Internal DOI Document; Secret Plan To Create 14 Nat'l Monuments? $Billions For Land Acquisition

So you thought the creation of the NLCS was just so BLM could do a better job of managing special lands already under their control. That's how the program was sold. To better manage 27 million acres.

Well we all better think again. The document I'm about to describe provides for the BLM to have 14 new monuments on existing BLM land and acquire at the very least 2.6 million acres to add to the NLCS.

I am in possession of part of a DOI document marked "Internal Draft - NOT FOR RELEASE".

The part I have is pgs. 15-21, and includes Attachments 4,5 & 6. There is no date.

Attachment 4 is titled Prospective Conservation Designation: National Monument Designations under the Antiquities Act.

The Document then states:

Many nationally significant landscapes are worthy of inclusion in the NLCS. The areas listed below may be good candidates for National Monument designation under the Antiquities Act; however further evaluations should be completed prior to any final determination, including an assessment of public and Congressional support.

The document then lists the following 14 areas, with a paragraph description/justification for each:

San Rafael Swell, UT-- 75 by 40 mile giant dome

Montana's Northern Prairie, MT-- No acreage given (2.5 million acre cross boundary unit)

Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, NM-- 58,000 acres

Berryessa Snow Mountains, CA-- 500,000 acres

Heart of the Great Basin, NV-- no acreage given

Otero Mesa, NM-- 1.2 million acres

Northwest Sonoran Desert, AZ-- 500,000 acres

Owyhee Desert, OR/NV-- no acreage given

Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, CA (expansion)-- no acreage given

Vermillion Basin, CO

Bodie Hills, CA

The Modoc Plateau, CA

Cedar Mesa region, UT

San Juan Islands, WA

Attachment 5 of the document is titled Conservation Designations: Areas worthy of protection that are ineligible for Monument Designation and unlikely to receive legislative protection in the near term.

The three areas listed are:

Bristol Bay Region, AK
Teshekpuk Lake, AK
Red Desert, WY

Attachment 6 is titled Cost Estimates: High Priority Land-Rationalization Efforts.

The following projects are then listed, with a description section and a cost estimate section:

(i) Checkerboard Consolidation, NV OR CA WY UT-- $5 million/year for 10 years

(ii) Alpine Triangle, CO-- Acquire 25,000 acres-- $37.5 million

(iii) Upper Missouri River, MT-- Acquire 80,000 acres-- $24 million

(iv) Pioneer Range, ID-- Acquire 140,000 acres-- $1,000 to $20,000 per acre

(v) John Day River, OR-- No acreage given-- $67 million

(vi) Upper Green River Valley, WY-- Acquire 397,210 acres-- $2.3 billion

(vii) National Historic and Scenic Trails (multiple states)-- No acreage given-- $7 million/year for 10 years


So what is this document? I'm not sure. Clearly the sections I have were prepared by the BLM. Probably they are part of a larger document that was floated up to the Secretary listing potential conservation initiatives. But again, I just don't know, especially since there is no date.

Stay in touch. This should all see the light of day in the near future.

One final thought for now. How do you like that "Land-Rationalization" title? The checkerboard part indicates land exchanges, purchases and sales. But all the rest is pure, unadulterated land acquisition. "Rationalization" my ass.

Man accused of removing petroglyph from federal land

A 57-year-old Pahrump man was indicted by the federal grand jury today on felony charges that he removed and damaged a large petroglyph on U.S. Forest Service land in the Spring Mountains National Recreational Area near Pahrump. Michael Cook was charged with a single count of violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Nevada's U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said. The indictment stated that Cook removed and damaged the petroglyph, which depicts seven sheep, sometime between March and September 2008. The Nye County Sheriff's Department discovered the 200-pound petroglyph in Cook's front yard last June...read more

COMMENT

Not only is he apparently a thief, but a dumb one to boot.
Notice it was the Sheriff, not the FS, who discovered the petroglyph.
The FS was too busy guarding their bulletin board.

Feds seek withdrawal of Yucca Mountain water applications

The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository got another nail in its coffin today, as the Energy Department formally asked to withdraw its applications for access to water in the area surrounding Yucca Mountain. The request came after state engineer Tracy Taylor twice wrote to the agency to ask whether he should continue with the application, given President Barack Obama's stated plan to kill the planned nuclear waste dump. The Energy Department had sought 116 different water rights for the Yucca Mountain project, but the exact amount of groundwater in question wasn't immediately available from the state Division of Water Resources...read more

What’s next for Yucca? Restoration

When it was on the drawing boards, the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump promised unprecedented challenges to nuclear engineers and physicists: How to safely store nuclear waste underground? Now with the project being killed by President Barack Obama, the site will offer unprecedented challenges to desert ecologists: How to bring vegetation back to the mountain? The task is both simple and overwhelming: Under federal law, the Energy Department has to return the mountain landscape to a state similar to how the agency found it. That’s easier said than done, because fully restoring a desert landscape can take centuries, or millennia. Although desert landscape restoration has been attempted with varying degrees of success in recent years, there has never been a desert reclamation project of this size and type...read more

COMMENT

Do they really think the feds will comply with the law and restore the area?

Restoration will taken money, i.e., Congressional appropriations. It will be very easy for DOE & Congress to find other priorities for the money.

Either that, or they will throw big bucks at the project, most of which will be wasted by the DOE.

Either way, a satisfactory restoration is not likely.

Judge rules against farming permits in preserve

A federal judge has struck down permits that allow two farmers to grow corn and soybeans in a federal nature preserve in western Kentucky and Tennessee because the U.S. Forest Service violated it's own rules in handling the agreements. U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell said it was "unreasonable" for the Forest Service to delegate it's power to issue special use permits to the National Wild Turkey Federation, who in turn signed contracts allowing two farmers to grow row crops in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Russell ruled that, under the intricate web of laws governing national forests and lands, special-use permits issued by the Forest Service are required to allow people to put anything in the area that wouldn't naturally grow or live there. "The delegation of such power by the Forest Service constitutes an unlawful delegation of the agency's duty to protect the environment to a private entity," Russell wrote. However, Russell turned away a challenge by the Eugene, Ore.-based Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics to the use of pesticides on crops grown in the area, saying the Forest Service has experience with the chemicals and can handle them properly...read more

COMMENT

Here is the pertinent part of the decision:

The Court finds that the regulations promulgated pursuant to the OAA require the special-use permits to be issued for farming LBL property and the permits must be issued by an authorized officer. An authorized officer is expressly defined as an employee of the Forest Service. The Stewardship Agreement clearly sets out that "any NWTF employees and their volunteers shall not be deemed to be Federal employees for any purposes." The Court finds Forest Services' interpretation of the Stewardship as authorizing delegation to the NWTF of the power to issue special-use permits is an unreasonable interpretation of the Stewardship Act as it is in direct violation of the regulations promulgated under the authority of the OAA. The delegation of such power by the Forest Service constitutes unlawful delegation of the agency's duty to protect the environment to a private entity as in National Park & Conservation Ass'n v. Stanton, 54 F. Supp.2d 7 (D.D.C. 1999). While the Forest Service has provided evidence of Congressional authority to enter into stewardship agreements with private entities, the Forest Service has been unable to show affirmative evidence of Congressional authority to delegate so extensively in direct violation of its regulations. United States Telecom Association v. FCC, 359 F.3d 554, 566 (D.C. Cir. 2004)... The Court finds the Forest Service did not violate NEPA by failing to create an EIS; however, the Forest Services' interpretation of the Stewardship Act as authorizing delegation to the NWTF of the power to issue special-use permits is an unreasonable interpretation of the Stewardship Act as it is in direct violation of the regulations promulgated under the authority of the OAA and such delegation constitutes unlawful delegation.

Noel, faith leaders stage impromptu wilderness debate

Rep. Mike Noel waded into a circle of interfaith advocates of wilderness protection in the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and almost immediately began defending his approach to "God's country" and his support of recreational vehicles in the outdoors. "We've now created stacks of regulations," said the Kanab Republican, an outspoken critic of climate-change science and environmental activists. "Whatever you want to do on public lands, it is protested." For more than 20 minutes, he engaged in a civil debate with leaders and members from 11 faiths -- Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ -- who had gathered to showcase 250 images of Utah's beauty and ask their elected leaders to "recognize the spiritual importance of Utah's wild lands and support their preservation." Designating wilderness will not "lock up" the land, insisted Stephen Trimble, a member of Utah's Jewish Reconstructionist congregation Chavurah B'Yachad...read more

SoCal Edison pays $2.8m to settle wildfire lawsuit

Southern California Edison has paid $2.8 million to settle a government claim that it caused a 2002 wildfire that destroyed four square miles of the Inyo National Forest. The U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday that the utility settled a lawsuit claiming it failed to replace broken equipment on a power pole or trim trees that had grown into power lines. The Forest Service determined that sparks from a 12,000-volt power distribution line ignited the blaze about 15 miles north of Bishop in the Sierra Nevada...read more

No change in federal grazing fee in 2010

The federal grazing fee for 2010 will be $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.35 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the Forest Service. The 2010 fee is the same as it was in 2009. An AUM or HM – treated as equivalent measures for fee purposes – is the occupancy and use of public lands by one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The newly calculated grazing fee, determined by a congressional formula and effective on March 1, applies to nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service...read more

Zac Brown Responds To PETA Challenge

The Zac Brown Band has responded to an e-mail they received from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. After being challenged by the animal rights group to remove the animal products from its pre-show menu, the "Chicken Fried" hit makers made no apologies for their eating habits. "Dear PETA -- Plants are living creatures too . . . Bacon had a mother, but so did Pickle. It takes life to support life -- welcome to the planet," the Grammy-winning group wrote on their Twitter page. The 2010 Best New Artist winners apparently still plan on offering animal products at their pre-show rituals, where they welcome lucky fans backstage to "eat and greet" with the band. The challenge from PETA came last week when the organization sent an open letter to country music website TheBoot.com that was addressed to the band, saying, "If PETA has its way, the 'Chicken Fried' singers will be hosting an all-vegan edition of their celebrated 'eat and greets' for fans." RTTNews

Western Alert: Susan Sarandon Circles 'Big Valley'

The Western world is coming back in a big way as cinema's next enormous resurgence. On the heels of news that Brad Pitt and Ryan Reynolds are circling Gunsmoke, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Susan Sarandon is in talks to star in a big-screen remake of the television show The Big Valley. Kate Edelman Johnson, daughter of the show's creator, is producing the project, Daniel Adams wrote the screenplay and will direct, and should Sarandon sign on, she'll play Victoria Barkley, the character originally played by Barbara Stanwyck. Set in the 1870s, Barkley is a widowed matriarch of the Barkley Ranch in California's San Joaquin Valley. Unlike many westerns, and other projects for that matter, Barkley was the woman in charge, holding her own against threats of thieves and ne'er do-wells that might descend upon the ranch in typical Hollywood fashion. But she wasn't alone, having the company of her helpful lawyer son, a rancher son and helper step-son, and a beautiful horse-handy daughter...read more

Three Guitars & A Tractor

Song Of The Day #240

Ranch Radio presents another western double whammy. We begin with Rex Allen singing Yodelin' Crazy followed by one of my favorites, Gene Autry's recording of Cowboy Blues.

Both selections are available on Tumbling Tumbleweeds: Essential Gold.

Colorado wolves would have protection of Endangered Species Act

Wolves don't have pockets, so they can't carry their legal status around when they travel. That's raised some points to ponder since the controversial predators allegedly arrived in Colorado this week. While authorities in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming argue whether wolves should be hunted or not, stepping across the Colorado state line restores fully protected status for those wolves under the federal Endangered Species Act. Of course, biologists still must confirm wolves have made it to the Centennial State. What does mean something is, literally, where a specific wolf stands. The same animal today would be an out-of-season "species in need of management" in Montana, a huntable "trophy game animal" in Idaho, and a federally protected "experimental species" in Wyoming. Should that wolf wander all the way to Colorado, it would be federally endangered and given full protection of the law. The situation is similar to a pack that lives on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Bangs said. On the Minnesota side, the pack is threatened, but on the Wisconsin side it's endangered. That's so humans on either side of the border know exactly what rules apply...read more

Arizona Republic Attacks Ranchers

They've gone off the deep end on Mexican wolves.

See their editorial Time for ranchers to stop slaughter.

Judge orders delta pump to be shut down to protect endangered smelt

Farmers last week were celebrating a reprieve from water pumping restrictions in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Five days later, it's over. A federal judge Wednesday rejected an emergency request by water districts representing cities and San Joaquin Valley farmers to delay a new set of pumping restrictions in the delta. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger's ruling means one of five delta pumps operated by the federal government will be shut down Thursday morning. The action is being taken to protect the delta smelt, a fish listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Farmers and ranchers who rely on the delta for water - including those in the Westlands Water District - were disappointed by the decision, especially because it came just five days after Wanger put a two-week hold on pumping restrictions that are part of a controversial management plan for endangered winter-run salmon. The delta pumps have been running at full capacity since Wanger's decision. Now only four pumps will be running, which means a loss of 1,700 acre feet of water each day for those who receive federal water, said Westlands spokeswoman Sarah Woolf. If more smelt are found around the pumps, as expected, the water loss for agriculture will increase, she said...read more

Mexican Official Optimistic About Resuming Cross-Border Trucking

Mexico's economy minister predicted this week that the trade spat focusing on cross-border trucking would be resolved this year, as U.S. trade envoy Ron Kirk visited the Mexican capital. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Mexico border was supposed to have been opened to border-state traffic in 1995 and to long-distance traffic in 2000. The opening was stalled until 2007, in part by difficult negotiations with Mexico, but mainly by the legislative and legal tactics of U.S. labor, owner-operator and citizen advocacy groups who fear loss of U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers and argue that Mexican trucks will not be safe. After Congress cut off a cross-border trucking pilot program last March by prohibiting funding for such a program, the Mexican government slapped $2.4 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. According to published reports, Kirk emphasized that the law that originally cancelled the cross-border program is no longer in effect. The language in the 2009 appropriations bill that essentially cut off the funding for the demonstration safety program was not included in the 2010 appropriations bill. "We have the green light to go forward and start those consultations with Congress (and) with our stakeholders in the U.S.," Kirk said during a news conference held jointly with Mexican Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos, who said a solution "will surely occur this year." Before heading to Mexico, Kirk told reporters, "I can tell you that those industries in the united states, our farmers, our ranchers, our other exporters that have been subject of the retaliation, have made their displeasure known to congress and so there is a sense of urgency within the united states," according to KOLD TV in southern Arizona...read more

Latest plan to cut farm subsidies in trouble

If history and the political lineup are any guides, President Barack Obama's latest effort to cut subsidies for wealthy farmers likely will fare no better than his first try — or his predecessor's attempt. Congress twice overrode President George W. Bush's veto of the 2008 Farm Bill. When Obama tried reforming the system last year, his proposal was dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, where farm state lawmakers largely control the agriculture committees. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said he'd oppose significant changes to the current Farm Bill. To Peterson, most criticism of subsidies is based more on ideology — whether it be small-farms-are-better or free trade — than sound policy considerations. "We're not smart enough to decide how big a farm should be, even on the ag committee," Peterson said. "And that's really not our job. Our job is to make sure we have an affordable, abundant food supply in this country." Others, though, said as federal deficits soar above $1 trillion a year, it's time to take another look. "Farm subsidies are America's largest corporate welfare program," said Brian Riedl, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation...read more

Hard Times for a Western Icon

A perfect storm has risen over horse country. Prices are plummeting in an oversaturated equine market, people are neglecting or abandoning their horses at a higher rate and more ranchers are trading in four legs for four wheels. Hay prices are through the roof and the economy is hurting. And in Montana, a final frontier of the American West, there is no consensus on what to do. Some horse folks are waiting to see if the economy turns around. Others believe it’s time to bring back horse slaughterhouses – the last one in the United States closed in 2007. Their critics say no way. Many just don’t know what the answer is. The difficulties touch everybody in the horse industry, from breeders and trainers to ranchers and casual riders, and everybody in between. Horses still carry a grand mystique, but they are expensive, and when there’s too many of them, tough decisions have to be made. According to a study published for the American Horse Council, there were 9.2 million horses in the United States in 2005, used for work, racing, show or as pets...read more

Forest Rangers Protected Payson

A close relationship between forest rangers and the people of Payson existed from March of 1907 when the Tonto National Forest was established. The ranger’s station and house, along with a barn for horses and mules, were the center for the Payson Administrative District, and the first ranger assigned here was Fletcher Beard, a cowboy turned forest ranger. The primary purpose of the Tonto National Forest has always been to protect the watersheds of the Salt and Verde Rivers, but a primary concern for the residents of Payson has always been fire protection. In the late 1930s the District Ranger in charge was Clyde Moose, and his assistant was Ed Fuel. Clyde was over six feet tall with short, sandy hair, very friendly with town folks, and was usually in uniform, neat and trim. Ed was short, bow-legged and bald; he was also a local rancher who had raised cattle south of Jake’s Corner and owned the 3-V brand. The cattle ranchers felt he was one of their own, with whom they could easily communicate. He talked their language and knew their problems first hand. The dedication of the rangers was demonstrated when a fire was reported in the Mazatzals. It was off-season and no trail crew was available. Ed was away, so Clyde had to go and fight the fire alone. He loaded his horse, drove to the Bar-T-Bar ranch on Deer Creek, and then rode up the mountain trail to within a half-mile of the fire. The trail became too difficult for the horse, so he tied it and walked the rest of the way carrying his tools...read more

Cox, 95, remembers every show, rodeo

XB Cox Jr., who turns 95 on Friday, can remember something about every San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo since the stellar event started 78 years ago. Cox, who was born in San Angelo, showed champion calves in the stock show when he was a teenager. As an adult, he served as assistant county agent in Coke County and as county agent in Scurry County. Since he had worked with the youth in their 4-H clubs, he was a natural for the job. He was superintendent of the steer show in 1954. “I started working with the sheep and steer divisions of the stock show in 1949, after H.C. Noelke, who was sheep superintendent at the time, asked me for help,” Cox told me earlier this week. Although Cox served as president of the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo from 1964 through 1966, he gives credit to the many volunteers for its success. “Clovis Olsak (stock show president in 1971-72) and I dug all the post holes for the pens in the old sheep and goat barn,” he said. Cox learned about building fences at a young age. His father, XB “Mage” Cox Sr., was in the fence-building business at Mertzon around 1900, contracting with area ranchers...read more