The cowboys score! Bumper stickers that read "No Moo in '92," and "Cattle Free by '93" signaled the open warfare between Western ranchers and environmental groups in the last decade. The war is still raging. Groups such as the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and others set out years ago to free the West of cattle, sheep and the ranchers responsible for them. A favorite tool used by these well-funded organizations is the Wilderness Act of 1964. This law was enacted originally to preserve 9 million acres of wilderness so "future generations could see what their forefathers had to conquer." Now, there are 702 officially designated Wilderness Areas, covering 107.4 million acres. Every year environmental groups propose and lobby Congress to designate even more areas as "wilderness." There are 38 such bills in the current Congress. "Wilderness" designation is a legal term that prohibits the use of motorized vehicles in the area. There can be no commercial enterprise in a "wilderness" area. There can be no roads nor permanent structures. Motorized equipment or mechanized transport is prohibited. "Wilderness" means land "untrammeled by humans." The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, or NMWA, led a campaign to designate an additional 422,138 acres in Dona Ana County, N.M., as "wilderness," and another 108,000 acres as a national conservation area. The federal government owns 34.1 percent of New Mexico, of which, 1.6 million acres is already designated as "wilderness." The new area proposed by the NMWA borders Mexico and includes thousands of acres of grazing land, which would automatically become "No Moo" zones. Ranchers, and the businesses that depend upon them, would join the cowboy graveyard that environmental organizations have cultivated over the last few decades. Maybe not. The same cowboy ingenuity, that made ranching in the West possible in the first place, stirred and assembled a group of people who created a new organization: People For Preserving Our Western Heritage, or PFPOWH. The new organization, PFPOWH, developed a great audio/visual presentation that explains all the facts about "wilderness" designation. For example, motorized vehicles cannot be used in a "wilderness" area to fight fires or to chase illegal aliens or drug smugglers. Consider the impact that "wilderness" designation would have on a single ranch in the area that has 89 miles of fencing, 56 miles of roads, 20 earthen reservoirs, eight water wells, 16 miles of pipelines for moving water to 11 storage tanks, nine cattle corrals, three barns and two residences....

Wife swap - Western-style
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

A Boston homemaker wife stepped out of a white Suburban and gasped as she, through rhinestone-edged sunglasses, took in the endless vistas that surrounded her.

She tugged her faux fur a little tighter around her, leaned into the wind as it whipped her hair in three directions and rolled a tumbleweed up against her bare legs with feet slid stylishly into strappy pumps.

Hardly the fashion for the upcoming job that would include breaking ice on water tanks, fixing the flat on the feed truck before she fills it with feed and, while she's at it, climbing to the top of the overhead bins to check the feed levels to gauge when the next load should be ordered from the supplier.

Through my Web site, I was contacted by a casting producer at ABC television and informed that the fourth season of "Wife Swap" is underway. She asked if I knew anyone in the Western/cowboy community that would like have their family showcased.

The premise of "Wife Swap" is that one parent from each household swaps places for a week to experience how another family lives. Families can live anywhere in the U.S., but must consist of two parents and at least one child older than 5 living at home.

An honorarium of $20,000 goes to the selected family. I saw that as a possible alternate revenue source for the ranching industry.

I thought they'd be interested and, sure enough, upon hearing what it paid, a friend with a ranch and a husband asked if she could borrow my kid and "what did the city husband look like?"

Her husband was simply concerned if the incoming city gal would be able to help build a few miles of fence. And it would help if she looked like Angelina Jolie or Katie Holmes. That, at a glance, sums up the romance of the West.

In the interest of full disclosure, I felt it prudent to give Ms. ABC Television a full rundown of what would be expected of the unsuspecting woman in the ranch/city swap.

I suggested that first, as a warning, she should brief the unsuspecting suburban woman about the lack of charm in the "real West," although it would become clearly evident to her within a few hours of her first day.

The first morning she will be faced with checking the calving heifers, cleaning up after the puppy that puked under the coffee table, the kid that has to make it to the bus before 6 a.m. to get to school 50 miles down the road, the husband who just remembered to mention the 27 people arriving to help work cattle for the day that will need lunch, a green colt that needs to be busted off before they start on the drive, and that she has to get somebody to run the mail today before she switches the valves on the water system and opens the gravity flow valves to waters in six other pastures.

In between these chores, the water tanks in all those traps have to be checked because the calves have been getting in them and breaking floats.

The logistics of enjoying any semblance of civilization should discourage thoughts she might have of seeing a movie in a theatre, dropping by for a pedicure while she's in town 75 miles away, or having any kind of a "girl" conversation with anyone but the border collie and heifer she's on duty to watch.

Minimal duties would include bucketing drinking water from the cistern, splitting firewood for the wood box and bottle feeding colostrum to the new baby calf thawing out in the bathtub.

I'm sure "Wife Swap" producers will think I made this list of "disclosures" up, but there is an entire world of ranch wives out there right now that would agree, but are, also, mentally making a list of the many things I didn't include.

Okay ABC, bring it on. Let's see how long this lasts.

Visit Julie’s website at www.julie-carter.com.

FLE

National firearms ban 'reasonable'? A Second Amendment advocacy organization is asking the Bush administration to withdraw a legal brief that leaders fear could be used to support "any gun ban – no matter how sweeping," as long as some court somewhere determines it is "reasonable." The concern comes from Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, whose group is pleading with the Bush administration to withdraw an anti-gun brief filed by the U.S. Solicitor General in a Supreme Court case regarding a District of Columbia ban on handguns. The document from U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement noted since "unrestricted" private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the Second Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions. His brief suggests gun rights are limited and since they are subject to "reasonable regulation," all gun limits imposed by the federal government should be affirmed as constitutional. But Gun Owners of America, a grass-roots lobby representing more than 300,000 Americans, said the opinion creates a huge threat to the constitutional provision banning the "infringement" of the right to bear arms. "If the Supreme Court were to accept the Solicitor General's line of argument, D.C.'s categorical gun ban of virtually all self-defense firearms could well be found to be constitutional…" Pratt said. Worse, when the standard for evaluating gun bans becomes "reasonable," there is nothing else needed in order for a court somewhere to decide that all guns should be forbidden. "In contrast to other provisions in the Bill of Rights, which can only be trumped by 'compelling state interests,' the Second Amendment would be relegated to an inferior position at the lowest rung of the constitutional ladder, should the Justice Department prevail," said Pratt. He said the legal opinion could have been written by a gun limit lobby and it could be used in support of a ban on all guns by a government proclaiming "this is a reasonable regulation" even while affirming the "right" to bear arms....
Witness says ex-Mexican police commander was active in cartel A witness says a former Mexican police commander served as a tax collector for the Gulf cartel. Testimony continued today in McAllen in the federal trial of Carlos Landin Martinez. He is accused of running a drug smuggling operation for the Gulf drug cartel while also working as the state police commander in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Witness Daniel Zamorano is a Chilean restaurant manager who once smuggled marijuana and methamphetamine for the cartel. He says Landin collected pisos, or tolls, from smaller drug gangs crossing through the cartel's turf in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen. Landin has pleaded not guilty to ten counts of drug smuggling, conspiracy and money laundering going back to 2005....
Border Patrol agent killed by 'smugglers' A U.S. Border Patrol agent is dead in California after being struck by one of two vehicles fleeing toward the U.S.-Mexico border during a pursuit by law enforcement today. The officer, whose name has not yet been released, was laying spike strips across the road in the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation in the southeast portion of the state at about 9:30 a.m. when he was hit by a Hummer believed to have been driven by smugglers. The Hummer and a Black Ford F-150 pickup truck escaped into Mexico, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jeremy Schappell told the Yuma Sun. It is unknown whether the vehicles were carrying drugs or human contraband. "Right now our Mexican liaison unit has contact with the Mexican authorities ... try and track these individuals down," Schappell said....
Burglars strike home of Sierra Vista mayor, cars found in Mexico Burglars broke into the home of the mayor of Sierra Vista, stealing valuables and two cars from the garage. The cars were recovered in a ditch near Naco, Mexico on Thursday and returned to the U.S. "Probably waiting to be loaded up and driven back north, but they didn't get that far," Mayor Bob Strain said of the cars. Strain said he returned home from vacation on Sunday and found his home had been searched and a GMC Envoy sports utility vehicle and a Honda Element were missing from the garage....
A trafficker's vehicle of choice Houston entrepreneur Bill Christmann was shocked when thieves stole his souped-up black Ford F-250 pickup from his west Houston driveway one night last July. But shock turned to concern the next day after Christmann learned thieves had driven the 2001, heavy-duty, four-wheel-drive truck to Laredo, loaded it with illegal immigrants and drove it back from the border, roaring off-road through fenced ranch pastures. Police chased the truck south of San Antonio before the smugglers crashed the vehicle into a tree. The smugglers escaped, and the immigrants fled. Christmann is among hundreds of Houstonians who purchased one of Ford's two popular and expensive pickup models — the Super Duty F-250 and Super Duty F-350 — and have since learned that their rugged trucks are increasingly favored by gangs of auto thieves. Many of the trucks, police officials in Houston and border towns say, are being stolen for Mexican criminal cartels who use them as vehicles for narcotics and human trafficking. In 2006, thieves made off with 888 of the F-250s and F-350s from locations in Houston, according to Lt. Scott Dombrowski, of the Houston Police Department's auto theft division. In 2007, he said, thefts of the same models increased 40 percent, to 1,245....
FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets. The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network. Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office. She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file. Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive....
Travelers returning by sea or land will have to show 'proof of citizenship' starting Jan. 31 Get ready to present more paperwork when traveling by boat or car back into the United States from nearby countries. Starting Jan. 31, adults and children who are U.S. citizens will be required to show "proof of citizenship," such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate or a U.S. passport. Adults also will need to show government IDs, such as a driver's license. The new rule does not yet require passports. U.S. citizens eventually will need passports to return by land or sea from nearby countries but not until possibly next year, officials said. The date has not been set. But U.S. land crossings from Mexico and Canada are bracing for longer lines. At land borders, many people now enter "simply by saying, 'I'm an American citizen,'" Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said. Business groups worry that the new rule could disrupt commerce and travel across the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders. On Friday, the Travel Industry Association and Travel Business Roundtable asked the government to delay the "proof of citizenship" rule, calling it onerous to require citizens to carry a birth certificate "in the absence of robust, advanced outreach to travelers." The groups asked that U.S. citizens be required to show only a government-issued ID to re-enter by land or sea effective Jan. 31....
Futuristic Hi-Tech Profiling On January 14, Computerworld online revealed more cause for concern in an article called "Big Brother Really is Watching." It's about DHS "bankrolling futuristic profiling technology...." for its Project Hostile Intent. It, in turn, is part of a broader initiative called the Future Attribute Screening Technologies Mobile Module. It's to be a self-contained, automated screening system that's portable and easy to implement, and DHS hopes to test it at airports in 2010 and deploy it (if it works) by 2012 at airports, border checkpoints, other points of entry and other security-related areas. Here's the problem. If developed (reliable or not), these devices will use video, audio, laser and infrared sensors to feed real-time data into a computer using "specially developed algorithms" to identify "suspicious people." It would work (in theory) by interpreting gestures, facial expressions and speech variations as well as measure body temperature, heart and respiration rate, blood pressure, skin moisture, and other physiological characteristics. The idea would be detect deception and identify suspicious people for aggressive interrogation, searches and even arrest. But consider what's coming. If developed, the technology may be used anywhere by government or the private sector for airport or other checkpoint security, buildings, job interviews, employee screening, buying insurance or conducting any other type essential business....
Secret Service: Detailed Look at ’06 Turmoil The arrest of a man named Steven Howards in June 2006 after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney at a Colorado ski resort and denounced the war in Iraq might have seemed, at the time, no more than a blip on the vice president’s schedule. But now the blip has become a blowup, with Secret Service agents — under oath in court depositions — accusing one another of unethical and perhaps even illegal conduct in the handling of Mr. Howards’s arrest and the official accounting of it. The revelations arise from a lawsuit Mr. Howards filed against five Secret Service agents, accusing them of civil rights and free-speech violations. They offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Secret Service, which usually wears the standoffish, plainclothes cool of its mission like a cloak of invisibility. The agent who made the arrest, Virgil D. Reichle Jr., said in a deposition that he was left hanging with an untenable arrest because two agents assigned to the vice president had at first agreed with a Denver agent that there had been assault on Mr. Cheney by Mr. Howards, then changed their stories to say that no assault had occurred....

NAIS

December 19, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 243)]
[Notices]
[Page 71873-71874]

National Animal Identification System; User Guide and Additional Information Resources

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we are have prepared a revised version of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) User Guide that was originally released in draft form in November 2006. The revised User Guide contains the most current information on how the system works and how producers may participate in the NAIS. We are making the revised User Guide available for review and comment.

ADDRESSES: The revised User Guide is available on the Internet at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/. The document may also be viewed in our reading room. The reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Adam Grow, Director, Surveillance and Identification Programs, National Center for Animal Health Programs, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 200, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 734-3752.

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER - WOLVES

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:56 PM
To: Dear Colleague; Republican LD's; Democratic LDs
Subject: Dear Colleague; Resources; Oppose H.R. 3663 the Wolves Are Cute Act

Dear Colleague,

We are now witnessing firsthand one of the most cynical, disingenuous, and Misleading fund-raising campaigns ever to be launched by a radical environmental group. Center stage in their campaign is Rep. George Miller’s H.R. 3663, the Wolves are Cute Act, which would end the State of Alaska’s Aerial Predator Management Program. Contrary to what the bill’s supporters and their friends in the animal fund-raising community would like you to believe, the Program H.R. 3663 seeks to eliminate is not “aerial hunting.” It is a necessary wildlife management tool which ensures the State continues to have a healthy, viable population of wolves while making certain that these extremely efficient predators to do not threaten the availability of caribou, moose and other wildlife species on which thousands of rural and Native Alaskans depend for survival.

In their efforts to muster support for H.R. 3663 while raising thousands of dollars in donations, Defenders of Wildlife have been busy inundating unsuspecting Americans throughout the country with emotional photos and inaccurate information about Alaska’s Predator Control Program. As a result, I’m sure some of you have heard from misinformed constituents urging you to cosponsor Mr. Miller’s bill, and this week members from the Defenders of Wildlife will likely pay you a personal visit to follow up on their donors’ calls.

As Alaska’s sole Representative in the House, I appreciate the opportunity to Provide you with some of the many reasons why NOT to support H.R. 3663:

---The State’s predator control program is a State issue, not a Federal issue.

---The State program H.R. 3663 aims to eliminate is not “hunting.” It Is necessary predator control used to ensure the security of the food sources on which wolves prey and thousands of rural and Native Alaskans depend for survival. As Governor Sarah Palin explained in her letter to George Miller: “Our science-driven and abundance-based predator management program enlists volunteers permitted to use aircraft to kill some predators in specified areas of the State where we are trying to increase opportunities for Alaskans to put healthy food on their families’ dinner tables."

---Because Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, but has fewer miles of paved roads than Rhode Island, aircraft are the only efficient means of managing the State’s wolves. And because this is not “hunting," issues of “fair chase” do not apply.

---Your state may be next. H.R. 3663 is a direct threat to the constitutionally guaranteed state sovereignty over wildlife management not just for Alaska, but all states.

Fellow colleagues, Alaskans are suffering from an overabundance of wolves.

The Predator Control Program that H.R. 3663 would eliminate is essential to minimizing the threat wolves pose to the nutritional well-being of thousands of rural and Native Alaskans, not to mention the lives of pet dogs.

I propose a solution that should satisfy all parties concerned:

Since the sponsor of H.R. 3663 seems to have such a deep love for wolves, and now that the Defenders of Wildlife have raised well over $100,000 on the animals' behalf, I propose that Defenders use that money to gather Alaska’s surplus wolves and safely transport them to the seventh district of California.

This proposal is a win-win for everyone, and I would suggest my colleagues present it to Defenders of Wildlife representatives roaming the Capitol this week.

Sincerely,

/s DON YOUNG

Ranking Member
Committee on Natural Resources

Changes could simplify killing of wolves in Wyoming New federal wolf management rules expected by Jan. 28 will make it easier to kill problem predators in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming even if lifting Endangered Species Act protections in February is stalled by lawsuits. Environmental groups said such rule changes could lead to unwarranted killing of wolves. Wolf recovery officials said one big reason for expanding the options for killing wolves is that officials expect the removal of federal protections, planned for Feb. 28, to prompt lawsuits from groups such as Defenders of Wildlife. If litigation delays or blocks the lifting of the federal protections, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming want as much flexibility as possible to decide when to kill wolves that are eating too many elk and deer or attacking hunting dogs. "It's just basically a safety valve that we can use if we have to," Steve Nadeau, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's top wolf manager, said Wednesday. Last year, Wyoming's lawmakers made expanding these rules a condition of going along with the federal plan to lift protections from wolves....
Wisconsin looks at timber wolf hunt Outdoorsmen will be asked this spring whether the state should set a hunting season for timber wolves, whose numbers are rebounding here even though the species is endangered in most other states. As many as 575 timber wolves roam the north woods and the population is growing about 12 percent annually, the state Department of Natural Resources estimates. The state's management strategy calls for hunting if the population exceeds 350 animals. The state now allows landowners to trap problem wolves and shoot them if they're in the act of attacking a pet or livestock. In 2007, three wolves were shot and 37 trapped and euthanized, the DNR says. The Conservation Congress, a citizens' advisory group to Natural Resources board members, wants a permanent solution, said Ed Harvey, the group's chairman. It will pose a question to its members on April 14 whether a hunting season should be set, and will pass its recommendations along to the DNR or lawmakers. Grouse hunter Ron Waller of Eagle River said wolves are all over his part of the state, and a face-to-face encounter with a wolf ruined one hunt last fall. If the state doesn't act now, he said, "People are just going to start taking things in their own hands."....
Territorial fight turns ugly along Delta It's enough to give city folk the shivers: Seven dead coyotes, slung over a barbed-wire fence in a farmer's field on Lower Roberts Island. Just down the road, Kent Kiefer explains the mystery: His cousin, farmer Rod Dement, lost his Jack Russell terrier last summer to a hungry coyote. Dement, who used to carry his little dog everywhere, has been hunting coyotes since. "They're all over," Kiefer said. "It's unbelievable, man." Meanwhile, north of Stockton, veterinarian John Lindsey forces four antibiotic pills down the throat of his pet emu, Olivia. She left a trail of feathers all over his field one night last week as a pack of coyotes chased her and snapped at her legs. Venture past Stockton city limits and you'll find plenty of rural residents with tales such as these. Despite 200 years of intense shooting and trapping, coyotes are more numerous today than when the Constitution was signed....
With predator populations rising, more calls for control Around the West and in various ways, efforts to wage war on wildlife predators are increasing. Some examples: ranchers and environmentalists are fighting over a proposal to have the Environmental Protection Agency ban the use of two poisons that kill coyotes. A successful wolf-reintroduction program means wolves are likely to be taken off the endangered species list soon, and critics of removal say this would leave them vulnerable to indiscriminate shooting, particularly in Idaho and Wyoming. And here in Oregon, hunters soon may be deputized to kill cougars, whose population has grown from several hundred in the 1960s to about 5,000 since the use of radio-collared dogs to hunt them was banned in 1994. While there is no direct connection, collectively these issues reflect the tension between rural Westerners involved in ranching, farming, and logging, and those in growing urban and recreational areas where people are more likely to have a friendlier attitude toward wildlife. In all cases, wild species' need for adequate habitat is competing against human interests....
Man injured by coyote killer sparks outrage, EPA probe The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun an investigation into the poisoning four years ago of a Vernal man who touched what he thought was a survey stake, only to get a blast of sodium cyanide to his face and chest. The cyanide device, called an M-44, is used by the federal government to kill predators. The poisoning has left Dennis Slaugh with severe multiple health problems, his wife, Dorothy Slaugh, said Thursday. And it has reignited a campaign to ban all predator poisoning on federal lands. EPA investigator Michael Burgin visited the Slaugh home Monday for a two-hour meeting, which Slaugh said she taped with Burgin's knowledge. The special investigator was looking into why federal agencies did not follow up on the Slaughs' original reports, she said. Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon pushed for the investigation at the request of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group based in Eugene, Ore. Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land in Cowboy Canyon near Bonanza in 2003 when Slaugh noticed what he thought was a survey stake. He reached to brush it off and it fell over. When he picked it up, it exploded, sending a cloud of orange granules into his nose, mouth and eyes....
Slug-Gun Lessons Wild hogs tend to be nomadic; they'll go wherever food sources dictate. Because hogs are omnivorous, however, that "food source" can be just about anything; from tubers and roots to grain fields and acorns; they'll devour fallen fruit and newly hatched turkey poults; they'll chew on carrion and come right up into your backyard to mow over your vegetable garden. They eat anything and everything, period. Wild and free (and unbound by most fencing), hogs make for a wonderful game animal. Left unchecked, however, they quickly become a nuisance. Due to this obstinacy, farmers, ranchers and other land managers throughout the South, parts of the lower Midwest, the Southwest and California pursue hogs with vigor. Fortunately for us hunters, that means there is always opportunity to hunt them. I've shot hogs with bows and bullets throughout California and Texas, and I'd thought I'd seen everything. That is, until I accepted an invite last fall from former Hunting staffer Joe Coogan....
NM Game & Fish concerned with BLM handling of wildlife protections The director of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department is asking the Bureau of Land Management to take another look at how it handles seasonal closures and restrictions designed to protect wildlife from being disturbed by oil and gas drilling. The BLM has come under fire in recent months for approving hundreds of waivers to the protective restrictions in the Farmington and Carlsbad areas. Critics contend that BLM field offices are approving the waivers without due consideration or public comment. Now, Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson wants his agency and the BLM to jointly review the criteria used to determine whether waivers should be granted. He also asks that the BLM cooperate with Game and Fish when waiver requests are received. "The Department of Game and Fish and state Game Commission are becoming increasingly concerned with recent assertions regarding the number and frequency of exceptions to wildlife protective restrictions that are being approved by the Farmington field office," Thompson wrote in a Jan. 10 letter to BLM state director Linda Rundell....
Mine or yours - Let’s reform the 1872 Mining Law—finally Like many Westerners, I grew up with the luxury of unlimited adventure outdoors. I could wander around, fishing rod in hand, looking for the next hidden pond near my family’s cabin in northern Colorado. That was before I began working in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado as a mountain guide for a kids’ camp. I’ll never forget the first time I ran across a copper-colored creek in the Animas River watershed. I stopped and stared because it was strangely beautiful at first. I failed to grasp that the water had turned that brilliant color because acid waste was draining into it from a mine abandoned at the turn of the century. Certainly, no trout could survive in those waters, and I could only guess how far down the mountain the stream carried its poison. But I’ve never been opposed to mining, and I understand how the Gold Rush of the late 1800s helped define the state I was born in. Mining for metals brought people, towns and railroads, leading President Ulysses Grant to declare Colorado a state in 1876. But while Colorado is undeniably still tied to mining, times have changed, and the General Mining Law of 1872 that gives mining priority over all other land uses is way past due for revision. Fully recognizing that this outdated law is to blame for much of the damage to our public lands, many of America’s sportsmen have set their sights on reforming the 1872 law....
High-flow experiment proposed to improve Grand Canyon resources An experiment using high flows from Glen Canyon Dam to study and improve Colorado River resources in Grand Canyon National Park has been proposed by the Department of the Interior. The goal of the experiment is to better understand whether higher flows can be used to rebuild eroded beaches downstream of Glen Canyon Dam by moving sand accumulated in the riverbed onto sandbars. Grand Canyon sandbars provide habitat for wildlife, serve as camping beaches for recreationists, and supply sand needed to protect archaeological sites. High flows also create areas of low-velocity flow, or backwaters, used by young native fishes, particularly endangered humpback chub. The 2008 test would be different than previous high-flow tests conducted in 1996 and 2004. In particular, scientists have concluded that more sand is needed to rebuild sandbars throughout the 277-mile reach of Grand Canyon National Park than was available in 1996 or 2004. Currently, sand supplies in the river are at a 10-year high with a volume about three times greater than the volume available in 2004 due to tributary inflows below the dam over the past 16 months. The proposed experiment is dependent on the completion of environmental review processes required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act....
White Sands celebrates monumental anniversary It was Jan. 18, 1933 — 75 years ago today — and President Herbert Hoover was two days away from turning his Depression-wracked presidency over to Franklin Roosevelt. One of his last acts was to sign a document regarding a patch of land in New Mexico, a state that had just turned 21. That patch of land is now known as White Sands National Monument and Hoover's signature established it as part of the National Park Service. Saturday, visitors can help celebrate the monument's 75th anniversary with some special events, including multiple showings of a 1938 promotional film for the monument....
Bush officials say oil drilling will not harm polar bears US officials defended plans for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, telling lawmakers that it would not harm polar bears, already threatened by global warming. Randall Luthi, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which sells oil drilling rights, told Congress Thursday that the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act provides adequate safeguards to polar bears from oil exploration accidents such as oil spills. In addition, he said, contracts with oil companies include measures to minimize the impact such activities can have on the polar bear population. "We believe adequate protection exists," he told the House of Representatives special committee on global warming. The US government estimates crude oil reserves under the Chukchi Sea at 15 billion barrels. Representative Edward Markey demanded polar bears be declared a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming prior to the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6. If not, "we will be accelerating the day when the polar bear will be extinct," he said....
Wildlife groups, energy firms debate development This weekend in Great Falls, hunting groups, wildlife managers and others will raise the alarm about how runaway oil-and-gas development in Montana could have a huge effect on wildlife. "As we looked at this issue more and more, and what's occurred in Wyoming and Colorado, we (thought), 'We don't want to be like them,' " said Craig Sharpe, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. "We don't want the large footprint, the damage that has occurred in Wyoming." Yet oil-and-gas industry officials - some of whom will attend Saturday's symposium sponsored by the federation - wonder what the big deal is. They agree that Montana could see more oil-and-gas development in the coming years. But they say it's not likely to be anywhere near the scale of Wyoming's gas boom - and therefore, Montana shouldn't rush into new restrictions to protect wildlife from something that isn't going to happen....
U.S. opts not to plan for jaguar recovery There will be no recovery plan, at least not one with teeth, for the rarest of the wild animals native to Arizona — the largest and rarest cat species of North America — the jaguar. The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group that has pushed for an official plan to set goals and spell out and enforce efforts to save the big cats, portrays the move as a concession to the Bush administration's border-fence project. But a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southwestern Region maintains that a formal plan wouldn't help the big cats, and the lack of one won't damage the federal agency's ongoing support of less-official efforts to protect the jaguar. The official stand against a recovery plan was spelled out in a Jan. 7 memo signed by the agency's director, Dale Hall. The jaguar was put on the federal endangered-species list in 1997. By some accounts, it once ranged as far west and north as the Monterey Bay coast and east to the Appalachian Mountains. But it has rarely been seen in recent decades, and then only barely north of the U.S.-Mexico border, usually in Arizona or New Mexico. Since it was listed as endangered, only four jaguars — all males — have been confirmed alive in Arizona. And those were thought to be border crossers from a dwindling, but larger, population in northern Mexico....
Feds may slash butterfly habitat in half Federal wildlife officials Thursday proposed slashing by almost half the amount of land they designated earlier as "critical habitat" for the Quino checkerspot butterfly, one of Southern California's most endangered animals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed reducing the amount of land targeted for special treatment under the Endangered Species Act from 172,000 acres to 98,000 acres. Officials said the revision was necessary to focus on saving those areas where significant butterfly populations still exist. As in the past, the agency's strategy for saving the insect focuses solely on Southwest Riverside County and the Otay Mountain area of southern San Diego County ---- the only known places where the butterfly still lives. However, in both counties acreages have been shaved substantially. And the wildlife agency said it is considering trimming it more by eliminating 37,000 acres in Riverside County because that acreage already is covered by a multibillion-dollar regional habitat conservation plan that aims to protect the Quino....
Plan calls for killing sea lions at Bonneville Dam Federal officials have called for killing about 30 sea lions near Bonneville Dam each year to keep them from gobbling a rising share of Northwest salmon that the government spends millions of dollars to protect. The National Marine Fisheries Service released the proposal Thursday in response to a request from Oregon and Washington for permission to control the marine mammals. The strategy would authorize state officials to shoot or trap and then kill up to 85 California sea lions each year, or as many as necessary so they eat no more than 1 percent of salmon passing through Bonneville Dam. State officials must first try to scare sea lions off and, if that doesn't work, make sure they target only offending sea lions. Biologists estimate that 30 sea lions would be killed annually. Biologists don't know how the sea lions will react to lethal action. Some suspect that the survivors will take a hint and scatter, letting the salmon be. Others suggest that other sea lions will replace those that are killed, forcing the states into a perpetual killing campaign....
Ice returns as Greenland temps plummet While the rest of Europe is debating the prospects of global warming during an unseasonably mild winter, a brutal cold snap is raging across the semi-autonomous nation of Greenland. On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade. 'The ice is up to 50cm thick,' said Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark's Meteorological Institute who has also sailed the Greenlandic coastline for the Royal Arctic Line. 'We've had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.' Matthiesen suggested the cold weather marked a return to the frigid temperatures common a decade ago. Temperatures plunged to -25°C earlier this month, clogging the bay with ice and making shipping impossible for small crafts, according to Anthon Frederiksen, the mayor of the town of Ilulissat, where Disko Bay is located....
Animal-human embryo research is approved Experiments to create Britain’s first embryos that combine human and animal material will begin within months after a government watchdog gave its approval yesterday to two research teams to carry out the controversial work. Scientists at King’s College London, and the University of Newcastle will inject human DNA into empty eggs from cows to create embryos known as cytoplasmic hybrids, which are 99.9 per cent human in genetic terms. The experiments are intended to provide insights into diseases such as Parkinson’s and spinal muscular atrophy by producing stem cells containing genetic defects that contribute to these conditions. These will be used as cell models for investigating new approaches to treatment, and to improve the understanding of how embryonic stem cells develop. They will not be used in therapy, and it is illegal to implant them into the womb....
Food costs jump 4.9% in 2007; biggest gain since 1990 Inflation truly hit home in 2007 with food prices rising 4.9 percent, the most since 1990, as energy costs for farmers surged and the production of crops, livestock and dairy products failed to keep pace with increased global demand. Dairy prices gained the most of all foods last year, with milk surging 19.3 percent, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Fruits and vegetables increased 5.9 percent and cereal and baked-goods prices rose 5.4 percent. Bread prices jumped 10.5 percent, according to the report. Companies including Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc., the largest U.S. cereal-producers, boosted prices as the cost of commodities such as wheat reached record highs. One of the driving forces for higher food prices was the rising cost of fuel. Farmers and ranchers, along with transport companies, felt the same pinch that many consumers did in 2007 as energy prices, which include gasoline and diesel fuel, rose 17.4 percent. Ironically, it was the rising price of fuel that also spurred the increased production of corn for ethanol, which caused corn prices to rally even though farmers reported a record crop....
Ranch folks who pose at The Dahl Friday to receive a free portrait Want to let the world see what a real South Dakota rancher looks like? Come to The Dahl Arts Center Friday to help in the effort to reveal real ranchers to the rest of the world. You can also view images of other ranchers and their families taken by award-winning photographer Carl Corey. We have all seen movie and TV ranchers. Do they seem like you or ranchers you know? Probably not. Corey is coming to the Dahl to take pictures of real ranchers, ranch couples and families for a new book. If you are not a rancher, but know someone who might be interested, please encourage them to come in for a portrait. Corey has time for 40 ranch folks to be captured in a portrait. The goal of this visual arts project is to allow people to see the real people of South Dakota, the hard-working, often isolated, ranchers that feed the world and add so much to the independent lifestyle of South Dakota....
PBS crew to determine if Annie Oakley coin shot is real Local experts were recruited earlier this month to help solve a century-old detective puzzle that will be detailed for a national television audience later this year. A crew from "History Detectives," a PBS show that explores stories behind historical artifacts, came to Cody to find out if a coin owned by a freelance writer from Maine was shot by Annie Oakley during a performance. Producers and host Elyse Luray interviewed scholars at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and others for background on how Oakley might have shot coins, either performing on her own or as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. For years, Oakley was the star attraction of Cody's show, shooting playing cards and glass balls with incredible accuracy. She also performed on her own and often shot coins, which spectators sometimes kept as souvenirs. Hitting a coin mounted on a target from 25 yards away is no easy feat, even for an accomplished sharpshooter. But that's what producers hoped to capture on tape by asking Worland marksman Nick Nickelson to re-create Oakley's trick shot. It took a few tries with his Model 92 Winchester rifle, but Nickelson hit the coin twice during taping at the Cody Stampede Rodeo Grounds....

Panel urges federal gas-tax hike The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission is urging that federal gasoline taxes be increased by up to 40 cents a gallon over five years to fix the nation's aging infrastructure. The cost, the commission estimates, would be 41 to 66 cents a day - less than the price of a candy bar, one commissioner said - for the average motorist. The two-year study by the 12-member commission is the first to propose broad changes after a devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August shone a spotlight on the deteriorating state of the nation's infrastructure. Undersized plates used in the bridge were "the critical factor" in the collapse, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. In a 10-page dissent to the report, the commission's chairwoman, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and two other members sharply criticized the proposal for higher gasoline taxes. She and the two commissioners are calling instead for sole reliance on tolls and private investment. Under the proposal, the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon would be increased by 5 cents to 8 cents annually for five years and then indexed to inflation afterward to help fix the infrastructure, expand public transit and highways as well as broaden railway and rural access. The increase is designed to take effect in 2009, after President Bush leaves office....
Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif. The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises. Environmentalists who had sued successfully to limit the Navy's use of loud, mid-frequency sonar -- which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals -- said yesterday that the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to obey environmental laws. In a court filing Tuesday, government lawyers said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off Southern California was "essential to national security" and of "paramount interest to the United States." Based on that, the documents said, Bush issued the order exempting the Navy from provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality granted the Navy a waiver from the National Environmental Protection Act....
Ex-ferret-recovery head blames political pressure for prairie dog decisions The Bush administration has pressured federal resource managers to make decisions that could hurt the black-footed ferret recovery effort in South Dakota's Conata Basin, according to the recently retired head of the federal ferret recovery program. Mike Lockhart, who retired Jan. 3 after 32 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sent an internal memo charging that his former regional director and U.S. Forest Service officials bowed to political pressure in decisions involving ferrets and prairie dogs in South Dakota and elsewhere. Conata Basin, just south of Badlands National Park, is home to the most successful black-footed ferret reintroduction in the country, he said. The project has been a cooperative effort among federal and state agencies and private groups. Lockhart said the ferret population in Conata Basin is still doing well. But he said his former boss with the Fish and Wildlife Service, retired Region 6 Director Mitch King, undercut efforts of the ferret-recovery team....
Montana's Black Gold Underneath eastern Montana and western North Dakota lies a thin (in some places, just five feet thick) stratum called the Bakken Formation, which holds a mother lode of Jurassic goo. Pick a statistic or a superlative: The Bakken is the biggest inland oil find in the United States in 50 years or so; it might contain 200 billion barrels of oil, far more than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge reserve politicians fight about; last year, Montana pumped about 3 million barrels a month out of its side of the Bakken—about 45 times more than the field produced in 2002. Montana’s role in the global scramble for oil is modest, so far. Bakken production covers only a small percentage of U.S. oil consumption. It’s not big enough to make us bosom pals with Saudi sheiks (though there are some wild, as-yet-unsubstantiated geological estimates that it could well be). It has yet to equal the tar-sands jackpot that would make the Province of Alberta the world’s second-richest nation per capita (after Luxembourg) if it seceded from Canada. But it is of unquestionable national importance: In the last few years, Montana and North Dakota are the only states to increase oil-production....
Biologists study the shy wolverine in the North Cascades An animal so ferocious that it is said to chase bears and kill elk by hopping on their backs and severing their throats lives in Snohomish County. But don't believe everything you hear about wolverines, experts say. "Wolverines have a longstanding reputation of being particularly fierce and dangerous," said Keith Aubry, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. "They're sort of a mythological creature because they are so often not seen." But in reality, they may be more shy than tough, Aubry said. Petitions to have them listed as a federally endangered species in the late 1990s and early this decade were turned down for a lack of information. Those denials spurred research on the whereabouts of the wolverine in Washington, as well as the northern Rocky Mountain areas of Idaho and Montana. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- acting under the order of a federal judge -- is finishing a year-long assessment of the animal that could lead it to be proposed for listing. A decision likely will be made at the end of February, said Diane Katzenberger, a spokeswoman for the agency....
Experts uncover clues to slide Avalanche experts digging into last Sunday's deadly slide north of Whitefish Mountain Resort are turning over not just snowpack and clues, but also many weeks of winter weather history. Turns out, the snowpack conditions that made the weekend avalanche possible were laid down back before Christmas, when winter was warmer and snowstorms still were tangled with rainstorms. All that was needed, then, was a human to pull the trigger these many weeks later. That's according to Stan Bones, a U.S. Forest Service avalanche analyst who also works with the Glacier Country Avalanche Center. At the center's Web site, www.glacieravalanche.org, Bones has posted his official review of the incident in which two skiers were killed - 19-year-old Anthony Kollmann of Kalispell and 36-year-old David Gogolak of Whitefish. On Wednesday, Bones talked about that report, detailing a story that begins not with Sunday's slide, but rather back in December, when the top layers of early season snow melted and later re-froze into an icy sheet....
NEPA jobs threatened A proposed “reengineering” by U.S. Forest Service officials could move thousands of agency employees involved in drafting environmental assessments out of the national forests where they work. According to a feasibility report by Management Analysis, Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm, the “Business Process Reengineering” plan would consolidate all work performed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to six “eco-based Service Centers” instead of individual field offices. At least one group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), sees the plan as a step backwards for the Forest Service that could have far reaching impacts beyond removing employees from their jobs. According to PEER, over 3,000 Forest Service employees have NEPA-related responsibilities to assess the potential consequences of projects in the national forests. For now, the agency hasn’t specified any time frame to implement the plan, and Ruch worries the changes will occur without adequate public notice or close scrutiny....
Lynx Pinched by Recreation Finding room for lynx to roam in the wide-open spaces of Montana and Wyoming may not be a huge issue. But in crowded Colorado, researchers are finding that intensive recreational use—especially snowmobiling—is crowding the rare cats out of some critical areas. At issue is the management of the Vail Pass Winter Recreation Area (VPWRA), a 50,000-acre pocket of rolling, forested terrain along Interstate 70, between Copper Mountain and Vail. Several commercial snowmobile tour and rental operators have asked the U.S. Forest Service for permission to increase trips in the area. Before issuing any new permits, the agency decided to take a hard look at the overall capacity of the area. As part of that study, White River National Forest biologist Liz Roberts wrote a formal biological assessment, trying to measure and quantify the impacts of recreation to the wildlife habitat in the area. Long story short, Roberts concluded that human activity in the area is “adversely affecting” the cats....
Ecological genius played huge role in shaping New Mexico's landscape, environment Fresh out of Yale, where his strong attraction to the outdoors had led him to study forestry, Aldo Leopold arrived in Albuquerque early in July 1909 and began working in the forests of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. His headquarters was in Springerville, Ariz. — a two-day, 85-mile stagecoach ride from where the train would leave him off in Holbrook, Ariz. In these and other forests he later supervised in New Mexico, Leopold observed overgrazing, overstocking, erosion, successions of plants, prey-and-predators relations and the role of fire in a natural setting. These provided the facts, clues and impressions that led him to his final conclusions about the relation between humans, their cultures and the land. An indication of Leopold's awakening understanding occurred during a 1919 horseback inspection trip he made deep into the Gila National Forest, when he resolved to do what he could to keep those forests free of "civilizing" influences, such as roads. His efforts, with some like-minded supporters, resulted in 755,000 acres being set aside by the Forest Service on June 3, 1924, as the Gila Wilderness — the first wilderness area in the country. In 1980, the National Wilderness Preservation System formalized this wilderness and added the contiguous Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Primitive Area....
County faces drop in federal PILT funding An announced 30 percent reduction in payment in lieu of taxes funds comes as Uintah County faces an additional two percent cut in mineral lease funding. In an interview on Monday, county commissioner Mike McKee explained the loss of PILT funds blindsided county officials completely. “Thirty percent reduction in funding will occur in PILT monies,” stated McKee. “The irony is that we just met with Senator Bennett’s office looking to raise our share of PILT funding. We went from seeking full-funding to accepting a significant reduction.” McKee spoke of his disappointment over the Washington meeting where he and Duchesne County commissioner Rod Harrison received assurances that the potential for full-funding was close. “PILT is a static appropriation of $230 million for Pacific Northwest rural schools,” said Bob Widner, Uintah County’s Washington, D.C., lobbyist “A deduction from those monies comes to us as PILT funds.” The reduction in PILT funding came from “a congressional review that determined the Pacific Northwest rural school’s should receive their total entitlement,” Widner said. “That came as the senate failed to pass reauthorization of PILT funding by one vote last month. For us, it translates into a 30 percent reduction in funding.”....
Mount St. Helens growls mysteriously As John Pallister circled above Mount St. Helens on Sunday afternoon, a sharply defined line of steam caught his attention. "It was interesting enough to take some pictures," said Pallister, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and private pilot. He didn't know it, but his USGS colleagues back in Vancouver had already noticed a 2.9-magnitude earthquake followed by a small but unusually long tremor at the steadily erupting volcano. The tremor, in fact, continued for almost an hour and a half, punctuated by a 2.7-magnitude quake. Such tremors typically signal that magma or gases are flowing underground like water in a pipe. The last tremor of note - a 55-minute stemwinder big enough to register on seismometers from Bend, Ore., to Bellingham on Oct. 2, 2004 - prompted the Forest Service to hastily evacuate the Johnston Ridge Observatory five miles north of the crater's mouth....
Park Service airs complaint against proposed coal plant The National Park Service says the $3.8 billion, coal-fired power plant that Nevada utilities propose to build near Ely is "unacceptable" because it would damage air and water quality and would interfere with scenic views in the Great Basin National Park. "Like a clean white page, the relatively clear air in the Great Basin can be marred easily," wrote Paul DePrey, park superintendent. DePrey made the comment in a Jan. 9 letter to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection in response to the draft air permit the division has issued for the 1,500-megawatt Ely Energy Center. The center is a project of Sierra Pacific Power Co. and Nevada Power Co. The division can issue a final permit without substantial changes in the draft document, amend the permit or deny it after reviewing comments about the power plant....
Local mill to close Boise Cascade said Tuesday it will permanently close its sawmill and planer operations at its lumber manufacturing plant near Antelope Road and Agate Road. The operations will be phased out during the next two months and put 32 of the plant's 59 employees out of work. "It's something we've been evaluating for a long time," said Boise spokesman Bob Smith. "The issue with log supply goes back to the 1990s and it is why we curtailed a shift early last year. We are to the point where pine supplies are not affordable. Essentially, we have to go into central California to buy pine logs and when you add transportation costs, that's what drives this decision." In March 2007, the mill eliminated its second shift and the third shift was discontinued in 2000. Even as Dave Schott of Southern Oregon Timber Industry Association was telling Jackson County's natural resources advisory committee that Boise Cascade's sawmill days were numbered Tuesday, word was going out from the company headquarters about the closure. "It's the end of an era," Schott said. "It's the last regular sawmill in Jackson County. In 1947, when my father came out to join the lumber industry, there were close to 40 mills in Jackson and Josephine counties, including three or four in Ashland."....
Child Artists Help Save Endangered Species Poloppo is the first company to empower child artists by paying royalties directly on products sold displaying their work. The ingenuity of the children combined with the unique business model of Poloppo provides a fertile ground for creative brilliance. Poloppo is excited to announce the latest opportunity that gives kids a chance to express their creativity and have a voice that will make a difference in helping to save endangered species throughout the world. Poloppo's Fall/Winter 2008 collection from its line of apparel for kids and babies proudly displays art from child artists who have drawn their favorite endangered animal and get to have it featured on high-quality, eco-friendly sweatshirts, t-shirts, dresses, aprons and bibs. According to EndangeredSpecie.com the number one way for kids to step in and help protect endangered species and their habitats is to draw pictures of their favorite endangered creatures and send them to their political representatives. Because of Poloppo's reach and distribution, senators and members of congress are not the only ones who will benefit from the youthful perspective....
Sea lions eat endangered river sturgeon The survival of sturgeon in the Columbia River Gorge along the Washington-Oregon state line is threatened by feasting Steller sea lions. Fish and wildlife officials in the two Pacific Northwest states reportedly have tried to frighten away the almost extinct Steller sea lions, which weigh as much 2,400 pounds, with rubber bullets and underwater noise bombs, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., reported Wednesday. The gorge is 40 miles east of Portland, Ore. Officials said one of the main facets of the problem is that the sea lions have targeted egg-bearing sturgeon. "These fish are essentially the anchor for the entire species on the West Coast of North America," sturgeon biologist Blaine Parker said. Wildlife experts say stronger measures need to be taken against the sea lions for the sturgeon to survive. "I'm not going to dispute the fact that Stellers need protection, also," Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Executive Director Liz Hamilton said. The predatory Steller sea lions are protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act....
No bears for oil By 2050, two-thirds of the world's polar bears will have vanished, as a result of global warming melting their icy habitat, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. There may no longer be any polar bears at all living in Alaska, their only home in the United States. Still, this stark prediction, revealed in September 2007, after a yearlong review of the impact of melting sea ice on the Alaskan bears, hasn't inspired the Bush administration to list the bear as even a threatened species, much less an endangered one, under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for listing mammals as threatened or endangered, has been one of the most politically compromised scientific divisions in the Bush administration. It didn't consider extending federal protections to polar bears until it was petitioned, and subsequently sued, to do so by a coalition of environmental groups back in 2005. Now it admits that polar bears are "likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future," and explained recent delays by citing the complexity of the decision: It has never before had to designate a species as threatened because of global warming. But critics say that Fish and Wildlife hasn't made a ruling yet because another agency within the Department of Interior, the Minerals Management Service, is on the verge of handing out oil and gas leases in vast swaths of the polar bears' remaining habitat....
Of wolves and willows Don Despain and Roy Renkin aren’t the first scientists to notice how the climate is changing in Yellowstone National Park. But they are among the first to examine the link between climate change and the growth of certain plants, such as the willow bush. For the last couple of years, Despain and Renkin have been studying the remarkable growth of willow bushes along places such as Blacktail Deer Creek in the northwest section of the park. During most of the 1900s, willows here averaged around 2 to 3 feet tall, significantly under their usual height. Today, these willows are back to normal height, up to 8 feet tall. Despain, a retired U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Bozeman, and Renkin, a management biologist with the National Park Service in Yellowstone, aren’t the only ones to ponder the willows’ dramatic recovery. But many scientists connect it to the return of wolves in the mid-1990s rather than to changes in climate. These researchers note the changes in elk behavior since the wolves’ return: Wolf-wary elk spend less time in open riparian areas, choosing safer borders near forests. With fewer elk browsing on streamside willows, the plants have an opportunity to recover. Or so the theory goes. Whatever is causing the willow to recover is also affecting the whole ecology of the region....
Obama Pledges Support for Animal Rights Democrat Barack Obama says he won't just be a president for the American people, but the animals too. "What about animal rights?" a woman shouted out during the candidate's town hall meeting outside Las Vegas Wednesday after he discussed issues that relate more to humans, like war, health care and the economy. Obama responded that he cares about animal rights very much, "not only because I have a 9-year-old and 6-year-old who want a dog." He said he sponsored a bill to prevent horse slaughter in the Illinois state Senate and has been repeatedly endorsed by the Humane Society. "I think how we treat our animals reflects how we treat each other," he said. "And it's very important that we have a president who is mindful of the cruelty that is perpetrated on animals."
Ranchers and Environmentalists to Host Third Annual Summit in Sacramento The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, a group comprised of 78 diverse ranching and conservation organizations and government agencies in California, are gathering for their third annual summit to be held Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, at the Holiday Inn at 300 J. St., in Sacramento. The eclectic grouping of agencies and individuals formed the Coalition three years ago, driven by their common goal of protecting both wildlife and the rangelands that shelter them. "Gradually all groups have come to realize that to be successful we need to work together, despite any differences we may have, we are interdependent in protecting what each of us values most," says Kim Delfino, California program director, Defenders of Wildlife. Topics to be discussed range from the scientific to sociological, reflecting the many types of issues encountered in conserving wildlife and rangeland. Scientists from the University of California and the PRBO Conservation Science will address topics such as: Using Birds as Indicators of Conservation Effectiveness; Regenerating Oaks on Grazed Rangelands; and Building Bridges between Public and Private Rangelands. The event will also feature a panel of ranchers for a question and answer session on issues such as the perceptions ranchers have of conservation easements, what drives ranchers to voluntarily enhance wildlife habitat on their property, and the effects of current and future regulations on ranching....
Where's the beef? Trailer of meat stolen from San Angelo plant A man claiming to be a driver for Pratte Trucking pulled up at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo last night in a cab marked with PDP logos, spoke to Lone Star personnel and then hooked up to a trailer full of meat and drove off, police said. An hour and a half later, the real driver showed up. Authorities are now hunting for the tractor and trailer, which contained about $100,000 worth of meat. The trailer, a Wabash refrigerator unit marked PDP No. 9 on its rear doors and bearing Oklahoma licence plate 135-4CZ, alone was valued at $40,000, authorities said....
Ranch Sells Beef for Dinner, Bones for Surgery Prather Ranch's dry-aged, organic New York steaks will set you back $20 per pound at its upscale stall in San Francisco's Ferry Building farmers market. But even at that price, foodies aren't the company's best market. The most valuable parts of its cows are the inedible parts: pituitary glands, bones, heart muscles and hides. Medical companies covet them for making surgical glue, bone screws, collagen and artificial skin. "In most years, these things are more valuable than the meat," said Jim Rickert, a fifth-generation farmer. "We also think out of an ethical-moral thing. The animal deserves us using it completely." The impetus for producing medical-grade cattle, however, was economic. California is an expensive state for anyone, and it's a particularly challenging place for cattle ranchers. But Rickert and his wife have deep local roots. So rather than move to a cheaper state, the Rickerts built a diversified business that would remain sustainable through fluctuations in the price of meat. And it turns out that the rules for raising cows appropriate for medical use dovetail nicely with organics and a sustainable farming model....
Charlie Matteri reaped rewards of hard work Charlie Matteri laughs out loud and punctuates his colorful stories with lots of smiles as he describes his childhood and recalls what it was like growing up on a dairy ranch in Petaluma’s Lakeville district, working under inhospitable conditions in Alaska, and returning to Petaluma where he’s lived for 57 years on his own Lakeville spread. The Lakeville area, south of town and east of the Petaluma River, was a bastion for Italian-born ranchers and dairymen who located there in the early 1900s. Charlie’s parents, Giovanni and Maria, got their start there in 1914 on a 75-acre parcel on Brown’s Lane. The fourth of their five kids, after Katie (Allen), Ann (Broxmeyer), and Elsie (Marsh), and before John, Charlie was born in 1920. Tragedy struck the family when Giovanni Matteri died in 1922, but with everybody pitching in, the family became self-sufficient, allowing Maria to keep the ranch until she married Elvezio Rosselli five years later. “We didn’t have any toys, we didn’t even have an extra nickel to buy a ball, but we were happy,” Charlie explained. The kids attended rural Lakeville School, but Charlie, like many others, spoke only Italian, and didn’t enjoy school much. “How could I learn English? It was like Little Italy around here,” Charlie said, pointing in different directions and reciting the names of neighboring ranches. “There was Vivenzi, Patocchi, Cincera, Tarca, Giannini and many more.”....
Ranch History Display at Wings Over Willcox In 1877 the White brothers, Theodore, Jarrett and Thomas, established El Dorado Ranch on Turkey Creek near the base of the Chiricahua Mountains; others followed and within a few years many small ranches existed in the Sulphur Springs Valley. In 1883 John V. and Sumner Vickers began running cattle on the open range in the valley. John, a wealthy Pennsylvanian residing in Tombstone, was involved in the brokerage of cattle range, real estate and mining. Later that year he bought the interests of Thomas and Jarrett White in the El Dorado Ranch. Vickers loaned money for the purchase of cattle and acted as sales agent for the El Dorado and other area ranches. El Dorado prospered and by 1885 had over 6,000 head of cattle. Theodore White and John Vickers were not only cattlemen, they were speculators with a vision of creating a cattle empire. To make their dream a reality, they needed a large number of cattle and a lot of land. In the spring of 1885, White, Vickers, and several small ranchers combined land, cattle and water rights and formed the Chiricahua Cattle Company. The CCC brand was registered and a cattle empire of 1,685,880 acres of public domain with about 15,000 head of cattle and 300 horses was created. The CCC, run by daring men, prospered and by 1889 the herd had increased to 19,520 head of cattle and 375 horses. The CCC dominated the valley from Willcox to Elfrida and soon extended its range into Graham County and other areas of southeastern Arizona. The CCC seemed to be everywhere; it had become one of the largest and best run cattle companies in Arizona Territory.

TV SHOW "24" GOES GREEN

The Jan. 30 issue of The New Republic has an article entitled Eco-Terror(subscription required). Here are some excerpts:

Fans of the show "24," or anyone who has followed the recent controversy surrounding its portrayal of torture, may have been understandably surprised by a mid-summer announcement by Fox network executives: The series--whose co-creator and executive producer, Joel Surnow, is a Rick Santorum- supporting, friend-of-Ann-Coulter sort of conservative, and whose hero, Jack Bauer, knows his way around a waterboard--was going green. In fact, it would be the first TV series ever to do so. Henceforth, every electroshock session would require the purchase of carbon offsets. Led by executive producer Howard Gordon, whose wife coauthored The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming with Laurie David, high priestess of Hollywood environmentalism, execs promised to reduce the show's carbon footprint during the upcoming seventh season, with a "carbon neutral" finale as the ultimate goal. Surnow, for his part, has remained mum about the venture. "He is tolerating it rather than embracing it," Gordon tells me by phone.[...]For one, the show shoots roughly half of its scenes on location--unlike, say, a medical drama, which mainly adheres to a single interior. This makes "24" something of an energy glutton: Each new venue requires the transportation of crew and equipment, the building (and dismantling) of sets, the rigging of generators to power the voracious lights that illuminate those sets. And, of course, the series' numerous special effects (car chases, explosions, shootouts) are not exactly low-emission--the show's carbon footprint for 2006 was 1,684 metric tons, the annual equivalent of approximately 364 cars or 89 households.[...]Through fuel reductions and the purchase of green power, Posey says, the series has reduced its emissions by 125 metric tons, "the equivalent of taking twenty-seven cars off the road, and like fourteen thousand gallons of oil."....

The artwork accompanying the article shows Jack Bauer in action with the caption being "Jack Bauer saves the environment."

I've been to some team ropings where Kiefer Sutherland competed and he didn't strike me as the green type. Don't tell Twentieth Century Fox Television I said that. They may require some "cowboy offsets".

Farmers fear a barnyard Big Brother After days of parading around her beefy black steer in the dung-scented August heat at the Colorado State Fair, Brandi Calderwood made the final competition. For months, the 16-year-old worked from dawn well past dusk, fitting in the work around school, to feed, train and clean her steer. But just before the last round, when the animals are sold, fair officials disqualified her. They alleged that Brandi had not properly followed a new and controversial rule that required children to register their farms with a federal animal tracking system. After heated words, the Calderwoods were told to leave. A security guard trailed Brandi and her mother, even to the restroom. "Emotionally she went through the wringer and didn't get the honor of showing in the sale. For a 16-year-old, that's a big deal," said Cathy Calderwood, Brandi's mother. A Bush administration initiative, the National Animal Identification System is meant to provide a modern tool for tracking disease outbreaks within 48 hours, whether natural or the work of a bioterrorist. Most farm animals, even exotic ones such as llamas, will eventually be registered. Information will be kept on every farm, ranch or stable. And databases will record every animal movement from birth to slaughterhouse, including trips to the vet and county fairs. But the system is spawning a grass-roots revolt. Family farmers see it as an assault on their way of life by a federal bureaucracy with close ties to industrial agriculture. They point out that they will have to track every animal while vast commercial operations will be allowed to track whole herds. Privacy advocates say the database would create an invasive, detailed electronic record of farmers' activities. Religious farming communities, such as the Amish and Mennonites, fear the system is a manifestation of the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelation. And despite the administration's insistence that the program is voluntary, farmers and families, such as the Calderwoods, chafe at the heavy-handed and often mandatory way states have implemented it, sometimes with the help of sheriff's deputies....

Klamath Settlement Group Releases Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement Representatives of diverse communities in the Klamath Basin, working with federal, state, and county governments, have developed a Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement to rebuild fisheries, sustain agricultural communities, and resolve other longstanding disputes related to the allocation of water resources. The non-Federal parties released the Proposed Agreement today to inform the public and to provide public review and comment before taking final action. This is an important first step in a collaborative effort to seek solutions with the key stakeholders in the Klamath Basin on an environmental restoration strategy. The Klamath Settlement Group is presently negotiating with PacifiCorp in an effort to reach agreement on the removal of the utility’s four lower dams in the Klamath Basin, referenced as the "Hydropower Agreement." Dam removal is a necessary part of the overall restoration effort, and the Hydropower Agreement along with the Proposed Agreement released today has the potential to provide a comprehensive solution for the Basin. The group is working to finalize both agreements in February....
Judge says road ownership must be settled before further action A judge has ruled that the ownership of a road at the center of a dispute between a ranching family and two northern Utah counties must be resolved before the ranchers' accusations are addressed. Fred and Laura Selman and their son, Bret Selman, all of Tremonton, sued Box Elder and Cache counties separately last spring, challenging the counties' declarations that the Rocky Dugway road through their 7,000-acre ranch southeast of Mantua is a Class B road. The lawsuits were the culmination of years of argument between the Selmans and the counties. The Selmans claim the dirt path is a private "livestock driveway" and want to block motorized vehicles that they say disrupt wildlife, their cattle and sheep. The counties contend the road is public. They want it open for recreationists to reach the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The path is also an important link in the James Hansen Shoshone National ATV trail system proposed for northern Utah....
Farmers Told to Prepare for Climate Policies According to the director of the Agriculture Department’s Global Change Program Office, farmers and ranchers must recognize that “at the policy level the question is not whether climate change is occurring. The debate is over what to do about it.” During a session at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 89th annual convention, Bill Hohenstein said in the future all sectors of U.S. economic life, including agriculture, will be affected by policies intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Current federal policy does not impose a mandatory cap on such emissions. But Hohenstein noted that at least nine separate proposals that address the issue are now before Congress, some of which contain caps. National lawmakers give every indication they are moving toward adopting a policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He explained that U.S. farmers and ranchers will surely be called on to reduce emissions on their properties. In response to policy discussions, USDA staff members have developed a method for voluntary calculation of a given farm’s “footprint for greenhouse gas emissions.” Once refined for use by the individual citizen, the system will facilitate a calculation. In a second step, the user may submit the information to the USDA or another federal agency. “Having consistent rules is quite important,” Hohenstein said. “The same rules must apply in Iowa and in any other state.” Voluntary pursuit of reductions is the goal. “USDA will encourage practices that will either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or implement carbon sequestration,” he added....
Diverse Groups Protest Federal 'Water Grab' Bill A diverse group of grassroots organizations and business and civic groups has come together to oppose the proposed Federal Clean Water Restoration Act, which many call the Federal Water Grab Bill. The bill would strip state oversight of minor waterways and for the first time give federal bureaucrats control over millions of acres of drainage ditches, seasonal ponds, and small waterways that have no significant impact on larger bodies of water. Opposition to the federal proposal was expressed on December 5 when members of Congress, state legislators, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Property Rights Alliance, Partnership for America, and Americans for American Energy joined the National Farm Bureau Federation, American Property Coalition, and Western Business Roundtable on the steps of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, DC. "[B]y eliminating one word--navigable--and replacing it with the term 'waters of the United States,' the legislation would give the federal government authority over anything that is wet, as well as any activity on land that could affect water," explained the North Carolina Coalition for Clean Water....
Colo. Supreme Court could mean early release for Hayman fire starter A woman who admitted starting the worst wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history could be released within a year after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled prosecutors cannot withdraw their plea agreement. The ruling Monday raises the possiblity that Terry Lynn Barton could be released after serving a 6-year federal prison term for setting the June 2002 Hayman fire, though 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome plans to argue Barton should face some state prison time. A judge handed down a 12-year sentence, which is double the maximum 6 year sentence, citing aggravating factors. Barton’s attorneys appealed, arguing the judge shouldn’t have handed down the sentence because he lived near the fire and had to voluntarily evacuate his house. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that only a jury could find aggravating factors and voided the sentence in 2004. Prosecutors then argued that Barton’s appeal of her sentence violated the terms of the plea agreement, which allowed them to withdraw it. The ruling Monday rejected that argument....
Court upholds ruling, backs heli-skiing company A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision that allowed a helicopter skiing company to continue operations in the mountains of the Wasatch-Cache and Uinta national forests. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart's 2006 ruling that said the Forest Service had complied with all federal environmental protection laws when it renewed a permit issued to Wasatch Powderbirds in 2005 to fly skiers into the backcountry. Two citizen groups, Save Our Canyons and Utah Environmental Congress, had argued that the heli-ski outfit's activities harmed non-motorized recreation in the high country. The plaintiffs argued the Forest Service had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in renewing the Powderbirds permit, which the company has held and renewed since 1973. Stewart rejected virtually all the claims against the government....
Ruling allows roadless area trails to stay open A federal government decision that will allow back-country trails for Jeeps and other off-highway vehicles to remain open in a national forest in northern California is being seen as a precedent that could have implications for other such disputes now developing, a trail advocate says. The recent decision came from Smith River National Recreation Area Road Management and Route Designation Project on the Six Rivers National Forest, according to Don Amador, the western representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition. The BRC had joined with Del Norte County in an appeal of the decision that would have closed more than 14 miles of historic off-highway vehicle motorized trails in the Six Rivers National Forest. The appeal deciding officer now has reversed the proposed closure, Amador said. "This decision clearly supports BRC's continuing legal viewpoint that the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule allows for motorized trails to be designated in roadless areas," he said. "As the route designation process continues on other forests it will be important for local user groups to highlight important OHV routes that already exist in roadless areas so they may be included as meaningful options in the travel management plan."....
Beetles May Wipe Out Colo. Lodgepoles Strands of distressed, red pine trees across northern Colorado and the Front Range are a visible testament to the bark beetle infestation that officials said will kill most of the state's lodgepole pine trees within 5 years. The infestation that was first detected in 1996 grew by half-million acres last year, bringing the total number of acres attacked by bark beetles to 1.5 million, state and federal forestry officials said Monday. "This is an unprecedented event," said Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service. The fire potential will increase as trees retain their needles for a couple of years after beetles attack, said Bob Kane, regional entomologist with the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. When the needles fall, the danger will decrease, and spike again when the trees fall in about 10 years, Kane said. Officials said the infestation has been concentrated in five northern Colorado counties straddling the Continental Divide and has since spread to the Front Range and southern Wyoming....
Scientists Address a Burning Question Climate change is affecting the natural processes on the Earth. It is possible to observe these changes when glaciers shrink in size, trees bloom earlier, growing seasons extend, ice on rivers and lakes freeze later and thaw earlier and permafrost disappears. Researchers, supported by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) have added one more item to this list, suggesting that increased wildfire activity in the northern Rocky Mountains may be a result of climate change. The western United States has been plagued by wildfires for more than 30 years. In the northern Rocky Mountain region alone, the incidence of wildfires increased by as much as 60 percent. In recent years, expenditures to combat wildfires by governmental agencies have skyrocketed to $1.7 billion. Paul Knapp and Peter Soulé at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Appalachian State University wondered whether shifts in the timing and frequency of major midlatitude storms during the summer influenced the recent fire trends. The scientists studied weather data collected since 1900 from eight climate stations in the northern Rockies. They compared these data with wildfire records from 1940 through 2004. The data revealed that the first major midlatitude storm occurred progressively later each year, and the frequency of the storms diminished over the past century. In addition, the storm frequency exhibited a pronounced decrease beginning in the mid-1980s. This trend of later and fewer midlatitude storms correlated to the increase in wildfires throughout the northern Rockies....This is amazing research folks. I mean, who would have thought that when you have lower humidity and less precipitation the fire risk would actually increase? Thank goodness we have this Federally funded research to tell us what happens when it gets...dry.
Bill would stiffen fines for driving on prohibited lands Drive your ATV into a wilderness area or onto other restricted federal land and you could face a stiff fine not only from the federal government but also from the state if a proposed bill clears the Colorado Legislature this year. Get caught hunting while operating an unauthorized motor vehicle on state or federal public land, and your hunting license could be at risk, too, under the bill sponsored in the House by Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, and in the Senate by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton. House Bill 1069 would strictly prohibit operating any motor vehicle on state or federal public lands, trails or roads unless there are signs saying vehicles are allowed there or the agency managing the land otherwise authorizes vehicle use there. A violation would be a misdemeanor with a fine of $100. If you’re caught with a vehicle in a federal wilderness area, the state would double the fine to $200. If hunting was involved with the violation, a hunting license would be docked 10 suspension points, or 15 points in a wilderness area. Local law enforcement would have the right to enforce the proposed law, even on federal land. That’s perfectly fine by the federal Bureau of Land Management, which was consulted on the wording of the bill, BLM spokesman James Sample said. A 1976 federal law governing how public land is managed gives states the authority to impose fines on people who violate regulations on federal land, he said....
BLM reviewing comments on Otero Mesa permit The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has received more than 300 e-mails and an unknown number of letters commenting on an environmental assessment for an application for a permit to drill on Otero Mesa. That word today from BLM spokesman Hans Stuart. Today is the last day for comments on the environmental assessment on an application by Harvey E. Yates Company of Roswell to drill a natural gas well on land it leases in the area. Stuart says an environmental impact statement was done between 1998 and 2004. He says it looked at the large picture of the impacts of oil and gas development on the mesa in Otero and Sierra counties. The BLM proposes opening 1,589 acres on the 2 million-acre mesa to drilling. The environmental assessment looks at the Roswell company's specific site.
New Mexico wants study of Otero Mesa drilling State officials say an environmental assessment done by the Bureau of Land Management on an application for a permit to drill for natural gas on Otero Mesa is insufficient. Gov. Bill Richardson and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop are calling on the BLM to do a full environmental impact statement on the application of Harvey E. Yates Co. to drill a natural gas well on leased land. Prukop sent a letter Monday to the BLM, saying the state was concerned that the agency's review of Heyco's application was incomplete and based on outdated information....
Scientists Take Complaints About Interference to Hill Two dozen scientists swarmed over Capitol Hill this week mad as vespinae (hornets) at what they say is Bush administration meddling in environmental science. Organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Endangered Species Coalition, the rumpled researchers won time in the offices of more than 20 lawmakers. They are protesting what Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, calls "the systematic dismantling of the Endangered Species Act through the manipulation and suppression of science." On a dash from the House to the Senate, Grifo said the group wants hearings and better congressional oversight of the Interior Department, where Bush appointees control the fate of threatened and endangered species. The scientists say political appointees at Interior, or those who report to them, have been altering their reports recommending "critical habitat" preservation to favor industries whose interests conflict with the findings....
Inuits reject US environmentalists' bid to protect polar bear Leaders of Canada's Inuit community opposed efforts by US environmentalists to put polar bears on the endangered species list, warning that hunting restrictions would hurt their livelihood. Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit of Canada, said a petition by environmentalists to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) seeking to protect the Arctic bears is driven more by politics than ecological imperative. "They're doing this in a very public way by using the polar bear for political reasons against the (George W.) Bush administration over greenhouse gas emissions, and as Inuit, we fundamentally disagree with such tactics," said Simon, whose group represents native Canadians living in northern Quebec and the northwest territories of Yukon, and Nunavut in northern Canada. Duane Smith, president of the Canadian branch of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents about 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, said the polar bears in Canada are hunted humanely and responsibly. "Our hunters and guides benefit economically, and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use, and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner," he said, adding that in his view the environmentalists' petition was "meant for publicity."....
Ranchers, rodeo stars gather to honor special Texans Fort Worth is the big city that acts like a small town. It's not like Dallas or Houston--or even San Antonio. It's a place built on the bedrock of tradition, a place where yesterday is as important as tomorrow. So maybe it's no surprise that the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which works to preserve Western heritage and honors ranching and rodeo heroes, found a home in Cowtown's historic Stockyards District. Now its annual induction ceremony opening just before the Stock Show and the ranch rodeo is becoming one of the city's traditions. Inductees were rodeo star Trevor Brazile of Decatur, who won three world titles in a single year; horse trainer and cutting horse champ Tom Lyons of Grandview; rodeo clown George Doak of Katy and bull rider turned horse trainer; author Carl Nafzger, a Plainview native who trained two Kentucky Derby winners; and cowboy balladeer, historian and author Don Edwards....