MAD COW NEWS

Transcript of Technical Briefing on BSE with USDA Chief Veterinary Officer Ron DeHaven and David Hegwood, senior advisor on International Trade to the Secretary of Agriculture - Washington D.C., January 26, 2004

MR. JIM ROGERS: Hello, everyone. This is Jim Rogers with the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. Today we have with us Dr. Ron DeHaven, the chief veterinary officer for the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, part of USDA. We're going to do a little talking today about our epidemiological investigation, after which there will be a question and answer session. As those of you that have been on this call before know, to ask a question you press "star 1." At the time of your question we do ask that you identify yourself and the media that you represent.

At this point I'm going to turn it over to Dr. DeHaven.

DR. DEHAVEN: Thank you, Jim. And I want to thank everyone for joining us today. It's been quite some time since our last briefing and so much of the purpose behind this briefing is simply to update you on activity since our last media briefing.

I have here with me today also to address trade issues, David Hegwood, who is the senior advisor to the Secretary for International Trade.

Let me begin again by just a brief update on our activity since the last briefing as it relates to our investigation. We have continued our effort to identify those animals of interest, primarily the 81 head that entered the United States from the birth herd in Alberta, Canada. These are the 81 included on a health certificate that entered the US in September of 2001 and that 81 includes the cow that tested positive at the slaughter plant in the state of Washington.

We've been working to narrow the population of animals in various herds that we have epidemiologically linked to those 81, and we have been able to positively identify 28 of those 81 animals; but in the process of going through those herds we have reduced the number of animals or reduced the population of those of interest by eliminating from consideration or concern any animals in those epidemiologically traced herds that are of the wrong age -- in other words, not of the age span that we would anticipate these animals of being -- by ruling out any through records on those farms that we can definitively say were born on that farm or that entered those herds of interest at a time inconsistent when we know these 81 animals left.

So through that process of elimination and tracing to those herds, we've been able to positively identify 28 of those animals, and in those larger groups of animals within these multiple herds very likely have others within that group of 81 animals that we're looking for that would have originated from the birth herd in Alberta, Canada.

As we are narrowing those populations of animals in these dairy herds -- and some of them are quite large -- we are euthanizing and testing animals that would be either those animals that we have positively identified as part of the 81, or those that we can't rule out as not being part of those 81. To that end in the index dairy herd in Mabton, Washington, we have sacrificed and tested 131 animals, all of them negative both to a screening test as well as the gold standard immunohistochemistry test. From the dairy finishing farm in Mattawa, Washington, we have sacrificed and tested negative 39 of those animals. And then from two other herds one in Connell, Washington and another in Boardman, Oregon, we have taken a respective 15 and 20 animals, and those tests are still pending. So we do not have test results on those yet.

Recognizing that this is not a contagious disease, and if we can identify those animals that might be of concern or might possibly be from that birth herd in Alberta, we can then safely release the hold orders on all of those herds once those animals have left those farms. And so to that end we have actually released five hold orders -- one on the Mabton, Washington, farm; the dairy finishing farm in Mattawa, Washington; the calf raising operation in Sunnyside, Washington; as well as the two herds that I just mentioned -- one in Connell, Washington, and the other one in Boardman, Oregon. So we have removed from those herds any of the animals of interest and have either tested them negative or have test results that are pending and because of that then have released the hold orders on all of those.

Let me clarify one particularly one important point that goes to the science of this disease as well as the interntational standard. Indeed we have been focusing our efforts on those 81 animals that may have come from the birth herd or that we know came from the birth herd and trying to locate them in the United States. However, we also know that the international standards would say the animals of particular concern or those animals of significance are those that are born a year before or a year after the positive animal. The reason for that two-year window is because it's presumed that the feed that would have infected the positive animal would have been consumed during that two-year window by any other animals in the herd that might then be exposed. So we've got a two-year window where we would consider the highest risk of animals consuming contaminated feed. And so by international standards we should focus our efforts not on all animals from the herd but rather those animals that would have been born within a two-year window of the birth of the infected cow.

So taking that into consideration, we are now really focusing our effort on the 25 animals out of that 81 that fit into that two-year window. So we are, again, focusing our remaining epidemiological investigation on the 25 animals of those 81.

We've also evaluated culling practices and not just within the dairy industry but specifically within the dairy industry in that part of the country, and by evaluating normal culling practices we would have expected several of those 25 animals to have been culled from the herd by now. And taking that into account, we would estimate that it's very likely that only 11 of those 25 would still be alive.

In fact, we have found 14 of those 25 and so consider our epidemiological tracing to be quite remarkable. And in fact the international review team that was here was quite impressed with the fact that we'd been able to find that many of those 25 animals that would be of the most significance.

I think it's clear that we will not be able to positively identify all 25 of those animals because while we have found 14 of them, no doubt some of them have been culled, and I suspect we have some of the remaining 11 animals out of the 25 that might be included in those populations of interest in those herds that we have inventoried and gone through. But because they've lost identification we may not be able to positively identify as part of those 25.

Having said that, we again would make every assurance that we don't think those animals are of particular concern, either from a public health or an animal health perspective. The reason I say that is because even at the height of the infection and the prevalence of the disease and the UK, it was very rare to find more than one or two animals in any given herd that were positive. And so we wouldn't expect there to be necessarily any more or certainly not more than just one or two other animals in that Alberta herd that would be positive.

Second, if any of them had been exhibiting central nervous system disorder at the time of slaughter they would have been condemned. We now of course have procedures in place that keep nonambulatory animals from entering into the human food chain. And of course for animals over 30 months of age we're removing the specified risk materials, that portion of the carcass that is likely to be infective if an animal would happen to be positive. All of those tissues are being excluded from the human food chain.

We have had in place since August of 1997 a ruminant-to-ruminant feed bad, and knowing that that is the primary if not the only means of spread of this disease that would have kept the transmission of any of those animals having been positive to other positives. Again, the feed ban, the most important factor, in terms of preventing spread of the disease from animal to animal.

I think it's also important to note that there is, based on the scientific research, no reason to be concerned about the safety of the milk or other dairy products that would come even from a herd with a positive animal in it. And other than the one herd in Mabton, Washington, we have no evidence that we have anything other than the single positive animal. But even if there are, again the science is quite clear that the milk and dairy products even from a positive herd represent no risk in terms of public health.


I mentioned that we did have a visit by the International Review Team. We had representatives from Switzerland, Dr. Ulrich Kihm, and Dr. Dagmar Heim. We had a representative from the United States, Dr. Will Hueston, who's the director of the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety at the University of Minnesota. And we had Dr. Stuart Mac Diarmid who's the principal advisor on zoonotic and animal health for the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.

We also had a last minute addition to that team, Dr. Danny Matthews, a TSE program coordinator in the UK, and certainly based on the prevalence of the disease and all of the activity in the UK as it relates to BSE a world-recognized expert in BSE. So we were glad to be able to add Danny Matthews to that team.

The International Review Team asked a lot of questions. I felt quite satisfied in my exit interview with them that they felt that we had answered all of the questions or provided all of the information that they needed. They are now in the process of compiling a report, and we would hope to have that report presented to us in about two weeks time.

With that, let me pause and allow David Hegwood to address from the international perspective. David, or do we want to just go to questions?

DAVID HEGWOOD: If I can just say a few words. I just returned from Japan where we had meetings, a second series of meetings with the Japanese government since the outbreak of this disease. And the purpose of our discussions this time was to explain all of the measures we have taken since the outbreak of the disease and to begin the discussion of the conditions for resuming trade with Japan.

We did not certainly reach any agreement with the Japanese government on resuming trade. We did both agree that we need to get trade moving again as quickly as possible. The trade restrictions the Japanese have put in place, as well as other countries have put in place are causing serious economic damage, both to the US industry as well as to many economic interests in Japan. So it's in both of our interest to get trade moving again as quickly as possible.

We did agree that we would try to meet again next month after the report from the International Review Team has been completed and have some more detailed discussions about the conditions for resuming trade.

So that's all I have to report.

DR. DEHAVEN: Thanks, David. Let me clarify for those that don't know David and because he has not been on previous conference calls -- again, his title is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture for International Trade. And his last name is H-E-G-W-O-O-D.

With that, Operator, if we could, please, go to the first question?

Followed by Q&A with reporters.

Report: Regulators Probing Cattle Trades Federal regulators are probing whether some commodity traders last month had advance knowledge that the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease was confirmed in Washington state, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday. According to the paper, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's enforcement chief said its investigators are interviewing possible witnesses, reviewing documents, phone records, and trading patterns on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange....FDA toughens safeguards to protect against mad cow disease Meat from downer cattle -- animals too sick to walk to slaughter -- will be prohibited from canned soups, pizzas, dietary supplements, and cosmetics, the federal government said yesterday, announcing a series of measures to strengthen protections against mad cow disease. A 1997 ban on using meat from infected cattle in feed given to other cattle will be strengthened: The new measure also bans blood from cattle being fed to cattle, officials said. The set of actions we are implementing will strengthen a series of firewalls that will protect Americans against the agent that causes BSE," FDA commissioner Mark McClellan said. Blood from the infected Holstein cow that was slaughtered Dec. 9 at a Moses Lake, Wash., facility, was tracked and impounded before it could be fed to other animals, said Lester Crawford, deputy FDA commissioner....Seoul to Maintain Ban on US Beef The South Korean government reconfirmed on Tuesday that it has no plan to lift the embargo on American beef imports for the time being. The stance was reaffirmed after a meeting on Tuesday between Korean government officials and a U.S. delegation at the Integrated Government Complex in Kwachon, south of Seoul. The delegation, led by J.B. Penn, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Thomas Hubbard visited Huh Sang-man, the Korean agriculture and forestry minister, to assure the safety of U.S. beef and beef products....Woman persists in disease probe Janet Skarbek, the Cinnaminson woman who believes cases of a rare brain disease may be linked to the Garden State Park racetrack, is not giving up her investigation despite repeated assertions by state and federal officials that there is no cluster. A cluster is an unusually high number of cases in a given population that cannot be explained as coincidence. Skarbek says her list of suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease victims with links to the now-closed racetrack has grown to eight and is likely to keep growing as people continue coming to her with information....Editorial: The ineffectiveness of mad-cow testing Banning meat from obviously ill cows is only a partial solution to reducing the risk that meat infected with mad-cow disease will reach U.S. dining tables. Since testing of so-called "downer" cows was the primary way to monitor for signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy among the 36 million U.S. cows slaughtered every year, the ban eliminates a financial incentive for producers to take their sick or injured cattle to market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture should establish a more methodical monitoring system that covers a cross-section of the cattle industry and is not dependent on voluntary participation....Mad Cow Scare May Change Animal Dumping The Washington mad cow case, ensuing international bans on U.S. beef products and new regulations designed to prevent another incident raise questions about how dead farm animals should be disposed of and whether the costs will rise too high for some farmers. "It's still a big unknown," said Tom Cook, president of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Renderers Association. Farmers currently are allowed to bury animals on their own property, dump them at licensed landfills or send them to rendering plants where the carcasses are exposed to extreme heat and reduced to bone and tallow....Iditarod food forced to take long way to Alaska Officials of the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska may have solved an unexpected problem for mushers that arose because of the mad cow scare. Canada has barred all U.S. beef products from entering the country because of the mad cow case confirmed in Washington state last month. That prevents mushers from their usual practice of trucking stockpiles of frozen dog food through Canada to Alaska for use along the 1,100-mile race course. Now race officials have arranged for a barge to ship the food to Alaska, race manager Jack Niggemyer said....5 quarantines lifted in mad cow inquiry The United States has lifted quarantines on five farms under investigation for links to the country's first case of mad cow disease, Ron DeHaven, chief veterinary officer for the U.S. Agriculture Department said yesterday. Animals from the farms in Washington state and Oregon that might have been tied to mad cow disease were killed and tested negative for the disease, indicating that it has not spread, Dr. DeHaven said.... U.S. Search for New Mad-Cow Cases Winding Down The U.S. Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian says he expects to wind up the search for more cases of mad-cow disease in the U.S. soon without locating all of the herdmates of the U.S.' first known case. Ron DeHaven told reporters Monday that investigators have sharply narrowed the number of cattle that years ago could have eaten the same, possibly contaminated feed as the Canadian-born Holstein found sick with the brain-wasting disease in December after being taken to slaughter from a dairy farm in Mabton, Wash. Mr. DeHaven said some animals in the Holstein's birth herd may never be located because of poor records and the likelihood that many have already been slaughtered.... Canada quarantines three cows for mad cow testing Canadian officials have found three animals associated with the Alberta-born dairy cow with mad cow disease found last month in Washington state, and will test them for the disease, an investigator said on Monday. The three animals came from the same Calmar, Alberta, farm as the Washington cow, but were sold to two Canadian farms, said George Luterbach, a veterinary official with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency....Human Brains Examined for Clues About Mad Cow If Americans develop a disease like the human form of mad cow that worries millions of Europeans, Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti may be the man to find it. Dr. Gambetti, an Italian neuropathologist whose mild manner and penchant for cardigan sweaters make him look a bit like Mr. Rogers, is director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University here. For the last five years, he and his staff have been collecting brain tissue from people all over the country who die from mysterious, rapidly progressive neurological disease. Now that the first case of a cow infected with mad cow disease has been discovered in the United States, Dr. Gambetti's work has taken on new urgency....Canadian Forces quarantine U.S. beef The Canadian Forces in Afghanistan are scrambling to find alternative sources of meat for nearly 2,000 soldiers after being told to quarantine tonnes of U.S. beef that may eventually have to be destroyed because of fears over mad cow disease. “Rib-eye steaks, a little over 2,000 kilograms; inside round, 3,000 kilograms; outside round, another 2,500; prime rib, 8,000 kilos,” said services manager Joe MacAulay, rhyming off a list of beef products worth more than $83,000 (Cdn.) that are stored in giant freezers and refrigerators at the Canadians’ Camp Julien near Kabul....Beef industry looks for post-mad cow rebound with new ad campaign The beef industry launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign today, one month after the nation's first case of mad cow disease and just in time for Super Bowl parties and romantic Valentine's Day meals. "The Super Bowl is a great time for people to serve up halftime snacks," said Michele Peterson of the Denver-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "We see beef as sort of the star player."....BSE Considered "Extraordinary Circumstance" The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's bank examiners will consider the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. as an "extraordinary circumstance," cutting banks a break on some standards, OCC said in a Friday letter to banks. Prices for live cattle and cattle futures dropped 20% to 30% in December, after the Dec. 23 announcement that a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, had been found in a Washington state dairy cow, OCC said. As a result, some loans collateralized by cattle were no longer secured by enough collateral. Normally, banks have 30 days to bring a nonconforming loan back into compliance with regulatory standards, known as the "legal lending limit." But regulators can grant a short-term exception from this standard if the problem is caused by "extraordinary circumstances beyond the bank's control," OCC said.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Fed hiring spree They would fill all the seats at Invesco Field at Mile High, with a few thousand extras left waiting outside. The crowd is 79,464 strong, representing all of the new civilian workers the federal government has added nationally since the end of 2000. Colorado has shared in the three-year boom in the federal work force, adding 1,180 federal workers, mostly on President Bush's watch. That includes new federal security at the state's airports, plus hundreds of new Colorado workers in the departments of Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs. The Department of Agriculture's presence in Colorado grew by 19 percent, or a net gain of 649 workers. Among the additions were 452 new Forest Service positions and 187 in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. There were smaller gains and losses in other divisions. The Department of Interior added 195 positions in the state. The gains were in the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Indian Affairs, although other divisions lost Colorado workers. The number of government workers paid at least $130,000 annually has more than tripled - from 6,249 to 21,178....Campers charged for leaving fire unattended U.S. Forest Service officials have charged each of the four campers accused of building a campfire and leaving it unattended during last summer´s fire restrictions. The campers may also be asked to foot the bill for the $500,000 Falconberry fire near Challis....Plan to log Biscuit Fire draws flood of comments A lot of people have something to say about a U.S. Forest Service proposal to log and replant trees in parts of Southern Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains that burned in the Biscuit Fire of 2002. The Siskiyou and Rogue River National Forest received about 23,000 letters, e-mails and faxes by this week's deadline. The flood of comments came in response to the agency's environmental review of several alternatives, including Forest Supervisor Scott Conroy's preferred choice, to log 518 million board feet across about 30,000 acres....Forests file revisions The Lolo, Bitterroot and Flathead national forests would expand the use of intentionally ignited fires and allow more wildfires to burn in wilderness areas, under forest plan revisions proposed Monday. But social and economic concerns would trump ecosystem management in areas where national forests and private lands meet, according to the "proposed action." "The influx of people into the private land and forest interface has created a unique situation regarding fuels hazard and risk of wildfire," forest managers said....Disease Outbreak Intensifies Debate on Feeding of Elk In recent weeks, criticism of the feeding program at the refuge and at 22 other sites where Wyoming conducts feeding programs has intensified because of an outbreak of a bovine disease called brucellosis. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can spread through a cattle herd, causing cows to abort young spontaneously. It also occurs in elk, and by concentrating the animals, the feedings enhance the mechanism for transmitting the disease, said Dr. Thomas Roffe, a veterinarian and the regional chief of wildlife health for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Among groups of elk in the area that do not receive the feedings, brucellosis occurs at a rate of 1 to 4 percent, said Dr. Roffe, whose agency oversees the elk refuge. Rates of infection among the fed animals average nearly 20 percent and rise as high as 50 percent. Primarily, brucellosis is transmitted when animals come in contact with fetuses aborted by the disease. A single fetus can spread the disease to dozens of other elk....Resort owner: Sled ban will cost millions The owner of a resort between Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks told a federal judge Monday that he stands to lose nearly $2.7 million by the end of the decade if snowmobiles are banned from the parks. "The fun and enjoyment of Flagg Ranch is reaching the zero point, at least for me personally," resort owner Bob Walker told U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer. Walker was one of several witnesses the state called to testify before Brimmer, who has granted Wyoming's request to reopen a lawsuit filed by the Snowmobile Manufacturers Association....The power of fun The day Peter Metcalf decided to take on the governor of Utah, the lieutenant governor of Utah and, well, most of the population of Utah, he looked at his hands — hard and scarred from years of climbing, the right index finger missing above the joint — and wondered if they were up to poking powerful people in the chest as he plunged into the contentious argument over the future of the state's wild lands. Metcalf, 48, had been instrumental in bringing the twice-yearly Outdoor Retailer trade shows, Utah's largest conventions, to Salt Lake City in 1996. The conventions alone inject $24 million a year into Salt Lake City's hotels and restaurants. That leverage gave Metcalf an idea: "There are many, myself included, who believe it is time to consider pulling these [shows] out of Utah in protest of the message the state has sent the outdoor industry and community," he wrote in the op-ed piece....Bridger-Teton forest to hold lynx meetings The Bridger-Teton National Forest is planning a series of meetings on a proposed plan to protect habitat for Canada lynx in Wyoming and three other states. A draft environmental impact statement issued Jan. 16 detailed possible restrictions on activities in 18 national forests and four units overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. Those areas total 50 million acres of federal lands in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho....Watershed group identifies obstacles in plan Members of the Gila Watershed Partnership identified the key obstacle to accomplishing the goal to their water plan: Litigation. Bill Allred of the Gila Valley Irrigation District said the primary obstacle standing in the way of the plan to protect Graham and Greenlee counties' water supply is the case commonly referred to as the Globe-Equity-59 case. The court case pits the Gila Valley Irrigation District against the San Carlos Apache Irrigation and Drainage District, but includes hundreds of parties that fall under both titles, according to Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) Deputy Counsel Gregg Houtz. The parties stretch from Kearny to Virden, N.M., he said....Kerry lands key environmental endorsement Saturday’s historic endorsement of New Hampshire Democratic primary front-runner John Kerry by a major environmental group was cold comfort to Democratic rival Joe Lieberman, who a month ago was judged just as qualified. League of Conservation Voters President Deb Callahan said the replacement of President George W. Bush is her organization’s top priority and this is the right time to get behind the Democrat best able to win. “We can say with conviction that George W. Bush was never meant to be recycled. The American people need a president who will take bold steps to protect the environment,’’ Callahan said in announcing the group’s endorsement at the New Hampshire Technical Institute. Kerry, a four-term senator from Massachusetts, hugged Callahan and vowed if nominated to make the environment a defining issue against Bush in the fall election....Forest Service: Illegal grazing still occurring in Gila The U.S. Forest Service is preparing to impound cattle that are illegally grazing on two allotments in the Gila National Forest. U.S. District Judge William Johnson ruled last month that the government has the right to remove and impound the cattle. He gave Kit and Sherry Laney 30 days to remove the animals, but Forest Service officials say the cattle are still illegally grazing. Officials say the animals could be impounded as soon as February 7th.... Rancher tries to keep another's cows off acreage A southern Utah rancher is trying to stop a fellow rancher from running cattle on a grazing allotment held by an environmental group inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Trevor Stewart, of Kanab, says Kane County rancher Brent Robinson should not be allowed to graze cattle on the Clark Bench allotment, currently held by the Grand Canyon Trust but which Stewart wants. This week, attorneys for Stewart filed a motion with the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Hearings and Appeals asking that no grazing occur on the allotment until an earlier appeal filed by Stewart has been adjudicated. That appeal, filed last fall, challenges a U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision denying Stewart's application for a permit to graze livestock on Clark Bench, a 25,000-acre allotment east of Kanab in the southern portion of the 1.9-million-acre national monument....1,200-page energy bill would change America The national energy policy that President Bush and most congressional Republicans want to enact would bring about major changes in the way the nation uses and protects its coastal areas; air and water; and public lands. The 1,200-page legislation now sitting on the Senate calendar - ready for approval if the president manages to switch a few Senate votes - would have a profound impact on public health; the oil and gas industry; the automobile business; coal mining and nuclear power; and the U.S. economy. It also has sweeping foreign policy implications, as the administration argues that producing more power at home would mean less reliance on foreign sources, namely Middle East nations. The Bush administration also contends that the bill's conservation provisions could lead to more power from rivers and winds, and it might alert Americans to be more aware of how they're wasting energy. But when sweeping claims from both proponents and opponents are set aside, the details of the pending legislation are unknown, even to many members of Congress. The bill's full impact is buried in microscopic legislative modifications of current law and some new ideas that the Republican drafters inserted, at times over the objections of even the White House....Editorial: Pesticide controls to aid salmon now Like a salmon struggling upstream, protection for the Northwest's endangered fish sometimes seems to leap forward, other times to tread water. A federal court order imposing tighter controls on pesticide spraying counts as one of those surges ahead. Credit environmental and fisheries groups for demanding action and a federal judge for a ruling that will protect salmon quickly....Citigroup And RAN Reach Agreement After four years of grassroots mobilization, Rainforest Action Network today declared victory in its campaign to transform the environmental practices of the world's largest financial institution, Citigroup (NYSE: C). The release of "Citigroup New Environmental Initiatives" (www.citigroup.com/citigroup/citizen/environment.) raises the bar for the financial sector in areas related to deforestation and indigenous rights, endangered ecosystems and no-go zones, greenhouse gases and climate destabilization, and clean energy and sustainable development. Rainforest Action Network today also sent letters to ten of the most destructive U.S. banks challenging them to catch up with modern social values and "meet or beat" Citigroup's policies. A first for the financial services sector, Citigroup has agreed to deny financing for commercial logging in tropical rainforests, a significant victory in the worldwide movement to stop deforestation. In another first, Citigroup is now the only private U.S. bank to recognize the need for environmental "no-go zones," areas of high ecological value that are integral to a healthy planet....Cougar reported in Southeast Boise Cougars are becoming a fact of life in Boise. That became apparent early Sunday morning when Idaho Statesman newspaper carriers spotted what they are sure was a cougar in a subdivision off South ParkCenter Boulevard. Idaho Fish and Game has recorded about 30 sightings in Southwest Idaho over the past year, the first year the agency has kept track of cougar reports. The large predators, also called mountain lions, are following deer and elk to lower elevations and that puts them in direct contact with urban life, wildlife officials say....Destruction of elk herd urged Wildlife and agriculture officials are calling for the destruction of a captive elk herd at a Western Slope hunting ranch after an animal died and tested positive for chronic wasting disease last week. "I think both the state Agriculture (Department) and U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, are in unanimous agreement that the 200-plus elk on the Motherwell Ranch should be destroyed," said Jim Miller, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture. But, Miller said, that agreement alone won't get the job done. "For one thing, we have to see how much money the USDA has in its indemnity fund to pay for the herd (if it is to be slaughtered)."....Ranchers fight jets The residents were worried the proposed changes would devalue their land; create increased noise over their ranches; allow for debris from flares and chaffs to land on their property; and create anxiety among their livestock. Roughly 50 area residents, many of them ranchers, showed up to listen to briefings from Cannon and environmental officials. None were more outspoken and opposed to the changes than A.S. Elliott, a rancher who owns about 28,000 acres 18 miles southwest of Fort Sumner. Elliott expressed his concerns over a myriad of issues that have caused him displeasure with Cannon over the years, from the frequency of super sonic booms over his land to Air Force pilots he claims frequently fly below mandated altitudes. Much of his diatribe focused on issues related to an Air Force plane crash on his land in December of 2002....Sheep-killing Azalea cougar caught after two-year hunt For nearly two years, John Cullett chased an elusive cougar that had slowly depleted his small flock of sheep. The cat had picked off nine of his Jacob sheep, a horned breed with black-and-white faces and a spotted body. It hunted at night, coming out of a thick stand of timber into a fenced pasture that originally held nearly two dozen sheep. Cullett had tried to capture the cougar, having friends come over with dogs to track it. They'd pick up the scent and follow it, but never could find the animal. They'd either lose the scent or it would start raining, washing away signs of the cat....NCBA looking for input on mandatory price reporting National Cattlemen's Beef Association is in the final days of collecting responses to a Web survey about Mandatory Price Reporting, before discussion at the group's Annual Convention. The law is set to sunset next fall unless reauthorized. Producer input is needed to help shape the organization's comments during the reauthorization process. The law requires that the prices paid for livestock and the form of each transaction be reported to USDA. The information required under the law added to the information that USDA had been reporting under the previous existing voluntary system. The law was authorized for five years. It is scheduled to expire on October 22, 2004....Mom-and-pop cafes dished it up on Route 66 Well, I just happen to know a few stories to fit this category as I have spent many years on old Route 66. These places of business have kept travelers and the working people well fed through good times and bad. Route 66 was famous for its small "mom-and-pop" roadside cafes. Anyone living close to the road could open an eating place. Just put up a sign and let Mama serve whatever was in season. After the watermelon crop ripened, roadside stands or wagons opened up anywhere vehicles could park....'Wooly Boys' #1 in North Dakota WOOLY BOYS, a comedy-adventure set and filmed in North Dakota, opened this past weekend with the highest grossing per screen average in the state. The film averaged nearly $10,000 per screen which is two to three times higher than most successful theatrical releases. WOOLY BOYS was shown exclusively on five screens in Bismarck, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot and herded up record crowds of all ages. Starring Peter Fonda and Kris Kristofferson, WOOLY BOYS is a contemporary family film that tells the comedic and moving story of two cantankerous sheep ranchers, Stoney (Peter Fonda) and Shuck (Kris Kristofferson). Facing ill health, Stoney is tricked by his estranged daughter Kate (Robin Dearden) into traveling from his North Dakota Badlands ranch to Minneapolis where he reconnects with his over-programmed, over-protected teenage grandson Charles (Joe Mazzello)....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Pact for maintaining Forest Service fleet facing opposition Van Auken said Californians could lose the mechanics' collective experience, which enables firefighters to save homes, protect property and extinguish flames. When vehicles break down at fires, Van Auken and his fellow mechanics travel to the scene to repair them. Serco Group PLC, a $2.5 billion company based in the United Kingdom that employs 37,000 workers worldwide, could save taxpayers $2 million under a U.S. Forest Service contract that it won Jan. 7. Beginning in July, Serco will begin maintaining and repairing more than 400 federal fire vehicles at 18 national forests in California. About 60 mechanics, including Van Auken, will have to find work elsewhere if they don't get and accept job offers from Serco, he said....Firefighters faced power dilemma Shortly after the Grand Prix Fire broke out Oct. 21 in Fontana, the pilot of one of the largest firefighting helicopters available believed he had a shot at dousing what later grew into a devastating blaze. But pilot Mike Gilpin said he never got a chance to dump his payload of about 1,750 gallons of water. He said he was ordered to abandon the water drop for safety reasons. He couldn't communicate with ground crews because their radios were operating on different frequencies, Gilpin said in a telephone interview Saturday. So Gilpin dropped his water on a hillside and flew the helicopter back to San Bernardino International Airport to work out the radio-frequency problem, he said. At that point, he estimated, the fire appeared to be covering fewer than 10 acres....Devastating Fire Ignites Flurry of Research at Forest Lab Throughout its 70-year history, the San Dimas Experimental Forest has taught researchers many valuable lessons. The 17,000-acre tract, part of the larger Angeles National Forest set aside in 1933, has provided fertile ground for experiments in hydrology, soil science and botany. It has yielded important clues about how water and fire can transform the landscape around us. Now, in its death and phoenix-like rebirth, the Experimental Forest has new wisdom to impart. It has been more than a year since the Williams fire inhaled 38,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, leaving behind scorched hillsides, the charred carcasses of trees and the smoldering ruins of the Experimental Forest....PROPOSED HORSE TRAILS OUTLINED AT MEETINGS The proposal is to designate certain bridle paths as horse trails, and to restrict horseback riders to those trails only. The watersheds are for Lusk Creek, Upper Bay Creek, Eagle Creek and Big Grand Pierre Creek. It may sound simple, but the topic inflames emotions to fever pitch and pits horseback enthusiasts against environmentalists -- and often both against the Forest Service. Environmentalists say the horse riders are destroying the forest, and the horse riders say the environmentalists want to keep them out of the forest and off trails they have been using for years....Forest stewardship method sparks debate The Bureau of Land Management is receiving mixed reviews about its recently released guidelines for "stewardship contracting," which agency officials say allows for greater forest restoration and fire prevention. Officials have heralded the contracting method as a way for land managers to combine many restoration projects into one and auction those projects off to private interests. The contracting is one of the changes implemented under President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative, and some of the projects are planned for Central Oregon....Potlatch celebrates 100 years of operation When Frederick Weyerhaeuser died in 1914, his wealth rivaled the Rockefellers. Yet outside lumber towns, few people knew his name. The Weyerhaeusers have always been quiet about their wealth, says Keith Petersen, author of the book, “Company Town: Potlatch, Idaho and the Potlatch Lumber Co.” In the early 1900s, Weyerhaeuser, his relatives and friends founded three lumber companies in the West. One is the company based in Tacoma with the family name. Another evolved to become Boise Cascade. The third, and the one the Weyerhaeusers believed would prosper most, Petersen said, was at Potlatch, Idaho....New Predator in Yellowstone Reshapes Park's Entire Ecosystem Nine years have elapsed since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imported 15 gray wolves from Canada to colonize Yellowstone, wolfless since 1926, when hunters finished exterminating them as unwelcome pests and dangerous predators. Today, the park has 250 to 300 wolves, too many to track them all with radio collars. They are no longer classified as an endangered species, but are now "threatened," and, if a dispute between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Wyoming is resolved, they may soon be "delisted" altogether, allowing carefully controlled hunting. But, for scientists, this triumph is only the beginning. Wolves, it turns out, constitute a "keystone species" that is reshaping an entire ecosystem in ways not foreseen when researchers began a crossed-fingers experiment in wildlife preservation. Today, America's most famous stretch of wilderness has become an ecologist's bonanza. It appears to be evolving in reverse -- returning to a time when flora and fauna were in a balance dictated exclusively by forces of nature, not by humans: "For the first time in 70 years, the park has a complete suite of predators and prey," Ripple said in an interview from his Corvallis, Ore., office. "This is a grand experiment."....Saving endangered species ---- luxury or necessity? Questions over how far to go in saving endangered species started long before the county's current $1 billion habitat-conservation plan. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, discovery of the Stephens kangaroo rat halted development all around Riverside County. More recently, the Quino checkerspot butterfly delayed the construction of Vista Murrieta High School for several years. And just this month federal officials advised Lake Elsinore school officials they could not move forward with plans to build a new elementary school in Wildomar, again because of the checkerspot butterfly and the California gnatcatcher. The finding of two endangered songbirds also halted the realignment of Newport Road in Menifee. Other examples abound of endangered or threatened species holding up development or adding millions to the price tags, rekindling debate over the whether such protections are necessary for the preservation of a fragile ecosystem, or just environmentalism run amok....Merced campus shrimp ruling favorable The University of California, Merced, has escaped another potential environmental snare, as the Bush administration has decided not to protect a small wetlands-loving crustacean under the Endangered Species Act. In a decision to be formally announced Monday, the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the midvalley fairy shrimp shouldn't be designated as endangered or threatened....U.S. Billed for Lost Water During the California drought of the early 1990s, the federal government cut back water deliveries to Central Valley irrigation districts to protect two rare fish species, the threatened delta smelt and the endangered chinook salmon. Now, the bill is due. In a case that legal experts say could hobble aquatic protections under the Endangered Species Act, a federal claims court judge ruled recently that the U.S. government must give the irrigators $14 million for the water they never received. The payment — which could grow to more than $25 million with the addition of interest and legal fees — stems from an earlier decision by the same judge that the water cutback amounted, under the U.S. Constitution, to a property taking. The case has become a major beachhead for the property rights movement, which is pressing similar claims elsewhere. "There's no free water, just as there's no free lunch. The costs are going to be borne somewhere along the line," said Roger Marzulla, a Washington, D.C., property rights attorney who represents the water districts. "The plaintiffs have a recognized property right under state law. The federal government took it, and the federal government has to pay for it." Government and environmental lawyers say that, if the decision by federal Claims Court Judge John Paul Wiese stands and other courts embrace it, the Endangered Species Act could become too expensive to enforce. "It's an enormously important case," said Richard Frank, a chief deputy in the California attorney general's office....FINAL EIS FOR PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES MANAGEMENT RELEASED NOAA Fisheries has released for public review its "Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for Pacific Salmon Fisheries Management off the Coasts of Southeast Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and in the Columbia River Basin." The FPEIS is an annual review of salmon management that describes the effects of human actions on the biological environment. Because anadromous stocks of salmon and steelhead are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered, the FPEIS concentrates broadly on those ESUs and the variety of activities, laws and agreements that govern the stocks....Groups challenge feds' allowing development in panther areas Environmental groups monitoring the destruction of Florida panther habitat in Lee, Collier and Hendry counties released a report this week that suggests federal permitting agencies used faulty science for more than a decade to allow development in areas that were critical to the survival of one of the world's rarest and most endangered mammals. The National Wildlife Federation, along with the Florida Panther Society and other groups, released a report titled Discrediting a Decade of Panther Science this week. Based on a government-funded peer review of panther literature released in December, the report says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knowingly used bad panther science to appease development interests in Southwest Florida....Experts disagree about potential threat of cougars When David Baron's book, "The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature," was released in November, it had been 12 years since a mountain lion killed an 18-year-old Colorado man the author used as a focus for the book. But only two months after the release, a cyclist was killed by a lion in Southern California. Baron predicted attacks like the one that left the cyclist dead and another hospitalized will increase as more people recreate outdoors and as development eats up wildlife habitat. "I thought someone was playing a sick practical joke," Baron said of the call he took from a reporter after the Jan. 8 attack in California. In early December, Baron was on a book tour in Southern California. Some locals tried to dismiss the book, arguing that Baron was needlessly striking fear into the population. But things have changed. "This one terrible tragedy and now everyone thinks I am a prophet," Baron said from his home in Boston. In his book, Baron explains that an increase in mountain lion/human encounters in the past 20 years is due to shrinking rural areas as people continue to push into wildlife habitat. At the same time, some wildlife populations are at their highest levels ever. David Stoner says many people wrongly conclude that incidents such as the one in California earlier this month means the area is home to many mountain lions. Stoner, a graduate research assistant at Utah State University, helps track the migration patterns of cats that have been outfitted with radio callers. He said that in most cases of cougar/human conflict, the animal is a young transient animal searching for territory to call home or an older animal no longer able to drag down its main prey - deer....U.S. opens 1st site dedicated to Mexican war The 3,400-acre Palo Alto Battlefield is where U.S. and Mexican soldiers fought a key battle that eventually led to Mexico losing half its territory and the United States gaining claim to the Southwest. On Saturday, more than a century after the fight, the National Park Service opened a visitors' center at the battlefield, the agency's first site dedicated to the U.S.-Mexican War. Displays and narration, provided in English and Spanish, reflect both U.S. and Mexican perspectives on the war in hopes of attracting visitors from each side of the border.... Bighorns hit with new disease The herd of up to 100 sheep, which lives in the Silverbell Mountains north of Tucson, was infected in late fall with a bacterium carried by goats that escaped from the nearby La Osa Ranch. To date, 30 sheep have gone blind, and seven of them have died of complications related to the blindness. Now, wildlife officials are finding another ailment, most likely linked to the goats: a viral infection of the sheep's faces and skin. Fourteen sheep have showed up with the lesions. Although not deadly, the infection could cause ewes to refuse to nurse their young if the lambs develop the irritating sores. And that could further destabilize the herd, which up until this fall had been disease-free....Opponents of Nevada's Burning Man launch Internet campaign Opponents of the annual Burning Man counterculture festival on the Nevada desert have launched an Internet campaign against event organizers and federal land managers. Opponents maintain the weeklong gathering on the Black Rock Desert leading up to Labor Day harms a unique desert landscape and results in ineffective cleanup efforts....Wilderness tag is sought for highlands near Nogales A swath of land in southern Arizona that encompasses grasslands and jaguar habitat is being eyed for wilderness designation, the first in Arizona in 14 years. The Tumacacori Highlands are spread over 84,500 acres northwest of Nogales, within the confines of the Coronado National Forest. A coalition of southern Arizona businesses, conservation groups and individuals is hoping to sell Congress on making the highlands a wilderness area.... Cabin-site sales begin paying off A federal-state board is ready to begin spending some $200,000 for new recreational access sites along the Upper Missouri River, and it's inviting proposals at a meeting Tuesday. The money is generated by $13 million paid to the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust from sales over the past two years of most of 265 cabin sites at the north end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir. The sites were owned by the federal Bureau of Reclamation but for decades were leased to private parties, many of whom built homes and other improvements on them. The federal legislation authorizing the sales required that the bulk of the proceeds be put into the trust. Those funds are to be used to develop hunting, fishing and sporting access in Montana....Cattle drive helps tired, stressed workers relax After riding through some treacherous terrain near the Franklin Mountains, insurance broker David Caballero petted his horse Midnight and smiled. "This is a very very exciting and relaxing experience for those people stressed out from working too hard," said Caballero, 33, of Clint. Caballero was one of more than 100 riders and their horses at Saturday's cattle drive to begin the 75th Southwestern International Livestock Show and Rodeo, organizers said. The cattle drive, featuring more than 100 longhorn cattle, stretched for more than 10 miles through the desert and hilly terrain on Bowen Ranch near Northeast El Paso....Lovers of quarter horses gathering at WestWorld Quarter horse owners and trainers from across the nation are gathering this week at WestWorld for the world's largest quarter horse circuit. The Arizona Sun Country Circuit Quarter Horse Show, now in its 31st year, features five arenas of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through Saturday. It's an informal show where spectators can wander among arenas, see horses up close, talk to the owners and shop for everything from saddles to Western art. The show draws world-champion riders and amateurs. Organizers expect more than 1,600 horses this year and 17,000 entries. Many horses compete in multiple events....Column: The Western Hero Returns With guns blazing and horses kicking up dust, the Western hero has returned. "Open Range," released on DVD and video last week, offers the best recent example of the Western hero, a man thought to be obsolete in an age of cynicism and despair – but now riding proudly into the sunrise. The Western hero is the affirmation of a universe with meaning and free will, one in which individuals shape their destiny through their moral choices. The Western hero doesn’t always survive, but by his deeds he wins the ultimate battle.... Legal fight begins in Nevada over use of Mustang Ranch name A couple have sued two fellow northern Nevada brothel owners to launch a legal fight over use of the name of the state's most storied bordello. In their U.S. District Court suit filed earlier this month, David and Ingrid Burgess claim they're the exclusive licensee of rights in the Mustang Ranch trademark. The couple, who renamed their Old Bridge Ranch just east of Reno the Mustang Ranch last April, are asking a jury to find against Wild Horse Canyon Ranch owner Lance Gilman and Moonlite Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof....

MAD COW NEWS

Montana scientists challenge mad cow theory He and his colleagues are part of one of the nation's oldest and most respected research programs into the bizarre family of brain-wasting diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or TSEs. Here, in a mountainous corner of Montana, researchers at the National Institutes of Health's Rocky Mountain Labs have been quietly shedding light on TSEs since 1961, helping to explain the suite of always deadly ailments which includes chronic wasting in deer and elk, mad cow diseases in cattle and a similar disease in humans called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. But what Chesebro has to say may be unsettling: He thinks mainstream science may have been running down the wrong road for decades on TSE research. While conventional wisdom holds that TSEs are caused by an infectious protein, Chesebro thinks it is just as likely — maybe even more so — that these diseases are really caused by some hearty ‘‘ubiquitous virus'' science has yet to identify. A virus present in everyone's body, including yours. It's a suggestion that challenges the very foundations of most TSE research. And, if true, it means science knows even less about a family of diseases experts like Chesebro admit are still largely a mystery....Market prices bounce back from scare over mad cow Tom Mueller said that if mad cow disease had not been found in the United States, he would have gotten between $12,000 and $15,000 more for the 115 calves he sold earlier this month to a feed lot. But you will not hear him complaining. A month after the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, the price that Mueller, who farms near Taylor Ridge, Ill., got for his calves was still better than what he received last year at this time. And it certainly was better than what he anticipated when he began weaning the calves in late December. “I’m surprised at the resiliency of the market,” said Mueller, president of the Rock Island County Farm Bureau. “It’s come back much quicker than I anticipated.”....'Firewall' cracks could raise U.S. mad cow risk A federal rule banning high-risk mammal parts from animal feed is the nation's main defense against mad cow disease -- what U.S. officials call a "firewall" built in 1997 to prevent an epidemic. But more than a month after the Dec. 23 discovery of the nation's first animal with mad cow, in Washington state, several cracks persist that may weaken that firewall: Farmers must not give meat and bone meal made from cows and sheep to cattle. But they can give it to chickens -- then process spilled feed bits and feathers from henhouse floors into "poultry litter" for cattle feed. Cattle must not eat beef. But leftover beef cooked for humans, called "plate waste," can be reprocessed and go into cattle feed. No government inspectors check farms to ensure feed rules are followed. Tissues at highest risk for spreading mad cow disease -- brains and spinal columns -- can be rendered into feed for most nonruminant animals, such as pigs, creating risk that feed will contaminate cattle feed....Mad cow case vindicates critic The central figure in Oprah Winfrey's legal fight with cattle ranchers outraged many in beef country six years ago with his prediction that sloppy meat production practices all but guaranteed the arrival of mad cow disease in the United States. With the first domestic occurrence of mad cow disease in December, Howard Lyman is again upsetting the beef industry. Lyman, a former Montana rancher-farmer turned vegetarian, said the discovery validates his concerns about how cattle are raised and slaughtered to produce tons of meat each year. His comments on Winfrey's show in 1996 prompted a lawsuit by Texas cattlemen, who lost....Chain chafes over Japan's beef import ban Japan's decision to ban the importation of U.S. beef following the discovery of mad cow disease in a Washington state Holstein may be squeezing U.S. cattlemen, but it's strangling one of Japan's biggest fast-food chains: Yoshinoya. Yoshinoya has more than 900 restaurants spread throughout Japan, and they are about to run out of the critical ingredient of their most popular dish: strips of choice beef from the United States. "It has to be American beef," said Shuji Abe, president of Yoshinoya.... Editorial: Congress doesn’t want you to know When a “downer” cow sent to slaughter last month turned out to have mad cow disease just weeks after lawmakers had voted against banning meat from crippled cows from store shelves, Congress looked foolish and the livestock industry took some lumps. But they didn’t learn much. On Thursday, the Senate approved legislation containing a provision barring the U.S. Department of Agriculture from requiring food labels indicating the country from which food originates. It’s a bad decision, the folly of which will be a whole lot more evident the next time, say, a Canadian cow turns out to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease. Given the great lengths Americans are going to persuade consumers here and abroad about the need to differentiate between U.S. beef and that originating elsewhere, the value of country-of-origin labeling should be obvious. America’s export partners want to know where the meat we send them came from. Americans deserve the same information....Feed manufacturers violate state, federal rules One-fourth of Colorado feed manufacturers have violated state and federal rules designed to prevent the spread of mad cow disease since 1998, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Many of the violations at the 27 firms cited involved failure to properly label animal feed containing meat and bone meal, or MBM, rendered from the remains of slaughtered cattle. Without such a label, the risk is higher that someone could inadvertently feed the MBM back to cattle - the primary way mad cow disease is transmitted. Other violations include failing to keep proper records of who purchased MBM. Such information would be critical for regulators trying to track down where a cow might have contracted the disease should a case emerge in Colorado or elsewhere....Click here to see a more complete version of the previous story.... Mad Cow Probe Spreads to Seventh Facility The investigation into mad cow disease spread to a farm in central Washington state, the seventh facility linked to an infected Holstein, agriculture officials said. Investigators have been working to trace the whereabouts of 81 cattle following the announcement Dec. 23 that a cow at a Mabton dairy farm had tested positive for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The 81 cattle entered the United States from Alberta, Canada, in 2001. Twenty-seven cows from that herd have been traced to six farms in Washington state, including the one in Moxee announced Friday, and one in Idaho. Another cow, traced to a Boardman, Ore., farm, was one of 17 heifers--or young female cows--from the same Canadian farm that were shipped to this country later than the original 81-cow group. Officials have traced three more of those 17 animals to the same dairy farm where one of the 81 animals was located.... Rule pinches many ranchers' profits A new slaughterhouse rule imposed in the wake of the mad cow scare has slashed prices for some cattle by $100 a head or more, angering Montana ranchers who say it's unfair and ineffective. Starting Jan. 12, the federal government required slaughterhouses to check cattle for permanent incisor teeth. Those with one or both of their second set of incisors are considered to be 30 months old. Because cattle over that age are at greater risk of developing mad cow disease, the animals must be specially slaughtered and are knocked into a lower price category. But cattle, like people, cut their permanent teeth at a range of ages based on genetics, diet and other conditions. "Mouthing is a poor way to determine the age of cattle," said Mark DeBruycker who's already taken price cuts on three heiferettes under 22 months old.... Senate backers of food-labels pledge to fight new delay Senators who want meat and produce labeled with its country of origin say the battle over those rules is not over, despite legislation passed Thursday that will delay them for two years. The labeling rules were to take effect in September this year. If not struck down, the delay “would kill country-of-origin labeling,” said Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who supports the labels. Daschle said supporters will offer amendments to upcoming bills that would erase the delay. He said they also may offer a resolution that would veto the regulations that impose it. “We will take both tracks and apply them whenever and wherever we can,” he said.... Herds in three states quarantined amid mad cow probe Herds of cows are under quarantine in three states, and agriculture officials still lack full accounting of meat that was recalled after discovery of mad cow disease in the United States a month ago. Cows with links to the Holstein diagnosed with the brain-wasting disease have been found in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. More than 600 animals have been destroyed in the course of the investigation. The disease has not been detected from tests on roughly 150 of those animals. "It's not unusual for an investigation of this type to have multiple states involved," said Julie Quick, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department.... Worker says discovery of infected cow was 'a fluke' Louthan, who killed the Holstein at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. on Dec. 9, says he has no doubt he remembers the right cow. "Every cow that comes in there, I kill. That kind of puts us in a relationship," said Louthan, who killed cows at Vern's for four years before he was laid off earlier this month after his bosses told him business had slowed. The plant manager, Tom Ellestad, has also confirmed that the cow was walking. If he'd done what he should have, Louthan said, he would have taken the cow out of the truck and herded her around to a holding pen with other ambulatory animals. But, he said, it was late in the day, the cow looked balky, and "I was cutting corners." So he shot a bolt through her head, scooped out a bit of brain, put it in a bag, labeled it with her number, and hung it on the wall with samples from others in the truckload. Later, he checked records to confirm that the "mad cow" was the cow he remembered, the balky Holstein from the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Yakima County.... Japan-U.S. talks fail over measures for BSE Japan will continue its ban on U.S. beef after high-level talks Friday on mad cow disease in the United States failed to close differences between the two countries. Government officials of the two sides, who met at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tokyo, agreed to hold further talks next month. The main issue is the adoption of measures to ensure the safety of U.S. beef for export to Japan, officials said. Japan has demanded the United States test all cattle destined for Japan for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, before the import ban is lifted. Washington, however, has rejected that demand....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest restoration debated at conference County and federal officials joined forces Thursday to discuss how they will combat what one scientist called a "perfect storm" of climactic conditions creating massive die-backs in some Western forests. "I don't know what to do about this," Bill Romme, a professor of fire ecology at Colorado State University, told the approximately 100 people who attended Thursday's conference. "I'm still reeling from the magnitude of the mortality we're seeing." Romme and a group of 12 other forest health experts recently co-authored a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton that outlines the extent of woodland die-back. "The combined effects of prolonged, severe drought and outbreaks of tree-killing insects have resulted in tens of millions of dead pinyon, ponderosa pine, and other species of trees over thousands of square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah," states the letter, which focuses primarily on pinyon pine....Environmental group wary of restoration A program promoting collaboration between federal public-lands agencies and local governments claims it will expedite watershed and forest restoration, but an environmental group fears it will promote extraction industries and weaken federal oversight on local forests. During its first public conference in Montrose, the County Partnership Restoration program received praise from the timber industry, local politicians and federal officials, while members of the Western Colorado Congress expressed concern. “It’s not a collaboration when a select group puts it together,” said Western Colorado Congress member Andrea Robinsong, adding her organization was not allowed to participate in the partnership’s creation....'Forests with a Future' plan leaves environmentalists livid Three years after the death knell sounded for much of the timber industry in California, the top federal forester in the state revived Sierra Nevada logging Thursday when he announced an initiative to attack a growing wildfire threat with chainsaws. The new strategy effectively replaces a sweeping forest management plan, approved in the last days of the Clinton administration, that was designed to restore ecosystems and protect forest communities from fires. "We're returning to the bad old days of cutting in the Sierra Nevada," said Barbara Boyle of the Sierra Club. "'Forests with a Future' means more logging and more destruction of habitat."....Forest Service officials say forest-thinning will help reduce fire risk Despite concerns of environmentalists, area Forest Service officials said Thursday a new nationwide forest-thinning program announced Thursday will help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires from west of Carson City to Truckee. Major fires have occurred along the east front of the Carson Range from Douglas County to the Truckee River Canyon, said Gary Schiff, chief of the Carson Ranger District. “You go up the front and you just see wide swaths of the forest just slicked off the mountains,” Schiff said. “We need to protect those remaining swaths and keep them on the hill.” Environmentalists insist the plan would double the amount of logging allowed in the Sierra and that many of largest trees should be protected from removal....Officials confirm human caused Paradise fire Fire investigators confirmed Friday that a human started the Paradise fire, either through an act of arson or by accident, and said that several suspects have been interviewed. "It was a human cause," said Capt. Gary Eidsmoe, a fire investigator with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire, which started Oct. 26, killed two people, burned 221 homes and blackened 56,700 across Valley Center and nearby American Indian reservations. As part of the investigation, which is a joint effort between CDF and the U.S. Forest Service, several suspects believed to have started the blaze or to have knowledge of those responsible for starting it, have been interviewed, Eidsmoe said....Forest Service won’t head off fire area floods Floods, debris flows and a potentially large landslide are expected to follow the path laid down by wildfires that torched thousands of acres northeast of Lincoln last summer. But given the remoteness and size of the 37,000-acre Snow/Talon fire, chances are that little will be done to try to stop the natural events that follow significant wildfires. “We went through a cost/benefit analysis, which showed us that nothing we try to do would be very helpful and it was very cost prohibitive in terms of the benefits that would be gained,” said Bo Stuart, a hydrologist with the Helena National Forest. “It’s such a large area that burned, that we’re talking millions and millions of dollars that could be spent up there." ....Administration relaxes forest survey rules The Bush administration has begun the final stages of a plan to relax environmental rules requiring detailed surveys of forest life before logging of federal lands in the Pacific Northwest. The plan, prompted by a timber industry lawsuit, follows through on proposals announced since 2002 and is intended to boost logging on 24 million acres of public land in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Under a rule published Friday, federal forest managers no longer will have to survey for nearly 300 sensitive plant and animal species before logging on land designated for timber harvest by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management under the Northwest Forest Plan....Platte report wins praise A draft environmental impact statement on the Platte River, released Friday by the U.S. Department of Interior, is being hailed by wildlife organizations as a major milestone in protecting threatened or endangered species along the Platte River between Lexington and Grand Island. "The report gives us a road map of the things we need to do to protect this valuable resource for the future," said Duane Hovorka, executive director of the Nebraska Wildlife Federation. The Interior Department's draft report analyzes the impact of options for protecting threatened and endangered wildlife and habitat along the Central Platte River in Nebraska....Sage grouse population dwindling Once plentiful in the West, the greater sage grouse is dying out, and Moffat County is one of its last strongholds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering adding the bird to its endangered species list, but the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Moffat County officials hope the federal agency doesn't go to such extremes, because of the potential impact on landowners. There are about 8,000 sage grouse in the county, according to an estimate by Tomy Apa, a sage grouse research biologist with the state wildlife division in Grand Junction. He calls that a "fair number of birds." But in other parts of the state, sage grouse populations have dwindled or disappeared entirely. In response, environmental groups have filed petitions with the Fish and Wildlife Service to have the sage grouse listed as an endangered species....Column: To Cougars, We're Just Food A 100-pound mountain lion can kill an 800-pound elk. Keep that in mind the next time you go hiking in cougar territory. If you are alone and unarmed, and one of these powerful predators attacks you -- intent on killing and eating you, rather than merely trying to drive you away from its offspring or a previous kill -- the contest likely will be as lopsided as if you had waded into traffic to wrestle a pickup truck. Worse, actually, because the odds are that you will never even know until the cougar bites into the back of your neck. Whether such prowess leaves you horrified or reverent depends on your attitudes regarding the role of wildlife and nature in a human-dominated world....Smithsonian chief gets probation over illegal feathers Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, the first non-academic to head the institution in its 158-year history, pleaded guilty Friday to charges stemming from his illegal possession of a rare South American tribal art collection that contained the feathers of endangered species of birds. He was sentenced to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service for the federal misdemeanor. U.S. Judge Terrence Boyle of the Eastern District of North Carolina also required Small to write a letter of apology to appear in National Geographic magazine and several major newspapers. Boyle rejected prosecution demands that Small post a letter of apology on the Smithsonian Web site, make speeches on the need to conserve wildlife or involve the Smithsonian in the case.... Conservation groups contend Snake River dams can go It would cost between $44 million and $420 million to increase railroad capacity to carry crops now moved by barges if four dams on the Snake River are breached to help endangered salmon, according to a new study by conservation groups. But dam proponents said the study is flawed and intended primarily to increase support for removing the dams, an issue so hot that President Bush has vowed repeatedly to protect the dams. The study was commissioned by American Rivers, Idaho Rivers United and the National Wildlife Federation, which contend the dams are a major barrier to the recovery of salmon runs, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. "An updated rail system would offer farmers an affordable and effective way to ship grain to market, protect existing businesses in southeastern Washington, and improve the prospects for attracting new business," said Rob Masonis, regional director for American Rivers....Poll backs grizzly recovery A majority of residents who live east of Highway 9 in Whatcom and Skagit counties support efforts to increase the grizzly bear populations in the North Cascades, according to a telephone survey sponsored by the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project. Fifty-two percent of 508 residents in the region said they were highly supportive of increasing grizzly bear populations and 24 percent expressed moderate support. And 33 percent of residents said they would be even more supportive if additional grizzlies were moved into the North Cascades from other areas, according to the survey results. Those results were a surprise, especially since efforts at reintroduction of other species in Western states have met tremendous resistance from nearby residents, said Jim Davis, co-director of the project....River residents: 'No low flow' Sonoma County Water Agency officials made their case at a Guerneville workshop Thursday for dramatically reducing summertime flows on the Russian River to protect three species of imperiled fish. But an overflow crowd of skeptics underscored the huge challenge facing the agency as it tries to convince west county residents of the need to transform a river that is the backbone of their economy into a narrow stream during the peak tourist season. More than 500 people packed the Veterans Memorial Building, or stood outside in the cold parking lot to listen to the three-hour presentation broadcast on speakers. Critics of the plan waved bright yellow "No Low Flow" placards....Habitat designation proposed Federal officials proposed Thursday to protect 14,424 acres of land in Santa Barbara County that harbors the California tiger salamander. The designation of critical habitat, a term included in the Endangered Species Act, identifies areas essential for the protection of a species. "The Service is proposing critical habitat only for those lands essential to the species' conservation, based on the best scientific information currently available," said Diane Noda, field supervisor for the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office. Most of the proposed land is privately owned, but Santa Barbara County and the Laguna County Sanitation District own small amounts of affected land, the federal agency said. Northern Santa Barbara County officials have protested previous protection measures for the critter and were upset at the critical-habitat proposal....Utilities say lowering Missouri River flows will cost customers A report commissioned by Nebraska's two largest utilities warns that a plan to reduce Missouri River flows this summer could be costly for consumers. Lowering the flows is a move supported by environmental groups for management of the Missouri River system. However, Omaha Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District officials claim those reduced flows could cause power blackouts and significant rate increases for customers. Both utilities have power plants along the river, making use of flows to help generate power. The utilities said Tuesday that if they have to buy power to make up for reduced generation of electricity on the river it will cost them "tens of millions of dollars."....Five more plead guilty for protected bird violations The owners of four businesses and a ranch have pleaded guilty to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for possessing parts of birds protected by the federal law. The pleas stemmed from a guilty plea entered by Mickey Gordon Wolf, 26, of Sheridan, for a felony count of violating the act. Wolf was recently sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,450 in restitution and fines for killing about 50 protected birds including bald and golden eagles, hawks, owls and flickers. Wolf used feathers and talons from some of the birds to make American Indian crafts which he sold to area businesses, according to Roy Brown, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lander....Pack of 7 wolves slain after killing cows A federal wildlife official has shot and killed a pack of seven wolves responsible for killing cattle in southwestern Montana. Graeme McDougal of the U.S. Wildlife Services first spotted the pack just east of Polaris on Jan. 15 from the air. The wolves were believed responsible for killing cattle in the Big Hole Valley in December, but McDougal didn't have a chance to shoot. This week, while searching for coyotes in the same area from a helicopter, McDougal spotted a dead calf and a rancher nearby waving at them. After landing and talking to the rancher, McDougal was able to shoot one wolf on Tuesday. Later, Fish and Wildlife Service officials approved killing the rest of the pack. On Thursday, McDougal spotted the remaining six wolves east of Polaris in the Grasshopper Valley and shot all of them....U.S. moves to end feud with family The National Park Service has carved out middle ground in the feud with a 17-member family that used a bulldozer to reopen an old road leading to their property inside Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The Park Service favors granting the Pilgrim family a special-use permit to drive the bulldozer along the old mining road, but only in winter and only when the ground is snow-covered, to reduce damage to America's largest national park. The proposal sounds good, said family patriarch Papa Pilgrim, whose legal name is Robert Hale. He said Friday it would allow them to bring in supplies, including food that is in short supply. To get more food, the family is making almost daily trips on three snowmobiles to McCarthy, the nearest town, 14 miles away....Wyoming judge rails at counterpart in Yellowstone case A federal district judge from Wyoming railed at a counterpart in the nation's capital Friday for seizing jurisdiction in a dispute over whether snowmobiles should be banned from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. ''I don't see any reason why a judge 2,000 miles from here ought to be deciding things that affect the people of Wyoming,'' U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer said of a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C....Dairy manager fights for water Ed Goedhart, manager of the Ponderosa Dairy in Amargosa Valley, said he has the sense the dairy is being picked on by the National Park Service. Every time the dairy in Amargosa Valley files an application with the State engineer's office over water, the parks service objects. Goedhart persuaded Nye County Commissioners Tuesday to pass a resolution urging the Nevada Division of Water Resources to move quickly to dismiss frivolous protests. Language in the resolution states the failure of the division to dismiss the protests would jeopardize Nevada's doctrine of sovereignty over waters of the state by allowing federal protests to subjugate and limit Nevada's authority based upon hypothetical "what if" scenarios.... Colorado River rats in a rift over who has the right to run the Grand Canyon These are contentious days at the Grand Canyon, filled with bickering over who has the right to raft the Colorado River as it snakes through one of the country's natural treasures. The National Park Service stirred up a major flap last month by freezing the wait list for private rafters on the Colorado, coveted by river rats for its churning rapids. The list is already so long that reservations are backed up as much as 20 years. Adding to the battle is the debate over a new park-service proposal due out in the coming months detailing how the Grand Canyon should be used....Sebelius says state should look at taking over ownership of Tallgrass Preserve The state of Kansas would like to take over ownership of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve from a national trust, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said. If the state eventually receives the deed to the property in the Flint Hills, it would improve public access to the area, which is the largest stand of tallgrass prairie in the world. The tallgrass preserve, north of Strong City, was established in 1996. It includes 32 acres owned by the National Park Service and more than 10,800 acres owned by the National Park Trust, a nonprofit group that purchases lands to preserve them from development....Shoshone tribes seeks to expand Ely reservation The Shoshone tribe is seeking to expand its Ely reservation by nearly 22,000 acres for traditional and commercial purposes. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will hold the first of many public hearings on the proposal Monday. “This is in the very beginning stages,” said Jeff Weeks, assistant manager for non-renewable resources in the BLM Ely field office....As tribal bison herd gets larger, food supply dwindles On this day, the sightseers' plane was a minor disturbance for the Crow bison that roam 22,000 acres on the reservation. The rest of the winter hasn't been so easy for them - or for the people trying to manage them. Recent drought and a growing herd have pinched the food supply and sent hundreds of buffalo spilling off the reservation onto private and public land in Wyoming. With ranchers and government officials worried about bison feeding on cattle grazing allotments, Crow Agency crews this fall and winter have been busy trying to push the bison back onto the reservation and keep them there. Because of the steep terrain and deep snow, much of the work has been done in helicopters and aboard snowmobiles, trucks and ATVs. "It's been pretty hectic," said Leroy Stewart, director of the buffalo program at Crow Agency....Column: Lost land The history of struggle between Indians and non-Indians over the ownership and use of land began with the landing of the Mayflower. Today, the issues surrounding the ownership and management of land within reservation boundaries have become so complex as to defy generalizations. However, many of the tribal histories and reservations of the Inter-Mountain West and Great Plains have much in common. The treaties between tribal nations and the United States government were generally agreed to between 1850 and 1875, and they contained many of the same terms, conditions and language. Some form of the phrase, "as long as the grass grows and the waters flow" can be found in most of the documents. Also referenced in many of these treaties was a guarantee that the land within the reserved area would be for the exclusive use and occupation of Indian people. Despite its clarity, this particular treaty term has been the most consistently violated provision of all the treaty agreements.... Area gas producers feel left out by Norton Interior Secretary Gale Norton disappointed local natural gas producers by excluding the Rocky Mountains from a slew of incentives to encourage drilling and improve supply. The new incentives announced in Washington D.C., apply only to the hard-to-reach areas of the Gulf of Mexico and offer royalty waivers to producers drilling wells deep under the shallow waters off Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The $30 billion energy bill, which stalled in the Senate last year and is likely to be revived this session, contains similar incentives for gas producers in other areas including Alaska. The incentives announced Friday apply to already leased properties in the Gulf of Mexico where the DOI has the authority to offer incentives without congressional approval....Editorial: Top-down authority The proud American tradition of states' rights was dealt a blow on Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that -- when it comes to enforcing federal environmental laws -- Washington bureaucrats could overrule local policy-makers any time they feel like it. A 5-4 majority sided with the Environmental Protection Agency, which overruled a plan by environmental officials in Alaska, who had approved a particular type of technology to clean up pollution at the Red Dog Mine, which extracts lead and zinc and is a major employer in an isolated region of that frontier state. The federal Clean Air Act is supposed to give local authorities the leeway to let industries use the "best available control technology" to minimize pollution from a commercial activity ... particularly when the facilities and pollution are confined within the borders of a single state. In common sense terms, local regulators can work with company managers to decide what cleanup methods will accomplish environmental goals at the lowest possible cost....State to move forward with Pecos River water-rights purchase The state plans to go forward with its plan to buy water rights along the Pecos River despite a lingering lawsuit. Interstate Stream Commission engineer Estevan Lopez told lawmakers Thursday that the state may spend $1.5 million to lease water from the water rights owners. Those lease payments would be applied to the eventual purchase of the water rights. The state hopes to buy 18,000 acres of land and associated water rights on the Pecos so it can meet water deliver obligations to Texas....Ranchers fear CBM water Despite reassuring statements from developers, Montana rancher Clint McRae said he doesn't believe coalbed methane development is good for the state's water resources or his family's ranch. For five generations, the McRae family has ranched along the Tongue River in southeastern Montana in the heart of coalbed methane country. During the conclusion of a coalbed methane conference in Billings Friday, McRae said his family's ranch has 16 shallow springs plus a river and a creek. Those water sources could be hurt by the often high-sodium water that is discharged from coalbed methane wells, he said. He's also worried that the grass could be hurt by the volume of water being pumped to the surface. Wyoming could drill as many as 51,000 wells, and Montana may drill 20,000 wells. Quoting from the environmental impact statement, he said "full aquifer recovery will not happen within the lifetimes of any of the state's residents."....Wyoming will appeal brucellosis-free revocation Wyoming will ask the federal government to reconsider revoking Wyoming's brucellosis-free status, pointing to the link between the latest six cattle to test positive for the disease and a herd that tested positive last month. The six cattle that tested positive at a feedlot in Worland in north-central Wyoming originally came from the same herd about 200 miles away where 31 head tested positive last month. Under federal regulations, however, they are considered separate herds, and the federal rules call for confirmation of the disease in more than one herd for revocation of a state's brucellosis-free status....Champ steer brings $91,000 Zane Drager figures Friday night's winning bid of $91,000 for Big Dog, the National Western Stock Show's champion steer, will pay for college - and then some. "I'm at Clovis (N.M.) Community College now, and the sale price would take me through there about 20 times," said Drager, who plans to move to a four-year school. "It's indescribable how good it feels." "This is a thrill. We didn't know we were going to buy a steer tonight," said high bidder Mark Stern, general manager for Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House....On The Edge Of Common Sense: Moderation in eating: Wow! What a concept Like most livestock producers, when I see that a major magazine is doing a feature story on food or diets, I brace myself. Anyone old enough to remember the anti-red-meat '80s is still gun shy. But things have changed. The public's perception that red meat is bad for you has been ameliorated in large part by two factors: the continuing steadfast research and promotion funded by the Beef Check Off, and the more recent acceptance of the Atkins all-meat, all-fat diet....