NEWS ROUNDUP
Greenery sucking up more of state's water Thirsty home landscaping, particularly lawns, will suck up an increasingly burdensome amount of water in California over the next 25 years unless big changes are made, according to a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California. The state is expected to add 11 million new residents by 2030, and at least half are expected to locate in hotter, inland areas where single-family homes with lush lawns are popular, according to the report. "Do the math,'' said study co-author Ellen Hanak, an economist with the institute in San Francisco. "We're facing the prospect of many more people with more lawns and gardens in the states hottest, driest regions. That adds up to a lot of water." Landscaping currently accounts for at least half of all residential water demand, according to the report. Without new conservation efforts, the amount of water going to outdoor landscaping is predicted to rise by 1.2 million acre feet a year -- enough to serve roughly 4.8 million people. California cities and suburbs currently use about 9 million acre-feet of water a year....
Senate leaders produced a compromise on offshore oil and gas drilling Wednesday that they hoped would satisfy lawmakers in Florida and other coastal areas who fear for their tourist-based economies. The deal would limit new offshore development — outside the central and western Gulf of Mexico — to an area of the eastern Gulf known as Lease Area 181 and protect waters within 125 miles of the Florida coast. To gain support from states that already allow offshore oil and gas development — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — it would substantially increase the royalty revenue that would be funneled to those states. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said the drilling would occur at least 125 miles off Alabama's coast and would produce tens of millions in revenue annually for Alabama. "We think it's only fair that Alabama and those Gulf states already producing oil and gas are rewarded for their willingness to bear a disproportionate share of our country's energy needs," Sessions said when he and others announced the agreement. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., also voiced support....
Ranchers band together to stave off development Sandy Webster says his memories of lambing and herding sheep with his family are among his most cherished possessions. While life as a sheep rancher hasn't always been easy, it's the only one he has ever wanted. That lifestyle is a part of southern Utah's heritage that he'd like to preserve, for generations to come. "My grandpa homesteaded this land. His old cabin is still there, just over that hill," Webster says from his modest summer cabin's wooden front porch that overlooks red rock cliffs studded with soaring pine trees. "We just want to keep everything the same." Twelve other ranchers have expressed an interest in protecting their property from development with conservation easements, bringing the total to as many as 17 property owners with 11,000 acres on Kanarra Mountain. Funding for the first five easements is not yet in place, although the Nature Conservancy is working to raise the $3.7 million from private and public sources. As much as $12 million is needed if all 17 ranches are to have the easements, said the conservancy's Utah director, Dave Livermore. "In this era of rapid development and every man for himself, it is quite remarkable that a group of ranchers would want to work together in this way to protect the summer range they love," Livermore said....
Forest Service upholds decision on ski-area roads The Forest Service last week stood behind its endorsement of road construction at Colorado's remote and rustic Wolf Creek ski area, rejecting appeals and dismissing allegations that a Texas billionaire's development team improperly influenced its decision. The agency had earlier approved construction of two short roads for access to the proposed Village at Wolf Creek, which could someday include 222,100 square feet of commercial space and housing for up to 10,500 people. The development on private land surrounded by national forest cannot proceed unless the Forest Service approves access across federal land. Three separate appeals by opponents said the Forest Service underestimated the impact of the project and said the team working for developer Billy Joe "Red" McCombs, the co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, had too much influence over the decision. One opponent, the environmental group Colorado Wild, said it would file suit in federal court to challenge the roads. The developers had also appealed, saying the Forest Service was unfairly requiring them to build a 750-foot road at a cost of about $12 million, when a shorter extension of an existing road would be cheaper and have less environmental impact....
A rebirth and revolution in a fire-ravaged land A summer breeze ripples the new grasses where last year's devastating School fire blackened 52,000 acres of southeastern Washington. The emerald ocean fans out across the rolling Palouse Country south of Pomeroy, through fire-scorched pines and firs in the foothills of the Blue Mountains fringing the rugged Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. Few people passing by on State Route 124 and other rural roads realize the area represents a quiet revolution in federal wildfire restoration. The School fire erupted Aug. 5, and crews finally got it under control Oct. 1. Once they did, the U.S. Forest Service used helicopters to scatter an unprecedented 21,000 pounds of native grass seed -- not the usual non-native species -- across the charred terrain. "This planting . . . likely exceeds all the post-fire native seedings combined nationally," said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Joani Bosworth. The burned area now is covered in Idaho fescue, bluebunch wheat grass, mountain brome, prairie junegrass and blue wild rye -- some of the same grasses Lewis and Clark traveled through on their epic journey through the Northwest 200 years ago....
Group files lawsuit over grazing plan A conservation group has filed a cattle grazing lawsuit against three federal agencies claiming they violated environmental laws in the Joseph Creek area of Wallowa County. The Center for Tribal Water Advocacy, based in Pendleton, filed the suit last week in federal court in Portland against the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The center claims that cattle grazing on 95,000 acres called the Joseph Creek Rangeland Analysis Area in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest violates the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws. The land in question is home to threatened steelhead and two plants that are listed as threatened and endangered — the Spalding's catchfly and MacFarlane's four-o-clock. The center is seeking to significantly reduce cattle grazing or halt it altogether until the agencies comply with environmental laws....
Easements will protect wildlife on Madison Valley ranch State and federal officials are working out the details to buy conservation easements on a Madison Valley ranch abundant with wildlife. If successful, the deal would protect almost all of the 11,900 acres of the Sun Ranch that aren't already protected on the 18,000-acre ranch 30 miles south of Ennis. About 6,000 acres are already under a conservation easement. Marc Petroni, district ranger in Ennis for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, said the Sun Ranch "is probably one of the most pre-eminent wildlife ranches in Montana." The deal calls for the U.S. Forest Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks each to purchase an easement that would ban future development. Details of the easements' restrictions, and the price, remain to be negotiated....
Utilities eye West to test coal tech A Colorado mountainside, the high plains of Wyoming or the Dakota prairie may become the next proving ground for a gee-whiz technology to clean up coal-fired power plants. Several utilities, including Xcel Energy, are considering a $1 billion demonstration plant to prove the technology -- called integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC -- will work in the West. An IGCC plant can cost up to 20 percent more to build than a conventional plant, but the technology could make it more efficient to operate and could help companies avoid the hassle and expense of adding pollution-control devices, industry officials say. "That's one of the reasons why companies that are anticipating the possibility of greenhouse gas regulation are trying to build coal gasification facilities," said Dan Riedinger of the Edison Electric Institute, an association of shareholder-owned electric companies. "They're cleaner off the bat." With increased demand for electricity and concern about global warming caused by carbon dioxide, there is renewed interest in clean coal technologies like IGCC and FutureGen, a $1 billion power plant project designed to essentially eliminate polluting emissions. Multiple states are bidding for the project, which is in the planning stages....
Graze ban ignores science, suit says Stevens County cattle owners and the county government say in a lawsuit that a decision to eliminate most cattle grazing on the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge was both improper and imprudent. Grass grazing by cattle reduces fire danger and promotes the growth of the brushy plants preferred by deer, county officials contend in the lawsuit they filed earlier this summer in U.S. District Court in Spokane. Refuge officials agree that a little bit of cattle grazing is beneficial, but aren't convinced that a lot is better. "We use our laws that tell us how to manage refuges, and they don't say, 'Manage for cows,' " said Lisa Langelier, manager of the 40,198-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge east of Colville. The refuge provides "critical habitat" for whitetail deer, Langelier said. On the other hand, the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal officials to consider local plans, but that didn't happen in this case, according to the lawsuit. "They didn't follow the process, and that is why the lawsuit was filed," Stevens County Commissioner Tony Delgado said....
Below-average flow projected at Lake Powell Lake Powell is barely half full and taking a quarter less runoff than expected this year - a sign the Colorado River basin remains in the grip of a multiyear drought, according to a new report from government hydrologists. For some, Lake Powell is proving its value, banking scarce water for dry years. Others say the reservoir may never refill and should be drained to reveal the glory of Glen Canyon. The effects of low water are everywhere, from the bathtub rings on canyon walls to Hite Marina, left high and dry and shut down in 2003. Here at Bullfrog, the boat launch resembles a tilted airport runway - a concrete slab more than a quarter-mile long. It had to be extended twice, in 2003 and 2004, by a combined 660 feet, to reach its current 1,568-foot length. The launch will go out of business if the water drops another 29 feet, officials say....
No Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid Weeks later, de Boer was startled to learn that he was one of hundreds of East Texas ranchers entitled to up to $40,000 in disaster compensation from the federal government, even though the nearest debris landed 10 to 20 miles from his cattle. The money came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Livestock Compensation Program, originally intended as a limited helping hand for dairy farmers and ranchers hurt by drought. Hurriedly drafted by the Bush administration in 2002 and expanded by Congress the following year, the relief plan rapidly became an expensive part of the government's sprawling system of entitlements for farmers, which topped $25 billion last year. In all, the Livestock Compensation Program cost taxpayers $1.2 billion during its two years of existence, 2002 and 2003. Of that, $635 million went to ranchers and dairy farmers in areas where there was moderate drought or none at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post. None of the ranchers were required to prove they suffered an actual loss. The government simply sent each of them a check based on the number of cattle they owned. At first, livestock owners were required to be in a county officially suffering a drought to collect the money. But ranchers who weren't eligible complained to their representatives in Washington, and in 2003 Congress dropped that requirement. Ranchers could then get payments for any type of federally declared "disaster." In some cases, USDA administrators prodded employees in the agency's county offices to find qualifying disasters, even if they were two years old or had nothing to do with ranching or farming. In one county in northern Texas, ranchers collected nearly $1 million for an ice storm that took place a year and a half before the livestock program was even created. In Washington state, ranchers in one county received $1.6 million for an earthquake that caused them no damage. In Wisconsin, a winter snowstorm triggered millions of dollars more. For hundreds of ranchers from East Texas to the Louisiana border, the shuttle explosion opened the door to about $5 million, records show....
US May Revise Cattle Import Rule On New Canada BSE Case The U.S., now in the later stages of lifting its ban on Canadian cattle that are over 30 months of age, may have to make changes to the proposed rule in response to Canada's most recent mad-cow case, according to U.S. government and industry officials. Andrea Morgan, a veterinarian and associate deputy administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said a draft of the U.S. rule on older Canadian cattle has been finished, but may need to be revised. At the heart of USDA's concern is the age of the latest infected Canadian cow confirmed to be positive for the disease last week. It was just 50 months old, born more than four years after Canada implemented cattle feed restrictions that were supposed to the spread of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The USDA sent one of its epidemiologists to Canada over the weekend to follow the country's investigation into its seventh native-born case of BSE. That is something USDA did not do after Canada reported its sixth case earlier this month, but that infected cow was 15 years old - born well before Canada began its feed ban in 1997. USDA officials are primarily interested to see whether the latest Canadian BSE case represents a widespread problem with the country's feed ban, the domestic restrictions designed to eradicate the cattle disease....
Trew: Hard work a good remedy for sleeplessness Recently, I listened to a lengthy discussion among my younger descendants about their various sleeping problems. This triggered some recollections of my younger years, and I compared sleeping in the old days and sleeping today. Each of the youngsters live in well-heated, air-conditioned homes, rest on the latest, most comfortable mattresses laid over coil inner-springs. They lie between slick sheets, using foam filled pillows, covered with beautifully constructed, thermostat-controlled electric blankets - yet couldn't sleep. Somehow, I had problems sympathizing. They were much too young to experience throbbing arthritic fingers and hands, aching worn-out knee and hip joints, leg cramps or bladder problems. What else is there to keep you awake?....
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Pinon Canyon ranchers rally to stop Army expansion In the old Kim Activity Center, under a big banner that declared "Stop Pinon Canyon Expansion," rancher R.C. Patterson pointed to a carefully colored map of all the land around the Army's 240,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. "See, the Army kept saying it was going to buy land from all these 'willing sellers,' so we decided to ask the ranchers ourselves," Patterson explained, his finger tracing all the red squares of land where owners have said they will not sell to the Army. The acreage around the Pinon Canyon training area was almost entirely, solidly red. "The black squares are for owners who said they are willing to sell," Patterson added with a grin because there were no black squares. "So, what the Army was telling people from the beginning was (expletive)." Saturday was rally day in Kim and many of the ranch families who came to town - if Kim is even big enough to call a town - wanted to hear what Colorado lawmakers and hope-to-be lawmakers are going to do to protect the ranches that spread over the juniper-covered mesas and canyons around here. In case there is any doubt, all the legislators, candidates and staffers who spoke under the red-and-white tent - Republican or Democrat - backed the ranchers in fighting the Army's use of condemnation to take their land....
Lands bill: For preservation or profit? Proposed legislation that would allow Washington County to sell up to 25,000 acres of public lands and distribute the proceeds to other projects within the county doesn't sit well with La Verkin resident Nina Fitzgerald. "I'm one of many residents with concerns about the wording of this bill," said Fitzgerald, who is a member of a newly formed group, Citizens for Dixie's Future. "The vagueness of it and the lack of specifics is really concerning. There seems to be a lack of transparency with the bill." Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 in Congress this past week. They first unveiled the measure on March 22 at a news conference in St. George. Community leaders, elected officials and other public employees heralded the draft legislation as a positive step forward in land-use planning. "This is an exciting time. We've had 20 different stakeholders at the table, at the meetings and on the ground, all working together on this for two years," said Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner. "Other Utah counties are anxious to see what happens." But soon after the draft was released to the public, opposition mounted and has become national, with environmentalists calling the measure a massive sell-off of federal public lands....
Ranchers thirsting for water The life Ed Studebaker has known since he became an adult — one that has evolved from having ample water to run his sprawling ranch to facing the prospect of having none — is divided by a winding country road in the shadows of Grand Mesa. On the south side are dozens of acres of tan alfalfa stalks, a crop Studebaker relies upon to feed his cattle and keep viable one of the largest ranches in the Kannah Creek area. On the north is a field choked with thigh-high Russian knapweed, a white-tipped menace that thrives without liquid sustenance, sickens livestock and can wipe out a rancher’s livelihood in a matter of a few growing seasons. It’s here on Purdy Mesa, a verdant, panoramic plateau southeast of Grand Junction flush with an assortment of wildlife, where an escalating struggle for extra water leased by the city of Grand Junction is playing out between historic ranchers and farmers and an influx of newcomers who have snapped up subdivided parcels. For Studebaker and fellow rancher Neil Riddle, the issue hit a critical juncture this year when, for the first time since the city began offering a supplemental irrigation water program more than 30 years ago, the men came away without a drop of water. They were outbid either by other ranchers or owners of comparatively small pieces of property who could afford to pay more for the water. The implications of that could be far-reaching, with ranchers saying the shortage nullifies the crops they’re growing this year, makes it difficult to plan for next year’s harvest and could eventually force them to sell their land....
Black Canyon water case largest in state’s history In 1933, President Herbert Hoover created the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument “for the preservation of the spectacular gorges and additional features of scenic, scientific and educational interest.” Under federal law, when land is set aside for preservation, the federal government is given a federal reserve water right, often called the Winters Doctrine. While no quantified amount of water is set aside in a federal reserve water right, the government claims “water then unappropriated to the extent needed to accomplish the purpose of the reservation.” The era of compromises ended in 2001. As the Clinton presidency came to a close, the Department of the Interior directed the Department of Justice to file a quantified federal reserve water right claim in the Black Canyon. On Jan. 18, 2001, Department of Justice attorney David Gehlert filed the claim in Montrose. Trying to mimic the natural cycles of the river, the filing wants water in the canyon to increase in the spring and decrease in the fall. This is how the river operated before Blue Mesa and other dams were constructed on the Gunnison River. But many feel the 2001 filing was politically motivated and potentially harmful to water users in the basin. Ranchers in the Upper Gunnison Basin have reason to be concerned about a reserve water right in the Black Canyon. The park was created in 1933, giving the reserve water right that priority date. A majority of the water rights on ranches in the Upper Gunnison Basin have a 1941 priority date, which is junior to the federal reserve water right. “It would impact the entire economy of the basin,” McClow said. McClow said most ranchers in the basin have two priority dates. A water judge first adjudicated the basin in 1906, but the quantity of water was calculated based on Front Range soils. Soils in the Upper Gunnison are gravely and drain faster than on the Front Range. To compensate for the difference, Gunnison ranchers were given a second decree that was three times the original decree in 1941....
Wilderness measure an exercise in compromise A locally crafted, congressionally endorsed plan to protect more than 40,000 acres north of Yosemite could be a case study in how a divided Congress handles wilderness. It's called compromise, and it can be a delicate affair. The striking new plan will let snowmobile enthusiasts roar around on more than 10,000 acres near Sonora Pass. Black bears, mountain lions and wintering bald eagles can remain secluded in the protected wilderness. Pacific Crest Trail hikers can be comforted knowing development won't impinge on their High Sierra treks. A House committee soon will review the new proposal, but pride of authorship resides beyond Capitol Hill. It's a coalition of Californians who put aside their historic antagonisms to negotiate the package, acre by acre. "It's really the way it should be done," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy....
More animal-human conflict feared For eight months the 4-year-old male mountain lion roamed back and forth from the Tortolitas to the Catalinas. Sometimes it journeyed 15 miles in a day; sometimes it hung out in one mountain range for a week. One September evening shortly after sunset, the lion padded through SaddleBrooke Country Club just north of Tucson. Two other times, it came to within 600 yards of a golf course in Oro Valley's Rancho Vistoso development. But mostly, the big cat stayed as far from people as it could and ventured near them only under cover of darkness. Over the past year, University of Arizona researchers have tracked the daily moves of that lion and 10 others across the mountains ringing Tucson — although three of the radio-collared lions have since died. All the lions generally avoided populated areas, researchers say — but they did roam through or near several swaths where development is planned and up to tens of thousands of new homes could be built. The research raises questions about mountain lions' future here as metro Tucson's population heads to 1 million and more. The cats — which can thrill and frighten in the same instant when glimpsed in the wild — are already thought to be in jeopardy in the Tucson Mountains on the West Side. The study also suggests that continued growth in areas where lions live could spark future conflicts of the kind that prompted a controversial lion hunt two years ago in popular Sabino Canyon on the Northeast Side....
Wetlands Rules Clearer But Still Murky A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month involving the regulatory reach of the Clean Water Act did not provide a clear-cut line of separation between protecting landowner’s rights and government jurisdiction. Nor did the ruling reaffirm the current system that federalizes nearly every drop of water that falls on private property. While there were no lines drawn in the sand, the ruling did clarify that the government must prove there is a significant connection between water on a property owner’s land and a navigable water. Landowners have long lived with overly expansive control federal over wetlands, which seems to shift as sporadically as the wind blows. Farmers and ranchers have even been affected by big brother’s hands reaching into their cornfields and pastures. The government has extended the same Clean Water Act protections it gives to rivers and lakes to low spots and depressions in farm fields that a child could easily skip across. Because of this, U.S. agriculture has long advocated the need for a common-sense standard that the public can understand....
A million acres and growing The Big Sandy Creek wends its way across the Chauvet Ranch, providing a quenching source of water for the Black Angus herd on hot summer days. The problem is cattle are tough on fragile riparian areas along the creek's banks. The solution — strategically placed tanks that give thirsty cows another way to get water. Water tanks are just one aspect of a new grazing plan put together by the Undaunted Stewardship plan adopted by the Chauvet Ranch. The ranch is among 19 recently certified by the program, which is jointly managed by Montana State University-Bozeman, the Bureau of Land Management and the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "We put in a pipeline to move water and are using a better grazing distribution," said Shane Chauvet, who ranches with his parents, Darrell and Betty Jo Chauvet. "It's a plan to try to help us operate in ways that are more environmentally friendly." Now in its fifth year, Undaunted Stewardship was originally a reaction to the designation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Ranchers argued that their good stewardship is key to preserving Montana's landscapes and said the designation was not needed. Named for Stephen Ambrose's book "Undaunted Courage," the best known part of the program focuses on ranches dotting the Lewis and Clark trail....
Is organic food the real deal? More and more shoppers are forking out extra money for organic foods to avoid chemicals, eat healthy and support the environment. But the USDA Organic label, stamped on foods as diverse as cookies, milk and mangos, may not be a mark the public can always trust. Organic food is supposed to be free of most chemical pest killers, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and genetic engineering. Organic farmers and ranchers must enrich the soil and be kind to animals; chickens should strut outside and cows should regularly graze. But a Dallas Morning News analysis has found that the United States Department of Agriculture does not know how often organic rules are broken and has not consistently taken action when potential violations were pointed out. "The USDA has failed to enforce the regulations," said Jim Riddle, former chairman of the National Organics Standards Board and an appointed adviser to the USDA when the organic standards were enacted in 2002....
Five Minutes With Alisa Ogden Ok, this is a busy woman. The interview was delayed for 15 minutes while she wrestled with some state officials and a representative of an oil and gas company over fair compensation for an oil spill on her ranch. Considering “surface” land owner rights in a state that grants carte blanch to mining interests is one of her pet projects, she came out of the discussion in an amazingly good mood. It was only after she hopped into her truck and headed back home that she had five relatively quiet moments to answer my questions. I didn’t have to ask about the mooing in the background, though. She does run a successful cattle business. So it wasn’t mooing I heard, it was music. And she also does some cotton farming, hay baling, political lobbying in Santa Fe, social work – the short list leaves me breathless. Paraphrasing the intro to the old Star Trek TV series, Alisa is a woman who just expects to go where no woman has gone before. She was possibly the first trainer to cross the gender barrier in college athletics, maybe the first girl to preside over the New Mexico Junior Cattle Growers Association and definitely the first woman elected president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. She comes from a long line of strong women so her attitudes and personal expectations come naturally....
The art of a country girl Horses have been her passion for as long as she can remember, and Gene Brinlee has spent a lifetime learning how to draw and paint them. Brinlee said she was raised by artistic parents. Her mother painted and her father was a sketch artist. She can’t remember the first time she tried it. She said she’s just always been doing artwork of one type or another. Today, Brinlee is a talented fine artist, specializing in horses, and balances a commercial art business at the same time. She paints backdrops for professional photographers. She’s done several national magazine covers for “The American Quarter Horse Journal” and “Western Horseman” to name just two. She has also done greeting cards. Born and raised in the Plano area, Brinlee cut her teeth on country life with cattle and horses being very much a part of it. Now she lives on a ranch in the Ravenna area. She’s been married to her retired-rancher husband, Doug Brinlee, for 51 years and they have two grown sons, two daughters-in-law, four grandchildren and 15 registered quarter horses....
Stories about the storyteller The daughter of a well-bred, well-educated family of the Old South who grew up with First Lady Bess Truman fell madly in love with Casper Mountain and a man a decade her junior. In return, Neal Forsling gave 90 acres of her 640-acre homestead on Casper Mountain to the people of Natrona County forever as long as they would tell the tales of nature spirits -- otherwise known as witches -- forever at the annual Crimson Dawn Midsummer's Eve celebration. Forsling died in 1977 after a lifetime of looking after neighboring ranchers, grieving from the untimely death of her husband, painting and writing poetry, raising two daughters from a previous marriage, and inventing for the children stories of the spirits that entertain hundreds if not thousands of visitors at the event on the first evening of summer. "What was imagination for the children became mountain legend," Rebecca Hunt -- now lead storyteller for Midsummer's Eve -- said Sunday....
Home-grown outlaws ruled the roost in New Mexico Gov. Miguel A. Otero, speaking of New Mexico in the 1880s and 1890s, declared it had become “a catch-basin for human refuse,” pouring in from surrounding states and territories. He was referring to the innumerable desperadoes chased out of their home range, who sought refuge in the New Mexican backcountry. His statement, while true as far as it went, neglected to say New Mexico also had an abundance of home-grown outlaws. A number of them ranked high on lawmen’s “wanted” lists. New Mexico’s worst badman, by any standard of measurement, had to be Vicente Silva of Las Vegas. He made some of the godfathers of a later era look like Sunday-school teachers by comparison....
Pinon Canyon ranchers rally to stop Army expansion In the old Kim Activity Center, under a big banner that declared "Stop Pinon Canyon Expansion," rancher R.C. Patterson pointed to a carefully colored map of all the land around the Army's 240,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. "See, the Army kept saying it was going to buy land from all these 'willing sellers,' so we decided to ask the ranchers ourselves," Patterson explained, his finger tracing all the red squares of land where owners have said they will not sell to the Army. The acreage around the Pinon Canyon training area was almost entirely, solidly red. "The black squares are for owners who said they are willing to sell," Patterson added with a grin because there were no black squares. "So, what the Army was telling people from the beginning was (expletive)." Saturday was rally day in Kim and many of the ranch families who came to town - if Kim is even big enough to call a town - wanted to hear what Colorado lawmakers and hope-to-be lawmakers are going to do to protect the ranches that spread over the juniper-covered mesas and canyons around here. In case there is any doubt, all the legislators, candidates and staffers who spoke under the red-and-white tent - Republican or Democrat - backed the ranchers in fighting the Army's use of condemnation to take their land....
Lands bill: For preservation or profit? Proposed legislation that would allow Washington County to sell up to 25,000 acres of public lands and distribute the proceeds to other projects within the county doesn't sit well with La Verkin resident Nina Fitzgerald. "I'm one of many residents with concerns about the wording of this bill," said Fitzgerald, who is a member of a newly formed group, Citizens for Dixie's Future. "The vagueness of it and the lack of specifics is really concerning. There seems to be a lack of transparency with the bill." Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 in Congress this past week. They first unveiled the measure on March 22 at a news conference in St. George. Community leaders, elected officials and other public employees heralded the draft legislation as a positive step forward in land-use planning. "This is an exciting time. We've had 20 different stakeholders at the table, at the meetings and on the ground, all working together on this for two years," said Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner. "Other Utah counties are anxious to see what happens." But soon after the draft was released to the public, opposition mounted and has become national, with environmentalists calling the measure a massive sell-off of federal public lands....
Ranchers thirsting for water The life Ed Studebaker has known since he became an adult — one that has evolved from having ample water to run his sprawling ranch to facing the prospect of having none — is divided by a winding country road in the shadows of Grand Mesa. On the south side are dozens of acres of tan alfalfa stalks, a crop Studebaker relies upon to feed his cattle and keep viable one of the largest ranches in the Kannah Creek area. On the north is a field choked with thigh-high Russian knapweed, a white-tipped menace that thrives without liquid sustenance, sickens livestock and can wipe out a rancher’s livelihood in a matter of a few growing seasons. It’s here on Purdy Mesa, a verdant, panoramic plateau southeast of Grand Junction flush with an assortment of wildlife, where an escalating struggle for extra water leased by the city of Grand Junction is playing out between historic ranchers and farmers and an influx of newcomers who have snapped up subdivided parcels. For Studebaker and fellow rancher Neil Riddle, the issue hit a critical juncture this year when, for the first time since the city began offering a supplemental irrigation water program more than 30 years ago, the men came away without a drop of water. They were outbid either by other ranchers or owners of comparatively small pieces of property who could afford to pay more for the water. The implications of that could be far-reaching, with ranchers saying the shortage nullifies the crops they’re growing this year, makes it difficult to plan for next year’s harvest and could eventually force them to sell their land....
Black Canyon water case largest in state’s history In 1933, President Herbert Hoover created the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument “for the preservation of the spectacular gorges and additional features of scenic, scientific and educational interest.” Under federal law, when land is set aside for preservation, the federal government is given a federal reserve water right, often called the Winters Doctrine. While no quantified amount of water is set aside in a federal reserve water right, the government claims “water then unappropriated to the extent needed to accomplish the purpose of the reservation.” The era of compromises ended in 2001. As the Clinton presidency came to a close, the Department of the Interior directed the Department of Justice to file a quantified federal reserve water right claim in the Black Canyon. On Jan. 18, 2001, Department of Justice attorney David Gehlert filed the claim in Montrose. Trying to mimic the natural cycles of the river, the filing wants water in the canyon to increase in the spring and decrease in the fall. This is how the river operated before Blue Mesa and other dams were constructed on the Gunnison River. But many feel the 2001 filing was politically motivated and potentially harmful to water users in the basin. Ranchers in the Upper Gunnison Basin have reason to be concerned about a reserve water right in the Black Canyon. The park was created in 1933, giving the reserve water right that priority date. A majority of the water rights on ranches in the Upper Gunnison Basin have a 1941 priority date, which is junior to the federal reserve water right. “It would impact the entire economy of the basin,” McClow said. McClow said most ranchers in the basin have two priority dates. A water judge first adjudicated the basin in 1906, but the quantity of water was calculated based on Front Range soils. Soils in the Upper Gunnison are gravely and drain faster than on the Front Range. To compensate for the difference, Gunnison ranchers were given a second decree that was three times the original decree in 1941....
Wilderness measure an exercise in compromise A locally crafted, congressionally endorsed plan to protect more than 40,000 acres north of Yosemite could be a case study in how a divided Congress handles wilderness. It's called compromise, and it can be a delicate affair. The striking new plan will let snowmobile enthusiasts roar around on more than 10,000 acres near Sonora Pass. Black bears, mountain lions and wintering bald eagles can remain secluded in the protected wilderness. Pacific Crest Trail hikers can be comforted knowing development won't impinge on their High Sierra treks. A House committee soon will review the new proposal, but pride of authorship resides beyond Capitol Hill. It's a coalition of Californians who put aside their historic antagonisms to negotiate the package, acre by acre. "It's really the way it should be done," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy....
More animal-human conflict feared For eight months the 4-year-old male mountain lion roamed back and forth from the Tortolitas to the Catalinas. Sometimes it journeyed 15 miles in a day; sometimes it hung out in one mountain range for a week. One September evening shortly after sunset, the lion padded through SaddleBrooke Country Club just north of Tucson. Two other times, it came to within 600 yards of a golf course in Oro Valley's Rancho Vistoso development. But mostly, the big cat stayed as far from people as it could and ventured near them only under cover of darkness. Over the past year, University of Arizona researchers have tracked the daily moves of that lion and 10 others across the mountains ringing Tucson — although three of the radio-collared lions have since died. All the lions generally avoided populated areas, researchers say — but they did roam through or near several swaths where development is planned and up to tens of thousands of new homes could be built. The research raises questions about mountain lions' future here as metro Tucson's population heads to 1 million and more. The cats — which can thrill and frighten in the same instant when glimpsed in the wild — are already thought to be in jeopardy in the Tucson Mountains on the West Side. The study also suggests that continued growth in areas where lions live could spark future conflicts of the kind that prompted a controversial lion hunt two years ago in popular Sabino Canyon on the Northeast Side....
Wetlands Rules Clearer But Still Murky A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month involving the regulatory reach of the Clean Water Act did not provide a clear-cut line of separation between protecting landowner’s rights and government jurisdiction. Nor did the ruling reaffirm the current system that federalizes nearly every drop of water that falls on private property. While there were no lines drawn in the sand, the ruling did clarify that the government must prove there is a significant connection between water on a property owner’s land and a navigable water. Landowners have long lived with overly expansive control federal over wetlands, which seems to shift as sporadically as the wind blows. Farmers and ranchers have even been affected by big brother’s hands reaching into their cornfields and pastures. The government has extended the same Clean Water Act protections it gives to rivers and lakes to low spots and depressions in farm fields that a child could easily skip across. Because of this, U.S. agriculture has long advocated the need for a common-sense standard that the public can understand....
A million acres and growing The Big Sandy Creek wends its way across the Chauvet Ranch, providing a quenching source of water for the Black Angus herd on hot summer days. The problem is cattle are tough on fragile riparian areas along the creek's banks. The solution — strategically placed tanks that give thirsty cows another way to get water. Water tanks are just one aspect of a new grazing plan put together by the Undaunted Stewardship plan adopted by the Chauvet Ranch. The ranch is among 19 recently certified by the program, which is jointly managed by Montana State University-Bozeman, the Bureau of Land Management and the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "We put in a pipeline to move water and are using a better grazing distribution," said Shane Chauvet, who ranches with his parents, Darrell and Betty Jo Chauvet. "It's a plan to try to help us operate in ways that are more environmentally friendly." Now in its fifth year, Undaunted Stewardship was originally a reaction to the designation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Ranchers argued that their good stewardship is key to preserving Montana's landscapes and said the designation was not needed. Named for Stephen Ambrose's book "Undaunted Courage," the best known part of the program focuses on ranches dotting the Lewis and Clark trail....
Is organic food the real deal? More and more shoppers are forking out extra money for organic foods to avoid chemicals, eat healthy and support the environment. But the USDA Organic label, stamped on foods as diverse as cookies, milk and mangos, may not be a mark the public can always trust. Organic food is supposed to be free of most chemical pest killers, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and genetic engineering. Organic farmers and ranchers must enrich the soil and be kind to animals; chickens should strut outside and cows should regularly graze. But a Dallas Morning News analysis has found that the United States Department of Agriculture does not know how often organic rules are broken and has not consistently taken action when potential violations were pointed out. "The USDA has failed to enforce the regulations," said Jim Riddle, former chairman of the National Organics Standards Board and an appointed adviser to the USDA when the organic standards were enacted in 2002....
Five Minutes With Alisa Ogden Ok, this is a busy woman. The interview was delayed for 15 minutes while she wrestled with some state officials and a representative of an oil and gas company over fair compensation for an oil spill on her ranch. Considering “surface” land owner rights in a state that grants carte blanch to mining interests is one of her pet projects, she came out of the discussion in an amazingly good mood. It was only after she hopped into her truck and headed back home that she had five relatively quiet moments to answer my questions. I didn’t have to ask about the mooing in the background, though. She does run a successful cattle business. So it wasn’t mooing I heard, it was music. And she also does some cotton farming, hay baling, political lobbying in Santa Fe, social work – the short list leaves me breathless. Paraphrasing the intro to the old Star Trek TV series, Alisa is a woman who just expects to go where no woman has gone before. She was possibly the first trainer to cross the gender barrier in college athletics, maybe the first girl to preside over the New Mexico Junior Cattle Growers Association and definitely the first woman elected president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. She comes from a long line of strong women so her attitudes and personal expectations come naturally....
The art of a country girl Horses have been her passion for as long as she can remember, and Gene Brinlee has spent a lifetime learning how to draw and paint them. Brinlee said she was raised by artistic parents. Her mother painted and her father was a sketch artist. She can’t remember the first time she tried it. She said she’s just always been doing artwork of one type or another. Today, Brinlee is a talented fine artist, specializing in horses, and balances a commercial art business at the same time. She paints backdrops for professional photographers. She’s done several national magazine covers for “The American Quarter Horse Journal” and “Western Horseman” to name just two. She has also done greeting cards. Born and raised in the Plano area, Brinlee cut her teeth on country life with cattle and horses being very much a part of it. Now she lives on a ranch in the Ravenna area. She’s been married to her retired-rancher husband, Doug Brinlee, for 51 years and they have two grown sons, two daughters-in-law, four grandchildren and 15 registered quarter horses....
Stories about the storyteller The daughter of a well-bred, well-educated family of the Old South who grew up with First Lady Bess Truman fell madly in love with Casper Mountain and a man a decade her junior. In return, Neal Forsling gave 90 acres of her 640-acre homestead on Casper Mountain to the people of Natrona County forever as long as they would tell the tales of nature spirits -- otherwise known as witches -- forever at the annual Crimson Dawn Midsummer's Eve celebration. Forsling died in 1977 after a lifetime of looking after neighboring ranchers, grieving from the untimely death of her husband, painting and writing poetry, raising two daughters from a previous marriage, and inventing for the children stories of the spirits that entertain hundreds if not thousands of visitors at the event on the first evening of summer. "What was imagination for the children became mountain legend," Rebecca Hunt -- now lead storyteller for Midsummer's Eve -- said Sunday....
Home-grown outlaws ruled the roost in New Mexico Gov. Miguel A. Otero, speaking of New Mexico in the 1880s and 1890s, declared it had become “a catch-basin for human refuse,” pouring in from surrounding states and territories. He was referring to the innumerable desperadoes chased out of their home range, who sought refuge in the New Mexican backcountry. His statement, while true as far as it went, neglected to say New Mexico also had an abundance of home-grown outlaws. A number of them ranked high on lawmen’s “wanted” lists. New Mexico’s worst badman, by any standard of measurement, had to be Vicente Silva of Las Vegas. He made some of the godfathers of a later era look like Sunday-school teachers by comparison....
FLE
Cross-border firefight shocks U.S. lawmen Hundreds of rounds of automatic weapons fire rained down on South Texas sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo County last night from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The deputies were answering a call from two U.S. citizens who swam across the river to escape a gunfight at a Mexican ranch, reports the Monitor newspaper of the Rio Grande Valley. The two American brothers are suspects in other criminal investigations, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevi̱o, according to the report. The brothers reportedly called 911 at 7:45 p.m. saying gunmen burst into their family ranch in Mexico, killed a ranch hand and kidnapped their father. The brothers were able to make it across the river to the U.S. where they continued to attract gunfire Рeven after law enforcement authorities arrived. When several deputies and four Border Patrol agents took the two brothers back to the riverbank to see if they might find any evidence or the shooters, they were met with a hail of gunfire Рalternating from the south and east, suggesting some of the shots were also fired from U.S. territory. The fire continued for almost 10 minutes, according to authorities....
Bribery At Border Worries Officials Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a series of bribery and smuggling cases in what they fear is a sign of increased corruption among officers who patrol the Mexican border. Two brothers who worked for the U.S. Border Patrol disappeared in June while under investigation for smuggling drugs and immigrants, and are believed to have fled to Mexico. In the past month, two agents from Customs and Border Protection, which guards border checkpoints, were indicted for taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States. And earlier this month, two Border Patrol supervisory agents pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $200,000 in payoffs to release smugglers and illegal immigrants who had been detained. Authorities say two factors are causing concern that larger problems may develop: The massive buildup of Border Patrol agents in recent years has led to worries that hiring standards have been lowered; and, as smugglers demand higher and higher fees to bring illegal immigrants into the United States, their efforts to bribe those guarding the border have intensified. While the main corruption problem along the border is still among Mexican law enforcement officials, there have been numerous arrests of U.S. officers, too. Last year in Texas, for example, 10 federal agents were charged with or convicted of taking bribes from drug dealers or human smugglers. Also last year, a U.S. Justice Department operation arrested 17 current or former military and law enforcement officers who were paid $220,000 by undercover agents to allow counterfeit drugs to cross into Arizona. In 2004 and 2005, federal authorities in Arizona uncovered numerous relationships, including marriages, between Border Patrol agents and Latina women illegally in the United States....
Senate denies funds for new border fence Less than two months after voting overwhelmingly to build 370 miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico, the Senate yesterday voted against providing funds to build it. "We do a lot of talking. We do a lot of legislating," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican whose amendment to fund the fence was killed on a 71-29 vote. "The things we do often sound very good, but we never quite get there." Mr. Sessions offered his amendment to authorize $1.8 billion to pay for the fencing that the Senate voted 83-16 to build along high-traffic areas of the border with Mexico. In the same vote on May 17, the Senate also directed 500 miles of vehicle barriers to be built along the border. But the May vote simply authorized the fencing and vehicle barriers, which on Capitol Hill is a different matter from approving the federal expenditures needed to build it. Sen. Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who historically has fought to increase border security and enforcement of federal immigration laws, was among those who opposed Mr. Session's amendment. "We should build these walls; there's no question about it," he said. "But the real issue here is the offset that's being used, and the offset creates a Hobson's choice for almost everyone here." Mr. Session's amendment would have required across-the-board cuts to the rest of the Homeland Security appropriations bill, Mr. Gregg said, which would mean cutting 750 new border-patrol agents and 1,200 new detention beds for illegal aliens that he included in the bill....
Senate votes to patrol Canadian border with remote-controlled aircraft Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, rancher Gloria Fey has gotten used to the idea that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents could be watching her every move. Fey said she and her husband, Albert, often joke about giving border protection agents an eyeful whenever the couple answers nature's calls while fixing fences out on their Hi-Line ranch located just a mile from the U.S.-Canadian border. The U.S. Border Patrol now uses high-altitude airplanes, low-flying helicopters, ground-based sensors and cameras and uniformed officers to monitor the border. With that much activity already, Fey said she and her husband aren't worried about losing their privacy if the agency puts new remote-controlled surveillance airplanes along the U.S.-Canadian line. The Senate this week approved a plan pushed by Montana Sens. Conrad Burns, R, and Max Baucus, D, and inserted into the 2007 Homeland Security spending bill to require the border agency to test an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at one of its three Northern Border Air Wing bases. The measure now goes to the House for consideration. Critics say the unmanned planes are too expensive and unreliable and could open the door to real-time aerial snooping by a host of government and police agencies....
Criminal immigrants not being deported Border Patrol agents say immigrants convicted of crimes are remaining in the United States because of a lack of space in detention centers. J.T. Bonner, an agent in San Diego and president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing agents, said the problem is getting worse, the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune said. "We don't have enough money for bed space," he told the Tribune. "We don't have the resources to check the prisons." Under federal law, non-citizens convicted of crimes are supposed to be deported once they have served their sentences. A report by the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department said many are released because there is no place to hold them while deportation hearings are held. The report said that 8,500 more beds in detention centers are needed. The report also said that between 2001 and 2004 30,000 immigrants with criminal records were identified in prison, in traffic stops or by other means and were not deported.
Activists want sheriff to stop arrests Hundreds of immigrant-rights activists sparred with the sheriff of Arizona's most populous county Friday, calling him heartless for arresting illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law. More than 200 protesters marched through a small area of downtown Phoenix and stopped in front of the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for female chain gangs and forcing inmates to wear pink underwear. Protesters walked diagonally through an intersection and met Arpaio on the other side. "Sheriff, we are here to get on our knees and implore you to stop the hostility against the Hispanic community," said Elias Bermudez, president of activist group Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras, or Immigrants Without Borders. Bermudez knelt in front of the sheriff as he spoke, saying, "We believe that your enforcement of the law is an affront to the poor victims — the people who are coming here to work and serve this country."....
Agents find dead, dying in desert Border Patrol Agent J. Kicklighter admits to being an adrenaline junkie, which may be what it takes to save illegal immigrants lost in the inhospitable terrain of deep South Texas. A member of an elite Border Patrol unit focused on rescues, he can track someone with a faxed image of a shoe tread, or find a 911 caller by juxtapositions of windmills and mesquite trees mapped in his head. "It's not checkers," he said. "It's chess." The Border Patrol regularly releases tallies on rescues, which it defines as "any incident where lack of intervention by the Border Patrol would result in death or serious bodily injury." Since last Oct. 1, there have been more than 400 in the Rio Grande Valley sector - one of five sectors in Texas - compared with 159 all of the previous year. For the full U.S.-Mexico border, more than 2,350 rescues have been made so far this year; 2,577 were made the previous year....
Bush Would Let Secret Court Sift Wiretap Process After months of resistance, the White House agreed Thursday to allow a secret intelligence court to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s program to conduct wiretaps without warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists. If approved by Congress, the deal would put the court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in the unusual position of deciding whether the wiretapping program is a legitimate use of the president’s power to fight terrorism. The aim of the plan, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told reporters, would be to “test the constitutionality” of the program. The plan, brokered over the last three weeks in negotiations between Senator Arlen Specter and senior White House officials, including President Bush himself, would apparently leave the secretive intelligence court free to consider the case in closed proceedings, without the kind of briefs and oral arguments that are usually part of federal court consideration of constitutional issues. The court’s ruling in the matter could also remain secret. The court would be able to determine whether the program is “reasonably designed” to focus on the communications of actual terrorism suspects and people in the United States who communicate with them. That determination is now left entirely in the hands of the security agency under an internal checklist. If the court were to rule the program unconstitutional, the attorney general could refine and resubmit it or, conversely, appeal the decision to the FISA appellate court and ultimately perhaps the Supreme Court, officials said....
Secret court may end up hearing AT&T illegal surveillance lawsuit A lawsuit in San Francisco federal court accusing AT&T of illegally collaborating with the Bush administration's electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens would be transferred to a secret court accessible only to the government under new legislation backed by the White House. A provision of the bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, would allow the government to move the AT&T case and all other lawsuits involving the surveillance program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in Washington. The three-judge court meets behind closed doors and hears arguments only from the Justice Department. The court was created in 1978 to consider government appeals from another secret tribunal that reviews requests for wiretaps and searches of foreign agents. "The government has a stacked deck and may be the only meaningful party in the litigation'' if Specter's bill becomes law, Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said Friday. The foundation represents AT&T customers who sued in January over the company's alleged collusion with the National Security Agency surveillance program. That case was the first of about 30 suits filed around the nation challenging the program and telecommunications companies' participation in it....
U.S. Terror Targets: Petting Zoo and Flea Market? It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified “Beach at End of a Street.” But the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, in a report released Tuesday, found that the list was not child’s play: all these “unusual or out-of-place” sites “whose criticality is not readily apparent” are inexplicably included in the federal antiterrorism database. The National Asset Database, as it is known, is so flawed, the inspector general found, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation. The database is used by the Homeland Security Department to help divvy up the hundreds of millions of dollars in antiterrorism grants each year, including the program announced in May that cut money to New York City and Washington by 40 percent, while significantly increasing spending for cities including Louisville, Ky., and Omaha. In addition to the petting zoo, in Woodville, Ala., and the Mule Day Parade in Columbia, Tenn., the auditors questioned many entries, including “Nix’s Check Cashing,” “Mall at Sears,” “Ice Cream Parlor,” “Tackle Shop,” “Donut Shop,” “Anti-Cruelty Society” and “Bean Fest.” Even people connected to some of those businesses or events are baffled at their inclusion as possible terrorist targets....
Vermont judge rejects U.S. Supreme Court search ruling A Vermont District Court judge has rejected a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the power of police to search a private home, concluding that the state offers greater protections in such cases. Judge Robert Bent said that under the state Constitution police must knock and announce themselves before conducting a search, even if they have a warrant, or face the prospect that any evidence they find could be thrown out. The Supreme Court said June 15 that evidence obtained without first knocking could be used at trial, but Bent said that would not apply in Vermont. "Evidence obtained in violation of the Vermont Constitution, or as the result of a violation, cannot be admitted at trial as a matter of state law," Bent wrote, citing an earlier state case as precedent. "Introduction of such evidence at trial eviscerates our most sacred rights, impinges on individual privacy, perverts our judicial process, distorts any notion of fairness and encourages official misconduct." A defense lawyer in the Vermont case said Bent's ruling was an important statement. "Sanity prevails in Vermont," said attorney David Williams. Bent agreed with the dissenting opinion in the federal case, which said allowing otherwise illegally obtained evidence to be used could lead law enforcement officers to ignore the law....
A Year Later, Cybersecurity Post Still Vacant One year after the Department of Homeland Security created a high-level post for coordinating U.S. government efforts to deal with attacks on the nation's critical technological infrastructure, the agency still has not identified a candidate for the job. On July 13, 2005, as frustration with the Bush administration's cybersecurity policy grew on Capitol Hill, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the new assistant-secretary job opening. Critics say the year-long vacancy is further evidence that the administration is no better prepared for responding to a major cyber-attack than it was for dealing with Hurricane Katrina, leaving vulnerable the information systems that support large portions of the economy, from telecommunications networks to power grids to chemical manufacturing and transportation systems. "What this tells me is that [Chertoff] still hasn't made this a priority," said Paul Kurtz, formerly a cybersecurity adviser in the Bush administration and now a chief lobbyist for software and hardware security companies. "Having a senior person at DHS . . . is not going to stop a major cyber-attack on our critical infrastructures," he said, "but [it] will definitely help us develop an infrastructure that can withstand serious attacks and recover quickly."....
Agency recovers from computer break-ins The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned. Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the widespread intrusions and the resulting investigation. The break-ins and the State Department's emergency response severely limited Internet access at many locations, including some headquarters offices in Washington, these officials said. Internet connections have been restored across nearly all the department since the break-ins were recognized in mid-June. Tracing the origin of such break-ins is difficult. But employees told AP the hackers appeared to hit computers especially hard at headquarters and inside the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which coordinates diplomacy in countries including China, the Koreas and Japan. In the tense weeks preceding North Korea's missile tests, that bureau lost its Internet connectivity for several days....
No Prison for FBI Network Hacker, Judge Decides A government consultant who cracked the FBI's classified computer network and learned the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of the director, was spared a prison sentence yesterday. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon sentenced Joseph Thomas Colon to six months of home detention after finding that the computer consultant did not try to harm national security or use the information for his own benefit or profit. "This is not a case of al-Qaeda people trying to sneak into the FBI system," Leon said. Instead, it was a case of someone being "too clever by half." Colon, 29, pleaded guilty in March to four counts of intentionally accessing a computer while exceeding authorized access and obtaining information from any department of the United States. He could have received as much as 18 months in prison. Colon admitted he entered the system using the identity of an FBI special agent and two computer hacking programs found on the Internet to get into one of the nation's most secret databases. As a result, the bureau said it was forced to shut down its network temporarily and commit thousands of hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused....
Goodlatte: Bad Bet Bob Goodlatte says online gambling is illegal, and he wants to ban it. He sees no contradiction between these two positions. The Virginia Republican is co-author of a bill approved yesterday by the House of Representatives that threatens operators of online casinos and betting parlors with a five-year prison sentence. The legislation, which the Senate has not considered yet, also requires banks and credit card companies to block payments to such sites. Goodlatte says "it is time to shine a bright light on these illegal sites and bring a quick end to illegal gambling on the Internet." Yet he concedes that "under current federal law, it is unclear whether using the Internet to operate a gambling business is illegal." Confused? You're not the only one. The online gambling ban, which dictates what adults may do with their own money on their own computers in their own homes, is part of what Republicans proudly call their "American Values Agenda." Evidently those values do not include privacy, freedom of choice, individual responsibility, or free markets....
Cross-border firefight shocks U.S. lawmen Hundreds of rounds of automatic weapons fire rained down on South Texas sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents in Hidalgo County last night from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The deputies were answering a call from two U.S. citizens who swam across the river to escape a gunfight at a Mexican ranch, reports the Monitor newspaper of the Rio Grande Valley. The two American brothers are suspects in other criminal investigations, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevi̱o, according to the report. The brothers reportedly called 911 at 7:45 p.m. saying gunmen burst into their family ranch in Mexico, killed a ranch hand and kidnapped their father. The brothers were able to make it across the river to the U.S. where they continued to attract gunfire Рeven after law enforcement authorities arrived. When several deputies and four Border Patrol agents took the two brothers back to the riverbank to see if they might find any evidence or the shooters, they were met with a hail of gunfire Рalternating from the south and east, suggesting some of the shots were also fired from U.S. territory. The fire continued for almost 10 minutes, according to authorities....
Bribery At Border Worries Officials Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a series of bribery and smuggling cases in what they fear is a sign of increased corruption among officers who patrol the Mexican border. Two brothers who worked for the U.S. Border Patrol disappeared in June while under investigation for smuggling drugs and immigrants, and are believed to have fled to Mexico. In the past month, two agents from Customs and Border Protection, which guards border checkpoints, were indicted for taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States. And earlier this month, two Border Patrol supervisory agents pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $200,000 in payoffs to release smugglers and illegal immigrants who had been detained. Authorities say two factors are causing concern that larger problems may develop: The massive buildup of Border Patrol agents in recent years has led to worries that hiring standards have been lowered; and, as smugglers demand higher and higher fees to bring illegal immigrants into the United States, their efforts to bribe those guarding the border have intensified. While the main corruption problem along the border is still among Mexican law enforcement officials, there have been numerous arrests of U.S. officers, too. Last year in Texas, for example, 10 federal agents were charged with or convicted of taking bribes from drug dealers or human smugglers. Also last year, a U.S. Justice Department operation arrested 17 current or former military and law enforcement officers who were paid $220,000 by undercover agents to allow counterfeit drugs to cross into Arizona. In 2004 and 2005, federal authorities in Arizona uncovered numerous relationships, including marriages, between Border Patrol agents and Latina women illegally in the United States....
Senate denies funds for new border fence Less than two months after voting overwhelmingly to build 370 miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico, the Senate yesterday voted against providing funds to build it. "We do a lot of talking. We do a lot of legislating," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican whose amendment to fund the fence was killed on a 71-29 vote. "The things we do often sound very good, but we never quite get there." Mr. Sessions offered his amendment to authorize $1.8 billion to pay for the fencing that the Senate voted 83-16 to build along high-traffic areas of the border with Mexico. In the same vote on May 17, the Senate also directed 500 miles of vehicle barriers to be built along the border. But the May vote simply authorized the fencing and vehicle barriers, which on Capitol Hill is a different matter from approving the federal expenditures needed to build it. Sen. Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who historically has fought to increase border security and enforcement of federal immigration laws, was among those who opposed Mr. Session's amendment. "We should build these walls; there's no question about it," he said. "But the real issue here is the offset that's being used, and the offset creates a Hobson's choice for almost everyone here." Mr. Session's amendment would have required across-the-board cuts to the rest of the Homeland Security appropriations bill, Mr. Gregg said, which would mean cutting 750 new border-patrol agents and 1,200 new detention beds for illegal aliens that he included in the bill....
Senate votes to patrol Canadian border with remote-controlled aircraft Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, rancher Gloria Fey has gotten used to the idea that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents could be watching her every move. Fey said she and her husband, Albert, often joke about giving border protection agents an eyeful whenever the couple answers nature's calls while fixing fences out on their Hi-Line ranch located just a mile from the U.S.-Canadian border. The U.S. Border Patrol now uses high-altitude airplanes, low-flying helicopters, ground-based sensors and cameras and uniformed officers to monitor the border. With that much activity already, Fey said she and her husband aren't worried about losing their privacy if the agency puts new remote-controlled surveillance airplanes along the U.S.-Canadian line. The Senate this week approved a plan pushed by Montana Sens. Conrad Burns, R, and Max Baucus, D, and inserted into the 2007 Homeland Security spending bill to require the border agency to test an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at one of its three Northern Border Air Wing bases. The measure now goes to the House for consideration. Critics say the unmanned planes are too expensive and unreliable and could open the door to real-time aerial snooping by a host of government and police agencies....
Criminal immigrants not being deported Border Patrol agents say immigrants convicted of crimes are remaining in the United States because of a lack of space in detention centers. J.T. Bonner, an agent in San Diego and president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing agents, said the problem is getting worse, the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune said. "We don't have enough money for bed space," he told the Tribune. "We don't have the resources to check the prisons." Under federal law, non-citizens convicted of crimes are supposed to be deported once they have served their sentences. A report by the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department said many are released because there is no place to hold them while deportation hearings are held. The report said that 8,500 more beds in detention centers are needed. The report also said that between 2001 and 2004 30,000 immigrants with criminal records were identified in prison, in traffic stops or by other means and were not deported.
Activists want sheriff to stop arrests Hundreds of immigrant-rights activists sparred with the sheriff of Arizona's most populous county Friday, calling him heartless for arresting illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law. More than 200 protesters marched through a small area of downtown Phoenix and stopped in front of the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for female chain gangs and forcing inmates to wear pink underwear. Protesters walked diagonally through an intersection and met Arpaio on the other side. "Sheriff, we are here to get on our knees and implore you to stop the hostility against the Hispanic community," said Elias Bermudez, president of activist group Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras, or Immigrants Without Borders. Bermudez knelt in front of the sheriff as he spoke, saying, "We believe that your enforcement of the law is an affront to the poor victims — the people who are coming here to work and serve this country."....
Agents find dead, dying in desert Border Patrol Agent J. Kicklighter admits to being an adrenaline junkie, which may be what it takes to save illegal immigrants lost in the inhospitable terrain of deep South Texas. A member of an elite Border Patrol unit focused on rescues, he can track someone with a faxed image of a shoe tread, or find a 911 caller by juxtapositions of windmills and mesquite trees mapped in his head. "It's not checkers," he said. "It's chess." The Border Patrol regularly releases tallies on rescues, which it defines as "any incident where lack of intervention by the Border Patrol would result in death or serious bodily injury." Since last Oct. 1, there have been more than 400 in the Rio Grande Valley sector - one of five sectors in Texas - compared with 159 all of the previous year. For the full U.S.-Mexico border, more than 2,350 rescues have been made so far this year; 2,577 were made the previous year....
Bush Would Let Secret Court Sift Wiretap Process After months of resistance, the White House agreed Thursday to allow a secret intelligence court to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s program to conduct wiretaps without warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists. If approved by Congress, the deal would put the court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in the unusual position of deciding whether the wiretapping program is a legitimate use of the president’s power to fight terrorism. The aim of the plan, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told reporters, would be to “test the constitutionality” of the program. The plan, brokered over the last three weeks in negotiations between Senator Arlen Specter and senior White House officials, including President Bush himself, would apparently leave the secretive intelligence court free to consider the case in closed proceedings, without the kind of briefs and oral arguments that are usually part of federal court consideration of constitutional issues. The court’s ruling in the matter could also remain secret. The court would be able to determine whether the program is “reasonably designed” to focus on the communications of actual terrorism suspects and people in the United States who communicate with them. That determination is now left entirely in the hands of the security agency under an internal checklist. If the court were to rule the program unconstitutional, the attorney general could refine and resubmit it or, conversely, appeal the decision to the FISA appellate court and ultimately perhaps the Supreme Court, officials said....
Secret court may end up hearing AT&T illegal surveillance lawsuit A lawsuit in San Francisco federal court accusing AT&T of illegally collaborating with the Bush administration's electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens would be transferred to a secret court accessible only to the government under new legislation backed by the White House. A provision of the bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, would allow the government to move the AT&T case and all other lawsuits involving the surveillance program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in Washington. The three-judge court meets behind closed doors and hears arguments only from the Justice Department. The court was created in 1978 to consider government appeals from another secret tribunal that reviews requests for wiretaps and searches of foreign agents. "The government has a stacked deck and may be the only meaningful party in the litigation'' if Specter's bill becomes law, Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said Friday. The foundation represents AT&T customers who sued in January over the company's alleged collusion with the National Security Agency surveillance program. That case was the first of about 30 suits filed around the nation challenging the program and telecommunications companies' participation in it....
U.S. Terror Targets: Petting Zoo and Flea Market? It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified “Beach at End of a Street.” But the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, in a report released Tuesday, found that the list was not child’s play: all these “unusual or out-of-place” sites “whose criticality is not readily apparent” are inexplicably included in the federal antiterrorism database. The National Asset Database, as it is known, is so flawed, the inspector general found, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation. The database is used by the Homeland Security Department to help divvy up the hundreds of millions of dollars in antiterrorism grants each year, including the program announced in May that cut money to New York City and Washington by 40 percent, while significantly increasing spending for cities including Louisville, Ky., and Omaha. In addition to the petting zoo, in Woodville, Ala., and the Mule Day Parade in Columbia, Tenn., the auditors questioned many entries, including “Nix’s Check Cashing,” “Mall at Sears,” “Ice Cream Parlor,” “Tackle Shop,” “Donut Shop,” “Anti-Cruelty Society” and “Bean Fest.” Even people connected to some of those businesses or events are baffled at their inclusion as possible terrorist targets....
Vermont judge rejects U.S. Supreme Court search ruling A Vermont District Court judge has rejected a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the power of police to search a private home, concluding that the state offers greater protections in such cases. Judge Robert Bent said that under the state Constitution police must knock and announce themselves before conducting a search, even if they have a warrant, or face the prospect that any evidence they find could be thrown out. The Supreme Court said June 15 that evidence obtained without first knocking could be used at trial, but Bent said that would not apply in Vermont. "Evidence obtained in violation of the Vermont Constitution, or as the result of a violation, cannot be admitted at trial as a matter of state law," Bent wrote, citing an earlier state case as precedent. "Introduction of such evidence at trial eviscerates our most sacred rights, impinges on individual privacy, perverts our judicial process, distorts any notion of fairness and encourages official misconduct." A defense lawyer in the Vermont case said Bent's ruling was an important statement. "Sanity prevails in Vermont," said attorney David Williams. Bent agreed with the dissenting opinion in the federal case, which said allowing otherwise illegally obtained evidence to be used could lead law enforcement officers to ignore the law....
A Year Later, Cybersecurity Post Still Vacant One year after the Department of Homeland Security created a high-level post for coordinating U.S. government efforts to deal with attacks on the nation's critical technological infrastructure, the agency still has not identified a candidate for the job. On July 13, 2005, as frustration with the Bush administration's cybersecurity policy grew on Capitol Hill, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the new assistant-secretary job opening. Critics say the year-long vacancy is further evidence that the administration is no better prepared for responding to a major cyber-attack than it was for dealing with Hurricane Katrina, leaving vulnerable the information systems that support large portions of the economy, from telecommunications networks to power grids to chemical manufacturing and transportation systems. "What this tells me is that [Chertoff] still hasn't made this a priority," said Paul Kurtz, formerly a cybersecurity adviser in the Bush administration and now a chief lobbyist for software and hardware security companies. "Having a senior person at DHS . . . is not going to stop a major cyber-attack on our critical infrastructures," he said, "but [it] will definitely help us develop an infrastructure that can withstand serious attacks and recover quickly."....
Agency recovers from computer break-ins The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned. Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the widespread intrusions and the resulting investigation. The break-ins and the State Department's emergency response severely limited Internet access at many locations, including some headquarters offices in Washington, these officials said. Internet connections have been restored across nearly all the department since the break-ins were recognized in mid-June. Tracing the origin of such break-ins is difficult. But employees told AP the hackers appeared to hit computers especially hard at headquarters and inside the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which coordinates diplomacy in countries including China, the Koreas and Japan. In the tense weeks preceding North Korea's missile tests, that bureau lost its Internet connectivity for several days....
No Prison for FBI Network Hacker, Judge Decides A government consultant who cracked the FBI's classified computer network and learned the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of the director, was spared a prison sentence yesterday. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon sentenced Joseph Thomas Colon to six months of home detention after finding that the computer consultant did not try to harm national security or use the information for his own benefit or profit. "This is not a case of al-Qaeda people trying to sneak into the FBI system," Leon said. Instead, it was a case of someone being "too clever by half." Colon, 29, pleaded guilty in March to four counts of intentionally accessing a computer while exceeding authorized access and obtaining information from any department of the United States. He could have received as much as 18 months in prison. Colon admitted he entered the system using the identity of an FBI special agent and two computer hacking programs found on the Internet to get into one of the nation's most secret databases. As a result, the bureau said it was forced to shut down its network temporarily and commit thousands of hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused....
Goodlatte: Bad Bet Bob Goodlatte says online gambling is illegal, and he wants to ban it. He sees no contradiction between these two positions. The Virginia Republican is co-author of a bill approved yesterday by the House of Representatives that threatens operators of online casinos and betting parlors with a five-year prison sentence. The legislation, which the Senate has not considered yet, also requires banks and credit card companies to block payments to such sites. Goodlatte says "it is time to shine a bright light on these illegal sites and bring a quick end to illegal gambling on the Internet." Yet he concedes that "under current federal law, it is unclear whether using the Internet to operate a gambling business is illegal." Confused? You're not the only one. The online gambling ban, which dictates what adults may do with their own money on their own computers in their own homes, is part of what Republicans proudly call their "American Values Agenda." Evidently those values do not include privacy, freedom of choice, individual responsibility, or free markets....
Sunday, July 16, 2006
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
The art of cowboy conversation
By Julie Carter
The fine art of conversation is what separates the human species from the sub-human ones – sort of. A cowboy’s ability to coherently converse falls somewhere in middle of the gap.
This took place after an afternoon of team roping at one cowboy’s arena.
Monte: How about having a barbeque here Tuesday after roping?
Blaine: That would be wonderful. I may be late to rope because my son is getting married.
Dan: Did you see old Slats fly out of that heeling box and get me in position. That is one good horse.
Jerry: Yeah man, Slats really had his game face on today.
Ed (known as Special Ed to his friends): Man, I like barbeque. One time I was in deep east Texas and had the best barbeque you can imagine at a road side stand and the coldest beer I ever drank.
Mark: Would anybody like a beer now - Monte's got some in the icebox here. Who all wants one?
David: Did y'all see my new boots? Ordered these from the catalog, official PRCA sponsored boots. You ought to try some. Make you rope better.
Monte: So, can everybody come Tuesday for a roping and barbeque?
Blaine: That boy ought not to get married. He's too young for that kind of responsibility.
Dan: What's that girl look like you were going to introduce me to anyway. I don't want to get hemmed up with any buckle bunnies.
Jerry: Speaking of buckles did I tell you all about the time I won first in the average at Mineral Wells and got this great buckle with genuine rubies and all on it?
Ed: Mama used to fix barbeque once in a while. Made the best potato salad. Were you thinking potato salad too?
Mark: This Coors Light is really good and cold. That mountain water sure makes a difference. Anybody need another? Monte's got plenty.
David: That new rope I got really works good. Endorsed by Woodard, and he sure knows ropes. Never missed today all on account of that new rope.
Monte: Somebody toting a purple rope behind me missed bigger than Dallas. Who could that have been?
Blaine: You take your chances toting a purple rope. You know people are on the look out since that movie came out. I guess I ought to be happy my boy wants to marry a woman.
Dan: Slats would buck me off if I even thought about using a purple rope when I was riding him. He is one smart horse and wouldn't stand for that. Tell me about that girl you're going to let meet me.
Jerry: I generally save that buckle for when I'm going dancing. It is one great babe magnet.
Ed: Mama cooked everything good, though. She made great pie. Were you thinking pie too?
Mark: Cold beer don't go with pie. What's the matter with you? If you're thinking barbeque you're going to have to restock this icebox. It's about empty. Anybody want another, we may as well polish off the last of this so he can have plenty of room for more.
David: What ever happened to the old cowboy movies with John Wayne, or Lee Marvin? Nobody would have given them a hard time no matter what color rope they were toting.
Monte: I'll be happy to restock the icebox and get the barbeque fixed if y'all will just tell me how many people to fix for.
Blaine: That gal my boy is marrying is sure a looker. If you could get somebody to introduce one like that to you it might be all right even if she was a buckle bunny.
Dan: If I was going to get married I'd want one of those horseback weddings. Don't y'all think I'd look great all dressed up on old Slats. I could try to get my bride a nice horse too.
Jerry: You could borrow my buckle for the wedding.
Ed: What would you have at the reception to eat? Barbeque is pretty messy for a wedding dress.
Mark: I got to go. You're plumb out of beer.
Everybody sauntered out of the barn, loaded their horses and pulled out. David of purple rope and PRCA boot fame was the only slow one and Monte nabbed him before he got away, hoping for a firm commitment.
David shrugged and said, "We'll just have to play it by ear."
© Julie Carter
Causes of Drought
by Larry Gabriel
There are many theories about the cause of drought. I don't know that it does any good to hear them, but there is one theory that we should ignore. That one is the theory that somebody actually knows the cause of such things.
The truth is that nobody knows. When it comes to how the earth's climate-impacting systems operate and interact with each other, what we actually know is like a drop in an ocean.
There is some circumstantial evidence from deep lake deposits, sand dune formations, and tree ring studies that there have been six major droughts in North America during the last 1,500 years (the drought of the 1930s being the last and least severe of those major droughts).
There is some evidence that major changes in climate (even significant shifts in sea levels) have occurred several times in the last thousand years and have done so in spans of less than 40 years.
There is some circumstantial evidence that solar flare cycles (which produce measurable "solar particle events" on earth) have some correlation to drought cycles.
We know a little bit about the carbon cycles, water cycles and the layers of the atmosphere, but we know very little about how solar events affect those things and almost nothing about how all of them interact with each other. We know very little about volcanic cycles below the oceans, which release unmeasured amounts of heat and chemicals that impact the other cycles.
I have seen many news stories asserting that "global warming" (a buzz term meaning man is doing it) is causing worse hurricanes, floods, droughts and forest fires. I have not seen a news story saying the sun might actually be the cause of global warming. Warming from the sun? What a novel idea!
Well, right now we happen to be in what the scientists call "cycle 23". Here is part of what the scientists at the 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference had to say about that…The trailing years of solar cycle 23 have provided some of the largest solar energetic particle (SEP) events of the last decade … The January 20, 2005 event was remarkable from several points of view. It was the largest ground-level event (GLE) measured in neutron monitors since 1956 [4], and had a very hard energy spectrum. It also was the most intense SEP event measured by NOAA’s GOES satellites in their 29-year history (1976-2005). Finally, this event had a risetime that was faster than any of the large SEP events (proton intensity >100/cm2sr-sec with energies >100 MeV) within the last 30 years.
According to NASA, "Variations over the 11-year solar cycle in the intensity of the Sun's electromagnetic output at some wavelengths significantly affect the chemistry, structure, and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Longer-term solar variations may be linked to major shifts in the global climate."
Wouldn't it be interesting, if after 5,000 years of study, man were to discover only that the sun (not man) controls all life cycles on earth?
We do not know why droughts occur, but we can't change it anyway. Some think predicting droughts might be helpful, but our predictions are not that reliable anyway.
Mr. Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
The art of cowboy conversation
By Julie Carter
The fine art of conversation is what separates the human species from the sub-human ones – sort of. A cowboy’s ability to coherently converse falls somewhere in middle of the gap.
This took place after an afternoon of team roping at one cowboy’s arena.
Monte: How about having a barbeque here Tuesday after roping?
Blaine: That would be wonderful. I may be late to rope because my son is getting married.
Dan: Did you see old Slats fly out of that heeling box and get me in position. That is one good horse.
Jerry: Yeah man, Slats really had his game face on today.
Ed (known as Special Ed to his friends): Man, I like barbeque. One time I was in deep east Texas and had the best barbeque you can imagine at a road side stand and the coldest beer I ever drank.
Mark: Would anybody like a beer now - Monte's got some in the icebox here. Who all wants one?
David: Did y'all see my new boots? Ordered these from the catalog, official PRCA sponsored boots. You ought to try some. Make you rope better.
Monte: So, can everybody come Tuesday for a roping and barbeque?
Blaine: That boy ought not to get married. He's too young for that kind of responsibility.
Dan: What's that girl look like you were going to introduce me to anyway. I don't want to get hemmed up with any buckle bunnies.
Jerry: Speaking of buckles did I tell you all about the time I won first in the average at Mineral Wells and got this great buckle with genuine rubies and all on it?
Ed: Mama used to fix barbeque once in a while. Made the best potato salad. Were you thinking potato salad too?
Mark: This Coors Light is really good and cold. That mountain water sure makes a difference. Anybody need another? Monte's got plenty.
David: That new rope I got really works good. Endorsed by Woodard, and he sure knows ropes. Never missed today all on account of that new rope.
Monte: Somebody toting a purple rope behind me missed bigger than Dallas. Who could that have been?
Blaine: You take your chances toting a purple rope. You know people are on the look out since that movie came out. I guess I ought to be happy my boy wants to marry a woman.
Dan: Slats would buck me off if I even thought about using a purple rope when I was riding him. He is one smart horse and wouldn't stand for that. Tell me about that girl you're going to let meet me.
Jerry: I generally save that buckle for when I'm going dancing. It is one great babe magnet.
Ed: Mama cooked everything good, though. She made great pie. Were you thinking pie too?
Mark: Cold beer don't go with pie. What's the matter with you? If you're thinking barbeque you're going to have to restock this icebox. It's about empty. Anybody want another, we may as well polish off the last of this so he can have plenty of room for more.
David: What ever happened to the old cowboy movies with John Wayne, or Lee Marvin? Nobody would have given them a hard time no matter what color rope they were toting.
Monte: I'll be happy to restock the icebox and get the barbeque fixed if y'all will just tell me how many people to fix for.
Blaine: That gal my boy is marrying is sure a looker. If you could get somebody to introduce one like that to you it might be all right even if she was a buckle bunny.
Dan: If I was going to get married I'd want one of those horseback weddings. Don't y'all think I'd look great all dressed up on old Slats. I could try to get my bride a nice horse too.
Jerry: You could borrow my buckle for the wedding.
Ed: What would you have at the reception to eat? Barbeque is pretty messy for a wedding dress.
Mark: I got to go. You're plumb out of beer.
Everybody sauntered out of the barn, loaded their horses and pulled out. David of purple rope and PRCA boot fame was the only slow one and Monte nabbed him before he got away, hoping for a firm commitment.
David shrugged and said, "We'll just have to play it by ear."
© Julie Carter
Causes of Drought
by Larry Gabriel
There are many theories about the cause of drought. I don't know that it does any good to hear them, but there is one theory that we should ignore. That one is the theory that somebody actually knows the cause of such things.
The truth is that nobody knows. When it comes to how the earth's climate-impacting systems operate and interact with each other, what we actually know is like a drop in an ocean.
There is some circumstantial evidence from deep lake deposits, sand dune formations, and tree ring studies that there have been six major droughts in North America during the last 1,500 years (the drought of the 1930s being the last and least severe of those major droughts).
There is some evidence that major changes in climate (even significant shifts in sea levels) have occurred several times in the last thousand years and have done so in spans of less than 40 years.
There is some circumstantial evidence that solar flare cycles (which produce measurable "solar particle events" on earth) have some correlation to drought cycles.
We know a little bit about the carbon cycles, water cycles and the layers of the atmosphere, but we know very little about how solar events affect those things and almost nothing about how all of them interact with each other. We know very little about volcanic cycles below the oceans, which release unmeasured amounts of heat and chemicals that impact the other cycles.
I have seen many news stories asserting that "global warming" (a buzz term meaning man is doing it) is causing worse hurricanes, floods, droughts and forest fires. I have not seen a news story saying the sun might actually be the cause of global warming. Warming from the sun? What a novel idea!
Well, right now we happen to be in what the scientists call "cycle 23". Here is part of what the scientists at the 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference had to say about that…The trailing years of solar cycle 23 have provided some of the largest solar energetic particle (SEP) events of the last decade … The January 20, 2005 event was remarkable from several points of view. It was the largest ground-level event (GLE) measured in neutron monitors since 1956 [4], and had a very hard energy spectrum. It also was the most intense SEP event measured by NOAA’s GOES satellites in their 29-year history (1976-2005). Finally, this event had a risetime that was faster than any of the large SEP events (proton intensity >100/cm2sr-sec with energies >100 MeV) within the last 30 years.
According to NASA, "Variations over the 11-year solar cycle in the intensity of the Sun's electromagnetic output at some wavelengths significantly affect the chemistry, structure, and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Longer-term solar variations may be linked to major shifts in the global climate."
Wouldn't it be interesting, if after 5,000 years of study, man were to discover only that the sun (not man) controls all life cycles on earth?
We do not know why droughts occur, but we can't change it anyway. Some think predicting droughts might be helpful, but our predictions are not that reliable anyway.
Mr. Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture
Friday, July 14, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Court Rules for Coastal Landowner in Development Dispute Someday, Dennis Schneider might be able to enjoy a drop-dead view from his yet-to-be-built dream home on a Central Coast cliff-top perched above the ocean. At the same time, kayakers, surfers and all the ships at sea will have a drop-dead view of Schneider's 10,000-square-foot mansion — whether they want it or not. Less-than-pleasing views for passing sailors are no grounds for the California Coastal Commission this week to restrict seaside development, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. "We believe that it is unreasonable to assume that the Legislature has ever sought to protect the occasional boater's views of the coastline at the expense of a coastal landowner," the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous opinion. The ruling could affect stretches of California shoreline that are still relatively undeveloped, particularly along the Central Coast and in Northern California. An attorney for Schneider, a San Luis Obispo engineer, cast the decision Thursday as a victory for property owners seeking to exercise their rights and a defeat for Coastal Commission officials trying to arbitrarily clamp down on development. "The commission was attempting an outrageous power grab that would have put projects up and down the coast in jeopardy based on nothing more than the arbitrary aesthetic whims of commission staffers and members," said J. David Breemer, an attorney with the property-rights oriented Pacific Legal Foundation....
Editorial: Coastal craziness In a 1997 speech at a conference in Monterey, a radical environmentalist named Peter Douglas called for the U.S. Constitution to be amended to make courts the “arbiters” in what he called the “debate” over property owners' rights. It was just another day at the green pulpit for Douglas, who thinks government powers should be used to coerce individuals to “care with mind and heart for Gaia and all life she sustains.” Unfortunately, Douglas is in a position to use coercive powers in pursuit of his extremism. He is the longtime executive director of the California Coastal Commission, an institution whose hostility toward property rights makes the typical eminent domain-abusing redevelopment agency seem like pikers. Consider the case of San Luis Obispo engineer Dennis Schneider, who hoped to build his dream home on a cliff above the ocean in a remote area north of Cayucos. Incredibly by normal cognitive standards, typically by Coastal Commission standards, the agency blocked his plans on the grounds that the home would be such an aesthetic affront to passing kayakers, boaters and surfers that it would violate their rights. We are not making this up. Thankfully, on June 28, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said this was nonsense in a brisk 12-page decision that seemed perplexed at where the Coastal Commission comes up with stuff like this. The answer, of course: from the untethered imagination of its executive director....
U.S.: No critical habitat in Southwest for jaguar The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it will not designate critical habitat for the endangered jaguar in the Southwest. U.S. habitat for the animal makes up less than 1 percent of the species' range and is not critical to conserve it, the agency said. Thus, it doesn't meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act for designating critical habitat. Jaguars are occasionally seen in southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona, but Fish and Wildlife officials believe those jaguars come from a population 130 miles south of the border in Mexico. "The service has determined there are no physical and biological features in the United States that meet the definition of critical habitat," said Benjamin Tuggle, acting director of the agency's Southwest region. The recovery of the species depends almost entirely on efforts in Mexico and Central and South America, the agency said. The jaguars were listed as endangered in the United States in 1997, but Fish and Wildlife determined that a critical-habitat designation was not prudent at the time. In 2003, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed a complaint contending that finding violated the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency agreed to look at the issue again, which led to Wednesday's determination....
Development in South Dakota Prompts Unlikely Coalition: Christians, Indians, Ranchers(Subscription Required) Jay Allen expects to spend $3 million on his new development near this town of 6,400. The three-story, 22,500-square-foot barn will house six bars, a restaurant, stores and a stage. But his ambitions now rest on a hotly disputed beer license for which he paid just $250. Mr. Allen hopes his development, the Sturgis County Line, will attract many of the half-million bikers who come here each August for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. For now, though, it has attracted the opposition of an unlikely coalition: American Indians, white ranchers and Christian activists. The main problem, as they see it, is that the Sturgis County Line and another complex are being built about two miles from Bear Butte, which rises about 1,100 feet from the prairie surrounding it. For thousands of years, Bear Butte -- or Mato Paha in the language of the Lakota American Indian tribe -- is considered sacred ground by dozens of tribes who pray there and view it as "the womb of mother Earth." When Anne White Hat read about Mr. Allen's plans in a local newspaper, she was speechless. "We just couldn't believe someone would actually be so naïve to think they could do this, with total lack of respect and knowledge about native people," says Ms. White Hat, a Lakota. Christians see an opportunity to limit the spread of rowdy biker bars and strip clubs. Ranchers complain their cattle have contracted pneumonia after breathing copper-colored dust stirred up by bikers thundering across gravel roads....
A quest for cooler heads in Indian suit against US The lawsuit's name is innocuous enough. But Cobell v. Kempthorne carries 119 years of historical baggage, and its outcome could affect hundreds of thousands of people at a cost of billions of dollars. It's also thorny as a prickly pear, so contentious that a panel of federal jurists this week ruled that the case needs a different judge to oversee it. The dispute involves royalties due native Americans dating back to 1887. That's when Uncle Sam took control of some 11 million acres of tribal lands in the West as part of the federal policy of forced assimilation. The US was supposed to be paying into Indian trust accounts what now amounts to billions of dollars in revenues from oil, gas, timber, minerals, and grazing on those acres, then disbursing payments to native account holders. But the whole thing has been mismanaged, federal courts have declared several times since the case began in 1996, and the last three Interior secretaries have failed to fix it. Idahoan Dirk Kempthorne, who recently became Interior secretary, follows both Bruce Babbitt and Gale Norton as lead defendant. On the other side is Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe, a rancher and banker, and a recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant for her work in economic development. She's the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit that bears her name. "The government has abused trust beneficiaries and has failed to fulfill the most basic trust responsibilities owed to us," she said this week....
Oil company notified of violation in salt water spill State officials say they have notified an oil company of possible fines for a ruptured pipeline that spilled nearly 1 million gallons of saltwater into Charbonneau Creek in northwestern North Dakota. The state Health Department and the Industrial Commission have given notices to Zenergy, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla. The company has until July 23 to reply, officials said. The salt water spill, discovered in early January, killed fish in the McKenzie County creek near Alexander, and forced ranchers to move their cattle. The director of the state Industrial Commission, Karlene Fine, said Zenergy faces up to $90,000 in fines. The commission regulates oil and gas production. The state Health Department's environmental chief, David Glatt, said the company also faces penalties for violating environmental laws. He said Zenergy and the department will negotiate fines and a settlement to ensure the state recovers its costs in the cleanup.The state costs total around $35,000 so far, Glatt said. Salt water is an oil production waste product that can kill plants and hurt animals. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it....
Ranch sells for $47 million A 949-acre ranch south of Carbondale has sold for $47 million, one of the largest and most expensive land deals in Pitkin County history. The deal took roughly eight years to complete and includes hundreds of acres of open space, according to local real estate agent Joshua Saslove, who represented the sellers, Richard and Debbie Jelinek. The Crystal Island Ranch is bordered by the Crystal River, Prince Creek and Thomas Creek, Saslove said, and sits near the base of Mount Sopris. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management administer much of the land nearby. "The property abuts very large tracts of BLM land, and the only modern development on the property is a house and barn, a guest house and caretaker's quarters," said Saslove, a regional affiliate for Christie's auction house. "One of the messages we want people to hear is that the former owners are really thankful to everyone who participated in this unique land-use plan." The complex deal involved the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails program, the Conservation Fund, the Jelineks and the Aspen Valley Land Trust. The ranch once encompassed roughly 1,700 acres, but the land has been divided several ways, with some pieces sold to conservation organizations and others preserved with conservation easements. Overall, some 1,400 contiguous acres have been protected. The name of the buyer was not available Thursday afternoon, and Saslove would not reveal any names, saying the buyer wished to remain anonymous....
Easement will protect trout habitat A conservation easement may be placed along the Madison River on the Sun Ranch as part of an agreement that will protect 16 square miles of prime native trout habitat. On Thursday, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission authorized the department to start working on the project, and set aside $4.5 million from the state’s Habitat Montana program to help pay for the proposed easement purchase. Funded with hunter license fees, the Habitat Montana program seeks to preserve and restore important habitat for fish and wildlife and to make prime fishing and hunting areas accessible to the sporting public. FWP’s Wildlife Division Administrator Don Childress was excited by the news. He thanked both the non-profit conservation group Trust for Public Land and Sun Ranch owner Roger Lang of Bozeman for working on the deal....
Editorial: Agencies should prevent drilling to protect Strawberry The Strawberry Reservoir basin is a showcase for wetlands restoration and a trout fisherman's paradise. But, having survived decades of neglect and damage prior to its resurrection in the mid-'80s, the Strawberry Valley now could face an even greater threat from oil and gas drilling. Before-and-after photos of the Strawberry River Habitat Enhancement Project graphically show how an investment of $34 million in federal money and thousands of donated hours of labor have transformed the once-overgrazed basin of Strawberry River tributaries into one of the country's premier recreational fisheries. But sediment from new roads and the traffic that energy exploration would bring could contaminate the 10 streams flowing into the reservoir and seriously damage its fish population and the $20 million angling business they support. The 57,000 acres of blue-ribbon recreation land and watershed surrounding the reservoir should be protected from the wholesale exploration and drilling that federal land-management agencies seem bent on encouraging all over the West, including in roadless areas and prime hunting and fishing locations....
Sentencing Delayed In Hayman Fire Case A resentencing of a former U.S. Forest Service employee who admitted setting the largest wildfire in Colorado history has been delayed indefinitely, her public defender said Thursday. Terry Lynn Barton, 42, was sentenced on state charges to 12 years in prison in 2003, twice the typical term. But the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing, saying the judge in the case may have been biased because smoke from the 138,000-acre Hayman wildfire forced him to evacuate. The fire destroyed 133 homes. Fourth Judicial District Judge Thomas Kennedy ruled this year a jury could consider whether enough aggravating circumstances existed to justify the sentence. A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday. Barton's public defender, Mark Walta said the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in May to review a similar sentencing situation from Montezuma County, and Barton's case has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Montezuma case....
Senate committee fires back in feud over Forest Service policy Certain logging projects and other smaller-scale U.S. Forest Service activities would be exempt from a long-held public comment and appeals process under a provision inserted into a spending bill and approved recently by a key Senate committee. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., added the amendment to a multi-agency budget measure that sailed through the Senate Appropriations Committee last month. No date has been set for a full vote in the Senate; spending bills before the House of Representatives do not contain the rider. The move to steer the new forest policy through Congress is the latest in a back-and-forth between environmentalists who demand public comment on timber, mining and other Forest Service projects — no matter the size — and defenders of the Bush administration's push to fast-track certain priorities, namely forest-thinning to combat wildfires. The Burns amendment would overturn a 2005 ruling by a U.S. district judge in California that thwarted Forest Service regulations written in 2003. That rule change would have repealed public comment on so-called "categorical exemptions" — smaller scale projects the Forest Service says do not require lengthy environmental analysis. For instance, the measure would allow bypassing public comment on proposed burn projects up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects up to 1,000 acres. The comment and appeals process lasts up to 90 days, and in some cases more. Environmentalists hailed the California ruling as a rebuke of the president's Healthy Forest Initiative, but are now grousing that Bush allies are again seeking to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act....
Scenic beachfront land to go public Eight years ago, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation led the effort to buy five miles of stunning beaches and rugged coastline along Santa Cruz County's north coast, saving it from development in the hope of establishing a new state park. Today, after years of studies and nagging budget problems that prevented California from accepting the gift, the beaches at Coast Dairies Ranch, a sprawling expanse of redwood forests, artichoke fields and rolling hills, finally transfer to public ownership. The deal ranks as the most significant addition of beaches to Northern California state parks in 31 years. The scenic ranch -- home to peregrine falcons, steelhead trout and mountain lions -- is believed to be the largest piece of private beachfront property along the California coast between Hearst Ranch at San Simeon and the Oregon border. ``It's a major milestone. It's the first step toward fulfilling the dream that Coast Dairies will be owned by the public and open to everyone,'' said Reed Holderman, executive director of the Trust for Public Land-California, a San Francisco conservation group that owns Coast Dairies....
Arizona cattlemen suing over spotted-owl habitat A California-based legal firm and Arizona cattlemen have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designation of critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl in four Western states. The Pacific Legal Foundation, acting on behalf of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not follow laws governing the Endangered Species Act in setting aside more than 8 million acres for the owl in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. "Some of the areas that have been set aside by the regulators clearly don't have physical and biological features that are essential for the owl's conservation," said foundation attorney Damien Schiff. "Other areas are described in such vague terms that it's anyone's guess whether it's necessary to take them out of public use. "And in general, the regulators ignored their legal duty to consider and factor in the economic impact of the designation." Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said the agency was unable to comment on a pending lawsuit. But an attorney with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity questioned the need for a lawsuit. Eric Ryberg said his group's successful 2001 challenge of the critical-habitat listing forced the agency to redraw boundaries. He wonders why the legal foundation and ranchers waited so long to respond to it....
Judge Protects Gila Chub on Agua Fria National Monument The Center for Biological Diversity applauded a decision today that protects the endangered Gila chub from the impacts of livestock grazing on the Agua Fria National Monument. The decision states that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the potential for harm to the Gila chub and its habitat when it issued a ten-year grazing permit, and that it also improperly proceeded with an outdated analysis from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Agua Fria National Monument is approximately 71,000 acres and was established in 2000 by a presidential proclamation to protect the unique biological and cultural areas of this area, which is located 40 miles north of Phoenix. The diverse vegetative communities of the Monument provide habitat for numerous rare wildlife species, including the lowland leopard frog, Mexican garter snake, common black hawk, pronghorn, yellow-billed cuckoo and desert tortoise. The valuable riparian forests of the Monument were specifically highlighted in the presidential proclamation and their protection was given statutory priority. The order was issued by Administrative Law Judge James H. Heffernan, for the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Hearings and Appeals, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The order was granted in response to the Center for Biological Diversity’s appeal of the BLM’s November 2005 decision to approve a new livestock grazing permit without properly considering impacts to the natural and cultural resources in the area....
San Pedro River Railroad Purchase Offer Withdrawn The San Pedro River will not have hazardous materials transported along its banks, as the pending purchase offer for the adjacent railroad was withdrawn today. “This is truly a victory for the San Pedro River and the citizens of the county. Instead of being turned into a toxic corridor, the river banks can move forward as a rails-to-trails project,” said Michelle Harrington, Rivers Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. There has been little or no service on the railroad line for several years. The current owner, San Pedro Railroad Operating Company, LLC, planned to retire the 76.2 miles of rail between the border and Benson in Cochise County. Before the retirement was finalized, Sonora-Arizona International, LLC, offered to purchase the railroad and restart the line with plans to significantly expand operations within Arizona and into Mexico to the Port of Guaymas. The railroad runs along the banks of the San Pedro River through the Riparian National Conservation Area....
Drought forces more cattle sales More than 1,800 cattle were packed into the Kist Livestock sales barn on one day this week. "Some guys were bringing cows in by semi loads," rancher Bob Gangl said Wednesday. "The grass is gone everywhere. There's nothing for them to eat. It hasn't been this bad since the late '80s, and even then it wasn't as bad as it is now." Last year at the same time, 456 cattle were brought to Kist to be sold. The state has been under drought emergency since June, with moisture in the Bismarck area running more than 4 inches below normal. Most of the animals sold Wednesday would normally be held until fall when they weigh more, said Les Fleck, who runs the online auctions for Kist. Smaller calves were selling for $1.30 to $1.45 a pound, and yearlings - both heifers and steers - up to $1.20 a pound, said Diane Givan, a bookkeeper with Kist Livestock. But selling early was like giving away a paycheck, Fleck said. Ranchers can buy hay, but prices are high. Donald Janecek, a veterinarian from Linton who attended Wednesday's auction, said he paid $1,400 for hay that would have cost him $600 last year....
Chances fade for Barbaro's survival Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has developed a serious hoof disease, and the veterinarian treating the 3-year-old colt yesterday called his chances of survival a "long shot." "His prognosis for his life and his comfort has significantly diminished," said Dean Richardson, the chief surgeon who has been treating Barbaro. "I'd be lying if I said it was anything but poor." Doctors operated on Barbaro Wednesday at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., leaving him with casts on both rear legs. They said Barbaro could be euthanized if he does not respond quickly to medication. "It could happen within 24 hours," Dr. Richardson said. "It's a long shot. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. As long as the horse is not suffering, we're going to continue to try and treat him. If we can keep him comfortable, it's worth the effort." Barbaro suffered major fractures to his right hind leg in the May 20 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. His recovery went smoothly until early this week, when he developed a severe case of laminitis in his left hind leg....
Court Rules for Coastal Landowner in Development Dispute Someday, Dennis Schneider might be able to enjoy a drop-dead view from his yet-to-be-built dream home on a Central Coast cliff-top perched above the ocean. At the same time, kayakers, surfers and all the ships at sea will have a drop-dead view of Schneider's 10,000-square-foot mansion — whether they want it or not. Less-than-pleasing views for passing sailors are no grounds for the California Coastal Commission this week to restrict seaside development, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. "We believe that it is unreasonable to assume that the Legislature has ever sought to protect the occasional boater's views of the coastline at the expense of a coastal landowner," the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous opinion. The ruling could affect stretches of California shoreline that are still relatively undeveloped, particularly along the Central Coast and in Northern California. An attorney for Schneider, a San Luis Obispo engineer, cast the decision Thursday as a victory for property owners seeking to exercise their rights and a defeat for Coastal Commission officials trying to arbitrarily clamp down on development. "The commission was attempting an outrageous power grab that would have put projects up and down the coast in jeopardy based on nothing more than the arbitrary aesthetic whims of commission staffers and members," said J. David Breemer, an attorney with the property-rights oriented Pacific Legal Foundation....
Editorial: Coastal craziness In a 1997 speech at a conference in Monterey, a radical environmentalist named Peter Douglas called for the U.S. Constitution to be amended to make courts the “arbiters” in what he called the “debate” over property owners' rights. It was just another day at the green pulpit for Douglas, who thinks government powers should be used to coerce individuals to “care with mind and heart for Gaia and all life she sustains.” Unfortunately, Douglas is in a position to use coercive powers in pursuit of his extremism. He is the longtime executive director of the California Coastal Commission, an institution whose hostility toward property rights makes the typical eminent domain-abusing redevelopment agency seem like pikers. Consider the case of San Luis Obispo engineer Dennis Schneider, who hoped to build his dream home on a cliff above the ocean in a remote area north of Cayucos. Incredibly by normal cognitive standards, typically by Coastal Commission standards, the agency blocked his plans on the grounds that the home would be such an aesthetic affront to passing kayakers, boaters and surfers that it would violate their rights. We are not making this up. Thankfully, on June 28, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said this was nonsense in a brisk 12-page decision that seemed perplexed at where the Coastal Commission comes up with stuff like this. The answer, of course: from the untethered imagination of its executive director....
U.S.: No critical habitat in Southwest for jaguar The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it will not designate critical habitat for the endangered jaguar in the Southwest. U.S. habitat for the animal makes up less than 1 percent of the species' range and is not critical to conserve it, the agency said. Thus, it doesn't meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act for designating critical habitat. Jaguars are occasionally seen in southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona, but Fish and Wildlife officials believe those jaguars come from a population 130 miles south of the border in Mexico. "The service has determined there are no physical and biological features in the United States that meet the definition of critical habitat," said Benjamin Tuggle, acting director of the agency's Southwest region. The recovery of the species depends almost entirely on efforts in Mexico and Central and South America, the agency said. The jaguars were listed as endangered in the United States in 1997, but Fish and Wildlife determined that a critical-habitat designation was not prudent at the time. In 2003, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed a complaint contending that finding violated the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency agreed to look at the issue again, which led to Wednesday's determination....
Development in South Dakota Prompts Unlikely Coalition: Christians, Indians, Ranchers(Subscription Required) Jay Allen expects to spend $3 million on his new development near this town of 6,400. The three-story, 22,500-square-foot barn will house six bars, a restaurant, stores and a stage. But his ambitions now rest on a hotly disputed beer license for which he paid just $250. Mr. Allen hopes his development, the Sturgis County Line, will attract many of the half-million bikers who come here each August for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. For now, though, it has attracted the opposition of an unlikely coalition: American Indians, white ranchers and Christian activists. The main problem, as they see it, is that the Sturgis County Line and another complex are being built about two miles from Bear Butte, which rises about 1,100 feet from the prairie surrounding it. For thousands of years, Bear Butte -- or Mato Paha in the language of the Lakota American Indian tribe -- is considered sacred ground by dozens of tribes who pray there and view it as "the womb of mother Earth." When Anne White Hat read about Mr. Allen's plans in a local newspaper, she was speechless. "We just couldn't believe someone would actually be so naïve to think they could do this, with total lack of respect and knowledge about native people," says Ms. White Hat, a Lakota. Christians see an opportunity to limit the spread of rowdy biker bars and strip clubs. Ranchers complain their cattle have contracted pneumonia after breathing copper-colored dust stirred up by bikers thundering across gravel roads....
A quest for cooler heads in Indian suit against US The lawsuit's name is innocuous enough. But Cobell v. Kempthorne carries 119 years of historical baggage, and its outcome could affect hundreds of thousands of people at a cost of billions of dollars. It's also thorny as a prickly pear, so contentious that a panel of federal jurists this week ruled that the case needs a different judge to oversee it. The dispute involves royalties due native Americans dating back to 1887. That's when Uncle Sam took control of some 11 million acres of tribal lands in the West as part of the federal policy of forced assimilation. The US was supposed to be paying into Indian trust accounts what now amounts to billions of dollars in revenues from oil, gas, timber, minerals, and grazing on those acres, then disbursing payments to native account holders. But the whole thing has been mismanaged, federal courts have declared several times since the case began in 1996, and the last three Interior secretaries have failed to fix it. Idahoan Dirk Kempthorne, who recently became Interior secretary, follows both Bruce Babbitt and Gale Norton as lead defendant. On the other side is Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe, a rancher and banker, and a recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant for her work in economic development. She's the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit that bears her name. "The government has abused trust beneficiaries and has failed to fulfill the most basic trust responsibilities owed to us," she said this week....
Oil company notified of violation in salt water spill State officials say they have notified an oil company of possible fines for a ruptured pipeline that spilled nearly 1 million gallons of saltwater into Charbonneau Creek in northwestern North Dakota. The state Health Department and the Industrial Commission have given notices to Zenergy, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla. The company has until July 23 to reply, officials said. The salt water spill, discovered in early January, killed fish in the McKenzie County creek near Alexander, and forced ranchers to move their cattle. The director of the state Industrial Commission, Karlene Fine, said Zenergy faces up to $90,000 in fines. The commission regulates oil and gas production. The state Health Department's environmental chief, David Glatt, said the company also faces penalties for violating environmental laws. He said Zenergy and the department will negotiate fines and a settlement to ensure the state recovers its costs in the cleanup.The state costs total around $35,000 so far, Glatt said. Salt water is an oil production waste product that can kill plants and hurt animals. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it....
Ranch sells for $47 million A 949-acre ranch south of Carbondale has sold for $47 million, one of the largest and most expensive land deals in Pitkin County history. The deal took roughly eight years to complete and includes hundreds of acres of open space, according to local real estate agent Joshua Saslove, who represented the sellers, Richard and Debbie Jelinek. The Crystal Island Ranch is bordered by the Crystal River, Prince Creek and Thomas Creek, Saslove said, and sits near the base of Mount Sopris. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management administer much of the land nearby. "The property abuts very large tracts of BLM land, and the only modern development on the property is a house and barn, a guest house and caretaker's quarters," said Saslove, a regional affiliate for Christie's auction house. "One of the messages we want people to hear is that the former owners are really thankful to everyone who participated in this unique land-use plan." The complex deal involved the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails program, the Conservation Fund, the Jelineks and the Aspen Valley Land Trust. The ranch once encompassed roughly 1,700 acres, but the land has been divided several ways, with some pieces sold to conservation organizations and others preserved with conservation easements. Overall, some 1,400 contiguous acres have been protected. The name of the buyer was not available Thursday afternoon, and Saslove would not reveal any names, saying the buyer wished to remain anonymous....
Easement will protect trout habitat A conservation easement may be placed along the Madison River on the Sun Ranch as part of an agreement that will protect 16 square miles of prime native trout habitat. On Thursday, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission authorized the department to start working on the project, and set aside $4.5 million from the state’s Habitat Montana program to help pay for the proposed easement purchase. Funded with hunter license fees, the Habitat Montana program seeks to preserve and restore important habitat for fish and wildlife and to make prime fishing and hunting areas accessible to the sporting public. FWP’s Wildlife Division Administrator Don Childress was excited by the news. He thanked both the non-profit conservation group Trust for Public Land and Sun Ranch owner Roger Lang of Bozeman for working on the deal....
Editorial: Agencies should prevent drilling to protect Strawberry The Strawberry Reservoir basin is a showcase for wetlands restoration and a trout fisherman's paradise. But, having survived decades of neglect and damage prior to its resurrection in the mid-'80s, the Strawberry Valley now could face an even greater threat from oil and gas drilling. Before-and-after photos of the Strawberry River Habitat Enhancement Project graphically show how an investment of $34 million in federal money and thousands of donated hours of labor have transformed the once-overgrazed basin of Strawberry River tributaries into one of the country's premier recreational fisheries. But sediment from new roads and the traffic that energy exploration would bring could contaminate the 10 streams flowing into the reservoir and seriously damage its fish population and the $20 million angling business they support. The 57,000 acres of blue-ribbon recreation land and watershed surrounding the reservoir should be protected from the wholesale exploration and drilling that federal land-management agencies seem bent on encouraging all over the West, including in roadless areas and prime hunting and fishing locations....
Sentencing Delayed In Hayman Fire Case A resentencing of a former U.S. Forest Service employee who admitted setting the largest wildfire in Colorado history has been delayed indefinitely, her public defender said Thursday. Terry Lynn Barton, 42, was sentenced on state charges to 12 years in prison in 2003, twice the typical term. But the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing, saying the judge in the case may have been biased because smoke from the 138,000-acre Hayman wildfire forced him to evacuate. The fire destroyed 133 homes. Fourth Judicial District Judge Thomas Kennedy ruled this year a jury could consider whether enough aggravating circumstances existed to justify the sentence. A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday. Barton's public defender, Mark Walta said the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in May to review a similar sentencing situation from Montezuma County, and Barton's case has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Montezuma case....
Senate committee fires back in feud over Forest Service policy Certain logging projects and other smaller-scale U.S. Forest Service activities would be exempt from a long-held public comment and appeals process under a provision inserted into a spending bill and approved recently by a key Senate committee. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., added the amendment to a multi-agency budget measure that sailed through the Senate Appropriations Committee last month. No date has been set for a full vote in the Senate; spending bills before the House of Representatives do not contain the rider. The move to steer the new forest policy through Congress is the latest in a back-and-forth between environmentalists who demand public comment on timber, mining and other Forest Service projects — no matter the size — and defenders of the Bush administration's push to fast-track certain priorities, namely forest-thinning to combat wildfires. The Burns amendment would overturn a 2005 ruling by a U.S. district judge in California that thwarted Forest Service regulations written in 2003. That rule change would have repealed public comment on so-called "categorical exemptions" — smaller scale projects the Forest Service says do not require lengthy environmental analysis. For instance, the measure would allow bypassing public comment on proposed burn projects up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects up to 1,000 acres. The comment and appeals process lasts up to 90 days, and in some cases more. Environmentalists hailed the California ruling as a rebuke of the president's Healthy Forest Initiative, but are now grousing that Bush allies are again seeking to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act....
Scenic beachfront land to go public Eight years ago, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation led the effort to buy five miles of stunning beaches and rugged coastline along Santa Cruz County's north coast, saving it from development in the hope of establishing a new state park. Today, after years of studies and nagging budget problems that prevented California from accepting the gift, the beaches at Coast Dairies Ranch, a sprawling expanse of redwood forests, artichoke fields and rolling hills, finally transfer to public ownership. The deal ranks as the most significant addition of beaches to Northern California state parks in 31 years. The scenic ranch -- home to peregrine falcons, steelhead trout and mountain lions -- is believed to be the largest piece of private beachfront property along the California coast between Hearst Ranch at San Simeon and the Oregon border. ``It's a major milestone. It's the first step toward fulfilling the dream that Coast Dairies will be owned by the public and open to everyone,'' said Reed Holderman, executive director of the Trust for Public Land-California, a San Francisco conservation group that owns Coast Dairies....
Arizona cattlemen suing over spotted-owl habitat A California-based legal firm and Arizona cattlemen have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designation of critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl in four Western states. The Pacific Legal Foundation, acting on behalf of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not follow laws governing the Endangered Species Act in setting aside more than 8 million acres for the owl in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. "Some of the areas that have been set aside by the regulators clearly don't have physical and biological features that are essential for the owl's conservation," said foundation attorney Damien Schiff. "Other areas are described in such vague terms that it's anyone's guess whether it's necessary to take them out of public use. "And in general, the regulators ignored their legal duty to consider and factor in the economic impact of the designation." Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said the agency was unable to comment on a pending lawsuit. But an attorney with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity questioned the need for a lawsuit. Eric Ryberg said his group's successful 2001 challenge of the critical-habitat listing forced the agency to redraw boundaries. He wonders why the legal foundation and ranchers waited so long to respond to it....
Judge Protects Gila Chub on Agua Fria National Monument The Center for Biological Diversity applauded a decision today that protects the endangered Gila chub from the impacts of livestock grazing on the Agua Fria National Monument. The decision states that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the potential for harm to the Gila chub and its habitat when it issued a ten-year grazing permit, and that it also improperly proceeded with an outdated analysis from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Agua Fria National Monument is approximately 71,000 acres and was established in 2000 by a presidential proclamation to protect the unique biological and cultural areas of this area, which is located 40 miles north of Phoenix. The diverse vegetative communities of the Monument provide habitat for numerous rare wildlife species, including the lowland leopard frog, Mexican garter snake, common black hawk, pronghorn, yellow-billed cuckoo and desert tortoise. The valuable riparian forests of the Monument were specifically highlighted in the presidential proclamation and their protection was given statutory priority. The order was issued by Administrative Law Judge James H. Heffernan, for the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Hearings and Appeals, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The order was granted in response to the Center for Biological Diversity’s appeal of the BLM’s November 2005 decision to approve a new livestock grazing permit without properly considering impacts to the natural and cultural resources in the area....
San Pedro River Railroad Purchase Offer Withdrawn The San Pedro River will not have hazardous materials transported along its banks, as the pending purchase offer for the adjacent railroad was withdrawn today. “This is truly a victory for the San Pedro River and the citizens of the county. Instead of being turned into a toxic corridor, the river banks can move forward as a rails-to-trails project,” said Michelle Harrington, Rivers Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. There has been little or no service on the railroad line for several years. The current owner, San Pedro Railroad Operating Company, LLC, planned to retire the 76.2 miles of rail between the border and Benson in Cochise County. Before the retirement was finalized, Sonora-Arizona International, LLC, offered to purchase the railroad and restart the line with plans to significantly expand operations within Arizona and into Mexico to the Port of Guaymas. The railroad runs along the banks of the San Pedro River through the Riparian National Conservation Area....
Drought forces more cattle sales More than 1,800 cattle were packed into the Kist Livestock sales barn on one day this week. "Some guys were bringing cows in by semi loads," rancher Bob Gangl said Wednesday. "The grass is gone everywhere. There's nothing for them to eat. It hasn't been this bad since the late '80s, and even then it wasn't as bad as it is now." Last year at the same time, 456 cattle were brought to Kist to be sold. The state has been under drought emergency since June, with moisture in the Bismarck area running more than 4 inches below normal. Most of the animals sold Wednesday would normally be held until fall when they weigh more, said Les Fleck, who runs the online auctions for Kist. Smaller calves were selling for $1.30 to $1.45 a pound, and yearlings - both heifers and steers - up to $1.20 a pound, said Diane Givan, a bookkeeper with Kist Livestock. But selling early was like giving away a paycheck, Fleck said. Ranchers can buy hay, but prices are high. Donald Janecek, a veterinarian from Linton who attended Wednesday's auction, said he paid $1,400 for hay that would have cost him $600 last year....
Chances fade for Barbaro's survival Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has developed a serious hoof disease, and the veterinarian treating the 3-year-old colt yesterday called his chances of survival a "long shot." "His prognosis for his life and his comfort has significantly diminished," said Dean Richardson, the chief surgeon who has been treating Barbaro. "I'd be lying if I said it was anything but poor." Doctors operated on Barbaro Wednesday at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., leaving him with casts on both rear legs. They said Barbaro could be euthanized if he does not respond quickly to medication. "It could happen within 24 hours," Dr. Richardson said. "It's a long shot. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. As long as the horse is not suffering, we're going to continue to try and treat him. If we can keep him comfortable, it's worth the effort." Barbaro suffered major fractures to his right hind leg in the May 20 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. His recovery went smoothly until early this week, when he developed a severe case of laminitis in his left hind leg....
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Canada Reports New Case of Mad Cow Disease
Canada on Thursday confirmed its second case of mad cow disease in as many weeks _ and seventh since 2003. Shipments of cattle to the United States were halted in 2003 after the first reported cases of mad cow in Canada. Trade in cows younger than 30 months resumed last July. The latest case was of a 50-month-old dairy cow from a farm in western Alberta, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would send an inspector to aid in the investigation into the death. Last week, Canadian officials another Albertan cow died of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, an extremely rare disease that can be fatal in humans. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the deaths "raise questions that must be answered." "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumes that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock," Johanns said, adding he was dispatching a USDA expert to help with the investigation. The cow, part of a herd of 300 head of cattle on an Edmonton-area farm, was among 170 other cows that will now be tested for the disease. Those animals were born within a year of the diseased cow and are either on the same farm or have been sold to other farms. Canada implemented a feed ban in 1997 that prohibited the use of cattle parts in certain animal feeds. Last month, that ban was extended to include all types of animal feed, pet food and fertilizers, in an effort to help eliminate BSE from Canada's herd in the next decade. The latest case discovered means the four-year-old cow came into contact with BSE after the 1997 feed ban. Government officials said this is typical and that sporadic cases will continue to be found....
US Cattle Industry Group Wants USDA To Ban Canada Cattle, Beef
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America Thursday called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to rescind its rule allowing Canadian cattle and beef to be imported into the U.S. The call came in the wake of an announcement by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirming bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in a 50-month-old dairy cow. The latest case was the fourth BSE case for Canada this year and was the youngest Canadian animal yet. The cow was born well after 1997 when Canada implemented its ban on feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal back to ruminants. The cow also came from Alberta, where a large percentage of the cattle and beef products imported into the U.S. originate, a release from R-CALF USA said. "USDA must now acknowledge that the principal assumptions used to support its Final Rule (allowing those imports) are no longer valid and that much more needs to be done to mitigate the heightened BSE risks presented by Canadian beef and cattle," said R-CALF USA President Chuck Kiker. The reaction from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was more muted. "Our position would be that we share the CFIA's desire to get a full accounting about how this cow might have been exposed to BSE, and we will be following the results of that investigation closely," said Joe Schuele, director of trade media for the NCBA. "We were pleased to see that they invited U.S. officials to participate in their investigation," Schuele said. Asked about news reports that the USDA is working on a rule that would allow beef product imports from cattle older than 30 months from countries regardless of the number of cases of BSE, Schuele said current NCBA policy only supports the current range of products. This policy approves cattle and products from cattle 30 months old and younger.
Canada on Thursday confirmed its second case of mad cow disease in as many weeks _ and seventh since 2003. Shipments of cattle to the United States were halted in 2003 after the first reported cases of mad cow in Canada. Trade in cows younger than 30 months resumed last July. The latest case was of a 50-month-old dairy cow from a farm in western Alberta, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would send an inspector to aid in the investigation into the death. Last week, Canadian officials another Albertan cow died of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, an extremely rare disease that can be fatal in humans. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the deaths "raise questions that must be answered." "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumes that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock," Johanns said, adding he was dispatching a USDA expert to help with the investigation. The cow, part of a herd of 300 head of cattle on an Edmonton-area farm, was among 170 other cows that will now be tested for the disease. Those animals were born within a year of the diseased cow and are either on the same farm or have been sold to other farms. Canada implemented a feed ban in 1997 that prohibited the use of cattle parts in certain animal feeds. Last month, that ban was extended to include all types of animal feed, pet food and fertilizers, in an effort to help eliminate BSE from Canada's herd in the next decade. The latest case discovered means the four-year-old cow came into contact with BSE after the 1997 feed ban. Government officials said this is typical and that sporadic cases will continue to be found....
US Cattle Industry Group Wants USDA To Ban Canada Cattle, Beef
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America Thursday called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to rescind its rule allowing Canadian cattle and beef to be imported into the U.S. The call came in the wake of an announcement by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirming bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in a 50-month-old dairy cow. The latest case was the fourth BSE case for Canada this year and was the youngest Canadian animal yet. The cow was born well after 1997 when Canada implemented its ban on feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal back to ruminants. The cow also came from Alberta, where a large percentage of the cattle and beef products imported into the U.S. originate, a release from R-CALF USA said. "USDA must now acknowledge that the principal assumptions used to support its Final Rule (allowing those imports) are no longer valid and that much more needs to be done to mitigate the heightened BSE risks presented by Canadian beef and cattle," said R-CALF USA President Chuck Kiker. The reaction from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was more muted. "Our position would be that we share the CFIA's desire to get a full accounting about how this cow might have been exposed to BSE, and we will be following the results of that investigation closely," said Joe Schuele, director of trade media for the NCBA. "We were pleased to see that they invited U.S. officials to participate in their investigation," Schuele said. Asked about news reports that the USDA is working on a rule that would allow beef product imports from cattle older than 30 months from countries regardless of the number of cases of BSE, Schuele said current NCBA policy only supports the current range of products. This policy approves cattle and products from cattle 30 months old and younger.
EVA Outbreak Reported in New Mexico
On June 26 the Office International des Epizooties (O.I.E.) Reference Laboratory for Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA) at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture's Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, confirmed an outbreak of equine arteritis virus infection involving fetal losses among mares on a Quarter Horse breeding farm in New Mexico. This was based on the widespread prevalence of high antibody levels to the virus in both mares and stallions, plus virus isolation from the semen of two stallions. On the same day, the outbreak was reported to the New Mexico Livestock Board in Albuquerque, N.M., which is now investigating the potential for spread of the infection to other premises. The EVA Reference Laboratory is interested in receiving samples from suspected clinical cases of EVA or from animals very recently exposed to semen from either of the virus-shedding stallions. Veterinarians are requested to contact the Gluck Center at (859) 257-4757 before submitting samples....
Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA) The New Mexico Livestock Board is investigating an outbreak of EVA in the State of New Mexico that was reported on June 28, 2006. One Equine Breeding Farm has been placed under quarantine, other exposed farms are voluntarily limiting movement off their farms. Action has been taken to limit the spread of the disease. The New Mexico State Veterinarian, Dr. Steven England is working with the Gluck Equine Center in Kentucky and the equine industry in order to formulate plans to minimize the impact of this disease on producers in the State of New Mexico. Meetings and consultations are taking place with the New Mexico Racing Commission, State 4-H leaders, farm owners, sale barns and Equine Veterinarians. Daniel M. Manzanares, Executive Director of the New Mexico Livestock Board, Cliff Mascarenas Deputy Director and the Livestock Inspectors through out the state are ensuring that movement of horses both in state and out of state follow established procedures to minimize spread of this disease. Affected farms are working closely with the New Mexico Livestock Board to limit the spread of this disease....
Livestock Board quarantines Socorro County farm
The state Livestock Board has quarantined a Socorro County horse breeding farm after an outbreak of an equine virus. A state veterinarian, Dr. Dave Fly, says that action and voluntary quarantines by other farms appear to have contained the outbreak. He says there have been no reported cases of equine viral arteritis, or EVA, beyond the first exposed farms. EVA is an acute, contagious viral disease that affects horses. It can’t be spread to other domestic animals or humans. EVA is primarily an infection of the equine respiratory tract and causes abortions in pregnant mares. Fly says a number of mares have lost foals in the outbreak, while other horses have respiratory disease. No horses have died.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Landmark Stream Access Case Headed to the Montana Supreme Court What many thought would be inevitable has now come to fruition – the Mitchell Slough case is headed to the Montana Supreme Court. In a Wednesday press release, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bitterroot River Protection Association announced plans to appeal the decision handed down by District Court Judge Ted Mizner in May that the Mitchell Slough was a ditch and not subject to public access. While the Mitchell Slough is a comparatively obscure waterway, the case has become an emotional and politically charged test case of the reach of Montana's Stream Access Law, which is coveted by sportsmen as one of the strongest such laws in the country but is seen by some landowners as an infringement of property rights. “The issue is way bigger than the Mitchell Slough and the Bitterroot,” Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday in explaining why he authorized the appeal. “The problem is that this opened a can of worms across Montana and we need to get this resolved.” The FWP appeal will be limited to the public access portion of the Mitchell Slough case. But the BRPA, which also sued over the 2003 decision by the Bitterroot Conservation District that the Mitchell was ditch, will file an appeal. The appeal will extend years of debate over the waterway, which has been deemed a ditch twice – once by Mizner and once by the Bitterroot Conservation District....
Feds May Let Salty Farmland Go Fallow Dry, brittle grass is all that pokes through earth that once grew tons of tomatoes, garlic and lettuce. Poor drainage has left land on the San Joaquin Valley's west side salty and worthless, a nightmare for farmers and the federal government, which provides irrigation water here. Over the years, numerous efforts to drain the poisoned land and salvage it for agriculture have failed. Now, the government is considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off farmers and get out of its obligation to irrigate the land _ effectively letting the 300,000-acre swath go fallow. That's the preferred alternative among the latest set of proposals from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Another calls for pumping the water out to sea, an idea opposed by officials in coastal cities. "It's a very complex issue. We've been trying to figure this out for a long time," said Jerry Robbins, a project manager with the reclamation bureau. Drainage problems on the land stretching along a 90-mile stretch from Los Banos to Kettleman City are caused by a natural layer of clay beneath the surface that keeps water from draining through. The small amounts of salt in the water builds up over time, leaving the fields unsuitable for crops....
Environmentalists and ranchers debate new grazing regulations Depending on whom you ask, federal grazing regulations announced Wednesday are either a roadblock to good management or a rollback from bad rules. The rules apply to 160 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in the West, including Utah, and impact 15,000 livestock operators. According to Jim Catlin, director of the environmentalist Utah Wild Project, the Bureau of Land Management's new rules will prevent users of the public land from "applying these proven solutions to restoring rangelands," he said. But Brent Tanner, executive president of the Utah Cattlemen's Association, says the rules will "roll back some of the bad regulations" established by the administration of former President Bill Clinton. John Carter of the Western Watersheds Project, Utah office — a conservationist who is based in Mendon, Cache County — accused the BLM of abandoning any consideration of science in its grazing regulations. The agency has thrown out the 1995 rangeland reform rules, he said. Those Clinton-era rules contained important provisions "to protect ecological values, such as water quality and wildlife habitat," he said. But Tanner believes the regulations mean "good things for the state and for the land." Although some of their language could be improved, he said, "they will be a more workable set of regulations than we've been working under since the Clinton administration." The regulations create a more stable environment for the Utah agriculture industry, he added....
Land-use initiative on November ballot Santa Clara County voters this November will be asked to consider an open space land-use initiative that measure proponents say will support protection of 400,000 acres of rural county lands. If enacted, the measure will purportedly stave future rural land development including hill area lands bounding the city of Milpitas. Opponents of the measure say it violates basic private property rights with concern to farms, ranches and privately owned lands. The county's approval came after initiative supporters turned in 58,633 signatures to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. The campaign needed 36,040 signatures from county voters to qualify the initiative for the ballot. However, the land-use conservation initiative has drawn opposition from a coalition of realtor groups, ranching associations and property owners. The coalition, known as the Alliance for Housing and the Environment, includes the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, Hillside Homeowners Association and the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. "We are going to fight the plan," said Edwin Resuello, president of Santa Clara County Association of Realtors....
ICA Explains the Benefits of Grazing to the Idaho Land Board Idaho Cattle Association (ICA) President Mike Webster spoke before the Idaho Land Board today to explain the benefits of the Idaho Department of Land's grazing program to the state endowment, the economy, and the environment. ICA requested an audience with the Land Board after learning that Jon Marvel, a known anti-grazing extremist, was scheduled to speak at the meeting. Webster, a 4th generation rancher from Roberts, Idaho, has been directly involved with state grazing leases and has experienced first-hand the day to day management of these leases and their associated challenges and opportunities. Reflecting upon his experiences, Webster stated, "I have witnessed the system change from conducting business on a handshake to a meticulous, paperwork-heavy management system. As the process of managing grazing leases with the Department of Lands has evolved, one thing remains constant: ranchers are the most dependable and efficient caretakers for the millions of acres that the State of Idaho manages. Because of this, a continued, strong grazing program offers the greatest long-term stability to the endowment." Marvel's claims that, by administering grazing leases, the Land Board is ignoring its fiduciary responsibility to the endowment were soundly refuted by the Land Board members present. As Webster pointed out, "Livestock grazing leases provide a consistent source of revenue to the state. These leases are based on a renewable resource that replenishes itself annually." In his latest attempts to rid the land of cattle, Marvel has generated headlines recently stating that the state's grazing program is costing more than it earns. In response to this inaccurate and short-sighted claim, Webster stated that, "Even if all grazing leases were cancelled, the administrative costs would not decrease dollar for dollar. Excluding grazing would only increase the workload for the Department. Without ranchers to assist in cooperatively managing the state lands, the Department would be wholly accountable for controlling noxious weeds, maintaining fences and water developments, and would have to greatly increase their fire prevention efforts on 1.78 million acres."....
Forest killings are still rare, but crime is rising he Puget Sound region is blessed with an abundance of destinations where people can get close to nature and escape the urban environment. But even these places aren't immune from crime. Steve Costie, executive director of The Mountaineers, said car break-ins at trailheads are common, and he has feared inadvertently encountering a clandestine methamphetamine lab while hiking in the woods. The discovery this week of two women killed along a hiking trail off the Mountain Loop Highway in Snohomish County prompted Costie on Wednesday to advise people to consider hiking in groups. "There has never been a crime issue like this," Costie, who has been an avid hiker for nearly 30 years, said of the slayings. U.S. Forest Service Officer Mike Gardiner, who patrols the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest where the bodies were found, says he's never heard of another slaying in the sprawling forest. "This is a freak occurrence," Gardiner said. "The forest is a safe place."....
Editorial: A Clueless Policy on Roadless Areas TWO THINGS ABOUT Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's push against new roads in untouched areas of California's national forests: It was an environmentally sound decision for a state that reveres its wilderness areas. And it was a decision the governor shouldn't have had to make in the first place. The Bush administration, after initially vowing to barely tweak a Clinton-era ban on road building in almost 60 million acres of forest, instead ended up delegating too much authority to individual states. Roadless areas were potentially stripped of all protection, unless governors of individual states petitioned for protection of specific areas. Schwarzenegger was essentially forced into asking for preservation of the 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in California. A few other governors have done the same, though some are expected to call for opening vast new stretches of old-growth forest to timber, gas and other industries. What's important to keep in mind is that these are national — not state — forests. The U.S. Forest Service should be managing its lands, not outsourcing the job to state governors. Of course, federal officials should take local sensibilities into account in drawing up forest plans, but they're the ones who should be drawing up the plans, based on a consistent policy of managing the land for the national good....
Republican Conservationists Praise Schwarzenegger Roadless Petition Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a national grassroots organization of citizens and elected officials, today praised Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for seeking protection of 4.4 million roadless national forest acres in California. "Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a critically important step for protecting wild forests that provide numerous benefits, including clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities for California's growing population," REP President Martha Marks said. "If finalized, Governor Schwarzenegger's action will protect nearly 8 percent of all roadless national forest acreage nationwide." "The governor's petition to the federal government, if accepted, will be a significant conservation milestone that will benefit millions of Americans, in and outside of California," said Buddy Burke, acting president of REP's California chapter. "Roadless areas in California contain many natural treasures, including old-growth forests, salmon-spawning streams, waterfalls, oak woodlands, and grasslands. Protecting such important places is critical for maintaining California's high quality of life." Schwarzenegger is the fifth state governor, and the second Republican governor, to seek protection of roadless national forest lands. Protecting roadless lands makes both environmental and economic sense....
Energy corridor data a secret? The Moab and Monticello field offices of the Bureau of Land Management withheld from the public maps showing the specific location of potential alternative energy corridors throughout southeastern Utah, an environmental group has charged. That means members of the public who expressed written or verbal opinions on the proposed corridors laid out on a statewide map weren't fully informed by the end of the comment period, which was Tuesday, said Steve Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Worse, Bloch said, representatives from the energy industry were treated to a private preview of the detailed Moab map on May 18, more than seven weeks before the comment deadline. "It's not quite clear why industry gets [access] while the public doesn't have the opportunity," he said. "How many other such meetings are being held in the 11 Western states?" The BLM strongly denies any intent at secrecy....
Seismic testing starts along the Beartooth Front Drilling has begun along the Beartooth Front, in northwestern Wyoming, as part of a seismic testing program to determine the presence of oil and gas beneath the ground. Quantum Geophysical Inc., plans to drill between 2,500 to 2,600 holes, each 30 feet deep, at a cost of up to $5 million. The company plans to start setting off small explosives in the holes next month to measure the movement of sound waves through the ground. The testing is being performed for Windsor Wyoming LLC, an Oklahoma company that hopes to drill on both public and private land in the area. Monte Barker, compliance inspector with the U.S. Forest Service in Cody, said the seismic mapping can increase the chances of finding oil or gas by 70 percent. Barker said drilling started in the area July 1. He said blasting and recording is set to start Aug. 15 and will be completed by Oct. 10, before the start of hunting season. Don Ogaard, project manager with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the seismic testing will cover 47 square miles near the town of Clark. Although environmental review has been completed for the testing program, he said more review would be required before wells and roads could be installed as a result of the test findings....
Forest Service reopens trail after apparent grizzly attack The U.S. Forest Service is reopening an eastern Idaho hiking trail, saying it's safe again after an apparent July 3rd grizzly attack. A 53-year-old man was bitten on his hip and shoulder, but wasn't hospitalized after the attack on the Targhee Creek Trail near the western border of Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife officials think the bear was a grizzly, but aren't 100 percent certain. Officials are cautioning hikers in the region to be on their guard. This is the second straight year of increased grizzly and black bear sightings that have accompanied more people in the region. Gregg Losinski says there are conflicts between people and deer and elk, too -- "but the ones that have claws and teeth are the ones people really key in on."
Renewable energy producers complain to Senate committee Federal officials vowed Tuesday to boost renewable energy production on federal lands in the West, but wind and geothermal industry officials criticized the administration for a lack of openness and support leading to delays in some of their projects. The Interior Department has a major role to play in the projected growth of domestic renewable energy consumption, Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett testified. Consumption of renewable fuels will grow about 60 percent by 2025 and renewable energy will account for more than 10 percent of domestic energy production and 7 percent of consumption, she said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Interior is working to increase wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy production, she said. But at the hearing industry and environmental groups criticized a backlog of energy lease applications and lack of input on new regulations....
Weeds suspected in cattle death There is a strong suspicion that eight head of cattle died recently in the Steele area because they had eaten toxic plants they don't normally eat but resorted to in their drought-stricken pasture, according to a local veterinarian and a Kidder County extension agent. Troy Dutton, a veterinarian at the Steele Veterinarian Clinic, said their focus is on tansy ragwort, a toxic plant that's present in the pastures. Gwen Payne, a Kidder County extension agent, said material from the cattle has been sent to a lab for testing and the vet clinic is waiting for results. Dutton said they should get the results back in a week to 10 days, and he expected the extension service would issue a press release at that point. Dutton said he didn't want to release much information now to protect the confidentiality of the cattle owner. He said it's amazing to him that cattle are still producing and raising calves on what's out there, or rather, not out there....
City Slickers Learn Ranching Skills at 40th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival Dylan Biggs is no Hollywood cowboy. He says the movie version of ranchers on horseback roping frenzied cattle is not his style. “I am able to get the cattle to do what I want them to do without the use of force and fear, just by virtue of my position, my movement and my motion. It is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time in the right manner. And ultimately you have to take all that direction from the cattle.” Biggs practices what he calls low-stress livestock handling. He says it is simply good stockmanship. “Instead of having to run around chasing cattle, I can very calmly ask the cattle to get up, start walking exactly where I want them to go and they actually get there. So, it takes a lot less effort on my part.” Biggs demonstrates with a few gentle cows trucked in from a farm in nearby rural Maryland. The cows seem unfazed by the tourists in the bleachers or by Biggs who walks determinedly among them. “I want to teach them to start, speed up, slow down, turn left, turn right and stop, just by virtue of my movement and my position.” No need to prod or whip. Biggs says cows are not stupid animals. “Cattle learn very quickly. In anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, you can have a herd of 150 cattle …softened up and (you can) put them where you want them without any fuss.” ...
Landmark Stream Access Case Headed to the Montana Supreme Court What many thought would be inevitable has now come to fruition – the Mitchell Slough case is headed to the Montana Supreme Court. In a Wednesday press release, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bitterroot River Protection Association announced plans to appeal the decision handed down by District Court Judge Ted Mizner in May that the Mitchell Slough was a ditch and not subject to public access. While the Mitchell Slough is a comparatively obscure waterway, the case has become an emotional and politically charged test case of the reach of Montana's Stream Access Law, which is coveted by sportsmen as one of the strongest such laws in the country but is seen by some landowners as an infringement of property rights. “The issue is way bigger than the Mitchell Slough and the Bitterroot,” Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday in explaining why he authorized the appeal. “The problem is that this opened a can of worms across Montana and we need to get this resolved.” The FWP appeal will be limited to the public access portion of the Mitchell Slough case. But the BRPA, which also sued over the 2003 decision by the Bitterroot Conservation District that the Mitchell was ditch, will file an appeal. The appeal will extend years of debate over the waterway, which has been deemed a ditch twice – once by Mizner and once by the Bitterroot Conservation District....
Feds May Let Salty Farmland Go Fallow Dry, brittle grass is all that pokes through earth that once grew tons of tomatoes, garlic and lettuce. Poor drainage has left land on the San Joaquin Valley's west side salty and worthless, a nightmare for farmers and the federal government, which provides irrigation water here. Over the years, numerous efforts to drain the poisoned land and salvage it for agriculture have failed. Now, the government is considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off farmers and get out of its obligation to irrigate the land _ effectively letting the 300,000-acre swath go fallow. That's the preferred alternative among the latest set of proposals from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Another calls for pumping the water out to sea, an idea opposed by officials in coastal cities. "It's a very complex issue. We've been trying to figure this out for a long time," said Jerry Robbins, a project manager with the reclamation bureau. Drainage problems on the land stretching along a 90-mile stretch from Los Banos to Kettleman City are caused by a natural layer of clay beneath the surface that keeps water from draining through. The small amounts of salt in the water builds up over time, leaving the fields unsuitable for crops....
Environmentalists and ranchers debate new grazing regulations Depending on whom you ask, federal grazing regulations announced Wednesday are either a roadblock to good management or a rollback from bad rules. The rules apply to 160 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in the West, including Utah, and impact 15,000 livestock operators. According to Jim Catlin, director of the environmentalist Utah Wild Project, the Bureau of Land Management's new rules will prevent users of the public land from "applying these proven solutions to restoring rangelands," he said. But Brent Tanner, executive president of the Utah Cattlemen's Association, says the rules will "roll back some of the bad regulations" established by the administration of former President Bill Clinton. John Carter of the Western Watersheds Project, Utah office — a conservationist who is based in Mendon, Cache County — accused the BLM of abandoning any consideration of science in its grazing regulations. The agency has thrown out the 1995 rangeland reform rules, he said. Those Clinton-era rules contained important provisions "to protect ecological values, such as water quality and wildlife habitat," he said. But Tanner believes the regulations mean "good things for the state and for the land." Although some of their language could be improved, he said, "they will be a more workable set of regulations than we've been working under since the Clinton administration." The regulations create a more stable environment for the Utah agriculture industry, he added....
Land-use initiative on November ballot Santa Clara County voters this November will be asked to consider an open space land-use initiative that measure proponents say will support protection of 400,000 acres of rural county lands. If enacted, the measure will purportedly stave future rural land development including hill area lands bounding the city of Milpitas. Opponents of the measure say it violates basic private property rights with concern to farms, ranches and privately owned lands. The county's approval came after initiative supporters turned in 58,633 signatures to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. The campaign needed 36,040 signatures from county voters to qualify the initiative for the ballot. However, the land-use conservation initiative has drawn opposition from a coalition of realtor groups, ranching associations and property owners. The coalition, known as the Alliance for Housing and the Environment, includes the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, Hillside Homeowners Association and the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. "We are going to fight the plan," said Edwin Resuello, president of Santa Clara County Association of Realtors....
ICA Explains the Benefits of Grazing to the Idaho Land Board Idaho Cattle Association (ICA) President Mike Webster spoke before the Idaho Land Board today to explain the benefits of the Idaho Department of Land's grazing program to the state endowment, the economy, and the environment. ICA requested an audience with the Land Board after learning that Jon Marvel, a known anti-grazing extremist, was scheduled to speak at the meeting. Webster, a 4th generation rancher from Roberts, Idaho, has been directly involved with state grazing leases and has experienced first-hand the day to day management of these leases and their associated challenges and opportunities. Reflecting upon his experiences, Webster stated, "I have witnessed the system change from conducting business on a handshake to a meticulous, paperwork-heavy management system. As the process of managing grazing leases with the Department of Lands has evolved, one thing remains constant: ranchers are the most dependable and efficient caretakers for the millions of acres that the State of Idaho manages. Because of this, a continued, strong grazing program offers the greatest long-term stability to the endowment." Marvel's claims that, by administering grazing leases, the Land Board is ignoring its fiduciary responsibility to the endowment were soundly refuted by the Land Board members present. As Webster pointed out, "Livestock grazing leases provide a consistent source of revenue to the state. These leases are based on a renewable resource that replenishes itself annually." In his latest attempts to rid the land of cattle, Marvel has generated headlines recently stating that the state's grazing program is costing more than it earns. In response to this inaccurate and short-sighted claim, Webster stated that, "Even if all grazing leases were cancelled, the administrative costs would not decrease dollar for dollar. Excluding grazing would only increase the workload for the Department. Without ranchers to assist in cooperatively managing the state lands, the Department would be wholly accountable for controlling noxious weeds, maintaining fences and water developments, and would have to greatly increase their fire prevention efforts on 1.78 million acres."....
Forest killings are still rare, but crime is rising he Puget Sound region is blessed with an abundance of destinations where people can get close to nature and escape the urban environment. But even these places aren't immune from crime. Steve Costie, executive director of The Mountaineers, said car break-ins at trailheads are common, and he has feared inadvertently encountering a clandestine methamphetamine lab while hiking in the woods. The discovery this week of two women killed along a hiking trail off the Mountain Loop Highway in Snohomish County prompted Costie on Wednesday to advise people to consider hiking in groups. "There has never been a crime issue like this," Costie, who has been an avid hiker for nearly 30 years, said of the slayings. U.S. Forest Service Officer Mike Gardiner, who patrols the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest where the bodies were found, says he's never heard of another slaying in the sprawling forest. "This is a freak occurrence," Gardiner said. "The forest is a safe place."....
Editorial: A Clueless Policy on Roadless Areas TWO THINGS ABOUT Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's push against new roads in untouched areas of California's national forests: It was an environmentally sound decision for a state that reveres its wilderness areas. And it was a decision the governor shouldn't have had to make in the first place. The Bush administration, after initially vowing to barely tweak a Clinton-era ban on road building in almost 60 million acres of forest, instead ended up delegating too much authority to individual states. Roadless areas were potentially stripped of all protection, unless governors of individual states petitioned for protection of specific areas. Schwarzenegger was essentially forced into asking for preservation of the 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in California. A few other governors have done the same, though some are expected to call for opening vast new stretches of old-growth forest to timber, gas and other industries. What's important to keep in mind is that these are national — not state — forests. The U.S. Forest Service should be managing its lands, not outsourcing the job to state governors. Of course, federal officials should take local sensibilities into account in drawing up forest plans, but they're the ones who should be drawing up the plans, based on a consistent policy of managing the land for the national good....
Republican Conservationists Praise Schwarzenegger Roadless Petition Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), a national grassroots organization of citizens and elected officials, today praised Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for seeking protection of 4.4 million roadless national forest acres in California. "Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a critically important step for protecting wild forests that provide numerous benefits, including clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities for California's growing population," REP President Martha Marks said. "If finalized, Governor Schwarzenegger's action will protect nearly 8 percent of all roadless national forest acreage nationwide." "The governor's petition to the federal government, if accepted, will be a significant conservation milestone that will benefit millions of Americans, in and outside of California," said Buddy Burke, acting president of REP's California chapter. "Roadless areas in California contain many natural treasures, including old-growth forests, salmon-spawning streams, waterfalls, oak woodlands, and grasslands. Protecting such important places is critical for maintaining California's high quality of life." Schwarzenegger is the fifth state governor, and the second Republican governor, to seek protection of roadless national forest lands. Protecting roadless lands makes both environmental and economic sense....
Energy corridor data a secret? The Moab and Monticello field offices of the Bureau of Land Management withheld from the public maps showing the specific location of potential alternative energy corridors throughout southeastern Utah, an environmental group has charged. That means members of the public who expressed written or verbal opinions on the proposed corridors laid out on a statewide map weren't fully informed by the end of the comment period, which was Tuesday, said Steve Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Worse, Bloch said, representatives from the energy industry were treated to a private preview of the detailed Moab map on May 18, more than seven weeks before the comment deadline. "It's not quite clear why industry gets [access] while the public doesn't have the opportunity," he said. "How many other such meetings are being held in the 11 Western states?" The BLM strongly denies any intent at secrecy....
Seismic testing starts along the Beartooth Front Drilling has begun along the Beartooth Front, in northwestern Wyoming, as part of a seismic testing program to determine the presence of oil and gas beneath the ground. Quantum Geophysical Inc., plans to drill between 2,500 to 2,600 holes, each 30 feet deep, at a cost of up to $5 million. The company plans to start setting off small explosives in the holes next month to measure the movement of sound waves through the ground. The testing is being performed for Windsor Wyoming LLC, an Oklahoma company that hopes to drill on both public and private land in the area. Monte Barker, compliance inspector with the U.S. Forest Service in Cody, said the seismic mapping can increase the chances of finding oil or gas by 70 percent. Barker said drilling started in the area July 1. He said blasting and recording is set to start Aug. 15 and will be completed by Oct. 10, before the start of hunting season. Don Ogaard, project manager with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the seismic testing will cover 47 square miles near the town of Clark. Although environmental review has been completed for the testing program, he said more review would be required before wells and roads could be installed as a result of the test findings....
Forest Service reopens trail after apparent grizzly attack The U.S. Forest Service is reopening an eastern Idaho hiking trail, saying it's safe again after an apparent July 3rd grizzly attack. A 53-year-old man was bitten on his hip and shoulder, but wasn't hospitalized after the attack on the Targhee Creek Trail near the western border of Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife officials think the bear was a grizzly, but aren't 100 percent certain. Officials are cautioning hikers in the region to be on their guard. This is the second straight year of increased grizzly and black bear sightings that have accompanied more people in the region. Gregg Losinski says there are conflicts between people and deer and elk, too -- "but the ones that have claws and teeth are the ones people really key in on."
Renewable energy producers complain to Senate committee Federal officials vowed Tuesday to boost renewable energy production on federal lands in the West, but wind and geothermal industry officials criticized the administration for a lack of openness and support leading to delays in some of their projects. The Interior Department has a major role to play in the projected growth of domestic renewable energy consumption, Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett testified. Consumption of renewable fuels will grow about 60 percent by 2025 and renewable energy will account for more than 10 percent of domestic energy production and 7 percent of consumption, she said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Interior is working to increase wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy production, she said. But at the hearing industry and environmental groups criticized a backlog of energy lease applications and lack of input on new regulations....
Weeds suspected in cattle death There is a strong suspicion that eight head of cattle died recently in the Steele area because they had eaten toxic plants they don't normally eat but resorted to in their drought-stricken pasture, according to a local veterinarian and a Kidder County extension agent. Troy Dutton, a veterinarian at the Steele Veterinarian Clinic, said their focus is on tansy ragwort, a toxic plant that's present in the pastures. Gwen Payne, a Kidder County extension agent, said material from the cattle has been sent to a lab for testing and the vet clinic is waiting for results. Dutton said they should get the results back in a week to 10 days, and he expected the extension service would issue a press release at that point. Dutton said he didn't want to release much information now to protect the confidentiality of the cattle owner. He said it's amazing to him that cattle are still producing and raising calves on what's out there, or rather, not out there....
City Slickers Learn Ranching Skills at 40th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival Dylan Biggs is no Hollywood cowboy. He says the movie version of ranchers on horseback roping frenzied cattle is not his style. “I am able to get the cattle to do what I want them to do without the use of force and fear, just by virtue of my position, my movement and my motion. It is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time in the right manner. And ultimately you have to take all that direction from the cattle.” Biggs practices what he calls low-stress livestock handling. He says it is simply good stockmanship. “Instead of having to run around chasing cattle, I can very calmly ask the cattle to get up, start walking exactly where I want them to go and they actually get there. So, it takes a lot less effort on my part.” Biggs demonstrates with a few gentle cows trucked in from a farm in nearby rural Maryland. The cows seem unfazed by the tourists in the bleachers or by Biggs who walks determinedly among them. “I want to teach them to start, speed up, slow down, turn left, turn right and stop, just by virtue of my movement and my position.” No need to prod or whip. Biggs says cows are not stupid animals. “Cattle learn very quickly. In anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, you can have a herd of 150 cattle …softened up and (you can) put them where you want them without any fuss.” ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)