NEWS ROUNDUP
Worlds apart on use of wilderness areas Sen. Bob Bennett is in the process of crafting a plan that will shape the future of recreation, growth, transportation and conservation in Washington County, but stumbling blocks may remain over thorny issues like wilderness protection and off-road trail designation. The Washington County bill is envisioned as a comprehensive land-use bill, resolving squabbles over water, roads, wilderness, hunting, grazing and off-roading, while ensuring the necessary resources for the county's exploding population. Wish lists submitted to the senator by those trying to shape the legislation reflect common goals and agreement on many issues. But they also show core disagreements, even after early efforts to reach consensus on the issues. Bennett could unveil his bill as early as next month. Rather than an end, however, the release of his proposal will mark the start of efforts to bring diverging interests together to agree on a plan....
Top court ponders environmental rights of Montana residents A mountain spring that once provided drinking water to the tiny town of Superior is contaminated with mine wastes. So, too, is the fill dirt in the high school running track. Cleaning up the track and the water will cost many millions of dollars. So the town of Superior decided to sue. Superior alleged Asarco Inc., which owns the mine site, violated the townspeople's constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. No one had brought a lawsuit like that before, and judges around the state disagree over whether such a suit is even possible under Montana's Constitution. Around the same time, two other outfits sued companies, complaining of similar violations of their constitutional environmental rights. The public schools in Sunburst sued Texaco Inc., and ranching families near Hobson sued Canyon Resources Corp. Now all three cases are pending before the Montana Supreme Court. All ask essentially the same question: Can Montanans sue private companies or people for violating their right to a "clean and healthful environment," a unique provision twice guaranteed in the state's 1972 constitution?....
Fire In The Hole: Author reconstructs the story of 1972 Idaho mine disaster When fire broke out in northern Idaho's Sunshine Mine in 1972, there was little panic. Miners knew there wasn't much to burn a mile down in a wet mine. But deadly carbon monoxide killed 91 men. It turned out to be one of the nation's worst mining accidents. A new book, ``The Deep Dark,'' provides a gruesome moment-by-moment account of the disaster that began on May 2, 1972, when unexplained smoke began pouring out of the mine near Kellogg, in Idaho's Silver Valley....
Feds turn down request to list pygmy rabbit Federal officials have turned down a request from conservationists to put North America's smallest rabbit under federal protection. Organizations, including the Oregon Natural Desert Association, had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the pygmy rabbit a threatened or endangered species in eight western states. The agency said their petition lacked enough biological information to warrant a study, but that they would continue to monitor the rabbit. "We're clearly disappointed," said Bill Marlett, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association....
Preaching the gospel of green One of Calvin DeWitt's favorite Bible verses is Revelation 11:18: "... The time has come for judging the dead... and for destroying those who destroy the Earth." DeWitt, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, is a leader in a growing evangelical Christian movement to protect the environment in the name of God. One such expression came yesterday, when President Bush gave the commencement address at Calvin College, a small school in the Reformed tradition in Grand Rapids, Mich. A third of the faculty of the college signed an open letter to Bush, citing "conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."....
Editorial: After 32 years, what's endangered? Wouldn't you think after 32 years your house might need new tiles on the roof, a fresh coat of paint inside and out, new carpeting or a remodeled bathroom? The nation's Endangered Species Act is that same age, but reactionary environmental groups go ballistic every time a politician suggests their holy grail of protectionism for plants and creatures should be updated as an efficient 21st century policy. Back in 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act after Congress had acted on the threat of the extinction of one of America 's wildlife symbols, the bald eagle. Thirty-two years later, the proud bird is back in large numbers. Don't give the Endangered Species Act all the credit; scientists believe most of it should go to the federal ban on the pesticide DDT. Between then and now, we have learned a lot about our environment — it's precious and must be preserved. But at all costs?....
Editorial: It's a win-win approach to conservation An awful lot of people throughout Montana and beyond have called for protection of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. Small wonder: The area between Montana Highway 200 and U.S. Highway 2, where the Rocky Mountains spill out onto the prairie, is a spectacularly scenic expanse, rich in wildlife. Many people would like to see it stay that way. It's one thing for the public to demand protection of the public lands along the Front. All of us own a piece of that public land, and we're all entitled to have a say in its management. But private holdings contribute greatly to the quality of the area's wildlife habitat and open space. The public shouldn't simply demand that private landowners dedicate their property to the public good. That's the wrong approach. What the agency proposes to do is to acquire development rights to 170,000 acres of private land within a 918,000 area stretching from the South Fork of the Dearborn north to Birch Creek. The land would remain in private ownership, but the agency would acquire on behalf of the public conservation easements. Landowners would continue to enjoy the traditional, productive uses of their lands. They'd continue paying taxes on the land. There would be no limitations on livestock grazing, for example. Landowners would continue their war against weeds - a good example of something private landowners do far better than the public. Landowners would still control access to the lands they own....
Court battle over sheepherders' plight highlights fading vocation Three years have passed since Fernandez's legal fight began, but time hasn't blunted his obsession. To the 64-year-old sheep rancher from Chile, this is an epic battle — one that threatens age-old traditions, the rules of fair play, and perhaps most important, his reputation. Fernandez pays his sheepherders $650 a month plus room and board. It's the legal prevailing wage for a job that requires herders, most of them South Americans working under federal H-2A visas, to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Labor advocates want to change that. Columbia Legal Services is suing Fernandez and The Western Range Association, a California-based labor broker and co-employer, on behalf of two sheepherders who fled Fernandez's ranch in 2000, claiming they were underpaid....
Two-headed calf draws attention News of a two-headed calf born here this spring has sparked the attention of local people. The black Angus calf, delivered by Cesarean section March 16 at the clinic of veterinarian Dwayne Christensen, was euthanized about an hour after it was born, bleating from two sets of lungs. "I thought it was the most humane thing to do," Christensen said. Unable to stand, the calf -- twins conjoined behind the ears -- could not have thrived, he said. "There were multiple other problems," Christensen said....
Tough turn on road to NFL From the time they were old enough to take to a horse for a full day (about 5 years old, their mother estimates), Logan and Morgan Mankins tagged along with their father as he baled hay, repaired fences, rounded up cattle, and performed other assorted jobs on his and other nearby ranches. Catheys Valley is home to fewer than 1,000 people. When Jill Mankins says, ''Meet me at the gas station at 12:30," she assumes you'll know what she means. If not, you'll likely figure it out when you arrive in town and there's the Oasis, which according to its sign offers a market, feed store, propane, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on one side of the highway, and a ''76" gas station on the other....
A man with a message For 90 days and nights, as the 2004 presidential race intensified, David Barton crisscrossed the nation like a 21st-century apostle. He moved from fellowship hall to hotel ballroom, from one swing state to another -- Florida, Ohio, Michigan -- rallying the faithful to the polls. Barton looks like a rancher cleaned up for church -- polyester slacks, long-sleeve snap-up shirt and boots. He scoots around the office in leather moccasins and keeps handy a cowboy hat, which looks oversized on his 145-pound frame. He is a cowboy at heart, never far from the boy who showed steers and lambs in the Aledo chapter of the Future Farmers of America. Barton rode a horse to his office at WallBuilders until a few years ago, when the streets of Aledo grew too unwelcoming for a man and his horse....
Bush returns from Michigan with new saddle Michigan is hardly the Old West, but after President Bush gave a commencement speech here Saturday an aide was spotted carrying a fancy brown leather saddle up the rear stairs of Air Force One. Bush went to Grand Rapids to give a graduation speech and came home with a saddle emblazoned with the presidential seal and decorated with floral patterns and the president's initials, G.W.B. The White House said it was a gift from two artisans but didn't disclose their names. "It has big Texas skirts, a Montana tapadero - the hood over the stirrups - a California stretch seat, a Nebraska horn, made in Boise, Idaho; and the tree, or base, is made in Texas," Rice told the newspaper....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Attention grads: Science, liberal arts differ We, particularly in agriculture, have the obligation to our customers (people who eat) to understand what we are doing, to make decisions based on factual knowledge and to act responsibly. The urban consumer is beset everyday by a blizzard of half-cocked, brightly wrapped, well-advertised, slick, disingenuous, sometimes well-meaning cow pucky. Many of these consumers do not have the background to separate the veterinarian from the pet psychic, the magic mineral peddler from the nutritionist, or the physician from the celebrity who plays one on TV. These consumers, our customers, are as susceptible to the snake oil "health food" salesman as I would be to the con man selling original Rembrandts for $20....
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Monday, May 23, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
If he had no hat would he still be a cowboy?
By Larry Gabriel
Maybe we can't judge a book by its cover, but we can tell quite bit about a cowboy by his hat.
Knowing proper manners in the use of a hat is still important in this part of the country.
It might be that "hat etiquette" is becoming lost where people view a hat as just another piece of attire like a necktie or a coat. But, a hat on the head or in the hand of a person who knows how to use it is far more than that.
The hat is as much a part of the cowboy as his hand or his foot. It’s a part of who he is, and how he wears it is an expression of his values and character.
Generally, a cowboy does not wear his hat indoors. There are some exceptions, but the general rule is when you get inside the hat comes off (unless you were "born in a barn" as our mothers used to say).
We can say a lot of things with a hat. If you see a cowboy sitting in a meeting wearing his hat, you know he's ready for a fight. If you grab his hat, you might get more than you bargained for.
Hat etiquette is largely a matter of local custom. For example, in some parts of the world one does not enter a holy place without a hat. Out here we remove our hats in such places.
A cowboy with proper upbringing never fails to remove his hat when: he hears the national anthem, views the flag, enters a room full of people, is being introduced, is waiting for a funeral to pass, enters your home, or is meeting a person worthy of his respect.
A cowboy's removal of his hat is a sign of respect or admiration, whether he is greeting a person worthy of respect or entering a place that deserves respect.
Removing the hat from the head is a custom dating back to the days of chivalry when knights raised their helmet shields as a sign of respect. By the way, "cowboy" has no gender in this story.
A tip of the hat is a sign of respect for strangers but the hat comes off the head for elders, friends and dignitaries or in admiration of almost anything.
I see people walking around in our capitol building wearing their hats. I see people sitting at public meetings doing the same thing. Some view that as bad manners.
Some people think wearing a cowboy hat makes the wearer a cowboy. That's not how it works. Only real cowboys know how to properly wear a cowboy hat.
Some of our Asian friends have been told that standing with "hat in hand" is a form of begging and is something that no proud or independent person would do if he had a choice.
That's not true around here. We are proud of being respectful.
If you are properly wearing a cowboy hat, my hat is off to you.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture, and he damn sure knows how to wear a hat.
The first liar doesn’t stand a chance
By Julie Carter
All cowboys are familiar with the “first liar” precept. It is a solid truth that the first liar doesn’t stand a chance.
While holding a horse for the horseshoer, a cowgirl was conversationally filling in a gap in the ongoing visiting with a story about her bay horse who was a wheat pasture mount by trade.
Her husband had used the horse one day to doctor some yearlings. Somewhere in the pursuit of roping a sick one, the bay decided to buck the husband off. By the time the cowboy got up and dusted his britches off, the bay had run the steer down and was standing next too him waiting.
Then it was Jimmy the horseshoers’ turn. With a look of pity at the cowgirl, Jimmy told his story.
As a kid, he had owned a horse that could, he claimed, sort cattle by brand with no help from a rider. His family had been on a ranch that joined a pasture where bucking bulls were kept with the regular ranch bulls. The owner would regularly put all the bulls up in a corner, sort off the rodeo stock and take the bucking bulls to the rodeo.
Jimmy said when he turned his horse in with those bulls; he would sort them all by himself. That was the end of the lesson. The cowgirl never again told the first story.
Cowboys have a knack for taking any story and making it their own. If this one sounds familiar it likely is but it was told to me with all the sincerity of true story.
Jerry, Wayne and Tommy were all headed to the big roping on a Saturday morning. Since Wayne’s truck was the one that was running that particular week, they all loaded up with him.
Jerry and Wayne are big cowboys by most standards. Both were broad shouldered and stout enough to work hard and not take any guff from anyone. But Tommy, on the same scale was a giant compared to his buddies.
Tommy was also the wisest. When they loaded up in the pickup, Tommy got in the middle just in case there was a gate to be opened on I-40. It’s the old “the real cowboy sits in the middle to avoid opening gates” trick.
So with Wayne driving, Tommy in the middle and Jerry riding shotgun, they headed down the road. They had made room in the floorboard for the cooler and Jerry was drinking a screw-off lid Coors and tossing the cap around to entertain himself.
With the truck seating arrangement causing an uncomfortable coziness, Tommy in the middle would put his arm on the back of the seat behind Wayne to make a little extra room.
Miles passed as they gave each other pointers about roping, women, and life in general.
After a while Jerry began intermittently dropping the beer bottle lid and then bend down to pick it up off the floor of the pickup.
Wayne noticed the big rig truckers were honking and pointing at him as they passed and he finally put it together.
Every time a big rig would come up on them on the interstate, Jerry would duck down after the beer cap, leaving Wayne and Tommy all cuddled up.
All those truckers could see was Wayne behind the wheel with Tommy next to him with his around on the back of the seat behind him.
He calmly told Jerry that if he dropped that cap one more time he would stop the truck and a genuine whuppin’ would commence.
Cowboy stories are as much part of the culture as the horses they ride and spurs they wear. But the lesson to be learned is simple. The first liar doesn’t stand a chance.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
I welcome submissions for this feature
===
If he had no hat would he still be a cowboy?
By Larry Gabriel
Maybe we can't judge a book by its cover, but we can tell quite bit about a cowboy by his hat.
Knowing proper manners in the use of a hat is still important in this part of the country.
It might be that "hat etiquette" is becoming lost where people view a hat as just another piece of attire like a necktie or a coat. But, a hat on the head or in the hand of a person who knows how to use it is far more than that.
The hat is as much a part of the cowboy as his hand or his foot. It’s a part of who he is, and how he wears it is an expression of his values and character.
Generally, a cowboy does not wear his hat indoors. There are some exceptions, but the general rule is when you get inside the hat comes off (unless you were "born in a barn" as our mothers used to say).
We can say a lot of things with a hat. If you see a cowboy sitting in a meeting wearing his hat, you know he's ready for a fight. If you grab his hat, you might get more than you bargained for.
Hat etiquette is largely a matter of local custom. For example, in some parts of the world one does not enter a holy place without a hat. Out here we remove our hats in such places.
A cowboy with proper upbringing never fails to remove his hat when: he hears the national anthem, views the flag, enters a room full of people, is being introduced, is waiting for a funeral to pass, enters your home, or is meeting a person worthy of his respect.
A cowboy's removal of his hat is a sign of respect or admiration, whether he is greeting a person worthy of respect or entering a place that deserves respect.
Removing the hat from the head is a custom dating back to the days of chivalry when knights raised their helmet shields as a sign of respect. By the way, "cowboy" has no gender in this story.
A tip of the hat is a sign of respect for strangers but the hat comes off the head for elders, friends and dignitaries or in admiration of almost anything.
I see people walking around in our capitol building wearing their hats. I see people sitting at public meetings doing the same thing. Some view that as bad manners.
Some people think wearing a cowboy hat makes the wearer a cowboy. That's not how it works. Only real cowboys know how to properly wear a cowboy hat.
Some of our Asian friends have been told that standing with "hat in hand" is a form of begging and is something that no proud or independent person would do if he had a choice.
That's not true around here. We are proud of being respectful.
If you are properly wearing a cowboy hat, my hat is off to you.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture, and he damn sure knows how to wear a hat.
The first liar doesn’t stand a chance
By Julie Carter
All cowboys are familiar with the “first liar” precept. It is a solid truth that the first liar doesn’t stand a chance.
While holding a horse for the horseshoer, a cowgirl was conversationally filling in a gap in the ongoing visiting with a story about her bay horse who was a wheat pasture mount by trade.
Her husband had used the horse one day to doctor some yearlings. Somewhere in the pursuit of roping a sick one, the bay decided to buck the husband off. By the time the cowboy got up and dusted his britches off, the bay had run the steer down and was standing next too him waiting.
Then it was Jimmy the horseshoers’ turn. With a look of pity at the cowgirl, Jimmy told his story.
As a kid, he had owned a horse that could, he claimed, sort cattle by brand with no help from a rider. His family had been on a ranch that joined a pasture where bucking bulls were kept with the regular ranch bulls. The owner would regularly put all the bulls up in a corner, sort off the rodeo stock and take the bucking bulls to the rodeo.
Jimmy said when he turned his horse in with those bulls; he would sort them all by himself. That was the end of the lesson. The cowgirl never again told the first story.
Cowboys have a knack for taking any story and making it their own. If this one sounds familiar it likely is but it was told to me with all the sincerity of true story.
Jerry, Wayne and Tommy were all headed to the big roping on a Saturday morning. Since Wayne’s truck was the one that was running that particular week, they all loaded up with him.
Jerry and Wayne are big cowboys by most standards. Both were broad shouldered and stout enough to work hard and not take any guff from anyone. But Tommy, on the same scale was a giant compared to his buddies.
Tommy was also the wisest. When they loaded up in the pickup, Tommy got in the middle just in case there was a gate to be opened on I-40. It’s the old “the real cowboy sits in the middle to avoid opening gates” trick.
So with Wayne driving, Tommy in the middle and Jerry riding shotgun, they headed down the road. They had made room in the floorboard for the cooler and Jerry was drinking a screw-off lid Coors and tossing the cap around to entertain himself.
With the truck seating arrangement causing an uncomfortable coziness, Tommy in the middle would put his arm on the back of the seat behind Wayne to make a little extra room.
Miles passed as they gave each other pointers about roping, women, and life in general.
After a while Jerry began intermittently dropping the beer bottle lid and then bend down to pick it up off the floor of the pickup.
Wayne noticed the big rig truckers were honking and pointing at him as they passed and he finally put it together.
Every time a big rig would come up on them on the interstate, Jerry would duck down after the beer cap, leaving Wayne and Tommy all cuddled up.
All those truckers could see was Wayne behind the wheel with Tommy next to him with his around on the back of the seat behind him.
He calmly told Jerry that if he dropped that cap one more time he would stop the truck and a genuine whuppin’ would commence.
Cowboy stories are as much part of the culture as the horses they ride and spurs they wear. But the lesson to be learned is simple. The first liar doesn’t stand a chance.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
I welcome submissions for this feature
===
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Property Rights
When Eastern Europe began to open up in the late 1980s, one of the great shocks was the severity of its environmental problems. Journalists reported on skies full of smoke from lignite and soft coal, children kept inside for much of the winter because of unsafe air, and horses that had to be moved away from the worst areas after a few years or they would die. Many of the environmental ills reflected an abysmally low level of technology. Old, polluting factories of the kinds that are dim memories in the United States were the mainstay of socialist industry. Smelly, sluggish automobiles polluted the roads. Energy waste was tremendous. Their own statistics showed that socialist economies were using more than three times as much steel and nearly three times as much energy per unit of output than market economies. One cannot look about in Warsaw or Moscow, Budapest or Zagreb, Krakow or Sarajevo, wrote economist W. W. Rostow in 1991, without knowing that this part of the world is caught up in a technological time warp. Not everyone realized it at the time, but the state of the environment was directly connected to the absence of property rights in the Soviet system. The authorities had refused to allow most resources to be privately owned. Most market exchanges were criminal acts, and entrepreneurship of most kinds was declared to be criminal behavior. Production was centrally planned, with land and other resources owned by the state, not individuals....
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Property Rights
When Eastern Europe began to open up in the late 1980s, one of the great shocks was the severity of its environmental problems. Journalists reported on skies full of smoke from lignite and soft coal, children kept inside for much of the winter because of unsafe air, and horses that had to be moved away from the worst areas after a few years or they would die. Many of the environmental ills reflected an abysmally low level of technology. Old, polluting factories of the kinds that are dim memories in the United States were the mainstay of socialist industry. Smelly, sluggish automobiles polluted the roads. Energy waste was tremendous. Their own statistics showed that socialist economies were using more than three times as much steel and nearly three times as much energy per unit of output than market economies. One cannot look about in Warsaw or Moscow, Budapest or Zagreb, Krakow or Sarajevo, wrote economist W. W. Rostow in 1991, without knowing that this part of the world is caught up in a technological time warp. Not everyone realized it at the time, but the state of the environment was directly connected to the absence of property rights in the Soviet system. The authorities had refused to allow most resources to be privately owned. Most market exchanges were criminal acts, and entrepreneurship of most kinds was declared to be criminal behavior. Production was centrally planned, with land and other resources owned by the state, not individuals....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
CCF Tells Senate: PETA Supports Terrorism
The Center for Consumer Freedom testified today before the Senate's Environmental and Public Works committee that highly visible tax-exempt groups including People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have ties to violent organizations like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Collectively, ALF and ELF have committed more than one thousand criminal acts amounting to more than $110 million in damage from arson, vandalism, and other violent tactics. The FBI has called them "our highest domestic terrorism investigative priority." Groups like ALF and ELF receive financial support from above-ground, non-profit organizations. Our testimony today detailed how mainstream animal rights organizations support much more insidious underground operations. Here is an except from our testimony:....
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CCF Tells Senate: PETA Supports Terrorism
The Center for Consumer Freedom testified today before the Senate's Environmental and Public Works committee that highly visible tax-exempt groups including People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have ties to violent organizations like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Collectively, ALF and ELF have committed more than one thousand criminal acts amounting to more than $110 million in damage from arson, vandalism, and other violent tactics. The FBI has called them "our highest domestic terrorism investigative priority." Groups like ALF and ELF receive financial support from above-ground, non-profit organizations. Our testimony today detailed how mainstream animal rights organizations support much more insidious underground operations. Here is an except from our testimony:....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Senate Panel To Explore Links Between Domestic Terrorists And Tax-Exempt Animal Rights Groups
As our nation continues to fight the international war on terror, eco-terrorism is steadily gaining prominence within the United States. Homegrown eco-terrorists and animal-rights extremists, including the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), have claimed credit for more than 1,100 terrorist crimes and $110 million in damage. These have included arson, assault, vandalism and other crimes against scores of American companies. The Department of Homeland Security recently added ALF and ELF to its list of terror groups, while the FBI has been forced to pull precious resources away from the hunt for al-Qaeda to fund the crackdown on these groups’ increasingly violent actions. Also alarming are the relationships these domestic terrorist groups have with tax-exempt organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the United States, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine....
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Senate Panel To Explore Links Between Domestic Terrorists And Tax-Exempt Animal Rights Groups
As our nation continues to fight the international war on terror, eco-terrorism is steadily gaining prominence within the United States. Homegrown eco-terrorists and animal-rights extremists, including the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), have claimed credit for more than 1,100 terrorist crimes and $110 million in damage. These have included arson, assault, vandalism and other crimes against scores of American companies. The Department of Homeland Security recently added ALF and ELF to its list of terror groups, while the FBI has been forced to pull precious resources away from the hunt for al-Qaeda to fund the crackdown on these groups’ increasingly violent actions. Also alarming are the relationships these domestic terrorist groups have with tax-exempt organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the United States, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine....
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Saturday, May 21, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Experts say Forest Service needs better grasslands data A team of independent scientists that has spent two years studying a management plan for North Dakota's national grasslands says the Forest Service needs better information to guide decisions, as the agency prepares to cut grazing levels. The Forest Service and ranchers disagree over how much grazing will be cut under the agency's plan, which governs everything from wildlife habitat to mineral development on the public lands. The Forest Service projected overall grazing cuts of 9 percent and rancher groups countered with predictions as high as 69 percent. The grazing portion was put on hold while the scientific review team studied the plan. The eight scientists unveiled their recommendations Friday....
Column - Good Riddance: Clinton "Roadless Rule" Dead Finally, more than four years after its hideous birth, the Clinton “Roadless Rule” is dead. The Bush administration and the Forest Service just announced a final rule that effectively undoes Clinton’s reckless decree. Dying with the “Roadless Rule” are the following: - threats of catastrophic wildfire - threats of forest infestation and disease - lack of public access to public lands - improper resource management - unhealthy forests - top-down federal overreach. Recall that Bill Clinton, just eight days before he left office, in the dark of night, penned his infamous, unilateral, executive order that locked up over 58 million acres of public land....
Brazilians clone endangered cow Brazil's agricultural research agency says it has successfully cloned a cow belonging to a nearly extinguished breed, in an experiment that could help save other endangered species. Two calves, named Pora and Potira, were born last month in healthy condition after being cloned from a 9-year-old cow of the Junqueira breed, which is known for its prized meat and has fewer than 100 animals left in Brazil, the government agency said. "This is potentially important for programs aimed at the conservation and improvement of (endangered animals)," researcher Rodolfo Rumpf said in a statement....
Birds shot to save fish Chris Anderson is only half-joking when he offers a solution for the hungry cormorants that are eating the fish in Leech Lake — and taking money out of his pocket. "Kill them all," he says. In response, wildlife officials — prodded by resort owners and fishing guides who are convinced the cormorant is to blame — have reached a dramatic decision: Over the summer, they will kill 4,000 or more of the diving birds. Some wildlife biologists and animal-rights groups oppose the plan, saying research about the bird and its eating habits is incomplete. Though an international migratory bird treaty protects cormorants, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled two years ago that states could curb their numbers if they were harming natural resources....
Ford has plan to help save 2,000 wild mustangs The company that makes the Mustang sports car is investing in the wild horse of the same name. With the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary as a backdrop, officials from Ford Motor Co. said the company would provide money to help save 2,000 wild mustangs that face an uncertain future and help establish a fund to take public donations to maintain the horses. The Bureau of Land Management and the Take Pride in America group also are participating in setting up the fund....
Column: Love the Gas, Not the Drill I have a confession to make: I like natural gas. Every morning at five minutes before 6:00, I wake up to the gentle whumph of the gas stove kicking on in the family room. I then get out of bed, tap on my son's door and call, "Time to get up," and plant myself in front of the miraculous dancing flames that never consume the glowing fake logs. But my enjoyment of natural gas brings up a conundrum that many an oil company executive has eagerly pointed out: How can someone who uses natural gas be anything less than a hypocrite for opposing drilling in the West? Don't we have an obligation to produce as much energy as we can here at home? Hypocrisy is a dogged companion in this world, where the simple act of buying shoes brings up a moral dilemma of international dimensions. Anyone who maintains a strict don't-drill-in-my-backyard stance while warming their bottom, or firing up their vehicle, with the dregs of the Carboniferous period -- or, for that matter, while complaining about this country's political dealings in the Middle East-- keeps good company with hypocrisy. But to be opposed to drilling in the West's few remaining pristine landscapes does not make one a hypocrite. Nor does insisting that the industry tread as lightly on the land as possible....
National forest lands cost local counties Every year the federal government is supposed to pay the three counties in the Roaring Fork Valley hundreds of thousands of dollars each to make up for lost property taxes that cannot be collected on federal lands. But each year the feds actually dole out far less than the promised amount because Congress shortchanges the program. In 2004, for example, Eagle County was supposed to receive $1.24 million from the federal government in payment in lieu of taxes or PILT funds, as the program is known. The county received only about two-thirds of that amount, or $842,000. Pitkin County received about $582,000 when it should have received about $895,000....
Column: The Religious Left's Lies The religious left's political operatives have mounted a shrill attack on a significant portion of the Christian community. Four out of five evangelical Christians supported President Bush in 2004 -- a third of all ballots cast for him, according to the Pew Research Center. Factor in Catholics and members of other conservative religious communities and it's clear that the religious right is the largest voting bloc in today's Republican Party. The religious left took note. Political opportunists in its ranks sought a wedge issue to weaken the GOP's coalition of Jews, Catholics and evangelicals and shatter its electoral majority. They passed over obvious headliners and landed on a curious but cunning choice: the environment. Those leading the charge are effective advocates: LBJ alumnus Bill Moyers of PBS fame, members of the National Council of Churches USA and liberal theologians who claim a moral superiority to other people of faith. Their tactics are familiar. I encountered them more than 20 years ago as President Reagan's secretary of the interior, when I clashed with extreme environmental groups adept at taking out of context -- or in some cases creating -- statements that, once twisted, were attributed to me as if they were my religious views....
Owens Wants Database Of Protected Land Gov. Bill Owens asked state officials on Thursday to conduct an inventory of all protected lands in Colorado, including wildlife habitat, agricultural lands and watershed areas, after expressing concern that the state does not have enough information to best protect open spaces. Owens said the information would help Great Outdoors Colorado, which uses lottery proceeds to fund park, recreation, wildlife and open space projects across the state, to make better choices on investing $48 million approved in December for the preservation of large landscapes. He said it also will help land trusts, local governments and state agencies....
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Experts say Forest Service needs better grasslands data A team of independent scientists that has spent two years studying a management plan for North Dakota's national grasslands says the Forest Service needs better information to guide decisions, as the agency prepares to cut grazing levels. The Forest Service and ranchers disagree over how much grazing will be cut under the agency's plan, which governs everything from wildlife habitat to mineral development on the public lands. The Forest Service projected overall grazing cuts of 9 percent and rancher groups countered with predictions as high as 69 percent. The grazing portion was put on hold while the scientific review team studied the plan. The eight scientists unveiled their recommendations Friday....
Column - Good Riddance: Clinton "Roadless Rule" Dead Finally, more than four years after its hideous birth, the Clinton “Roadless Rule” is dead. The Bush administration and the Forest Service just announced a final rule that effectively undoes Clinton’s reckless decree. Dying with the “Roadless Rule” are the following: - threats of catastrophic wildfire - threats of forest infestation and disease - lack of public access to public lands - improper resource management - unhealthy forests - top-down federal overreach. Recall that Bill Clinton, just eight days before he left office, in the dark of night, penned his infamous, unilateral, executive order that locked up over 58 million acres of public land....
Brazilians clone endangered cow Brazil's agricultural research agency says it has successfully cloned a cow belonging to a nearly extinguished breed, in an experiment that could help save other endangered species. Two calves, named Pora and Potira, were born last month in healthy condition after being cloned from a 9-year-old cow of the Junqueira breed, which is known for its prized meat and has fewer than 100 animals left in Brazil, the government agency said. "This is potentially important for programs aimed at the conservation and improvement of (endangered animals)," researcher Rodolfo Rumpf said in a statement....
Birds shot to save fish Chris Anderson is only half-joking when he offers a solution for the hungry cormorants that are eating the fish in Leech Lake — and taking money out of his pocket. "Kill them all," he says. In response, wildlife officials — prodded by resort owners and fishing guides who are convinced the cormorant is to blame — have reached a dramatic decision: Over the summer, they will kill 4,000 or more of the diving birds. Some wildlife biologists and animal-rights groups oppose the plan, saying research about the bird and its eating habits is incomplete. Though an international migratory bird treaty protects cormorants, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled two years ago that states could curb their numbers if they were harming natural resources....
Ford has plan to help save 2,000 wild mustangs The company that makes the Mustang sports car is investing in the wild horse of the same name. With the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary as a backdrop, officials from Ford Motor Co. said the company would provide money to help save 2,000 wild mustangs that face an uncertain future and help establish a fund to take public donations to maintain the horses. The Bureau of Land Management and the Take Pride in America group also are participating in setting up the fund....
Column: Love the Gas, Not the Drill I have a confession to make: I like natural gas. Every morning at five minutes before 6:00, I wake up to the gentle whumph of the gas stove kicking on in the family room. I then get out of bed, tap on my son's door and call, "Time to get up," and plant myself in front of the miraculous dancing flames that never consume the glowing fake logs. But my enjoyment of natural gas brings up a conundrum that many an oil company executive has eagerly pointed out: How can someone who uses natural gas be anything less than a hypocrite for opposing drilling in the West? Don't we have an obligation to produce as much energy as we can here at home? Hypocrisy is a dogged companion in this world, where the simple act of buying shoes brings up a moral dilemma of international dimensions. Anyone who maintains a strict don't-drill-in-my-backyard stance while warming their bottom, or firing up their vehicle, with the dregs of the Carboniferous period -- or, for that matter, while complaining about this country's political dealings in the Middle East-- keeps good company with hypocrisy. But to be opposed to drilling in the West's few remaining pristine landscapes does not make one a hypocrite. Nor does insisting that the industry tread as lightly on the land as possible....
National forest lands cost local counties Every year the federal government is supposed to pay the three counties in the Roaring Fork Valley hundreds of thousands of dollars each to make up for lost property taxes that cannot be collected on federal lands. But each year the feds actually dole out far less than the promised amount because Congress shortchanges the program. In 2004, for example, Eagle County was supposed to receive $1.24 million from the federal government in payment in lieu of taxes or PILT funds, as the program is known. The county received only about two-thirds of that amount, or $842,000. Pitkin County received about $582,000 when it should have received about $895,000....
Column: The Religious Left's Lies The religious left's political operatives have mounted a shrill attack on a significant portion of the Christian community. Four out of five evangelical Christians supported President Bush in 2004 -- a third of all ballots cast for him, according to the Pew Research Center. Factor in Catholics and members of other conservative religious communities and it's clear that the religious right is the largest voting bloc in today's Republican Party. The religious left took note. Political opportunists in its ranks sought a wedge issue to weaken the GOP's coalition of Jews, Catholics and evangelicals and shatter its electoral majority. They passed over obvious headliners and landed on a curious but cunning choice: the environment. Those leading the charge are effective advocates: LBJ alumnus Bill Moyers of PBS fame, members of the National Council of Churches USA and liberal theologians who claim a moral superiority to other people of faith. Their tactics are familiar. I encountered them more than 20 years ago as President Reagan's secretary of the interior, when I clashed with extreme environmental groups adept at taking out of context -- or in some cases creating -- statements that, once twisted, were attributed to me as if they were my religious views....
Owens Wants Database Of Protected Land Gov. Bill Owens asked state officials on Thursday to conduct an inventory of all protected lands in Colorado, including wildlife habitat, agricultural lands and watershed areas, after expressing concern that the state does not have enough information to best protect open spaces. Owens said the information would help Great Outdoors Colorado, which uses lottery proceeds to fund park, recreation, wildlife and open space projects across the state, to make better choices on investing $48 million approved in December for the preservation of large landscapes. He said it also will help land trusts, local governments and state agencies....
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VESICULAR STOMATITIS
News Release
Texas Animal Health Commission
Box l2966 • Austin, Texas 78711 • (800) 550-8242 • FAX (512) 719-071
Bob Hillman, DVM • Executive Director
For info, contact Carla Everett, information officer, at 1-800-550-8242, ext. 710, or ceverett@tahc.state.tx.us
For Immediate Release---
And Now There are Three…
Texas Joins States with Vesicular Stomatitis in 2005
Texas, on Friday, May 20, joined New Mexico and Arizona as states with confirmed cases of vesicular stomatitis (VS) this spring. Two Travis County horses were hauled home May 10 from a trail ride in Arizona, where they apparently were exposed to the virus that can cause animals to develop blisters and sores in the mouth, on the tongue, muzzle, teats and hooves. The year’s first VS cases were confirmed April 27 in two horses in southwest New Mexico. Since then, infection has been detected in 17 horses on 11 premises in New Mexico, Arizona, and now, Texas.
“A number of states and countries impose strict testing, permitting and inspection requirements for livestock that originate from VS-affected areas or states. Check with the state or country of destination before hauling livestock from Texas,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, head of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. Phone numbers for other states’ animal health regulatory agencies can be obtained from the TAHC’s Austin headquarters at 1-800-550-8242. Staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Austin office can be reached at 512-916-5565 for international shipping rules or restrictions.
“VS rarely causes death, but an animal can suffer several weeks, while the lesions heal,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, who also serves as Texas’ state veterinarian. “To help prevent the spread of VS, an infected animal and the other livestock on a premises are quarantined until at least 30 days after the sores heal. Prior to releasing movement restrictions, a regulatory veterinarian will examine the affected animal to ensure healing is complete. Other livestock also will be checked. If infection is detected, the quarantine will begin anew.”....
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News Release
Texas Animal Health Commission
Box l2966 • Austin, Texas 78711 • (800) 550-8242 • FAX (512) 719-071
Bob Hillman, DVM • Executive Director
For info, contact Carla Everett, information officer, at 1-800-550-8242, ext. 710, or ceverett@tahc.state.tx.us
For Immediate Release---
And Now There are Three…
Texas Joins States with Vesicular Stomatitis in 2005
Texas, on Friday, May 20, joined New Mexico and Arizona as states with confirmed cases of vesicular stomatitis (VS) this spring. Two Travis County horses were hauled home May 10 from a trail ride in Arizona, where they apparently were exposed to the virus that can cause animals to develop blisters and sores in the mouth, on the tongue, muzzle, teats and hooves. The year’s first VS cases were confirmed April 27 in two horses in southwest New Mexico. Since then, infection has been detected in 17 horses on 11 premises in New Mexico, Arizona, and now, Texas.
“A number of states and countries impose strict testing, permitting and inspection requirements for livestock that originate from VS-affected areas or states. Check with the state or country of destination before hauling livestock from Texas,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, head of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. Phone numbers for other states’ animal health regulatory agencies can be obtained from the TAHC’s Austin headquarters at 1-800-550-8242. Staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Austin office can be reached at 512-916-5565 for international shipping rules or restrictions.
“VS rarely causes death, but an animal can suffer several weeks, while the lesions heal,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, who also serves as Texas’ state veterinarian. “To help prevent the spread of VS, an infected animal and the other livestock on a premises are quarantined until at least 30 days after the sores heal. Prior to releasing movement restrictions, a regulatory veterinarian will examine the affected animal to ensure healing is complete. Other livestock also will be checked. If infection is detected, the quarantine will begin anew.”....
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Friday, May 20, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Idaho wilderness bill would give local governments land, money An Idaho congressman introduced legislation Thursday that would set aside more than 300,000 acres of rugged central Idaho as new wilderness while giving the state and surrounding communities millions of dollars and an estimated 3,000 acres of federally owned land as compensation. Republican Rep. Mike Simpson said his $20 million proposal would offset the economic impact of protecting the scenic Boulder and White Cloud mountains from development. Sweetening wilderness designations with land gifts and cash payments to neighboring communities is the future of wilderness legislation, he said. "In the past, it was always where the (boundary) lines would be drawn," Simpson said in a telephone briefing. "In this bill, we've expanded that debate ... We've tried to take care of the needs of the recreationists, the counties, the ranchers." Under the proposal, the state of Idaho, the counties of Custer and Blaine, and the towns of Stanley, Challis and Clayton would receive - free - a total of about 3,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property. The land could be developed however local governments see fit, although 960 acres going to the state would be earmarked for an off-road-vehicle park near Boise....
BP wants to double wellheads Officials from gas giant BP told La Plata County commissioners Tuesday about a plan to double the number of wellheads on 65 square miles south of U.S. Highway 160 between Durango and Bayfield. Larson said BP wants to double the number of wellheads on slightly bigger pads because the current spacing - one pad per 160 acres - allows the company to extract less than half the coal-bed methane gas available in the section. An additional four wellheads per section would allow extraction of 75 percent of available gas, Larson said. BP proposes to use directional drilling to increase its production, Larson said. Directional drilling involves boring out and down at up to a 35-degree angle from an existing pad, to about 2,500 feet. The second bore would extend about one-quarter of a mile from the pad. The selling point is that there would be no new roads, no new pipelines and in some cases no new electrical lines....
11 States Challenge Break on Mercury for Coal Power Plants A coalition of 11 states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging a new federal rule that allows coal-fired power plants to buy pollution credits to avoid lowering their mercury emissions. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled rules that ordered utilities to reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2018. Power plants that do not exceed a nationwide cap can sell their credits to plants that do. Federal officials have likened the system of trading pollution credits to a similar system that has reduced emissions that cause acid rain. The lawsuit, however, states that the cap-and trade system would create "hot spots" around some plants that purchase the rights to emit more mercury....
Editorial: Senate should craft a saner energy bill When the U.S. Senate solves the filibuster mess and gets back to other tasks, it should craft a saner energy bill than the one that emerged last month from the House. The House measure is an industry giveaway that threatens the West's air, water and wildlife. On Tuesday, the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee began work on its version of the energy bill. Oil companies complain that environmental rules hamper energy development, so it's a sure bet they'll pressure the Senate to follow the House's lead. Democrat Ken Salazar, the only Coloradan on the Senate committee, should rally Westerners to restore balance to the legislation. At more than 1,000 pages, the 2005 energy bill is 200 pages longer than last year's and contains several environmental rollbacks. Most troubling is a vague but sweeping amendment that would end the public's say about oil and gas drilling even on public lands and national forests....
House Rebuffs Push to Soften Offshore Drilling Ban A bipartisan coalition of coastal-state lawmakers beat back an effort in the House on Thursday to weaken the decades-old ban on new oil and gas drilling offshore, but it is bracing for a potentially tougher battle ahead. The vote was 262 to 157 to defeat an effort to exempt new natural gas drilling from the federal moratorium, which covers most coastal waters except for large parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Opposition to easing the restrictions came from coastal-state delegations, including those from California, New York, Massachusetts and Florida. While environmentalists celebrated their victory, they said they were worried about other efforts in Congress to break through the federal moratorium on new offshore drilling. Bipartisan efforts are underway in the Senate, for example, to offer billions of dollars to entice financially hurting states to opt out of the moratorium. The bill's sponsors hope to include the measure in a sweeping overhaul of national energy policy now being drafted in the Senate....
Coalbed development gets support Powder River County rancher Rick Rice thinks it's time people heard from farmers and ranchers who welcome the prospect of coalbed methane development. "We want the people of the world to know that a majority of us who live here and will face the brunt of the impact are for it and want it to happen," he said. Rice, who ranches between Broadus and Ashland, said nearly 400 of Powder River County's 1,800 residents have signed petitions calling on the Northern Plains Resource Council, a regional conservation and agriculture group based in Billings, "to moderate its obstructionist inclinations." Rice said 67 people attended the first meeting he organized in Broadus. Last week, at a meeting that attracted 45 people, they adopted the name Citizens for Resource Development. The petition says the NPRC "has gone to excessive and obstructive lengths" in its "self-assumed watchdog role in the development and utilization of various natural resources in our state." It accuses Northern Plains of aligning itself with "radical environmentalists" whose goal is to wipe out agriculture with the aim of "rewilding" large areas of land....
Judge turns down tribe's bid to block Yucca nuclear dump A federal judge has denied an Indian tribe's plea to block plans for a nuclear waste dump in Nevada based on a claim that the project would violate a 19th century treaty. U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled Tuesday that the Western Shoshone National Council could not demonstrate ''immediate and irreparable'' harm because the Yucca Mountain repository has yet to open and a disputed rail line has yet to be built. Lawyer Robert Hager, representing the tribe, said Wednesday that no decision had been made whether to appeal. He noted that the judge's ruling left open the possibility that the tribe could seek an injunction later....
Info sought in wolf killing Federal officials are looking for anyone who may have information about the death of an endangered Mexican gray wolf whose body was found along U.S. 60 east of the eastern Arizona community of Vernon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is particularly looking for information on any suspicious activity or any vehicles that may have been parked along the highway between about 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on May 9, when the wolf was found dead. Authorities said the wolf had been feeding on a roadkill elk on the shoulder of the road. The cause of the wolf's death is still being confirmed. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the apprehension of those responsible for the wolf's death....
House blocks wild horse law Lawmakers voted Thursday to block a six-month-old law that allows the government to sell wild horses and burros, with opponents of the law protesting that the animals were ending up in processing plants and on the tables of foreign restaurants. The 249-159 House vote would stop the Bureau of Land Management from using any money in a $26.2 billion bill funding next year’s natural resources and arts programs to sell horses that roam public lands in Western states....
Floods threaten access to Jarbidge ... Elko County declares a state of emergency Elko County commissioners declared a countywide state of emergency Wednesday because of widespread flooding that has taken out bridges in Jarbidge and washed out roads elsewhere in northern Nevada. Jarbidge is the most threatened community, with two bridges out of service and residents facing isolation if there is more flooding. Mountain City District Ranger Dan Dallas said that the north bridge at Jarbidge is "impassable. There's a 20-foot hole in the back of the bridge." And he said the south bridge over the Jarbidge River toward Charleston is totally impassable because of the flooding caused by heavy rainfall. "It's in the river," he said....
Rising rivers menace southern Utah sites Robert Newsted is keeping the visitors at his recreational vehicle park on high ground. For the past three days, he has been moving them from the rising flood waters of the Sevier River, which by Wednesday had submerged about 15 RV sites and all 18 tent sites at the Riverside Motel and RV Park just west of Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah's Garfield County. The river also washed out a section of bridge in the area of the town known as Old Hatch. Newsted used the bridge to access his house....
The Fruit of Your Coins Mark Dowie, a prizewinning investigative journalist, was talking about the need to revamp American environmentalism long before the Reapers declared it dead. His Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1996 book Losing Ground cast a critical eye on green activists' failing tactics, and his more recent work -- encapsulated in a film short below -- focuses on myopic environmental philanthropy and the struggles of local and regional groups to get a slice of the funding pie. The 25 largest environmental organizations in the U.S. get a whopping 70 percent of the $3.5 billion doled out to green groups each year, Dowie points out in the short film "Empowering the Grassroots," created by Randy Olson of Shifting Baselines. That leaves the 15,000 or so smaller environmental nonprofits in the country scrounging around for leftovers. Dowie takes big green funders and foundations to task for unduly favoring gigantic conservation groups, and challenges them to more effectively seed the grassroots and reinvigorate a moribund movement. To watch the seven-minute film short, pick your format and bandwidth....
Calf Born in New Mexico With 5 Legs One of Orlando Romero's calves has a leg up on the other 25 calves born within the last two weeks on his ranch east of Tucumcari. The calf was born with an extra leg, with two hooves, growing from its back. Ranchers in the area aren't quite sure what to make of the little Limousin heifer. That is, if they can catch her. "She moves like a damn deer. I had a heck of a time trying to catch her," said Jess Weaks, the ranch caretaker. "She's pretty ornery, that's for sure." The week-old calf's extra leg does not touch the ground. It is attached to the calf's back between the shoulder blades, and hangs to its right side....
From homesteaders to here and now He knows what it’s like to live on the same ranch for 85 years and he knows how to keep that same 740-acre ranch (located at an elevation of 7,640 feet) in operation. Bud knows about the special connection between a man and his horse and he has a special way of communicating with animals. He also knows what it’s like to be a county commissioner for 12 years and what it’s like to see an entire county grow from nothing into what it is today – much like the beets and carrots and potatoes do in his garden every spring and summer. Margie has her own treasure chest of knowledge. She knows how to survive as a rancher’s wife, how to keep her household running smoothly, even if she can only get into town for supplies once a month. She knows what it’s like to help a first-time mother with her colicky baby and also how to run county health programs....
American cowboys gallop across the screens of Cannes American cowboys are back in the saddle - and on the big screen - here at the 58th Cannes Film Festival, which comes to a close tomorrow night. In ``Down in the Valley,'' Edward Norton is a wannabe cowboy from the L.A. suburbs and Sam Shepard stars as a fading western star coping with a nervous breakdown in ``Don't Come Knocking.'' And then there's Hollywood rough rider Tommy Lee Jones who yesterday premiered his Tex-Mex flick, ``The Three Burials of Melguiades Estrada.'' Jones not only stars in the $25 million western, he co-wrote it with Mexico's ``21 Grams'' writer Guillermo Arriaga, and co-produced and directed the film. It's a classic Old West set-up where Jones stars as a weathered old-time Texan who kidnaps a callow Border Patrol guard played by Barry Pepper to bury his murdered friend in Mexico. Unlike many films here at the festival, ``Three Burials'' is a celebration of America while still critical of the Border Patrol....
Crafts of the cowboy To hear Bill Black tell it, he’s just a guy who makes things from dead cows. The former cow boss of the MC Ranch these days stretches, scrapes and cuts the hide of dead cows into living pieces of functional art, creating hackamores, quirts and other horse tack. Likewise he hitches horsehair for belts, hatbands, headstalls and decorations on reins and pommels. Rawhide braiding and horsehair hitching transformed from a workaday hobby to a paying lifestyle about nine years ago for Black, 50. It was a change for the former buckaroo, who for several years was the MC Ranch cow boss, working out of headquarters not too far south of his present home and workshop in the Warner Valley east of Lakeview, Ore....
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Idaho wilderness bill would give local governments land, money An Idaho congressman introduced legislation Thursday that would set aside more than 300,000 acres of rugged central Idaho as new wilderness while giving the state and surrounding communities millions of dollars and an estimated 3,000 acres of federally owned land as compensation. Republican Rep. Mike Simpson said his $20 million proposal would offset the economic impact of protecting the scenic Boulder and White Cloud mountains from development. Sweetening wilderness designations with land gifts and cash payments to neighboring communities is the future of wilderness legislation, he said. "In the past, it was always where the (boundary) lines would be drawn," Simpson said in a telephone briefing. "In this bill, we've expanded that debate ... We've tried to take care of the needs of the recreationists, the counties, the ranchers." Under the proposal, the state of Idaho, the counties of Custer and Blaine, and the towns of Stanley, Challis and Clayton would receive - free - a total of about 3,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property. The land could be developed however local governments see fit, although 960 acres going to the state would be earmarked for an off-road-vehicle park near Boise....
BP wants to double wellheads Officials from gas giant BP told La Plata County commissioners Tuesday about a plan to double the number of wellheads on 65 square miles south of U.S. Highway 160 between Durango and Bayfield. Larson said BP wants to double the number of wellheads on slightly bigger pads because the current spacing - one pad per 160 acres - allows the company to extract less than half the coal-bed methane gas available in the section. An additional four wellheads per section would allow extraction of 75 percent of available gas, Larson said. BP proposes to use directional drilling to increase its production, Larson said. Directional drilling involves boring out and down at up to a 35-degree angle from an existing pad, to about 2,500 feet. The second bore would extend about one-quarter of a mile from the pad. The selling point is that there would be no new roads, no new pipelines and in some cases no new electrical lines....
11 States Challenge Break on Mercury for Coal Power Plants A coalition of 11 states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging a new federal rule that allows coal-fired power plants to buy pollution credits to avoid lowering their mercury emissions. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled rules that ordered utilities to reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2018. Power plants that do not exceed a nationwide cap can sell their credits to plants that do. Federal officials have likened the system of trading pollution credits to a similar system that has reduced emissions that cause acid rain. The lawsuit, however, states that the cap-and trade system would create "hot spots" around some plants that purchase the rights to emit more mercury....
Editorial: Senate should craft a saner energy bill When the U.S. Senate solves the filibuster mess and gets back to other tasks, it should craft a saner energy bill than the one that emerged last month from the House. The House measure is an industry giveaway that threatens the West's air, water and wildlife. On Tuesday, the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee began work on its version of the energy bill. Oil companies complain that environmental rules hamper energy development, so it's a sure bet they'll pressure the Senate to follow the House's lead. Democrat Ken Salazar, the only Coloradan on the Senate committee, should rally Westerners to restore balance to the legislation. At more than 1,000 pages, the 2005 energy bill is 200 pages longer than last year's and contains several environmental rollbacks. Most troubling is a vague but sweeping amendment that would end the public's say about oil and gas drilling even on public lands and national forests....
House Rebuffs Push to Soften Offshore Drilling Ban A bipartisan coalition of coastal-state lawmakers beat back an effort in the House on Thursday to weaken the decades-old ban on new oil and gas drilling offshore, but it is bracing for a potentially tougher battle ahead. The vote was 262 to 157 to defeat an effort to exempt new natural gas drilling from the federal moratorium, which covers most coastal waters except for large parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Opposition to easing the restrictions came from coastal-state delegations, including those from California, New York, Massachusetts and Florida. While environmentalists celebrated their victory, they said they were worried about other efforts in Congress to break through the federal moratorium on new offshore drilling. Bipartisan efforts are underway in the Senate, for example, to offer billions of dollars to entice financially hurting states to opt out of the moratorium. The bill's sponsors hope to include the measure in a sweeping overhaul of national energy policy now being drafted in the Senate....
Coalbed development gets support Powder River County rancher Rick Rice thinks it's time people heard from farmers and ranchers who welcome the prospect of coalbed methane development. "We want the people of the world to know that a majority of us who live here and will face the brunt of the impact are for it and want it to happen," he said. Rice, who ranches between Broadus and Ashland, said nearly 400 of Powder River County's 1,800 residents have signed petitions calling on the Northern Plains Resource Council, a regional conservation and agriculture group based in Billings, "to moderate its obstructionist inclinations." Rice said 67 people attended the first meeting he organized in Broadus. Last week, at a meeting that attracted 45 people, they adopted the name Citizens for Resource Development. The petition says the NPRC "has gone to excessive and obstructive lengths" in its "self-assumed watchdog role in the development and utilization of various natural resources in our state." It accuses Northern Plains of aligning itself with "radical environmentalists" whose goal is to wipe out agriculture with the aim of "rewilding" large areas of land....
Judge turns down tribe's bid to block Yucca nuclear dump A federal judge has denied an Indian tribe's plea to block plans for a nuclear waste dump in Nevada based on a claim that the project would violate a 19th century treaty. U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled Tuesday that the Western Shoshone National Council could not demonstrate ''immediate and irreparable'' harm because the Yucca Mountain repository has yet to open and a disputed rail line has yet to be built. Lawyer Robert Hager, representing the tribe, said Wednesday that no decision had been made whether to appeal. He noted that the judge's ruling left open the possibility that the tribe could seek an injunction later....
Info sought in wolf killing Federal officials are looking for anyone who may have information about the death of an endangered Mexican gray wolf whose body was found along U.S. 60 east of the eastern Arizona community of Vernon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is particularly looking for information on any suspicious activity or any vehicles that may have been parked along the highway between about 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on May 9, when the wolf was found dead. Authorities said the wolf had been feeding on a roadkill elk on the shoulder of the road. The cause of the wolf's death is still being confirmed. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the apprehension of those responsible for the wolf's death....
House blocks wild horse law Lawmakers voted Thursday to block a six-month-old law that allows the government to sell wild horses and burros, with opponents of the law protesting that the animals were ending up in processing plants and on the tables of foreign restaurants. The 249-159 House vote would stop the Bureau of Land Management from using any money in a $26.2 billion bill funding next year’s natural resources and arts programs to sell horses that roam public lands in Western states....
Floods threaten access to Jarbidge ... Elko County declares a state of emergency Elko County commissioners declared a countywide state of emergency Wednesday because of widespread flooding that has taken out bridges in Jarbidge and washed out roads elsewhere in northern Nevada. Jarbidge is the most threatened community, with two bridges out of service and residents facing isolation if there is more flooding. Mountain City District Ranger Dan Dallas said that the north bridge at Jarbidge is "impassable. There's a 20-foot hole in the back of the bridge." And he said the south bridge over the Jarbidge River toward Charleston is totally impassable because of the flooding caused by heavy rainfall. "It's in the river," he said....
Rising rivers menace southern Utah sites Robert Newsted is keeping the visitors at his recreational vehicle park on high ground. For the past three days, he has been moving them from the rising flood waters of the Sevier River, which by Wednesday had submerged about 15 RV sites and all 18 tent sites at the Riverside Motel and RV Park just west of Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah's Garfield County. The river also washed out a section of bridge in the area of the town known as Old Hatch. Newsted used the bridge to access his house....
The Fruit of Your Coins Mark Dowie, a prizewinning investigative journalist, was talking about the need to revamp American environmentalism long before the Reapers declared it dead. His Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1996 book Losing Ground cast a critical eye on green activists' failing tactics, and his more recent work -- encapsulated in a film short below -- focuses on myopic environmental philanthropy and the struggles of local and regional groups to get a slice of the funding pie. The 25 largest environmental organizations in the U.S. get a whopping 70 percent of the $3.5 billion doled out to green groups each year, Dowie points out in the short film "Empowering the Grassroots," created by Randy Olson of Shifting Baselines. That leaves the 15,000 or so smaller environmental nonprofits in the country scrounging around for leftovers. Dowie takes big green funders and foundations to task for unduly favoring gigantic conservation groups, and challenges them to more effectively seed the grassroots and reinvigorate a moribund movement. To watch the seven-minute film short, pick your format and bandwidth....
Calf Born in New Mexico With 5 Legs One of Orlando Romero's calves has a leg up on the other 25 calves born within the last two weeks on his ranch east of Tucumcari. The calf was born with an extra leg, with two hooves, growing from its back. Ranchers in the area aren't quite sure what to make of the little Limousin heifer. That is, if they can catch her. "She moves like a damn deer. I had a heck of a time trying to catch her," said Jess Weaks, the ranch caretaker. "She's pretty ornery, that's for sure." The week-old calf's extra leg does not touch the ground. It is attached to the calf's back between the shoulder blades, and hangs to its right side....
From homesteaders to here and now He knows what it’s like to live on the same ranch for 85 years and he knows how to keep that same 740-acre ranch (located at an elevation of 7,640 feet) in operation. Bud knows about the special connection between a man and his horse and he has a special way of communicating with animals. He also knows what it’s like to be a county commissioner for 12 years and what it’s like to see an entire county grow from nothing into what it is today – much like the beets and carrots and potatoes do in his garden every spring and summer. Margie has her own treasure chest of knowledge. She knows how to survive as a rancher’s wife, how to keep her household running smoothly, even if she can only get into town for supplies once a month. She knows what it’s like to help a first-time mother with her colicky baby and also how to run county health programs....
American cowboys gallop across the screens of Cannes American cowboys are back in the saddle - and on the big screen - here at the 58th Cannes Film Festival, which comes to a close tomorrow night. In ``Down in the Valley,'' Edward Norton is a wannabe cowboy from the L.A. suburbs and Sam Shepard stars as a fading western star coping with a nervous breakdown in ``Don't Come Knocking.'' And then there's Hollywood rough rider Tommy Lee Jones who yesterday premiered his Tex-Mex flick, ``The Three Burials of Melguiades Estrada.'' Jones not only stars in the $25 million western, he co-wrote it with Mexico's ``21 Grams'' writer Guillermo Arriaga, and co-produced and directed the film. It's a classic Old West set-up where Jones stars as a weathered old-time Texan who kidnaps a callow Border Patrol guard played by Barry Pepper to bury his murdered friend in Mexico. Unlike many films here at the festival, ``Three Burials'' is a celebration of America while still critical of the Border Patrol....
Crafts of the cowboy To hear Bill Black tell it, he’s just a guy who makes things from dead cows. The former cow boss of the MC Ranch these days stretches, scrapes and cuts the hide of dead cows into living pieces of functional art, creating hackamores, quirts and other horse tack. Likewise he hitches horsehair for belts, hatbands, headstalls and decorations on reins and pommels. Rawhide braiding and horsehair hitching transformed from a workaday hobby to a paying lifestyle about nine years ago for Black, 50. It was a change for the former buckaroo, who for several years was the MC Ranch cow boss, working out of headquarters not too far south of his present home and workshop in the Warner Valley east of Lakeview, Ore....
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Thursday, May 19, 2005
ECO-TERRORISTS
FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism
Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel of their growing concern over these groups. Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF. In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said. The ELF has been linked to fires set at sport utility vehicle dealerships and construction sites in various states, while the ALF has been blamed for arson and bombings against animal research labs and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry....
Go here for the FBI testimony and here for the BATF. Click here for the other presenters....
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FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism
Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel of their growing concern over these groups. Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF. In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said. The ELF has been linked to fires set at sport utility vehicle dealerships and construction sites in various states, while the ALF has been blamed for arson and bombings against animal research labs and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry....
Go here for the FBI testimony and here for the BATF. Click here for the other presenters....
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GAO TESTIMONY
Endangered Species Act: Successes and Challenges in Agency Collaboration and the Use of Scientific Information in the Decision Making Process, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment issues, before the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. GAO-05-732T, May 19. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-732T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05732thigh.pdf
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Endangered Species Act: Successes and Challenges in Agency Collaboration and the Use of Scientific Information in the Decision Making Process, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment issues, before the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. GAO-05-732T, May 19. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-732T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05732thigh.pdf
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranchers tell their side of Mitchell Slough dispute to Schweitzer Yes, Huey Lewis the rock 'n' roller was there, standing along the banks of the Bitterroot River. Yes, Gov. Brian Schweitzer was there, with his four-footed diplomat, Jag the border collie. The Mitchell Slough, which begins at a 60-foot-long headgate near Tucker Crossing north of Corvallis, is currently the subject of a lawsuit that should ultimately determine whether it's a public waterway and thus open to public use. The slough provides irrigation water to a host of ranchers who farm in the mid-Bitterroot. The ranchers had plenty of questions for their fellow rancher, the governor. Who will pay for damages to private property caused by recreationists? they asked. Our deeds say our property lines run to the middle of the ditch, and we pay taxes on that property, asked Ed Hebner. If the public gets access, do we lose that part of our properties? If Mitchell Slough is a public stream, will other irrigation ditches around the state be viewed similarly? The governor steered clear of questions that required a legal interpretation, but he expressed sympathy for ranchers who've found recreationists roaming around their land....
Uinta ranchers worry about drilling threat The oil and gas business is booming in the Uinta Basin, and ranchers say they are starting to take a beating because of it. Members of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee heard complaints Wednesday from a pair of eastern Utah sheep ranchers that an increasingly heavy concentrations of wells, roads and pipelines are wreaking havoc with grazing. But their biggest fear, they said, is that those grazing lands may never be returned once the energy boom ends, turning a situation of temporary losses into something permanent. "My family have been sheep ranchers for close to 80 years in eastern Utah and western Colorado, and we're seeing changes we've never seen before," said Bill Robinson. "We understand the importance of the oil and gas industry, but we are being negatively impacted . . .. They're taking 10 to 20 percent of our livelihood and are destroying it. It might not ever be reclaimed." Robinson and fellow rancher Burt Delambert asked legislators to assess impact fees or redirect severance taxes back to ranchers to help with remediation costs....
Oil boom draws fire, and so do its opponents Mathis showed photos of substantial oil and gas drilling pads and dirt roads carved through public land in the Uinta Basin. One view was of a dirt road used by the industry, a deeply rutted mass of mud because last winter was so wet. The same parcels are leased to petroleum operations and under grazing permits issued to ranchers. "There's a fair amount of (oil and gas) activity," Mathis said, showing a map of the region. It was peppered with red and black dots representing approved oil wells and places where permission to drill is pending. Bill Stringer, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Vernal, said there were about 9,000 dots on the map, more than 6,000 of them approved and the rest pending. After the meeting, at the request of the Deseret Morning News, he estimated the area involved is about 1,800 square miles, counting both state and federal land....
Groups appeal leasing on winter range Two Wyoming conservation groups have asked a federal agency to do more to protect big came winter range from oil and gas development. The Wyoming Outdoor Council and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C., over nine parcels leased for oil and gas exploration on "crucial" winter range in the Red Desert. Bruce Pendery, staff attorney and public lands director with the Outdoor Council, said this is the latest step after the Bureau of Land Management -- the agency in charge of leasing the parcels -- denied the groups' formal protest on the parcels earlier this year....
Clashing cultures in the country Ohio dairy farmer Frank Sutliff was grinding cattle feed when he saw them again: all-terrain vehicles shredding his alfalfa fields. When he shouted over the engine whine that the riders were trespassing, they smashed him over the head, he said. "I went down, and they just started in on me ... hit me, kicked me, broke my leg," said Sutliff, 46. "I crawled into the truck, drove back to the house and dialed 911." Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space. Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet....
Feds to restrict off-road vehicles in West For decades, off-road vehicle enthusiasts have been mostly free to roam federal forests and rangelands. Those freewheeling days could be numbered, though. Two government agencies, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, are developing plans to restrict the vehicles to designated routes as part of an effort to curb environmental damage and ease conflict among users of public lands. "The days of blazing new trails are coming to an end," said Leo Drumm, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the Nevada BLM. "There has to be some controls."....
Oregon Wolf plan hits rough patch Wolf supporters and opponents are both critical of a House bill that attempts put the state's strategy for dealing with wolves into law. A wolf plan was crafted last year by a citizens panel and approved in February by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. But the Legislature must change state laws for it to work. The plan approved in February calls for allowing ranchers to shoot wolves attacking livestock, but Oregon's state Endangered Species Act does not permit that. The blueprint also includes a program to compensate people who lose livestock to wolves. Lawmakers would need to establish the fund and provide money for it....
U.S. will resume selling wild horses The federal Bureau of Land Management will announce Thursday it is resuming sales of wild horses with protections to prevent the animals from being sent to slaughter, the agency's director said Wednesday. The agency suspended the sales last month after discovering that 41 animals rounded up from Western rangeland had been sold to an Illinois slaughterhouse and processed for meat. In addition, Ford Motor Co. will pay to transport up to 2,000 horses to Indian reservations and locations run by non-profit organizations. The company will also oversee a "Save the Mustangs" fundraising drive to help groups that adopt the horses pay for their care. Wild horses are "a beautiful symbol of the Wild West" and an "icon" for Ford, said Jon Harmon, a spokesman for the company whose Mustang sports car has been a flagship brand since 1964....
Editorial: Stop the slaughter Thirty-four years ago, Congress declared that wild horses and burros were "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." With that, the practice of slaughtering them for dog food ended. Late last year, a measure dubbed the "Horsemeat Bill" permitted the commercial trade of some of these animals to resume. Wild horses, whose ancestors escaped the Spanish conquistadors, and wild burros, whose ancestors carried gear for hopeful prospectors, are part of the West's natural history. But to ranchers whose cows chew on public land leased at bargain-basement rates, they have long been perceived as competition for forage. That's why they were herded off for slaughter...."cows chew on public land"??? Is this a New Jersey paper? Nope, afraid not. It just shows you how knowledgeable the Arizona Republic is on this issue. Didn't keep them from editorializing though, did it....
Reps. Maurice Hinchey and Charles Bass Call for End to YellowstoneBuffalo Slaughter The nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association today praised Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) for their leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to protect America's last wild and genetically pure buffalo. The Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act of 2005 is an admirable effort to treat bison as wildlife and to produce a sensible change to the absurd policy of hazing, capturing, and killing buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park. "The Yellowstone buffalo herd should have the freedom to roam our federal lands like any other wildlife," said Congressman Hinchey, who serves on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Forest Service. "The current policy of hazing and slaughtering these majestic animals is unnecessary and shameful. My legislation will put an end to these misguided management practices and ensure that our federal agencies act as proper stewards of this wildlife icon." In the 108th Congress, the Hinchey-Bass bill had 104 cosponsors....
Wisconsin wolf population up 14 percent A new estimate shows Wisconsin's gray wolf population may have grown to as many as 455 animals, far exceeding the goal set by state game managers and raising concerns about more conflicts between the predators and humans. The latest estimate indicates the wolf population grew 14 percent in a year and is nearly 100 over the DNR's management goal for the species. The DNR said that in 2004, wolves killed livestock on 22 farms, compared with 14 farms in 2003 and eight in 2002. Last year, 24 problem wolves were legally killed, compared with 17 in 2003. The agency has permits to kill up to 34 this year...
Norton Signs Conservation Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Announces $3.9 Million in Grants for Migratory Bird Conservation Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commemorated the 12th International Migratory Bird Day by signing a declaration of intent with Canada and Mexico to strengthen cooperation on bird conservation. She also announced $3.9 million in grants to conserve birds throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. Norton signed the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Declaration of Intent to "conserve North American birds throughout their ranges and habitats, and ultimately to collaborate with all participant nations regarding bird cooperation.” More than 340 species of birds breed in the United States and Canada, and winter in Latin America. Examples of these birds include species of plovers, terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows. The declaration will formalize the process for undertaking the initiative, which is designed to address the sharp decline of many migratory bird species in recent decades....
Measure Advances to Designate Eastern Oysters as Endangered A proposal to designate the eastern oyster -- harvested in the Chesapeake Bay and in waters from New England to Texas -- as "threatened" or "endangered" is advancing in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency said Wednesday. Either designation would likely halt or limit harvesting of the bivalves, fisheries experts say. A petition calling on the federal government to recognize Crassostrea virginica as threatened or endangered was filed in January by Dieter Busch, a consultant who formerly headed an arm of the 15-state Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regulatory authority. The agency has reviewed the petition and determined that it warrants a review by a panel of private, federal and state fisheries experts (up to about a dozen members) that will take up to nine months to review the request further. The process allows for public hearings and public comment....
Reinjection of mine water proposed Anadarko Petroleum has announced a $50 million project to reinject coalbed methane water back into the ground. It's one way to deal with water released by drilling companies to ease the pressure holding methane in coal seams. Some conservationists and ranchers contend the water can be salty or of poor quality and can harm crops. Concerns have also been raised about potential drawdown of aquifers and water wells due to development. Anadarko officials say plans include transporting water discharged from mines in their County Line Field in Campbell and Johnson counties through a 48-mile pipeline to injection wells near Midwest....
Cowboy hall worth the wait The settling of the West didn't happen overnight. And neither has the Cowboy Hall of Fame. After years of hard work, the hall will hold a sneak preview later this month and officially open on June 15. The Medora center will honor North Dakota legends, American Indians, early ranchers, livestock and more. Planning for the hall started in the early 1990s. It's a dream that's taken longer to come true than many expected. But it's been worth the time and effort. The dream to build the center has been driven by those who know the subject: ranchers, rodeo contestants, tribal members and fans of the West -- folks who want to save a part of what they love for the future....
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Ranchers tell their side of Mitchell Slough dispute to Schweitzer Yes, Huey Lewis the rock 'n' roller was there, standing along the banks of the Bitterroot River. Yes, Gov. Brian Schweitzer was there, with his four-footed diplomat, Jag the border collie. The Mitchell Slough, which begins at a 60-foot-long headgate near Tucker Crossing north of Corvallis, is currently the subject of a lawsuit that should ultimately determine whether it's a public waterway and thus open to public use. The slough provides irrigation water to a host of ranchers who farm in the mid-Bitterroot. The ranchers had plenty of questions for their fellow rancher, the governor. Who will pay for damages to private property caused by recreationists? they asked. Our deeds say our property lines run to the middle of the ditch, and we pay taxes on that property, asked Ed Hebner. If the public gets access, do we lose that part of our properties? If Mitchell Slough is a public stream, will other irrigation ditches around the state be viewed similarly? The governor steered clear of questions that required a legal interpretation, but he expressed sympathy for ranchers who've found recreationists roaming around their land....
Uinta ranchers worry about drilling threat The oil and gas business is booming in the Uinta Basin, and ranchers say they are starting to take a beating because of it. Members of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee heard complaints Wednesday from a pair of eastern Utah sheep ranchers that an increasingly heavy concentrations of wells, roads and pipelines are wreaking havoc with grazing. But their biggest fear, they said, is that those grazing lands may never be returned once the energy boom ends, turning a situation of temporary losses into something permanent. "My family have been sheep ranchers for close to 80 years in eastern Utah and western Colorado, and we're seeing changes we've never seen before," said Bill Robinson. "We understand the importance of the oil and gas industry, but we are being negatively impacted . . .. They're taking 10 to 20 percent of our livelihood and are destroying it. It might not ever be reclaimed." Robinson and fellow rancher Burt Delambert asked legislators to assess impact fees or redirect severance taxes back to ranchers to help with remediation costs....
Oil boom draws fire, and so do its opponents Mathis showed photos of substantial oil and gas drilling pads and dirt roads carved through public land in the Uinta Basin. One view was of a dirt road used by the industry, a deeply rutted mass of mud because last winter was so wet. The same parcels are leased to petroleum operations and under grazing permits issued to ranchers. "There's a fair amount of (oil and gas) activity," Mathis said, showing a map of the region. It was peppered with red and black dots representing approved oil wells and places where permission to drill is pending. Bill Stringer, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Vernal, said there were about 9,000 dots on the map, more than 6,000 of them approved and the rest pending. After the meeting, at the request of the Deseret Morning News, he estimated the area involved is about 1,800 square miles, counting both state and federal land....
Groups appeal leasing on winter range Two Wyoming conservation groups have asked a federal agency to do more to protect big came winter range from oil and gas development. The Wyoming Outdoor Council and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C., over nine parcels leased for oil and gas exploration on "crucial" winter range in the Red Desert. Bruce Pendery, staff attorney and public lands director with the Outdoor Council, said this is the latest step after the Bureau of Land Management -- the agency in charge of leasing the parcels -- denied the groups' formal protest on the parcels earlier this year....
Clashing cultures in the country Ohio dairy farmer Frank Sutliff was grinding cattle feed when he saw them again: all-terrain vehicles shredding his alfalfa fields. When he shouted over the engine whine that the riders were trespassing, they smashed him over the head, he said. "I went down, and they just started in on me ... hit me, kicked me, broke my leg," said Sutliff, 46. "I crawled into the truck, drove back to the house and dialed 911." Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space. Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet....
Feds to restrict off-road vehicles in West For decades, off-road vehicle enthusiasts have been mostly free to roam federal forests and rangelands. Those freewheeling days could be numbered, though. Two government agencies, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, are developing plans to restrict the vehicles to designated routes as part of an effort to curb environmental damage and ease conflict among users of public lands. "The days of blazing new trails are coming to an end," said Leo Drumm, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the Nevada BLM. "There has to be some controls."....
Oregon Wolf plan hits rough patch Wolf supporters and opponents are both critical of a House bill that attempts put the state's strategy for dealing with wolves into law. A wolf plan was crafted last year by a citizens panel and approved in February by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. But the Legislature must change state laws for it to work. The plan approved in February calls for allowing ranchers to shoot wolves attacking livestock, but Oregon's state Endangered Species Act does not permit that. The blueprint also includes a program to compensate people who lose livestock to wolves. Lawmakers would need to establish the fund and provide money for it....
U.S. will resume selling wild horses The federal Bureau of Land Management will announce Thursday it is resuming sales of wild horses with protections to prevent the animals from being sent to slaughter, the agency's director said Wednesday. The agency suspended the sales last month after discovering that 41 animals rounded up from Western rangeland had been sold to an Illinois slaughterhouse and processed for meat. In addition, Ford Motor Co. will pay to transport up to 2,000 horses to Indian reservations and locations run by non-profit organizations. The company will also oversee a "Save the Mustangs" fundraising drive to help groups that adopt the horses pay for their care. Wild horses are "a beautiful symbol of the Wild West" and an "icon" for Ford, said Jon Harmon, a spokesman for the company whose Mustang sports car has been a flagship brand since 1964....
Editorial: Stop the slaughter Thirty-four years ago, Congress declared that wild horses and burros were "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." With that, the practice of slaughtering them for dog food ended. Late last year, a measure dubbed the "Horsemeat Bill" permitted the commercial trade of some of these animals to resume. Wild horses, whose ancestors escaped the Spanish conquistadors, and wild burros, whose ancestors carried gear for hopeful prospectors, are part of the West's natural history. But to ranchers whose cows chew on public land leased at bargain-basement rates, they have long been perceived as competition for forage. That's why they were herded off for slaughter...."cows chew on public land"??? Is this a New Jersey paper? Nope, afraid not. It just shows you how knowledgeable the Arizona Republic is on this issue. Didn't keep them from editorializing though, did it....
Reps. Maurice Hinchey and Charles Bass Call for End to YellowstoneBuffalo Slaughter The nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association today praised Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) for their leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to protect America's last wild and genetically pure buffalo. The Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act of 2005 is an admirable effort to treat bison as wildlife and to produce a sensible change to the absurd policy of hazing, capturing, and killing buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park. "The Yellowstone buffalo herd should have the freedom to roam our federal lands like any other wildlife," said Congressman Hinchey, who serves on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Forest Service. "The current policy of hazing and slaughtering these majestic animals is unnecessary and shameful. My legislation will put an end to these misguided management practices and ensure that our federal agencies act as proper stewards of this wildlife icon." In the 108th Congress, the Hinchey-Bass bill had 104 cosponsors....
Wisconsin wolf population up 14 percent A new estimate shows Wisconsin's gray wolf population may have grown to as many as 455 animals, far exceeding the goal set by state game managers and raising concerns about more conflicts between the predators and humans. The latest estimate indicates the wolf population grew 14 percent in a year and is nearly 100 over the DNR's management goal for the species. The DNR said that in 2004, wolves killed livestock on 22 farms, compared with 14 farms in 2003 and eight in 2002. Last year, 24 problem wolves were legally killed, compared with 17 in 2003. The agency has permits to kill up to 34 this year...
Norton Signs Conservation Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Announces $3.9 Million in Grants for Migratory Bird Conservation Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commemorated the 12th International Migratory Bird Day by signing a declaration of intent with Canada and Mexico to strengthen cooperation on bird conservation. She also announced $3.9 million in grants to conserve birds throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. Norton signed the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Declaration of Intent to "conserve North American birds throughout their ranges and habitats, and ultimately to collaborate with all participant nations regarding bird cooperation.” More than 340 species of birds breed in the United States and Canada, and winter in Latin America. Examples of these birds include species of plovers, terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows. The declaration will formalize the process for undertaking the initiative, which is designed to address the sharp decline of many migratory bird species in recent decades....
Measure Advances to Designate Eastern Oysters as Endangered A proposal to designate the eastern oyster -- harvested in the Chesapeake Bay and in waters from New England to Texas -- as "threatened" or "endangered" is advancing in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency said Wednesday. Either designation would likely halt or limit harvesting of the bivalves, fisheries experts say. A petition calling on the federal government to recognize Crassostrea virginica as threatened or endangered was filed in January by Dieter Busch, a consultant who formerly headed an arm of the 15-state Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a regulatory authority. The agency has reviewed the petition and determined that it warrants a review by a panel of private, federal and state fisheries experts (up to about a dozen members) that will take up to nine months to review the request further. The process allows for public hearings and public comment....
Reinjection of mine water proposed Anadarko Petroleum has announced a $50 million project to reinject coalbed methane water back into the ground. It's one way to deal with water released by drilling companies to ease the pressure holding methane in coal seams. Some conservationists and ranchers contend the water can be salty or of poor quality and can harm crops. Concerns have also been raised about potential drawdown of aquifers and water wells due to development. Anadarko officials say plans include transporting water discharged from mines in their County Line Field in Campbell and Johnson counties through a 48-mile pipeline to injection wells near Midwest....
Cowboy hall worth the wait The settling of the West didn't happen overnight. And neither has the Cowboy Hall of Fame. After years of hard work, the hall will hold a sneak preview later this month and officially open on June 15. The Medora center will honor North Dakota legends, American Indians, early ranchers, livestock and more. Planning for the hall started in the early 1990s. It's a dream that's taken longer to come true than many expected. But it's been worth the time and effort. The dream to build the center has been driven by those who know the subject: ranchers, rodeo contestants, tribal members and fans of the West -- folks who want to save a part of what they love for the future....
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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Coyote bounty passed by House County boards may set coyote bounties under a bill passed by the House on Friday (May 13). Livestock ranchers testified at the Capitol that coyotes were killing their livestock. A Chippewa County sheep rancher told the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Game and Fish that he lost 116 lambs to coyote predation. Each lamb represented a $168 loss, explained Bob Padula, Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association President. Animal bounties were generally discarded nationwide during the 1960s, according to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official....
GRP easement aims at protecting prairie, working ranch Some 216 acres of prairie are now being held in perpetuity as native grassland, the result of an easement granted by the landowner to the federal government. It is the first such easement in Washington state. The acreage, a small part of the original homestead Ignatius Colvin first settled in 1865, will remain part of the family’s working cattle ranch. Present owner Fred Colvin, the great grandson of the founder, joined with his mother, Doris, in signing the easement. Gus Hughbanks, NRCS state conservationist for Washington, represented the federal government. According to Hughbanks, the Grassland Reserve Program is a voluntary effort offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance various forms of grassland, rangeland, pastures and shrub lands....
Senate panel moves ahead on bill to revise Measure 37 A bill that is intended to square the Measure 37 property rights law with Oregon's 30-year history of structured land-use planning was passed by a Senate panel on Tuesday. The bill sets out what type of land is eligible under Measure 37, establishes a compensation fund and develops a claims process. Local governments have been dealing with the claims on their own since they started rolling in last December. The Senate Environment and Land Use Committee passed the bill 3-2 and it will head to the full Senate for a vote as early as Monday. Supporters say it provides clarity for Measure 37 — and will give flexibility to the state's land-use planning system. Passed by 61 percent of the voters in November, Measure 37 requires governments to either pay property owners compensation or waive land-use laws for those whose property has been devalued by laws enacted after they purchased the land....
Montana prepares to sell off land under pilot program The sprawling Eastern Montana ranch holdings of Coffee Cattle Co. have long been dotted with thousands of acres of state land, but now the family-owned business has a chance to own those pieces of pasture. The Miles City-area ranch is among about a dozen lessees of state grazing land taking advantage of a new program that allows government to sell select parcels to stockpile money for buying replacement land offering more public access to state property. The land-banking program, a product of the 2003 Legislature and still in its infancy, already has about 115,000 acres suggested for sale. Bill Coffee, vice president of Coffee Cattle, said his family wants to buy the 3,200 acres of leased state land scattered among the ranch property to end the uncertainty that occurs every 10 years when the leases come up for renewal....
Cattle, critters thrive on parkland Grazing on national seashore is not just for picnickers and daydreaming but an everyday existence for cattle that call Point Reyes National Seashore home. A tour, sponsored by California Grazing Lands Coalition, was offered to grassland ecologists, rangeland management specialists, open space managers, ranchers, policy makers and wildlife experts. The tour was an opportunity to learn first-hand how grazing is used on public lands to achieve both livestock and biodiversity goals and how introduced grazing is enhancing “listed” species. It also showcased how the public and land managers are working together to maintain Bay area grasslands for multiple uses, and to see how conservation practices work....
Colorado County lifts deed restrictions on rural land The two new Mesa County commissioners took steps to make good on a campaign promise Monday, eliminating a damper on landowners’ development rights. Commissioners Craig Meis and Janet Rowland, along with commission Chairman Tillie Bishop, rolled back 10-year development-halting deed restrictions that were placed by the county on rural lands after approval of major subdivisions with density bonuses. Meis and Rowland campaigned for their posts last year saying that they wanted the county to resolve disputes on how to treat development proposals on certain rural lands zoned as agricultural, forested or in transition....
Parties discuss wolf payments When wolves kill livestock in Montana, the owners should be reimbursed. That's the general agreement of a group of about 30 government workers, ranchers, environmentalists and others who met four times in Helena this spring. The question now is how to make it work. "None of us have really been here before, so we're all learning together," said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Aside from the need for reimbursement for livestock losses, the group is also pushing nonlethal preventive measures to decrease conflicts between wolves and livestock. The work is part of Montana's effort to write the next chapter in the return of the wolf to the northern Rocky Mountains....
New salamander identified under canopy of Siskiyous A new species of salamander has been identified in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California, demonstrating the biological richness of the region, researchers say. The Scott Bar salamander, classified as Plethodon asupak, had been considered to be a member of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander species, or Plethodon stormi, until genetic analysis showed a distinct evolutionary line, said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, Ore. "Everyone talks about how biologically rich the tropics are, but we are still discovering species right here in the Klamath-Siskiyou," Vaile said. The word "asupak" is the Shasta Indian name for Scott Bar, an area near the confluence of the Scott and Klamath rivers....
Endangered Species Act failed, report says The Endangered Species Act has failed to help most threatened and endangered species, according to a report released Tuesday by a Republican lawmaker who has made rewriting the law a top priority. Environmentalists and Democrats quickly criticized the report prepared for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, as politically motivated and misleading. The report by the panel's oversight and investigations staff doesn't include independent investigations, but draws on existing federal agency data to highlight the record of the landmark 1973 law. Among its findings: • Only 10 of nearly 1,300 domestic species of plants and animals listed under the act have recovered. • Of the listed species, 77 percent have met 0 percent to 25 percent of the Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery objectives for them. Only 2 percent have met 76 percent to 100 percent of recovery objectives. • The recovery status of 60 percent of listed species is classified as either "uncertain" or "declining," while 30 percent of species are stable and 6 percent are improving. Of the listed species, 3 percent — 35 in all — are classified as possibly extinct....go here(pdf) to view the report....
World-renowned scientists caution senate on endangered species protection Led by Harvard University's E.O. Wilson, ten prominent scientists in biology and other environmental fields today called on the U.S. Senate to strengthen the Endangered Species Act, rather than heed industry calls to weaken it, in order to help stem a worldwide mass extinction crisis. Today's letter stands in stark contrast to a report by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo opposing the Act, noting instead the law's success as an "alarm system" and bulwark against the finality of extinction. Read the letter. "The Endangered Species Act represents our nation's most determined effort to take responsibility for preserving its precious biological diversity. By offering strict federal protections to the species that are included on the list, the government has drawn a line which it will not allow human pressures to cross over. That line is extinction," the letter reads. "In both its scope and its irreversibility, extinction is the most frightening, most conclusive word in our language. When a species has been declared extinct, not only have all its individuals died, but the possibility of any such individuals ever existing again has been foreclosed. The variety of life with which we share the earth is sadly in rapid decline. Life is grounded in biological diversity, and the fate of this diversity, which created and sustains us, is now in our hands."....go here(pdf) to see the letter....
U.S. fish and wildlife service fails to protect mexican garter snake The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) over their failure to list the Mexican garter snake as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in response to a December 15, 2003 petition filed by the group. The species is an aquatic garter snake with a range-wide distribution in Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and Mexico. It is one of hundreds of native riparian species that are threatened by the destruction and degradation of rivers and streams in the Southwest. The Mexican garter snake has been extirpated from most of its U.S. range, including the Colorado, Gila, and much of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. The decline of the Mexican garter snake is closely linked to the deteriorating quality of streamside habitats and the disappearance of native frogs and native fishes. “Widespread degradation of southwest rivers and introduction of dozens of exotic species necessitates protection of the Mexican garter snake under the ESA,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. Populations of the Mexican garter snake are severely fragmented and isolated due to loss and destruction of suitable habitat, which consists of riparian areas with permanent water, streamside vegetation for cover, and native prey species. Livestock grazing, urbanization, pollution, loss of native prey species, and exotic species have resulted in the loss of greater than 90% of the Southwest’s riparian habitat and the listing of 30 species under the ESA. “Southwest rivers have been under massive assault for over a century,” states Greenwald. “To protect southwest riparian species, livestock must be removed from all southwest rivers and streams on public lands, instream flows must be established, and further introduction of non-native species must be prohibited.”....
U.S. fish and wildlife fails to protect 286 threatened and endangered species The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released last week a new “candidate notice of review,” designating 286 species as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. In the review, FWS acknowledges that these species warrant protection, but argues that such protection is precluded by other actions to protect species. Based on an analysis of the list and past lists, the Center for Biological Diversity has determined that most of these species have been waiting for years to receive protection and that the Bush Administration has made little progress towards providing protection to these species. Candidate designation doesn’t provide any protection to species. Of the 286 species currently recognized as candidates, 265 (93%) have been waiting for protection for five or more years, 224 (78%) have been waiting 10 or more years, 178 (62%) have been waiting 15 or more years, 117 (41%) have been waiting 20 or more years, and 73 (26%) have been waiting 25 or more years. On average, these species have been waiting for protection for over 17 years. Delays in protection have real consequences with at least 27 species having gone extinct after designation as a candidate.....go here(pdf) to see the candidate notice of review....
Feds rejected state's earlier request Gov. Dave Freudenthal's request for removal of wolves from lambing grounds marks the second occasion in recent months in which state officials have asked the federal wildlife agency take action to control wolves. In January, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department complained about wolves displacing elk off five western Wyoming elk feedgrounds and onto private property. The state agency asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to relocate or remove the Daniel wolf pack, but Fish and Wildlife declined to take action at that time, stating: "We are not prepared to routinely relocate wolves found on or near the numerous elk feeding grounds in the state..." In his recent letter, Freudenthal noted that "in the absence of state-sanctioned wolf management, the people of the state of Wyoming must recurrently turn to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for day-to-day management of the species, including conflict mitigation."....
Proposal to reclassifying Gila trout is questioned A proposal to reclassify the Gila trout as threatened instead of endangered has drawn questions from a conservation group.
The chairman of Trout Unlimited in New Mexico, Bill Schudlich, says the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service hasn't met its own recovery plan for the fish. The agency reviewed its recovery plan in 2003. The plan lists three criteria that need to be met before the species is reclassified. Schudlich says the agency admits in the document that it didn't meet two of the three criteria. The Gila trout was listed as endangered in 1967....
Horse advocates seek halt to roundups Wild horse protection advocates urged the Bureau of Land Management Tuesday to suspend all roundups of the mustangs in Nevada until Congress makes it illegal again to sell the older, excess, unwanted ones for slaughter. But BLM officials said halting plans to gather as many as 4,000 mustangs from the Nevada range in the coming year would cripple a long-term effort that's within a year of bringing horse numbers down to sustainable levels. The horse advocates are backing an effort in Congress to reinstate a provision of a 1971 law that made it illegal to sell wild horses rounded up on federal land for slaughter....
Online database allows pesticide users to identify wildlife habitat An online database announced Tuesday is replacing the cumbersome paper guides that pesticide applicators must consult to find out if they're within the habitat of protected plants or animals, officials with California's Department of Pesticide Regulation announced. The new tool lets applicators -- and anyone who's interested -- find out with a few clicks of the mouse what endangered, rare or protected species live in an area, and what special precautions they are required to take. "This will make it easier for people to do right by the environment," said DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam. "It also minimizes the excuses people have for not complying."....go here to see the new search tool....
Time running out on a legend On the side of a steep mountain in the Superstition Wilderness, tucked beneath a dense canopy of trees, several men have spent eight months excavating what they hope is an old Mexican mine. These modern-day treasure seekers are not the first to look for gold or silver in the land of the Lost Dutchman Mine, but they likely are the last. And they are racing against time. A rarely granted Treasure Trove permit that allows them to dig in the wilderness east of the Valley expires at the end of this month. "If we find what we're looking for, I don't think the Forest Service would pull the permit. It'd be insanity," said Ron Feldman, who with fellow members of Historic Exploration And Treasures obtained the right to excavate. "If we don't find what we're looking for, it will end."....
Reward offered in search for 'Bart' fire culprit A $5,000 reward was offered Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of whoever started the "Bart" fire, which has swept through 11,500 acres of Sonoran Desert 10 miles northeast of Scottsdale. Roads to both Bartlett and Horseshoe lakes are expected to remain closed until the blaze is contained, possibly by Friday, fire officials said. The fire broke out at 5 p.m. Sunday north of Bartlett Dam Road, mere minutes after crews contained the 1,920-acre "St. Clair" fire to the east. Officials say the St. Clair blaze was sparked by a Jeep Cherokee and are investigating the origins of both fires....
Picuris Pueblo reclaims clay site Capping years of effort, Picuris Pueblo has regained the traditional area where its people gather clay for making pottery. The pueblo announced Monday that it has acquired the mica mine on U.S. Hill from Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals Inc., an Ohio mining company. The Pueblo people had gathered micaceous clay at the site for centuries before mining operations began. Details of the acquisition weren’t released in a joint news release from the pueblo and the company. Oglebay Norton, which has other mineral interests around the country and operates a shipping line in the Great Lakes, filed for federal bankruptcy protection last year. In the news release, Picuris Gov. Richard Mermejo said the recovery of the clay-gathering site was of tremendous cultural significance to the pueblo and its remaining potters....
Water rights dispute settled out of court A talc mine dropped its lawsuit and restraining order Monday that aimed to force a Madison Valley rancher to quit flowing irrigation water through its pond. Luzenac America Inc., which operates the mine in the central Madison Valley, also agreed to pay the attorney's fees for Eugene Walsh, a rancher who owns land next to the mine. "The Walshes understandably feel abused by the process, but reasonably satisfied with the outcome," said Bill Hritsco, a Dillon attorney representing Walsh. "(Luzenac) agreed to leave Mr. Walsh alone." Luzenac's Montana Operations Director Pat Downey said in a telephone interview that the company was glad to settle the case and move on with improving its stormwater control system....
Plan to drain tainted farm water triggers worries A federal plan to drain mineral-laden irrigation water from farms includes a proposal similar to one that caused an environmental disaster more than two decades ago, leading to bird deformities and deaths. Environmentalists fear that leaving the tainted water to accumulate in evaporation ponds, even if it's treated to reduce most of the toxic minerals, could lead to problems similar to what happened in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s, when entire colonies of birds died and many were born with missing limbs. But the federal officials who run the Central Valley Project, a massive irrigation complex that makes farming possible in the arid western half of the Central Valley, remain under court order to find a way to dispose of the tainted water. And forming new evaporation ponds is one of several options outlined in a draft environmental impact report to be released this month by the Bureau of Reclamation. Another option in the draft report is taking poorly drained land out of farming, but that would rob some farmers of their livelihoods and is strongly opposed by the agriculture industry....
Farm Bureau prevails in court ruling on waiver A Sacramento County Superior Court judge last week agreed with California Farm Bureau Federation's position that the State Water Resources Control Board and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) abused their discretion and overstepped their bounds in adopting a waiver for farm-water discharges that violated private property and privacy rights. In addition, the court said the RWQCB must clarify the applicability of the waiver as to natural water courses, constructed drains, or waterways dominated by return flows from irrigated agriculture. The court granted Farm Bureau's petition for writ of mandate and directed the RWQCB to correct the flaws in its regulations within 120 days. The court also granted Farm Bureau the right to file a motion to recover attorneys' fees for having to bring the state to court to settle these matters. "Despite the successful outcome of this litigation, Farm Bureau still believes that self-determined, incentive-based natural resource programs are the best approach to protecting the environment," said Brenda Jahns Southwick, managing counsel for the CFBF Natural Resources and Environmental Division....
US beef industry needs Canadian cattle: USDA head The U.S. beef industry will be permanently hurt if imports of young Canadian cattle do not soon resume because Canada is restructuring its industry and expanding, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Tuesday. "The market is restructuring before our eyes. American producers and processors will be left out in the cold if the border is not re-opened soon," Johanns told reporters. "My concern is that as more and more processing moves to Canada, production follows."....
Trade pact roadblock: Idaho sugar beets U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is traveling the West, stumping for President Bush's free-trade agreement with Central American and Caribbean nations. He's run into a roadblock: Idaho sugar beets. While growers and producers of other agricultural products, including potatoes, wheat, fruit and beef, back the plan, farmers of the bulbous roots are leading a charge to ditch the agreement that Bush lauds as a way of promoting democracy in Latin America and boosting U.S. security by spreading prosperity. They're demanding that the Central American Free Trade Agreement - signed by Bush last May, but still in need of congressional approval - be stripped of provisions allowing 107,000 metric tons of sugar, or about 1 percent of total domestic sugar consumption, to be imported into the U.S....
Editorial: CAFTA would be harvest for Panhandle agriculture NAFTA's aim was to open up trade corridors among the United States, Mexico and Canada. CAFTA could open up potentially huge new markets for agricultural commodities such as beef, corn, cotton and dairy - all of which are produced in abundance throughout the Panhandle. The Texas Farm Bureau has signed on big time to CAFTA, calling it "close to being a no-brainer." Farm Bureau figures show that Texas' farm cash receipts totaled $15.3 billion in 2003, with about 25 percent of all farm exports - estimated at $3.4 billion - going into foreign markets. CAFTA provisions include a 30-percent reduction in beef tariffs, providing a huge new market for the area's enormous fed beef industry....
USTR's Allgeier Defends WTO as House Moves to Vote on Withdrawal A top U.S. trade official has defended continued U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), while members of a congressional panel have predicted that Congress would reject a bill requiring U.S. withdrawal from the WTO. At a May 17 hearing in the House of Representatives, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier testified that U.S. leadership in the global trading system is critical for continuing U.S. prosperity and securing world stability. At issue was a bill submitted by WTO opponents calling for U.S. withdrawal from WTO membership. Under the 1994 law approving U.S. participation in the then just-forming trade organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) must report to Congress once every five years a detailed analysis of U.S. participation’s costs and benefits. The Bush administration submitted its 2005 report March 1. After submission of such a report any member of Congress is allowed to introduce a bill for WTO withdrawal and leaders of Congress must allow a vote on the bill to occur. In the first such vote in 2000, the House rejected a withdrawal resolution 363-56. Supporters of withdrawal argue that WTO membership amounts to a surrender of U.S. sovereignty to an international organization....
Farm Bureau Backs WTO Oversight of Trade U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization is vital to the economic development of agriculture, and successful WTO Doha Round agricultural negotiations are the best way to expand foreign marketing of U.S. agricultural products, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In testimony to the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, Minnesota Farm Bureau President Al Christopherson said U.S. agriculture's best opportunity to address critical trade issues is through the multilateral process. Christopherson is an AFBF board and executive committee member and presented AFBF’s perspective to the subcommittee. “U.S. membership in the WTO provides a trading system based on rules that helps maintain stable markets for our exports,” he said. “With the production of one-third of U.S. cropland destined for foreign markets, U.S. agriculture is strongly export-dependent. The 148-member World Trade Organization operates to provide a stable environment for continued growth in markets for America’s farmers and ranchers” Christopherson said....
COOL styled as packers v. producers Bills to delete mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat animals hit Congress last week, following up on the budgetary knock-out that delayed an October 2004 adoption of most provisions of the three-year-old law. Trade associations followed with their own spins, including several blasts characterizing the latest bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as tailor-made to support the packing industry. Mandatory COOL is part of the 2002 farm bill law. Quietly in early April, USDA started mandatory labeling for fresh fish and shellfish. Under the law, a grocer who mislabels country of origin is subject to up to $10,000 civil penalties. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, led an effort widely supported in Congress, to strip money for implementing fresh produce and meat provisions from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget. There are 34 co-sponsors to H.R. 2068, which requires implementation of a voluntary COOL program in the meat industry....
Subcommittee votes to delay meat labeling again Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., blasted a House subcommittee's approval late Monday night of a spending bill that includes another delay for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat and meat products. Mandatory labeling, originally intended to go into effect in 2004, was delayed last year to 2006. The new COOL provision approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture would prevent the secretary of agriculture from spending any money in fiscal year 2006 to implement the food labeling rule that was originally signed into law as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. The language would delay the start of any preparation for COOL until October 2006, according to Herseth spokesman Russ Levsen. "It would certainly be many months to ramp up a system like that, in effect, delaying implementation until sometime in 2007."....
Certified beef to debut soon The certified beef program approved by the South Dakota Legislature this year is a great idea, said some beef producers selling cattle in Aberdeen on Monday. "It's the coming thing," said Jerome Schaefers of Miller. "We'd be foolish not to." But a good idea is worthless unless it becomes reality, several added. "I hope it's not just political propaganda, and that something actually happens," said cattle rancher Steve Swanson of Clark. And something is, said Mark Johnston, press secretary for Gov. Mike Rounds. An update on the program, which Rounds promoted to the Legislature, is scheduled to be released later this week, Johnston said Monday. He's cautiously optimistic that South Dakota Certified Beef will be available to consumers in a month to six weeks....
Cattle on Computers A fast-talking auctioneer in a cowboy hat closely watches his audience — mostly men in boots, jeans and coveralls — to catch subtle gestures that are bids on the cattle circling a small sale ring that separates wooden bleachers from the sale staff’s elevated desk. Buyers and sellers may break away over the noon hour to get a hamburger basket or hot beef sandwich at the sale barn cafe. But if they want to bid on a specific lot of consigned cattle or watch their cattle sell, they must be in the bleachers when the auctioneer makes his call....
Stage stop in QC preserved The once-thriving rest area and shipping center known as the Desert Wells Stage Stop just outside Queen Creek will forever be memorialized. Earlier this year, developers in the area threatened to tear down the 90-year-old adobe hut to make room for future housing subdivisions, but the San Tan Historical Society's efforts to preserve the stage stop have paid off. The town of Queen Creek recently acquired 32 acres surrounding the historical site, located near Combs and Schnepf roads, for the purpose of building a much-needed retention basin for Sonoqui Wash. Believed to have been built in the early 1900s, the one-room stage stop meant salvation for ranchers moving across the desert from Phoenix to the Florence Highway. Years of neglect have left the building covered with graffiti and littered with debris and garbage. But the stage stop qualifies as historically significant, Mr. Salge said....
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Coyote bounty passed by House County boards may set coyote bounties under a bill passed by the House on Friday (May 13). Livestock ranchers testified at the Capitol that coyotes were killing their livestock. A Chippewa County sheep rancher told the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Game and Fish that he lost 116 lambs to coyote predation. Each lamb represented a $168 loss, explained Bob Padula, Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Association President. Animal bounties were generally discarded nationwide during the 1960s, according to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official....
GRP easement aims at protecting prairie, working ranch Some 216 acres of prairie are now being held in perpetuity as native grassland, the result of an easement granted by the landowner to the federal government. It is the first such easement in Washington state. The acreage, a small part of the original homestead Ignatius Colvin first settled in 1865, will remain part of the family’s working cattle ranch. Present owner Fred Colvin, the great grandson of the founder, joined with his mother, Doris, in signing the easement. Gus Hughbanks, NRCS state conservationist for Washington, represented the federal government. According to Hughbanks, the Grassland Reserve Program is a voluntary effort offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance various forms of grassland, rangeland, pastures and shrub lands....
Senate panel moves ahead on bill to revise Measure 37 A bill that is intended to square the Measure 37 property rights law with Oregon's 30-year history of structured land-use planning was passed by a Senate panel on Tuesday. The bill sets out what type of land is eligible under Measure 37, establishes a compensation fund and develops a claims process. Local governments have been dealing with the claims on their own since they started rolling in last December. The Senate Environment and Land Use Committee passed the bill 3-2 and it will head to the full Senate for a vote as early as Monday. Supporters say it provides clarity for Measure 37 — and will give flexibility to the state's land-use planning system. Passed by 61 percent of the voters in November, Measure 37 requires governments to either pay property owners compensation or waive land-use laws for those whose property has been devalued by laws enacted after they purchased the land....
Montana prepares to sell off land under pilot program The sprawling Eastern Montana ranch holdings of Coffee Cattle Co. have long been dotted with thousands of acres of state land, but now the family-owned business has a chance to own those pieces of pasture. The Miles City-area ranch is among about a dozen lessees of state grazing land taking advantage of a new program that allows government to sell select parcels to stockpile money for buying replacement land offering more public access to state property. The land-banking program, a product of the 2003 Legislature and still in its infancy, already has about 115,000 acres suggested for sale. Bill Coffee, vice president of Coffee Cattle, said his family wants to buy the 3,200 acres of leased state land scattered among the ranch property to end the uncertainty that occurs every 10 years when the leases come up for renewal....
Cattle, critters thrive on parkland Grazing on national seashore is not just for picnickers and daydreaming but an everyday existence for cattle that call Point Reyes National Seashore home. A tour, sponsored by California Grazing Lands Coalition, was offered to grassland ecologists, rangeland management specialists, open space managers, ranchers, policy makers and wildlife experts. The tour was an opportunity to learn first-hand how grazing is used on public lands to achieve both livestock and biodiversity goals and how introduced grazing is enhancing “listed” species. It also showcased how the public and land managers are working together to maintain Bay area grasslands for multiple uses, and to see how conservation practices work....
Colorado County lifts deed restrictions on rural land The two new Mesa County commissioners took steps to make good on a campaign promise Monday, eliminating a damper on landowners’ development rights. Commissioners Craig Meis and Janet Rowland, along with commission Chairman Tillie Bishop, rolled back 10-year development-halting deed restrictions that were placed by the county on rural lands after approval of major subdivisions with density bonuses. Meis and Rowland campaigned for their posts last year saying that they wanted the county to resolve disputes on how to treat development proposals on certain rural lands zoned as agricultural, forested or in transition....
Parties discuss wolf payments When wolves kill livestock in Montana, the owners should be reimbursed. That's the general agreement of a group of about 30 government workers, ranchers, environmentalists and others who met four times in Helena this spring. The question now is how to make it work. "None of us have really been here before, so we're all learning together," said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Aside from the need for reimbursement for livestock losses, the group is also pushing nonlethal preventive measures to decrease conflicts between wolves and livestock. The work is part of Montana's effort to write the next chapter in the return of the wolf to the northern Rocky Mountains....
New salamander identified under canopy of Siskiyous A new species of salamander has been identified in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California, demonstrating the biological richness of the region, researchers say. The Scott Bar salamander, classified as Plethodon asupak, had been considered to be a member of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander species, or Plethodon stormi, until genetic analysis showed a distinct evolutionary line, said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, Ore. "Everyone talks about how biologically rich the tropics are, but we are still discovering species right here in the Klamath-Siskiyou," Vaile said. The word "asupak" is the Shasta Indian name for Scott Bar, an area near the confluence of the Scott and Klamath rivers....
Endangered Species Act failed, report says The Endangered Species Act has failed to help most threatened and endangered species, according to a report released Tuesday by a Republican lawmaker who has made rewriting the law a top priority. Environmentalists and Democrats quickly criticized the report prepared for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, as politically motivated and misleading. The report by the panel's oversight and investigations staff doesn't include independent investigations, but draws on existing federal agency data to highlight the record of the landmark 1973 law. Among its findings: • Only 10 of nearly 1,300 domestic species of plants and animals listed under the act have recovered. • Of the listed species, 77 percent have met 0 percent to 25 percent of the Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery objectives for them. Only 2 percent have met 76 percent to 100 percent of recovery objectives. • The recovery status of 60 percent of listed species is classified as either "uncertain" or "declining," while 30 percent of species are stable and 6 percent are improving. Of the listed species, 3 percent — 35 in all — are classified as possibly extinct....go here(pdf) to view the report....
World-renowned scientists caution senate on endangered species protection Led by Harvard University's E.O. Wilson, ten prominent scientists in biology and other environmental fields today called on the U.S. Senate to strengthen the Endangered Species Act, rather than heed industry calls to weaken it, in order to help stem a worldwide mass extinction crisis. Today's letter stands in stark contrast to a report by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo opposing the Act, noting instead the law's success as an "alarm system" and bulwark against the finality of extinction. Read the letter. "The Endangered Species Act represents our nation's most determined effort to take responsibility for preserving its precious biological diversity. By offering strict federal protections to the species that are included on the list, the government has drawn a line which it will not allow human pressures to cross over. That line is extinction," the letter reads. "In both its scope and its irreversibility, extinction is the most frightening, most conclusive word in our language. When a species has been declared extinct, not only have all its individuals died, but the possibility of any such individuals ever existing again has been foreclosed. The variety of life with which we share the earth is sadly in rapid decline. Life is grounded in biological diversity, and the fate of this diversity, which created and sustains us, is now in our hands."....go here(pdf) to see the letter....
U.S. fish and wildlife service fails to protect mexican garter snake The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) over their failure to list the Mexican garter snake as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in response to a December 15, 2003 petition filed by the group. The species is an aquatic garter snake with a range-wide distribution in Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and Mexico. It is one of hundreds of native riparian species that are threatened by the destruction and degradation of rivers and streams in the Southwest. The Mexican garter snake has been extirpated from most of its U.S. range, including the Colorado, Gila, and much of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers. The decline of the Mexican garter snake is closely linked to the deteriorating quality of streamside habitats and the disappearance of native frogs and native fishes. “Widespread degradation of southwest rivers and introduction of dozens of exotic species necessitates protection of the Mexican garter snake under the ESA,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. Populations of the Mexican garter snake are severely fragmented and isolated due to loss and destruction of suitable habitat, which consists of riparian areas with permanent water, streamside vegetation for cover, and native prey species. Livestock grazing, urbanization, pollution, loss of native prey species, and exotic species have resulted in the loss of greater than 90% of the Southwest’s riparian habitat and the listing of 30 species under the ESA. “Southwest rivers have been under massive assault for over a century,” states Greenwald. “To protect southwest riparian species, livestock must be removed from all southwest rivers and streams on public lands, instream flows must be established, and further introduction of non-native species must be prohibited.”....
U.S. fish and wildlife fails to protect 286 threatened and endangered species The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released last week a new “candidate notice of review,” designating 286 species as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. In the review, FWS acknowledges that these species warrant protection, but argues that such protection is precluded by other actions to protect species. Based on an analysis of the list and past lists, the Center for Biological Diversity has determined that most of these species have been waiting for years to receive protection and that the Bush Administration has made little progress towards providing protection to these species. Candidate designation doesn’t provide any protection to species. Of the 286 species currently recognized as candidates, 265 (93%) have been waiting for protection for five or more years, 224 (78%) have been waiting 10 or more years, 178 (62%) have been waiting 15 or more years, 117 (41%) have been waiting 20 or more years, and 73 (26%) have been waiting 25 or more years. On average, these species have been waiting for protection for over 17 years. Delays in protection have real consequences with at least 27 species having gone extinct after designation as a candidate.....go here(pdf) to see the candidate notice of review....
Feds rejected state's earlier request Gov. Dave Freudenthal's request for removal of wolves from lambing grounds marks the second occasion in recent months in which state officials have asked the federal wildlife agency take action to control wolves. In January, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department complained about wolves displacing elk off five western Wyoming elk feedgrounds and onto private property. The state agency asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to relocate or remove the Daniel wolf pack, but Fish and Wildlife declined to take action at that time, stating: "We are not prepared to routinely relocate wolves found on or near the numerous elk feeding grounds in the state..." In his recent letter, Freudenthal noted that "in the absence of state-sanctioned wolf management, the people of the state of Wyoming must recurrently turn to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for day-to-day management of the species, including conflict mitigation."....
Proposal to reclassifying Gila trout is questioned A proposal to reclassify the Gila trout as threatened instead of endangered has drawn questions from a conservation group.
The chairman of Trout Unlimited in New Mexico, Bill Schudlich, says the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service hasn't met its own recovery plan for the fish. The agency reviewed its recovery plan in 2003. The plan lists three criteria that need to be met before the species is reclassified. Schudlich says the agency admits in the document that it didn't meet two of the three criteria. The Gila trout was listed as endangered in 1967....
Horse advocates seek halt to roundups Wild horse protection advocates urged the Bureau of Land Management Tuesday to suspend all roundups of the mustangs in Nevada until Congress makes it illegal again to sell the older, excess, unwanted ones for slaughter. But BLM officials said halting plans to gather as many as 4,000 mustangs from the Nevada range in the coming year would cripple a long-term effort that's within a year of bringing horse numbers down to sustainable levels. The horse advocates are backing an effort in Congress to reinstate a provision of a 1971 law that made it illegal to sell wild horses rounded up on federal land for slaughter....
Online database allows pesticide users to identify wildlife habitat An online database announced Tuesday is replacing the cumbersome paper guides that pesticide applicators must consult to find out if they're within the habitat of protected plants or animals, officials with California's Department of Pesticide Regulation announced. The new tool lets applicators -- and anyone who's interested -- find out with a few clicks of the mouse what endangered, rare or protected species live in an area, and what special precautions they are required to take. "This will make it easier for people to do right by the environment," said DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam. "It also minimizes the excuses people have for not complying."....go here to see the new search tool....
Time running out on a legend On the side of a steep mountain in the Superstition Wilderness, tucked beneath a dense canopy of trees, several men have spent eight months excavating what they hope is an old Mexican mine. These modern-day treasure seekers are not the first to look for gold or silver in the land of the Lost Dutchman Mine, but they likely are the last. And they are racing against time. A rarely granted Treasure Trove permit that allows them to dig in the wilderness east of the Valley expires at the end of this month. "If we find what we're looking for, I don't think the Forest Service would pull the permit. It'd be insanity," said Ron Feldman, who with fellow members of Historic Exploration And Treasures obtained the right to excavate. "If we don't find what we're looking for, it will end."....
Reward offered in search for 'Bart' fire culprit A $5,000 reward was offered Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of whoever started the "Bart" fire, which has swept through 11,500 acres of Sonoran Desert 10 miles northeast of Scottsdale. Roads to both Bartlett and Horseshoe lakes are expected to remain closed until the blaze is contained, possibly by Friday, fire officials said. The fire broke out at 5 p.m. Sunday north of Bartlett Dam Road, mere minutes after crews contained the 1,920-acre "St. Clair" fire to the east. Officials say the St. Clair blaze was sparked by a Jeep Cherokee and are investigating the origins of both fires....
Picuris Pueblo reclaims clay site Capping years of effort, Picuris Pueblo has regained the traditional area where its people gather clay for making pottery. The pueblo announced Monday that it has acquired the mica mine on U.S. Hill from Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals Inc., an Ohio mining company. The Pueblo people had gathered micaceous clay at the site for centuries before mining operations began. Details of the acquisition weren’t released in a joint news release from the pueblo and the company. Oglebay Norton, which has other mineral interests around the country and operates a shipping line in the Great Lakes, filed for federal bankruptcy protection last year. In the news release, Picuris Gov. Richard Mermejo said the recovery of the clay-gathering site was of tremendous cultural significance to the pueblo and its remaining potters....
Water rights dispute settled out of court A talc mine dropped its lawsuit and restraining order Monday that aimed to force a Madison Valley rancher to quit flowing irrigation water through its pond. Luzenac America Inc., which operates the mine in the central Madison Valley, also agreed to pay the attorney's fees for Eugene Walsh, a rancher who owns land next to the mine. "The Walshes understandably feel abused by the process, but reasonably satisfied with the outcome," said Bill Hritsco, a Dillon attorney representing Walsh. "(Luzenac) agreed to leave Mr. Walsh alone." Luzenac's Montana Operations Director Pat Downey said in a telephone interview that the company was glad to settle the case and move on with improving its stormwater control system....
Plan to drain tainted farm water triggers worries A federal plan to drain mineral-laden irrigation water from farms includes a proposal similar to one that caused an environmental disaster more than two decades ago, leading to bird deformities and deaths. Environmentalists fear that leaving the tainted water to accumulate in evaporation ponds, even if it's treated to reduce most of the toxic minerals, could lead to problems similar to what happened in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s, when entire colonies of birds died and many were born with missing limbs. But the federal officials who run the Central Valley Project, a massive irrigation complex that makes farming possible in the arid western half of the Central Valley, remain under court order to find a way to dispose of the tainted water. And forming new evaporation ponds is one of several options outlined in a draft environmental impact report to be released this month by the Bureau of Reclamation. Another option in the draft report is taking poorly drained land out of farming, but that would rob some farmers of their livelihoods and is strongly opposed by the agriculture industry....
Farm Bureau prevails in court ruling on waiver A Sacramento County Superior Court judge last week agreed with California Farm Bureau Federation's position that the State Water Resources Control Board and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) abused their discretion and overstepped their bounds in adopting a waiver for farm-water discharges that violated private property and privacy rights. In addition, the court said the RWQCB must clarify the applicability of the waiver as to natural water courses, constructed drains, or waterways dominated by return flows from irrigated agriculture. The court granted Farm Bureau's petition for writ of mandate and directed the RWQCB to correct the flaws in its regulations within 120 days. The court also granted Farm Bureau the right to file a motion to recover attorneys' fees for having to bring the state to court to settle these matters. "Despite the successful outcome of this litigation, Farm Bureau still believes that self-determined, incentive-based natural resource programs are the best approach to protecting the environment," said Brenda Jahns Southwick, managing counsel for the CFBF Natural Resources and Environmental Division....
US beef industry needs Canadian cattle: USDA head The U.S. beef industry will be permanently hurt if imports of young Canadian cattle do not soon resume because Canada is restructuring its industry and expanding, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Tuesday. "The market is restructuring before our eyes. American producers and processors will be left out in the cold if the border is not re-opened soon," Johanns told reporters. "My concern is that as more and more processing moves to Canada, production follows."....
Trade pact roadblock: Idaho sugar beets U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is traveling the West, stumping for President Bush's free-trade agreement with Central American and Caribbean nations. He's run into a roadblock: Idaho sugar beets. While growers and producers of other agricultural products, including potatoes, wheat, fruit and beef, back the plan, farmers of the bulbous roots are leading a charge to ditch the agreement that Bush lauds as a way of promoting democracy in Latin America and boosting U.S. security by spreading prosperity. They're demanding that the Central American Free Trade Agreement - signed by Bush last May, but still in need of congressional approval - be stripped of provisions allowing 107,000 metric tons of sugar, or about 1 percent of total domestic sugar consumption, to be imported into the U.S....
Editorial: CAFTA would be harvest for Panhandle agriculture NAFTA's aim was to open up trade corridors among the United States, Mexico and Canada. CAFTA could open up potentially huge new markets for agricultural commodities such as beef, corn, cotton and dairy - all of which are produced in abundance throughout the Panhandle. The Texas Farm Bureau has signed on big time to CAFTA, calling it "close to being a no-brainer." Farm Bureau figures show that Texas' farm cash receipts totaled $15.3 billion in 2003, with about 25 percent of all farm exports - estimated at $3.4 billion - going into foreign markets. CAFTA provisions include a 30-percent reduction in beef tariffs, providing a huge new market for the area's enormous fed beef industry....
USTR's Allgeier Defends WTO as House Moves to Vote on Withdrawal A top U.S. trade official has defended continued U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), while members of a congressional panel have predicted that Congress would reject a bill requiring U.S. withdrawal from the WTO. At a May 17 hearing in the House of Representatives, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier testified that U.S. leadership in the global trading system is critical for continuing U.S. prosperity and securing world stability. At issue was a bill submitted by WTO opponents calling for U.S. withdrawal from WTO membership. Under the 1994 law approving U.S. participation in the then just-forming trade organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) must report to Congress once every five years a detailed analysis of U.S. participation’s costs and benefits. The Bush administration submitted its 2005 report March 1. After submission of such a report any member of Congress is allowed to introduce a bill for WTO withdrawal and leaders of Congress must allow a vote on the bill to occur. In the first such vote in 2000, the House rejected a withdrawal resolution 363-56. Supporters of withdrawal argue that WTO membership amounts to a surrender of U.S. sovereignty to an international organization....
Farm Bureau Backs WTO Oversight of Trade U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization is vital to the economic development of agriculture, and successful WTO Doha Round agricultural negotiations are the best way to expand foreign marketing of U.S. agricultural products, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In testimony to the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, Minnesota Farm Bureau President Al Christopherson said U.S. agriculture's best opportunity to address critical trade issues is through the multilateral process. Christopherson is an AFBF board and executive committee member and presented AFBF’s perspective to the subcommittee. “U.S. membership in the WTO provides a trading system based on rules that helps maintain stable markets for our exports,” he said. “With the production of one-third of U.S. cropland destined for foreign markets, U.S. agriculture is strongly export-dependent. The 148-member World Trade Organization operates to provide a stable environment for continued growth in markets for America’s farmers and ranchers” Christopherson said....
COOL styled as packers v. producers Bills to delete mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat animals hit Congress last week, following up on the budgetary knock-out that delayed an October 2004 adoption of most provisions of the three-year-old law. Trade associations followed with their own spins, including several blasts characterizing the latest bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as tailor-made to support the packing industry. Mandatory COOL is part of the 2002 farm bill law. Quietly in early April, USDA started mandatory labeling for fresh fish and shellfish. Under the law, a grocer who mislabels country of origin is subject to up to $10,000 civil penalties. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, led an effort widely supported in Congress, to strip money for implementing fresh produce and meat provisions from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget. There are 34 co-sponsors to H.R. 2068, which requires implementation of a voluntary COOL program in the meat industry....
Subcommittee votes to delay meat labeling again Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., blasted a House subcommittee's approval late Monday night of a spending bill that includes another delay for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat and meat products. Mandatory labeling, originally intended to go into effect in 2004, was delayed last year to 2006. The new COOL provision approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture would prevent the secretary of agriculture from spending any money in fiscal year 2006 to implement the food labeling rule that was originally signed into law as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. The language would delay the start of any preparation for COOL until October 2006, according to Herseth spokesman Russ Levsen. "It would certainly be many months to ramp up a system like that, in effect, delaying implementation until sometime in 2007."....
Certified beef to debut soon The certified beef program approved by the South Dakota Legislature this year is a great idea, said some beef producers selling cattle in Aberdeen on Monday. "It's the coming thing," said Jerome Schaefers of Miller. "We'd be foolish not to." But a good idea is worthless unless it becomes reality, several added. "I hope it's not just political propaganda, and that something actually happens," said cattle rancher Steve Swanson of Clark. And something is, said Mark Johnston, press secretary for Gov. Mike Rounds. An update on the program, which Rounds promoted to the Legislature, is scheduled to be released later this week, Johnston said Monday. He's cautiously optimistic that South Dakota Certified Beef will be available to consumers in a month to six weeks....
Cattle on Computers A fast-talking auctioneer in a cowboy hat closely watches his audience — mostly men in boots, jeans and coveralls — to catch subtle gestures that are bids on the cattle circling a small sale ring that separates wooden bleachers from the sale staff’s elevated desk. Buyers and sellers may break away over the noon hour to get a hamburger basket or hot beef sandwich at the sale barn cafe. But if they want to bid on a specific lot of consigned cattle or watch their cattle sell, they must be in the bleachers when the auctioneer makes his call....
Stage stop in QC preserved The once-thriving rest area and shipping center known as the Desert Wells Stage Stop just outside Queen Creek will forever be memorialized. Earlier this year, developers in the area threatened to tear down the 90-year-old adobe hut to make room for future housing subdivisions, but the San Tan Historical Society's efforts to preserve the stage stop have paid off. The town of Queen Creek recently acquired 32 acres surrounding the historical site, located near Combs and Schnepf roads, for the purpose of building a much-needed retention basin for Sonoqui Wash. Believed to have been built in the early 1900s, the one-room stage stop meant salvation for ranchers moving across the desert from Phoenix to the Florence Highway. Years of neglect have left the building covered with graffiti and littered with debris and garbage. But the stage stop qualifies as historically significant, Mr. Salge said....
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Old, New West clash on range It's no surprise then, that the county's latest hero is Kit Laney, a rebel rancher who has spent more than a decade fighting federal managers over his right to graze cattle on national forest land. The fact that Laney violated a federal court order, was found guilty of assaulting a Forest Service employee and served five months in federal prison has, if anything, only burnished his reputation. In this part of New Mexico, where the villains' hats are green, not black, Laney's case is a morality tale about how a New West is encroaching upon an old one. "Not all of us agree with everything he did, but we all admire him," said Laura Schneberger, a New Mexico rancher and one of Laney's neighbors. "So many of us who have been in his position have just walked away. He sent a message and got people to pay attention," she said. Laney's case has made few headlines outside the small towns in southern New Mexico, but for ranchers across the West, it has struck a chord. Michael Martin Murphey, the country-western star, has written a song about Laney that will be featured on his next recording, "Storm Over the Rangelands," meant to portray an industry in trouble because of overregulation....
Cow Mutilation Investigator Says Truth Is Out There Human researchers, not Martians, likely mysteriously mutilated cattle in the Southwest during the 1970s and 1980s. That's what a retired police officer tells Action 7 News. He would like to say more, but he says the topic is too "sensitive." "It's solved. I know who did it," said Gabe Valdez, a retired New Mexico State Police officer. "I don't want to go on too much, because it's so sensitive – the research that we're doing." "It's humans," he said, "not UFOs or Satanic groups or people from Mars – it was humans," Valdez said. "It's taken me 30 years to figure it out," Valdez said. "It has been solved as far as I'm concerned." Valdez said he believes researchers carried out the acts – using helicopters. He won't offer any clues as to who specifically killed the cattle....
Desert blooms This spring, it's a dislocating experience to climb one of the big rises of Interstate 70 overlooking the vast desert badlands of western Colorado and eastern Utah. They aren't there. A brilliant green sheen covers what's usually an endless expanse of perpetually parched tan and gray earth. "I've been looking for a spring like this for 75 years," said Waldo Wilcox, a Book Cliffs rancher who just retired to Green River. "It's never been this green. It's the prettiest I've ever seen."....
Using Cattle for Noxious Weed Control For many years sheep and goats have been used to control noxious weeds in various parts of the West; but is it possible to train cattle to eat noxious weeds without starving them to do so? Dr. Frederick D. Provenza, P.I., at Utah State University (USU) has been researching this possibility for the past 20 years in a livestock behavior modification program. Now, a field test at Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Mont., has piqued the curiosity of a number of ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley. USU project coordinator, Kathy Voth, says research and successful demonstrations in other areas indicate that behavior of livestock can be effectively modified and managed as an economical alternative to chemicals to enhance and maintain biodiversity in rangelands, restore pastures dominated by invasive plants, and improve wildlife habitat....
Charting vegetation with satellite-based system will help firefighters determine area's risk That computer will show with pinpoint accuracy what vegetation and fuel loads the Hotshots and hand crews will find at the fire. And if it's right, the chief can thank a bunch of volunteers who were out here last week filling in some gaps for the satellite-based system. It's called LANDFIRE — a $40 million effort by six federal agencies to figure out the fire risk for every inch of the country and map it. California and the West should be mapped by 2006, the rest of the country by 2009. Under the program, aerial maps covering most of the country will be divided into pixels, or dots, and coded. Each pixel represents a different land type, Jeske said: oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, old-growth forest and so on. And that's where the volunteer crew comes in. They are spending the summer verifying the conditions in individual pixels across the West. The information gets fed into a computer, and the program assigns the same information to similar pixels across the United States. "We're filling in the gaps," said Ron Hassel, LANDFIRE crew director for the Student Conservation Association, which was walking grass-covered hills of Mount Diablo State Park last week. A New Hampshire-based group that focuses on career and youth development through conservation, the SCA has teams working throughout the West to "ground truth" the federal program....
U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests The final meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, now under way, could result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreement to continue negotiations. One member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. forum is international environmental policy expert Matthew Auer, who remains guardedly optimistic that the two-week negotiation will conclude with one or more concrete outcomes, such as a fund to help international organizations and countries protect the world's forests. The forum is scheduled to meet May 16 to 27 at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan. The U.N. Forum on Forests was created by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000. For this key, current meeting, members of the forum were asked to collect information on the state of the world's forests, to review the effectiveness of the current legally non-binding arrangement and, ultimately, to bolster international commitments to sustainable forest management....
Airtanker pilots sound rare warning about fleet From the father of aerial firefighting to pilots who recently flew through tornadoes of fiery debris in Southern California, aviators are saying the U.S. firefighting fleet is undergoing fundamental, long-term changes that may cost extra lives and homes especially in this populous state. The federal agencies' shift from troubled, aging big airtankers toward more helicopters and small, single-engine planes rather than finding new large airtankers is based on faulty fiscal conclusions and flawed accident statistics, according to several pilots breaking a 50-year-old code of silence in the wake of news reports. The Aerial Firefighting Industry Association, which represents 15 firms that supply planes, maintenance and pilots to government agencies, also is touting a decade-old National Air Tanker Study that showed an overwhelming benefit-to-cost ratio for big airtankers and envisioned a fleet of more than 40 modern aircraft by now....
Arctic oil search moves to new turf, new controversies One is a long-protected portion of Arctic Alaska where a vast freshwater lake is edged by marshes that draw migrating birds from as far as Mexico and Russia. The other is a national wildlife refuge straddling the Arctic Circle, a watery haven for moose, furry mammals, and waterfowl. But underneath both lie what may be some of the largest untapped pools of onshore oil and natural gas in the US. As a result, the two sites represent one of the next crucial frontiers in the nation's expanding energy wars. In many respects, the fight quietly emerging over the two areas - Teshekpuk Lake and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge - parallels the protracted battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It is energy versus the environment, with elements of caribou and molting birds and native American culture mixed in....
Feedground phaseout proposal takes shape A proposal to phase out some of the state's elk feedgrounds is gaining strength through more details and more answers. But state officials still say there are too many unanswered questions, and critics say the pilot project is too much of a gamble for the state's wildlife. At issue is a proposal to phase out the three feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre River drainage east of Jackson Hole. These feedgrounds, said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other supporters, are the most logical because there is winter range in the area for elk and more can be done to enhance that and additional habitat. What's more, a phaseout of these feedgrounds will serve the state, as it examines another management tool to eradicate brucellosis in wildlife and livestock, supporters say. They say the phaseout would work in concert with a pilot project calling for the capture and testing of elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale. Elk testing positive for brucellosis will be killed. The combination of the two projects would allow the state to examine two different approaches and determine their effectiveness, they say....
Federal agency will try to shield plants in path of St. George growth The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to propose protecting critical habitat for two endangered plants that grow in southern Utah - including habitat in the path of a proposed freeway junction - as part of a legal settlement with a pair of environmental groups. The Center for Biological Diversity and Utah Native Plant Society sued the federal agency in September, demanding it designate critical habitat to protect the Holmgren milkvetch and Shivwits milkvetch, which grow almost exclusively near St. George. Tony Frates, a rare-plant coordinator with the Utah Native Plant Society, said both wildflowers are severely threatened by increasing development....
Arizona's roads being redesigned to protect wildlife Transportation officials are considering redesigning some of Arizona's roads to make them more wildlife-friendly. The changes are being aimed not just at preventing roadkills but at preserving connections for wild animals crossing roads from one large block of desert to another. Four major state highways in southern Arizona could be in line for new, wildlife-friendly designs in the next few years because of a grant just obtained by a Flagstaff researcher. That study will focus on how to make those and other roads in the state more hospitable to birds and mammals. Meanwhile, as much as $10 million could be spent over the next 20 years on making roads safer for wildlife under a plan that appears to be headed to the May 2006 ballot....
Kane sign deadline comes, goes The deadline set by the Bureau of Land Management for Kane County to remove its road signs from BLM-administered lands came and went on Monday. In response, BLM State Director Sally Wisely sent a letter to the Interior Department's regional solicitor requesting that it take legal action to compel Kane County to remove the signs and put back any BLM signs that it has taken out. Kane County began posting signs in February designating off-highway-vehicle (OHV) routes across BLM-administered land, and in March designated a new route through an area northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park that is being studied for potential wilderness designation. Most recently, the county posted an estimated 60 to 80 signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Hole in the Rock Road and its vicinity, directing OHV users into areas the BLM had previously closed to off-road use....
Experimental releases scheduled to aid fish Flaming Gorge Dam will be releasing high flows of water into the Green River in the next few weeks to scour sediment below the dam and improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species. The federal Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program has been working to save native fish in the region. Fish like the Colorado pike-minnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub are under stress from dams, diversions and barriers, the project said. Also contributing to their decline are the introduction of nonnative competitors, plus fishing, parasites and pollutants, it said. Scientists hope the releases will flood some spots to increase fish habitat....
Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules Unsettled by a series of dry winters in this normally wet city, Mayor Greg Nickels has begun a nationwide effort to do something the Bush administration will not: carry out the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Mr. Nickels, a Democrat, says 131 other likeminded mayors have joined a bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level, in an implicit rejection of the administration's policy. The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012....
Atmosphere May Cleanse Itself Better than Previously Thought A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth's atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought. Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thought to produce substances that "scrub" the air of smog. This group of chemicals, after absorbing energy from sunlight, is able to break down smog and other pollutants into far less harmful components. While many such chemicals have long been known to behave in this way - producing natural air cleaners called OH radicals - the chemicals the team studied have for the first time been observed to produce air-scrubbing OH radicals at low ultraviolet wavelengths. This observation has eluded science primarily because photochemistry at these wavelengths has been difficult to study....
It's All Trew: Right lubrication greases squeakiest of wheels Many classic Old West tales are similar in plot but different in location. The following tale has been told many times with the same plot but featuring different ranches, different characters and different tunes. The original story is probably true, but where it happened is anybody's guess. Our version here supposedly happened on the famed XIT Ranch. Among the varied backgrounds of early-day frontier settlers were many gifted musicians. Their talents were much appreciated by entertainment-starved neighbors. Another level of talent, prominent among cowboys and scattered settlers, featured those who ordered both musical instruments and directions of how to play from a catalog or pulp magazine advertisement....
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Old, New West clash on range It's no surprise then, that the county's latest hero is Kit Laney, a rebel rancher who has spent more than a decade fighting federal managers over his right to graze cattle on national forest land. The fact that Laney violated a federal court order, was found guilty of assaulting a Forest Service employee and served five months in federal prison has, if anything, only burnished his reputation. In this part of New Mexico, where the villains' hats are green, not black, Laney's case is a morality tale about how a New West is encroaching upon an old one. "Not all of us agree with everything he did, but we all admire him," said Laura Schneberger, a New Mexico rancher and one of Laney's neighbors. "So many of us who have been in his position have just walked away. He sent a message and got people to pay attention," she said. Laney's case has made few headlines outside the small towns in southern New Mexico, but for ranchers across the West, it has struck a chord. Michael Martin Murphey, the country-western star, has written a song about Laney that will be featured on his next recording, "Storm Over the Rangelands," meant to portray an industry in trouble because of overregulation....
Cow Mutilation Investigator Says Truth Is Out There Human researchers, not Martians, likely mysteriously mutilated cattle in the Southwest during the 1970s and 1980s. That's what a retired police officer tells Action 7 News. He would like to say more, but he says the topic is too "sensitive." "It's solved. I know who did it," said Gabe Valdez, a retired New Mexico State Police officer. "I don't want to go on too much, because it's so sensitive – the research that we're doing." "It's humans," he said, "not UFOs or Satanic groups or people from Mars – it was humans," Valdez said. "It's taken me 30 years to figure it out," Valdez said. "It has been solved as far as I'm concerned." Valdez said he believes researchers carried out the acts – using helicopters. He won't offer any clues as to who specifically killed the cattle....
Desert blooms This spring, it's a dislocating experience to climb one of the big rises of Interstate 70 overlooking the vast desert badlands of western Colorado and eastern Utah. They aren't there. A brilliant green sheen covers what's usually an endless expanse of perpetually parched tan and gray earth. "I've been looking for a spring like this for 75 years," said Waldo Wilcox, a Book Cliffs rancher who just retired to Green River. "It's never been this green. It's the prettiest I've ever seen."....
Using Cattle for Noxious Weed Control For many years sheep and goats have been used to control noxious weeds in various parts of the West; but is it possible to train cattle to eat noxious weeds without starving them to do so? Dr. Frederick D. Provenza, P.I., at Utah State University (USU) has been researching this possibility for the past 20 years in a livestock behavior modification program. Now, a field test at Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Mont., has piqued the curiosity of a number of ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley. USU project coordinator, Kathy Voth, says research and successful demonstrations in other areas indicate that behavior of livestock can be effectively modified and managed as an economical alternative to chemicals to enhance and maintain biodiversity in rangelands, restore pastures dominated by invasive plants, and improve wildlife habitat....
Charting vegetation with satellite-based system will help firefighters determine area's risk That computer will show with pinpoint accuracy what vegetation and fuel loads the Hotshots and hand crews will find at the fire. And if it's right, the chief can thank a bunch of volunteers who were out here last week filling in some gaps for the satellite-based system. It's called LANDFIRE — a $40 million effort by six federal agencies to figure out the fire risk for every inch of the country and map it. California and the West should be mapped by 2006, the rest of the country by 2009. Under the program, aerial maps covering most of the country will be divided into pixels, or dots, and coded. Each pixel represents a different land type, Jeske said: oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, old-growth forest and so on. And that's where the volunteer crew comes in. They are spending the summer verifying the conditions in individual pixels across the West. The information gets fed into a computer, and the program assigns the same information to similar pixels across the United States. "We're filling in the gaps," said Ron Hassel, LANDFIRE crew director for the Student Conservation Association, which was walking grass-covered hills of Mount Diablo State Park last week. A New Hampshire-based group that focuses on career and youth development through conservation, the SCA has teams working throughout the West to "ground truth" the federal program....
U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests The final meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, now under way, could result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreement to continue negotiations. One member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. forum is international environmental policy expert Matthew Auer, who remains guardedly optimistic that the two-week negotiation will conclude with one or more concrete outcomes, such as a fund to help international organizations and countries protect the world's forests. The forum is scheduled to meet May 16 to 27 at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan. The U.N. Forum on Forests was created by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000. For this key, current meeting, members of the forum were asked to collect information on the state of the world's forests, to review the effectiveness of the current legally non-binding arrangement and, ultimately, to bolster international commitments to sustainable forest management....
Airtanker pilots sound rare warning about fleet From the father of aerial firefighting to pilots who recently flew through tornadoes of fiery debris in Southern California, aviators are saying the U.S. firefighting fleet is undergoing fundamental, long-term changes that may cost extra lives and homes especially in this populous state. The federal agencies' shift from troubled, aging big airtankers toward more helicopters and small, single-engine planes rather than finding new large airtankers is based on faulty fiscal conclusions and flawed accident statistics, according to several pilots breaking a 50-year-old code of silence in the wake of news reports. The Aerial Firefighting Industry Association, which represents 15 firms that supply planes, maintenance and pilots to government agencies, also is touting a decade-old National Air Tanker Study that showed an overwhelming benefit-to-cost ratio for big airtankers and envisioned a fleet of more than 40 modern aircraft by now....
Arctic oil search moves to new turf, new controversies One is a long-protected portion of Arctic Alaska where a vast freshwater lake is edged by marshes that draw migrating birds from as far as Mexico and Russia. The other is a national wildlife refuge straddling the Arctic Circle, a watery haven for moose, furry mammals, and waterfowl. But underneath both lie what may be some of the largest untapped pools of onshore oil and natural gas in the US. As a result, the two sites represent one of the next crucial frontiers in the nation's expanding energy wars. In many respects, the fight quietly emerging over the two areas - Teshekpuk Lake and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge - parallels the protracted battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It is energy versus the environment, with elements of caribou and molting birds and native American culture mixed in....
Feedground phaseout proposal takes shape A proposal to phase out some of the state's elk feedgrounds is gaining strength through more details and more answers. But state officials still say there are too many unanswered questions, and critics say the pilot project is too much of a gamble for the state's wildlife. At issue is a proposal to phase out the three feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre River drainage east of Jackson Hole. These feedgrounds, said Lloyd Dorsey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other supporters, are the most logical because there is winter range in the area for elk and more can be done to enhance that and additional habitat. What's more, a phaseout of these feedgrounds will serve the state, as it examines another management tool to eradicate brucellosis in wildlife and livestock, supporters say. They say the phaseout would work in concert with a pilot project calling for the capture and testing of elk at the Muddy Creek feedground near Pinedale. Elk testing positive for brucellosis will be killed. The combination of the two projects would allow the state to examine two different approaches and determine their effectiveness, they say....
Federal agency will try to shield plants in path of St. George growth The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to propose protecting critical habitat for two endangered plants that grow in southern Utah - including habitat in the path of a proposed freeway junction - as part of a legal settlement with a pair of environmental groups. The Center for Biological Diversity and Utah Native Plant Society sued the federal agency in September, demanding it designate critical habitat to protect the Holmgren milkvetch and Shivwits milkvetch, which grow almost exclusively near St. George. Tony Frates, a rare-plant coordinator with the Utah Native Plant Society, said both wildflowers are severely threatened by increasing development....
Arizona's roads being redesigned to protect wildlife Transportation officials are considering redesigning some of Arizona's roads to make them more wildlife-friendly. The changes are being aimed not just at preventing roadkills but at preserving connections for wild animals crossing roads from one large block of desert to another. Four major state highways in southern Arizona could be in line for new, wildlife-friendly designs in the next few years because of a grant just obtained by a Flagstaff researcher. That study will focus on how to make those and other roads in the state more hospitable to birds and mammals. Meanwhile, as much as $10 million could be spent over the next 20 years on making roads safer for wildlife under a plan that appears to be headed to the May 2006 ballot....
Kane sign deadline comes, goes The deadline set by the Bureau of Land Management for Kane County to remove its road signs from BLM-administered lands came and went on Monday. In response, BLM State Director Sally Wisely sent a letter to the Interior Department's regional solicitor requesting that it take legal action to compel Kane County to remove the signs and put back any BLM signs that it has taken out. Kane County began posting signs in February designating off-highway-vehicle (OHV) routes across BLM-administered land, and in March designated a new route through an area northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park that is being studied for potential wilderness designation. Most recently, the county posted an estimated 60 to 80 signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Hole in the Rock Road and its vicinity, directing OHV users into areas the BLM had previously closed to off-road use....
Experimental releases scheduled to aid fish Flaming Gorge Dam will be releasing high flows of water into the Green River in the next few weeks to scour sediment below the dam and improve habitat for trout and endangered native fish species. The federal Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program has been working to save native fish in the region. Fish like the Colorado pike-minnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail chub are under stress from dams, diversions and barriers, the project said. Also contributing to their decline are the introduction of nonnative competitors, plus fishing, parasites and pollutants, it said. Scientists hope the releases will flood some spots to increase fish habitat....
Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules Unsettled by a series of dry winters in this normally wet city, Mayor Greg Nickels has begun a nationwide effort to do something the Bush administration will not: carry out the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Mr. Nickels, a Democrat, says 131 other likeminded mayors have joined a bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level, in an implicit rejection of the administration's policy. The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012....
Atmosphere May Cleanse Itself Better than Previously Thought A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth's atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought. Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thought to produce substances that "scrub" the air of smog. This group of chemicals, after absorbing energy from sunlight, is able to break down smog and other pollutants into far less harmful components. While many such chemicals have long been known to behave in this way - producing natural air cleaners called OH radicals - the chemicals the team studied have for the first time been observed to produce air-scrubbing OH radicals at low ultraviolet wavelengths. This observation has eluded science primarily because photochemistry at these wavelengths has been difficult to study....
It's All Trew: Right lubrication greases squeakiest of wheels Many classic Old West tales are similar in plot but different in location. The following tale has been told many times with the same plot but featuring different ranches, different characters and different tunes. The original story is probably true, but where it happened is anybody's guess. Our version here supposedly happened on the famed XIT Ranch. Among the varied backgrounds of early-day frontier settlers were many gifted musicians. Their talents were much appreciated by entertainment-starved neighbors. Another level of talent, prominent among cowboys and scattered settlers, featured those who ordered both musical instruments and directions of how to play from a catalog or pulp magazine advertisement....
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