NOTE TO READERS
There will be a - hopefully - short hiatus in The Westerner.
Those who are long time readers know I have multiple sclerosis. On Tuesday I will have surgery to implant a baclofen pump to help with the spasticity and clonus in my legs.
The surgery will be in El Paso, and then I will spend an undetermined amount of time at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern New Mexico. I've been there before, I will have my laptop, and they do have WiFi. The kicker is though, the farther you are from the nurses station the slower the connection. So we will see how lucky I am in the room I draw.
I'm fairly confident I'll be back posting next week and possibly before, so check back in.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Adios Wayne, save us a seat up yonder
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
Recently, I was told the way to recognize a cowboy funeral is when you pull up to the church or funeral home, the parking lot is full of pickup trucks.
If times are good, they'll be muddy, some will have hay loaded in the back and others will have a patient cowdog waiting for the return of his cowboy.
Most of the folks are dressed in Wranglers, boots and hats. A branding iron is likely to be standing by the door where they branded the casket - a final brand for the old cowboy.
All the talk, when folks are talking, is about grass and rain and this time of year, mention will be made of calf prices and shipping dates.
In circles over a meal served to family and friends, wonderful stories will be told about the cowboy they'd come to honor and lay to rest.
This week, we lost an icon of the true West - cowboy, rancher, husband, father, grandfather and pioneer.
Wayne Withers proved just how tough he was right to the end, against all odds.
He was 95 when he made the crossover to the big corral up yonder, and for 73 of those years, he'd been teasing and loving his bride, Annie.
I sat with the couple just before their 70th anniversary, and the love between them could have swallowed me up.
They verbally sparred over the stories they told me about an era of hard times that forged their grit and character.
"Do you want to know about the girls I danced with or the broncs I rode?" he would say with a twinkle in his eyes.
Their life's tale exposed the heartbreak of living in a country where the government took not one, but two ranches from them to create what we know today as the White Sands Missile Range.
Wayne was 5 years old when his dad left him and his brothers alone, ages 7 and 10, to tend 700 head of cattle and a herd of horses while he went in search of a new ranch.
By the time he was 11, Wayne had already hired out on a couple of different wagons and worked cattle for other people.
He recalled during one of his $1-a-day jobs down by Three Rivers, he got drug by a horse. He was so skinned up and sore, the only place he could sit that didn't hurt was in the kitchen sink. He took his meals there.
Wayne was in a small plane crash in 1955 and scored a broken leg that laid him up for a year.
His dad, who had a legendary streak of orneriness, was good about putting the boys on horses that would buck. "We'd be leaving out at three in the morning and I'll tell ya, it's a trick to ride a bucking horse you can't see in the dark," Wayne recalled.
And then there was dancing. Next to riding bucking horses, Wayne loved to dance.
He and Annie danced for 60 years. They met at a dance and country dances were their passion for all of those years.
To them, dancing made all the hard times worth living.
When we catch up with Wayne in Heaven, he will, no doubt, be telling stories about horses that bucked, pretty girls that danced and "it was darn sure worth a 9-mile ride to a dance, stay until 2 a.m. and then ride back home, ready to work."
Adios Wayne. When your tales are retold, it will always be with the memory of you with that big grin that just never did hide how ornery you were.
And Wayne, you left the world a better place having been in it.
Visit Julie’s website at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
Recently, I was told the way to recognize a cowboy funeral is when you pull up to the church or funeral home, the parking lot is full of pickup trucks.
If times are good, they'll be muddy, some will have hay loaded in the back and others will have a patient cowdog waiting for the return of his cowboy.
Most of the folks are dressed in Wranglers, boots and hats. A branding iron is likely to be standing by the door where they branded the casket - a final brand for the old cowboy.
All the talk, when folks are talking, is about grass and rain and this time of year, mention will be made of calf prices and shipping dates.
In circles over a meal served to family and friends, wonderful stories will be told about the cowboy they'd come to honor and lay to rest.
This week, we lost an icon of the true West - cowboy, rancher, husband, father, grandfather and pioneer.
Wayne Withers proved just how tough he was right to the end, against all odds.
He was 95 when he made the crossover to the big corral up yonder, and for 73 of those years, he'd been teasing and loving his bride, Annie.
I sat with the couple just before their 70th anniversary, and the love between them could have swallowed me up.
They verbally sparred over the stories they told me about an era of hard times that forged their grit and character.
"Do you want to know about the girls I danced with or the broncs I rode?" he would say with a twinkle in his eyes.
Their life's tale exposed the heartbreak of living in a country where the government took not one, but two ranches from them to create what we know today as the White Sands Missile Range.
Wayne was 5 years old when his dad left him and his brothers alone, ages 7 and 10, to tend 700 head of cattle and a herd of horses while he went in search of a new ranch.
By the time he was 11, Wayne had already hired out on a couple of different wagons and worked cattle for other people.
He recalled during one of his $1-a-day jobs down by Three Rivers, he got drug by a horse. He was so skinned up and sore, the only place he could sit that didn't hurt was in the kitchen sink. He took his meals there.
Wayne was in a small plane crash in 1955 and scored a broken leg that laid him up for a year.
His dad, who had a legendary streak of orneriness, was good about putting the boys on horses that would buck. "We'd be leaving out at three in the morning and I'll tell ya, it's a trick to ride a bucking horse you can't see in the dark," Wayne recalled.
And then there was dancing. Next to riding bucking horses, Wayne loved to dance.
He and Annie danced for 60 years. They met at a dance and country dances were their passion for all of those years.
To them, dancing made all the hard times worth living.
When we catch up with Wayne in Heaven, he will, no doubt, be telling stories about horses that bucked, pretty girls that danced and "it was darn sure worth a 9-mile ride to a dance, stay until 2 a.m. and then ride back home, ready to work."
Adios Wayne. When your tales are retold, it will always be with the memory of you with that big grin that just never did hide how ornery you were.
And Wayne, you left the world a better place having been in it.
Visit Julie’s website at www.julie-carter.com
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL TAKE IT
County forest district ready to seize Klein Fen DuPage County Forest Preserve District leaders are poised to vote on dusting off a power they haven't exerted in recent years: condemnation. Commissioners are expected to decide Tuesday whether to take to court owners of a property next to fragile wetlands. The 200-acre site is owned by the Jemsek-Hinckley family, who operate nearby St. Andrew's Golf and Country Club. Forest preserve ecologists have recommended the district buy the land because water from it flows into unusual wetlands known as the Klein fen in the West Branch Forest Preserve. Negotiations between both sides have stalled, and the family has criticized the district for trying to take their property....
Condemnation Could Set Grim Precedent Farmland preservation advocates in Lehigh County have just 60 days to come up with 100 acres of open land suitable for a regional park — or face the historic total condemnation of a conservation easement on a preserved farm. The action came Sept. 6 at a stormy meeting of the Lower Macungie Township supervisors. The supervisors had been scheduled to vote to condemn the easement placed on a 104-acre farm through the private, non-profit Wildlands Conservancy by the late Mary Leister in 1996. The township acquired the farm specifically for recreation by eminent domain in 2005 from farmer-developer David Jaindl, even though officials knew the easement allowed only agricultural uses. Jaindl was paid $700,000. He could sue to buy the land back if it is not used for the purpose it was taken. If an alternate site for a park is not agreed on in 60 days, both sides indicated they are prepared to take the case to court and fight all the way to the state Supreme Court, if necessary....
Branford dealt $12.8M setback A Superior Court jury delivered a $12.8 million verdict against the town Wednesday, finding that officials improperly seized through eminent domain 77 acres on which a developer had sought to build 354 condominiums. Town officials vowed to appeal. The six-person jury in Waterbury needed less than a day of deliberations before it awarded developer New England Estates LLC $12.4 million for lost profits and investments costs and the original property owners about $340,000. Town officials, current and former, reacted to the verdict with a mixture of resignation and disgust. The town is already on the hook for another $4.6 million the judge ruled the land was worth when the town acquired it in 2004, well above the $1.7 million Branford set aside for the purchase. Attorney fees could push that total up by another $1.5 million, driving up the town’s costs — not including its own legal fees — to close to $19 million. The key question at trial was whether the town had a legal right to seize the property by eminent domain. Town officials have maintained that they took the land to protect the interests of Branford, since the property on Tabor Drive abutted the town dump, raising concerns about possible soil contamination and long-term liability for the town. Attorneys for the developer and original owners characterized the town’s intentions as nothing nearly so noble. Rather, they said, the town was dead set against the proposed large-scale development, so its leaders conspired to take the land....
Local government bodies get quick-take powers A new state law gives three local governments the power to purchase property for the Curtis Road project quickly, even if the owners aren't ready to sell. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed SB 1042 on Tuesday evening, granting quick-take power to Savoy, Champaign and Champaign County. That means they can seize the land needed for the project and move forward with construction while the courts decide how much an owner should be paid for the property. Local governments can already force an owner to sell through eminent domain, but that can take two years or more of negotiations and court hearings. If the communities want to take advantage of a $5.6 million federal grant for the Curtis Road project, they need to move faster than that. Construction has to begin in spring 2009, so the rights of way must be obtained by the fall of 2008....
Kohl's coming to Grand? The Town of Hempstead received proposals last month from three developers vying for a redevelopment project on Grand Avenue and Merrick Road, in what town officials said is a major step toward revitalizing downtown Baldwin. "What we'll do next is determine which bidder will be best for the community," Murray said, adding that the project should get under way in 2008. "Then we'll adopt an urban renewal plan and go right into condemnation proceedings. We're very excited because the project has gone along very smoothly." The redevelopment project was announced early last year, after the town released the results of a blight study conducted in 2005, which found that 50 percent of stores along the west side of Grand Avenue and Merrick Road - south of Prospect Street and ending at Gale Avenue - were empty and in poor condition, and that the area was in need of an economic overhaul. Town officials said they would acquire the roughly five-acre property through eminent domain and turn it over to a developer, who would assume the entire cost of the project, with none of that cost falling to taxpayers, according to Murray and others. ...
Board presses owner to sell land The Blackman Township Downtown Development Authority unanimously voted Wednesday to take "any and all action necessary" to begin the condemnation process on a portion of the property needed for the proposed Northpointe Town Center. Township Supervisor and board Chairman Raymond Snell said discussion has been at a standstill about the property owned by the North family adjacent to Springport Road. "We are sending property owners our last, best offer based on appraisals," he said. "If we get no response or a negative response, at that time we will go to court and ask for the property through condemnation." Family member Doug North declined to comment and referred questions to Flip Reynolds, the family's spokesman. Efforts to contact Reynolds were unsuccessful. The property is needed to build a road to the shopping center. The land for the shopping center is former Jackson County Airport property being sold by the county to developer Ramco-Gershenson....
Ousted Brooklyn Arts Venue Wants Spot In Its Replacement Building Three Brooklyn entrepreneurs were busy preparing to host the November grand opening of their arts and music venue in Fort Greene, until they received notice two weeks ago that the city plans to seize the building they’re leasing via eminent domain. Now, they’re vying for a spot in the high rise slated to take its place. “All we want is to be treated fairly and equitably, and this would be compensating us. Somewhat,” said Todd Triplett, chief marketing officer of Amber Art and Music Space, which leased the vacant three-story building at the corner of Ashland Place and Fulton Street two years ago and have been renovating ever since. The three partners didn’t realize when they signed their 10-year lease that the city had the site earmarked for a project as part of the “BAM Cultural District,” eight blocks in Fort Greene dedicated to cultural programming and mixed-income housing anchored by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nearly two years after the lease was signed, last February, the city officially began seeking developers to build a tower on the site that would house Danspace Project, a Manhattan-based dance troupe, and 5,500 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, and 150 units of mixed-income housing. The official request lists the three-story building as vacant, even though at the time of publication, Triplett and his partners Philip McKenzie and Shaun Jenkins were toiling away inside building their dream....
MPEA votes to acquire land for further development of McCormick Place The board of Chicago's Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) has voted to exercise its right of eminent domain, granted by the Illinois legislature, to acquire a piece of land located on 21st to 22nd Streets and Cermak Road, across the street and to the north of McCormick Place. MPEA will file a condemnation action in court before it is able to gain title to the property. Currently, there is not a master plan in place for the property. However, some of the options under consideration include additional hotel expansion or other mixed-use development, more amenities for the convention center, parking or green space....
And there are many more...but you get the picture.
County forest district ready to seize Klein Fen DuPage County Forest Preserve District leaders are poised to vote on dusting off a power they haven't exerted in recent years: condemnation. Commissioners are expected to decide Tuesday whether to take to court owners of a property next to fragile wetlands. The 200-acre site is owned by the Jemsek-Hinckley family, who operate nearby St. Andrew's Golf and Country Club. Forest preserve ecologists have recommended the district buy the land because water from it flows into unusual wetlands known as the Klein fen in the West Branch Forest Preserve. Negotiations between both sides have stalled, and the family has criticized the district for trying to take their property....
Condemnation Could Set Grim Precedent Farmland preservation advocates in Lehigh County have just 60 days to come up with 100 acres of open land suitable for a regional park — or face the historic total condemnation of a conservation easement on a preserved farm. The action came Sept. 6 at a stormy meeting of the Lower Macungie Township supervisors. The supervisors had been scheduled to vote to condemn the easement placed on a 104-acre farm through the private, non-profit Wildlands Conservancy by the late Mary Leister in 1996. The township acquired the farm specifically for recreation by eminent domain in 2005 from farmer-developer David Jaindl, even though officials knew the easement allowed only agricultural uses. Jaindl was paid $700,000. He could sue to buy the land back if it is not used for the purpose it was taken. If an alternate site for a park is not agreed on in 60 days, both sides indicated they are prepared to take the case to court and fight all the way to the state Supreme Court, if necessary....
Branford dealt $12.8M setback A Superior Court jury delivered a $12.8 million verdict against the town Wednesday, finding that officials improperly seized through eminent domain 77 acres on which a developer had sought to build 354 condominiums. Town officials vowed to appeal. The six-person jury in Waterbury needed less than a day of deliberations before it awarded developer New England Estates LLC $12.4 million for lost profits and investments costs and the original property owners about $340,000. Town officials, current and former, reacted to the verdict with a mixture of resignation and disgust. The town is already on the hook for another $4.6 million the judge ruled the land was worth when the town acquired it in 2004, well above the $1.7 million Branford set aside for the purchase. Attorney fees could push that total up by another $1.5 million, driving up the town’s costs — not including its own legal fees — to close to $19 million. The key question at trial was whether the town had a legal right to seize the property by eminent domain. Town officials have maintained that they took the land to protect the interests of Branford, since the property on Tabor Drive abutted the town dump, raising concerns about possible soil contamination and long-term liability for the town. Attorneys for the developer and original owners characterized the town’s intentions as nothing nearly so noble. Rather, they said, the town was dead set against the proposed large-scale development, so its leaders conspired to take the land....
Local government bodies get quick-take powers A new state law gives three local governments the power to purchase property for the Curtis Road project quickly, even if the owners aren't ready to sell. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed SB 1042 on Tuesday evening, granting quick-take power to Savoy, Champaign and Champaign County. That means they can seize the land needed for the project and move forward with construction while the courts decide how much an owner should be paid for the property. Local governments can already force an owner to sell through eminent domain, but that can take two years or more of negotiations and court hearings. If the communities want to take advantage of a $5.6 million federal grant for the Curtis Road project, they need to move faster than that. Construction has to begin in spring 2009, so the rights of way must be obtained by the fall of 2008....
Kohl's coming to Grand? The Town of Hempstead received proposals last month from three developers vying for a redevelopment project on Grand Avenue and Merrick Road, in what town officials said is a major step toward revitalizing downtown Baldwin. "What we'll do next is determine which bidder will be best for the community," Murray said, adding that the project should get under way in 2008. "Then we'll adopt an urban renewal plan and go right into condemnation proceedings. We're very excited because the project has gone along very smoothly." The redevelopment project was announced early last year, after the town released the results of a blight study conducted in 2005, which found that 50 percent of stores along the west side of Grand Avenue and Merrick Road - south of Prospect Street and ending at Gale Avenue - were empty and in poor condition, and that the area was in need of an economic overhaul. Town officials said they would acquire the roughly five-acre property through eminent domain and turn it over to a developer, who would assume the entire cost of the project, with none of that cost falling to taxpayers, according to Murray and others. ...
Board presses owner to sell land The Blackman Township Downtown Development Authority unanimously voted Wednesday to take "any and all action necessary" to begin the condemnation process on a portion of the property needed for the proposed Northpointe Town Center. Township Supervisor and board Chairman Raymond Snell said discussion has been at a standstill about the property owned by the North family adjacent to Springport Road. "We are sending property owners our last, best offer based on appraisals," he said. "If we get no response or a negative response, at that time we will go to court and ask for the property through condemnation." Family member Doug North declined to comment and referred questions to Flip Reynolds, the family's spokesman. Efforts to contact Reynolds were unsuccessful. The property is needed to build a road to the shopping center. The land for the shopping center is former Jackson County Airport property being sold by the county to developer Ramco-Gershenson....
Ousted Brooklyn Arts Venue Wants Spot In Its Replacement Building Three Brooklyn entrepreneurs were busy preparing to host the November grand opening of their arts and music venue in Fort Greene, until they received notice two weeks ago that the city plans to seize the building they’re leasing via eminent domain. Now, they’re vying for a spot in the high rise slated to take its place. “All we want is to be treated fairly and equitably, and this would be compensating us. Somewhat,” said Todd Triplett, chief marketing officer of Amber Art and Music Space, which leased the vacant three-story building at the corner of Ashland Place and Fulton Street two years ago and have been renovating ever since. The three partners didn’t realize when they signed their 10-year lease that the city had the site earmarked for a project as part of the “BAM Cultural District,” eight blocks in Fort Greene dedicated to cultural programming and mixed-income housing anchored by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Nearly two years after the lease was signed, last February, the city officially began seeking developers to build a tower on the site that would house Danspace Project, a Manhattan-based dance troupe, and 5,500 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, and 150 units of mixed-income housing. The official request lists the three-story building as vacant, even though at the time of publication, Triplett and his partners Philip McKenzie and Shaun Jenkins were toiling away inside building their dream....
MPEA votes to acquire land for further development of McCormick Place The board of Chicago's Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) has voted to exercise its right of eminent domain, granted by the Illinois legislature, to acquire a piece of land located on 21st to 22nd Streets and Cermak Road, across the street and to the north of McCormick Place. MPEA will file a condemnation action in court before it is able to gain title to the property. Currently, there is not a master plan in place for the property. However, some of the options under consideration include additional hotel expansion or other mixed-use development, more amenities for the convention center, parking or green space....
And there are many more...but you get the picture.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Free-lunch foragers
For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store. Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent. On this afternoon, she thawed a slab of pate that she found three days before its expiration date in a dumpster outside a health food store. She made buttery chicken soup from another health food store's hot buffet leftovers, which she salvaged before they were tossed into the garbage. Nelson, 51, once earned a six-figure income as director of communications at Barnes and Noble. Tired of representing a multimillion dollar company, she quit in 2005 and became a "freegan" -- the word combining "vegan" and "free" -- a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste. Though many of its pioneers are vegans, people who neither eat nor use any animal-based products, the concept has caught on with Nelson and other meat-eaters who do not want to depend on businesses that they believe waste resources, harm the environment or allow unfair labor practices....
For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store. Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent. On this afternoon, she thawed a slab of pate that she found three days before its expiration date in a dumpster outside a health food store. She made buttery chicken soup from another health food store's hot buffet leftovers, which she salvaged before they were tossed into the garbage. Nelson, 51, once earned a six-figure income as director of communications at Barnes and Noble. Tired of representing a multimillion dollar company, she quit in 2005 and became a "freegan" -- the word combining "vegan" and "free" -- a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste. Though many of its pioneers are vegans, people who neither eat nor use any animal-based products, the concept has caught on with Nelson and other meat-eaters who do not want to depend on businesses that they believe waste resources, harm the environment or allow unfair labor practices....
Corn contest canned, called gluttonous
Is it possible to eat too much corn in Iowa? A University of Iowa official thinks so. U of I Vice President for Student Services Philip Jones canceled a corn-on-the-cob eating contest scheduled for today as part of the "Beat State Week" celebration leading up to the Iowa-Iowa State football game because the corn contest "encourages gluttony," he said. "I don't know that anyone can say that's a healthy concept," Jones said of the event planned by the U of I Alumni Association. Jones asked his staff to veto eating contests to support new health-conscious initiatives on campus, he said. The corn-on-the-cob contest is not the first to hit the compost pile; a hot dog eating contest planned by the residence halls was also trashed. Shaun Fraise, an organizer of the Sweet Corn Festival in West Point, Ia., said she doesn't think a corn-eating contest promotes gluttony. "It's basically for pure entertainment, that's why we do it," she said.
Is it possible to eat too much corn in Iowa? A University of Iowa official thinks so. U of I Vice President for Student Services Philip Jones canceled a corn-on-the-cob eating contest scheduled for today as part of the "Beat State Week" celebration leading up to the Iowa-Iowa State football game because the corn contest "encourages gluttony," he said. "I don't know that anyone can say that's a healthy concept," Jones said of the event planned by the U of I Alumni Association. Jones asked his staff to veto eating contests to support new health-conscious initiatives on campus, he said. The corn-on-the-cob contest is not the first to hit the compost pile; a hot dog eating contest planned by the residence halls was also trashed. Shaun Fraise, an organizer of the Sweet Corn Festival in West Point, Ia., said she doesn't think a corn-eating contest promotes gluttony. "It's basically for pure entertainment, that's why we do it," she said.
Friday, September 14, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Burn, baby, burn The U.S. Forest Service seems to have adopted Sherman's "scorched earth" policy. Each summer we see hundreds of thousands of acres of our priceless public lands seared, wildlife killed or displaced, air polluted with smoke, homes burned to the ground, entire communities threatened and millions of our tax dollars spent on suppression. Sherman at least had a strategic goal in mind--ending a war—but the ultimate goal of today's wildfire policy is a mystery. In years past, the firefighter's mission was clear and unequivocal—gear up to put the fire out as soon as possible. An emphasis was placed on fast initial attack, prevention and aggressive suppression. Now we sometimes see days pass with no suppression action while small fires become big. Attack is often too little, too late. Containment relies heavily on burnouts from distant fire lines and use of aircraft for water and retardant drops. Sometimes fire is contained, and sometimes it is allowed to burn to meet other objectives like improving the health of the forest. But what about the health of the citizens who live near the fires? According to Jay O'Laughlin, director of the Policy Analysis Group, College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, carbon dioxide emissions from the forest fires of 2004 totaled 392 million tons, 6 percent of all our nation's energy-related emissions....
BLM allows claim, hands road to Kane County The long, contentious battle over who owns the backroads in rural Utah has taken a new twist. The Bureau of Land Management is handing over a road to Kane County. The agency's Tuesday announcement that it is turning ownership of a nine-mile strip known as the Bald Knoll Road over to the county marks the first time nationally that a road claim has been allowed under a BLM rule crafted to manage disputes after a landmark appeals-court ruling two years ago. Kane County officials on Wednesday welcomed the option for the road, which will allow them to maintain it and make improvements. But the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) argued the BLM's so-called non-binding determination cuts the public out of the decision-making and sets a precedent that could affect wilderness-quality lands. The dispute centers on Revised Statute 2477, a Civil War era mining law that granted rights of way across public land until it was repealed by Congress in 1976. When that happened, existing rights of way were grandfathered in.....
Proposed one-word change worry for landowners Deletion of a single word in federal law could seriously hamper farm drainage and conservation efforts and potentially fuel efforts to “reclaim” perceived wetlands from producers. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar’s (D-Minn.) proposed Clean Water Restoration Act would alter provisions for current federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction of U.S. “navigable” waters to control over all “waters of the U.S.” The bill, expected to come up for a fall vote, would “obliterate” administration and judicial attempts over the past 35 years to clarify federal authority over drainage and wetlands on private lands, American Farm Bureau Federation regulatory specialist Don Parrish told FarmWeek. It would impose federal jurisdiction over roadside and farm ditches, grass waterways, and adjacent “wetlands,” Parrish said. Parrish suggests 55 million to 57 million farm acres “could be swept back into the regulatory process” under Oberstar’s redefinition....
Advocate of lead ban resigns from panel A state Fish and Game commissioner, who last month indicated he would support a ban on the use of lead ammunition in areas where condors roam, resigned Thursday, saying his resignation was requested by the Schwarzenegger administration. R. Judd Hanna's resignation came the day after 34 Republican legislators sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a letter asking for his dismissal. The events were the latest in a continuing struggle over attempts by lawmakers and regulators to require deer hunters to use copper bullets in condor zones. Lead poisoning caused by ingesting bullet fragments in the carcasses of fallen animals is the leading cause of mortality among condors in the wild. An alliance of gun and hunting groups earlier called the proposed ban on lead bullets "draconian." In a letter to the commission last month, the group said the proposal "reflects a hidden agenda by some to ban all hunting in California."....
Smelt is the big fish in California water politics It's not much longer than your pinkie, an aquatic weakling that skulks in a single brackish backwater of the West. Yet the diminutive fish is a big player in California water politics. For years, the delta smelt's survival has been a bone of contention between water managers and environmentalists -- a subject of lengthy court cases and, of late, defining judicial decrees. A decision Aug. 31 by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger requiring tougher protections for the tiny fish pushed the state's water managers toward uncharted territory in how they manage aqueduct exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a key source of water for much of Southern California. State water authorities warned that the ruling could cut exports from the delta by a third or more and possibly usher in widespread rationing of the sort hitting Long Beach. The smelt is seen by biologists as the key indicator of the overall health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Populations of several other fish in the delta are sagging, but the delta smelt tend to get attention from the federal bench and the media. It's a small fish for such a big spotlight. Delta smelt grow to only about 3 inches long and live about a year....
Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage: Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners Activates City's Water Supply Shortage Plan The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners today officially declared that a water supply shortage for the City of Long Beach is imminent, at a meeting held at the Long Beach Water Department's Groundwater Treatment Facility. In making the Declaration, the Board of Water Commissioners has activated the Long Beach Water Department's Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan, implementing additional water use prohibitions throughout the City of Long Beach. The Declaration is a proactive measure taken to forestall or lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage. The Declaration of an Imminent Water Supply Shortage is necessitated by the profound impact of a U.S. District Court's August 31st federal Endangered Species Act ruling; the dramatic, recent reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; this year's record low rainfall in the southern California coastal plain; and a continuation of the historic 8-year drought in the Colorado River Watershed, which is a significant source of imported water for southern California....Go here to read the prohibitions.
Trout lend sperm to sterile salmon Japanese scientists helped infertile salmon sire baby trout by lending them trout sperm, a technique that could save endangered species, according to research published in the United States Thursday. The scientists injected sperm cells from adult rainbow trout into the salmon, enabling the sterile fish then to produce trout sperm by itself, according to the study in the journal Science. These new sperm were then removed and inserted artificially into female salmon, causing them to lay pure trout eggs and making the male salmon fathers of baby trout. The team "produced a generation of donor-derived fish, suggesting that it may be possible to generate fish of endangered or extinct species as long as the reproductive material can be successfully preserved," the report said. "Many salmonids, members of the family that includes trout and salmon, are extinct or endangered and researchers are working to stop this trend," it explained....
Rare turtles renew in Carlsbad Nine new creatures have entered life. The nine endangered Bolson tortoises were hatched at Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park and nine more are expected to come out of their shells by mid September. The hatchlings range in weight from 30 to 38 grams (less than a pound), and are the results of 19 eggs laid within two laying periods, three weeks apart. This first group of hatchlings is beginning to feed on native grasses and carrots. Once established and fully adapted to solid food, the hatchlings will be available for public viewing. Living Desert plans to keep the tortoise hatchlings at the park for at least a year, and then release them to the Armendaris Ranch who will eventually relocate them back into the wild....
Yosemite campers: A dying breed? A creature of habit, Brian Ouzounian joins a swallow-like migration each summer to this park's glacier-cleaved valley. Ouzounian has camped in Yosemite Valley in nearly every one of his 57 years, setting down stakes a week at a time with family and friends at the panoramic junction of the Merced River and Tenaya Creek. But this family tradition, which used to seem as solid as the granite cliffs, now appears imperiled to Ouzounian. Add us, he says, to the federal list: The endangered campers of Yosemite. Ouzounian, who petitions and protests, writes letters and attends park meetings, believes he is leading a fight against the extinction of his kind. People may still come in RVs and SUVs loaded with tents and sleeping bags and Coleman stoves, but the opportunities for camping — the bargain-basement entree in Yosemite Valley — have been in decline over the last decade. After a New Year's flood in 1997 cut a destructive swath through the valley, National Park Service officials abandoned several riverfront campgrounds, justifying it as a way to shrink humanity's footprint and give nature a hand up along the banks of the Merced....
Wyoming politicians confront Park Service People hoping to see Sylvan Pass outside Cody remain open in the winter got a boost this week from elected officials who sent scathing letters to the National Park Service, questioning the agency's rationale for possibly closing Yellowstone National Park's East Entrance. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Rep. Barbara Cubin sent word to Park Service officials this week that they disagreed with closing Sylvan Pass because of safety concerns, and questioned why the agency is now saying the road should be closed because of cost concerns. "During all of our discussions, you have continually assured both us and the citizens of Park County that the potential decision to close the East Entrance of YNP would be based solely on the issue of employee safety," the congressional delegation wrote in a joint letter to Interior Department officials. "Time and time again, we were told the decision to close the East Entrance would not be based on funding. Therefore, we are troubled by the apparent back peddling (sic) of the NPS officials who recently suggested that funding will now play a key role in the determination of this issue." The Republicans wrote they are concerned that the Park Service is looking for reasons to close the East Entrance, rather that reasons to keep it open....
As plan fails, Congress scrambles to aid rural counties A Bush administration plan to aid rural counties by selling off Forest Service land collapsed quickly on Capitol Hill. "It's DOA," Tuolumne County Supervisor Richard Pland said this week. Now, with the clock ticking and key questions unanswered, Congress must craft its own solution for helping counties blessed with more trees than tax revenues. It's a multimillion-dollar issue for California, where many counties rely on funding that seems shaky. The 38 affected California counties, and hundreds like them in other states, contain Forest Service land. They used to receive federal funding tied to timber harvest revenues. The money was used for schools and public works. But as logging declined, federal dollars shrunk. In 2000, Congress severed the connection to timber harvesting and guaranteed counties funding. Last year, that amounted to $68 million for California. With the funding about to expire, the fight now is over how to keep this money flowing....
N.D. Sens. Conrad and Dorgan support protecting native prairie U.S. Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota want native prairie protected in the farm bill. In a recent Bismarck Tribune article, both senators said they expect the Senate’s version of the farm bill to contain a Sodsaver provision designed to slow conversion of native grasslands to cropland. Sodsaver would eliminate all federal payments for crops planted on land with no previous cropping history. Landowners could still farm native grasslands but would do so at their own risk without federal assistance. Several national conservation groups and the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association support Sodsaver. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed its version of the farm bill that included Sodsaver. DU hopes the Senate backs-up the House vote with even stronger measures as it drafts its version of the bill....
Nine cows die after drinking from Delmoe Lake, algae bloom suspected Nine cows died after drinking from a popular recreational lake east of here, some after walking just a few feet away from the water, prompting a warning for people to stay out of Delmoe Lake. A witness reported watching two cows drink water from the lake, then walk a few feet before falling over dead, said Terry Sexton, Whitehall district ranger for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Officials suspect the cause could have been a blue-green algae bloom and are warning people to stay out of the lake. "Don't drink the water, don't get in the water,'' Sexton said Wednesday. Forest Service officials are posting signs warning people to stay away from the lake, said Jack de Golia, Beaverhead-Deerlodge spokesman. Blue-green algae, when in the bloom growth phase, can produce a cyanotoxin that is incredibly lethal, said Dr. Joe Hartley, a large animal veterinarian in Dillon....
U.S. officials to outline rule for resuming imports of older Canadian cows The U.S. government is set to announce the rule Friday for resuming imports of older cattle and beef products from Canada. But it will be at least two months before trade resumes because the rule must first be published in the U.S. Federal Register and cannot go into effect until 60 days after that. The Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, is scheduled to outline the details. After Canada's first case of mad cow in May 2003, U.S. officials shut the border to all cattle and beef products. But in 2005, trade resumed in cows younger than 30 months of age, thought to be at less risk for contracting the disease. A group of American ranchers has been trying to restrict all imports but a U.S. appeals court decision last month said U.S. regulators were right to lift the temporary ban on Canadian cows two years ago.
Bill Would Designate The Cracker Horse As The Official State Horse Florida has a lot of state symbols and soon it could have an official state horse. A bill filed for next year's legislative session would designate the cracker horse as the official state horse. The ancestry of the cracker horse can be traced back to Spanish horses brought here in the 1500's. Used by early Spanish ranchers, the horses also played an important role in the life of the Seminole Indians. In the 1930's, ranchers started to turn to larger quarter horses for ranch work and the cracker horse became rare. The breed's survival over the last fifty years is credited to a handful of families who continued to breed Cracker Horses, including the family of state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.
Still in the saddle After 62 years, Colorado Saddlery still is making products to outlast horse and rider. The world's oldest Western saddlery under original ownership, Colorado Saddlery moved from Denver to Arvada a year ago and has settled into its new suburban location. The company distributes its 2,500 different products throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but at heart, it's still a small local business with a handful of employees, President Jeff Van Scoyk said. In a spacious warehouse, handmade leather saddles, halters and reins are lined up to be oiled and hand-finished. Wooden bins full of bits, spurs and other metal parts line the aisles. In the showroom, mahogany, intricately detailed saddles from the 1940s and 1950s sit next to newer, lightweight trail saddles. Four young saddle makers, including Van Scoyk's father, P.R., founded Colorado Saddlery in Denver in 1945. The men had learned the craft with Denver's H.H. Heiser Company, where they built saddles for the cowboys and ranchers of the Old West. Over the years, Colorado Saddlery developed a reputation for quality, and earned such regular customers as Tommy Lee Jones and John Wayne, who discovered the company's products on a film set and became a devotee. The actors' autographed pictures decorate Colorado Saddlery's office walls....
Burn, baby, burn The U.S. Forest Service seems to have adopted Sherman's "scorched earth" policy. Each summer we see hundreds of thousands of acres of our priceless public lands seared, wildlife killed or displaced, air polluted with smoke, homes burned to the ground, entire communities threatened and millions of our tax dollars spent on suppression. Sherman at least had a strategic goal in mind--ending a war—but the ultimate goal of today's wildfire policy is a mystery. In years past, the firefighter's mission was clear and unequivocal—gear up to put the fire out as soon as possible. An emphasis was placed on fast initial attack, prevention and aggressive suppression. Now we sometimes see days pass with no suppression action while small fires become big. Attack is often too little, too late. Containment relies heavily on burnouts from distant fire lines and use of aircraft for water and retardant drops. Sometimes fire is contained, and sometimes it is allowed to burn to meet other objectives like improving the health of the forest. But what about the health of the citizens who live near the fires? According to Jay O'Laughlin, director of the Policy Analysis Group, College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, carbon dioxide emissions from the forest fires of 2004 totaled 392 million tons, 6 percent of all our nation's energy-related emissions....
BLM allows claim, hands road to Kane County The long, contentious battle over who owns the backroads in rural Utah has taken a new twist. The Bureau of Land Management is handing over a road to Kane County. The agency's Tuesday announcement that it is turning ownership of a nine-mile strip known as the Bald Knoll Road over to the county marks the first time nationally that a road claim has been allowed under a BLM rule crafted to manage disputes after a landmark appeals-court ruling two years ago. Kane County officials on Wednesday welcomed the option for the road, which will allow them to maintain it and make improvements. But the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) argued the BLM's so-called non-binding determination cuts the public out of the decision-making and sets a precedent that could affect wilderness-quality lands. The dispute centers on Revised Statute 2477, a Civil War era mining law that granted rights of way across public land until it was repealed by Congress in 1976. When that happened, existing rights of way were grandfathered in.....
Proposed one-word change worry for landowners Deletion of a single word in federal law could seriously hamper farm drainage and conservation efforts and potentially fuel efforts to “reclaim” perceived wetlands from producers. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar’s (D-Minn.) proposed Clean Water Restoration Act would alter provisions for current federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction of U.S. “navigable” waters to control over all “waters of the U.S.” The bill, expected to come up for a fall vote, would “obliterate” administration and judicial attempts over the past 35 years to clarify federal authority over drainage and wetlands on private lands, American Farm Bureau Federation regulatory specialist Don Parrish told FarmWeek. It would impose federal jurisdiction over roadside and farm ditches, grass waterways, and adjacent “wetlands,” Parrish said. Parrish suggests 55 million to 57 million farm acres “could be swept back into the regulatory process” under Oberstar’s redefinition....
Advocate of lead ban resigns from panel A state Fish and Game commissioner, who last month indicated he would support a ban on the use of lead ammunition in areas where condors roam, resigned Thursday, saying his resignation was requested by the Schwarzenegger administration. R. Judd Hanna's resignation came the day after 34 Republican legislators sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a letter asking for his dismissal. The events were the latest in a continuing struggle over attempts by lawmakers and regulators to require deer hunters to use copper bullets in condor zones. Lead poisoning caused by ingesting bullet fragments in the carcasses of fallen animals is the leading cause of mortality among condors in the wild. An alliance of gun and hunting groups earlier called the proposed ban on lead bullets "draconian." In a letter to the commission last month, the group said the proposal "reflects a hidden agenda by some to ban all hunting in California."....
Smelt is the big fish in California water politics It's not much longer than your pinkie, an aquatic weakling that skulks in a single brackish backwater of the West. Yet the diminutive fish is a big player in California water politics. For years, the delta smelt's survival has been a bone of contention between water managers and environmentalists -- a subject of lengthy court cases and, of late, defining judicial decrees. A decision Aug. 31 by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger requiring tougher protections for the tiny fish pushed the state's water managers toward uncharted territory in how they manage aqueduct exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a key source of water for much of Southern California. State water authorities warned that the ruling could cut exports from the delta by a third or more and possibly usher in widespread rationing of the sort hitting Long Beach. The smelt is seen by biologists as the key indicator of the overall health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Populations of several other fish in the delta are sagging, but the delta smelt tend to get attention from the federal bench and the media. It's a small fish for such a big spotlight. Delta smelt grow to only about 3 inches long and live about a year....
Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage: Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners Activates City's Water Supply Shortage Plan The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners today officially declared that a water supply shortage for the City of Long Beach is imminent, at a meeting held at the Long Beach Water Department's Groundwater Treatment Facility. In making the Declaration, the Board of Water Commissioners has activated the Long Beach Water Department's Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan, implementing additional water use prohibitions throughout the City of Long Beach. The Declaration is a proactive measure taken to forestall or lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage. The Declaration of an Imminent Water Supply Shortage is necessitated by the profound impact of a U.S. District Court's August 31st federal Endangered Species Act ruling; the dramatic, recent reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; this year's record low rainfall in the southern California coastal plain; and a continuation of the historic 8-year drought in the Colorado River Watershed, which is a significant source of imported water for southern California....Go here to read the prohibitions.
Trout lend sperm to sterile salmon Japanese scientists helped infertile salmon sire baby trout by lending them trout sperm, a technique that could save endangered species, according to research published in the United States Thursday. The scientists injected sperm cells from adult rainbow trout into the salmon, enabling the sterile fish then to produce trout sperm by itself, according to the study in the journal Science. These new sperm were then removed and inserted artificially into female salmon, causing them to lay pure trout eggs and making the male salmon fathers of baby trout. The team "produced a generation of donor-derived fish, suggesting that it may be possible to generate fish of endangered or extinct species as long as the reproductive material can be successfully preserved," the report said. "Many salmonids, members of the family that includes trout and salmon, are extinct or endangered and researchers are working to stop this trend," it explained....
Rare turtles renew in Carlsbad Nine new creatures have entered life. The nine endangered Bolson tortoises were hatched at Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park and nine more are expected to come out of their shells by mid September. The hatchlings range in weight from 30 to 38 grams (less than a pound), and are the results of 19 eggs laid within two laying periods, three weeks apart. This first group of hatchlings is beginning to feed on native grasses and carrots. Once established and fully adapted to solid food, the hatchlings will be available for public viewing. Living Desert plans to keep the tortoise hatchlings at the park for at least a year, and then release them to the Armendaris Ranch who will eventually relocate them back into the wild....
Yosemite campers: A dying breed? A creature of habit, Brian Ouzounian joins a swallow-like migration each summer to this park's glacier-cleaved valley. Ouzounian has camped in Yosemite Valley in nearly every one of his 57 years, setting down stakes a week at a time with family and friends at the panoramic junction of the Merced River and Tenaya Creek. But this family tradition, which used to seem as solid as the granite cliffs, now appears imperiled to Ouzounian. Add us, he says, to the federal list: The endangered campers of Yosemite. Ouzounian, who petitions and protests, writes letters and attends park meetings, believes he is leading a fight against the extinction of his kind. People may still come in RVs and SUVs loaded with tents and sleeping bags and Coleman stoves, but the opportunities for camping — the bargain-basement entree in Yosemite Valley — have been in decline over the last decade. After a New Year's flood in 1997 cut a destructive swath through the valley, National Park Service officials abandoned several riverfront campgrounds, justifying it as a way to shrink humanity's footprint and give nature a hand up along the banks of the Merced....
Wyoming politicians confront Park Service People hoping to see Sylvan Pass outside Cody remain open in the winter got a boost this week from elected officials who sent scathing letters to the National Park Service, questioning the agency's rationale for possibly closing Yellowstone National Park's East Entrance. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Rep. Barbara Cubin sent word to Park Service officials this week that they disagreed with closing Sylvan Pass because of safety concerns, and questioned why the agency is now saying the road should be closed because of cost concerns. "During all of our discussions, you have continually assured both us and the citizens of Park County that the potential decision to close the East Entrance of YNP would be based solely on the issue of employee safety," the congressional delegation wrote in a joint letter to Interior Department officials. "Time and time again, we were told the decision to close the East Entrance would not be based on funding. Therefore, we are troubled by the apparent back peddling (sic) of the NPS officials who recently suggested that funding will now play a key role in the determination of this issue." The Republicans wrote they are concerned that the Park Service is looking for reasons to close the East Entrance, rather that reasons to keep it open....
As plan fails, Congress scrambles to aid rural counties A Bush administration plan to aid rural counties by selling off Forest Service land collapsed quickly on Capitol Hill. "It's DOA," Tuolumne County Supervisor Richard Pland said this week. Now, with the clock ticking and key questions unanswered, Congress must craft its own solution for helping counties blessed with more trees than tax revenues. It's a multimillion-dollar issue for California, where many counties rely on funding that seems shaky. The 38 affected California counties, and hundreds like them in other states, contain Forest Service land. They used to receive federal funding tied to timber harvest revenues. The money was used for schools and public works. But as logging declined, federal dollars shrunk. In 2000, Congress severed the connection to timber harvesting and guaranteed counties funding. Last year, that amounted to $68 million for California. With the funding about to expire, the fight now is over how to keep this money flowing....
N.D. Sens. Conrad and Dorgan support protecting native prairie U.S. Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota want native prairie protected in the farm bill. In a recent Bismarck Tribune article, both senators said they expect the Senate’s version of the farm bill to contain a Sodsaver provision designed to slow conversion of native grasslands to cropland. Sodsaver would eliminate all federal payments for crops planted on land with no previous cropping history. Landowners could still farm native grasslands but would do so at their own risk without federal assistance. Several national conservation groups and the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association support Sodsaver. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed its version of the farm bill that included Sodsaver. DU hopes the Senate backs-up the House vote with even stronger measures as it drafts its version of the bill....
Nine cows die after drinking from Delmoe Lake, algae bloom suspected Nine cows died after drinking from a popular recreational lake east of here, some after walking just a few feet away from the water, prompting a warning for people to stay out of Delmoe Lake. A witness reported watching two cows drink water from the lake, then walk a few feet before falling over dead, said Terry Sexton, Whitehall district ranger for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Officials suspect the cause could have been a blue-green algae bloom and are warning people to stay out of the lake. "Don't drink the water, don't get in the water,'' Sexton said Wednesday. Forest Service officials are posting signs warning people to stay away from the lake, said Jack de Golia, Beaverhead-Deerlodge spokesman. Blue-green algae, when in the bloom growth phase, can produce a cyanotoxin that is incredibly lethal, said Dr. Joe Hartley, a large animal veterinarian in Dillon....
U.S. officials to outline rule for resuming imports of older Canadian cows The U.S. government is set to announce the rule Friday for resuming imports of older cattle and beef products from Canada. But it will be at least two months before trade resumes because the rule must first be published in the U.S. Federal Register and cannot go into effect until 60 days after that. The Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, is scheduled to outline the details. After Canada's first case of mad cow in May 2003, U.S. officials shut the border to all cattle and beef products. But in 2005, trade resumed in cows younger than 30 months of age, thought to be at less risk for contracting the disease. A group of American ranchers has been trying to restrict all imports but a U.S. appeals court decision last month said U.S. regulators were right to lift the temporary ban on Canadian cows two years ago.
Bill Would Designate The Cracker Horse As The Official State Horse Florida has a lot of state symbols and soon it could have an official state horse. A bill filed for next year's legislative session would designate the cracker horse as the official state horse. The ancestry of the cracker horse can be traced back to Spanish horses brought here in the 1500's. Used by early Spanish ranchers, the horses also played an important role in the life of the Seminole Indians. In the 1930's, ranchers started to turn to larger quarter horses for ranch work and the cracker horse became rare. The breed's survival over the last fifty years is credited to a handful of families who continued to breed Cracker Horses, including the family of state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.
Still in the saddle After 62 years, Colorado Saddlery still is making products to outlast horse and rider. The world's oldest Western saddlery under original ownership, Colorado Saddlery moved from Denver to Arvada a year ago and has settled into its new suburban location. The company distributes its 2,500 different products throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but at heart, it's still a small local business with a handful of employees, President Jeff Van Scoyk said. In a spacious warehouse, handmade leather saddles, halters and reins are lined up to be oiled and hand-finished. Wooden bins full of bits, spurs and other metal parts line the aisles. In the showroom, mahogany, intricately detailed saddles from the 1940s and 1950s sit next to newer, lightweight trail saddles. Four young saddle makers, including Van Scoyk's father, P.R., founded Colorado Saddlery in Denver in 1945. The men had learned the craft with Denver's H.H. Heiser Company, where they built saddles for the cowboys and ranchers of the Old West. Over the years, Colorado Saddlery developed a reputation for quality, and earned such regular customers as Tommy Lee Jones and John Wayne, who discovered the company's products on a film set and became a devotee. The actors' autographed pictures decorate Colorado Saddlery's office walls....
Thursday, September 13, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery. Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate. Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention....
Emission ruling is a victory for state's policy California cleared a critical green light in its campaign to require automakers to build vehicles that emit less greenhouse gas. Wednesday, a federal judge upheld a Vermont law requiring automakers to cut climate-warming vehicle emissions 30 percent by 2016. The law is virtually identical to California's Assembly Bill 1493, adopted five years ago and since copied by 14 other states. The auto industry has sued three states, including California, in an attempt to block the laws. The Vermont case is the first to be decided. In a 240-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III rejected both of the auto industry's main arguments: that the emissions-cutting requirements are technically unworkable and that state-level requirements to reduce greenhouse emissions effectively violate the federal government's authority to set mileage standards....
Eating Less Meat May Slow Climate Change Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming. "We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study. "If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said. Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide. "That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors. The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day. With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago....
Wilderness deal made An association of home builders has reached a compromise with wilderness proponents on the boundary for eastward growth of Las Cruces, both groups announced during a news conference Wednesday. As a result, the Las Cruces Home Builders Association said it will endorse a plan by conservationists that would grant a federal wilderness designation to thousands of acres in Doña Ana County. The groups had been at odds throughout a negotiations process about wilderness hosted by the city early this year. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users remain opposed to the wilderness designation in most cases, though they've backed another method of protecting land from development. Steve Wilmeth, a Doña Ana County rancher, said he's concerned about the home builders decision to endorse the conservationists' entire proposal, including the Broad Canyon and Potrillo mountain areas. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users have said they're worried the wilderness designation — which restricts most mechanized travel — would keep law enforcement and Border Patrol from easily accessing the land. "This is a bigger issue than just ranchers ... here," he said. "When there is a legitimate national security concern, this is a reckless and irresponsible decision in the long run for our community."....
Lawsuit Challenges Fish "Habitat" in New Mexico and Arizona The federal government acted illegally when it designated vast stretches of riverbeds in New Mexico and Arizona as "critical habitat" for two species of fish found throughout the Southwest – the spikedace and loach minnow. So argues a lawsuit announced today by Pacific Legal Foundation. The resulting land use restrictions create flood dangers for landowners, among other problems, according to PLF attorneys and their clients. Filed on behalf of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, and the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the lawsuit contends that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service – the agency responsible for the March 21, 2007, habitat designation – did not follow the requirements of the Endangered Species Act when it set aside more than 500 miles of riverbed in Arizona and New Mexico. "Along hundreds of miles of streams and rivers, the federal government has essentially prohibited landowners from making improvements on their own private property – in the name of protecting two fish species," said PLF attorney Damien Schiff. "But this command violates the Endangered Species Act itself in some basic ways. The regulators haven’t clearly identified physical and biological features in the designated areas that are essential for the species’ conservation. And they have ignored their legal duty to consider the economic impact of the designation."....go here to view the lawsuit.
R-CALF: Assistance Given to LU Ranch, Joyce Livestock On the recommendation of the R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee, the group’s board of directors has decided to contribute $1,000 to the legal expenses of the LU Ranch and Joyce Livestock in their long-term fight with the federal government for the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. After years of wrangling in the court system, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the ranchers owned the water rights on the federal land, but unfortunately, the Idaho Supreme Court held that the ranchers were not entitled to recover their attorney fees. Oklahoma attorney and R-CALF USA member Harlan Hentges said that through the years, U.S. governmental officials have claimed that the federal government owns the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. Not so, he said. “The water rights belong to the ranchers who have put the water to beneficial use and have owned these water rights for decades,” he said. “Through the years, overzealous governmental officials have abused their power and ignored ranchers' private property rights on the water. “The United States sued LU Ranching and Joyce Livestock and challenged these ranchers’ historic water rights for their ranching operations, which are located on federally administered grazing allotments,” Hentges explained. “The ranchers had two choices: 1) give up their water rights to the United States, and therefore the viability of their ranches; or, 2) defend their historic family water rights against the United States, even though the cost of doing so would exceed the value of their ranches. These ranchers defended their water rights and prevailed.”....
Picture it: 64,000 new acres of wilderness On the map, they are an archipelago of green stretching across the topography of San Miguel and Dolores counties — thousands of acres that could become the newest wilderness areas on the Western Slope. They run from Naturita Canyon and McKenna Peak in the west to Mount Sneffels and Deep Creek, hovering just above the roof of Telluride — some 64,000 acres in all. An at the end of the month, local conservationists will ask Congress to introduce legislation converting these patches of federal land into wilderness areas. The designation would keep cars, helicopters, ATVs and bikes off these lands, and prevent any road construction or road upgrades, said Hilary White of the Sheep Mountain Alliance, which is leading the charge in San Miguel County. “It basically is the highest protection of public lands there is,” White said. “The wilderness designation strives to protect the pristine wildlife habitat and corridor areas left in the United States.” The U.S. House and Senate must pass legislation designating these lands — which are owned by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — as wilderness areas. White said she and other supporters will meet with U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Western Slope Democrat, this month to outline their proposal. Eric Wortman, Salazar’s legislative director, said the congressman’s office would then vet the proposal and run it by interested groups....
Feds must live up to commitment to maintain failing logging roads There's an old saying that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging. Right now, our federal government is in a hole and is still digging. In doing so, it is turning its back on an agreement with Washington state to maintain and restore thousands of miles of decades-old, deteriorating logging roads in our national forests. Prolonged underfunding of forest road maintenance in our national forests has increased erosion and road failures, and the problem grows daily. Muddy water from failing and washed-out forest roads harms fish — including threatened and endangered runs of salmon — that need cold, clear water to thrive and reproduce. Muddy water harms the gills of salmon and trout. Silt smothers their eggs when it settles into clean gravel beds. Muddy runoff also contributes to making streams wider, shallower and more susceptible to warming by the sun. Warm streams further threaten salmon and trout that need cold, clean water to survive....
Utahns push U.S. bill to fund rural schools Commissioners from five Utah counties descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to push for a bill to get government funding for rural schools. The pending legislation would extend a current law originally passed in 2001 that provides a "safety net" for rural school districts, especially those in Western states, that have little private land available to tax and do not get all the money owed to them by the federal government. Some communities had depended on funds generated from the Forest Service land to fund schools and other local projects, but the amounts started to decrease as the money generated by the Forest Service lands began to go down, according to the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition. In 2000, Congress passed a law giving money to those communities that saw cuts. But the law expires on Sept. 30 unless Congress renews it. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has a bill that would extend the act and make other changes that could help rural communities in states, such as Utah, with a lot of public land. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is a co-sponsor of DeFazio's bill....
Ex-Forest Service worker fights firing Ruth Wenstrom says she was only trying to be honest. The former San Bernardino National Forest public information officer says when cuts were made in fire-suppression spending in 2006, she was stunned. For several years previously, the San Bernardino district had received twice-monthly severity funds to bolster its firefighting capability and aid in the removal of trees killed off by a bark-beetle infestation. The cuts meant a reduction in on-duty fire engines in the forest from 25 to as few as 16 during the week. "I was told to say, 'There's no problems out there, and there's no need for added money,' " Wenstrom said, recalling a directive she received in April 2006. "And that was a bald-faced lie." Only months earlier, now-retired Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman had called the San Bernardino National Forest the "most threatened community in the nation" because of its population density and the fire danger. That danger was evident in 2003 when the Old and Grand Prix fires raced through the hillsides and mountains, destroying more than 600 homes....
County vows to fight for roads Otero County plans to take on the Forest Service regarding road access under Revised Statute 2477, a provision in the 1866 Mining Law that states any road under county jurisdiction, regardless of when that jurisdiction was established, supersedes any subsequent jurisdiction claimed by any other entity, including the Forest Service. In a discussion at its work session Wednesday, the Otero County Commission expressed its intent to take on the Forest Service regarding roads in the Lincoln National Forest. "We want to stop the closure of any roads and trails by the Forest Service," said Commission Chairman Doug Moore. "If they want to challenge any of the roads we claim under R.S. 2477, we'll duke it out in court." "If we have to list every goat trail, butterfly path, and meteor pathway, we will," Commissioner Clarissa McGinn said. "We want a preemptive action to keep these closures from happening. These closures are going to take place very soon if we don't stop this." Moore said the Forest Service plan is to close nearly half the roads and trails in the Lincoln National Forest....
Report rebukes USFS's direction The "can do" mentality blamed in the deaths of five firefighters last year in Riverside County underscores an even greater problem within the U.S. Forest Service: The agency has lost direction, an outside report suggests. Wildfires will likely kill an increasing number of firefighters unless the Forest Service's mission and acceptable levels of risk are better defined, according to the report. "Many remain unclear about the limits to the mission, leading them to take on responsibilities that put them in harm's way, cause over-reaching and lead to unsafe situations," an excerpt of the 46-page report reads. Crews are stretched to fight larger fires with fewer numbers, are overloaded with rules and are frequently torn between whether to act as agents of a "forest service" that manages the forest and fights forest fires or a "fire service" that is responsible for protecting homes built in sensitive forest areas, according to the report. Dialogos, a consulting firm commissioned by the agency to address safety concerns in the wake of mounting deaths, prepared the report....
Abandoned mines cause environmental devastation Prospectors began hacking at Colorado's mountainsides 150 years ago in search of gold, silver and any other kind of profitable metal that might have been nestled deep inside the rock. Soon mines peppered the landscape. And while most of them were abandoned nearly a century ago, their consequences on the region's ecology and human health will continue to thrive long after our own generation has withered. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 500,000 abandoned mines exist in the U.S., the majority of which lie out West. Colorado is home to about 23,000 of them, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining & Safety. Not all of the mines emit pollutants, but enough of them do to cause a host of problems. Perhaps the most obvious are the physical dangers. Last year, 22 people died nationwide from falling in abandoned mine shafts, inhaling deadly odorless gases or being crushed in cave-ins. Those dangers represent just a small piece of the problem these old mines create....
Bats, kangaroo mice, sage grouse on wildlife agenda Bats, kangaroo mice and sage grouse will be among the beneficiaries from a series of Nevada Division of Wildlife projects approved Tuesday. The projects are all authorized in contracts approved by the Board of Examiners. Largest on the list is a $140,000 contract in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service to build what was described as "bat compatible gates" on abandoned mines throughout the state. Wildlife Diversity Administrator Laura Richards there are 17 species of bat in Nevada and that 14 of them are listed as "sensitive." Thousands of old mines in the state must be somehow closed off so people don't enter them and get injured or killed. But in the past, that meant permanently sealing the mine entrances. "A lot of abandoned mines are maternity roosts for bats," she said. The idea is to build gates that prevent people from entering old mines while allowing the bats free access....
Panel upholds methane ruling A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that allows limited coal-bed methane development in Montana's portion of the Powder River Basin. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an April 2005 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Anderson that allowed limited drilling on federal leases in southern Montana while the Bureau of Land Management expands an environmental impact report for the area. The Northern Cheyenne tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council had challenged the decision. The groups asked for and received an emergency order from the appeals court in June 2005 halting all drilling pending the outcome of their appeal. On Tuesday, both sides said it was unclear when or if drilling would occur. The tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council have the option of asking the entire 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their appeal. In its decision, the panel supported the lower court's decision. "The district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing the partial injunction proposed by BLM because it provides an equitable resolution consistent with the purposes of (National Environmental Policy Act)," the panel wrote....
Protect Colorado's wilderness, DeGette says Colorado and its wilderness are at a crossroads and unless action is taken immediately much of the state's beauty may be lost forever, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said Wednesday in announcing that the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 will be introduced in Congress next week. Under the bill, further exploration and drilling on top of Colorado's Roan Plateau, its cliffs and some of the plateau's valleys would be prohibited, DeGette's office said Wednesday. But rigs and pads already in place would not be affected. "In the last seven years our public lands have faced an onslaught like never before from the Bush administration, particularly on the lands we are talking about in my bill, which are mostly Bureau of Land Management lands," DeGette said at a news conference at Denver's Confluence Park. She said more than 85,000 acres of wilderness and other "public quality lands" have been leased for oil and gas drilling in Colorado and "more are being offered up for leasing every day. "Drilling rigs, new roads, pipelines, more well pads, more noise and more dust have tarnished our landscapes, impacted our communities and disrupted our wildlife," DeGette said. But oil and gas industry reaction was swift and negative to the proposed bill....
Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery. Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate. Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention....
Emission ruling is a victory for state's policy California cleared a critical green light in its campaign to require automakers to build vehicles that emit less greenhouse gas. Wednesday, a federal judge upheld a Vermont law requiring automakers to cut climate-warming vehicle emissions 30 percent by 2016. The law is virtually identical to California's Assembly Bill 1493, adopted five years ago and since copied by 14 other states. The auto industry has sued three states, including California, in an attempt to block the laws. The Vermont case is the first to be decided. In a 240-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III rejected both of the auto industry's main arguments: that the emissions-cutting requirements are technically unworkable and that state-level requirements to reduce greenhouse emissions effectively violate the federal government's authority to set mileage standards....
Eating Less Meat May Slow Climate Change Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming. "We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study. "If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said. Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide. "That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors. The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day. With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago....
Wilderness deal made An association of home builders has reached a compromise with wilderness proponents on the boundary for eastward growth of Las Cruces, both groups announced during a news conference Wednesday. As a result, the Las Cruces Home Builders Association said it will endorse a plan by conservationists that would grant a federal wilderness designation to thousands of acres in Doña Ana County. The groups had been at odds throughout a negotiations process about wilderness hosted by the city early this year. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users remain opposed to the wilderness designation in most cases, though they've backed another method of protecting land from development. Steve Wilmeth, a Doña Ana County rancher, said he's concerned about the home builders decision to endorse the conservationists' entire proposal, including the Broad Canyon and Potrillo mountain areas. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users have said they're worried the wilderness designation — which restricts most mechanized travel — would keep law enforcement and Border Patrol from easily accessing the land. "This is a bigger issue than just ranchers ... here," he said. "When there is a legitimate national security concern, this is a reckless and irresponsible decision in the long run for our community."....
Lawsuit Challenges Fish "Habitat" in New Mexico and Arizona The federal government acted illegally when it designated vast stretches of riverbeds in New Mexico and Arizona as "critical habitat" for two species of fish found throughout the Southwest – the spikedace and loach minnow. So argues a lawsuit announced today by Pacific Legal Foundation. The resulting land use restrictions create flood dangers for landowners, among other problems, according to PLF attorneys and their clients. Filed on behalf of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, and the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the lawsuit contends that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service – the agency responsible for the March 21, 2007, habitat designation – did not follow the requirements of the Endangered Species Act when it set aside more than 500 miles of riverbed in Arizona and New Mexico. "Along hundreds of miles of streams and rivers, the federal government has essentially prohibited landowners from making improvements on their own private property – in the name of protecting two fish species," said PLF attorney Damien Schiff. "But this command violates the Endangered Species Act itself in some basic ways. The regulators haven’t clearly identified physical and biological features in the designated areas that are essential for the species’ conservation. And they have ignored their legal duty to consider the economic impact of the designation."....go here to view the lawsuit.
R-CALF: Assistance Given to LU Ranch, Joyce Livestock On the recommendation of the R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee, the group’s board of directors has decided to contribute $1,000 to the legal expenses of the LU Ranch and Joyce Livestock in their long-term fight with the federal government for the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. After years of wrangling in the court system, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the ranchers owned the water rights on the federal land, but unfortunately, the Idaho Supreme Court held that the ranchers were not entitled to recover their attorney fees. Oklahoma attorney and R-CALF USA member Harlan Hentges said that through the years, U.S. governmental officials have claimed that the federal government owns the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. Not so, he said. “The water rights belong to the ranchers who have put the water to beneficial use and have owned these water rights for decades,” he said. “Through the years, overzealous governmental officials have abused their power and ignored ranchers' private property rights on the water. “The United States sued LU Ranching and Joyce Livestock and challenged these ranchers’ historic water rights for their ranching operations, which are located on federally administered grazing allotments,” Hentges explained. “The ranchers had two choices: 1) give up their water rights to the United States, and therefore the viability of their ranches; or, 2) defend their historic family water rights against the United States, even though the cost of doing so would exceed the value of their ranches. These ranchers defended their water rights and prevailed.”....
Picture it: 64,000 new acres of wilderness On the map, they are an archipelago of green stretching across the topography of San Miguel and Dolores counties — thousands of acres that could become the newest wilderness areas on the Western Slope. They run from Naturita Canyon and McKenna Peak in the west to Mount Sneffels and Deep Creek, hovering just above the roof of Telluride — some 64,000 acres in all. An at the end of the month, local conservationists will ask Congress to introduce legislation converting these patches of federal land into wilderness areas. The designation would keep cars, helicopters, ATVs and bikes off these lands, and prevent any road construction or road upgrades, said Hilary White of the Sheep Mountain Alliance, which is leading the charge in San Miguel County. “It basically is the highest protection of public lands there is,” White said. “The wilderness designation strives to protect the pristine wildlife habitat and corridor areas left in the United States.” The U.S. House and Senate must pass legislation designating these lands — which are owned by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — as wilderness areas. White said she and other supporters will meet with U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Western Slope Democrat, this month to outline their proposal. Eric Wortman, Salazar’s legislative director, said the congressman’s office would then vet the proposal and run it by interested groups....
Feds must live up to commitment to maintain failing logging roads There's an old saying that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging. Right now, our federal government is in a hole and is still digging. In doing so, it is turning its back on an agreement with Washington state to maintain and restore thousands of miles of decades-old, deteriorating logging roads in our national forests. Prolonged underfunding of forest road maintenance in our national forests has increased erosion and road failures, and the problem grows daily. Muddy water from failing and washed-out forest roads harms fish — including threatened and endangered runs of salmon — that need cold, clear water to thrive and reproduce. Muddy water harms the gills of salmon and trout. Silt smothers their eggs when it settles into clean gravel beds. Muddy runoff also contributes to making streams wider, shallower and more susceptible to warming by the sun. Warm streams further threaten salmon and trout that need cold, clean water to survive....
Utahns push U.S. bill to fund rural schools Commissioners from five Utah counties descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to push for a bill to get government funding for rural schools. The pending legislation would extend a current law originally passed in 2001 that provides a "safety net" for rural school districts, especially those in Western states, that have little private land available to tax and do not get all the money owed to them by the federal government. Some communities had depended on funds generated from the Forest Service land to fund schools and other local projects, but the amounts started to decrease as the money generated by the Forest Service lands began to go down, according to the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition. In 2000, Congress passed a law giving money to those communities that saw cuts. But the law expires on Sept. 30 unless Congress renews it. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has a bill that would extend the act and make other changes that could help rural communities in states, such as Utah, with a lot of public land. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is a co-sponsor of DeFazio's bill....
Ex-Forest Service worker fights firing Ruth Wenstrom says she was only trying to be honest. The former San Bernardino National Forest public information officer says when cuts were made in fire-suppression spending in 2006, she was stunned. For several years previously, the San Bernardino district had received twice-monthly severity funds to bolster its firefighting capability and aid in the removal of trees killed off by a bark-beetle infestation. The cuts meant a reduction in on-duty fire engines in the forest from 25 to as few as 16 during the week. "I was told to say, 'There's no problems out there, and there's no need for added money,' " Wenstrom said, recalling a directive she received in April 2006. "And that was a bald-faced lie." Only months earlier, now-retired Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman had called the San Bernardino National Forest the "most threatened community in the nation" because of its population density and the fire danger. That danger was evident in 2003 when the Old and Grand Prix fires raced through the hillsides and mountains, destroying more than 600 homes....
County vows to fight for roads Otero County plans to take on the Forest Service regarding road access under Revised Statute 2477, a provision in the 1866 Mining Law that states any road under county jurisdiction, regardless of when that jurisdiction was established, supersedes any subsequent jurisdiction claimed by any other entity, including the Forest Service. In a discussion at its work session Wednesday, the Otero County Commission expressed its intent to take on the Forest Service regarding roads in the Lincoln National Forest. "We want to stop the closure of any roads and trails by the Forest Service," said Commission Chairman Doug Moore. "If they want to challenge any of the roads we claim under R.S. 2477, we'll duke it out in court." "If we have to list every goat trail, butterfly path, and meteor pathway, we will," Commissioner Clarissa McGinn said. "We want a preemptive action to keep these closures from happening. These closures are going to take place very soon if we don't stop this." Moore said the Forest Service plan is to close nearly half the roads and trails in the Lincoln National Forest....
Report rebukes USFS's direction The "can do" mentality blamed in the deaths of five firefighters last year in Riverside County underscores an even greater problem within the U.S. Forest Service: The agency has lost direction, an outside report suggests. Wildfires will likely kill an increasing number of firefighters unless the Forest Service's mission and acceptable levels of risk are better defined, according to the report. "Many remain unclear about the limits to the mission, leading them to take on responsibilities that put them in harm's way, cause over-reaching and lead to unsafe situations," an excerpt of the 46-page report reads. Crews are stretched to fight larger fires with fewer numbers, are overloaded with rules and are frequently torn between whether to act as agents of a "forest service" that manages the forest and fights forest fires or a "fire service" that is responsible for protecting homes built in sensitive forest areas, according to the report. Dialogos, a consulting firm commissioned by the agency to address safety concerns in the wake of mounting deaths, prepared the report....
Abandoned mines cause environmental devastation Prospectors began hacking at Colorado's mountainsides 150 years ago in search of gold, silver and any other kind of profitable metal that might have been nestled deep inside the rock. Soon mines peppered the landscape. And while most of them were abandoned nearly a century ago, their consequences on the region's ecology and human health will continue to thrive long after our own generation has withered. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 500,000 abandoned mines exist in the U.S., the majority of which lie out West. Colorado is home to about 23,000 of them, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining & Safety. Not all of the mines emit pollutants, but enough of them do to cause a host of problems. Perhaps the most obvious are the physical dangers. Last year, 22 people died nationwide from falling in abandoned mine shafts, inhaling deadly odorless gases or being crushed in cave-ins. Those dangers represent just a small piece of the problem these old mines create....
Bats, kangaroo mice, sage grouse on wildlife agenda Bats, kangaroo mice and sage grouse will be among the beneficiaries from a series of Nevada Division of Wildlife projects approved Tuesday. The projects are all authorized in contracts approved by the Board of Examiners. Largest on the list is a $140,000 contract in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service to build what was described as "bat compatible gates" on abandoned mines throughout the state. Wildlife Diversity Administrator Laura Richards there are 17 species of bat in Nevada and that 14 of them are listed as "sensitive." Thousands of old mines in the state must be somehow closed off so people don't enter them and get injured or killed. But in the past, that meant permanently sealing the mine entrances. "A lot of abandoned mines are maternity roosts for bats," she said. The idea is to build gates that prevent people from entering old mines while allowing the bats free access....
Panel upholds methane ruling A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that allows limited coal-bed methane development in Montana's portion of the Powder River Basin. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an April 2005 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Anderson that allowed limited drilling on federal leases in southern Montana while the Bureau of Land Management expands an environmental impact report for the area. The Northern Cheyenne tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council had challenged the decision. The groups asked for and received an emergency order from the appeals court in June 2005 halting all drilling pending the outcome of their appeal. On Tuesday, both sides said it was unclear when or if drilling would occur. The tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council have the option of asking the entire 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their appeal. In its decision, the panel supported the lower court's decision. "The district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing the partial injunction proposed by BLM because it provides an equitable resolution consistent with the purposes of (National Environmental Policy Act)," the panel wrote....
Protect Colorado's wilderness, DeGette says Colorado and its wilderness are at a crossroads and unless action is taken immediately much of the state's beauty may be lost forever, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said Wednesday in announcing that the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 will be introduced in Congress next week. Under the bill, further exploration and drilling on top of Colorado's Roan Plateau, its cliffs and some of the plateau's valleys would be prohibited, DeGette's office said Wednesday. But rigs and pads already in place would not be affected. "In the last seven years our public lands have faced an onslaught like never before from the Bush administration, particularly on the lands we are talking about in my bill, which are mostly Bureau of Land Management lands," DeGette said at a news conference at Denver's Confluence Park. She said more than 85,000 acres of wilderness and other "public quality lands" have been leased for oil and gas drilling in Colorado and "more are being offered up for leasing every day. "Drilling rigs, new roads, pipelines, more well pads, more noise and more dust have tarnished our landscapes, impacted our communities and disrupted our wildlife," DeGette said. But oil and gas industry reaction was swift and negative to the proposed bill....
FLE
Would notebook's clues have headed off 9-11? Two numbers scrawled in a notebook that belonged to terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui could have given the FBI a chance to identify several of the Sept. 11 hijackers before they struck six years ago, according to officials who are familiar with the bureau's massive investigation of the attacks. The notebook entries recorded the control numbers for two Western Union wire transfers in which suspected al Qaida coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh, using an alias, sent Moussaoui $14,000 from Germany in early August 2001, before he went to a Minnesota flight school to learn to fly a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. A check of Western Union records probably would have uncovered other wires in the preceding days for similar sums of money to Binalshibh — who'd been turned away at the U.S. border four times because he was a suspected terrorist — from an al Qaida paymaster in Dubai. On one of those receipts, the paymaster listed a phone number in the United Arab Emirates that several of the hijackers had called from Florida. FBI headquarters, however, rejected Minneapolis FBI field agents' repeated requests for a national security warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings after he was arrested on Aug. 16, 2001. One agent, Harry Samit, was so convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist that he sent scores of messages to FBI headquarters pressing for a search warrant....
Lawyer wrongly accused in Madrid bombings back in court over Patriot Act The lawyer whom the FBI wrongly accused in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings was in court Monday to urge a judge to strike down provisions of the USA Patriot Act that helped investigators conduct what he says were unconstitutional searches of his home and office. Brandon Mayfield settled part of his case against the federal government for $2 million in November but was allowed to continue to pursue his challenge of the Patriot Act. He says the government is continuing to violate his civil rights by retaining thousands of copied pages of his family's personal information. Mayfield was arrested May 6, 2004, after a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid was incorrectly matched to him. Before the arrest, federal authorities searched Mayfield's Portland-area home and law office, going through files and placing bugging devices in the home. Mayfield was held in prison for two weeks before he was released, and he received a formal apology from the FBI. He contends he was unfairly targeted because he is a convert to Islam. The 2001 Patriot Act greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism, both domestically and abroad. Mayfield's lawyers, Portland attorney Elden Rosenthal and Wyoming counsel Gerry Spence, argued Monday that the authority the Patriot Act grants is an assault on the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, without probable cause, determined by a judge, to believe that a crime has been committed....
Intelligence Chief Admits Error Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, on Wednesday recanted his claim that the new surveillance powers recently given to the government helped foil a terrorist plot in Germany. “Information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement issued late in the day. Mr. McConnell had told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday that powers granted by the act, hastily approved by Congress in early August before a monthlong break, helped stop the planned attacks. The law, which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had been pushed strongly by Mr. McConnell and the White House. Mr. McConnell’s assertion that the new powers helped foil the plot in Germany had been disputed by Representative Silvestre Reyes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Reyes, Democrat of Texas, said on Tuesday that the intelligence used to capture the would-be terrorists was collected under the old version of the surveillance law, not the new one. “In fact, F.I.S.A., which you repeatedly claim is ‘outdated,’ was precisely the tool that helped disrupt this plot,” Mr. Reyes said. “The new law did not lead to the arrests of the three terrorist plotters, as you claimed.” The new surveillance law expires in six months. Many Democrats want to change it sooner, arguing that it gives the government far more power to eavesdrop than Congress initially understood.
US moves to tighten immigration, customs procedures The United States is moving to tighten immigration and customs controls, which it says are vital to keep terrorists at bay six years after the September 11 attacks. Under plans that have been announced, foreign travelers will need to provide 10 digital fingerprints on arrival instead of two currently, and their personal data will be transmitted to the United States before their plane takes off. By the end of the year, virtually every container that comes into the country by sea will be screened amid concerns over possible smuggling of nuclear weapons, security officials said. "We must move forward aggressively to build on our success to keep pace with our enemies," said Michael Chertoff, secretary of the department of homeland security, the frontline body in the US "war on terror." In November, the United States will begin implementing the plan requiring travelers to give 10 digital fingerprints on arrival. Ten US airports will initially have the capability to collect the 10 prints before all ports of entry are covered by the plan by the end of 2008....
Meatpackers Union Sues Over Plant Raids A union representing workers at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants sued federal immigration authorities Wednesday, alleging agents violated the workers' rights during raids by roughly handling even those not suspected of crimes. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek unspecified damages and an order to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting what the union says are illegal raids. ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants in December, but union officials have said that more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the raids. Swift has estimated the financial impact at up to $50 million. Union president Joseph Hansen said workers were handcuffed and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families....
Would notebook's clues have headed off 9-11? Two numbers scrawled in a notebook that belonged to terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui could have given the FBI a chance to identify several of the Sept. 11 hijackers before they struck six years ago, according to officials who are familiar with the bureau's massive investigation of the attacks. The notebook entries recorded the control numbers for two Western Union wire transfers in which suspected al Qaida coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh, using an alias, sent Moussaoui $14,000 from Germany in early August 2001, before he went to a Minnesota flight school to learn to fly a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. A check of Western Union records probably would have uncovered other wires in the preceding days for similar sums of money to Binalshibh — who'd been turned away at the U.S. border four times because he was a suspected terrorist — from an al Qaida paymaster in Dubai. On one of those receipts, the paymaster listed a phone number in the United Arab Emirates that several of the hijackers had called from Florida. FBI headquarters, however, rejected Minneapolis FBI field agents' repeated requests for a national security warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings after he was arrested on Aug. 16, 2001. One agent, Harry Samit, was so convinced that Moussaoui was a terrorist that he sent scores of messages to FBI headquarters pressing for a search warrant....
Lawyer wrongly accused in Madrid bombings back in court over Patriot Act The lawyer whom the FBI wrongly accused in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings was in court Monday to urge a judge to strike down provisions of the USA Patriot Act that helped investigators conduct what he says were unconstitutional searches of his home and office. Brandon Mayfield settled part of his case against the federal government for $2 million in November but was allowed to continue to pursue his challenge of the Patriot Act. He says the government is continuing to violate his civil rights by retaining thousands of copied pages of his family's personal information. Mayfield was arrested May 6, 2004, after a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid was incorrectly matched to him. Before the arrest, federal authorities searched Mayfield's Portland-area home and law office, going through files and placing bugging devices in the home. Mayfield was held in prison for two weeks before he was released, and he received a formal apology from the FBI. He contends he was unfairly targeted because he is a convert to Islam. The 2001 Patriot Act greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism, both domestically and abroad. Mayfield's lawyers, Portland attorney Elden Rosenthal and Wyoming counsel Gerry Spence, argued Monday that the authority the Patriot Act grants is an assault on the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, without probable cause, determined by a judge, to believe that a crime has been committed....
Intelligence Chief Admits Error Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, on Wednesday recanted his claim that the new surveillance powers recently given to the government helped foil a terrorist plot in Germany. “Information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement issued late in the day. Mr. McConnell had told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday that powers granted by the act, hastily approved by Congress in early August before a monthlong break, helped stop the planned attacks. The law, which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had been pushed strongly by Mr. McConnell and the White House. Mr. McConnell’s assertion that the new powers helped foil the plot in Germany had been disputed by Representative Silvestre Reyes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Reyes, Democrat of Texas, said on Tuesday that the intelligence used to capture the would-be terrorists was collected under the old version of the surveillance law, not the new one. “In fact, F.I.S.A., which you repeatedly claim is ‘outdated,’ was precisely the tool that helped disrupt this plot,” Mr. Reyes said. “The new law did not lead to the arrests of the three terrorist plotters, as you claimed.” The new surveillance law expires in six months. Many Democrats want to change it sooner, arguing that it gives the government far more power to eavesdrop than Congress initially understood.
US moves to tighten immigration, customs procedures The United States is moving to tighten immigration and customs controls, which it says are vital to keep terrorists at bay six years after the September 11 attacks. Under plans that have been announced, foreign travelers will need to provide 10 digital fingerprints on arrival instead of two currently, and their personal data will be transmitted to the United States before their plane takes off. By the end of the year, virtually every container that comes into the country by sea will be screened amid concerns over possible smuggling of nuclear weapons, security officials said. "We must move forward aggressively to build on our success to keep pace with our enemies," said Michael Chertoff, secretary of the department of homeland security, the frontline body in the US "war on terror." In November, the United States will begin implementing the plan requiring travelers to give 10 digital fingerprints on arrival. Ten US airports will initially have the capability to collect the 10 prints before all ports of entry are covered by the plan by the end of 2008....
Meatpackers Union Sues Over Plant Raids A union representing workers at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants sued federal immigration authorities Wednesday, alleging agents violated the workers' rights during raids by roughly handling even those not suspected of crimes. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek unspecified damages and an order to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting what the union says are illegal raids. ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants in December, but union officials have said that more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the raids. Swift has estimated the financial impact at up to $50 million. Union president Joseph Hansen said workers were handcuffed and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families....
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Court won't expand Powder River Basin injunction A U.S. federal appeals court upheld an injunction on Tuesday against development of coal bed methane development on 93 percent of the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. Yet, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request to expand that injunction to block development on all of the 14-million-acre (5.7-million-hectare) region pending further environmental reviews. The area of ranches and mines is home to America's largest coal deposits, and has been subject to environmental controversy after the federal government starting selling leases to develop energy resources there a decade ago. Coal bed methane is obtained by taking groundwater out of land and into rivers; when put under pressure, the methane then percolates and is piped to the surface. The split 2-1 decision of the 9th Circuit cited potential environmental issues of aesthetic harm, pollution of rivers from the pumped groundwater, and lowering of the water table, impacting farmers and ranchers. The decision upheld a lower court injunction allowing development on 7 percent of the area but blocking development on 93 percent of the area pending a revised environmental impact study....
Ashland cattle ranch faces failure if grazing is curtailed Longtime rancher Mike Dauenhauer wasn't surprised that a recent scientific study concluded cattle grazing harmed the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. "I could have told you the results before they were completed — they want us gone," he said. If grazing is banned on the monument, his family's cattle ranch would be history, he added. "For me personally, removing the grazing up there would take me out of the cow business," he said, noting his family has had cattle grazing allotments for nearly half a century on the public land where the monument now stands. He was responding to a report released Monday by 10 scientists who spent several years studying the impact of grazing on the monument established in 2000. Hired by the Ashland-based National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, the scientists have recommended that cattle be permanently barred from grazing on the 52,947-acre monument....
'Immense potential' State officials say they hope bids will be competitive to lease the Duncan Ranch north of here, a place Gov. Dave Freudenthal said “has immense potential” during a stop Monday on his annual natural resource tour. Overlooking a steep, rugged canyon owned by Converse County, Freudenthal and more than 150 Wyoming lawmakers and dignitaries eyed the cool blue pool of water at the bottom. Some queried whether fishermen had much luck there throughout the summer; others scoped the far canyon roads with binoculars. Freudenthal said the ranch, from healthy hay meadows at the base of Boxelder Canyon to rich timbered slopes up higher, holds opportunity for many of Wyoming’s citizens. Acknowledging some early controversy surrounding whether the state should play a role in purchasing a working ranch, he said the teams assembled to determine the recreational, educational, agricultural, wildlife and commercial values have hammered out a strong plan. “I think we’ll end up with a true multiple-use management plan in place,” he said, adding that he believes the state should “take our time and make sure we do it right.” A management plan met with approval in June. Now, the Office of State Lands and Investments is asking for bids from family ranchers to lease the property, representing a contiguous block of 7,479 acres of state land. The Office of State Lands and Investments bought the 6,439-acre ranch from Hugh Duncan for $5.9 million in February 2006 to manage as a state school trust asset....
Black Hills off-roading map unveiled to 400 at meeting More than 400 people showed up at a Tuesday night in Rapid City to get a firsthand look at the future of off-roading in the Black Hills National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service used the biggest meeting room at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel convention center to unveil a proposed trail system for motorized vehicles. The new trails would reverse the current rules, which allow off-roading anywhere it is not specifically prohibited in the Black Hills. “We’re going to tell you where you go, when you can go there and what equipment will be allowed,” Forest Service travel management planner Tom Willems said....Keep the quote from Forest Service employee Tom Willems in mind, as it demonstrates their attitude toward the public and is something all users of the Federal lands will be hearing.
Wide range of concern in Wyoming To the cadre of sportsmen attempting to save the Wyoming Range from oil and gas development, the scene has become iconic. Whether captured on film or in the mind's eye, the lingering image is of a large drilling platform poised above a small creek where swims a population of threatened cutthroat trout. It's not a pretty sight. For residents of western Wyoming, this little-known mountain range has become a sort of line in the sand in what has turned into an expanding effort throughout the Rockies to forestall a rampant wave of drilling. From northern New Mexico to northwest Colorado to the Rocky Mountain Front of Montana, wildlife enthusiasts are fighting a sort of rear guard action to somehow ameliorate the oil and gas boom. Nowhere has the effort gained sharper focus than in this obscure group of mountains not far from the Utah border....
Lamborn: Make peak a monument U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn says a mountain as famous as Pikes Peak deserves to be a national monument, a federal designation bestowed on some other natural landmarks, including Devils Tower and Mount St. Helens. But when he announced Friday he has formed a committee to explore the possibility, the news came as a surprise to the various agencies who manage the mountain, including the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Springs Utilities and the city-run Pikes Peak Highway, none of whom were consulted. And some aren’t sure a national monument designation is needed. Officials said that, aside from possibly boosting tourism, the designation could have little impact on the mountain or protection of the land. “It would promote tourism,” Lamborn said Tuesday. “There are people who love to go around and visit the national monuments around the country and the national parks.”....
Wyden, DeFazio propose wilderness area in southern Oregon Oregon members of Congress are proposing wilderness protection for headwaters of Elk River near Port Orford in southern Oregon. The legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio would protect 13,700 acres of coastal forest and salmon streams. Wilderness designation prevents logging, mining and road building, but hunting and fishing could continue. With Democrats in power, DeFazio said, prospects for new wilderness areas have improved. Richard Pombo of California, a Republican representative defeated last year, was the gatekeeper for wilderness bills and he "hated wilderness with a passion," DeFazio said. The Copper Salmon Wilderness bill could be passed along with the proposal for protecting an additional 125,000 acres around Mount Hood as new wilderness, DeFazio said....
Lost hiker won't return to wilderness After surviving 13 days in the woods with no gear and light clothing, 76-year-old Doris Anderson has resolved never to return to the wilderness, one of her daughters says. Anderson got lost on a hunting trip with her husband but was found last week after authorities had scaled back their search for her. She was hypothermic and incoherent when two officers found her in the Wallowa Mountains on Thursday, authorities said. But daughter Barbara Moore told the Baker City Herald on Tuesday that her mother had gotten out of her hospital bed twice, was eating bananas and mashed potatoes and gravy, and was being fitted for a set of dentures to replace those she lost. Moore said her mother had begun to remember details, but the family will keep them private until she is ready to tell her story to reporters. But, Moore said, her mother did say it was a long, scary experience. “She said she’s not going back to the forest,” Moore said. “It has nothing for her.”....
Wilderness bill would protect Roan Plateau U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette this week is unveiling a wilderness proposal that would ban drilling on much of the Roan Plateau. The measure is the latest political maneuver aimed at staving off attempts to open up the area to natural gas leasing. However, the Roan proposal is not new for DeGette, who has included it in her Colorado wilderness bills going back to 1999, said Chris Arend, a DeGette spokesman. The BLM previously had found wilderness-quality lands on top of the Roan, Arend said. "It hasn't been leased yet, so as far as we know those lands still have wilderness quality and should be considered for wilderness," Arend said. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has decided to open up the plateau for drilling. Conservationists have sought to protect the top from drilling rigs. In a last-ditch maneuver, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, and Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, managed to convince the U.S. House to amend its federal energy bill to bar drilling on federal land on top of the plateau. A Senate energy bill has no such provision and the two bills have yet to be reconciled....
Grizzly found in Idaho after 61-year hiatus A federal plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to central Idaho was scrapped in 2000, but at least one 450-pound male found his own way seven years later. Idaho Fish and Game officials said Tuesday that a Tennessee man hunting black bears in the North Fork Clearwater River shot and killed a grizzly Sept. 3. Officials said they remain uncertain whether they will pursue criminal charges against the hunter. The kill came on the Idaho side of the 5,700-square-mile Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, which includes central Idaho and Western Montana. It was the first confirmed grizzly bear in Idaho since 1946, a 61-year absence. "We predicted we might get bears dispersing into that area," said Chris Servheen, the Montana-based grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Maybe that bear's been a resident in that area his whole life." The bear had not been captured previously, so state and federal regulators are not sure where it came from, Servheen said....
Feds: New wolf rule won't hurt overall numbers New rules making it easier to kill wolves that are reducing wild game herds won't hurt the overall population in the Northern Rockies, according to a review released Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to loosen legal language allowing state agencies to kill wolves that are having an "unacceptable impact" on elk, deer and other ungulate herds. Wolves could be taken out if they are "one of the major causes" of a herd's decline, the proposed rule says. Right now, most wild ungulate herds outside Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are at "record high" levels and above state management goals, according to the agency's environmental assessment of the proposal....
Veto of lead-bullet ban in condor range urged Officials responsible for regulating hunting and fishing in California asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto a bill passed by the state Legislature that would ban the use of lead bullets for hunting in the California condor range. On Tuesday, the state Fish and Game Commission sent Schwarzenegger a letter asking that he veto Assembly Bill 821, which is headed to his desk after final passage by the state Assembly and Senate last week. The legislation, known as the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, requires the use of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition when shooting big game or coyotes within specific areas of the state identified as the condor's range. The commission's letter contends that the legislation is flawed and that the commission should be the regulating agency for what kind of ammunition is allowed for hunting in the state. "The commission has been dealing with this issue for more than two and a half years now," said Fish and Game Commission executive director John Carlson Jr. A lead ban had been proposed to commissioners in January 2005 as an emergency petition, he said, which they voted down....
Growers, companies on the 'fence' about barriers A year after tainted spinach from the Central Coast killed three people, sickened more than 200 and cost local growers and companies millions of dollars, the industry is still grappling with the best way to make sure an outbreak never happens again. One idea that's causing a quiet controversy in the Salinas Valley: Fences. Short of growing under a bubble, many in the industry are now wondering whether putting tall fences around fields could be the most effective way to keep animals, particularly deer, away from crops. But while deer are on the Centers for Disease Control's list of animals found to carry potentially deadly strains of E. coli in their intestines, scientists studying E. coli in the Salinas Valley say there is little evidence to show they spread the pathogen. There is also limited information about how fences could affect animal populations along the 100-mile stretch of the Salinas River between San Ardo to the ocean. Investigators aren't sure where the E. coli, traced to neighboring San Benito County, came from, but speculate that the deadly pathogen may have been spread through a spinach field by wild pigs....
Proposed crop ordinance rejected A proposed ordinance banning the use of manure on food crops in Kern County died on Tuesday. County supervisors instead endorsed the use of a state-monitored system of agricultural health standards as a way to prevent biological contamination of food. The ordinance was proposed earlier this summer, said Environmental Health Services Director Matt Constantine, after lettuce and spinach crops from other counties were identified as the cause of national E. coli outbreaks. "Times are changing," said Supervisor Michael Rubio. "Whenever you can trace DNA from a person in the Midwest to a dairy in the Central Valley we all have to be on alert." The goal of the proposed ban, Constantine said, was to ensure Kern County wouldn't be added to the list of counties where outbreaks originated. But agricultural growers and cattle ranchers expressed sharp opposition to the ban....
Wheat Price Rises to Record $9 a Bushel on Global Crop Concerns Wheat prices surpassed $9 a bushel for the first time as a drought in Australia cut production, pushing global stockpiles toward a 26-year low. Australia's wheat crop may fall to 18 million metric tons from a prediction of 23 million tons in a U.S. report today. Reserves of the grain in Canada, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, plunged 29 percent at the end of July from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Increasing demand from Egypt to India and weather damage to crops from Canada to Australia have driven up global prices by 81 percent this year. Users including Sara Lee Corp. and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's biggest producer of instant noodles, are responding by raising prices, fueling inflation. ``The market is in a real frenzy,'' said Tobin Gorey, commodity strategist with Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. ``It's feeding through to the consumer.''....
Two horses slain in Madera Co. pasture wo mares were shot to death over the weekend in a foothill pasture beside Highway 41, and the Madera County Sheriff's Department is asking the public's help to find out who did it. Sheriff's investigators believe the mares were shot late Friday or early Saturday in a 40-acre pasture just north of the Yosemite Lakes Park turnoff. But the horses' owner, who declined to be identified, did not discover the carcasses until Monday, said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart. A third horse in the pasture was unharmed. The mares, ages 5 and 7, were valued at about $4,000 each. The horses were 100 feet to 150 feet from the roadway when they were shot, one in the head and one in the neck, Stuart said. Investigators believe both mares lived for some time after they were shot. The family that owned the mares told investigators that they had been using the roadside pasture for the past four years. They had planned to breed the two mares that were shot, Stuart said. The shootings angered some Madera County horse owners....
Kobe beef farmed on secret Texas ranch It's served at some of Dallas's hottest restaurants - Wagyu beef. Some say it is better than prime, but it's price is higher than prime, too. It sells for about $30 an ounce. Many who taste the mouthwatering, marble-laced delicacy, also called Kobe beef, say it's worth it. But, this special occasion steak, which hails from Japan, is now taking root (or hoof) in the Lone Star State. "These are Japanese Wagyu which produce the Kobe beef," said Gary Yamamoto, a Wagyu rancher. Yamamoto is not your typical rancher. "Basically not, I'd rather be fishing," he said. He's spent millions earned as a professional bass fisherman cultivating a herd of pure-blood black Wagyu. He prefers not to say where his ranch is because while typical cows may sell for $800 each, Wagyu can fetch $10,000, and attract cattle rustlers....
Cactus Ropes, the official PRCA rope Cactus Ropes, located between Pleasanton and Floresville on S.H. 97, set a new company record in August, shipping 21,700 ropes that month to various merchants across the nation. This is a big improvement from their beginnings in 1991, when the company shipped only 10,000 ropes for the whole year. So how does a company go from 10,000 ropes in a year to over 200,000? The answer is quality. Since its inception, Cactus Ropes has had its eye on building a reputation for quality. This is a process that takes time, patience, and consistency. It also requires progression. The business spent almost 17 years perfecting its ropes. The business has developed a process that creates some of the toughest and most durable ropes in the nation, capturing the attention of the top professional ropers in the business, like Allen Bach, and earning the official approval of the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association)....
California's wine country farmers go nearly nude to take a stand for the land Winegrowers, ranchers and other members of Napa's farming community in California are showing their green thumbs and quite a bit more in hopes of raising money to protect the valley's rich agricultural resources. Members of the Napa County Farm Bureau, all men, have stripped for a 2008 "Napa Uncovered" calendar that shows them strategically photographed in bucolic settings. The farmers, who are following in the nearly nude footsteps of a number of similar fundraising calendars - including an effort by French winemakers a few years ago - are hoping to draw attention to the issue of dwindling farmlands as well as show a lighter side of the Napa scene. Al Wagner, the vineyard manager for Clos Du Val, appears as Mr. July in a cowboy hat, boots and an apron. "A couple of the guys had a few little misgivings," Wagner said, "but after it was all done they kind of sat back and laughed about it." Those in the calendar come from ranching, vineyard management, and wineries....
Court won't expand Powder River Basin injunction A U.S. federal appeals court upheld an injunction on Tuesday against development of coal bed methane development on 93 percent of the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. Yet, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request to expand that injunction to block development on all of the 14-million-acre (5.7-million-hectare) region pending further environmental reviews. The area of ranches and mines is home to America's largest coal deposits, and has been subject to environmental controversy after the federal government starting selling leases to develop energy resources there a decade ago. Coal bed methane is obtained by taking groundwater out of land and into rivers; when put under pressure, the methane then percolates and is piped to the surface. The split 2-1 decision of the 9th Circuit cited potential environmental issues of aesthetic harm, pollution of rivers from the pumped groundwater, and lowering of the water table, impacting farmers and ranchers. The decision upheld a lower court injunction allowing development on 7 percent of the area but blocking development on 93 percent of the area pending a revised environmental impact study....
Ashland cattle ranch faces failure if grazing is curtailed Longtime rancher Mike Dauenhauer wasn't surprised that a recent scientific study concluded cattle grazing harmed the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. "I could have told you the results before they were completed — they want us gone," he said. If grazing is banned on the monument, his family's cattle ranch would be history, he added. "For me personally, removing the grazing up there would take me out of the cow business," he said, noting his family has had cattle grazing allotments for nearly half a century on the public land where the monument now stands. He was responding to a report released Monday by 10 scientists who spent several years studying the impact of grazing on the monument established in 2000. Hired by the Ashland-based National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, the scientists have recommended that cattle be permanently barred from grazing on the 52,947-acre monument....
'Immense potential' State officials say they hope bids will be competitive to lease the Duncan Ranch north of here, a place Gov. Dave Freudenthal said “has immense potential” during a stop Monday on his annual natural resource tour. Overlooking a steep, rugged canyon owned by Converse County, Freudenthal and more than 150 Wyoming lawmakers and dignitaries eyed the cool blue pool of water at the bottom. Some queried whether fishermen had much luck there throughout the summer; others scoped the far canyon roads with binoculars. Freudenthal said the ranch, from healthy hay meadows at the base of Boxelder Canyon to rich timbered slopes up higher, holds opportunity for many of Wyoming’s citizens. Acknowledging some early controversy surrounding whether the state should play a role in purchasing a working ranch, he said the teams assembled to determine the recreational, educational, agricultural, wildlife and commercial values have hammered out a strong plan. “I think we’ll end up with a true multiple-use management plan in place,” he said, adding that he believes the state should “take our time and make sure we do it right.” A management plan met with approval in June. Now, the Office of State Lands and Investments is asking for bids from family ranchers to lease the property, representing a contiguous block of 7,479 acres of state land. The Office of State Lands and Investments bought the 6,439-acre ranch from Hugh Duncan for $5.9 million in February 2006 to manage as a state school trust asset....
Black Hills off-roading map unveiled to 400 at meeting More than 400 people showed up at a Tuesday night in Rapid City to get a firsthand look at the future of off-roading in the Black Hills National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service used the biggest meeting room at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel convention center to unveil a proposed trail system for motorized vehicles. The new trails would reverse the current rules, which allow off-roading anywhere it is not specifically prohibited in the Black Hills. “We’re going to tell you where you go, when you can go there and what equipment will be allowed,” Forest Service travel management planner Tom Willems said....Keep the quote from Forest Service employee Tom Willems in mind, as it demonstrates their attitude toward the public and is something all users of the Federal lands will be hearing.
Wide range of concern in Wyoming To the cadre of sportsmen attempting to save the Wyoming Range from oil and gas development, the scene has become iconic. Whether captured on film or in the mind's eye, the lingering image is of a large drilling platform poised above a small creek where swims a population of threatened cutthroat trout. It's not a pretty sight. For residents of western Wyoming, this little-known mountain range has become a sort of line in the sand in what has turned into an expanding effort throughout the Rockies to forestall a rampant wave of drilling. From northern New Mexico to northwest Colorado to the Rocky Mountain Front of Montana, wildlife enthusiasts are fighting a sort of rear guard action to somehow ameliorate the oil and gas boom. Nowhere has the effort gained sharper focus than in this obscure group of mountains not far from the Utah border....
Lamborn: Make peak a monument U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn says a mountain as famous as Pikes Peak deserves to be a national monument, a federal designation bestowed on some other natural landmarks, including Devils Tower and Mount St. Helens. But when he announced Friday he has formed a committee to explore the possibility, the news came as a surprise to the various agencies who manage the mountain, including the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Springs Utilities and the city-run Pikes Peak Highway, none of whom were consulted. And some aren’t sure a national monument designation is needed. Officials said that, aside from possibly boosting tourism, the designation could have little impact on the mountain or protection of the land. “It would promote tourism,” Lamborn said Tuesday. “There are people who love to go around and visit the national monuments around the country and the national parks.”....
Wyden, DeFazio propose wilderness area in southern Oregon Oregon members of Congress are proposing wilderness protection for headwaters of Elk River near Port Orford in southern Oregon. The legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio would protect 13,700 acres of coastal forest and salmon streams. Wilderness designation prevents logging, mining and road building, but hunting and fishing could continue. With Democrats in power, DeFazio said, prospects for new wilderness areas have improved. Richard Pombo of California, a Republican representative defeated last year, was the gatekeeper for wilderness bills and he "hated wilderness with a passion," DeFazio said. The Copper Salmon Wilderness bill could be passed along with the proposal for protecting an additional 125,000 acres around Mount Hood as new wilderness, DeFazio said....
Lost hiker won't return to wilderness After surviving 13 days in the woods with no gear and light clothing, 76-year-old Doris Anderson has resolved never to return to the wilderness, one of her daughters says. Anderson got lost on a hunting trip with her husband but was found last week after authorities had scaled back their search for her. She was hypothermic and incoherent when two officers found her in the Wallowa Mountains on Thursday, authorities said. But daughter Barbara Moore told the Baker City Herald on Tuesday that her mother had gotten out of her hospital bed twice, was eating bananas and mashed potatoes and gravy, and was being fitted for a set of dentures to replace those she lost. Moore said her mother had begun to remember details, but the family will keep them private until she is ready to tell her story to reporters. But, Moore said, her mother did say it was a long, scary experience. “She said she’s not going back to the forest,” Moore said. “It has nothing for her.”....
Wilderness bill would protect Roan Plateau U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette this week is unveiling a wilderness proposal that would ban drilling on much of the Roan Plateau. The measure is the latest political maneuver aimed at staving off attempts to open up the area to natural gas leasing. However, the Roan proposal is not new for DeGette, who has included it in her Colorado wilderness bills going back to 1999, said Chris Arend, a DeGette spokesman. The BLM previously had found wilderness-quality lands on top of the Roan, Arend said. "It hasn't been leased yet, so as far as we know those lands still have wilderness quality and should be considered for wilderness," Arend said. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has decided to open up the plateau for drilling. Conservationists have sought to protect the top from drilling rigs. In a last-ditch maneuver, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, and Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, managed to convince the U.S. House to amend its federal energy bill to bar drilling on federal land on top of the plateau. A Senate energy bill has no such provision and the two bills have yet to be reconciled....
Grizzly found in Idaho after 61-year hiatus A federal plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to central Idaho was scrapped in 2000, but at least one 450-pound male found his own way seven years later. Idaho Fish and Game officials said Tuesday that a Tennessee man hunting black bears in the North Fork Clearwater River shot and killed a grizzly Sept. 3. Officials said they remain uncertain whether they will pursue criminal charges against the hunter. The kill came on the Idaho side of the 5,700-square-mile Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, which includes central Idaho and Western Montana. It was the first confirmed grizzly bear in Idaho since 1946, a 61-year absence. "We predicted we might get bears dispersing into that area," said Chris Servheen, the Montana-based grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Maybe that bear's been a resident in that area his whole life." The bear had not been captured previously, so state and federal regulators are not sure where it came from, Servheen said....
Feds: New wolf rule won't hurt overall numbers New rules making it easier to kill wolves that are reducing wild game herds won't hurt the overall population in the Northern Rockies, according to a review released Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to loosen legal language allowing state agencies to kill wolves that are having an "unacceptable impact" on elk, deer and other ungulate herds. Wolves could be taken out if they are "one of the major causes" of a herd's decline, the proposed rule says. Right now, most wild ungulate herds outside Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are at "record high" levels and above state management goals, according to the agency's environmental assessment of the proposal....
Veto of lead-bullet ban in condor range urged Officials responsible for regulating hunting and fishing in California asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto a bill passed by the state Legislature that would ban the use of lead bullets for hunting in the California condor range. On Tuesday, the state Fish and Game Commission sent Schwarzenegger a letter asking that he veto Assembly Bill 821, which is headed to his desk after final passage by the state Assembly and Senate last week. The legislation, known as the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, requires the use of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition when shooting big game or coyotes within specific areas of the state identified as the condor's range. The commission's letter contends that the legislation is flawed and that the commission should be the regulating agency for what kind of ammunition is allowed for hunting in the state. "The commission has been dealing with this issue for more than two and a half years now," said Fish and Game Commission executive director John Carlson Jr. A lead ban had been proposed to commissioners in January 2005 as an emergency petition, he said, which they voted down....
Growers, companies on the 'fence' about barriers A year after tainted spinach from the Central Coast killed three people, sickened more than 200 and cost local growers and companies millions of dollars, the industry is still grappling with the best way to make sure an outbreak never happens again. One idea that's causing a quiet controversy in the Salinas Valley: Fences. Short of growing under a bubble, many in the industry are now wondering whether putting tall fences around fields could be the most effective way to keep animals, particularly deer, away from crops. But while deer are on the Centers for Disease Control's list of animals found to carry potentially deadly strains of E. coli in their intestines, scientists studying E. coli in the Salinas Valley say there is little evidence to show they spread the pathogen. There is also limited information about how fences could affect animal populations along the 100-mile stretch of the Salinas River between San Ardo to the ocean. Investigators aren't sure where the E. coli, traced to neighboring San Benito County, came from, but speculate that the deadly pathogen may have been spread through a spinach field by wild pigs....
Proposed crop ordinance rejected A proposed ordinance banning the use of manure on food crops in Kern County died on Tuesday. County supervisors instead endorsed the use of a state-monitored system of agricultural health standards as a way to prevent biological contamination of food. The ordinance was proposed earlier this summer, said Environmental Health Services Director Matt Constantine, after lettuce and spinach crops from other counties were identified as the cause of national E. coli outbreaks. "Times are changing," said Supervisor Michael Rubio. "Whenever you can trace DNA from a person in the Midwest to a dairy in the Central Valley we all have to be on alert." The goal of the proposed ban, Constantine said, was to ensure Kern County wouldn't be added to the list of counties where outbreaks originated. But agricultural growers and cattle ranchers expressed sharp opposition to the ban....
Wheat Price Rises to Record $9 a Bushel on Global Crop Concerns Wheat prices surpassed $9 a bushel for the first time as a drought in Australia cut production, pushing global stockpiles toward a 26-year low. Australia's wheat crop may fall to 18 million metric tons from a prediction of 23 million tons in a U.S. report today. Reserves of the grain in Canada, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, plunged 29 percent at the end of July from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Increasing demand from Egypt to India and weather damage to crops from Canada to Australia have driven up global prices by 81 percent this year. Users including Sara Lee Corp. and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's biggest producer of instant noodles, are responding by raising prices, fueling inflation. ``The market is in a real frenzy,'' said Tobin Gorey, commodity strategist with Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. ``It's feeding through to the consumer.''....
Two horses slain in Madera Co. pasture wo mares were shot to death over the weekend in a foothill pasture beside Highway 41, and the Madera County Sheriff's Department is asking the public's help to find out who did it. Sheriff's investigators believe the mares were shot late Friday or early Saturday in a 40-acre pasture just north of the Yosemite Lakes Park turnoff. But the horses' owner, who declined to be identified, did not discover the carcasses until Monday, said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Erica Stuart. A third horse in the pasture was unharmed. The mares, ages 5 and 7, were valued at about $4,000 each. The horses were 100 feet to 150 feet from the roadway when they were shot, one in the head and one in the neck, Stuart said. Investigators believe both mares lived for some time after they were shot. The family that owned the mares told investigators that they had been using the roadside pasture for the past four years. They had planned to breed the two mares that were shot, Stuart said. The shootings angered some Madera County horse owners....
Kobe beef farmed on secret Texas ranch It's served at some of Dallas's hottest restaurants - Wagyu beef. Some say it is better than prime, but it's price is higher than prime, too. It sells for about $30 an ounce. Many who taste the mouthwatering, marble-laced delicacy, also called Kobe beef, say it's worth it. But, this special occasion steak, which hails from Japan, is now taking root (or hoof) in the Lone Star State. "These are Japanese Wagyu which produce the Kobe beef," said Gary Yamamoto, a Wagyu rancher. Yamamoto is not your typical rancher. "Basically not, I'd rather be fishing," he said. He's spent millions earned as a professional bass fisherman cultivating a herd of pure-blood black Wagyu. He prefers not to say where his ranch is because while typical cows may sell for $800 each, Wagyu can fetch $10,000, and attract cattle rustlers....
Cactus Ropes, the official PRCA rope Cactus Ropes, located between Pleasanton and Floresville on S.H. 97, set a new company record in August, shipping 21,700 ropes that month to various merchants across the nation. This is a big improvement from their beginnings in 1991, when the company shipped only 10,000 ropes for the whole year. So how does a company go from 10,000 ropes in a year to over 200,000? The answer is quality. Since its inception, Cactus Ropes has had its eye on building a reputation for quality. This is a process that takes time, patience, and consistency. It also requires progression. The business spent almost 17 years perfecting its ropes. The business has developed a process that creates some of the toughest and most durable ropes in the nation, capturing the attention of the top professional ropers in the business, like Allen Bach, and earning the official approval of the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association)....
California's wine country farmers go nearly nude to take a stand for the land Winegrowers, ranchers and other members of Napa's farming community in California are showing their green thumbs and quite a bit more in hopes of raising money to protect the valley's rich agricultural resources. Members of the Napa County Farm Bureau, all men, have stripped for a 2008 "Napa Uncovered" calendar that shows them strategically photographed in bucolic settings. The farmers, who are following in the nearly nude footsteps of a number of similar fundraising calendars - including an effort by French winemakers a few years ago - are hoping to draw attention to the issue of dwindling farmlands as well as show a lighter side of the Napa scene. Al Wagner, the vineyard manager for Clos Du Val, appears as Mr. July in a cowboy hat, boots and an apron. "A couple of the guys had a few little misgivings," Wagner said, "but after it was all done they kind of sat back and laughed about it." Those in the calendar come from ranching, vineyard management, and wineries....
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Protecting a Monument Cattle should be permanently retired from grazing on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, according to a study conducted by a team of 10 scientists hired by an environmental group. The researchers, who studied the impact of grazing on the monument for spring through fall from 2003 to 2006, found that it harms riparian areas, promotes noxious weed invasion, disrupts predator-prey dynamics and alters the soil. The research was done in collaboration with the BLM whose own grazing research is expected to be released this fall. "We're incorporating their findings with all the information we received that's pertinent to evaluating rangeland health and whether grazing is compatible with the proclamation," said John Gerritsma, Ashland Resource Area manager for the BLM's Medford District. If the agency doesn't retire grazing on the monument and decides to modify grazing by protecting sensitive areas, the center estimates it would cost at least $4 million over a 10-year-period to build and maintain some 148 miles of fencing needed, he said. That $4 million is in comparison to the $3,664 the agency now receives annually from grazing on the monument and slightly more than $36,000 it could expect to receive in a decade, he said. "That's a pretty expensive slice of beef," DellaSala said. The estimated public cost of buying out the ranchers with grazing allotments on the monuments is about $814,200, he said. Ranchers have also supported the buyout effort....
Wolf kills rise as animals push into new areas Wolves are being killed at an increased rate across the Northern Rockies this year as their population expands and wildlife officials seek to curb their appetite for livestock, state and federal officials said Monday. In Wyoming and Idaho, 90 wolves have been killed to date because of livestock run-ins. That matches the states' figures for all of 2006 even as livestock conflicts were expected to continue through the fall. In Montana, 32 wolves have been killed this year by federal agents - 11 more than at this point last year, said John Steuber, state director for federal Wildlife Services. The Montana figure does not include an unknown number of wolves killed by ranchers defending their livestock. The rising death toll, coming off a record 142 killed in the three states last year, was attributed to the wolves' surging population. Much of the best wolf habitat - where elk, deer and other wildlife are present in numbers dense enough to satisfy the carnivores' hunger - already is occupied, state and federal officials said. That leaves younger wolves to push into areas close to ranches, where sheep and cattle offer tempting targets....
More mystery-shrouded killings plague Eastern Montana sheep More mystery predators are stalking sheep in Eastern Montana. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say that "wolflike canids" have killed two lambs and perhaps 10 additional sheep in Garfield County. One animal, a dark-colored female, was caught in a coyote snare and died late last month. At least two other animals, a light brown one and a gray one, haven't been since Aug. 22, when they were spotted near Jordan, said Carolyn Sime, head of FWP's wolf program. The sightings have a familiar ring in Garfield and McCone counties. Last year, more than 120 sheep were killed. An animal that was shot and killed in November and is believed to be responsible for the depredations was later determined to be what state officials called a domestic wolf, the product of manipulated breeding in a captive environment. The animal had genetic material from wolves in the Great Lakes, Lower 48 and Alaska. Things were quiet after that until Aug. 21, when two lambs were killed on private land northwest of Jordan and wolf-sized tracks were found nearby. Ten sheep on a neighboring ranch were also found dead, but the bodies were too decomposed to make a determination of the cause, Sime said....
Prairie dogs poisoned; rancher incensed Farmers have hated prairie dogs for decades, considering the flea-ridden rodents a threat to livestock and crops. Environmentalists say the critters are land-friendly and invite other animals -- federally protected burrowing owls, snakes, ornate box turtles, cottontail rabbits -- into their colonies. So "prairie dogs" is fightin' words in some parts of western Kansas. And a skirmish happened this weekend out in Logan County. Exterminators under contract with the county showed up on Larry Haverfield's ranch and -- despite his protest -- began using aluminum phosphide gas to poison nearly 100 acres of prairie dog burrows. Environmentalists fear the poisoning may have killed other species besides prairie dogs and threatened a federal plan to re-introduce endangered black-footed ferrets, a prairie dog predator, to Kansas. Logan County officials used a 1904 state law that permits county governments to poison land with prairie dogs and bill the landowner....
Court upholds rancher's $4M win The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal of a $4 million jury award to a late Garfield County sheep rancher who won his lawsuit against a natural-gas giant over improperly paid royalties. The decision followed a state Court of Appeals decision in February that upheld an August 2004 Garfield County District Court jury award to William Clough. He died last year at the age of 89, so his estate and widow, Genevive Clough, will receive the money. Genevive Clough could not be reached for comment Monday, but attorney Nathan Keever of Grand Junction said with 8 percent interest and other costs, the total amount is approximately $6.7 million. William Clough filed the suit several years ago against the Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Companies....
Park worker details 'out of nowhere' mauling A Yellowstone National Park employee who was attacked by a grizzly Sunday said the bear "came out of nowhere" and flew at him, a Park Service official said Monday. Meyer suffered injuries to his back, left leg, stomach and both forearms, Nash said. Meyer, who was hunting black bear, was near Little Trail Creek for about five minutes early Sunday morning when he encountered the female grizzly with two cubs, Nash said. The bear "came out of nowhere" and attacked, knocking Meyer to the ground and sending his rifle flying, Nash said. Meyer and the bear wrestled on the ground. "He said his instinct at that moment was survival," Nash said. At some point, the cubs began making noise and the female grizzly left to investigate. Meyer crawled over to his rifle and the grizzly came back. It stopped about five feet in front of him and then attacked again, inflicting injuries to his hands and arms as he tried to fight the bear off, Nash said. Meyer said he fired his rifle three times and believes he struck the bear at least once, Nash said. The bear rolled over into a creek. Meyer, thinking the bear might be dead, said he walked back to his vehicle and drove to his home at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone's headquarters. Once he got there, though, he realized he couldn't get out of his car, Nash said....
Fighting fees on public lands Remember trekking up Mount Lemmon, Madera Canyon and Sabino Canyon for free? Then you've been around Tucson a while. A fee demonstration project enacted in 1996 started a "pay to play" trend that hasn't stopped. Recreation fees now are charged at some 400 sites managed by federal agencies, including those three Tucson-area favorites. Having underbudgeted our national parks and forests for decades, Congress decided to do the wrong thing: ratchet up the people's payments. If the money collected were spent to improve the health of our public lands, we might be happy campers. But nearly half the sums collected by the U.S. Forest Service are spent simply to perpetuate the problem program, the General Accountability Office reports. What happens to the rest isn't clear, the GAO says....
Governor Pushes Compromise on Trust Land Gov. Janet Napolitano has taken a more active role on a hard-to-crack issue, meeting with key state lawmakers to launch a new attempt to hash out a compromise on a ballot measure on state trust land. Details of a new proposal have yet to emerge, but several participants in the effort indicated that past proposals to set aside some acreage as open space without compensation to the trust won't be included. ``I think you could characterize it that there will be a mechanism to pay for lands,'' said Michael Haener, a Napolitano deputy chief of staff and her chief legislative lobbyist. ``There won't be free land,'' Sen. Carolyn Allen, a Scottsdale Republican who has been aligned with conservationists and educators on trust land issues, said Monday. Arizona's roughly 9.3 million acres of trust land represent a century-old legacy from statehood that has seen recent unsuccessful efforts to set aside large parcels for conservation as open space while protecting funding the land provides for public schools through sales and leases....
Farmington's John backs Udall's effort to boost American Indian businesses It takes David John less than a month to start a business in Farmington. If the former partner at The Head Shop and owner of Hogan Industries selects Navajo Nation land to start a business, he may wait as long as three years. "Starting a business on Indian land is like starting a business enterprise on federal property such as Bureau of Land Management land," he said. "The procedure consists of 60 or more steps, and people are getting frustrated and quitting." John, a Shonto, Ariz., native who has owned businesses in Farmington for more than 35 years, is pushing for a bill that would aid entrepreneurs on reservation land. He recently returned from Washington, D.C., where he testified on behalf of Congressman Tom Udall's small business development center act. Udall, D-N.M., first introduced his bill in 2001, and it passed through the House twice before dying in the Senate....
SNWA seeks more water The Southern Nevada Water Authority has reversed itself and doubled its demand for water from the Snake Valley straddling the Utah-Nevada state line. SNWA had pledged to pump and pipe 25,000 acre-feet - more than 8 billion gallons - of water annually from the Snake Valley that opponents view as part of the agency's huge "water grab" to fuel Las Vegas' continued growth. Now the application has been upped to 50,679 acre feet per year of the valley's groundwater - the amount Las Vegas water agencies applied for in 1989 -- according to the Bureau of Land Management's Penny Woods, groundwater program manager. Ms. Woods wrote, in an e-mail to a Snake Valley resident, "In July 2007, SNWA revised their application and plan of development to include all of the water they applied for with the Nevada State Engineer in 1989. So, for Snake Valley this is 50,679 AFY." Ken Hill, a Partoun, Utah resident, said the change in the demand for Snake Valley water invalidates much of the ongoing work on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the SNWA "water grab." The DEIS used the 25,000 foot figure for initial scoping to identify potential project impacts....
Baucus vows to fight planned Canadian mine Montana's top Democrat promised “a knock-down, drag-out fight” if coalbed methane plans are pursued north of Glacier National Park. In a meeting Monday with executives from British Petroleum Co., Sen. Max Baucus said BP should expect “a massive and unpleasant fight from Montana” if the company moves ahead with a proposal to open southwest British Columbia to drilling and energy exploration. The senator also warned that fight “will end badly” for BP. “I've been fighting to protect water quality and wildlife in the Flathead Valley for 30 years,” Baucus said after the meeting. “I'm not about to give up now. We're going to do whatever it takes to stop energy development north of our border. We're pulling out all the stops. The gloves are off.” It is a decidedly more aggressive approach than that of Montana's other senator, Democratic freshman Jon Tester. At a meeting last month, Tester said he would work to prevent industrialization of the Canadian Flathead, but would not “jump in the middle and start screaming and hollering.” Tester said that, for now, he favors negotiation and dialogue....
Plan to dump PCB-tainted soil raises concerns Environmentalists are questioning plans by the Port of Seattle to dump contaminated sediment into Elliott Bay, saying it would run contrary to state efforts under way to clean up Puget Sound. As part of a $118 million plan to deepen a docking terminal south of Safeco Field and Qwest Field to make way for more container ships, the Port is planning to dig up 59,000 cubic yards of marine sediment that is slightly polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The issue is what to do with it all. The Port has received federal approval to put it into Puget Sound, but a dozen environmental groups are pushing for the agency to get rid of the pollution, not just move it around. "Given that we already have a PCB problem, they should see this as an opportunity to do something different," said Fred Felleman, a leader of the group Friends of the Earth....
Suit is filed to protect giant Palouse worm The federal government is dragging its heels on protecting the giant Palouse earthworm, so environmental groups said Monday they will sue to speed up the process. Up to a yard long and known to spit on attackers, the giant Palouse earthworm must be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the groups said. "The worm was once common but has been seen only a handful of times in the past 30 years," said a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, Palouse Prairie Foundation, Palouse Audubon Society and Friends of the Clearwater. The groups filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in August 2006 to protect the worm. The agency has not responded to the petition, missing deadlines, the groups said. On Monday, the environmental groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the agency for failing to respond....
Agencies Work Together in Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Efforts When the black-footed ferret was reintroduced in Wyoming in the early 1990s, its survival was not guaranteed. Studies of endangered species taken captive for breeding programs to build a population that could be reintroduced into the wild showed such efforts didn’t always succeed, for several key reasons. Little was known about the black-footed ferret, says Steve Buskirk, University of Wyoming Department of Zoology and Physiology professor. In some cases, the environmental conditions that led to declining population numbers -- disease, for instance -- still existed. In others, some inbreeding took place because of the relatively small gene pool of the surviving animals. And in still others, behavioral consequences of living in captivity could not be overcome. The result often is a population that may not be able to sustain itself naturally. “While the data show that species recovery is possible, we knew so little about the black-footed ferret,” Buskirk says....
Bluetongue fears ground Musselshell sheep Sheep producers in Musselshell County cannot transport sheep within or beyond county lines for the next 30 days because of a recent possible outbreak of bluetongue, the state veterinarian has ordered. Dr. Marty Zaluski authorized the hold order Monday in an effort to reduce potential transmission of the virus. About 100 sheep in Musselshell County have died in the past two weeks, according to the Montana Department of Livestock. Several sheep initially tested positive for the virus in a screening test, and when whitetail deer were also tentatively diagnosed, Zaluski decided to protect other livestock with the order. "The sheep from this flock had clinical signs and death loss that is consistent with bluetongue," Zaluski said. "But we still need to confirm that diagnosis. Also, several deer in Musselshell County tested positive for bluetongue." Sheep, whitetail deer and pronghorn antelope are especially susceptible to bluetongue, and the virus often causes death if these species are exposed. Cattle, goats, mule deer and elk also can contract the disease but rarely show symptoms and are a much lower risk to spread the disease, Zaluski said....
Protecting a Monument Cattle should be permanently retired from grazing on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, according to a study conducted by a team of 10 scientists hired by an environmental group. The researchers, who studied the impact of grazing on the monument for spring through fall from 2003 to 2006, found that it harms riparian areas, promotes noxious weed invasion, disrupts predator-prey dynamics and alters the soil. The research was done in collaboration with the BLM whose own grazing research is expected to be released this fall. "We're incorporating their findings with all the information we received that's pertinent to evaluating rangeland health and whether grazing is compatible with the proclamation," said John Gerritsma, Ashland Resource Area manager for the BLM's Medford District. If the agency doesn't retire grazing on the monument and decides to modify grazing by protecting sensitive areas, the center estimates it would cost at least $4 million over a 10-year-period to build and maintain some 148 miles of fencing needed, he said. That $4 million is in comparison to the $3,664 the agency now receives annually from grazing on the monument and slightly more than $36,000 it could expect to receive in a decade, he said. "That's a pretty expensive slice of beef," DellaSala said. The estimated public cost of buying out the ranchers with grazing allotments on the monuments is about $814,200, he said. Ranchers have also supported the buyout effort....
Wolf kills rise as animals push into new areas Wolves are being killed at an increased rate across the Northern Rockies this year as their population expands and wildlife officials seek to curb their appetite for livestock, state and federal officials said Monday. In Wyoming and Idaho, 90 wolves have been killed to date because of livestock run-ins. That matches the states' figures for all of 2006 even as livestock conflicts were expected to continue through the fall. In Montana, 32 wolves have been killed this year by federal agents - 11 more than at this point last year, said John Steuber, state director for federal Wildlife Services. The Montana figure does not include an unknown number of wolves killed by ranchers defending their livestock. The rising death toll, coming off a record 142 killed in the three states last year, was attributed to the wolves' surging population. Much of the best wolf habitat - where elk, deer and other wildlife are present in numbers dense enough to satisfy the carnivores' hunger - already is occupied, state and federal officials said. That leaves younger wolves to push into areas close to ranches, where sheep and cattle offer tempting targets....
More mystery-shrouded killings plague Eastern Montana sheep More mystery predators are stalking sheep in Eastern Montana. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say that "wolflike canids" have killed two lambs and perhaps 10 additional sheep in Garfield County. One animal, a dark-colored female, was caught in a coyote snare and died late last month. At least two other animals, a light brown one and a gray one, haven't been since Aug. 22, when they were spotted near Jordan, said Carolyn Sime, head of FWP's wolf program. The sightings have a familiar ring in Garfield and McCone counties. Last year, more than 120 sheep were killed. An animal that was shot and killed in November and is believed to be responsible for the depredations was later determined to be what state officials called a domestic wolf, the product of manipulated breeding in a captive environment. The animal had genetic material from wolves in the Great Lakes, Lower 48 and Alaska. Things were quiet after that until Aug. 21, when two lambs were killed on private land northwest of Jordan and wolf-sized tracks were found nearby. Ten sheep on a neighboring ranch were also found dead, but the bodies were too decomposed to make a determination of the cause, Sime said....
Prairie dogs poisoned; rancher incensed Farmers have hated prairie dogs for decades, considering the flea-ridden rodents a threat to livestock and crops. Environmentalists say the critters are land-friendly and invite other animals -- federally protected burrowing owls, snakes, ornate box turtles, cottontail rabbits -- into their colonies. So "prairie dogs" is fightin' words in some parts of western Kansas. And a skirmish happened this weekend out in Logan County. Exterminators under contract with the county showed up on Larry Haverfield's ranch and -- despite his protest -- began using aluminum phosphide gas to poison nearly 100 acres of prairie dog burrows. Environmentalists fear the poisoning may have killed other species besides prairie dogs and threatened a federal plan to re-introduce endangered black-footed ferrets, a prairie dog predator, to Kansas. Logan County officials used a 1904 state law that permits county governments to poison land with prairie dogs and bill the landowner....
Court upholds rancher's $4M win The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal of a $4 million jury award to a late Garfield County sheep rancher who won his lawsuit against a natural-gas giant over improperly paid royalties. The decision followed a state Court of Appeals decision in February that upheld an August 2004 Garfield County District Court jury award to William Clough. He died last year at the age of 89, so his estate and widow, Genevive Clough, will receive the money. Genevive Clough could not be reached for comment Monday, but attorney Nathan Keever of Grand Junction said with 8 percent interest and other costs, the total amount is approximately $6.7 million. William Clough filed the suit several years ago against the Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Companies....
Park worker details 'out of nowhere' mauling A Yellowstone National Park employee who was attacked by a grizzly Sunday said the bear "came out of nowhere" and flew at him, a Park Service official said Monday. Meyer suffered injuries to his back, left leg, stomach and both forearms, Nash said. Meyer, who was hunting black bear, was near Little Trail Creek for about five minutes early Sunday morning when he encountered the female grizzly with two cubs, Nash said. The bear "came out of nowhere" and attacked, knocking Meyer to the ground and sending his rifle flying, Nash said. Meyer and the bear wrestled on the ground. "He said his instinct at that moment was survival," Nash said. At some point, the cubs began making noise and the female grizzly left to investigate. Meyer crawled over to his rifle and the grizzly came back. It stopped about five feet in front of him and then attacked again, inflicting injuries to his hands and arms as he tried to fight the bear off, Nash said. Meyer said he fired his rifle three times and believes he struck the bear at least once, Nash said. The bear rolled over into a creek. Meyer, thinking the bear might be dead, said he walked back to his vehicle and drove to his home at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone's headquarters. Once he got there, though, he realized he couldn't get out of his car, Nash said....
Fighting fees on public lands Remember trekking up Mount Lemmon, Madera Canyon and Sabino Canyon for free? Then you've been around Tucson a while. A fee demonstration project enacted in 1996 started a "pay to play" trend that hasn't stopped. Recreation fees now are charged at some 400 sites managed by federal agencies, including those three Tucson-area favorites. Having underbudgeted our national parks and forests for decades, Congress decided to do the wrong thing: ratchet up the people's payments. If the money collected were spent to improve the health of our public lands, we might be happy campers. But nearly half the sums collected by the U.S. Forest Service are spent simply to perpetuate the problem program, the General Accountability Office reports. What happens to the rest isn't clear, the GAO says....
Governor Pushes Compromise on Trust Land Gov. Janet Napolitano has taken a more active role on a hard-to-crack issue, meeting with key state lawmakers to launch a new attempt to hash out a compromise on a ballot measure on state trust land. Details of a new proposal have yet to emerge, but several participants in the effort indicated that past proposals to set aside some acreage as open space without compensation to the trust won't be included. ``I think you could characterize it that there will be a mechanism to pay for lands,'' said Michael Haener, a Napolitano deputy chief of staff and her chief legislative lobbyist. ``There won't be free land,'' Sen. Carolyn Allen, a Scottsdale Republican who has been aligned with conservationists and educators on trust land issues, said Monday. Arizona's roughly 9.3 million acres of trust land represent a century-old legacy from statehood that has seen recent unsuccessful efforts to set aside large parcels for conservation as open space while protecting funding the land provides for public schools through sales and leases....
Farmington's John backs Udall's effort to boost American Indian businesses It takes David John less than a month to start a business in Farmington. If the former partner at The Head Shop and owner of Hogan Industries selects Navajo Nation land to start a business, he may wait as long as three years. "Starting a business on Indian land is like starting a business enterprise on federal property such as Bureau of Land Management land," he said. "The procedure consists of 60 or more steps, and people are getting frustrated and quitting." John, a Shonto, Ariz., native who has owned businesses in Farmington for more than 35 years, is pushing for a bill that would aid entrepreneurs on reservation land. He recently returned from Washington, D.C., where he testified on behalf of Congressman Tom Udall's small business development center act. Udall, D-N.M., first introduced his bill in 2001, and it passed through the House twice before dying in the Senate....
SNWA seeks more water The Southern Nevada Water Authority has reversed itself and doubled its demand for water from the Snake Valley straddling the Utah-Nevada state line. SNWA had pledged to pump and pipe 25,000 acre-feet - more than 8 billion gallons - of water annually from the Snake Valley that opponents view as part of the agency's huge "water grab" to fuel Las Vegas' continued growth. Now the application has been upped to 50,679 acre feet per year of the valley's groundwater - the amount Las Vegas water agencies applied for in 1989 -- according to the Bureau of Land Management's Penny Woods, groundwater program manager. Ms. Woods wrote, in an e-mail to a Snake Valley resident, "In July 2007, SNWA revised their application and plan of development to include all of the water they applied for with the Nevada State Engineer in 1989. So, for Snake Valley this is 50,679 AFY." Ken Hill, a Partoun, Utah resident, said the change in the demand for Snake Valley water invalidates much of the ongoing work on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the SNWA "water grab." The DEIS used the 25,000 foot figure for initial scoping to identify potential project impacts....
Baucus vows to fight planned Canadian mine Montana's top Democrat promised “a knock-down, drag-out fight” if coalbed methane plans are pursued north of Glacier National Park. In a meeting Monday with executives from British Petroleum Co., Sen. Max Baucus said BP should expect “a massive and unpleasant fight from Montana” if the company moves ahead with a proposal to open southwest British Columbia to drilling and energy exploration. The senator also warned that fight “will end badly” for BP. “I've been fighting to protect water quality and wildlife in the Flathead Valley for 30 years,” Baucus said after the meeting. “I'm not about to give up now. We're going to do whatever it takes to stop energy development north of our border. We're pulling out all the stops. The gloves are off.” It is a decidedly more aggressive approach than that of Montana's other senator, Democratic freshman Jon Tester. At a meeting last month, Tester said he would work to prevent industrialization of the Canadian Flathead, but would not “jump in the middle and start screaming and hollering.” Tester said that, for now, he favors negotiation and dialogue....
Plan to dump PCB-tainted soil raises concerns Environmentalists are questioning plans by the Port of Seattle to dump contaminated sediment into Elliott Bay, saying it would run contrary to state efforts under way to clean up Puget Sound. As part of a $118 million plan to deepen a docking terminal south of Safeco Field and Qwest Field to make way for more container ships, the Port is planning to dig up 59,000 cubic yards of marine sediment that is slightly polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The issue is what to do with it all. The Port has received federal approval to put it into Puget Sound, but a dozen environmental groups are pushing for the agency to get rid of the pollution, not just move it around. "Given that we already have a PCB problem, they should see this as an opportunity to do something different," said Fred Felleman, a leader of the group Friends of the Earth....
Suit is filed to protect giant Palouse worm The federal government is dragging its heels on protecting the giant Palouse earthworm, so environmental groups said Monday they will sue to speed up the process. Up to a yard long and known to spit on attackers, the giant Palouse earthworm must be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the groups said. "The worm was once common but has been seen only a handful of times in the past 30 years," said a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, Palouse Prairie Foundation, Palouse Audubon Society and Friends of the Clearwater. The groups filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in August 2006 to protect the worm. The agency has not responded to the petition, missing deadlines, the groups said. On Monday, the environmental groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the agency for failing to respond....
Agencies Work Together in Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Efforts When the black-footed ferret was reintroduced in Wyoming in the early 1990s, its survival was not guaranteed. Studies of endangered species taken captive for breeding programs to build a population that could be reintroduced into the wild showed such efforts didn’t always succeed, for several key reasons. Little was known about the black-footed ferret, says Steve Buskirk, University of Wyoming Department of Zoology and Physiology professor. In some cases, the environmental conditions that led to declining population numbers -- disease, for instance -- still existed. In others, some inbreeding took place because of the relatively small gene pool of the surviving animals. And in still others, behavioral consequences of living in captivity could not be overcome. The result often is a population that may not be able to sustain itself naturally. “While the data show that species recovery is possible, we knew so little about the black-footed ferret,” Buskirk says....
Bluetongue fears ground Musselshell sheep Sheep producers in Musselshell County cannot transport sheep within or beyond county lines for the next 30 days because of a recent possible outbreak of bluetongue, the state veterinarian has ordered. Dr. Marty Zaluski authorized the hold order Monday in an effort to reduce potential transmission of the virus. About 100 sheep in Musselshell County have died in the past two weeks, according to the Montana Department of Livestock. Several sheep initially tested positive for the virus in a screening test, and when whitetail deer were also tentatively diagnosed, Zaluski decided to protect other livestock with the order. "The sheep from this flock had clinical signs and death loss that is consistent with bluetongue," Zaluski said. "But we still need to confirm that diagnosis. Also, several deer in Musselshell County tested positive for bluetongue." Sheep, whitetail deer and pronghorn antelope are especially susceptible to bluetongue, and the virus often causes death if these species are exposed. Cattle, goats, mule deer and elk also can contract the disease but rarely show symptoms and are a much lower risk to spread the disease, Zaluski said....
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