Our Most Threatened Species
by Larry Gabriel
Congress is trying to fix the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but they don't use it to protect our most important threatened species.
One hundred years ago, its population was around 30 million scattered over about 840 million acres of habitat. Today, their numbers are about one tenth that amount covering about 952 million acres.
Obviously, generalized quantity of habitat is not the answer for this declining species. The ESA provides for such considerations in its definition of "critical habitat".
The term "critical habitat" for a threatened or endangered species means-
(i) the specific areas within the geographical area occupied by the species, at the time it is listed in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of this Act, on which are found those physical or biological features (I) essential to the conservation of the species and (II) which may require special management considerations or protection; and (ii) specific areas outside the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it is listed in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of this Act, upon a determination by the Secretary that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species.
Species protected under the act "includes any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants", but the term "wildlife" includes "any member of the animal kingdom".
Among the 3.5 million square miles of land in the United States, there is surely some land with unique physical and biological features that will support this dying population.
With a little "special management consideration" on some of the 724 million acres owned by the federal government, this population might flourish as it did in the past.
Private lands or "specific areas outside the geographical area occupied" can also be taken for critical habitat, when necessary for survival of an endangered or threatened species.
Maybe the nonprofit corporations of America are willing to part with some of their millions of acres of land for a good cause.
If the Sierra Club won't do it, perhaps it is time for some worthy organization like the Farm Bureau or the Farmers Union to file a petition for listing and bring this matter to a test.
This species is certainly a member of the animal kingdom. They are certainly a distinct population. They clearly are threatened by major long term decline and urban sprawl. Only about 10 percent of the original viable population remains on its traditional range.
Our most valuable "threatened species" is the American farmer.
Maybe the law is not too broad after all. If it can save the wolf, it should be able do the same for the guys who feeds us.
Mr. Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
The somethings of happiness
By Julie Carter
I recently read that the three grand essentials for happiness are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.
I believe those thoughts were conceived at the ranch because finding an answer to each requires only being there.
Something to do. There is never ever not something to do. From daylight to dark and beyond, 24/7, there is something to do.
Something to do can come in large packages like spending a week gathering cattle, sorting, preg testing and shipping and feeding meals to all those people who come to help.
Pulling a well, building five miles of new fence, clearing brush for a new water storage tank you have yet to build, or finding time to mechanic on the line up of "injured" vehicles at the shop.
Something to do can come in small packages like making up another pot of coffee because the neighbor just drove in the yard and will likely come sit a spell.
Closing the barn door because it is open and shouldn't be, hanging a gate or throwing a little extra flake of hay to the old sorrel because he is looking his age and getting a little thin.
Something to love is easy. You have to love the life to be there and love it even more to stay there.
Something to love begins with the sunrise, carries through the day with family, livestock, pets, and a favorite chair to grab a short siesta in the heat of the day.
Something to love comes in the mail when a faraway friend takes the time to jot you a note.
Something to love is the satisfaction of the honest tired you feel when you, at last, lay your head down to sleep in anticipation of the next sunrise.
Something to love falls with the rain, blows with breeze on a hot afternoon, bleats with a new lamb, nickers with a new colt and bawls with a new calf.
And something to hope for is the very foundation of life in agriculture. Never is there a larger volume of hope than that which wells up within every human that makes their living from the land.
Hope blankets the entire life of a rancher. He hopes the market improves, holds, or doesn't drop.
He hopes his cows are bred and his calves will be born on a sunny day.
He hopes the grass will grow and the grasshoppers don't.
He hopes his family is safe at all times and he hopes he is there when they need him.
While hope springs from within us all, for the rancher and farmer it is like a major organ that keeps him alive. The sprig of green that promises a crop and the birth of new life that promises a paycheck are the pulse of his entire life-- year after year.
Men of agriculture are soldiers that feed the world while a fight faces them every way they turn.
People who eat food fight them. People who wear shoes fight them. People who indirectly make a living off their way of life fight them.
And yet, when it is again Spring, those soldiers of agriculture plant, brand, and begin a new life cycle.
And their song is "Maybe it will rain."
© Julie Carter 2006
Two powerful and interesting articles this week. Don't forget we welcome submissions for this feature of The Westerner.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Ethics Group Cites “Tangled” Relationship With Scandal-Plagued Nature Conservancy
Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today described an apparent conflict-of-interest involving Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Henry Paulson and his relationship with the Nature Conservancy. Paulson is Chairman of both Goldman Sachs and the Nature Conservancy. His wife is a former board member of the Nature Conservancy. At issue is the adoption in November 2005 by Goldman Sachs of an “Environmental Policy,” which parallels the Nature Conservancy agenda. It includes several controversial positions related to global warming, logging, and the rights of indigenous peoples in the developing world. Additionally, Goldman Sachs transferred its ownership of a gargantuan tract of 680,000 acres in Chile to a Chilean group connected to the Nature Conservancy, called the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Paulson’s daughter, Merritt Paulson, is on WCS’ Board of Advisors. A Goldman executive acknowledged to the New York Times last year, “Clients don't come to us because we have an environmental policy.” NLPC has filed a shareholder proposal for consideration at the Goldman Sachs annual meeting on March 31 in New York City that asks the Board to determine whether Paulson has violated the company’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics....
Does the Gulf of Mexico Hold as Much Oil as Saudi Arabia?
Mexico’s giant Cantarell oil field, in the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan, was supposedly discovered in 1976 after a fisherman named Cantarell reported an oil seep in the Campeche Bay. Last week, Mexico announced finding another giant oil field off Veracruz, the Noxal, estimated to hold more than 10 billion barrels of oil. Exploration yielded surprising results. It turned out that Mexico’s richest oil field complex was created 65 million years ago, when the huge Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth at the end of the Mesozoic Era. Scientists now believe that the Chicxulub meteor impact was the catastrophe the killed the dinosaurs, as well as the cause for creating the Cantrell oil field. The impact crater is massive, estimated to be 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide. The seismic shock of the meteor fractured the bedrock below the Gulf and set off a series of tsunami activity that caused a huge section of land to break off and fall back into the crater under water. Proponents of the abiotic, deep-earth theory of the origin of oil point argue that the deep fracturing of the basement bedrock at Cantarell caused by the meteor’s impact was responsible for allowing oil formed in the Earth’s mantle to seep into the sedimentary rock that settled in the huge underwater crater....
The Myth of Water Privatization Failures
March 22nd is World Water Day. The dire situation that a large chunk of the world's population is in when it comes to water provision will be put on display. With good reason. More than a billion people lack access to clean and safe water, and over two billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Twelve million people die annually of terrible water-borne diseases. The inadequate water supply helps to keep millions of people in poverty. They either have to wait in line, or carry heavy vessels of water, or they are too ill to work or study. Water distribution and sanitation have traditionally been a public responsibility. Currently, 97 percent of water distribution in developing countries is in the hands of governments. So the responsibility for above-described failures and fatalities lies with incompetent and negligent governments. And yet, in the few cases where the private sector has been given a role in water distribution, there have been large and sometimes violent outcries against privatization. Local politicians have used foreign companies in general, and international utilities in particular, as scapegoats. The debate on the role of the private sector has also been present in the West. Opponents to private sector participation claim that reforms have failed. NGOs such as the London-based World Development Movement and the American consumer advocate group Public Citizen argue that privatization has been a huge failure, that the poor have been ignored, and that most contracts have been cancelled. Some have even asserted that Western multinational water companies involved in the business have realized that there is no money to be made on poor people's need for water, and that they therefore are pulling back from developing countries. The facts and figures tell a different story. In most cases highlighted by the opponents, be it Buenos Aires, Argentina; Manila, Philippines; or El Alto, Bolivia, more people have been given access to clean and safe water following privatization. The poor have gained disproportionately in all these cases, since they are more likely than the better-off not to have been served by the operator under the public regime. And once they're hooked up to water sources, they pay dramatically cheaper prices for water than was the case when they were forced to pay for black market water. There are also cases that privatization opponents fail to mention, such as Chile, Cambodia, and Gabon, where success has been striking. Global data from the World Development Indicator database show that more people have access to an improved water source than in countries without such investment....
Capitalism for Water Day
In the time it takes you to read this paragraph at least one child will die from an easily preventable disease. Two million a year, fifty-five hundred a day, some four a minute or one every 15 seconds are killed by diarrhea, something which the availability of simple clean water will almost certainly prevent from happening. That there are one billion of our fellow humans who do not have this basic necessity of life, that there are a further billion or more without sewage or sanitation services, well, don't you think that's an indictment of the modern world? Today is World Water Day and it would seem an appropriate time to actually consider what we should do about this situation. Even if you take the line that all aid is inevitably stolen by corrupt functionaries (which does indeed often happen), think that the rise from this horrendous poverty will largely be determined by the institutions and activities within those poor countries (which I do) perhaps we could at least think through the problem and at the very least not make it worse. My former colleagues at the Globalization Institute in London have released a report on the differences between the private and public provision of water around the world. They place much of the blame for the current problems on the very fact that 95% of the world's potable water is supplied by governments rather than by (properly regulated) private sector providers. Governments are inefficient at providing services, swayed all too easily by the desires of their political supporters, prone to corruption and even worse -- in many parts of the world -- do not have the simple competence (let alone capital) to operate a fully functional system. Very well, as the report states, an obvious solution to this is that water should be provided by private sector firms, profiting from extending access, reducing wastage, increasing the purity of the water itself and generally making the world a better place....
THE WATER REVOLUTION
Ahead of the Fourth World Water Forum (March 16-22, Mexico City), the Sustainable Development Network -- a coalition of over 30 non-governmental organizations -- has released a new book, "The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity."
The authors show, with practical examples, how governments have made water artificially scarce. Where markets have been allowed -- where water is owned and traded -- access is increased, especially for the poor, whose health is consequently improved, and superior outcomes have been achieved for conservation and the environment.
The authors point to many problems plaguing countries with inadequate water supply systems, including:
* The Top-down approach to water management, such as that adopted by China, which usually exacerbates water scarcity, pollution and results in huge losses of water
* A lack of reform in many countries to the massive government subsidies given to agricultural water, which often only benefits wealthy landowners who are politically-connected, at the expense of poor taxpayers and the environment
The authors also show how a privatized water management system can provide benefits over a state run system, for instance:
* Chile's market-driven water system has achieved nearly universal access to water. Between 1970 and 1994, household access to water increased in rural areas from 27 percent to 94 percent, and from 63 percent to 99 percent in urban areas.
* Child mortality due to water-related illnesses dropped significantly after cities in Argentina privatized 30 percent of their municipal water systems in 1990.
* For more than a decade, rural areas of Gujarat, India, have collected rainwater to recharge groundwater aquifers; this creative, innovative and decentralized solution addressed water scarcity which had been induced by the government's obsession with large dams on rivers.
Source: Edited by Kendra Okonski, "The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity," Sustainable Development Network, March 13, 2006; and The 2nd United Nations World Water Development Report, "Water, a shared responsibility," United Nations, March 9, 2006.
For text:http://sdnetwork.net/page.php?instructions=page&page_id=560&nav_id=131
For UN report:http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/
PLF Goes to Supreme Court to Fight a Federal Power Grab
Mark the day: February 21, 2006. On that Tuesday morning at the United States Supreme Court, newly confirmed Justice Samuel Alito will join his colleagues to hear his first oral argument as a member of the court. It’s also a big day for Pacific Legal Foundation, its supporters, and all proponents of limited government and constitutional rights. The lawsuit that leads off the February 21, Supreme Court docket—billed as one of the most important property rights cases to get to the high court in years—is the PLF case of Rapanos v. United States. Will PLF’s client, Michigan resident John Rapanos, finally receive the fairness and justice that have been denied him over the past two decades, when the federal government has gone to extraordinary lengths to bully him in order to halt development of his property? The answer could help determine the balance between federal and local authority on a broad range of subjects through the coming years. At issue in particular is whether Washington’s power over private property—and property owners—will be held in check by traditional constitutional norms, or whether federal regulators will be allowed to push aside state and local officials and assume the role of a national zoning board....
MONTANA OIL AND GAS OPERATOR APPEALS RULING
A small, family-owned, Billings, Montana, oil and gas company today joined with the federal government in appealing an adverse ruling by a Montana federal district court. Macum Energy, which owns oil and gas leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a gas pipeline authorized by the BLM, argues that, contrary to assertions by a Montana environmental group, the BLM complied with federal environmental laws and the leases issued to Macum and the authorization granted for its pipeline are legal and may not be set aside. The appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit follows a January 2006, ruling by the court in favor of the Montana Wilderness Association. “We join with the U.S. Department of Justice in appealing to protect the interest of our client and its ability to continue to transport gas to Montana consumers,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents Macum. "Today may be the first day of spring but winter storms are sweeping across the Mountain West and this is hardly the time to place the delivery of any natural gas supplies at risk. We believe that the BLM complied with federal law prior to first issuing our client’s leases and authorizing its pipeline. If it did not then, it has done so by now.” In September 1999, the BLM made available more than 180 parcels of federal land in a competitive oil and gas lease sale; Macum purchased the three leases at issue in the lawsuit. In November 1999, Macum sought and received permission for a pipeline to deliver natural gas from its previously existing wells to market. In December 1999, Macum installed the pipeline along an existing road. Later, Macum applied for permits to drill (APDs) gas wells on its new leases. In March 2000, BLM's approval process for those APDs was halted when the Montana Wilderness Association sued after it learned President Clinton would create a national monument in the area....
Farm Subsidies: Devastating the World's Poor and the Environment
Subsidized agriculture in the developed world is one of the greatest obstacles to economic growth in the developing world. In 2002, industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent a total of $300 billion on crop price supports, production payments and other farm programs. These subsidies encourage overproduction. Markets are flooded with surplus crops that are sold below the cost of production, depressing world prices. Countries with unsubsidized goods are essentially shut out of world markets, devastating their local economies. Moreover, farm subsidies lead to environmental harm in rich and poor nations alike. Prosperous countries give about $50 billion to $55 billion annually in foreign aid to underdeveloped nations. If developed nations reduced their subsidies and eliminated trade barriers — such as import tariffs protecting domestic producers from international competition — this aid would arguably be unnecessary and rural poverty might be significantly reduced. Historically, agriculture has been a major pillar — if not the foundation — of developing economies because it provides food security, creates employment and generates local capital. For example, in 1790, nearly 90 percent of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture. By 1900, farmers dropped to 38 percent of the labor force, and today they account for less than 1 percent. Agriculture accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Similar trends in other OECD countries indicate that the path to development begins with agriculture....
My Cat Made Me a Criminal
Not yet at least, but I don't live in Colorado. However, if your cat eats a Preble mouse in Colorado, you can be fined for it by the Feds. Only the government could find a way to fine you for something mother nature did, like this instinct making a cat enjoy the taste of mice. This is just another example of the perverse realities currently allowed under our 1973 Endangered Species Act to save a mouse thats not going extinct....
Ethics Group Cites “Tangled” Relationship With Scandal-Plagued Nature Conservancy
Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today described an apparent conflict-of-interest involving Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Henry Paulson and his relationship with the Nature Conservancy. Paulson is Chairman of both Goldman Sachs and the Nature Conservancy. His wife is a former board member of the Nature Conservancy. At issue is the adoption in November 2005 by Goldman Sachs of an “Environmental Policy,” which parallels the Nature Conservancy agenda. It includes several controversial positions related to global warming, logging, and the rights of indigenous peoples in the developing world. Additionally, Goldman Sachs transferred its ownership of a gargantuan tract of 680,000 acres in Chile to a Chilean group connected to the Nature Conservancy, called the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Paulson’s daughter, Merritt Paulson, is on WCS’ Board of Advisors. A Goldman executive acknowledged to the New York Times last year, “Clients don't come to us because we have an environmental policy.” NLPC has filed a shareholder proposal for consideration at the Goldman Sachs annual meeting on March 31 in New York City that asks the Board to determine whether Paulson has violated the company’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics....
Does the Gulf of Mexico Hold as Much Oil as Saudi Arabia?
Mexico’s giant Cantarell oil field, in the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan, was supposedly discovered in 1976 after a fisherman named Cantarell reported an oil seep in the Campeche Bay. Last week, Mexico announced finding another giant oil field off Veracruz, the Noxal, estimated to hold more than 10 billion barrels of oil. Exploration yielded surprising results. It turned out that Mexico’s richest oil field complex was created 65 million years ago, when the huge Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth at the end of the Mesozoic Era. Scientists now believe that the Chicxulub meteor impact was the catastrophe the killed the dinosaurs, as well as the cause for creating the Cantrell oil field. The impact crater is massive, estimated to be 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide. The seismic shock of the meteor fractured the bedrock below the Gulf and set off a series of tsunami activity that caused a huge section of land to break off and fall back into the crater under water. Proponents of the abiotic, deep-earth theory of the origin of oil point argue that the deep fracturing of the basement bedrock at Cantarell caused by the meteor’s impact was responsible for allowing oil formed in the Earth’s mantle to seep into the sedimentary rock that settled in the huge underwater crater....
The Myth of Water Privatization Failures
March 22nd is World Water Day. The dire situation that a large chunk of the world's population is in when it comes to water provision will be put on display. With good reason. More than a billion people lack access to clean and safe water, and over two billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Twelve million people die annually of terrible water-borne diseases. The inadequate water supply helps to keep millions of people in poverty. They either have to wait in line, or carry heavy vessels of water, or they are too ill to work or study. Water distribution and sanitation have traditionally been a public responsibility. Currently, 97 percent of water distribution in developing countries is in the hands of governments. So the responsibility for above-described failures and fatalities lies with incompetent and negligent governments. And yet, in the few cases where the private sector has been given a role in water distribution, there have been large and sometimes violent outcries against privatization. Local politicians have used foreign companies in general, and international utilities in particular, as scapegoats. The debate on the role of the private sector has also been present in the West. Opponents to private sector participation claim that reforms have failed. NGOs such as the London-based World Development Movement and the American consumer advocate group Public Citizen argue that privatization has been a huge failure, that the poor have been ignored, and that most contracts have been cancelled. Some have even asserted that Western multinational water companies involved in the business have realized that there is no money to be made on poor people's need for water, and that they therefore are pulling back from developing countries. The facts and figures tell a different story. In most cases highlighted by the opponents, be it Buenos Aires, Argentina; Manila, Philippines; or El Alto, Bolivia, more people have been given access to clean and safe water following privatization. The poor have gained disproportionately in all these cases, since they are more likely than the better-off not to have been served by the operator under the public regime. And once they're hooked up to water sources, they pay dramatically cheaper prices for water than was the case when they were forced to pay for black market water. There are also cases that privatization opponents fail to mention, such as Chile, Cambodia, and Gabon, where success has been striking. Global data from the World Development Indicator database show that more people have access to an improved water source than in countries without such investment....
Capitalism for Water Day
In the time it takes you to read this paragraph at least one child will die from an easily preventable disease. Two million a year, fifty-five hundred a day, some four a minute or one every 15 seconds are killed by diarrhea, something which the availability of simple clean water will almost certainly prevent from happening. That there are one billion of our fellow humans who do not have this basic necessity of life, that there are a further billion or more without sewage or sanitation services, well, don't you think that's an indictment of the modern world? Today is World Water Day and it would seem an appropriate time to actually consider what we should do about this situation. Even if you take the line that all aid is inevitably stolen by corrupt functionaries (which does indeed often happen), think that the rise from this horrendous poverty will largely be determined by the institutions and activities within those poor countries (which I do) perhaps we could at least think through the problem and at the very least not make it worse. My former colleagues at the Globalization Institute in London have released a report on the differences between the private and public provision of water around the world. They place much of the blame for the current problems on the very fact that 95% of the world's potable water is supplied by governments rather than by (properly regulated) private sector providers. Governments are inefficient at providing services, swayed all too easily by the desires of their political supporters, prone to corruption and even worse -- in many parts of the world -- do not have the simple competence (let alone capital) to operate a fully functional system. Very well, as the report states, an obvious solution to this is that water should be provided by private sector firms, profiting from extending access, reducing wastage, increasing the purity of the water itself and generally making the world a better place....
THE WATER REVOLUTION
Ahead of the Fourth World Water Forum (March 16-22, Mexico City), the Sustainable Development Network -- a coalition of over 30 non-governmental organizations -- has released a new book, "The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity."
The authors show, with practical examples, how governments have made water artificially scarce. Where markets have been allowed -- where water is owned and traded -- access is increased, especially for the poor, whose health is consequently improved, and superior outcomes have been achieved for conservation and the environment.
The authors point to many problems plaguing countries with inadequate water supply systems, including:
* The Top-down approach to water management, such as that adopted by China, which usually exacerbates water scarcity, pollution and results in huge losses of water
* A lack of reform in many countries to the massive government subsidies given to agricultural water, which often only benefits wealthy landowners who are politically-connected, at the expense of poor taxpayers and the environment
The authors also show how a privatized water management system can provide benefits over a state run system, for instance:
* Chile's market-driven water system has achieved nearly universal access to water. Between 1970 and 1994, household access to water increased in rural areas from 27 percent to 94 percent, and from 63 percent to 99 percent in urban areas.
* Child mortality due to water-related illnesses dropped significantly after cities in Argentina privatized 30 percent of their municipal water systems in 1990.
* For more than a decade, rural areas of Gujarat, India, have collected rainwater to recharge groundwater aquifers; this creative, innovative and decentralized solution addressed water scarcity which had been induced by the government's obsession with large dams on rivers.
Source: Edited by Kendra Okonski, "The Water Revolution: Practical Solutions to Water Scarcity," Sustainable Development Network, March 13, 2006; and The 2nd United Nations World Water Development Report, "Water, a shared responsibility," United Nations, March 9, 2006.
For text:http://sdnetwork.net/page.php?instructions=page&page_id=560&nav_id=131
For UN report:http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/
PLF Goes to Supreme Court to Fight a Federal Power Grab
Mark the day: February 21, 2006. On that Tuesday morning at the United States Supreme Court, newly confirmed Justice Samuel Alito will join his colleagues to hear his first oral argument as a member of the court. It’s also a big day for Pacific Legal Foundation, its supporters, and all proponents of limited government and constitutional rights. The lawsuit that leads off the February 21, Supreme Court docket—billed as one of the most important property rights cases to get to the high court in years—is the PLF case of Rapanos v. United States. Will PLF’s client, Michigan resident John Rapanos, finally receive the fairness and justice that have been denied him over the past two decades, when the federal government has gone to extraordinary lengths to bully him in order to halt development of his property? The answer could help determine the balance between federal and local authority on a broad range of subjects through the coming years. At issue in particular is whether Washington’s power over private property—and property owners—will be held in check by traditional constitutional norms, or whether federal regulators will be allowed to push aside state and local officials and assume the role of a national zoning board....
MONTANA OIL AND GAS OPERATOR APPEALS RULING
A small, family-owned, Billings, Montana, oil and gas company today joined with the federal government in appealing an adverse ruling by a Montana federal district court. Macum Energy, which owns oil and gas leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a gas pipeline authorized by the BLM, argues that, contrary to assertions by a Montana environmental group, the BLM complied with federal environmental laws and the leases issued to Macum and the authorization granted for its pipeline are legal and may not be set aside. The appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit follows a January 2006, ruling by the court in favor of the Montana Wilderness Association. “We join with the U.S. Department of Justice in appealing to protect the interest of our client and its ability to continue to transport gas to Montana consumers,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents Macum. "Today may be the first day of spring but winter storms are sweeping across the Mountain West and this is hardly the time to place the delivery of any natural gas supplies at risk. We believe that the BLM complied with federal law prior to first issuing our client’s leases and authorizing its pipeline. If it did not then, it has done so by now.” In September 1999, the BLM made available more than 180 parcels of federal land in a competitive oil and gas lease sale; Macum purchased the three leases at issue in the lawsuit. In November 1999, Macum sought and received permission for a pipeline to deliver natural gas from its previously existing wells to market. In December 1999, Macum installed the pipeline along an existing road. Later, Macum applied for permits to drill (APDs) gas wells on its new leases. In March 2000, BLM's approval process for those APDs was halted when the Montana Wilderness Association sued after it learned President Clinton would create a national monument in the area....
Farm Subsidies: Devastating the World's Poor and the Environment
Subsidized agriculture in the developed world is one of the greatest obstacles to economic growth in the developing world. In 2002, industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent a total of $300 billion on crop price supports, production payments and other farm programs. These subsidies encourage overproduction. Markets are flooded with surplus crops that are sold below the cost of production, depressing world prices. Countries with unsubsidized goods are essentially shut out of world markets, devastating their local economies. Moreover, farm subsidies lead to environmental harm in rich and poor nations alike. Prosperous countries give about $50 billion to $55 billion annually in foreign aid to underdeveloped nations. If developed nations reduced their subsidies and eliminated trade barriers — such as import tariffs protecting domestic producers from international competition — this aid would arguably be unnecessary and rural poverty might be significantly reduced. Historically, agriculture has been a major pillar — if not the foundation — of developing economies because it provides food security, creates employment and generates local capital. For example, in 1790, nearly 90 percent of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture. By 1900, farmers dropped to 38 percent of the labor force, and today they account for less than 1 percent. Agriculture accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Similar trends in other OECD countries indicate that the path to development begins with agriculture....
My Cat Made Me a Criminal
Not yet at least, but I don't live in Colorado. However, if your cat eats a Preble mouse in Colorado, you can be fined for it by the Feds. Only the government could find a way to fine you for something mother nature did, like this instinct making a cat enjoy the taste of mice. This is just another example of the perverse realities currently allowed under our 1973 Endangered Species Act to save a mouse thats not going extinct....
NJ Farm Staffers Traumatized Over Loss of Horses
The receiving barn at Perretti Farms was filled to capacity -- a dozen stalls with 12 mares and their foals -- when a fire broke out early this morning. The 24 horses never had a chance to escape as their stable burned to the ground. The Arson Squad of the New Jersey State Police and the Monmouth County Prosecutors office spent the morning looking through what little remained of the barn searching for clues. State police believe the fire was caused when an electric line that keeps water in the wall-mounted troughs from freezing ignited a center stall about 1:00 a.m. They say the wooden building, piles of hay and petroleum-based wood varnish quickly fueled the flames, and the animals were quickly overcome by the smoke. According to Anthony Perretti of Perretti Farms, “It was very upsetting. We started the farm with no money. It was a potato farm, a vegetable farm. And he built everything you see here, and this is kind of [my father's] baby, his dream.” The animals reportedly died quickly from smoke inhalation as their stable burned around them....
The receiving barn at Perretti Farms was filled to capacity -- a dozen stalls with 12 mares and their foals -- when a fire broke out early this morning. The 24 horses never had a chance to escape as their stable burned to the ground. The Arson Squad of the New Jersey State Police and the Monmouth County Prosecutors office spent the morning looking through what little remained of the barn searching for clues. State police believe the fire was caused when an electric line that keeps water in the wall-mounted troughs from freezing ignited a center stall about 1:00 a.m. They say the wooden building, piles of hay and petroleum-based wood varnish quickly fueled the flames, and the animals were quickly overcome by the smoke. According to Anthony Perretti of Perretti Farms, “It was very upsetting. We started the farm with no money. It was a potato farm, a vegetable farm. And he built everything you see here, and this is kind of [my father's] baby, his dream.” The animals reportedly died quickly from smoke inhalation as their stable burned around them....
Buck Owens, 76
Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died today. He was 76. Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997. His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home. "I think the reason he was so well known and respected by a younger generation of country musicians was because he was an innovator and rebel," said Shaw, who played keyboards in Owens' band, the Buckaroos. "He did it out of the Nashville establishment. He had a raw edge." Owens, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, was modest when describing his aspirations. "I'd like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time," he said in 1992. An indefatigable performer, Owens played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervor. He and the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles. Among his biggest hits were "Together Again" (also recorded by Emmylou Harris), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips a Beat" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line.". Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. With opportunities scarce during the Depression, the family moved to Arizona when he was 8. He dropped out of school at age 13 to haul produce and harvest crops, and by 16 he was playing music in taverns....
Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died today. He was 76. Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997. His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home. "I think the reason he was so well known and respected by a younger generation of country musicians was because he was an innovator and rebel," said Shaw, who played keyboards in Owens' band, the Buckaroos. "He did it out of the Nashville establishment. He had a raw edge." Owens, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, was modest when describing his aspirations. "I'd like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time," he said in 1992. An indefatigable performer, Owens played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervor. He and the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles. Among his biggest hits were "Together Again" (also recorded by Emmylou Harris), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips a Beat" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line.". Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. With opportunities scarce during the Depression, the family moved to Arizona when he was 8. He dropped out of school at age 13 to haul produce and harvest crops, and by 16 he was playing music in taverns....
Friday, March 24, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
BLM hears public's concerns on drilling The "inherent conflict" that exists when the federal government leases the underlying minerals to exploration companies could be eased if surface owners received part of the royalties, several speakers told a Bureau of Land Management "listening tour" Wednesday. "Perhaps a small portion of the royalties that currently go to the federal government, perhaps 1 percent, would smooth things out," said Phil Moyer, of Grand Junction. "There is high conflict because the geography dictates high-density drilling." Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis also urged top BLM resource managers to make recommendations that 1 percent of the royalties go to the surface owners. "Those that own the development rights don't mind the impacts so much because they're getting paid and are less likely to complain," Meis said. "But so far, this suggestion has been laughed at." A number of property owners in resource-rich western Colorado also touted the royalty share proposal and urged the BLM to devote more time, staff and money to inspection of drilling operations and enforcement of regulations. Also high on their list was notification of property owners before lease parcels are offered for sale, with several saying that people often have no idea the mineral rights under their land have been leased until a representative of a drilling company shows up at their door. Many also spoke of damage to their land, noise from drills and service trucks, impacts on water and wildlife, light pollution at night and other disruptions to rural areas....
State, feds differ on split estate It has been nearly nine months since Wyoming's Split Estates Act became law, yet little has happened regarding a showdown with the Bureau of Land Management, which claims the law cannot be applied to millions of acres of federally managed lands in Wyoming. BLM managers will be in Casper Friday to listen to concerns regarding split-estate issues. Laurie Goodman, president of the Landowners Association of Wyoming, said it's important for all citizens to attend the BLM's "listening" sessions, because there's much at stake -- not only for surface owners, but also for those who enjoy all the opportunities federal lands offer. "It's been one year, and the Split Estates Act has not slowed down drilling. It has not caused a huge cost burden on the producers at all. I'm going to ask the BLM, 'Why can't you simply recognize the state's statutes?"' Goodman said. When the BLM took the position that Wyoming's Split Estates Act did not have authority over federal minerals, Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank made it clear the state intends to defend its position that it does. But so far, there have been no legal challenge launched from either side....
Methane wells ordered to halt Saying it's the worst violation it has dealt with in the coalbed methane industry, the Wyoming state engineer's office has ordered a producer to cease production in 14 coalbed methane wells. The office has also issued stop-use orders for at least four storage reservoirs that were in operation without proper permits. "This is the most severe order we've issued," said State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell. The office has not yet decided whether to take legal action against Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc., but it did reject the company's pending applications for 83 wells and several storage reservoirs in the Wild Horse Creek drainage area in eastern Campbell County earlier this month....
Kayak Park Bill hits floor of Colorado Senate With meager runoff the past few years, my runs down the lower Blue River, north of Silverthorne, more often than not ended up with my kayak shoaled out in the shallows, stuck in the mud. That's about where the Colorado State Legislature appears to be with its latest effort to define Recreational In-Channel Diversions (RICDs), those stream flows sought by towns to sustain whitewater kayak parks. Like a water fight among rafters, boaters and traditional water users - developers, ranchers, cities and farmers - are circling each other and splashing the river with their political paddles. If they find a compromise, it could help establish some certainty for how those recreational water rights are claimed and administered. But the bill that's up for discussion on the Senate floor this week would create a second class water right under Colorado's first-in-time, first-in-right doctrine, as The Mountain Mail in Salida reported March 20. At issue is the ability of towns to claim river flows for kayak play areas. Existing state law includes provisions for such facilities, but in a case involving a whitewater park in Gunnison, the Colorado Supreme Court said the rules are still a bit murky, essentially sending the issue back to the Legislature....
Wind Energy Demand Booming: Cost Dropping Below Conventional Sources "When Austin Energy, the publicly owned utility in Austin, Texas, launched its GreenChoice program in 2000, customers opting for green electricity paid a premium. During the fall of 2005, climbing natural gas prices pulled conventional electricity costs above those of wind-generated electricity, the source of most green power. This crossing of the cost lines in Austin and several other communities is a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy economy," says Lester Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute. Austin Energy buys wind-generated electricity under 10-year, fixed-price contracts and passes this stable price on to its GreenChoice subscribers. This fixed-price energy product is quite attractive to Austin's 388 corporate GreenChoice customers, including Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, IBM, Samsung, and 3M. Advanced Micro Devices expects to save $4 million over the next decade through this arrangement. School districts are also signing up. Round Rock School District, for example, projects 10-year savings to local taxpayers at $2 million. A similar situation has unfolded in Colorado with Xcel Energy, which is the state's largest electricity supplier. Xcel's 33,000 Windsource customers, who until late 2005 were paying $6 more each month for their electricity, are now paying slightly less than those using conventional electricity, which comes mostly from natural gas and coal....
16,000 acres of forest offered for sale to Conservation Fund Home to spotted owls, coho salmon and steelhead trout, the Big River tract and the Salmon Creek watershed represent almost 16,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest in Mendocino County. The land is currently owned by the Hopland Timber Company, but may soon be sold to conservationists. "We recognize that there are certain values in those two watersheds and we believe that a conservation group could do good work there," said Stephen Levesque, area manager for Campbell Timber Management, the company overseeing the sale for the Hopland Timber Company. Levesque said the land is not currently up for public sale. The Conservation Fund, a group that gathers money to buy privately held land in order to promote economic development and environmental protection, has been offered the opportunity to buy the land. The group hopes to raise $48 million to purchase the land in order to protect the endangered species living on it. Kelly said the fund plans to raise the $48 million through loans and grants from California Public Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Board. The loans would be repaid from revenue generated by harvesting timber from the land using methods less harmful to the environment....
Beetle 'epidemic' rends Northwest forests The region's largest infestation of mountain pine beetles in 20 years has hit more than a million acres of forests in northern Idaho and Montana, while 2.5 million acres in Washington face disease and insect problems. Recent flight surveys by the U.S. Forest Service and state forest management agencies found that years of drought have left forests in the Northwest vulnerable. The surveys found that 1.1 million acres of forest came under attack by mountain pine beetle in northern Idaho and Montana in 2005, an increase from the 675,000 acres the year before. The Washington Department of Natural Resources reported that mountain pine beetles were at "epidemic" levels, with a 28 percent increase to 554,000 acres. Overall, insect and disease problems are present in 2.5 million of Washington's 21 million acres of forest, up from 1.9 million acres the previous year....
Column: Interior Department Recruits Hunters, Anglers, Yea-Sayers The Department of Interior will announce the formation of the Sporting Conservation Council today, a group of men and women drawn from prominent shooting sports and hunting organizations. According to the press release: "The council will provide important input in the areas of habitat restoration and protection; the impact of energy development on wildlife resources; forest and rangeland health; hunting access to federal lands; and other issues in which the sporting and conservation community can provide a valuable perspective to resource managers and senior leaders throughout the department…" Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton says, "We wanted to find a way of institutionalizing the role of sportsmen and women in the decision-making process at Interior. Now, for the first time, sportsmen and women will have an officially sanctioned committee to advise Interior on issues important to them and the country." Any hint that the current Department of Interior is listening to citizens who spend time in the outdoors, and seem to value wildlife, for whatever reason, is welcome. The forming of the council is a result of the extraordinary activism of hunters and fishermen in opposing some of the most extreme plans of both the Department of Interior and the Bush administration in general....
Owl inducted into owl hall of fame Could it have been any other owl? Fat Broad, the spotted owl from Corvallis, became the first bird inducted into the North American Owl Hall of Fame. Honored earlier the month, Fat Broad is perhaps best remembered as the face of the spotted owl controversy, appearing with a logger in a January 1991 LIFE magazine photograph. ``Neither of them look too happy; it really kind of captured the whole controversy,'' said her longtime handler, Eric Forsman, a U.S. Forest Service research biologist....
National Forests To Allow Corporate Ads he U.S. Forest Service is opening its landscapes, roads, marinas and ski resorts to corporate advertising under new rules slated to become permanent this spring, according to comments filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The rules would also preempt state and local restrictions governing promotion of alcohol, tobacco products and gambling. "Vistas of our national forests may soon include giant inflatable beer bottles, banners for chewing tobacco and snack food kiosks," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "Under this plan, every tacky commercial promotion will be welcomed, subject only to approval by a Bush administration appointee." The focus of the plan is to encourage corporate donations to support "special events, such as races, competitions [and] festivals" on national forest lands....
Judge backs Forest Service on Tomahawk timber sale A federal judge has backed plans by the U.S. Forest Service to allow logging in an area of the Superior National Forest north of Isabella. Judge Joan Erickson said the Forest Service adequately studied the environmental effects of logging in the Tomahawk area, just south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Forest Service received help defending the logging plan in court from the state's timber industry. The Sierra Club filed the suit in federal district court in May to stop the Forest Service from selling trees in the area. The Sierra Club said the Forest Service failed to consider the effects of logging near the BWCAW....
Canyon raft trips shifted; lottery replaces wait list More people will be able to raft down the Colorado River each year, but visitors will be spread out over a longer period of time and will be forced to travel in smaller groups, according to a new plan the National Park Service formally adopted Thursday. More rafters will be shifted to fall, winter and spring months while the number of daily summertime launches will decrease. The result will be more tourists overall. The new plan also eliminates the waiting list for those who want to raft the river in non-commercial boats, replacing it with a lottery system. More than 7,000 trip leaders are on the waiting list, said Jeffrey Cross, project manager for the plan. Many people have been waiting to go on trips for more than a decade, he said....
Climate Data Hint at Irreversible Rise in Seas Within the next 100 years, the growing human influence on Earth's climate could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels by eroding the planet's vast polar ice sheets, according to new observations and analysis by several teams of scientists. One team, using computer models of climate and ice, found that by about 2100, average temperatures could be four degrees higher than today and that over the coming centuries, the oceans could rise 13 to 20 feet — conditions last seen 129,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages. The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes....
87-year-old woman resists selling ranch Marie Wissler wants to hang on to her 814-acre ranch, a rural island of rolling grassland amid custom homes on large lots in northern El Paso County. But Wissler, 87, and the ranch that her late husband’s family homesteaded are facing new pressure. The Lewis-Palmer School District wants 61 acres on the ranch for a second high school. The district has offered Wissler $955,000 for the land. She said no. Property values in the area are soaring, but the price is not the issue. “I don’t need the money,” said Wissler, widowed 12 years ago. She roams the ranch on an ATV and now checks a certain hillside for the purple anemones that herald spring. She said she’s turned down larger sums from developers. Wissler’s three grown daughters, who live in other states, also have said no to the school district. Dave Dilley, district superintendent, said the school board is reviewing its legal rights. The Wissler family says that means an eminent domain claim and forced sale through condemnation. Dilley said district officials have never used those terms....
BLM hears public's concerns on drilling The "inherent conflict" that exists when the federal government leases the underlying minerals to exploration companies could be eased if surface owners received part of the royalties, several speakers told a Bureau of Land Management "listening tour" Wednesday. "Perhaps a small portion of the royalties that currently go to the federal government, perhaps 1 percent, would smooth things out," said Phil Moyer, of Grand Junction. "There is high conflict because the geography dictates high-density drilling." Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis also urged top BLM resource managers to make recommendations that 1 percent of the royalties go to the surface owners. "Those that own the development rights don't mind the impacts so much because they're getting paid and are less likely to complain," Meis said. "But so far, this suggestion has been laughed at." A number of property owners in resource-rich western Colorado also touted the royalty share proposal and urged the BLM to devote more time, staff and money to inspection of drilling operations and enforcement of regulations. Also high on their list was notification of property owners before lease parcels are offered for sale, with several saying that people often have no idea the mineral rights under their land have been leased until a representative of a drilling company shows up at their door. Many also spoke of damage to their land, noise from drills and service trucks, impacts on water and wildlife, light pollution at night and other disruptions to rural areas....
State, feds differ on split estate It has been nearly nine months since Wyoming's Split Estates Act became law, yet little has happened regarding a showdown with the Bureau of Land Management, which claims the law cannot be applied to millions of acres of federally managed lands in Wyoming. BLM managers will be in Casper Friday to listen to concerns regarding split-estate issues. Laurie Goodman, president of the Landowners Association of Wyoming, said it's important for all citizens to attend the BLM's "listening" sessions, because there's much at stake -- not only for surface owners, but also for those who enjoy all the opportunities federal lands offer. "It's been one year, and the Split Estates Act has not slowed down drilling. It has not caused a huge cost burden on the producers at all. I'm going to ask the BLM, 'Why can't you simply recognize the state's statutes?"' Goodman said. When the BLM took the position that Wyoming's Split Estates Act did not have authority over federal minerals, Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank made it clear the state intends to defend its position that it does. But so far, there have been no legal challenge launched from either side....
Methane wells ordered to halt Saying it's the worst violation it has dealt with in the coalbed methane industry, the Wyoming state engineer's office has ordered a producer to cease production in 14 coalbed methane wells. The office has also issued stop-use orders for at least four storage reservoirs that were in operation without proper permits. "This is the most severe order we've issued," said State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell. The office has not yet decided whether to take legal action against Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc., but it did reject the company's pending applications for 83 wells and several storage reservoirs in the Wild Horse Creek drainage area in eastern Campbell County earlier this month....
Kayak Park Bill hits floor of Colorado Senate With meager runoff the past few years, my runs down the lower Blue River, north of Silverthorne, more often than not ended up with my kayak shoaled out in the shallows, stuck in the mud. That's about where the Colorado State Legislature appears to be with its latest effort to define Recreational In-Channel Diversions (RICDs), those stream flows sought by towns to sustain whitewater kayak parks. Like a water fight among rafters, boaters and traditional water users - developers, ranchers, cities and farmers - are circling each other and splashing the river with their political paddles. If they find a compromise, it could help establish some certainty for how those recreational water rights are claimed and administered. But the bill that's up for discussion on the Senate floor this week would create a second class water right under Colorado's first-in-time, first-in-right doctrine, as The Mountain Mail in Salida reported March 20. At issue is the ability of towns to claim river flows for kayak play areas. Existing state law includes provisions for such facilities, but in a case involving a whitewater park in Gunnison, the Colorado Supreme Court said the rules are still a bit murky, essentially sending the issue back to the Legislature....
Wind Energy Demand Booming: Cost Dropping Below Conventional Sources "When Austin Energy, the publicly owned utility in Austin, Texas, launched its GreenChoice program in 2000, customers opting for green electricity paid a premium. During the fall of 2005, climbing natural gas prices pulled conventional electricity costs above those of wind-generated electricity, the source of most green power. This crossing of the cost lines in Austin and several other communities is a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy economy," says Lester Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute. Austin Energy buys wind-generated electricity under 10-year, fixed-price contracts and passes this stable price on to its GreenChoice subscribers. This fixed-price energy product is quite attractive to Austin's 388 corporate GreenChoice customers, including Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, IBM, Samsung, and 3M. Advanced Micro Devices expects to save $4 million over the next decade through this arrangement. School districts are also signing up. Round Rock School District, for example, projects 10-year savings to local taxpayers at $2 million. A similar situation has unfolded in Colorado with Xcel Energy, which is the state's largest electricity supplier. Xcel's 33,000 Windsource customers, who until late 2005 were paying $6 more each month for their electricity, are now paying slightly less than those using conventional electricity, which comes mostly from natural gas and coal....
16,000 acres of forest offered for sale to Conservation Fund Home to spotted owls, coho salmon and steelhead trout, the Big River tract and the Salmon Creek watershed represent almost 16,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest in Mendocino County. The land is currently owned by the Hopland Timber Company, but may soon be sold to conservationists. "We recognize that there are certain values in those two watersheds and we believe that a conservation group could do good work there," said Stephen Levesque, area manager for Campbell Timber Management, the company overseeing the sale for the Hopland Timber Company. Levesque said the land is not currently up for public sale. The Conservation Fund, a group that gathers money to buy privately held land in order to promote economic development and environmental protection, has been offered the opportunity to buy the land. The group hopes to raise $48 million to purchase the land in order to protect the endangered species living on it. Kelly said the fund plans to raise the $48 million through loans and grants from California Public Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Board. The loans would be repaid from revenue generated by harvesting timber from the land using methods less harmful to the environment....
Beetle 'epidemic' rends Northwest forests The region's largest infestation of mountain pine beetles in 20 years has hit more than a million acres of forests in northern Idaho and Montana, while 2.5 million acres in Washington face disease and insect problems. Recent flight surveys by the U.S. Forest Service and state forest management agencies found that years of drought have left forests in the Northwest vulnerable. The surveys found that 1.1 million acres of forest came under attack by mountain pine beetle in northern Idaho and Montana in 2005, an increase from the 675,000 acres the year before. The Washington Department of Natural Resources reported that mountain pine beetles were at "epidemic" levels, with a 28 percent increase to 554,000 acres. Overall, insect and disease problems are present in 2.5 million of Washington's 21 million acres of forest, up from 1.9 million acres the previous year....
Column: Interior Department Recruits Hunters, Anglers, Yea-Sayers The Department of Interior will announce the formation of the Sporting Conservation Council today, a group of men and women drawn from prominent shooting sports and hunting organizations. According to the press release: "The council will provide important input in the areas of habitat restoration and protection; the impact of energy development on wildlife resources; forest and rangeland health; hunting access to federal lands; and other issues in which the sporting and conservation community can provide a valuable perspective to resource managers and senior leaders throughout the department…" Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton says, "We wanted to find a way of institutionalizing the role of sportsmen and women in the decision-making process at Interior. Now, for the first time, sportsmen and women will have an officially sanctioned committee to advise Interior on issues important to them and the country." Any hint that the current Department of Interior is listening to citizens who spend time in the outdoors, and seem to value wildlife, for whatever reason, is welcome. The forming of the council is a result of the extraordinary activism of hunters and fishermen in opposing some of the most extreme plans of both the Department of Interior and the Bush administration in general....
Owl inducted into owl hall of fame Could it have been any other owl? Fat Broad, the spotted owl from Corvallis, became the first bird inducted into the North American Owl Hall of Fame. Honored earlier the month, Fat Broad is perhaps best remembered as the face of the spotted owl controversy, appearing with a logger in a January 1991 LIFE magazine photograph. ``Neither of them look too happy; it really kind of captured the whole controversy,'' said her longtime handler, Eric Forsman, a U.S. Forest Service research biologist....
National Forests To Allow Corporate Ads he U.S. Forest Service is opening its landscapes, roads, marinas and ski resorts to corporate advertising under new rules slated to become permanent this spring, according to comments filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The rules would also preempt state and local restrictions governing promotion of alcohol, tobacco products and gambling. "Vistas of our national forests may soon include giant inflatable beer bottles, banners for chewing tobacco and snack food kiosks," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "Under this plan, every tacky commercial promotion will be welcomed, subject only to approval by a Bush administration appointee." The focus of the plan is to encourage corporate donations to support "special events, such as races, competitions [and] festivals" on national forest lands....
Judge backs Forest Service on Tomahawk timber sale A federal judge has backed plans by the U.S. Forest Service to allow logging in an area of the Superior National Forest north of Isabella. Judge Joan Erickson said the Forest Service adequately studied the environmental effects of logging in the Tomahawk area, just south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Forest Service received help defending the logging plan in court from the state's timber industry. The Sierra Club filed the suit in federal district court in May to stop the Forest Service from selling trees in the area. The Sierra Club said the Forest Service failed to consider the effects of logging near the BWCAW....
Canyon raft trips shifted; lottery replaces wait list More people will be able to raft down the Colorado River each year, but visitors will be spread out over a longer period of time and will be forced to travel in smaller groups, according to a new plan the National Park Service formally adopted Thursday. More rafters will be shifted to fall, winter and spring months while the number of daily summertime launches will decrease. The result will be more tourists overall. The new plan also eliminates the waiting list for those who want to raft the river in non-commercial boats, replacing it with a lottery system. More than 7,000 trip leaders are on the waiting list, said Jeffrey Cross, project manager for the plan. Many people have been waiting to go on trips for more than a decade, he said....
Climate Data Hint at Irreversible Rise in Seas Within the next 100 years, the growing human influence on Earth's climate could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels by eroding the planet's vast polar ice sheets, according to new observations and analysis by several teams of scientists. One team, using computer models of climate and ice, found that by about 2100, average temperatures could be four degrees higher than today and that over the coming centuries, the oceans could rise 13 to 20 feet — conditions last seen 129,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages. The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes....
87-year-old woman resists selling ranch Marie Wissler wants to hang on to her 814-acre ranch, a rural island of rolling grassland amid custom homes on large lots in northern El Paso County. But Wissler, 87, and the ranch that her late husband’s family homesteaded are facing new pressure. The Lewis-Palmer School District wants 61 acres on the ranch for a second high school. The district has offered Wissler $955,000 for the land. She said no. Property values in the area are soaring, but the price is not the issue. “I don’t need the money,” said Wissler, widowed 12 years ago. She roams the ranch on an ATV and now checks a certain hillside for the purple anemones that herald spring. She said she’s turned down larger sums from developers. Wissler’s three grown daughters, who live in other states, also have said no to the school district. Dave Dilley, district superintendent, said the school board is reviewing its legal rights. The Wissler family says that means an eminent domain claim and forced sale through condemnation. Dilley said district officials have never used those terms....
Thursday, March 23, 2006
FLE
Oregon man cleared of petroglyph theft says 'my life was trashed'
One of two men whose federal conviction for stealing American Indian artwork was overturned says the pair simply wanted to protect the ancient petroglyphs from encroaching development. Carroll Mizell, who served 10 months in prison after being found guilty in June 2004 of stealing the rock art, said "we wanted to save the property. "My whole intent was to free these things so they wouldn't be destroyed," Mizell told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Redmond, Ore. "We didn't do this because we wanted to put them on e-Bay," he said. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department failed to prove the rock art taken from a national forest on the edge of Reno had a market value of more than $1,000, a requirement for a felony conviction of government theft. Mizell and John Ligon of Reno admitted during their federal court trial in Reno that they took three boulders with etchings of an archer and bighorn sheep from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest....
Supreme Court Backs Searches in Some Cases
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot always search a home when one resident says to come in but another objects, and the court's new leader complained that the ruling could hamper investigations of domestic abuse. Justices, in a 5-3 decision, said that police did not have the authority to enter and search the home of a small town Georgia lawyer even though the man's wife invited them in. The officers, who did not have a search warrant, found evidence of illegal drugs. The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches covers a scenario when one home occupant wants to allow a search and another occupant does not. The ruling by Justice David H. Souter stopped short of fully answering that question - saying only that in the Georgia case it was clear that Scott Fitz Randolph denied the officers entry. In his first written dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said that "the end result is a complete lack of practical guidance for the police in the field, let alone for the lower courts." The case fractured a court that has shown surprising unanimity in the five months since Roberts became chief justice. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas filed separate dissents, and Justice John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer wrote their own opinions to explain their votes in favor of the man whose home was searched....
New Scrutiny for Law on Detaining Witnesses
A 22-year-old federal law that allows people to be held without charges if they have information about others' crimes is coming under fresh scrutiny in the courts, in Congress and within the Justice Department after reports that it has been abused in terrorism investigations. The law allows so-called material witnesses to be held long enough to secure their testimony if there is reason to think they will flee. But lawyers for people detained as material witnesses say the law has been used to hold people who the government fears will commit terrorist acts in the future but whom it lacks probable cause to charge with a crime. Concerns about how the law has been used have prompted calls from across the political spectrum for a reassessment. That debate has also ignited a broader one: whether the United States should join the several Western nations that have straightforward preventive detention laws. A bill introduced by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, would curtail the use of the material witness law to hold people suspected of plotting terrorist acts. Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said he would introduce similar legislation in the House. "It's being stretched beyond its original purpose," Mr. Flake said of the material witness law. "Individuals are being indefinitely detained who might be suspects. If that's the case, they need to be charged." But Mr. Flake added that he might be receptive to arguments that federal prosecutors need tools to hold some people they consider dangerous. "If you need something else," he said, "come to us." Recent prosecutions, lawsuits and internal investigations by the government have all focused attention on the potential misuse of the material witness law in terrorism investigations. The Justice Department, for instance, recently opened an inquiry into 21 instances of possible misuses of the law, its Office of the Inspector General said. A Justice Department spokesman would not elaborate on the inquiry, by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or name the detainees involved....
F.B.I. Agent Testifies Superiors Didn't Pursue Moussaoui Case
The F.B.I. agent who arrested and interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui just weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks told a jury on Monday how he had tried repeatedly to get his superiors in Washington to help confirm his certainty that Mr. Moussaoui was involved in an imminent terrorist airline hijacking plot. But, said the agent, Harry Samit, he was regularly thwarted by senior bureau officials whose obstructionism he later described to Justice Department investigators as "criminally negligent" and who were, he believed, motivated principally by a need to protect their careers. Mr. Samit's testimony added a wealth of detail to the notion that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation played down, ignored and purposely mischaracterized the increasingly dire warnings from field agents in the Minneapolis office that they had a terrorist on their hands in Mr. Moussaoui. "I accused the people in F.B.I. headquarters of criminal negligence" in an interview after Sept. 11, Mr. Samit acknowledged under intense questioning by Edward B. MacMahon Jr., Mr. Moussaoui's chief court-appointed lawyer. Mr. Samit confirmed that he had told Justice Department investigators that the senior agents in Washington "took a calculated risk not to advance the investigation" by refusing to seek search warrants for Mr. Moussaoui's belongings and computer. He testified that he had come to believe that "the wager was a national tragedy." Mr. Samit was a witness for the prosecution, which is trying to have Mr. Moussaoui executed for the deaths that occurred on Sept. 11. In his direct testimony more than a week ago, he bolstered the prosecutors' case by saying that had Mr. Moussaoui answered his questions honestly when he arrested him for immigration violations, it would have set off a chain of inquiries that could have foiled the Sept. 11 plot. But under Mr. MacMahon's questions, Mr. Samit provided much new evidence and testimony suggesting strongly that the more significant factors in the failure to learn of the plot from Mr. Moussaoui involved the decisions of senior F.B.I. officials....
Top FBI Official Unaware of Moussaoui Terror Ties
The FBI official in charge of international terrorism before September 11 said on Tuesday he did not know an agent had warned three weeks before the hijackings that he suspected Zacarias Moussaoui was plotting a terrorist act. Michael Rolince, the chief of the FBI's international terrorism operation section in 2001, testified at Moussaoui's sentencing trial that he was unaware of a long report written by the FBI agent spelling out his theories. Harry Samit, the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui three weeks before the deadly airliner hijackings that killed 3,000 people, testified on Monday that agency superiors repeatedly blocked his efforts to warn of a possible terror attack. Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member, has pleaded guilty to six charges of conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks. The trial -- the only one in the United States in connection with the attacks -- will determine if he is sentenced to death. Samit said after questioning Moussaoui he knew the Frenchman of Moroccan descent had ``radical Islamic fundamentalist beliefs'' and thought he was part of a bigger plot to attack the United States. In a message to his superiors on August 18, 2001, Samit said he believed Moussaoui was ''conspiring to commit a terrorist act.'' But Rolince said although he knew of Moussaoui's arrest, he did not know about the contents of a long message that Samit had sent to FBI headquarters....
FBI, police spying is rising, groups allege
Political activists from New York to Colorado to California report that they believe police and FBI surveillance of their activities has increased markedly since the terror attacks 4-1/2 years ago since Congress approved the USA Patriot Act loosening some of the strictures on law enforcement. They include environmental groups like Time's UP!, peace activists in Pittsburgh, and even a police union protesting for higher wages in New York City. To try to find out if law officers are spying on them, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed Freedom of Information requests for more than 150 groups and individuals in more than 20 states who believe their first amendment rights are being violated. Time's UP! is one of the groups that says the alleged surveillance is aimed at intimidating them. They acknowledge public events can be watched by anyone but they're concerned police have crossed the line into inappropriate spying to discourage people's from publicly criticizing government policies. Local police and the FBI insist that none of their activities is aimed at chilling political speech. All investigations are conducted under strict guidelines put in place after abuses were documented during the Civil Rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Before any investigation of a political group proceeds, law officers require reasonable suspicion or information that an individual or a group is involved in criminal or terrorist-related activities....
Disarming the Law-Abiding
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ residents got an idea of what life is like without the rule of law. They had no telephones, no way to call 911. Even if they had, the police who reported for duty were busy with rescue missions, not fighting crime. Citizens had to protect themselves. This was made rather difficult by the city’s confiscation of guns, even from law-abiding citizens. After five months of denial in federal district court, the city last week made an embarrassing admission: in the aftermath of the hurricane, the severely overworked police apparently had the time to confiscate thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens. Numerous media stories have shown how useful guns were to the ordinary citizens of New Orleans who weren’t forcibly disarmed. Fox News reported several defensive gun uses. One city resident, John Carolan, was taking care of many family members, including his three-year-old granddaughter, when three men came to his house asking about his generator, threatening him with a machete. Carolan showed them his gun and they left. Another resident, Finis Shelnutt, recounts a similar story that the gangs left him alone after seeing “I have a very large gun.” Signs painted on boarded up windows in various parts of town warned criminals in advance not to try: the owner had shotguns inside. Last September 8, a little more than a week after the hurricane, New Orleans’ police superintendent, Eddie Compass announced: “No one will be able to be armed. Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns.” Even legally registered firearms were seized, though exceptions were made for select businesses and for some wealthy individuals to hire guards. Undoubtedly, selected businesses and well-connected wealthy individuals had good reason to want protection, but so did others without the same political pull. One mother saw the need for a gun after she and her two children (ages 9 and 12) saw someone killed in New Orleans after the hurricane. The mother said: “I was a card-carrying, anti-gun liberal – not anymore.” John C. Guidos was successfully guarding his tavern on St. Claude Ave on September 7, when police took his shotgun and pistol; indeed, it was the only time that he saw any cops. Soon afterwards robbers looted the tavern....
Airline screeners fail government bomb tests
Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports. In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials. NBC News briefed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission, on the results. "I'm appalled," he said. "I'm dismayed and, yes, to a degree, it does surprise me. Because I thought the Department of Homeland Security was making some progress on this, and evidently they're not." Investigators for the Government Accountability Office conducted the tests between October and January, at the request of Congress. The goal was to determine how vulnerable U.S. airlines are to a suicide bomber using cheap, readily available materials....
Death raises concern at police tactics The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States. Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions. Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force. The 37-year-old optometrist was unarmed, he had no history of violence and displayed no threatening behaviour. But he had been under investigation for illegal gambling and in line with a local police policy on "organised crime" raids, the heavily armed team was there to serve a search warrant. As officers approached with their weapons drawn, tragedy struck. A handgun was accidentally discharged, fatally wounding Dr Culosi. Two months on, investigations into the incident are still continuing, a delay which Dr Culosi's family says is compounding the "horror and burden of it all". Peter Kraska, an expert on police militarisation from Eastern Kentucky University, says that in the 1980s there were about 3,000 Swat team deployments annually across the US, but says now there are at least 40,000 per year....
N.Y.C.'s crime fight to get more eyes
The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city - and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel" that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday. The police cameras will constantly keep watch over neighborhoods plagued by crime and monitor potential terror targets as the city moves to put another 1,200 cops on the street, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The exact locations of the cameras were not revealed, but the electronic eyes will be set up in 253 spots, including many Operation Impact zones - high-crime areas already targeted by teams of cops. "They'll serve to reinforce safety already stabilized by Operation Impact, and serve as a high-visibility deterrent and investigative tool in other outdoor, public places," Kelly said. Recording high-quality images, the electronic sentinels will help the city's Finest track down criminals and terrorists as well as provide valuable evidence to convict them. Most of the cameras will be clearly marked so crooks know that their every move is being recorded by the cops....
Pulled over in Kansas? Get ready to show your license, registration — and fingerprints
If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don’t be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints. The gadget allows officers to identify people by fingerprints without hauling them to the police station. Over the next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will test 60 of the devices with law enforcement agencies around the state. State officials said similar tests are being planned for New York, Milwaukee and Hawaii. “This is definitely new,” said Gary Page, Overland Park Police Department crime lab. “It’s been talked about, but as far as I know they are not in use anywhere in the metro.” The tests in Kansas are part of a bigger $3.6 million upgrade to the KBI’s statewide fingerprint database, unveiled Tuesday by the KBI and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. Called the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System, it is a statewide database of more than 10 million fingerprints taken from people arrested in Kansas. The Missouri Highway Patrol maintains a similar database. Both systems link to the FBI fingerprint database....
Oregon man cleared of petroglyph theft says 'my life was trashed'
One of two men whose federal conviction for stealing American Indian artwork was overturned says the pair simply wanted to protect the ancient petroglyphs from encroaching development. Carroll Mizell, who served 10 months in prison after being found guilty in June 2004 of stealing the rock art, said "we wanted to save the property. "My whole intent was to free these things so they wouldn't be destroyed," Mizell told The Associated Press on Wednesday from Redmond, Ore. "We didn't do this because we wanted to put them on e-Bay," he said. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department failed to prove the rock art taken from a national forest on the edge of Reno had a market value of more than $1,000, a requirement for a felony conviction of government theft. Mizell and John Ligon of Reno admitted during their federal court trial in Reno that they took three boulders with etchings of an archer and bighorn sheep from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest....
Supreme Court Backs Searches in Some Cases
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot always search a home when one resident says to come in but another objects, and the court's new leader complained that the ruling could hamper investigations of domestic abuse. Justices, in a 5-3 decision, said that police did not have the authority to enter and search the home of a small town Georgia lawyer even though the man's wife invited them in. The officers, who did not have a search warrant, found evidence of illegal drugs. The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches covers a scenario when one home occupant wants to allow a search and another occupant does not. The ruling by Justice David H. Souter stopped short of fully answering that question - saying only that in the Georgia case it was clear that Scott Fitz Randolph denied the officers entry. In his first written dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said that "the end result is a complete lack of practical guidance for the police in the field, let alone for the lower courts." The case fractured a court that has shown surprising unanimity in the five months since Roberts became chief justice. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas filed separate dissents, and Justice John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer wrote their own opinions to explain their votes in favor of the man whose home was searched....
New Scrutiny for Law on Detaining Witnesses
A 22-year-old federal law that allows people to be held without charges if they have information about others' crimes is coming under fresh scrutiny in the courts, in Congress and within the Justice Department after reports that it has been abused in terrorism investigations. The law allows so-called material witnesses to be held long enough to secure their testimony if there is reason to think they will flee. But lawyers for people detained as material witnesses say the law has been used to hold people who the government fears will commit terrorist acts in the future but whom it lacks probable cause to charge with a crime. Concerns about how the law has been used have prompted calls from across the political spectrum for a reassessment. That debate has also ignited a broader one: whether the United States should join the several Western nations that have straightforward preventive detention laws. A bill introduced by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, would curtail the use of the material witness law to hold people suspected of plotting terrorist acts. Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said he would introduce similar legislation in the House. "It's being stretched beyond its original purpose," Mr. Flake said of the material witness law. "Individuals are being indefinitely detained who might be suspects. If that's the case, they need to be charged." But Mr. Flake added that he might be receptive to arguments that federal prosecutors need tools to hold some people they consider dangerous. "If you need something else," he said, "come to us." Recent prosecutions, lawsuits and internal investigations by the government have all focused attention on the potential misuse of the material witness law in terrorism investigations. The Justice Department, for instance, recently opened an inquiry into 21 instances of possible misuses of the law, its Office of the Inspector General said. A Justice Department spokesman would not elaborate on the inquiry, by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or name the detainees involved....
F.B.I. Agent Testifies Superiors Didn't Pursue Moussaoui Case
The F.B.I. agent who arrested and interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui just weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks told a jury on Monday how he had tried repeatedly to get his superiors in Washington to help confirm his certainty that Mr. Moussaoui was involved in an imminent terrorist airline hijacking plot. But, said the agent, Harry Samit, he was regularly thwarted by senior bureau officials whose obstructionism he later described to Justice Department investigators as "criminally negligent" and who were, he believed, motivated principally by a need to protect their careers. Mr. Samit's testimony added a wealth of detail to the notion that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation played down, ignored and purposely mischaracterized the increasingly dire warnings from field agents in the Minneapolis office that they had a terrorist on their hands in Mr. Moussaoui. "I accused the people in F.B.I. headquarters of criminal negligence" in an interview after Sept. 11, Mr. Samit acknowledged under intense questioning by Edward B. MacMahon Jr., Mr. Moussaoui's chief court-appointed lawyer. Mr. Samit confirmed that he had told Justice Department investigators that the senior agents in Washington "took a calculated risk not to advance the investigation" by refusing to seek search warrants for Mr. Moussaoui's belongings and computer. He testified that he had come to believe that "the wager was a national tragedy." Mr. Samit was a witness for the prosecution, which is trying to have Mr. Moussaoui executed for the deaths that occurred on Sept. 11. In his direct testimony more than a week ago, he bolstered the prosecutors' case by saying that had Mr. Moussaoui answered his questions honestly when he arrested him for immigration violations, it would have set off a chain of inquiries that could have foiled the Sept. 11 plot. But under Mr. MacMahon's questions, Mr. Samit provided much new evidence and testimony suggesting strongly that the more significant factors in the failure to learn of the plot from Mr. Moussaoui involved the decisions of senior F.B.I. officials....
Top FBI Official Unaware of Moussaoui Terror Ties
The FBI official in charge of international terrorism before September 11 said on Tuesday he did not know an agent had warned three weeks before the hijackings that he suspected Zacarias Moussaoui was plotting a terrorist act. Michael Rolince, the chief of the FBI's international terrorism operation section in 2001, testified at Moussaoui's sentencing trial that he was unaware of a long report written by the FBI agent spelling out his theories. Harry Samit, the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui three weeks before the deadly airliner hijackings that killed 3,000 people, testified on Monday that agency superiors repeatedly blocked his efforts to warn of a possible terror attack. Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member, has pleaded guilty to six charges of conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks. The trial -- the only one in the United States in connection with the attacks -- will determine if he is sentenced to death. Samit said after questioning Moussaoui he knew the Frenchman of Moroccan descent had ``radical Islamic fundamentalist beliefs'' and thought he was part of a bigger plot to attack the United States. In a message to his superiors on August 18, 2001, Samit said he believed Moussaoui was ''conspiring to commit a terrorist act.'' But Rolince said although he knew of Moussaoui's arrest, he did not know about the contents of a long message that Samit had sent to FBI headquarters....
FBI, police spying is rising, groups allege
Political activists from New York to Colorado to California report that they believe police and FBI surveillance of their activities has increased markedly since the terror attacks 4-1/2 years ago since Congress approved the USA Patriot Act loosening some of the strictures on law enforcement. They include environmental groups like Time's UP!, peace activists in Pittsburgh, and even a police union protesting for higher wages in New York City. To try to find out if law officers are spying on them, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed Freedom of Information requests for more than 150 groups and individuals in more than 20 states who believe their first amendment rights are being violated. Time's UP! is one of the groups that says the alleged surveillance is aimed at intimidating them. They acknowledge public events can be watched by anyone but they're concerned police have crossed the line into inappropriate spying to discourage people's from publicly criticizing government policies. Local police and the FBI insist that none of their activities is aimed at chilling political speech. All investigations are conducted under strict guidelines put in place after abuses were documented during the Civil Rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Before any investigation of a political group proceeds, law officers require reasonable suspicion or information that an individual or a group is involved in criminal or terrorist-related activities....
Disarming the Law-Abiding
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ residents got an idea of what life is like without the rule of law. They had no telephones, no way to call 911. Even if they had, the police who reported for duty were busy with rescue missions, not fighting crime. Citizens had to protect themselves. This was made rather difficult by the city’s confiscation of guns, even from law-abiding citizens. After five months of denial in federal district court, the city last week made an embarrassing admission: in the aftermath of the hurricane, the severely overworked police apparently had the time to confiscate thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens. Numerous media stories have shown how useful guns were to the ordinary citizens of New Orleans who weren’t forcibly disarmed. Fox News reported several defensive gun uses. One city resident, John Carolan, was taking care of many family members, including his three-year-old granddaughter, when three men came to his house asking about his generator, threatening him with a machete. Carolan showed them his gun and they left. Another resident, Finis Shelnutt, recounts a similar story that the gangs left him alone after seeing “I have a very large gun.” Signs painted on boarded up windows in various parts of town warned criminals in advance not to try: the owner had shotguns inside. Last September 8, a little more than a week after the hurricane, New Orleans’ police superintendent, Eddie Compass announced: “No one will be able to be armed. Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns.” Even legally registered firearms were seized, though exceptions were made for select businesses and for some wealthy individuals to hire guards. Undoubtedly, selected businesses and well-connected wealthy individuals had good reason to want protection, but so did others without the same political pull. One mother saw the need for a gun after she and her two children (ages 9 and 12) saw someone killed in New Orleans after the hurricane. The mother said: “I was a card-carrying, anti-gun liberal – not anymore.” John C. Guidos was successfully guarding his tavern on St. Claude Ave on September 7, when police took his shotgun and pistol; indeed, it was the only time that he saw any cops. Soon afterwards robbers looted the tavern....
Airline screeners fail government bomb tests
Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports. In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials. NBC News briefed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission, on the results. "I'm appalled," he said. "I'm dismayed and, yes, to a degree, it does surprise me. Because I thought the Department of Homeland Security was making some progress on this, and evidently they're not." Investigators for the Government Accountability Office conducted the tests between October and January, at the request of Congress. The goal was to determine how vulnerable U.S. airlines are to a suicide bomber using cheap, readily available materials....
Death raises concern at police tactics The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States. Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions. Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force. The 37-year-old optometrist was unarmed, he had no history of violence and displayed no threatening behaviour. But he had been under investigation for illegal gambling and in line with a local police policy on "organised crime" raids, the heavily armed team was there to serve a search warrant. As officers approached with their weapons drawn, tragedy struck. A handgun was accidentally discharged, fatally wounding Dr Culosi. Two months on, investigations into the incident are still continuing, a delay which Dr Culosi's family says is compounding the "horror and burden of it all". Peter Kraska, an expert on police militarisation from Eastern Kentucky University, says that in the 1980s there were about 3,000 Swat team deployments annually across the US, but says now there are at least 40,000 per year....
N.Y.C.'s crime fight to get more eyes
The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city - and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel" that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday. The police cameras will constantly keep watch over neighborhoods plagued by crime and monitor potential terror targets as the city moves to put another 1,200 cops on the street, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The exact locations of the cameras were not revealed, but the electronic eyes will be set up in 253 spots, including many Operation Impact zones - high-crime areas already targeted by teams of cops. "They'll serve to reinforce safety already stabilized by Operation Impact, and serve as a high-visibility deterrent and investigative tool in other outdoor, public places," Kelly said. Recording high-quality images, the electronic sentinels will help the city's Finest track down criminals and terrorists as well as provide valuable evidence to convict them. Most of the cameras will be clearly marked so crooks know that their every move is being recorded by the cops....
Pulled over in Kansas? Get ready to show your license, registration — and fingerprints
If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don’t be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints. The gadget allows officers to identify people by fingerprints without hauling them to the police station. Over the next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will test 60 of the devices with law enforcement agencies around the state. State officials said similar tests are being planned for New York, Milwaukee and Hawaii. “This is definitely new,” said Gary Page, Overland Park Police Department crime lab. “It’s been talked about, but as far as I know they are not in use anywhere in the metro.” The tests in Kansas are part of a bigger $3.6 million upgrade to the KBI’s statewide fingerprint database, unveiled Tuesday by the KBI and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. Called the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System, it is a statewide database of more than 10 million fingerprints taken from people arrested in Kansas. The Missouri Highway Patrol maintains a similar database. Both systems link to the FBI fingerprint database....
Of Mice and Men
Here in Colorado, the hottest political issue of the day may not be the war in Iraq or the out-of-control federal budget, but rather the plight of a tiny mouse. Back in 1998, a frisky eight-inch rodent known as the Preble's meadow jumping mouse gained protective status under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). What has Coloradans hot under the collar is that some 31,000 acres of local government and privately owned land in the state and stretching into Wyoming--an area larger than the District of Columbia--was essentially quarantined from all development so as not to disrupt the mouse's natural habitat. Even the Fish and Wildlife Service concedes that the cost to these land owners could reach $183 million. What we have here is arguably the most contentious dispute over the economic impact of the ESA since the famous early-'90s clash between the timber industry and the environmentalist lobby over the "endangered" listing of the spotted owl in the Northwest. That dispute eventually forced the closure of nearly 200 mills and the loss of thousands of jobs. Last week the war over the fate of the Preble's mouse escalated when a coalition of enraged homeowners, developers and farmers petitioned the Department of the Interior to have the mouse immediately delisted as "endangered" because of reliance on faulty data. The property-rights coalition would seem to have a fairly persuasive case based on the latest research on the mouse. It turns out that not only is the mouse not endangered, but it isn't even a unique species. The man who is almost singlehandedly responsible for exposing the truth about the Preble's mouse is Rob Roy Ramey, a biologist and lifelong conservationist, who used to serve as a curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Mr. Ramey's research--published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Animal Conservation--concluded that the Preble's mouse "is not a valid subspecies based on physical features and genetics." The scientist who conducted the original research classifying Preble's as unique now agrees with Mr. Ramey's assessment. Even scientists who defend extending the mouse's "endangered" status admit that it is 99.5% genetically similar to other strains of mice....
Here in Colorado, the hottest political issue of the day may not be the war in Iraq or the out-of-control federal budget, but rather the plight of a tiny mouse. Back in 1998, a frisky eight-inch rodent known as the Preble's meadow jumping mouse gained protective status under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). What has Coloradans hot under the collar is that some 31,000 acres of local government and privately owned land in the state and stretching into Wyoming--an area larger than the District of Columbia--was essentially quarantined from all development so as not to disrupt the mouse's natural habitat. Even the Fish and Wildlife Service concedes that the cost to these land owners could reach $183 million. What we have here is arguably the most contentious dispute over the economic impact of the ESA since the famous early-'90s clash between the timber industry and the environmentalist lobby over the "endangered" listing of the spotted owl in the Northwest. That dispute eventually forced the closure of nearly 200 mills and the loss of thousands of jobs. Last week the war over the fate of the Preble's mouse escalated when a coalition of enraged homeowners, developers and farmers petitioned the Department of the Interior to have the mouse immediately delisted as "endangered" because of reliance on faulty data. The property-rights coalition would seem to have a fairly persuasive case based on the latest research on the mouse. It turns out that not only is the mouse not endangered, but it isn't even a unique species. The man who is almost singlehandedly responsible for exposing the truth about the Preble's mouse is Rob Roy Ramey, a biologist and lifelong conservationist, who used to serve as a curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Mr. Ramey's research--published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Animal Conservation--concluded that the Preble's mouse "is not a valid subspecies based on physical features and genetics." The scientist who conducted the original research classifying Preble's as unique now agrees with Mr. Ramey's assessment. Even scientists who defend extending the mouse's "endangered" status admit that it is 99.5% genetically similar to other strains of mice....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Coyote's on prowl in park An "adventurous" coyote that has roamed Central Park for four days shook off pursuers with dart guns and eluded capture last night. Park officers and cops cornered the coyote - only the second spotted in the park in seven years - in the 4-acre Hallett Nature Center about 5 p.m. But it leaped over a fence and vanished. "The wily coyote escaped," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. As NYPD aviation units flew overhead, park enforcement control officers hunted the tawny creature, which left a pile of feathers from its last meal in the preserve. Benepe believes the coyote, which weighs about 60 pounds and resembles a lean German shepherd, came from Westchester County or the Bronx, either swimming across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek or crossing a bridge....
Cops catch wily coyote A wild coyote's run through Manhattan came to an end this morning when he was taken down by a tranquilizer dart in Central Park as a national audience watched live on television. The tawny-colored male coyote, nicknamed 'Hal,' was captured after leading authorities on a picturesque chase through the park. He eluded authorities several times by ducking under a bridge, running through ball fields and using the Wollman ice skating rink as an escape hatch. But around 10 a.m., as news helicopters whirled overhead, the coyote ran out of moves. He was shot with a dart by an NYPD police officer near Belvedere Castle, close to 79th Street and Central Park West....
Mining company, Nevada ranch reduce grazing in deal with enviros The world's biggest gold mining company and a sprawling Nevada ranch have agreed to dramatically reduce livestock grazing across nearly 800 square miles of rangeland - four-fifths of it federally owned - in a deal conservationists say is a major victory for the environment. The agreement reduces grazing levels by up to 75 percent through February 2007 across a vast stretch of land leased from the federal government by Barrick Goldstrike Co. of Canada and Ellison Ranching Co. of Tuscarora, Nev. The companies also agreed to lower grazing levels on some land they own. Officials of the Bureau of Land Management confirmed Wednesday that the settlement was reached in negotiations between the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and the two companies. As a result, the conservation group agreed to drop efforts to block all livestock grazing on the 596 square miles of public land in the area. "It's a major reduction in livestock use - a great victory for fish and wildlife," Katie Fite, the project's director of biodiversity, told The Associated Press....
Are lawmakers trying to sabotage a state land initiative? The Arizona Legislature is moving closer to putting a proposition on the November ballot to compete with a citizen initiative to reform the state trust land system. The House of Representatives voted 32-23 last week to approve House Concurrent Resolution 2045, which would ask voters to set aside an initial 42,000 acres of state trust land for conservation. But the proposal is a lousy deal compared to Conserving Arizona's Future, an ongoing initiative campaign that also seeks to reform the state land system, says Steve Roman, a political consultant who is among the campaign's leaders. State trust land reform has been a contentious environmental issue for years in Arizona. About 11 million acres were set aside at statehood to be held in trust for a variety of beneficiaries, primarily schoolchildren. State trust land was originally laid out across the state in a checkerboard pattern, with little consideration to any ecological value the parcels might have....
Extermination Of Santa Cruz Island Pigs Nearing Completion The hunting of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island has eliminated them on about 85 percent of the land, which will reopen to camping, authorities said. The National Park Service said Monday that it is ending a camping ban on some areas of the island. The ban was imposed in November for safety reasons while a New Zealand-based company killed the pigs in those areas. The animals are descended from pigs brought to the island by ranchers in the 1850s. Authorities say they destroy native plants and archaeological sites and threaten rare animals such as the Santa Cruz Island fox. Since last April, about 4,800 pigs have been killed, said Yvonne Menard, a park service spokeswoman. The $5-million hunt is expected to finish clearing the 96-square-mile island of pigs by next summer....
Column: We can hasten forest recovery How U.S. forests look 100 years from now depends on the decisions we make today. Most Americans sit on the side of forest management debates. As long as they can buy lumber and vacation in forested mountains, all must be right with the world. But nearly 12.5 million acres have burned in the West in the past five years. Lumber demand, meanwhile, is at an all-time high. Too often after fires, we watch valuable timber simply rot. Look at Julian outside San Diego, or around the Giant Sequoia National Monument where the McNally Fire burned 150,000 acres. The difference between reforesting charred landscapes and leaving them alone to let nature take its course can be stark. Private forestland owners harvest dead trees after fires to accelerate the return of a healthy forest. They plant native-species seedlings, minimize erosion and provide diverse wildlife habitat. But on public lands, it's a different story....
Firefighter hiring practices studied The U.S. Forest Service must strengthen its oversight of contract firefighters hired to battle wildfires and take steps to ensure those workers have sufficient training and English language skills, a federal audit has concluded. Questions were raised about the effectiveness of the crews the agency hires through contractors following the 2002 Biscuit fire, which burned nearly 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon and cost nearly $150 million to douse. Fire bosses noted numerous problems with poorly trained and inexperienced contract crews in the Pacific Northwest that year, prompting reviews by the Government Accountability Office and others. In a new audit released yesterday, the U.S. Agriculture Department's inspector general found that the Forest Service had corrected some of the problems identified in earlier reports, but other issues remained unresolved....
Column: Eco-crime and Punishment In case you hadn't noticed, 12 young people (average age 33) have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson in several Western states. The 83-page indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in Oregon, and it must be important because the story made the front page of the Western edition of the New York Times on Jan. 21. Above the crease. In commenting on their arrests (some are being held without bail), Attorney General Gonzales and FBI chief Mueller played the "domestic eco-terrorism" card before the media, often dropping the "eco" part. Arson, terrorism or not, is, of course, a crime, a serious crime of which the dozen have only been accused. Fire scares people. It would scare me, if I were in one. But a bunch of unarmed treehuggers torching some trucks and buildings (including a ski-resort restaurant at Vail and a packing plant for wild mustangs) at night, after making certain that no two-leggeds or four-leggeds were anywhere close, is not, it seems to me, something I would compare to taking out the Oklahoma City Federal Building during working hours. The 12, by the way (shades of the Dirty Dozen?) are now 11. Bill Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz., managed to take his life with a plastic bag while in custody. One of his several suicide notes, the one addressed to "my friends and supporters," reads:....
Groups Urge Removal of Logging Executive from Forestry Panel More than a dozen public interest and environmental organizations today protested the presence of a top forest products industry executive on a National Academies of Science (NAS) committee charged with evaluating the impact of forest management practices on the nation’s water quality. The NAS appointed George Weyerhaeuser, Jr., a vice president of Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the largest forest products companies in the world, to the Hydrologic Impacts of Forest Management Committee despite NAS rules prohibiting the appointment of scientists with conflicts of interest to its advisory panels. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation had asked for the study committee, whose first meeting is Wednesday. “This study committee will have a direct impact the Weyerhaeuser Company so having an executive from that company on the panel is a direct conflict of interest,” said Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest....
Group backs delisting plan for Yellowstone-area grizzlies A leading organization of wildlife scientists on Wednesday announced its support for lifting Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area. The Wildlife Society was joined by the National Wildlife Federation, which reaffirmed its support for the plan just two days after a letter signed by over 250 scientists and researchers was sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to oppose "delisting" the bears. "This is to make sure that the public understands there is a debate within the scientific community. And many scientists and biologists are very much behind delisting because we really have achieved a success for bears in Yellowstone," Tom France, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Northern Rockies office, said in an interview. "We're just trying to balance the record," he added....
Building, farm groups challenge 'endangered' listing of killer whales The Washington state Farm Bureau and the Building Industry Association of Washington filed suit in federal court this week, seeking to invalidate the listing of Puget Sound's killer whales as an endangered species. The listing, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service last November, "will result in needless water and land-use restrictions on Washington farms, especially those located near rivers inhabited by salmon," the orcas' prime food source, the groups wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday. "As a result, farmers could face fines and even imprisonment for the most basic farm practices should such actions allegedly disturb salmon," they wrote — a scenario environmentalists described as far-fetched, though deliberately harassing a protected species can carry a year in jail. The groups' lawyers, Russell C. Brooks and Andrew C. Cook of the Pacific Legal Foundation, attempt to base their complaint against the fisheries service on a fine technical point: The three orca pods that live in Western Washington inland waters from late spring to early fall every year are a distinct population of a subspecies, the Northern Pacific resident orcas, which include orcas off Alaska and Russia. Under the Endangered Species Act, the lawyers argue, only a distinct population of a species — not a subspecies — can be listed....
Officials plan more sea lion harassment Officials in Oregon and Washington are hoping to close the "Bonneville buffet" in April. Hazing of sea lions below the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam will be expanded 12 miles downriver on the Columbia River the first week of April into concerted effort by Fish and Wildlife departments in both states, as well as ongoing efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers, to try to curb salmon losses at the choke point for fish passage. "The activities between the dam and Marker 85 (12 miles downriver), will focus on individual animals utilizing all of the tools that are available to us for hazing techniques," said Steve Williams. "In an attempt to address the salmon issue, but also the sturgeon issue ..." The high-profile situation at the dam, with footage on nightly newscasts of California sea lions munching on spring-run chinook salmon, some federally protected, and Stellar sea lions killing and eating spawning-size sturgeon, caused commission member Skip Klarquist of Portland to refer to the situation as the "Bonneville buffet."....
Group seeks federal protection for grouse In the early 1870s, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse were so numerous in Utah that "scores" were reported killed when they flew into the first telegraph wire in Cache Valley. Today the birds are extinct along the Wasatch Front. The 11,000 Columbian sharp-tailed grouse found in a pocket in and around Box Elder County are all that remain in Utah, according to Utah Division of Wildlife Resources data. "Today, sharp-tailed grouse in the West are leading a precarious existence," wrote DWR officials in a recent report on the birds. On Monday, a coalition of conservation groups went to court in an attempt to change that, demanding the federal government begin the process that could give the birds protected status under the Endangered Species Act....
Column: Domino effect of Klamath River mismanagement Management of Northern California's remote Klamath River could well serve as the ultimate model of a federal government gone completely haywire - strangled by agencies with overlapping responsibilities, stymied by politicians who refuse to make cogent decisions and governed by unbendable laws that prohibit any common sense or semblance of cooperation. In 2002, mismanagement of the Klamath resulted in a fish kill of 78,000 adult king salmon, not to mention the deaths of 100,000 juveniles that didn't make it to the ocean. Since salmon have a four-year lifecycle, effects of that devastating kill are haunting us now. Federal biologists predict 29,000 salmon will return to spawn this year, well below the 35,000 goals set for the river by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. But here's the rub. Klamath River salmon mingle with other salmon and migrate up and down more than 700 miles of the California coastline. While the Sacramento River produces more than 85 percent of salmon found off the coast - more than 650,000 adult chinook are cruising about the ocean this year - the fact that anglers will catch some Klamath River salmon has put the whole season in doubt....
Road guidelines issued Outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton issued guidelines Wednesday defining what qualifies as a locally owned road and likely sparking a new round of disputes between environmentalists and local development interests. Norton's memo outlining the policy upholds a September ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that state officials say is good news but environmentalists say threatens protected areas with potential road construction and maintenance. But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in a case brought by SUWA that the Bureau of Land Management did not have the authority to determine what constituted a road and rejected several requirements a road claim needed to meet, such as that roads must be established by mechanical construction. SUWA had long contended that county governments were grading cattle trails, streambeds and long-abandoned jeep tracks across public lands to hurt the chances of the land from being designated as wilderness. The court also ruled that while only courts could finally determine the ownership issue, state law — such as Utah's statute that says an R.S.2477 route is a road if it had continuous use for 10 years prior to 1976 — is good enough to establish a right of way....Go here to see Interior's press release.
Secretary Norton Names Paul Hoffman As New Deputy Assistant Secretary For Performance, Accountability And Human Resources Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Policy Management and Budget Tom Weimer today announced the appointment of Paul Hoffman as the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Performance, Accountability and Human Resources. Hoffman, who has served for four years as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, replaces Scott Cameron, who recently left Interior for the private sector. "We are glad to tap Paul's management expertise to assist with the challenges of Interior's complex responsibilities," Weimer said. "We know that he can hit the ground running from his four years of stellar accomplishments in the Fish and Wildlife and Parks office at the department." While at Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Hoffman was a champion for many of the President's Management Agenda goals....Paul should be congratulated for taking the Parkies head on, but this is what happens to anyone who does. The Republicans control the White House, both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, but still don't have the power/guts to successfully take on the Parkies.
BLM reviewing drilling rules he Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Jim Hughes is in Grand Junction today hearing testimony on changing the rules for natural gas drillers working on land owned by people who don’t own the rights to the riches under their land. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing its policies and procedures for administering Federal natural gas and oil resources under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The agency owns much of the mineral rights to natural gas rich Western Colorado, where many landowners have discovered they do not control access to mineral wealth lying below. A bill is pending in the state legislature to give landowners additional clout in negotiating payment for damages from drilling....
Western states dig for middle ground on 'split estate' The construction crew showed up at Orlyn and Carol Bell's 110-acre ranch in western Colorado and began clearing a road to build a drilling pad for four natural gas wells on their hay pasture. For the Bells, the bulldozers arriving capped nine months of frustrating negotiations with energy giant EnCana over how the company would drill on their land. When the construction was imminent in September 2004, the couple capitulated to the company's terms: a payment of $2,000 for each of the roughly 8 acres used for drilling, roads and pipelines, rather than $4,500 an acre they had sought. The Bells' experience reflects a sometimes painful reality in much of the West, where people who own millions of acres don't own the minerals below ground. For landowners without mineral rights, there is nothing they can do to prevent drilling on their property, and often little they can do if the energy company declines to be helpful. That land-ownership pattern, much of it a holdover from 19th-century homesteading laws that gave settlers free land but left the mineral rights with the government, is known as a "split estate." Today, the federal Bureau of Land Management controls mineral rights on about 58 million acres of private land and is selling the rights at a rapid pace to energy companies. Mineral rights on millions more acres are controlled by private parties other than landowners....
Land preservation pushed Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson on Wednesday presented draft legislation that would create a comprehensive plan for managing public lands in Washington County and preserve more than 219,000 acres of southern Utah land in and near Zion National Park as wilderness. Highlights of the proposal include selling around 25,000 acres of public land and using 15 percent of the proceeds for public education, water projects and fire and flood protection. The other 85 percent of the money would be earmarked to preserve historic rangeland and vital watersheds, buy more land to protect endangered species, and improve conservation efforts on numerous projects throughout the county. The proposal would designate 219,299 acres as wilderness , including 123,743 acres of National Park Service land within Zion National Park, plus 92,914 acres of Bureau of Land Management Land and 2,642 acres of Forest Service Land. The additions would mean nearly 280,000 acres in Washington County would be managed under the National Wilderness Preservation System. For the first time ever in Utah, 170 miles of the Virgin River within Zion National Park would receive protection under the Wild and Scenic River Act. The proposed legislation also would preserve 61,000 acres of desert-tortoise habitat to the north of St. George, as the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. A system of trails for off-highway vehicles would be identified and managed for responsible use. Utility, transportation and water corridors, including the Lake Powell pipeline, would also be designated....
Park Service plans to hold captured bison for later release Officials at Yellowstone National Park captured about 300 bison near the park's northern border yesterday. They plan to hold them until there's sufficient spring forage in the park, to keep the animals from wandering into Montana looking for food. Park spokesman Al Nash says it could be two to three weeks before the bison are released from the Stephens Creek capture site. The hazing and capture of bison is allowed under a state-federal management plan, aimed at reducing the risk that bison will spread brucellosis to cattle in Montana. Nash says holding the bison temporarily keeps them from mingling with cattle, and allows for their eventual release....
Conservation group seeks farmer, rancher opinions on natural resources Starting this week, 1,800 farmers and ranchers across the southern High Plains will be receiving a survey in the mail asking for their opinions about the Ogallala Aquifer, wetlands, and other natural resources in the region. The questionnaire – entitled the "High Plains Landowner Survey" – is being conducted by the Playa Lakes Joint Venture, a non-profit partnership of wildlife and agriculture agencies, corporations and conservation groups and landowners dedicated to conserving wildlife habitat in the Ogallala Aquifer region. The survey aims to assess agricultural producers' experience with and willingness to conduct natural resource conservation. The data collected will help resource managers create future and modify existing conservation programs to better serve producers' needs. "Private landowners and land managers are key to our country's agricultural productivity and natural resource conservation. Their opinions count tremendously in the development of programs and incentives to maintain sustainable working lands and wildlife habitat." said PLJV Communications Team Leader Debbie Slobe....
Supervisors to continue open range discussion Tehama County is still considering a grazing ordinance. With a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors voted to continue discussing a possible ordinance that would establish the right of cattlemen to graze cattle in the county and decrease their liability in cases where a car collides with a cow. Supervisors Charles Willard and Ron Warner urged the board to end the discussion after seven years despite cattlemen arguing that without an ordinance, the agricultural landscape of Tehama County would be forever changed. If passed, the ordinance would label almost two-thirds of the unincorporated county as chiefly devoted to grazing. It would establish the right of cattlemen to graze livestock and, the cattlemen argued, it is necessary to help the county's $17 million cattle industry afford insurance and continue business in the county....
Western Grasslands' pasture-raised beef stampedes to fast sales growth Since taking control of Western Grasslands in December 2004, Graves has helped Western become what he believes is the biggest U.S. company raising grass-fed beef, with nearly threefold growth in sales last year. "We want to make 'grass-fed' synonymous with Western Grasslands," he said. Western Grasslands procures most of its beef from Northern California ranches. It does not have a true headquarters. Year-round availability makes Western Grasslands unique among grass-fed beef companies, said Rick Harrison, an owner of Pete's Valley Cattle, based in Woodland, and one of 43 West Coast ranchers whom Graves said have agreed to follow stringent guidelines for raising grass-fed beef cattle for sale to Western Grasslands. "We're year-round, not seasonal. Western Grasslands' grass-fed beef sales have increased steadily since it was established in 2002. "We had a little more than $6 million in sales in 2005, grossing about 2.5 times over the previous year," said Graves, who declined to provide profit tallies. "We're budgeting to be about 2.5 times larger at the end of 2006."....
Reserve land opens for grazing The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday announced that ranchers in 27 Texas counties hit by recent wildfires can graze their cattle on land that's part of a federal conservation program and bale hay off of it, both at no charge. Ranchers in six Oklahoma counties whose land has burned also can use the Conservation Reserve Program land. Program participants in the two states' counties can voluntarily remove excess dry grass cover on land enrolled in the federal land management plan, which also will help reduce fuel for any potential fires. County offices of the USDA's Farm Service Agency will grant authority on a case-by-case basis for program participants to remove the dry grass for the next 30 days....
Cowboy Collectibles Bill Manns, who's profiled in our April print feature ("Playing Cowboys with Authentic Gear", has spent a lifetime collecting western memorabilia, much of which forms the basis for historic Old West books he creates at Zon Publishing. According to Bill, there still are western-collectible treasures to be found. "Look on eBay or Antiques Roadshow, and you realize how many things are still in people's households, unbelievable numbers of things." However, not every old thing stuck in the attic is a valuable collectible. Nor is refurbishing a bona fide antique always a great idea. Here, Bill offers some guidelines for the budding western-memorabilia collector to use the next time he or she raids grandma's attic or visits the local second-hand store....
Cowboy Cooking Chicken fajitas with sliced onion and bell peppers. Stolen chicken, drunken peach cobbler (with half a cup of Jack Daniels) and migas with pico de gallo. These are just a few of the tantalizing — and intriguing — recipes you will find in Texas Chuckwagon Cuisine – Real Cowboy Cooking by Evan Moore. The small, pocket-sized book packs a punch with recipes for colorful dishes like warm cowboy bread, splatter dabs and chuckwagon mush (potatoes and onion with two cups of corn bread, real good with eggs on a cold morning). Many of the recipes come from generous contributors, but Moore himself contributed his recipe for cornmeal pancakes with chopped onion, jalapeño and black pepper....
Coyote's on prowl in park An "adventurous" coyote that has roamed Central Park for four days shook off pursuers with dart guns and eluded capture last night. Park officers and cops cornered the coyote - only the second spotted in the park in seven years - in the 4-acre Hallett Nature Center about 5 p.m. But it leaped over a fence and vanished. "The wily coyote escaped," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. As NYPD aviation units flew overhead, park enforcement control officers hunted the tawny creature, which left a pile of feathers from its last meal in the preserve. Benepe believes the coyote, which weighs about 60 pounds and resembles a lean German shepherd, came from Westchester County or the Bronx, either swimming across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek or crossing a bridge....
Cops catch wily coyote A wild coyote's run through Manhattan came to an end this morning when he was taken down by a tranquilizer dart in Central Park as a national audience watched live on television. The tawny-colored male coyote, nicknamed 'Hal,' was captured after leading authorities on a picturesque chase through the park. He eluded authorities several times by ducking under a bridge, running through ball fields and using the Wollman ice skating rink as an escape hatch. But around 10 a.m., as news helicopters whirled overhead, the coyote ran out of moves. He was shot with a dart by an NYPD police officer near Belvedere Castle, close to 79th Street and Central Park West....
Mining company, Nevada ranch reduce grazing in deal with enviros The world's biggest gold mining company and a sprawling Nevada ranch have agreed to dramatically reduce livestock grazing across nearly 800 square miles of rangeland - four-fifths of it federally owned - in a deal conservationists say is a major victory for the environment. The agreement reduces grazing levels by up to 75 percent through February 2007 across a vast stretch of land leased from the federal government by Barrick Goldstrike Co. of Canada and Ellison Ranching Co. of Tuscarora, Nev. The companies also agreed to lower grazing levels on some land they own. Officials of the Bureau of Land Management confirmed Wednesday that the settlement was reached in negotiations between the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and the two companies. As a result, the conservation group agreed to drop efforts to block all livestock grazing on the 596 square miles of public land in the area. "It's a major reduction in livestock use - a great victory for fish and wildlife," Katie Fite, the project's director of biodiversity, told The Associated Press....
Are lawmakers trying to sabotage a state land initiative? The Arizona Legislature is moving closer to putting a proposition on the November ballot to compete with a citizen initiative to reform the state trust land system. The House of Representatives voted 32-23 last week to approve House Concurrent Resolution 2045, which would ask voters to set aside an initial 42,000 acres of state trust land for conservation. But the proposal is a lousy deal compared to Conserving Arizona's Future, an ongoing initiative campaign that also seeks to reform the state land system, says Steve Roman, a political consultant who is among the campaign's leaders. State trust land reform has been a contentious environmental issue for years in Arizona. About 11 million acres were set aside at statehood to be held in trust for a variety of beneficiaries, primarily schoolchildren. State trust land was originally laid out across the state in a checkerboard pattern, with little consideration to any ecological value the parcels might have....
Extermination Of Santa Cruz Island Pigs Nearing Completion The hunting of feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island has eliminated them on about 85 percent of the land, which will reopen to camping, authorities said. The National Park Service said Monday that it is ending a camping ban on some areas of the island. The ban was imposed in November for safety reasons while a New Zealand-based company killed the pigs in those areas. The animals are descended from pigs brought to the island by ranchers in the 1850s. Authorities say they destroy native plants and archaeological sites and threaten rare animals such as the Santa Cruz Island fox. Since last April, about 4,800 pigs have been killed, said Yvonne Menard, a park service spokeswoman. The $5-million hunt is expected to finish clearing the 96-square-mile island of pigs by next summer....
Column: We can hasten forest recovery How U.S. forests look 100 years from now depends on the decisions we make today. Most Americans sit on the side of forest management debates. As long as they can buy lumber and vacation in forested mountains, all must be right with the world. But nearly 12.5 million acres have burned in the West in the past five years. Lumber demand, meanwhile, is at an all-time high. Too often after fires, we watch valuable timber simply rot. Look at Julian outside San Diego, or around the Giant Sequoia National Monument where the McNally Fire burned 150,000 acres. The difference between reforesting charred landscapes and leaving them alone to let nature take its course can be stark. Private forestland owners harvest dead trees after fires to accelerate the return of a healthy forest. They plant native-species seedlings, minimize erosion and provide diverse wildlife habitat. But on public lands, it's a different story....
Firefighter hiring practices studied The U.S. Forest Service must strengthen its oversight of contract firefighters hired to battle wildfires and take steps to ensure those workers have sufficient training and English language skills, a federal audit has concluded. Questions were raised about the effectiveness of the crews the agency hires through contractors following the 2002 Biscuit fire, which burned nearly 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon and cost nearly $150 million to douse. Fire bosses noted numerous problems with poorly trained and inexperienced contract crews in the Pacific Northwest that year, prompting reviews by the Government Accountability Office and others. In a new audit released yesterday, the U.S. Agriculture Department's inspector general found that the Forest Service had corrected some of the problems identified in earlier reports, but other issues remained unresolved....
Column: Eco-crime and Punishment In case you hadn't noticed, 12 young people (average age 33) have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson in several Western states. The 83-page indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in Oregon, and it must be important because the story made the front page of the Western edition of the New York Times on Jan. 21. Above the crease. In commenting on their arrests (some are being held without bail), Attorney General Gonzales and FBI chief Mueller played the "domestic eco-terrorism" card before the media, often dropping the "eco" part. Arson, terrorism or not, is, of course, a crime, a serious crime of which the dozen have only been accused. Fire scares people. It would scare me, if I were in one. But a bunch of unarmed treehuggers torching some trucks and buildings (including a ski-resort restaurant at Vail and a packing plant for wild mustangs) at night, after making certain that no two-leggeds or four-leggeds were anywhere close, is not, it seems to me, something I would compare to taking out the Oklahoma City Federal Building during working hours. The 12, by the way (shades of the Dirty Dozen?) are now 11. Bill Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz., managed to take his life with a plastic bag while in custody. One of his several suicide notes, the one addressed to "my friends and supporters," reads:....
Groups Urge Removal of Logging Executive from Forestry Panel More than a dozen public interest and environmental organizations today protested the presence of a top forest products industry executive on a National Academies of Science (NAS) committee charged with evaluating the impact of forest management practices on the nation’s water quality. The NAS appointed George Weyerhaeuser, Jr., a vice president of Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the largest forest products companies in the world, to the Hydrologic Impacts of Forest Management Committee despite NAS rules prohibiting the appointment of scientists with conflicts of interest to its advisory panels. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation had asked for the study committee, whose first meeting is Wednesday. “This study committee will have a direct impact the Weyerhaeuser Company so having an executive from that company on the panel is a direct conflict of interest,” said Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest....
Group backs delisting plan for Yellowstone-area grizzlies A leading organization of wildlife scientists on Wednesday announced its support for lifting Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area. The Wildlife Society was joined by the National Wildlife Federation, which reaffirmed its support for the plan just two days after a letter signed by over 250 scientists and researchers was sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to oppose "delisting" the bears. "This is to make sure that the public understands there is a debate within the scientific community. And many scientists and biologists are very much behind delisting because we really have achieved a success for bears in Yellowstone," Tom France, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Northern Rockies office, said in an interview. "We're just trying to balance the record," he added....
Building, farm groups challenge 'endangered' listing of killer whales The Washington state Farm Bureau and the Building Industry Association of Washington filed suit in federal court this week, seeking to invalidate the listing of Puget Sound's killer whales as an endangered species. The listing, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service last November, "will result in needless water and land-use restrictions on Washington farms, especially those located near rivers inhabited by salmon," the orcas' prime food source, the groups wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday. "As a result, farmers could face fines and even imprisonment for the most basic farm practices should such actions allegedly disturb salmon," they wrote — a scenario environmentalists described as far-fetched, though deliberately harassing a protected species can carry a year in jail. The groups' lawyers, Russell C. Brooks and Andrew C. Cook of the Pacific Legal Foundation, attempt to base their complaint against the fisheries service on a fine technical point: The three orca pods that live in Western Washington inland waters from late spring to early fall every year are a distinct population of a subspecies, the Northern Pacific resident orcas, which include orcas off Alaska and Russia. Under the Endangered Species Act, the lawyers argue, only a distinct population of a species — not a subspecies — can be listed....
Officials plan more sea lion harassment Officials in Oregon and Washington are hoping to close the "Bonneville buffet" in April. Hazing of sea lions below the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam will be expanded 12 miles downriver on the Columbia River the first week of April into concerted effort by Fish and Wildlife departments in both states, as well as ongoing efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers, to try to curb salmon losses at the choke point for fish passage. "The activities between the dam and Marker 85 (12 miles downriver), will focus on individual animals utilizing all of the tools that are available to us for hazing techniques," said Steve Williams. "In an attempt to address the salmon issue, but also the sturgeon issue ..." The high-profile situation at the dam, with footage on nightly newscasts of California sea lions munching on spring-run chinook salmon, some federally protected, and Stellar sea lions killing and eating spawning-size sturgeon, caused commission member Skip Klarquist of Portland to refer to the situation as the "Bonneville buffet."....
Group seeks federal protection for grouse In the early 1870s, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse were so numerous in Utah that "scores" were reported killed when they flew into the first telegraph wire in Cache Valley. Today the birds are extinct along the Wasatch Front. The 11,000 Columbian sharp-tailed grouse found in a pocket in and around Box Elder County are all that remain in Utah, according to Utah Division of Wildlife Resources data. "Today, sharp-tailed grouse in the West are leading a precarious existence," wrote DWR officials in a recent report on the birds. On Monday, a coalition of conservation groups went to court in an attempt to change that, demanding the federal government begin the process that could give the birds protected status under the Endangered Species Act....
Column: Domino effect of Klamath River mismanagement Management of Northern California's remote Klamath River could well serve as the ultimate model of a federal government gone completely haywire - strangled by agencies with overlapping responsibilities, stymied by politicians who refuse to make cogent decisions and governed by unbendable laws that prohibit any common sense or semblance of cooperation. In 2002, mismanagement of the Klamath resulted in a fish kill of 78,000 adult king salmon, not to mention the deaths of 100,000 juveniles that didn't make it to the ocean. Since salmon have a four-year lifecycle, effects of that devastating kill are haunting us now. Federal biologists predict 29,000 salmon will return to spawn this year, well below the 35,000 goals set for the river by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. But here's the rub. Klamath River salmon mingle with other salmon and migrate up and down more than 700 miles of the California coastline. While the Sacramento River produces more than 85 percent of salmon found off the coast - more than 650,000 adult chinook are cruising about the ocean this year - the fact that anglers will catch some Klamath River salmon has put the whole season in doubt....
Road guidelines issued Outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton issued guidelines Wednesday defining what qualifies as a locally owned road and likely sparking a new round of disputes between environmentalists and local development interests. Norton's memo outlining the policy upholds a September ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that state officials say is good news but environmentalists say threatens protected areas with potential road construction and maintenance. But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in a case brought by SUWA that the Bureau of Land Management did not have the authority to determine what constituted a road and rejected several requirements a road claim needed to meet, such as that roads must be established by mechanical construction. SUWA had long contended that county governments were grading cattle trails, streambeds and long-abandoned jeep tracks across public lands to hurt the chances of the land from being designated as wilderness. The court also ruled that while only courts could finally determine the ownership issue, state law — such as Utah's statute that says an R.S.2477 route is a road if it had continuous use for 10 years prior to 1976 — is good enough to establish a right of way....Go here to see Interior's press release.
Secretary Norton Names Paul Hoffman As New Deputy Assistant Secretary For Performance, Accountability And Human Resources Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Policy Management and Budget Tom Weimer today announced the appointment of Paul Hoffman as the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Performance, Accountability and Human Resources. Hoffman, who has served for four years as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, replaces Scott Cameron, who recently left Interior for the private sector. "We are glad to tap Paul's management expertise to assist with the challenges of Interior's complex responsibilities," Weimer said. "We know that he can hit the ground running from his four years of stellar accomplishments in the Fish and Wildlife and Parks office at the department." While at Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Hoffman was a champion for many of the President's Management Agenda goals....Paul should be congratulated for taking the Parkies head on, but this is what happens to anyone who does. The Republicans control the White House, both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, but still don't have the power/guts to successfully take on the Parkies.
BLM reviewing drilling rules he Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Jim Hughes is in Grand Junction today hearing testimony on changing the rules for natural gas drillers working on land owned by people who don’t own the rights to the riches under their land. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing its policies and procedures for administering Federal natural gas and oil resources under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The agency owns much of the mineral rights to natural gas rich Western Colorado, where many landowners have discovered they do not control access to mineral wealth lying below. A bill is pending in the state legislature to give landowners additional clout in negotiating payment for damages from drilling....
Western states dig for middle ground on 'split estate' The construction crew showed up at Orlyn and Carol Bell's 110-acre ranch in western Colorado and began clearing a road to build a drilling pad for four natural gas wells on their hay pasture. For the Bells, the bulldozers arriving capped nine months of frustrating negotiations with energy giant EnCana over how the company would drill on their land. When the construction was imminent in September 2004, the couple capitulated to the company's terms: a payment of $2,000 for each of the roughly 8 acres used for drilling, roads and pipelines, rather than $4,500 an acre they had sought. The Bells' experience reflects a sometimes painful reality in much of the West, where people who own millions of acres don't own the minerals below ground. For landowners without mineral rights, there is nothing they can do to prevent drilling on their property, and often little they can do if the energy company declines to be helpful. That land-ownership pattern, much of it a holdover from 19th-century homesteading laws that gave settlers free land but left the mineral rights with the government, is known as a "split estate." Today, the federal Bureau of Land Management controls mineral rights on about 58 million acres of private land and is selling the rights at a rapid pace to energy companies. Mineral rights on millions more acres are controlled by private parties other than landowners....
Land preservation pushed Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson on Wednesday presented draft legislation that would create a comprehensive plan for managing public lands in Washington County and preserve more than 219,000 acres of southern Utah land in and near Zion National Park as wilderness. Highlights of the proposal include selling around 25,000 acres of public land and using 15 percent of the proceeds for public education, water projects and fire and flood protection. The other 85 percent of the money would be earmarked to preserve historic rangeland and vital watersheds, buy more land to protect endangered species, and improve conservation efforts on numerous projects throughout the county. The proposal would designate 219,299 acres as wilderness , including 123,743 acres of National Park Service land within Zion National Park, plus 92,914 acres of Bureau of Land Management Land and 2,642 acres of Forest Service Land. The additions would mean nearly 280,000 acres in Washington County would be managed under the National Wilderness Preservation System. For the first time ever in Utah, 170 miles of the Virgin River within Zion National Park would receive protection under the Wild and Scenic River Act. The proposed legislation also would preserve 61,000 acres of desert-tortoise habitat to the north of St. George, as the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. A system of trails for off-highway vehicles would be identified and managed for responsible use. Utility, transportation and water corridors, including the Lake Powell pipeline, would also be designated....
Park Service plans to hold captured bison for later release Officials at Yellowstone National Park captured about 300 bison near the park's northern border yesterday. They plan to hold them until there's sufficient spring forage in the park, to keep the animals from wandering into Montana looking for food. Park spokesman Al Nash says it could be two to three weeks before the bison are released from the Stephens Creek capture site. The hazing and capture of bison is allowed under a state-federal management plan, aimed at reducing the risk that bison will spread brucellosis to cattle in Montana. Nash says holding the bison temporarily keeps them from mingling with cattle, and allows for their eventual release....
Conservation group seeks farmer, rancher opinions on natural resources Starting this week, 1,800 farmers and ranchers across the southern High Plains will be receiving a survey in the mail asking for their opinions about the Ogallala Aquifer, wetlands, and other natural resources in the region. The questionnaire – entitled the "High Plains Landowner Survey" – is being conducted by the Playa Lakes Joint Venture, a non-profit partnership of wildlife and agriculture agencies, corporations and conservation groups and landowners dedicated to conserving wildlife habitat in the Ogallala Aquifer region. The survey aims to assess agricultural producers' experience with and willingness to conduct natural resource conservation. The data collected will help resource managers create future and modify existing conservation programs to better serve producers' needs. "Private landowners and land managers are key to our country's agricultural productivity and natural resource conservation. Their opinions count tremendously in the development of programs and incentives to maintain sustainable working lands and wildlife habitat." said PLJV Communications Team Leader Debbie Slobe....
Supervisors to continue open range discussion Tehama County is still considering a grazing ordinance. With a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors voted to continue discussing a possible ordinance that would establish the right of cattlemen to graze cattle in the county and decrease their liability in cases where a car collides with a cow. Supervisors Charles Willard and Ron Warner urged the board to end the discussion after seven years despite cattlemen arguing that without an ordinance, the agricultural landscape of Tehama County would be forever changed. If passed, the ordinance would label almost two-thirds of the unincorporated county as chiefly devoted to grazing. It would establish the right of cattlemen to graze livestock and, the cattlemen argued, it is necessary to help the county's $17 million cattle industry afford insurance and continue business in the county....
Western Grasslands' pasture-raised beef stampedes to fast sales growth Since taking control of Western Grasslands in December 2004, Graves has helped Western become what he believes is the biggest U.S. company raising grass-fed beef, with nearly threefold growth in sales last year. "We want to make 'grass-fed' synonymous with Western Grasslands," he said. Western Grasslands procures most of its beef from Northern California ranches. It does not have a true headquarters. Year-round availability makes Western Grasslands unique among grass-fed beef companies, said Rick Harrison, an owner of Pete's Valley Cattle, based in Woodland, and one of 43 West Coast ranchers whom Graves said have agreed to follow stringent guidelines for raising grass-fed beef cattle for sale to Western Grasslands. "We're year-round, not seasonal. Western Grasslands' grass-fed beef sales have increased steadily since it was established in 2002. "We had a little more than $6 million in sales in 2005, grossing about 2.5 times over the previous year," said Graves, who declined to provide profit tallies. "We're budgeting to be about 2.5 times larger at the end of 2006."....
Reserve land opens for grazing The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday announced that ranchers in 27 Texas counties hit by recent wildfires can graze their cattle on land that's part of a federal conservation program and bale hay off of it, both at no charge. Ranchers in six Oklahoma counties whose land has burned also can use the Conservation Reserve Program land. Program participants in the two states' counties can voluntarily remove excess dry grass cover on land enrolled in the federal land management plan, which also will help reduce fuel for any potential fires. County offices of the USDA's Farm Service Agency will grant authority on a case-by-case basis for program participants to remove the dry grass for the next 30 days....
Cowboy Collectibles Bill Manns, who's profiled in our April print feature ("Playing Cowboys with Authentic Gear", has spent a lifetime collecting western memorabilia, much of which forms the basis for historic Old West books he creates at Zon Publishing. According to Bill, there still are western-collectible treasures to be found. "Look on eBay or Antiques Roadshow, and you realize how many things are still in people's households, unbelievable numbers of things." However, not every old thing stuck in the attic is a valuable collectible. Nor is refurbishing a bona fide antique always a great idea. Here, Bill offers some guidelines for the budding western-memorabilia collector to use the next time he or she raids grandma's attic or visits the local second-hand store....
Cowboy Cooking Chicken fajitas with sliced onion and bell peppers. Stolen chicken, drunken peach cobbler (with half a cup of Jack Daniels) and migas with pico de gallo. These are just a few of the tantalizing — and intriguing — recipes you will find in Texas Chuckwagon Cuisine – Real Cowboy Cooking by Evan Moore. The small, pocket-sized book packs a punch with recipes for colorful dishes like warm cowboy bread, splatter dabs and chuckwagon mush (potatoes and onion with two cups of corn bread, real good with eggs on a cold morning). Many of the recipes come from generous contributors, but Moore himself contributed his recipe for cornmeal pancakes with chopped onion, jalapeño and black pepper....
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Bush's Yard Sale
The Bush administration proposed a novel idea recently: Sell off a tiny fraction of National Forest land to save money and raise funds for rural schools. Far from a revival of the Homestead Act signed up President Lincoln in 1862 and which distributed some 80 million federal acres over the following century, the idea is closer to holding a federal yard sale to clear out some of the junk that has accumulated over the years. The National Forest Service controls some 192 million of the federal government's 600 million acres. What the president proposed in his budget this year was to sell off about one-tenth of one percent of that land--some300,000 acres that provides little benefit to the taxpayer but who nonetheless pays for its upkeep and maintenance. But even the whisper of such a sale can set off a torrent of criticism from political packrats. Among them are Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Republican Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho and Conrad Burns of Montana. Shortly after the announcement, Sen. Burns declared the idea "dead in the water" and vowed to strike it from legislation. The sale, however, may yet be held. Why? First, as one environmental newsletter put it, there may be no alternative. Second, it's a good idea. According to David Tenny, Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture, the lands that have been selected are no longer serving the goals of the Forest Service. Many are isolated parcels surrounded by private land with little or no public access. At least one-quarter of the lands proposed for sale in the Gallatin National Forest near Bozeman, Mont., are inaccessible to the public. Other acreage is near metropolitan areas and has lost its Forest Service character: A small Forest Service parcel in Oregon is in the middle of a parking lot; another is being used to grow crops. Finally, some of these lands were previously designated for land exchange (trades with other agencies or private owners). To ensure there are no "sneakers" in there, as Mr. Tenney calls them, the public will have a chance to comment on all acres proposed for sale....
The Bush administration proposed a novel idea recently: Sell off a tiny fraction of National Forest land to save money and raise funds for rural schools. Far from a revival of the Homestead Act signed up President Lincoln in 1862 and which distributed some 80 million federal acres over the following century, the idea is closer to holding a federal yard sale to clear out some of the junk that has accumulated over the years. The National Forest Service controls some 192 million of the federal government's 600 million acres. What the president proposed in his budget this year was to sell off about one-tenth of one percent of that land--some300,000 acres that provides little benefit to the taxpayer but who nonetheless pays for its upkeep and maintenance. But even the whisper of such a sale can set off a torrent of criticism from political packrats. Among them are Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Republican Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho and Conrad Burns of Montana. Shortly after the announcement, Sen. Burns declared the idea "dead in the water" and vowed to strike it from legislation. The sale, however, may yet be held. Why? First, as one environmental newsletter put it, there may be no alternative. Second, it's a good idea. According to David Tenny, Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture, the lands that have been selected are no longer serving the goals of the Forest Service. Many are isolated parcels surrounded by private land with little or no public access. At least one-quarter of the lands proposed for sale in the Gallatin National Forest near Bozeman, Mont., are inaccessible to the public. Other acreage is near metropolitan areas and has lost its Forest Service character: A small Forest Service parcel in Oregon is in the middle of a parking lot; another is being used to grow crops. Finally, some of these lands were previously designated for land exchange (trades with other agencies or private owners). To ensure there are no "sneakers" in there, as Mr. Tenney calls them, the public will have a chance to comment on all acres proposed for sale....
Monday, March 20, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
BLM, environmentalists accused of grazing plot The Bureau of Land Management unlawfully awarded livestock grazing rights to environmentalists who were determined to reduce grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, according to a federal lawsuit filed by ranchers and local governments. Garfield and Kane counties and several local ranchers accuse the BLM of violating the requirements of the Taylor Grazing Act and Interior Department regulations. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court, in Salt Lake City. The complaint stems from a Jan. 26 decision by Interior Department administrative-law judge James H. Heffernan in Salt Lake City, who ruled that Canyonlands Grazing Corp. legally owns three grazing permits in the national monument. Presently, Canyonlands is involved in grazing. Besides the Grand Staircase-Escalante area, it has a large grazing area in northern Arizona, Hedden said in January. However, Canyonlands Grazing Corp.'s Web site says the group is dedicated to the elimination of livestock grazing on public land. "Specifically, its principal business is the purchase, sale and assignment of grazing preferences on the public lands with the sole intention of compelling the BLM to retire the (Clark Bench) allotment from further livestock grazing," the lawsuit asserts. The plaintiffs claim that "Canyonlands Grazing Corp. eventually acquired a few livestock, utilized its grazing permit for what amounts to a conservation purpose, and effectively mothballed its grazing permits for the past three grazing seasons."....
Judge rules CBM company can't discharge into streambeds A district judge has ruled that a coal-bed methane operator can't discharge production water onto a rancher's property because the streambeds it would flow into don't meet the legal definition of state watercourses. Ruling in an ongoing condemnation case between Williams Production RMT Co. and rancher William P. Maycock II, Judge Keith G. Kautz of Wheatland concluded that while watercourses don't have to flow continuously to be recognized as containing waters of the state, "the flow needs to occur at 'regular season,' and not at irregular portions of days." The decision comes after Williams unsuccessfully tried to condemn a right of way for its discharged water across Maycock's ranch last fall. The company failed to provide Kautz with a survey and the judge ruled he couldn't make a decision without one. The company then claimed a right to discharge the water into the streambeds. Wendtland said he expects Williams will try to file another condemnation lawsuit. If so, Wendtland said he will push to require the company to install a pipeline across his client's land, rather than have the water drain across the surface....
Gale Norton's stewardship Gale Norton's legacy as Secretary of the Interior will not be a tale of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, but one of engaging citizens as environmental stewards. In her five-year tenure, which will end on March 31, Mrs. Norton has turned the virtuous idea of grass-roots conservation, which she has called "cooperative conservation," into a workable reality and a blueprint for subsequent conservation policy. The initiative offers officials from city and county governments an active role in the policy-making process with federal officials. In determining land-use regulations, for instance, Bureau of Land Management officials would sit down with representatives from the local communities to decide how the land should be used. Building interest in conservation for the people who use the land -- be they farmers, ranchers, sportsmen or other outdoor enthusiasts -- is essential to creating a lasting conservation effort, and Mrs. Norton's policies are built on this foundation....
From Brothel Owner to Park Ranger, Interior Secretary Roams Far Pop star Jessica Simpson once mistook Gale Norton for an interior decorator. Simpson isn't the only one confused over the role of a U.S. Interior secretary. The Cabinet post is one of the most wide-ranging and least- understood jobs in Washington. Interior's far-flung duties include controlling a fifth of U.S. land and 68 percent of oil and gas reserves; coordinating budgets for a string of Pacific island territories; and running schools for some 50,000 American Indian children. At one point, the department even owned Nevada's Mustang Ranch brothel, prompting Norton to observe: ``It gives the phrase `Madame Secretary' a whole new meaning.'' Congress created Interior in 1849 and charged it with duties ranging from issuing patents to running Washington's jail. Over the years, it ran much of what is now the Energy Department and even appointed the leaders of U.S. territories in the Pacific....
Land plan draws fire Selling off Bureau of Land Management property to help cover the nation's debts is a misguided and short-sighted idea, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and members of the public said Monday in Billings. Baucus hosted a public meeting at Montana State University-Billings to get input and rally opposition to the BLM proposal. "I think it's outrageous for the United States government to sell public lands, pure and simple," Baucus said. Proposals to sell BLM and U.S. Forest Service land are still alive in Washington, D.C., and Westerners need to stand up and speak against them, he said....
Conservationists vie to buy forest habitat The Big River tract in California's Mendocino County is a sprawling expanse of towering redwoods and Douglas firs, woods that for years have provided an ideal habitat for rare spotted owls and endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout. Now, it's all up for sale. Big River, neighboring Salmon Creek and dozens of other forests across the nation have come on the market in recent years as timber companies shed holdings that are worth more as real estate than as a source of lumber. The trend has spurred a land rush that has conservation groups scrambling to raise money to buy environmentally sensitive tracts in competition with private investors seeking to snap up the land for development. A recent U.S. Forest Service study predicted that more than 44 million acres of private forest land, an area twice the size of Maine, will be sold over the next 25 years. The consulting firm U.S. Forest Capital estimates that half of all U.S. timberland has changed hands in the past decade. The Bush administration also wants to sell off forest land, by auctioning more than 300,000 acres of national forest to fund a rural school program....
Lawmakers Kill Wolf Creek Development Resolution A resolution criticizing the Forest Service over plans to allow 2,000 housing units to be built near the Wolf Creek Ski Area was killed Monday after a parade of witnesses told lawmakers the federal review process was flawed. If approved, the Village at Wolf Creek could eventually include 222,100 square feet of commercial space and enough housing for up to 10,500 people. The surrounding county has fewer than 1,000 full-time residents. Dusty Hicks, spokesman for the development project, rejected suggestions from witnesses at Monday's hearing that there was collusion or a payoff....
Column: Restoring Healthy Forests One of us runs a large timber company. The other leads a major conservation organization. But despite our differing roles and perspectives, we agree on a positive solution to an urgent and vexing problem. Fires have always played an important role in maintaining healthy forests. After decades of fire suppression, vast areas of Oregon's forests and woodlands are in unhealthy, unnatural condition. They are overcrowded with young trees and highly vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires, insect outbreaks and disease. The problem is growing worse every year. An analysis by The Nature Conservancy of the most recent forest health data suggests that, of the 34 million acres of forests and woodlands in Oregon, more than 25 million acres need active treatment -- thinning, controlled burning or both -- to restore safer and more natural conditions. More than 15 million of these acres are on public land....
Groups protest oil, gas leasing In what is likely the start of a series of protests, Trout Unlimited and the National Outdoor Leadership School -- along with some outfitters and guides -- announced Monday they are protesting the oil and gas lease sale of parcels in the Wyoming Range. The lease sale, set for April 4, is for 11 separate parcels that total nearly 20,000 acres in the Upper Green River drainage. Energy development could harm fishable mountain streams including North Horse Creek, Dead Cow Creek, Lead Creek, South Cottonwood Creek and South Beaver Creek, all of which are Green River tributaries and home to native Colorado River cutthroats, according to Trout Unlimited. Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM, has said protests are not unusual. In August, 123 lease parcels were protested of the 188 put up for sale. In June, 142 out of 189 were protested, and in April, 83 of 227 were protested. In addition to concern for fisheries, Trout Unlimited cited the possible presence of Canada lynx, effects on air quality, and a lack of assessment of current and foreseeable impacts are reasons for the latest lease protest....
Verdict still out on wildlife plan in the Jonah Field Oil and gas industry officials are excited about a first-ever plan designed to help wildlife affected by increased drilling in the Jonah Field in southwest Wyoming, but conservationists are more skeptical about the plan. EnCana Oil and Gas Inc. and other operators received federal approval last week to boost natural gas production in the field by doing "in-fill" drilling, which allows wells to be placed closer together within the overall boundary of the field. The drilling is intended to speed up gas extraction. As part of the project, the plan calls for improving wildlife habitat in areas surrounding the field to make up for land that is harmed by the anticipated drilling of more than 3,000 new natural gas wells in the future. The project area covers about 30,500 acres of mostly federal public lands about 30 miles southeast of Pinedale. The plan calls for the Bureau of Land Management to establish an interagency office in Pinedale to monitor reclamation efforts and to oversee offsite mitigation projects. The office and its work will be funded by a $24.5 million grant from EnCana Oil and Gas Inc....
Wilderness: The new anti-nuclear weapon On Jan. 6, President Bush signed into law the first new Utah wilderness area since 1984 - and made it a little harder for nuclear power plant operators to ship radioactive waste to a nearby Indian reservation. The new Cedar Mountain Wilderness protects some 100,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. But it also blocks the right-of-way for a railroad line to the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, a key component of the tribes' plan to accept waste from nuclear power plants around the country. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, a longtime nemesis of the local wilderness community, first proposed the idea of using wilderness to fight nuclear waste in 2002, just before he retired....
BLM plans sports park in eastern Utah More than 1,200 acres in eastern Utah could become a park for off-road vehicles, drag racers, rock climbers and ultralight aircraft, under a proposal by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Approval could be granted by summer to allow Uintah County to develop the park, about 4.5 miles east of Vernal. The BLM would give Uintah County the land for the park, to be called the Buckskin Hills Recreation Area. Private groups would be responsible for constructing the various parts. An environmental assessment found no reason to block the deal, and there were few negative comments about the proposal during a recent public review. BLM and county officials said the park would divert off-roaders from protected lands....
Grand Canyon battles traffic jams near its entrances Clogged roadways at the Grand Canyon have prompted the National Park Service to launch a new planning round aimed at reducing vehicle traffic near the natural wonder. Park officials are asking the public to comment on ways to fix the traffic problem. The option the park is using as a starting point would put one new 450-vehicle parking lot outside the south entrance to the park and another adjacent to the park's visitor orientation center, and expand bus service within the park. There were 4.3 million recreational visitors to the canyon in 2004 and 4.4 million last year. In the peak visitor days of summer, tourists sometimes sweat in their cars for up to an hour just to reach the entrance station. Earlier proposals calling for building a costly light rail line will not be among the eventual options, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said....
Developers covet areas surrounding national parks People who cherish Joshua Tree National Park's desert probably don't want wayward tee shots, pets or trash spoiling the serenity and scenery, but it could happen. Development is closing in on Joshua Tree and many other national parks. "It is happening all over the country," said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree, "and it is going to continue to happen." It isn't difficult to find examples: • In West Virginia, there are proposals to build more than 2,000 homes at the edge of the New River Gorge National River — including up to 550 homes on a site chosen to appear on the back of the quarter. • In Florida, there's a proposal to fill wetlands at the edge of the Everglades National Park to make way for 6,000 homes, shops, schools and a movie theater. • In Ohio, there are plans for at least five subdivisions just outside Cuyahoga Valley National Park. • In Arkansas, population growth is putting pressure on Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Military Park, said Ernie Quintana, Midwest regional director of the National Park Service....
Parks Struggle to Keep Wildlife Healthy and Other Interests Happy A tractor engine roars to life along Muddy Creek, and for several hundred wild elk it is a dinner bell. They splash through deep snow and line up for hay tossed on the ground from a tractor-pulled wagon. This scene, played out here and at 22 other feeding grounds at the southern end of the Yellowstone ecosystem, may seem benign. But feeding concentrates the elk in such large numbers that brucellosis spreads easily and reaches levels 10 times as great as the natural rate, or even higher. The disease causes elk cows to abort their calves. Brucellosis is one of several diseases that affect wildlife and domestic animals and that have appeared in the national parks. Controlling them poses a challenge to the National Park Service, which has to decide on strategies and try to meet a number of competing needs of hunters, tourists, ranchers and the animals....
Scientists Say Grizzly Proposal Premature More than 250 scientists and researchers have signed a letter opposing a federal proposal to lift Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. They contend, among other things, that there is inadequate habitat protections, genetic concerns and too few bears to merit lifting federal protections. The letter, dated Monday, was addressed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's grizzly bear recovery coordinator, Chris Servheen, who could not be reached immediately for comment. Monday marked the end of an extended comment period on the federal "delisting" proposal for Yellowstone-area grizzlies....
Bush Administration Opposes World Heritage Convention Action to Protect Glacier National Park and Other Sites The U.S. government is strongly opposing efforts by the United Nations to protect some of the most vulnerable World Heritage Sites from the impacts of global warming. The move comes as a meeting of experts convened by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) begins today in Paris in response to petitions to protect World Heritage Sites threatened by climate change, including Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (in the U.S. and Canada), on Mount Everest and the Peruvian Andes where glaciers are rapidly melting, and the Belize Reef and Great Barrier Reefs (in Australia) which are being damaged due to climate change. In a position paper posted on the conference website, the Bush administration argues against any action under the World Heritage Convention and attempts to cast doubt on the science of global warming....
Reclamation commissioner retires after 40 years John W. Keys, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation for the last five years, said Friday that he will step down after nearly 40 years with the agency, which controls dams, power plants and canals across the West. Keys is the second high-profile Interior Department official to retire this month. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced last week that she would step down at the end of March. Bureau spokesman Kip White said Keys wanted to spend more time with his family. He and his wife live in Moab, Utah, where they both fly planes as a hobby. “He is a consensus builder who spent a long career with the Bureau of Reclamation and then agreed to join my team to lead the bureau as commissioner,” Norton said in a statement. “He will be missed.” A native of Sheffield, Ala., Keys joined the agency in 1964 as a civil and hydraulic engineer and later worked as the Pacific Northwest regional director. He had retired from the government when President Bush tapped him to return to head the bureau....
The fast-reproducing feral hog is bringing its destructive behavior to populated areas It's not just George Bush Park, and it's not just soccer fields. Across Texas, feral hogs have become a maddening and destructive presence. With 1.5 million to 2 million swine roaming all but about 20 of its 254 counties, Texas has the nation's largest feral hog population. In 1990, only 19 states — mainly in the Southeast — had feral hogs, and the nationwide population was 1 million to 2 million, said John Mayer, co-author of Wild Pigs in the United States. By 2004, hogs were in 35 states and numbered 4 million to 5 million. "If you don't have them now, get ready — they're coming," said Mark Mapston, a district supervisor with Texas Wildlife Services and author of the booklet Feral Hogs in Texas. Locally, wild hogs ruin fairways and greens at suburban golf courses, pose a threat to costly wetlands created by Harris County to offset new development, and are so common in some areas that motorists occasionally hit them at night....
'Eat potatoes and buckskin' When Freda Glassier glances out her kitchen window to the south she sees the vast fields of the Emma area where, for most of her 90 years, she coaxed things to grow. She's been in her house on Hook Spur Lane for 58 years. It's less than a mile from where she was born and raised, the daughter of immigrants from Italy. It's also less than a mile from the house where she and her husband, Fred, first scraped out a living as potato farmers and cattle ranchers. Freda is brutally, and refreshingly, honest about her life. There were no frills. She didn't travel much. She never even took the train to Aspen. She loved the simple life on the ranch. Hard work wasn't reserved for special projects. It was a way of life....
Rodeo champ, rancher, artist In the summer, the whitewashed shelves that run up the west wall inside the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds Hall of Champions usually house the prize vegetables and blue ribbons of 4-H contestants. In their place last week rested the size 7E black boots, championship belt buckles and defining pictures of a rodeo champion, rancher, husband and a dad. A framed panoramic shot of the Brewer Ranch showed where Bill Brewer, who died March 9 at the age of 81, lived as full a life as anyone. From the angle the picture was taken, you couldn’t see the barn door where he’d painted the likeness of four young horsemen riding home. He was a family man first, said his oldest son Bill, one of Brewer’s four boys depicted on horseback on that barn door. In his 60s, he took three consecutive team roping world championships in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association. “I just like to win,” Bill once said in an interview with the Wyoming Wrangler. “I never plan to quit. As long as I can swing a rope I’ll keep roping. If a fellow just puts his feet up and sits back - that’s no good.”....
It's All Trew: Folklore sayings come in all shapes, sizes A previous article contained numerous folklore-type sayings passed down in my family, and it brought in many responses from readers. A book, titled "Black Cats, Hoot Owls and Water Witches," added other superstitious phrases to the subject. My favorite weather saying is, "The morning rain is like an old women's dance. It is soon over." My apologies to the elder ladies. Another saying that I intend to watch in the coming year is, "Frost on a moonlit night won't kill." I am also watching for the saying, "Big raindrops, little rain. Little raindrops mean big rain." Common sense says, "A short horse is quickly curried."....
BLM, environmentalists accused of grazing plot The Bureau of Land Management unlawfully awarded livestock grazing rights to environmentalists who were determined to reduce grazing in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, according to a federal lawsuit filed by ranchers and local governments. Garfield and Kane counties and several local ranchers accuse the BLM of violating the requirements of the Taylor Grazing Act and Interior Department regulations. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court, in Salt Lake City. The complaint stems from a Jan. 26 decision by Interior Department administrative-law judge James H. Heffernan in Salt Lake City, who ruled that Canyonlands Grazing Corp. legally owns three grazing permits in the national monument. Presently, Canyonlands is involved in grazing. Besides the Grand Staircase-Escalante area, it has a large grazing area in northern Arizona, Hedden said in January. However, Canyonlands Grazing Corp.'s Web site says the group is dedicated to the elimination of livestock grazing on public land. "Specifically, its principal business is the purchase, sale and assignment of grazing preferences on the public lands with the sole intention of compelling the BLM to retire the (Clark Bench) allotment from further livestock grazing," the lawsuit asserts. The plaintiffs claim that "Canyonlands Grazing Corp. eventually acquired a few livestock, utilized its grazing permit for what amounts to a conservation purpose, and effectively mothballed its grazing permits for the past three grazing seasons."....
Judge rules CBM company can't discharge into streambeds A district judge has ruled that a coal-bed methane operator can't discharge production water onto a rancher's property because the streambeds it would flow into don't meet the legal definition of state watercourses. Ruling in an ongoing condemnation case between Williams Production RMT Co. and rancher William P. Maycock II, Judge Keith G. Kautz of Wheatland concluded that while watercourses don't have to flow continuously to be recognized as containing waters of the state, "the flow needs to occur at 'regular season,' and not at irregular portions of days." The decision comes after Williams unsuccessfully tried to condemn a right of way for its discharged water across Maycock's ranch last fall. The company failed to provide Kautz with a survey and the judge ruled he couldn't make a decision without one. The company then claimed a right to discharge the water into the streambeds. Wendtland said he expects Williams will try to file another condemnation lawsuit. If so, Wendtland said he will push to require the company to install a pipeline across his client's land, rather than have the water drain across the surface....
Gale Norton's stewardship Gale Norton's legacy as Secretary of the Interior will not be a tale of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, but one of engaging citizens as environmental stewards. In her five-year tenure, which will end on March 31, Mrs. Norton has turned the virtuous idea of grass-roots conservation, which she has called "cooperative conservation," into a workable reality and a blueprint for subsequent conservation policy. The initiative offers officials from city and county governments an active role in the policy-making process with federal officials. In determining land-use regulations, for instance, Bureau of Land Management officials would sit down with representatives from the local communities to decide how the land should be used. Building interest in conservation for the people who use the land -- be they farmers, ranchers, sportsmen or other outdoor enthusiasts -- is essential to creating a lasting conservation effort, and Mrs. Norton's policies are built on this foundation....
From Brothel Owner to Park Ranger, Interior Secretary Roams Far Pop star Jessica Simpson once mistook Gale Norton for an interior decorator. Simpson isn't the only one confused over the role of a U.S. Interior secretary. The Cabinet post is one of the most wide-ranging and least- understood jobs in Washington. Interior's far-flung duties include controlling a fifth of U.S. land and 68 percent of oil and gas reserves; coordinating budgets for a string of Pacific island territories; and running schools for some 50,000 American Indian children. At one point, the department even owned Nevada's Mustang Ranch brothel, prompting Norton to observe: ``It gives the phrase `Madame Secretary' a whole new meaning.'' Congress created Interior in 1849 and charged it with duties ranging from issuing patents to running Washington's jail. Over the years, it ran much of what is now the Energy Department and even appointed the leaders of U.S. territories in the Pacific....
Land plan draws fire Selling off Bureau of Land Management property to help cover the nation's debts is a misguided and short-sighted idea, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and members of the public said Monday in Billings. Baucus hosted a public meeting at Montana State University-Billings to get input and rally opposition to the BLM proposal. "I think it's outrageous for the United States government to sell public lands, pure and simple," Baucus said. Proposals to sell BLM and U.S. Forest Service land are still alive in Washington, D.C., and Westerners need to stand up and speak against them, he said....
Conservationists vie to buy forest habitat The Big River tract in California's Mendocino County is a sprawling expanse of towering redwoods and Douglas firs, woods that for years have provided an ideal habitat for rare spotted owls and endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout. Now, it's all up for sale. Big River, neighboring Salmon Creek and dozens of other forests across the nation have come on the market in recent years as timber companies shed holdings that are worth more as real estate than as a source of lumber. The trend has spurred a land rush that has conservation groups scrambling to raise money to buy environmentally sensitive tracts in competition with private investors seeking to snap up the land for development. A recent U.S. Forest Service study predicted that more than 44 million acres of private forest land, an area twice the size of Maine, will be sold over the next 25 years. The consulting firm U.S. Forest Capital estimates that half of all U.S. timberland has changed hands in the past decade. The Bush administration also wants to sell off forest land, by auctioning more than 300,000 acres of national forest to fund a rural school program....
Lawmakers Kill Wolf Creek Development Resolution A resolution criticizing the Forest Service over plans to allow 2,000 housing units to be built near the Wolf Creek Ski Area was killed Monday after a parade of witnesses told lawmakers the federal review process was flawed. If approved, the Village at Wolf Creek could eventually include 222,100 square feet of commercial space and enough housing for up to 10,500 people. The surrounding county has fewer than 1,000 full-time residents. Dusty Hicks, spokesman for the development project, rejected suggestions from witnesses at Monday's hearing that there was collusion or a payoff....
Column: Restoring Healthy Forests One of us runs a large timber company. The other leads a major conservation organization. But despite our differing roles and perspectives, we agree on a positive solution to an urgent and vexing problem. Fires have always played an important role in maintaining healthy forests. After decades of fire suppression, vast areas of Oregon's forests and woodlands are in unhealthy, unnatural condition. They are overcrowded with young trees and highly vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires, insect outbreaks and disease. The problem is growing worse every year. An analysis by The Nature Conservancy of the most recent forest health data suggests that, of the 34 million acres of forests and woodlands in Oregon, more than 25 million acres need active treatment -- thinning, controlled burning or both -- to restore safer and more natural conditions. More than 15 million of these acres are on public land....
Groups protest oil, gas leasing In what is likely the start of a series of protests, Trout Unlimited and the National Outdoor Leadership School -- along with some outfitters and guides -- announced Monday they are protesting the oil and gas lease sale of parcels in the Wyoming Range. The lease sale, set for April 4, is for 11 separate parcels that total nearly 20,000 acres in the Upper Green River drainage. Energy development could harm fishable mountain streams including North Horse Creek, Dead Cow Creek, Lead Creek, South Cottonwood Creek and South Beaver Creek, all of which are Green River tributaries and home to native Colorado River cutthroats, according to Trout Unlimited. Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM, has said protests are not unusual. In August, 123 lease parcels were protested of the 188 put up for sale. In June, 142 out of 189 were protested, and in April, 83 of 227 were protested. In addition to concern for fisheries, Trout Unlimited cited the possible presence of Canada lynx, effects on air quality, and a lack of assessment of current and foreseeable impacts are reasons for the latest lease protest....
Verdict still out on wildlife plan in the Jonah Field Oil and gas industry officials are excited about a first-ever plan designed to help wildlife affected by increased drilling in the Jonah Field in southwest Wyoming, but conservationists are more skeptical about the plan. EnCana Oil and Gas Inc. and other operators received federal approval last week to boost natural gas production in the field by doing "in-fill" drilling, which allows wells to be placed closer together within the overall boundary of the field. The drilling is intended to speed up gas extraction. As part of the project, the plan calls for improving wildlife habitat in areas surrounding the field to make up for land that is harmed by the anticipated drilling of more than 3,000 new natural gas wells in the future. The project area covers about 30,500 acres of mostly federal public lands about 30 miles southeast of Pinedale. The plan calls for the Bureau of Land Management to establish an interagency office in Pinedale to monitor reclamation efforts and to oversee offsite mitigation projects. The office and its work will be funded by a $24.5 million grant from EnCana Oil and Gas Inc....
Wilderness: The new anti-nuclear weapon On Jan. 6, President Bush signed into law the first new Utah wilderness area since 1984 - and made it a little harder for nuclear power plant operators to ship radioactive waste to a nearby Indian reservation. The new Cedar Mountain Wilderness protects some 100,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. But it also blocks the right-of-way for a railroad line to the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, a key component of the tribes' plan to accept waste from nuclear power plants around the country. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, a longtime nemesis of the local wilderness community, first proposed the idea of using wilderness to fight nuclear waste in 2002, just before he retired....
BLM plans sports park in eastern Utah More than 1,200 acres in eastern Utah could become a park for off-road vehicles, drag racers, rock climbers and ultralight aircraft, under a proposal by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Approval could be granted by summer to allow Uintah County to develop the park, about 4.5 miles east of Vernal. The BLM would give Uintah County the land for the park, to be called the Buckskin Hills Recreation Area. Private groups would be responsible for constructing the various parts. An environmental assessment found no reason to block the deal, and there were few negative comments about the proposal during a recent public review. BLM and county officials said the park would divert off-roaders from protected lands....
Grand Canyon battles traffic jams near its entrances Clogged roadways at the Grand Canyon have prompted the National Park Service to launch a new planning round aimed at reducing vehicle traffic near the natural wonder. Park officials are asking the public to comment on ways to fix the traffic problem. The option the park is using as a starting point would put one new 450-vehicle parking lot outside the south entrance to the park and another adjacent to the park's visitor orientation center, and expand bus service within the park. There were 4.3 million recreational visitors to the canyon in 2004 and 4.4 million last year. In the peak visitor days of summer, tourists sometimes sweat in their cars for up to an hour just to reach the entrance station. Earlier proposals calling for building a costly light rail line will not be among the eventual options, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said....
Developers covet areas surrounding national parks People who cherish Joshua Tree National Park's desert probably don't want wayward tee shots, pets or trash spoiling the serenity and scenery, but it could happen. Development is closing in on Joshua Tree and many other national parks. "It is happening all over the country," said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree, "and it is going to continue to happen." It isn't difficult to find examples: • In West Virginia, there are proposals to build more than 2,000 homes at the edge of the New River Gorge National River — including up to 550 homes on a site chosen to appear on the back of the quarter. • In Florida, there's a proposal to fill wetlands at the edge of the Everglades National Park to make way for 6,000 homes, shops, schools and a movie theater. • In Ohio, there are plans for at least five subdivisions just outside Cuyahoga Valley National Park. • In Arkansas, population growth is putting pressure on Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Military Park, said Ernie Quintana, Midwest regional director of the National Park Service....
Parks Struggle to Keep Wildlife Healthy and Other Interests Happy A tractor engine roars to life along Muddy Creek, and for several hundred wild elk it is a dinner bell. They splash through deep snow and line up for hay tossed on the ground from a tractor-pulled wagon. This scene, played out here and at 22 other feeding grounds at the southern end of the Yellowstone ecosystem, may seem benign. But feeding concentrates the elk in such large numbers that brucellosis spreads easily and reaches levels 10 times as great as the natural rate, or even higher. The disease causes elk cows to abort their calves. Brucellosis is one of several diseases that affect wildlife and domestic animals and that have appeared in the national parks. Controlling them poses a challenge to the National Park Service, which has to decide on strategies and try to meet a number of competing needs of hunters, tourists, ranchers and the animals....
Scientists Say Grizzly Proposal Premature More than 250 scientists and researchers have signed a letter opposing a federal proposal to lift Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. They contend, among other things, that there is inadequate habitat protections, genetic concerns and too few bears to merit lifting federal protections. The letter, dated Monday, was addressed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's grizzly bear recovery coordinator, Chris Servheen, who could not be reached immediately for comment. Monday marked the end of an extended comment period on the federal "delisting" proposal for Yellowstone-area grizzlies....
Bush Administration Opposes World Heritage Convention Action to Protect Glacier National Park and Other Sites The U.S. government is strongly opposing efforts by the United Nations to protect some of the most vulnerable World Heritage Sites from the impacts of global warming. The move comes as a meeting of experts convened by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) begins today in Paris in response to petitions to protect World Heritage Sites threatened by climate change, including Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (in the U.S. and Canada), on Mount Everest and the Peruvian Andes where glaciers are rapidly melting, and the Belize Reef and Great Barrier Reefs (in Australia) which are being damaged due to climate change. In a position paper posted on the conference website, the Bush administration argues against any action under the World Heritage Convention and attempts to cast doubt on the science of global warming....
Reclamation commissioner retires after 40 years John W. Keys, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation for the last five years, said Friday that he will step down after nearly 40 years with the agency, which controls dams, power plants and canals across the West. Keys is the second high-profile Interior Department official to retire this month. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced last week that she would step down at the end of March. Bureau spokesman Kip White said Keys wanted to spend more time with his family. He and his wife live in Moab, Utah, where they both fly planes as a hobby. “He is a consensus builder who spent a long career with the Bureau of Reclamation and then agreed to join my team to lead the bureau as commissioner,” Norton said in a statement. “He will be missed.” A native of Sheffield, Ala., Keys joined the agency in 1964 as a civil and hydraulic engineer and later worked as the Pacific Northwest regional director. He had retired from the government when President Bush tapped him to return to head the bureau....
The fast-reproducing feral hog is bringing its destructive behavior to populated areas It's not just George Bush Park, and it's not just soccer fields. Across Texas, feral hogs have become a maddening and destructive presence. With 1.5 million to 2 million swine roaming all but about 20 of its 254 counties, Texas has the nation's largest feral hog population. In 1990, only 19 states — mainly in the Southeast — had feral hogs, and the nationwide population was 1 million to 2 million, said John Mayer, co-author of Wild Pigs in the United States. By 2004, hogs were in 35 states and numbered 4 million to 5 million. "If you don't have them now, get ready — they're coming," said Mark Mapston, a district supervisor with Texas Wildlife Services and author of the booklet Feral Hogs in Texas. Locally, wild hogs ruin fairways and greens at suburban golf courses, pose a threat to costly wetlands created by Harris County to offset new development, and are so common in some areas that motorists occasionally hit them at night....
'Eat potatoes and buckskin' When Freda Glassier glances out her kitchen window to the south she sees the vast fields of the Emma area where, for most of her 90 years, she coaxed things to grow. She's been in her house on Hook Spur Lane for 58 years. It's less than a mile from where she was born and raised, the daughter of immigrants from Italy. It's also less than a mile from the house where she and her husband, Fred, first scraped out a living as potato farmers and cattle ranchers. Freda is brutally, and refreshingly, honest about her life. There were no frills. She didn't travel much. She never even took the train to Aspen. She loved the simple life on the ranch. Hard work wasn't reserved for special projects. It was a way of life....
Rodeo champ, rancher, artist In the summer, the whitewashed shelves that run up the west wall inside the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds Hall of Champions usually house the prize vegetables and blue ribbons of 4-H contestants. In their place last week rested the size 7E black boots, championship belt buckles and defining pictures of a rodeo champion, rancher, husband and a dad. A framed panoramic shot of the Brewer Ranch showed where Bill Brewer, who died March 9 at the age of 81, lived as full a life as anyone. From the angle the picture was taken, you couldn’t see the barn door where he’d painted the likeness of four young horsemen riding home. He was a family man first, said his oldest son Bill, one of Brewer’s four boys depicted on horseback on that barn door. In his 60s, he took three consecutive team roping world championships in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association. “I just like to win,” Bill once said in an interview with the Wyoming Wrangler. “I never plan to quit. As long as I can swing a rope I’ll keep roping. If a fellow just puts his feet up and sits back - that’s no good.”....
It's All Trew: Folklore sayings come in all shapes, sizes A previous article contained numerous folklore-type sayings passed down in my family, and it brought in many responses from readers. A book, titled "Black Cats, Hoot Owls and Water Witches," added other superstitious phrases to the subject. My favorite weather saying is, "The morning rain is like an old women's dance. It is soon over." My apologies to the elder ladies. Another saying that I intend to watch in the coming year is, "Frost on a moonlit night won't kill." I am also watching for the saying, "Big raindrops, little rain. Little raindrops mean big rain." Common sense says, "A short horse is quickly curried."....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)