will see this was gunsel city for sure. One good mounted cowboy could have handled it, no shooting needed.

Now That´s Rural Warren Weibert - Decatur County Feedyard

What happens when cattle meet computers? That sounds like one of my kid´s riddles. Actually, it could be a way of describing a scientific process for evaluating and managing cattle that is being used by an innovative beef feedyard in rural northwest Kansas. It´s the subject of today´s Kansas Profile. Warren Weibert is owner and general manager of Decatur County Feed Yard near Oberlin, Kan. He is the innovator who is utilizing this high-tech management system. Oberlin is a town of 1,955 people. That´s rural - but there´s more. Warren actually grew up near Durham, Kansas, population 114 people. Now, that´s rural. After growing up at Durham, Warren went to K-State and then into a business management career. He married Carol who is originally from Oberlin. In 1971, some 45 local investors around Oberlin went together to create a cattle feedlot known as Decatur County Feed Yard. In 1977, Carol Weibert´s father bought the feedyard and invited Warren and Carol to come back to Oberlin to manage it, which they did. Warren and Carol now make their home in Manhattan. The feedyard expanded through the years and now has a capacity of 40,000 head. During the 1980s, Warren set out to work more closely with the ranchers who supplied cattle to be finished at the feedyard. He and the ranchers were seeking to get more data to add value to the cattle...more

Heavy lifting is all in a day's work for Jose Luis Arrieta

Jose Luis Arrieta has a simple explanation for how he got so strong. "Hard work seven days a week," he said. The results made him locally famous. In his prime, he held U.S. records in Basque weightlifting. Weightlifting has been a popular rural sport in the Basque Country of northern Spain and western France for generations. Its roots are in the traditional Basque agrarian culture. Over time, a variety of weightlifting events emerged: anvil lifting, hay-bale lifting, weight carrying and others. An event in which Arrieta especially excelled was stone lifting, in which stones or cement blocks are lifted repeatedly, ending with the stone balanced on the weight lifter's shoulder. Arrieta broke the U.S. record in 1978. He lifted a 308-pound weight 13 times and 11 times during two separate three-minute time slots. "He was really, really, really strong," longtime Idaho Secretary of State and Basque sheep rancher Pete Cenarrusa said. Arrieta was 18 when he came to the United States from the old country and went to work for Jessie Little of the Emmett-based Little family sheep empire. He later oversaw sheep-ranching operations for Brad Little, now Idaho's lieutenant governor, then spent eight years doing the same job for a rancher to whom Little sold his sheep. Now 69, Arrieta retired this year...more

Possibility of pardon for Billy the Kid upsets Garrett descendants

Almost 130 years after one of the more significant historical events in New Mexico, and almost 100 years after the death of one of the two key figures, the rhetoric continues in the fateful shooting of Billy The Kid by legendary lawman Pat Garrett. Garrett gunned down Billy The Kid - also known as Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William H. Bonney, on July 14,1881 in Fort Sumner, about 200 miles northeast of Las Cruces. There are claims that New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace - the same person who wrote "Ben Hur" - offered Billy The Kid a pardon if he testified against the principles involved in the "Lincoln County War," a bloody uprising between rival merchants and ranchers in 1877. Billy The Kid agreed to testify in return for a pardon from Wallace, but the governor reportedly reneged on that promise. An inquiry into the claims was started by Gov. Bill Richardson in 2003, and he said then if there was enough information to warrant it, he would pardon Billy The Kid. But Susan Floyd Garrett, the granddaughter of Pat Garrett, said Wednesday that she and other relatives are opposed to the governor issuing a pardon. "From the beginning, we feel that, as many other historians have, that the governor has created his own version of the facts, and those have nothing to do with the real history of New Mexico."...more

Song Of The Day #369

Ranch Radio continues with Hank Week.

Today's selection is Standing 'Neath The Old Pine Tree by Hank Penny.

You'll find the tune on his 28 track CD Flamin' Mamie 1938-1941 on Krazy Kat Records.

Criminal probe of oil spill to focus on 3 firms and their ties to regulators

A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources. The squad at the FBI offices includes investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies, the sources said. In addition to BP, the firms at the center of the inquiry are Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, and engineering giant Halliburton, which had finished cementing the well only 20 hours before the rig exploded April 20, sources said. While it was known that investigators are examining potential violations of environmental laws, it is now clear that they are also looking into whether company officials made false statements to regulators, obstructed justice or falsified test results for devices such as the rig's failed blowout preventer. It is unclear whether any such evidence has surfaced...more

Clean-Up Crews Can't Find Crude in the Gulf

For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there's one problem -- they're having trouble finding it. At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire. Today, ABC News surveyed a marsh area and found none, and even on a flight out to the rig site Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was no oil to be seen. The numbers don't lie: two weeks ago, skimmers picked up about 25,000 barrels of oily water. Last Thursday, they gathered just 200 barrels. Still, it doesn't mean that all the oil that gushed for weeks is gone. Thousands of small oil patches remain below the surface, but experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment...more

Forest Service to cut sheep grazing by 70%

The Payette National Forest aims to protect wild bighorn sheep by reducing rangeland suited for domestic sheep and goat grazing by 70% by 2013. This plan, in the works for years, protects 94% of bighorn sheep summer habitat. Scientists and forest officials have concluded bighorns can contract deadly lung diseases when they encounter domestic sheep; ranchers fear closures will put them out of business. The Forest Service estimates the plan will result in 28 livestock jobs lost, while recreation could increase. Stan Boyd, who heads the Idaho Wool Growers Association, said Tuesday, "The industry is in the biggest fight of its life, and it's fighting its own government." But Payette Forest officials contend this move will balance uses, protect bighorns, honor tribal rights and live up to federal law. AP

Federally controlled resource trumps privately owned resource. It's happening everywhere.

Ranchers oppose gas pipeline deal which includes grazing buyout

Nevada ranchers concerned about the potential impact on livestock grazing are upset about a deal between the builder of a 680-mile natural gas pipeline and two environmental groups that agreed to drop their opposition to the project stretching from Oregon to Wyoming. El Paso Corp. agreed earlier this month to contribute $20 million over the next 10 years toward conservation efforts in the pipeline corridor to be overseen by the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and Oregon Natural Desert Foundation. Both groups have indicated they intend to use some of the money to buy out grazing permits from willing sellers on federal land, with the intention of permanently retiring the permits issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. "The livestock industry is about as upset about this issue as it has been for a long time. We're going to fight it tooth and nail," said Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, an Elko County rancher who chairs the Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands...more

Western Watersheds Project is becoming the Jesse Jackson of the enviro worls.

BLM needs to use 'copters to round up horses

The Bureau of Land Management's plan to gather nearly 2,000 wild horses in southwest Wyoming this fall using helicopters is still the best course of action, despite criticism from some animal advocates. There's no doubt that this major roundup is needed. BLM officials said two herd management areas located in southeastern Sweetwater County, south of Wamsutter and Interstate 80, are substantially over the appropriate management levels for survival. An agency survey conducted in July 2009 indicated there are about 1,950 horses living within the two herd units. But the appropriate number of wild horses for the Adobe Town area is between 610 to 800, while the range for the Salt Wells Creek area is from 251 to 365. The environmental assessment for the planned roundup, released last Thursday, noted the estimated wild horse population in the complex at 2,438, or more than 1,500 above the low management range for the two herd units. By rounding up an estimated 1,950 wild horses between Oct. 1 and Nov. 8 and treating and releasing another 100 mares with fertility-control vaccines, the BLM said it should successfully remove a total of 1,580 excess horses from the two areas that will then be put up for adoption. All of the animals gathered will be examined and, if needed, treated by a veterinarian. With no natural predators and an annual reproduction rate of between 15 and 20 percent, the excess wild horses need to be periodically removed from public rangelands to meet scientifically established population objectives...more

Udall ski-area alternative activity bill clears committee vote

Sen. Mark Udall’s bill to promote year-round recreation at ski areas cleared a critical committee vote late last week and is headed to a vote of the full U.S. Senate. First introduced in 2008 and then revived last summer, the bill is not without controversy. It seeks to revamp a 1986 law governing ski-area permits on U.S. Forest Service so that the federal agency has more latitude to allow recreation other than skiing. “Ski areas are a critical part of our state’s recreational and tourist economy – but many struggle to provide jobs during the summer months,” Udall said in a release after the bill was approved by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “My bill would help provide some stability by making it clear that biking, concerts, and other recreational activities are welcome where the Forest Service finds them appropriate. I’m very pleased we were able to get committee approval, and I urge my colleagues in the full Senate to approve it quickly.”...more

Shasta County will sue Forest Service over OHV restrictions

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in closed session to sue the Shasta-Trinity National Forest over its controversial roads plan. Supervisor Les Baugh said the board also appointed County Counsel Rubin E. Cruse Jr. as the board’s spokesman on the pending litigation. Cruse said it’s still too early to determine what the suit might look like when it’s filed in federal court in Sacramento. Siskiyou County supervisors Tuesday morning also had discussed suing the Shasta-Trinity over the plan, but they decided to hold off on a decision, waiting to see what Shasta County did, Siskiyou County Supervisor Michael Kobseff said. The two counties’ leaders will likely file a joint complaint, Kobseff said. Siskiyou’s supervisors will bring up the matter again at next week’s meeting. “The bottom line is the public forest is trying to kick the public out,” Kobseff said...more