Former BLM manager accepted gifts

The former district manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Farmington field office accepted trips to pro golf tournaments, donations to his son's youth baseball teams and other prohibited gifts from oil and gas companies he was charged with regulating, according to an Office of the Inspector General investigation made public this week. Steve Henke, after managing the Farmington field office for nine years, resigned from the BLM in May to accept a job as president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. According to a government investigation initiated prior to his resignation, Henke accepted gifts from oil and gas companies and misused BLM funds. However, no evidence was found that Henke gave preferential treatment in exchange for the gifts, according to the report made public through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Henke in response to the investigation report said he did nothing wrong. "There's no evidence or indication of any quid pro quo or any inappropriate conduct with regard to the oil and gas (industry) on my part, that's the bottom line," Henke said. "If the lines between my professional responsibilities, my personal life and my civic responsibilities overlap, I think in the final analysis, the point that there's no indication that there was a quid pro quo of any sort is indicative of how I conducted business on behalf of the public at BLM."...more

Energy vote costly for Harry Teague

Rep. Harry Teague made an expensive decision last June when he supported Democratic leaders on climate change. The former oil man bucked his energy-producing home district to support Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cap-and-trade legislation — a yes vote that cost him millions of dollars in lost business at his family’s company, which services the local oil and gas industry. And it’s a vote that ultimately could end up costing the House freshman his job. Teague stands out more than most Democrats when it comes to the climate change debate. Thanks to his conservative-minded and energy industry-driven constituency, he instantly landed atop the list of potential GOP pickup opportunities. “Cap and trade is a vote that’s contrary to the economic interests in the district, and I don’t think Harry is going to get away with that,” said Jim Manatt, a prominent Republican fundraiser and the owner of Roswell-based Thrust Energy Inc. Some local oil industry officials even targeted Teague’s company, which he’d built up from scratch into a multimillion-dollar business, marking him one of the richest members in Congress. “Immediately, everybody quit using his businesses,” said Lance Wilbanks, the CEO of Wilbanks Trucking in Artesia, who said he thought it was “sleazy” that Teague’s company changed its name after the climate vote in attempt to hedge some of its losses...more

AZ Ranchers and Conservationists Begin New Era in Wolf Management

The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program along the Arizona-New Mexico border is moving into a new phase, with a program compensating ranchers for wolf-caused livestock losses being taken over by the federal government. Meanwhile, Craig Miller, Southwest representative with Defenders of Wildlife, says his organization's resources will be redirected to projects that actively safeguard livestock and protect wolves. "It should benefit ranchers as well as conservationists because it provides significant flexibility in the way the funds are used to address conflicts." Eva Sargent, Southwest program director with Defenders of Wildlife, says her group will now focus on what they call "Wolf Coexistence Partnerships," using proven methods to proactively prevent livestock losses to wolves. "Special fencing, more cowboys or range-riders in the field to watch out for the cattle; the human presence keeps the wolves away. You could do moving of cattle to more secure pasturing that's further from wolf dens." Craig Miller says the goal is near-zero losses of both livestock and wolves through a combination of collaboration, common sense, and cost-effective methods and tools...more

Wild horse roundup opponents ignore reality

t should come as no surprise that wild horse advocates have assembled more than 3,000 letters opposing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plans to round up nearly 2,000 wild horses in southwest Wyoming this fall. Many people see wild horses as a romantic symbol of the West. So the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign had no trouble rallying people around the country and internationally to oppose the BLM's helicopter roundup plans. What many of those people don't understand is that while the BLM has a responsibility to manage wild horses, it also has an obligation to manage federal land where those horses live for multiple uses -- livestock grazing, recreation, wildlife and mineral development, to name just a few. If wild horse herds are allowed to run wild -- remember, they have no natural predators and multiply rapidly -- there's no possibility for balance. And "management" of wild horses means just what its says in the dictionary: "to direct or control the use of," or "to exert control over." Even if you accept the argument of some wild horse advocates that the animals should be considered a native species, modern wildlife management principles would dictate that the horse population should be controlled. Because we don't allow wild horse hunting seasons, the only real option is to remove excess animals from the range...more

Research IDs lands along Yellowstone River that may be public

Research done by a coalition of local groups has identified 10 tracts of land along and in the Yellowstone River between Laurel and Billings that may be public. Ultimately the groups would like to see public islands and former islands opened to river travelers for camping, hunting and recreation along the Yellowstone’s entire length, said Mike Penfold, who’s leading the effort. Although identifying the lands and then having them ruled public takes time and money, Penfold said the process is still cheaper than buying land. To find the lands, the groups first commissioned a geomorphology study of the river by Womack and Associates, a geology and engineering firm. The study showed which islands may have existed before Montana became a state in 1889. Islands that formed before Montana became a state are state lands, even if they later attach to the bank. Islands in the river at the time Montana became a state that were never patented are federal land, even if they later attach to the bank. From that survey, the groups identified 22 tracts between Billings and Laurel that were potentially public. “That gave us a lot of areas that might fit that category,” Penfold said. “Then we looked at where taxes were being paid.”...more

Mike Penfold is the former State Director of the BLM in Montana and it doesn't surprise me he is working to increase the size of the federal estate. I worked with him (or tried to) in the 80s.

Michigan hails judge's ruling in Asian carp fight against Chicago

The five Midwestern states suing to keep Asian carp – the behemoths that gorge on plankton and leap 10 feet in the air – out of the Great Lakes claimed to score a legal victory Monday. On Monday, a federal judge held an initial hearing and scheduled more hearings for expert testimony in early September. The Michigan attorney general’s office heralded the decision, since it will be the first time the case is heard on its merits. The Supreme Court earlier this year declined to take up the case. The goal of the lawsuit is to force Chicago to shut down two locks except in cases of emergency, preventing Asian carp from using the canals to reach the Great Lakes. That plan has met with with fierce resistance from barge and tour boat operators. But with carp DNA showing up near Lake Michigan and a bighead carp found in June just six miles from the lake – and beyond the electronic barrier that is supposed to keep it out – a number of groups are calling for drastic action before the fish can infiltrate the Great Lakes with potentially dire consequences...more

Math Lessons for Locavores

But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use. One popular and oft-repeated statistic is that it takes 36 (sometimes it’s 97) calories of fossil fuel energy to bring one calorie of iceberg lettuce from California to the East Coast. It is also an almost complete misrepresentation of reality, as those numbers reflect the entire energy cost of producing lettuce from seed to dinner table, not just transportation. Studies have shown that whether it’s grown in California or Maine, or whether it’s organic or conventional, about 5,000 calories of energy go into one pound of lettuce. Given how efficient trains and tractor-trailers are, shipping a head of lettuce across the country actually adds next to nothing to the total energy bill. It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound of freight 3,000 miles by rail; that works out to about 100 calories of energy. If it goes by truck, it’s about 300 calories, still a negligible amount in the overall picture. (For those checking the calculations at home, these are “large calories,” or kilocalories, the units used for food value.) Overall, transportation accounts for about 14 percent of the total energy consumed by the American food system. Other favorite targets of sustainability advocates include the fertilizers and chemicals used in modern farming. But their share of the food system’s energy use is even lower, about 8 percent. The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far. Indeed, households make up for 22 percent of all the energy expenditures in the United States. Agriculture, on the other hand, accounts for just 2 percent of our nation’s energy usage; that energy is mainly devoted to running farm machinery and manufacturing fertilizer...more

The Teamster Tariffs

An 18-month trade war between the U.S. and its third largest trading partner took a turn for the worse this week when Mexico announced new tariffs on 26 previously tariff-free items that it imports from America. Washington state apples and California oranges and pistachios, among other things, will now cost 20% more in Mexico than they did last week. Cheeses from California and Wisconsin now face a 25% tariff. Though Mexico removed 16 items from the tariff list, the additions mean a net increase of 10 new U.S. exports facing Mexican duties and raise the value of the exports hit to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion. The list of 99 items was released Wednesday and went into effect Thursday. This is bad news for U.S. producers whose goods compete with exports from countries like Canada and Chile, which have free trade agreements with Mexico. It is a wound that the fragile and export-dependent U.S. economic recovery can ill afford. It is also self-inflicted. Under the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), goods and services are supposed to flow largely tariff-free across the Mexican, U.S. and Canadian borders. But the U.S. hasn't kept its side of the bargain, refusing for 15 years to allow Mexican trucking companies to compete on American soil. esident Clinton first yielded to pressure from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to block Mexican trucks in 1995. Mexico pursued fruitless negotiations for five years, finally winning an appeal to a Nafta resolution panel in 2001. The Bush Administration promised to respect the panel's ruling but it waited until 2007 to launch a pilot program to allow a limited number of Mexican long-haul trucks into the U.S. and test their safety. The program demonstrated that Mexican trucks are as safe as their U.S. counterparts. But that didn't matter to Congressional Democrats who killed the pilot program in 2009...more

U.S. Agriculture Paying Price for Inaction on Mexican Trucks

Mexico’s trade retaliation against the United States is expanding in size and scope due to the U.S. government not meeting obligations to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the United States. Due to this inaction, America’s farmers and ranchers are paying a steep price and the American Farm Bureau Federation is calling for immediate action to correct the matter. The updated retaliation list published by Mexico includes tariffs that take effect today against U.S. pork, certain types of U.S. cheese, pistachios, a wide range of U.S. fruits and vegetables and other farm and non-farm goods. “Mexico is one of our best trading partners and allowing this retaliation to continue for a provision we are obligated to meet is simply unacceptable,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “The economic impact from this growing list will be significant to many farmers and ranchers.”...more

Stage set for USDA-DOJ workshop in Ft. Collins

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the lineup of speakers for its joint workshop with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on competition in livestock markets. The workshop, to be held Aug. 27 in Ft. Collins, Colo., is expected to draw hundreds of cattle producers with wildly divergent views about market fairness. Not only supporters of conventional marketing systems but particularly those who believe the current market structure is anticompetitive and stacked against the independent producer have planned pre-workshop events on Aug. 26. The liveliest part of the meeting promises to be the two open-microphone sessions for the public, one at midday and the other after the final afternoon panel. As with the previous three joint USDA/DOJ workshops, the morning session will be opened by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and DOJ antitrust division chief Christine Varney. The first panel will be moderated by Vilsack and Varney and will include the following panelists: Mike Harper, sheep producer, Eaton, Colo.; Dr. Taylor Haynes, rancher, Cheyenne, Wyo.: Robbie LeValley, rancher, Hotchkiss, Colo.; Harry Livermont, rancher, Interior, S.D.; Chris Petersen, hog farmer, Clear Lake, Iowa; Allen Sents, feedlot owner, Marquette, Kan., and Alden Zuhlke, rancher, Brunswick, Neb...more

Cutting back on antibiotics use poses hurdles for hog farmers

The Obama administration would like to see more hog farmers raising hogs the way the Hilleman brothers do - using fewer antibiotics. But raising hogs with fewer antibiotics has its challenges, the brothers say. One big one: Some of the black Berkshire hogs grunting and rooting around the Hillemans' barns are likely to get sick and die before they're ready for market. That's because it's sometimes impractical to treat them, the brothers say. Randy, Mark and Tom Hilleman raise the hogs for a local cooperative, Eden Farms, that markets Berkshire pork to high-end restaurants. Farmers who raise Eden Farms pork earn a premium price for the pigs, because the Berkshires are valued by chefs at high-end restaurants because of the hogs' fatter, darker meat. But farmers who supply Eden Farms cannot use antibiotics for growth promotion, a common practice on conventional farms, and they cannot use the drugs at all if the hogs are within 100 days - more than three months - of going to slaughter. The Food and Drug Administration this summer proposed to phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promotion but still allow drugs to be added to feed or water for purposes of preventing specific diseases, a practice Eden Farms allows for young pigs. The administration is concerned that the overuse of antibiotics in livestock is contributing to the problem of drug-resistant diseases in humans...more

Song Of The Day #388

Ranch Radio will head west this week. To start things off will be Gene Autry's 1939 recording of Be Honest With Me.

Widow of Slain Rancher Reflects on Border Debate

Sue Krentz is a conflicted woman, coping with the complicated reality of life near the Mexican border. She hears calls for the humanitarian treatment of migrants at her church, and her family has long shown compassion to those who cross their ranch, providing water and other aid before calling the Border Patrol. But it pains her deeply to know there was no similar compassion from whomever Rob Krentz, 58, encountered on March 27. That day her husband of 33 years was shot to death on their ranch northeast of Douglas as he made his rounds. No one has been charged for the crime. Krentz supports S.B. 1070 and had long backed such legislation, but she believes the main responsibility for fixing border problems lies with the U.S. and Mexican governments, the latter by doing more to help its own people support themselves in their own country. A lifelong Catholic, Krentz has turned to Mary and a daily 4 a.m. rosary “to get me through this.” But she chafes when her pastor at St. Luke’s preaches about the Christian responsibility to honor the human dignity of every person, no matter their legal status. “Where’s my human dignity? Where was Rob’s?” she asks...more

Border Sheriffs: Security Impossible Without More Federal Help

A recent gathering of law enforcement officers highlighted the growing divide between the federal government and local authorities on issues of border security. Sheriffs in the southwest say that violence from the Mexican drug wars already has spilled over to the United States, despite Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s recent statements to the contrary. Sheriff Arvin R. West pointed to a place on the map along the southern U.S. border where he serves in Hudspeth County, Texas. Here, he said, between Interstate 10 and the Rio Grande, a population hangs by a desperate thread. The sheriff calls it “Almost America,” full of people who believe they’ve been left to fend for themselves in the face of encroaching violence from Mexico. Federal agents provide little protection for the swath of land running between the highway and the river, West said. Nobody said that life along the U.S.-Mexican border was pretty. But local sheriffs there will say that it's downright ugly — more violent and dangerous than the federal government will admit. They have the community scars and pictures to prove it. They brought the latter to a law enforcement conference last week in suburban Washington D.C. The sheriffs, along with a longtime Border Patrol agent and a West Coast gang expert, held nothing back as they spoke to fellow lawmen. Mexican drug cartels have a military arsenal, and they're stocking weapons in the United States, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, whose jurisdiction covers 1,000 square miles near the southern most tip of Texas...more

23,000 Workers affected by Gulf oil drill ban

A six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would directly put more than 9,000 people out of work and indirectly affect another 14,000 jobs, according to a memo from the nation's top drilling regulator. The federal document, which weighed the economic impact and alternatives to the ban, was sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on July 10 by Michael Bromwich. Salazar issued a moratorium in June, but it was struck down by a federal judge in New Orleans after oil and gas drilling interests said it wasn't justified following the Gulf oil spill. The Obama administration issued a new moratorium July 12 — two days after the memo — that stressed new evidence of safety concerns. The White House hopes the revised ban will pass muster with the courts. Some energy experts, engineering consultants and Gulf Coast leaders have joined Big Oil to ask Salazar to change his mind. Drilling was safe before the BP spill, they said, and Gulf communities that depend on the industry were suffering unfairly...more

'Problem Wolves' Spur NM Suit

Ranchers and two southern New Mexico counties sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court Friday for changing a policy about capturing cow-killing Mexican wolves without first conducting a study on the change's impact on humans. The lawsuit says that rules governing the federally-managed wolf reintroduction effort, launched in 1998, provided for the removal of wolves that prey on livestock in the recovery area of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. But since last year, Fish and Wildlife, in an effort to bolster the population of wild wolves, has stopped adhering to a 2005 standard operating procedure, known as SOP 13, that called for the removal or killing of wolves that preyed on three or more cattle in a one-year period. The lawsuit says that the rule about removing "problem wolves" is being ignored, and that a change in the policy requires an environmental study on the impact of the change under the National Environmental Policy Act...more

Oregon wolf hazing experiment tries to keep the predators away from cattle

Jason Cunningham studies the muddy trail ahead for wolf tracks as his horse lopes through a northeastern Oregon mountain canyon. An actual encounter with a wolf is rare in these mountains, even though the 30-year-old range rider knows from radio telemetry that more than a dozen wolves are nearby. He sees their tracks daily and often hears their mournful howls. "We're chasing a ghost with tracks," quips the bearded Cunningham as he reins in Drifty , his 10-year-old bay gelding, near the burbling waters of Big Sheep Creek. His panting Catahoula dog, Iris , throws herself down at the horse's feet. Cunningham's range riding job is sponsored by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the 530,000-member Defenders of Wildlife environmental group. He's a hazer on horseback, discouraging wolves from dining on Oregon ranchers' beef -- no shooting allowed. He often pounds a saddle for 30 miles a day, changing horses at noon to keep his three horses fresh, then sometimes switching to an ATV for nighttime patrol because wolves tend to be more active after dark...more

Montana meeting shows monument opposition mounting

Mistrust of the purported plans by the Interior Department to create a grasslands national monument — possibly with bison — on Montana's open plains was expressed by speaker after speaker at a meeting here Friday. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg, a Republican, said. "I don't trust 'em." The meeting drew just more than 200 people, who filled the bleachers in the gymnasium. They heard speeches from a panel of county commissioners and people with ranching interests, who said they oppose a monument designation and urged the crowd to get informed — and ready for battle. Seven of the eight people on Rehberg's panel spoke against the idea, but Sean Gerrity, president of the American Prairie Foundation, withheld judgment. APF runs a growing private grassland preserve in northeastern Montana, where genetically pure bison roam. Martha Kauffman, Bozeman-based managing director of the Northern Great Plains Program for WWF, said the group isn't in collusion with government land managers, as some people have suggested. Kauffman told the crowd that Western Montana has received most of the conservation focus in Montana, while the eastern part of the state is overlooked. "We like it that way," somebody in the crowd shouted...more

Livestock sale nets $286,000

With Tell Runyan and his steer projected on the big screen, auctioneer Tommy Williams is looking to make a deal. A chant of, “Do I have 51? Do I have 51?” echoes through the Curry County Events Center. Hearing none, Williams declares, “I just sold that steer for $5,000.” The sale was the first of 107 at the Curry County Junior Livestock sale, with sales totaling $286.764.30. That’s up from last year’s total of $254,000 between 112 animals. Proceeds from the animal sales go to the youth that raised the animals. Any profits they keep after the expenses of feeding and raising the animal are put into savings or rolled into next year’s projects. Prior to the sale, a free barbecue dinner is served. During the dinner, the youth bring refreshments and promote their animals. If their animal is purchased, it’s customary to make some sort of gift basket for the buyer. A box full of bread, apples, lemons and even a pineapple went to Joe Rhodes, who went in on a purchase with Bender GM and Public Land Commissioner candidate and Roosevelt County rancher Matt Rush. Rhodes, well-known as “Papa Joe” from Joe’s Boot Shop, said the sale is a good-faith transaction. “(It’s) because they’re my customers,” Rhodes said, before motioning jokingly toward auctioneer assistant Wayne Kinman, who propped himself up with a cane as he looked for bidders. “He’ll make you bid. He’s got a stick.”...more

BLM Raids Dalton Wilson’s Ranch After Judge Sandoval’s Acquittal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 21, 2010

(AUSTIN, NV) Just a year after being acquitted of an alleged criminal trespass by then Federal District Court Judge Brian Sandavol in a case brought by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Dalton Wilson drove home to his ranch last week to find the road blocked by BLM employees under order of Federal Judge Edward C. Reed. “I was by myself and they were packing guns. I don’t trust the BLM not to provoke an ‘incident’ as an excuse to hall me off in leg chains or worse. I went back to Austin and reported the incident to the Sheriff instead,” said Wilson.
Last year Wilson successfully defended his claim to 80 acres of land in Lander Co. Nevada before Judge Sandoval, defeating the BLM’s criminal trespass charge. “The BLM was trying to throw me in jail for living on a ranch which I bought from my predecessors in 1981. This land has been farmed and lived on continually for 100 years, property taxes have been paid on it and my predecessors applied for a patent to it in 1917. They received a patent for the adjoining 80 acres but it appears the patent and survey is missing from the official BLM record on this property,” Wilson commented.
The 73 year-old Wilson, who lives alone on his remote ranch surviving only on his social security check, has been in a David and Goliath battle for over ten years to protect his ranch from BLM bureaucrats intent on destroying his ranch. In a sad moment of Nevada history, Wilson was notified that the BLM raided his ranch, removed his personal belongings from his house and his livestock from his property.
The BLM, rather than merely appealing Sandoval’s acquittal, in an unusual move, brought a civil trespass charge against Wilson instead, raising the issue of double jeopardy.
“This is the strangest case I have ever seen,” remarked Ramona Morrison, NLSA Director, who has been following the case closely. “Wilson, after being acquitted and after repeated pleas to Judge Reed in this new case for a jury trial has never even been allowed a hearing before the Judge. Judge Reed has never ruled on the facts or law of this case and in fact is ignoring an Order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals directing him to resolve the claims of the parties and to try this case.”
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a Mandate which is a stay until the claims have been litigated by the lower court and Judge Reed.
Don Alt, NLSA President, noted, “Reed seems to be acting in contemptuous disregard to the higher Court’s Order and Mandate and has issued what is tantamount to an edict from the bench allowing the BLM to forcibly interfere with Wilson’s property without due process of law.”
Reed’s order opened the door to the BLM to violate its own laws including the Federal Land Policy and Management Act when they physically blocked Wilson’s access to his home and the adjoining 80 acres on which there is no question of title.
“Dalton Wilson is only doing what the law clearly allows him to do and is being punished because he had the nerve to stand up for his Constitutionally protected rights,” said Morrison. “I am especially curious to know why Sheriff Unger allowed the federal government bureaucrats to conduct an unlawful law enforcement in violation of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act as well as the Nevada Constitution and law.”
According to Wilson when he asked Sandoval during one of his recent campaign stops for Governor about the government’s new civil case, Sandoval’s reply was, “The government doesn’t like to lose”.
# # # # #
9732 State Route 445, #305  Sparks, Nevada 89436  775.577.9048
Contact: Dalton Wilson, 775.934.2281
Don Alt, Chairman, 775.577.9048
Ramona Morrison, Director, 775.722.2517