Economy could hurt U.S. forests, United Nations says

A prolonged economic downturn could prompt more private woodland owners in their United States to sell their lots, threatening forests with development, the United Nations said today in its latest "State of the World's Forests" report. From 1994 to 2007, U.S. forest ownership by integrated forest companies -- involved in both production and processing -- declined from about 48 million acres to 10 million acres, the report says. Much of the ownership has been picked up by real estate investment trusts and other institutional investors. The change in ownership could undermine long-term investments in forest management and research, the report said, and accelerate commercial development of private forest lands. A prolonged down economy would further lower the value of wood, the report said, increasing the incentive to convert forests to other uses. But the supply of available forest land for purchase is also shrinking, the report said, providing a potential brake on the trend...The Oregonian

So a "prolonged down economy" lowers the value of a natural resource. I'm sure glad we have UN to teach us such things.

Senate agrees to lift ban on Indian development

The U.S. Senate has voted to lift a decades-old ban on development on about 700,000 acres in Arizona's Black Mesa region that both the Navajo and Hopi tribes claimed as their own. The Senate unanimously approved a bill by Arizona senators John McCain and Jon Kyl on Thursday night to lift a ban on development in the "Bennett Freeze" area. The ban had prevented about 8,000 Navajos who live there from putting in electric lines, repairing leaky roofs and running water lines to their homes unless the improvements were approved by the neighboring Hopi Tribe. Action by the House is still required, but no opposition is expected. The ban was imposed in 1966 by former U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Bennett as a way to settle the land dispute between the tribes. It was lifted in late 2006 after the tribes reached an agreement and a federal judge signed off on it. But tribal members remained fearful that the freeze could be reinstated if the law that authorized it wasn't repealed...Santa Fe New Mexican

Plum Creek sawmill begins shutdown

Plum Creek Timber Co. has begun shutting down the last major sawmill in the Tobacco Valley, a swath of northwestern Montana that was dotted with mills during much of the 20th century. The Seattle-based company said the sawmill at Fortine, about 20 miles from the Montana-British Columbia border, was cutting its final log on Thursday, planing will end later this month and the mill will be disassembled in April, ending 72 jobs and 53 years of operation. Fortine is in Lincoln County, where the January unemployment rate - the latest available - was 15.6 percent, compared to a state rate of 6.7 percent. Plum Creek said earlier this winter that the poor housing market and the related decline in demand for wood products required trimming operations at several plants in Montana...Billings Gazette

Arizona dairies in peril

A global fall in the demand for milk has dropped wholesale prices so low that Arizona dairy farmers have begun slaughtering cows to stay in business. The lower demand, last year's high grain prices, increased production from other countries and last year's scandal in China involving milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine are all causing Arizona dairymen to lose about $100 per cow per month, experts say. Arizona's dairy slump has rippled to other areas of agriculture, such as beef and hay producers. "We have a lot of dairies in the 2,000- to 3,000-cow range. So, they are losing $200,000 to $300,000 a month. The big question is how long will prices stay down like that," said Gary Dyer, president and chief executive officer of Farm Credit Services Southwest, a Tempe agricultural-cooperative lender that does half its business with dairy farms and hay producers. Farmers estimate it costs about $180 each month to feed a dairy cow. They are recouping less than half that amount in dairy-product sales. The combination of high costs and low prices has forced farmers to thin their herds to survive. The damage to the dairy industry, in turn, hurts farmers like Rogers who grow corn, alfalfa hay and cotton seed as cattle feed. Hay is Arizona's largest crop and hay prices have dropped from about $225 a ton a year ago to about $130, Dyer said. The dairy-cow reduction also hurts beef ranchers, who fear their selling prices will drop because of all the extra dairy cows on the market...Arizona Republic

Country of Origin Labeling Goes Into Effect Today

Looking for beef from Brazil? Fruit from France? Veggies from the Virgin Islands? Beginning today, March 16, 2009, the labeling on those and other foods must make it easier for you to find out where what you are putting in your mouth came from. The new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules for County of Origin Labels (COOL) now require a listing of where most meats and some fruits, vegetables, and other foods was raised or grown. The idea is to give consumers more information to decide what they are buying and identify food that is imported from outside the United States. Such labeling has long been sought by consumer rights activists and U.S. ranchers, who compete with cattle producers in Canada and other countries. The more detailed labeling was approved last year, but did not become mandatory until this week. Most fresh meats, including steaks, ground beef, lamb, and pork chops, and fresh chicken products that are sold in retail stores, and some perishable fruits and vegetables must begin using the more detailed labeling. Farm-raised fish and shellfish, perishable agricultural commodities such as fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, macadamia nuts, pecans, ginseng, and unroasted peanuts also are covered by the new labeling regulations...attorneyatlaw

New "mad cow" regulations make disposal difficult for cattle ranchers

The company that collected cattle and horse corpses for disposal now is dead itself, the victim of a new federal regulation on cattle renderers that is designed to prevent mad cow disease. The federal regulation, which takes effect in April, has led to uncertainty in the cattle industry about how to dispose of dead animals. Consequently, the Halfway Packing Co. has shut down, leaving ranchers in one of the nation's largest beef cattle states without any company willing to travel from farm to farm picking up dead livestock. "It's a hardship, and from a potential disease and public health standpoint, it's a critical issue," said Jeff Windett, executive vice president for the Missouri Cattlemen's Association. "If dead animals are not disposed of properly, they could present a health problem and a disease problem." There are typically four options for disposing of dead livestock: burning, composting, burying and rendering. Rendering companies turn animal waste such as eyes, hooves and intestines into a variety of products including biofuels, gelatin, animal feed and various industrial chemicals. The new U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations require renderers and animal feed manufacturers to remove the brain and spinal cord from cows 30 months and older. The rule is intended to prevent central nervous system tissue of dead cattle from getting into animal feed, because it can cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. But the health safeguards carry a cost for rendering companies and farmers because of the additional cost incurred by adding a new step to the process. Until this year, the trucks at Halfway Packing Co. traveled more than 1,000 miles a day picking up carcasses in 20 counties through the heart of Missouri's cattle country. Richard Spinning, the company's owner, charged about $20 per cow; he used the meat to make canned pet food and sold the hides. So unlike renderers that can use waste from the animals, Spinning could only use the well-preserved carcasses that were picked up. He estimated that to stay in business under the federal rule, he would have had to charge more than $100 per animal...Missourian

Cows Really Do Have a Magnetic Sixth Sense

Satellite images of cattle and deer herds suggest that low-frequency magnetic fields disrupt the tendency of four-legged animals to align their bodies with geomagnetic fields. When herds stand next to power lines, which emit a mild electromagnetic field, they point in different directions. In the absence of power lines, they point along a north-south axis. The findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from the same biologists who used Google Earth images to identify a bovine north-south tendency. Some commentators dismissed those results, or said they didn't necessarily indicate a magnetic sixth sense. "These findings constitute evidence for magnetic sensation in large mammals as well as evidence of an overt behavioral reaction to weak [extreme low-frequency magnetic fields] in vertebrates," write the researchers...Wired Science

Inspectors Scan Auctions for Thieves

On a cold January morning, Pat McGuigan stood on a catwalk overlooking hundreds of head of cattle. The cows mooed while bulls snorted -- their noses running from the cold air whipping through the Longview Livestock Commission Co.'s sale barn. On the flank of each head of cattle was a yellow sticker placed there by auction workers as sellers drove up to the barn with the cattle they hoped would fetch a good price during the day's auction. On this morning like most mornings, McGuigan, a market inspector for the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, is taking information, indicating any brands on the cattle and he is looking for anything that does not seem right. "On a busy day here at this particular sale barn we would normally see about 500 to 600 head of cattle come through here on sale day," he said. Armed with a pen, pad and inspection forms, he is looking for cattle that could be stolen. If McGuigan sees something that doesn't fit, he begins asking the person who brought the cow into the auction questions. "We don't accuse anyone of stealing. We give them a chance to explain how they came to have that cow," he said. "But we will get to the bottom of it." McGuigan and other market inspectors like him are one line of defense to help stop cattle rustling, a crime that costs producers across the state millions each year collectively. According to the TSCRA, Special Rangers, the association's team of law enforcement commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and market inspectors like McGuigan, recovered 44,892 head of stolen cattle from 1997 to 2007. The data also indicates the association has recovered 1,066 horses, 999 saddles and 253 trailers. The total value of livestock and property recovered during the 10-year period exceeds $48 million...Tyler Morning Telegraph

Circuit-riding preacher uses horse to carry the gospel

Pelted by a cold, steady rain, Ken Downey and his quarter horse Pilgrim seemed unbothered, if a bit out of place. His Bible tucked safely in his saddlebag, Downey and his companion trotted across the Freedom Memorial Bridge, followed only by an old bus with a trailer on the back and four sets of blue lights to warn passersby. Downey had a lane essentially all to himself, and Pilgrim had a good rhythm, so he just let him go. It would take him 45 minutes to cross the Trent River on Monday. But a little rain isn't much of a bother to those who are used to the climes of Minnesota this time of year. And besides, Downey was on the lookout for divine appointments. "They are always there if your antenna's up," he said. "Out here, I've learned to keep my antenna up." Downey, for the next six months, is a circuit-riding preacher. He will travel through Bayboro, New Bern, Cove City and Kinston this week on a 3,370-mile journey that will end - eventually - in Everett, Wash., a town just north of Seattle. He plans to spread the word of God to as many churches, characters and lost souls as he can along the way...Sun Journal

Interior secretary's decision on gray wolves triggers discord

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to stick with a Bush administration move that took gray wolves off the endangered-species list in most of the northern Rockies reflects the independent streak that has defined his career. But it has alienated key Obama administration allies, including environmentalists and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Salazar's surprise March 6 decision provoked a protest letter from 10 senior House Democrats and a literal howl of delight from Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter. While White House officials declined to comment on Salazar's move, it has clearly caused a headache for the administration. Lawmakers called senior Obama aides to question the decision, environmental groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate the decision, and experts inside and outside the administration predicted the issue will end up in court. Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Salazar had followed the unanimous recommendation of Fish and Wildlife Service scientists in setting the new policy. "This was a decision based on science," she said...Seattle Times

Federal fire policy leaves private timber in ruins

Thousands of acres of private timberland are adjacent to and within National Forest boundaries, where fire protection responsibility comes under the U.S. Forest Service. It is the Forest Service's legal duty to protect these private parcels just as Cal Fire protects lands outside of National Forest influence. It is apparent from last summer's fires that fire protection no longer exists for thousands of acres of private timberland, as many private parcels were purposely set fire by the Forest Service and burned. In fact, more acreage was burned, and more smoke and carbon were put into the air by the U.S. Forest Service than by natural wildfire. Most of the private timberland burned is not being reforested as owners are fearful of similar events happening in the future. Following the death of several firefighters in Idaho a few years ago, the Forest Service adopted a new "safety policy" using indirect methods to fight fire. This policy change has resulted in the huge devastating fires and smoke plumes the western states are experiencing. The federal policy of indirect firefighting leads to larger fires that require many more bodies, equipment and aircraft be put in harm's way. This action will always increase the number of accidents, not decrease them. The U.S. Forest Service must come to the realization that its policies are destructive and not meeting the agency's safety goals...Record Searchlight

After Coyote Attacks, a Denver Suburb Turns to a Gun-Wielding Trapper

Jay Stewart lumbered down the driveway, past the Mercedes and away from the home overlooking Westlands Park near the southern edge of Denver. “We get any coyotes today?” a woman shouted from across the street. Mr. Stewart shook his head no, tugged at his camouflage cap and headed for the old trailer cluttered with the varmint traps he hauls with him everywhere he goes. Since a recent rash of coyote attacks on pets in Greenwood Village, an affluent suburb of Denver, Mr. Stewart, the owner and primary employee of Animal Damage Control Wildlife Management Services, has been on the hunt. When he comes across a coyote after being dispatched by the city, he closely observes its behavior until he has judged whether it is aggressive. Those he deems a threat to humans or pets he shoots with one of his .22-caliber guns. Many coyotes now feel safer in cities than on the open range, said Stanley D. Gehrt, an assistant professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University. The sightings have become so frequent in and around Denver over the last few months that the city and several suburbs have held meetings to address the issue. No community in the area has been affected more than Greenwood Village, population 14,000, which recorded 110 coyote sightings in the first two months of this year, compared with 186 in all of 2008. Coyotes have killed and maimed pets, and late last year one attacked a 14-year-old boy out for a walk. “We’ve heard from a lot of our residents,” said the city manager, Jim Sanderson. “They’re just living in fear. They’re afraid to let their children walk to school or play in the yard.”...NY Times

Many rural residents have the same concerns with wolves. Difference is, should they defend their children or families, they are off to the federal pen.

Infection forces spaying of mexican gray wolf at El Paso Zoo

A Mexican gray wolf named Ivy, one of the rarest creatures on the planet, was spayed Friday at the El Paso Zoo's medical center. She underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a uterine infection. Zoo Director Steve Marshall described Ivy's operation as routine, and said the staff will be watching her to make sure her recovery is successful. That is why the El Paso Zoo is sending Ivy's ovaries to the St. Louis Zoo Endangered Species Research Center & Veterinary Hospital. Scientists there will attempt to collect the eggs. "There is a chance that Ivy's genes can be passed on in the future if they are able to successfully harvest eggs from the ovaries," said El Paso Zoo Coordinator John Kiseda...El Paso Times

Environmental enemy combatant, no guantanamo: First salmon-eating sea lion killed at Bonneville Dam

Wildlife officials put down a salmon-eating sea lion at Bonneville Dam for the first time Thursday, killing it with a lethal injection after a health examination determined it couldn't be relocated to a zoo or aquarium. The California sea lion -- branded C265 -- is thought to be the first deliberately killed by a Northwest government agency. Marine mammals received legal protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The animal, captured in a cage trap Tuesday at Bonneville, was on a list of 73 male sea lions that habitually prey on endangered fish gathered at ladders below the dam, the first fish encounter when migrating up the Columbia. Veterinarians estimated the sea lion's age at 15 and its weight at 800 to 900 pounds. The sea lion was well-known to agency biologists. Wildlife officials from Oregon, Washington and Idaho said earlier that 30 sea lions at Bonneville could be relocated or killed this year. So far, officials only have enough homes lined up to relocate eight...The Oregonian

A dangerous mix in the forecast

The American pika is a small furry mammal resembling a mouse that lives in the mountains throughout the West, including the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascades. It has been voted one of the three "cutest animals" in North America. The Sierra's pika population has now become (as of the last week of February) the first mammal in the Lower 48 states considered for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to global warming. Another charismatic species, the polar bear in Alaska, was first to be listed (2008) because of global warming. The pika and the polar bear listings status resulted from ESA-based lawsuits filed against the federal government by proliferate eco-litigating organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Earthjustice (the legal arm of the Sierra Club), the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. To these well-heeled litigating organizations, the ESA is the most important environmental law in history. That is because, when enacted in 1973 with their active participation and influence, the ESA changed the age-old scientific definition of "species" to an amorphous, politicized definition that makes the listing of species - especially popular, photogenic ones - much less disciplined. Under the more accommodating definition, lawsuits to list eco-litigators' favored species are nearly always successful. Hand-in-hand with these successes goes "help-us-save-the species" fund-raising appeals. Another reason these "species champions" embrace the ESA is that their lawsuits conclude with an award of attorney fees and costs against the government. Although there are no official records of the taxpayer dollars paid in attorney fees to environmental litigators, the Sacramento Bee's Tom Knudson reported in 2001 (the last extensive research) that "*uring the 1990s, the government paid out $31.6 million in attorney fees for 434 environmental cases brought against federal agencies. The average award per case was more than $70,000...Washington Times

Edward Abbey, Conservative Anarchist

Edward Paul Abbey was born on January 29, 1927, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of a farmer and logger. After a 1944 hitchhiking trip west at 17, he served in the U.S. Army late in World War II and afterwards, then enrolled at the University of New Mexico in 1948 on the G.I. Bill, eventually earning a Master's Degree in philosophy. During this time Abbey started to write as he began concurrently to explore the backcountry of the Southwest in his spare time, specifically the Four Corners area (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet), otherwise known as the Colorado Plateau because it's drained by that great river. It was among the last of Western regions to be surveyed and mapped. In 1869, John Wesley Powell was its primary explorer when he led a party in dories down the rapids-ravaged canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers from Green River, Wyoming, all the way through the Grand Canyon. It's an unforgiving region of deserts and mountains, much of it federal land, and home to a half dozen national parks. Here Abbey found the subject that was the focus of his four decades as a writer. Money was tight, though, and Abbey also worked odd jobs through the 1950s and '60s. His most noteworthy employment was as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument (now Arches National Park) near Moab, Utah, in 1959. This experience (along with others) culminated in the 1968 publication of Desert Solitaire, the book that made his reputation. After that, Cactus Ed became the Thoreau of the West. Abbey's most controversial role was only obliquely related to his work. In 1975 he published his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, a book that alongside Desert Solitaire enhanced his reputation as an environmentalist, but unlike the latter tome it has prose as purple as an Arizona sunset. The plot involves four anarchic enviros who conspire to blow up Glen Canyon Dam. In a case of life imitates art, the book inspired the establishment of a notorious radical green group in 1980 known as Earth First!, with Abbey as a charter member. Other noteworthy members were activist/writer Doug Peacock, and Dave Foreman, an ex-Goldwater Republican...American Spectator

Border fences grow, as does debate that rages over them

Three men prop a ladder on top of a tree branch and lean it against a 15-foot border fence made of steel tubes so close together a man can't fit his head through. One by one, they climb over and shimmy down the other side, landing in the United States at the bottom of the Mariposa Wash, about two miles west of Nogales. They jog north across a concrete road, fading into the brush. On a nearby ridge, a U.S. Border Patrol agent watches, then jumps in his SUV and speeds down the new access road that, like the fence, is part of the biggest, fastest and most expensive buildup of border infrastructure in U.S. history. The three illegal border crossers run, but it isn't long before several agents converge and eventually find their hiding spot. The scene illustrates the debate over the effectiveness of border fences that now cover one-third of Arizona's 378 miles of U.S.-Mexico border, up from 7 percent three years ago. "These fences present between a 30-second to two-minute speed bump for most healthy individuals," said Matt Clark, Southwest representative of Defenders of Wildlife, a group that works to protect endangered species. "We are paying how many millions of dollars for this?" Walls, particularly unguarded, have historically been shown to be ineffective, he said. "It's just a piece of scrap metal that will be jumped over, tunneled under, gone around," Clark said. "At the end of the day, it's just a big waste of money." The Border Patrol sees the same scene as an example of how the fences help the patrol. "When you are crossing a fence 15 feet in the air, it's a lot easier for me to see," said Alan White, Border Patrol Nogales station chief. "With a barrier that they have to negotiate, it gives us a little more time to react and catch these people." Border Patrol officials acknowledge that the barriers are not a panacea but say they deter, slow and funnel traffic, providing them with a tool that gives them the upper hand in the eternal cat-and-mouse game with smugglers...Arizona Daily Star

California Water Users Sue Federal Agencies

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and the Kern County Water Agency (KCWA) today joined other water users in California by filing suit against federal agencies challenging regulatory restrictions placed on the state's water operations. The severe water supply restrictions have resulted from federal agency actions designed to protect the Delta smelt, a federally protected endangered species that lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The restrictions have greatly reduced water supplies for 25 million Californians and millions of acres of productive San Joaquin Valley farmland. "The actions by federal agencies are greatly exacerbating California's ongoing water supply crisis and doing significant damage to farmers, farm workers, residents and the overall economy of our state," said Michael Boccadoro, a spokesperson for the Coalition. "Farmers are facing the loss of crops and fallowed fields. Additionally, tens of thousands of farm workers have lost their jobs because federal agencies have not done what they are required to do. People are suffering because federal agencies are not doing their job and addressing the real issues." The lawsuit focuses on the failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to use the best available scientific data when determining the effects of water operations and other activities on the threatened Delta smelt. The federal agencies continue to ignore scientific data that point to a growing list of other factors or "stressors" that are impacting the Bay-Delta and the native fish that live there. Federal regulators have done nothing to address predation by non-native bass, habitat destruction, expanding wastewater and storm water discharges or the growing level of pesticides and other contaminants released into the estuary...Press Release

Double hit leaves Klamath dry

The 2009 irrigation season is proving troublesome for Klamath Basin farmers even before it's begun. The amount of water stored in Upper Klamath Lake is insufficient to meet federal fish habitat standards, prompting the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to delay water deliveries to irrigators. "Basically, what we're up against is a tough water year," said Luther Horsley, president of the Klamath Water Users Association. "We're going to have to be as conservative as possible to make it through the year." Stream flow into the Upper Klamath Lake is projected to be roughly 30 percent below average this season, and the lake is roughly one foot below the minimum level set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect endangered fish...Capital Press

Drought a $1 billion disaster in Texas

Agriculture officials said Friday that ranchers in the nation's largest cattle-producing state have already lost nearly $1 billion because of Texas' ongoing drought. Officials said cattle raisers have lost $829 million since last summer, $569 million of that since November. Recent rains across much of the state, though welcome, came too late. Ranchers have spent substantial money on hay and supplemental feed, the cost of trucking in additional hay. The drought losses also include failed wheat crops usually used for grazing. All of Texas is in some stage of drought for the second straight week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday. Texas just had its driest December-February stretch on record. More than 60% of the state's beef cows are in counties with severe to exceptional drought — the three worst stages. Losses will likely grow past $1 billion in the next two months as livestock producers continue to make supplemental feed purchases or sell cattle and calves in a declining market, said David Anderson, an agriculture marketing economist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service...USA Today