Report: EPA head reversed stand on greenhouse gas The head of the Environmental Protection Agency initially supported giving California and other states full or partial permission to limit tailpipe emissions — but reversed himself after hearing from the White House, a report said Monday. The report by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cites interviews and depositions with high-level EPA officials. It amounts to the first solid evidence of the political interference alleged by Democrats and environmentalists since Administrator Stephen Johnson denied California's waiver request in December. Johnson's decision also blocked more than a dozen other states that wanted to follow California's lead and regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It was applauded by the auto industry and supported by the White House, which has opposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson, a 27-year career veteran of the EPA, frequently has denied that his decisions are being directed by the White House. "I am the decision maker," Johnson said Monday, meeting with reporters at Platt's Energy Podium newsmaker session, before the California waiver report surfaced. A White House spokeswoman denied interference. "No," said Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, when asked whether the White House sought to influence Johnson on the California waiver. "He made an independent decision."....
Global Warming to Decrease Hurricanes, Study Says Global warming may reduce the number of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Basin by 2060, a new study says. But it adds that the storms that do form may be slightly stronger and wetter. The study, conducted by scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the latest development in a contentious debate about whether global warming is influencing hurricanes. The new research suggests that the number of hurricanes each summer could decrease by about 18 percent. Major hurricanes—those with winds in excess of 110 miles (177 kilometers) an hour—could decline by about 8 percent. Currently about ten Atlantic hurricanes form—two to three of them major—during an average season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. One of the ways that global warming could reduce hurricanes is by increasing upper-level winds—known as wind shear—that can inhibit hurricane formation, said lead author Thomas Knutson....
Cooler Heads Nearly 32,000 scientists sign a petition that says they reject the claim that humanity is causing global warming. The media, who are heavily invested in the Gore Consensus, yawn. But a British royal, no scientist he, says we have 18 months to save the rain forests or we will face a climate disaster, and the media are fascinated. That same royal, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has also said that the fight against global warming is much like the war his predecessors fought against the Nazis. He noted in a cleverly timed May 1 speech at a climate summit that when he served "in the Royal Navy . . . 'mayday, mayday, mayday' was the distress call used in cases of emergencies. "And this (human-caused global warming) is an emergency that we face." Meanwhile, Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine released Monday at the Press Club in Washington a petition signed by 31,072 Americans with university degrees in science, including 9,021 with doctorates, who reject the notion that greenhouse gas emissions will cause catastrophic heating of the planet. Didn't hear about it? Oh, that's right — the media can't be bothered to report on something that challenges their narrative....
Rey: Better management lowers costs of firefighting In a broad-ranging address Saturday to the Montana Logging Association stretching from the farm bill to the next president, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey said better forestry management is helping slow the escalating costs of suppressing wildfires. He said firefighting accounted for about 14 percent of the U.S. Forest Service budget in the 1970s, and accelerated to about 50 percent today. “We're not going to stop fighting fires,” he said. “But the rate of the increase is slowing because we're fighting fires that were treated with forest-reduction measures.” He said the fuels reduction, thinning and other actions will continue to help as Congress also seeks alternatives for funding the costs of fighting fires in the nation and ways to alleviate the pressure on the U.S. Forest Service. Rey addressed a group of about 120 people, representing an industry particularly hard hit in recent years. Ken Swanstrom, president of the 580-member Montana Logging Association, said these have been “desperate times” for loggers and sawmills, given the sluggish housing market and low timber prices. “Three months without work is a long time. This is pretty severe economically,” he said....
Controversy continues over use of slurry drops It's a scene repeated time and again during fire season: As flames crackle and smoke billows into the sky, an airplane dips low and releases a plume of bright orange. Chemical fire retardant, or slurry, is one of the more important tools for fighting fire from the air. It's also the focus of an ongoing legal tussle between the U.S. Forest Service and a watchdog group that describes the substance as an unnecessary poison. "It's toxic," said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Don't drop it into your neighborhood stream or on top of your threatened plant or animal species." Last month, the group alleged in a federal lawsuit that the use of slurry violates the Endangered Species Act and other laws. It's the second lawsuit over retardant filed by the Eugene, Ore.-based group. In the first case, a federal judge came close to finding Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey in contempt regarding delays on an environmental review of fire retardant. Stahl's group contends Forest Service policy runs counter to research from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal scientists that retardant poses serious risk to threatened and endangered species, particularly fish....
ABC 4 Investigation: When bears attack They're among the most powerful creatures on earth and among the most feared. Powerful predators with amazing strength and ferocity, they are as magnificent as they are maligned. Hunted to the verge of extinction for the better part of a century grizzlies and black bears now roam in growing numbers across North America's outback and as their numbers grow so too do their run-ins with people. In the course of the last decade, incidents involving bears have spiked dramatically, a trend reflected in here in Utah and all across the West. In the summer of 2003, campers are attacked along the Green River. An 18 year old Oregon man is pulled from his sleeping bag with bite marks to his head and neck. A few days later a St. George man is mauled at a river campsite; scratched and bitten he travels by raft for hours in order to get medical help. The next day rangers move in and the bear, driven mad by drought, is captured and killed. In the summer of 2005, two Utah County brothers spend a terrifying night in the Utah wilderness when a black bear makes short work of their tent. While the brothers escaped serious injury, not every Utahn has been so lucky. Then in the spring of 2007, Sam Ives, an 11-year-old Utah County boy was dragged from his tent in the middle of the night and mauled to death by a black bear as his family searched for him in the darkness at an American fork Canyon camp site. Utah DWR officials say that perhaps the same bear attacked another camper just hours before, and that they posted bear warnings at the site. Ives’ death has prompted state and federal wildlife officials to re-examine the areas where humans come in contact with bears in order to prevent any more killings. A lawsuit has been filed by Sam's family against the U.S. Forrest Service and the Utah DWR. That case is still pending....
Firefighting aircraft won't be ready in '08 Cal Fire officials may lift their ban on night flying this year, but powerful firefighting aircraft promised by the federal government won't be available. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently learned that two California Air National Guard C-130 aircraft won't be ready this year because of lingering equipment issues. U.S. Forest Service officials had promised the planes would be outfitted with the new equipment in July. “This is unacceptable,” Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter sent Thursday to President Bush. Other steps have been taken to strengthen air operations in San Diego County. A new helicopter was ordered, leases are being negotiated for three planes and more firefighters are learning how to battle fires from the sky. Yet without more changes, some aerial assaults won't be as effective as they could be, leaving the region open to the type of firestorms that blew through the county in October 2003 and October 2007, politicians and fire officials said. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said he has been told that Cal Fire plans to allow nighttime aerial firefighting “in the very near future.”....
$1.4 million embezzled, Feds say A former accountant for the U.S. Forest Service was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $1.4 million from the agency, prosecutors said Friday. Agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General arrested Kathy Stamps, 36, of Rancho Cucamonga, on three charges of mail fraud. A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday that alleges Stamps used her job as an accountant at the Angeles National Forest offices in Arcadia to steal $1,421,390, which was later deposited into her personal bank accounts. When Stamps left her job in September 2004, her colleagues noticed that she had redirected the same amount from Forest Service accounts to the DKLD Corporation, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Investigators later discovered that Stamps and her husband owned DKLD....
Treehuggers against trees With wildfires burning, it is useful to turn to the wisdom of the ancients. When the pioneers first entered the great forests of America, they found that the Native Americans had managed the forests for centuries. Their woodlands contained very few big trees—maybe fifty such trees per acre. Apparently the Indians had set regular, low intensity fires which burned away accumulations of undergrowth, deadwood, dying trees and particularly small trees growing between the big trees. The larger trees were unharmed, because of their thick fire-resistant bark. These fires kept the forest healthy by providing a barrier to disease. The pioneers, however, used much more wood in their civilization than the Native Americans. They needed it for housing, for boats and river ships, for railroad sleepers, for carriages, and for town infrastructure. To them, fire was an enemy. Quick growth of new trees was important. Policies were put in place that suppressed all fire. This culminated in the creation of Smokey Bear in 1945. Three years later, his catchphrase was born: "Remember — only you can prevent forest fires." The price was a degradation of the health of American forests. Private logging firms continued to keep forests healthy where they operated, by clearing out the underbrush and deadwood and harvesting trees to clear spaces between other trees. Where loggers did not operate, undergrowth and deadwood began to accumulate....
Federal Court Denies County's Right to Build Roads Through National Monument U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell has ruled against claims by Kane County, Utah for county ownership of 39 roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This monumental decision is critical for the protection of federal public lands from excessive use by off-road vehicle recreationists, cattle operators, and miners. The decision set the stage for the protection of environmentally sensitive lands, imperiled species, and vulnerable archaeological resources. “The Center for Biological Diversity applauds this ruling and the positive precedent it establishes,” said Rob Mrowka, conservation advocate for the Center. “It sets the stage to end abuses of our heritage lands and provides the federal land-management agencies with a firm basis for formulating wise stewardship decisions.” Kane County had based its claims for ownership of the roads on an archaic provision of the Mining Act of 1866, know as Revised Statute 2477, which provided for “…the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses....” In 1976 Congress repealed the old law, while providing for the continued use of legitimate highways. Unfortunately, dozens of western counties with a “sagebrush rebellion” state of mind abused the door left open by Congress, bulldozing countless trails and foot paths and then claiming them as legitimate RS 2477 roads. Significant damage to public natural resources occurred as a result. Judge Campbell’s decision found that Kane County’s assertion for jurisdiction over the contested roads violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; she ordered the county to remove its signs from the roads within 20 days. “By placing signs within the monument, the county has encouraged, sanctioned and facilitated public motor vehicle use of federal lands that the Bureau of Land Management officially closed to protect the Monument’s values,” Campbell wrote in her decision.
Oil shale debate becomes a 'chicken-or-the-egg' question The question of "which comes first?" was dominant as oil shale development proponents told a US Senate committee May 15 that regulations need to be developed, and opponents said impacts need to be quantified. "It seems to me that there should be a way forward that does not involve premature commercial leasing, that protects the interests of the American people and gives them a fair return on their resources, and that addresses concerns of local citizens but still provides industry with the certainty it needs," Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said in his opening statement. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), the committee's ranking minority member, noted that the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPACT) contained a provision to facilitate oil shale development. "Unfortunately, last year, without the benefit of full debate and conference as we had in the 2005 energy bill, Congress placed a 1-year moratorium on preparing and publishing the final regulations for a commercial leasing program," he said. Committee member Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) said he sought the delay because important provisions dealing with oil shale development, which were part of the 2005 energy bill that the Senate initially approved, were stripped out when the measure went to conference with the House. "I believe it was someone named Pombo," he said, referring to then-House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.)....
Clean-Air Rules Protecting Parks Set to Be Eased The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan. The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks. Nearly a year ago, with little fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed changing the way the government measures air pollution near Class 1 areas on the grounds that the nation needed a more uniform way of regulating emissions near protected areas. The agency closed the comment period in April and has indicated it is not making significant changes to the draft rule, despite objections by EPA staff members....
Spotted owl plan released In its final northern spotted owl recovery plan released Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the $489 million effort could recover the threatened bird's population in 30 years. The plan cites habitat loss because of logging and catastrophic wildfires along with competition from the barred owl as the primary threats. It identifies 34 actions to counter the threats, including establishing nearly 6.5 million acres of owl conservation areas. "This plan aggressively addresses each of the key threats with sound and, in some cases, pioneering recommendations," Ren Lohoefener, head of the service's Pacific region, said in a prepared statement. "There are always uncertainties involved with such a wide-ranging species facing complex threats," he added. "Given the species' continued decline, in some areas at a faster rate than was predicted, we need to ensure we are truly on a path to recovery as we implement the plan." Talent resident Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist who was a member of the Spotted Owl Recovery Team and a vocal critic of the agency's earlier draft plan, isn't impressed with the final outcome. "They definitely made changes from the draft but the final plan still doesn't protect the old-growth forests the owl, salmon and hundreds of other species rely on," said DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland....
Bush administration defends food-based biofuels The Bush administration is defending its decision to push food-based biofuels as food costs rise at home and abroad, saying the renewable fuels are only a small part of the problem. Some have blamed the food crisis in part on policies backed by the White House and Congress that divert corn, soybeans and other crops to fuel. The governor of Texas and a quarter of the Senate, including the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, asked the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month to cut this year's requirement for 9 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol in half to ease food costs. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Monday that the increased use of biofuels may have some small, short-term costs, but those do not outweigh the ultimate benefits of reducing the country's dependence on oil. "It's clear that while bioenergy generation does have some effect on prices, it's not a major effect, it's not even a big effect," Schafer said....
Author Zane Grey's cabin to remain open to all One of the most popular sites on the Rogue River is a rude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. The cabin was once owned by Zane Grey, best known for his Western novels including "Riders of the Purple Sage." But now the 32 acres and the buildings on it belong to everyone. This month, the cabin was bought by the Trust for Public Lands and sold to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is nominating it for the National Register of Historic places. The purchase means that the site will remain open to visitors. "I think it's fantastic that they are preserving it," Eric Grey, the late author's great-grandson, told The Associated Press from his home in New Jersey. Nelson Mathews, Northwest program director for The Trust for Public Land, said the property was assessed at $840,000. The actual sale price was not disclosed. It includes the original cabin, two modern cabins, a compound of outbuildings, one of the original boats Zane Grey used to descend the Rogue, a grass air strip, and a garden....
‘Water witch’ finds more work during drought Brenda Beeson sideline work has been busier than usual lately, but for a reason that she can’t be happy about. Beeson, who ranches with her husband Jock in the Crawford area, said last week that she has seen increased need for her services as a ‘water witch’ because shallow wells have dried up and stock watering dams are empty due to the area’s prolonged drought. “I’ve stayed kind of busy because of the drought,” said Beeson. “More so than I’d like to...People are having to drill wells in their pastures because of the drought. Dams are going dry.” ‘Dowsing’ is the more formal term for what Beeson calls ‘witching;’ the process of using a forked branch of chokecherry or willow (some practicioners use other woods, or metal rods) to locate underground water veins which can be tapped by wells. A traditional practice with a long history, witching for water is viewed with skepticism by many people. Beeson said she was skeptical herself, until she “kind of figured out I could do it,” after watching a neighbor of her father’s who had the skill. The neighbor, Ed Ostemeier, was witching a well for her father when she “happened to pick up the stick,” and was able to feel the force that indicates the presence of water. “He said “Let’s try it and see,’” she said. “I was pretty skeptical, but that makes you a believer when it happens.”....
Paradox: Stories of the Wild West Stories of the Wild West are plentiful in the history of the Paradox Valley, which is situated in the extreme west end of Montrose County. The valley was named in the 1870s by A.C. Peale, who worked with the Hayden Survey. The Dolores River runs across the valley, rather than parallel like most rivers do, creating what Peale felt was a true paradox. Few settled in the eastern two-thirds of the valley because it is desert, but the western one-third is fed by numerous springs from Paradox Creek, which flows into the valley from Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Although the valley was part of the Ute Indian Reservation, white squatters were there as early as the 1870s. Due to its rugged terrain, being so remote and close to the Utah border, it became a haven for outlaws in addition to ranchers who were struggling to make a living. The lack of plentiful water and good land prompted violence that continued for several decades, causing some to call it the “Slaughterhouse of the West.” Thomas Goshorn and Riley Watson were the first known settlers to arrive in the valley in the fall of 1877, coming from the Blue Mountains of Utah. Goshorn left after two years, but Watson and his family remained. Watson’s wife was appointed the first postmistress of the little settlement of Paradox in 1879. Mail arrived by pack mules from Ouray until the settlement of Montrose in 1881....

Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests. In one of his most out-spoken interventions in the climate change debate, he said a £15 billion annual programme was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences. "We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall," he said. "We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them." The Prince said the rainforests, which provide the "air conditioning system for the entire planet", releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. He said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a "gigantic partnership" of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down. "What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead," he said....
Hurricane study puts less blame on global warming Cyclone Nargis recently made international headlines for dealing death and destruction to Myanmar. Yet unlike the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, global warming received little blame for the intensification of Nargis. That's possibly because, in the nearly three years since New Orleans flooded, the science of hurricanes and climate has matured. A new scientific paper authored by prominent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, published this weekend, reinforces the changing landscape. The paper, which simulated Atlantic hurricane activity during warming 21st century conditions, found 27 percent fewer tropical storms, and 18 percent fewer hurricanes. The strongest hurricanes, researchers found, had slightly higher wind speeds than before. "This does not support the idea that we've already seen a large positive trend in hurricane activity emerging from greenhouse gases," said lead author Tom Knutson, a Princeton, N.J.-based research meteorologist for NOAA. "In fact, it points in the other direction."....
A Cooling World Global warming has ceased. In 2005, it was .45 degrees centigrade above the 1961-1990 global average temperature. In 2006, it dropped to .42 centigrade, and in 2007, to .41 centigrade. That's one of many facts to be gleaned from an intelligent and calm book, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, by Lord Nigel Lawson, a British politician and former journalist. It is not a book to be read on a warm afternoon after a heavy lunch. It will put you to sleep. That is to say it is not written in the style of melodramatic yellow journalism or TV sensationalism. It is written with an emphasis on facts and on logic. Richard S. Lindzen, Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says of the book: "This brief and elegant book treats the science of global warming seriously, but convincingly shows that whatever view one has of the science, almost all proposed approaches to the putative problem are intellectually deficient, economically absurd and harmful, and morally misdirected at best. Lawson's An Appeal to Reason is an appeal that must be heeded if one is to truly avoid great harm to man and the planet." Lawson sums up his book with this warning: "So the new religion of global warming, however appealing it may be to the politicians, is not as harmless as it may appear at first sight. Indeed the more one examines it the more it resembles a 'Da Vinci Code' of environmentalism. It is a great story and phenomenal best-seller. It contains a grain of truth – and a mountain of nonsense. And that nonsense could be very damaging indeed....
Boy attacked by large animal on Sandias A 5-year-old boy hiking with his family near Sandia Peak has survived an attack from an unidentified species of large animal, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said Sunday. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the family was hiking near the popular Balsam Glade area on the east side of the Sandia Mountains on Saturday evening when the boy ran ahead of his parents. A sheriff's department report identified the boy as Jose Salazar Jr. of Albuqureque. The boy's parents saw the animal emerge from the brush and start dragging away their child, White said. The father then chased the animal, which let go of his son. White said the animal was a mountain lion, but Ross Morgan, a spokesman for Game and Fish, said dogs trained to track mountain lions picked up no scent in the area Saturday night or Sunday. "The dad described it as a short, stocky, dark brown animal," Morgan said. Neither White nor Morgan released the victim's name. The boy suffered puncture wounds to his head, neck and back. He was in serious condition at University of New Mexico Hospital on Saturday, White said....
'Everything you do has trade-offs' The Green Mountain Common Allotment is one of the largest unfenced ranges in the nation, and the Bureau of Land Management has been struggling for more than a decade to come up with a plan to manage the half-million-acre spread. The most recent plan, completed in 1999, almost immediately proved to be ineffective -- once the drought began in 2000 and never let up, according to Bruce Collins, regional spokesman for the BLM. In 2002, the agency conducted an assessment of the health of the rangeland on the allotment and found that several federal standards were not being met, particularly requirements for riparian areas -- the lush, green ribbons of vegetation that run alongside streams and waterways. Many of these riparian areas are ailing, and have been for years, BLM officials say. In an attempt to rejuvenate them, the agency is proposing to divide the allotment up into six smaller ones, and install nearly 100 miles, and about $1 million worth, of barbed-wire and electrical fences. In 2005, the BLM renewed two grazing permits, even though the health of the rangeland was failing. A coalition of four conservation groups -- the Western Watersheds Project, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, the National Wildlife Federation and the Wyoming Outdoor Council -- sued the agency. They argued that because the land was not meeting federal standards for health, the BLM couldn't renew permits without first completing a federally required environmental study. As part of a settlement, the BLM agreed to complete a new environmental analysis by the end of 2007, and issue a wholly new management plan by 2008, in order to ensure the land would meet rangeland health standards in the future....
Divide the range? Not far southeast of here is a vestige of the old American West -- one of the largest unfenced ranges in the United States. It's a place where 16 stockgrowers, mostly cattle ranchers, graze their animals -- and where thousands of local and nonlocal hunters, fishermen, hikers, backcountry horse riders and wildlife enthusiasts explore annually, but rarely run into one another, except by design. It's also a place where tens of thousands of people visit every year, from all over the world, to experience a few of the last remaining unspoiled sections of the Oregon, Mormon and California trails. But the health of the Green Mountain Common Allotment's rangeland is failing, and has been for years, officials say. The Green Mountain Common Allotment is over 522,000 acres of open range, 60 miles by 20 miles. If every man, woman and child in Wyoming gathered there, each would have more than an acre of his own to stand upon. Sections of the allotment have taken a beating from seven-plus years of drought, and more than a century of often harmful livestock grazing. Even though the BLM developed and finalized a management plan less than a decade ago, it has been forced to scrap it, and start over. But Jon Marvel, a representative of the Western Watersheds Project, said to break the allotment up into six sections would be a huge blow to Western and American heritage, as well as an enormous cost to taxpayers -- and it all would be done for the sole benefit of a few cattle ranchers. Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson, however, said the proposed action could actually restrict cattle ranchers on the allotment too much, and make it difficult for them to make a living there....
'There Goes the Neighborhood' -- again The prairie dog rises above its burrow on the high plains of southern Wyoming and takes a casual look around. Seconds later, the animal disappears in an explosion of blood and dirt. The self-described "shortgrass sniper" dressed in camouflage and orange chuckles for the camera and gets ready to fire again. With thousands of hits on YouTube, this popular prairie dog video by Colorado hunter Jim Bowman advises hunters to get ready for the upcoming prairie dog killing contest in southern Wyoming's Carbon County. The controversial, fifth annual, three-day "There Goes the Neighborhood" prairie dog killing contest is scheduled to begin May 31 on private lands around Medicine Bow, organizer Bowman said. Bowman, a machinist who lives in Kersey, Colo., said the event drew 38 participants last year, mostly from Colorado and Wyoming. He said this year's event will include the first-ever "world championship, long-range prairie dog sniper event" scheduled for June 1. "I think we're going to have a really good hunt this year," Bowman said in a phone interview. "And if we get some controversy out there, we're ready to handle that, too. We'll see what happens." Bowman said he formed an organization after last year's hunt, Prairie Dog Posse, to promote the event and to provide a "voice" for prairie dog shooters....
Mont. ranchers question water quality Tongue River rancher Mark Fix got his barley planted early this year and hooked up his circle pivot for irrigation. The barley needs moisture to get started, he said. But Fix was reluctant to irrigate with Tongue River water. "The way the water quality was, I was a little afraid to put it on," he said. Fix, who is past chairman of the Northern Plains Resource Council and chairman of its coal-bed methane task force, said there were significant increases in measures of salts in the river during March and April as recorded by a monitor in the Tongue at the Wyoming border near Decker. Fix believes that the water was exceeding Montana's federally approved nondegradation rules for indicators of salinity. And he suspects that discharges to tributaries of the Tongue in Wyoming could be the cause....
Farm Bill Seeds On-the-ground Conservation Benefits for Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat A four billion dollar increase in funding for programs that maintain and advance conservation of vital fish and wildlife habitat passed today as part of the 2007 Farm Bill Conference Report by an 81-15 vote in the Senate and a 318-106 vote in the House yesterday. Pay-as-you-go rules, a declining Congressional baseline budget and a promised Presidential veto have threatened the report’s passage before both chambers came to an agreement this week. The votes are sufficient to override a veto. Provisions in the bill renew the Wetland Reserve Program, an easement process for landowners to retire and restore drained wetlands; the Grassland Reserve Program to protect native grasslands; and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program to address priority fish and wildlife concerns within states such as early successional dependent species like the woodcock in Northeast states or critical salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest.The bill significantly ramps up the funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The EQIP provision has specific language mentioning wildlife, while both programs contain language directing the Secretary of Agriculture to consider national, regional and state conservation priorities. The 2007 Farm Bill also introduces the new “Open Fields” Programs. Open Fields expands upon USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program to assist states with voluntary programs providing public access to private lands for fishing, hunting and other wildlife-related recreation. The Farm Bill further provides new federal tax deductions for landowners who make efforts to protect endangered species, as well as extending federal tax deductions to individuals who donate easements on their land for conservation purposes....
Discovery Of Disease ‘Wakeup Call’ For National Animal Identification System The discovery of malignant catarrhal fever in cattle shouldn’t be a reason for panic but is a “wakeup call” for better animal identification, according to LSU AgCenter veterinarian Dr. Christine Navarre. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, recently reported that three cases of the wildebeest strain of the disease were confirmed in cattle originating from Texas. “The cattle in Texas were exposed to captive wildebeests at the same ranch,” Navarre said, explaining that’s how they are believed to have contracted the disease – from the wildebeest carriers. “Then the 134 animals subsequently were sold and later traced to ranches in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi,” she added. “One heifer exposed to the wildebeests that was shipped to Louisiana has since died of the disease.” Navarre said the cases of malignant catarrhal fever are much less significant than other diseases, but she said they do serve as warnings about what needs to be done. “Although the outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever in this country has only minor repercussions for the cattle industry in the United States, it should serve as a wakeup call for the need for a national animal identification system,” she said. “Had this been a very contagious disease, like foot-and-mouth disease, it would have spread across the United States. “Without a fast, efficient animal tracking system, there would be no way to stop it,” she added....And how much federal money is LSU getting?
Cattle Brands: Rocking Chair The Rocking Chair Ranche Company, Limited, as it was designated by its British owners, encompassed northeastern Collingsworth County and extended into Wheeler County. The brand that gave it its name, however, was probably first used by Noah Ellis in South Texas during the early 1860s. It came to Collingsworth County in the fall of 1879, when John and Wiley Dickerson drove 2,000 cattle from the Llano River country to Dogwood Springs, on the South Fork of Elm Creek. By 1880 the Dickersons had established their headquarters at a site located south of a range of mesas subsequently named the Rocking Chair Mountains. In 1881 A. Conkle of Kansas City and John T. Lytleqv of Medina County acquired the brand; they registered it at Mobeetie on September 30. By November 1882 Conkle and Lytle had a herd of 14,745 head. The Rocking Chair Ranch was, however, without a legal home until February 17, 1883, when the partners bought 235 sections of former Houston and Great Northern Railroad land from the New York and Texas Land Company.qv On April 3 Conkle and Lytle sold their land, brand, cattle, and horses for $365,000 to Early W. Spencer and J. John Drew, who were seeking a suitable American cattle scheme for British investors....
An encounter with Butch Cassidy and his gang I once had a little brush with the famous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, and while I have no desire whatever to relive that scene again, I would change a thing or two about it if I could do so in safety and comfort. In the fall of 1877, I was in Castle Valley, Utah, in charge of my father's cattle interests. [He would have turned 17 the preceding June.] We had moved our stock there two years before from the more central valleys of the state which were now fast filling up with our fellow converts to the Mormon faith. Our family, however, remained at the home farm in Salt Lake Valley, 250 miles away. My sole hired help in the handling of our 2,000-odd cattle was a youth of about my own age named Tom Simpers. Alone we branded about 700 calves every spring, and moved the herd twice a year between the high summer range on the eastern slopes of the Wasatch mountains and the winter range in the depths of the desert bordering the Colorado River. It was a wild country into which few legitimate livestock outfits had yet penetrated, its stupendous gorges and colorful sandstone badlands being known only as the hiding place of outlaws -- the famed "Robbers Roost" of eastern Utah. I well remember Father's advice when handing over the weapons we thereafter carried constantly: "In case of trouble, be sure you shoot first." What an example of pioneer faith, this telling of 15-year-old boys to shoot first in contest with veteran badmen. Tom and I had just returned to our summer camp from Panguitch where we had gone for a horse, only to find that the animal had recently been stolen, along with a string of fine horses, by Butch Cassidy and his gang. We were now, on this particular frosty November morning, leaving camp again on a hurried two-weeks' trip to push what few straggling cows might still be hanging in the high country, down toward the winter range. As we rode along, we saw something that brought us to instant caution -- eyes open, mouths shut. There ahead of us were fresh tracks in the trail. Two horses, one smooth-shod in front, the other making a slim, dainty track, shod all around with "corked" shoes, had very recently crossed the trail into the timber and rocks above the trail....
It's All Trew: Canadian River was watery trap Almost every early day description, narrative and historical note written about the Canadian River uses the words "dangerous," "treacherous," "quicksand" and "death." Whether man, beast or wagon was involved, the river often took its toll. Old Tascosa was established because of the easy river crossing marked by centuries-old buffalo trails. Another well-known crossing was at Indian Creek, where gravel washed down from the creek during floods provided a firm bottom across the river. At various times and at certain locations along the river, men made a living guiding both wagons and early automobiles across the channel. In some areas, lead steers and river horses could be rented to help guide trail herds across the flooded waterway. Noted Panhandle historian Cleo Tom Terry wrote of Canadian River casualties. Iva Stovall, the Matador Ranch wagon boss, rode off into the river at flood stage and neither he nor his horse were ever seen again. Jay Taylor, a well-known Panhandle cattleman, once had an employee ride into the river and dropped from sight instantly. Mr. Taylor flew his airplane up and down the river for days afterward but never found any sign of the cowboy and mount. A pet phrase used by cowboys in describing the river was, "That old river will bog a saddle blanket at times." All riverside ranches kept a few river horses experienced in crossing quicksand....

First, they cried
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy

Julie Carter

When they shared with me that they had cried, I told them, "I cried, too."

Most were moms but some were dads. Some were parents of kids ready to wear a cap and gown this week or next. Many were still stinging from that memory last year, the year before or even many years ago.

The many responses to my column a couple of weeks ago about "Another generation at the door," discussing the weeks, days and hours leading to graduation, led me to understand how truly anticipated, yet dreaded the month of May is every year. And every year, I come to understand that even more.

First, it was my personal experiences that fed my emotions. Then it became what friends and family experienced. And now, it's vicarious annual pain through the lives of dozens.

Annually, I've been caught up in it because my job has me up close and personal to a number of teens ready to set the world on fire just as soon as they could get their moms to untie the apron strings. That's a trite old saying. Who has apron strings these days?

Then, those young darlings would move away and act as if they were charging to college classes with great anticipation while, in fact, they were challenging a world they had only heard about and often it didn't include a textbook.

Oh, come on, no matter what digit prefaces a numeral on your age, you know. You remember how dumb your parents were, how irritating your mother was when she made you wear clean underwear, iron your shirt and polish your shoes. Your age is irrelevant, although it might be a clue if the iron was plugged in or set on a wood stove to heat.

You remember wondering how your parents managed to get to that age and still be so clueless, so archaic and so totally not tuned-in to how things really are. They didn't understand you and you sure didn't understand them. However, come hell or high water, you weren't ever, ever going to be like them.

You recall how absolutely stupid the whole system was that held you captive for 12 years and now that you had escaped, you'd show them just how good you were at life without them regulating it.

Recently, for a number of causes, I've been sorting through acres of photos of all kinds. Concurrently, the fair book is about to go to press and there are hundreds of my photos there that will soon represent history for happy memories - last year. Each photo brings a flash of recall to a moment in time that won't happen again.

While the tendency is to look back on who and what was, the goal should be to look to the future and give those up-and-coming kids the same dedication that, at this time of year, feels slightly depleted.

Assuredly, there are some rising stars out there that will start high school next fall. They are waiting to be discovered, to be encouraged and to be recognized.

Undoubtedly a few mighty sophomores and juniors will start to shine and, Lord help us, another set of seniors who just can't wait to get out of here and away from all the stupid people. They all need us. So again, I will plug in the camera, charge up the flash batteries and buy a new set of note tablets.

OK kids, make me proud. I'm ready. It's a long time until next May.

Visit Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com

FLE

Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously. The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it. A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006. By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies. They have caused a stir because consumers do not have a right to know that their information is being disclosed and the letters are issued without court oversight....
DHS Wants to Spy on Americans, Dems Charge The Department of Homeland Security wants to set up a new program to illegally spy on Americans, two senior Democratic lawmakers charged Thursday in a letter urging colleagues to deny funds for the program. In a letter to three colleagues obtained by ABC News, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, Miss., and Rep. Jane Harman, Calif., voiced objections to a new office DHS wants to create that would share the detailed surveillance capabilities of military intelligence satellites and other monitoring technology with state and local law enforcement. The size of the National Applications Office, as DHS has named it, and its proposed budget, remain classified. The department has said the office would not traffic in eavesdropped conversations. It would primarily be used to share data from military assets for disaster response, monitoring climate change and other purposes, according to DHS. Noting that the Pentagon is already cleared and capable of sharing satellite imagery on a legal and limited basis to aid authorities protecting major events or responding to natural disasters, Thompson and Harman said the purpose of expanding the program and placing it in a classified office could only be to surveil U.S. residents illegally. "We are left to conclude that the only reason to stand up a new office would be to gather domestic intelligence outside the rigorous protections of the law -- and, ultimately, to share this intelligence with local law enforcement outside of constitutional parameters," Thompson and Harman wrote. The two urged their colleagues to bar funding for the program, which they said would likely violate long-standing laws prohibiting military involvement in peacetime law enforcement....
Gag on 2nd Amendment Is City's Aim in Guns Suit Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity. "Apparently Mayor Bloomberg has a problem with both the First and the Second amendments," Lawrence Keane, the general counsel of a firearms industry association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said. The trial, set to begin May 27, involves a Georgia gun shop, Adventure Outdoors, which the city alleges is responsible for a disproportionate number of the firearms recovered from criminals in New York City. The gun store's owner, Jay Wallace, says his store abides by Georgia and federal regulations and takes steps to avoid selling firearms to gun traffickers. Mr. Wallace's store is one of 27 out-of-state gun shops sued by New York City, and the first to go to trial....
Who's the real criminal - Gun owner or BATFE? David Olofson, a Wisconsin gun owner, was convicted for transferring a machine gun. In actuality, Mr. Olofson owns a perfectly legal, AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He loaned it to a friend to use at a local shooting range. The gun had fired over 800 rounds of ammunition before misfiring. Upon misfire, it fired two shots in a row and jammed on the third. This is commonly known as a "hammer follow." The misfire happened twice. Another party at the range heard the multiple round burst and notified police. The S.W.A.T. team, local police, Sheriff's Department, and BATFE subsequently conducted a no-knock raid of Mr. Olofson's house. The S.W.A.T. team kicked down Mr. Olofson's front door, entered wearing full body armor, then seized all of his guns, gun manuals, and his computer. Mr. Olofson, family man and Army veteran, was arrested. The BATFE conducted a field test on the alleged machine gun, but was unable to recreate the multiple round burst. Not liking the negative results of the test, the field agent ordered the gun retested using a cheaper form of ammunition which is easier to cause multiple firings if you have a malfunction. Upon retesting, the gun did malfunction which was enough to get Mr. Olofson convicted of transferring a machine gun. Mr. Olofson is now facing somewhere between 18 months and just over six years in prison along with a possible fine of $250,000....Also see How You Can Become A “Gun Felon”
Real ID Defeated In Minnesota The House and Senate have approved a bill that would bar state driver's license authorities from implementing the federal Real ID regulations. Governor Pawlenty vetoed an earlier attempt to require that conditions be met before the state could change licenses to meet federal rules. But both chambers passed the bill by veto-proof margins: 50-16 in the Senate and 103-30 in the House. The Real ID mandate would require every citizen to carry a U.S. government-approved card to board a plane or enter a federal facility. Critics say it will be costly to implement and that too much of people's personal information will be added to a national database. Supporters argue that a more secure identification card will help in homeland security and immigration control efforts.
Homeland Security to train police to counter roadside bombs The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is holding a workshop in Fayetteville to teach local law enforcement agencies how to handle roadside bombs. The department's Office of Bombing Prevention will host Tuesday's workshop. Police, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement agents will learn how to identify the bombs and how to protect against them. Roadside bombs are the leading killer of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although no roadside bomb attacks have been reported in the U.S., experts say they could be a future threat. The workshop is part of the IED 2008 Symposium and Expo, an annual meeting held near Fort Bragg to discuss ways to counter the bombs.
Violence in Mexico spills across US border Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates in the Mexican drug wars and spills across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press. In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. "They're basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases," Ahern told AP. Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn't name — are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum. In the most recent high-level assassination, a top-ranking official on a local Mexican police force was shot more than 50 times and killed. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico. "It's almost like a military fight," Ahern said Tuesday. "I don't think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border." As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Ahern said — from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports. U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as people try to illegally cross into the U.S....
Border agent indicted An El Paso U.S. Border Patrol agent was indicted on charges that he laundered money and conspired with two people from Mexico to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States, officials announced Wednesday. The agent, Jesus M. Huizar, 28, was arrested Tuesday, along with Chihuahua residents Emeterio Sigala-Favela, 37, and Luis Carlos Chacon-Rubio, 32, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio. The federal indictment alleges the three suspects had conspired since January 2005 to smuggle more than 100 undocumented immigrants into the United States from Mexico. The indictment further seeks the forfeiture of a safe house Huizar reportedly owns in the 9000 block of Geranium in the Lower Valley, and a monetary judgment of $500,000, allegedly the proceeds from criminal activity....
Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed 'National Security Letter' to Internet Archive A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking FBI head Robert Mueller to explain why the feds sought records from the Internet Archive, a digital library, using a controversial administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which is intended for a communications service providers. The Internet Archive, a digital library of the web and media, beat the November 26 NSL with the help of attorneys at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. In April, the FBI agreed to withdraw the request for records on a Internet Archive user and lift the gag order that typically attaches to such requests. The six senators sent Mueller a letter Thursday, asking him to explain what happened and to find out if the FBI reported the incident to an oversight board as a possible violation of federal law....
Report: Government's Cyber Security Plan Is Riddled With New Spying Programs Major elements of the Bush administration's proposed $17 billion "cyber security" initiative have little to do with protecting government networks, and a lot to do with spying, according to a budget report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. The so-called National Cyber Security Initiative is also wrapped in unnecessary secrecy, and would spend billions on unproven, embryonic technology, and possibly illegal or ill-advised projects, according to the analysis -- which is part of a broad look at the proposed 2009 defense budget. While many of the specifics of the plan are classified, U.S. intelligence chief Michael McConnell told the New Yorker in January that he wants the National Security Agency to begin eavesdropping on the internet, and a McConnell aide said the spy agency was prepared to examine the content of e-mails, file transfers and Google searches without a warrant. The move includes putting the NSA in charge of monitoring and protecting civilian sites such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration. But according to the Armed Services Committee's analysis, there's a lot of spying being proposed under the guise of e-security. That confirms THREAT LEVEL's suspicions that the highly classified proposal could have far-ranging implications for the internet generally, especially as the government contemplates becoming the firewall for all Americans on the net....
End FBI-ATF Rift, Senators Urge Battles between the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives threaten national security and are reminiscent of the poor information-sharing that failed to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two U.S. senators said in a letter urging Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to fix the problems. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the lead Republican on the committee, said they are "greatly disturbed" by FBI and ATF squabbling that has continued since the agencies were merged under the Justice Department five years ago to coordinate the fight against terrorism. The agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents. According to law enforcement sources and documents, the FBI and ATF have been battling for control of explosives, arson and tobacco investigations, a dispute that has contributed to a delay in a White House-ordered strategy to protect the nation from terrorist bombs. The problems have extended to some crime scenes, where agents have threatened to arrest one another and fought over jurisdiction and key evidence....
Homeland Security toy for children Product Description: Scan It Operation Checkpoint Airport Security Scanner Education Resource For Children. Scan It® is an educational and creative play toy that helps children become acclimated with airport and public spaces security. The device is both a fun toy and an educational tool. It detects metal objects and simulates an X-ray scan via a functioning conveyor belt that glides articles over its metal detector path. When metallic items are present the unit beeps and lights up. This unique toy/teaching aid provides ample amounts of healthy fun along with education and awareness of the security measures that people face in real life. A fun and educational booklet is also available upon request along with other online resources. Additional projects and education on airport and public spaces security is also available now.

Not-So-Safe-Deposit Boxes: States Seize Citizens' Property to Balance Their Budgets The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets. Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies. Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners. San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown." "I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated." Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her. "They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed," Ruff said. To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded. And that's not all. Her great-grandmother's precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500. "These things were things that she gave to me," Ruff said. "I valued them because I loved her." California law used to say property was unclaimed if the rightful owner had had no contact with the business for 15 years. But during various state budget crises, the waiting period was reduced to seven years, and then five, and then three. Legislators even tried for one year. Why? Because the state wanted to use that free money. California is not the only state to come under fire for its handling of unclaimed property. In Delaware, unclaimed property is the third largest source of state revenue. Idaho recently passed an unprecedented law that says the state gets to keep unclaimed property permanently if the rightful owners don't claim it within 10 short years. And all 50 states pay private contractors 10 to 12 percent commissions to locate and seize accounts for them. It's an inherent conflict of interest: the more rightful owners are found, the less money the contractors make....

Analysis: Polar bear's impact on people is felt It's not about saving the polar bear as much as the polar bear saving us. The Arctic bear facing extinction because of global warming is bringing home the consequences of cheap energy and — until recently — the need for little sacrifice. It also reminds us that a choice soon may come between accepting higher electricity and transportation costs and reducing the pollution that is raising the earth's temperature. In listing the bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration is taking pains to draw a line between protection of the majestic mammal and the origin of its plight — global warming. "This listing should not open the door ... to regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants and other sources," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, in line with views expressed by President Bush last month. There is a reason for that. Business fears the bear. But will the administration, in its final eight months in power, be able to maintain that firewall. The odds are it will not. Environmentalists already are working on strategies for lawsuits challenging the limits that Kempthorne put on the polar bear listing. That includes assuming no relationship between greenhouse gas emissions from, for example, a Texas power plant, and melting sea ice, and that the bear should have no more protection from oil drilling than it now has. In fact, those restrictions may not survive a new administration....
Cap-And-Trade Folly Legislation pending in the Senate might warm environmentalists' hearts, but not because of potential cuts in carbon emissions. Their interest is in the heavy economic costs the plans would inflict. Each bill uses the cap-and-trade scheme to control carbon dioxide emissions. Each establishes limits, then prescribes how to distribute or sell to the private sector the rights to emit specific amounts of greenhouse gases under the cap. The bill sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is the least egregious. It would force greenhouse gas emissions to be cut to about 3% below last year's level. The others, one from Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, another from Lieberman and Sen. John Warner, Republican of Virginia, are more draconian. The former would cut emissions to 16% below the 2007 output, the latter 44%. None would affect climate change. All, however, would carry heavy economic losses. Naturally, the environmentalists, having pushed the environment down their list of concerns, like that. It's no surprise that the most expensive of the three is the Warner-Lieberman bill. The Environmental Protection Agency reckons it could cost as much as $3 trillion a year in lost GDP. In an economy of roughly $14 trillion, that's a significant loss. But even the Bingaman-Specter legislation, the least costly of the three, would hit the economy for about $1 trillion a year. Much of the pain would be caused by increases in gasoline and electricity prices. The Science Applications International Corporation calculates that Lieberman-Warner by 2030 would boost gasoline prices from 60% to 144% while electricity prices would be up 77% to 129%....
Sea lions likely died from the heat The deaths of six sea lions found in traps on the Columbia River earlier this month were likely caused by the heat, and not by gunshots as officials first suspected, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. Oregon and Washington officials had been trapping the animals as part of a federally approved removal process because they feast on salmon at the Bonneville Dam. Federal and state officials initially said the sea lions had been shot, but they did an about-face after necropsies by state and federal experts found no evidence of bullet wounds. The fisheries service said Wednesday the results of necropsies on all six animals were consistent with death from heat stroke. Studies of tissue samples taken after the May 4 deaths are expected in about 10 days and might reveal more....
Ranch owner surrenders in bison deaths Jeffrey Scott Hawn, the Texas businessman facing multiple criminal counts in the killing of 32 bison in South Park, turned himself in at the Park County Jail earlier this week, the Park County Sheriff's Office said today. While there, said the sheriff's department, Hawn, 44, of Austin, posted the $15,000 bail set by District Judge Stephen Groome. Groome has given Hawn, who has a home and ranch in South Park, permission to travel outside Colorado, but the judge is determining whether Hawn can leave the country. According to an arrest warrant issued last week, the bison apparently were killed over a span of a couple of weeks. A group of hunters claimed that Hawn, in a letter sent to one of them Feb. 25, said they could kill the bison, which belonged to South Park rancher Monte Downare....

Polar Bears: 'Still Alive... Having Fun' The Interior Department ruled Wednesday that the polar bear will be protected as a threatened species. Why special treatment for an animal whose population has more than doubled over the last 50 years? Because it's politically correct. The polar bear has become such a beloved icon that even a pro-development Republican secretary of the Interior can't muster the courage to say no to the forces of environmentalism. The polar bear is more than just a cuddly looking beast that roams the Arctic region. It's a wishbone in the fight between misanthropic activists determined to send the developed world back a few centuries and those who wish to see human development go forward. These beautiful creatures have become pawns in the environmentalists' campaign to block oil and gas exploration and drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and beyond. Though bullied by the court, Kempthorne still had a choice. He just made the wrong — and an unnecessary — one. The polar bear is already under the shield of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and its population is at a historic high. Oh, you thought its numbers were shrinking? Forget the maudlin media wailing about global warming leading to the extinction of the polar bear because man-made global warming will melt its habitat. Its numbers are actually growing. There might be as many as 25,000, and probably no fewer than 22,000, today while 50 years ago, there were somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000....
Unbearable Legislation The decision announced yesterday by the Secretary of the Interior, to list the polar bear as "threatened," removes all doubt that the Endangered Species Act is broken and in need of urgent repair. It is the environmental movement that must take responsibility for breaking it. A sensible discussion of the polar bear requires acknowledging a simple fact: that the polar bear is merely a proxy for something else. The environmental pressure groups like the Center for Biological Diversity that have petitioned for the listing acknowledge that their reason for doing so is concern over global warming. The more warming, they argue, the less sea ice; the less sea ice, the fewer polar bears. So their hope was that the Endangered Species Act will give the federal government power to curtail sources of global warming -- such as your car or air conditioning system. Secretary Dirk Kempthorne attempted to frustrate this desire by erecting regulatory barriers, like a statement from the Director of the US Geological Survey that melting ice in specific areas could not be tied to specific sources of carbon emissions. These barriers have all the legislative strength of tissue paper. It will take but a few moments of a new Administration to blow them away. After that, the first effects of the now-sacrosanct listing will probably be felt not in Alaska, where America's polar bears range, but in any state thinking of adding a coal-fired power plant to its energy infrastructure. The Act will be used by the new government to intervene -- and by activists to litigate -- against new construction in any controversial permitting process. Once that precedent is set, the Act would be used to stop uncontroversial, even popular permit applications....
Polar Bear Decision Gives Environmental Trial Lawyers A "New Legal Sledgehammer" The government's decision to list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act will give environmental trial lawyers "a powerful new legal sledgehammer" against virtually every business and agricultural operation in the Western U.S. and will deliver virtually no benefit to the polar bear species, according to Jim Sims, President and CEO of the Western Business Roundtable. "This decision marks a sad day for the American West and for the polar bear. The only beneficiaries of this decision will be a small handful of environmental trial lawyers who make their living suing those Americans who work the land and keep our nation strong," Sims said. "Those who made this decision did so with the best of intentions and under a highly flawed and failed law," Sims said. "Nonetheless, this will unleash a torrent of lawsuits by a small group of extremists who are opposed to responsible development of any of the America's bountiful resources. Those lawsuits are going to cost Americans jobs, expose millions of farmers and ranchers and small businesses to citizen lawsuits, slow economic growth and force our nation to become even more dependent on foreign sources of energy." "The bulk of the economic damage from this decision will fall upon the American West and on the State of Alaska, which together comprise our nation's energy and natural resource breadbasket," Sims said....
Feds to consider protecting New Mexico's state fish New Mexico's state fish, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, has been designated as a candidate for possible protection under the federal Endangered Species Act as threats continue to mount against the fish and the cold water streams it calls home. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that federal biologists will develop a proposal to list the fish as either threatened or endangered. The process can take up to a year, and the agency is waiting for funding to begin the work. This is not the first time the agency has done such a review for the Rio Grande cutthroat. In 2002, it determined that listing the fish wasn't warranted because the trout was neither endangered nor likely to become endangered throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Since then, the number of secure populations has dropped from 13 to five and many of the other populations are isolated and occur in short stream segments. One concern is that disease, nonnative fish or events such as forest fires, droughts or floods could wipe out those isolated populations. Another concern is how the trout's cold mountain streams will be affected by climate change. Myers pointed to research that shows an increase in the air temperature in the Southwest and increases in the temperature of many streams....
McCain's 'Better Way': 'Eco-Friendly' Campaign Merchandise It’s not quite Birkenstocks and tie-dyed T-shirts, but presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has shown he’s willing to go the extra mile to embrace the global warming movement. The latest sign of that is the recently introduced “eco-friendly” campaign merchandise the McCain campaign has showcased on its Web site. Included are his and hers “Go Green” McCain embroidered polo shirts, T-shirts, hats and visors with or without the recycle logo. Organic cotton onesies for the babies. You can also find “Go Green” McCain tote bags, notebooks and travel mugs (with up to 100 percent recycled material and an “enhanced biodegradability additive”). This is the latest move by McCain to show his willingness to include so-called “green” issues as part of his campaign’s platform. This comes on the heels of a May 12 speech in which he addressed global warming. He also used the opportunity to take a swipe at policy under the Bush administration....
Sheep ranchers back non-lethal wolf management Local predator experts claim a federally driven program that aims to separate wolves and sheep on portions of the Sawtooth National Forest northwest of Ketchum could become a model for other wolf-occupied ranching areas throughout the West. The program, proposed by the Idaho branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services, anticipates working with three local sheep ranchers who graze bands of sheep on federal grazing allotments in the Smoky and Boulder mountains. The program could begin as early as this summer. Rick Williamson, wolf management specialist for Wildlife Services in Idaho, said details still need to be ironed out with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Measures that would be implemented include herding sheep into electrified night pens at dusk, hazing wolves that venture too close to sheep bands and using radio-activated guard boxes, which blare loud sounds to deter wolves from preying on livestock....
Panelists urge residents to stay involved After sitting through environmental meetings held first by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and then the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Sublette County citizens turned away from government completely on Tuesday night to hold a public information meeting of their own. Their goal? To educate themselves on the county’s delicate environmental health and search for solutions that the state and federal governments haven’t offered so far. As a PBS camera perused the high-profile event, 125 people shuffled into the Pinedale High School auditorium to hear the panel discussion sponsored by Citizens Learning about Ozone’s Unhealthy Destruction (CLOUD). The crowd, which included the general public as well as representatives of the BLM and energy industry, was evidence of locals’ lingering fixation with how to best address air and water quality regulations after recent pollution crises....
Salazar aims to slow oil shale leasing U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation that would require several additional measures before any possible commercial oil shale leasing in the West. The Colorado congressman's proposed bill includes provisions that were in a Senate-passed 2005 energy bill, which Salazar said cleared the chamber on a broad bipartisan vote of 85-12. However, many of the Senate-passed provisions were later stripped, and the final bill had several "unrealistic deadlines," according a statement from Salazar's office. "That language has been interpreted to require final leasing regulations and commencement of commercial oil shale leasing in 2008, before the results of important research and development have been completed and without any results of that research being known," according to the statement. Salazar's new legislation would provide another year to analyze a plan to open nearly 2 million acres of federal land to development in western Colorado, eastern Utah and southwest Wyoming. The bill would also allow a year for development of a commercial leasing program after the analysis is finished....
Questions raised about uranium mining Northeast Wyoming residents are raising questions about plans for in-situ leach mining of uranium in light of violations by the state's only such mine. Their questions concern how the mining process will affect soils and aquifers, how reliable producers are when it comes to self-monitoring, and whether state regulators are prepared to properly oversee the pending rush on in-situ uranium mining in the state. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has fielded numerous questions in recent weeks following a recent report documenting a long history of violations at Cameco Corp.'s Smith Ranch-Highland in-situ uranium mine in Converse County. The in-situ mining process involves a series of closely spaced wells that flush uranium material through water aquifers and then to the surface. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received six applications for uranium in-situ operations, including four in Wyoming, and has been notified of interest in 24 more in-situ and conventional uranium operations in Wyoming and elsewhere in the West....
Growing focus on fires leaves other Forest Service programs withering The U.S. Forest Service plans to spend $1.9 billion — nearly half of its annual budget — to prevent and fight wildfires this summer. That continues a trend that critics say is turning the agency into primarily a firefighting operation at the expense of other programs. The $1.9 billion represents 45 percent of the agency budget. In 2000, 20 percent of the budget went to fire programs. Between 2000 and 2008, the agency's budget for other programs declined 35 percent. "It makes it pretty darn difficult for them to maintain campgrounds or hire rangers when they're spending almost 50 percent of their budget on fire suppression," said Tom Fry, wildfire program coordinator for The Wilderness Society in Denver. The federal government has pledged $25 million to Colorado to fight fires this year and another $35 million for fuel reduction and other wildfire-prevention efforts, according to regional forester Rick Cables. Agency officials say that general inflation and the rising cost of fuel for everything from air tankers and helicopters to caterers and support crews are driving much of the increase....Federal environmental reg's have prevented the construction of new refineries and federal refusal to drill off our coasts or at ANWR have driven up the cost of fuel, increasing the costs of fighting fire. Federal energy policy has subsidized ethanol and distorted our grain markets, driving up the cost of food, and thus of fighting fires. Are you getting the picture? We will pay more for fuel, we will pay more for food and we will pay more to federal agencies.
Memorial to men of Roosevelt era to open The CCC has something for you to see. The plan for the James R. Wilkins Sr. Civilian Conservation Corps interpretive center will become more than something in talks or on paper Saturday when an outdoor memorial honoring the men in the program is dedicated at the U.S. Forest Service office at 102 Koontz Road. The center is under the same roof as the government office that houses the Lee Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. The CCC memorial is a statue of a CCC boy and a brick wall with granite pavers containing the names of some members of Camp Roosevelt in Fort Valley. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the corps during the Great Depression to give boys and men ages 17-25 an opportunity to work and preserve America's natural resources. Stephanie Bushong, who works for the Lee District office, said officials are ready to put contracts out for the design of the center. At that point, a price and timeline for the indoor portion of the facility, which will have displays, a small auditorium and more to serve educational purposes, can be determined, she said. The statue that will be dedicated Saturday is an $18,000 replica of a CCC worker, standing 6 feet and weighing 460 pounds....Interpretive centers and statues. Does this look like an agency who's strapped for money? They will always find the money to construct a monument to large government programs.
Forest Service warehouse holds plenty of questions Mention a mysterious government-owned building in a remote corner of southwest Washington, and conspiracy-minded folks may wonder if Bigfoot or D.B. Cooper could be hidden away inside. The truth doesn't appear to be quite so riveting, but the hazy history of a nondescript Forest Service warehouse still raises plenty of questions. The Forest Service deems the warehouse so important, it chose to locate a new $1.75 million headquarters for the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument next door. Siting the two buildings close together tightens security in a post-9/11 world, and it's their understanding that the warehouse is a potential federal emergency operations center. "We're under agreement to evacuate within 48 hours if requested by FEMA," said Ron Freeman, public services staff officer for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Much of the material is stored on pallets to hasten a quick exit. There's just one problem: the Federal Emergency Management Agency knows nothing about the warehouse. "There's no FEMA facility anywhere near there," said Mike Howard, spokesman for the agency's regional headquarters in Bothell. Tom McDowell, the longtime director of North Country EMS and Volcano Rescue Team in Yacolt, was equally perplexed. "I've never heard any such thing like that in my life," he said. "I've never even heard a rumor of that." Yet the decision to locate the monument headquarters near the warehouse came at a substantial cost. In making that decision, the forest officials killed plans to build on a nearby site where they had already spent $1 million on clearing, grading and paving....Yes sir, we need to get these folks some more money. They are really hurtin'.
Study: Lead bullets taint game meat The meat in your freezer from the deer you shot last fall may be contaminated with lead from tiny bullet fragments. A study released Tuesday by the Peregrine Fund and Washington State University shows that people who consume venison from game animals killed with lead bullets may be ingesting the poisonous metal themselves - and that can cause brain damage in children and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in adults. The Boise-based Peregrine Fund, which has been reintroducing California condors back into in California and Arizona, discovered most of the birds had elevated levels of lead in their system, which scientists conclude comes from gut piles and dead game animals shot by hunters. Last year, the group's lobbying spurred the California Legislature to ban the use of lead bullets in areas frequented by the California condor, one of the rarest birds in the world. But the latest study, released Tuesday at a Peregrine Fund conference, ups the stakes even more. X-rays showed processed ground venison from 80 percent of deer sampled in Wyoming contained metal fragments, of which 92 percent were lead. Tiny amounts of lead can cause brain development problems in children. Even amounts previously considered safe in adults are now known to increase rates of death from heart attack and stroke....
Court blocks Bush's plan for logging in Sierra A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's plans Wednesday for logging three tracts in the northern Sierra and said the government has failed to justify a critical element in its plan for the forests: selling trees to lumber companies to pay for removing brush that increases the threat of fire. Preventing fires is important, "but are there no alternative ways of getting money to do the clearing?" asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court said the U.S. Forest Service has not explored the obvious alternatives: finding the money elsewhere in its budget or asking Congress for more. The tracts covered in Wednesday's ruling were included in the Forest Service's management plan for 11 million acres of Sierra forests, which the agency announced in 2004. The plan overhauled regulations that the Clinton administration issued in January 2001 but that were never implemented. Environmental groups said the Bush administration's plan allows five times as much logging as the Clinton rules would have permitted and weakened protections for water and wildlife. The Bush administration's Forest Service said one of its highest priorities was reducing the danger of wildfires that have been ravaging Northwest forests. The agency increased the scope of logging and the size of trees to be cut in the forests, up to a diameter of 30 inches, and said it would use proceeds of the timber sales to pay for removal of brush and small trees that fuel fires....
Ruling says property owners, lessees not properly notified The state attorney general’s office issued a ruling last week determining that the Feb. 22 emergency meeting that designated 600 square miles of Mount Taylor as traditional cultural property for one year was held illegally. A May 8 letter from the attorney general’s office to the Historic Division said that notification before the meeting, held in Albuquerque, was inadequate and in violation of the New Mexico 1978 Open Meeting Act. The ruling renders all action taken in the February meeting invalid; Mount Taylor cannot at this time be considered a state traditional cultural property, even on a temporary basis. The Historic Division must call another meeting, with proper notice; produce a summary of comments made at the February meeting and retake the vote if it wants to designate the mountain an emergency TCP status. The attorney general’s office ruled that notice to property owners and lessees in the designated area was inadequate, although it found that notification to the media followed the letter of the OMA guidelines....
How Schwarzenegger Is Trying to Finagle More Big Dam Construction California Governor Schwarzenegger wants to build two new dams -- Sites and Temperance Flat. They are being sold as necessary to cope with the reduction in Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Klamath Mountains snowpack expected as a result of climate change. New and "enhanced" storage are being marketed by Lester Snow, director of California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) as part of a "portfolio approach" which, in addition to "enhanced" storage, calls for urban water conservation, better groundwater facilities, improved wastewater processing and research into lowering the cost of desalination. The dams are to provide increased capacity in order to catch earlier runoff that -- according to climate change data and predictions -- will no longer be held in mountain snowpack. Schwarzenegger and Snow are counting on the climate change predictions to be fairly accurate. If the actual climate does not follow the predictions, the new and "enhanced" reservoirs might never fill....
Byfields fight Trans-Texas Corridor Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to corral TxDOT into coordinating with them, rather than just listening to and ignoring grievances some cities have with the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Byfields work in Texas is based on a local government code from 2001, which requires state and federal agencies to coordinate “to the greatest extent feasible” with future planning commissions created by two or more governmental entities — usually a city or county. “As individual cities, their opinions aren’t going to be listened to,” Dan Byfield said. They provide extensive literature with step-by-step instruction on how to create planning commissions and how opponents to the Trans-Texas Corridor should approach cities and counties that are sitting on proposed future areas for the highway....
Researchers want to know if lion shot in Chicago is SD animal The mountain lion killed in April on a Chicago street came from somewhere west, scientists say. Soon they hope to know if it came from the Black Hills of South Dakota. The initial study of the lion’s DNA showed a match to the cougar a man encountered in January in Wisconsin. The DNA also matched many characteristics of animals in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana. Scientists now are zeroing in on additional genetic traits to see if it specifically matches those in western South Dakota. John Kanta, regional wildlife manager for state Game, Fish and Parks in Rapid City, said 250 mountain lions live in the Black Hills. He said he hopes to learn within a month if the Chicago lion began its journey from the Hills. A U.S. Forest Service lab in Montana is analyzing a specimen from the animal. The Chicago Tribune reported that the team will compare the DNA to 300 cougar samples in a database of animals from the American West.
Wolverines Return to California, Scaring Bears, Mountain Lions It was Moriarty's motion-triggered camera that captured the image of an animal thought to be a wolverine in February, surprising scientists who thought humans had driven the predator and scavenger from the state. Within two weeks, 19 volunteers arrived to scour 150 square miles (400 square kilometers) of Tahoe National Forest, on the Nevada border. The volunteers didn't glimpse the creature, but did find evidence of its presence. Samples of scat and hair they collected, and additional photos, confirmed the animal was a wolverine. That got wolverines added to the target list of a four-month search for rare species in the Sierra Nevada starting in June, said Eric Loft, chief of the California Fish and Game Department's wildlife division. Scientists think the wolverine might have wandered from Idaho's Sawtooth Range, 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away, and are trying to determine why, said Jeff Copeland, a biologist at the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. That's twice the distance of any known wolverine range, he said. Wolverines, members of the weasel family, are also called ``skunk bears'' for their resemblance to both. They're found in Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and Montana, and in western Canada. The animals are known for their ferocity, said Patrick Kobernus, a biologist at Coast Range Ecology in San Francisco. Wolverines top out at about 40 pounds (18 kilograms), but that doesn't stop them from stealing kills from bears, mountain lions and other bigger animals. A wolverine can drag a dead deer as far as 20 miles, he said....
Harvest Of Shame Congress may think it's doing the "people's work," as they like to say, but the pork-laden, market-distorting farm bill is anything but. In fact, it's an obscene waste of money that will leave us all poorer and hungrier for the effort. GOP members are already trying to lay low. Not so the Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately hailed the bill as a "significant reform" — a statement so wrong it's laughable. The bill hands out a record $300 billion in new spending on agriculture over five years. This might be worth it if all the spending led to lower prices. It won't. As Heritage Foundation economist Brian Riedl has noted, since enactment of the last farm bill in 2002, prices for key crops have surged 281%. And they're still surging. Yet, we continue to support, subsidize and shower this sector with billions in taxpayer dollars. Also Wednesday, the government reported that in contrast with tame inflation overall last month, food prices shot up 5.1% from a year earlier — the largest gain since 1990 (see chart). Reform? In addition to $25 billion a year in subsidies and $5 billion in direct payments to farmers, regardless of crop prices, the bill provides another $1 billion for food stamps, school lunches and other social programs; more protection for sugar growers; tax breaks for thoroughbred race horses; money for fruit and vegetable marketing; more cash support for "organic" foods; and, of course, a billion more for biofuels. But not a shred of "reform."....
Farm bill full of pet causes backed by individual lawmakers A good farm bill wouldn't be complete without a little pork. Individual lawmakers, mostly senators, slipped several dozen "earmarks," or pet causes, into the $290 billion bill that have at best tentative connections to the tilling of the land. There's tax breaks for horse owners, water for Nevada desert lakes, aid for the Pacific Coast salmon fishery industry and a crackdown on puppy trafficking. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leading opponent of earmarks, complained that some had been "airdropped in" at the last minute. "If you dig into them, you might find something untoward. You might not, but the fact is we don't have time to do that." Republicans went after Democratic-backed provisions, such as one backed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that allows the federal government to sell portions of the Green Mountain National Forest to a ski resort in the state. Leahy's office countered that the provision, backed by the state and the Forest Service, would save the Forest Service management costs by selling land that has long been used for skiing. Another controversy was over a provision allowing state and local governments and non-profits to issue $500 million in tax-credit bonds to buy forest land for conservation purposes. The White House, which opposes the bill because of its cost and benefits for wealthy farmers, said that provision would authorize the purchase of 400,000 acres of land in Montana from a single owner, the Plum Creek Timber Co....
What Will Be Required Of Cow Calf Producers Under The COOL Rules This September? The title of this article asks a question that is not yet totally answered. However, the answer is beginning to be clearer and soon may be finalized. As you likely know, in 2002, the US Congress passed a law requiring certain “covered commodities” to be verified and labeled as to their county of origin. The acronym used commonly for this law is COOL, denoting County of Orgin Labeling. Final rules for COOL will be written following final passage of the 2007 Farm Bill which has passed the Senate and House Conference Committee and will likely be sent to the President’s desk soon. If the President signs the Farm Bill, final rules will then be written. As of now, the following definitions and requirements are likely to become rules. Let’s examine some of these as they apply to cow-calf producers in Colorado....
Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants"—crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy." The ants—formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens"—have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002....
Raccoon bite causes school to lock down Officials decided to lock down the Clarke School Tuesday after a raccoon bit a school crossing guard minutes before school was released for the day. According to Detective Sgt. Tim Cassidy, Judith Hapgood was stationed at the Clarke School on Norfolk Avenue just after 2 p.m. when she felt something rub against her leg and was then bitten by a raccoon. School Resource Officer Rose Cheever was contacted and she immediately contacted officials at Clarke School and administrative offices. Cassidy said the school was placed in lockdown until the raccoon was disposed of. He said the animal was located behind a house across from the school and Sgt. Richard McCarriston euthanized the raccoon. Calls to Principal Lois Longin were not immediately returned on Tuesday but Superintendent Matthew Malone said students were inside the school when the incident occurred....