SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
He left a hole in the fabric of the world
By Julie Carter
This week the world lost yet another man whose moral fiber and character are the things this country was founded on.
You may not have known him but you know someone like him. He was a World War II veteran and actually walked guard around the very plane that dropped one of the bombs on Japan that brought an end to that dreadful war. He spoke so little of it, perhaps never quite believing the part he played in something so world impacting.
He was a quiet unassuming man who was raised up out of poverty and a back breaking way of living to seek only what he earned and accept only what was rightfully his.
His favorite moment in life was when his plow dropped into fertile ground to be followed by seed with the hope it would spring to life as a new crop of wheat. New baby calves and the smell of a long prayed for rain were part of his life cycle. He accepted life as it arrived and made the best of it on every level.
He loved a girl who became his wife and as they grew as a couple they became a family and a generation. He watched his children grow, his grandchildren arrive and his great-grandchildren cluster to the family tree.
He was the trunk of the family oak that sprouted branches far and wide and yet he remained rooted and grounded in the very core of who he was in the very beginning.
It took so little to be so much to this man of the earth. The smile of child, the buck of new born calf, a pickup that would run, a horse that would not, and the promise of a spring planting that would produce a summer harvest were things that made up the core of happiness for him.
This world has another hole in its foundational fabric and will tilt a little to one side because this man has gone to sit where streams run everlasting and wheat fields are tall and golden eternally.
I believe that those of us left behind are destined to level the field of life with the lives we lead and fill that hole with examples of the character set before us by men like this.
Their lives have to count for something beyond a name carved in a chunk of marble set before a dirt mound in a manicured field. They lived what they believed and died in peace knowing their quiet lives were all they were meant to be.
Generations after them have chased hard and fast after the very thing they so quietly and peacefully possessed in the simplicity of their living.
He now is where rains never cease to come on time and crops never fail. The sun is as life; bright and eternal.
When the tears of those left behind have soaked to the ground, when the hearts have mended enough to step back into life, and when eyes have opened again to the world around, living will resume with a heightened appreciation for life.
What better testimony to our lives than for it to make other lives better? To make others appreciate the simple things like sunsets, rainbows, and fresh turned earth.
We can only strive to leave a legacy of goodness, integrity and solid value as this man has.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
The Westerner welcomes submissions for this feature.
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Sunday, March 20, 2005
OPINION/COMMENTARY
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT REFORM NEEDS STRATEGIC FIX
The House Committee on Resources has adopted a new approach to update the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to renew the focus on species recovery, but NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett said that while reform is long overdue, current reform efforts fix only a small part of the problem. “The most grievous flaw in the ESA is its incentives,” Dr. Burnett said. “The ESA actually creates incentives to destroy species and their habitat.” “More than 75 percent of listed species depend on private land for all or part of their habitat requirements but if landowners provide suitable habitat, their land becomes subject to severe regulation if not confiscation,” Dr. Burnett added. The best solution is for property owners to be compensated when the government imposes restrictions to preserve species, just as they would if the land were taken for any other public purpose. And Dr. Burnett added that the Bush Administration could go even farther and pay bounties to property owners who manage their lands in ways that encourage endangered species to take up residence....
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ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT REFORM NEEDS STRATEGIC FIX
The House Committee on Resources has adopted a new approach to update the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to renew the focus on species recovery, but NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett said that while reform is long overdue, current reform efforts fix only a small part of the problem. “The most grievous flaw in the ESA is its incentives,” Dr. Burnett said. “The ESA actually creates incentives to destroy species and their habitat.” “More than 75 percent of listed species depend on private land for all or part of their habitat requirements but if landowners provide suitable habitat, their land becomes subject to severe regulation if not confiscation,” Dr. Burnett added. The best solution is for property owners to be compensated when the government imposes restrictions to preserve species, just as they would if the land were taken for any other public purpose. And Dr. Burnett added that the Bush Administration could go even farther and pay bounties to property owners who manage their lands in ways that encourage endangered species to take up residence....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Stop Nature Conservancy's Midnight Sweetheart Deal!
Two years ago the Washington Post ran a series that exposed of The Nature Conservancy's fast and loose manipulation of the U.S tax Code. These articles along with grassroots contacts from folks like you resulted in the Senate Finance Committee conducting an investigation of the Nature Conservancy's practices. It appears The Nature Conservancy has hired high priced Washington lobbyists who are conducting private negotiations with the Senate Finance Committee. In exchange for some modest changes of the tax law, the investigation will end. Then things will largely remain business as unusual for The Nature Conservancy to continue its battle against rural communities. The problem here is Senator Charles Grassley, who is a nice guy, is badly misguided on this issue. He is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and has been doing the Nature Conservancy's dirty work, clearing its tarnished name in exchange for some very weak reforms for the multibillion dollar, multinational very profitable “non-profit” Nature Conservancy....
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Stop Nature Conservancy's Midnight Sweetheart Deal!
Two years ago the Washington Post ran a series that exposed of The Nature Conservancy's fast and loose manipulation of the U.S tax Code. These articles along with grassroots contacts from folks like you resulted in the Senate Finance Committee conducting an investigation of the Nature Conservancy's practices. It appears The Nature Conservancy has hired high priced Washington lobbyists who are conducting private negotiations with the Senate Finance Committee. In exchange for some modest changes of the tax law, the investigation will end. Then things will largely remain business as unusual for The Nature Conservancy to continue its battle against rural communities. The problem here is Senator Charles Grassley, who is a nice guy, is badly misguided on this issue. He is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and has been doing the Nature Conservancy's dirty work, clearing its tarnished name in exchange for some very weak reforms for the multibillion dollar, multinational very profitable “non-profit” Nature Conservancy....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Wetlands Law Mired in a Bog
Tomorrow John Rapanos will stand before a federal judge for sentencing. The purported crime of this mid-Michigan builder is violating the federal Clean Water Act by moving sand in a cornfield he owns and had hoped to develop. Having investigated the scene of the "crime," I can attest that Mr. Rapanos' possible incarceration is absurd. Unfortunately, it is but one example of the current abuses of federal "wetlands" law. Mr. Rapanos' cornfield was deemed a wetland by state and federal authorities despite being surrounded by drainage ditches mandated by county drain commissioners in the early 1900s. When I visited the site, having recently ended my tenure as director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, I confirmed that these ditches were in fact keeping the land dry. Moreover, the nearest navigable water — the basis of federal jurisdiction over "wetlands" — was some 20 miles away. Mr. Rapanos no doubt provoked federal authorities when he worked on this farmland in violation of cease-and-desist orders, but there was little to justify the government's use of the Clean Water Act....
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Wetlands Law Mired in a Bog
Tomorrow John Rapanos will stand before a federal judge for sentencing. The purported crime of this mid-Michigan builder is violating the federal Clean Water Act by moving sand in a cornfield he owns and had hoped to develop. Having investigated the scene of the "crime," I can attest that Mr. Rapanos' possible incarceration is absurd. Unfortunately, it is but one example of the current abuses of federal "wetlands" law. Mr. Rapanos' cornfield was deemed a wetland by state and federal authorities despite being surrounded by drainage ditches mandated by county drain commissioners in the early 1900s. When I visited the site, having recently ended my tenure as director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, I confirmed that these ditches were in fact keeping the land dry. Moreover, the nearest navigable water — the basis of federal jurisdiction over "wetlands" — was some 20 miles away. Mr. Rapanos no doubt provoked federal authorities when he worked on this farmland in violation of cease-and-desist orders, but there was little to justify the government's use of the Clean Water Act....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
THE FUTURE OF HUNTING
Thirty-five years ago there was a national eruption of environmental and animal rights radicalism. Wilderness, Endangered Species, Marine Mammal Protection, Environmental Protection and Animal Welfare laws were combined with revamped Migratory Bird Treaties and United Nations Conventions to grow the Federal government and diminish State and local government jurisdictions and authorities. Federal land acquisition grew steadily while management of and access to natural resources on Federal lands steadily diminished. Federal and State “partnering” in the form of grants, cooperation, and tax breaks with organizations like The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, and The Sierra Club moved us toward Federal agencies that control Billions of dollars and Millions of acres while pressing for new Federal authorities over Invasive Species, Native Ecosystems, and Federal control of domestic animals. All of these things have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more difficult. Indeed, they are used on occasion to eliminate hunting for certain species or by certain methods. Restricted access to Federal lands and other lands owned or eased by government and environmental organizations combined with Federal requirements and restrictions concerning fish and wildlife management on private lands for game species have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more expensive and inaccessible for the populace. Simultaneously, in the past twenty years, Federal and State fish and wildlife bureaucrats have spent Millions of excise tax dollars annually to conduct a National Hunting and Fishing Survey. National Census data is collected, interpreted, and massaged by a permanent staff of Federal bureaucrats and a contingent of permanent and temporary contractors. The title of the Survey is however, misleading. Hunting and fishing have, from the get-go, been secondary purposes of the Survey. The real motivation was and remains to identify and define all the non-hunters and non-fishermen in the nation that have an interest in fish and wildlife....
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THE FUTURE OF HUNTING
Thirty-five years ago there was a national eruption of environmental and animal rights radicalism. Wilderness, Endangered Species, Marine Mammal Protection, Environmental Protection and Animal Welfare laws were combined with revamped Migratory Bird Treaties and United Nations Conventions to grow the Federal government and diminish State and local government jurisdictions and authorities. Federal land acquisition grew steadily while management of and access to natural resources on Federal lands steadily diminished. Federal and State “partnering” in the form of grants, cooperation, and tax breaks with organizations like The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, and The Sierra Club moved us toward Federal agencies that control Billions of dollars and Millions of acres while pressing for new Federal authorities over Invasive Species, Native Ecosystems, and Federal control of domestic animals. All of these things have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more difficult. Indeed, they are used on occasion to eliminate hunting for certain species or by certain methods. Restricted access to Federal lands and other lands owned or eased by government and environmental organizations combined with Federal requirements and restrictions concerning fish and wildlife management on private lands for game species have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more expensive and inaccessible for the populace. Simultaneously, in the past twenty years, Federal and State fish and wildlife bureaucrats have spent Millions of excise tax dollars annually to conduct a National Hunting and Fishing Survey. National Census data is collected, interpreted, and massaged by a permanent staff of Federal bureaucrats and a contingent of permanent and temporary contractors. The title of the Survey is however, misleading. Hunting and fishing have, from the get-go, been secondary purposes of the Survey. The real motivation was and remains to identify and define all the non-hunters and non-fishermen in the nation that have an interest in fish and wildlife....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
THE NEWEST IMPORT: AIR POLLUTION
Mercury from China, dust from Africa, smog from Mexico -- all drift freely across U.S. borders and contaminate the air millions of Americans breathe, according to recent research from Harvard University, the University of Washington and many other institutions where scientists are studying air pollution.
* Pollution wafting into the United States accounts for 30 percent of the nation's ozone, an important component of smog, says researcher David Parrish of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
* By 2020, Harvard University's Daniel Jacob says, imported pollution will be the primary factor degrading visibility in our national parks.
While the United States is cutting its own emissions, some nations, especially China, are belching out more and more dirty air. As a result, overseas pollution could partly cancel out improvements in U.S. air quality that have cost billions of dollars.
Almost every place in the United States has suffered from the effects of imported air pollution, at least occasionally. Some of the most serious impacts:
* Mercury emitted by power plants and factories in China, Korea and other parts of Asia wafts over to the United States and settles into the nation's lakes and streams, where it contributes to pollution that makes fish unsafe to eat.
* Dust from Africa's Sahara Desert blows west across the Atlantic Ocean and helps raise particle levels above federal health standards in Miami and other Southern cities.
* Haze and ozone from factories, power plants and fires in Asia and Mexico infiltrate wilderness spots such as California's Sequoia National Park and Texas' Big Bend National Park, clouding views and making the air less healthy.
Source: Traci Watson, "Air pollution from other countries drifts into USA; Emissions that cross borders could cancel out U.S. efforts," USA Today, March 14, 2005.
For text: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050314/1a_cover14x.art.htm
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THE NEWEST IMPORT: AIR POLLUTION
Mercury from China, dust from Africa, smog from Mexico -- all drift freely across U.S. borders and contaminate the air millions of Americans breathe, according to recent research from Harvard University, the University of Washington and many other institutions where scientists are studying air pollution.
* Pollution wafting into the United States accounts for 30 percent of the nation's ozone, an important component of smog, says researcher David Parrish of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
* By 2020, Harvard University's Daniel Jacob says, imported pollution will be the primary factor degrading visibility in our national parks.
While the United States is cutting its own emissions, some nations, especially China, are belching out more and more dirty air. As a result, overseas pollution could partly cancel out improvements in U.S. air quality that have cost billions of dollars.
Almost every place in the United States has suffered from the effects of imported air pollution, at least occasionally. Some of the most serious impacts:
* Mercury emitted by power plants and factories in China, Korea and other parts of Asia wafts over to the United States and settles into the nation's lakes and streams, where it contributes to pollution that makes fish unsafe to eat.
* Dust from Africa's Sahara Desert blows west across the Atlantic Ocean and helps raise particle levels above federal health standards in Miami and other Southern cities.
* Haze and ozone from factories, power plants and fires in Asia and Mexico infiltrate wilderness spots such as California's Sequoia National Park and Texas' Big Bend National Park, clouding views and making the air less healthy.
Source: Traci Watson, "Air pollution from other countries drifts into USA; Emissions that cross borders could cancel out U.S. efforts," USA Today, March 14, 2005.
For text: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050314/1a_cover14x.art.htm
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
PETA is neither kind nor gentle
The modern animal rights movement parted ways with the warm and fuzzy kitten huggers years ago. And with its long history of supporting animal-rights violence, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the poster child for what's wrong with the movement. In 2001, PETA actually wrote a check to the Earth Liberation Front, the arson-happy ecoterrorists who frequently torch SUVs and construction sites. During the 1990s, PETA donated $70,000 to a convicted arsonist who burned down a research lab at Michigan State University - a crime in which PETA's president was also implicated by a U.S. attorney. In 1989 PETA gave $7,500 to a woman who pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a medical-research executive. PETA even has a "fact sheet" praising the terrorist Animal Liberation Front as an "army of the kind."....
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PETA is neither kind nor gentle
The modern animal rights movement parted ways with the warm and fuzzy kitten huggers years ago. And with its long history of supporting animal-rights violence, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the poster child for what's wrong with the movement. In 2001, PETA actually wrote a check to the Earth Liberation Front, the arson-happy ecoterrorists who frequently torch SUVs and construction sites. During the 1990s, PETA donated $70,000 to a convicted arsonist who burned down a research lab at Michigan State University - a crime in which PETA's president was also implicated by a U.S. attorney. In 1989 PETA gave $7,500 to a woman who pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a medical-research executive. PETA even has a "fact sheet" praising the terrorist Animal Liberation Front as an "army of the kind."....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
ENVIRONMENTAL SHYLOCKS CAN'T MAKE TEFLON CLAIMS STICK
Radical environmental groups and their lawyers use exaggerated claims and shaky science to scare the public, while extracting large awards from companies through class-action lawsuits.
At issue is a lawsuit by the radical Environmental Working Group (EWG) against DuPont. The suit alleges that DuPont contaminated water supplies in Ohio and West Virginia with the chemical PFOA, used to make Teflon. DuPont recently agreed to settle for $340 million.
However, the accusation was just one of many baseless claims made by the EWG, says Terrence Scanlon, former chairman of the Consumer Products Safety Commission
* EWG claimed that PFOA concentrations in local drinking water were four parts per billion, above DuPont’s own standard of one part per billion; but the EPA’s own safety standard for PFOA is 150 parts per billion.
* In 1995, the EWG claimed that children are most a risk from chemicals, particularly from pesticides in baby food, but a renowned cancer researcher dismissed the claim as an attempt to scare parents.
* Last year, the EWG claimed that farmed salmon were contaminated with high levels of the chemical PCBs, but the claim was based on examination of only 10 fish; furthermore, the level of PCBs was only one-hundredth of the amount deemed safe by the FDA.
Furthermore, lawsuits and regulations based on false claims of health hazards needlessly cost producers, consumers and society as a whole, says Scanlon.
Source: Terrence Scanlon, “The Attack on Teflon Won’t Stick,” Charleston Daily Mail, March 4, 2005.
For text: http://www.dailymail.com/news/Opinion/200503048/
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ENVIRONMENTAL SHYLOCKS CAN'T MAKE TEFLON CLAIMS STICK
Radical environmental groups and their lawyers use exaggerated claims and shaky science to scare the public, while extracting large awards from companies through class-action lawsuits.
At issue is a lawsuit by the radical Environmental Working Group (EWG) against DuPont. The suit alleges that DuPont contaminated water supplies in Ohio and West Virginia with the chemical PFOA, used to make Teflon. DuPont recently agreed to settle for $340 million.
However, the accusation was just one of many baseless claims made by the EWG, says Terrence Scanlon, former chairman of the Consumer Products Safety Commission
* EWG claimed that PFOA concentrations in local drinking water were four parts per billion, above DuPont’s own standard of one part per billion; but the EPA’s own safety standard for PFOA is 150 parts per billion.
* In 1995, the EWG claimed that children are most a risk from chemicals, particularly from pesticides in baby food, but a renowned cancer researcher dismissed the claim as an attempt to scare parents.
* Last year, the EWG claimed that farmed salmon were contaminated with high levels of the chemical PCBs, but the claim was based on examination of only 10 fish; furthermore, the level of PCBs was only one-hundredth of the amount deemed safe by the FDA.
Furthermore, lawsuits and regulations based on false claims of health hazards needlessly cost producers, consumers and society as a whole, says Scanlon.
Source: Terrence Scanlon, “The Attack on Teflon Won’t Stick,” Charleston Daily Mail, March 4, 2005.
For text: http://www.dailymail.com/news/Opinion/200503048/
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Clouded Thinking Overcomes Clear Skies
More than two years after the Bush Administration proposed its new multi-pollutant approach to reduce emissions from electric power plants, “Clear Skies” was overcome by clouded thinking. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, attempted to move the bill (S131) forward in February and early March but the proposal couldn’t even make it out of Inhofe’s committee. To the economic-minded, the basic premise of Clear Skies looks like a win-win proposition – air quality improves and costs to reach environmental objectives are substantially reduced. What’s not to like? The Administration’s proposal would have reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury significantly over the next 13 years. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides contribute to acid rain and to respiratory ills. Mercury is of concern for its possible effects on the neurological development of fetuses and young children. Emission cuts would come in two phases but by 2018 sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants would decrease 73%, nitrogen oxides would decline 67%, and mercury emissions would drop 69%....
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Clouded Thinking Overcomes Clear Skies
More than two years after the Bush Administration proposed its new multi-pollutant approach to reduce emissions from electric power plants, “Clear Skies” was overcome by clouded thinking. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, attempted to move the bill (S131) forward in February and early March but the proposal couldn’t even make it out of Inhofe’s committee. To the economic-minded, the basic premise of Clear Skies looks like a win-win proposition – air quality improves and costs to reach environmental objectives are substantially reduced. What’s not to like? The Administration’s proposal would have reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury significantly over the next 13 years. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides contribute to acid rain and to respiratory ills. Mercury is of concern for its possible effects on the neurological development of fetuses and young children. Emission cuts would come in two phases but by 2018 sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants would decrease 73%, nitrogen oxides would decline 67%, and mercury emissions would drop 69%....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Oil Problem
WHEN THE OPEC CARTEL convenes this week it will have to deal with demands that it rev up its capacity to supply the world with the increasing amounts of oil that America's drivers and shivering homeowners, China's industries, and even Europe's stalled economies need. The International Monetary Fund has leaked the chapter of next month's World Economic Outlook in which it calls for OPEC to provide "much better protection" against price spikes by increasing its spare capacity from about 2 million barrels per day to between 3 million and 5 million barrels. And the Federal Reserve Board's latest survey of the state of the U.S. economy warns that manufacturers are regaining sufficient pricing power to enable them to pass on higher costs to consumers. Worse still, both the experts and the markets agree that high prices are here to stay. Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali Naimi, predicts that prices will be in the $40-$50 range for the foreseeable future; the futures market is suggesting that no relief is in sight from the $55 level; the Department of Energy agrees; David O'Reilly, CEO of ChevronTexaco warns, "The time when we could count on cheap oil . . . is clearly ending"; and there is talk on the street of $80 oil....
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The Oil Problem
WHEN THE OPEC CARTEL convenes this week it will have to deal with demands that it rev up its capacity to supply the world with the increasing amounts of oil that America's drivers and shivering homeowners, China's industries, and even Europe's stalled economies need. The International Monetary Fund has leaked the chapter of next month's World Economic Outlook in which it calls for OPEC to provide "much better protection" against price spikes by increasing its spare capacity from about 2 million barrels per day to between 3 million and 5 million barrels. And the Federal Reserve Board's latest survey of the state of the U.S. economy warns that manufacturers are regaining sufficient pricing power to enable them to pass on higher costs to consumers. Worse still, both the experts and the markets agree that high prices are here to stay. Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali Naimi, predicts that prices will be in the $40-$50 range for the foreseeable future; the futures market is suggesting that no relief is in sight from the $55 level; the Department of Energy agrees; David O'Reilly, CEO of ChevronTexaco warns, "The time when we could count on cheap oil . . . is clearly ending"; and there is talk on the street of $80 oil....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Clean Air Follies Continue
One of these days it would be nice if the Bush Administration finally decided whether it really believes in the power of markets in environmental policy. The EPA has issued several rules over the past couple of years--two of them within the past week--intended to build on the successful "cap-and-trade" philosophy first articulated in the 1990 revisions to the Clean Air Act. The basic idea is that, rather than government mandating pollution-control for every source, it would be better simply to set overall emissions goals and let markets and human ingenuity figure out how to achieve the target. One new rule extends this policy from controlling acid rain to controlling urban smog and cancer-causing particulates. The second new rule targets mercury for the first time. These regulations will no doubt lead to big improvements, just as the 1990 rules did. Sulfur dioxide emissions are down about 40% compared with 1980 levels, and at half the cost of doing so through the command-and-control approach....
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The Clean Air Follies Continue
One of these days it would be nice if the Bush Administration finally decided whether it really believes in the power of markets in environmental policy. The EPA has issued several rules over the past couple of years--two of them within the past week--intended to build on the successful "cap-and-trade" philosophy first articulated in the 1990 revisions to the Clean Air Act. The basic idea is that, rather than government mandating pollution-control for every source, it would be better simply to set overall emissions goals and let markets and human ingenuity figure out how to achieve the target. One new rule extends this policy from controlling acid rain to controlling urban smog and cancer-causing particulates. The second new rule targets mercury for the first time. These regulations will no doubt lead to big improvements, just as the 1990 rules did. Sulfur dioxide emissions are down about 40% compared with 1980 levels, and at half the cost of doing so through the command-and-control approach....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
New Swedish Study Shows ‘Natural Variability’ in Climate
A new paleoclimatological study, “Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low and high resolution data,” published as a letter in the February 10 issue of Nature, finds that there has been significant natural variability in the climate over the past 2,000 years. The authors are Anders Moberg, Karin Holmgren, and Wibjorn Karlen of Stockholm University and Dmitry M. Sonechkin and Nina M. Datsenko of the Hydrometeorological Research Center of Russia. The most important point of the study, according to the Swedish Research Council, is that it “shows that natural climate change may be larger than generally thought. “The most widespread picture of climate variability in the last millennium [the ‘hockey stick’] suggests that only small changes occurred before the year 1900, and then a pronounced warming set in. The new results rather show an appreciable temperature swing between the 12th and 20th centuries, with a notable cold period around AD 1600. A large part of the 20th century had approximately the same temperature as the 11th and 12th centuries. Only the last 15 years appear to be warmer than any previous period of similar length....
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New Swedish Study Shows ‘Natural Variability’ in Climate
A new paleoclimatological study, “Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low and high resolution data,” published as a letter in the February 10 issue of Nature, finds that there has been significant natural variability in the climate over the past 2,000 years. The authors are Anders Moberg, Karin Holmgren, and Wibjorn Karlen of Stockholm University and Dmitry M. Sonechkin and Nina M. Datsenko of the Hydrometeorological Research Center of Russia. The most important point of the study, according to the Swedish Research Council, is that it “shows that natural climate change may be larger than generally thought. “The most widespread picture of climate variability in the last millennium [the ‘hockey stick’] suggests that only small changes occurred before the year 1900, and then a pronounced warming set in. The new results rather show an appreciable temperature swing between the 12th and 20th centuries, with a notable cold period around AD 1600. A large part of the 20th century had approximately the same temperature as the 11th and 12th centuries. Only the last 15 years appear to be warmer than any previous period of similar length....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Dirty Little Secret
Why are we going through the Kyoto process? The question may seem trivial, but it isn't. The European Union and other developed countries are implementing policies that will have a significant impact on their economies. Of course the common answer to the question is: anthropogenic emissions are warming the planet to unprecedented temperatures, so we must do something to counter such a potentially harmful trend. Now, assuming that man-made emissions are the real cause of climate change and as a consequence climate will change for the worse (two assumptions that may be questionable), another question arises. Does Kyoto work? Indeed, if a kind of "cap & trade" strategy could lead to less emissions, thus less warming, the EU may be on the right track. A third question, one that will not taken into account, is whether Kyoto is the most efficient, or the least costly, method of curbing global warming; and, if not, which strategy should be followed?....
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Dirty Little Secret
Why are we going through the Kyoto process? The question may seem trivial, but it isn't. The European Union and other developed countries are implementing policies that will have a significant impact on their economies. Of course the common answer to the question is: anthropogenic emissions are warming the planet to unprecedented temperatures, so we must do something to counter such a potentially harmful trend. Now, assuming that man-made emissions are the real cause of climate change and as a consequence climate will change for the worse (two assumptions that may be questionable), another question arises. Does Kyoto work? Indeed, if a kind of "cap & trade" strategy could lead to less emissions, thus less warming, the EU may be on the right track. A third question, one that will not taken into account, is whether Kyoto is the most efficient, or the least costly, method of curbing global warming; and, if not, which strategy should be followed?....
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Saturday, March 19, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest service defends actions The U.S. Forest Service defended its actions Friday in a controlled burn that whipped out of control March 11 in the Pawnee National Grasslands. The Weld County Sheriff's Office opened a criminal investigation into the incident Thursday that could lead to arson charges. Weld District Attorney Ken Buck urged the office to open the investigation after receiving numerous complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area. Forest Service officials said that preliminary results of an administrative review indicate that officials "followed standard procedures" during the prescribed burn. The escaped fire burned approximately 900 acres, including 300 acres of private land. The fire burned 14 utility poles, worth $1,000 each, some fence and a small portion of a windbreak on private land. The fire didn't damage any buildings or cause any injuries....
Kane County ups ante in road feud with feds One month after erecting a series of signs designating off-road vehicle routes on federal land, Kane County is now posting the signs in a Wilderness Study Area. Photographs show the new county signs posted next to Bureau of Land Management signs prohibiting motorized traffic in a study area several miles northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. They signal the most recent attempt by Kane County to assert its control of local roads under the so-called RS 2477 statute. he Civil War-era law granted broad rights of way across public land until it was repealed by Congress in 1976, with existing roads being grandfathered in. Neither Kane County nor BLM officials were available for comment Friday afternoon. But word of the new sign postings drew a swift response from environmentalists....
Ranchers in line of migration say they'll let wolves set tone For the 86 years that three generations of McClarans have run livestock in the lower Imnaha Canyon, they battled drought, wildfire, coyotes and bobcats -- but never wolves. Bounty hunters and ranchers had already driven the predators out of the northeastern corner of Oregon by the time the McClarans arrived. Now, descendants of wolves reintroduced in Idaho by the federal government and managed there by the Nez Perce Tribe are well-established on the east side of Hells Canyon. Young wolves seeking unclaimed territory are expected to swim the Snake River to Oregon at any time. And in Oregon, that likely will lead them to the cows, calves and bulls the McClarans have scattered over more than 75,000 acres of private and federal ground on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon....
Watchers of wolves Lori Schmidt tips her face to the pale morning sky and starts to howl. She's quickly joined by five wolves, members of the resident pack at the International Wolf Center just outside this Boundary Waters town. Ms. Schmidt doesn't do this frequently; she doesn't want to become the woman who cried wolf. But when she does, these five wild canines respond. It makes the hair stand up on your nape to hear their wild song. As curator at the center, Ms. Schmidt raised most of these wolves – two full-grown Arctic males and three Minnesota (Great Plains) wolf pups. "I live with wolves," she says, hauling a frozen beaver carcass out of the freezer....
Column: Tale of a wolf hunt It's a gray, foggy morning in mid-April as the wolf silently pads her way over the pine-covered Montana mountainside. She weighs about a hundred pounds, a little heavier this time of year, but glides effortlessly on feet that appear too big for her body, her back undulating almost indiscernibly as she moves with a single purpose toward a place she will know immediately on sight. With all probability, she is the alpha female of a small pack, a group who, for whatever reasons, is seeking out new territory beyond the relative safety of Yellowstone National Park. In a chance encounter that belies fate, a Montana hunting guide (or an anachronistic rancher, or simply a ruddy-faced, squint-eyed defender of an aberrant, modern-day West) sees the lone female crossing a portion of his land and takes aim with a high-powered and well-scoped rifle, allowing himself to become judge and jury over the worth of the animal's life, not realizing that his knowledge of this, or any wolf, is highly subjective and may be inferior to that of a city-slicker who has actually read up on canis lupus....
Tubac Chamber Gives Resounding ‘Yes’ to Wilderness In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, the members of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce voted to support federal legislation that would permanently protect approximately 85,000 acres in the Tumacacori Highlands as wilderness. The group is the first chamber in the area to support wilderness designation for the Tumacacori Highlands in Southern Arizona. Before a vote was taken, Friends of the Tumacacori Highlands (FOTH), the local group driving the wilderness proposal, presented the Chamber with data supporting the benefits of wilderness to local economies, wildlife and hunting opportunities, and clean air and water. FOTH has been building a coalition of wilderness allies for more than two years using grassroots outreach to local communities, businesses, recreational groups, ranchers, and politicians....
Forest Service facing hard times The U.S. Forest Service may turn to private clubs or nonprofit groups to do things like maintain trails as the agency heads into a period of stagnant or declining budgets, the second in command of the agency told a group of foresters here Friday. "That will require us to find new partners and new revenue streams outside the federal government," Mark Rey, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the Montana Society of American Foresters at the group's annual meeting. Rey said the agency has already partnered with trail clubs and given out millions in matching grants for trail maintenance. He said that while it is possible private corporations could work with the agency on projects, he expected the service would work with clubs or nonprofit groups more often. Rey, a former staff member of the U.S. Senate and timber industry lobbyist, gave the keynote address at the two-day event. He is on a two-state tour. He also met with Gov. Brian Schweitzer's natural resources policy director....
Ag official talks forest policy on visit Mark Rey took a whirlwind tour of Helena Friday, stopping along the way to outline the Bush administration's priorities for some of the country's 155 national forests and grasslands. In interviews after the conference, Rey said that some of the Bush Administration's priorities include trying to get Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill as well as the president's Clear Skies Initiative. The Bush Administration also is considering urging revisions of the Endangered Species Act and trying to make restoration of public lands after catastrophic fires easier....
Nevada Senators Ask AG to Investigate Yucca Deception Nevada Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, are jointly calling upon the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the FBI to investigate falsely documented work at the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday that for years, some employees working on the licensing of the only U.S. high-level nuclear waste repository have falsified their work and records. In a letter sent Thursday, Reid and Ensign asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller to protect any documents, correspondence or other information associated with the DOE’s work and to initiate an independent investigation....
UVSC professor accused of creating hazard with canoe race he U.S. Attorney's office has charged a Utah Valley State College professor over a canoe race he annually runs on the Green River. The government on Thursday accused Michael Shively of creating a hazard and failure to obtain a special recreation permit, both misdemeanors. A Bureau of Land Management report says hazardous weather during the race last April caused canoes to capsize. Some students or their companions who fell into the water suffered from hypothermia. In addition, the BLM and Emery County had to launch search-and-rescue efforts after some participants paddling along the 62-mile route of the "I'll-Do-Anything-For-A-Few-More-Points Canoe Race" became overdue. UVSC school spokesman Derek Hall said the activity was not school sanctioned and not related to course work....
Limited Water Supplies Force Balance of Interests in US Southwest The Southwestern United States has faced several years of drought, highlighting the region's reliance on limited water supplies. Record rainfall the past winter has relieved the short-term problem. Officials in California and neighboring Nevada must balance the needs of competing interests, all of whom need water. Much of the region is desert, and the scarcity of water has always caused tensions here. The American writer Mark Twain once remarked, "Whisky is for drinking. Water is for fighting over." The West has done its share of both. As cities such as Los Angeles became more heavily populated, new sources of water had to be found outside the city. Officials looked to the north and east, bringing water through aqueducts, and storing it in reservoirs....
State targets money to help clean up livestock pollution The state Board of Water and Natural Resources is shifting millions of dollars into helping South Dakota's livestock industry deal with water pollution. The board recently redesigned one of its finance programs so that local governments pay a lower rate of interest on water project loans. Then the savings can be used to subsidize better environmental practices by farmers and ranchers to safeguard local watersheds or for other watershed restoration work by the borrower. The Legislature also gave its blessing to a new $2.5 million program by the board to assist livestock auction markets in meeting federal clean-water regulations....
Sea levels likely to rise 25cm this century No matter what happens, sea levels and temperatures are going to rise over the next century, according to a pair of reports out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Global warming will likely cause the sea level to rise by about 25 centimeters, or close to a foot, by 2100, while average temperatures will rise by at least a half degree Celsius, according to Tom Wigley, a researcher at the agency and an author of one of the studies released today. Researcher Gerald Meehl wrote the other. Wigley added that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by human activity. Even if humans stopped pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere today, sea levels will rise by 11 centimeters (about 4 inches) over the next century at a minimum, the studies predicted....
Shopping for Boots in Calgary People who work at the Alberta Boot Company in downtown Calgary say they don't smell the leather any more, but visitors to this emporium are enveloped by the aroma, rich and plain as roasting coffee. It summons images of stables and campfires, and cowpokes barging through saloon doors: the elements of a classic western film. Alberta Boot has shod movie stars from Kevin Costner to Jackie Chan, but the store and adjoining factory cater to a varied cast. There are 12,000 pairs in stock, assembled from ostrich, python, alligator, kangaroo, lizard, bull and cow hides. In stock cowhide boots start at $180; exotics retail for $400 to $1,400 (at 1.24 Canadian dollars to the United States dollar). The store prides itself on delivering odd sizes and individualized motifs through its custom business. In mid-February, workers were finishing an extra-tall pair with double leather over the instep and heel for a rancher in Saskatchewan. A Montana cowboy was awaiting a pair in black and blond cowhide with teal piping and ornamental teal stitching to match....
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Forest service defends actions The U.S. Forest Service defended its actions Friday in a controlled burn that whipped out of control March 11 in the Pawnee National Grasslands. The Weld County Sheriff's Office opened a criminal investigation into the incident Thursday that could lead to arson charges. Weld District Attorney Ken Buck urged the office to open the investigation after receiving numerous complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area. Forest Service officials said that preliminary results of an administrative review indicate that officials "followed standard procedures" during the prescribed burn. The escaped fire burned approximately 900 acres, including 300 acres of private land. The fire burned 14 utility poles, worth $1,000 each, some fence and a small portion of a windbreak on private land. The fire didn't damage any buildings or cause any injuries....
Kane County ups ante in road feud with feds One month after erecting a series of signs designating off-road vehicle routes on federal land, Kane County is now posting the signs in a Wilderness Study Area. Photographs show the new county signs posted next to Bureau of Land Management signs prohibiting motorized traffic in a study area several miles northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. They signal the most recent attempt by Kane County to assert its control of local roads under the so-called RS 2477 statute. he Civil War-era law granted broad rights of way across public land until it was repealed by Congress in 1976, with existing roads being grandfathered in. Neither Kane County nor BLM officials were available for comment Friday afternoon. But word of the new sign postings drew a swift response from environmentalists....
Ranchers in line of migration say they'll let wolves set tone For the 86 years that three generations of McClarans have run livestock in the lower Imnaha Canyon, they battled drought, wildfire, coyotes and bobcats -- but never wolves. Bounty hunters and ranchers had already driven the predators out of the northeastern corner of Oregon by the time the McClarans arrived. Now, descendants of wolves reintroduced in Idaho by the federal government and managed there by the Nez Perce Tribe are well-established on the east side of Hells Canyon. Young wolves seeking unclaimed territory are expected to swim the Snake River to Oregon at any time. And in Oregon, that likely will lead them to the cows, calves and bulls the McClarans have scattered over more than 75,000 acres of private and federal ground on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon....
Watchers of wolves Lori Schmidt tips her face to the pale morning sky and starts to howl. She's quickly joined by five wolves, members of the resident pack at the International Wolf Center just outside this Boundary Waters town. Ms. Schmidt doesn't do this frequently; she doesn't want to become the woman who cried wolf. But when she does, these five wild canines respond. It makes the hair stand up on your nape to hear their wild song. As curator at the center, Ms. Schmidt raised most of these wolves – two full-grown Arctic males and three Minnesota (Great Plains) wolf pups. "I live with wolves," she says, hauling a frozen beaver carcass out of the freezer....
Column: Tale of a wolf hunt It's a gray, foggy morning in mid-April as the wolf silently pads her way over the pine-covered Montana mountainside. She weighs about a hundred pounds, a little heavier this time of year, but glides effortlessly on feet that appear too big for her body, her back undulating almost indiscernibly as she moves with a single purpose toward a place she will know immediately on sight. With all probability, she is the alpha female of a small pack, a group who, for whatever reasons, is seeking out new territory beyond the relative safety of Yellowstone National Park. In a chance encounter that belies fate, a Montana hunting guide (or an anachronistic rancher, or simply a ruddy-faced, squint-eyed defender of an aberrant, modern-day West) sees the lone female crossing a portion of his land and takes aim with a high-powered and well-scoped rifle, allowing himself to become judge and jury over the worth of the animal's life, not realizing that his knowledge of this, or any wolf, is highly subjective and may be inferior to that of a city-slicker who has actually read up on canis lupus....
Tubac Chamber Gives Resounding ‘Yes’ to Wilderness In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, the members of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce voted to support federal legislation that would permanently protect approximately 85,000 acres in the Tumacacori Highlands as wilderness. The group is the first chamber in the area to support wilderness designation for the Tumacacori Highlands in Southern Arizona. Before a vote was taken, Friends of the Tumacacori Highlands (FOTH), the local group driving the wilderness proposal, presented the Chamber with data supporting the benefits of wilderness to local economies, wildlife and hunting opportunities, and clean air and water. FOTH has been building a coalition of wilderness allies for more than two years using grassroots outreach to local communities, businesses, recreational groups, ranchers, and politicians....
Forest Service facing hard times The U.S. Forest Service may turn to private clubs or nonprofit groups to do things like maintain trails as the agency heads into a period of stagnant or declining budgets, the second in command of the agency told a group of foresters here Friday. "That will require us to find new partners and new revenue streams outside the federal government," Mark Rey, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the Montana Society of American Foresters at the group's annual meeting. Rey said the agency has already partnered with trail clubs and given out millions in matching grants for trail maintenance. He said that while it is possible private corporations could work with the agency on projects, he expected the service would work with clubs or nonprofit groups more often. Rey, a former staff member of the U.S. Senate and timber industry lobbyist, gave the keynote address at the two-day event. He is on a two-state tour. He also met with Gov. Brian Schweitzer's natural resources policy director....
Ag official talks forest policy on visit Mark Rey took a whirlwind tour of Helena Friday, stopping along the way to outline the Bush administration's priorities for some of the country's 155 national forests and grasslands. In interviews after the conference, Rey said that some of the Bush Administration's priorities include trying to get Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill as well as the president's Clear Skies Initiative. The Bush Administration also is considering urging revisions of the Endangered Species Act and trying to make restoration of public lands after catastrophic fires easier....
Nevada Senators Ask AG to Investigate Yucca Deception Nevada Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, are jointly calling upon the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the FBI to investigate falsely documented work at the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday that for years, some employees working on the licensing of the only U.S. high-level nuclear waste repository have falsified their work and records. In a letter sent Thursday, Reid and Ensign asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller to protect any documents, correspondence or other information associated with the DOE’s work and to initiate an independent investigation....
UVSC professor accused of creating hazard with canoe race he U.S. Attorney's office has charged a Utah Valley State College professor over a canoe race he annually runs on the Green River. The government on Thursday accused Michael Shively of creating a hazard and failure to obtain a special recreation permit, both misdemeanors. A Bureau of Land Management report says hazardous weather during the race last April caused canoes to capsize. Some students or their companions who fell into the water suffered from hypothermia. In addition, the BLM and Emery County had to launch search-and-rescue efforts after some participants paddling along the 62-mile route of the "I'll-Do-Anything-For-A-Few-More-Points Canoe Race" became overdue. UVSC school spokesman Derek Hall said the activity was not school sanctioned and not related to course work....
Limited Water Supplies Force Balance of Interests in US Southwest The Southwestern United States has faced several years of drought, highlighting the region's reliance on limited water supplies. Record rainfall the past winter has relieved the short-term problem. Officials in California and neighboring Nevada must balance the needs of competing interests, all of whom need water. Much of the region is desert, and the scarcity of water has always caused tensions here. The American writer Mark Twain once remarked, "Whisky is for drinking. Water is for fighting over." The West has done its share of both. As cities such as Los Angeles became more heavily populated, new sources of water had to be found outside the city. Officials looked to the north and east, bringing water through aqueducts, and storing it in reservoirs....
State targets money to help clean up livestock pollution The state Board of Water and Natural Resources is shifting millions of dollars into helping South Dakota's livestock industry deal with water pollution. The board recently redesigned one of its finance programs so that local governments pay a lower rate of interest on water project loans. Then the savings can be used to subsidize better environmental practices by farmers and ranchers to safeguard local watersheds or for other watershed restoration work by the borrower. The Legislature also gave its blessing to a new $2.5 million program by the board to assist livestock auction markets in meeting federal clean-water regulations....
Sea levels likely to rise 25cm this century No matter what happens, sea levels and temperatures are going to rise over the next century, according to a pair of reports out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Global warming will likely cause the sea level to rise by about 25 centimeters, or close to a foot, by 2100, while average temperatures will rise by at least a half degree Celsius, according to Tom Wigley, a researcher at the agency and an author of one of the studies released today. Researcher Gerald Meehl wrote the other. Wigley added that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by human activity. Even if humans stopped pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere today, sea levels will rise by 11 centimeters (about 4 inches) over the next century at a minimum, the studies predicted....
Shopping for Boots in Calgary People who work at the Alberta Boot Company in downtown Calgary say they don't smell the leather any more, but visitors to this emporium are enveloped by the aroma, rich and plain as roasting coffee. It summons images of stables and campfires, and cowpokes barging through saloon doors: the elements of a classic western film. Alberta Boot has shod movie stars from Kevin Costner to Jackie Chan, but the store and adjoining factory cater to a varied cast. There are 12,000 pairs in stock, assembled from ostrich, python, alligator, kangaroo, lizard, bull and cow hides. In stock cowhide boots start at $180; exotics retail for $400 to $1,400 (at 1.24 Canadian dollars to the United States dollar). The store prides itself on delivering odd sizes and individualized motifs through its custom business. In mid-February, workers were finishing an extra-tall pair with double leather over the instep and heel for a rancher in Saskatchewan. A Montana cowboy was awaiting a pair in black and blond cowhide with teal piping and ornamental teal stitching to match....
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Friday, March 18, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Mountain Areas Are Left Hanging Kim Kelley is about to go broke because mudslides have come between her and her business, not to mention her mule, nine donkeys, two horses, 11 cats and three dogs. The slides have stranded U.S. Forest Service firetrucks, five cars and tons of heavy construction equipment that were at Chantry Flat in the San Gabriel Mountains when two major mudslides took out Big Santa Anita Canyon Road, north of Arcadia. More than a month after the last slide, access remains limited to those willing to walk or ride mountain bikes over slide areas, and the best guess is that it will take a year to repair. Even with paths shoveled out, the route still is precarious, and could become more so with rain expected this weekend....
Inquiry on fire begins At the urging of the Weld district attorney, a criminal investigation was launched Thursday into a controlled burn that was whipped out of control by high winds last week. If there is sufficient evidence, U.S. Forest Service employees could be charged with arson. District Attorney Ken Buck said he received several complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area, where the Forest Service was burning prairie grass last Friday. The callers complained that the fire shouldn't have been set because of high winds in the area and that the spread of the fire endangered farm property....
Opal find prompts closure to protect rare plant The discovery of opal in central Wyoming has prompted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to close 360 acres to vehicles to protect a threatened plant. The desert yellowhead, a sunflower-like plant, is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The closure was announced Thursday, about three weeks after the Wyoming Geological Survey announced the discovery of opal -- both the common and precious kinds -- in the area. The closed area does not include the opal deposits. But the closure will remain in effect until the plant is no longer at risk from vehicles, according to a BLM release....
Leaders of the pack By restoring the balance of nature in Yellowstone National Park, gray wolves may be providing a buffer against global warming as well. Through their culling of Yellowstone's weakest elk, the gray wolves reintroduced to the park 10 years ago are acting as nature's food distributors, with scavengers such as eagles, bears, coyotes and ravens thriving on the leftovers. And as northern Montana's milder winters lead to fewer elk deaths in the months when meals are hardest to find, a new study suggests, these wolf-generated banquets have made a world of difference....
Feds propose culling Leech Lake cormorant numbers by 80 percent Crews could start shooting thousands of cormorants and sterilizing their eggs on Leech Lake this summer as state and federal wildlife agencies try to mitigate the effect of the birds on the walleye population. Lee Pfannmuller, director of ecological services for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said efforts could include rubbing vegetable oil on eggs. Adults will continue to sit on the eggs and won't try to re-nest, but the eggs never hatch. A proposal to thin the population of the lake by thousands of birds was made in January and on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its environmental assessment of it....
Area's growth forces sale of last working ranch The last working ranch in the Glenwood Springs area may soon be a memory. "It's like murder," said John Bershenyi, whose ranch along Four Mile Road has been in the family for most of a century. "But I'm too old to handle it." His son and daughter-in-law, Jim and McKeaver, want to continue the family's ranching tradition. But the family realizes that the Glenwood Springs area is no longer the place to do that. The Bershenyi family settled the property in 1904, and it has been in the family almost all of that time....
Ag Department appeals ruling on Canadian cattle The Agriculture Department on Thursday appealed the decision of a federal judge in Montana to maintain an almost two-year ban on importing Canadian cattle, a ban that arose from mad cow disease north of the United States. Agriculture officials had planned to lift the import ban on Canadian cows March 7, but U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull had granted a request from U.S. ranchers five days earlier for a preliminary injunction to continue the prohibitions. The department asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Cebull's ruling....
Mustangs: Evolution And History When Columbus discovered America in 1492, there were no horses in the Western Hemisphere. Some people, recalling the vivid picture of American Indians mounted on horses, may suppose that great herds of mustangs, or feral horses, were native to America, and that American Indians had domesticated them and developed horsemanship on their own, but that is not the case. Only the small camelline animals of the Andes--llamas, alpacas, vicuñas and guanacos--were available to be ridden, and they can bear only very light loads. In the late 1530's and early 1540's, two Spanish explorers, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto conducted expeditions in what is now the United States. Coronado explored New Mexico and Arizona, seeking El Dorado, a mythical city of gold, which, of course, he never found. Soto explored Florida and the Southeast generally, and is credited with the discovery of the Mississippi River, which he sailed from an inland point southwards to the bayous. Several horses escaped or were abandoned on each of these expeditions, and it was from these strays that the great herds of mustangs that ranged the West sprang....
150-year-old Ware Ranch honored A 150-year-old Cooke County ranch is scheduled to be honored in Austin Friday by the State of Texas. The Ware Ranch, founded in 1854, is one of 142 Texas farms and ranches from 89 counties being honored during the 30th annual Family Land and Heritage ceremony. The ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Auditorium at the University of Texas, recognizes families who have kept their farms or ranches in continuous agricultural production by the same family for a hundred years or more. The Ware Ranch received a plaque for its first hundred years in September 1974. "We just have a small operation. That was one of the things I promised my late husband - that I'd keep it going," said Faye Ware, owner of the Ware Ranch....
Most Expensive Ranches In America 2005 The ranch market, like the rest of the real estate industry, is certainly hot. The prices on our list of the most expensive, for example, topped out at a startling $55 million. Still, that's practically a bargain compared with the most costly apartment on the New York City market. And while a $70 million penthouse triplex might be very nice indeed, it doesn't come with 3,000 acres, glistening trout streams, private cross-country trails, vast wildflower meadows and--lest we forget--cows. Many moguls and movie stars have seen the benefits of owning ranches and have been buying land to pass on to their children, to live out their Wild West fantasies (though perhaps wearing handmade boots and driving gleaming luxury pickups), or to take on the challenge or running a ranch for real....
Reflecting on a way of life: Rancher, 82, recalls work as a cowboy It wasn't a sport for Blaine Ramey. Riding a bucking horse was just how you survived. "Back when I started, it was more a way of life. We done it every day," Ramey said. "If you couldn't ride a bucking horse or rope, you couldn't get a job." Ramey, now 82, is a rancher in Blackfoot and will be inducted into the DNCFR Cowboy Hall of Fame during the Saturday rodeo performance along with Fort Hall cowboy Rusty Houtz....
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Mountain Areas Are Left Hanging Kim Kelley is about to go broke because mudslides have come between her and her business, not to mention her mule, nine donkeys, two horses, 11 cats and three dogs. The slides have stranded U.S. Forest Service firetrucks, five cars and tons of heavy construction equipment that were at Chantry Flat in the San Gabriel Mountains when two major mudslides took out Big Santa Anita Canyon Road, north of Arcadia. More than a month after the last slide, access remains limited to those willing to walk or ride mountain bikes over slide areas, and the best guess is that it will take a year to repair. Even with paths shoveled out, the route still is precarious, and could become more so with rain expected this weekend....
Inquiry on fire begins At the urging of the Weld district attorney, a criminal investigation was launched Thursday into a controlled burn that was whipped out of control by high winds last week. If there is sufficient evidence, U.S. Forest Service employees could be charged with arson. District Attorney Ken Buck said he received several complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area, where the Forest Service was burning prairie grass last Friday. The callers complained that the fire shouldn't have been set because of high winds in the area and that the spread of the fire endangered farm property....
Opal find prompts closure to protect rare plant The discovery of opal in central Wyoming has prompted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to close 360 acres to vehicles to protect a threatened plant. The desert yellowhead, a sunflower-like plant, is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The closure was announced Thursday, about three weeks after the Wyoming Geological Survey announced the discovery of opal -- both the common and precious kinds -- in the area. The closed area does not include the opal deposits. But the closure will remain in effect until the plant is no longer at risk from vehicles, according to a BLM release....
Leaders of the pack By restoring the balance of nature in Yellowstone National Park, gray wolves may be providing a buffer against global warming as well. Through their culling of Yellowstone's weakest elk, the gray wolves reintroduced to the park 10 years ago are acting as nature's food distributors, with scavengers such as eagles, bears, coyotes and ravens thriving on the leftovers. And as northern Montana's milder winters lead to fewer elk deaths in the months when meals are hardest to find, a new study suggests, these wolf-generated banquets have made a world of difference....
Feds propose culling Leech Lake cormorant numbers by 80 percent Crews could start shooting thousands of cormorants and sterilizing their eggs on Leech Lake this summer as state and federal wildlife agencies try to mitigate the effect of the birds on the walleye population. Lee Pfannmuller, director of ecological services for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said efforts could include rubbing vegetable oil on eggs. Adults will continue to sit on the eggs and won't try to re-nest, but the eggs never hatch. A proposal to thin the population of the lake by thousands of birds was made in January and on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its environmental assessment of it....
Area's growth forces sale of last working ranch The last working ranch in the Glenwood Springs area may soon be a memory. "It's like murder," said John Bershenyi, whose ranch along Four Mile Road has been in the family for most of a century. "But I'm too old to handle it." His son and daughter-in-law, Jim and McKeaver, want to continue the family's ranching tradition. But the family realizes that the Glenwood Springs area is no longer the place to do that. The Bershenyi family settled the property in 1904, and it has been in the family almost all of that time....
Ag Department appeals ruling on Canadian cattle The Agriculture Department on Thursday appealed the decision of a federal judge in Montana to maintain an almost two-year ban on importing Canadian cattle, a ban that arose from mad cow disease north of the United States. Agriculture officials had planned to lift the import ban on Canadian cows March 7, but U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull had granted a request from U.S. ranchers five days earlier for a preliminary injunction to continue the prohibitions. The department asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Cebull's ruling....
Mustangs: Evolution And History When Columbus discovered America in 1492, there were no horses in the Western Hemisphere. Some people, recalling the vivid picture of American Indians mounted on horses, may suppose that great herds of mustangs, or feral horses, were native to America, and that American Indians had domesticated them and developed horsemanship on their own, but that is not the case. Only the small camelline animals of the Andes--llamas, alpacas, vicuñas and guanacos--were available to be ridden, and they can bear only very light loads. In the late 1530's and early 1540's, two Spanish explorers, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto conducted expeditions in what is now the United States. Coronado explored New Mexico and Arizona, seeking El Dorado, a mythical city of gold, which, of course, he never found. Soto explored Florida and the Southeast generally, and is credited with the discovery of the Mississippi River, which he sailed from an inland point southwards to the bayous. Several horses escaped or were abandoned on each of these expeditions, and it was from these strays that the great herds of mustangs that ranged the West sprang....
150-year-old Ware Ranch honored A 150-year-old Cooke County ranch is scheduled to be honored in Austin Friday by the State of Texas. The Ware Ranch, founded in 1854, is one of 142 Texas farms and ranches from 89 counties being honored during the 30th annual Family Land and Heritage ceremony. The ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Auditorium at the University of Texas, recognizes families who have kept their farms or ranches in continuous agricultural production by the same family for a hundred years or more. The Ware Ranch received a plaque for its first hundred years in September 1974. "We just have a small operation. That was one of the things I promised my late husband - that I'd keep it going," said Faye Ware, owner of the Ware Ranch....
Most Expensive Ranches In America 2005 The ranch market, like the rest of the real estate industry, is certainly hot. The prices on our list of the most expensive, for example, topped out at a startling $55 million. Still, that's practically a bargain compared with the most costly apartment on the New York City market. And while a $70 million penthouse triplex might be very nice indeed, it doesn't come with 3,000 acres, glistening trout streams, private cross-country trails, vast wildflower meadows and--lest we forget--cows. Many moguls and movie stars have seen the benefits of owning ranches and have been buying land to pass on to their children, to live out their Wild West fantasies (though perhaps wearing handmade boots and driving gleaming luxury pickups), or to take on the challenge or running a ranch for real....
Reflecting on a way of life: Rancher, 82, recalls work as a cowboy It wasn't a sport for Blaine Ramey. Riding a bucking horse was just how you survived. "Back when I started, it was more a way of life. We done it every day," Ramey said. "If you couldn't ride a bucking horse or rope, you couldn't get a job." Ramey, now 82, is a rancher in Blackfoot and will be inducted into the DNCFR Cowboy Hall of Fame during the Saturday rodeo performance along with Fort Hall cowboy Rusty Houtz....
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Thursday, March 17, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolf views ignite cultural spat It was the rap heard 'round Oregon. Students from Portland's Sunnyside Environmental School gave their opinions on a state wolf plan at a February hearing. Some did it in unconventional ways: Two rapped along with boom-box music, three read a poem, and others made more direct statements. They talked of ranchers killing wolves and said the predators deserve to come back to Oregon. In return they got a lesson in the politics of wolves in the West. State Republican lawmakers chastised their "one-sided . . . street theater" in a letter to the school superintendent, and a pro-agriculture Web site called their education "severely deficient." If the reaction underscores the divide between Eastern and Western Oregon, both sides hope the students will learn from the episode. An Eastern Oregon county judge will speak this week at the school about cultural differences within the state....
Governor signs law creating state prairie dog management plan A state management plan that seeks to keep a sufficient population of prairie dogs while protecting landowners who don't want them has been signed into law by Gov. Mike Rounds. The state management plan sets a goal of 166,000 acres outside Indian reservations, just slightly above the long-term average in South Dakota. A combination of poisoning, incentive payments to ranchers and other techniques would be used to keep the population near the goal. The governor last week signed a separate measure to give ranchers more help in fighting the prairie dog invasion from adjoining private land. Prairie dogs could be treated as pests in some situations so county boards could poison them in a one-mile buffer zone on private land adjoining a rancher who does not want them....
Hybridized fish prompt Yellowstone's proposed fishing rule changes Non-native trout are interbreeding with increasingly rare native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park, and that's why anglers would be encouraged to take up to five non-native trout daily, under some proposed new rules, a biologist says. Rainbow trout have been found in Slough Creek, a renowned Yellowstone cutthroat fishery in the park's northern reaches, said Todd Koel, the top fisheries biologist in the park. When the two species live in the same water, they usually interbreed. Also, Koel said it has recently been confirmed that what had been thought to be a pure-strain population of westslope cutthroats in the North Fork of Fan Creek has been interbreeding with rainbows....
Report: Navy Sonar Likely Made Orcas Flee Sonar pulsing from a Navy guided-missile destroyer during training exercises near the San Juan Islands two years ago was likely loud enough to send killer whales fleeing, according to a government agency report. The National Marine Fisheries Service report backed up local experts who said sonar from the USS Shoup caused a group of orcas to behave abnormally, apparently trying to avoid the sound. It contradicts the Navy's previous findings that orcas in Puget Sound's J Pod seemed unaffected by the sonar coming from the Shoup on May 5, 2003....
Why Is the National Guard Hunting Shrimp? The Associated Press reports that biologists with the Idaho National Guard have discovered a new species of fairy shrimp in a desert lake bed. Dana Quinney and Jay Weaver first found the forked-tailed shrimp nine years ago and will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Crustacean Biology. Why does the National Guard need biologists who study shrimp? The biologists make sure that National Guard training exercises—which may include mobile howitzers, and Hellfire missiles fired from Apache helicopters—don't cause too much damage to the environment. Three civilian biologists work full-time for the natural resources program of the Idaho National Guard; in general, they review military training plans and monitor the use of the training area (which comprises 138,000 acres). Through regular surveys, they make sure that endangered species are preserved and ecological deterioration is kept to a minimum. The fairy shrimp species Quinney and Weaver discovered could merit special consideration in the planning of future exercises....
Beagle in training to root out pythons from Everglades park Visitors to the Everglades expect or even hope to encounter some scary swamp creatures. But the 20-foot snake draped across a two-lane road? That's a postcard moment wildlife officials want to erase. The Burmese Pythons increasingly spotted by tourists do not belong in the Everglades. But the Asian reptiles are multiplying here in troubling numbers, competing with native, endangered species for food and crossing the paths of startled tourists. Now the killer snakes might have finally met their match: a beagle puppy aptly named "Python Pete," who's being trained to sniff out the creatures so they can be captured and killed....
Sea coral may be listed under Endangered Species Act For the first time, government officials have proposed protecting coral under the Endangered Species Act, and conservationists hope it's a first step toward staving off their extinction. Elkhorn and staghorn coral, the two coral proposed for listing, are related species and for the past 500,000 years have been the primary reef-builders for Florida and the Caribbean. But those coral have seen losses of 80 percent to 98 percent in the last few decades due to global warming, pollution and overfishing, though there is some disagreement among scientists about which threats are greatest. And like most sea creatures, they suffer from marine diseases that have become more numerous and virulent in recent decades. The branching coral are considered foundation species where they occur and an important defense for marine habitats against global warming....
Wild Pig Hunt Aims to Save California Island Foxes The Channel Islands off the California coast are home to 145 species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. On Santa Cruz island, non-native feral pigs may be pushing the island's unique and endangered foxes to the brink of extinction. Now the island's managers are pushing back. The nonprofit Nature Conservancy owns 76 percent of Santa Cruz Island. The National Park Service owns the rest. Together the agencies have crafted an island management plan that calls for an end to the pigs' tenure in paradise. A New Zealand-based company will begin hunting operations later this month. The company will aim to eradicate the island pig population over the next two to three years. Hunters will use a combination of traps, dogs, and helicopters to root the animals from the island's rugged terrain—one-third of which is inaccessible by road....
Senate Votes to Open Alaskan Oil Drilling A closely divided Senate voted Wednesday to approve oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, a major victory for President Bush and a stinging defeat for environmentalists who have fought the idea for decades. By a 51-49 vote, the Senate put a refuge drilling provision in next year's budget, depriving opponents of the chance to use a filibuster to try to block it. Filibusters, which require 60 votes to overcome, have been used to defeat drilling proposals in the past....
Horse, mule riders lasso a stunning camping spot in redrock country Finding suitable backcountry camping facilities can be difficult for equine enthusiasts: Camping spots are typically too small to accommodate horse trailers, and the larger group sites are in high demand. But in the desert country of southeastern Utah, home to many of film director John Ford's best-known Westerns, horse and mule riders now have a reservation-based camp site built especially for them. Since January, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in cooperation with the Southeastern Utah Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen and Grand County's Trail Mix group (which works on developing and maintaining all kinds of nonmotorized backcountry trails), has worked to construct the new horse camp and corral along scenic Onion Creek against the scenic backdrop of Fisher Towers....
Beetle infestation at epidemic levels on forest land Bark beetle infestations have reached epidemic proportions within Region 1 of the U.S. Forest Service, with trees on at least 1.6 million acres infected with a number of different types of these bugs. Bark beetles are a natural forest resident and provide valuable services in limited numbers. But an aging forest and dense tree stands, coupled with recent drought conditions, have led the beetles to multiply to levels that are cutting huge swaths across Idaho, Montana and part of Yellowstone National Park....
BLM puts stop to plans for heli-mushing camp Opposition from people concerned about helicopter traffic and noise stopped plans for a heli-mushing camp on the Nenana Glacier near Denali National Park and Preserve this summer. Era Aviation had already started booking trips for the new tour when the Bureau of Land Management informed the company it would not issue a permit to operate dog sled tours on the Nenana Glacier this summer. "We came to the conclusion there were too many adverse effects that would result from noise; that was the main factor," said Will Runnoe, bureau chief for visitor services with BLM in Glennallen....
Developer avoids prison in wetlands case A Midland developer whose feud over wetlands has lasted more than 15 years was sentenced Tuesday to probation he had already served - despite a higher court's ruling that he should go to prison. John A. Rapanos was convicted in 1995 of illegally filling wetlands in properties he owned in Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff of Detroit accused the government of going overboard with its insistence on prison, in part because of Rapanos' personality. "We have a very disagreeable person who insists on his Constitutional rights," Zatkoff said. "This is the kind of person the Constitution was passed to protect." The judge sentenced Rapanos to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $185,000 fine. That was identical to the original sentence, and Rapanos already has completed it....
Water forecast poor for Klamath irrigators The water forecast for the Klamath Basin continues to get worse, with a skinny snowpack that is quickly melting and little rain in sight, but federal irrigation managers hope to meet most of their obligations for farms as well as fish. Snowpack in the mountains above the Klamath Reclamation Project is 28 percent of normal, declining about 1 percent a day. The latest forecast for water running into the primary reservoir serving the federal irrigation system dropped by 20 percent the past two weeks to 210,000 acre feet, Klamath project manager Dave Sabo said Wednesday. "That is putting us down into one of the three or four driest years on record since 1961," Sabo said. The Klamath Reclamation Project serves about 1,400 farms on 180,000 acres straddling the Oregon-California border south of Klamath Falls....
Tailings must be moved, 2 states tell congressmen A giant pile of radioactive waste sitting near the banks of the Colorado River poses unacceptable risks and needs to be moved, California and Utah officials told a congressional briefing Tuesday. The 12 million tons of tailings sit several miles northwest of Moab and 750 feet from the river that provides drinking water to 25 million people, most of them in California. The tailings are residue from a uranium mill that stopped operating in 1984 and was taken over by the Department of Energy in 2000. "You can't consider our water supply safe if those are in our headwaters," said Dennis Underwood, vice president for Colorado River resources at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "It's public health that's endangered here."....
Border battle takes on NAFTA A group of Alberta ranchers is taking their battle over the U-S border closure to a higher court. Wednesday, Canadian Cattlemen for Free Trade served a notice of arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The group, made up of 120 ranchers and feed lot operators, is suing the U-S federal government for 300-million dollars. It plans to argue that the government contravened the agreement when it closed the border to Canadian beef. "The government of the United States has to treat Canadian investors no differently than they treat their own investors," says Rick Paskal, of CCFT. "We feel we have had discriminatory treatment towards us and that is the basis for our case." The case could get a lot larger in scope....
Governor proclaims 'Chris LeDoux Day' on July 30 Gov. Dave Freudenthal proclaimed July 30, 2005, the last day of Cheyenne Frontier Days, as "Chris LeDoux Day" in Wyoming. LeDoux, who sold more than 6 million albums, died last Wednesday of complications from liver cancer. He was 56. "Chris LeDoux has meant a lot to Wyoming, from his earliest days of riding bareback to his later days of making music," Freudenthal said. "Cheyenne Frontier Days, when fans of both will gather, seems like an appropriate time to honor his memory."....
Brazile is still looking for first win Even world champions face stretches of adversity. Just ask team ropers Speed Williams and Rich Skelton. Last year, the duo went through the first three months of the rodeo season without winning a dime. They eventually got on track and went on to win their eighth consecutive world championship. "Even though times get tough, you just can't give up," said Williams. That's something three-time world all-around champion Trevor Brazile, considered the consummate artist with a rope, is experiencing. The Decatur, Texas, cowboy is bogged down in a winning drought, and he cannot be found anywhere in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings. But he's not really that concerned....
Washington Town Auctions Off Testicle Titles Organizers of the Cowboy Caviar festival in Conconully are auctioning off the titles of "King and Queen of the Ball" on eBay. The winning royal couple will receive free lodging, entertainment and food in the north central Washington town for three days. They will reign over a contest to see which of three restaurants can cook up the best bull testicles. The town of 200 hopes to attract more attention to the June 18 event, which sold 60 tickets last year. Marilyn Church of the Chamber of Commerce says some people plan their summer vacations around testicle festivals.
===
Wolf views ignite cultural spat It was the rap heard 'round Oregon. Students from Portland's Sunnyside Environmental School gave their opinions on a state wolf plan at a February hearing. Some did it in unconventional ways: Two rapped along with boom-box music, three read a poem, and others made more direct statements. They talked of ranchers killing wolves and said the predators deserve to come back to Oregon. In return they got a lesson in the politics of wolves in the West. State Republican lawmakers chastised their "one-sided . . . street theater" in a letter to the school superintendent, and a pro-agriculture Web site called their education "severely deficient." If the reaction underscores the divide between Eastern and Western Oregon, both sides hope the students will learn from the episode. An Eastern Oregon county judge will speak this week at the school about cultural differences within the state....
Governor signs law creating state prairie dog management plan A state management plan that seeks to keep a sufficient population of prairie dogs while protecting landowners who don't want them has been signed into law by Gov. Mike Rounds. The state management plan sets a goal of 166,000 acres outside Indian reservations, just slightly above the long-term average in South Dakota. A combination of poisoning, incentive payments to ranchers and other techniques would be used to keep the population near the goal. The governor last week signed a separate measure to give ranchers more help in fighting the prairie dog invasion from adjoining private land. Prairie dogs could be treated as pests in some situations so county boards could poison them in a one-mile buffer zone on private land adjoining a rancher who does not want them....
Hybridized fish prompt Yellowstone's proposed fishing rule changes Non-native trout are interbreeding with increasingly rare native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park, and that's why anglers would be encouraged to take up to five non-native trout daily, under some proposed new rules, a biologist says. Rainbow trout have been found in Slough Creek, a renowned Yellowstone cutthroat fishery in the park's northern reaches, said Todd Koel, the top fisheries biologist in the park. When the two species live in the same water, they usually interbreed. Also, Koel said it has recently been confirmed that what had been thought to be a pure-strain population of westslope cutthroats in the North Fork of Fan Creek has been interbreeding with rainbows....
Report: Navy Sonar Likely Made Orcas Flee Sonar pulsing from a Navy guided-missile destroyer during training exercises near the San Juan Islands two years ago was likely loud enough to send killer whales fleeing, according to a government agency report. The National Marine Fisheries Service report backed up local experts who said sonar from the USS Shoup caused a group of orcas to behave abnormally, apparently trying to avoid the sound. It contradicts the Navy's previous findings that orcas in Puget Sound's J Pod seemed unaffected by the sonar coming from the Shoup on May 5, 2003....
Why Is the National Guard Hunting Shrimp? The Associated Press reports that biologists with the Idaho National Guard have discovered a new species of fairy shrimp in a desert lake bed. Dana Quinney and Jay Weaver first found the forked-tailed shrimp nine years ago and will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Crustacean Biology. Why does the National Guard need biologists who study shrimp? The biologists make sure that National Guard training exercises—which may include mobile howitzers, and Hellfire missiles fired from Apache helicopters—don't cause too much damage to the environment. Three civilian biologists work full-time for the natural resources program of the Idaho National Guard; in general, they review military training plans and monitor the use of the training area (which comprises 138,000 acres). Through regular surveys, they make sure that endangered species are preserved and ecological deterioration is kept to a minimum. The fairy shrimp species Quinney and Weaver discovered could merit special consideration in the planning of future exercises....
Beagle in training to root out pythons from Everglades park Visitors to the Everglades expect or even hope to encounter some scary swamp creatures. But the 20-foot snake draped across a two-lane road? That's a postcard moment wildlife officials want to erase. The Burmese Pythons increasingly spotted by tourists do not belong in the Everglades. But the Asian reptiles are multiplying here in troubling numbers, competing with native, endangered species for food and crossing the paths of startled tourists. Now the killer snakes might have finally met their match: a beagle puppy aptly named "Python Pete," who's being trained to sniff out the creatures so they can be captured and killed....
Sea coral may be listed under Endangered Species Act For the first time, government officials have proposed protecting coral under the Endangered Species Act, and conservationists hope it's a first step toward staving off their extinction. Elkhorn and staghorn coral, the two coral proposed for listing, are related species and for the past 500,000 years have been the primary reef-builders for Florida and the Caribbean. But those coral have seen losses of 80 percent to 98 percent in the last few decades due to global warming, pollution and overfishing, though there is some disagreement among scientists about which threats are greatest. And like most sea creatures, they suffer from marine diseases that have become more numerous and virulent in recent decades. The branching coral are considered foundation species where they occur and an important defense for marine habitats against global warming....
Wild Pig Hunt Aims to Save California Island Foxes The Channel Islands off the California coast are home to 145 species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. On Santa Cruz island, non-native feral pigs may be pushing the island's unique and endangered foxes to the brink of extinction. Now the island's managers are pushing back. The nonprofit Nature Conservancy owns 76 percent of Santa Cruz Island. The National Park Service owns the rest. Together the agencies have crafted an island management plan that calls for an end to the pigs' tenure in paradise. A New Zealand-based company will begin hunting operations later this month. The company will aim to eradicate the island pig population over the next two to three years. Hunters will use a combination of traps, dogs, and helicopters to root the animals from the island's rugged terrain—one-third of which is inaccessible by road....
Senate Votes to Open Alaskan Oil Drilling A closely divided Senate voted Wednesday to approve oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, a major victory for President Bush and a stinging defeat for environmentalists who have fought the idea for decades. By a 51-49 vote, the Senate put a refuge drilling provision in next year's budget, depriving opponents of the chance to use a filibuster to try to block it. Filibusters, which require 60 votes to overcome, have been used to defeat drilling proposals in the past....
Horse, mule riders lasso a stunning camping spot in redrock country Finding suitable backcountry camping facilities can be difficult for equine enthusiasts: Camping spots are typically too small to accommodate horse trailers, and the larger group sites are in high demand. But in the desert country of southeastern Utah, home to many of film director John Ford's best-known Westerns, horse and mule riders now have a reservation-based camp site built especially for them. Since January, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in cooperation with the Southeastern Utah Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen and Grand County's Trail Mix group (which works on developing and maintaining all kinds of nonmotorized backcountry trails), has worked to construct the new horse camp and corral along scenic Onion Creek against the scenic backdrop of Fisher Towers....
Beetle infestation at epidemic levels on forest land Bark beetle infestations have reached epidemic proportions within Region 1 of the U.S. Forest Service, with trees on at least 1.6 million acres infected with a number of different types of these bugs. Bark beetles are a natural forest resident and provide valuable services in limited numbers. But an aging forest and dense tree stands, coupled with recent drought conditions, have led the beetles to multiply to levels that are cutting huge swaths across Idaho, Montana and part of Yellowstone National Park....
BLM puts stop to plans for heli-mushing camp Opposition from people concerned about helicopter traffic and noise stopped plans for a heli-mushing camp on the Nenana Glacier near Denali National Park and Preserve this summer. Era Aviation had already started booking trips for the new tour when the Bureau of Land Management informed the company it would not issue a permit to operate dog sled tours on the Nenana Glacier this summer. "We came to the conclusion there were too many adverse effects that would result from noise; that was the main factor," said Will Runnoe, bureau chief for visitor services with BLM in Glennallen....
Developer avoids prison in wetlands case A Midland developer whose feud over wetlands has lasted more than 15 years was sentenced Tuesday to probation he had already served - despite a higher court's ruling that he should go to prison. John A. Rapanos was convicted in 1995 of illegally filling wetlands in properties he owned in Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff of Detroit accused the government of going overboard with its insistence on prison, in part because of Rapanos' personality. "We have a very disagreeable person who insists on his Constitutional rights," Zatkoff said. "This is the kind of person the Constitution was passed to protect." The judge sentenced Rapanos to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $185,000 fine. That was identical to the original sentence, and Rapanos already has completed it....
Water forecast poor for Klamath irrigators The water forecast for the Klamath Basin continues to get worse, with a skinny snowpack that is quickly melting and little rain in sight, but federal irrigation managers hope to meet most of their obligations for farms as well as fish. Snowpack in the mountains above the Klamath Reclamation Project is 28 percent of normal, declining about 1 percent a day. The latest forecast for water running into the primary reservoir serving the federal irrigation system dropped by 20 percent the past two weeks to 210,000 acre feet, Klamath project manager Dave Sabo said Wednesday. "That is putting us down into one of the three or four driest years on record since 1961," Sabo said. The Klamath Reclamation Project serves about 1,400 farms on 180,000 acres straddling the Oregon-California border south of Klamath Falls....
Tailings must be moved, 2 states tell congressmen A giant pile of radioactive waste sitting near the banks of the Colorado River poses unacceptable risks and needs to be moved, California and Utah officials told a congressional briefing Tuesday. The 12 million tons of tailings sit several miles northwest of Moab and 750 feet from the river that provides drinking water to 25 million people, most of them in California. The tailings are residue from a uranium mill that stopped operating in 1984 and was taken over by the Department of Energy in 2000. "You can't consider our water supply safe if those are in our headwaters," said Dennis Underwood, vice president for Colorado River resources at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "It's public health that's endangered here."....
Border battle takes on NAFTA A group of Alberta ranchers is taking their battle over the U-S border closure to a higher court. Wednesday, Canadian Cattlemen for Free Trade served a notice of arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The group, made up of 120 ranchers and feed lot operators, is suing the U-S federal government for 300-million dollars. It plans to argue that the government contravened the agreement when it closed the border to Canadian beef. "The government of the United States has to treat Canadian investors no differently than they treat their own investors," says Rick Paskal, of CCFT. "We feel we have had discriminatory treatment towards us and that is the basis for our case." The case could get a lot larger in scope....
Governor proclaims 'Chris LeDoux Day' on July 30 Gov. Dave Freudenthal proclaimed July 30, 2005, the last day of Cheyenne Frontier Days, as "Chris LeDoux Day" in Wyoming. LeDoux, who sold more than 6 million albums, died last Wednesday of complications from liver cancer. He was 56. "Chris LeDoux has meant a lot to Wyoming, from his earliest days of riding bareback to his later days of making music," Freudenthal said. "Cheyenne Frontier Days, when fans of both will gather, seems like an appropriate time to honor his memory."....
Brazile is still looking for first win Even world champions face stretches of adversity. Just ask team ropers Speed Williams and Rich Skelton. Last year, the duo went through the first three months of the rodeo season without winning a dime. They eventually got on track and went on to win their eighth consecutive world championship. "Even though times get tough, you just can't give up," said Williams. That's something three-time world all-around champion Trevor Brazile, considered the consummate artist with a rope, is experiencing. The Decatur, Texas, cowboy is bogged down in a winning drought, and he cannot be found anywhere in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings. But he's not really that concerned....
Washington Town Auctions Off Testicle Titles Organizers of the Cowboy Caviar festival in Conconully are auctioning off the titles of "King and Queen of the Ball" on eBay. The winning royal couple will receive free lodging, entertainment and food in the north central Washington town for three days. They will reign over a contest to see which of three restaurants can cook up the best bull testicles. The town of 200 hopes to attract more attention to the June 18 event, which sold 60 tickets last year. Marilyn Church of the Chamber of Commerce says some people plan their summer vacations around testicle festivals.
===
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
GAO TESTIMONY
Meeting Energy Demand in the 21st Century: Challenges and Key Questions Remain, by Jim Wells, Director of Natural Resources and Environment Issues, before the Subcommittee on Energy and Resources, House Committee on Government Reform. GAO-05-414T, March 16. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-414T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05414thigh.pdf
===
Meeting Energy Demand in the 21st Century: Challenges and Key Questions Remain, by Jim Wells, Director of Natural Resources and Environment Issues, before the Subcommittee on Energy and Resources, House Committee on Government Reform. GAO-05-414T, March 16. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-414T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05414thigh.pdf
===
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolf trapped, released after 2 calves were killed State and federal officials have released a female wolf that was trapped near Avon after two calves were killed during a 10-day period. The decision was based on a January federal court ruling that restored the classification of wolves to endangered, except for experimental populations around Yellowstone National Park and in Minnesota. But a federal wolf manager said he believes the radio-collared wolf would have been released without the ruling by the Oregon judge. Rancher Tim Quigley, who lost a calf over the weekend, said watching the wolf being released Tuesday morning was frustrating. "The wolves come in, get my calf, we catch it and they turn it loose. Watching it lope across my meadow, knowing it's going to be back among my cattle -- I'm kind of a quiet guy, but this really gets me going."....
Researchers predict lingering drought; warn of fire risk Dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest have the region primed for a severe fire season, according to researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University. In a forecast issued Tuesday, the scientists — who combine global climate models with vegetation databases to project wildfire risk — predict the unusually dry winter to linger into spring. "It is going to become extremely dry in many parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountain states, and the fire risk is going to be significantly higher than normal," said Ronald Neilson, a bioclimatologist with the U.S. Forest Service and professor of botany at Oregon State. "There is nothing to indicate a wet spring."....
Judge denies emergency halt to Biscuit salvage logging A federal judge Tuesday denied the latest request from environmentalists to impose an emergency halt to salvage logging in an old growth forest reserve burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire. Meanwhile, loggers were able to go to work unhindered on the Fiddler timber sale on the Siskiyou National Forest after the U.S. Forest Service closed off the area to keep out protesters who have interfered with operations three times over the past nine days. Three of the 27 protesters in the Josephine County Jail on charges they interfered with the logging said they were on a hunger strike to protest the criminal charges against them and jail conditions....
Column: A Line in the Ancient Forest On Monday, March 7 industrial logging of massive trees began in "protected" old-growth forest reserves in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area of the Siskiyou National Forest in Southwestern Oregon. This is the first time that logging of this magnitude has occurred in old-growth forest reserves (called Late Successional Reserves) since the creation of the Northwest Forest Plan over ten years ago. This industrial logging of old-growth forests is part of the Biscuit Logging Project, the largest Forest Service timber sale in modern history. Thirty square miles of ancient forests and inventoried roadless wildlands will be destroyed as the Forest Service intends to log 370 million board feet of trees, enough to fill 74,000 log trucks lined up for over 600 miles. Nearly 50 citizens have been arrested in the past week in an attempt to delay the logging with peaceful, non-violent road blockades, and as 75 year-old Joan Norman said as she was being arrested, "We have no laws protecting our forests so we will be the law."....
New Fairy Shrimp Species Found in Idaho Biologists with the Idaho National Guard have discovered a new species of fairy shrimp living in the oft-dry lake beds of Idaho's desert. Though they look delicate enough to match their name, they are strong enough to survive, unhatched, for years in the baking heat of summer and the frozen tundra of winter until enough rain falls and the pools return. Once they awaken they live a few frenzied weeks, mating and leaving behind tiny cyst-like offspring, and die. "This is a large, predatory fairy shrimp. This guy is about three inches long. That is huge for a fairy shrimp," biologist Dana Quinney said Tuesday during a press conference announcing the discovery. There are already about 300 species of fairy shrimp worldwide, Quinney said, but only three other species boast the size of the newly discovered ones....
Rep. Cardoza's Critical Habitat Enhancement Measure Receives Strong Builder Support The nation’s home builders today expressed strong support for a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) that is designed to ensure species’ protection and accommodate the needs of the communities and states where endangered species reside. “We believe that the ‘Critical Habitat Enhancement Act of 2005,’ offers a real legislative solution to the current crisis regarding critical habitat,” said NAHB President David Wilson, a custom home builder from Ketchum, Idaho. “The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has fallen far short of its goals, recovering only 1 percent of the 1,300 protected species. It needs to be updated in order to protect, conserve and recover America’s species, while balancing the needs of the communities in which we live and work.” Noting that House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) has been a long-time proponent of ESA reform, Wilson added that NAHB looks forward to working with Reps. Pombo, Cardoza and other members of the House panel to move this legislation forward....
National Park Service urges restraint on new heritage sites A proposed national heritage area in eastern Kansas would highlight violent events that led to the Civil War, a supporter told members of Congress Tuesday. A National Park Service official, however, urged lawmakers to defer legislation authorizing any additional national heritage sites until Congress establishes a uniform system of guidelines for deciding what areas are nationally significant. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, introduced legislation earlier this year to designate the Bleeding Kansas and Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area, which would include 24 counties in eastern Kansas....
Rift widens in pines When Tom Tilford bought the historic Molly Butler Lodge, he imagined peace and quiet and many lazy days of watching the Little Colorado River meander among the meadows here in one of the state's most scenic mountain communities. The furthest thing from his mind, Tilford said, was a scenario like what happened one recent day: His wife walked into the local post office and heard four people talking loudly about how Tilford is a "pillager and rapist of the land" because he sells real estate on the side. That's just one of many examples of the ongoing battle threatening to tear apart this Rocky Mountain-like village, which has a year-round population of 150, because of development fears in one of Arizona's most pristine summer playlands....
Though land is poisoned, Calif water districts lock in supplies But now they have to leave. The land is useless for farming, poisoned by years of irrigation with salty water pumped in from the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta, more than 100 miles away. "It's the water here. It's bad, salty," said Sixto Rodriguez, who like Gonzalez, has until August to uproot his family and find a new job. Reyes Rodriguez, Sixto's nephew, also is being forced out. On the west side of California's wide and thirsty Central Valley, salt damage is inexorably taking tens of thousands of acres out of production. Some see this as an opportunity to free up the water for other uses. Instead, irrigation districts are quietly renegotiating contracts with the federal government that lock in - for at least 25 more years - control over the same amount of subsidized water they've received for 40 years. What it amounts to, critics say, is a government giveaway, guaranteeing the districts a stream of profits for decades to come - perhaps even after the land involved is no longer farmed....
Las Vegas water officials get an earful about pipeline plan A nearly $2 billion plan to pump groundwater from rural Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas is logically and morally wrong, according to one member of a Southern Nevada Water Authority advisory panel. "When an area loses its water, it loses its future," said Dean Baker, a longtime eastern Nevada rancher and member of the Integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee. Water authority officials were expected to hear similar concerns during a public open house Tuesday in the White Pine County seat of Ely....
Private fields could open To address diminishing hunting acreage and sporting opportunities for Americans, U.S. Sens. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, and Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, have introduced a new version of what is known as the "Open Fields" bill. If successful, the legislation will open millions of acres of private land and water to hunters and anglers while offering farmers, ranchers and foresters a chance to bring new income into their operations. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Tom Osborne, Nebraska Republican, and Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota Democrat. The bill, officially known as the "Voluntary Public Access and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program Act of 2005," would fund grants to state and tribal access programs and encourage expansion and improvement of fish and wildlife habitat....
An ag ambassador "How can you raise animals and then sell them, knowing they will be killed?" "Do you have electricity?" "Are there schools where you live?" "I was wondering, how long does it (take) to harvest your crops and send them to the store?" Those were just a few of the questions asked of Jason Williams, 32-year-old Kaycee-area rancher, during a visit to Edgewood Middle School in West Covina, Calif., in January. "It's unbelievable how sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in urban schools have absolutely no concept of Wyoming or anything about ranch life," Williams said. That's something that he and other members of a new organization called Provider Pals want to change....
Japanese Officials Tell R-CALF Actions Will Delay Re-opening Border R-CALF placed a half-page lobby-type ad in today's Washington Post, thanking the U.S. Senate for passing a resolution (52-46) that would, if it passed the House and was signed into law by President Bush (both unlikely events) do what a district court judge in Billings, Montana (Judge Richard Cebull) has already helped R-CALF accomplish: maintain the closure of the U.S.-Canadian border to live cattle under 30 months of age. The ad urges the House of Representatives to support the resolution of disapproval "against USDA's weakening of U.S. import standards." The ad was paid for by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (www.r-calfusa.com).It includes R-CALF friendly quotes. What the ad does not say is what some Japanese officials reportedly told R-CALF in a recent meeting with them -- that R-CALF's actions have helped delay the time that it will take Japan to resume imports of American beef. Japanese sources told me that, "R-CALF officials were perplexed when we told them they are part of the problem."....
82 Organizations Support House Resolution to Protect U.S. Beef Supply In a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives today, 82 farm and consumer groups urged support of House Joint Resolution 23, which rejects the Agriculture Department's plan to reestablish live cattle and beef trade with countries that have documented cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). "National Farmers Union and others applaud the efforts of Representatives Herseth and Cubin for introducing this legislation on behalf of U.S. beef producers and consumers," said NFU President Dave Frederickson. "Immediate passage of this resolution should be the House of Representative's highest priority." The full text of the letter and groups follows:....
Rancher Dissatisfied with Chupacabra DNA Results Remember the Elmendorf Beast? That mystery animal a rancher shot dead on his property in South Bexar County? The man who found it is hoping to get new DNA results. Devin MacAnally says he has received the results of a DNA test, but he won't reveal them. He says he’s not happy with the results. Representatives from Texas Parks and Wildlife speculate that it’s a coyote with mange. The hairless beast with sharp teeth sparked speculation that the animal was a Chupacabra of South Texas folklore. MacAnally says he plans to look for someone else to do a new DNA test. He hopes to make those arrangements in the next couple of weeks....
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Wolf trapped, released after 2 calves were killed State and federal officials have released a female wolf that was trapped near Avon after two calves were killed during a 10-day period. The decision was based on a January federal court ruling that restored the classification of wolves to endangered, except for experimental populations around Yellowstone National Park and in Minnesota. But a federal wolf manager said he believes the radio-collared wolf would have been released without the ruling by the Oregon judge. Rancher Tim Quigley, who lost a calf over the weekend, said watching the wolf being released Tuesday morning was frustrating. "The wolves come in, get my calf, we catch it and they turn it loose. Watching it lope across my meadow, knowing it's going to be back among my cattle -- I'm kind of a quiet guy, but this really gets me going."....
Researchers predict lingering drought; warn of fire risk Dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest have the region primed for a severe fire season, according to researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University. In a forecast issued Tuesday, the scientists — who combine global climate models with vegetation databases to project wildfire risk — predict the unusually dry winter to linger into spring. "It is going to become extremely dry in many parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountain states, and the fire risk is going to be significantly higher than normal," said Ronald Neilson, a bioclimatologist with the U.S. Forest Service and professor of botany at Oregon State. "There is nothing to indicate a wet spring."....
Judge denies emergency halt to Biscuit salvage logging A federal judge Tuesday denied the latest request from environmentalists to impose an emergency halt to salvage logging in an old growth forest reserve burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire. Meanwhile, loggers were able to go to work unhindered on the Fiddler timber sale on the Siskiyou National Forest after the U.S. Forest Service closed off the area to keep out protesters who have interfered with operations three times over the past nine days. Three of the 27 protesters in the Josephine County Jail on charges they interfered with the logging said they were on a hunger strike to protest the criminal charges against them and jail conditions....
Column: A Line in the Ancient Forest On Monday, March 7 industrial logging of massive trees began in "protected" old-growth forest reserves in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area of the Siskiyou National Forest in Southwestern Oregon. This is the first time that logging of this magnitude has occurred in old-growth forest reserves (called Late Successional Reserves) since the creation of the Northwest Forest Plan over ten years ago. This industrial logging of old-growth forests is part of the Biscuit Logging Project, the largest Forest Service timber sale in modern history. Thirty square miles of ancient forests and inventoried roadless wildlands will be destroyed as the Forest Service intends to log 370 million board feet of trees, enough to fill 74,000 log trucks lined up for over 600 miles. Nearly 50 citizens have been arrested in the past week in an attempt to delay the logging with peaceful, non-violent road blockades, and as 75 year-old Joan Norman said as she was being arrested, "We have no laws protecting our forests so we will be the law."....
New Fairy Shrimp Species Found in Idaho Biologists with the Idaho National Guard have discovered a new species of fairy shrimp living in the oft-dry lake beds of Idaho's desert. Though they look delicate enough to match their name, they are strong enough to survive, unhatched, for years in the baking heat of summer and the frozen tundra of winter until enough rain falls and the pools return. Once they awaken they live a few frenzied weeks, mating and leaving behind tiny cyst-like offspring, and die. "This is a large, predatory fairy shrimp. This guy is about three inches long. That is huge for a fairy shrimp," biologist Dana Quinney said Tuesday during a press conference announcing the discovery. There are already about 300 species of fairy shrimp worldwide, Quinney said, but only three other species boast the size of the newly discovered ones....
Rep. Cardoza's Critical Habitat Enhancement Measure Receives Strong Builder Support The nation’s home builders today expressed strong support for a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) that is designed to ensure species’ protection and accommodate the needs of the communities and states where endangered species reside. “We believe that the ‘Critical Habitat Enhancement Act of 2005,’ offers a real legislative solution to the current crisis regarding critical habitat,” said NAHB President David Wilson, a custom home builder from Ketchum, Idaho. “The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has fallen far short of its goals, recovering only 1 percent of the 1,300 protected species. It needs to be updated in order to protect, conserve and recover America’s species, while balancing the needs of the communities in which we live and work.” Noting that House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) has been a long-time proponent of ESA reform, Wilson added that NAHB looks forward to working with Reps. Pombo, Cardoza and other members of the House panel to move this legislation forward....
National Park Service urges restraint on new heritage sites A proposed national heritage area in eastern Kansas would highlight violent events that led to the Civil War, a supporter told members of Congress Tuesday. A National Park Service official, however, urged lawmakers to defer legislation authorizing any additional national heritage sites until Congress establishes a uniform system of guidelines for deciding what areas are nationally significant. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, introduced legislation earlier this year to designate the Bleeding Kansas and Enduring Struggle for Freedom National Heritage Area, which would include 24 counties in eastern Kansas....
Rift widens in pines When Tom Tilford bought the historic Molly Butler Lodge, he imagined peace and quiet and many lazy days of watching the Little Colorado River meander among the meadows here in one of the state's most scenic mountain communities. The furthest thing from his mind, Tilford said, was a scenario like what happened one recent day: His wife walked into the local post office and heard four people talking loudly about how Tilford is a "pillager and rapist of the land" because he sells real estate on the side. That's just one of many examples of the ongoing battle threatening to tear apart this Rocky Mountain-like village, which has a year-round population of 150, because of development fears in one of Arizona's most pristine summer playlands....
Though land is poisoned, Calif water districts lock in supplies But now they have to leave. The land is useless for farming, poisoned by years of irrigation with salty water pumped in from the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta, more than 100 miles away. "It's the water here. It's bad, salty," said Sixto Rodriguez, who like Gonzalez, has until August to uproot his family and find a new job. Reyes Rodriguez, Sixto's nephew, also is being forced out. On the west side of California's wide and thirsty Central Valley, salt damage is inexorably taking tens of thousands of acres out of production. Some see this as an opportunity to free up the water for other uses. Instead, irrigation districts are quietly renegotiating contracts with the federal government that lock in - for at least 25 more years - control over the same amount of subsidized water they've received for 40 years. What it amounts to, critics say, is a government giveaway, guaranteeing the districts a stream of profits for decades to come - perhaps even after the land involved is no longer farmed....
Las Vegas water officials get an earful about pipeline plan A nearly $2 billion plan to pump groundwater from rural Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas is logically and morally wrong, according to one member of a Southern Nevada Water Authority advisory panel. "When an area loses its water, it loses its future," said Dean Baker, a longtime eastern Nevada rancher and member of the Integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee. Water authority officials were expected to hear similar concerns during a public open house Tuesday in the White Pine County seat of Ely....
Private fields could open To address diminishing hunting acreage and sporting opportunities for Americans, U.S. Sens. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, and Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, have introduced a new version of what is known as the "Open Fields" bill. If successful, the legislation will open millions of acres of private land and water to hunters and anglers while offering farmers, ranchers and foresters a chance to bring new income into their operations. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Tom Osborne, Nebraska Republican, and Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota Democrat. The bill, officially known as the "Voluntary Public Access and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program Act of 2005," would fund grants to state and tribal access programs and encourage expansion and improvement of fish and wildlife habitat....
An ag ambassador "How can you raise animals and then sell them, knowing they will be killed?" "Do you have electricity?" "Are there schools where you live?" "I was wondering, how long does it (take) to harvest your crops and send them to the store?" Those were just a few of the questions asked of Jason Williams, 32-year-old Kaycee-area rancher, during a visit to Edgewood Middle School in West Covina, Calif., in January. "It's unbelievable how sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in urban schools have absolutely no concept of Wyoming or anything about ranch life," Williams said. That's something that he and other members of a new organization called Provider Pals want to change....
Japanese Officials Tell R-CALF Actions Will Delay Re-opening Border R-CALF placed a half-page lobby-type ad in today's Washington Post, thanking the U.S. Senate for passing a resolution (52-46) that would, if it passed the House and was signed into law by President Bush (both unlikely events) do what a district court judge in Billings, Montana (Judge Richard Cebull) has already helped R-CALF accomplish: maintain the closure of the U.S.-Canadian border to live cattle under 30 months of age. The ad urges the House of Representatives to support the resolution of disapproval "against USDA's weakening of U.S. import standards." The ad was paid for by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (www.r-calfusa.com).It includes R-CALF friendly quotes. What the ad does not say is what some Japanese officials reportedly told R-CALF in a recent meeting with them -- that R-CALF's actions have helped delay the time that it will take Japan to resume imports of American beef. Japanese sources told me that, "R-CALF officials were perplexed when we told them they are part of the problem."....
82 Organizations Support House Resolution to Protect U.S. Beef Supply In a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives today, 82 farm and consumer groups urged support of House Joint Resolution 23, which rejects the Agriculture Department's plan to reestablish live cattle and beef trade with countries that have documented cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). "National Farmers Union and others applaud the efforts of Representatives Herseth and Cubin for introducing this legislation on behalf of U.S. beef producers and consumers," said NFU President Dave Frederickson. "Immediate passage of this resolution should be the House of Representative's highest priority." The full text of the letter and groups follows:....
Rancher Dissatisfied with Chupacabra DNA Results Remember the Elmendorf Beast? That mystery animal a rancher shot dead on his property in South Bexar County? The man who found it is hoping to get new DNA results. Devin MacAnally says he has received the results of a DNA test, but he won't reveal them. He says he’s not happy with the results. Representatives from Texas Parks and Wildlife speculate that it’s a coyote with mange. The hairless beast with sharp teeth sparked speculation that the animal was a Chupacabra of South Texas folklore. MacAnally says he plans to look for someone else to do a new DNA test. He hopes to make those arrangements in the next couple of weeks....
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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
GAO REPORT - FDA & MAD COW
Mad Cow Disease: FDA's Management of the Feed Ban Has Improved, but Oversight Weaknesses Continue to Limit Program Effectiveness. GAO-05-101, Feb. 25. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-101
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05101high.pdf
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Mad Cow Disease: FDA's Management of the Feed Ban Has Improved, but Oversight Weaknesses Continue to Limit Program Effectiveness. GAO-05-101, Feb. 25. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-101
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05101high.pdf
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Solution or Snake Oil? Cloud Seeding During a Drought is an interesting post over at New West. Find out what's going on in Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Washington,DC and the findings of the National Research Council.
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