MEXICAN WOLF REINTRODUCTION PROJECT
Southwest Region (Arizona - New Mexico - Oklahoma - Texas) http://southwest.fws.gov
TELE-NEWS CONFERENCE -- FOR ACCREDITED MEDIA ONLY!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will hold a telephone news conference to announce its decision following a 5-year review of the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project.
WHEN: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 10 a.m. MST.
WHO: Spokespersons – Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, Acting Regional Director, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Southwest Region; John Morgart, Mexican Wolf Recovery
Coordinator
Moderator – David Eisenhauer, Acting Assistant Regional Director for External Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwest Region
HOW: Call toll free 888-455-0043. Use passcode 31943 and identify leader as David
Eisenhauer. If you encounter problems, please call 505-248-6911 for assistance.
CONTACTS: David Eisenhauer, 917-502-9057 (cell); or Cindy Laws, 505-248-6912
Monday, July 24, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Fire forces ranch to move cattle A Meeteetse rancher is suffering through smoke and endured a midweek scramble to move horses and employees, but otherwise is surviving a forest fire just fine. Jack Turnell of the Pitchfork Ranch this week had to bring riders and horses out of Washakie wilderness area where the Little Venus fire erupted to 13,000 acres earlier this week. It is now estimated to be 27,000 acres -- more than 40 square miles. For a month or so, the fire was allowed to burn unhindered due to its remote and rugged location. That changed when the fire suddenly flared up Tuesday, leaving the wilderness area and threatening structures. Crews are now battling the blaze. Turnell said he had to move his cattle to a more concentrated area, which is less desirable. The new area is out of the timber. His employees trailed the cattle down earlier this week when the fire erupted, but most of the cows started down on their own. "They're not dumb," he said. He also said the thick smoke makes it hard for people to breathe, and it may affect the cattle, too....
Rancher mulls future after fire In rapid staccato, rancher John Patterson describes his situation: "My summer pasture is gone. My winter pasture is gone." "This is a good fire. Nobody died." "Wendy Kucera saved my hay and my house." "I have not shot a cow." "The story is that I have about 950 cows and calves that are unharmed. I have 37 confirmed dead." "They are either dead or unhurt." Patterson's ranch sits about 40 miles east of Billings. He estimates that 90 percent of his 70-section ranch in eastern Yellowstone and northern Big Horn counties was charred by the Pine Ridge complex of fires last week. Patterson's ranch sits in the middle of the complex of fires that blackened more than 122,000 acres over the past week and half in Yellowstone and Big Horn counties south of the Yellowstone River. The fires on the Patterson Ranch - three of them - began just before midnight July 11. The next afternoon, a fierce windstorm swept through the area, sending the fire racing across the grazing lands, through the coulees and draws, creating fire twisters, which Ruth Ann Patterson has on videotape. On Saturday and Sunday, the flames threatened the home built in 2001-02....
Cowboy rides a Caterpillar Scrapers swirl in maneuvers calculated to prepare the way for one more natural gas well among the many thousands planned for the big basins of Wyoming. Rancher Rob Hendry visits with an Encana Oil and Gas (USA) engineer, chit-chatting about this and that, watching the mechanical crawlers rearrange the powdery earth of the Frenchie Draw Field. There is no conflict here, no frustrated words about split estates or access through pasturelands. The cowboy and the engineer are on the same page. Hendry is making money off the energy boom. He figured early on that mineral royalties -- of which he holds few beneath the surface of his ranch -- were not a path to acquiring wealth. But hard work was. "That's just almost as good as mineral rights," he says. Hendry carved out a niche by providing construction services to oil and gas companies operating on the deeded and Bureau of Land Management surface that comprises his Clear Creek Cattle Company in the Fremont-Natrona County border country. It's been about three years since Hendry asked Encana to give him a shot at a reclamation project. They did. So he fired up equipment on hand at the ranch and went to work. He did a few reclamation jobs, then other tasks. Today Hendry takes on all sorts of projects, from cutting roads and leveling well pads, to reseeding projects and landscaping....
Lawsuit targets water standards A regional landowners group has filed a motion to join a case that is pitting three coal-bed methane companies and the State of Wyoming against Montana and its water quality standards for the Powder and Tongue rivers. The Powder River Basin Resource Council on Thursday said that lifting more stringent water quality standards set by Montana that reduce the salinity and runoff in the rivers would adversely impact Wyoming ranchers. Removing “constraints that Montana rules place on Wyoming permits to discharge coal-bed methane water ... would cause further damage to PRBRC members' crops, forage and soils,” the council wrote in its filing with the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The motion comes in a case in which Devon Energy Co., Marathon Oil Co. and Pennaco Energy Inc., along with the State of Wyoming have challenged federal approval of the Montana rules, calling the action an unconstitutional control on interstate business....
The battle to drill A growing property rights controversy between the oil and gas industry and property owners in Northeastern Colorado may be decided by voters in November. As oil and gas industries rally for more effective drilling rights in Colorado, developers and other landowners are rallying for the right to be compensated when mineral extractors drill on their land. As the demand for oil and gas soars, so does the incentive for mining companies to extract as much as possible from each site. Oil and gas companies want more rights to assure they are drilling to capacity, leaving as little resources behind as possible. Landowners, who don't always own mineral rights beneath their land, want better compensation from those same companies. Colorado Land Owners for Fairness, organized by Glenwood Springs real estate agent John Gorman, last week started collecting the 68,000 signatures needed to place a proposed initiative on the November ballot. The ballot initiative would ask voters, "Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution requiring a mineral extractor to pay the fair value of damages brought about in the development per extraction of a mineral, including oil and gas?"....
New group forms to combat Wyoming Range drilling A new group has formed in western Wyoming that aims to protect the Wyoming Range from energy leasing and development, according to organizers. "Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range" hosted a kick-off barbequet at a ranch in Daniel Wednesday evening to launch the new organization. Comprised of local landowners, outfitters, business owners and ranchers, the group will work to prohibit new energy development in the Wyoming Range, according to the organization's mission statement. "The Wyoming Range is fundamental to why many choose to live here and the tourism revenue the range generates is a mainstay of our local economy," the statement said. "With so much development already happening next door to the Wyoming Range on Bureau of Land Management, state and private lands, it just doesn't make sense to let it expand onto the national forest."....
Enviro group warns against gas leases in Montrose County A meeting about gas leases on private property and public land at the Naturita Community Center on Sunday afternoon brought dire warnings from environmental groups and reassurances from representatives of the federal government. Sponsored by the Uncompahgre Valley Association, a community group of Western Colorado Congress, much of the meeting was devoted to warnings about what could happen from a former LaPlata County commissioner. The meeting was prompted by a planned auction of 50,000 acres of Montrose County land on Aug. 10 by the federal government on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management, said Peter Crowell, vice president of the association, who moderated the meeting. Crowell said his organization will file a protest with the federal government Tuesday to delay the auction so the land up for lease can be more carefully studied. “In some cases they are roadless areas and watershed areas,” he said. “We will ask the BLM to postpone or withdraw leasing of certain parcels.”....
Western Ranchers Join Lawsuit To Defend Grazing Regulations The Public Lands Council (PLC), an organization of public lands ranchers throughout the West, has joined in a lawsuit to help defend the final grazing regulations issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The PLC represents the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American Sheep Industry and the Association of National Grasslands. “The new regulations stabilize the climate for operating ranches on BLM lands by encouraging good stewardship of those lands,” says PLC Executive Director Jeff Eisenberg. “In developing these final rules, the BLM has restored the balance between resource conservation and range management. These are policies PLC and its members are willing to protect with their hard earned dollars.” Upon publication on July 12, the Western Watersheds Project immediately filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Idaho to block the regulations. A second suit was also filed by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Idaho Conservation League, and the Idaho Wildlife Federation. PLC has retained Bill Thomas of the law firm Best Best & Kreiger to represent the ranchers’ views in this matter. Each side has the opportunity to make arguments at a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for July 28 in Boise, Idaho....
Interior Dept. deputy kills a bison, then resigns after money questions The American bison, once hunted almost to extinction, is now so revered in the United States that its image graces the seal of the Interior Department, where it stands proudly in the shadow of mountains. Still, a senior political appointee at Interior apparently thought that the real thing might look better stuffed and mounted -- so he shot one. David Smith, a hunter who until last Friday was deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, shot and killed a bison grazing at a friend's ranch in Texas in December 2004. He had the hoofs made into bookends and kept the skull, wrapped in taxidermy packaging, in the garage of his home. Smith broke no laws by shooting the semi-domesticated animal in the head with a rifle from 50 yards away. But in a new report, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney found that Smith violated rules banning federal officials from accepting gifts from people who are regulated by, or might do business with, their agency....
Proposal leaves riders in a rut Mark Powell says Jeep drivers have been trying to show that they care about the environment by picking up litter along Springhill Road. So he and other members of Capital City Jeepers say they're concerned that the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to close land along Springhill Road to off-road vehicles because of damage they are causing. "Those of us who like to ride legally have very few areas left where we can ride," Powell said. "We try to promote responsible use of the resource." The Forest Service is proposing to temporarily close 11,625 acres to vehicles including Jeeps, trucks, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. Licensed vehicles can continue to drive through those areas on official forest roads. The proposed closed areas would be in addition to 6,814 acres that were closed temporarily in 2004 and haven't been reopened....
Fat Tire Festival Every year, thousands of fat-tire enthusiasts descend on this timber town to ride the surrounding trails. Oakridge sits more than 1,000 feet above sea level, and the mountains ringing it rise thousands of feet higher. It's a jumping-off point for scenic pedals and gnarly trail rides, as well as a growing number of races and festivals. This weekend, mountain bikers from all over America will make the trek to Oakridge to ride and relax at the Fat Tire Festival. The community is actively working to replace its once-booming timber industry with "adventure tourism."....
Grizzlies on rivers put managers on edge From her office across from the confluence of the Kenai and Russian rivers, Dianne Owens watches a daily dance of grizzly bears and people and wonders what's next. Already this year, a sow grizzly has been wounded in a spray of gunfire near the Sportsman's Landing campground; one of her cubs was injured when hit by a car on the Sterling Highway. The sow subsequently disappeared and is now presumed dead. The fate of the yearling cub hit by the car remains unknown. Meanwhile, two other yearling cubs appear to have taken up residence adjacent to the campground since their mother died. With the yearlings hanging around, the manager of the Russian River ferry said human-bear encounters have become an all-too-regular occurrence. "Every day, two or three times a day," she said. "We're sitting on a time bomb here."....
Feds ax Colorado public lands jobs Public lands managers are bracing for three years of federal budget cuts and job losses to help pay for homeland security and the war in Iraq. With the belt-tightening, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management expect to trim more than 60 jobs in Southwest Colorado, according to a memo sent to some 220 Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service employees working in areas from Pagosa Springs to the Utah state line. Officials said it's unclear how the public will be affected by the reducti0ns, but at least half the job cuts will be positions that are currently unfilled. "Since 2001, Congress and the administration have intensified scrutiny of domestic spending because of national and international pressures," reads the June memo from San Juan Public Lands Center officials. "The Forest Service and BLM expect to see shrinking and performance-based budgets for the foreseeable future."....
'Wild and Scenic River' U.S. Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi plan to introduce legislation next week to include Fossil Creek in the nation's Wild and Scenic River System. The unique waters form in the Fossil Creek Wilderness Area along the Yavapai County border near Strawberry. The creek runs 14 miles through the national forest to the Verde River southeast of Camp Verde. A stretch of the Verde River currently has the only Wild and Scenic River designation in Arizona. "Fossil Creek is one of the most valuable natural treasures in Arizona, and I'm prepared to take the necessary steps to ensure it's preserved for generations to come," Renzi said Friday when he confirmed plans to introduce legislation next week....
Pipeline plan draws no opposition Based on the amount of public comment at a hearing for a proposed natural gas pipeline from Merna to Jackson, it appears everyone is in favor of the project. Either that, or no one knew about the hearing. Not one member of the public showed up Thursday night to ask questions or give testimony about a proposed pipeline that will cross the Hoback River nine times, will snake along a highway and through some rugged terrain. In fact, all 10 people at the hearing, in front of members of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, were representatives of Lower Valley Energy, the company proposing the 49.7-mile pipeline. But the PSC staff asked some tough questions that members of the public might be wondering. David Piroutek, the commission's engineering supervisor, asked about the river crossings. Chad Jensen, vice president of Lower Valley, said Bridger-Teton National Forest officials have advised the company to "get in and get out," and the pipeline can be trenched and laid in the river bed in four hours....
On Public Land, Sunday in the Park With Prayer This is what church looked like to Deana Wingert on a recent Sunday: the wind ruffled the lake behind the pulpit, evergreens towered above the pews, a yellow butterfly danced over a sunny patch of grass, and the scent of lighter fluid wafted through, followed by the smell of meat grilling. Most members in the congregation did not know one another. They had come, like the Wingerts, to Cowans Gap, about 100 miles southwest of Harrisburg, to camp, swim and picnic. But it was Sunday, and for the 100 or so Christians with baseball caps and bug spray who wanted to worship, the park offered itself as their church. “This is the day that the Lord has made,” the congregation sang to the cloudless sky, as the chaplain, Bruce Carriker, strummed the guitar and began the service. “We shall rejoice and be glad in it.” From Memorial Day to Labor Day, 42 state, national and private parks in Pennsylvania hold nondenominational Christian worship services. It is the only state with such a program, said the Rev. Paul L. Herring of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. The chaplains come from local towns and faraway states, as do the worshipers, mostly Protestants. Last year, 18,000 people attended services in Pennsylvania parks....
Cuba drills for oil off Florida Cuba is drilling for oil 60 miles off the coast of Florida with help from China, Canada and Spain even as Congress struggles to end years of deadlock over drilling for what could be a treasure trove of offshore oil and gas. Republicans in Congress have tried repeatedly in the past decade to open up the outer continental shelf to exploration, and Florida's waters hold some of the most promising prospects for major energy finds. Their efforts have been frustrated by opposition from Florida, California and environmental-minded legislators from both parties. Florida's powerful tourism and booming real estate industries fear that oil spills could cost them business. Lawmakers from the state are so adamantly opposed to drilling that they have bid to extend the national ban on drilling activity from 100 miles to as far as 250 miles offshore, encompassing the island of Cuba. Cuba is exploring in its half of the 90-mile-wide Straits of Florida within the internationally recognized boundary as well as in deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The impoverished communist nation is eager to receive any economic boost that would come from a major oil find....
Bush Pollution Curbs Are Rated Equal to Clinton's The Bush administration's new program to cut harmful pollutants from utilities through a cap-and-trade system will do nearly as much to clean the nation's air as the Clinton administration's effort to make aging power plants install pollution controls when they modernize or expand, a report by an independent scientific panel has concluded. The report from the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, represents the latest effort to assess how best to reduce air pollution estimated to cause as many as 24,000 premature deaths each year. The panel concluded that an earlier Bush plan would have allowed pollution to increase over a dozen years, but it found that the administration's more recent Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) -- which targets emissions from power plants in 22 states and the District of Columbia -- would help clean the air over the next two decades. The CAIR approach aims to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by 70 percent by 2025 at the latest, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, through a system that would allow utilities to sell and buy pollution credits as long as industry emissions as a whole stayed below a pre-set cap. The Clinton administration had focused on cutting emissions under the 1970 Clean Air Act through a program called New Source Review (NSR), now discarded, which required aging plants to install new, cleaner technology every time they upgraded facilities....
Kansan popularized Smokey Bear Kansan Rudolph Wendelin may not have created Smokey Bear, but he did his best to make him a national icon. For nearly four decades, Wendelin illustrated Smokey for the U.S. Forest Service in TV ads, billboards, posters, newspapers and magazine with the warning: "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires." After the war, he helped launch the Smokey Bear project. The character was based on a live bear cub that survived a 1950 New Mexico forest fire. At least 10 other artists turned out earlier versions of the bear, but Wendelin is credited with giving Smokey his friendliness and popularity. Wendelin's bear wore jeans and a green ranger's hat and carried a shovel. According to the Web site Smokeybear.com, Smokey's correct, full name is Smokey Bear. A song in 1952 called "Smokey the Bear" added a "the" to his name. That same year, Smokey was so popular he was given his own ZIP code -- 20252 -- because of the volume of mail he was receiving....
Where global warming's welcome Stefan Magnusson lives at the foot of a giant, melting glacier. Some think he's living on the brink of a cataclysm. He believes he's on the cusp of creation. The 49-year-old reindeer rancher says a warming trend in Greenland over the past decade has caused the glacier on his farm to retreat 300 feet, revealing land that hasn't seen the light of day for hundreds of years, if not more. Where ice once gripped the earth, he says, his reindeer now graze on wild thyme amid the purple blooms of Niviarsiaq flowers. The melting glacier near Mr. Magnusson's home is pouring more water into the river, which he hopes soon to harness for hydroelectricity. "We are seeing genesis by the edge of the glacier," he says. Average temperatures in Greenland have risen by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 30 years -- more than double the global average, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. By the end of the century, the institute projects, temperatures could rise another 14 degrees....
WTO talks slip deeper into crisis, no breakthrough Last ditch talks to keep hopes alive of a global free deal faced a deepening crisis on Monday after trading powers failed to achieve a breakthrough at a marathon first session, diplomats said. The so-called G6 -- Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the European Union and the United States -- must reach agreement on how to boost trade in farm and industrial goods or risk seeing nearly five years of WTO negotiations crumble in failure. But 14 hours of negotiations on Sunday, chaired by World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy, who has the task of brokering a deal, failed to advance in the key area of farm subsidies, known as domestic support, where the United States is under pressure to make further concessions. Washington has been insisting that the EU and other WTO members that it calls "protectionist" go further in agreeing to lowering farm tariff barriers before it moves further on subsidies....
Cattle broker won't face charges A Utah livestock broker who arranged the illegal import of 920 head of cattle into Sublette County earlier this year probably won’t be prosecuted because current state regulations do not provide for such prosecution, local ranchers were told this week. State Veterinarian Dwayne Oldham told about 30 area cattle producers that as state livestock regulations currently stand, there is not sufficient language to prosecute someone acting as a broker in illegally importing cattle into Wyoming. Under current regulations, only the livestock haulers can be charged, not the person who conspired to have the illegal import occur. Although the hole in the regulations was revealed to state officials in 2003, and the Wyoming Livestock Board drafted changes to the regulations, the regulations were never finalized. In late May, state livestock officials learned that 16 loads of central Utah cattle with paperwork calling for a Woodruff, Utah, destination had been delivered to two Sublette County ranches instead. Having the Woodruff destination on the Utah brand inspection allowed the animals to get through the Evanston port of entry without health inspections required for delivery into Wyoming. Because the 15-month-old cattle were not certified as having been vaccinated for brucellosis and had not been spayed, Wyoming animal health officials would not have allowed the animals to be imported under state rules....
Cowboys enjoy their day in the sun Every cowboy gets his day. On a blistering Saturday afternoon at California Rodeo Salinas, state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, presented officials with a resolution passed by the California Legislature declaring July 22 as National Day of the Cowboy. "It recognizes our pioneering men and women that make up our cowboys in the nation," he said. During a break in the competition, Denham presented a framed copy of the resolution to California Rodeo president Jim Slaten in front of a crowd of about 7,000 people. Slaten was joined by Marianne Johnson Schaeffler, the rodeo's hostess 50 years ago, and Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee Doc Etienne. "Falling on our day, it's special for us. It's an honor," said Slaten. "All the cowboys really appreciate it because cowboys don't get a lot of recognition as athletes," he said. Denham said the day symbolizes not only the rodeo, but ranchers and "an ongoing commitment to a way of life in our rural communities."....
Boots 'n' Britches prepares small riders for the rodeo circuit Maureen Weishaupt just wanted to give Fallon youngsters a chance to compete in rodeo events at a fun level in an event that came to be called Boots 'n' Britches Play Day. Twenty-two years later, she's still giving them the chance. "I grew up being in the Junior Rodeo and had such good memories," said Weishaupt, whose family moved to Fallon in 1960. "So, Candy Moffitt and I worked on getting it started." At the time, Weishaupt was the leader of a 4-H horse group. Now Boots 'n' Britches includes anyone who wants to participate. "The event is practice for the events the young cowboys and cowgirls do at Junior Rodeo, and to help prepare them for high school rodeo competition," said Weishaupt. On the average, some 60 to 70 riders compete in breakaway roping, pole bending, goat tying, goat tail un-decorating, and barrel racing....
My grandfather knew Billy the Kid Having been born on my grandparents ranch in Ancho, Lincoln County, was more by accident than on purpose. My mother was visiting her parents in New Mexico from our home in West Virginia, and overextended her stay, which resulted in my being a native New Mexican. Our family eventually settled in Albuquerque around 1935. My father named me after my step-grandfather, whom I always considered to be my grandfather, because my real grandfather, Rosalio Lopez, died during the 1918 flu epidemic long before I was born. My mother not only lost her father to the flu, but also her only brother that same year. We visited Ancho often and I remember spending a few summers at the ranch. My step-grandfather, Nick Maes, often spoke of Billy the Kid — or el Chivato (little kid), as he was affectionately referred to by the native Hispanics. He always said he was muy valiente y muy vaquero. As I was still pretty much a kid myself, these tales didn't mean much to me at the time. It wasn't until many years later, and after old Nick Maes died in 1939, that my late cousin, Manuel Lopez, who was about eight or nine years older than me, told me about some events I either did not know or did not recall....
Trew: Long-gone community leaves mark on the prairie Rockledge, 5 miles west of Alanreed, just off to the south of Interstate 40, was such a place. Located on Rockwall County School Land, named for the deep canyons nearby, the land is part of the Trew Ranch today. Hartley Davis, the resident section foreman, recalled an incident he witnessed while replacing ties at Rockledge. One morning the train stopped to allow a real estate agent from Amarillo off. A buggy approached from the east with two people aboard. The men talked, argued and the man from Amarillo pulled a gun and shot one of the other men. He turned and ran toward the section crew working nearby when the second man shot and killed him. The crew stopped the next train and sent the bodies on to Alanreed to the funeral parlor. Rockledge figured prominently in the news in 1939 when two men robbed the bank in Alanreed of $3,000. They escaped west on Route 66 until their car quit near Rockledge. They fled into the deep canyons nearby where the law surrounded the area and arrested the pair....
Fire forces ranch to move cattle A Meeteetse rancher is suffering through smoke and endured a midweek scramble to move horses and employees, but otherwise is surviving a forest fire just fine. Jack Turnell of the Pitchfork Ranch this week had to bring riders and horses out of Washakie wilderness area where the Little Venus fire erupted to 13,000 acres earlier this week. It is now estimated to be 27,000 acres -- more than 40 square miles. For a month or so, the fire was allowed to burn unhindered due to its remote and rugged location. That changed when the fire suddenly flared up Tuesday, leaving the wilderness area and threatening structures. Crews are now battling the blaze. Turnell said he had to move his cattle to a more concentrated area, which is less desirable. The new area is out of the timber. His employees trailed the cattle down earlier this week when the fire erupted, but most of the cows started down on their own. "They're not dumb," he said. He also said the thick smoke makes it hard for people to breathe, and it may affect the cattle, too....
Rancher mulls future after fire In rapid staccato, rancher John Patterson describes his situation: "My summer pasture is gone. My winter pasture is gone." "This is a good fire. Nobody died." "Wendy Kucera saved my hay and my house." "I have not shot a cow." "The story is that I have about 950 cows and calves that are unharmed. I have 37 confirmed dead." "They are either dead or unhurt." Patterson's ranch sits about 40 miles east of Billings. He estimates that 90 percent of his 70-section ranch in eastern Yellowstone and northern Big Horn counties was charred by the Pine Ridge complex of fires last week. Patterson's ranch sits in the middle of the complex of fires that blackened more than 122,000 acres over the past week and half in Yellowstone and Big Horn counties south of the Yellowstone River. The fires on the Patterson Ranch - three of them - began just before midnight July 11. The next afternoon, a fierce windstorm swept through the area, sending the fire racing across the grazing lands, through the coulees and draws, creating fire twisters, which Ruth Ann Patterson has on videotape. On Saturday and Sunday, the flames threatened the home built in 2001-02....
Cowboy rides a Caterpillar Scrapers swirl in maneuvers calculated to prepare the way for one more natural gas well among the many thousands planned for the big basins of Wyoming. Rancher Rob Hendry visits with an Encana Oil and Gas (USA) engineer, chit-chatting about this and that, watching the mechanical crawlers rearrange the powdery earth of the Frenchie Draw Field. There is no conflict here, no frustrated words about split estates or access through pasturelands. The cowboy and the engineer are on the same page. Hendry is making money off the energy boom. He figured early on that mineral royalties -- of which he holds few beneath the surface of his ranch -- were not a path to acquiring wealth. But hard work was. "That's just almost as good as mineral rights," he says. Hendry carved out a niche by providing construction services to oil and gas companies operating on the deeded and Bureau of Land Management surface that comprises his Clear Creek Cattle Company in the Fremont-Natrona County border country. It's been about three years since Hendry asked Encana to give him a shot at a reclamation project. They did. So he fired up equipment on hand at the ranch and went to work. He did a few reclamation jobs, then other tasks. Today Hendry takes on all sorts of projects, from cutting roads and leveling well pads, to reseeding projects and landscaping....
Lawsuit targets water standards A regional landowners group has filed a motion to join a case that is pitting three coal-bed methane companies and the State of Wyoming against Montana and its water quality standards for the Powder and Tongue rivers. The Powder River Basin Resource Council on Thursday said that lifting more stringent water quality standards set by Montana that reduce the salinity and runoff in the rivers would adversely impact Wyoming ranchers. Removing “constraints that Montana rules place on Wyoming permits to discharge coal-bed methane water ... would cause further damage to PRBRC members' crops, forage and soils,” the council wrote in its filing with the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The motion comes in a case in which Devon Energy Co., Marathon Oil Co. and Pennaco Energy Inc., along with the State of Wyoming have challenged federal approval of the Montana rules, calling the action an unconstitutional control on interstate business....
The battle to drill A growing property rights controversy between the oil and gas industry and property owners in Northeastern Colorado may be decided by voters in November. As oil and gas industries rally for more effective drilling rights in Colorado, developers and other landowners are rallying for the right to be compensated when mineral extractors drill on their land. As the demand for oil and gas soars, so does the incentive for mining companies to extract as much as possible from each site. Oil and gas companies want more rights to assure they are drilling to capacity, leaving as little resources behind as possible. Landowners, who don't always own mineral rights beneath their land, want better compensation from those same companies. Colorado Land Owners for Fairness, organized by Glenwood Springs real estate agent John Gorman, last week started collecting the 68,000 signatures needed to place a proposed initiative on the November ballot. The ballot initiative would ask voters, "Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution requiring a mineral extractor to pay the fair value of damages brought about in the development per extraction of a mineral, including oil and gas?"....
New group forms to combat Wyoming Range drilling A new group has formed in western Wyoming that aims to protect the Wyoming Range from energy leasing and development, according to organizers. "Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range" hosted a kick-off barbequet at a ranch in Daniel Wednesday evening to launch the new organization. Comprised of local landowners, outfitters, business owners and ranchers, the group will work to prohibit new energy development in the Wyoming Range, according to the organization's mission statement. "The Wyoming Range is fundamental to why many choose to live here and the tourism revenue the range generates is a mainstay of our local economy," the statement said. "With so much development already happening next door to the Wyoming Range on Bureau of Land Management, state and private lands, it just doesn't make sense to let it expand onto the national forest."....
Enviro group warns against gas leases in Montrose County A meeting about gas leases on private property and public land at the Naturita Community Center on Sunday afternoon brought dire warnings from environmental groups and reassurances from representatives of the federal government. Sponsored by the Uncompahgre Valley Association, a community group of Western Colorado Congress, much of the meeting was devoted to warnings about what could happen from a former LaPlata County commissioner. The meeting was prompted by a planned auction of 50,000 acres of Montrose County land on Aug. 10 by the federal government on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management, said Peter Crowell, vice president of the association, who moderated the meeting. Crowell said his organization will file a protest with the federal government Tuesday to delay the auction so the land up for lease can be more carefully studied. “In some cases they are roadless areas and watershed areas,” he said. “We will ask the BLM to postpone or withdraw leasing of certain parcels.”....
Western Ranchers Join Lawsuit To Defend Grazing Regulations The Public Lands Council (PLC), an organization of public lands ranchers throughout the West, has joined in a lawsuit to help defend the final grazing regulations issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The PLC represents the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American Sheep Industry and the Association of National Grasslands. “The new regulations stabilize the climate for operating ranches on BLM lands by encouraging good stewardship of those lands,” says PLC Executive Director Jeff Eisenberg. “In developing these final rules, the BLM has restored the balance between resource conservation and range management. These are policies PLC and its members are willing to protect with their hard earned dollars.” Upon publication on July 12, the Western Watersheds Project immediately filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Idaho to block the regulations. A second suit was also filed by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Idaho Conservation League, and the Idaho Wildlife Federation. PLC has retained Bill Thomas of the law firm Best Best & Kreiger to represent the ranchers’ views in this matter. Each side has the opportunity to make arguments at a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for July 28 in Boise, Idaho....
Interior Dept. deputy kills a bison, then resigns after money questions The American bison, once hunted almost to extinction, is now so revered in the United States that its image graces the seal of the Interior Department, where it stands proudly in the shadow of mountains. Still, a senior political appointee at Interior apparently thought that the real thing might look better stuffed and mounted -- so he shot one. David Smith, a hunter who until last Friday was deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, shot and killed a bison grazing at a friend's ranch in Texas in December 2004. He had the hoofs made into bookends and kept the skull, wrapped in taxidermy packaging, in the garage of his home. Smith broke no laws by shooting the semi-domesticated animal in the head with a rifle from 50 yards away. But in a new report, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney found that Smith violated rules banning federal officials from accepting gifts from people who are regulated by, or might do business with, their agency....
Proposal leaves riders in a rut Mark Powell says Jeep drivers have been trying to show that they care about the environment by picking up litter along Springhill Road. So he and other members of Capital City Jeepers say they're concerned that the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to close land along Springhill Road to off-road vehicles because of damage they are causing. "Those of us who like to ride legally have very few areas left where we can ride," Powell said. "We try to promote responsible use of the resource." The Forest Service is proposing to temporarily close 11,625 acres to vehicles including Jeeps, trucks, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. Licensed vehicles can continue to drive through those areas on official forest roads. The proposed closed areas would be in addition to 6,814 acres that were closed temporarily in 2004 and haven't been reopened....
Fat Tire Festival Every year, thousands of fat-tire enthusiasts descend on this timber town to ride the surrounding trails. Oakridge sits more than 1,000 feet above sea level, and the mountains ringing it rise thousands of feet higher. It's a jumping-off point for scenic pedals and gnarly trail rides, as well as a growing number of races and festivals. This weekend, mountain bikers from all over America will make the trek to Oakridge to ride and relax at the Fat Tire Festival. The community is actively working to replace its once-booming timber industry with "adventure tourism."....
Grizzlies on rivers put managers on edge From her office across from the confluence of the Kenai and Russian rivers, Dianne Owens watches a daily dance of grizzly bears and people and wonders what's next. Already this year, a sow grizzly has been wounded in a spray of gunfire near the Sportsman's Landing campground; one of her cubs was injured when hit by a car on the Sterling Highway. The sow subsequently disappeared and is now presumed dead. The fate of the yearling cub hit by the car remains unknown. Meanwhile, two other yearling cubs appear to have taken up residence adjacent to the campground since their mother died. With the yearlings hanging around, the manager of the Russian River ferry said human-bear encounters have become an all-too-regular occurrence. "Every day, two or three times a day," she said. "We're sitting on a time bomb here."....
Feds ax Colorado public lands jobs Public lands managers are bracing for three years of federal budget cuts and job losses to help pay for homeland security and the war in Iraq. With the belt-tightening, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management expect to trim more than 60 jobs in Southwest Colorado, according to a memo sent to some 220 Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service employees working in areas from Pagosa Springs to the Utah state line. Officials said it's unclear how the public will be affected by the reducti0ns, but at least half the job cuts will be positions that are currently unfilled. "Since 2001, Congress and the administration have intensified scrutiny of domestic spending because of national and international pressures," reads the June memo from San Juan Public Lands Center officials. "The Forest Service and BLM expect to see shrinking and performance-based budgets for the foreseeable future."....
'Wild and Scenic River' U.S. Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi plan to introduce legislation next week to include Fossil Creek in the nation's Wild and Scenic River System. The unique waters form in the Fossil Creek Wilderness Area along the Yavapai County border near Strawberry. The creek runs 14 miles through the national forest to the Verde River southeast of Camp Verde. A stretch of the Verde River currently has the only Wild and Scenic River designation in Arizona. "Fossil Creek is one of the most valuable natural treasures in Arizona, and I'm prepared to take the necessary steps to ensure it's preserved for generations to come," Renzi said Friday when he confirmed plans to introduce legislation next week....
Pipeline plan draws no opposition Based on the amount of public comment at a hearing for a proposed natural gas pipeline from Merna to Jackson, it appears everyone is in favor of the project. Either that, or no one knew about the hearing. Not one member of the public showed up Thursday night to ask questions or give testimony about a proposed pipeline that will cross the Hoback River nine times, will snake along a highway and through some rugged terrain. In fact, all 10 people at the hearing, in front of members of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, were representatives of Lower Valley Energy, the company proposing the 49.7-mile pipeline. But the PSC staff asked some tough questions that members of the public might be wondering. David Piroutek, the commission's engineering supervisor, asked about the river crossings. Chad Jensen, vice president of Lower Valley, said Bridger-Teton National Forest officials have advised the company to "get in and get out," and the pipeline can be trenched and laid in the river bed in four hours....
On Public Land, Sunday in the Park With Prayer This is what church looked like to Deana Wingert on a recent Sunday: the wind ruffled the lake behind the pulpit, evergreens towered above the pews, a yellow butterfly danced over a sunny patch of grass, and the scent of lighter fluid wafted through, followed by the smell of meat grilling. Most members in the congregation did not know one another. They had come, like the Wingerts, to Cowans Gap, about 100 miles southwest of Harrisburg, to camp, swim and picnic. But it was Sunday, and for the 100 or so Christians with baseball caps and bug spray who wanted to worship, the park offered itself as their church. “This is the day that the Lord has made,” the congregation sang to the cloudless sky, as the chaplain, Bruce Carriker, strummed the guitar and began the service. “We shall rejoice and be glad in it.” From Memorial Day to Labor Day, 42 state, national and private parks in Pennsylvania hold nondenominational Christian worship services. It is the only state with such a program, said the Rev. Paul L. Herring of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. The chaplains come from local towns and faraway states, as do the worshipers, mostly Protestants. Last year, 18,000 people attended services in Pennsylvania parks....
Cuba drills for oil off Florida Cuba is drilling for oil 60 miles off the coast of Florida with help from China, Canada and Spain even as Congress struggles to end years of deadlock over drilling for what could be a treasure trove of offshore oil and gas. Republicans in Congress have tried repeatedly in the past decade to open up the outer continental shelf to exploration, and Florida's waters hold some of the most promising prospects for major energy finds. Their efforts have been frustrated by opposition from Florida, California and environmental-minded legislators from both parties. Florida's powerful tourism and booming real estate industries fear that oil spills could cost them business. Lawmakers from the state are so adamantly opposed to drilling that they have bid to extend the national ban on drilling activity from 100 miles to as far as 250 miles offshore, encompassing the island of Cuba. Cuba is exploring in its half of the 90-mile-wide Straits of Florida within the internationally recognized boundary as well as in deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The impoverished communist nation is eager to receive any economic boost that would come from a major oil find....
Bush Pollution Curbs Are Rated Equal to Clinton's The Bush administration's new program to cut harmful pollutants from utilities through a cap-and-trade system will do nearly as much to clean the nation's air as the Clinton administration's effort to make aging power plants install pollution controls when they modernize or expand, a report by an independent scientific panel has concluded. The report from the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, represents the latest effort to assess how best to reduce air pollution estimated to cause as many as 24,000 premature deaths each year. The panel concluded that an earlier Bush plan would have allowed pollution to increase over a dozen years, but it found that the administration's more recent Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) -- which targets emissions from power plants in 22 states and the District of Columbia -- would help clean the air over the next two decades. The CAIR approach aims to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by 70 percent by 2025 at the latest, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, through a system that would allow utilities to sell and buy pollution credits as long as industry emissions as a whole stayed below a pre-set cap. The Clinton administration had focused on cutting emissions under the 1970 Clean Air Act through a program called New Source Review (NSR), now discarded, which required aging plants to install new, cleaner technology every time they upgraded facilities....
Kansan popularized Smokey Bear Kansan Rudolph Wendelin may not have created Smokey Bear, but he did his best to make him a national icon. For nearly four decades, Wendelin illustrated Smokey for the U.S. Forest Service in TV ads, billboards, posters, newspapers and magazine with the warning: "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires." After the war, he helped launch the Smokey Bear project. The character was based on a live bear cub that survived a 1950 New Mexico forest fire. At least 10 other artists turned out earlier versions of the bear, but Wendelin is credited with giving Smokey his friendliness and popularity. Wendelin's bear wore jeans and a green ranger's hat and carried a shovel. According to the Web site Smokeybear.com, Smokey's correct, full name is Smokey Bear. A song in 1952 called "Smokey the Bear" added a "the" to his name. That same year, Smokey was so popular he was given his own ZIP code -- 20252 -- because of the volume of mail he was receiving....
Where global warming's welcome Stefan Magnusson lives at the foot of a giant, melting glacier. Some think he's living on the brink of a cataclysm. He believes he's on the cusp of creation. The 49-year-old reindeer rancher says a warming trend in Greenland over the past decade has caused the glacier on his farm to retreat 300 feet, revealing land that hasn't seen the light of day for hundreds of years, if not more. Where ice once gripped the earth, he says, his reindeer now graze on wild thyme amid the purple blooms of Niviarsiaq flowers. The melting glacier near Mr. Magnusson's home is pouring more water into the river, which he hopes soon to harness for hydroelectricity. "We are seeing genesis by the edge of the glacier," he says. Average temperatures in Greenland have risen by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 30 years -- more than double the global average, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. By the end of the century, the institute projects, temperatures could rise another 14 degrees....
WTO talks slip deeper into crisis, no breakthrough Last ditch talks to keep hopes alive of a global free deal faced a deepening crisis on Monday after trading powers failed to achieve a breakthrough at a marathon first session, diplomats said. The so-called G6 -- Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the European Union and the United States -- must reach agreement on how to boost trade in farm and industrial goods or risk seeing nearly five years of WTO negotiations crumble in failure. But 14 hours of negotiations on Sunday, chaired by World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy, who has the task of brokering a deal, failed to advance in the key area of farm subsidies, known as domestic support, where the United States is under pressure to make further concessions. Washington has been insisting that the EU and other WTO members that it calls "protectionist" go further in agreeing to lowering farm tariff barriers before it moves further on subsidies....
Cattle broker won't face charges A Utah livestock broker who arranged the illegal import of 920 head of cattle into Sublette County earlier this year probably won’t be prosecuted because current state regulations do not provide for such prosecution, local ranchers were told this week. State Veterinarian Dwayne Oldham told about 30 area cattle producers that as state livestock regulations currently stand, there is not sufficient language to prosecute someone acting as a broker in illegally importing cattle into Wyoming. Under current regulations, only the livestock haulers can be charged, not the person who conspired to have the illegal import occur. Although the hole in the regulations was revealed to state officials in 2003, and the Wyoming Livestock Board drafted changes to the regulations, the regulations were never finalized. In late May, state livestock officials learned that 16 loads of central Utah cattle with paperwork calling for a Woodruff, Utah, destination had been delivered to two Sublette County ranches instead. Having the Woodruff destination on the Utah brand inspection allowed the animals to get through the Evanston port of entry without health inspections required for delivery into Wyoming. Because the 15-month-old cattle were not certified as having been vaccinated for brucellosis and had not been spayed, Wyoming animal health officials would not have allowed the animals to be imported under state rules....
Cowboys enjoy their day in the sun Every cowboy gets his day. On a blistering Saturday afternoon at California Rodeo Salinas, state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, presented officials with a resolution passed by the California Legislature declaring July 22 as National Day of the Cowboy. "It recognizes our pioneering men and women that make up our cowboys in the nation," he said. During a break in the competition, Denham presented a framed copy of the resolution to California Rodeo president Jim Slaten in front of a crowd of about 7,000 people. Slaten was joined by Marianne Johnson Schaeffler, the rodeo's hostess 50 years ago, and Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee Doc Etienne. "Falling on our day, it's special for us. It's an honor," said Slaten. "All the cowboys really appreciate it because cowboys don't get a lot of recognition as athletes," he said. Denham said the day symbolizes not only the rodeo, but ranchers and "an ongoing commitment to a way of life in our rural communities."....
Boots 'n' Britches prepares small riders for the rodeo circuit Maureen Weishaupt just wanted to give Fallon youngsters a chance to compete in rodeo events at a fun level in an event that came to be called Boots 'n' Britches Play Day. Twenty-two years later, she's still giving them the chance. "I grew up being in the Junior Rodeo and had such good memories," said Weishaupt, whose family moved to Fallon in 1960. "So, Candy Moffitt and I worked on getting it started." At the time, Weishaupt was the leader of a 4-H horse group. Now Boots 'n' Britches includes anyone who wants to participate. "The event is practice for the events the young cowboys and cowgirls do at Junior Rodeo, and to help prepare them for high school rodeo competition," said Weishaupt. On the average, some 60 to 70 riders compete in breakaway roping, pole bending, goat tying, goat tail un-decorating, and barrel racing....
My grandfather knew Billy the Kid Having been born on my grandparents ranch in Ancho, Lincoln County, was more by accident than on purpose. My mother was visiting her parents in New Mexico from our home in West Virginia, and overextended her stay, which resulted in my being a native New Mexican. Our family eventually settled in Albuquerque around 1935. My father named me after my step-grandfather, whom I always considered to be my grandfather, because my real grandfather, Rosalio Lopez, died during the 1918 flu epidemic long before I was born. My mother not only lost her father to the flu, but also her only brother that same year. We visited Ancho often and I remember spending a few summers at the ranch. My step-grandfather, Nick Maes, often spoke of Billy the Kid — or el Chivato (little kid), as he was affectionately referred to by the native Hispanics. He always said he was muy valiente y muy vaquero. As I was still pretty much a kid myself, these tales didn't mean much to me at the time. It wasn't until many years later, and after old Nick Maes died in 1939, that my late cousin, Manuel Lopez, who was about eight or nine years older than me, told me about some events I either did not know or did not recall....
Trew: Long-gone community leaves mark on the prairie Rockledge, 5 miles west of Alanreed, just off to the south of Interstate 40, was such a place. Located on Rockwall County School Land, named for the deep canyons nearby, the land is part of the Trew Ranch today. Hartley Davis, the resident section foreman, recalled an incident he witnessed while replacing ties at Rockledge. One morning the train stopped to allow a real estate agent from Amarillo off. A buggy approached from the east with two people aboard. The men talked, argued and the man from Amarillo pulled a gun and shot one of the other men. He turned and ran toward the section crew working nearby when the second man shot and killed him. The crew stopped the next train and sent the bodies on to Alanreed to the funeral parlor. Rockledge figured prominently in the news in 1939 when two men robbed the bank in Alanreed of $3,000. They escaped west on Route 66 until their car quit near Rockledge. They fled into the deep canyons nearby where the law surrounded the area and arrested the pair....
Sunday, July 23, 2006
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
There is life after rodeo
By Julie Carter
Man wasn't created to spend his life locked in time and standing in one place forever. Time moves on and so does life and nothing drives that point home harder for the cowboy than the sport of rodeo.
In a flashback of the lifeline he is a 20-year-old standing at the bucking chutes waiting for his bronc to be run into place. In a blink of an eye he is standing in the same place waiting for his 20-year-old son's bronc to do the same.
With a knowing eye you can look around any rodeo on any given day and spot the cowboys that "used to ride'em." The sport calls them back to rodeo after rodeo, year after to year, to be part of something that once fed an inner calling at some point in their lives.
If they can't still be a contestant, there remains a need to soak up the sights, sounds and smells created by those that are. From the broncs kicking in the chute during the national anthem opening to the last slamming gate signifying the end of the bull riding, it is all encapsulated into a familiar memory that plays like a recording through their entire life.
Many who once were heavily involved in the sport find others way to stay tied to it. It is hard to find a stock contractor, announcer, rodeo judge, producer, rodeo secretary, stock hauler, tack salesman etc. that was not at one time a contestant themselves.
When they no longer can compete in the sport, rodeo used-to-be's will sacrifice the adrenaline rush that comes with those precious few seconds in the arena to find new ways to let the sport touch them. Or they can become team ropers.
If they have kids they become the next generation on the road. Youth rodeos are continually raising and training a new segment of rodeo America.
If the kids are grown and gone or sometimes if they are not, "retired" competitors will find a job of one sort or another attached to the sport. For me it is behind a camera and with a keyboard. I photograph and write about it at every opportunity. It's not the same but it is what I can do for the sport and for me.
As one former rodeo bull fighter recently told me, it's a hard trip down from the rush of the "in the arena" to standing behind a microphone announcing. I understood what he was saying but quipped to him that at least rodeo was finally paying me instead of me paying it.
Philosophical wisdom makes every attempt to sooth the beast within that was once the driving force behind the dedicated rodeo competitor. So today you get a little philosophy.
Life is like the coffee in our cups. It represents jobs, money, position, family and the other things we strive to collect to ourselves in a lifetime.
The cup, whether it is tin, ceramic, or of fine porcelain, simply contains the coffee but does not define the quality of it.
We have a favorite cup but usually we want a better cup. We frequently change the color, shape, size and personalize them. We have clever sayings and pictures printed on them.
We try to make a statement about ourselves by the cup from which we drink our coffee.
Being the humans that we are, we find places in our life where we concentrate only on the cup and fail to enjoy the coffee.
God help us all to not forget to enjoy the coffee each and every day of our lives.
There is life after rodeo
By Julie Carter
Man wasn't created to spend his life locked in time and standing in one place forever. Time moves on and so does life and nothing drives that point home harder for the cowboy than the sport of rodeo.
In a flashback of the lifeline he is a 20-year-old standing at the bucking chutes waiting for his bronc to be run into place. In a blink of an eye he is standing in the same place waiting for his 20-year-old son's bronc to do the same.
With a knowing eye you can look around any rodeo on any given day and spot the cowboys that "used to ride'em." The sport calls them back to rodeo after rodeo, year after to year, to be part of something that once fed an inner calling at some point in their lives.
If they can't still be a contestant, there remains a need to soak up the sights, sounds and smells created by those that are. From the broncs kicking in the chute during the national anthem opening to the last slamming gate signifying the end of the bull riding, it is all encapsulated into a familiar memory that plays like a recording through their entire life.
Many who once were heavily involved in the sport find others way to stay tied to it. It is hard to find a stock contractor, announcer, rodeo judge, producer, rodeo secretary, stock hauler, tack salesman etc. that was not at one time a contestant themselves.
When they no longer can compete in the sport, rodeo used-to-be's will sacrifice the adrenaline rush that comes with those precious few seconds in the arena to find new ways to let the sport touch them. Or they can become team ropers.
If they have kids they become the next generation on the road. Youth rodeos are continually raising and training a new segment of rodeo America.
If the kids are grown and gone or sometimes if they are not, "retired" competitors will find a job of one sort or another attached to the sport. For me it is behind a camera and with a keyboard. I photograph and write about it at every opportunity. It's not the same but it is what I can do for the sport and for me.
As one former rodeo bull fighter recently told me, it's a hard trip down from the rush of the "in the arena" to standing behind a microphone announcing. I understood what he was saying but quipped to him that at least rodeo was finally paying me instead of me paying it.
Philosophical wisdom makes every attempt to sooth the beast within that was once the driving force behind the dedicated rodeo competitor. So today you get a little philosophy.
Life is like the coffee in our cups. It represents jobs, money, position, family and the other things we strive to collect to ourselves in a lifetime.
The cup, whether it is tin, ceramic, or of fine porcelain, simply contains the coffee but does not define the quality of it.
We have a favorite cup but usually we want a better cup. We frequently change the color, shape, size and personalize them. We have clever sayings and pictures printed on them.
We try to make a statement about ourselves by the cup from which we drink our coffee.
Being the humans that we are, we find places in our life where we concentrate only on the cup and fail to enjoy the coffee.
God help us all to not forget to enjoy the coffee each and every day of our lives.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Environmentalist Lawsuit Against Sound Forest Management Is Challenged
Pacific Legal Foundation took action today to derail efforts by radical environmentalists to block sound forest management in California’s Tuolumne County and surrounding areas. PLF intervened to challenge an environmentalist lawsuit that could facilitate more devastating fires in Eldorado National Forest. At issue is a timber salvage operation that was devised by federal officials in the wake of the massive Freds and Power Fires that took place in October, 2004. PLF is challenging the environmentalists’ right to proceed with their lawsuit against the salvage plan without posting a substantial surety bond. "Federal judicial rules mandate that plaintiffs post a bond in this kind of litigation -- and the environmentalists haven’t shown any reason why they should be exempted from that requirement," said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff. The case is Earth Island Institute v. United States Forest Service. Plaintiffs contend that the salvage plan violates federal environmental law. A Ninth Circuit panel this past March determined that a preliminary injunction should issue against the program. So, if the government does not appeal that ruling to the United States Supreme Court, the case goes back to the federal District Court in Sacramento. "This case shows how a timber-recovery program can be killed simply by environmentalist delaying tactics and ‘temporary’ injunctions from compliant courts," said Schiff....
Ethanol: Bumper Crop for Agribusiness, Bitter Harvest for Taxpayers
In 1973, Richard Nixon announced that the United States would be energy independent by 1980. Over the next three decades, a number of programs and initiatives would be launched in pursuit of that goal and then quietly eliminated when they failed to succeed. One program, ethanol, has been able to weather the changing political climate by cultivating political and popular support. Unfortunately for taxpayers, ethanol is another in a series of highly-subsidized but ineffective energy programs that are costly for consumers and are a bad "investment" of tax dollars. Rather than let ethanol put down even deeper roots, Congress should end the massive chain of subsidies that supports the fuel program and allow market forces, rather than politicians, to determine which energy technologies will survive and grow. Ethanol imposes significant direct and indirect costs on consumers. It is more expensive to produce than gasoline, and its alcohol component prevents the fuel from being shipped as other gasoline products are, leading to higher transportation costs. Government mandates forcing drivers to purchase ethanol will lead to higher fuel bills since ethanol has a lower fuel economy than does gasoline. Also, as the price of corn rises, consumers can expect higher grocery bills as food inflation ripples through commodities markets. Agricultural subsides lead to overproduction, which is then used as a justification for using ethanol. Since ethanol has not been economically viable, it has relied upon subsidies from the federal government as well as a number of states. The federal subsidy is currently costing taxpayers $2 billion a year. The federal government protects domestic producers from international competition by levying a significant tariff on imported ethanol. In a further attempt to prop-up the industry, Congress inserted a renewable fuels standard into the 2005 energy bill. This requirement has the effect of mandating the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012. States are also imposing their own usage requirements. The need for massive subsidies has not kept politicians in Washington from promoting other crops as ethanol feedstocks. The most popular potential sources are sugar and biomass, or cellulosic ethanol. Sugar-based ethanol would require a subsidy of between $1 and $2 per gallon, significantly higher than the 51-cents-per-gallon that corn-based ethanol currently receives. Taxpayers have already invested $1 billion in cellulosic ethanol research since the 1980s but additional study is expected to cost $2 billion over the next few years....
Why Are We Drinkin' this 'Hooch?
Will the rush to bio-fuels kill people in the developing world? The short answer is yes and probably in the very near future. The main problem with bio-fuels, is that producing them causes the world’s cars to compete for the same resources as the world’s hungry stomachs. If you claim to care about world hunger, “social justice,” or simply understand the economic problems of the bio-fuels industry, then you must reject bio-fuels. We are not the only ones concerned bio-fuel development will end up killing poor people. For example, in the industry’s online clearinghouse site renewableenergyaccess.com some surprising facts come out. In agricultural terms, the world appetite for automotive fuel is insatiable. The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year. The grain to fill the tank every two weeks over a year will feed 26 people. With so many distilleries being built, livestock and poultry producers fear there may not be enough corn to produce meat, milk, and eggs. And since the United States supplies 70 percent of world corn exports, corn-importing countries are worried about their supply. Since almost everything we eat can be converted into fuel for automobiles, including wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and sugarcane, the line between the food and energy economies is disappearing. Historically, food processors and livestock producers that converted these farm commodities into products for supermarket shelves were the only buyers. Now there is another group, those buying for the ethanol distilleries and biodiesel refineries that supply service stations....
CITIES REWARD 'LIFESTYLE' THAT CONSERVES WATER
More cities are creating or expanding programs that give residents and businesses rebates or utility-bill credits for installing grass-free lawns or toilets, washing machines and showers that use less water. Rebate programs have grown substantially" because of expanding drought conditions and population increases, says Greg Kail of the American Water Works Association, a trade group. Examples:
* This month, Albuquerque increased its water-bill credit for converting grass lawns to low-water-use "Xeriscapes" from 40 cents to 60 cents for each square foot. Xeriscape is landscaping that uses native plants that require little water.
* Albuquerque also offers credits to residents who reuse rainwater or install water-saving toilets, washers, dishwashers, showerheads and sprinkler timers; since the city first offered credits in 1995, about 100 billion gallons of water have been saved -- enough to supply the city for three years.
* Santa Cruz, Calif., this spring began sending water conservation staffers to homes at residents' request to assess usage and recommend water-saving changes; the city pays $75 to residents who buy low-flow toilets and $100 to those who buy water-efficient washing machines.
* In Charlottesville, Va., residents can get $100 rebates for replacing toilets with more efficient models. Bill Dyer, director of the city's utility billing office, says it also has given away thousands of kits that include faucet aerators, dye tablets that detect toilet leaks, garden hose nozzles and repair kits and outdoor watering gauges.
Observers say cities are trying other ways to conserve water, including watering restrictions and encouraging the reuse of water in manufacturing and to irrigate golf courses. For example, El Paso plans to build the world's largest inland desalination plant, which would turn previously unusable brackish groundwater into 27.5 million gallons of fresh water daily.
Source: Judy Keen, "Cities reward 'lifestyle' that conserves water; Low-flow toilets, no-grass lawns now earn rebates," USA Today, July 20, 2006.
For text:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060720/a_water.art.htm
Call Off the Dioxin Dogs
Way back in 1985 the EPA decided it wanted dioxin to be cancer-causing and made it so, labeling it a "probable human carcinogen." Fifteen years later it upped the ante, concluding -- to a round chorus of applause from the media and environmentalist groups -- that the cancer risks for the most exposed people were 10-fold higher than it previously thought. Three years after, it strengthened dioxin's label to "carcinogenic to humans." And last Tuesday ... one big fat fly from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) plopped into the ointment. Indeed, the recommendations of the NAS's National Research Council (NRC) review of the EPA's latest draft report on dioxin could -- or at least should -- turn the entire cancer-rating system of the EPA (and other agencies) on its head. That's because while it's long been accepted that for acute toxicity that "the dose makes the poison" the EPA uses as a rule for all potential carcinogens that if exposure to a rat of something at a level of, say, a quart a day for 30 years is cancer-causing then exposure of a hundredth of a gram a day for one week must also be carcinogenic to humans. No matter that FDA doesn't advise against women taking a daily iron pill because if they took 100 daily they would die. It was this EPA assumption that the National Research Council directly challenged, concluding the "EPA's decision to rely solely on a default linear model lacked adequate scientific support." It said compelling new animal data from the National Toxicology Program -- released after EPA completed its reassessment -- when combined with substantial evidence that dioxin does not damage DNA, is now adequate to justify the use of nonlinear methods for estimating cancer risk at relatively low levels of exposure. In other words, the EPA can't just choose a formula because it's convenient and serves its political ends. It can't ignore the results of myriad animal and human studies and the determination of how a certain chemical affects human cells in favor of simple mathematics....
Running out of oil?
"Proven" oil reserves, oil that's economically and technologically recoverable, are estimated to be more than 1.1 trillion barrels. That's enough oil, at current usage rates, to fuel the world's economy for 38 years, according to Leonardo Maugeri, vice president for the Italian energy company ENI. Mr. Maugeri provides a wealth of information about energy in "Two Cheers for Expensive Oil," published by Foreign Affairs (March/April 2006) and reprinted on the same date in Current. There are an additional 2 trillion barrels of "recoverable" reserves. Mr. Maugeri says these oil reserves will probably meet the "proven" standard in a few years as technological improvement and increased sub-soil knowledge come online. Estimates of recoverable oil don't include the huge deposits of "unconventional" oil such as Canadian tar sands and U.S. shale oil, plus there are vast areas of our planet yet to be fully explored. For decades, alarmists have claimed we're running out of oil. In 1919, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that world oil production would peak in nine years. During the 1970s, the Club of Rome report, "The Limits to Growth," said that, assuming no rise in consumption, all known oil reserves would be entirely consumed in just 31 years. A substantial increase in oil production alone cannot ease today's high prices because of weak refining capacity. Not a single refinery has been built in the United States for 30 years. Improvements to existing refineries failed to keep up with growing demand and tougher environmental regulations. We're the world's only industrialized country with a net deficit in refining capacity that comes to 20 percent of domestic demand. That makes us highly vulnerable to disasters like last year's hurricanes. Exacerbating weak refining capacity are regulations whereby gasoline produced for one state may not be sold in another. There are 18 mandated different types of gasoline sold in the United States. The long-term outlook for oil is good. There's an increase in oil-drilling technology and exploration. Oil as a source of energy has been in decline. In 1980, oil was 45 percent of energy consumption; today, it's 34 percent, yielding ground to natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. Recently, the House of Representatives passed "The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006," which now awaits a Senate vote. Offshore oil exploration has been banned since 1982, despite Department of the Interior estimates that suggest the presence of 19 billion barrels of oil and 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The House of Representatives also passed the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act of 2006." Should these measures become law, our energy capacity will be enhanced significantly....
Fire, or ice?
The New York Times's headline read, "America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise." Well, what's so new about that? The Times has been having an historic fit about global warming for years, hasn't it? Yes, but that particular headline ran in the good gray Times on March 27, 1933 -- 73 years ago. What's more, the Times changed its mind dramatically on the subject 42 years later, in 1975, when it startled its readers on May 21 with "Scientists Ponder Why World's Climate is Changing; A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable." Nor has the Times been the only major periodical to blow hot and cold (if you will forgive me) on the subject of the global climate. On Jan. 2, 1939 Time magazine announced that "Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right ... weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer." Yet Time scooped The New York Times by nearly a year when, reversing itself, it warned readers on June 24, 1974 that, "Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age." Today, of course, Time has changed its mind again and joined the global-warming hysteria. On April 3 this year, it announced that "By Any Measure, Earth is At ... The Tipping Point. The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame." The last major attack of hysteria, in the mid-1970s, focused on the peril of global cooling, and was especially severe. Fortune magazine declared in February 1974 that "As for the present cooling trend a number of leading climatologists have concluded that it is very bad news indeed. It is the root cause of a lot of that unpleasant weather around the world and they warn that it carries the potential for human disasters of unprecedented magnitude." Fortune's analysis was so impressive that it actually won a "Science Writing Award" from the American Institute of Physics. But the prize for sheer terrorizing surely belonged to Lowell Ponte, whose 1976 book "The Cooling" (a predecessor of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," though from the opposite point of view) asserted that "The cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people in poor nations." If countermeasures weren't taken, he warned, it would lead to "world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come by the year 2000."....
Environmentalist Lawsuit Against Sound Forest Management Is Challenged
Pacific Legal Foundation took action today to derail efforts by radical environmentalists to block sound forest management in California’s Tuolumne County and surrounding areas. PLF intervened to challenge an environmentalist lawsuit that could facilitate more devastating fires in Eldorado National Forest. At issue is a timber salvage operation that was devised by federal officials in the wake of the massive Freds and Power Fires that took place in October, 2004. PLF is challenging the environmentalists’ right to proceed with their lawsuit against the salvage plan without posting a substantial surety bond. "Federal judicial rules mandate that plaintiffs post a bond in this kind of litigation -- and the environmentalists haven’t shown any reason why they should be exempted from that requirement," said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff. The case is Earth Island Institute v. United States Forest Service. Plaintiffs contend that the salvage plan violates federal environmental law. A Ninth Circuit panel this past March determined that a preliminary injunction should issue against the program. So, if the government does not appeal that ruling to the United States Supreme Court, the case goes back to the federal District Court in Sacramento. "This case shows how a timber-recovery program can be killed simply by environmentalist delaying tactics and ‘temporary’ injunctions from compliant courts," said Schiff....
Ethanol: Bumper Crop for Agribusiness, Bitter Harvest for Taxpayers
In 1973, Richard Nixon announced that the United States would be energy independent by 1980. Over the next three decades, a number of programs and initiatives would be launched in pursuit of that goal and then quietly eliminated when they failed to succeed. One program, ethanol, has been able to weather the changing political climate by cultivating political and popular support. Unfortunately for taxpayers, ethanol is another in a series of highly-subsidized but ineffective energy programs that are costly for consumers and are a bad "investment" of tax dollars. Rather than let ethanol put down even deeper roots, Congress should end the massive chain of subsidies that supports the fuel program and allow market forces, rather than politicians, to determine which energy technologies will survive and grow. Ethanol imposes significant direct and indirect costs on consumers. It is more expensive to produce than gasoline, and its alcohol component prevents the fuel from being shipped as other gasoline products are, leading to higher transportation costs. Government mandates forcing drivers to purchase ethanol will lead to higher fuel bills since ethanol has a lower fuel economy than does gasoline. Also, as the price of corn rises, consumers can expect higher grocery bills as food inflation ripples through commodities markets. Agricultural subsides lead to overproduction, which is then used as a justification for using ethanol. Since ethanol has not been economically viable, it has relied upon subsidies from the federal government as well as a number of states. The federal subsidy is currently costing taxpayers $2 billion a year. The federal government protects domestic producers from international competition by levying a significant tariff on imported ethanol. In a further attempt to prop-up the industry, Congress inserted a renewable fuels standard into the 2005 energy bill. This requirement has the effect of mandating the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012. States are also imposing their own usage requirements. The need for massive subsidies has not kept politicians in Washington from promoting other crops as ethanol feedstocks. The most popular potential sources are sugar and biomass, or cellulosic ethanol. Sugar-based ethanol would require a subsidy of between $1 and $2 per gallon, significantly higher than the 51-cents-per-gallon that corn-based ethanol currently receives. Taxpayers have already invested $1 billion in cellulosic ethanol research since the 1980s but additional study is expected to cost $2 billion over the next few years....
Why Are We Drinkin' this 'Hooch?
Will the rush to bio-fuels kill people in the developing world? The short answer is yes and probably in the very near future. The main problem with bio-fuels, is that producing them causes the world’s cars to compete for the same resources as the world’s hungry stomachs. If you claim to care about world hunger, “social justice,” or simply understand the economic problems of the bio-fuels industry, then you must reject bio-fuels. We are not the only ones concerned bio-fuel development will end up killing poor people. For example, in the industry’s online clearinghouse site renewableenergyaccess.com some surprising facts come out. In agricultural terms, the world appetite for automotive fuel is insatiable. The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year. The grain to fill the tank every two weeks over a year will feed 26 people. With so many distilleries being built, livestock and poultry producers fear there may not be enough corn to produce meat, milk, and eggs. And since the United States supplies 70 percent of world corn exports, corn-importing countries are worried about their supply. Since almost everything we eat can be converted into fuel for automobiles, including wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and sugarcane, the line between the food and energy economies is disappearing. Historically, food processors and livestock producers that converted these farm commodities into products for supermarket shelves were the only buyers. Now there is another group, those buying for the ethanol distilleries and biodiesel refineries that supply service stations....
CITIES REWARD 'LIFESTYLE' THAT CONSERVES WATER
More cities are creating or expanding programs that give residents and businesses rebates or utility-bill credits for installing grass-free lawns or toilets, washing machines and showers that use less water. Rebate programs have grown substantially" because of expanding drought conditions and population increases, says Greg Kail of the American Water Works Association, a trade group. Examples:
* This month, Albuquerque increased its water-bill credit for converting grass lawns to low-water-use "Xeriscapes" from 40 cents to 60 cents for each square foot. Xeriscape is landscaping that uses native plants that require little water.
* Albuquerque also offers credits to residents who reuse rainwater or install water-saving toilets, washers, dishwashers, showerheads and sprinkler timers; since the city first offered credits in 1995, about 100 billion gallons of water have been saved -- enough to supply the city for three years.
* Santa Cruz, Calif., this spring began sending water conservation staffers to homes at residents' request to assess usage and recommend water-saving changes; the city pays $75 to residents who buy low-flow toilets and $100 to those who buy water-efficient washing machines.
* In Charlottesville, Va., residents can get $100 rebates for replacing toilets with more efficient models. Bill Dyer, director of the city's utility billing office, says it also has given away thousands of kits that include faucet aerators, dye tablets that detect toilet leaks, garden hose nozzles and repair kits and outdoor watering gauges.
Observers say cities are trying other ways to conserve water, including watering restrictions and encouraging the reuse of water in manufacturing and to irrigate golf courses. For example, El Paso plans to build the world's largest inland desalination plant, which would turn previously unusable brackish groundwater into 27.5 million gallons of fresh water daily.
Source: Judy Keen, "Cities reward 'lifestyle' that conserves water; Low-flow toilets, no-grass lawns now earn rebates," USA Today, July 20, 2006.
For text:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060720/a_water.art.htm
Call Off the Dioxin Dogs
Way back in 1985 the EPA decided it wanted dioxin to be cancer-causing and made it so, labeling it a "probable human carcinogen." Fifteen years later it upped the ante, concluding -- to a round chorus of applause from the media and environmentalist groups -- that the cancer risks for the most exposed people were 10-fold higher than it previously thought. Three years after, it strengthened dioxin's label to "carcinogenic to humans." And last Tuesday ... one big fat fly from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) plopped into the ointment. Indeed, the recommendations of the NAS's National Research Council (NRC) review of the EPA's latest draft report on dioxin could -- or at least should -- turn the entire cancer-rating system of the EPA (and other agencies) on its head. That's because while it's long been accepted that for acute toxicity that "the dose makes the poison" the EPA uses as a rule for all potential carcinogens that if exposure to a rat of something at a level of, say, a quart a day for 30 years is cancer-causing then exposure of a hundredth of a gram a day for one week must also be carcinogenic to humans. No matter that FDA doesn't advise against women taking a daily iron pill because if they took 100 daily they would die. It was this EPA assumption that the National Research Council directly challenged, concluding the "EPA's decision to rely solely on a default linear model lacked adequate scientific support." It said compelling new animal data from the National Toxicology Program -- released after EPA completed its reassessment -- when combined with substantial evidence that dioxin does not damage DNA, is now adequate to justify the use of nonlinear methods for estimating cancer risk at relatively low levels of exposure. In other words, the EPA can't just choose a formula because it's convenient and serves its political ends. It can't ignore the results of myriad animal and human studies and the determination of how a certain chemical affects human cells in favor of simple mathematics....
Running out of oil?
"Proven" oil reserves, oil that's economically and technologically recoverable, are estimated to be more than 1.1 trillion barrels. That's enough oil, at current usage rates, to fuel the world's economy for 38 years, according to Leonardo Maugeri, vice president for the Italian energy company ENI. Mr. Maugeri provides a wealth of information about energy in "Two Cheers for Expensive Oil," published by Foreign Affairs (March/April 2006) and reprinted on the same date in Current. There are an additional 2 trillion barrels of "recoverable" reserves. Mr. Maugeri says these oil reserves will probably meet the "proven" standard in a few years as technological improvement and increased sub-soil knowledge come online. Estimates of recoverable oil don't include the huge deposits of "unconventional" oil such as Canadian tar sands and U.S. shale oil, plus there are vast areas of our planet yet to be fully explored. For decades, alarmists have claimed we're running out of oil. In 1919, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that world oil production would peak in nine years. During the 1970s, the Club of Rome report, "The Limits to Growth," said that, assuming no rise in consumption, all known oil reserves would be entirely consumed in just 31 years. A substantial increase in oil production alone cannot ease today's high prices because of weak refining capacity. Not a single refinery has been built in the United States for 30 years. Improvements to existing refineries failed to keep up with growing demand and tougher environmental regulations. We're the world's only industrialized country with a net deficit in refining capacity that comes to 20 percent of domestic demand. That makes us highly vulnerable to disasters like last year's hurricanes. Exacerbating weak refining capacity are regulations whereby gasoline produced for one state may not be sold in another. There are 18 mandated different types of gasoline sold in the United States. The long-term outlook for oil is good. There's an increase in oil-drilling technology and exploration. Oil as a source of energy has been in decline. In 1980, oil was 45 percent of energy consumption; today, it's 34 percent, yielding ground to natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. Recently, the House of Representatives passed "The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006," which now awaits a Senate vote. Offshore oil exploration has been banned since 1982, despite Department of the Interior estimates that suggest the presence of 19 billion barrels of oil and 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The House of Representatives also passed the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act of 2006." Should these measures become law, our energy capacity will be enhanced significantly....
Fire, or ice?
The New York Times's headline read, "America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise." Well, what's so new about that? The Times has been having an historic fit about global warming for years, hasn't it? Yes, but that particular headline ran in the good gray Times on March 27, 1933 -- 73 years ago. What's more, the Times changed its mind dramatically on the subject 42 years later, in 1975, when it startled its readers on May 21 with "Scientists Ponder Why World's Climate is Changing; A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable." Nor has the Times been the only major periodical to blow hot and cold (if you will forgive me) on the subject of the global climate. On Jan. 2, 1939 Time magazine announced that "Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right ... weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer." Yet Time scooped The New York Times by nearly a year when, reversing itself, it warned readers on June 24, 1974 that, "Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age." Today, of course, Time has changed its mind again and joined the global-warming hysteria. On April 3 this year, it announced that "By Any Measure, Earth is At ... The Tipping Point. The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame." The last major attack of hysteria, in the mid-1970s, focused on the peril of global cooling, and was especially severe. Fortune magazine declared in February 1974 that "As for the present cooling trend a number of leading climatologists have concluded that it is very bad news indeed. It is the root cause of a lot of that unpleasant weather around the world and they warn that it carries the potential for human disasters of unprecedented magnitude." Fortune's analysis was so impressive that it actually won a "Science Writing Award" from the American Institute of Physics. But the prize for sheer terrorizing surely belonged to Lowell Ponte, whose 1976 book "The Cooling" (a predecessor of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," though from the opposite point of view) asserted that "The cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people in poor nations." If countermeasures weren't taken, he warned, it would lead to "world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come by the year 2000."....
NEWS
Some items I missed during the week.
Property initiative on ballot An initiative that would make it harder to condemn private property in Montana qualified Thursday for the November general election ballot. But that didn't immediately derail two legal actions surrounding the ballot issue. A court hearing is set for 10:30 this morning in Helena before District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock. Attorneys will debate why the Cascade County Elections Office will not meet today's deadline for turning in ballot-issue signatures supporting Constitutional Initiative 154 to the Montana secretary of state. Cascade County on Wednesday petitioned the state District Court to extend the deadline for the county elections office to certify signatures and turn them in. Also Wednesday, initiative backers sued in state court, asking a judge to compel the Cascade County Elections Office to meet today's deadline. The county got behind in certifying signatures on petitions because of the rare recount of a primary legislative race that ended in a tie.
Lawsuit seeks to kill ballot question A coalition of Southern Nevada governments and business alliances filed a lawsuit Thursday, seeking to kill a ballot question that would rein in eminent domain land-seizure powers. The suit's backers ask a Clark County District Court judge to strip from the Nov. 7 ballot the question known as the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land, or PISTOL, which they call overly broad and potentially crippling to prudent land-planning and government coffers. "The lawsuit is an effort to present ... what we believe to be the invalidity of the initiative in several regards," said Bruce Woodbury, a Clark County commissioner who is among the plaintiffs. "Of course, our concerns go well beyond that, and they have to do with what we think would be a very destructive effect that this proposal could have on our quality of life for everybody in the state." Don Chairez, a petition backer, former district judge and current Republican candidate for attorney general, dismissed Woodbury's claims as those of power brokers trying to retain power on the backs of property owners. "He (Woodbury) is trying to stifle and muzzle the voices of the people. I don't think people will go for it. I don't think the courts will go for it," Chairez said. "I'm not worried....
Backers undeterred by Hetch Hetchy estimate Environmentalists vowed Tuesday to press ahead with their campaign to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state, buoyed by a state report that says draining the reservoir is technically feasible and undeterred by significant political opposition and a price tag that could hit $10 billion. They concede there are many questions yet to be answered -- not the least of which are how to knock down a 410-foot dam and how to finance the restoration of a valley submerged beneath 117 billion gallons of water since 1923. Restoration advocates argue the report released Wednesday by the State Department of Water Resources proves restoring Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley can be done without impacting the quality or quantity of water drawn from the Tuolumne River. "The state found no fatal flaws in the restoration concept that would preclude additional study," the report states, adding that "it does appear technically feasible to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley." Environmentalists seized on that finding to push for further study of an idea they've championed for at least 20 years....
Woodpecker Halts Ark. Irrigation Project A federal judge halted a $320 million irrigation project Thursday for fear it could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that may or may not be extinct. The dispute involves the ivory-billed woodpecker. The last confirmed sighting of the bird in North America was in 1944, and scientists had thought the species was extinct until 2004, when a kayaker claimed to have spotted one in the area. But scientists have been unable to confirm the sighting. Still, U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson said that for purposes of the lawsuit brought by environmental groups, he had to assume the woodpecker exists in the area. And he ruled that federal agencies may have violated the Endangered Species Act by not studying the risks fully. "When an endangered species is allegedly jeopardized, the balance of hardships and public interest tips in favor of the protected species. Here there is evidence" that the ivory-billed woodpecker may be jeopardized, he said. The National Wildlife Federation and the Arkansas Wildlife Federation had sued the Army Corps of Engineers, arguing that the project to build a pumping station that would draw water from the White River would kill trees that house the birds and that noise from the station would cause the woodpeckers stress. The judge said the Corps and the Interior Department must conduct further studies before proceeding....
Navajo Nation: EPA to set tough standards for power plant The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed some of the most stringent emission requirements in the country for a planned power plant on the Navajo Nation, setting a new level of performance for coal-fired plants in the United States. Houston-based Sithe Global Power and the tribe's Diné Power Authority plan to build a 1,500 megawatt power plant that could power up to 1.5 million homes in cities across the Southwest. The Desert Rock Energy Project would bring in about $50 million a year in taxes and royalty payments for the tribe, making it the largest economic development project to be undertaken by the Navajos. The EPA released a draft clean-air permit for Desert Rock this week, saying its requirements would limit emissions from the plant to levels that protect public health and the environment....
Golf course, Paiutes will have to wait for prairie dog removal The Cedar Ridge Golf Course and Paiute Tribe of Utah's prairie dog problems will continue for at least another year. The golf course and tribe applied for permits allowing them to remove the prairie dogs from their property by relocating some and killing the rest. Elise Boeke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ecologist, said she received comments from Forest Guardians, a New Mexico-based environmental group, protesting the project. "We'll have to work through these," she said. This means no relocation will take place until next year because USFWS can't issue any permits until this issue is resolved, and the trapping season ends in August....
Scientists want global body to conserve biodiversity Scientists warned on Wednesday that the world is on the brink of a major biodiversity crisis and called for the creation of an international body to advise governments on how to protect the planet's ecosystems. "All the scientific evidence points to the fact that whatever measure of vulnerability you take, whether it is local populations, species or ecosystem, we know that the rate at which we are altering them now is faster than it has been in the past," Georgina Mace said in an interview. Mace, director of science at the Institute of Zoology in London, is one of 19 scientists from 13 countries who signed a declaration published in the journal Nature explaining why an intergovernmental body is needed. They said that although all aspects of biodiversity are in decline and many species are likely to become extinct this century, the crisis is not given the weight and importance it merits in public and private decision making. The new panel would address policy-related issues and get the best consensus on what the scientific opinion really is....
The Writing on the Wal-Mart Picture Al Gore standing in a modest auditorium deep in America's heartland before an exultant crowd of Wal-Mart employees, comparing their campaign to lighten the company's environmental footprint to the Allies' righteous struggle in World War II. This after Rev. Jim Ball, head of the Evangelical Environmental Network, likened the giant retailer's greening efforts to the work of Jesus Christ. This strange scene unfolded last week in Bentonville, Ark., and Muckraker was there to witness it. The occasion was an environmental strategy meeting of some 800 Wal-Mart execs, managers, suppliers, and partners, where the heads of the corporation's various divisions -- from seafood and textiles to transportation and packaging -- outlined their respective green agendas. Mid-afternoon brought a screening of An Inconvenient Truth; more than a few audience members could be seen dabbing teary eyes as the documentary drew to a close. Then the entire crowd erupted into a standing ovation when the lights came back on and Gore trotted up to the stage, Tipper in tow....
BP to Shut Down 12 North Slope Wells Britain's BP PLC is closing 12 oil wells on Alaska's North Slope as a precaution after whistleblowers alleged more than 50 were leaking. The wells were in the process of being shut down Tuesday, BP spokesman Darren Beaudo said. The action came after workers told the Financial Times of London about the leaks, according to the newspaper, which first reported the shutdowns on its Web site. Most of the shuttered wells were in Prudhoe Bay, Beaudo told The Associated Press. The shutdowns come a month after BP confirmed it had received a subpoena from a U.S. grand jury investigating a massive oil leak in Alaska last year....
House approves treaty to protect polar bears The House gave its approval Monday to a U.S.-Russia treaty to help protect polar bears from overhunting and other threats to their survival. The House bill puts into effect a 2000 treaty that sets quotas on polar bear hunting by native populations in the two countries and establishes a bilateral commission to analyze how best to sustain the polar bear habitat. It passed by voice vote. The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union estimates the polar bear population in the Arctic at 20,000 to 25,000, and projects a 30 percent decline in that number over the next 45 years. Climatic warming that melts the bears’ sea ice habitat is regarded as the main threat, but pollution and overhunting are other major concerns....
Some items I missed during the week.
Property initiative on ballot An initiative that would make it harder to condemn private property in Montana qualified Thursday for the November general election ballot. But that didn't immediately derail two legal actions surrounding the ballot issue. A court hearing is set for 10:30 this morning in Helena before District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock. Attorneys will debate why the Cascade County Elections Office will not meet today's deadline for turning in ballot-issue signatures supporting Constitutional Initiative 154 to the Montana secretary of state. Cascade County on Wednesday petitioned the state District Court to extend the deadline for the county elections office to certify signatures and turn them in. Also Wednesday, initiative backers sued in state court, asking a judge to compel the Cascade County Elections Office to meet today's deadline. The county got behind in certifying signatures on petitions because of the rare recount of a primary legislative race that ended in a tie.
Lawsuit seeks to kill ballot question A coalition of Southern Nevada governments and business alliances filed a lawsuit Thursday, seeking to kill a ballot question that would rein in eminent domain land-seizure powers. The suit's backers ask a Clark County District Court judge to strip from the Nov. 7 ballot the question known as the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land, or PISTOL, which they call overly broad and potentially crippling to prudent land-planning and government coffers. "The lawsuit is an effort to present ... what we believe to be the invalidity of the initiative in several regards," said Bruce Woodbury, a Clark County commissioner who is among the plaintiffs. "Of course, our concerns go well beyond that, and they have to do with what we think would be a very destructive effect that this proposal could have on our quality of life for everybody in the state." Don Chairez, a petition backer, former district judge and current Republican candidate for attorney general, dismissed Woodbury's claims as those of power brokers trying to retain power on the backs of property owners. "He (Woodbury) is trying to stifle and muzzle the voices of the people. I don't think people will go for it. I don't think the courts will go for it," Chairez said. "I'm not worried....
Backers undeterred by Hetch Hetchy estimate Environmentalists vowed Tuesday to press ahead with their campaign to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state, buoyed by a state report that says draining the reservoir is technically feasible and undeterred by significant political opposition and a price tag that could hit $10 billion. They concede there are many questions yet to be answered -- not the least of which are how to knock down a 410-foot dam and how to finance the restoration of a valley submerged beneath 117 billion gallons of water since 1923. Restoration advocates argue the report released Wednesday by the State Department of Water Resources proves restoring Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley can be done without impacting the quality or quantity of water drawn from the Tuolumne River. "The state found no fatal flaws in the restoration concept that would preclude additional study," the report states, adding that "it does appear technically feasible to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley." Environmentalists seized on that finding to push for further study of an idea they've championed for at least 20 years....
Woodpecker Halts Ark. Irrigation Project A federal judge halted a $320 million irrigation project Thursday for fear it could disturb the habitat of a woodpecker that may or may not be extinct. The dispute involves the ivory-billed woodpecker. The last confirmed sighting of the bird in North America was in 1944, and scientists had thought the species was extinct until 2004, when a kayaker claimed to have spotted one in the area. But scientists have been unable to confirm the sighting. Still, U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson said that for purposes of the lawsuit brought by environmental groups, he had to assume the woodpecker exists in the area. And he ruled that federal agencies may have violated the Endangered Species Act by not studying the risks fully. "When an endangered species is allegedly jeopardized, the balance of hardships and public interest tips in favor of the protected species. Here there is evidence" that the ivory-billed woodpecker may be jeopardized, he said. The National Wildlife Federation and the Arkansas Wildlife Federation had sued the Army Corps of Engineers, arguing that the project to build a pumping station that would draw water from the White River would kill trees that house the birds and that noise from the station would cause the woodpeckers stress. The judge said the Corps and the Interior Department must conduct further studies before proceeding....
Navajo Nation: EPA to set tough standards for power plant The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed some of the most stringent emission requirements in the country for a planned power plant on the Navajo Nation, setting a new level of performance for coal-fired plants in the United States. Houston-based Sithe Global Power and the tribe's Diné Power Authority plan to build a 1,500 megawatt power plant that could power up to 1.5 million homes in cities across the Southwest. The Desert Rock Energy Project would bring in about $50 million a year in taxes and royalty payments for the tribe, making it the largest economic development project to be undertaken by the Navajos. The EPA released a draft clean-air permit for Desert Rock this week, saying its requirements would limit emissions from the plant to levels that protect public health and the environment....
Golf course, Paiutes will have to wait for prairie dog removal The Cedar Ridge Golf Course and Paiute Tribe of Utah's prairie dog problems will continue for at least another year. The golf course and tribe applied for permits allowing them to remove the prairie dogs from their property by relocating some and killing the rest. Elise Boeke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ecologist, said she received comments from Forest Guardians, a New Mexico-based environmental group, protesting the project. "We'll have to work through these," she said. This means no relocation will take place until next year because USFWS can't issue any permits until this issue is resolved, and the trapping season ends in August....
Scientists want global body to conserve biodiversity Scientists warned on Wednesday that the world is on the brink of a major biodiversity crisis and called for the creation of an international body to advise governments on how to protect the planet's ecosystems. "All the scientific evidence points to the fact that whatever measure of vulnerability you take, whether it is local populations, species or ecosystem, we know that the rate at which we are altering them now is faster than it has been in the past," Georgina Mace said in an interview. Mace, director of science at the Institute of Zoology in London, is one of 19 scientists from 13 countries who signed a declaration published in the journal Nature explaining why an intergovernmental body is needed. They said that although all aspects of biodiversity are in decline and many species are likely to become extinct this century, the crisis is not given the weight and importance it merits in public and private decision making. The new panel would address policy-related issues and get the best consensus on what the scientific opinion really is....
The Writing on the Wal-Mart Picture Al Gore standing in a modest auditorium deep in America's heartland before an exultant crowd of Wal-Mart employees, comparing their campaign to lighten the company's environmental footprint to the Allies' righteous struggle in World War II. This after Rev. Jim Ball, head of the Evangelical Environmental Network, likened the giant retailer's greening efforts to the work of Jesus Christ. This strange scene unfolded last week in Bentonville, Ark., and Muckraker was there to witness it. The occasion was an environmental strategy meeting of some 800 Wal-Mart execs, managers, suppliers, and partners, where the heads of the corporation's various divisions -- from seafood and textiles to transportation and packaging -- outlined their respective green agendas. Mid-afternoon brought a screening of An Inconvenient Truth; more than a few audience members could be seen dabbing teary eyes as the documentary drew to a close. Then the entire crowd erupted into a standing ovation when the lights came back on and Gore trotted up to the stage, Tipper in tow....
BP to Shut Down 12 North Slope Wells Britain's BP PLC is closing 12 oil wells on Alaska's North Slope as a precaution after whistleblowers alleged more than 50 were leaking. The wells were in the process of being shut down Tuesday, BP spokesman Darren Beaudo said. The action came after workers told the Financial Times of London about the leaks, according to the newspaper, which first reported the shutdowns on its Web site. Most of the shuttered wells were in Prudhoe Bay, Beaudo told The Associated Press. The shutdowns come a month after BP confirmed it had received a subpoena from a U.S. grand jury investigating a massive oil leak in Alaska last year....
House approves treaty to protect polar bears The House gave its approval Monday to a U.S.-Russia treaty to help protect polar bears from overhunting and other threats to their survival. The House bill puts into effect a 2000 treaty that sets quotas on polar bear hunting by native populations in the two countries and establishes a bilateral commission to analyze how best to sustain the polar bear habitat. It passed by voice vote. The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union estimates the polar bear population in the Arctic at 20,000 to 25,000, and projects a 30 percent decline in that number over the next 45 years. Climatic warming that melts the bears’ sea ice habitat is regarded as the main threat, but pollution and overhunting are other major concerns....
Friday, July 21, 2006
GAO
Federal Real Property: Most Public Benefit Conveyances Used as Intended, but Opportunities Exist to Enhance Federal Oversight. GAO-06-511, June 21.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-511
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06511high.pdf
Federal Real Property: Most Public Benefit Conveyances Used as Intended, but Opportunities Exist to Enhance Federal Oversight. GAO-06-511, June 21.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-511
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06511high.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP
Slough going The battle over the Bitterroot Valley’s Mitchell Slough, and its implications for the state’s Stream Access law, is heading into the next arena. On July 12, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Bitterroot River Protection Association announced they were appealing District Judge Ted Mizner’s May ruling that the slough is not a natural body of water, and thus not open to the public. In his decision, Mizner stated that 130 years ago Mitchell Slough might have been considered a natural body of water under the Montana Stream Access Law, but today “…the channel itself is so changed that it can no longer be considered a natural channel even though some portions of the channel are still in identifiable historic locations.” Bob Lane, lead attorney for FWP, says that’s the point at the heart of the state’s appeal. Russ McElyea, a Bozeman attorney for the Montana Farm Bureau, says farmers, ranchers and landowners are investing a lot of money to improve their land. He says as real estate prices go up, landowners are more inclined to spend money on improving wildlife habitat. “They’re spending money on things like taking a ditch and turning it into a trout fishery that didn’t previously exist as a trout fishery,” he says. “They want to protect their investment. They’re not making the investment for public benefit, they’re making it for their benefit.”....
In Northwest water clash, a push to talk A variation on that tune might be the anthem of the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California, as farmers and fishermen work out their relationship in an era of troubled community economics and limited natural resources in parts of the American West. Except in this case, they really do have growing concern for each other's livelihood as the region sorts through its longstanding problem of allocating contested water supplies. Farmers who rely on irrigation at the headwaters of the Klamath, and downstream commercial fishermen who gather their catch in the area where the river empties into the Pacific, are being urged to change their work and way of life to benefit endangered fisheries. Some of this involves the work of the Nature Conservancy and other means of purchasing development rights - irrigation allotments in the case of farmers, fishing permits and even boats in the case of fishermen. But it's a complicated business also involving sovereign Indian tribes with treaty rights including water: those who traditionally harvest what have become greatly diminished suckerfish populations in Klamath Lake in Oregon, and Pacific Coast tribes in California that fish for dwindling salmon stocks. Now, the US departments of Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture, plus the White House Council on Environmental Quality, are being asked to hold a regional "summit" out here to address longstanding water issues in the Klamath Basin. Rep. Greg Walden (R) of Oregon - through whose sprawling, mostly rural district the Klamath flows - is organizing the effort....
Agency providing more aid for livestock water supplies North Dakota is offering more aid to help parched ranchers provide water for their livestock, though officials say its usefulness is limited unless more water well drillers begin working in the drought-ravaged southwest. The state Water Commission voted Thursday to double the amount of aid in a drought disaster livestock watering program from $200,000 to $400,000. Individual ranchers may qualify for up to $10,500 in aid, up from $3,500. Dale Frink, the commission's chief engineer, said the initial $200,000 allocation is already spoken for, and dozens of calls are coming in daily with inquiries. The commission also decided Thursday to allow program grants to be spent on electric pumps and hookups, abolish a requirement for a written estimate of the cost of a water supply project, and allow 180 days, instead of 60, to complete it....
3 PLEAD GUILTY TO ECOTERRORISM FIREBOMBINGS Three people pleaded guilty Thursday to charges they were part of an ecoterrorism cell calling itself ''The Family'' that firebombed a ranger station, lumber mills, wild horse corrals and two meat packing plants. As part of the plea agreement, the three agreed to cooperate in the continuing investigation of 10 others who are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., for a series of firebombings around the Northwest from 1996 to 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. ''This is a substantial step in resolution of this case and successful prosecution of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front in these crimes,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer from Eugene. The two shadowy groups claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time. In pleading guilty, the three admitted they tried to intimidate and coerce federal agencies, private businesses and the public through sabotage and mass destruction, the Justice Department said in a statement....
Green Scare Target Zach Jenson Pleads Guilty, Snitches on Friend In January, three people in their twenties were arrested in California for allegedly planning to sabotage a power station, cell-phone tower, and a US Forest Service facility. A press release from U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott states Zachary Jenson, 20, of Monroe, WA, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy and agreed to testify against his friend and alleged co-conspirator, Eric McDavid, age 28. Jenson will be sentenced October 3rd, and may be freed on bail Friday. Lauren Weiner, 23, made the same deal in May. She is now free pending her sentencing hearing August 8. The FBI accused the three of planning the sabotage in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, an underground network that targets developers, logging companies, and government agencies that destroy wilderness and wildlife habitat. enson and Weiner have named McDavid as the supposed ringleader. McDavid remains in custody at the Sacramento County jail, where he has resorted to hunger strikes in order to receive vegan meals. His supporters say he has been held in a Total Separation Unit, meaning that he spends almost all his time alone in a solitary cell. Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, an advocacy group “supporting all who do not compromise in defense of Mother Earth,” lists both McDavid and Jenson on its website, but its policy states “we DO NOT support people that provide information to law enforcement or snitch on allies or co-defendants.” Prisoners who testify against others are dropped from the support list. A paid FBI infiltrator known as “Anna” is responsible for the bulk of the evidence against Jenson, Weiner and McDavid. She provided the funds to rent a house for the group near Auburn, California, which was wired to record the conversations inside....
Lightning hits house, leaves hole in ceiling Lois Barber was house-sitting at her son's Antelope Valley residence on Edelweiss Lane this week when a most unwelcome intruder barged in. A bolt of lightning apparently traveled down the pipe of a wood-burning stove, startling the 75-year-old woman and the Topaz Lake Volunteer Fire Department crew outside on structure protection in the Jackass Flat fire. "I just got done talking to my son," Barber said. "I hadn't even put the phone down when I heard a sound so loud, I thought the house had exploded. "The first thing I saw was all this spackle stuff was everywhere. Then I noticed the hole in the ceiling. I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I was afraid maybe the house was going to catch fire."....
Thriving cheatgrass poses high wildfire danger to region Cheatgrass is flourishing in some areas scorched two years ago by the Waterfall Fire and presents a high fire danger this summer, a U.S. Forest Service official warned recently. Grasses planted at higher elevations within a year after the Waterfall Fire have taken root and cheatgrass is not flourishing there, Pemberton said, but that could change. The watershed seems to be recovering from the Waterfall Fire as water used for drinking in Carson City needs less treatment, city officials said. And the battle against noxious weeds continues as 100 goats were brought in from Fallon to eat Russian knapweed in Kings Canyon Meadow. The Linehan Complex fire was largely cheatgrass-driven and a situation exists for a similar fire in the lower areas west of Carson City, Pemberton said....
Vibrating trucks to help locate gas Seismic testing in the Clark area next month will include the use of two 17-ton "thumper trucks" in up to 200 spots where explosive charges cannot be placed. Bruce Fulker, vice president of permit services for Quantum Geophysical, told about 15 members of the Clark Resource Council this week of plans to use the vehicles. Also known as vibroseis trucks, the vehicles are equipped with pads that send energy into the ground, allowing the mapping of underground features to a depth of about 2,000 feet. Quantum Geophysical is conducting the study for Oklahoma-based Windsor Energy to locate gas deposits across a 47-square-mile area including U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and private lands. Project guidelines require a buffer of at least a quarter-mile between small, buried explosive charges and any "hazard spots," including structures, wells, springs or pipelines. Fulker said a hazard survey showed several areas where no charges could be set....
Some in GOP fighting Western energy drilling Western Republicans are starting to buck against oil and gas drilling on federal lands prized for their wildlife and recreational opportunities. Amid a Western energy boom promoted by the Bush administration, Republican officeholders from Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and California recently have called for bans on drilling and other development on large blocs of national forest lands in their states. Critics of drilling say their objections reflect growing opposition among traditionally conservative voters. "You are seeing more and more opposition from people who are concerned about hunting, about fishing, about drinking water supplies, about a state's way of life," says Chris Wood, vice president for conservation of Trout Unlimited, a national fish conservation group. Mark Rey, the Bush administration's undersecretary of Agriculture who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, says the recent objections do not represent a Western revolt against drilling, but rather a general concern that "development is done sensitively and well."....
HD drilling upsets Bayfield board Bayfield Town Board members have expressed their dismay over a U.S. Forest Service decision to allow gas drilling in roadless areas of the HD Mountains. "Your pretty pictures, simply put, are nothing but window dressing on the fact that you're not going to honor our request," said Niel Hieb, a Town Board member. The towns of Bayfield and Ignacio, the city of Durango and counties of La Plata and Archuleta all passed resolutions asking the Forest Service to bar gas drilling in roadless areas and in a 1.5-mile buffer zone near the outcrop. The resolutions were passed during a public comment period for the Forest Service's environmental impact statement. But Forest Service officials said they have no legal rationale to refuse to honor leases that were signed with the intent of gas development. The HDs hold an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, with the potential to produce $15 billion in gross revenue for gas companies....
Boom Times in Wyoming, and Worrying Times as Well Wyoming knows a boom when it sees one because it has seen them before. And, to its credit, the state is trying to find a way to feed some of its revenue into programs that will help even out the shock when the boom busts — or simply tapers off. It is putting large sums into its Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, which collects a portion of the severance tax paid for Wyoming minerals, and it is adding to what it calls its Legislative Stabilization Reserve, a temporary savings account. The state has at last created a wildlife trust fund first proposed in 1982 but regularly defeated in the State Legislature, and it has endowed scholarship programs and the building of new schools. It’s hard to argue with prosperity, but a lot of people in Wyoming are worrying about its ultimate costs. Over the past few years, for instance, the rush to develop coal-bed methane, a process that involves extracting methane from water pumped out of coal seams, has done enormous harm to the landscape of the Powder River Basin in north-central Wyoming and to the reputation of the petroleum industry. In the western part of the basin, near Sheridan, many of the companies that rushed in to dig coal-bed wells have gone belly up, leaving the state, or no one, to pay the costs of mitigating the damage. But the problem is bigger than that. Since George Bush took office, the federal government has turned the American West into a gas and oil open house. In nearly every Western state, the Bureau of Land Management’s main function seems to be auctioning off petroleum leases....
USFS offers deal to miner The U.S. Forest Service has offered one of Pitkin County's last miners a plea bargain to settle a dispute that erupted in December. Under terms of the proposal, Robert Congdon would plead guilty to interfering with a law enforcement officer and damaging natural features, according to Aspen District Ranger Bill Westbrook. Charges of illegal off-road vehicle use and destruction of historic resources would be dropped, Westbrook said. He stressed that a federal judge still hasn't approved the plea bargain. The deal would hinge on Congdon's reclamation of roads he created for access to the Maree Love Mine on a lower flank of Mount Sopris. He also would have to dismantle a structure he built from an old cabin on the site and newer lumber. "It looks like a large treehouse on stilts," Westbrook said. Congdon was livid when told this week that Westbrook had discussed terms of the plea bargain during a meeting with the Pitkin County commissioners. He said he had no comment on the proposed deal....
Baucus backs removal of Mike Horse Dam Sen. Max Baucus said Thursday that he supports removing the Blackfoot River's Mike Horse Dam, which consists of waste from historic mining, and wants to hear more about ways to deal with pollution at the site. The river immortalized in the Norman McLean novel "A River Runs Through It" is "part of our recreational heritage as Montanans," Baucus wrote Gail Kimbell, the U.S. Forest Service's regional director in Missoula. "Unfortunately, the Mike Horse Dam on the Blackfoot River threatens this gem of the Treasure State." In 1975, toxic releases from the earthen dam flowed downstream and killed thousands of fish. The Montana Democrat said removing the dam, east of Lincoln in an area managed by the Forest Service, appears best for the upper Blackfoot. Baucus requested the Forest Service extend by 30 days its Aug. 16 deadline for public comment on options for dealing with the Mike Horse site. "It is important that the Forest Service work with the local community to get the cleanup right the first time," Baucus wrote....
Peak 8 to get more powder? Several early season “wind events” at Breckenridge last winter have led resort officials to propose the installation of about 1,200 feet of wind fence along the top of Peak 8, to protect and enhance the snow cover in the terrain served by the new Imperial Express chair, said Breckenridge spokeswoman Niki DeFord. The final placement and length of the new fence hasn’t been determined yet, but the White River National Forest recently listed the project in its quarterly update of public-land projects slated for environmental review. The idea is to optimize the skiing experience on the Peak 8 terrain, Forest Service officials said. “We’re doing some internal scoping,” said Joe Foreman, winter sports expert for the Dillon District, explaining that the evaluation for the controversial Peak 8 lift did not include a look at snow fencing. If everything “looks benign,” he said, the Forest Service would follow an approval process that doesn’t include public comment or extensive environmental review. In other projects, when snow fencing is proposed above treeline, the Forest Service has looked at a variety of issues, including how the added accumulation of snow might affect the high-alpine tundra and the hydrology of the area. A fence might also provide a perch for raptors in an area where there was none before, with potential impacts to small mammal populations....
Salazar, others accuse feds of flailing on fires Sen. Ken Salazar complained Wednesday that lack of money has stymied most of the projects to treat bark beetle-damaged forests in Colorado to reduce wildfire risk. Salazar's criticism came as senators from Western states scolded Bush administration officials for what they said was the slow pace of efforts to decrease the risk of catastrophic fires. "You've got big chunks of the West that are on fire," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said at the hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "We cannot afford foot dragging." Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., warned Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials that "there will be hell to pay" if any New Mexico towns burn because federal agencies lagged in preparing for forest fires....
Fire prevention efforts too slow, senators say With wildfires raging in the West, senators of both parties slammed the Interior Department and Forest Service on Wednesday for carrying out wildfire prevention work on less than half of 1 percent of land set for treatment under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003. With only about 77,000 acres treated out of the 20 million acres identified by the legislation, senators said it would take the administration more than 200 years to carry out the law at the current rate. No acreage in Montana and Wyoming has been treated under the act, witnesses said. "The implementation of this is light years away from the U.S. Senate vision of what was to be done," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I just consider that unacceptable. We have big chunks of the West on fire. We just cannot afford foot-dragging." Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said at the Senate Energy Committee hearing that there haven't been any projects in Wyoming to this point despite the potential for wildfires in the forests there. Thomas later called the Forest Service's inaction unacceptable and said it "could compromise people's safety and make firefighting efforts that much harder."....
Parker refutes Forest Service position Roy Parker said Wednesday that Ski Apache officials were told they needed no permit for wells drilled at the elevation selected for two designed to supplement four existing wells on U.S. Forest Service land. The former manager of the ski resort owned by the Mescalero Apache Tribe was reacting to a Lincoln County Commission session Tuesday about an application filed by Forest Service officials for a supplemental wells permit from the State Engineer's Office. Buck Sanchez, who heads the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest, said the agency was not aware of the two new wells until they were discovered by Juan Hernandez with the Roswell SEO field office. The resort is situated on tribal and Forest Service land under a special use permit. "The Forest Service knew and we were told at that altitude, no permits were necessary. That's just the way it was. I don't care what the county commissioners say," Parker said. "We had a licensed well driller do it and we checked along the way. Now after the fact, they are saying that a permit was necessary."....
State lacks funds to check if fish are safe to eat New Mexico's 314,000 anglers each spend an average of 11 days a year in pursuit of trout, bass, catfish and other species in lakes and rivers around the state. But are the fish they catch safe to eat? The New Mexico Environment Department cannot answer that question with any certainty for most waters in the state. However, the agency's lone fisheries biologist, Gary Schiffmiller, has been able to scrape together some grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sources over the past few years to begin testing fish from a handful of the state's waters. Schiffmiller's most recent work has been funded by a $150,000 federal grant, which was enough to collect and test about 50 composite samples of fish at $3,000 per study. As the results have come in from each study, it's been more and more bad news almost everywhere he's looked. This year, channel catfish in Abiquiú Lake, carp in Cochiti Lake and catfish and carp in stretches of the Rio Grande near Los Alamos, were found to be unsafe to eat because they are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of industrial chemicals suspected of causing cancer and other serious health problems....
Search-and-devour mission At a lake outside Yosemite, my pals Jane and Steve went to bed knowing they had protected their food with a perfect "bear hang." Yet, for hours they listened to a black bear smack its lips as it finished off a week's worth of food - and urinated on anything it didn't eat. Unless you want a very short backcountry trip, you must protect your food from critters, especially Ursus americanus. And I hate to break it to you, but Yogi has one up on us: We aren't smarter than the average bear. The Yosemite ranger guffawed two years ago when I told him that, although I had a bear canister, I was considering hanging some of my backpacking food. Indeed, national parks now cite campers who leave food unattended or in view in their car; my friend Dan got a warning for leaving a coffee cup on his picnic table in Yellowstone....
When art and farming collide (in a good way) In Goldendale, art and agriculture have cross-pollinated into an exhibit titled "Sustaining Change on the American Farm: An Artist-Farmer Exchange." The art/educational exhibition is a partnership between the Maryhill Museum of Art and the American Farmland Trust. In 2003, the two organizations began searching out 12 Northwest artists to pair with 12 farmers and ranchers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho who have proven to be good conservation stewards of the land. (Each year, the American Farmland Trust's conservation districts give awards to agriculturally based businesses and individuals for practicing environmentally sound farming methods. The artists then spent nearly a year observing, experiencing and learning about the challenges farmers face. The resulting exhibition of their work looks at what the farmers do to conserve natural resources and heritage while making allowances for the needs of a growing population....
Cowboys Get Their Day A resolution recently passed by the state legislature names Saturday as "National Day of the American Cowboy." The resolution, which was authored by District 12 state Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced), who represents San Benito County, passed both houses of the legislature late last month. "The cowboy embodies honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, patriotism, a strong work ethic and continues to play a significant role in America's culture and economy," Denham said. "The cowboy loves, lives off of and depends on the land and its creatures." Local cowboy and rancher John Hodges said he appreciated the recognition. "I think that's an excellent idea," he said. Hodges added, however, that its becoming tougher and tougher for ranchers to make it in California because of encroaching development and an ever-increasing cost of doing business. "These days, if you really want to be a cowboy you have to go to Wyoming or Nebraska," he said. There are about 800,000 ranchers in the United States, according to the resolution, and rodeo is the sixth most popular sport....
National Cowboy Day suited for Agoura Hills The steadfast lives of cowboys and cowgirls have been glorified in television, film and books for decades, but an act of Congress has transformed the rough and ready cowboy into an American icon that should be admired, celebrated and acknowledged. Agoura Hills Mayor Denis Weber read a congressional resolution at last week's city council meeting that proclaimed July 22 as the National Day of the American Cowboy. Dave Thornbury, Buck Wicall and Sharon Brumnett accepted the proclamation on behalf of all of the cowboys and cowgirls that reside in the city. The proclamation captured the many facets of the cowboy spirit. It stated that "pioneering men and women, recognized as cowboys, helped establish the American West," and the cowboy spirit exemplifies "sound family values and good common sense." The decree also noted that cowboys embody honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, a strong work ethic and patriotism....
Slough going The battle over the Bitterroot Valley’s Mitchell Slough, and its implications for the state’s Stream Access law, is heading into the next arena. On July 12, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Bitterroot River Protection Association announced they were appealing District Judge Ted Mizner’s May ruling that the slough is not a natural body of water, and thus not open to the public. In his decision, Mizner stated that 130 years ago Mitchell Slough might have been considered a natural body of water under the Montana Stream Access Law, but today “…the channel itself is so changed that it can no longer be considered a natural channel even though some portions of the channel are still in identifiable historic locations.” Bob Lane, lead attorney for FWP, says that’s the point at the heart of the state’s appeal. Russ McElyea, a Bozeman attorney for the Montana Farm Bureau, says farmers, ranchers and landowners are investing a lot of money to improve their land. He says as real estate prices go up, landowners are more inclined to spend money on improving wildlife habitat. “They’re spending money on things like taking a ditch and turning it into a trout fishery that didn’t previously exist as a trout fishery,” he says. “They want to protect their investment. They’re not making the investment for public benefit, they’re making it for their benefit.”....
In Northwest water clash, a push to talk A variation on that tune might be the anthem of the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California, as farmers and fishermen work out their relationship in an era of troubled community economics and limited natural resources in parts of the American West. Except in this case, they really do have growing concern for each other's livelihood as the region sorts through its longstanding problem of allocating contested water supplies. Farmers who rely on irrigation at the headwaters of the Klamath, and downstream commercial fishermen who gather their catch in the area where the river empties into the Pacific, are being urged to change their work and way of life to benefit endangered fisheries. Some of this involves the work of the Nature Conservancy and other means of purchasing development rights - irrigation allotments in the case of farmers, fishing permits and even boats in the case of fishermen. But it's a complicated business also involving sovereign Indian tribes with treaty rights including water: those who traditionally harvest what have become greatly diminished suckerfish populations in Klamath Lake in Oregon, and Pacific Coast tribes in California that fish for dwindling salmon stocks. Now, the US departments of Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture, plus the White House Council on Environmental Quality, are being asked to hold a regional "summit" out here to address longstanding water issues in the Klamath Basin. Rep. Greg Walden (R) of Oregon - through whose sprawling, mostly rural district the Klamath flows - is organizing the effort....
Agency providing more aid for livestock water supplies North Dakota is offering more aid to help parched ranchers provide water for their livestock, though officials say its usefulness is limited unless more water well drillers begin working in the drought-ravaged southwest. The state Water Commission voted Thursday to double the amount of aid in a drought disaster livestock watering program from $200,000 to $400,000. Individual ranchers may qualify for up to $10,500 in aid, up from $3,500. Dale Frink, the commission's chief engineer, said the initial $200,000 allocation is already spoken for, and dozens of calls are coming in daily with inquiries. The commission also decided Thursday to allow program grants to be spent on electric pumps and hookups, abolish a requirement for a written estimate of the cost of a water supply project, and allow 180 days, instead of 60, to complete it....
3 PLEAD GUILTY TO ECOTERRORISM FIREBOMBINGS Three people pleaded guilty Thursday to charges they were part of an ecoterrorism cell calling itself ''The Family'' that firebombed a ranger station, lumber mills, wild horse corrals and two meat packing plants. As part of the plea agreement, the three agreed to cooperate in the continuing investigation of 10 others who are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., for a series of firebombings around the Northwest from 1996 to 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. ''This is a substantial step in resolution of this case and successful prosecution of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front in these crimes,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer from Eugene. The two shadowy groups claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time. In pleading guilty, the three admitted they tried to intimidate and coerce federal agencies, private businesses and the public through sabotage and mass destruction, the Justice Department said in a statement....
Green Scare Target Zach Jenson Pleads Guilty, Snitches on Friend In January, three people in their twenties were arrested in California for allegedly planning to sabotage a power station, cell-phone tower, and a US Forest Service facility. A press release from U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott states Zachary Jenson, 20, of Monroe, WA, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy and agreed to testify against his friend and alleged co-conspirator, Eric McDavid, age 28. Jenson will be sentenced October 3rd, and may be freed on bail Friday. Lauren Weiner, 23, made the same deal in May. She is now free pending her sentencing hearing August 8. The FBI accused the three of planning the sabotage in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, an underground network that targets developers, logging companies, and government agencies that destroy wilderness and wildlife habitat. enson and Weiner have named McDavid as the supposed ringleader. McDavid remains in custody at the Sacramento County jail, where he has resorted to hunger strikes in order to receive vegan meals. His supporters say he has been held in a Total Separation Unit, meaning that he spends almost all his time alone in a solitary cell. Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, an advocacy group “supporting all who do not compromise in defense of Mother Earth,” lists both McDavid and Jenson on its website, but its policy states “we DO NOT support people that provide information to law enforcement or snitch on allies or co-defendants.” Prisoners who testify against others are dropped from the support list. A paid FBI infiltrator known as “Anna” is responsible for the bulk of the evidence against Jenson, Weiner and McDavid. She provided the funds to rent a house for the group near Auburn, California, which was wired to record the conversations inside....
Lightning hits house, leaves hole in ceiling Lois Barber was house-sitting at her son's Antelope Valley residence on Edelweiss Lane this week when a most unwelcome intruder barged in. A bolt of lightning apparently traveled down the pipe of a wood-burning stove, startling the 75-year-old woman and the Topaz Lake Volunteer Fire Department crew outside on structure protection in the Jackass Flat fire. "I just got done talking to my son," Barber said. "I hadn't even put the phone down when I heard a sound so loud, I thought the house had exploded. "The first thing I saw was all this spackle stuff was everywhere. Then I noticed the hole in the ceiling. I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I was afraid maybe the house was going to catch fire."....
Thriving cheatgrass poses high wildfire danger to region Cheatgrass is flourishing in some areas scorched two years ago by the Waterfall Fire and presents a high fire danger this summer, a U.S. Forest Service official warned recently. Grasses planted at higher elevations within a year after the Waterfall Fire have taken root and cheatgrass is not flourishing there, Pemberton said, but that could change. The watershed seems to be recovering from the Waterfall Fire as water used for drinking in Carson City needs less treatment, city officials said. And the battle against noxious weeds continues as 100 goats were brought in from Fallon to eat Russian knapweed in Kings Canyon Meadow. The Linehan Complex fire was largely cheatgrass-driven and a situation exists for a similar fire in the lower areas west of Carson City, Pemberton said....
Vibrating trucks to help locate gas Seismic testing in the Clark area next month will include the use of two 17-ton "thumper trucks" in up to 200 spots where explosive charges cannot be placed. Bruce Fulker, vice president of permit services for Quantum Geophysical, told about 15 members of the Clark Resource Council this week of plans to use the vehicles. Also known as vibroseis trucks, the vehicles are equipped with pads that send energy into the ground, allowing the mapping of underground features to a depth of about 2,000 feet. Quantum Geophysical is conducting the study for Oklahoma-based Windsor Energy to locate gas deposits across a 47-square-mile area including U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and private lands. Project guidelines require a buffer of at least a quarter-mile between small, buried explosive charges and any "hazard spots," including structures, wells, springs or pipelines. Fulker said a hazard survey showed several areas where no charges could be set....
Some in GOP fighting Western energy drilling Western Republicans are starting to buck against oil and gas drilling on federal lands prized for their wildlife and recreational opportunities. Amid a Western energy boom promoted by the Bush administration, Republican officeholders from Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and California recently have called for bans on drilling and other development on large blocs of national forest lands in their states. Critics of drilling say their objections reflect growing opposition among traditionally conservative voters. "You are seeing more and more opposition from people who are concerned about hunting, about fishing, about drinking water supplies, about a state's way of life," says Chris Wood, vice president for conservation of Trout Unlimited, a national fish conservation group. Mark Rey, the Bush administration's undersecretary of Agriculture who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, says the recent objections do not represent a Western revolt against drilling, but rather a general concern that "development is done sensitively and well."....
HD drilling upsets Bayfield board Bayfield Town Board members have expressed their dismay over a U.S. Forest Service decision to allow gas drilling in roadless areas of the HD Mountains. "Your pretty pictures, simply put, are nothing but window dressing on the fact that you're not going to honor our request," said Niel Hieb, a Town Board member. The towns of Bayfield and Ignacio, the city of Durango and counties of La Plata and Archuleta all passed resolutions asking the Forest Service to bar gas drilling in roadless areas and in a 1.5-mile buffer zone near the outcrop. The resolutions were passed during a public comment period for the Forest Service's environmental impact statement. But Forest Service officials said they have no legal rationale to refuse to honor leases that were signed with the intent of gas development. The HDs hold an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, with the potential to produce $15 billion in gross revenue for gas companies....
Boom Times in Wyoming, and Worrying Times as Well Wyoming knows a boom when it sees one because it has seen them before. And, to its credit, the state is trying to find a way to feed some of its revenue into programs that will help even out the shock when the boom busts — or simply tapers off. It is putting large sums into its Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, which collects a portion of the severance tax paid for Wyoming minerals, and it is adding to what it calls its Legislative Stabilization Reserve, a temporary savings account. The state has at last created a wildlife trust fund first proposed in 1982 but regularly defeated in the State Legislature, and it has endowed scholarship programs and the building of new schools. It’s hard to argue with prosperity, but a lot of people in Wyoming are worrying about its ultimate costs. Over the past few years, for instance, the rush to develop coal-bed methane, a process that involves extracting methane from water pumped out of coal seams, has done enormous harm to the landscape of the Powder River Basin in north-central Wyoming and to the reputation of the petroleum industry. In the western part of the basin, near Sheridan, many of the companies that rushed in to dig coal-bed wells have gone belly up, leaving the state, or no one, to pay the costs of mitigating the damage. But the problem is bigger than that. Since George Bush took office, the federal government has turned the American West into a gas and oil open house. In nearly every Western state, the Bureau of Land Management’s main function seems to be auctioning off petroleum leases....
USFS offers deal to miner The U.S. Forest Service has offered one of Pitkin County's last miners a plea bargain to settle a dispute that erupted in December. Under terms of the proposal, Robert Congdon would plead guilty to interfering with a law enforcement officer and damaging natural features, according to Aspen District Ranger Bill Westbrook. Charges of illegal off-road vehicle use and destruction of historic resources would be dropped, Westbrook said. He stressed that a federal judge still hasn't approved the plea bargain. The deal would hinge on Congdon's reclamation of roads he created for access to the Maree Love Mine on a lower flank of Mount Sopris. He also would have to dismantle a structure he built from an old cabin on the site and newer lumber. "It looks like a large treehouse on stilts," Westbrook said. Congdon was livid when told this week that Westbrook had discussed terms of the plea bargain during a meeting with the Pitkin County commissioners. He said he had no comment on the proposed deal....
Baucus backs removal of Mike Horse Dam Sen. Max Baucus said Thursday that he supports removing the Blackfoot River's Mike Horse Dam, which consists of waste from historic mining, and wants to hear more about ways to deal with pollution at the site. The river immortalized in the Norman McLean novel "A River Runs Through It" is "part of our recreational heritage as Montanans," Baucus wrote Gail Kimbell, the U.S. Forest Service's regional director in Missoula. "Unfortunately, the Mike Horse Dam on the Blackfoot River threatens this gem of the Treasure State." In 1975, toxic releases from the earthen dam flowed downstream and killed thousands of fish. The Montana Democrat said removing the dam, east of Lincoln in an area managed by the Forest Service, appears best for the upper Blackfoot. Baucus requested the Forest Service extend by 30 days its Aug. 16 deadline for public comment on options for dealing with the Mike Horse site. "It is important that the Forest Service work with the local community to get the cleanup right the first time," Baucus wrote....
Peak 8 to get more powder? Several early season “wind events” at Breckenridge last winter have led resort officials to propose the installation of about 1,200 feet of wind fence along the top of Peak 8, to protect and enhance the snow cover in the terrain served by the new Imperial Express chair, said Breckenridge spokeswoman Niki DeFord. The final placement and length of the new fence hasn’t been determined yet, but the White River National Forest recently listed the project in its quarterly update of public-land projects slated for environmental review. The idea is to optimize the skiing experience on the Peak 8 terrain, Forest Service officials said. “We’re doing some internal scoping,” said Joe Foreman, winter sports expert for the Dillon District, explaining that the evaluation for the controversial Peak 8 lift did not include a look at snow fencing. If everything “looks benign,” he said, the Forest Service would follow an approval process that doesn’t include public comment or extensive environmental review. In other projects, when snow fencing is proposed above treeline, the Forest Service has looked at a variety of issues, including how the added accumulation of snow might affect the high-alpine tundra and the hydrology of the area. A fence might also provide a perch for raptors in an area where there was none before, with potential impacts to small mammal populations....
Salazar, others accuse feds of flailing on fires Sen. Ken Salazar complained Wednesday that lack of money has stymied most of the projects to treat bark beetle-damaged forests in Colorado to reduce wildfire risk. Salazar's criticism came as senators from Western states scolded Bush administration officials for what they said was the slow pace of efforts to decrease the risk of catastrophic fires. "You've got big chunks of the West that are on fire," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said at the hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "We cannot afford foot dragging." Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., warned Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials that "there will be hell to pay" if any New Mexico towns burn because federal agencies lagged in preparing for forest fires....
Fire prevention efforts too slow, senators say With wildfires raging in the West, senators of both parties slammed the Interior Department and Forest Service on Wednesday for carrying out wildfire prevention work on less than half of 1 percent of land set for treatment under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003. With only about 77,000 acres treated out of the 20 million acres identified by the legislation, senators said it would take the administration more than 200 years to carry out the law at the current rate. No acreage in Montana and Wyoming has been treated under the act, witnesses said. "The implementation of this is light years away from the U.S. Senate vision of what was to be done," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I just consider that unacceptable. We have big chunks of the West on fire. We just cannot afford foot-dragging." Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said at the Senate Energy Committee hearing that there haven't been any projects in Wyoming to this point despite the potential for wildfires in the forests there. Thomas later called the Forest Service's inaction unacceptable and said it "could compromise people's safety and make firefighting efforts that much harder."....
Parker refutes Forest Service position Roy Parker said Wednesday that Ski Apache officials were told they needed no permit for wells drilled at the elevation selected for two designed to supplement four existing wells on U.S. Forest Service land. The former manager of the ski resort owned by the Mescalero Apache Tribe was reacting to a Lincoln County Commission session Tuesday about an application filed by Forest Service officials for a supplemental wells permit from the State Engineer's Office. Buck Sanchez, who heads the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest, said the agency was not aware of the two new wells until they were discovered by Juan Hernandez with the Roswell SEO field office. The resort is situated on tribal and Forest Service land under a special use permit. "The Forest Service knew and we were told at that altitude, no permits were necessary. That's just the way it was. I don't care what the county commissioners say," Parker said. "We had a licensed well driller do it and we checked along the way. Now after the fact, they are saying that a permit was necessary."....
State lacks funds to check if fish are safe to eat New Mexico's 314,000 anglers each spend an average of 11 days a year in pursuit of trout, bass, catfish and other species in lakes and rivers around the state. But are the fish they catch safe to eat? The New Mexico Environment Department cannot answer that question with any certainty for most waters in the state. However, the agency's lone fisheries biologist, Gary Schiffmiller, has been able to scrape together some grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sources over the past few years to begin testing fish from a handful of the state's waters. Schiffmiller's most recent work has been funded by a $150,000 federal grant, which was enough to collect and test about 50 composite samples of fish at $3,000 per study. As the results have come in from each study, it's been more and more bad news almost everywhere he's looked. This year, channel catfish in Abiquiú Lake, carp in Cochiti Lake and catfish and carp in stretches of the Rio Grande near Los Alamos, were found to be unsafe to eat because they are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of industrial chemicals suspected of causing cancer and other serious health problems....
Search-and-devour mission At a lake outside Yosemite, my pals Jane and Steve went to bed knowing they had protected their food with a perfect "bear hang." Yet, for hours they listened to a black bear smack its lips as it finished off a week's worth of food - and urinated on anything it didn't eat. Unless you want a very short backcountry trip, you must protect your food from critters, especially Ursus americanus. And I hate to break it to you, but Yogi has one up on us: We aren't smarter than the average bear. The Yosemite ranger guffawed two years ago when I told him that, although I had a bear canister, I was considering hanging some of my backpacking food. Indeed, national parks now cite campers who leave food unattended or in view in their car; my friend Dan got a warning for leaving a coffee cup on his picnic table in Yellowstone....
When art and farming collide (in a good way) In Goldendale, art and agriculture have cross-pollinated into an exhibit titled "Sustaining Change on the American Farm: An Artist-Farmer Exchange." The art/educational exhibition is a partnership between the Maryhill Museum of Art and the American Farmland Trust. In 2003, the two organizations began searching out 12 Northwest artists to pair with 12 farmers and ranchers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho who have proven to be good conservation stewards of the land. (Each year, the American Farmland Trust's conservation districts give awards to agriculturally based businesses and individuals for practicing environmentally sound farming methods. The artists then spent nearly a year observing, experiencing and learning about the challenges farmers face. The resulting exhibition of their work looks at what the farmers do to conserve natural resources and heritage while making allowances for the needs of a growing population....
Cowboys Get Their Day A resolution recently passed by the state legislature names Saturday as "National Day of the American Cowboy." The resolution, which was authored by District 12 state Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced), who represents San Benito County, passed both houses of the legislature late last month. "The cowboy embodies honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, patriotism, a strong work ethic and continues to play a significant role in America's culture and economy," Denham said. "The cowboy loves, lives off of and depends on the land and its creatures." Local cowboy and rancher John Hodges said he appreciated the recognition. "I think that's an excellent idea," he said. Hodges added, however, that its becoming tougher and tougher for ranchers to make it in California because of encroaching development and an ever-increasing cost of doing business. "These days, if you really want to be a cowboy you have to go to Wyoming or Nebraska," he said. There are about 800,000 ranchers in the United States, according to the resolution, and rodeo is the sixth most popular sport....
National Cowboy Day suited for Agoura Hills The steadfast lives of cowboys and cowgirls have been glorified in television, film and books for decades, but an act of Congress has transformed the rough and ready cowboy into an American icon that should be admired, celebrated and acknowledged. Agoura Hills Mayor Denis Weber read a congressional resolution at last week's city council meeting that proclaimed July 22 as the National Day of the American Cowboy. Dave Thornbury, Buck Wicall and Sharon Brumnett accepted the proclamation on behalf of all of the cowboys and cowgirls that reside in the city. The proclamation captured the many facets of the cowboy spirit. It stated that "pioneering men and women, recognized as cowboys, helped establish the American West," and the cowboy spirit exemplifies "sound family values and good common sense." The decree also noted that cowboys embody honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, a strong work ethic and patriotism....
Thursday, July 20, 2006
MAD COW DISEASE
USDA ANNOUNCES NEW BSE SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon begin transitioning to an ongoing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance program that corresponds to the extremely low prevalence of the disease in the U.S. "It's time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States," said Johanns. "This ongoing surveillance program will maintain our ability to detect BSE, provide assurance that our interlocking safeguards are successfully preventing BSE, while continuing to exceed science-based international guidelines." The ongoing BSE surveillance program will sample approximately 40,000 animals each year. Under the program, USDA will continue to collect samples from a variety of sites and from the cattle populations where the disease is most likely to be detected, similar to the enhanced surveillance program procedures. The new program will not only comply with the science-based international guidelines set forth by the World Animal Health organization (OIE), it will provide testing at a level ten times higher than the OIE recommended level. USDA has an obligation to provide 30 days notice of the change to contractors who are performing the sampling and testing, so the earliest the new surveillance program would begin is late August. Once the ongoing surveillance program begins, USDA will periodically analyze the surveillance strategy to ensure the program provides the foundation for market confidence in the safety of U.S. cattle. In April, USDA released an analysis of 7 years of BSE surveillance data. This included data from an enhanced surveillance program, which began in June 2004, as a one-time effort to determine the prevalence of BSE in the United States. The analysis concluded that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is less than 1 case per million adult cattle. The analysis further revealed that the most likely number of cases is between 4 and 7 infected animals out of 42 million adult cattle. The analysis was submitted to a peer review process and a panel of outside experts affirmed the conclusions....
U.S. to Reduce Mad-Cow Testing After Few Cases
The U.S. will slash its mad-cow testing program by almost 90 percent after data collected over two years showed a ``very low level'' of the disease in the domestic herd, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. The decision to reduce testing to about 40,000 animals a year was made after experts reviewed an analysis of data on about 700,000 screenings since June 2004, when an enhanced testing program was implemented, Johanns said today at a news conference in Washington. The new program may begin as early as next month after a mandatory 30-day notice period. Johanns said he has talked with Japan and other nations about the changes and doesn't expect they'll affect efforts to reopen markets to U.S. beef. Japan, once the biggest buyer of the meat, last month promised to resume imports after reaching an agreement on beef inspections. The decision came six months after Japan re-imposed a ban implemented when the U.S. found its first case of mad-cow disease in December 2003. Dan Vaught, a cattle analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, said the USDA's decision ``is not too surprising since they've found so few cases.'' Representative Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said mad-cow disease remains a concern and the USDA's decision to scale back testing ``defies logic'' and puts consumers at risk. ``We are all relieved that the enhanced surveillance program found few incidents of domestic cases of BSE, but these findings have not diminished the threat of this deadly disease,'' the Connecticut Democrat said today in a statement. Reducing screening will also save the government millions of dollars, Johannes said. The USDA spent $1 million a week to test about 1,000 animals per day during the enhanced screening period, he said. The total cost of the program since June 2004 was $157.8 million, while the new screening regimen will cost about $17 million annually, the USDA said....
Consumer Groups Criticize USDA Plan To Cut Mad-Cow Tests
The U.S. Agriculture Department's plan to reduce its tests for mad-cow disease by about 90% drew protests Thursday from consumer groups. Critics say now is not the time to scale back the testing, which has cost the government an estimated $1 million per week. "It surely will not encourage consumers in the U.S. or Japan to rush to the store to buy more beef," said Carol Tucker-Foreman, food policy director for Consumer Federation. "If you do testing of 100% of your animals, any ones that test positive never go into the food chain," said Michael Hansen of Consumers Union. "That's in part why they do it in Europe because they've seen animals that look perfectly fine and they catch them just before they go to slaughter." Johanns said testing has nothing to do with the safety of U.S. beef for consumers in the U.S. and abroad. From a food safety standpoint, the real key is removing at slaughter those cattle parts known to carry mad-cow disease, Johanns said. "Those who are trying to convince their consumers that universal testing or 100% testing somehow solves the problem really are misleading you," he said. "Consumers should feel better than ever about the meat that they are buying," Johanns said....
Scientific Criteria Used by USDA Support Claims Canada’s BSE Problem Underestimated
In order to convince the U.S. District Court District of Montana (Court) to rule against R-CALF USA’s lawsuit that seeks to strike down the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Final Rule in 2005, the agency enlisted a team of renowned scientific experts to submit to the Court written declarations, in which these scientists provided the criteria they used to conclude that the Final Rule was supported by sound science. USDA’s Final Rule is titled “Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): Minimal Risk Regions and Imports of Commodities,” which relaxed U.S. import standards for Canadian cattle and beef. “However, by applying today’s circumstances to the criteria USDA and its experts used to reach their decisions, it is clear the agency had insufficient facts with which to accurately assess the risk of BSE in Canada,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “R-CALF argued to no avail that USDA needed to obtain more testing data from Canada so it could conduct a proper risk assessment before drawing premature conclusions about the scope of Canada’s BSE epidemic. Now that trade has been resumed without first gathering this additional information, the unfolding evidence shows USDA underestimated Canada’s BSE problem, and that the key assumptions supporting the Final Rule were not valid.” USDA and its experts asserted to the Court that they had sufficient evidence to conclude that Canada’s BSE problem was waning. USDA experts stated that: “If Canadian animals were exposed later in life to a dose sufficient to cause disease, it would imply that the Canadian feed ban was ineffective and in-feed infectivity amplified greatly after 1997. In that case, however younger animals, born in 1999 and 2000, would have been exposed to the larger dose and also would have been detected with BSE. This has not happened and indicates the Canadian feed ban is adequately protecting animal health even though it was not absolute precisely at the time of implementation.” “This has now happened and today’s facts show even more clearly than when R-CALF USA first filed its lawsuit that this conclusion lacked sound scientific support,” Bullard explained....
USDA ANNOUNCES NEW BSE SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon begin transitioning to an ongoing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance program that corresponds to the extremely low prevalence of the disease in the U.S. "It's time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States," said Johanns. "This ongoing surveillance program will maintain our ability to detect BSE, provide assurance that our interlocking safeguards are successfully preventing BSE, while continuing to exceed science-based international guidelines." The ongoing BSE surveillance program will sample approximately 40,000 animals each year. Under the program, USDA will continue to collect samples from a variety of sites and from the cattle populations where the disease is most likely to be detected, similar to the enhanced surveillance program procedures. The new program will not only comply with the science-based international guidelines set forth by the World Animal Health organization (OIE), it will provide testing at a level ten times higher than the OIE recommended level. USDA has an obligation to provide 30 days notice of the change to contractors who are performing the sampling and testing, so the earliest the new surveillance program would begin is late August. Once the ongoing surveillance program begins, USDA will periodically analyze the surveillance strategy to ensure the program provides the foundation for market confidence in the safety of U.S. cattle. In April, USDA released an analysis of 7 years of BSE surveillance data. This included data from an enhanced surveillance program, which began in June 2004, as a one-time effort to determine the prevalence of BSE in the United States. The analysis concluded that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is less than 1 case per million adult cattle. The analysis further revealed that the most likely number of cases is between 4 and 7 infected animals out of 42 million adult cattle. The analysis was submitted to a peer review process and a panel of outside experts affirmed the conclusions....
U.S. to Reduce Mad-Cow Testing After Few Cases
The U.S. will slash its mad-cow testing program by almost 90 percent after data collected over two years showed a ``very low level'' of the disease in the domestic herd, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. The decision to reduce testing to about 40,000 animals a year was made after experts reviewed an analysis of data on about 700,000 screenings since June 2004, when an enhanced testing program was implemented, Johanns said today at a news conference in Washington. The new program may begin as early as next month after a mandatory 30-day notice period. Johanns said he has talked with Japan and other nations about the changes and doesn't expect they'll affect efforts to reopen markets to U.S. beef. Japan, once the biggest buyer of the meat, last month promised to resume imports after reaching an agreement on beef inspections. The decision came six months after Japan re-imposed a ban implemented when the U.S. found its first case of mad-cow disease in December 2003. Dan Vaught, a cattle analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, said the USDA's decision ``is not too surprising since they've found so few cases.'' Representative Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said mad-cow disease remains a concern and the USDA's decision to scale back testing ``defies logic'' and puts consumers at risk. ``We are all relieved that the enhanced surveillance program found few incidents of domestic cases of BSE, but these findings have not diminished the threat of this deadly disease,'' the Connecticut Democrat said today in a statement. Reducing screening will also save the government millions of dollars, Johannes said. The USDA spent $1 million a week to test about 1,000 animals per day during the enhanced screening period, he said. The total cost of the program since June 2004 was $157.8 million, while the new screening regimen will cost about $17 million annually, the USDA said....
Consumer Groups Criticize USDA Plan To Cut Mad-Cow Tests
The U.S. Agriculture Department's plan to reduce its tests for mad-cow disease by about 90% drew protests Thursday from consumer groups. Critics say now is not the time to scale back the testing, which has cost the government an estimated $1 million per week. "It surely will not encourage consumers in the U.S. or Japan to rush to the store to buy more beef," said Carol Tucker-Foreman, food policy director for Consumer Federation. "If you do testing of 100% of your animals, any ones that test positive never go into the food chain," said Michael Hansen of Consumers Union. "That's in part why they do it in Europe because they've seen animals that look perfectly fine and they catch them just before they go to slaughter." Johanns said testing has nothing to do with the safety of U.S. beef for consumers in the U.S. and abroad. From a food safety standpoint, the real key is removing at slaughter those cattle parts known to carry mad-cow disease, Johanns said. "Those who are trying to convince their consumers that universal testing or 100% testing somehow solves the problem really are misleading you," he said. "Consumers should feel better than ever about the meat that they are buying," Johanns said....
Scientific Criteria Used by USDA Support Claims Canada’s BSE Problem Underestimated
In order to convince the U.S. District Court District of Montana (Court) to rule against R-CALF USA’s lawsuit that seeks to strike down the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Final Rule in 2005, the agency enlisted a team of renowned scientific experts to submit to the Court written declarations, in which these scientists provided the criteria they used to conclude that the Final Rule was supported by sound science. USDA’s Final Rule is titled “Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): Minimal Risk Regions and Imports of Commodities,” which relaxed U.S. import standards for Canadian cattle and beef. “However, by applying today’s circumstances to the criteria USDA and its experts used to reach their decisions, it is clear the agency had insufficient facts with which to accurately assess the risk of BSE in Canada,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “R-CALF argued to no avail that USDA needed to obtain more testing data from Canada so it could conduct a proper risk assessment before drawing premature conclusions about the scope of Canada’s BSE epidemic. Now that trade has been resumed without first gathering this additional information, the unfolding evidence shows USDA underestimated Canada’s BSE problem, and that the key assumptions supporting the Final Rule were not valid.” USDA and its experts asserted to the Court that they had sufficient evidence to conclude that Canada’s BSE problem was waning. USDA experts stated that: “If Canadian animals were exposed later in life to a dose sufficient to cause disease, it would imply that the Canadian feed ban was ineffective and in-feed infectivity amplified greatly after 1997. In that case, however younger animals, born in 1999 and 2000, would have been exposed to the larger dose and also would have been detected with BSE. This has not happened and indicates the Canadian feed ban is adequately protecting animal health even though it was not absolute precisely at the time of implementation.” “This has now happened and today’s facts show even more clearly than when R-CALF USA first filed its lawsuit that this conclusion lacked sound scientific support,” Bullard explained....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Landowners pleased with BP settlement Checks totaling about $120 million have been mailed to about 4,500 landowners in southwestern Colorado, under a settlement struck with BP America over a natural gas royalty payments dispute. The checks ranged from a couple of pennies to nearly $2 million. "It felt pretty good after 12 years," Richard Parry, an Ignacio rancher, said of receiving a check he described as not "one of the largest ones." Parry launched the suit against the former Amoco Production Co. a dozen years ago. BP later bought Amoco. Parry's suit became a class-action lawsuit involving landowners from La Plata and Archuleta counties. The case centered on the underpayment of royalties for natural gas production in the two counties. It was filed in May 1994. In October 2003, a Colorado district judge ruled against BP in the case. He said BP and predecessor Amoco - when calculating royalty payments - couldn't deduct costs tied to getting the gas ready for market....
House panel OK's Idaho wilderness proposal The U.S. House Resources Committee Wednesday approved a bill designating 492 square miles of federal land in central Idaho as protected wilderness while conveying other public land to the state and local governments. The measure now will be scheduled for a final vote on the House floor and then must make it through the U.S. Senate before the end of the year when this session of Congress concludes. "I'm pretty confident it will pass the floor of the House," sponsor Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho said. "After that, it depends on how quickly the Senate moves it." If the measure passes the House, it will go before a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Craig has not taken a position on Simpson's bill, but Simpson said he planned to meet with Craig shortly to brief him on the final version passed by the committee....
Mount Hood bill over a hump A key congressional committee gave unanimous backing Wednesday to a bill setting aside about 77,500 acres of the Mount Hood National Forest as protected wilderness off-limits to logging, roads and motor vehicles. The bill sponsored by Reps. Greg Walden, a Republican from Hood River, and Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat, would secure the rugged Roaring River and towering, 1,000-year-old trees within Mount Hood's first new wilderness in more than 20 years. It also directs the U.S. Forest Service to develop a strategy for crowded and aging forests at high risk of wildfires and redirects funding to pay for trails and other facilities in what has become a prized playground for Portland. President Bush would sign the bill if it gets to the White House, Walden said Wednesday. But that will depend on whether the Senate also backs new wilderness on Oregon's iconic mountain....
Guilty plea in eco-terrorist plot A 20-year-old man entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy in connection with an apparent eco-terrorist plot to blow up commercial and government buildings in the Sacramento region, including the U.S. Forest Service Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville. The eco-terrorist group, and Zachary Jenson of Seattle, allegedly planned to take credit for their actions on behalf of the Earth Liberation Forum, said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. Numerous law-enforcement agencies -- including the FBI, state and local police -- investigated the case. Under the plea agreement, Jenson acknowledges that the federal terrorism enhancement applies to his crime, which increases the penalties. He also has agreed to cooperate with the federal government's case, including to testify against co-defendant Eric McDavid. A third co-conspirator, Lauren Weiner, pled guilty on May 30....
Missoula County favors alternative forest plan Missoula County and six other county commissions have sent letters to the Forest Service encouraging the agency to consider an alternative management plan for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest proposed by an unusual coalition of conservation groups and timber industry interests. But the two counties in the heart of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest say reopening the process to update the forest's land use plan is just plain “a lousy idea.” Last April, a coalition of conservation groups and timber industry officials proposed the plan that includes setting aside portions of the 3.3-million-acre forest for wilderness and as suitable timber base. The proposal also called for using stewardship contracting on most timber sales, which allows that money raised by logging to stay on the forest to pay for activities like weed control, trail maintenance and improving fish habitat. So far, the proposal has received a lukewarm reception from the Forest Service....
Groups Appeal Bush Administration’s Plans for Southern California’s National Forests A coalition of conservation organizations today appealed the Bush administration’s revised Land Management Plans for Southern California’s four national forests, outlining a litany of flaws that would result in more environmental damage on these popular, biologically rich forests. The 250-page administrative appeal cites numerous problems with the management plans, including an inadequate and illegal analysis on related impacts to roadless and wilderness areas, plants and forests, and native wildlife species. The organizations charge that the plans focus too much on expanding roads, motorized recreation and commercial, extractive uses such as logging and oil drilling rather than protecting the natural values and low-impact recreational uses that so many citizens enjoy. The Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests are within a of couple hours’ drive of 20 million people, and boast some of the country’s most popular places to hike, camp, picnic, fish and hunt, bird watch, rock-climb, mountain bike, horseback ride, stargaze, and indulge in a host of other nature-based activities. These 3.5 million acres of public forests also are part of the California Floristic Province, which is recognized as a global biological “hotspot” – defined as an area that harbors an incredible diversity of life but is also undergoing rapid habitat loss. As such, the forest plans are tremendously important for both people and the native plants and animals of southern California....
Senators Question Wildfire Prevention Program Additional money is needed to treat land in the West that is vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires, members of the Senate subcommittee on public lands and forests concluded Wednesday. This comes despite the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, signed into law in December 2003, which helps remove timber, wood pulp and other flammable materials from lands susceptible to fires. It also pays for forest projects to prevent wildfires that could damage residential areas. Out of 1.6 million acres treated across the country this year, slightly more than 44,000 acres were in Colorado. Dale Bosworth, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, attributed the small acreage to the high cost of land treatment. He pointed out that acreage in the Southeast U.S. costs less to treat than land in the West. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said that there were at least 240,000 acres of hazardous lands that needed to be handled by the forest service. He called the low number of treated acres a "lack of responsibility" by the government. "This is similar to Katrina," Salazar said. "It's the Katrina of the west. You can see it coming up from the coast, yet the government didn't do enough. Now we're paying billions and billions, and that can happen again." As of Wednesday, the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported more than 63,000 fires so far this year that burned more than 4 million acres. That's above the 10-year seasonal average of 47,000 fires and 2.5 million acres....
Task force crafts roadless plan After months of listening to the public, government experts and each other, members of a task force started crafting recommendations Wednesday on how 4.4 million acres of remote national forest land in Colorado should be managed. The 13-member panel formed by the Legislature and Gov. Bill Owens plans to submit a proposal by mid-September recommending whether the land declared off-limits to development under the Clinton administration should still be protected. "It's hard, it's slow," said Russell George, head of the state Department of Natural Resources. "But the group has held together very well." George, the task force chairman, said the group intends to give the public a chance to comment on its suggestions before a final version is sent to the governor....
New wolf pack at Sevilleta will soon be released A pack of four Mexican gray wolves will be placed in a temporary holding pen, located near Middle Mountain in the Apache National Forest, in preparation for the endangered animals' release in Arizona. Arizona Game and Fish Department officials say the wolves will be moved to the pen site this month in order to meet ongoing wolf reintroduction objectives. The pack is currently at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in northern Socorro County. The Meridian pack consists of an alpha male and female and two pups. Maggie Dwire, for the New Mexico Wolf Project, said that the male came from a research facility in St. Louis while the female is from a Minneapolis zoo. Kim King-Wrenn, outdoor recreation planner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Sevilleta, explained how the two wolves got together. She said that representatives from all of the 40-plus zoos and research centers get together once a year. One person is in charge of the studbook. At that time, the agencies see who has wolves that can be bred as well as who has the facilities and financial resources necessary to establish a pack with pups....
Public input sought on land bill Jim Crisp, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's St. George Field Office, spoke during the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Holiday Inn about the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate on July 11 and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced it in the U.S. House of Representatives the next day. "The bill has significant ramifications for the county," Crisp said. "It affects every person here, whether directly or indirectly." Crisp focused many of his comments on the minimum of 20,000 acres of BLM land that is expected to be sold into private ownership, according to language in the bill. He said the first 1,000 acres or so will come from about 15 isolated parcels in and around the urban corridor. The local outreach initiative associated with the bill, Vision Dixie, will be an opportunity for the public to help plan the coming growth, Crisp said. Some public workshops are already planned for this fall. Crisp said the BLM is seeking input from residents on which eligible land parcels should be chosen to sell. He said if the public does not help, the decisions will end up being made by "very small groups of people doing the best they can."....
Buckeye's boom Buckeye is a place where the best breakfast in town is right on Main Street, where a man still feels comfortable leaving his car running as he jets inside a corner store. It's a place where you tell someone to meet you at "the Sonic" because there's only one. Signs, though, hint things soon will be sharply different for a town that could someday be as large as Phoenix. The acres of empty land are filling up with plats for homes that will make up more than 30 master-planned communities like Verrado. Town Council meetings provide standing room only and are filled with developers holding poster boards with more plans for Buckeye's future. The numbers say the town could have 1 million people by 2025, up from about 25,000 now. The most current manifestation of the town's growth is happening now as Buckeye prepares to annex 108 square miles, which would increase the town's size by a third. It would be one of the largest municipal annexations in Arizona's history. But the vast land is not planned for bricks and mortar of retail development. Instead, town leaders want to set it aside for parks and recreation, filled with trails where horses can roam and families can hike. The Federal Bureau of Land Management owns most of the property, which includes the town's entire southeastern planning area....
BLM reopens comment period on Vegas water plan The Bureau of Land Management is reopening the public comment period on plans by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump millions of gallons of water from rural areas to Las Vegas. The agency said substantial changes have been made to the plan since the initial scoping period last year, requiring public further comment in advance of a draft environmental impact statement. Changes include conveyance of about 3,600 acre-feet of water per year to the Lincoln County Water District, the cancellation of proposed groundwater development in the Tikaboo Valley North Basin, and shifts in alignment and location of well fields and facilities. The agency wants to pump up to 180,000 acre-feet of water a year from Lincoln and White Pine counties and rural areas of Clark County to meet the demands of growing Las Vegas....
Senators push for fossil monument Two U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would create a new, 5,367-acre national monument west of Las Cruces to protect ancient fossilized footprints. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., entered a bill into a Senate committee June 29 that would create a monument in the Robledo Mountains. It was co-sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. A local group pushing for the preservation of 290-million-year-old tracks says it's pleased with the move, though the bill has upset some area off-road vehicle enthusiasts, who say the proposed boundaries are too large. Las Crucen Greg Smith, a Doña Ana County resident who lives near the trackways site, is a member of the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation, a group formed earlier this year to push for the legislation. "We're very pleased," he said. "Obviously this isn't the end thing, but it's a big first step." Doña Ana County resident Fred Huff, an off-road vehicle enthusiast, said his organization, the Las Cruces Four-Wheel Drive Club, was surprised to see how large the boundaries are for the proposed monument. The bill's language includes a provision that would allow the Chile Challenge, a yearly off-roading event, to continue, but Huff said he doesn't think the wording is strong enough. Huff said in addition, fossils aren't visible at many of the several sites proposed for protection....
Big cabin in Big Prairie poses big questions for Glacier Big Prairie in Glacier National Park is home to many things. Herds of elk and deer. The occasional grizzly. Wolves. It does, in many ways, embody the concept of the North American Serengeti. Now it has a big new cabin as well. Landowner Bill Smith of Georgia has put the cabin on his property after receiving a variance from the county for a septic system. The future of the parcel has been a point of contention for years - the previous landowner, Gerald Penovich, a Chicago attorney went back and forth with Glacier Park officials for years. The lot, which is .22 acres, went idle after the cabin on it burned down in the Red Bench Fire of 1988. Penovich, in turn, wanted to rebuild on the site, which started a battle of documents between him and Glacier. Glacier did a study that determined the site was in the floodplain....
Congressional Earmark to Pad Park Service Payroll Entering a new dimension of micromanagement, Congress is now seeking to specify the pay grades and civil service rankings for individual park managers, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The earmark for one National Park superintendent in Mississippi marks the first time that Congress would inject itself into specifying the grade ranking for individual civil servants and may open the floodgates to similar moves designed to boost federal payrolls in particular districts or states. At the behest of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Thad Cochran (R-MS), the funding bill for the National Park Service stipulates that "The position of Superintendent of the Natchez Trace Parkway [in Mississippi] shall be classified in the Senior Executive Service," the top federal civil service grade, ranking just below a political appointee, with a salary range of between $109,000 and $165,000 per year. Sen. Cochran would consolidate four small park units in his state (the Natchez Trace Parkway, Natchez National Historical Park, Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, and Tupelo National Battlefield) and place them under the supervision of one Senior Executive Service (SES) slot. These combined units, however, employ only 110 workers, out of the entire187-person Park Service workforce in Mississippi, according to Office of Personnel Management figures....
Enviro groups petition feds to protect plant habitat Three environmental and citizens’ groups have called on the federal government to increase the critical habitat for an endangered plant that’s known to exist only in and along the adobe hills of Delta and Montrose counties. The Center for Native Ecosystems, the Colorado Native Plant Society and Montrose’s Uncompahgre Valley Association filed a petition on Monday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the hopes of protecting clay-loving wild buckwheat from growing threats such as suburban sprawl, a proposed beltway around Montrose, and the use of off-road vehicles on public lands. “This really could be a relatively straightforward action for the Fish and Wildlife Service to take that would have a concrete consequence for the species,” said Josh Pollock, executive director for the Center for Native Ecosystems. Pollard said adding to the designated habitat would increase the consideration federal agencies must give to the species in their management decisions....
Alaska Brown Bears Gain Global Internet Audience Armchair travelers, take note. Now all you need to watch brown bears fishing at the famed McNeil River Falls is an Internet connection. Thanks to a collaborative effort among the Pratt Museum, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the National Park Service, the National Geographic Society, RealNetworks, SeeMore Wildlife Systems and others, images from remote camera aimed at bears inside the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary can now be viewed live on the Internet. Simply click on the Pratt Museum's website to link to National Geographic's WildCam Grizzlies Web page, where the live video is hosted. Right now the cameras are active from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Alaska time. From 1 to 5 p.m. daily, the camera is controlled by an interpreter at Homer's Pratt Museum who pans the McNeil Falls and zooms in on bears catching salmon or competing with each other over prime fishing spots. At other times, the camera cycles through a series of preset positions to provide a variety of views. The remote video system is shut off at night to conserve solar power....
Fans fly to bald eagle blog Atop a great white pine, Big is venturing out on limbs now, spreading his or her wings in preparation for flight. Little, four days younger, also is branching out and should take to the sky soon. The two bald eagles and their parents are the surprise superstars of a round-the-clock Internet reality show featuring love and adventure, flight and feeding -- and fatal sibling rivalry. The full-time eagle blog and video-stream was designed by a group of Maine scientists who wanted to help people connect with nature from their computers. Other video monitoring stations have been set up to observe bald eagles, but have not reached the public in the same way. Tens of thousands of Internet viewers watched (www.briloon.org/ed/eagle/index.htm) as the first eaglet -- known as Big -- hatched April 10. Within days, two more chicks followed. Goodale and state and federal scientists were thrilled too -- eagle triplets are rare in Maine, and this was a chance to observe them closely.
Life in the eagle family was idyllic at first....
Aquifer's drop triggers water limits for region Sixteen months of drought finally caught up with the Edwards Aquifer on Wednesday, draining it to the trigger point for restrictions on water usage — and forcing homeowners and anyone else with landscaping to adopt a once-a-week lawn-sprinkling schedule. The aquifer hit 649.5 feet above sea level in San Antonio, leading the Edwards Aquifer Authority to order its customers — mainly water utilities, cities and large commercial operations — to slash usage by 5 percent or face penalties. The drop below 650 feet also triggered municipal drought plans in the region, affecting homeowners. "We've been on the cusp of getting below 650 for a while," said Robert Potts, the authority's general manager. "Fortunately, because of people using less water and some well-timed rains, we've been able to put restrictions off until now. The longer we can delay the better off this region is, because there are a lot of folks who depend on this water for their businesses and their livelihoods." Although most restrictions announced Wednesday apply to Edwards Aquifer users, some who rely on other sources in the San Antonio area were placed under the same restrictions....
Americans Spend Less Than 10 percent of Disposable Income on Food The U.S. consumer is spending a bit more of their disposable income to purchase food than the previous year, but they still enjoy the cheapest, most abundant food supply in the world, according to new statistics released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's no secret that Americans continue to get a bargain with their food dollar," says Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "We should all thank our productive and efficient farmers and ranchers for making that bargain possible." USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) has recently released food expenditure statistics for 2005. They show that Americans are spending, on average, 9.9 percent of their disposable income on food. That's up slightly from 9.7 percent in 2004 but very consistent with figures over the past five years. The percentage dropped to single digits for the first time in recorded U.S. history in 2000. Twenty years ago, American consumers spent 11.7 percent of their disposable income on food. Thirty years ago, that figure was 15.1 percent. Going back in history, Americans spent about 20 percent of their income on food about the time today's baby boomers were born. In 1933, the figure was more than 25 percent....
Basque sheep rancher clings to tradition Any way you look at it, Pete Camino is an unusual man. He is one of a dwindling number of people in the U.S. who still speak Basque, the language of the fiercely independent people of mysterious origin who inhabit the western Pyrenees of France and Spain. He is also a Wyoming sheep rancher at a time when they are becoming as rare as Basque speakers. And he is something of a movie star. A showing of "The Last Link," which chronicles Camino's journey back to the land of his parents, will be a highlight of the Sheep Wagon Festival in Buffalo this weekend. The Bighorn Basque Club will host the event, which is the annual convention and festival of the North American Basque Organization. There will be dances, concerts, a bike race, a sheep-wagon parade, Basque athletic competitions and lots of Basque food....
2 Wilson reprints retell history of Hi-Line “Last evening George Francis was declared guilty of horse stealing by a jury of twelve citizens of Hill County ... . “Francis is one of the most widely known men in Northern Montana. He is a pleasant, likeable fellow with many friends and admirers ... . He is a product of a certain class of early day ranchers who did not believe or consider it unethical to brand everything found unbranded to ‘keep even.’ “Yesterday the death knell of such practices and distorted moral principles was sounded ... . In reality Francis deserves sympathy. He is the victim of betrayed friendships. But even their position can be appreciated. It is hard for some people to realize that the old Montana is gone and a new Montana has arrived. “... The jig is up.” That editorial excerpt from a Havre Plaindealer of 1919 sums up some of the cultural conflicts that were waged along the Hi-Line for decades and are chronicled in re-issues of two Gary A. Wilson books: “‘Long George’ Francis: Gentleman Outlaw of Montana” and “Honky-Tonk Town: Havre’s Lawless Era.” Both of these $12.95 paperbacks from Globe Pequot Press of Connecticut originally were published by other independent publishers in Montana....
Landowners pleased with BP settlement Checks totaling about $120 million have been mailed to about 4,500 landowners in southwestern Colorado, under a settlement struck with BP America over a natural gas royalty payments dispute. The checks ranged from a couple of pennies to nearly $2 million. "It felt pretty good after 12 years," Richard Parry, an Ignacio rancher, said of receiving a check he described as not "one of the largest ones." Parry launched the suit against the former Amoco Production Co. a dozen years ago. BP later bought Amoco. Parry's suit became a class-action lawsuit involving landowners from La Plata and Archuleta counties. The case centered on the underpayment of royalties for natural gas production in the two counties. It was filed in May 1994. In October 2003, a Colorado district judge ruled against BP in the case. He said BP and predecessor Amoco - when calculating royalty payments - couldn't deduct costs tied to getting the gas ready for market....
House panel OK's Idaho wilderness proposal The U.S. House Resources Committee Wednesday approved a bill designating 492 square miles of federal land in central Idaho as protected wilderness while conveying other public land to the state and local governments. The measure now will be scheduled for a final vote on the House floor and then must make it through the U.S. Senate before the end of the year when this session of Congress concludes. "I'm pretty confident it will pass the floor of the House," sponsor Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho said. "After that, it depends on how quickly the Senate moves it." If the measure passes the House, it will go before a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Craig has not taken a position on Simpson's bill, but Simpson said he planned to meet with Craig shortly to brief him on the final version passed by the committee....
Mount Hood bill over a hump A key congressional committee gave unanimous backing Wednesday to a bill setting aside about 77,500 acres of the Mount Hood National Forest as protected wilderness off-limits to logging, roads and motor vehicles. The bill sponsored by Reps. Greg Walden, a Republican from Hood River, and Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat, would secure the rugged Roaring River and towering, 1,000-year-old trees within Mount Hood's first new wilderness in more than 20 years. It also directs the U.S. Forest Service to develop a strategy for crowded and aging forests at high risk of wildfires and redirects funding to pay for trails and other facilities in what has become a prized playground for Portland. President Bush would sign the bill if it gets to the White House, Walden said Wednesday. But that will depend on whether the Senate also backs new wilderness on Oregon's iconic mountain....
Guilty plea in eco-terrorist plot A 20-year-old man entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy in connection with an apparent eco-terrorist plot to blow up commercial and government buildings in the Sacramento region, including the U.S. Forest Service Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville. The eco-terrorist group, and Zachary Jenson of Seattle, allegedly planned to take credit for their actions on behalf of the Earth Liberation Forum, said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. Numerous law-enforcement agencies -- including the FBI, state and local police -- investigated the case. Under the plea agreement, Jenson acknowledges that the federal terrorism enhancement applies to his crime, which increases the penalties. He also has agreed to cooperate with the federal government's case, including to testify against co-defendant Eric McDavid. A third co-conspirator, Lauren Weiner, pled guilty on May 30....
Missoula County favors alternative forest plan Missoula County and six other county commissions have sent letters to the Forest Service encouraging the agency to consider an alternative management plan for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest proposed by an unusual coalition of conservation groups and timber industry interests. But the two counties in the heart of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest say reopening the process to update the forest's land use plan is just plain “a lousy idea.” Last April, a coalition of conservation groups and timber industry officials proposed the plan that includes setting aside portions of the 3.3-million-acre forest for wilderness and as suitable timber base. The proposal also called for using stewardship contracting on most timber sales, which allows that money raised by logging to stay on the forest to pay for activities like weed control, trail maintenance and improving fish habitat. So far, the proposal has received a lukewarm reception from the Forest Service....
Groups Appeal Bush Administration’s Plans for Southern California’s National Forests A coalition of conservation organizations today appealed the Bush administration’s revised Land Management Plans for Southern California’s four national forests, outlining a litany of flaws that would result in more environmental damage on these popular, biologically rich forests. The 250-page administrative appeal cites numerous problems with the management plans, including an inadequate and illegal analysis on related impacts to roadless and wilderness areas, plants and forests, and native wildlife species. The organizations charge that the plans focus too much on expanding roads, motorized recreation and commercial, extractive uses such as logging and oil drilling rather than protecting the natural values and low-impact recreational uses that so many citizens enjoy. The Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests are within a of couple hours’ drive of 20 million people, and boast some of the country’s most popular places to hike, camp, picnic, fish and hunt, bird watch, rock-climb, mountain bike, horseback ride, stargaze, and indulge in a host of other nature-based activities. These 3.5 million acres of public forests also are part of the California Floristic Province, which is recognized as a global biological “hotspot” – defined as an area that harbors an incredible diversity of life but is also undergoing rapid habitat loss. As such, the forest plans are tremendously important for both people and the native plants and animals of southern California....
Senators Question Wildfire Prevention Program Additional money is needed to treat land in the West that is vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires, members of the Senate subcommittee on public lands and forests concluded Wednesday. This comes despite the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, signed into law in December 2003, which helps remove timber, wood pulp and other flammable materials from lands susceptible to fires. It also pays for forest projects to prevent wildfires that could damage residential areas. Out of 1.6 million acres treated across the country this year, slightly more than 44,000 acres were in Colorado. Dale Bosworth, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, attributed the small acreage to the high cost of land treatment. He pointed out that acreage in the Southeast U.S. costs less to treat than land in the West. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said that there were at least 240,000 acres of hazardous lands that needed to be handled by the forest service. He called the low number of treated acres a "lack of responsibility" by the government. "This is similar to Katrina," Salazar said. "It's the Katrina of the west. You can see it coming up from the coast, yet the government didn't do enough. Now we're paying billions and billions, and that can happen again." As of Wednesday, the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported more than 63,000 fires so far this year that burned more than 4 million acres. That's above the 10-year seasonal average of 47,000 fires and 2.5 million acres....
Task force crafts roadless plan After months of listening to the public, government experts and each other, members of a task force started crafting recommendations Wednesday on how 4.4 million acres of remote national forest land in Colorado should be managed. The 13-member panel formed by the Legislature and Gov. Bill Owens plans to submit a proposal by mid-September recommending whether the land declared off-limits to development under the Clinton administration should still be protected. "It's hard, it's slow," said Russell George, head of the state Department of Natural Resources. "But the group has held together very well." George, the task force chairman, said the group intends to give the public a chance to comment on its suggestions before a final version is sent to the governor....
New wolf pack at Sevilleta will soon be released A pack of four Mexican gray wolves will be placed in a temporary holding pen, located near Middle Mountain in the Apache National Forest, in preparation for the endangered animals' release in Arizona. Arizona Game and Fish Department officials say the wolves will be moved to the pen site this month in order to meet ongoing wolf reintroduction objectives. The pack is currently at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in northern Socorro County. The Meridian pack consists of an alpha male and female and two pups. Maggie Dwire, for the New Mexico Wolf Project, said that the male came from a research facility in St. Louis while the female is from a Minneapolis zoo. Kim King-Wrenn, outdoor recreation planner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Sevilleta, explained how the two wolves got together. She said that representatives from all of the 40-plus zoos and research centers get together once a year. One person is in charge of the studbook. At that time, the agencies see who has wolves that can be bred as well as who has the facilities and financial resources necessary to establish a pack with pups....
Public input sought on land bill Jim Crisp, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's St. George Field Office, spoke during the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Holiday Inn about the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate on July 11 and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, introduced it in the U.S. House of Representatives the next day. "The bill has significant ramifications for the county," Crisp said. "It affects every person here, whether directly or indirectly." Crisp focused many of his comments on the minimum of 20,000 acres of BLM land that is expected to be sold into private ownership, according to language in the bill. He said the first 1,000 acres or so will come from about 15 isolated parcels in and around the urban corridor. The local outreach initiative associated with the bill, Vision Dixie, will be an opportunity for the public to help plan the coming growth, Crisp said. Some public workshops are already planned for this fall. Crisp said the BLM is seeking input from residents on which eligible land parcels should be chosen to sell. He said if the public does not help, the decisions will end up being made by "very small groups of people doing the best they can."....
Buckeye's boom Buckeye is a place where the best breakfast in town is right on Main Street, where a man still feels comfortable leaving his car running as he jets inside a corner store. It's a place where you tell someone to meet you at "the Sonic" because there's only one. Signs, though, hint things soon will be sharply different for a town that could someday be as large as Phoenix. The acres of empty land are filling up with plats for homes that will make up more than 30 master-planned communities like Verrado. Town Council meetings provide standing room only and are filled with developers holding poster boards with more plans for Buckeye's future. The numbers say the town could have 1 million people by 2025, up from about 25,000 now. The most current manifestation of the town's growth is happening now as Buckeye prepares to annex 108 square miles, which would increase the town's size by a third. It would be one of the largest municipal annexations in Arizona's history. But the vast land is not planned for bricks and mortar of retail development. Instead, town leaders want to set it aside for parks and recreation, filled with trails where horses can roam and families can hike. The Federal Bureau of Land Management owns most of the property, which includes the town's entire southeastern planning area....
BLM reopens comment period on Vegas water plan The Bureau of Land Management is reopening the public comment period on plans by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump millions of gallons of water from rural areas to Las Vegas. The agency said substantial changes have been made to the plan since the initial scoping period last year, requiring public further comment in advance of a draft environmental impact statement. Changes include conveyance of about 3,600 acre-feet of water per year to the Lincoln County Water District, the cancellation of proposed groundwater development in the Tikaboo Valley North Basin, and shifts in alignment and location of well fields and facilities. The agency wants to pump up to 180,000 acre-feet of water a year from Lincoln and White Pine counties and rural areas of Clark County to meet the demands of growing Las Vegas....
Senators push for fossil monument Two U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would create a new, 5,367-acre national monument west of Las Cruces to protect ancient fossilized footprints. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., entered a bill into a Senate committee June 29 that would create a monument in the Robledo Mountains. It was co-sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. A local group pushing for the preservation of 290-million-year-old tracks says it's pleased with the move, though the bill has upset some area off-road vehicle enthusiasts, who say the proposed boundaries are too large. Las Crucen Greg Smith, a Doña Ana County resident who lives near the trackways site, is a member of the Paleozoic Trackways Foundation, a group formed earlier this year to push for the legislation. "We're very pleased," he said. "Obviously this isn't the end thing, but it's a big first step." Doña Ana County resident Fred Huff, an off-road vehicle enthusiast, said his organization, the Las Cruces Four-Wheel Drive Club, was surprised to see how large the boundaries are for the proposed monument. The bill's language includes a provision that would allow the Chile Challenge, a yearly off-roading event, to continue, but Huff said he doesn't think the wording is strong enough. Huff said in addition, fossils aren't visible at many of the several sites proposed for protection....
Big cabin in Big Prairie poses big questions for Glacier Big Prairie in Glacier National Park is home to many things. Herds of elk and deer. The occasional grizzly. Wolves. It does, in many ways, embody the concept of the North American Serengeti. Now it has a big new cabin as well. Landowner Bill Smith of Georgia has put the cabin on his property after receiving a variance from the county for a septic system. The future of the parcel has been a point of contention for years - the previous landowner, Gerald Penovich, a Chicago attorney went back and forth with Glacier Park officials for years. The lot, which is .22 acres, went idle after the cabin on it burned down in the Red Bench Fire of 1988. Penovich, in turn, wanted to rebuild on the site, which started a battle of documents between him and Glacier. Glacier did a study that determined the site was in the floodplain....
Congressional Earmark to Pad Park Service Payroll Entering a new dimension of micromanagement, Congress is now seeking to specify the pay grades and civil service rankings for individual park managers, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The earmark for one National Park superintendent in Mississippi marks the first time that Congress would inject itself into specifying the grade ranking for individual civil servants and may open the floodgates to similar moves designed to boost federal payrolls in particular districts or states. At the behest of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Thad Cochran (R-MS), the funding bill for the National Park Service stipulates that "The position of Superintendent of the Natchez Trace Parkway [in Mississippi] shall be classified in the Senior Executive Service," the top federal civil service grade, ranking just below a political appointee, with a salary range of between $109,000 and $165,000 per year. Sen. Cochran would consolidate four small park units in his state (the Natchez Trace Parkway, Natchez National Historical Park, Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, and Tupelo National Battlefield) and place them under the supervision of one Senior Executive Service (SES) slot. These combined units, however, employ only 110 workers, out of the entire187-person Park Service workforce in Mississippi, according to Office of Personnel Management figures....
Enviro groups petition feds to protect plant habitat Three environmental and citizens’ groups have called on the federal government to increase the critical habitat for an endangered plant that’s known to exist only in and along the adobe hills of Delta and Montrose counties. The Center for Native Ecosystems, the Colorado Native Plant Society and Montrose’s Uncompahgre Valley Association filed a petition on Monday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the hopes of protecting clay-loving wild buckwheat from growing threats such as suburban sprawl, a proposed beltway around Montrose, and the use of off-road vehicles on public lands. “This really could be a relatively straightforward action for the Fish and Wildlife Service to take that would have a concrete consequence for the species,” said Josh Pollock, executive director for the Center for Native Ecosystems. Pollard said adding to the designated habitat would increase the consideration federal agencies must give to the species in their management decisions....
Alaska Brown Bears Gain Global Internet Audience Armchair travelers, take note. Now all you need to watch brown bears fishing at the famed McNeil River Falls is an Internet connection. Thanks to a collaborative effort among the Pratt Museum, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the National Park Service, the National Geographic Society, RealNetworks, SeeMore Wildlife Systems and others, images from remote camera aimed at bears inside the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary can now be viewed live on the Internet. Simply click on the Pratt Museum's website to link to National Geographic's WildCam Grizzlies Web page, where the live video is hosted. Right now the cameras are active from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Alaska time. From 1 to 5 p.m. daily, the camera is controlled by an interpreter at Homer's Pratt Museum who pans the McNeil Falls and zooms in on bears catching salmon or competing with each other over prime fishing spots. At other times, the camera cycles through a series of preset positions to provide a variety of views. The remote video system is shut off at night to conserve solar power....
Fans fly to bald eagle blog Atop a great white pine, Big is venturing out on limbs now, spreading his or her wings in preparation for flight. Little, four days younger, also is branching out and should take to the sky soon. The two bald eagles and their parents are the surprise superstars of a round-the-clock Internet reality show featuring love and adventure, flight and feeding -- and fatal sibling rivalry. The full-time eagle blog and video-stream was designed by a group of Maine scientists who wanted to help people connect with nature from their computers. Other video monitoring stations have been set up to observe bald eagles, but have not reached the public in the same way. Tens of thousands of Internet viewers watched (www.briloon.org/ed/eagle/index.htm) as the first eaglet -- known as Big -- hatched April 10. Within days, two more chicks followed. Goodale and state and federal scientists were thrilled too -- eagle triplets are rare in Maine, and this was a chance to observe them closely.
Life in the eagle family was idyllic at first....
Aquifer's drop triggers water limits for region Sixteen months of drought finally caught up with the Edwards Aquifer on Wednesday, draining it to the trigger point for restrictions on water usage — and forcing homeowners and anyone else with landscaping to adopt a once-a-week lawn-sprinkling schedule. The aquifer hit 649.5 feet above sea level in San Antonio, leading the Edwards Aquifer Authority to order its customers — mainly water utilities, cities and large commercial operations — to slash usage by 5 percent or face penalties. The drop below 650 feet also triggered municipal drought plans in the region, affecting homeowners. "We've been on the cusp of getting below 650 for a while," said Robert Potts, the authority's general manager. "Fortunately, because of people using less water and some well-timed rains, we've been able to put restrictions off until now. The longer we can delay the better off this region is, because there are a lot of folks who depend on this water for their businesses and their livelihoods." Although most restrictions announced Wednesday apply to Edwards Aquifer users, some who rely on other sources in the San Antonio area were placed under the same restrictions....
Americans Spend Less Than 10 percent of Disposable Income on Food The U.S. consumer is spending a bit more of their disposable income to purchase food than the previous year, but they still enjoy the cheapest, most abundant food supply in the world, according to new statistics released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's no secret that Americans continue to get a bargain with their food dollar," says Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "We should all thank our productive and efficient farmers and ranchers for making that bargain possible." USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) has recently released food expenditure statistics for 2005. They show that Americans are spending, on average, 9.9 percent of their disposable income on food. That's up slightly from 9.7 percent in 2004 but very consistent with figures over the past five years. The percentage dropped to single digits for the first time in recorded U.S. history in 2000. Twenty years ago, American consumers spent 11.7 percent of their disposable income on food. Thirty years ago, that figure was 15.1 percent. Going back in history, Americans spent about 20 percent of their income on food about the time today's baby boomers were born. In 1933, the figure was more than 25 percent....
Basque sheep rancher clings to tradition Any way you look at it, Pete Camino is an unusual man. He is one of a dwindling number of people in the U.S. who still speak Basque, the language of the fiercely independent people of mysterious origin who inhabit the western Pyrenees of France and Spain. He is also a Wyoming sheep rancher at a time when they are becoming as rare as Basque speakers. And he is something of a movie star. A showing of "The Last Link," which chronicles Camino's journey back to the land of his parents, will be a highlight of the Sheep Wagon Festival in Buffalo this weekend. The Bighorn Basque Club will host the event, which is the annual convention and festival of the North American Basque Organization. There will be dances, concerts, a bike race, a sheep-wagon parade, Basque athletic competitions and lots of Basque food....
2 Wilson reprints retell history of Hi-Line “Last evening George Francis was declared guilty of horse stealing by a jury of twelve citizens of Hill County ... . “Francis is one of the most widely known men in Northern Montana. He is a pleasant, likeable fellow with many friends and admirers ... . He is a product of a certain class of early day ranchers who did not believe or consider it unethical to brand everything found unbranded to ‘keep even.’ “Yesterday the death knell of such practices and distorted moral principles was sounded ... . In reality Francis deserves sympathy. He is the victim of betrayed friendships. But even their position can be appreciated. It is hard for some people to realize that the old Montana is gone and a new Montana has arrived. “... The jig is up.” That editorial excerpt from a Havre Plaindealer of 1919 sums up some of the cultural conflicts that were waged along the Hi-Line for decades and are chronicled in re-issues of two Gary A. Wilson books: “‘Long George’ Francis: Gentleman Outlaw of Montana” and “Honky-Tonk Town: Havre’s Lawless Era.” Both of these $12.95 paperbacks from Globe Pequot Press of Connecticut originally were published by other independent publishers in Montana....
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