It's All Trew: Aging and exaggerating

One noticeable effect of aging is most of us tend to exaggerate a bit as we recall the old days. Here are a few examples I have heard lately. "When I was a young lad walking to a country school every day we had to face a cold north wind both in the morning and evening and it was uphill both directions." Think about this a moment. "I didn't know my Christian name until I was twelve years old. All anyone had ever said to me was, go get firewood." In my case it was coal or kerosene. "Between trapping skunks, filling kerosene lamps every day and wearing a bag of garlic around my neck to ward off colds, I didn't have many close friends when I was young." "The way to tell the rich folks from the poor was to study their clothes lines on wash day. Rich folks didn't have many patches and their drawers had elastic instead of draw-strings. Look at the sun through the seats of poor people's britches and the light just shines right through." A 94-year-old man was asked what he thought of the modern world today? He replied, "We are being educated out of common sense into ignorance, doctored to death and preached into Hell. Other than that we are getting along pretty well."...more

Baxter Black - Trade ya my mustache

As medical progress marches on, the use of transplants and body parts has become commonplace. Worldwide, from India to Italy, from Iran to Indiana, the surgeries are routine. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. alone has 83,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney. Corneas, hearts, livers and lungs do a brisk trade on the organ market. I'm assuming that many athletes, models, yodelers, magicians and pickpockets insure their precious body parts against damage or loss; fingers, figures, vocal cords or knees. But what if the occasion arises that the body parts of someone whose skills you admire come available? How 'bout Ben Johnson, Ed Bruce or Johnny Cash's vocal cords? I remember when Willie Nelson sang, "All of me, Why not take all of me" maybe he was subliminally making an offer. At the risk of being morbid, my list might include Trevor Brazile's roping arm, Ronald Reagan's hair, Ray Hunt's seat in the saddle, Tony Rice's flat pickin' left hand, anybody's flat belly, Billy Etbauer's pointed toes, George Strait's teeth, Churchill's way with words and Doc Brimhall's eye for cattle. 'Course, I wouldn't have much to trade...more

Song Of The Day #283

Ranch Radio will get your heart started and your feet tappin' this Monday morning with that good old dance tune South.

I've danced many a mile to this tune, always as an instrumental and usually with a fiddle taking the lead. I later discovered there were words to the song, and just recently discovered the lyrics were written by the great Ray Charles. He wrote them in 1947, two years before his first recordings, and were reportedly some of the first lyrics written by him.

The original jazz instrumental was written by Bennie Moten and Thamon Hayes, and was recorded by Moten's band in 1924.

When I started this feature back in March of last of last year I wrote:

I like old-time country, bluegrass, string band, western, western swing and dixieland jazz. I also like modern artists who honor the traditional sound.

So here is the dixieland jazz version of the tune, with Ray Charles' lyrics, as recorded by Bob Scobey. It is available on Scobey's 12 track CD The Scobey Story (Vol.1)

Better clear a path, cuz I'm getting ready to jump up out of this wheelchair, grab a little unit and trod the boards!

Our Lawless Mexican Border - Wall Street Journal

A great sadness will descend over this border town today as mourners fill the local high school gym to pay their respects to Rob Krentz. Two weeks ago, the 58-year-old rancher was shot and killed by what appears to be a drug smuggler. His death has created a tidal wave of emotion—Krentz was a pillar of this community where his family has ranched land here for a century. "The sobbing and crying from people I never thought I'd see cry, it's unbelievable," local veterinarian Gary Thrasher told me. Americans who do not live along the Mexican border often assume the antipathy to illegal immigration arises from racial or cultural concerns. But talk to people on the ground, and what they fear most is the loss of personal security. They are angry that the federal government is unable to provide them with this most basic of human rights. The Krentz ranch sits along the Chiricahua Corridor, a well known smuggling route with dirt trails pounded smooth by decades of foot traffic. For years, Rob's wife, Sue, has written pleading letters to politicians, media and others, detailing how the smuggling of drugs and people has become so bad that family members feared for their lives. "It's worse than anybody knows," rancher Ed Ashurst told me. "There are outlaws roaming around with guns, and if you jack with them they'll kill you." Louie and Susan Pope, who live outside the town of Portal some 46 miles from Mexico, lock their valuables in a safe before taking morning horseback rides. They've had three break-ins. According to Susan, the one-room school in Apache where she is a teacher and bus driver has been broken into so often there's nothing left worth stealing. "Americans shouldn't have to live like this," she told me. She is Rob Krentz's sister...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Don't forget to check your cinch

by Julie Carter

Cowboying in the sand hills on a big cow-calf operation, Blayke's days were routine to his job title.

With 4,000 head of momma cows and their babies by their side, a typical day was long and mostly seen from the back of horse. It also required the steady use of rope.

He doctored pink eye, scours, foot rot and any other bovine malady that showed up. During calving, it was usual to rope 50 calves a day to tag or stuff a scours pill down their throat.

Not far away from where Blayke was working was Deer Creek, a feedlot with backgrounding pasture and corn stalks.

Lloyd had worked so long at Deer Creek not many even knew his last name.
He was just Lloyd.

He talked real slow, and for the most part, seemed in all ways, "slow."
But he ran the feedlot and did his job well.

The cow boss of the outfit Blayke worked for sent him and another puncher to go help Lloyd doctor shipping fever in a load of yearlings.

They loaded their horses and headed to Deer Creek, arriving just as Lloyd was catching his big grey horse that he called Frog.

Blayke and his partner unloaded their horses and walked over to where Lloyd was saddling Frog. Blayke couldn't help but notice that Lloyd's rig was an old center-fire bear trap that had no breast collar.

On the horn, there was an old rope tied off that had been broken and then tied into a square knot.

More noticeable was that the cinch holding the saddle on had maybe a dozen strands still intact and the rest were broken in two and hanging frayed.

Blayke always carried a rope bag in the trailer with a couple of extra ropes, leather punch, Wang leather, leather awl and an extra cinch just in case tack repairs were needed at any time or place during a day of cowboying.

He told Lloyd that he had a better cinch if he wanted it and was sure welcome to it.

Lloyd replied in his signature slow speech, "Nope, I reckon this one will do."

Blayke nodded his acceptance of Lloyd's decision and the trio rode to the pasture to get started on the doctoring.

The very first steer they saw needed medicinal attention. He was a big, soggy Simmental.

Lloyd put the spurs to Frog and built to the steer. His loop caught him deep, far down on the brisket and included a front a leg.

Lloyd jerked his slack and old Frog put on the brakes hard, laying some classic 11s on the ground.

When things came tight between the steer and the horse, the cinch on Lloyd's saddle snapped. There went Lloyd, saddle and all, right over Frog's head.

Since Lloyd had a head and a front leg in his loop, that steer might as well have been a Siberian husky in the Iditarod and Lloyd's saddle was the sled.

Lloyd was the musher, except he was sitting down instead of standing and he was holding on to the swells of the saddle with both hands with his legs stuck out in front.

The steer was running full out and not showing any signs of slowing down. Blayke and his partner were laughing so hard, they both missed the steer with their first loop.

Blayke managed to catch him on second try. When Blayke got the steer halted, he took Lloyd's rope off of him.

They had to pull Lloyd's spurs and stirrups down from around his knees to free him from his saddle.

Old Frog was standing calmly right where the cinch broke, munching on some grass.

Undaunted by the event, Lloyd said with his very slow drawl, "Blayke, you reckon I can borrow that cinch?"

Blayke laughed and said, "After that spectacular wreck, you can just keep the cinch."

No one seems to know what became of Lloyd over the years, but Blayke was certain it was a safe bet that Lloyd forever more used good cinches.

Happy trails! And check your cinch.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net. Visit her website at www.julie-carter.com. Her books, Cowgirls Sass & Savvy and Cowboy’s You Gotta Love ‘em can be viewed there.

America's Quiet Anger

By James P. Gannon

There is a quiet anger boiling in America.

It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans -- and see their government reward those who do not.

It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought down the economy in 2008.

It is the fury of the voiceless, the powerless, the ordinary nobodies of Flyover Country who are ridiculed, preached to, satirized and insulted by the Celebrity Loudmouths of the two Left Coasts, the Jon Stewarts and Keith Olbermanns, the Paul Krugmans and their ilk.

It is the salted wound of the millions who see that ruling Democrats in Congress are not listening to them but are willfully ignoring public opinion and the verdict of recent elections in passing a huge new health care entitlement when the existing entitlements of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already going broke.

It is the frustrating helplessness of citizens who revere the Founding Fathers and the genius of the Constitution that they wrote, who actually believe the words of the Constitution mean what they say, not more and not less. They who watch politicians and the courts stretch and bend that Constitution -- finding "rights" not enumerated, powers never granted, meanings unimagined -- believe that their country is being redefined without their consent.

Most of the angry are not out marching in the streets, waving signs or shouting into bullhorns. And they are not smashing windows or phoning death threats to politicians. They are simply waking up angry in the morning, and going to bed angry at night. And their resentment is multiplied by the media's efforts to portray them all as dangerous, crazy people, and by the effort of certain Democrats to tar them with brush of violent intent.

They are embittered, too, by the rhetoric of a triumphant president who turns on its head Winston Churchill's heroic attitude promising defiance in defeat but magnanimity in victory. For a president of a deeply divided country, defiance in victory is not an endearing posture. It has all the persuasive charm of a Chad Ochocinco victory dance in the end zone of the opponent's stadium.

These quietly angry people gather in their churches while their religions are called divisive and their beliefs are labeled as bigotry, and they pray for a better day. They talk among themselves in their Main Street cafes, at the Rotary club or at their kids' softball games, seeking others who understand their frustration and will not respond with arrogant dismissal.

They are tired of being told they are too stupid to understand the country's complex problems, too rooted in the past to find solutions, too selfish to share what they have worked for with everyone else who wants it.

They are not reaching for guns or for pitchforks. They are holding their anger within, waiting for their time, watching those in power over-reach and over-indulge.

Their wound is deep, and it will not be salved by more presidential speeches, Congressional hand-outs, or promises of wonderful things to come. They no longer believe any of that. Their quiet rage abides, waiting till it can be expressed in that silent place behind the curtain where the ballot lists the names that they have now committed to an angry memory.

Song Of The Day #282

Ranch Radio's gospel tune this Sunday morning is Faron Young's 1958 recording of Traveling On.

Wilderness On The Border? 9 Articles On Mexican Border Violence

Dozens of Gunmen Storm Northern Mexican Town, Kill 4 Dozens of organized crime gunmen stormed a small town in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, killing four people and setting a police headquarters ablaze, state Attorney General Abel Murrieta said. The assailants burst into the town of Maycoba at around 6:00 p.m. Thursday and stayed about five hours, according to local residents. Between 80 and 100 gunmen bearing rifles and with their faces covered entered the town on board about 15 late-model vehicles, Murrieta told a press conference on Friday. Their first action was to open fire on the town’s police station and then set it on fire. The police in the small town were not at the station at the time of the attack and were therefore unharmed, the prosecutor said. But the gunmen killed the father of the local police chief and three dead bodies were found a few kilometers from the town, two of whom have still not been identified. They also looted a store. Prior to terrorizing the town, the group of gunmen had blockaded the nearby federal highway with two trucks...

Sheriff To Texas Border Town: 'Arm Yourselves' Last week, residents held a town-hall meeting in Fort Hancock, Texas — a sleepy agricultural town on the border, about an hour southeast of El Paso, that looks like the bleak set of No Country for Old Men. A couple hundred people crowded into the grade-school gym to hear a chilling message from Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West. "You farmers, I'm telling you right now, arm yourselves," he said. "As they say the old story is, it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six. Damn it, I don't want to see six people carrying you." His warning was prompted by the killing of the Arizona rancher, and the spiraling violence a couple of miles away in Mexico in a region known as the Valley of Juarez. The notorious smuggling territory is being fought over by the Sinaloa and the Juarez cartels. "One of the men that works for me had five people killed in front of his house over there [in Mexico] this past weekend," says Curtis Carr, who is a farmer and county commissioner. The violence in the Juarez Valley directly affects this little Texas town. A couple of weeks ago, gunmen in the Juarez Valley killed the Mexican relative of a Fort Hancock high school student. When the student's family in Fort Hancock heard about it, they crossed the border at 10 a.m. to see the body, and took the student with them. "By 10:30, they had stabbed the relatives that went with him, which included his grandparents, with an ice pick," says school superintendent Jose Franco. "My understanding is that the gentleman is like 90 years old, and they poked his eyes out with an ice pick. I believe those people are still in intensive care here in a hospital in the U.S."...

As agents clear out Mexican gangs, more brutal ones move in The bodies that turned up on a squalid back street in the border town of Reynosa in December were no longer human. The torsos showed deep lacerations and punctures; the severed heads were badly beaten and mutilated. Crudely butchered limbs lay scattered across the tarmac stained by blood. Violence fueled by the illegal drug trade has long been a daily fact of life along the U.S.-Mexico border. But as the Mexican and U.S. governments have made significant inroads in dismantling an older order of drug cartels, their rivals and even newer ones have moved to fill the vacuum - and fill it in increasingly terrifying and barbarous ways. Beheadings and dismemberments have since become the cartels' signature crime - to punish those who oppose or betray them, to establish their turf, to terrorize the citizenry against testifying against them, and to press community and political leaders to collaborate. Heads, torsos and severed legs and arms have been strewn along city streets throughout Mexico, mostly in border towns where the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels are in a pitched battle against each other and with Los Zetas, a former Mexican military group, for control of the multibillion-dollar drug industry. Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., who has experienced the border violence firsthand, said his department started seeing beheadings in Mexico about a year after the videotaped beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Pakistan. "Terrorists from the Middle East brought this practice to Central America then to Mexico. It is also a practice of the [violent U.S. street gang known as] MS-13," Sheriff Gonzalez told The Washington Times. "They are getting worse and worse. It never stops shocking me. "I am even more nervous about this practice spilling over into U.S. cities," he said, noting that Mexican drug cartels are now operating in more than 200 American cities...

Bomb damages US consulate in Mexico An attacker threw an explosive device over the wall around the U.S. consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, breaking windows and startling employees inside but causing no injuries, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday. The attack, which took place about 11:30 p.m. Friday, is under investigation, embassy spokesman Claude Young said. Young said the consulate and the consular agency in the border town of Piedras Negras would be closed Monday pending a review of security measures. Mexican federal prosecutors in the capital said they were reviewing evidence from the scene, including video feeds from security cameras at the consulate. Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande River from Laredo, Texas, and other cities have seen increased violence in recent weeks as powerful Mexican drug cartels battle over control of lucrative trafficking along the border...

Mexico Says 2 Minors Killed in Gun Battle Involving Army Troops The Mexican government said two minors were killed inside a vehicle during a clash between army troops and cartel hit men in the northern state of Tamaulipas, although other passengers inside the SUV sprayed with gunfire said they were the only ones fired upon. In a press conference Thursday, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont said “a group of armed subjects attacked army troops, who repelled the aggression” on a road that leads to the city of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas. “As a byproduct of the clashes, regrettably two minors were killed, Bryan Almanza Salazar, 5, and Martin Almanza Salazar, 9,” Gomez Mont said, adding that the government “empathizes with the suffering of the (slain children’s) family.” Last Saturday, shots fired by army soldiers struck an SUV carrying a family of 13 as it was passing through a military checkpoint, killing the two minors and wounding two other adults...

Mexican Governor Requests Federal Police to Halt Prison Escapes amaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez called on the Mexican government to deploy 500 federal officers in his state to prevent prison escapes, which have resulted in at least 50 inmates getting out of penitentiaries in recent weeks. The Federal Police officers would be in charge of providing security at five of the eight state penitentiaries in Tamaulipas, a state in northeastern Mexico, Hernandez said. “We are urgently requesting 500 officers to guard five state prisons in the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros, Victoria and Altamira, 100 officers for each one of them,” the governor said. Hernandez said he expected a favorable response from the federal government. Organized crime groups have resorted to helping criminals escape to bolster their forces in a turf war against rival gangs. At least 40 inmates escaped on March 26 from the state prison in Matamoros, located across the border from Brownsville, Texas, while gunmen helped 12 others break out of the prison in Reynosa last Saturday, killing three guards...

Fear Factories: Violence impacting maquilas The gunmen charged after midnight Friday, making off with uniforms and at least five trucks from the world’s largest oilfield services company. It’s unclear if the attackers were from a drug cartel or how they even managed to bypass the security gate and guards at the Schlumberger Ltd. compound on the western outskirts of Reynosa. In a city wracked by drug violence, where many describe government control as illusory, information is scarce. Until recently few criminals dared to touch the factories and offices of the hundreds of multinational corporations in Reynosa. Amid a violent three-way war among two cartels and the military, they are no longer untouched. Cartels have commandeered cargo trucks loaded with goods and buses for factory workers to create impromptu roadblocks. Factories have canceled shifts on violent nights when they felt it was too unsafe for workers to leave home or when they couldn't catch the bus. The upsurge in violence has impacted the bottom line, making some of Reynosa’s industrial giants wonder when enough will be enough, factory managers said...

Sinaloa cartel wins Juarez turf war After a two-year battle that has killed more than 5,000 people, Mexico's most powerful kingpin now controls the coveted trafficking routes through Ciudad Juarez. That conclusion by U.S. intelligence adds to evidence that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa cartel is winning Mexico's drug war. The assessment was made based on information from confidential informants with direct ties to Mexican drug gangs and other intelligence, said a U.S. federal agent who sometimes works undercover, insisting on anonymity because of his role in ongoing drug investigations. The agent told The Associated Press those sources have led U.S. authorities to believe that the Sinaloa cartel has edged out the rival Juarez gang for control over trafficking routes through Ciudad Juarez, ground zero in the drug war. Other officials corroborated pieces of the assessment. Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman in El Paso, confirmed that the majority of drug loads arriving from Juarez now belong to Guzman. The twin border cities of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, are a primary crossing point for drugs smuggled into the United States. Control of drug routes in Chihuahua, the state along New Mexico and West Texas where Juarez is located, is vital to Guzman's efforts to grow his massive drug cartel's operations...

Turf Battles in Juarez Prompt Policing Changes The Mexican Public Security Secretariat took over policing in Ciudad Juarez on Thursday as part of a shift in strategy -- the federal government's third in less than two years -- to quell persistent violence in the border city. Five thousand federal police will replace the exiting Mexican army, which some say had little success in reining in the cartels that operate in Juarez during its years in charge of the city's security. Those federal Public Security Secretariat police will supplement a force of 2,500 municipal police. Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told several Mexican media outlets on Wednesday that the city would now have a "policing solution." Corchado noted the cartel activities were altering Juarez's residential and business landscape. Around 116,000 homes in Juarez have been abandoned and many local businesses have shuttered or moved to El Paso...

Wolf Encounters Lead To Fear In Ely

For a growing number of people living close to wilderness areas, dangerous wolf encounters and pets being lost to wolves, are an increasing cause of concern. These reports, plus a recent situation in which a woman in Alaska was killed by a wolf pack, are contributing to mounting fear. "Can you let your little kids play in your yard? I certainly wouldn't," said Gary Mitchell of Ely. Many Ely residents are on full alert, keeping a close eye on their children as they play outside; others are thinking twice before letting pets run free. Ely authorities confirm more than five dogs have been killed and eaten by wolves in the last three months. "What happened in Alaska...I'd say the odds are that it will happen again," said Ely Mayor, Roger Skraba. Mayor Skraba says reports of wolf sightings in the area are growing daily. "I've noticed a lot more wolves than ever before, and we've all tolerated them; we've always put up, 'ok they're part of the fabric and they're protected,' but now it's come to the point where when you have two timber wolves walking down the main street, well Chapman Street, of Ely, and a guy going to work walking to his butcher job and he looks over and sees these two wolves walking with him," he said. The fear has now led to legal action. An Ely man and an Aitken County cattle farmer have filed a lawsuit asking that wolves be removed from the endangered species list. They want the state to manage the population. "This all started probably the day that the wolf was drinking out of my birdbath," said Gerald Tyler of Ely who filed the lawsuit...more

Pneumonia outbreak cut bighorn herds in half

A pneumonia epidemic killed about half the wild bighorn sheep around Bonner and Rock Creek this winter, and left biologists with plenty to ponder this spring. "What was amazing to me was how lethal this outbreak was and how fast it spread," said Ray Vinkey, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks who monitored the outbreak in Rock Creek. And there's growing evidence those sheep shared the same disease with herds around Bonner and West Riverside - roughly 40 miles to the west. This winter also gave biologists a rare chance to make side-by-side-by-side comparisons of three response tactics. FWP wardens and biologists shot 95 sick sheep in the hills north of West Riverside, hoping to keep the contagious disease from spreading to herds farther north in the Rattlesnake Wilderness and Blackfoot River corridor. But in Rock Creek, where there are distinct herds in the lower and upper parts of the drainage, biologists collected a few sick animals for tissue samples but didn't do any aggressive culling. Geography dictated part of that response: Sheep are hard to reach in the steep crags of Lower Rock Creek, while the open rolling grasslands of the upper drainage made it impossible to isolate sick animals from healthy ones. The third response took place east of Darby last November when another pneumonia outbreak ravaged the herd there. FWP shooters quickly killed 77 infected sheep but spared neighbors that weren't showing symptoms...more

EPA lead rule will cover more than half of U.S. homes

More than half of U.S. homes could soon be affected by a little-known federal rule to reduce lead exposure. On April 22, the Environmental Protection Agency will begin requiring that contractors who work on pre-1978 homes be certified in lead-safe practices or face daily fines of up to $37,500. The Environmental Protection Agency will be running ads, such as this one, to inform the public about a new rule that requires renovators working on pre-1978 homes to be specially trained to handle lead. "We want people to take it seriously," the EPA's Wendy Hamnett says about the new rule to prevent lead-caused health problems. It will apply to plumbers, carpenters and other remodelers if their work disturbs lead-based paint. Fines apply to untrained workers, not the homeowners who hire them. The EPA is rolling out ads later this month to explain the rule and lead's health hazards. The rule applies to all homes built before lead paint was banned in 1978 unless contractors can show, using an EPA-approved test, that the job area doesn't contain lead. Of 129 million U.S. housing units, 76.5 million were built before 1980, according to the Census Bureau...more

U.S. Forest Service, BLM chiefs will speak in Boise

The director of the Bureau of Land Management and the chief of the U.S. Forest Service will headline a conference May 1 titled "Life in the West: People, Land, Water and Wildlife in a Changing Economy." The Andrus Center for Public Policy will convene the conference co-sponsored by the Foundation for Rocky Mountain Elk and the Idaho Statesman. Former Secretary of the Interior and Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus, the chairman of the Andrus Center for Public Policy, said Thursday that the one-day event will allow Idahoans and others in the West to hear directly about the agency's agendas from BLM Director Bob Abbey and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. "Even in a down economy, the American West - Idaho included - is a growing, changing place," Andrus said. "Whether we are talking about the challenges presented by expanding urban areas, the tremendous energy development taking place across the West or the re-introduction of wolves, we face many complicated and contentious issues."...more

California Conservationists, Oil Company Strike Deal

Conservation groups on Wednesday unveiled a new version of an unusual agreement in which they will lobby for an oil company's expansion of drilling off the coast of California in exchange for definite end dates to its local petroleum operations. The revision attempts to address criticisms of the original 2008 agreement by making its terms public, granting the state the right to enforce it and strengthening provisions to ensure an end to operations offshore from scenic Santa Barbara County. A week after President Barack Obama moved to open many federal waters to drilling - except along the West Coast - local environmental groups accompanied by area political leaders unveiled the revised plan at Shoreline Park on a bluff overlooking the blue Pacific with oil rigs in the distance...more

Climate Change Impacts on Wildlife will be Studied

Our nation’s fish and wildlife are expected to be significantly impacted now and in the future as the climate continues to fluctuate. New research will help understand future climate conditions and impacts to species and their habitats. Projects include studies of alterations in Florida’s ecosystems, potential impacts on Great Lakes’ fish, sea-level rise impacts on San Francisco Bay marshes, and the effects of melting glaciers on Alaska’s freshwater coastal systems. “The U.S. Geological Survey has funded 17 new projects through the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center,” said USGS Associate Director for Biology Susan Haseltine. “Our future holds new climate conditions and new habitat responses, and managers need projections based on sound science to assess how our landscapes may change and to develop effective response strategies for species survival.”...more

Here are the two projects of most interest to The West:

Trout at Risk in the West Some native trout populations in the western United States are at risk for extinction, with many proposed for or listed under the Endangered Species Act. The recovery of these species is a challenge as climate change is likely to raise water temperatures, alter wildfire occurrences, and increase demand for water resources. USGS scientists are studying how climate change will influence fish habitats and providing data to managers to help them assess extinction risks and develop appropriate response strategies.

Thirsty Plants in the Arid Southwest A warmer climate can bring dryer conditions, threatening plant species in the arid southwestern United States as well as the wildlife that depend on these plants for habitat and food. USGS scientists will expand on existing models that outline climate change impacts to plant populations and include up to 30 plant species. Focus will be placed on plants supporting wildlife of greatest concern. These models will also be used to project changes in wildlife populations.

Salmon Fishermen Swim Against Political Tide in Long-Running Calif. Water War

California congressmen George Miller and Mike Thompson stumped for salmon fishermen yesterday during a political rally here meant to counter the political muscle of San Joaquin Valley farmers who tend to get more media attention in the long-running war over the state's strained water supply. The Democratic lawmakers represent Northern California districts that were once home to some of the nation's most active king, or chinook, salmon runs. But the California and Oregon salmon fishery that largely starts in the Sacramento River north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has collapsed. Commercial salmon fishermen blame the agriculture industry for the fishery's collapse -- namely, Central Valley farmers who have seen their share of water from federal and state sources steadily increase in recent years. Water exports from the delta, the fishermen say, had reached record highs from 2003 to 2007, prior to the fishery collapse and the implementation of pumping limits under the federal Endangered Species Act...more

Plan outlines Snake Dam removal steps

The Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday released a plan outlining the steps to evaluate the potential breaching of one or more dams on the Lower Snake River if necessary to ensure survival of endangered wild salmon and steelhead. A study -- which would include a technical phase and public policy phase and possibly the development of an environmental impact statement -- is not imminent. A dramatic decline in the four-year average of wild salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act or a natural catastrophe are among the "trigger" events that would have to happen to launch the study -- which would take several years to complete, Corps officials said...more

‘Story of Stuff’ is Environmental Propaganda Aimed at Your Child’s Classroom

We’ll start with extraction which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation which is a fancy word for trashing the planet. What this looks like is we chop down trees, we blow up mountains to get the metals inside, we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals. — The Story of Stuff

This and other ‘teachable moments’ are being brought to a classroom near you by The Story of Stuff. According to the New York Times it has been watched by over 7 million children in the US. Annie Leonard, the filmmaker, says she spent 10 years traveling the globe collecting the information contained in the 20-minute film. It’s hard to know where to start with Leonard. Is it the fact that she had enough “stuff” to spend 10 years on the film; or the amount of stuff she used making the film; cameras, computers, planes and cars; or the fact that everything about her life is based on the very “stuff ” she so abhors; or is it that pretty much everything she says is false. For now lets ignore Leonard as another spoilt idiotic Californian (whose life has been gorgeously enriched by “extraction” and who conveniently ignores that in this anti-extraction sermon) and concentrate on how a documentary that has so many factual inaccuracies is being shown to so many impressionable children by their teachers...more

You can view The Story of Stuff by going here.

Deere targeted for backing climate bill + video

Deere & Co. is coming under pressure to drop its support for legislation aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Two groups, FreedomWorks and the National Center for Public Policy Research announced today that they’re running ads in two cities with major Deere operations – Waterloo, Ia., and Moline, Ill. – aimed at generating complaints to company executives from their employees. Deere is part of a coalition called the Climate Action Partnership – DuPont, parent company of Pioneer Hi-Bred is another one – that has been backing climate legislation. The ads claim that a cap-and-trade system that the legislation would create to raise the cost of fossil fuels would eliminate many jobs. Viewers are urged to call John Deere’s compliance hotline...more

Here is the 30 second ad:

San Francisco Calls for Meatless Mondays to Tie Diet to Climate Change

Besides approving rules against using plastic grocery bags, mixing recycling with compost, and smoking in sidewalk cafes, San Francisco supervisors have passed a resolution asking residents to observe meatless Mondays. San Francisco supervisors passed the resolution Tuesday for no-meat Mondays in their latest legislative endorsement of healthy, eco-conscious living. It cannot stop the city's residents from eating meat. Instead, it is meant to call attention to the relationship between diet and climate change. To some, the resolution is a welcome reminder of the small part that residents play in solving a larger problem. Others, however, were left asking for Board of Supervisor-Free Fridays...more

But I want one of them steaks!

Cows absolved of causing global warming with nitrous oxide

In the past environmentalists, from Lord Stern to Sir Paul McCartney, have urged people to stop eating meat because the methane produced by cattle causes global warming. However a new study found that cattle grazed on the grasslands of China actually reduce another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, carried out the study in Inner Mongolia in China. He found that grassland produced more nitrous oxide during the spring thaw when sheep or cattle have not been grazing. This is because the greenhouse gas, also known as laughing gas, is released by microbes in the soil. When the grass is long snow settles keeping the microbes warm and providing water, however when the grass is cut short by animals the ground freezes and the microbes die. Dr Butterbach-Bahl said the study overturned assumptions about grazing goats and cattle. "It's been generally assumed that if you increase livestock numbers you get a rise in emissions of nitrous oxide. This is not the case," he said...more