SATURDAY AT THE WESTERNER & MERRY CHRISTMAS

What will they remember about Christmas?

By Julie Carter

Christmas memories of long ago days drive the Christmas season both domestically and commercially.

Those memories, as varied as they are in location, extravagance or lack of it, belong to us. They strike in us a deep chord that no other holiday comes close to touching.

I grew up believing the Christmas holiday was about the celebration of the family beginning with the family who started it, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus.

Our celebrating began with the cutting of the Christmas tree. It was a family event including aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. It always entailed a few snow ball fights and body rolling down the snow covered hills.

Mom had only a few strings of lights and they all went on the tree. In sharing my Christmas memories with my eleven-year-old son who already thinks I’m ancient, I realized the huge gap in Christmas then and Christmas today.

Of course this is the son who asked about when I was in school, did I write on rocks? Presumably he meant like the Flintstones or Moses.

He isn’t sure we had electricity when I was a child but did ask what we used for lights on the tree. I assured him we plugged our lights in but told him that in my grandmother’s day they had used candles on the tree. He shrugged and said as he walked away, “I bet they burned a lot of trees down.”

When the mail brought the Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog to the ranch, it was a big day for us. The pages were worn out by the time child number four got his list made for Santa. We had no shopping malls to entice, confuse, or commercialize us.

I remember my mother working tirelessly, or so it seemed at the time, to create the perfect ten foot Christmas tree, to have the exact same number of packages for all four children wrapped and under the tree and at make at least 15 different kinds of cookies and as many kinds of candy. Homemade caramels were an annual. I didn’t know Kraft made caramels until I was in high school.

And Dad, well once the tree was cut and standing in the bay window, he was pretty much out of the Christmas preparation picture. He knew when to make himself scarce. He did spend an obligated amount of time every year teasing us about scaring Santa off with a shot gun and our stockings being left empty. It could have psychologically scarred us if we had known it could.

Midnight mass, participating in the church program wearing a bed sheet for shepherd’s clothing, setting up the nativity and always knowing it was Jesus’ birthday we were celebrating-- all part of those films that run through the memory banks.

I see my child today with the same overflow of excitement and anticipation for Christmas. He wants lots of family around, the tree decorated, lots of lights, and some homemade cookies and candy to graze on over the weeks.

He shakes and squeezes packages and holds tight to the image of Santa with a knowing there is something he doesn’t want to know. He understands that the season is about Jesus and not about Santa Claus, but Santa is pretty nice too.

In honor of my rural, call it redneck if you will, upbringing, I will continue to make his Christmas memories include Christ in Christmas and not accept “Winter Festival” for a holiday name. He will learn that the gifts are a symbol for the gift we received with the birth of Jesus and that saying “thank you” for both is essential, not optional.

What my generation teaches the next generation about Christmas is critical to Christmas itself. If we let them take away Christmas, the” one nation under God” becomes no nation under God.

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

© Julie Carter 2004

The US Fish and Wildlife service has decided not to list the lamprey as an endangered species---you can read about it here.

That's about it for the news tonight. On Christmas day I will post a new Julie Carter article and will get back to the news if there is any out there to report.

NOTE

I haven't been able to get into my hotmail address for two days. If you sent something during the last 48 hours, I haven't seen it yet.

NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. Rewrites Rules Governing Forests A key wildlife protection that has governed federal forest management for more than two decades will be dropped under new regulations announced Wednesday by the Bush administration, and requirements for public involvement in planning for the country's 192 million acres of national forest will be dramatically altered. U.S. Forest Service officials said the changes, contained in an administrative rewrite of national forest rules expected to take effect next week, would free them from wasteful and time-consuming paperwork and give them the latitude to more quickly respond to evolving forest conditions and scientific research. The 160-page document outlining the new rules contains two major revisions to forest planning regulations. The first drops the 25-year-old requirement that managers prepare environmental impact statements — a cornerstone of public involvement in environmental decisions — when they develop or revise management plans for individual national forests. The second change drops a mandate, adopted during the Reagan administration in 1982, that fish and wildlife habitat in national forests be managed to maintain "viable populations of existing native and desired nonnative vertebrate species." Instead, managers will be directed to provide "ecological conditions to support diversity of native plant and animal species."....
Editorial: Toward an energy policy Everybody says the United States needs a national energy policy, but neither Congress nor President Bush has managed to come up with one. However - drum roll, please - a bipartisan committee of people outside government has done the job. Earlier this month, the privately funded National Commission on Energy Policy issued its report after three years of work. It's an integrated plan that is neither a sell-out to the Texas oiligarchs nor a hippie environmental manifesto. Instead, it's a sensible, balanced approach. For example, it proposes to both expand and diversify international oil supplies while also significantly raising federal fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and appliance efficiency. It would introduce mandatory tradable emissions permits to reduce greenhouse gases and also create incentives for new generations of nuclear reactors, coal-gasification and advanced biomass technologies....
Feinstein: Forest Service may cut state's fire-prevention funds Sen. Dianne Feinstein is sounding an alarm about what she says is a Forest Service proposal to cut $9 million from wildfire prevention efforts in California, just a year after devastating blazes in the state were cited by the Bush administration to justify landmark forest-thinning legislation. The plan would lead to a 90 percent funding reduction for community fire plans and "harm Southern California communities like Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear and the San Diego suburbs," Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Mark Rey, a top official at the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service. A service spokesman acknowledged that the spending figures cited by Feinstein are accurate, but said they are only part of preliminary discussions about how to deploy fire-prevention resources nationwide....
Defenders of Wildlife Pays Ranchers More than $100,000 for Wolf-related Livestock Losses in 2004 Defenders of Wildlife today announced that compensation payments to ranchers for livestock losses related to wolves exceeded $138,000 in 2004, a new record for Defenders' compensation program. In the 17 years since the program began, The Bailey Wildlife Foundation Wolf Compensation Fund, named in honor of its largest contributor, has reimbursed more than 300 ranchers and livestock owners in the Northern Rockies more than $440,000 in livestock compensation payments. "Partnering with local stakeholders on wolf recovery is absolutely essential to the future of the species and we're pleased to be able to provide this vital assistance to livestock owners in the region," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "The program is highly effective in building tolerance for wolves while helping most ranchers and farmers with the cost of livestock losses to wolf depredation."....
Gas pipeline rupture triggers massive desert cleanup A nasal-penetrating stench still rises from the sand a month after a ruptured pipeline spewed untold amounts of gasoline up to 80 feet high for hours over a patch of the fragile Mojave Desert. The Nov. 22 leak raised concerns among state, federal and county agencies because it occurred in an area known to harbor desert tortoises, a federally threatened species, and where groundwater is used by free-roaming cattle. The potent gas, with cancer-causing ingredients, ate through creosote, salt bush and other desert scrub and sank at least 50 feet below the ground. The cause of the leak remains under investigation and pipeline owner Houston-based Kinder Morgan said it has yet to determine how much gas escaped the pipeline that runs from Colton to Las Vegas....
Congressman Tancredo Mocks Parrot Arrests Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) issued a statement on Tuesday contrasting the government's zeal in preventing parrots from Mexico from illegally entering the country with their efforts to stop illegal immigration in general. Under the headline "Apparently There Are No Jobs Available That American Parrots Won't Do," Tancredo said he was surprised to learn of the "incredible success that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers enjoyed in apprehending smugglers attempting to illegally smuggle 150 Lilac Crowned and Mexican Redhead Amazon Parrots into the United States." The statement points out that ICE, however, has not had the same luck in preventing an estimated 3 million illegal alien human beings from swarming into the U.S. annually unchecked. "It's nice to see that ICE has their priorities in order," quipped Tancredo, head of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. "Now that we appear able to successfully identify and apprehend parrots attempting to enter the U.S. illegally, perhaps doing the same with people is just around the corner."....
Islands in the desert The blue circles on scientist Donald Sada's map are like X's marking treasure. The circles denote springs, and Sada, an aquatic ecologist, has spent much of the past two decades driving Nevada's back roads trying to locate them. Sometimes he finds a green oasis teeming with wildlife -- antelope, deer, rabbits, mountain lions, ringtail cats, all manner of bugs and the tiny aquatic snails he studies for the Desert Research Institute. Other times it's just a dusty puddle trampled by wild horses, or a concrete cistern filling cattle troughs....
Geneva selling water rights; creditors to benefit Vineyard's Geneva Steel is preparing to sell its rights to about 48,500 acre feet of water - a move that should help satisfy the bankrupt company's creditors. Geneva President Ken Johnsen said the sale will take place in two transactions. One transaction is a "pure water rights sale" worth approximately $74 million. The other sale is part of the $19 million transfer of company real estate, water rights and emission credits to Denver's Summit Energy, which is building a $330 million natural gas-fired power plant on 62 acres of the former mill site on the eastern shore of Utah Lake....

NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. to Pay $16 Million in Water Rights Case The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $16.7 million to a group of Central Valley farmers and irrigation districts whose water deliveries were cut to protect endangered fish. State officials had strongly urged the administration not to settle the farmers' claims, arguing that such a precedent could make it prohibitively expensive to protect endangered species. But the payment was immediately hailed as a significant victory by property rights advocates and critics of the Endangered Species Act. "This is a very strong precedent," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the House Resources Committee, which is headed by one of the act's most vocal detractors, Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy). "This should really fire a shot across the bow of federal regulators, reminding them that their actions have consequences and their actions cost money." The U.S. Department of Justice settled the case despite widespread warnings that it would lead to a flood of similar claims. The California attorney general's office, the Schwarzenegger administration and attorneys for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all wrote the Justice Department in the last year, asking the Bush administration to appeal a U.S. Court of Claims ruling in favor of the farmers....
Forest Service going ahead with plan to poison high Cascade lake The U.S. Forest Service has approved a plan to draw down Diamond Lake and poison small nonnative fish that have triggered massive algae blooms and hurt trout fishing. After years of study, Umpqua National Forest Supervisor Jim Caplan on Monday signed a record of decision, the last step in an environmental impact study examining the problem at the high Cascade Range resort lake east of Roseburg. The Forest Service, which manages the land where the 3,000-acre lake is located, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which stocks the lake with trout, are splitting the estimated cost of about $3.5 million over the next three years, said Umpqua National Forest spokeswoman Sharon Johnson....
Boom: Logging begins anew Loaded log trucks headed to mills near and far ... Men in pickup trucks stacked with chain saws and fuel containers ... The sound of ringing cash registers ... In northern Klamath County, it's like the 1970s and '80s all over again. The industry that created the side-by-side communities of Gilchrist and Crescent and kept the region content for decades is undergoing a revival. Logging companies are scurrying to harvest timberland damaged by the 2003 Davis fire....
Judge upholds driving on beach A small, federally protected shorebird shouldn't stand in the way of beach driving at one of the most popular surf spots in Florida, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory A. Presnell ruled that the fact cars and trucks may bother the piping plover isn't enough to halt driving near Ponce de Leon Inlet, at the north end of New Smyrna Beach. During court arguments Dec. 15, the judge watched a pair of short videos showing the birds feeding on the wet sand, then running or flying away as vehicles approached. Godwin and Reynolds' attorney, Ross Burnaman, argued the harassment violates the Endangered Species Act. However, the judge, in his eight-page ruling, wrote that was not enough proof the birds would actually be harmed. "Apparently, vehicles interrupt the plovers' foraging and resting, but it is entirely unclear whether such interruptions cause any more than momentary inconvenience," he wrote....
Judge: Cutthroat trout may need protection Yellowstone cutthroat trout may need federal protection to ensure the species' survival, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Phillip S. Figa in Colorado said Friday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 illegally rejected a petition to designate the fish as threatened on the endangered species list. Saying there was "substantial evidence" that a federal listing may be warranted, Figa ordered the FWS to undertake a yearlong comprehensive review of the Yellowstone cutthroat and reconsider whether to apply federal protections. Environmental groups praised the decision not only for criticizing procedural steps taken by FWS but also for addressing "substantive" issues over the status of Yellowstone cutthroat....
Developer's hope for reimbursement falls short Jim Doyle will have to keep waiting for a check from the government. The Utah land developer once again came up short in his quest for legislation requiring the federal government to pay him for 1,550 acres the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared critical breeding grounds for endangered desert tortoises. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, sponsored legislation directing the Department of Interior to purchase Doyle's land. The measure cleared the Senate earlier this month on the evening before Congress adjourned for the year. But the tactic of attaching it and other Senate public lands bills to an unrelated measure that was headed for easy passage backfired, and the package died in the House....
Editorial: Richardson stands up to protect Otero Mesa Gov. Bill Richardson, who can hardly be called anti-development, has wisely and appropriately drawn a line in the sand on development of New Mexico's precious Otero Mesa - public land in which the public's interest and wishes are being compromised for private gain. Elsewhere - for example in the Owyhee Mountains of southeastern Idaho - various competing interests have been able to reach a consensus and compromise that protects large tracts of otherwise vulnerable public lands. To date, the federal government shows no such inclination regarding Otero, rejecting conservationists and Richardson's calls for more stringent environmental safeguards. Hence Richardson's threats earlier this month to put himself and Santa Fe squarely in the BLM's and the drilling industry's selfish ways, including using state permit and review powers to stop or stall the process....

Editorial: Forest Service racketeering alleged


....Enter San Diego businessman Irving Okovita, who in 1981 bought 12 acres on the north shore of Big Bear Lake, east of San Bernardino -- formerly the site of a trailer camp. Last year, he announced plans to cut down 338 trees and build 132 condominiums and a 175-slip marina.

But the project came to a screeching halt in May, when a federal judge found two activist groups, Friends of Fawnskin and the Center for Biological Diversity, had demonstrated the development had "the potential to both harass and harm the bald eagles," which winter in the area.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin briefly cited a report on the eagles written by Forest Service employee Robin Eliason, who coincidentally is a member of the activist group "Friends of Fawnskin" and who -- with her husband and fellow Forest Service employee, Scott -- owns a home nearby.

Now, Mr. Okovita has filed a lawsuit against the Eliasons and their boss, contending the government workers used their positions "under color of law" to advance their personal and political agendas.

Mr. Okovita's attorney argues the defendants wanted to kill the project because doing so "would serve to increase their own property values." The suit alleges Scott Eliason improperly advised Friends of Fawnskin on ways the project might be derailed, and that Robin Eliason prepared an inaccurate report on the bald eagle as part of that alleged conspiracy.

The defendants argue they were only doing their jobs.

"Government employees, just like private citizens, can join the Boy Scouts, ... Sierra Club, National Rifle Association, or Friends of Fawnskin," argues Andy Stahl, director of a Forest Service employees group.

Yes, but is it proper for them to use the power of their government offices -- and inside information gained there -- to thwart Mr. Okovita in the exercise of his property rights, while furthering their own agendas or quasi-religious environmental beliefs?....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Spotted knapweed threatening Western livelihoods Spotted knapweed is a national menace, a weed of mass destruction. In Montana alone it covers some 4.5 million acres and costs ranchers more than $40 million annually in herbicide and lost productivity. Native of Central Europe and Siberia, spotted knapweed reached North America in the late 19th century. It invades pastureland and renders huge tracts commercially useless, because cattle, horses and most other animals turn up their noses at it. The purple-flowered pest, which some nonranchers regard as beautiful, has become so rampant that elk have changed their migration routes to avoid it. New research points to an unusual reason for the plant's success. Ragan Callaway of the University of Montana in Missoula, who studies how plants interact with one another, and Jorge Vivanco of Colorado State University have found that spotted knapweed conducts chemical warfare on its neighbors - the first comprehensive evidence of an invasive plant using an offensive chemical weapon....
Editorial: Who's Really in Cahoots? San Diego businessman Irving Okovita, whose attempt to build luxury condos in a bald eagle habitat near Big Bear has been blocked by a federal judge, wants the court to reconsider. But as he pursued that request, he must also have sensed something in the air, something emboldening in the way the Bush administration is eroding environmental protections. Okovita went to court and accused three U.S. Forest Service employees of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to block his Marina Point development at Big Bear Lake. Okovita's lawsuit, under a 1970 law designed to help prosecute mobsters, has the feel of using a howitzer to shoot deer. But the government, instead of jumping to offer legal counsel to its employees, has so far offered nothing, inexcusably leaving these civil servants on their own....
Animal Protection Groups Say 'You Better Be Good 'Fur' Goodness Sake The Fund for Animals and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are urging consumers to "fake it" for the holidays and buy faux fur or other cruelty-free garments instead. "With the many warm and elegant alternatives available, it is simply unnecessary to buy clothes made from real fur that was ripped or peeled off the backs of animals," said Pierre Grzybowski, grassroots coordinator for The Fund for Animals. According to The Fund, animals raised in fur factories are confined in tiny cages until they are put out of their misery by neck-breaking or anal electrocution....
Wolf population declines in park Yellowstone National Park may have about all the wolves it can handle. For the first time since wolves were reintroduced to the park 10 years ago, the population has likely reached a plateau. Gone are the days when the wolf population jumped 40 or 50 percent a year. Even more recent growth rates - around 10 percent a year - may be tapering off. Preliminary estimates show there are now about 169 wolves in 15 packs, down from 174 the year before, according to Doug Smith, Yellowstone's lead wolf biologist. On Yellowstone's Northern Range, the wolf population dropped by 10 to 15 wolves in the last year, primarily because of competition. "I'd say that wolves are approaching carrying capacity in the park," Smith said Monday....
Milltown Dam removal plan finalized Twenty-three years after a Missoula County sanitarian found arsenic in Milltown's tap water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a final plan for excavating the sediments that brought the poison to town and taking Milltown Dam out of the river so it doesn't happen again. "A lot of people thought this would never happen in their lifetimes," said Chuck Erickson, president of Friends of Two Rivers, a group of Milltown and Bonner residents who lobbied for removal of the dam and millions of cubic yards of tainted reservoir sediments. Work at Milltown Reservoir will begin this winter, with removal of the dam as early as January 2006. Then will come the excavation of 2.6 million cubic yards of contaminated reservoir sediments, a two-year job....
Male Fish Growing Eggs Found in Potomac Male fish that are growing eggs have been found in the Potomac River near Sharpsburg, a sign that a little-understood type of pollution is spreading downstream from West Virginia, a federal scientist says. The so-called intersex abnormality may be caused by pollutants from sewage plants, feedlots and factories that can interfere with animals' hormone systems, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Nine male smallmouth bass taken from the Potomac near Sharpsburg, about 60 miles upstream from Washington, were found to have developed eggs inside their sex organs, said Vicki S. Blazer, a scientist overseeing the research for the U.S. Geological Survey....
EPA takes over lead role in cleanup of mine The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assumed the lead role Monday in directing the cleanup of an abandoned, contaminated copper mine in Northern Nevada. The federal agency is assuming primary responsibility for the cleanup of the former Anaconda copper mine under a provision of the Superfund law because of growing health and safety concerns, EPA officials said. Federal officials said they decided to grant the state’s request because of the complexity of the contaminants at the site near Yerington, about 55 miles southeast of Reno....
Milk River panel's co-chairs appointed The Bureau of Reclamation's top official in Montana will be co-chairman of a United States-Canada committee examining whether water from the Milk River system is allocated fairly north and south of the border. Appointment of the bureau's Daniel Jewell and Ross Herrington, a water policy adviser for the Canadian government's environmental agency, was announced Monday by the International Joint Commission. The IJC works to prevent and resolve water disputes between the United States and Canada. The commission recently decided to appoint a committee to work on issues involving the Milk River system, which flows along the border between Montana and Canadian provinces....
Officials revamp, expand program for rangeland insurance A pilot program for rangeland insurance, criticized by some for how it calculated losses, has been revamped and expanded to include more producers in Montana and Wyoming, a federal agriculture official said Monday. Beginning with the 2005 crop year, ranchers in 39 Montana counties and 10 Wyoming counties will be eligible for coverage under the Group Risk Plan Rangeland Pilot Program, said Dave Nickless, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency in Billings. The program will be much different from the pilot that started in 1999, Nickless said. One of the big differences involves the trigger for which losses could be calculated....
Polo horses get posh pad The snow polo horses got some upscale digs for their fifth annual visit to Aspen this weekend. Seventeen thoroughbreds were boarded at the Limelite Lodge - in a small grassy part of the lodge, that is, rather than in rooms. Barry Stout, a New Castle rancher and event director for the World Snow Polo Championship, said the horses have stayed in Aspen's Wagner Park, where the match is played, in the past. But this year the city wasn't interested in allowing the horses to overnight at the park, so Stout asked his friends at the Limelite for help....
Man hits the trail to repay a favor It’s roughly 1,200 miles from Houston to Cheyenne, Wyo. You or I could make the trip by car in little less than 24 hours, and that’s with pit stops along the way. Mike Hansen will make the trip in five months. Mike’s in the process of planning his single-man trail ride he’s dubbed Old Trails and New Legends. He and Drifter, along with a pack mule to be named later, plan to saddle up at the base of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo trail ride Feb. 26 and make the trek north the Wyoming just in time for the Frontier Days rodeo. In doing so, he will cover much of the same ground cattle drives did in the 1800s when Texas herds where taken to Kansas City, Wichita or Denver to be shipped east via rail. Likewise, cattle from Wyoming made it south to the same rail yards to feed a hungry eastern seaboard starving for prime beef. Mike isn’t making this ride, though, to hearken back to the days of old, but rather to repay a debt and give thanks....
It's All Trew: Return to old ways is progress? If you can remember when it took both hands and feet to drive a car you probably remember these terms: footfeed, spark, crank, choke, throttle, gear shift and steering knob. Today, few know what the terms mean. I recently followed a young lady down main street in Pampa who was talking on her cell phone, combing her hair and driving. She stopped at a green signal forcing me to hit my brakes and ran the next two red lights narrowly missing a collision....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Ranchers disagree on split estates Such voluntary agreements between landowners and natural gas developers are common in Wyoming. But now, some landowners, conservationists and others are pushing the state Legislature to make such negotiations mandatory when it convenes next month. They say such a law is needed to give landowners more bargaining power in dealings where developers often hold the upper hand. Even in Montana, which has a similar law on the books, one group is hoping to strengthen surface owner rights by requiring that the two sides try to reach agreement on such things as road placement and efforts to minimize dust and other disturbances....
Builder Sues Forest Service Workers Under RICO Act But now Eliason, her husband, Scott, a Forest Service botanist, and their boss, San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman, have had to hire their own attorney to defend them in a lawsuit accusing them of racketeering. San Diego businessman Irving Okovita, who filed the suit, alleges that the Eliasons, Zimmerman and Sandy Steers, a local environmental activist, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to block the Marina Point development, a luxury condominium project Okovita wants to develop with an Arizona company in this hamlet on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. Okovita sued under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a statute originally passed in 1970 to strengthen the government's arsenal against mobsters and drug lords....
Oregon's National Forests to announce job cuts Job cuts are in the works at two National Forests in Oregon. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is cutting 47 positions. That's about 15 percent of its staff. And Mount Hood National Forest is getting rid of 18 jobs. That's a reduction of about eight percent. More job cuts could be in the cards at other forests in the state. The Forest Service has been downsizing for a decade because of declining timber sales revenue....
Forest-fee foes lobby against Ohio congressman The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition announced Saturday that it is calling on its members and supporting organizations to oppose the selection of Congressman Ralph Regula (R-OH) as Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee when the new Congress convenes in January. The Coalition is asking House leadership to bypass Congressman Regula and appoint either Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) or Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) to lead the Committee for the next six years. The move comes in response to Regula’s abuse of power in attaching a permanent public lands recreation fee program to the omnibus spending bill that was passed in a lame duck session of the outgoing Congress....
Records show Interior aide assisted endangered species challenge A series of e-mails and telephone calls related to two high-profile environmental decisions in California has prompted criticism that business interests may be gaining too much influence over the U.S. Interior Department. According to court records, Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald tried to change scientific recommendations related to protecting wetland species and endangered fish. In the first instance, the correspondence was between MacDonald, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managers and the California Farm Bureau Federation in April. A month later, the federation used the information to back a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., seeking to overturn the service's decision continuing protection for the delta smelt....
Editorial: Saving the salmon THE 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition should be an occasion to restore the salmon runs that impressed and sustained the explorers when they reached the nation's Northwest. Instead, the Bush administration is acting to hinder recovery of many endangered salmon species. The State of Oregon and environmentalists should press their suit to compel the federal government to abide by the Endangered Species Act and protect the fish and their habitat. A major obstacle to salmon recovery is a system of four dams on the Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia. Oregon and the National Wildlife Federation have sued to get the federal government to take whatever steps are needed, including removal of the dams, to bring the salmon back. At the end of last month the administration ruled out dam removal as an option. This is a change from the position of the Clinton administration, which said dam removal should be considered....
Scrub jay stands in the way of woman's home Born with cerebral palsy, Lynde Mongiovi has had to battle her entire life. She worked hard to earn a master's degree in education. She worked hard to become a Brevard County school teacher. She worked hard to save money to buy a piece of land. And she worked hard to maintain an apartment that was wheelchair-accessible. Then came the hurricanes. She lost the apartment to a leaky roof and mold infestation. Now, she has one more battle to wage before she can settle down to the life she has always wanted. Her obstacle? A little bird. Mongiovi would like to build a home on the little lot she owns on Douglas Street in Palm Bay. But she can't because scrub jays — an endangered bird — sometimes inhabit that area....
Column: Case of the red-tailed hawks The story has all the elements of melodrama: a cruel landlord, a penniless family, eviction in midwinter. In the hypothetical case of 927 Fifth Avenue v. Pale Male, my sympathies lie with the defendant. Yet the case is not entirely one-sided, and judgment prudently should be withheld. According to The New York Times, the civil proceeding was initiated a year ago by the board of managers of a sumptuous co-op apartment at Fifth Avenue and East 74th Street. Among the complainant managers are Richard Cohen, a real estate developer, and his wife, the newscaster Paula Zahn. The defendants are Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk, and his current mate, Lola. If that fact prejudices you as a potential juror, one way or the other, you may be excused. Some people may not like hawks. For that matter, some people may not like newscasters. We should put such sentiments aside....
Yosemite rangers called overzealous in law enforcement Andre Vischer was frisked, handcuffed, read his rights and taken away by two rangers. Another ranger drove the couple's rental car while Margaret Vischer remained at the side of the road where a male ranger frisked her, handcuffed her and took her to Yosemite's small jail to spend the night. There she was fingerprinted, photographed, questioned and told to strip, shower and put on an orange jumpsuit. When she asked why she was being jailed even though her blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit and she was not driving, she said rangers told her they considered her a danger to herself and others. The next day, she was released without being charged....
Redskins owner skins slope of foliage Logs and tree limbs litter the steep slope behind the limestone and stucco Potomac, Md., mansion of Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. In the otherwise unbroken ribbon of forest separating his and other handsome estates from the old C&O Canal, there is suddenly a yawning gap. Last month, to the surprise of neighbors and conservation groups, Snyder hired workers to take chain saws to several acres of woodlands, giving him a panoramic view of the Potomac River from the $10 million home he purchased three years ago from Queen Noor, widow of Jordan's King Hussein....
West Nile loosens grip on grouse West Nile virus claimed a lighter toll on Wyoming's sage grouse this year, the Game and Fish Department said. Testing of dead grouse found this summer revealed that only two had died from the disease compared to 16 last year. Both of those testing positive for the mosquito-borne virus were found in the Powder River Basin, officials said Friday in a release. "The decline is good news, but it doesn't indicate any sort of trend," said Tom Christiansen, the agency's sage grouse coordinator. "If there is another bad mosquito year, there will likely be more sage grouse mortality."....
BLM approves exploratory methane drilling project Federal officials have approved another in a series of exploratory coal-bed methane projects to help determine whether large-scale development in south-central Wyoming is feasible. The Jolly Roger Pod project is one of nine drilling endeavors that will allow for about 200 wells in the Atlantic Rim area southwest of Rawlins, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said. Several operators want to drill up to 3,800 natural gas and coal-bed methane wells near the rim over the next several years....
A Year After Mad Cow, Ranchers Rejoice Sergio Madrigal watched in despair as federal officials hauled away his 449 calves to be killed after the nation's first case of mad cow disease was discovered in a nearby dairy cow. A year later, Madrigal looks out at his rebuilt herd and smiles just one of many signs that American ranchers suffered few long-term ill effects from the cow that ruined Christmas 2003. Beef prices are high, and so are spirits. "I'm at another level now," Madrigal said in Spanish through a translator, as he sat in his kitchen after tending his herd now numbered at more than 500 calves. But what a year it's been for the country's $44 billion cattle industry....
Pendleton wants its past designed into its future Remnants of the dance halls, opera houses, brothels and "secret society" meeting rooms of a century ago still occupy some of the vacant upper floors in downtown Pendleton's business district. But those floors could be transformed into glitzy professional offices and residential apartments by an urban renewal project that has residents in this old rodeo town puzzling about how to preserve the past while making way for the future. On any given day, visitors are as likely to see a rancher decked out in a Stetson and boots as an executive with a cell phone and briefcase. No one wants to get rid of the special ambiance that prompted True West Magazine to list Pendleton among the nation's "best Wild West towns" in its October edition....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Endangered list gone to dogs - prairie dogs The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced that the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog will be removed as a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. It was one of those headlines that make one shake his head in wonder. It's like hearing George W. Bush announce that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be removed from consideration as the Republican candidate for vice president or comparing the Iraq prison scandal to the savagery of Saddam Hussein, or hearing, "Extensive studies show that more women than men burn their bras!" How much money has been spent, smoke created, and emperor's clothes stolen to reach this obvious prairie dog conclusion?....

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

I just received Randy Huston's new cd in the mail today. It's entitled "There's A Hole In Daddy's Rope." I will review the cd in the next editon of Saturday Night At The Westerner (I may skip Christmas). Remember, if you've written something you'd like to see posted here, just email it to me. So far we could just call this "Carter's Corner".



The Christmas Pony

By Julie Carter

My dad hated ponies, Shetland or otherwise. His heartfelt belief was that if you wanted to ride--ride a real horse.

No one seems to really know what possessed him to bring home a Shetland pony for his kids that Christmas. We owned plenty of “real” horses.

Somehow in a horse trade he ended up with this short, barrel round, pitch black, Shetland. He was trading off a perfectly good bay two-year-old real horse for some cash. Somewhere in the deal, this small want-to-be horse got hauled back to the ranch.

He named him Mickey Mouse. Not for his color and not for the Disney character but because this midget was a mickey mouse version of what a horse was supposed to be.

Mickey repeatedly proved my dad’s theory on why not to own a Shetland pony and it began on Christmas morning.

At daylight, Dad went to the barn to do chores. He had the pony hidden in the barn but Mickey needed water. We had no water hydrants or tanks in the barn or the corrals. Water was the creek that ran along the bottom of the small trap below the corrals.

So Dad bridled the wee equine and jumped on him bareback to ride him to water. At some point during the process Mickey reared up, sliding Dad off his back. He landed hard on his back pockets on the hard frozen ground, breaking his tailbone.

Mickey Mouse defined in every way spoiled, barn soured, obnoxious and aggravating. If you rode him anywhere, he spent the entire time figuring out a way to unload you and make a run for the barn. His only redeeming quality was he’d run away with his head high and to the side so as not to break the dragging bridle reins.

While not our preference for a saddle horse, we did use him in other ways. He made a comical if not functional pack horse for our “kid” pack trips. We would cinch a pack saddle to him and tie to that all our treasures for the day that had been wrapped in an old green army blanket.

The mound on his back would be so huge it usually took a kid walking on each side holding the pack to keep it on the top side. Off we would go, lumbering up the road a mile or so to create our pretend world of cowboys and Indians and hunting camps.

In the height of his career, Mickey became the source of total indignation for my brother. Summer was irrigation time for all those hay meadows and Mickey was the assigned mode of transportation for the boy.

Shovel in hand, he would slip up on the pony bareback and head off for a day of directing water over hay fields. Dad told him he couldn’t waste a good saddle horse on that job.

In the winter Mickey pulled a toboggan in the meadow for us-- but only one direction. We’d jimmy rig some sort of harness for him and hook it to the sled. Then we lead him to the top end of a long meadow, turned him towards home and let him go. Dependably, he would run as hard as he could back to the barn. It was always a wild ride.

None of us kids have ever forgotten Mickey Mouse. And none of us have owned a pony since then. Some lessons tend to take better than others.

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

© Julie Carter 2004

OPINION/COMMENTARY

ENVIRO-MYTHS VS. REALITY

Michael Crichton’s new book, “State of Fear,” centers on a group of fictional environmentalists who propagate exaggerated claims about the effects of global warming.

The book mirrors the claims of real-life environmental activists, says Ronald Bailey, Reason magazine’s science correspondent, who reviews “State of Fear” for the Wall Street Journal. Crichton, however, dispelled such myths, and many others, in a speech at the Commonwealth Club last year, says Bailey. According to Crichton:

---Greenland’s ice cap will not likely melt anytime soon given that average temperatures in the area have declined by about 2.2 degrees Celsius since 1987.
---As for temperatures in most of Antarctica, they have been falling for nearly 50 years, and ice there has been accumulating rather than melting.
---The World Conservation Union estimates that since 1600, only 258 animal species, 368 insect species, and 384 vascular plant species have become extinct -- a far cry from the thousands annually estimated by eco-activists.
---Furthermore, the ban on the pesticide DDT, a move often praised by environmentalists, is estimated to be responsible for about 50 million unnecessary deaths from malaria worldwide.

Crichton’s novel features global warming as a key issue, but real evidence suggests that by the end of this century, the planet may warm to 0.8 degrees Celsius, which is hardly a cause for alarm. Yet the environmental lobby spends about $1.95 billion per year to influence Washington, says Bailey.

Besides entertainment, “State of Fear” provides informative truths amid the scaremongering that dominates environmental issues, says Bailey.

Source: Ronald Bailey, “A Chilling Tale,” Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2004; and Michael Crichton, “State of Fear,” HarperCollins, December 7, 2004.

For WSJ text (subscription required):

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110263812346896330,00.html

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Science for the Birds

A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that ten-percent of the world's bird species will be extinct, and as many as 25-percent may be functionally extinct, by the year 2100. “A careful study of extinction rates so far, conservation measures underway and climate and environmental change,” the Stanford researchers told CNN, “shows that at least 1,200 species of birds will be gone by 2100. And that is a conservative estimate.” If only modeling nature was that easy… Substituting adjectives for analysis, the researchers followed in the tracks of an increasing number of scientists and described their study and its results as “careful" and "conservative" to cover up the inherently shaky nature of wildlife modeling. Two years ago, I studied wildlife population modeling from one of the top wildlife ecologists in the world, Oz Schmitz. Prof. Schmitz strives to teach his students the unspoken reality of wildlife modeling: expect faulty results due to inadequacies in the models' basic assumptions. There is rarely enough information to say anything reliable about wildlife populations, so most scientists cut a lot of corners and build inferences upon inferences to arrive at their predictions. They then call the predictions conservative by simply taking the most conservative number from the range that results from their study....

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Climate Confusion

The current debate over climate change runs the gamut from C to shining C. It's about climate. It's about catastrophe. It's about consensus. It's about carbon. It's about condemnation. Most of all, though, it's about confusion. There was a lot of confusion Monday at the 10th Annual Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Buenos Aires, particular about data. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change offered two papers up that demonstrate how confused the climate change issue has become. Now, everybody agrees that there has been some warming over the last century, to the tune of about 0.6 degrees Celsius (about 1.1 degree Fahrenheit). And a consensus of scientists agrees that man's emission of greenhouse gases in that period -- particularly carbon dioxide, which has risen from 0.028% of the atmosphere to 0.037% -- must have had some kind of an impact. The consensus breaks down when you get into a discussion of how much and what kind of an impact....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Mountain Lions Move East, Breeding Fear "Iowa is the state with the highest mountain lion hysteria." So explained Ron Andrews, furbearer resource specialist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. His standing-room-only audience was mostly farmers and their wives, weatherworn men with feed caps, sturdy women with sensible shoes. They looked more suspicious than hysterical. They had crowded into a community center here in the heart of hog and corn country to find out the skulking particulars on the world's fourth-largest cat. State records show that mountain lions disappeared from Iowa in 1867. But with increasing and unnerving regularity, the ambush predator -- which will kill and eat house pets, livestock and humans but much prefers deer -- is back on the prowl across the Midwest. It's turning up on farms, in suburbs and even in occasional appearances downtown....
Barton grateful for court "blessing" The woman who started the Hayman fire, Terry Lynn Barton, didn't realize at first the magnitude of Thursday's ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals, which threw out her 12-year state prison sentence. Her attorney assured her that it was a big deal. "He said: 'Merry Christmas. No one deserved it better than you,"' Barton said in a telephone interview Friday from a Fort Worth, Texas, prison....
‘Gateway to paradise’ might be sold A lake and private enclave east of Lake Tahoe could be sold to the federal government for $75 million under a proposal recently submitted to the Bureau of Land Management. The sale of Incline Lake near the Mount Rose summit is one of about $120 million worth of sensitive land acquisitions in Northern Nevada proposed in the latest round of land deals under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act....
Family accused of misusing trust A lawsuit filed this week by the state attorney general's office accuses a Big Bear family of mishandling hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds that were supposed to go to an environmental trust. The directors of the Natural Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit environmental group with more than $2 million in assets and land holdings, include Christian Lindblad and his parents Robert L. Lindblad and Samantha Lindblad, who are also involved in an attempted murder case from June 2002. The organization received about $600,000 in state grants to maintain a nature preserve in the Big Bear Valley over the past decade but has failed to account for more than $400,000 of that money, said Tania Ibanez, a deputy attorney general....
Feds propose reducing critical habitat for western snowy plover The federal government proposed Friday to protect smaller but more numerous sections of West Coast beaches as habitat for the western snowy plover, saying it hoped to reduce conflicts between the tiny shore bird and people playing in the sand. The new critical habitat proposal, prompted by a federal court order won by Coos County commissioners on grounds the original did not include a proper economic impact statement, comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also considering petitions to lift Endangered Species Act protection for the bird. Paul Henson, assistant manager of the agency's California-Nevada Operations Office, said he hoped to use the critical habitat process to open as much beach as possible to recreation while providing what the plover needs to recover, without having to resort to heavy-handed regulation....
Anthropologist Pleads To Selling Parts Of Endangered Animals A cultural anthropologist who sold her Brazilian tribal art collection to the future head of the Smithsonian Institution pleaded guilty to selling parts of animals protected as endangered species. Rosita Heredia pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating federal law protecting endangered species by selling her collection to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence M. Small. He paid $400,000 in 1998 -- two years before he took over at the Smithsonian -- for the headdresses, ceremonial clothing and weapons for his private gallery in Washington, D.C. Heredia had permits to own the artifacts -- which included body parts and feathers of protected animals including harpy eagle, jaguar, leopard and giant armadillo -- for an educational purpose....
California activists call for lead ammunition ban to aid condors A coalition of environmentalists, American Indians and hunters is asking regulators to issue an emergency ban on lead ammunition in the condor's feeding territory and eventually statewide. "This is imperative to get this going. We feel this is an emergency issue for the condor," said Jeff Miller, a researcher with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups filing the petition with the state Fish and Game Commission. The move comes 18 months after state wildlife managers started a voluntary plan to protect California condors from lead poisoning. Separate studies for the state and federal wildlife agencies last year found condor lead poisoning increased during the fall hunting season.....
Government wants to open trails at former weapons plant The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endorsed a plan Friday that would let visitors roam 16 miles of trails across a scenic, wind-swept plateau that once housed the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. A state health official said the 6,240-acre site will be safe for public use after a $7 billion cleanup of plutonium, but an activist disagreed. The cleanup of the site, set against the foothills northwest of Denver, is expected to be complete in 2006, and the refuge could open in 2008. Parts would remain off-limits because of buried wastes, but officials say the cleanup will remove surface contamination....
Coalbed leases to face new scrutiny Prompted by court and administrative rulings, federal land managers will review more than 400 coalbed methane leases issued before management plans were updated to reflect the industry's impact on air and water - a decision that could halt some existing development in the Powder River Basin. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office on Thursday issued two separate notices providing for environmental assessments in the basin, the state's most productive gas field. One is a review of 421 leases issued before the office's 1985 resource management plan was updated in 2003 to take into account unique effects of coalbed methane development, an industry federal land managers had not foreseen in the 1980s. The second assessment is a review of the impacts of those leasing decisions and the potential for changing the way methane leases on federal property are permitted in the future....
Column: A grandfather's tales of wild horses come true No man is allowed to live here, in the restricted area of the Yakama. Just the wind, and wild horses. Fifty years ago, my grandfather told me what I might see today, and in the rustle of the wheatgrass this afternoon I hear his Alabama twang: "Cayuses everywhere -- you know, mustangs, boy! There's enough wild hosses up in Horse Heaven Hills a whole damn horizon couldn't hold 'em." I am here to prove to myself these horses exist -- the feds insist that they do not -- and I am here because the same government has given me reason to worry for their future....
Letter: Controlling wild horses part of balanced range management Wild horses are in conflict with healthy rangelands, rather than with ranchers and their livestock. In this time when current range management theory dictates that public land ranchers need to have some grazing system, some method for rotating the areas his or her livestock use in order to provide periods of rest for the range, it is simply no longer acceptable that large herds of horses graze the same range all year, every year. No one is proposing that all the wild horses be removed from the ranges; the sale of older horses is simply the most practical way to allow for the reduction of horse numbers to levels which approach a balance with the health of their ranges....
Government finds no bias by consultant in Steens case Federal investigators found no bias in the work of a consultant tied to the mining industry who helped the U.S. government draft a new blueprint for the protected Steens Mountain region in south-central Oregon. However, the review by the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General showed the government was two years late in making sure its contract with the consultant included provisions to guard against conflicts of interest. The review was conducted at the request of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. He made the request after The Oregonian reported last year that officers of a Nevada company hired by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to work on the Steens Mountain blueprint were leaders of pro-mining groups....
Water users urged to consider 'worst-case scenarios' The commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation had a message for Western water officials on Friday: Get ready to make do with less. Just in case. John Keys told the Colorado River Water Users Association here that the bureau is developing "worst-case scenarios" should the current six-year drought persist. And among those scenarios are water allocation reductions from Lake Powell, perhaps as early as 2006, and from Lake Mead in early 2007. Mexico's water take beyond the 1.5 million acre-feet it receives as part of the Colorado Compact could be put on the table as well. "What I must emphasize is that this is only an example of the trade-offs we will have to make," Keys told the group, which wrapped up two days of meetings on Friday. "You all have an interest in how these issues are resolved, in a way that meets the needs of the entire [Colorado River] basin, while also following the Law of the River."....
Locke unveils Columbia River proposal In what is likely one of his last acts before leaving office, Gov. Gary Locke announced a new plan for managing the Columbia River, seeking to provide more water for farmers and cities in Eastern Washington while protecting fish and wildlife. Water users and conservationists have been battling for decades over water rights for the Columbia and its tributaries, with one side seeking more water for communities and commerce while the other side fights for sufficient water for threatened fish. Locke made finding a solution a priority in his second term, working to resolve hundreds of water-rights applications and reduce litigation on the issue....
Salt Lake City mayor pushes green crusade Attending a conference in Argentina this week, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson wore his beliefs around his neck with a lanyard that read: "Yes to Kyoto. No to Bush." Under the Democratic mayor, Salt Lake City said "yes" in 2002 to the international agreement to cut carbon-dioxide emissions that President Bush rejected because, the White House said, it would harm the economy. On Thursday, a day after returning from the U.N. climate conference in Buenos Aires, Anderson said local governments have an important role in protecting the environment, especially in the face of Bush's "irresponsible" policy....
Western Governors' Wildfire panel says plan is working poorly Three years after Western governors and the Bush administration agreed on a plan to reduce wildfire danger, money is still lacking and the partnership between the federal government and state and local agencies isn't working well. A report by the Western Governors' Association advisory committee outlined how the plan is going. ''The central message of the report is that the federal government talks the talk on collaboration, but doesn't walk the walk,'' said Niel Lawrence, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's forestry project and a member of the panel that wrote the report. The plan, approved in 2001, called for improved fire prevention and suppression, fuels reduction, a long-term strategy for restoring wildlife habitat and community involvement....
Agency opted not to use DNA test on feed The Canadian Food Inspection Agency decided against using a DNA test on contaminated cattle feed that one expert says would have allowed it to determine if the feed contained banned cattle parts, The Vancouver Sun has learned. On Thursday, The Sun reported that a series of secret CFIA tests on vegetable-based cattle feed and feed ingredients found that 41 of the 70 samples (59 per cent) contained "undeclared animal materials." The CFIA has stressed that those tests -- conducted by looking at feed samples under a microscope -- do not allow it to determine whether cattle remains were fed to other cattle, the primary method in which mad-cow disease is spread....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Court throws out 12-year prison sentence in Colorado's largest wildfire An appeals court Thursday threw out a former U.S. Forest Service employee's 12-year prison sentence for starting the biggest wildfire in Colorado history. The Colorado Court of Appeals said state Judge Edward Colt gave Terry Lynn Barton too harsh a sentence and had at least "the appearance of prejudice" because smoke from the fire had prompted the judge to leave his own home for a night. The court ordered a new sentencing before a new judge for Barton, who admitted starting the June 2002 fire when she burned a letter from her ex-husband in a drought-stricken area....
Forest plan might not protect grizzly bears After reviewing management plans for the national forests around Yellowstone National Park, environmentalists have an easy answer for how well they think grizzly bears will be protected. "Not well at all," said Louisa Wilcox, wild bears project director for the National Resources Defense Council. The group thinks the big bears may become extinct. Wilcox and a handful of other grizzly bear defenders announced their analysis of new amendments to the plan Wednesday and said if grizzlies are de-listed from the Endangered Species Act - which could happen as early as next year - there's a good chance of extinction....
Dozens rally against condos lawsuit Dozens of residents and environmentalists rallied Thursday to condemn a federal lawsuit filed against an activist and three U.S. Forest Service employees. The Marina Point Development project began in 1981 when a group of investors bought a 15.5-acre property along the north edge of Big Bear Lake - in Fawnskin, a town of 400 people. The project has more than 100 condos. The development has been stalled by various bureaucratic and environmental delays, the most recent of which is a court-ordered injunction granted as a result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of Fawnskin. In November, lawyers for the developers filed a federal lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, naming San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman and biologists Scott and Robin Eliason....
Pentagon Proposes Loosening Its Environmental Policy The Defense Department, which has won congressional exemptions from environmental laws in the last two years, now wants to change an internal policy that commits the department to sound environmental practices. A draft of the proposal, which would replace a 1996 directive, eliminates the Pentagon's vow to "display environmental security leadership within DOD activities worldwide." It stresses, instead, the "national defense mission." The new proposal replaces a list of concrete responsibilities with vague guidance to the military about how to prevent pollution and guarantee compliance with federal and international laws. The directive would not affect any ongoing cleanup efforts by the Defense Department....
Wash. Orcas Get Feds' 'Threatened' Status Two years after denying Endangered Species Act protection to killer whales that live much of the year near Washington's San Juan Islands, the federal fisheries agency said Thursday it plans to list the struggling population as a threatened species. A federal judge last year had ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider its decision on the whales after eight environmental groups and concerned individuals filed suit. The threatened-species designation could become final a year from now, following a period of public comment....
Crow tribal member gets probation in eagle’s death A former Garryowen resident who admitted illegally possessing a bald eagle carcass will spend three years on federal probation. U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson on Thursday sentenced Duane Neil Costa, now of Ronan, after an hourlong hearing in which attorneys argued over restitution and whether Costa should get credit for accepting responsibility. Anderson gave Costa credit for accepting responsibility, a decision that qualified him for probation instead of a minimum eight months in prison. The judge did not impose restitution because the government did not present a basis for determining a fair amount. Anderson ordered that four months of probation be spent in home confinement and barred Costa from hunting, fishing or trapping during his probation....
Group seeks status review on 198 California endangered species Nearly 300 rare creatures, from the Arroyo Southwestern toad to the White sedge, are considered threatened or in danger of extinction in California, yet there has been no recent review whether two-thirds of the plants and animals still merit protection. Every five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to consider the 298 species' status under the Endangered Species Act, but it says it's so tied up in competing lawsuits from environmental groups and opponents that most decisions now are driven by judges' orders. To prod the service to act, a conservative legal group will notify it Friday that it will add a new lawsuit in 60 days unless the agency starts or schedules status reviews on all 198 listed species that have gone unchallenged for five years or more....
Snowy plover protection plan OKd A state panel endorsed a plan Thursday for protecting the threatened western snowy plover that could lead to new restrictions on such activities as driving, kite flying and playing with dogs on about 20 percent of the coast's sandy beaches. The state Parks and Recreation Commission approved the plan but held off on imposing new rules pending federal actions. The plan goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approval and for its drafting of an environmental impact statement, which officials said could take up to two years....
Center Files Notice on "Accidental" Government Killing of Jaguars The Center for Biological Diversity today filed formal 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services for actions taken by the latter agency that are likely to result in the "take" of endangered jaguars (panthera onca) in the United States. "Take" under the Endangered Species Act means "harassing, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing trapping, capturing, collecting, or attempting to engage in any such conduct." The notice letter points to failures of USDA's Orwellianly-named Wildlife Services agency to abide by Fish and Wildlife Service requirements in the former agency's wildlife poisoning, trapping and neck-snaring program, that Wildlife Services map out occupied habitat of jaguars and limit its killing techniques in these areas....
Dispute over listing sage grouse as endangered species The greater sage grouse has been nominated for protection as an endangered species, launching a high-voltage debate about its status among biologists, politicians, lobbyists, activists and agency managers. Terri Russi, supervisory wildlife biologist in the Bureau of Land Management's Bishop field office, and his wildlife biologist colleague, Steve Nelson, have been keeping careful tabs on the local sage grouse population in the hope they can determine how many birds there are and whether the number in their area is stable, increasing or declining. So far, their data suggest the grouse population in most of the Bishop area - the westernmost grouse habitat in the United States - is relatively stable, although it fluctuates from year to year. To help keep the grouse from disappearing, they've developed a conservation strategy in partnership with members of the local community, based on maintaining desired levels of vegetation health. They have used those standards to manage grazing and other activities with the potential to degrade sagebrush habitat....
Column: Governors Take Aim at Wounded Species Judging by their comments last week at a meeting in La Jolla, Calif., Western governors have thought a lot about the Endangered Species Act and its consequences for ranching, farming and real-estate development in their states. It became equally clear during the meeting that many governors have not thought clearly about this most far-reaching of federal environmental regulations. Or maybe they're just ignoring what they know. The Western Governors Association hoped to come up with strategies for amending the Endangered Species Act to make it work better. Many of the proposals that emerged from the panel discussions and presentations were for reasonable tweaks in the process: greater involvement by the states in conservation efforts, incentives for private landowner cooperation, making the designation of critical habitat part of the recovery planning for a species rather than one of the first steps in the process. But again and again, in their remarks, the governors and several of their invited speakers -- among them Rep. Richard Pombo, a Republican from California's Central Valley who has been spearheading his party's efforts to revise the ESA for a decade, and who now chairs the House Resources Committee -- made it clear that they don't believe the law needs minor improvement....
Park Service proposes allowing more river runners in Grand Canyon More river runners may soon be challenging the rapids of the Colorado River through the depths of the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service wants to increase the total yearly passengers by 38-hundred from 22-thousand-461 to 26-thousand-317 as part of a revised Colorado River management plan. A panel of scientists, geologists, professors and consultants is considering increasing the passenger totals. At the same time, the number and length of trips, as well as group sizes for some areas would be reduced....
Chambers Files Appeal for Immediate Reinstatement Teresa Chambers today filed a legal action to overturn her removal as Chief of the U.S. Park Police. Her 232-page petition cites more than 40 legal errors made by the judge who upheld Chief Chambers’ termination this past fall, according to a copy of the petition released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In an October 6th ruling, an administrative judge for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board issued “an initial decision” that Chief Chambers’ firing was justified due to statements she made in an interview with The Washington Post. The judge did, however, throw out two of the six administrative charges that the Department of Interior had leveled against Chief Chambers....
Yellowstone Trails Lead Bison to Slaughter As the snowmobile season begins in Yellowstone National Park, The Fund For Animals, Bluewater Network and other groups filed suit in Washington D.C. challenging the National Park Service's (NPS) one-two punch against Yellowstone's magnificent bison herd -- grooming snow-packed roads that facilitate bison leaving Yellowstone, and then participating in the slaughter of those very animals when they leave the Park. "It is time for NPS to stop leading Yellowstone bison to their slaughter, by grooming the very trails that help bison find their way out of the Park each winter," said Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals....
Ohio's Regula raises ire in West over park fees In Ohio, he is known as a powerful but genial congressman who has long had a soft spot for the wide-open spaces of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the cattle farm he calls home. Out West, though, Rep. Ralph Regula has a different reputation these days among some outdoorsy types. They accuse the Republican from Navarre of using a sneaky move last month to pass legislation that will force nature lovers to "pay through the nose" for the foreseeable future to visit federally owned recreation areas....
Coal lease bids top $1 billion in '04 Kennecott Energy Co. secured an additional 195 million tons of federal coal in the Powder River Basin with a $146.3 million bid this week. The West Antelope "bonus bid" pushes Wyoming's total for coal lease sales this year beyond $1 billion, half of which comes back to the state. That means: * $1.6 million for community colleges in Wyoming. * $7.5 million for cities, counties and highways. * And $527 million for K-12 school capital construction....
New Oil, Gas Wells Decline This Year Even as the Bush administration issued a record 5,824 oil and gas drilling permits for Western public lands in 2004, the number of new wells drilled declined by 10 percent this year to 2,489, according Bureau of Land Management figures. Environmentalists seized upon the figures -- publicized by the Wilderness Society -- as evidence that companies do not need to expand exploration into sensitive lands. "Why does the Bush administration continue to offer leases on wilderness-quality lands that should be set aside and protected?" asked the Wilderness Society's Dave Alberswerth....
BLM starting roundup of 2,000 Nevada mustangs Federal land managers have begun efforts to round up nearly two-thousand wild horses in eastern Nevada. Officials for the US Bureau of Land Management met with contractors Wednesday to finalize plans for the gather of 1,916 mustangs in the Antelope complex about 60 miles south of Wells and 60 miles north of Ely. The BLM intends to return about 440 of those horses back to the range and make nearly 1,500 available for adoption. BLM spokesman Mike Brown says the gather is expected to begin Thursday or Friday and last for about 60 days, depending on weather conditions....
Water vote sinks: Delegates walk out on reading of proposed settlement Just when everyone thought the Navajo Nation Council had a clear-cut choice Wednesday of pushing the green button to vote "yes" on the proposed San Juan River water rights settlement or pushing the red button to vote "no," delegates came up with yellow. Following nearly half a day of debate on the issue, Speaker Lawrence Morgan adjourned the meeting around 4:45 p.m. for lack of a quorum after Coalmine/Toh nanes dizi Delegate Hope MacDonald-Lonetree pulled out the rule book and rocked the boat. The proposed settlement agreement nearly 200 pages had not been read into the record. As Phephelia Johnson began the laborious task, delegates headed for the door....
A river flowing to the past Explorer and mountain man Jedediah Smith roamed the West in the 1820s, trapping for "plews" -- cured beaver pelts. These furs could make his fortune, or at minimum, fund future treks. He also hunted for the Rio Buenaventura, a Hudson's Bay Co. fantasy of a river that might run west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The dream of such a river was so seductive that 20 years later, John C. Fremont still quested for it....

NEWS ROUNDUP

State agency proposes paying compensation due to wolf kills State wildlife officials are beginning to work out the details for a program that would pay ranchers for livestock lost to wolves, the first such program in Montana. How the program would work, and how much it would cost, are unknown at this time, said Chris Smith, chief of staff for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. However, officials are hoping to improve on similar programs in other states and Canadian provinces and on the existing program in Montana, which is funded voluntarily by the environmental group, Defenders of Wildlife....
Hage Case to Go To Judge For Judgement Wayne Hage, a Tonopah, Nevada rancher reported at the last Nevada Live Stock Association’s (NLSA) Directors’ meeting on December 10, 2004 that his case is now squarely before Judge Loren Smith of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Judge Smith, at the completion of closing arguments in Reno, Nevada in October of this year, had strongly urged the parties to enter into settlement discussions. At the NLSA meeting, Wayne Hage and his wife, NLSA Chairman, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who was conducting the meeting, received confirmation from their attorneys in San Francisco that settlement was impossible; the two parties were too far apart. Chairman Chenoweth-Hage told the directors and others present that many people had been contacting them asking them not to settle, to “please take this case to completion.” Now that will be possible....
Enviros sue over bull trout habitat Two Montana environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's decision to cut habitat protection for bull trout by 90 percent. They contend the administration relied on uncertain local protections, ignored economic benefits of restoring fish, and did not consider the best science. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan, two Montana environmental groups filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. It seeks an injunction to compel Fish and Wildlife to designate adequate habitat for bull trout, allowing the bull trout to be removed from threatened and endangered species lists. This is the latest development in a continuing fight between environmental groups and the Bush administration over enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, particularly the provision that calls for earmarking habitat critical to getting a species off the threatened or endangered species lists....
Decision by federal court holds up growth rule Even though the Bush administration last Friday reissued a rule that is key to western Riverside County's growth plan, officials said this week the county's plan cannot yet count on the controversial "no surprises" rule. That rule gives a blanket assurance to the county and developers that they will face no further requirements once they have a federally approved plan to set up a reserve system to protect endangered species. The rule's aim is to speed up development outside the reserves with fewer environmental restrictions. But earlier this year, a federal judge sided with environmental groups and blocked the no-surprises rule, saying it lacked adequate public comment, just as the county was getting federal approval for its plan....
Grizzly arguments take shape Conservationists Wednesday criticized a U.S. Forest Service proposal outlining habitat criteria for grizzly bears, saying the agency's preferred plan doesn't go far enough. At the same time, county commissioners in Fremont County passed a second resolution saying bears are not wanted in their area, even though the northwest part of the county is known habitat for the bear. Commissioners in Sublette County are expected to pass a similar resolution next week....
Environmental group petitions to protect shovel-nose snake An environmental group on Wednesday petitioned federal wildlife officials for protection of the Tucson Shovel-nosed snake. Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has one year to determine whether the snake is eligible to be listed as threatened or endangered. The Center for Biological Diversity and Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection contend the snake's population has been driven into decline by urban sprawl and agriculture....
Drilling Fears Not Addressed, Groups Say Federal biologists had concerns about protections for wildlife and plant habitat on Otero Mesa early in the planning for oil and gas drilling there. Environmental groups now charge that many of those concerns were never addressed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in its plan to expand resource development in the southern New Mexico area. The BLM insists that the concerns were taken into consideration and that adequate protections have been incorporated in the proposed plan. Handwritten notes, taken by Fish and Wildlife Service biologists during meetings with the BLM, were obtained by Earthjustice and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance through a Freedom of Information Act request. "The Fish and Wildlife Service had serious questions with the BLM and the BLM ignored their inquiries as they ignored our inquiries," said wilderness alliance Executive Director Stephen Capra....
Wyoming joins suit against ban on snowmobiles The state of Wyoming has joined a tourism group's lawsuit that challenges National Park Service snowmobile rules in Yellowstone National Park. The lawsuit, originally filed last month by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association in U.S. District Court, seeks to loosen restrictions that limit the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone and nearby Grand Teton National Park. The Park Service has issued temporary rules that restrict the number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone to 720 a day and would require all recreational snowmobile users in the park to travel with a commercial guide. The rules allow 140 snowmobiles, with no guiding requirement, in Grand Teton and on the parkway connecting the two parks....
Leadership puts Eberts ranch buy on fast track Money to buy the Eberts ranch in the Badlands for a first-ever state preserve could be one of the first items taken up by the Legislature in January. Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, said he'll try to fast-track a bill to appropriate the state's share of the $3.5 million purchase. Stenehjem said it's possible the bill could be heard in committee by Jan. 7, the opening week of the 2005 session....
Loads of 'history' on D.C. to-do list The 108th Congress has turned out the lights for the year with some important business left undone. No, we're not talking about intelligence reforms, federal finances or the like; lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill to take care of those issues. Rather, left in Congress' "to do" stack was a massive package of bills, passed by the Senate but ignored by the House, that would designate a potpourri of national historic sites, trails, districts, heritage areas, wilderness and even boundary adjustments for national parks. Most, if not all, will be reintroduced next year....
Column: Green bigots international First they destroyed the gasoline station, so that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies more than 2 million people with water. No, these are not al-Qaeda terrorists. These are our own home-grown fanatics -- and the places mentioned are all in Yosemite National Park. They call themselves environmentalists but a more accurate term would be green bigots. What makes someone a bigot is that he wishes to deny other people the same rights he has. That is the hallmark of the environmental zealot....
Column: The Prophets, False Prophets, and Profiteers of Kyoto Actual satellite and weather balloon data – as well as historic and geologic records of numerous warming and cooling cycles – contradict computer models, theories and assertions that humans are causing disastrous weather events and climate shifts. Arctic temperatures were even higher in the 1930s, before cooling again for several decades. Science’s editors didn’t mention countless studies that analyze natural warming and cooling cycles – or the fact that 18,000 scientists have signed a petition saying they see “no convincing scientific evidence” that humans are disrupting the earth’s climate. All the countries in the world together are responsible for less than 3% of the Earth’s total greenhouse gas emissions (the rest are natural), and the U.S. emits only 1/5 of this. The Kyoto treaty would force the U.S. to slash emissions and fossil fuel use by some 25% over the next decade – an impossible task that would cost millions of jobs and over $300 billion annually, according to government and other studies....
Kyoto format should be ditched if US, China, India remain outside: Italy The Kyoto Treaty may have to die a natural death after 2012 and be replaced by bilateral deals if the United States and big developing countries refuse to make specific promises about curbing greenhouse-gas pollution, Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli was quoted on Wednesday as saying. In its present format, the UN's climate-change pact is opposed by the United States, the world's biggest carbon polluter, and it does not require fast-growing developing countries like China and India to make targeted cuts in their emissions....
Mistletoe: It's not just for kissing Mistletoe - the white-berried and green-leafed cluster commonly found hanging above doorways during the holidays - is part of a fairly old kissing ritual for people, but it's also important in other ways. Mistletoe provides essential food, cover and nesting sites for an amazing number of critters in the United States and elsewhere, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In fact, USGS researcher Rob Bennetts said, some animals couldn't even survive without mistletoe, including some birds, butterflies, and insects....
Water war begins to brew "In California, whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting over," said Jim Edmondson of California Trout. In the Eastern Sierra, they're ready to rumble. The fight is over whether water from Mammoth Creek should be irrigating golf courses and flushing toilets in new $1 million condominiums in the ski town or be left in streams to sustain wild trout. CalTrout, an anglers' conservation group that works to protect and restore the state's wild trout and steelhead, said this amounts to a water grab that will seriously hurt the area's prime fishing streams....
Big farms found to get most water subsidies California's corporate farms are guzzling a disproportionate share of subsidized federal water, a new study concludes. The report by the Environmental Working Group analyzed federal and state records from 2002 to compile a list of the top recipients of subsidized agricultural water from the Central Valley Project, the huge federal water delivery system that supplies roughly one-fifth of the state's domestic and irrigation water - about 7 million acre feet annually. About 6,800 farms use project water, accounting for about 2.7 million acre feet of the deliveries. Central Valley farmers typically pay a fraction of the cost south state urbanites pay for the federal water....
Nevada study looks at paying California to desalinate water Nevada doesn't have an ocean, but it has money and a thriving thirsty city where officials are beginning to consider paying Southern California to convert salt water to fresh water. The idea would be to seek in return some of California's allocation of water from the Colorado River, said McClain Peterson, a Colorado River Commission of Nevada natural resources manager. Peterson presented what he called a first-ever comparative analysis of such a dollars-for-water trade to a conference that ended Tuesday at the Caesars Palace hotel-casino....
New Rawhide is movin' out to Wild Horse Pass Casino The Gila River Indian Community has lured Rawhide Western Town & Steakhouse, the faux-1880s cow town, which is closing its Scottsdale home of 33 years. Details are scheduled to be disclosed this morning at a news conference near the Wild Horse Pass Casino, said Gary Bohnee, spokesman for the community. The new Rawhide will be north of the casino and will include a new Native American village. "We'll almost rewrite history," said Letha Lamb, board member of the Wild Horse Pass Development Authority, about locating a cowboy town in an Indian community....
Bin Laden's horse survives at modest stables The horse Osama bin Laden used to ride now lives in the run-down stables of a colonial-era racetrack on the edge of Khartoum. Her name is Swift Like the Wind, but a more appropriate one might be Victim of Circumstance. At 12, she's too old to race. Last year she almost starved to death. Now she spends her days in a small caged area, next to a grimy pool of water turtles. There was a time when the spirited white mare, dusted with gray spots, was one of a dozen prized horses that galloped in glory along the dusty stretch of track. In bin Laden's heyday here, as a wealthy exile in the mid-1990s, Swift ran in Sudan's most prestigious races....
El Último Vaquero Habla Español (The Last Cowboy Speaks Spanish) When René Alberto Vera Reyes got on a bus to come to the United States, he was 21 years old. He left the village of Cochrane—in Chilean Patagonia, population 2,000—in April 1999, carrying only a duffel bag that contained two pairs of pants, a pair of riding boots, a couple of shirts, a wool poncho, an awl, and several yards of horsehide pita, thin strips used to weave bridles and bullwhips. What he wanted, though, was to be an American cowboy. He wanted to wear a big belt buckle and Wrangler jeans, and to make enough money to trade his horse for a pickup and to buy land someday back in Chile. To get these things, he'd signed a three-year contract with the Western Range Association, a 200-member Citrus Heights, California–based consortium of sheep ranchers that imports hundreds of South Americans a year to work on ranches all over the West....