Judge halts livestock grazing in Sawtooth NRA A federal judge has halted sheep grazing on a portion of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho to protect streams that contain federally protected salmon, bull trout and steelhead. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill stopped the grazing for this year on the Smiley Creek allotment three days before 900 sheep were to be released. "The bottom line is that sheep will be grazing nearly the entire length of two creeks containing sensitive species of fish and fish habitat adversely affected by past grazing," Winmill wrote in his decision this week. Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey-based environmental group, asked Winmill to end grazing on four allotments but then narrowed its request to the Smiley Creek and Baker Creek regions. Winmill agreed to stop grazing only on the Smiley Creek allotment for one year....
Some see a deal to get river rolling The dried San Joaquin River might flow again, along with lots and lots of money, under a historic deal coming closer by the hour. Long-warring parties who beat the odds to become negotiating partners will march once again before a federal judge in Sacramento on Monday. In their hands could be an accord that reshapes California's water future. "The agreement is there," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. Attorneys for farmers and environmentalists quietly concur, though the final haggling could well last all weekend. Negotiators are motivated. They know that if they fail, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton will impose his own unpredictable solution -- which might hit farmers hard. "The negotiators believe that it is possible to reach agreement in principle on the few remaining issues before June 19, and will continue to work between now and the status conference," attorneys advised Karlton on Thursday. Details are cloaked and negotiators tight-lipped. Still, any deal will be heard loud and clear throughout the West....
Smaller Mine Planned Near Cemex While the city spends its time and money fighting a proposed mega-mine just east of Santa Clarita, the U.S. Forest Service is reviewing plans for a smaller mine nearby. Soledad Enviromineral LLC General Manager Henry Fritzsche said he intends to go through with his plans to mine 3 million tons of anorthosite out of three parcels of land in the Angeles National Forest in between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Fritzsche, a resident of Sedona, Ariz., said he has claims for mining rights for 320 acres of land — 16 claims at 20 acres each. He said his project would entail activity on three of the 20-acre claims, and added that he has held those federal mining claims since 1996. The project, Fritzsche said, would extract some 150,000 tons of anorthosite per year for 20 years, would have 20 to 25 truckloads a day on local highways during off-peak hours and mining would occur five days a week. He anticipates four to six mining blasts per year with two- to three-month buffers in between the blast sessions, which would blast anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 tons of earth per session....
When Dreams Collide For nearly three years, Chicken and Sami Dusenberry have been preparing a building site for their dream house on 46 undeveloped acres in Trail overlooking the Rogue River. Obtaining the proper county permits after a long struggle, they dug a septic system, drilled a well and installed electricity. They are about to apply for a building permit. "It's our dream," Sami Dusenberry said. "We want to live the rest of our lives out here. Now there is this pipeline. They wanted to go through the middle of the homesite but they said they will adjust it a little. "It's still going to be very close," she added. "It's devastating." They discovered this spring that their property lies in the path of the preferred route for the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, which would pipe natural gas some 225 miles from Coos Bay to Malin in the lower Klamath Basin. The route would cross through the Dusenberry property, then under the Rogue River....
The leggiest millipede is only the latest specie to call the county home When it comes to being unique, San Benito is like no place else on earth. Beyond its agricultural roots as once being the hay and apricot capitol of the world, and its renown status as the rein-horse training ground of the universe, the county is gaining a new reputation among earth scientists far and wide: it is home to an array of rare species found in no other place on the globe. The latest find to be added to the list of unique species is I. plenipes millipede, a creature last seen 80 years ago and thought to be extinct, which has the distinction of being the world's leggiest animal - up to 750 of the appendages. The discoverer is not about to disclose the location of the millipede, except to say that it resides in a fragile, moist oak woodland environment. But last week, entomologist Paul Marek of North Carolina made his findings public in the prestigious scientific journal Nature and gave an interview to The Pinnacle. "I'd love to tell everybody where it is but it's an incredibly fragile habitat," Marek said. "It could be easily disturbed. "It occurs there and no where else on the planet," he added. "What we determined is that it resides in an area less than a kilometer square in size."....
Verde slated as critical habitat for spikedace minnow Portions of the Verde River are already designated as a refuge for both the southwest willow flycatcher and the razorback sucker. But soon the river's waters and riparian environment may become critical habitat for another threatened species, the spikedace minnow. Representatives of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and their consultants presented their findings from recent environmental and economic assessments to the public on Tuesday in Camp Verde. The presentation of the reports and the subsequent public comments are among the final steps the agency must to complete before designating over 600 miles of waterways in Arizona and New Mexico as critical habitat for both the spikedace and the loach minnows. There are no loach minnows in the stretch of the Verde being considered....
Polar bear protection review draws 140,000 public comment U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in Alaska face some 140,000 submitted comments on whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but said they have no feel yet for how public sentiment is divided. The last day for the public to comment on the petition was Friday. Rosa Meehan, chief of the agency’s marine mammal management program, said the comment period was intended to seek biological, environmental or technical information, but the agency would not discount comments that simply advocate or oppose more protection for polar bears. ‘‘Someone took the initiative to do that,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s good to have a sense of the level of public interest.’’ The Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group, petitioned in February 2005 to list polar bears. Classified as a marine mammal because they spend much of their lives on sea ice, polar bears are threatened because of drastic declines in ocean ice due to global warming, according to the petition. When the Fish and Wildlife Service did not meet deadlines in the law for action, the center and two other conservation groups sued. A settlement calls for the agency to make a decision by December 2006....
Rare plant getting helping hands An endangered plant found only in Spanish Fork Canyon is getting a lot of attention from nature lovers who want to give it a chance at survival. Federal, state and local agencies have teamed up in support of the clay phacelia, a bluish-purple flowering plant whose known population in recent years has been less than 10. The clay phacelia exists only in two areas of the canyon — one on private property of The Nature Conservancy, a project partner, and another about five miles away, north of U.S. 6. The collective goal is to establish additional populations at suitable sites on Uinta National Forest land and help the species shed its endangered status. "We're trying to develop a protocol for introducing clay phacelia into some of the habitat it looks like it should be in but isn't," said Susan Meyer, a research botanist with the U.S. Forest Service's shrub laboratory in Provo. A $25,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got the recovery effort going in 2004. That year, project partners collected about 700 seeds from 57 mother plants. Those seeds produced 53 plants in a greenhouse setting at the Provo shrub lab. With some unexpected help from blue orchard bees, Meyer said she was able to harvest about 10,000 seeds....
Army called to fight toad invasion in Australia An Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against an invasion of toxic toads. Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians. State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads. "The army in the Northern Territory is greater than any other part of Australia," McGowan told national radio. "We'd seek the Commonwealth (federal government) to help us in fighting this terrible threat to native fauna in Western Australia." The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest -- beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts....
Column: The Appalachian Trail Conservancy The Appalachian Trail stretches 2,175 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Of course part of that trail goes through Pennsylvania, just west of Harrisburg, and north of Reading. If you have never had the opportunity to hike even a small part of it, you have missed a real joy in the outdoors. The idea for the Appalachian Trail was popularized in l921 by Benton MacKaye, who wanted to create a “peoples path” down the spine of the East Coast, where all people could reconnect with the earth, revel in the wonders of nature, and meet others who shared a desire for simplicity, strong recreation, and comradeship of the trail. The Conservancy was founded not long after. For 81 years the Conservancy is and has been a volunteer based, private non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail – a 250,000 acre greenway. Their mission is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, scenic vistas, wildlife and opportunities for simple recreation and renewal along the entire trail corridor. Each year more than 5,000 volunteers contribute more than 200,000 hours to maintenance and conservation efforts along the trail. Some of these efforts include cutting down deadfalls that block the trail after a storm. They also include shoring up landscape ties that stop soil erosion on the steepest grades....
Column: Report on PETA is Journalistic Malpractice When recently Borders Bookstore refused to display the Danish cartoons that were deemed insulting to many Muslims who responded by going on a rampage, some people expressed the view that Borders was being cowardly. Borders management explained they properly didn’t chose to place members of their staff in harms way. So, Borders wasn’t being cowardly but justifiably prudent. It isn’t necessary for Borders to sacrifice some innocent employees for the sake of taking a stand. There could be better ways to show solidarity with champions of freedom of speech and artistic expression. More recently some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) invaded a dinner where the pop star Beyonce Knowles was the host to various invited guests. PETA members “peppered the pop star with questions about her fur use,” reported the Associated Press. In the report AP gave a short characterization of PETA as “known for its untraditional methods of raising awareness about animal rights.” Never mind for a moment about PETA’s agenda. Certainly, AP’s characterization of PETA’s way of bringing attention to it should not be described in the cowardly fashion of calling them “untraditional methods.” PETA has been guilty of assault, battery, trespass, and harassment against numerous famous individuals who refuse to accept PETA’s viewpoint. These are way beyond “untraditional methods.” They are frequently out and out criminal and AP is plainly mischaracterizing PETA when it refuses to say so. Unlike Muslim radicals, who are reasonably feared to go on a rampage and perpetrated violence against Borders’ employees, AP wasn’t in harms way from PETA. Its conduct is, therefore, pretty clearly cowardly. But there is more. Using the expression “raising awareness about animal rights” is totally misleading, akin to writing about some group that they are invading people’s private parties in an effort of “raising awareness about ghosts.” There are no ghosts! There are no animal rights! AP might as well be writing its report as if the tooth fairy were something real....
Column: The Growth of Green Hype Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is but the most visible of “green” hypes these days, containing doom and gloom galore, the very predictions and prophesies that have been around for centuries and get repeatedly discredited by subsequent events. Gore is now being joined by the highly visible and widely respected New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, with his upcoming June 27th, 2006, Discovery Channel program, “Addicted to Oil.” This is not the place to analyze the content of these programs. Gore’s film has been scrutinized and the conclusion of most careful commentators has been that while Gore assembles credible evidence for global climate change, he hasn’t proven by a long shot that such change is due to anything that human beings have done or have failed to do. Indeed, it seems that over the centuries there has been ample and oft repeated climate change, not unlike what is being experienced now, in both directions, the warming and cooling of the planet. The misanthropic spin is largely gratuitous, reminiscent of the more faith based doctrine of original sin, not based on scientific reasoning. But never mind that. What can be noted here is how much hype surrounds offerings such as those by Gore and Friedman. Both of these men receive the most plentiful exposure on the media, yet they complain endlessly about how little attention they are receiving....

NMSU RODEO

National Champion Team Roping Heeler

Chance Means and Matt Garza went into the final round in first place, so they were the last to rope. They had to be 6.8 to win, and were 6.5 to be National Collegiate Champion team ropers.

Matt is a sophomore from Las Cruces who attends NMSU, and Chance is a sophomore from Buckhorn,NM who attended Central Arizona College. More good news is that Chance will be at NMSU for his junior and senior year.

Krista Norell had a nice clean run at the barrels and won 8th in the nation.

For the twelve calf ropers in the final round, there were 7 no times, with two of those being the NMSU ropers. Even with the no times, Wacey Walraven placed 9th in the nation and Arsel Allsup placed 10th.

That's five years in a row a NMSU student athlete has placed in the top five in their event, including one reserve champion and one champion.

Congratulations to coach Jim Dewey Brown for another successful year at NMSU and thanks to all of you who have supported the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

NMSU RODEO: CNFR

After three full rounds, both NMSU teams are out of the top standings. However, we have 4 athletes who have made the championship round. Tomorrow night, the top 12 in each event are brought back for the final round.

Chance Means and Matt Garza are coming back in the number one spot in team roping. They have three steers down in 24.1 seconds.

Krista Norell is comin back in the 5th spot in barrell racing. She has a total of 44.11 seconds for three runs.

Arcel Allsup sits in 9th place in the calf roping, with a time of 38.9 seconds on three head.

Wacey Walraven is in 8th place in the calf roping, with three down in 36.6 seconds.

Daniel Etsitty road all three of his bareback horses, finishing in 15th place.

This is the first time since I started the scholarship we have had 4 athletes qualify for the final round.

Thinning the Ranks The Forest Service has long been regarded as a behemoth glacier of a federal agency, where change comes slowly, over generations, if at all. It’s more than a little ironic, then, that in this age of rapidly diminishing glaciers—government scientists say Glacier National Park’s namesakes will be gone by 2030—massive change is sweeping quickly through the Forest Service, too. In response to Bush’s management agenda, the agency has recently developed and begun implementing the “Green Plan,” a strategy that calls for systematic consideration of outsourcing more than 75 percent of Forest Service jobs nationwide. Jobs in everything from fire fighting to communications, from scientific data collection to engineering, and on down the line are on the block. The Green Plan, which national officials say is still in draft form and hasn’t officially been released, even though implementation has begun, represents an aggressive next step for an agency that has in recent years begun attempting to transform from its traditional, decentralized format into a lean, mean forest-managing machine. Gone are the days of rangers who handle everything in their necks of the woods, a method the Green Plan sterilely calls “job fragmentation,” with the critique that “although positions with multiple duties have provided extreme workforce flexibility and have served as an organizational strength, it can be perceived as inefficient, and adds extreme complexity to…competitive sourcing studies.” Welcome to the modern era, where public lands management is being molded to fit the private-sector cast. The stated goal in the president’s management agenda is to increase efficiency and decrease budgets in light of skyrocketing federal deficits and expenses. And nobody is arguing that improved savings and efficiency aren’t worthwhile goals. What is shaping up as the major debate, though, is whether outsourcing will prove to be an effective money-saving strategy for the Forest Service, and at what cost. Employee unions, and some of the agency’s own data, call into question just what might be accomplished by a massive reorganization with hypothetical consequences. Critics say that though downsized and centralized operations will obviously produce payroll savings, there are many accompanying costs to be factored: Millions of dollars are being taken off the top of the Forest Service’s already-stretched budget to fund the planning, research, management and monitoring of competitive sourcing studies and implement their results; thousands of staff are being diverted from their duties to devote their attention to executing the changes; and even employees and offices apparently unaffected by competitive sourcing must absorb leftover workloads....
Environmentalists ask judge to stop logging in roadless area Environmentalists asked a federal judge Wednesday to temporarily block logging of the first timber to be auctioned in a national forest roadless area since the Bush administration eased logging restrictions, arguing new studies show the logging will kill young trees and increase the danger of wildfire. Lawyers for the U.S. Forest Service countered that the 362 acres within the Mike’s Gulch timber sale boundaries amount to such a small percentage of the 500,000 acres burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire and the 188,000 acres of roadless area on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, that it does not meet the test of irreparable harm needed to stop the logging. U.S. Magistrate Owen M. Panner said he would rule on the request next Wednesday, noting that the primary issue will be whether any harm that might be caused by logging on the tract in southern Oregon is significant enough to justify the Forest Service starting the planning process over. Panner’s statement echoed a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, refusing to stop the logging under a different lawsuit....
Insurance Companies Sue U.S. To Recover Hayman Fire Claims Three insurance companies filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to recover $7.04 million in claims paid for homes damaged or destroyed in the 2002 Hayman Fire. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. Inc., three Hartford insurance entities, and Allstate Insurance Co. claim the U.S. Forest Service was negligent, partly because of how the agency supervised the forestry worker who started the worst wildfire in Colorado history. Terry Lynn Barton, 42, pleaded guilty to a state felony arson charge for starting the blaze by burning a letter in a drought-stricken area, where a fire ban had been issued. The fire scorched 138,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes and forced more than 8,000 people to leave their homes. The lawsuit claims that the forest service was negligent in its duty to prevent and suppress wildfires and it breached its duty by allowing Barton to "act alone and unsupervised" by not having teams of two patrolling the area. Failure to keep radio dispatch lines available to report the fire and failure to adequately respond to the report also contributed to the forest service's negligence, the lawsuit claims....
Judge kills Big Bear condo project, fines developer $1.3 million A federal judge has killed a luxury condominium project at Big Bear Lake and fined the developer $1.3 million for violations of the Clean Water and Endangered Species acts. In his ruling issued late Monday, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real said developer Irving Okovita deposited fill and dredged soil over wetlands, and caused erosion that damaged habitat of bald eagles that winter in the area. In addition to fining Okovita, Real ordered him to try to correct some of the damage done to the lake in the mountains 100 miles east of Los Angeles. "We're thrilled about the decision," said Sandy Steers, an activist from the tiny town of Fawnskin who led opposition to the development. "It has been a long struggle - over five years." Okovita's lawyer, Robert Crockett, called Real's ruling factually flawed and said he would ask the judge to rehear the case. If that fails, he said he would appeal the ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals....
Bush Administration to Ramp Up Aerial Gunning and Introduce Wildlife Poisons in Designated Wilderness and Research Natural Areas The Bush administration proposed last week to relax restrictions on aerial gunning and poisoning of “problem” wildlife such as coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and wolves in designated Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas on Forest Service land. Wilderness and Research Natural Areas are the two most protective land management classifications the Forest Service has, and both were formerly off-limits to predator control programs except in limited circumstances. The changes the Forest Service announced last week would reverse the long-standing policies that protect wildlife in Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas. The new rule would permit motorized and aerial trapping and killing of wildlife in both land designations. It would also make predator control an “objective” in Wilderness management, rather than reserving such activities for times when they are necessary to protect human life or endangered species. Worse, the new rule permits predator control when it is advised by a “collaborative process” that is undefined in the rule, but which presumably would entail meetings by livestock interests that are typically hostile both to Wilderness and to wolves, coyotes, cougars, bobcats, bears, lynx, foxes and other wildlife. “This rule is a dramatic and devastating blow to our nation’s wildlife and wilderness areas,” said Erik Ryberg, Staff Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity....

DNA tests identify second trapped bear in fatal attack on girl A black bear that tests showed had human DNA under its claws has been identified as the killer of a 6-year-old girl, according to Tennessee wildlife officials who acknowledged that another bear was wrongly euthanized. Elora Petrasek, 6, of Clyde, Ohio, was fatally attacked April 13 and her mother and younger half brother were seriously injured while the family visited a swimming hole and waterfall in the Cherokee National Forest in southeast Tennessee. The bear "positively identified" as the attacker - a 211-pound male that had been trapped and held almost two months by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency pending the DNA tests - has now been euthanized, officials said at a Wednesday news conference. Lab tests by the FBI found the traces of human DNA, Assistant TWRA Director Ron Fox said. A necropsy will be performed to determine whether the bear had any illnesses or abnormalities that might have contributed to the attack. Fox said the bear was euthanized in keeping with TWRA policy regarding animals that kill humans. The family was mauled during a visit to a favorite swimming hole at the Chilhowee Recreation Area near the Ocoee River, a popular whitewater, camping and fishing location....
'Ecological jewel' now a national monument President Bush created a vast new marine sanctuary on Thursday, extending stronger federal protections to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters with their endangered monk seals, nesting green sea turtles and other rare species. The nation's newest national monument covers an archipelago stretching 1,400 miles long and 100 miles wide in the Pacific Ocean. It's home to more than 7,000 species, at least a fourth of them found nowhere else. "To put this area in context, this national monument is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park," Bush said. "It's larger than 46 of our 50 states, and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined. This is a big deal." Bush announced his creation of the nation's 75th national monument at a White House ceremony. The decision immediately sets aside 140,000 square miles of largely uninhabited islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and underwater peaks known as seamounts to be managed by federal and state agencies....
Grand Portage Band to track and study wolves How many wolves prowl Northeastern Minnesota, where they live and their interactions with prey species are things the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa hope to discover. The band recently received a $249,750 federal grant to help conduct a three-year effort tracking radio-collared wolves. "The primary goal is to estimate the number of wolves on reservation and ceded territory lands" where band members are allowed to hunt, fish and gather, said Seth Moore, fish and wildlife biologist with the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa. "We want to relate that information to moose and deer populations in the same area." The Grand Portage tribal council has emphasized that it's important to restore moose populations on the reservation. The reservation is home to an estimated 80 to 100 moose. The reservation moose harvest by band members decreased to four adults in 2004-05, down from a historical average of 15. The study may help determine how large a role wolves and deer -- which carry a parasite fatal to moose -- play in limiting moose numbers. "We are expecting a lot of information to come out of this," said John Leonard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife tribal liaison for this region. "It is going to contribute to the status of wolves and give us information on how the packs interact and where we are going with the predator-prey relationship."....
Column: Religious fanatics terrorize American farmers Media coverage of environmental regulators makes them look like dispassionate scientists. But too often they are dangerous religious fanatics. Years ago, when ranchers and farmers told me that our government's environmental regulatory agencies had been captured by fanatics so hostile to the idea of private property that they'd use the endangered-species law to drive just about every landowner off his land, I thought they were overwrought. Then I learned the story of the lynx. Thousands of lynx live in North America, but since environmental officials weren't sure whether there were any in the Gifford Pinchot and Wenatchee National Forests in southern Washington state, they commissioned a million-dollar study to find out. The discovery of threatened or endangered species would be terrifying news to ranchers and farmers who depend upon use of the land for their livelihoods. Property-rights advocate Mike Paulson told us: "We basically say if you have an endangered species in your area, we're going to take your livelihood away, we're going to destroy your communities, and we're going to make it very difficult for your families to survive." The Endangered Species Act has been used to shut down logging, take away water rights, and stop multitudes of construction and development projects. I want to save endangered species, too, but government is supposed to protect the rights of the people -- not destroy their lives because threatened animals might be in their area. For their study in Washington state, government biologists nailed pieces of carpet soaked with catnip onto trees, hoping a lynx would rub up against them and leave some fur -- evidence of the lynx's existence in this particular area. Sure enough, when biologists sent carpet samples to a lab, they came back positive for hairs from a Canada lynx. That may sound like good evidence that there were Canada lynx in the area, but actually, the regulators went to a zoo, got hair samples from captive lynx, and sent those hairs to the lab to be tested....

GAO

Crop Insurance: More Needs to Be Done to Reduce Program's Vulnerability to
Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, by Daniel Bertoni, acting director, natural resources
and environment, before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, House Committee on Agriculture. GAO-06-878T, June 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-878T

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06878thigh.pdf

Environmental Liabilities: Hardrock Mining Cleanup Obligations, statement
for the record by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and
environment, before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
GAO-06-884T, June 14.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-884T

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06884thigh.pdf

Government Dines on Katrina Leftovers

With a history in the Black Panthers and Green Party, Malik Rahim does not fit the stereotype of a property-rights activist. But that is what he's become in the upside-down political world of post-Katrina New Orleans, where government response to the storm is creating some strange bedfellows. Nine months after the hurricane New Orleans remains in tatters, its population is down to about 200,000 from almost a half-million. Large parts of the city, from posh Lakeview to working-class Mid-City, still have few habitable buildings. Many businesses have not reopened or are gone for good. Almost a quarter of voters in May's mayoral runoff election voted absentee. To add insult to injury, the rights of property owners who had their homes and businesses damaged by Katrina's wrath now face a more powerful and potent threat. Local government officials, armed with the public health code, eminent domain powers and a bevy of dubious legal techniques, aim to demolish buildings--and, some fear, strip titles from owners--in what are being euphemistically called "forced buyouts." Mr. Rahim is the founder of Common Ground, a homegrown group borne of the aftermath of Katrina. It has established emergency supply distribution centers across southeastern Louisiana, including in the virtually abandoned Lower Ninth Ward, where signs reading "Somebody Lives Here" and "Eminent Domain for Who?" surround the bright blue house that serves as a de facto community center. Common Ground stepped in where government failed. Its Lower Ninth Ward headquarters is on the only street in the district with electricity or communications. Power was restored the morning after Michelle Shin, coordinator of the group's Lower Ninth Ward Project, mentioned it during an interview on ABC's Nightline. The rest of the ward remains in darkness. In the last nine months, liberal New Orleans has seen a radical transformation in beliefs about private property. Katrina came on the heels of the Supreme Court's decision on eminent domain in Kelo v. New London. While the city is today using its public safety police powers to justify the demolition of homes, Common Ground activists fear it may turn to full-scale eminent domain takings over the coming months. New Orleans and the surrounding communities will likely serve as a major battleground between the increasingly mainstream view of neighborhood collectivism and the renegades determined to preserve the sanctity of homeowners' rights. The fight that has been brewing since late last year is now coming to a head....

Will feds assert wildlife control? An official with the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was short on answers Tuesday as Wyoming residents hammered him with questions about a recent memorandum outlining disease eradication in wildlife and livestock. Ryan Clarke, a regional epidemiologist with APHIS, repeatedly said he did not know ultimately how much power the federal agency would assert over states when working to eradicate the disease brucellosis in wildlife and livestock. Brucellosis can cause cattle and wildlife to abort, and has been a source of consternation for government agencies, ranchers and conservationists in northwest Wyoming. Clarke also repeatedly said the mission of his agency is to work cooperatively with state wildlife managers. Clarke made his comments to the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee at a meeting in Jackson. His comments related to a March 23 memorandum from APHIS that said the agency has "broad and expansive authority to seize and dispose of any animal, including wildlife" in the event of "an extraordinary disease emergency." APHIS has long had a hands-off approach to wildlife management, but it also has taken the position that brucellosis should be eradicated, not simply controlled. The elk and bison of the greater Yellowstone area constitute the sole remaining reservoir of brucellosis-infected animals in the country....
Horse rancher finds bridge between old, new Undulating waves of gold rise and fall amid the turbulent sea of the eastern Wyoming plains. Thin white wisps streak across a pastel blue canvas above. The wind eddies in draws and whips through the dormant grass and stunted scrub brush. Against this stark but beautiful backdrop, Steve Mantle ekes out a life in the tradition of ranchers and cowboys before him who tamed the wildness as much as it would permit. "Change is the only constant," Mantle says, brushing his hand through wiry brown hair with a dusting of gray. On the 3,020-acre expanse of land nestled midway between Chugwater and Wheatland known as Mantle Ranch, owner and operator Mantle works to tame wild horses like his father and grandfather before him....
Robert Duvall's path leads down 'Broken Trail' At 75, Robert Duvall is open to new trails. "I always try to think to myself, up to until the day I stop, that life is about being in the potential," he says in a telephone interview. "I always want to have something to give and learn." Despite being nominated for five Academy Awards, Duvall doesn't dismiss television. He is the star and executive producer of "Broken Trail," a two-part Old West miniseries airing 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday, June 25-26, on American Movie Classics (AMC). "Trail" marks the first original miniseries for the channel, known for playing such decades-old iconic films as "The Man From Snowy River" or "The Day The Earth Stood Still." Veteran film director Walter Hill ("Last Man Standing") was behind the camera of "Broken Trail," which was inspired by a true story. Production took four months and was shot mainly in Canada. Duvall plays Print Ritter, an uncle who enlists his estranged nephew (Church) to help in a drive of horses across the Midwest near the end of the 1800s. "I think the western is ours," says Duvall who was also part of CBS's epic western miniseries "Lonesome Dove." "The English have Shakespeare. The French have Moliere. The Russians have Chekhov ... and the western is uniquely ours ... it is our genre, and it's our thing."....
It's All Trew: Past generations better at doing without There's a big difference in the seemingly "throwaway world" of today and the "save it, use it up" world of yesterday. Our modern endless garage sales, acres of flea markets and thrift stores on every corner could not have operated in the past because the public saved and used their items until used up. Only an occasional estate sale featured such items. Yesterday, entire personal wardrobes could be hung behind a bedroom door on nails and the other items placed in a single dresser drawer. Sunday clothes and shoes were only for dress-up, patches were neat, showing pride and frugality, with the latest fashions often missing. Girls were taught almost from birth to save and make items for their dowry, with many owning "hope-chests" or receiving cedar chests upon graduation from high school. Yesterday, young married couples lived for years on less than many weddings cost today. Much of the old-time frugality came because credit did not exist except for business or serious purchases. Few items could be charged unless you were a well-known customer. Few charge accounts were allowed to continue long without payment in full. Saving and doing without was probably easier at this time because most people had just survived the Great Depression and Dust Bowl....

Rattle of the diamondbacks

By Julie Carter

Not much is more detestable to talk about, see or even think about than snakes. Not your average little garden variety green snake, but the big Boone and Crocket-record book diamondbacks we have in these parts of New Mexico.

If you are still with me, you are like the many that are warily ready to hear the stories told through the ages about these creatures that grow bigger in the minds of men each time the story is told.

The fact that these cold-blooded creatures stir the imagination and conjure up the worst fears known to man makes them an interesting part of our past, present, and future. Stories through the ages are rife with tales of using snake dens to hide gold and treasures. Petroglyph drawings all over the southwest attest to the fascination of snakes for the rock writers of that day.

The role of snakes in everyday life to the dramatics of television and movies assures forever to set the stage for a wide range of emotions. Few people are truly neutral when it comes to snakes.

These critters have slithered into bedrolls, traveled up a catch rope to meet the cowboy trying to whip him to death and fallen out of trees on unsuspecting cowboys. They've made themselves at home under pickup seats, on the engine, or on the spare tire.

I even heard about a couple of cowboys staying in an old ranch house -- one went to town and one went to the couch for a little R&R only to have the couch start rattling. Seems not one but two BIG diamond backs had made prior claim an old couch that came with the house.

I realize some religious sects have a fascination for snakes but I don't understand it. A recent media story told about a girl in India who married a snake -- no, really, not the two-legged kind, but a real King cobra. She married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests. She says they love each other. As someone pointed out, don't you just wonder how the family reunions will turn out? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there are snakes. Big swallow-a-rabbit-whole kind of diamondbacks, that when they are coiled up and doing their rattling thing, the sound is similar to a propane tank that has sprung a leak.

These ominous reptiles have broad flatheads the size of your wallet and bodies as big around as a man's arm. Big doesn't always mean long, but it's more average than not to find them 5-6 feet long.

There are folks who hunt them for the rattlesnake round-ups and other assorted destinations for a still-live snake. Most of us just shoot and ask questions later, or not.

The weapon of choice is a shot-gun but it is my .22 rifle and pistol that have the most "I got'em" notches in it.

The tall boy-child in my house likes to collect the rattles off each one that meets its demise. They are stashed in drawers, boxes, pickup dashboards and an occasional shirt pocket. Nothing starts your morning like sorting laundry and hearing a snake rattle from the pile of laundry you just picked up.

This week it happened to be an extraordinarily large set of rattles 3 1/2- inches long. I was just thankful they weren't still attached to their owner.

Snake stories are like hunting and fishing tales. Everybody's got one and usually it is a bigger and better one than the last one just told.

I like my snake stories to be memorials. May they rest in peace.

Copyright Julie Carter 2006

TRAVEL PLANS

Sharon and I will leave for Casper, Wyo. today to attend the College National Finals Rodeo.

I will have my trusty laptop and will blog as much as possible; both news and reports on the rodeo.

Wish us luck.

NMSU RODEO

National Standings

16. Mens's Team

4. Womens's Team

Grand Canyon Region

2. Men's Team

1. Women's Team

Men's All Around

3. Daniel Etsitty
6. Jake Greenwood
8. Lonnie Allsup
10. Kevin Lozares

Women's All Around

1. Bailey Gow
2. Krista Norell
4. Julie Etchegaray
5. Megan Corey

Saddle Bronc Riding

1. Clint Philllips
7. Daniel Etsitty
8. Chance Van Winkle
10. Jake Greenwood

Bareback Riding

1. Daniel Etsitty
2. Jake Greenwood
6. Clay Houston

Bull Riding

2. Daren Albrecht
6. Jake Greenwood

Tie Down Roping

1. Wacey Walraven
2. Lonnie Allsup
4. Kevin Lozares
4. Clay Acuna (tie)
6. Garrett Baker

Steer Wrestling

1. J.W. Nicholson
5. Lucas Vaughan
8. Frank Krentz
9. Tanner Robinson

Team Roping Header

3. Victor Perez
6. Ty Trammell
9. Monte Topmiller
10. Sterling Walker

Team Roping Heeler

1. Matt Garza
5. Chance Van Winkle
7. Aaron Moyers
8. Kevin Lozares
9. Nate Mortensen

Barrell Racing

2. Casey Talbot
3. Callie Rios
5. Krista Norell
6. Whitney Robinson
8. Lacey Wilson

Breakaway Roping

2. Bailey Gow
4. Megan Wilkerson
7. Krista Norell
10. Julie Etchegaray

Goat Tying

1. Megan Corey
2. Julie Etchegaray
3. Brittany Striegel
4. Kayla Lange
5. Bailey Gow
6. Krista Norell

FLE

Counterterror exemption proposed for Privacy Act A little-noticed proposal from the Senate intelligence committee would exempt federal agencies from important provisions of the Privacy Act in the name of the war on terrorism. The committee's annual authorization bill, which was sent to the Senate last month after a unanimous vote, would initiate a three-year pilot program, during which U.S. intelligence agencies would be able to access personal information about Americans held by other federal departments or agencies if it is thought to be relevant to counterterrorism or counterproliferation. In the wake of revelations about the administration's use of data mining and warrantless surveillance of telephone and Internet communications in pursuit of the nation's terrorist enemies, the provision could cause a furor. "If this is enacted, the Privacy Act will look like Swiss cheese," American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) legislative counsel Tim Sparapani said. Mr. Sparapani said he was not reassured by the role that the law envisages for the president's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which would monitor the program and report to Congress as the three-year sunset approached. "The board is stacked four [Republicans] to one [Democrat]," he said. "It is not truly independent" because it is inside the president's own office, which puts it "under the thumb of the president and his advisers." The board's chairwoman, Texas lawyer Carol Dinkins, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday afternoon. A Democratic committee staffer defended the proposal, saying the exemptions were "narrowly drawn to address the kinds of problems we found during our September 11 inquiry" when U.S. agencies failed to pool information about known al Qaeda militants, who were, thus, able to slip into the country....
Big Brother's new toy Last week, a fire ignited at the Akron Airdock that once housed a fleet of Goodyear blimps. Firemen rushed to the 211-foot-tall structure and quickly doused the flames. Reporters and photographers descended on the landmark. Many were surprised to learn the blimps were no longer being stored there. Turns out Lockheed Martin -- the company that gave us the Trident intercontinental ballistic missile -- was renovating the site for an upcoming project when the fire started. It's being turned into a hangar for a prototype airship. The prototype is called the High Altitude Airship, or HAA. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Akron won the $40 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to build HAA in 2003. It is essentially another blimp. A giant one. Seventeen times the size of the Goodyear dirigible. It's designed to float 12 miles above the earth, far above planes and weather systems. It will be powered by solar energy, and will stay in a geocentric orbit for up to a year, undetectable by ground-based radar. You can't see it from the ground. But it can see you. "The possibilities are endless for homeland security," says Kate Dunlap, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson. "It could house cameras, and other surveillance equipment. It would be an eye in the sky." According to a summary released by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the HAA can watch over a circle of countryside 600 miles in diameter. That's everything between Toledo and New York City. And they want to build 11. With high-res cameras, that could mean constant surveillance of every square inch of American soil. "If you had a fleet of them, this could be used for border surveillance," suggests Dunlap....
Back to the Bunker On Monday, June 19, about 4,000 government workers representing more than 50 federal agencies from the State Department to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will say goodbye to their families and set off for dozens of classified emergency facilities stretching from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs to the foothills of the Alleghenies. They will take to the bunkers in an "evacuation" that my sources describe as the largest "continuity of government" exercise ever conducted, a drill intended to prepare the U.S. government for an event even more catastrophic than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The exercise is the latest manifestation of an obsession with government survival that has been a hallmark of the Bush administration since 9/11, a focus of enormous and often absurd time, money and effort that has come to echo the worst follies of the Cold War. The vast secret operation has updated the duck-and-cover scenarios of the 1950s with state-of-the-art technology -- alerts and updates delivered by pager and PDA, wireless priority service, video teleconferencing, remote backups -- to ensure that "essential" government functions continue undisrupted should a terrorist's nuclear bomb go off in downtown Washington. But for all the BlackBerry culture, the outcome is still old-fashioned black and white: We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on alternate facilities, data warehouses and communications, yet no one can really foretell what would happen to the leadership and functioning of the federal government in a catastrophe. After 9/11, The Washington Post reported that President Bush had set up a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work outside Washington on a rotating basis to ensure the continuity of national security. Since then, a program once focused on presidential succession and civilian control of U.S. nuclear weapons has been expanded to encompass the entire government. From the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration to the National Archives, every department and agency is now required to plan for continuity outside Washington. Yet according to scores of documents I've obtained and interviews with half a dozen sources, there's no greater confidence today that essential services would be maintained in a disaster. And no one really knows how an evacuation would even be physically possible....
Bar group will review Bush's legal challenges The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office. Meeting in New Orleans, the board of governors for the world's largest association of legal professionals approved the creation of an all-star legal panel with a number of members from both political parties. They include a former federal appeals court chief judge, a former FBI director, and several prominent scholars -- to evaluate Bush's assertions that he has the power to ignore laws that conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution. Bush has appended statements to new laws when he signs them, noting which provisions he believes interfere with his powers. Among the laws Bush has challenged are the ban on torturing detainees, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and ``whistle-blower" protections for federal employees. The challenges also have included safeguards against political interference in taxpayer-funded research. Bush has challenged more laws than all previous presidents combined. The ABA's president, Michael Greco, said in an interview that he proposed the task force because he believes the scope and aggressiveness of Bush's signing statements may raise serious constitutional concerns. He said the ABA, which has more than 400,000 members, has a duty to speak out about such legal issues to the public, the courts, and Congress....
Overtime cap curbs patrolling on border Some of the U.S. Border Patrol's most specialized and experienced agents in Arizona are running into an overtime cap that is limiting their ability to arrest undocumented immigrants and interdict drugs. A growing number of Border Patrol agents assigned to search-and-rescue and canine-handling squads are spending less time out in the field because they are restricted from earning more than $35,000 in overtime during a single year. The overtime-cap woes were growing even as the first batch of National Guard troops arrived Saturday near Yuma as part of a $1.9 billion push by the Bush administration to gain control at the southern border. The overtime situation has frustrated Border Patrol field agents and union members, who say many seasoned patrolmen are forced to either quietly work hours of overtime for free or to walk away in the middle of tracking groups of undocumented immigrants or from using dogs to check for contraband at checkpoints. "This restricts their ability to work when and where they're needed," said T.J Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents union. "The administration is essentially saying we care so little about border security and so much about saving what amounts to a few pennies that we're willing to compromise the accomplishments of the mission."....
Border Patrol re-energized about mission With immigration reform and security of the U.S.-Mexico border emerging as among the most impassioned--and divisive--of domestic issues, McKeon and her co-workers in green uniforms are poised to possibly surpass the FBI as the largest force of federal law agents in the land. When President Bush pledged last month to send National Guardsmen to the border, he threw some clout behind the Border Patrol's long-term plan to grow to 18,000 agents by 2008, from 11,466 agents as of April 29. There were 12,556 FBI agents as of May 31, a spokesman said. The 6,000 National Guardsmen dispatched by the president, according to plans, would eventually be relieved by 6,000 new Border Patrol agents hired over the next two years, patrol spokesman Todd Fraser said. It's up to Congress, however, to fund such hiring, he said. Here on the border, such a possible turn of events makes agents like McKeon, 34, feel energized about their agency's growing stature, she said. Her husband is also a Border Patrol agent. "You feel you're making a difference," McKeon said as she escorted a reporter and a photographer during a recent ride along the banks of the Rio Grande....
SAF Files Complaint Against New Orleans Police Chief's Plan To Grab Guns The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is calling upon U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley over his announcement last week that police in his city would once again confiscate privately-owned firearms in the event of another catastrophic storm like Hurricane Katrina. During a live interview with a New Orleans radio station, Riley acknowledged that citizens may, under state law, carry firearms. He said, however, that police will confiscate firearms, and may arrest people, arguing that "During an exigent circumstance like that, we cannot allow people to walk the street carrying guns." Last summer, SAF was joined by the National Rifle Association in a federal lawsuit against post-Hurricane Katrina gun seizures. That successful lawsuit in federal district court resulted in a restraining order, and subsequent injunction. "We believe Riley's decision is a flagrant disregard of the federal court action, Louisiana state law and both the Louisiana and federal constitutional protections of the right to keep and bear arms," Gottlieb said in his letter to Gonzales. "We're writing to General Gonzales in an effort to prevent Riley and officers under his command from committing the same egregious civil rights violations they did last year," Gottlieb explained. "It is outrageous that Riley would plan such actions when he knows they violate both state law and the state and federal constitutions. His claim that 'exigent circumstances' would allow such confiscations is preposterous....

Obituary for E. Wayne Hage

Dec. 21, 1936 – June 5, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



(MONITOR VALLEY, NV) On Monday, June 5, Wayne Hage passed away in peace, at age 69, at his home at Pine Creek Ranch in Monitor Valley Nevada. He was the husband of two beautiful wives. Jean Nichols Hage, the mother of his five children, preceded him in death in 1996. He is survived by his wife Helen Chenoweth Hage who he married in 1999. The things he cherished most in life were his family and friends. The motivating force in his life was to serve his Lord Jesus Christ.

Wayne won a very public fight for freedom over property. He won a very private fight for eternal freedom June 5th. He a courageous man with a sustaining faith in God and a hope so real to him that he did not flinch, both in life and in death. He won. He went home to be with his Lord in heaven.

Born December 21, 1936, in Elko Nevada, Wayne was the youngest of five children to the parents of Reinert and Grace Hage. His father was a geologist, and his mother a school teacher. At age 15, he left home to buckaroo for a number of large open range outfits in Nevada and southern Idaho, such as the Moffitt and PX, forming a life-long passion for the range livestock industry. He worked with some of the finest cow men in the country, ran mustangs on the Owyhee desert for his uncle, Earl Prunty, broke teams on buck rakes and mowing machines. He lived in a unique time in history with values and freedoms which he always sought to preserve.

After fulfilling his draft requirements in the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command, he finished his GED and earned a master’s degree in biological science from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Wayne and his wife Jean, whom he married in 1963, purchased her family ranch in Sierra Valley, California. They lived there fifteen years, where all of their five children born. While in California, Wayne served as chairman of the Agricultural Land Use Committee of the California State Chamber of Commerce, and was actively involved in the California Cattlemen’s Association, and the California Farm Bureau.

In 1978, he fulfilled his life-long dream when he and his wife Jean, purchased an open-range cattle ranch in Monitor Valley Nevada, known as Pine Creek Ranch. Immediately, however, they came under attack from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, denying them access to their vested water rights and range in an attempt to break them economically to create a National Park and wilderness area of the ranch.

Wayne met these attacks on his lifestyle and property by authoring his book, “Storm Over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands”, which for the first time articulated the privately owned vested water rights, forage rights and rights-of-ways arising on federal lands.

In 1991, the federal government’s attacks on the Hage’s property came to a head when the federal government confiscated over 100 head of cattle at gun point. In response, Hage filed a Fifth Amendment of the Constitution “takings” case in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. In a landmark victory, in 2002, the Court ruled in its Final Opinion and Finding of Fact that Hage had title to his vested water rights and the “fee lands” within the boundaries of his range allotments.

Wayne was actively involved in starting several property rights organizations including the National Federal Lands Conference, Stewards of the Range, and the Nevada Live Stock Association. He also served on the executive board of Mountain States Legal Foundation, as a trustee of the University of Nevada Foundation, and Nevada Agricultural Foundation, and acted as a consultant to financial institutions.

Wayne, and his wife Helen, sharing each others passion for property rights and freedom, spent much of their time together speaking to ranching and property rights groups, to share with their fellow ranchers the tremendous property rights victory in Hage v. U.S. Wayne was proud to leave a legacy to his family of a ranch with clear and full title, from boundary to boundary, to which the federal government could no longer impose a grazing permit. Cattle are now running freely on the entire ranch fulfilling Wayne’s vision.

Not by choice, the cause of Wayne’s life was to defend the property rights of his fellow rancher and property owners. His life’s work is perhaps best described by friend by Idaho attorney, John Runft. “Let me also echo those many who knew Wayne to be a truly great man. I treasure the times we spent together discussing not only the legal intricacies of real property law which he pioneered as well as the cutting edge legal proceedings he fearlessly pursued against overbearing government bureaucracies but also the broader ethics and codes of conducting one’s life. Wayne was Socratic to the core. He knew himself well and therefore had no difficulty encountering with an open mind new ideas and concepts about which he would engage in lively debate. Accordingly, he had no fear of taking action if the circumstances merited action. He lived his life a legacy of thoughtful deliberation and fearless action. He embodied the legend of the West in every respect. He will be sorely missed, but his life is greatly celebrated.”

Services will begin at noon on Saturday, June 10, at noon at Pine Creek Ranch in Monitor Valley, Nevada. He is survived by his wife Helen and children, Ramona Morrison, Ruthe Agee, Margaret Byfield, Laura Perkins and Wayne Hage, as well as his children by marriage: Mike Chenoweth (Diana) and Meg Keenan. He is also survived by his brother David Hage (Nancy) and sisters Faye Tewell (John) and Alice Hage. He will also be remembered fondly by his four son-in-laws and daughter-in-law: Jeff Morrison, Jace Agee, Dan Byfield, David Perkins, and Yelena Hage. His legacy live on in his grandchildren: John and Kristin Morrison; Tyler, Jacob and Katelyn Agee; David, Harrison and Charlton Perkins; McKenzy Byfield; and Bryan Hage.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Wildlife blamed for bacteria growth To the surprise of many, a bacteria-source study conducted in Smith River shows that birds and small mammals contribute the most fecal matter to the watershed. The usual suspects — cows and humans — appeared as blips on the radar screen compared to the zeppelin of birds, small animals, deer and elk. “What they found out was, most of it is wildlife,” said Bill Town, chairman of the Smith River Watershed Bacteria Source Tracking Study and an alternate on the Smith River Watershed Council. Dogs and cats were no small contributors, but ranchers and residents along Smith River say those contributions can be easily mitigated as long as septic tanks and cattle aren’t doing all the dirty work. “If there isn’t a problem, then we can smile at ourselves and say, ‘We’ve been doing a pretty damn good job of protecting our watersheds,’” Town said. Smith River residents hope the independent DNA study, conducted by CH2M Hill, based in Denver, will persuade the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to redirect some heat from their livestock as the river’s main contaminators....
Judge: Ranchers have stake in elk feedgrounds Ranchers in northwest Wyoming have a "substantial economic and private property interest" in preserving the state's system of elk feedgrounds, a federal judge says. As a result, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson ruled that the Wyoming Stock Growers Association may intervene as a matter of right in a lawsuit over western Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds. The Friday decision allows the livestock industry group to participate in a lawsuit that was filed in federal court by the environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council. The lawsuit was filed in February against the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, challenging the authorization of state-run elk feedgrounds on federal lands in western Wyoming. The groups seek to have the federal agencies study a range of alternatives to the feedgrounds in wake of disease transmission issues. The lawsuit also targets facilities built to capture elk at the Muddy Creek feedground in Sublette County as part of a program to test the animals for brucellosis and kill those that test positive....
A Closer Look Smokey Bear was created in 1944, after the release of Walt Disney's "Bambi." Disney agreed to let the forest fire prevention campaign use Bambi's image on a poster, which proved using an animal as a fire prevention symbol was successful. However, Bambi's image was only on loan from Disney for one year, and the Forest Service would need to find another animal for their campaign. Thus, it was decided the nation's number one firefighter would be a bear. It was August 9, 1944, when the first poster of Smokey Bear was created. It showed a bear pouring a bucket of water on a campfire. In 1952, an act of Congress took Smokey out of the public domain and placed him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. The Act provided for the use of collected royalties and fees for continued education on preventing forest fires. Smokey's image is protected by US Federal Law and is administered by the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council. Smokey became very popular and his message is the longest running public service campaign in U.S. history. Smokey is often depicted as a bear wearing blue jeans and a flat-brimmed hat, like park rangers wear. A cartoon was designed by Richard Scarry for Little Golden Books, and Smokey received so much fan mail he was assigned his own zip code. It was in the spring of 1950 when the "real" Smokey Bear would emerge. A little black bear cub was caught in the Capitan Gap wildfire in the mountains of New Mexico. The cub had climbed a tree to escape the fire, but his paws and hind legs had been burned. Firefighters rescued the cub, and a rancher who had helped fight the fire, agreed to take the cub home. A New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Ranger heard about the cub at the fire camp and drove to the rancher's home to get the bear. The cub needed veterinary aid and was flown to Santa Fe where his burns were treated. Soon the media picked up the story and broadcast it nationwide. Many people wrote or called to inquire about the cub's health. He was first called "Hotfoot Teddy" but was later renamed "Smokey" after the fire service mascot....
Land battle to culminate in federal court Walker County resident Gregory Colson finally will have his day in federal court Monday in a battle for rights concerning 19 acres of family owned land off FM 1374. The old Colson homestead still stands, and the land remained untouched for more than 70 years until the mid 1990s when Colson decided to erect a gate. The question of land ownership surrounds one piece of that 19 acres that is being tagged a “road” by the U.S. government, but Colson’s lawyers at Moak & Moak argue any semblance of a designated roadway. “The area in question is claimed by the United States to be an old wagon trail that went from Huntsville to Montgomery,” attorney J. Paxton Adams said in December. “Today, however, nobody that views the property would recognize any road or even the remnants of a road. We don’t believe it ever was the road that the United States now claims it to be.”....
Wisconsin wolf population keeps increasing, DNR says Wisconsin's wolf population continues a slow increase, with the state's annual winter survey showing somewhere between 465 to 502 animals. That's up about 7 percent from last year's count of 435 to 467, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported Tuesday. Biologists have conducted annual wolf population surveys since the winter of 1979, when the number of wolves began increasing after the animal was extinct for decades in the state. The survey doesn't include pups born this spring. Wisconsin now has far more wolves than called for in the federal wolf recovery plan for the region, and the federal government is in the process of removing wolves from the Endangered Species List in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and nearby states. That effort could be complete next year, pending any legal action....
New Protections Proposed for Mussels In response to a lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating 1,200 miles of rivers and streams in Alabama, Florida and Georgia as critical habitat for seven federally protected mussel species. The waterways include portions of Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system in all three states, the Ochlocknee River in Georgia and Florida and the Econfina Creek and Suwannee River in Florida. Some scientists rank mussels as the nation's most threatened natural resource. Of the 300 species found in the United States, most live in the Southeast. American Indians ate them and used them to make tools and jewelry, and their shells were a major source of buttons from about 1890 until plastic buttons came along in the 1950s. The critical habitat designation is proposed for five endangered mussels _ the fat threeridge, the shinyrayed pocketbook, the Gulf moccasinshell, the Ochlocknee moccasinshell and the oval pigtoe _ and two threatened mussels, the Chipola slabshell and purple bankclimber....
U.S. Government Sued for Allowing Imports of Peruvian Mahogany Doubly illegal, mahogany from the Peruvian Amazon is being imported into the United States for deluxe furniture under the noses of three federal agencies, according to a lawsuit filed today by two Peruvian indigenous groups and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a U.S. conservation organization. The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City. Nearly all of Peru’s mahogany exports are logged illegally, the groups say. Importing it into the United States is illegal because it violates the U.S. Endangered Species Act and a major international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the lawsuit charges. More than 80 percent of illegally logged Peruvian mahogany ends up in the United States....
Conservation groups sue to save rare plant in gas fields Two conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to protect a rare plant found only in a small area in the gas fields of northwestern Colorado. The groups' lawsuit asks the court to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide whether to place the DeBeque milkvetch on the endangered species list. The wildflower, about a foot tall with white sweet-pea-like flowers, is found only within 30 miles of the town of DeBeque. Erin Robertson, a biologist with the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems, said the plant grows on the area's high-desert knolls and at the bottom of the Roan Plateau near Rifle. The rate of natural gas drilling in the area is on the rise. The Bureau of Land Management is considering a plan to open much of the federal land on the Roan Plateau to energy development....
New road to Roan kicks up dust A new road being built to the top of the Roan Plateau has some seeing plenty of dust near Parachute. The road is being blasted into the Roan Cliffs for Petroleum Development Corp. (PDC) to gain access to 16,000 acres of private land slated for extensive natural gas development. The two-lane private road, under construction since last summer about eight miles north of Parachute, is being built in Garden Gulch and above Parachute Creek to prevent trucks from having to drive through DeBeque to reach the Roan Plateau via Logan's Wash, cutting off more than an hour of travel time. Dewey Gerdom, PDC vice president of exploration, said the "very expensive" road will provide year-round access to private land atop the Roan Plateau for PDC and its partner drilling companies, whose names Gerdom would not disclose. Gas companies not in the partnership will not be allowed to use the road. With the blasting spewing plumes of dust in the air, the view from Sid Lindauer's home is sometimes a bit hazy these days. Lindauer, who lives about a mile north of Parachute, said the blasting was so intense recently "that the whole valley filled up with dust," obscuring views of Battlement Mesa and the surrounding area. "My wife was shocked when she heard that blast go off," he said....
Private land owners declare ‘Keep off!’ Some landowners believe the county is encouraging trespassing with the development of its new trails system map. Landowners in Ophir and Soldier Canyons came together for a meeting with county leaders May 23 and left with a proposal in place. The plan fell apart when some landowners refused to sign on, says landowner Leo Ault. Ault, whose family owns between 6-7,000 acres of wilderness in Ophir Canyon — according to his best estimation — says they are trying to organize another meeting this weekend with only landowners in attendance. In response to landowners’ frustrations, Richard Clark, former leader of the county trails committee, says defining what roads are public is a complicated matter. “Public-private road issues in Utah are controversial and the legal issues surrounding them are not clear, at least to me,” Clark said. “I think it’s premature for anyone to say any road up there is public or any road is private.” But some landowners are pointedly informing everyone to keep off private land. This is their land and some don’t intend to share it. “It’s getting to be out of hand,” Ault said. “It’s my private property. Would someone want me to go riding through their backyard. There’s not a bit of difference.”...
Park Service: Raft in fatal accident hit downed tree A Snake River rafting accident that killed three people occurred when the raft hit the root end of a tree that had lodged in a channel, Grand Teton National Park officials said Tuesday. The accident Friday killed Elizabeth Rizas, 58, and John Rizas, 63, both of Beaufort, S.C., and Linda Clark, 69, of Shreveport, La. Nine others plus the boatman also fell into the water. Park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said it is not uncommon for trees to wash down the Snake River during the spring. She said the tree that caught the raft had washed away by Saturday....
Historic guns stolen from Fort Davis recovered National Park Service agents have recovered several 19th century weapons that were stolen from Fort Davis National Historical Site two months ago. Site Superintendent Chuck Hunt said the artifacts _ including several pistols, five revolvers and a knife dating to the 1880s _ were recovered Tuesday. The National Park Service is now offering $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest of the people who stole the weapons. "The case is progressing quickly," said Dave Sandbakken, a special agent with the park service....
Search continues for missing U.S., Canadian climbers on Alaska's Denali Park Clouds prevented two U.S. army helicopters from reaching the summit of Alaska's 5,304-metre Mount Foraker in the search for two missing climbers Tuesday. "Clouds shut them down at 16,000 feet," said Denali National Park and Preserve spokeswoman Kris Fister. It was the sixth day of searching for Sue Nott, 36, of Vail, Colo., and Karen McNeill, 37, of Canmore, Alta. Searchers will try again Wednesday to reach the summit after footprints were found Monday near the mountain top. "That's our highest priority area because of finding the tracks at 16,400 feet," she said. She said searchers theorize the two climbers may have purposely burrowed themselves into a sheltered spot, such as a crevasse, to reduce their exposure to the wind and cold....
New Luxury High Sierra Camp Set to Debut July 3 in California's Scenic Sequoia National Monument Outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy the getting-close-to-nature aspects of a camping experience -- without sacrificing creature comforts such as steaming hot showers, gourmet cuisine, plush linens and feather-top beds -- are the target demographic for a brand-new backcountry tent hotel located in Sequoia National Monument, California. The Sequoia High Sierra Camp will officially open on July 3 and remain in operation until mid-September for the 2006 season. The luxury wilderness retreat is privately owned, and will be operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, the hospitality management company providing visitor services in nearby Sequoia National Park, under contract with the National Park Service. Located in a secluded forest area within Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia High Sierra Camp consists of 36 luxury canvas bungalows with upscale guest amenities to include Tuscan-inspired architectural design with classic teak wood furnishings, plush-top king sized beds, down feather pillows, triple-sheeted linens, deluxe private comfort stations and hot shower facilities. Three daily California-cuisine style meals, with an emphasis on healthful, fresh and seasonal ingredients, are included in the overnight rates. Each cabin, measuring approximately 330 square feet, is nestled amidst lush Red Fir and Lodgepole Pines and features a private sitting area replete with Adirondack chairs from which to enjoy the expansive views....
Column: Who are big oil’s best friends? Environmentalists Other industries, particularly those in the energy sector, have similarly sidestepped antitrust laws with the help of the environmental movement, of all things. Environmentalist organizations are their “labor unions.” Consider the extraordinary success the environmental movement has enjoyed over the past 35 years in stopping oil exploration on the outer-continental shelves off both coasts, as well as in vast regions of Alaska, where there are known to be huge oil reserves. Domestic oil production might well be double (or more) of what it currently is without this anti-energy movement, and gas prices would be a small fraction of what they are. No nuclear power plants have been built in decades thanks to the Dr. Frankenstein-style hysteria drummed up by the environmental movement. It may take well over a decade to procure all the governmental licenses to begin construction of a nuclear plant, and even then the government reserves the right to deny a building permit. This, too, makes energy scarcer and more expensive. Hydroelectric power has also been stifled by litigation and legislation, and the same can be said of coal-fired power plants....
U.S. Science Panel Sees Big Problems if Indian Point Reactors Are Closed Closing the Indian Point nuclear reactors would make electricity more expensive, leave New York more vulnerable to natural gas shortages and add to pollution that causes global warming, according to a report released on Tuesday by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. The committee said that there were no insurmountable technical obstacles to closing the plant. But it asserted that electric demand was growing so fast in the region, and building power plants was so difficult, that simply meeting power needs during peak periods would be a challenge even if the reactors stayed in operation. Congress provided $1 million for the study, under a bill sponsored by Nita M. Lowey, a Westchester Democrat who says the reactors should be closed because of the risk of a release of radiation through accident or terrorist attack....
Napolitano vetoes property rights bill on slum clearance Gov. Janet Napolitano on Tuesday vetoed a bill to impose new restrictions on municipalities’ use of eminent domain to clear slum areas. The bill (HB2675) would have prohibited using eminent domain to boost tax revenue if the planned new use doesn’t have an additional public purpose. It also would prohibit condemnation of non-blighted property within a declared slum area and set a new legal standard that local governments must clear before designating areas as blighted. Additionally, it would have given property owners the right to improve conditions to avoid inclusion in designated slum or blighted areas, impose new disclosures before local governments can make the designations and shorten the length to five years from ten. The legislation was supported by groups representing property rights advocates, small businesses and home builders and opposed by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns and individual cities and towns as well as groups representing planners and environmentalists....
AgInfoLink USA Announces the Release of Meat Inventory Tracking System AgInfoLink USA, a privately-held food traceability information solutions provider, has announced the release of their Meat Inventory Tracking System (MITS) 2.0. The MITS software program was developed to enable custom meat packing plants to identify live animals, link them to individual cuts of meat through to point of sale, and to help plants better manage their meat inventory. The initial MITS 2.0 product installation was just completed at Western Prime Meats in Weyburn, SK. MITS, an affordable and easy-to-use carcass-to-cut traceability system for small to medium size packing plants is in high demand because of today's changing marketplace. "Being able to help our customers tackle the challenges associated with regulatory compliance, new export requirements, supporting branded meat label claims, and day-to-day inventory management has been very rewarding. Traceability, combined with added efficiencies in processes and better management of information, will continue to be an important part of the meat business, and we're making it easier for our customers to meet these challenges and remain competitive," said Lee Curkendall, Vice President of Business Development for AgInfoLink.
Australian Cattle Traceback System Upgraded; Big Growth An Australian cattle traceback system, which the industry regards as a key component in holding and building shares in premium beef exports markets, has been upgraded amid a sharp increase in usage. The National Livestock Identification System, or NLIS, is a key component in a system that allows beef to be traced back to individual animals. More than 143,000 farms and 38 million electronic devices are registered on the database of the NLIS, with usage quadrupling since July 1, 2005, when the system became mandatory, according to a statement issued late Monday by system manager Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd. The NLIS database records an average of 41,000 cattle movements a day and has recorded up to 96,000 cattle movements in a single day. The system processes 98% of all transactions in well under one hour, with 71% processed in under a minute, MLA reported. Changes to the NLIS will improve the navigation and usability of the system's database, it said. Key industry participants believe traceback of beef to cattle is the foundation of the food industry, which depends on the trust of consumers for its future. Australia exports about two-thirds of beef production, with more than 90% of exports going to three major markets - Japan, the U.S. and South Korea....
Farmers' goods showcased in restaurant When several North Dakota farmers asked a consulting firm to help them figure out how to make more money on their products, they got a simple answer: Open an upscale restaurant. The farmers, members of the North Dakota Farmers Union, ran with the advice, and Wednesday they are in Washington opening what they hope is the first of many restaurants that feature their goods. The producers, many of whom have had trouble making ends meet, will now sell their fresh beef, vegetables and specialty crops directly to lawyers, lobbyists and tourists in the nation's capital for $20 to $30 an entree. The unusual restaurant is called Agraria, nestled beside the Potomac River in the prime real estate of Georgetown's Washington Harbor. About 90 percent of the restaurant's investors are farmers from around the country, and the food comes from farms in 25 states. About a third of the food is expected to come from North Dakota, where the idea originated....
Agent of compromise Bob Budd has driven his state-owned pickup 6,000 miles in the last three months, putting in dawn-to-dusk workdays to get a close look at two of his passions -- Wyoming's wild places, and the people who care for and about them. As executive director of the state's new Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Board, Budd is helping lead a first-of-its-kind effort to direct some of Wyoming's vast mineral wealth toward preserving the state's animals and their habitat. It's a job for which he doesn't mind putting in extra hours. "As exhausting as it is has been, it's also been invigorating for me," said Budd, who has been on the job for eight months. "I've gotten to see what the people are doing on the land, and the commitment they have to the things we all value in this state." Budd has met with landowners, conservation groups, government employees and others who hope to get shares of the proceeds from the state's new $40 million wildlife trust fund, established by the Legislature and the governor last year. Budd and the nine volunteer members of the trust fund board in recent weeks have been "ground-truthing" 38 applications for the first-ever distribution of trust fund proceeds by visiting the areas eyed for protection or improvement. The board is scheduled to decide on the grants when it meets Thursday in Gillette....
Ranchers file appeal in Canada beef import case In its latest attempt to halt the importation of Canadian beef and cattle, the U.S. rancher group R-CALF USA said on Tuesday it has filed a notice of appeal to a U.S. District Court decision in April that allowed such imports to continue. "We remain frustrated that there has never been full consideration of the merits of our case," R-CALF President Chuck Kiker said in a statement. "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July 2005 that USDA should be given deference in this matter, but there's never been an evaluation of all of the evidence." R-CALF has argued that Canadian cattle pose a risk of mad cow disease, which is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to the U.S. cattle herd. "R-CALF wants the opportunity not only to make certain that USDA's decision-making on this Final Rule gets a thorough review because the agency has continued to make inconsistent statements about BSE risks, but also to make certain that we have the chance to lay out scientific evidence by nationally recognized experts and government agencies," Kiker said....
Wayne Hage, Nevada rancher and sagebrush rebel, dies Wayne Hage, who battled the federal government for decades over public lands and private property rights, has died. Hage, who came to epitomize Nevada's Sagebrush Rebellion, had been ill and died Monday at his Pine Creek Ranch near Tonopah, friends said. He was in his 60s.
"He actually successfully beat cancer a number of years ago," said Bob St. Louis, and longtime friend and fellow rancher. "In the past couple weeks, it came back in really aggressive form." A memorial service is planned Saturday at the Hage ranch in Monitor Valley. Hage, who married former Republican U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho in 1999, had battled the government since the Forest Service started scaling back the number of cattle allowed to graze on national forest land in the early 1980s. In 2002, U.S. Claims Court Judge Loren Smith ruled in Washington D.C., that Hage had a right to let his cattle use the water and forage on at least some of the federal land where he formerly held a federal grazing permit north of Tonopah, in central Nevada.
A longtime state's rights activist and author of "Storm Over Rangelands," Hage filed a claim seeking $28 million in damages in 1991 after Forest Service officials suspended his grazing permits on parts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, saying overgrazing was causing ecological damage on the high-desert range....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Mexico creates border nature reserve that could help discourage illegal crossings Mexico is creating an environmental reserve about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier. Much of this border zone is remote and inhospitable - generally too rough to hike through unless you’re a black bear or a pronghorn sheep, species that have flourished in the area’s deserts and mountains. And that’s the way Mexico wants to keep it. While the proposed Rio Bravo del Norte Natural Monument is only about 30 feet wide, it will connect two large protected areas south of the river. When a third nature reserve, known as Ocampo, is created this year, the protected areas in Mexico will form a "wall" of millions of acres of wilderness, matching Texas’ Big Bend parks foot-by-foot along the border....
Eyes in the West Are on Federal Land Sale Its mild climate, stunning scenery and proximity to several national parks have helped make Washington County one of the five fastest-growing counties in the nation. But like many rural Western counties, it has little room to expand: 87% of its land is owned by the federal government. Now, Utah's congressional delegation has a plan to remedy the problem, one that is being closely watched by nearly a dozen Western counties with similar growing pains. The plan is also being scrutinized by conservationists who warn that it would set a dangerous precedent, making thousands of acres of public land available for private development as well as offering a windfall for local agencies and special deals for politically influential officials and property owners. The proposed Washington County Growth and Conservation Act would sell up to 40 square miles of federal land and use the proceeds to finance a multimillion-dollar water pipeline and other local projects. Utah Republican Sen. Robert F. Bennett and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson are expected to introduce the bill in coming weeks. Waiting in the wings are nearly a dozen similar bills for counties in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico where population pressure is fueling the demand for more developable land. The Washington County plan and others like it highlight the growing tension between growth advocates and others who fear that the West's unique legacy of protected public land is in jeopardy along with the wildlife, clean air and water that go with it....
Feds put finishing touch on 50-year timber harvest plan Federal wildlife officials gave their blessing Monday to a 50-year forestry plan aimed at saving Washington state's salmon runs while shielding timber companies from costly Endangered Species Act lawsuits. The sweeping deal, which covers about 9.3 million acres of private forestland and more than 60,000 miles of streams, is believed the biggest of its kind in the country. It requires wider buffers of trees along streams and rivers, reduces the amount of logging on unstable slopes, and establishes new rules for logging roads to reduce the amount of sediment runoff. In return, foresters who follow its provisions are assured by federal fish and wildlife managers that they are not violating endangered species protections for fish and other species. The blueprint, known formally as a Habitat Conservation Plan, and its organizers were praised by officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service....
Hottest technology deployed in fight against wildfires As firefighters brace for the worst wildfire season in six years, they're hoping satellites and digital technology will keep them ahead of the blazes. A wildfire technology consultant says crews across the nation will be watching to see whether these cutting-edge tools, being tested in the West, give firefighters a leg up this season. One team in Moreno Valley, Calif., has been using handheld personal digital assistants in the field and satellite-linked computers in their fire engines since spring to fight fires for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The combination allows the team to track a fire's movement, pinpoint firefighters on the scene and predict how a fire spreads, fire management officer Ron Woychak said. "It allows us to make better decisions on the ground and safe decisions," Woychak said. "To me, that's the bottom line." With the start of wildfire season this month in the West, the new tools come at a critical time for firefighters nationwide....
Driller seeks OK to share groundwater Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. is seeking state permission to share its coalbed methane water with others to use for watering cattle or suppressing dust. Although Montana water law calls the practice "water marketing," Fidelity is not selling the water, said Bruce Williams, Fidelity's vice president of operations in Sheridan, Wyo. "We understand the word 'marketing' normally implies a sale," Williams said. "However ... we do not receive payment for this water from any user nor do we intend to receive payment in the future." Rumors have been circulating in southeastern Montana, where Fidelity is pumping gas from coal seams, that the company was trying to sell water it is producing, Williams said. "We wanted to make it real public that in fact that's not the intention and that's not what's happening," he said Monday....
Judge gives approval for pre-drilling seismic survey A federal judge has ruled that a controversial oil and gas seismic survey project will be allowed to proceed in the Adobe Town area of southwest Wyoming's scenic Red Desert. Conservationists and Bureau of Land Management officials said a recent ruling by an administrative appeals judge lifted a previous halt of the Cherokee West 3D seismic survey project. Tom Foertsch, a physical scientist with the Bureau of Land Management's Rawlins Field Office, said Monday that the agency is pleased with the ruling. "We're happy. ... All the issues were resolved to our satisfaction," he said. But conservationists decried the decision and said the project could threaten fragile desert landscapes. "We'll be examining all the legal options to get a better solution to the problems posed by this project," said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. The project was proposed by Kerr McGee Corp. along with contractor Veritas DGC Land Inc. in March 2005....
New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces? Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist. University of Colorado Museum anthropology Curator Steve Lekson, who has studied Chaco Canyon for several decades, said one argument for royalty comes from the rich, crypt-style burials of two men discovered deep in a Chaco Canyon "great house" known as Pueblo Bonito several decades ago. They were interred about A.D. 1050 with a wealth of burial goods in Pueblo Bonito, a 600-room, four-story structure that was considered to be the center of the Chaco world, he said. Archaeologists have long been in awe of the manpower required to build Chaco's elaborate structures and road systems, which required laborious masonry work, extended excavation and the transport of staggering amounts of lumber from forests 50 miles distant, he said. The scale of the architecture and backbreaking work undertaken for several centuries suggests a powerful centralized authority, said Lekson, curator of anthropology at the University of Colorado Museum. "I don't think Chaco was a big happy barn-raising," said Lekson, chief editor of "The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh Century Pueblo Regional Center," published in April 2006 by the School of American Research Press in Santa Fe, N.M. "Things were probably quite a bit grimmer than some have imagined." "Kingship" developed in Mesoamerica about 2,000 years before Chaco, Lekson said, and kings quickly became a constant on the political landscape. "It's not remarkable that there were small-scale kings and states at Chaco in A.D. 1100," he said. "What is remarkable is that it took the Southwest so long to get around to it."....
Debate Over Wind Power Creates Environmental Rift Dan Boone has no doubt that his crusade against wind energy is the right way to protect the Allegheny highlands he loves. Let other environmentalists call him deluded at best, traitorous at worst. He remains undeterred. For four years or more, Mr. Boone has traveled across the mid-Atlantic to make every argument he can muster against local wind-power projects: they kill birds and bats; they are too noisy; they are inefficient, making no more than a symbolic contribution to energy needs. Wind farms on the empty prairies of North Dakota? Fine. But not, Mr. Boone insists, in the mountainous terrain of southwestern Pennsylvania, western Maryland or West Virginia, areas where 15 new projects have been proposed. If all were built, 750 to 1,000 giant turbines would line the hilltops, most producing, on average, enough electricity to power 600 homes. Wind projects are in the midst of a huge growth spurt in many parts of the country, driven by government incentives to promote alternatives to fossil fuels. But Mr. Boone, who wields a botanist's trowel and a debater's knife with equal ease, wants to slow them down with community activism, regulatory action and legal challenges....
`Biopharmed' Rice Reaps Resistance In its quest to genetically engineer rice with human genes to produce a treatment for childhood diarrhea, tiny Ventria Bioscience has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies spanning the political spectrum. Ventria, with 16 employees, practices "biopharming," the most contentious segment of agricultural biotechnology because its adherents essentially operate open-air drug factories by splicing human genes into crops to produce proteins that can be turned into medicines. Ventria's rice produces two human proteins — found in mother's milk, saliva and tears — which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries. But farmers, environmentalists and others fear that such medicinal crops could cross-pollinate with conventional crops, making them unsafe to eat....
To Stem Widespread Extinction, Scientists Airlift Frogs in Carry-On Bags Of all the things airport security screeners have discovered as they rifle through travelers' luggage, the suitcases full of frogs were a first. In a race to save amphibians threatened by an encroaching, lethal fungus, two conservationists from Atlanta recently packed their carry-ons with frogs rescued from a Central American rain forest — squeezing some 150 to a suitcase — and requested permission from airlines to travel with them in the cabin of the plane. The frogs, snuggly swaddled in damp moss in vented plastic deli containers big enough for a small fruit salad, were perhaps the last of their kind, collected from a pristine national park that fills the bowl of El Valle, an inactive volcano in Panama. In many parts of the world, habitat loss is thought to be the biggest driver of amphibian extinctions, but the frogs in El Valle are facing a more insidious threat. A waterborne form of chytrid fungus is marching down the spine of the mountain range where they live. Scientists aren't exactly sure how the fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, kills, but it seems to break down a protein in the skin called keratin that may be important for respiration. The skin of infected animals sloughs off in layers, and within two weeks, they die....
Conn. City Leaders OK Riverfront Evictions City officials voted to evict two homeowners at the center of an eminent domain battle who refuse to leave their riverfront homes, even after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling that the city can seize the property for a private development project. The City Council voted 5-2 in favor of eviction Monday. An attorney for the residents said they are considering continuing to fight. "You are a disgrace to the city, the state and the nation," one of the residents, Michael Cristofaro, told council members who voted to evict. The city has been trying for a decade to redevelop the once-vibrant neighborhood at the point where the Thames River joins the sea. Seven homeowners challenged the city's plans to seize the property and build a hotel, convention center and upscale condominiums, saying eminent domain can't be used to make way for private development. But the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last year to uphold the city's right to take the homes, saying municipalities have broad power to do so in favor of private development to generate tax revenue. Since then, five of the homeowners have settled with the city and agreed to leave. Two holdouts, Cristofaro and Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, still refuse to sell. The vote came five days after a settlement deadline. One resident agreed to a settlement just minutes before Monday's meeting began, The Day of New London reported....
Ranchers round up horses to make way for development For 20 years, Claude Miller and Dick Blue have leased 11,000 acres in central Washington's Colockum hills for grazing land for their 250 to 300 horses, which are used in youth camps and resorts across Washington state. The horses might still travel, but their home base will change beginning this week, as scores of volunteers gathered to help Miller and Blue round up their horses from the open land south of Wenatchee to make room for possible housing developments. "It's kind of a sad day," Blue said. "There aren't many of these kinds of places, grazing ranches, like this anymore. They're hard to find. This is the end of cowboying as we know it." Miller-Blue Outfitters opened for business as a small operation in 1970. Today, Miller-Blue partners with at least 12 different youth groups, resorts and churches throughout Washington. "Over the years, I guess we've seen about 1.5 million children ride our horses and by the summer, we'll have about 1,000 children a day on one of our horses," Blue said....
Sheep industry dwindling For the past 80 years, four generations of Allisons have overseen the spring shearing at their 35,000-acre ranch among the rocky arroyos of Terrell County, 140 miles southwest of San Angelo. On his recent 61st birthday, Robert Allison of San Angelo made a dark prediction: "I don't believe we'll be shearing sheep here in 20 years." While he spoke in the shade of his great metal barn, six stocky Mexicans from south of Del Rio — each with green cards identifying them as resident aliens — zipped the heavy woolen fleeces from Allison's 500 Rambouillet ewes. Every four minutes, the shearers neatly delivered fine, heavy coats for shipment to the wool warehouse in Mertzon, about 25 miles west of San Angelo. Top hands can shear 100 sheep a day. The gray-haired Allison recalled younger days when 3,000 Angora goats would occupy shearers for three days or more. Historically, the Edwards Plateau has furnished 90 percent of the nation's mohair and 20 percent of the nation's wool. ..
Putting on a "testicle festival" in Utah's Mormon country takes a lot of ... guts The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways. Take, for instance, the genesis of Utah's own testicle festival. Kalon Downing was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Phoenix, his mind wandering back home to the high country of Utah's northeast corner. Wouldn't it be a ball, he and a companion from Rock Springs, Wyo., dreamed, to get together some ranching friends, fry up some Rocky Mountain oysters and listen to some good country musicians? "I had too much time on my hands, sitting in meetings," recalled the matter-of-fact cowboy, wearing a dusty felt hat, red plaid shirt, jeans and spurs on his boots. Downing came home from Arizona in December 2000, and late the next spring, after he and other Rich County ranchers were finished branding and turning their cattle onto summer range, the first Black Gold Cattle Co. Testicle Festival was born. The 2006 testicle festival, which wound up here Saturday night, has always revolved around the ribald — and old — cowboy practice of eating the testicles of calves that have been neutered and bulls that have been put out to permanent pasture....