NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest Service Stops Mining Due To Bat Dwelling The U.S. Forest Service recently ordered a miner to stop his activities in a centuries old mine because it's being used as a roosting habitat by the rare Townsend's Big-eared Bat. The bat, listed as a "species of viability concern," has taken up residence in the Maree Love mine, which is connected to a hot vapor cave, wildlife biologist Phil Nyland said Monday. Robert Congdon, who holds claims to the mine's underground minerals, can no longer explore the cave until the agency performs a historical inventory and bat habitat study, according to Aspen District Ranger Bill Westbrook....
Alliance seeks to stem wild horse births It's birth control for wild horses who prove fertile in their free-roaming lives on the nation's Western countryside. It's developed from pig ovaries and injected in a mare's hips. Called PZP, the contraceptive gave birth to an agreement between a federal agency and the Humane Society of the United States at a meeting late last month in Santa Fe. The Bureau of Land Management and the Humane Society announced they would work together to further development and use of PZP on mares living on federal land in 10 Western states. New Mexico's Socorro County is home to one BLM herd but, at about 70 horses, it's too small to merit use of a contraceptive. The U.S. Forest Service, which manages two larger herds in the Carson National Forest, is intrigued with the idea and sent representatives to the Santa Fe meeting....
Taking the pulse of climate change in the Colorado Rockies The marmot was holding his own until the second coyote blindsided him. The coarse-furred, groundhog-like rodent emerged from his hibernation burrow last April onto a thick crust of snow that blanketed this former mining town several miles north of Crested Butte. A band of coyotes had been hanging around, and one of them pounced on the marmot. The feisty rodent rose to his hind legs and batted at the coyote with his clawed front paws, like a boxer, as he struggled to escape. But a second coyote bounded in from behind and joined the fray. The two canines killed the marmot, then dragged him off. To University of Maryland ecologist David Inouye, this grisly account serves as a cautionary tale about — believe it or not — the potential perils of global climate change....
Efforts to protect orcas may have wide impact What do chemicals you wash down the drain, Navy ships, a proposed Maury Island gravel mine and an international treaty have in common? Each could be affected by the recent protection of Puget Sound killer whales under the Endangered Species Act. Early next year comes the first step in determining how much punch the "endangered" label will carry for the oft-ogled orcas. Federal officials are asking the public to speak up in the next few weeks. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which has released a proposed conservation plan, hopes the new listing will lead to better safeguards against oil spills -- the biggest single extinction threat for the orca. The agency is also raising the prospect of tighter controls on development in sensitive areas and restrictions on emerging chemical threats....
White House pushes Congress on Alaska drilling Bush administration officials on Monday urged Congress to include opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling in a broad budget-cutting bill that could see a vote this week. ANWR drilling is one of several politically sensitive items that will be in play when Senate and House negotiators try to finalize legislation to cut federal government spending by at least $35 billion over five years. The Senate included ANWR in its package of spending cuts. But the House-passed budget bill dropped the ANWR drilling provision after a group of moderate Republicans threatened to vote against the measure if the drilling language was included. The Bush administration stepped up its lobbying efforts to give oil companies access to the refuge....
BLM: PFS can make case for nuke storage in new comment period A federal Bureau of Land Management official said Monday that Sen. Orrin Hatch's assessment that Private Fuel Storage was falling apart played a role in his decision to seek new public comments about the company's plans to build a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in Utah's Skull Valley. Private Fuel Storage, a coalition of eight utilities, plans to use the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation as a temporary way station for nuclear waste pending work at Yucca Mountain, the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest Las Vegas. The BLM must sign off on rights of way to access the Skull Valley site. Hatch, R-Utah, who wants to kill the proposed storage facility, had argued that seven of the eight utilities had agreed to suspend their funding for the project, calling into question the company's future....
Wasted Colo. River water at issue No matter how many pipelines, pumps and dams Western states build along the Colorado River, billions of gallons of water will never make it to the farms and growing cities that need it. That water instead seeps into the ground through unlined canals and ditches, escapes downstream when users can't take it as planned or is sucked up by trees, bushes and other vegetation along the river's 1,450-mile course. To water managers in the seven river states, that is wasted water. With demand growing and the supply limited, or even shrinking in drought years, the states want to reduce the waste as much as they can. They are studying a range of ideas, from pulling weeds to lining canals, as part of a broader plan to deal with future shortages....
Officials to meet about future of Colorado River use Interior Secretary Gale Norton is scheduled to speak at a meeting of Colorado River water users in Las Vegas next week, capping three days of potentially tough interstate discussions on managing the river's resource. The issues to be discussed are dividing the four states of the upper Colorado River basin from the three lower basin states. But Nevada, California and Arizona, the three lower basin states, have their own disagreements. Hanging over next week's meetings and the overall debate is a federal deadline to come up with a way to manage feared shortages of water on the river because of drought. Officials in Nevada and Washington said Norton _ the manager of the critical river system for more than 20 million people in the Southwest _ plans to speak Dec. 16. Listening closely to Norton will be a host of state representatives, water-agency managers, tribal leaders, environmentalists, private sector contractors and others with an interest in the region's water future....
Lake Powell still a glass half-empty Flows into Lake Powell were slightly above average this year, but the giant reservoir in Utah remains far from full, officials with the Bureau of Reclamation say. In 2005, flows into the reservoir were about 105 percent of average. Even with that increase, Lake Powell is only about half- full, holding 12 million acre-feet of water. The drought of 2002 decimated Lake Powell, which acts like a water bank for the upper basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah, releasing water to Lake Mead for distribution to the lower basin as required under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. Flows in Lake Powell in 2002 were 25 percent of average - the lowest they had been since the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963....
'Elvis' woodpecker draws searchers It has starred in a video, been widely recorded and graced the cover of a prestigious magazine. But to dispel any doubt the ivory-billed woodpecker -- the Elvis of the bird world -- is back from extinction, searchers are combing a corner of Arkansas in an intensive six-month hunt. On foot, in canoes and kayaks, even using cherry-picker vehicles that tower over the forest canopy, teams of volunteers and paid workers have been looking for traces of the big bird in the forests and swamps of the White River and Cache River basins, just west of the Mississippi. "The thrust of it is to find out more: find the birds and then learn more about what they do, how they live, where their habitat is, how many there are," said Jon Andrew of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is working with conservation groups and academic experts in the search....
Tribal chairman says water plan overlooks western North Dakota Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall says the tribes and western North Dakota generally are being overlooked in plans to pipe Missouri River water to the Red River Valley in times of drought. ''Nobody's talked to us [about the Red River plan], so we don't know how much water would be diverted,'' Hall said. ''I'm not saying we're against it, I'm just saying we haven't been adequately consulted here,'' he said. ''I'm alarmed that we're not getting consulted on this huge initiative.'' The plan, endorsed by the State Water Commission, would build a pipeline to connect with the McClusky Canal near McClusky and move Missouri River water east to Lake Ashtabula, near Valley City, for storage after treating it. Water would be released as needed into the Sheyenne River, which flows into the Red River north of Fargo. The project, which still must go through federal review, could cost up to $660 million to build. Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness compared it to taking a thimbleful of water out of a five-gallon pail during drought times, with the pail representing the Missouri River....
Teen, horse she helped raise in world championship Boons Cowboy had an attitude problem from the very beginning. Maybe it was his difficult birth. Maybe it was a stubborn streak he inherited from a parent. Maybe it was because he was called a cull and a spitfire. Whatever the reason, there were few who expected Kathryn McMurray's 3-year-old American quarter horse to ever have enough cow sense to be a cutter, a horse trained to single out a cow from its herd. But McMurray, a 16-year-old from Kingsport, and Boons Cowboy are in Fort Worth, Texas, today, having just competed in the 2005 National Cutting Horse Association's World Championship Futurity. Boons Cowboy was Kathryn's first delivery, born May 2, 2002, when Kathryn was 13 years old....
Slow dancin’ It’s a reemerging art of inches and angles. A lowered head; a tilted shoulder; and slow, controlled movements are some of the postures used in traditional hackamore horse training. “A non-horse person quite often looks at some of our training like it’s a dance,” said traditional hackamore horse trainer R.E. Smith. Smith and his wife Laurie run Circle S Ranch in Corning. The couple travels all over the West about 12 weeks out of the year conducting hackamore horse training clinics as well as producing training videos and DVDs with their Circle S Productions. “It’s the way that the old vaquero rode 260 years ago,” said Smith in a phone interview from Descanso where he was giving a presentation during Vaquero Days. The hackamore is a bit-less bridle that includes the hanger, bosal and macate, a 22-foot-long horse-hair rope....
Georgia dairy farmer wins world all-around title Dairy cows don't wait. Not even for world all-around champions. Ryan Jarrett, of Summerville, Ga., runs a 750-acre dairy farm with his father DeJuan in northwest Georgia. The cows will still need tending when Jarrett returns from the National Finals Rodeo. “I can't wait,” said the younger Jarrett of returning home. While the work for the cows remains the same, Jarrett does not. He returns to the farm as the 2005 PRCA world all-around champion. He is the first cowboy from Georgia - and the first from east of the Mississippi River - to win professional rodeo's most prestigious title. Jarrett, who turns 22 on Dec. 28, earned a total of $263,664 for the year in steer wrestling, tie-down roping and as a team roping header. He won $114,717 at the 10-performance National Finals Rodeo that concluded Sunday afternoon. Jarrett was the only two-event qualifier, competing in both steer wrestling and tie-down roping....
Wills Point bull rider wins with record haul Bull rider Matt Austin exceeded even his dreams. Austin, from Wills Point, Texas, said his goal this year was to win the world championship. Well, he accomplished that two days ago before the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was completed. On Sunday, after riding Razor Sharp out of the Growney Brothers Rodeo for 88.5 points, he scaled another plateau. He finished second in the round and earned the aggregate title to become the all-time one-year earnings leader in pro rodeo, finishing the year with $320,765. That broke Ty Murray's mark of $297,896 in three events in 1983. Austin's record came in only one event, and he's the first cowboy to cross the $300,000 mark in one year. Austin joined four other Texans in the winners circle at the Thomas & Mack Center, with Fred Whitfield of Hockley winning his eighth tie-down roping title, Will Lowe of Canyon and Kelly Kaminski of Bellville winning their second championships in bareback riding and barrel racing, respectively, and Patrick Smith of Midland earning his first world heeling title....
It's All Trew: Problems build character for young I looked back into my early life for a comparable experience. The closest I could come was solving problems associated with building a slingshot. The materials were wood, rubber strips for power, strong twine and a small piece of flexible leather. Simple enough until you got into the technological problems. The first problem came in selecting the proper wood. An old dry tree fork was simple and easy to find. A green fork would be stronger but required some cutting and peeling. Next came the rubber strips. Was red or black rubber the best? Did you cut the strips longwise or crosswise from the inner-tube? Determining the proper length of the rubber strips was probably the most difficult problem I had encountered in my young life. I was always forced to use whatever materials were available, often eliminating the choice problem. Of great importance was the quality, flexibility and strength of the leather used to hold the rock or, as it would be called today, the "missile." Whatever you did, you didn't cut the tongue out of your father's Sunday shoes!! Though perfect in form and flexibility, it just wasn't worth it. I can testify to this from experience....
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
GAO REPORTS
Electronic Waste: Strengthening the Role of the Federal Government in Encouraging Recycling and Reuse. GAO-06-47, November 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-47
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0647high.pdf
Livestock Market Reporting: USDA Has Taken Some Steps to Ensure Quality, but Additional Efforts Are Needed. GAO-06-202, December 9.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-202
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06202high.pdf
Electronic Waste: Strengthening the Role of the Federal Government in Encouraging Recycling and Reuse. GAO-06-47, November 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-47
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0647high.pdf
Livestock Market Reporting: USDA Has Taken Some Steps to Ensure Quality, but Additional Efforts Are Needed. GAO-06-202, December 9.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-202
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06202high.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP
Landowner near Rocky Flats sues to keep water and access rights A landowner near Rocky Flats filed suit against the government on Friday, asking the court to prevent the Department of Energy from cutting off water supplies and access to his mining and ranching operations. Charles Church McKay, a fourth-generation rancher in Jefferson County, is suing in U.S. District Court to enforce a 1985 settlement agreement involving the government's operation of the nuclear facility -- which has since been demolished. According to the agreement, the DOE would supply up to 20,000 gallons of water per day from its water treatment facility at Rocky Flats to the Rock Creek Industrial Park, on which McKay owns property that he would like to develop. The government and its contractors, including Rockwell International and Kaiser-Hill Co., have complied with the agreement for the last two decades, but stopped in the last year as they vacated the buildings, the lawsuit states. Mike Waldron, a spokesman for the DOE, declined to comment....
Valles Caldera Nat'l Preserve: From water to elks, lead scientist coordinating projects Bob Parmenter, the Valles Caldera National Preserve's lead scientist, stripped off his socks and boots on a blustery fall day recently and stepped bare footed into the freezing waters of a stream to retrieve a water-quality monitor. The easy-going ecologist collected samples at several more sites on the preserve (wearing wading boots) during the day and data from a group of soil scientists on another stop. "I like data. Data is good," said Parmenter, former director of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, who became the science manager at the preserve two and a half years ago. Parmenter oversees some two dozen research projects on the preserve including aerial mapping of vegetation, a radio-collaring project to find out if coyotes are responsible for fewer elk calves on the preserve and a study of how forage fairs without elk and cattle grazing. In addition, he monitors six weather stations, soil sampling, wildlife surveys and the aftermath of a 1,800 acre prescribed burn in Valle Toledo this fall....
Valles Caldera: Struggling to preserve When the Molina Complex Fire swept through part of the Santa Fe National Forest in 2003, it wiped out two-thirds of a grazing allotment leased by Pojoaque rancher David Ortiz. While the land recovered, Ortiz applied to graze his cattle on the Valles Caldera, an 89,000-acre ranch in Northern New Mexico purchased by the U.S. Congress in 2000. The preserve's grazing program has kept Ortiz's small herd fed, but the program is set to expire this month, and the trust that manages the Valles Caldera is considering closing the program for a year. "I'm hopeful they'll extend it," Ortiz said. "If not, I'll have to apply for a different allotment, find new summer pasture or sell and get out of the ranching business." Last year, 37 local ranchers and the Jemez Pueblo Livestock Cooperative participated in interim programs that provided them with summer grazing lands or temporary pasture while they worked on improving their own range. But grazing is a money loser. The program costs more than $100,000 and brought in about $40,000 last year, according to preserve figures. The future is uncertain for the former Baca ranch, six years after Congress agreed to pay $101 million....Ain't it amazing. Ranchers all over this country make money raising cows. Every gov't run grazing program, though, seems to lose money. 'Course I don't think there are too many cow men out there in the private sector doing "aerial mapping of vegetation"....
Methane boom takes toll in dust Outside the window of Jack Cooper's saddle shop in rural Sheridan County, there is nothing obstructing his scenic view of the jagged Bighorn Mountains that dominate the western horizon or the tree-lined creek winding its way through a wide valley to the east. Only the dust billowing from behind a constant procession of trucks heading to and from a nearby coalbed methane gas field gets in the way. Cooper lives along a gravel road that has become a major artery for trucks and workers in one of the many methane fields in northeast Wyoming. Traffic passing outside his home has increased from perhaps 75 to 100 vehicles a day just five years ago to 800 a day last year, he said. Dust hangs in the air like ground fog among the trees and rolling hills. "We don't dare leave a window open in the daytime," Cooper said. While oil and gas development creates other problems - housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime - dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas....
'Clinton's monument' threatens nearby ranchers The second confrontation with CMR occurred when a "federal ranger" challenged Dave Collins and his crew moving cattle down a county road (established by order of the county commissioners and is continually maintained by them) from one of Mr. Collins' pastures to another pasture which happens to cross a section of the CMR. Mr. Collins maintained that "we never left the road right of way." He subsequently received a letter from the federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administrator (they manage the CMR) stating that he would be required to obtain prior written permission each time he trailed cattle down that road. We are talking about a maintained county road which has a steady stream of cars and trucks usage on a regular basis. (The federal government certainly has the option to fence the right-of-way.) States, not the federal government, regulate public road usage and this example of federal government abuse of fundamental states' rights is very disturbing....
Rookie Senator Proving Green Some people are beginning to suspect Martinez is more green than they had thought, especially back in March when he cast the deciding Senate vote in favor of opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. At the time, Sierra Club President Carl Pope accused Martinez of "selling out the country" and making it clear "he's for sale." Now, national environmental groups are heartened by his positions on other issues. "On most of the things I've followed, I've been pleased," said Frank Jackalone of St. Petersburg, Sierra Club senior regional representative for Florida and Puerto Rico. "The big exception is Arctic drilling. If he supports El Yunque, that's an important treasure to be preserved and I can do nothing but commend him. "When somebody goes the extra mile to actually go there and help protect it, you have to give him a plus on that." Martinez opposes oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, despite White House wishes. He even argued against a compromise advanced by Gov. Jeb Bush. He has in recent months championed a variety of causes, from barrier islands to coral reefs....
Forest joins shift away from old growth Southwest Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has become the latest national forest to turn away from cutting storied old-growth trees, moving instead toward less-controversial thinning of crowded younger stands. The move reflects a broader trend by the U.S. Forest Service to give up logging of big, old trees that yield large volumes of valuable wood but have been a rallying cry for forest defenders. They have used appeals and lawsuits to fight the logging, driving up costs to the government. Other national forests including the Siuslaw, Gifford Pinchot and, increasingly, the Mount Hood, are no longer offering old-growth trees for sale to timber companies. Controversy surrounding such cutting often drains funds and leads to such interminable holdups that the projects may never proceed....
Outgoing interior assistant reflects on controversial times The urbanization of America has helped polarize beliefs about the environment, leaving many city dwellers with romanticized and often unrealistic views about wildlife and natural resources in the West, according to an outgoing federal executive who oversaw hundreds of millions of acres of public land. Rebecca W. Watson, who resigned earlier this month as an assistant secretary of the interior to take a job with a Denver law firm, said her four years at the Interior Department exposed her to a growing number of Easterners and others who apply "false perspectives" to conflicts over federal land management. "If you are an urbanite and don't have any familiarity or have not been out in the West or read about issues and gained a deeper understanding about natural resources and the West, you might have some ideas about it that don't hold up to reality," Watson said in a recent interview....
New turf for science: suburbia Suburbia may be familiar turf, but it's one of the last frontiers for scientists trying to understand how ecosystems work and how people are changing the natural world. From the woodsy suburban enclaves of Vermont to sprawling Chico, Livermore and Gilroy, researchers are starting to probe the role of lawns in global warming, how garden fertilizers and pesticides affect wildlife and how storm water running from roofs, roads and driveways undermines the health of streams. "The suburban landscape is large, and it's growing," said Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Vermont, one of the scientists who reported her findings last week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. "There's this enormous land surface that's falling through the cracks."....
Political foes' trails merge in forest Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer come from different sides of Mount Hood, the snowcapped icon that looms over Portland and the Columbia Gorge. Walden, a Republican, comes from the rural conservative side that has traditionally viewed the forests on the mountain's flanks as a source of timber and jobs. Democrat Blumenauer comes from the urban, liberal side that depends on the mountain for drinking water and outdoor recreation. Despite past clashes over environmental issues, the two have come together, even buddying up for a backpacking trip around the mountain. Out of that has come a proposed bill to put 75,000 acres of wilderness off-limits to logging on the Mount Hood National Forest, without reducing the area where logging can occur....
Forest Service's logging plan rejected A federal appeals court has ruled against the U.S. Forest Service in a lawsuit over a logging proposal in the Lolo National Forest, calling the agency's decision to harvest timber in areas that were burned by the fires of 2000 "arbitrary and capricious." The decision reverses a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likened the Forest Service's efforts to thin old-growth stands for forest health without knowing how those efforts would affect wildlife to pharmaceutical companies marketing drugs without ensuring that they're safe and effective. But one justice asserted in a written dissent that the court had gone too far and had "crossed the line from reviewer to decision maker." At issue is a debate over a portion of the 74,000 acres burned on the Lolo National Forest in August and September of 2000. The Forest Service proposed to log about 4,600 acres in and around the burned area. In support of that proposal, the agency crafted a 1,900-page environmental impact statement that included 150 maps and about 20,000 pages of background information....
Editorial: Lost in the wilderness The legendary U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield regularly chose his re-election year to push through wilderness legislation protecting Oregon forests, mountains and rangelands for perpetuity. Hatfield understood the power and public appeal of wilderness. During his remarkable 30-year career in the Senate, he fought for legislation that not only created the Mount Jefferson Wilderness but also quadrupled Oregon's wilderness system, from 500,000 acres to 2.1 million acres. Oregon needs another strong, statewide advocate for wilderness protections. Oregon is far behind neighboring states in protecting wilderness: California has protected 13 percent of its landscape, Washington 10 percent and Oregon just 3.6 percent. Some lawmakers are trying: Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer are co-sponsoring a bipartisan proposal to add 75,000 acres to existing Mount Hood wilderness. Sen. Ron Wyden has proposed a more sweeping 177,000-acre expansion of Mount Hood wilderness....
Future of timber payments to rural counties in doubt Rural counties and schools across the West are quietly gearing up for an expected battle over the renewal of billions of dollars in subsidies from the federal government, designed to compensate for the loss of timber harvests on thousands of acres of publicly owned land. The program, pushed through Congress in 2000 by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, expires in 2006, and signals about its future from Washington, D.C., have been mixed. County commissioners and education officials in the rural West were already concerned about potentially wavering support from the Bush administration. Now, new concerns are surfacing that the bill might fall prey to those trolling for ways to pare the federal budget, as legislators search for a way to afford administration-backed tax cuts, the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the war in Iraq, all at once. The measure has provided nearly $2 billion to mainly Western states since 2000, including $273 million for Oregon, $67 million for California, $45 million for Washington and $24 million to Idaho....
Surprise end to Sabino lion story Sabino Canyon's problem mountain lions, spared from state-ordered death in the spring of 2004, may have all been legally hunted and killed since then. At least four mountain lions have been shot in the Santa Catalina District of the Coronado National Forest since public uproar over state plans to hunt problem cats in Sabino Canyon in March 2004 caused the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to switch to a strategy of trapping and transporting such lions. One lion was tranquilized and moved to a Scottsdale wildlife preserve that April. Late this week, a wildlife biologist for the district revealed, in court testimony, that "archery deer hunters had taken two lions out of the Sabino Canyon area" since that time. And, as previously reported, two of the believed problem lions were taken in shotgun shootings by wildlife officers after the cats had confronted hikers on popular trails in the Santa Catalina Mountains in May and November 2004. Wildlife biologist Josh Taiz testified Thursday during the trial of two men charged with trying to disrupt the capture of lions in March 2004. Taiz, whose investigations of "aberrant behavior" by lions in the vicinity led to the 2004 Sabino Canyon closure and hunt, said the fact that lions could be taken by bowhunters reinforced his feeling that they had lost their usual fear of humans....
Reporter's tapes place activists in Sabino A reporter's notes were used in U.S. District Court Friday to place Earth First activists Rodney Coronado and Matthew Crozier in Sabino Canyon and detail their movements during a 2004 mountain-lion hunt they are accused of disrupting.
The notes were in the form of cassette tapes that Esquire magazine writer-at-large John Richardson dictated to himself. Coronado, 39, and Crozier, 33, are charged with a felony count of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States and misdemeanor counts of interfering with a U.S. Forest Service officer and depredation of government property. Richardson, the third defendant in the case, will be tried later, but his recordings, seized when Forest Service and FBI agents took him into custody in a closed Sabino Canyon on March 24, 2004, were played Friday to the jury that will decide Crozier's and Coronado's fates....
Fish protection charges up electricity bills Wildlife programs, mostly salmon recovery, account for about a third of the cost of wholesale electricity from Bonneville Power Administration dams and tack on about $10 a month to a monthly household bill, the BPA says. The agency says the government spends more to offset the harm dams do to salmon than it does on running the dams. But fish or no fish, BPA power is cheaper than most electricity. “Dams don’t cost much except for what they do to fish,’’ said Steven Weiss of the Northwest Energy Coalition, a coalition of environmental groups, utilities and others that pushes for renewable energy, and fish and wildlife restoration. The per-household cost emerged from a court battle last month and is the first time federal agencies have calculated how much private households pay for such programs, said Ed Mosey, a BPA spokesman. Environmental groups calculate the household cost slightly lower — about $7 a month, Weiss said....
California rabbits championed A canvas sack was rolled back to reveal a tiny, quivering rabbit that blinked twice in the daylight, then bolted into a tangle of blackberry bushes. "It's like being plunked down in a big city you've never seen before," said wildlife biologist Laurissa Hamilton as she released the riparian brush rabbit into dense vegetation alongside the San Joaquin River. The 1-pound animal was one of seven released Friday on the privately owned Faith Ranch as part of a five year, $2.6 million effort to restore one of California's most endangered mammals. By the end of this week, researchers will have released 30 animals -- enough to start a population specialists hope will become self-sustaining and help the rabbit hop off federal and state endangered species lists....
Greater Yellowstone; A Grizzly Home About 10 years ago a grizzly sow and her three cubs were seen by Paul Bruin as he was fishing the Snake just above Deadman's Bar in Grand Teton National Park. The following day these bears were tranquilized on South Park Loop at the Bob Lucas’s Ranch. She either skirted Jackson or walked straight down the river through the property of many unsuspecting homeowner. In November 2003 a 2-year-old female grizzly had been sleeping on people's porches and in garages for nearly a week in Driggs. 06-2004 JHMR ski patroller Kirk Speckhals was mountain biking on Togwotee Pass when a grizzly attacked him, it was driven off with pepper spray thanks to fellow mountain biker Tom Foley. Between 1994 and 1996, 182 cattle were found dead on 2 grazing allotments in Togwotee Pass. 3.5 calves are lost to grizzly depredation for every confirmed calf kill. These ranchers gave up their grazing allotment that made their ranch a viable business. They likely now regret getting involved with the Nature Conservancy in a partnership that preserved their ranch for green space and ranching negating their option to subdivide after losing their ability to ranch....
Editorial: Laws needed to protect private property rights Your land is not your own, particularly if government wants it. If you weren’t sure of that before, the latest sign comes from Yolo County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Timothy Fall, who made it clear to all that the threat of a government body taking land by eminent domain hangs like a dark cloud over all property owners. The decision clears the way for Yolo County to force the owners of Conaway Ranch to sell their property to the county. The irony of this dispute is that the county does not need the land for some compelling project to benefit the public like a new dam and reservoir to increase the state’s water supply or even an airport or an interstate freeway. No, the county wants the land to maintain it as it is. County officials are afraid of what the current property owners might do with the land so they decided to appropriate it. The Conaway Ranch case follows in the footsteps of the June U.S. Supreme Court case, Kelo v. City of New London, in which the court ruled that the city of New London, Conn., could use eminent domain to acquire property for a private economic development. However, the Conaway Ranch case goes beyond that. If Fall’s decision stands, it now appears local governments can take land just because they don’t trust the owners to use it in the manner government deems appropriate....
Utah drags its feet on roadless forests As surrounding states have scrambled during the past six months to meet a Forest Service deadline to identify roadless forest areas they wish to remain protected, Utah has done comparatively little. That is beginning to change. Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. now is asking for recommendations from the counties, the start of what could become a formal process. But to what end remains to be seen. And whatever the result, it is unlikely to satisfy environmental critics. The Bush Administration repealed the Clinton-era Roadless Rule in May, which extended protection to nearly 59 million acres of pristine and largely remote forest lands. But as part of the policy change, the Agriculture Department created a process whereby governors can petition to keep roadless protections in their states intact. The petitions are due next November. Colorado's legislature has created a task force to study the issue and make recommendations. Montana's governor has traversed the state, holding public meetings in affected counties to gain input from politicians and the public alike. And California, Oregon and New Mexico have filed suit against the federal government over the roadless change, arguing that the Bush policy violates environmental laws and creates an undue burden on the states. By contrast, Huntsman has been content to let the Forest Service planning process determine the best use for Utah's 8.1 million acres of forest lands, about 4 million of which was designated as roadless....
New drilling hot spot triggers wildlife concerns As the snows pile up in the mountains, thousands of mule deer climb down from the higher elevations to winter on a sagebrush-strewn mesa. This tableland also is part of one of the largest gas fields in the country, the hot Pinedale Anticline Field. Federal regulators have given energy companies the green light to drill hundreds of wells in this field. And the Bush administration has agreed to allow producers to test restrictions that had barred drilling during the winter months, touching off a debate over whether the industry's hunt for gas is hampering wildlife's struggle to survive the harsh Wyoming winter....
Energy companies swarm the Rockies Oil and gas producers are stampeding to the Rockies. With natural gas prices hitting all-time highs and Gulf of Mexico production still recovering from a hurricane-plagued year, energy companies — many with ties to Houston — are drilling up long-neglected fields. The Rockies are thought to hold enough gas to heat and cool 70 million homes for nearly half a century, the National Petroleum Council estimates. But those resources are usually found in hard-to-produce deposits. In their headlong rush, the energy companies are helping transform the nation's least populous state, where pronghorn antelope are said to still outnumber people. Up and down Wyoming, oil-field service workers are packing hotels, not to mention Applebee's restaurants. They're driving up local real estate prices and bedding down in spartan — and that means booze-free — living quarters dubbed "man camps."....
Bush signs Grijalva bill to give back land to tribes For the people of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, whose reservation is 189 miles west of Phoenix, the return of their ancestral La Paz lands would be celebrated with a dedication of blessings, speeches and dances at a remote desert site. For Rep. Raul Grijalva, a two-term Democrat from Tucson, the first celebration came three weeks earlier when his bill to restore the land was signed into law by President Bush. Grijalva had worked for two years to give back 15,375 acres taken in 1915 by President Wilson. The late Sen. Barry Goldwater had twice attempted and failed to get the land returned....
Golden Gate national park to expand The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved adding nearly 5,000 acres of scenic land along the San Mateo County coast to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the largest expansion of that national park unit since it was established by Congress in 1972. The expansion includes Rancho Corral de Tierra, a sprawling, mountainous property that extends eastward across from the Half Moon Bay airport and surrounds the coastal towns of Moss Beach and Montara. The bill, which passed the Senate in July and is expected to be signed by President Bush, ends a four-year effort by environmentalists....
Plan would give island to military Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California would become a recreation enclave for the military under a proposal for a pending defense bill. The measure was being circulated by Republican aides for the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, according to Democratic congressional aides who made it public Friday. Hunter proposed a similar measure in May only to drop it amid objections from Democrats and environmentalists. His committee spokesman, Josh Holly, declined comment Friday. "This is a bad idea and that's why it's being pushed in secret negotiations behind closed doors and out of public view," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district includes 53,000-acre Santa Rosa Island off Santa Barbara. "All Americans should have access to the Channel Islands National Park, not just top military brass, members of Congress and folks who can pay thousands of dollars to go on private hunting trips," Capps said....
Las Vegas boom deals some a losing hand At first glance, Las Vegas has never had it so good. In fact, this desert valley of almost 2 million people is the fastest-growing in the country. Las Vegas, in fact, leads the nation in job creation, and it has a white-hot housing market. ''It's going phenomenally well," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former lawyer for mobsters. But as bright as the present appears, there are signs that Las Vegas is becoming polarized. Prices have pushed home purchases beyond the reach of many families. Crime is on the rise. And activists report problems in recruiting teachers, nurses, and police to serve a population growing by 6,000 a month....
‘Mad cow’ changes global cattle industry For ranchers like Bill Donald, the resumption of beef trade with Japan, two years after "mad cow disease" turned up in this country, would be huge. Still, he’s not ready to sell his own cattle to Japan, and he’s not alone. ‘‘I think most ranchers won’t bother with it this first year,’’ the south- central Montana rancher said. ‘‘There are a lot of hoops to jump through.’’ New requirements for doing business in Japan could keep many producers from tapping that once-lucrative market — at least initially. Selling beef to Japan will mean maintaining a paper trail from the ranch to the feedlot to the slaughterhouse, to verify cattle are killed at 20 months of age or younger. The levels of infection for mad cow disease are believed to rise with age, and plans for resuming trade have been based on that cutoff....
A Kansas shrine for Hopalong His was a face that had seen too much in this life to be easily impressed with trivia or knickknacks. As others chattered happily through the museum tour, he smiled politely but remained detached. And then it happened. The one exhibit that made his face light up like a Christmas tree. Indeed it was a Christmas tree, and surrounding it were hundreds of gifts, all appropriate for a child of the early 1950s. But his eyes zeroed in on the bicycle--a shiny black 20-inch Hoppy bike, complete with leather saddlebags and streamers. "I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid," he nearly shouted, drawing the attention of not only his companions, but others visiting the museum. The bicycle is one of 2,400 signature items on display at the Hopalong Cassidy Museum in this town about 15 miles north of Wichita. Since its opening in 2003, more than 70,000 children of the 1950s have relived the jubilation of their childhood Christmas mornings, similar to the unidentified man above. Billed as the largest collection of Hopalong Cassidy items in the world, the museum does more than celebrate the beloved radio, television and movie character (played by William Boyd in 66 feature-length movies, beginning in 1935, and 52 half-hour TV shows that aired on NBC from 1948 through 1952). It celebrates the American cowboy with exhibits devoted to the Chisholm Trail, to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry and the American Indian....
Jones Down Home in Texas Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t work just for the sake of working. He tries to choose only quality jobs. He says he turns down a lot of films because simply “they aren't any good.” But while Jones has become a Hollywood star, he's always been uncomfortable with the Hollywood spotlight. “Here, on this ranch and in this county, everybody knows everybody and we don't have any movie stars here,” says the notoriously private and sometimes a bit prickly actor of his sprawling ranch in the Texas hill country. He's also a hands-on rancher with a commercial cattle operation....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Buyers experience auction barn miracle If ya hang around a sale barn long enough, you are bound to see some strange, some would say supernatural or even extraterrestrial, happenings. Like a cattle buyer actually bidding a penny over the market, or a waiter in a tuxedo at the sale barn cafe, or what happened to Chato and the Indian cow. Sonny said when the truck arrived from the reservation, a lot of the cows were thin but the last one required gentle assistance to unload. She was a common lookin' white face cow with a wide muzzle, ringed horns, bony hips and a long tail. A T-11 brand as well as several hieroglyphic brands decorated her hide. Chato came in to report that the cow in question was now, and as he put it, "had been dead all day long!" Sonny sent two cowboys to the pen. Sure 'nuf, she was still dead....
Landowner near Rocky Flats sues to keep water and access rights A landowner near Rocky Flats filed suit against the government on Friday, asking the court to prevent the Department of Energy from cutting off water supplies and access to his mining and ranching operations. Charles Church McKay, a fourth-generation rancher in Jefferson County, is suing in U.S. District Court to enforce a 1985 settlement agreement involving the government's operation of the nuclear facility -- which has since been demolished. According to the agreement, the DOE would supply up to 20,000 gallons of water per day from its water treatment facility at Rocky Flats to the Rock Creek Industrial Park, on which McKay owns property that he would like to develop. The government and its contractors, including Rockwell International and Kaiser-Hill Co., have complied with the agreement for the last two decades, but stopped in the last year as they vacated the buildings, the lawsuit states. Mike Waldron, a spokesman for the DOE, declined to comment....
Valles Caldera Nat'l Preserve: From water to elks, lead scientist coordinating projects Bob Parmenter, the Valles Caldera National Preserve's lead scientist, stripped off his socks and boots on a blustery fall day recently and stepped bare footed into the freezing waters of a stream to retrieve a water-quality monitor. The easy-going ecologist collected samples at several more sites on the preserve (wearing wading boots) during the day and data from a group of soil scientists on another stop. "I like data. Data is good," said Parmenter, former director of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, who became the science manager at the preserve two and a half years ago. Parmenter oversees some two dozen research projects on the preserve including aerial mapping of vegetation, a radio-collaring project to find out if coyotes are responsible for fewer elk calves on the preserve and a study of how forage fairs without elk and cattle grazing. In addition, he monitors six weather stations, soil sampling, wildlife surveys and the aftermath of a 1,800 acre prescribed burn in Valle Toledo this fall....
Valles Caldera: Struggling to preserve When the Molina Complex Fire swept through part of the Santa Fe National Forest in 2003, it wiped out two-thirds of a grazing allotment leased by Pojoaque rancher David Ortiz. While the land recovered, Ortiz applied to graze his cattle on the Valles Caldera, an 89,000-acre ranch in Northern New Mexico purchased by the U.S. Congress in 2000. The preserve's grazing program has kept Ortiz's small herd fed, but the program is set to expire this month, and the trust that manages the Valles Caldera is considering closing the program for a year. "I'm hopeful they'll extend it," Ortiz said. "If not, I'll have to apply for a different allotment, find new summer pasture or sell and get out of the ranching business." Last year, 37 local ranchers and the Jemez Pueblo Livestock Cooperative participated in interim programs that provided them with summer grazing lands or temporary pasture while they worked on improving their own range. But grazing is a money loser. The program costs more than $100,000 and brought in about $40,000 last year, according to preserve figures. The future is uncertain for the former Baca ranch, six years after Congress agreed to pay $101 million....Ain't it amazing. Ranchers all over this country make money raising cows. Every gov't run grazing program, though, seems to lose money. 'Course I don't think there are too many cow men out there in the private sector doing "aerial mapping of vegetation"....
Methane boom takes toll in dust Outside the window of Jack Cooper's saddle shop in rural Sheridan County, there is nothing obstructing his scenic view of the jagged Bighorn Mountains that dominate the western horizon or the tree-lined creek winding its way through a wide valley to the east. Only the dust billowing from behind a constant procession of trucks heading to and from a nearby coalbed methane gas field gets in the way. Cooper lives along a gravel road that has become a major artery for trucks and workers in one of the many methane fields in northeast Wyoming. Traffic passing outside his home has increased from perhaps 75 to 100 vehicles a day just five years ago to 800 a day last year, he said. Dust hangs in the air like ground fog among the trees and rolling hills. "We don't dare leave a window open in the daytime," Cooper said. While oil and gas development creates other problems - housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime - dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas....
'Clinton's monument' threatens nearby ranchers The second confrontation with CMR occurred when a "federal ranger" challenged Dave Collins and his crew moving cattle down a county road (established by order of the county commissioners and is continually maintained by them) from one of Mr. Collins' pastures to another pasture which happens to cross a section of the CMR. Mr. Collins maintained that "we never left the road right of way." He subsequently received a letter from the federal U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administrator (they manage the CMR) stating that he would be required to obtain prior written permission each time he trailed cattle down that road. We are talking about a maintained county road which has a steady stream of cars and trucks usage on a regular basis. (The federal government certainly has the option to fence the right-of-way.) States, not the federal government, regulate public road usage and this example of federal government abuse of fundamental states' rights is very disturbing....
Rookie Senator Proving Green Some people are beginning to suspect Martinez is more green than they had thought, especially back in March when he cast the deciding Senate vote in favor of opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. At the time, Sierra Club President Carl Pope accused Martinez of "selling out the country" and making it clear "he's for sale." Now, national environmental groups are heartened by his positions on other issues. "On most of the things I've followed, I've been pleased," said Frank Jackalone of St. Petersburg, Sierra Club senior regional representative for Florida and Puerto Rico. "The big exception is Arctic drilling. If he supports El Yunque, that's an important treasure to be preserved and I can do nothing but commend him. "When somebody goes the extra mile to actually go there and help protect it, you have to give him a plus on that." Martinez opposes oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, despite White House wishes. He even argued against a compromise advanced by Gov. Jeb Bush. He has in recent months championed a variety of causes, from barrier islands to coral reefs....
Forest joins shift away from old growth Southwest Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has become the latest national forest to turn away from cutting storied old-growth trees, moving instead toward less-controversial thinning of crowded younger stands. The move reflects a broader trend by the U.S. Forest Service to give up logging of big, old trees that yield large volumes of valuable wood but have been a rallying cry for forest defenders. They have used appeals and lawsuits to fight the logging, driving up costs to the government. Other national forests including the Siuslaw, Gifford Pinchot and, increasingly, the Mount Hood, are no longer offering old-growth trees for sale to timber companies. Controversy surrounding such cutting often drains funds and leads to such interminable holdups that the projects may never proceed....
Outgoing interior assistant reflects on controversial times The urbanization of America has helped polarize beliefs about the environment, leaving many city dwellers with romanticized and often unrealistic views about wildlife and natural resources in the West, according to an outgoing federal executive who oversaw hundreds of millions of acres of public land. Rebecca W. Watson, who resigned earlier this month as an assistant secretary of the interior to take a job with a Denver law firm, said her four years at the Interior Department exposed her to a growing number of Easterners and others who apply "false perspectives" to conflicts over federal land management. "If you are an urbanite and don't have any familiarity or have not been out in the West or read about issues and gained a deeper understanding about natural resources and the West, you might have some ideas about it that don't hold up to reality," Watson said in a recent interview....
New turf for science: suburbia Suburbia may be familiar turf, but it's one of the last frontiers for scientists trying to understand how ecosystems work and how people are changing the natural world. From the woodsy suburban enclaves of Vermont to sprawling Chico, Livermore and Gilroy, researchers are starting to probe the role of lawns in global warming, how garden fertilizers and pesticides affect wildlife and how storm water running from roofs, roads and driveways undermines the health of streams. "The suburban landscape is large, and it's growing," said Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Vermont, one of the scientists who reported her findings last week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. "There's this enormous land surface that's falling through the cracks."....
Political foes' trails merge in forest Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer come from different sides of Mount Hood, the snowcapped icon that looms over Portland and the Columbia Gorge. Walden, a Republican, comes from the rural conservative side that has traditionally viewed the forests on the mountain's flanks as a source of timber and jobs. Democrat Blumenauer comes from the urban, liberal side that depends on the mountain for drinking water and outdoor recreation. Despite past clashes over environmental issues, the two have come together, even buddying up for a backpacking trip around the mountain. Out of that has come a proposed bill to put 75,000 acres of wilderness off-limits to logging on the Mount Hood National Forest, without reducing the area where logging can occur....
Forest Service's logging plan rejected A federal appeals court has ruled against the U.S. Forest Service in a lawsuit over a logging proposal in the Lolo National Forest, calling the agency's decision to harvest timber in areas that were burned by the fires of 2000 "arbitrary and capricious." The decision reverses a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likened the Forest Service's efforts to thin old-growth stands for forest health without knowing how those efforts would affect wildlife to pharmaceutical companies marketing drugs without ensuring that they're safe and effective. But one justice asserted in a written dissent that the court had gone too far and had "crossed the line from reviewer to decision maker." At issue is a debate over a portion of the 74,000 acres burned on the Lolo National Forest in August and September of 2000. The Forest Service proposed to log about 4,600 acres in and around the burned area. In support of that proposal, the agency crafted a 1,900-page environmental impact statement that included 150 maps and about 20,000 pages of background information....
Editorial: Lost in the wilderness The legendary U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield regularly chose his re-election year to push through wilderness legislation protecting Oregon forests, mountains and rangelands for perpetuity. Hatfield understood the power and public appeal of wilderness. During his remarkable 30-year career in the Senate, he fought for legislation that not only created the Mount Jefferson Wilderness but also quadrupled Oregon's wilderness system, from 500,000 acres to 2.1 million acres. Oregon needs another strong, statewide advocate for wilderness protections. Oregon is far behind neighboring states in protecting wilderness: California has protected 13 percent of its landscape, Washington 10 percent and Oregon just 3.6 percent. Some lawmakers are trying: Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer are co-sponsoring a bipartisan proposal to add 75,000 acres to existing Mount Hood wilderness. Sen. Ron Wyden has proposed a more sweeping 177,000-acre expansion of Mount Hood wilderness....
Future of timber payments to rural counties in doubt Rural counties and schools across the West are quietly gearing up for an expected battle over the renewal of billions of dollars in subsidies from the federal government, designed to compensate for the loss of timber harvests on thousands of acres of publicly owned land. The program, pushed through Congress in 2000 by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, expires in 2006, and signals about its future from Washington, D.C., have been mixed. County commissioners and education officials in the rural West were already concerned about potentially wavering support from the Bush administration. Now, new concerns are surfacing that the bill might fall prey to those trolling for ways to pare the federal budget, as legislators search for a way to afford administration-backed tax cuts, the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the war in Iraq, all at once. The measure has provided nearly $2 billion to mainly Western states since 2000, including $273 million for Oregon, $67 million for California, $45 million for Washington and $24 million to Idaho....
Surprise end to Sabino lion story Sabino Canyon's problem mountain lions, spared from state-ordered death in the spring of 2004, may have all been legally hunted and killed since then. At least four mountain lions have been shot in the Santa Catalina District of the Coronado National Forest since public uproar over state plans to hunt problem cats in Sabino Canyon in March 2004 caused the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to switch to a strategy of trapping and transporting such lions. One lion was tranquilized and moved to a Scottsdale wildlife preserve that April. Late this week, a wildlife biologist for the district revealed, in court testimony, that "archery deer hunters had taken two lions out of the Sabino Canyon area" since that time. And, as previously reported, two of the believed problem lions were taken in shotgun shootings by wildlife officers after the cats had confronted hikers on popular trails in the Santa Catalina Mountains in May and November 2004. Wildlife biologist Josh Taiz testified Thursday during the trial of two men charged with trying to disrupt the capture of lions in March 2004. Taiz, whose investigations of "aberrant behavior" by lions in the vicinity led to the 2004 Sabino Canyon closure and hunt, said the fact that lions could be taken by bowhunters reinforced his feeling that they had lost their usual fear of humans....
Reporter's tapes place activists in Sabino A reporter's notes were used in U.S. District Court Friday to place Earth First activists Rodney Coronado and Matthew Crozier in Sabino Canyon and detail their movements during a 2004 mountain-lion hunt they are accused of disrupting.
The notes were in the form of cassette tapes that Esquire magazine writer-at-large John Richardson dictated to himself. Coronado, 39, and Crozier, 33, are charged with a felony count of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States and misdemeanor counts of interfering with a U.S. Forest Service officer and depredation of government property. Richardson, the third defendant in the case, will be tried later, but his recordings, seized when Forest Service and FBI agents took him into custody in a closed Sabino Canyon on March 24, 2004, were played Friday to the jury that will decide Crozier's and Coronado's fates....
Fish protection charges up electricity bills Wildlife programs, mostly salmon recovery, account for about a third of the cost of wholesale electricity from Bonneville Power Administration dams and tack on about $10 a month to a monthly household bill, the BPA says. The agency says the government spends more to offset the harm dams do to salmon than it does on running the dams. But fish or no fish, BPA power is cheaper than most electricity. “Dams don’t cost much except for what they do to fish,’’ said Steven Weiss of the Northwest Energy Coalition, a coalition of environmental groups, utilities and others that pushes for renewable energy, and fish and wildlife restoration. The per-household cost emerged from a court battle last month and is the first time federal agencies have calculated how much private households pay for such programs, said Ed Mosey, a BPA spokesman. Environmental groups calculate the household cost slightly lower — about $7 a month, Weiss said....
California rabbits championed A canvas sack was rolled back to reveal a tiny, quivering rabbit that blinked twice in the daylight, then bolted into a tangle of blackberry bushes. "It's like being plunked down in a big city you've never seen before," said wildlife biologist Laurissa Hamilton as she released the riparian brush rabbit into dense vegetation alongside the San Joaquin River. The 1-pound animal was one of seven released Friday on the privately owned Faith Ranch as part of a five year, $2.6 million effort to restore one of California's most endangered mammals. By the end of this week, researchers will have released 30 animals -- enough to start a population specialists hope will become self-sustaining and help the rabbit hop off federal and state endangered species lists....
Greater Yellowstone; A Grizzly Home About 10 years ago a grizzly sow and her three cubs were seen by Paul Bruin as he was fishing the Snake just above Deadman's Bar in Grand Teton National Park. The following day these bears were tranquilized on South Park Loop at the Bob Lucas’s Ranch. She either skirted Jackson or walked straight down the river through the property of many unsuspecting homeowner. In November 2003 a 2-year-old female grizzly had been sleeping on people's porches and in garages for nearly a week in Driggs. 06-2004 JHMR ski patroller Kirk Speckhals was mountain biking on Togwotee Pass when a grizzly attacked him, it was driven off with pepper spray thanks to fellow mountain biker Tom Foley. Between 1994 and 1996, 182 cattle were found dead on 2 grazing allotments in Togwotee Pass. 3.5 calves are lost to grizzly depredation for every confirmed calf kill. These ranchers gave up their grazing allotment that made their ranch a viable business. They likely now regret getting involved with the Nature Conservancy in a partnership that preserved their ranch for green space and ranching negating their option to subdivide after losing their ability to ranch....
Editorial: Laws needed to protect private property rights Your land is not your own, particularly if government wants it. If you weren’t sure of that before, the latest sign comes from Yolo County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Timothy Fall, who made it clear to all that the threat of a government body taking land by eminent domain hangs like a dark cloud over all property owners. The decision clears the way for Yolo County to force the owners of Conaway Ranch to sell their property to the county. The irony of this dispute is that the county does not need the land for some compelling project to benefit the public like a new dam and reservoir to increase the state’s water supply or even an airport or an interstate freeway. No, the county wants the land to maintain it as it is. County officials are afraid of what the current property owners might do with the land so they decided to appropriate it. The Conaway Ranch case follows in the footsteps of the June U.S. Supreme Court case, Kelo v. City of New London, in which the court ruled that the city of New London, Conn., could use eminent domain to acquire property for a private economic development. However, the Conaway Ranch case goes beyond that. If Fall’s decision stands, it now appears local governments can take land just because they don’t trust the owners to use it in the manner government deems appropriate....
Utah drags its feet on roadless forests As surrounding states have scrambled during the past six months to meet a Forest Service deadline to identify roadless forest areas they wish to remain protected, Utah has done comparatively little. That is beginning to change. Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. now is asking for recommendations from the counties, the start of what could become a formal process. But to what end remains to be seen. And whatever the result, it is unlikely to satisfy environmental critics. The Bush Administration repealed the Clinton-era Roadless Rule in May, which extended protection to nearly 59 million acres of pristine and largely remote forest lands. But as part of the policy change, the Agriculture Department created a process whereby governors can petition to keep roadless protections in their states intact. The petitions are due next November. Colorado's legislature has created a task force to study the issue and make recommendations. Montana's governor has traversed the state, holding public meetings in affected counties to gain input from politicians and the public alike. And California, Oregon and New Mexico have filed suit against the federal government over the roadless change, arguing that the Bush policy violates environmental laws and creates an undue burden on the states. By contrast, Huntsman has been content to let the Forest Service planning process determine the best use for Utah's 8.1 million acres of forest lands, about 4 million of which was designated as roadless....
New drilling hot spot triggers wildlife concerns As the snows pile up in the mountains, thousands of mule deer climb down from the higher elevations to winter on a sagebrush-strewn mesa. This tableland also is part of one of the largest gas fields in the country, the hot Pinedale Anticline Field. Federal regulators have given energy companies the green light to drill hundreds of wells in this field. And the Bush administration has agreed to allow producers to test restrictions that had barred drilling during the winter months, touching off a debate over whether the industry's hunt for gas is hampering wildlife's struggle to survive the harsh Wyoming winter....
Energy companies swarm the Rockies Oil and gas producers are stampeding to the Rockies. With natural gas prices hitting all-time highs and Gulf of Mexico production still recovering from a hurricane-plagued year, energy companies — many with ties to Houston — are drilling up long-neglected fields. The Rockies are thought to hold enough gas to heat and cool 70 million homes for nearly half a century, the National Petroleum Council estimates. But those resources are usually found in hard-to-produce deposits. In their headlong rush, the energy companies are helping transform the nation's least populous state, where pronghorn antelope are said to still outnumber people. Up and down Wyoming, oil-field service workers are packing hotels, not to mention Applebee's restaurants. They're driving up local real estate prices and bedding down in spartan — and that means booze-free — living quarters dubbed "man camps."....
Bush signs Grijalva bill to give back land to tribes For the people of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, whose reservation is 189 miles west of Phoenix, the return of their ancestral La Paz lands would be celebrated with a dedication of blessings, speeches and dances at a remote desert site. For Rep. Raul Grijalva, a two-term Democrat from Tucson, the first celebration came three weeks earlier when his bill to restore the land was signed into law by President Bush. Grijalva had worked for two years to give back 15,375 acres taken in 1915 by President Wilson. The late Sen. Barry Goldwater had twice attempted and failed to get the land returned....
Golden Gate national park to expand The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved adding nearly 5,000 acres of scenic land along the San Mateo County coast to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the largest expansion of that national park unit since it was established by Congress in 1972. The expansion includes Rancho Corral de Tierra, a sprawling, mountainous property that extends eastward across from the Half Moon Bay airport and surrounds the coastal towns of Moss Beach and Montara. The bill, which passed the Senate in July and is expected to be signed by President Bush, ends a four-year effort by environmentalists....
Plan would give island to military Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California would become a recreation enclave for the military under a proposal for a pending defense bill. The measure was being circulated by Republican aides for the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, according to Democratic congressional aides who made it public Friday. Hunter proposed a similar measure in May only to drop it amid objections from Democrats and environmentalists. His committee spokesman, Josh Holly, declined comment Friday. "This is a bad idea and that's why it's being pushed in secret negotiations behind closed doors and out of public view," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district includes 53,000-acre Santa Rosa Island off Santa Barbara. "All Americans should have access to the Channel Islands National Park, not just top military brass, members of Congress and folks who can pay thousands of dollars to go on private hunting trips," Capps said....
Las Vegas boom deals some a losing hand At first glance, Las Vegas has never had it so good. In fact, this desert valley of almost 2 million people is the fastest-growing in the country. Las Vegas, in fact, leads the nation in job creation, and it has a white-hot housing market. ''It's going phenomenally well," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former lawyer for mobsters. But as bright as the present appears, there are signs that Las Vegas is becoming polarized. Prices have pushed home purchases beyond the reach of many families. Crime is on the rise. And activists report problems in recruiting teachers, nurses, and police to serve a population growing by 6,000 a month....
‘Mad cow’ changes global cattle industry For ranchers like Bill Donald, the resumption of beef trade with Japan, two years after "mad cow disease" turned up in this country, would be huge. Still, he’s not ready to sell his own cattle to Japan, and he’s not alone. ‘‘I think most ranchers won’t bother with it this first year,’’ the south- central Montana rancher said. ‘‘There are a lot of hoops to jump through.’’ New requirements for doing business in Japan could keep many producers from tapping that once-lucrative market — at least initially. Selling beef to Japan will mean maintaining a paper trail from the ranch to the feedlot to the slaughterhouse, to verify cattle are killed at 20 months of age or younger. The levels of infection for mad cow disease are believed to rise with age, and plans for resuming trade have been based on that cutoff....
A Kansas shrine for Hopalong His was a face that had seen too much in this life to be easily impressed with trivia or knickknacks. As others chattered happily through the museum tour, he smiled politely but remained detached. And then it happened. The one exhibit that made his face light up like a Christmas tree. Indeed it was a Christmas tree, and surrounding it were hundreds of gifts, all appropriate for a child of the early 1950s. But his eyes zeroed in on the bicycle--a shiny black 20-inch Hoppy bike, complete with leather saddlebags and streamers. "I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid," he nearly shouted, drawing the attention of not only his companions, but others visiting the museum. The bicycle is one of 2,400 signature items on display at the Hopalong Cassidy Museum in this town about 15 miles north of Wichita. Since its opening in 2003, more than 70,000 children of the 1950s have relived the jubilation of their childhood Christmas mornings, similar to the unidentified man above. Billed as the largest collection of Hopalong Cassidy items in the world, the museum does more than celebrate the beloved radio, television and movie character (played by William Boyd in 66 feature-length movies, beginning in 1935, and 52 half-hour TV shows that aired on NBC from 1948 through 1952). It celebrates the American cowboy with exhibits devoted to the Chisholm Trail, to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry and the American Indian....
Jones Down Home in Texas Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t work just for the sake of working. He tries to choose only quality jobs. He says he turns down a lot of films because simply “they aren't any good.” But while Jones has become a Hollywood star, he's always been uncomfortable with the Hollywood spotlight. “Here, on this ranch and in this county, everybody knows everybody and we don't have any movie stars here,” says the notoriously private and sometimes a bit prickly actor of his sprawling ranch in the Texas hill country. He's also a hands-on rancher with a commercial cattle operation....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Buyers experience auction barn miracle If ya hang around a sale barn long enough, you are bound to see some strange, some would say supernatural or even extraterrestrial, happenings. Like a cattle buyer actually bidding a penny over the market, or a waiter in a tuxedo at the sale barn cafe, or what happened to Chato and the Indian cow. Sonny said when the truck arrived from the reservation, a lot of the cows were thin but the last one required gentle assistance to unload. She was a common lookin' white face cow with a wide muzzle, ringed horns, bony hips and a long tail. A T-11 brand as well as several hieroglyphic brands decorated her hide. Chato came in to report that the cow in question was now, and as he put it, "had been dead all day long!" Sonny sent two cowboys to the pen. Sure 'nuf, she was still dead....
Sunday, December 11, 2005
DANIEL MARTINEZ---USFS
Dear Editor:
County Attorney Derek Rapier and Sheriff Steve Tucker appear to be missing the point as to why people feel they should have been more involved in the Martinez Ranch dispute. To fully understand why citizens of Greenlee County are so puzzled as to their lack of action, it is important to first look at the broad picture.
There is a clear trend occurring on the forest lands from Clifton to Alpine. Cattle have been removed first from the river areas, now from the upland areas; roads are being closed at an alarming rate; and the Forest Service is acquiring most of the private land in the area. Years ago, environmental groups targeted these lands as an area they would like to use strictly for wildlife, with emphasis on introduction of wolves, grizzly bears, and jaguars into the area.
While they cannot accomplish these goals in one swipe, radical environmental groups feel they can methodically accomplish their goal by chipping away and gaining one piece of their ultimate goal at a time (closing of one road at a time, removing grazing from one allotment at a time, etc.). Actions from local Forest Service officials over the past decade indicate a willingness to help the environmental groups attain their objectives.
The Martinez family has ranched and paid taxes in Greenlee County for 160 years. They are award-winning stewards of the land and have spent thousands of their hard-earned dollars on range improvements that help wildlife as well as livestock. Their operation has historically been considered a model for good management. They have received letters from former Forest Service officials commending their good management. They are considered ranchers that have always “played by the rules”.
It is no secret that any time you decide to “take on” the federal government you are going to have your hands full. So why have the Martinez’s drawn a line in the sand with the Forest Service? First, they too understand that Greenlee County has been targeted for a large endangered species refuge and want to help reverse the disturbing trend.
Second, they believe the Forest Service should be able to transfer their grazing permit from father to son without infringing on their private rights. They have refused to sign the waiver that they believe would endorse a reduction in their permit as well as take away rights associated with their allotment. The Martinez family is not claiming that they own the land, only that they have private property (rights) associated with the land. They will pay grazing fees when presented with a bill.
So where should Greenlee County get involved in all of this? Arguments can be made for or against county intervention on the very complex issue of the property rights claims. The courts will ultimately answer the property rights questions arising from the Martinez claims.
However, the issue of impounding and selling the Martinez cattle, is another matter. I believe there are numerous actions our Sheriff and County Attorney could have and should have attempted in an effort to stop this negative fiasco from occurring. Let me explain:
1. The agreement between the Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Agriculture created a double standard for the impoundment of livestock; the agreement allows the Forest Service to sell the cattle without a court order. Yet, a court order is required for the Arizona State Land Department to impound and sell livestock on Arizona State lands; a court order is also required before a financial institution can gather and sell cattle from a ranch that has defaulted on a loan. Why then, should the Forest Service be allowed to gather and sell cattle without a court order?
Our government is a system of checks and balances. The question arises, “When the State decided to make a political decision on this issue, why didn’t the County Attorney and Sheriff challenge the validity of the agreement and subsequent impoundment?” After 160 years of being good citizens of this county has the Martinez family not earned at least that much?
All property owners live in some degree of fear that the Federal government will someday find a reason to take his or her property. It certainly does not seem unreasonable to require a court order for the confiscation and selling of private property. The Sheriff and County Attorney could have easily taken a stand on behalf of the property owners in Greenlee County and told the Forest Service that no cattle would be taken from this county without a court order.
2. It appears that the gathering and attempted sale of the Martinez cattle is intended to bring down one of Greenlee County’s cornerstone families and to permanently dismember their livestock operation. There were avenues available to the Forest Service to avoid the impoundment, but they chose not to utilize them. Some options include:
-Forest Service grazing permits have been transferred from one owner to another in other Forest Districts without signing a waiver. (I recently talked to a rancher who has done it).
-The Forest Service can also allow a permittee to let another rancher run cattle on his/her allotment. An agreement to let the son run cattle on the father’s ranch could have been an option. This has occurred on one of the neighboring allotments.
Did our elected leaders (Sheriff and County Attorney) ever tell the Forest Service they would like to try to find a way to avoid the impoundment?
3. While they were gathering the cattle, the Forest Service closed the Rattlesnake Gap road. This occurred during deer hunting season. Why was the road closed? Shouldn’t that action have been challenged on behalf of the citizens of Greenlee County?
4. The Forest Service hired armed federal law enforcement to protect Forest Service employees and the contractors hired to gather the cattle. Why? The Martinez family has no history of violence. Many citizens have pointed out how intimidating it is to have these armed federal employees in our community. Shouldn’t the Sheriff have challenged that action to avoid such an ugly scene in our county.
Because they have the most power to represent our interests, we look to our elected officials to stand up on our behalf and protect our rights. The impoundment of the Martinez cattle is probably the most negative event to occur in Greenlee County in decades and could likely have been avoided with minimal intervention from county elected officials.
Our Sheriff and County Attorney are our most powerful county elected officials in these matters. Citizens in this area understand that challenging the federal government is a tough task, and we know we’re not going to win every battle. Property owners do however, want to know that if the federal government finds a reason to take their property, our county officials will do everything they can to protect them. The current feeling is that the lack of action by our County Attorney and Sheriff is helping the Forest Service in their apparent attempt to bring down the Martinez family. Effort is all we are asking for, but to this point it really has not been there.
Jeff Menges
Local Rancher
Dear Editor:
County Attorney Derek Rapier and Sheriff Steve Tucker appear to be missing the point as to why people feel they should have been more involved in the Martinez Ranch dispute. To fully understand why citizens of Greenlee County are so puzzled as to their lack of action, it is important to first look at the broad picture.
There is a clear trend occurring on the forest lands from Clifton to Alpine. Cattle have been removed first from the river areas, now from the upland areas; roads are being closed at an alarming rate; and the Forest Service is acquiring most of the private land in the area. Years ago, environmental groups targeted these lands as an area they would like to use strictly for wildlife, with emphasis on introduction of wolves, grizzly bears, and jaguars into the area.
While they cannot accomplish these goals in one swipe, radical environmental groups feel they can methodically accomplish their goal by chipping away and gaining one piece of their ultimate goal at a time (closing of one road at a time, removing grazing from one allotment at a time, etc.). Actions from local Forest Service officials over the past decade indicate a willingness to help the environmental groups attain their objectives.
The Martinez family has ranched and paid taxes in Greenlee County for 160 years. They are award-winning stewards of the land and have spent thousands of their hard-earned dollars on range improvements that help wildlife as well as livestock. Their operation has historically been considered a model for good management. They have received letters from former Forest Service officials commending their good management. They are considered ranchers that have always “played by the rules”.
It is no secret that any time you decide to “take on” the federal government you are going to have your hands full. So why have the Martinez’s drawn a line in the sand with the Forest Service? First, they too understand that Greenlee County has been targeted for a large endangered species refuge and want to help reverse the disturbing trend.
Second, they believe the Forest Service should be able to transfer their grazing permit from father to son without infringing on their private rights. They have refused to sign the waiver that they believe would endorse a reduction in their permit as well as take away rights associated with their allotment. The Martinez family is not claiming that they own the land, only that they have private property (rights) associated with the land. They will pay grazing fees when presented with a bill.
So where should Greenlee County get involved in all of this? Arguments can be made for or against county intervention on the very complex issue of the property rights claims. The courts will ultimately answer the property rights questions arising from the Martinez claims.
However, the issue of impounding and selling the Martinez cattle, is another matter. I believe there are numerous actions our Sheriff and County Attorney could have and should have attempted in an effort to stop this negative fiasco from occurring. Let me explain:
1. The agreement between the Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Agriculture created a double standard for the impoundment of livestock; the agreement allows the Forest Service to sell the cattle without a court order. Yet, a court order is required for the Arizona State Land Department to impound and sell livestock on Arizona State lands; a court order is also required before a financial institution can gather and sell cattle from a ranch that has defaulted on a loan. Why then, should the Forest Service be allowed to gather and sell cattle without a court order?
Our government is a system of checks and balances. The question arises, “When the State decided to make a political decision on this issue, why didn’t the County Attorney and Sheriff challenge the validity of the agreement and subsequent impoundment?” After 160 years of being good citizens of this county has the Martinez family not earned at least that much?
All property owners live in some degree of fear that the Federal government will someday find a reason to take his or her property. It certainly does not seem unreasonable to require a court order for the confiscation and selling of private property. The Sheriff and County Attorney could have easily taken a stand on behalf of the property owners in Greenlee County and told the Forest Service that no cattle would be taken from this county without a court order.
2. It appears that the gathering and attempted sale of the Martinez cattle is intended to bring down one of Greenlee County’s cornerstone families and to permanently dismember their livestock operation. There were avenues available to the Forest Service to avoid the impoundment, but they chose not to utilize them. Some options include:
-Forest Service grazing permits have been transferred from one owner to another in other Forest Districts without signing a waiver. (I recently talked to a rancher who has done it).
-The Forest Service can also allow a permittee to let another rancher run cattle on his/her allotment. An agreement to let the son run cattle on the father’s ranch could have been an option. This has occurred on one of the neighboring allotments.
Did our elected leaders (Sheriff and County Attorney) ever tell the Forest Service they would like to try to find a way to avoid the impoundment?
3. While they were gathering the cattle, the Forest Service closed the Rattlesnake Gap road. This occurred during deer hunting season. Why was the road closed? Shouldn’t that action have been challenged on behalf of the citizens of Greenlee County?
4. The Forest Service hired armed federal law enforcement to protect Forest Service employees and the contractors hired to gather the cattle. Why? The Martinez family has no history of violence. Many citizens have pointed out how intimidating it is to have these armed federal employees in our community. Shouldn’t the Sheriff have challenged that action to avoid such an ugly scene in our county.
Because they have the most power to represent our interests, we look to our elected officials to stand up on our behalf and protect our rights. The impoundment of the Martinez cattle is probably the most negative event to occur in Greenlee County in decades and could likely have been avoided with minimal intervention from county elected officials.
Our Sheriff and County Attorney are our most powerful county elected officials in these matters. Citizens in this area understand that challenging the federal government is a tough task, and we know we’re not going to win every battle. Property owners do however, want to know that if the federal government finds a reason to take their property, our county officials will do everything they can to protect them. The current feeling is that the lack of action by our County Attorney and Sheriff is helping the Forest Service in their apparent attempt to bring down the Martinez family. Effort is all we are asking for, but to this point it really has not been there.
Jeff Menges
Local Rancher
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
The barn
by Larry Gabriel
The barn is a unique place. The barn served many purposes in rural life and was a top priority investment to our farmers.
When the sky is grey with swirling snow and the temperature hovers around zero and the wind is howling, stepping into a well-built barn filled with hay and animals is a joy.
The amount of warmth produced by the livestock is surprising and a welcome relief to the owner checking his stock. The animals are safe and they know it. Maybe all living things need a barn of some kind when the storms of life are raging. The barn is a safe haven.
The aroma of alfalfa, feed and animals is largely unnoticed at the time, but lingers for decades in the back of a mind and may return when recalling memories of youthful times spent in a barn.
After a month or so of deep winter, children escape the house and turn the hay loft into a gigantic playground, swinging from the hay ropes and wrestling for king of the hill.
When the blizzards roll down the plains and snow drifts become too deep for equipment to move feed, the livestock are kept safe behind the barn.
Windbreaks around the barns shelter animals from the storm. Hay thrown from the loft by hand provides the calories to keep them warm.
Back when almost every farm produced both grains and livestock the barn was the heart of the farm and often it cost more than the house. The enormous red barn with a gambrel roof was a necessity to many in those days.
Our language is filled with hints of the importance of the barn. If you leave the door open someone might ask if you were "born in a barn". If something is really big, it might be "big as a barn". If something was very exciting it might be a "real barn burner".
"Barn raisings" were important community social events and a means of welcoming new members. It is too bad we don't have more barn raisings, because they provide a social benefit worth more than the barn.
Nothing bonds people with each other like working together to build a tangible product. That is how we "build" farm families. That is how we "build" our communities. We bond through joint efforts.
The process of building something together creates the bonding of a family or community. The thing being built is less important than the process.
Each community and each new generation in that community needs a "barn raising".
There are many efforts to preserve the old barns, but maybe it is time to build some new ones.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Sec. of Agriculture
Axe handle reputations are made in the line of duty
By Julie Carter
Reputations are made in a number of ways. Some are established over a life time of works, good or bad, and sometimes the distinction will come from a single moment in time without real word or surmised deed.
The bitter cold that has gripped the country this week induced thoughts of those folks that daily handle an axe. Breaking ice on livestock waters and splitting firewood are a few basics in this world that remain the same today as they did a century or more ago.
Out in the panhandle of Texas, as I write, stand thousands and thousands of cattle on wheat pasture in someone’s care. And yes, this very morning, those folks are making their “circle” -- breaking ice, checking hot fence wires and a given, doctoring sick yearlings. Sub-zero temperatures are no excuse to stay home by the fire.
A few years back a couple I know was well into a long winter of heavy snow with plenty of ice and mud. They had been in the wheat cattle pasture business for a number of years, had good reputations for be fair wheat traders, quality pasture managers and just being generally honest folk.
On this particular day, the little woman, in both name and size, had made her circle which involved 65 miles of road driving. It entailed riding through 18 pastures checking for sick cattle and breaking ice on the troughs in each pasture. She had one more to go. Her good roan horse had been in and out of the stock trailer so many times on that long day he decided to not be in a particular hurry to unload.
Her “tired” was hanging out as much as the roan’s but the job was to be done. Standing on the fender of the trailer and reaching through the slats, the cowgirl used the handle end of her ice breaking axe to try to snare the reins on the horse’s neck. While she was encouraging him to back out of the trailer, the farmer who owned that particular wheat pasture land happened by.
The cowgirl had the business end of the axe in her gloved hands, but the farmer was unable see that. He slowed his pickup to view the action then quickly sped away as fast as the snow and mud would allow. Not giving it a thought, she got the horse unloaded and went about her business.
The next morning midway through her circle, she stopped by the grain elevator to get a hot cup of coffee and thaw out by the ever-blazing stove. As she walked in, all the domino players stood up. Ordinarily she would only get a nod and a hello from them, so the standing ovation caused her to ask what was up.
“Lyndon was by here yesterday and said he saw you hit your good horse in the head with an ax because he wouldn’t unload,” said one of men gathered at the elevator. “Everybody knows how much you love that roan horse, so we figured if you are that tough, we better come to attention when you walk in.”
The cowgirl just laughed at them and never told them any different. That little smidgen of fear could be used to every last bit of advantage over the coming years.
copyright Julie Carter 2005
The barn
by Larry Gabriel
The barn is a unique place. The barn served many purposes in rural life and was a top priority investment to our farmers.
When the sky is grey with swirling snow and the temperature hovers around zero and the wind is howling, stepping into a well-built barn filled with hay and animals is a joy.
The amount of warmth produced by the livestock is surprising and a welcome relief to the owner checking his stock. The animals are safe and they know it. Maybe all living things need a barn of some kind when the storms of life are raging. The barn is a safe haven.
The aroma of alfalfa, feed and animals is largely unnoticed at the time, but lingers for decades in the back of a mind and may return when recalling memories of youthful times spent in a barn.
After a month or so of deep winter, children escape the house and turn the hay loft into a gigantic playground, swinging from the hay ropes and wrestling for king of the hill.
When the blizzards roll down the plains and snow drifts become too deep for equipment to move feed, the livestock are kept safe behind the barn.
Windbreaks around the barns shelter animals from the storm. Hay thrown from the loft by hand provides the calories to keep them warm.
Back when almost every farm produced both grains and livestock the barn was the heart of the farm and often it cost more than the house. The enormous red barn with a gambrel roof was a necessity to many in those days.
Our language is filled with hints of the importance of the barn. If you leave the door open someone might ask if you were "born in a barn". If something is really big, it might be "big as a barn". If something was very exciting it might be a "real barn burner".
"Barn raisings" were important community social events and a means of welcoming new members. It is too bad we don't have more barn raisings, because they provide a social benefit worth more than the barn.
Nothing bonds people with each other like working together to build a tangible product. That is how we "build" farm families. That is how we "build" our communities. We bond through joint efforts.
The process of building something together creates the bonding of a family or community. The thing being built is less important than the process.
Each community and each new generation in that community needs a "barn raising".
There are many efforts to preserve the old barns, but maybe it is time to build some new ones.
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Sec. of Agriculture
Axe handle reputations are made in the line of duty
By Julie Carter
Reputations are made in a number of ways. Some are established over a life time of works, good or bad, and sometimes the distinction will come from a single moment in time without real word or surmised deed.
The bitter cold that has gripped the country this week induced thoughts of those folks that daily handle an axe. Breaking ice on livestock waters and splitting firewood are a few basics in this world that remain the same today as they did a century or more ago.
Out in the panhandle of Texas, as I write, stand thousands and thousands of cattle on wheat pasture in someone’s care. And yes, this very morning, those folks are making their “circle” -- breaking ice, checking hot fence wires and a given, doctoring sick yearlings. Sub-zero temperatures are no excuse to stay home by the fire.
A few years back a couple I know was well into a long winter of heavy snow with plenty of ice and mud. They had been in the wheat cattle pasture business for a number of years, had good reputations for be fair wheat traders, quality pasture managers and just being generally honest folk.
On this particular day, the little woman, in both name and size, had made her circle which involved 65 miles of road driving. It entailed riding through 18 pastures checking for sick cattle and breaking ice on the troughs in each pasture. She had one more to go. Her good roan horse had been in and out of the stock trailer so many times on that long day he decided to not be in a particular hurry to unload.
Her “tired” was hanging out as much as the roan’s but the job was to be done. Standing on the fender of the trailer and reaching through the slats, the cowgirl used the handle end of her ice breaking axe to try to snare the reins on the horse’s neck. While she was encouraging him to back out of the trailer, the farmer who owned that particular wheat pasture land happened by.
The cowgirl had the business end of the axe in her gloved hands, but the farmer was unable see that. He slowed his pickup to view the action then quickly sped away as fast as the snow and mud would allow. Not giving it a thought, she got the horse unloaded and went about her business.
The next morning midway through her circle, she stopped by the grain elevator to get a hot cup of coffee and thaw out by the ever-blazing stove. As she walked in, all the domino players stood up. Ordinarily she would only get a nod and a hello from them, so the standing ovation caused her to ask what was up.
“Lyndon was by here yesterday and said he saw you hit your good horse in the head with an ax because he wouldn’t unload,” said one of men gathered at the elevator. “Everybody knows how much you love that roan horse, so we figured if you are that tough, we better come to attention when you walk in.”
The cowgirl just laughed at them and never told them any different. That little smidgen of fear could be used to every last bit of advantage over the coming years.
copyright Julie Carter 2005
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Media Fish Fry
The week before Thanksgiving, the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental NGO got what it wanted in the lead up to the United Nations' latest meeting to discuss climate change, taking place in Montreal -- scary stories about dire effects from global warming. "WWF: World's Fish Are In Hot Water," CBSNews reported. "Group: Higher Water Temps Threaten Fish," intoned ABCNews International and MSNBC. "Global Warming Threatens Fish," FoxNews declared. All the major networks carried headlines about the WWF's report: Are We Putting Our Fish In Hot Water? The report itself was filled with lots of glossy pictures, lots of information on the importance of fishing to diets and the world economy, and lots of scary speculation about what might happen if waters are allowed to warm more than 2 degrees Celsius. The only thing lacking was scientific documentation to warrant such a media frenzy. If the media really wanted to know what is going on with fish it might have attended the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas 2004 workshop, "The Influence of Climate Change on North Atlantic Fish Stocks," in Bergen, Norway, or at least reviewed some of the more than three dozen scientific studies and reports presented there. Then they would know how simplistic and misleading WWF's generalizations are. Consider WWF's supposed fishery expert Katherine Short's bald statement: "The balance is set to tip, as climate change continues the pressure on fish populations already strained by overfishing, pollution and habitat loss." What fish populations is she talking about? Salmon? Arctic char? Cod? Haddock? Tuna? All of them are reviewed in the 2004 workshop, and there was no evidence that man-made climate change is or will have any major impact....
PICK UP A RIFLE
Unchecked by predators, deer populations are exploding in a way that is profoundly unnatural and that is destroying the ecosystem in many parts of the country. According to Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times, we should bring back hunting and reestablish a balance in the natural world. In a wilderness area, there might be 10 deer per square mile, but in parts of New Jersey, there are up to 200 per square mile. The exploding deer populations are harming humans, says Kristof:
* More Americans are killed by deer each year than by any other large American mammal, including bears, cougars and wolves.
* A study for the insurance industry estimated that deer kill 150 people a year in car crashes nationwide and cause $1 billion in damages.
* Ticks and Lyme disease, a more indirect effect from deer, also kill humans.
Agreeing on a solution for controlling deer populations and protecting humans has proven difficult. These days, among the university-educated crowd in the cities, hunting is viewed as barbaric. Towns in New York and New Jersey are talking about using birth control to keep deer populations down, although deer contraception has not been very successful. Meanwhile, some towns are paying big bucks, taking out contracts on deer through discreet private companies. Kristof says this is ridiculous. We have an environmental imbalance caused in part by the decline of hunting, he says. Humans first wiped out certain predators -- like wolves and cougars -- but then expected their own role as predators to sustain a rough ecological balance. The humane and green solution, says Kristof, is to encourage hunting, and many environmentalists agree. Deer are not pets, and many find hunting them is preferable to letting deer die of hunger and disease. Furthermore, hunting connects people with the outdoors and creates a broader constituency for wilderness preservation.
For text: Nicholas D. Kristof, "For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle," New York Times, December 4, 2005.
For text (subscription required):
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?hp&oref=login
Senator Bingaman's Bogus Climate Proposal
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is scheduled to deliver a speech at the UN global warming meeting in Montréal this afternoon on his plan for mandatory carbon dioxide emissions controls in the United States. If similar to proposals Sen. Bingaman intended to offer earlier this year in the Senate, the plan would represent significant economic sacrifice without measurably reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. “While Sen. Bingaman’s approach has been presented as a moderate and sensible response to the possibility of global warming, it clearly is neither,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “If Bingaman were taking the alarmist position held by supporters of the Kyoto Protocol seriously, his plan would be far too modest to be of any value. If he were concerned about its economic impact, it would be far too expensive.” Sen. Bingaman’s proposed amendment to energy legislation this summer was withdrawn once it became clear that it would be defeated. It represented a scaled-back version of carbon dioxide emissions limits first advanced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). The McCain-Lieberman amendment was defeated by 38 votes to 60 in the Senate and itself represented a much-reduced version of the emissions reductions which would have been called for had the U.S. Senate ratified the Kyoto Protocol. “Bingaman’s approach would be both expensive and useless, making it difficult to believe he takes even his own current position seriously,” continued Ebell....
More Than One Best Way
A new consensus is emerging at the United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Montreal. Some participants are beginning to recognize that the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate Change (AP6) is at least part of the way forward in a global effort to deal with any potential harms from man-made global warming. The AP6 was announced last summer and includes China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the United States. The goal of the AP6 is to address climate change by focusing on creating and deploying technologies that emit less greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide. Dr. Shin Boo-nam, the deputy director general of South Korea's ministry of foreign affairs and trade explained, during a panel discussion organized by the International Council for Capital Formation, that the AP6 members aim to use technological innovation and cooperation to improve their energy security, reduce air pollution, and address climate change. The goals of the AP6 appear to be aligned with the new proposals for combining economic development and climate policies being offered by various participants in the Montreal conference. For example, the environmental think tank the World Resources Institute issued a new study that focuses on how to boost the economic growth of poor countries while simultaneously helping them improve their energy efficiency. The report, Growing in the Greenhouse: Policies and Measures for Sustainable Development while Protecting the Climate, offers a series of case studies in which fast growing countries like China and India are urged to adopt policies that encourage both economic growth and energy efficiency. The WRI calls this sustainable development policies and measures (SD-PAMs). The idea is that developmental paths are favored that result in significantly lower future greenhouse gas emissions....
An Unethical Environment?
I've been thinking a lot lately about people who - -despite living in industrialized countries -- find affluence and the associated consumption of natural resources troubling. By their lights, wealthy countries like the US are the world's principle consumers -- unfairly rich, winners of life's lottery, polluters of the environment and so on. They claim that rich countries wish to "impose" their way of life on the rest of the world. Maurice Strong, for example -- long an influential executive officer at the U.N. and the head of the 1992 Earth Summit -- once said: "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?" In his book Earth in the Balance, Al Gore (who could easily be the US president right now) advocated "bold efforts to change the very foundation of civilization." What motivates these people? Have they tried poverty and decided that poverty is better than wealth? I doubt it. The poor of the world aspire to gain what we have. Many will risk their lives (some will lose their lives) to enter the United States to be able to enjoy what we frequently take for granted. The single most important underlying theme that unites these critics of affluence is a misunderstanding of basic economics. I'm not talking about the intricacies of economic theories and their associated technical buzzwords. I'm talking about concepts that are so basic to the health and happiness of a society that they should be taught in every high school -- perhaps before.....
Media Fish Fry
The week before Thanksgiving, the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental NGO got what it wanted in the lead up to the United Nations' latest meeting to discuss climate change, taking place in Montreal -- scary stories about dire effects from global warming. "WWF: World's Fish Are In Hot Water," CBSNews reported. "Group: Higher Water Temps Threaten Fish," intoned ABCNews International and MSNBC. "Global Warming Threatens Fish," FoxNews declared. All the major networks carried headlines about the WWF's report: Are We Putting Our Fish In Hot Water? The report itself was filled with lots of glossy pictures, lots of information on the importance of fishing to diets and the world economy, and lots of scary speculation about what might happen if waters are allowed to warm more than 2 degrees Celsius. The only thing lacking was scientific documentation to warrant such a media frenzy. If the media really wanted to know what is going on with fish it might have attended the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas 2004 workshop, "The Influence of Climate Change on North Atlantic Fish Stocks," in Bergen, Norway, or at least reviewed some of the more than three dozen scientific studies and reports presented there. Then they would know how simplistic and misleading WWF's generalizations are. Consider WWF's supposed fishery expert Katherine Short's bald statement: "The balance is set to tip, as climate change continues the pressure on fish populations already strained by overfishing, pollution and habitat loss." What fish populations is she talking about? Salmon? Arctic char? Cod? Haddock? Tuna? All of them are reviewed in the 2004 workshop, and there was no evidence that man-made climate change is or will have any major impact....
PICK UP A RIFLE
Unchecked by predators, deer populations are exploding in a way that is profoundly unnatural and that is destroying the ecosystem in many parts of the country. According to Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times, we should bring back hunting and reestablish a balance in the natural world. In a wilderness area, there might be 10 deer per square mile, but in parts of New Jersey, there are up to 200 per square mile. The exploding deer populations are harming humans, says Kristof:
* More Americans are killed by deer each year than by any other large American mammal, including bears, cougars and wolves.
* A study for the insurance industry estimated that deer kill 150 people a year in car crashes nationwide and cause $1 billion in damages.
* Ticks and Lyme disease, a more indirect effect from deer, also kill humans.
Agreeing on a solution for controlling deer populations and protecting humans has proven difficult. These days, among the university-educated crowd in the cities, hunting is viewed as barbaric. Towns in New York and New Jersey are talking about using birth control to keep deer populations down, although deer contraception has not been very successful. Meanwhile, some towns are paying big bucks, taking out contracts on deer through discreet private companies. Kristof says this is ridiculous. We have an environmental imbalance caused in part by the decline of hunting, he says. Humans first wiped out certain predators -- like wolves and cougars -- but then expected their own role as predators to sustain a rough ecological balance. The humane and green solution, says Kristof, is to encourage hunting, and many environmentalists agree. Deer are not pets, and many find hunting them is preferable to letting deer die of hunger and disease. Furthermore, hunting connects people with the outdoors and creates a broader constituency for wilderness preservation.
For text: Nicholas D. Kristof, "For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle," New York Times, December 4, 2005.
For text (subscription required):
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?hp&oref=login
Senator Bingaman's Bogus Climate Proposal
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is scheduled to deliver a speech at the UN global warming meeting in Montréal this afternoon on his plan for mandatory carbon dioxide emissions controls in the United States. If similar to proposals Sen. Bingaman intended to offer earlier this year in the Senate, the plan would represent significant economic sacrifice without measurably reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. “While Sen. Bingaman’s approach has been presented as a moderate and sensible response to the possibility of global warming, it clearly is neither,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “If Bingaman were taking the alarmist position held by supporters of the Kyoto Protocol seriously, his plan would be far too modest to be of any value. If he were concerned about its economic impact, it would be far too expensive.” Sen. Bingaman’s proposed amendment to energy legislation this summer was withdrawn once it became clear that it would be defeated. It represented a scaled-back version of carbon dioxide emissions limits first advanced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). The McCain-Lieberman amendment was defeated by 38 votes to 60 in the Senate and itself represented a much-reduced version of the emissions reductions which would have been called for had the U.S. Senate ratified the Kyoto Protocol. “Bingaman’s approach would be both expensive and useless, making it difficult to believe he takes even his own current position seriously,” continued Ebell....
More Than One Best Way
A new consensus is emerging at the United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Montreal. Some participants are beginning to recognize that the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate Change (AP6) is at least part of the way forward in a global effort to deal with any potential harms from man-made global warming. The AP6 was announced last summer and includes China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the United States. The goal of the AP6 is to address climate change by focusing on creating and deploying technologies that emit less greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide. Dr. Shin Boo-nam, the deputy director general of South Korea's ministry of foreign affairs and trade explained, during a panel discussion organized by the International Council for Capital Formation, that the AP6 members aim to use technological innovation and cooperation to improve their energy security, reduce air pollution, and address climate change. The goals of the AP6 appear to be aligned with the new proposals for combining economic development and climate policies being offered by various participants in the Montreal conference. For example, the environmental think tank the World Resources Institute issued a new study that focuses on how to boost the economic growth of poor countries while simultaneously helping them improve their energy efficiency. The report, Growing in the Greenhouse: Policies and Measures for Sustainable Development while Protecting the Climate, offers a series of case studies in which fast growing countries like China and India are urged to adopt policies that encourage both economic growth and energy efficiency. The WRI calls this sustainable development policies and measures (SD-PAMs). The idea is that developmental paths are favored that result in significantly lower future greenhouse gas emissions....
An Unethical Environment?
I've been thinking a lot lately about people who - -despite living in industrialized countries -- find affluence and the associated consumption of natural resources troubling. By their lights, wealthy countries like the US are the world's principle consumers -- unfairly rich, winners of life's lottery, polluters of the environment and so on. They claim that rich countries wish to "impose" their way of life on the rest of the world. Maurice Strong, for example -- long an influential executive officer at the U.N. and the head of the 1992 Earth Summit -- once said: "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?" In his book Earth in the Balance, Al Gore (who could easily be the US president right now) advocated "bold efforts to change the very foundation of civilization." What motivates these people? Have they tried poverty and decided that poverty is better than wealth? I doubt it. The poor of the world aspire to gain what we have. Many will risk their lives (some will lose their lives) to enter the United States to be able to enjoy what we frequently take for granted. The single most important underlying theme that unites these critics of affluence is a misunderstanding of basic economics. I'm not talking about the intricacies of economic theories and their associated technical buzzwords. I'm talking about concepts that are so basic to the health and happiness of a society that they should be taught in every high school -- perhaps before.....
Friday, December 09, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Citizens launch water petition It's time the state reconsider what is truly a "beneficial use" of groundwater in the Powder River Basin, according to a grassroots campaign in northeast Wyoming. Nineteen landowners and the Powder River Basin Resource Council launched a citizens' petition Wednesday, asking the state to close what they consider to be a loophole in its policies regarding the management of coal-bed methane water. They said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's policy of regulating only the quality of water discharged from coal-bed methane wells is based on an outdated assumption that the arid West needs, and can use, all the water that oil and gas operations can produce. "That is no longer a valid assumption," the landowners' petition states. "And the DEQ must manage CBM discharge water by recognizing that it is not generally being used; it is being disposed of. The exclusion has become a loophole stretched so far that in application it has lost all relation to logic." Water pressure locks methane gas into the cleats and pores of coal in the Powder River Basin. In order to produce the gas, the industry pumps large amounts of water from the coal aquifer to relieve the static pressure, allowing gas to rise to the surface. The industry produces some 550 million barrels of water annually....
Lawsuit asks colorado to regulate water Since coalbed methane development started in the county in 1988, residents have claimed it has damaged their water wells. But state and federal agencies have said that’s not their jurisdiction. Bayfield area ranchers Bill and Beth Vance and Jim and Terry Fitzgerald have filed suit in State Water Court in hopes of forcing the Colorado Division of Water Resources to take control of gas development impact on groundwater. It’s a change of strategy from lawsuits during the 1990s, where landowners tried unsuccessfully to sue gas companies for alleged damage to water wells. “This isn’t asking for damages,” Fitzgerald told the Times. “We want to determine the legal obligations of the State Engineer.” The suit names State Engineer Hal Simpson and District 7 Water Engineer Ken Beegles. Fitzgerald noted the northern San Juan Basin gas drilling draft Environmental Impact Statement lists drawdown of tributory water, wells and springs among the impacts of more gas well drilling....
Group sues over status of bighorn sheep The government isn't doing enough to protect the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, a population numbering only in the hundreds, an environmental group said in a federal lawsuit Thursday. Among the most pressing concerns is the proximity of domestic sheep to bighorn habitat, a situation biologists fear is spreading diseases between the two populations, the Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Sacramento. The wild sheep live high in the Eastern Sierra, where they are threatened by mountain lions and genetic problems caused by inbreeding because of the small surviving population. Before the turn of the century, the number of wild bighorns in the Sierra numbered in the thousands. Only about 100 survived as recently as 1998, a number that has crept up to around 300 today....
Column: Free market can be a boon to environment A surprising thing happened to the Grand Canyon Trust as it tried to use free-market methods to protect the environment: It ran into opposition from conservative politicians who don't want to allow willing sellers to contract with willing buyers. Such is the way change comes to the West — inconsistently, piecemeal, with residents sometimes embracing the future while other times they struggle to hold back the tides. The Flagstaff-based trust started its free-market program in the mid-1990s, when it decided the best way to preserve endangered lands was to pay ranchers to forfeit their grazing rights. In the rock-layered lands along the Escalante River in southern Utah, many areas needed protection from overgrazing. Sometimes the trust approached ranchers to see whether they would accept payment to give up their grazing permits. Generally, however, the ranchers approached the trust, wanting to sell their permits, Bill Hedden, trust executive director, told me....
North Bay pest controllers strive to think outside of the bottle Michael Honig, president of Honig Winery in Napa, is in love. The object of his affection on this fall afternoon is a team of golden retriever puppies that are learning to "sniff out" the dread vine mealy bug. This tiny insect secretes honeydew, a sweet, sticky substance that provides an ideal environment for black mold and diseases that afflict grapevines. As it happens, honeydew is also a food delicious to ants. To ensure a food source, ants literally move female mealy bugs around the grapevines with them, spreading mold and disease in the process. As the golden retrievers leave their puppyhood behind them, they'll learn to stand at attention before an infested vine and bark an alert. Then, says Honig, "we'll pull the vine out," thus eliminating the need to spray the entire vineyard with toxic chemicals. Putting their money where their hearts are, Honig and other area county grape growers have contributed $32,000 to the puppies' first year of education at the Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa....
Public included in grazing plans In an effort to keep transparent its ongoing livestock grazing impacts study on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Uncle Sam is mailing out an updated version this week. The 95-page plan expands on a much smaller study released in 2001 shortly after the 52,940-acre monument was created on the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District. However, no decisions have yet been made on future grazing on the monument, said Howard Hunter, the study’s project leader. "We want to get everybody up to speed," he said, noting that copies of the updated study are being sent to those who have participated in the process over the years. One of the recommendations made by the Southwest Oregon Provincial Advisory Committee was that the process be translucent and available to the public, Hunter said....
Column: When man alters nature wildlife loses — and wins Over the eons, the Montana prairie and its river corridors have naturally stabilized after undergoing geologic and climatic changes. But man-made changes such as ditching, diverting, damming and draining affect salt and mineral deposits, water salinity, sedimentation and even water flow. This, in turn, affects habitat and wildlife. A case in point is the change in the Teton River; there is neither single cause nor single solution. The Teton River flows southeast from the Lewis and Clark National Forest, where it meanders near Freezout and Priest Butte Lake. Russell Kastner of Conrad has fished the north and the south forks of the Teton River and has caught colorful brook trout. "Brook trout are an indicator species and thrive in cold, clear, and clean water, and the headwaters of the Teton River has it," he said....
Authorities arrests 6 ecoterror suspects Six people were arrested Wednesday in connection with Northwest eco-terror attacks dating back to 1998, including the 2001 arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms near Clatskanie. The arrests were made Wednesday in New York, Virginia, Oregon and Arizona, and each of the defendants has been indicted in Oregon or Washington, the U.S. attorney's office said. The attacks included three arsons in Oregon, the destruction of a research facility in Olympia and the toppling of a Bonneville Power Administration transmission tower near Bend. The underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front took credit for most of the acts. The May 21, 2001, explosive fire at Jefferson Poplar Farm destroyed two large storage buildings, shop equipment and 15 to 19 vehicles. Damage was estimated at more than $1 million....
Burns, Montana delegation opposed to public lands sale provision Montana Sen. Conrad Burns said Wednesday that he opposes legislation moving through Congress that would sell off some public lands. The issue should be left to local governments, he said. Burns joined Montana Sen. Max Baucus and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, both Democrats, and fellow Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg in denouncing the legislation, which is contained in a larger budget bill designed to cut federal spending. The House and Senate are currently negotiating a final version of the bill. The provision would overturn a decade-old congressional ban that prevents mineral companies from "patenting," or buying, public land at cheap prices if the land contains mineral deposits. In order to generate revenue, some House Republicans want to lift an 11-year-old congressional ban on new applications to buy public land for mining. Once a patent is granted, companies could buy the land for $1,000 per acre....
Hemlock Dam to be razed to aid fish Depression-era Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek northwest of Carson will be removed to improve fish passage for threatened steelhead, the Forest Service decided this week. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the 20-foot-high dam in 1935 to supply the Wind River Ranger District headquarters with electricity and provide irrigation water for the Wind River Nursery, which once grew conifer seedlings to reforest public lands throughout the Northwest. The nursery closed in 1996. The 16-acre reservoir behind the dam, now choked with sediment and only 2 feet deep in places, remains a popular recreation site for Skamania County residents....
Attorney: Activists' trial not about lions A federal prosecutor Wednesday told jurors that the trial of two animal rights activists accused of sabotaging mountain lion traps is not about mountain lions or whether they should be trapped. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst then devoted most of his opening statement to the dangers the big cats posed in March 2004, when Rodney Adam Coronado, 39, of Tucson and Matthew Crozier, 33, of Prescott allegedly ruined traps to capture the pumas. The mountain lions were reported to have been wandering near the Sabino Canyon National Recreation Area's visitor center and into surrounding neighborhoods. Public pressure forced state wildlife managers to change plans from killing to capturing the mountain lions. Coronado and Crozier are accused of entering the closed park on March 24, 2004, and pulling up traps....
Congressmen and Environmental Groups Disagree on Forest Recovery Bill After two years of conversation, a bill that would allow the U.S. Forest Service to take quick action to restore forests after catastrophic disasters remains a source for debate. But some environmental groups argue that the restoration treatments, such as cutting dead and damaged trees, will cause more harm to the forests. The House Committee on Agriculture discussed the "Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act" at a hearing Wednesday. The bill encourages removing dead and damaged trees as well as reforestation, using native plants to restore damaged areas. It also supports developing scientific input and public participation in revitalizing the areas. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore, said that delays in restoring damaged forests can result in significant losses. Walden said the bill secures rehabilitation and maintains environmental standards. Certain actions can help to save forests if they are completed quickly after the disaster, he said....
State plans to shrink sea A state advisory group agreed Thursday to consider five options to drastically reduce the size of the Salton Sea in hopes of maintaining the desert lake as a key wildlife refuge. Under five scenarios devised Thursday, the Salton Sea can shrink to between 27,000 acres and 40,000 acres. The sea is currently 35 miles by 15 miles and about 233,000 acres. The largest the lake would be, under any of the state's ideas, is one-sixth its current size. Despite the dismal outlook for the salty lake, local plans to build up to 185,000 homes on the sea's shores moved forward Thursday. The Salton Sea Authority, made up of Riverside and Imperial county officials, agreed at a meeting in La Quinta to enter into negotiations with Citigroup and New River Development Co. to finance and oversee the development plans. "Clearly the larger the lake the better," said Donald Rogers of New River's San Bernardino office. "Reducing it that much substantially reduces the development potential." In a presentation by Russell Hunt, a planning consultant hired by the authority, the proposed development would include water taxis connecting seaside villages and marinas and public beaches. Those features, however, may be impossible if the state's plans go forward as is....
Alaska Again Targets Wolves for Aerial Killing Defenders of Wildlife today condemned the killing of the first wolves in this year's state aerial gunning program and the state's decision to soon approve numerous additional permits for aerial gunners to track and shoot wolves using aircraft in other areas of the state. As of December 2, permits were issued to 63 pilots and 54 gunners. Last season, the state targeted more than 1400 wolves for removal. More than 400 wolves have been killed since the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda....
Canadian mining company agrees to comprehensive environmental review A Canadian company that wants to develop a coal mine north of Glacier National Park has agreed to subject the project to a comprehensive environmental review rather than try to open a smaller mine and then expand it. Kathy Eichenberger, regional manager for British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment, told the Flathead Basin Commission about the company’s change in plans Wednesday. The news that Cline Mining Corp.’s proposal will undergo a full environmental review was welcome, especially among those concerned that mine waste could pollute waters in and around Glacier National Park. ‘‘An entire economy has developed because of this pristine environment,’’ said Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger. ‘‘Our trade and travel economies depend on the protection of this water resource.’’ Cline Mining as recently as a month ago told shareholders it planned to pursue ‘‘fast-track’’ approval of the project, seeking a small mine permit with coal production limited to 250,000 tons per year. Such a permit does not require a full environmental analysis....
Japan considers lifting ban on U.S. cattle American beef moved closer to the highly profitable Japanese market after a two-year ban Thursday when Japan’s food safety commission unanimously declared that meat from U.S. cattle 20 months or younger is safe from mad-cow disease. The prolonged import ban has been a major irritant in relations between the two otherwise friendly nations. The Food Safety Commission’s findings go to the health and agriculture ministries, which will make a final recommendation to the government, The Associated Press said. It quoted Japanese media reports as saying the Cabinet could decide to lift the U.S. beef ban as early as Dec. 12. Asahi Shimbun, one of the country’s leading newspapers, earlier in the week quoted government sources as saying the first shipments of American beef cuts could be in Japanese meat counters by late this month....
Celebrating cowboy culture A group of cowboys will gather at Osceola Heritage Park Saturday to celebrate a 10-year reunion of the Great Florida Cattle Drive of 1995. Gates to the event, to be held at the KVLS facility in OHP, open at 10 a.m. Doyle Conner Jr., the chairman of the 1995 cattle drive and reunion organizer, said the latest event, dubbed a frolic/reunion, is an opportunity to celebrate the state’s cowboy history and culture. “We’re using the cattle drive reunion to kick off the first cowboy culture celebration,” Conner said of the event that organizers plan to stage annually in Kissimmee. The goal is to one day expand the celebration into a week-long one such as The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in Elko, Nev., according to Conner, who works in the Tallahassee office of the state Department of Agriculture....
Citizens launch water petition It's time the state reconsider what is truly a "beneficial use" of groundwater in the Powder River Basin, according to a grassroots campaign in northeast Wyoming. Nineteen landowners and the Powder River Basin Resource Council launched a citizens' petition Wednesday, asking the state to close what they consider to be a loophole in its policies regarding the management of coal-bed methane water. They said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's policy of regulating only the quality of water discharged from coal-bed methane wells is based on an outdated assumption that the arid West needs, and can use, all the water that oil and gas operations can produce. "That is no longer a valid assumption," the landowners' petition states. "And the DEQ must manage CBM discharge water by recognizing that it is not generally being used; it is being disposed of. The exclusion has become a loophole stretched so far that in application it has lost all relation to logic." Water pressure locks methane gas into the cleats and pores of coal in the Powder River Basin. In order to produce the gas, the industry pumps large amounts of water from the coal aquifer to relieve the static pressure, allowing gas to rise to the surface. The industry produces some 550 million barrels of water annually....
Lawsuit asks colorado to regulate water Since coalbed methane development started in the county in 1988, residents have claimed it has damaged their water wells. But state and federal agencies have said that’s not their jurisdiction. Bayfield area ranchers Bill and Beth Vance and Jim and Terry Fitzgerald have filed suit in State Water Court in hopes of forcing the Colorado Division of Water Resources to take control of gas development impact on groundwater. It’s a change of strategy from lawsuits during the 1990s, where landowners tried unsuccessfully to sue gas companies for alleged damage to water wells. “This isn’t asking for damages,” Fitzgerald told the Times. “We want to determine the legal obligations of the State Engineer.” The suit names State Engineer Hal Simpson and District 7 Water Engineer Ken Beegles. Fitzgerald noted the northern San Juan Basin gas drilling draft Environmental Impact Statement lists drawdown of tributory water, wells and springs among the impacts of more gas well drilling....
Group sues over status of bighorn sheep The government isn't doing enough to protect the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, a population numbering only in the hundreds, an environmental group said in a federal lawsuit Thursday. Among the most pressing concerns is the proximity of domestic sheep to bighorn habitat, a situation biologists fear is spreading diseases between the two populations, the Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Sacramento. The wild sheep live high in the Eastern Sierra, where they are threatened by mountain lions and genetic problems caused by inbreeding because of the small surviving population. Before the turn of the century, the number of wild bighorns in the Sierra numbered in the thousands. Only about 100 survived as recently as 1998, a number that has crept up to around 300 today....
Column: Free market can be a boon to environment A surprising thing happened to the Grand Canyon Trust as it tried to use free-market methods to protect the environment: It ran into opposition from conservative politicians who don't want to allow willing sellers to contract with willing buyers. Such is the way change comes to the West — inconsistently, piecemeal, with residents sometimes embracing the future while other times they struggle to hold back the tides. The Flagstaff-based trust started its free-market program in the mid-1990s, when it decided the best way to preserve endangered lands was to pay ranchers to forfeit their grazing rights. In the rock-layered lands along the Escalante River in southern Utah, many areas needed protection from overgrazing. Sometimes the trust approached ranchers to see whether they would accept payment to give up their grazing permits. Generally, however, the ranchers approached the trust, wanting to sell their permits, Bill Hedden, trust executive director, told me....
North Bay pest controllers strive to think outside of the bottle Michael Honig, president of Honig Winery in Napa, is in love. The object of his affection on this fall afternoon is a team of golden retriever puppies that are learning to "sniff out" the dread vine mealy bug. This tiny insect secretes honeydew, a sweet, sticky substance that provides an ideal environment for black mold and diseases that afflict grapevines. As it happens, honeydew is also a food delicious to ants. To ensure a food source, ants literally move female mealy bugs around the grapevines with them, spreading mold and disease in the process. As the golden retrievers leave their puppyhood behind them, they'll learn to stand at attention before an infested vine and bark an alert. Then, says Honig, "we'll pull the vine out," thus eliminating the need to spray the entire vineyard with toxic chemicals. Putting their money where their hearts are, Honig and other area county grape growers have contributed $32,000 to the puppies' first year of education at the Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa....
Public included in grazing plans In an effort to keep transparent its ongoing livestock grazing impacts study on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Uncle Sam is mailing out an updated version this week. The 95-page plan expands on a much smaller study released in 2001 shortly after the 52,940-acre monument was created on the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District. However, no decisions have yet been made on future grazing on the monument, said Howard Hunter, the study’s project leader. "We want to get everybody up to speed," he said, noting that copies of the updated study are being sent to those who have participated in the process over the years. One of the recommendations made by the Southwest Oregon Provincial Advisory Committee was that the process be translucent and available to the public, Hunter said....
Column: When man alters nature wildlife loses — and wins Over the eons, the Montana prairie and its river corridors have naturally stabilized after undergoing geologic and climatic changes. But man-made changes such as ditching, diverting, damming and draining affect salt and mineral deposits, water salinity, sedimentation and even water flow. This, in turn, affects habitat and wildlife. A case in point is the change in the Teton River; there is neither single cause nor single solution. The Teton River flows southeast from the Lewis and Clark National Forest, where it meanders near Freezout and Priest Butte Lake. Russell Kastner of Conrad has fished the north and the south forks of the Teton River and has caught colorful brook trout. "Brook trout are an indicator species and thrive in cold, clear, and clean water, and the headwaters of the Teton River has it," he said....
Authorities arrests 6 ecoterror suspects Six people were arrested Wednesday in connection with Northwest eco-terror attacks dating back to 1998, including the 2001 arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms near Clatskanie. The arrests were made Wednesday in New York, Virginia, Oregon and Arizona, and each of the defendants has been indicted in Oregon or Washington, the U.S. attorney's office said. The attacks included three arsons in Oregon, the destruction of a research facility in Olympia and the toppling of a Bonneville Power Administration transmission tower near Bend. The underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front took credit for most of the acts. The May 21, 2001, explosive fire at Jefferson Poplar Farm destroyed two large storage buildings, shop equipment and 15 to 19 vehicles. Damage was estimated at more than $1 million....
Burns, Montana delegation opposed to public lands sale provision Montana Sen. Conrad Burns said Wednesday that he opposes legislation moving through Congress that would sell off some public lands. The issue should be left to local governments, he said. Burns joined Montana Sen. Max Baucus and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, both Democrats, and fellow Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg in denouncing the legislation, which is contained in a larger budget bill designed to cut federal spending. The House and Senate are currently negotiating a final version of the bill. The provision would overturn a decade-old congressional ban that prevents mineral companies from "patenting," or buying, public land at cheap prices if the land contains mineral deposits. In order to generate revenue, some House Republicans want to lift an 11-year-old congressional ban on new applications to buy public land for mining. Once a patent is granted, companies could buy the land for $1,000 per acre....
Hemlock Dam to be razed to aid fish Depression-era Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek northwest of Carson will be removed to improve fish passage for threatened steelhead, the Forest Service decided this week. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the 20-foot-high dam in 1935 to supply the Wind River Ranger District headquarters with electricity and provide irrigation water for the Wind River Nursery, which once grew conifer seedlings to reforest public lands throughout the Northwest. The nursery closed in 1996. The 16-acre reservoir behind the dam, now choked with sediment and only 2 feet deep in places, remains a popular recreation site for Skamania County residents....
Attorney: Activists' trial not about lions A federal prosecutor Wednesday told jurors that the trial of two animal rights activists accused of sabotaging mountain lion traps is not about mountain lions or whether they should be trapped. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst then devoted most of his opening statement to the dangers the big cats posed in March 2004, when Rodney Adam Coronado, 39, of Tucson and Matthew Crozier, 33, of Prescott allegedly ruined traps to capture the pumas. The mountain lions were reported to have been wandering near the Sabino Canyon National Recreation Area's visitor center and into surrounding neighborhoods. Public pressure forced state wildlife managers to change plans from killing to capturing the mountain lions. Coronado and Crozier are accused of entering the closed park on March 24, 2004, and pulling up traps....
Congressmen and Environmental Groups Disagree on Forest Recovery Bill After two years of conversation, a bill that would allow the U.S. Forest Service to take quick action to restore forests after catastrophic disasters remains a source for debate. But some environmental groups argue that the restoration treatments, such as cutting dead and damaged trees, will cause more harm to the forests. The House Committee on Agriculture discussed the "Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act" at a hearing Wednesday. The bill encourages removing dead and damaged trees as well as reforestation, using native plants to restore damaged areas. It also supports developing scientific input and public participation in revitalizing the areas. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore, said that delays in restoring damaged forests can result in significant losses. Walden said the bill secures rehabilitation and maintains environmental standards. Certain actions can help to save forests if they are completed quickly after the disaster, he said....
State plans to shrink sea A state advisory group agreed Thursday to consider five options to drastically reduce the size of the Salton Sea in hopes of maintaining the desert lake as a key wildlife refuge. Under five scenarios devised Thursday, the Salton Sea can shrink to between 27,000 acres and 40,000 acres. The sea is currently 35 miles by 15 miles and about 233,000 acres. The largest the lake would be, under any of the state's ideas, is one-sixth its current size. Despite the dismal outlook for the salty lake, local plans to build up to 185,000 homes on the sea's shores moved forward Thursday. The Salton Sea Authority, made up of Riverside and Imperial county officials, agreed at a meeting in La Quinta to enter into negotiations with Citigroup and New River Development Co. to finance and oversee the development plans. "Clearly the larger the lake the better," said Donald Rogers of New River's San Bernardino office. "Reducing it that much substantially reduces the development potential." In a presentation by Russell Hunt, a planning consultant hired by the authority, the proposed development would include water taxis connecting seaside villages and marinas and public beaches. Those features, however, may be impossible if the state's plans go forward as is....
Alaska Again Targets Wolves for Aerial Killing Defenders of Wildlife today condemned the killing of the first wolves in this year's state aerial gunning program and the state's decision to soon approve numerous additional permits for aerial gunners to track and shoot wolves using aircraft in other areas of the state. As of December 2, permits were issued to 63 pilots and 54 gunners. Last season, the state targeted more than 1400 wolves for removal. More than 400 wolves have been killed since the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice of aerial killing, despite the fact Alaskans have twice voted to ban the practice (1996 and 2000) in statewide referenda....
Canadian mining company agrees to comprehensive environmental review A Canadian company that wants to develop a coal mine north of Glacier National Park has agreed to subject the project to a comprehensive environmental review rather than try to open a smaller mine and then expand it. Kathy Eichenberger, regional manager for British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment, told the Flathead Basin Commission about the company’s change in plans Wednesday. The news that Cline Mining Corp.’s proposal will undergo a full environmental review was welcome, especially among those concerned that mine waste could pollute waters in and around Glacier National Park. ‘‘An entire economy has developed because of this pristine environment,’’ said Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger. ‘‘Our trade and travel economies depend on the protection of this water resource.’’ Cline Mining as recently as a month ago told shareholders it planned to pursue ‘‘fast-track’’ approval of the project, seeking a small mine permit with coal production limited to 250,000 tons per year. Such a permit does not require a full environmental analysis....
Japan considers lifting ban on U.S. cattle American beef moved closer to the highly profitable Japanese market after a two-year ban Thursday when Japan’s food safety commission unanimously declared that meat from U.S. cattle 20 months or younger is safe from mad-cow disease. The prolonged import ban has been a major irritant in relations between the two otherwise friendly nations. The Food Safety Commission’s findings go to the health and agriculture ministries, which will make a final recommendation to the government, The Associated Press said. It quoted Japanese media reports as saying the Cabinet could decide to lift the U.S. beef ban as early as Dec. 12. Asahi Shimbun, one of the country’s leading newspapers, earlier in the week quoted government sources as saying the first shipments of American beef cuts could be in Japanese meat counters by late this month....
Celebrating cowboy culture A group of cowboys will gather at Osceola Heritage Park Saturday to celebrate a 10-year reunion of the Great Florida Cattle Drive of 1995. Gates to the event, to be held at the KVLS facility in OHP, open at 10 a.m. Doyle Conner Jr., the chairman of the 1995 cattle drive and reunion organizer, said the latest event, dubbed a frolic/reunion, is an opportunity to celebrate the state’s cowboy history and culture. “We’re using the cattle drive reunion to kick off the first cowboy culture celebration,” Conner said of the event that organizers plan to stage annually in Kissimmee. The goal is to one day expand the celebration into a week-long one such as The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in Elko, Nev., according to Conner, who works in the Tallahassee office of the state Department of Agriculture....
FLE
Compromise Reached on Renewing Patriot Act
House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise agreement Thursday to extend the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, but critics from both parties said they found the plan unacceptable because it did not go far enough in protecting Americans' civil liberties. The plan is expected to come up for final votes in the House and Senate early next week, but its passage was uncertain Thursday, with some Democrats, including Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, threatening a filibuster to block a vote. After weeks of what negotiators described as extremely difficult negotiations, the compromise plan would retain most of the expanded surveillance and investigative powers given to the federal government after the Sept. 11 attacks, permanently extending 14 of 16 provisions set to expire at the end of the year. But it would also put in place additional judicial oversight and safeguards against abuse. Three of the most-debated measures would have to be reviewed again by Congress in four years, rather than the seven-year window originally favored by some House leaders in a tentative agreement that was reached last month but then derailed by last-minute concerns from members of both parties. Those measures that would be extended for four years involve the government's ability to demand records from libraries and other institutions, conduct "roving wiretaps" in surveillance operations and single out "lone wolf" terrorists who operate independently of a larger group. In another concession to lawmakers who pushed for greater government restrictions, the plan agreed to on Thursday eliminated a proposal that would make it a crime punishable by one year in prison for anyone receiving certain types of records demands from the government to disclose them publicly....
Reform the Patriot Act
Despite the insistence of the White House and the Republican congressional leadership that the Patriot Act be fully reauthorized before the Thanksgiving break, a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators blocked the Senate-House conference report until vital changes in the Patriot Act are made. They have rising support around the nation when Congress returns on Dec. 16. Dec. 15 is Bill of Rights Day, celebrating the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, without which our founding document would not have become the law of the land. I congratulate the patriotic resisters in and out of the Senate for not allowing the administration to retain sections of the Patriot Act, which 399 towns and cities across the country and seven state legislatures had told their representatives in Congress to change in compliance with the Bill of Rights. Begun in Northampton, Mass., in November 2001, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, led by Nancy Talanian, has been instrumental in the national organizing of these resolutions to Congress through a subsequent alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union and a range of conservative libertarian organizations. Currently among those insisting on essential Patriot Act reforms are the American Conservative Union, the American Library Association and such business groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. These business organizations have joined with civil libertarians to focus on the Patriot Act's sweeping expansion of government powers to obtain a huge range of personal information by claiming only that the records are "relevant to an authorized investigation" on terrorism....
Ex-Professor Acquitted in Patriot Act Test Case
In a case closely watched as a key test of the Patriot Act, a former university professor accused of helping lead a Palestinian terrorist organization was acquitted Tuesday on nearly half of the charges against him, and the jury deadlocked on the rest. Sami Al-Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, wept and embraced his lawyer after the federal jury found him not guilty on eight of 17 counts — including conspiring to murder and maim people outside the United States. The panel deadlocked on charges that he had, among other things, engaged in money laundering and attempted to illegally obtain U.S. citizenship. The government also failed to secure convictions against three codefendants with alleged ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 100 people in Israel and the occupied territories. Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted on all charges. Hatem Naji Fariz was found not guilty on 24 counts, and jurors failed to reach a verdict on eight others. Federal prosecutors had no comment Tuesday on what was, for them, a dismaying outcome after 13 days of jury deliberations and five months of detailed testimony. U.S. Atty. Paul Perez said he and his staff would review the case before deciding whether to retry Al-Arian, 47. Until then, he will remain in jail....
Report Finds Cover-Up in an F.B.I. Terror Case
Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled a Florida terror investigation, falsified documents in the case in an effort to cover repeated missteps and retaliated against an agent who first complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded. In one instance, someone altered dates on three F.B.I. forms using correction fluid to conceal an apparent violation of federal wiretap law, according to a draft report of an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general's office obtained by The New York Times. But investigators were unable to determine who altered the documents. The agent who first alerted the F.B.I. to problems in the case, a veteran undercover operative named Mike German, was "retaliated against" by his boss, who was angered by the agent's complaints and stopped using him for prestigious assignments in training new undercover agents, the draft report concluded. Mr. German's case first became public last year, as he emerged as the latest in a string of whistle-blowers at the bureau who said they had been punished and effectively silenced for voicing concerns about the handling of terror investigations and other matters since Sept. 11, 2001. The inspector general's draft report, dated Nov. 15 and awaiting final review, validated most of Mr. German's central accusations in the case. But the former agent, who left the bureau last year after he said his career had been derailed by the Florida episode, said he felt more disappointment than vindication....
Crime Database Often Wrong on Immigration, Study Finds
More than 8,000 people have been mistakenly tagged for immigration violations as a result of the Bush administration's strategy of entering the names of thousands of immigrants in a national crime database meant to help apprehend terrorism suspects, according to a study released on Thursday. The study, conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington, relied on statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security that covered 2002 to 2004. The study found that the national crime database was wrong in 42 percent of the cases in which it identified immigrants stopped by the local police as being wanted by domestic security officials. Many immigration violations, like overstaying a visa, are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, domestic security officials have worked to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws by adding the names of thousands of violators - like immigrants evading deportation orders - to the F.B.I. crime database....
Security Flaw Allows Wiretaps to Be Evaded, Study Finds
The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said. Someone being wiretapped can easily employ these "devastating countermeasures" with off-the-shelf equipment, said the lead researcher, Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania. "This has implications not only for the accuracy of the intelligence that can be obtained from these taps, but also for the acceptability and weight of legal evidence derived from it," Mr. Blaze and his colleagues wrote in a paper that will be published today in Security & Privacy, a journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. According to the Justice Department's most recent wiretap report, state and federal courts authorized 1,710 "interceptions" of communications in 2004....
An apology and check from Ranger Roger Mayo
The denouement of a shameful episode which began in September 2003 Рinvolving an off duty National Park ranger, a dozen motorcyclists, a garden hose and a cup of coffee Рwas played out a week ago when $400 in settlement money was donated to the Stinson Beach Fire Department. The 2003 incident and subsequent events would reverberate through the community, altering dramatically the life of the ranger and the newspaper publisher that pursued his expos̩. In the incident which occurred on Sept. 21, 2003, storied National Park Service ranger Roger Mayo turned a garden hose on a group of motorcyclists northbound on Highway 1 in front of his then Park Service home in the Olema Valley. Subsequent to the garden hose event, Roger Mayo was one of two Point Reyes National Seashore rangers who took part in a July 28, 2004 incident involving the pepper-spraying of an Inverness Park girl, 17, and her brother, 18, in Point Reyes Station. The two, Jessica and Chris Miller, were bystanders at a minor law-enforcement matter and tried to find out what was going on. Neither was charged with wrongdoing, and their Civil Rights lawsuit against rangers Roger Mayo and Angelina Gregorio, as well as National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher and chief ranger Colin Smith, was filed in federal court. In a settlement reached last September, the US Department of the Interior agreed to pay two Inverness Park teenagers $50,000 in compensation....
MSP To Test Behavioral Screening System
St. Paul International Airport will begin testing next month of a new passenger-screening system that gives greater weight to how people act than to what they're carrying. Airport police said Saturday that a unit trained by former Israeli airport security experts in "behavioral pattern recognition" will begin work in January. The unit will work with the Transportation Security Administration, which began testing a similar system at the airport last month. The announcement follows one Friday from the TSA that said travelers could resume carrying items such as small scissors and screwdrivers on planes starting Dec. 22. It makes sense to focus on people instead of what's in their pockets, said Jim Welna, deputy federal security director for the Twin Cities, Rochester and St. Cloud airports. "We're looking for a needle in a haystack every day," he said. "And most days, the needle is not there." The new units, he said, will look for anxious, frightened or deceptive behaviors. Travelers who arouse suspicion will be questioned, and their answers will be scored against a secret index. When people scores high, screeners will call airport police, who would then decide whether to ask the travelers more questions, call counterterrorism agents, or allow them to go on their way. Welna said Minneapolis is the second large U.S. airport to test the new system, called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. Boston's Logan International Airport was the first....
Compromise Reached on Renewing Patriot Act
House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise agreement Thursday to extend the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, but critics from both parties said they found the plan unacceptable because it did not go far enough in protecting Americans' civil liberties. The plan is expected to come up for final votes in the House and Senate early next week, but its passage was uncertain Thursday, with some Democrats, including Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, threatening a filibuster to block a vote. After weeks of what negotiators described as extremely difficult negotiations, the compromise plan would retain most of the expanded surveillance and investigative powers given to the federal government after the Sept. 11 attacks, permanently extending 14 of 16 provisions set to expire at the end of the year. But it would also put in place additional judicial oversight and safeguards against abuse. Three of the most-debated measures would have to be reviewed again by Congress in four years, rather than the seven-year window originally favored by some House leaders in a tentative agreement that was reached last month but then derailed by last-minute concerns from members of both parties. Those measures that would be extended for four years involve the government's ability to demand records from libraries and other institutions, conduct "roving wiretaps" in surveillance operations and single out "lone wolf" terrorists who operate independently of a larger group. In another concession to lawmakers who pushed for greater government restrictions, the plan agreed to on Thursday eliminated a proposal that would make it a crime punishable by one year in prison for anyone receiving certain types of records demands from the government to disclose them publicly....
Reform the Patriot Act
Despite the insistence of the White House and the Republican congressional leadership that the Patriot Act be fully reauthorized before the Thanksgiving break, a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators blocked the Senate-House conference report until vital changes in the Patriot Act are made. They have rising support around the nation when Congress returns on Dec. 16. Dec. 15 is Bill of Rights Day, celebrating the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, without which our founding document would not have become the law of the land. I congratulate the patriotic resisters in and out of the Senate for not allowing the administration to retain sections of the Patriot Act, which 399 towns and cities across the country and seven state legislatures had told their representatives in Congress to change in compliance with the Bill of Rights. Begun in Northampton, Mass., in November 2001, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, led by Nancy Talanian, has been instrumental in the national organizing of these resolutions to Congress through a subsequent alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union and a range of conservative libertarian organizations. Currently among those insisting on essential Patriot Act reforms are the American Conservative Union, the American Library Association and such business groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. These business organizations have joined with civil libertarians to focus on the Patriot Act's sweeping expansion of government powers to obtain a huge range of personal information by claiming only that the records are "relevant to an authorized investigation" on terrorism....
Ex-Professor Acquitted in Patriot Act Test Case
In a case closely watched as a key test of the Patriot Act, a former university professor accused of helping lead a Palestinian terrorist organization was acquitted Tuesday on nearly half of the charges against him, and the jury deadlocked on the rest. Sami Al-Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, wept and embraced his lawyer after the federal jury found him not guilty on eight of 17 counts — including conspiring to murder and maim people outside the United States. The panel deadlocked on charges that he had, among other things, engaged in money laundering and attempted to illegally obtain U.S. citizenship. The government also failed to secure convictions against three codefendants with alleged ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 100 people in Israel and the occupied territories. Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted on all charges. Hatem Naji Fariz was found not guilty on 24 counts, and jurors failed to reach a verdict on eight others. Federal prosecutors had no comment Tuesday on what was, for them, a dismaying outcome after 13 days of jury deliberations and five months of detailed testimony. U.S. Atty. Paul Perez said he and his staff would review the case before deciding whether to retry Al-Arian, 47. Until then, he will remain in jail....
Report Finds Cover-Up in an F.B.I. Terror Case
Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled a Florida terror investigation, falsified documents in the case in an effort to cover repeated missteps and retaliated against an agent who first complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded. In one instance, someone altered dates on three F.B.I. forms using correction fluid to conceal an apparent violation of federal wiretap law, according to a draft report of an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general's office obtained by The New York Times. But investigators were unable to determine who altered the documents. The agent who first alerted the F.B.I. to problems in the case, a veteran undercover operative named Mike German, was "retaliated against" by his boss, who was angered by the agent's complaints and stopped using him for prestigious assignments in training new undercover agents, the draft report concluded. Mr. German's case first became public last year, as he emerged as the latest in a string of whistle-blowers at the bureau who said they had been punished and effectively silenced for voicing concerns about the handling of terror investigations and other matters since Sept. 11, 2001. The inspector general's draft report, dated Nov. 15 and awaiting final review, validated most of Mr. German's central accusations in the case. But the former agent, who left the bureau last year after he said his career had been derailed by the Florida episode, said he felt more disappointment than vindication....
Crime Database Often Wrong on Immigration, Study Finds
More than 8,000 people have been mistakenly tagged for immigration violations as a result of the Bush administration's strategy of entering the names of thousands of immigrants in a national crime database meant to help apprehend terrorism suspects, according to a study released on Thursday. The study, conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington, relied on statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security that covered 2002 to 2004. The study found that the national crime database was wrong in 42 percent of the cases in which it identified immigrants stopped by the local police as being wanted by domestic security officials. Many immigration violations, like overstaying a visa, are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, domestic security officials have worked to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws by adding the names of thousands of violators - like immigrants evading deportation orders - to the F.B.I. crime database....
Security Flaw Allows Wiretaps to Be Evaded, Study Finds
The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said. Someone being wiretapped can easily employ these "devastating countermeasures" with off-the-shelf equipment, said the lead researcher, Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania. "This has implications not only for the accuracy of the intelligence that can be obtained from these taps, but also for the acceptability and weight of legal evidence derived from it," Mr. Blaze and his colleagues wrote in a paper that will be published today in Security & Privacy, a journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. According to the Justice Department's most recent wiretap report, state and federal courts authorized 1,710 "interceptions" of communications in 2004....
An apology and check from Ranger Roger Mayo
The denouement of a shameful episode which began in September 2003 Рinvolving an off duty National Park ranger, a dozen motorcyclists, a garden hose and a cup of coffee Рwas played out a week ago when $400 in settlement money was donated to the Stinson Beach Fire Department. The 2003 incident and subsequent events would reverberate through the community, altering dramatically the life of the ranger and the newspaper publisher that pursued his expos̩. In the incident which occurred on Sept. 21, 2003, storied National Park Service ranger Roger Mayo turned a garden hose on a group of motorcyclists northbound on Highway 1 in front of his then Park Service home in the Olema Valley. Subsequent to the garden hose event, Roger Mayo was one of two Point Reyes National Seashore rangers who took part in a July 28, 2004 incident involving the pepper-spraying of an Inverness Park girl, 17, and her brother, 18, in Point Reyes Station. The two, Jessica and Chris Miller, were bystanders at a minor law-enforcement matter and tried to find out what was going on. Neither was charged with wrongdoing, and their Civil Rights lawsuit against rangers Roger Mayo and Angelina Gregorio, as well as National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher and chief ranger Colin Smith, was filed in federal court. In a settlement reached last September, the US Department of the Interior agreed to pay two Inverness Park teenagers $50,000 in compensation....
MSP To Test Behavioral Screening System
St. Paul International Airport will begin testing next month of a new passenger-screening system that gives greater weight to how people act than to what they're carrying. Airport police said Saturday that a unit trained by former Israeli airport security experts in "behavioral pattern recognition" will begin work in January. The unit will work with the Transportation Security Administration, which began testing a similar system at the airport last month. The announcement follows one Friday from the TSA that said travelers could resume carrying items such as small scissors and screwdrivers on planes starting Dec. 22. It makes sense to focus on people instead of what's in their pockets, said Jim Welna, deputy federal security director for the Twin Cities, Rochester and St. Cloud airports. "We're looking for a needle in a haystack every day," he said. "And most days, the needle is not there." The new units, he said, will look for anxious, frightened or deceptive behaviors. Travelers who arouse suspicion will be questioned, and their answers will be scored against a secret index. When people scores high, screeners will call airport police, who would then decide whether to ask the travelers more questions, call counterterrorism agents, or allow them to go on their way. Welna said Minneapolis is the second large U.S. airport to test the new system, called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. Boston's Logan International Airport was the first....
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