NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service Suggests Halt To Grazing In Montana Wildfire Area The thousands of cattle that ordinarily graze on federal and private land south of Big Timber should not be there next year, because they'd be too hard on the land as it rebounds from the big Derby Mountain wildfire, a federal report says. Its recommendation to suspend grazing until 2008 has consequences for rancher Terry Terland, who was tending cattle burned by the fire that began with lightning Aug. 22 and spread across 207,000 acres of forest and range, 60% of it owned privately. The fire, which destroyed 26 homes, continues to smolder. Terland has eliminated about 20 calves burned by the fire and left unable to walk adequately, and said several more animals may have to go. "I don't know how so many cows survived as they did," he said. The 140 cow-calf pairs that Terland had before the fire are just a fraction of the cattle ordinarily put out to graze on federal or private lands in the area that burned. The impact of all that grazing would be too much for the recovering land; therefore, grazing should be deferred, concluded a federal team that spent two weeks studying effects of the fire and ways to mitigate them, then summarized findings in the report released this week. Team leader Henry Shovic, soil scientist for the Gallatin National Forest, said the land stands to recover fully. "Many of the grasslands were singed, not so much burned," he said Wednesday....
Where the wild things are Carrizo Plain rancher John Ruskovich stood in the open ground behind his property after dusk, watching the western ridgeline. Starlight coated the sky. A raptor drifted slowly across the remote town of California Valley and toward the distant Caliente foothills. Other than the faint whistle of an eastbound zephyr, not a sound hit the wind. The cry of a colt cut through the silence. "This is why we're here," Ruskovich suddenly said, keeping his gaze locked on the horizon. These days, however, the old Carrizans also share the landscape with folks cut from different fabric. As the coastal gap filled in the late 20th century, rising land prices in Pacific communities pushed many low-income residents over the eastern ranges. Some sought refuge in California Valley and the greater Carrizo basin. Not long after, a late-term proclamation by President Bill Clinton in 2001 established the Carrizo Plain National Monument in the southern half of the valley. The monument opened the levies to a tide of ecotourism and ultimately charmed Realtor interests. In came a host of what locals refer to as "born-again Carrizans" propertied non-natives seeking respite from the modern world. Suffice it to say, the three faces of Carrizo never managed to see eye-to-eye, and, with the relatively meager law enforcement presence, disagreements on the plain occasionally spun out of control....
Cattle-grazing project intended to improve wildlife lands The whole concept sounds like an oxymoron: bringing cattle in to graze on state wildlife lands ... for the sake of the wildlife. Try to get your head around that one. That's precisely what state wildlife managers have been doing since entering into a cooperative pilot program with the Washington Cattlemen's Association to see if selective grazing can indeed improve habitat and growth of wildlife forage. To some, the concept may seem incongruous. "It just defies logic," groused one critic. But some Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials involved in the project are defending it as potentially a very good thing -- and not, apparently, simply because the program was foisted upon them by the state governor. "When I first heard about it, I thought this may not be such a bad thing," said Bob Dice, manager of four wildlife areas in southeast Washington, three of which already are or will soon become part of the pilot grazing program. Much of that land had been cattle range before the state acquired it, largely because of its abundance of muledeer and elk. Now, Dice said, "We've got lands that have been sitting essentially idle for 15, 20 years, with no impact as far as fire and grazing." And, said state range specialist Edd Bracken, that minimal impact has not been to the liking of the big-game species so coveted by hunters....
Editorial - A pointless fight: Defense of grazing totally misplaced The elected officials of two southern Utah counties may pretend, even to themselves, that their protracted lawsuit over grazing rights in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a fight against overreaching environmentalists and a misdirected federal agency. But what Kane and Garfield counties are really fighting is the march of time. So it is no wonder they keep losing. The latest - and, hopefully, the last - setback for the counties came Friday in U.S. District Court. Judge Tena Campbell correctly ruled that the counties had no business trying to stop the willing sale of $1.5 million worth of federal grazing permits to the privately funded willing buyers of the Grand Canyon Trust. The Bureau of Land Management, which holds the land for all Americans, had approved the sale and its own administrative law judge later upheld the action. But, at a cost to state taxpayers now approaching $125,000, the counties persisted. They claimed that, because the Grand Canyon Trust first pondered retiring the land from grazing, then began making minimal use of the permits while the area's land use plan was under way, the permits should go instead to ranchers who were eager to use the permits to their fullest. The judge rightly dismissed the counties' estimate of $170,000 in lost annual revenue as pure conjecture. She might also have noted that, even if true, it would be no different than losses local government always suffers when the marketplace causes any business to close or relocate....
FB Seeks Intervenor Status in BLM Grazing Lawsuit The American Farm Bureau Federation is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Western Watersheds Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council against the Bureau of Land Management in U.S. District Court in Idaho. The activist environmental groups are seeking to stop BLM from implementing new regulations on livestock grazing on public lands. If intervenor status is granted, AFBF’s written response to complaints brought by the groups in the lawsuit will be considered by the court. “We filed the motion to intervene because we believe the Bureau of Land Management acted within its authority in issuing new grazing regulations and that they are appropriate. The new BLM regulations will benefit ranchers in nearly a dozen Western states,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “Ranchers holding grazing permits generally move their livestock to public lands in the summer months, providing an important feed rotation that keeps their operations viable. Without grazing permits, ranchers would be forced to bear the additional cost of providing feed to their livestock year-round.”....
'Ranchette' buyers take a slice of rural West Allen Edwards grows trees and salad greens and raises sheep and goats on 520 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of greater Sacramento's relentless sprawl. The land has been in his family 60 years, but never under pressure like it is today. Edwards says residential developments, including upscale trophy homes known as "ranchettes" — rural dwellings on several acres — are making it harder for farmers like him to operate. Ranchette neighbors tried to block renewal of his permit to harvest timber over worries that logging trucks would obstruct their access road. When he cuts trees, they complain that it degrades their views. All around him, developers have pushed land prices beyond what farmers and ranchers can afford. Edwards and his wife, Nancy, are becoming an anachronism in the foothills: farmers who still make a living off their land. "Even among our friends the norm is you're always looking for some way to divide your land and sell it off," says Edwards, 59. "It's probably the biggest business in this area." And not just here. In California's Central Valley, the nation's most productive farm region, on the slopes of the Colorado Rockies, in western Montana's big-sky country and in other popular Western locales, ranchettes are fragmenting the countryside at an alarming rate, environmentalists and land-use experts say....
Bush Environmental Policy Irks Judges In West Using language that suggests they are fed up with the Bush administration, federal judges across the West have issued a flurry of rulings in recent weeks, chastising the government for repeated and sometimes willful failure to enforce laws protecting fish, forests, wildlife and clean air. In decisions in Oregon, California, Montana and Wyoming, judges have criticized the judgment, expertise and, in some cases, integrity of the federal agencies that manage natural resources on public lands. The rulings come at a time when an emerging bipartisan coalition of western politicians, hunters, anglers and homeowners has joined conservation groups in objecting to the rapid pace and environmental consequences of President Bush's policies for energy extraction on federal land. Specialists in environmental law cite a noticeable increase in the number of recent court rulings in which federal judges in the West have ruled against the administration, using blunt language that shows impatience and annoyance. "You are seeing frustration in the federal judiciary," said Dan Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, in Portland, Oregon. The law school has the nation's oldest environmental law program. "When judges express that frustration on paper, which is not all that often, they are often reflecting what they see as a systematic effort to get around the law."....
U.S. EPA settles with Taft, CA company for Clean Water Act violations The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced resolution of Clean Water Act violations with GPS River Rock Products at its sand and gravel mining facility in Ventucopa, Santa Barbara County, CA. In addition to paying a $35,870 fine, the mining company will transfer 22 acres of land in the Cuyama River watershed to the Bureau of Land Management for protection of habitat and the endangered California jewelflower. GPS River Rock Products has agreed to spend up to $130,000 to enhance and restore portions of the Cuyama River on BLM-owned land that have historically been used as illegal dump sites. Once these dumps sites have been restored, GPS will discourage further illegal dumping by removing access to the sites by fencing or removing access roads....
Whooping Cranes, Ultralight Planes Take Flight on Annual Migration Early this morning a unique flock of 18 birds joined the millions heading south for the winter. But this group of whooping cranes had surprising-looking "birds" at the helm: four ultralight aircraft. Researchers from Operation Migration, a Port Perry, Ontario-based nonprofit, are flying the whooping cranes from central Wisconsin to Florida with the ultimate goal of reintroducing a new migrating population of the endangered species.
Seventeen cranes successfully flew the initial leg—4 miles (6 kilometers)—of the 1,228-mile (1,976-kilometer) journey on their first try. One crane, however, was reluctant. A female bird "decided she was quite comfortable on the runway," said Liz Condie, Operation Migration's communications director. One of the ultralights headed back for her. "It took some encouragement," Condie said, "Eventually, she decided [to do it.]" The group is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a team of government agencies and nonprofits in the United States and Canada working to establish a migratory population of whooping cranes in the eastern U.S....
California’s Harmful Fish Stocking Practices Challenged The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers Council filed a lawsuit today against the California Department of Fish and Game over the agency’s longstanding failure to consider the impacts of fish stocking on imperiled aquatic species such as the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, Cascades Frog and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. “Numerous studies demonstrate that stocking introduced trout in California’s lakes and rivers has serious impacts on native fish and amphibians and is contributing to a number of species’ slide towards extinction,” stated Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Yet Fish and Game has never analyzed or mitigated the impacts of stocking on California’s aquatic ecosystems or natural heritage.” The groups submitted comments in August 2005 and again in July 2006 requesting that Fish and Game initiate environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The comments included data showing that fish stocking in 2005 occurred in at least 47 water bodies where 36 imperiled species occur, including a number of federally listed threatened and endangered species....
Canyon permits for private river runs go to lottery system Grand Canyon National Park has started taking applications for self-guided rafting permits on the Colorado River and will use a new lottery that replaces a 26-year-old waiting-list system. The lottery will allocate permits for private trips as opposed to those run by commercial outfitters. Private, or non-commercial, trip permits, which have attracted more than 1,000 applicants a year, are among the most coveted and hardest to obtain in the national parks. Whether the lottery will make permits easier to obtain is debatable. But it may, at least, open the process to newcomers. It also may require applicants to use new strategies to maximize their chances of getting drawn. Under the old permit system, which began in 1980, applicants for self-guided river trips paid $100 to be put on a waiting list. The list had grown to more than 8,200 people by 2003, when it was frozen. Some waited 10 years or more to obtain a permit, said Steve Sullivan, permits program manager for Grand Canyon National Park. The new system permits 503 launches per year for self-guided trips, compared with an average of 253 per year under the old system. Also, permit dates are more spread out during the year. (Because some permits were assigned to people on the wait list, only 197 launches are in the 2007 lottery.)....
Trust-land fight on ballot Arizona's 9.3 million acres of state trust land are to be managed for the benefit of Arizona's schools. For nearly 100 years, that has meant selling land at auction to the highest bidder. But that makes it hard for cities, counties and conservation groups to buy land they want protected from development, including almost two-thirds of the 650,000 acres identified in Pima County's 2004 open-space bond program. Enter Proposition 105 and Proposition 106. Voters must decide this November between the two versions of trust-land reform. Both would make it possible for counties and cities to buy some conservation land at market value, instead of at auction, but that is where the similarities end. Proposition 105 was placed on the ballot by the Legislature, at the request of home builders. It sets aside roughly 37,000 acres of open space that cities or counties could buy for fair-market value. It also would allow the Legislature to set aside another 400,000 acres in the future. Proposition 106 is backed by environmentalists and the state teachers union. It conserves more land — 690,000 acres — and almost half of it would be conserved without the requirement that it be bought. The balance, roughly 360,000 acres, could be bought by cities, counties or conservation groups at market value....
Is Colorado on cusp of another uranium rush? During the last several years, the price of uranium has risen from $7 a pound to more than $50, leading to an upsurge in speculative activity, and a revival of Colorado’s uranium industry. In the western Colorado counties of Montrose, San Miguel and Mesa, more than 5,000 uranium mining claims have been filed during the last four years, up from only a handful during the preceding two decades. Mining giants such as Cameco have acquired prospects in the “uranium belt,” as have dozens of smaller firms. According to Timothy Collins, a San Francisco venture capitalist who was deeply involved in the uranium industry in the 1960s, today’s market is being driven by a looming imbalance between supply and demand....
Western Fires: Made in Washington, D.C. From high atop a horse named Cruiser, it’s easy to see what ails so much of America’s West. Above and below an equestrian path in the Gallatin National Forest, pine trees and Douglas firs crowd together like rush-hour subway commuters. Many are shorter and thinner than normal, due to intense competition for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Among these upright evergreens, dead trunks, limbs, and branches litter the arid ground. They are parched white, like the bones of a carcass bleached beneath the searing sunshine. “This hasn’t burned since the 1940s,” says Ryan Neel, a wrangler from the nearby Lone Mountain Ranch. One well-placed lightning bolt could turn this overgrown hillside into a furnace. Compare this neglected patch of the federal property portfolio to the practically groomed habitat at media mogul Ted Turner’s 175-square-mile Flying D Ranch, about 50 miles away. Young and old members of assorted arboreal species stand comfortably apart from each other, minimizing fire risk. On this private land, foresters carefully pick trees to sell, and then carefully remove them by helicopter. Despite such costly techniques, Turner Enterprises turns a profit. “Fire safety is an ancillary benefit of thinning for pest and disease control,” says general manager Russ Miller. “Spacing out the trees makes it more difficult for insects to spread from tree to tree.” This contrast between public mismanagement and private stewardship recurs across the West. The enormous fires that routinely engulf millions of acres from the Rockies to the Pacific tend to devour federal lands. Washington, D.C. owns, for instance, 29.9 percent of Montana, 45.3 percent of California, and 84.5 percent of Nevada. Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, 54.1 percent of America’s West is federal property....
Hunters, lawmakers question 'canned hunts' Days after Gov. Jim Risch ordered a special hunt to kill domestic elk that escaped from Rex Rammell's ranch in eastern Idaho, Brad Horner was inside Rammell's Chief Joseph hunting preserve, shooting a huge, six-point bull elk. Horner is a veteran hunter from McMinnville, Ore., with a room full of trophies from around the world, including Africa. He didn't say how much he paid Rammell, who charges up to $6,000 for a trophy elk. But like any hunter, he was eager to share the story of his successful hunt. "It took 15 minutes," Horner said. "I shot him at 200 yards." Rammell's escaped elk and the ease in which a hunter can pay for the privilege of killing one of Idaho's most prized big game animals has hunters, legislators and governor candidates questioning whether "shooter bull" operations belong in Idaho. But elk ranchers say the controversial hunts are vital to the elk ranching industry and are worth about $20 million annually in economic impact to the state....
Born Again, Again: Will evangelicals help save the earth? But this was also the year the environmental movement turned biblical -- the year when people of faith began in large numbers to join the first rank of those trying to protect creation. The key symbolic moment came in February, when 86 of the country's leading evangelical scholars and pastors signed on to the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a document that may turn out to be as important in the fight against global warming as any stack of studies and computer models. It made clear, among other things, that even in the evangelical community, "right wing" and "Christian" are not synonyms, and in so doing it may have opened the door to a deeper and more interesting politics than we've experienced in the last decade of fierce ideological divide. That document seemed, to many newspaper readers, to come out of nowhere. But, of course, it was the result of long and patient groundwork from a small corps of people. Understanding that history helps illuminate what the future might hold for this effort. And given that 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian, and that we manage to emit 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide -- well, the future of Christian environmentalism may have something significant to do with the future of the planet....
Global Warming Could Spread Extreme Drought Drought could double by century's end because of global warming, threatening the survival of millions of people around the world, according to new research by British climate scientists. The researchers warn that this estimate may actually be too conservative, as it doe not take into account the potential for carbon feedbacks in the climate system that are likely to accelerate warming across the planet. The study was funded by the British government and carried out by climate scientists at the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. "This report is jaw-dropping," said Andrew Simms, spokesman for the Climate Clinic, a coalition of UK environmentalists, businesses and the Energy Saving Trust. "The new projections on drought from the Hadley Centre are like being told that this is the day the earth catches fire." The researchers examined climate records for the second half of the 20th century and found global drought increased 25 percent in the 1990s. Using a powerful climate model, the researchers analyzed future drought based on temperature and rainfall predictions. The research shows that extreme drought could affect 30 percent of the world's land surface, up from the current span of 3 percent. Severe drought will affect 40 percent of the earth's land, up from eight percent, and moderate drought, which currently affects about 25 percent of the world's surface, will rise to 50 percent....
Report Looks at Farmers' Perspective on Conservation Program The Center for Rural Affairs explored the experiences farmers and ranchers had with the Conservation Security Program and on Thursday released the results in a report titled "The Conservation Security Program: An Assessment of Farmers' Experience with Program Implementation." The CSP is a voluntary stewardship incentives program designed to reward farmers and ranchers for adopting advances conservation systems that provide environmental services benefiting the country as a whole. The program pays farmers for clean water, better soil management, improved habitat, energy efficiency, and other natural resource benefits. According the Center for Rural Affairs, the majority of farmers showed strong support for the CSP, but the interviews revealed some concerns as well. "Through our hotline and interviews we have found that the CSP is a very promising conservation program that farmers and ranchers are very excited about," says the Center's Traci Bruckner. "There is no question, however, that the lack of appropriate funding for the program, stemming from continuous budgetary assaults, as well as problematic administrative implementation, have kept the program from reaching its full potential."....Go here(pdf)to read the report.
Carey ranchers instrumental in starting Trailing of the Sheep Festival The long drive to John Peavey and Diane Josephy Peavey's Flat Top Sheep Ranch northeast of Carey takes visitors past rural—really rural—and then on to really remote. Altogether, the Peaveys' ranch stretches across some 28,000 deeded acres, the majority of which is found in the Muldoon area. A smaller portion of the land they own—where they overwinter their cattle herd—is located down south in the sagebrush deserts near a place called Kimama, which is north of the towns of Burley and Buhl. During the warmer months, the Peaveys graze their sheep and cattle across a large expanse of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments in the Pioneer Mountains and foothills surrounding the main ranch. In the winter, the Peaveys' sheep are trucked out of state to warmer grazing areas in California....

Obituary for Helen (Palmer) Chenoweth-Hage

Jan. 27, 1938 – Oct. 2, 2006


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 5, 2006

(BOISE, ID) She was only 4 ½ pounds when she was born on January 27, 1938 so her parents, Dwight and Ardelle Palmer were praying that God would let them keep their first born – a daughter, who they named Helen after a family friend. God did let them keep this precious girl. And yet, how could they know that their little girl would grow to be a stately 5’9” woman who would one day walk the halls of Congress and the world including Eastern Europe, Israel, Mexico, Africa and Australia. Helen (Palmer) Chenoweth-Hage lived an amazing life on this earth until her unexpected death on October 2, 2006 – the result of an automobile accident near Tonopah, Nevada.

Helen was born in Topeka, KS but spent most of her growing up years on her father’s dairy farm in Grants Pass, OR. She overcame a bout of polio at age 9 with shear grit. She picked hops in the summer as a teenager and rode her feisty horse for fun. She played cymbals in the high school band and was awarded a music scholarship to Germany to play classical bass violin. Her children are grateful that she chose instead to attend Whitworth College in Spokane, WA where she met their father, Nick Chenoweth.

Helen lived with her husband and two children, Mike and Meg, in Orofino, Idaho where she designed and managed the Northside Medical Clinic. There she developed one of the nation’s first physician recruitment practices where she recruited doctors for under-serviced rural communities.

She and Nick were quietly divorced in 1975. She then moved to Boise to become the Executive Director of the Idaho Republican Party. She revived the Party’s dismal financial condition by bringing to Idaho several notable speakers including William F. Buckley, Jr. and Ronald Reagan. She articulated a set of beliefs that reflected the principles of the Republican Party and spoke throughout the state to provide assistance to Republican legislative candidates including Larry Craig who represented his district in the State Legislature. She served as (then) Congressman Steve Symm’s District Director in 1977 through his election in 1978 after which she started her own business, Consulting Associates where she worked as a lobbyist in the legislature.

In 1993 she was asked by prominent Idahoans to consider running for Congress, and with the encouragement of her pastor, made her first bid for election. With her victory in 1994, Helen became the second woman to represent Idaho in that capacity and one of very few Congressmen to be elected by her peers to a Chairmanship (House Sub-Committee on Forest and Forest Health) after only one term. While in Congress she articulated and defended a freedom philosophy that was born out of a true appreciation of this country particularly its foundation. She retired based on her term limits pledge, keeping her word always.

On October 2, 1999 she married Wayne Hage and when her term was complete at the end of 2000 she moved to her husband’s Nevada ranch. They traveled the country speaking and teaching on private property rights.

Helen loved God; she loved her family; she loved our God-given rights and the heart of those willing to serve a country that would defend those rights; she loved good law; she loved justice; she loved Idaho, the western way of life and the idea that is “America;” she loved life.

Helen is survived by her two children, Michael (Diane) Chenoweth and Meg Keenan; Wayne Hage’s children, Ramona (Jeff) Morrison, Ruthie (Jace) Agee, Margaret (Dan) Byfield, Laura (David) Perkins, and Wayne (Yelena) Hage. She is also survived by their grandchildren, Dominick Keenan, Brandy Chenoweth, Matthew Keenan, Katy Keenan, Kristy Chenoweth, Timothy Keenan, Tyler Agee, Jacob Agee, John Morrison, Kristin Morrison, David Perkins, Katelyn Agee, Harrison Perkins, Charlton Perkins, McKenzy Byfield and Bryan Hage.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Monday, October 9, 2006 at Capital Christian Center in Meridian, Idaho. A private graveside service will be held in Nevada later in the week.
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Contact: Dominick Keenan 208.837.0071

NEWS ROUNDUP

Water, Water ... Where? The worst drought on record in these parts lasted for much of the 1950s. While city folks were discovering tv and cars with fins, North Texas farmers and ranchers suffered. Stock tanks dried up in the blistering heat, grass grew scarce, crops withered in the fields. Cattle had to be sold cheap. Peewee Walker remembers the drought of the ’50s and the one prior to that that turned so much of the plains into the Dust Bowl. He’s been farming or ranching most of his 91 years in the Everman area. Those bad times felt pretty much like what’s happening now, he said — except he’s got air conditioning this time around. Other than that, “I’d say they’re pretty well equal.” R.W. Looper keeps a couple of dozen cows on 220 acres near Azle, not far from the place where he was born 82 years ago. He thinks the current drought is a match for what he experienced in the ’50s. “It was dry as heck then, but I don’t know if it was any drier than it is now,” he said. “It was two or three months into this summer before I got any rain here. I still don’t have any water in the tank. I lost a big oak tree out there by the barn.” The dryness that has lingered here for most of the past decade, along with the severe heat of this past summer, is hurting farmers and ranchers again, but it’s also affecting cities and towns....
GAO blames govt. for logging losses A government study blamed the Bush administration, not lawsuits by environmentalists, for adding to the cost of a logging project in which the government spent $11 million to salvage less than $9 million in timber from a wildfire. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the administration's decision to dramatically increase logging, coupled with the size of the fire and the complexity of environmental laws, led to delays. The so-called "Biscuit fire" burned almost 500,000 acres in Oregon and California in 2002, making it largest wildfire in the lower 48 states since 1997. The Bush administration and its Republican allies contended that lawsuits filed by environmentalists led to the increased costs. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, said the report released Wednesday demonstrated the need for a new law sponsored by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to speed up logging of burned forests and tree planting after storms and wildfires. "The pattern of litigation-related delays associated with this project bears poignant witness to the need for congressional action on Greg Walden's post-catastrophic restoration bill, as the president called for in Los Angeles," Rey said....Go here to read the GAO report.
South Dakota leaders back rail for coal South Dakota's top elected officials joined business leaders Tuesday to urge approval of a $2.3 billion federal loan for the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's expansion plan. The project, which would haul coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin to Midwest power plants, also would create thousands of jobs and boost the rural economy in South Dakota and surrounding states, supporters told a top U.S. Transportation Department official during a public forum. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the project could change South Dakota's entire economy by lowering shipping rates for grain, improving the hauling of ethanol and other products and boosting the supply of coal to power plants. For nearly a decade, DM&E has worked on a project that would rebuild 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track to reach the Powder River Basin coal mines. The project would cost an estimated $6 billion, with $2.3 billion coming from the federal loan and the rest from private funding....
U.S. Supreme Court Denies City’s Lawsuit on Soledad Canyon Consent Decree he U.S. Supreme Court denied the city of Santa Clarita’s lawsuit, or its request for review known as petition for certiorari, effectively allowing the Consent Decree to stand and the Soledad Canyon quarry project to move forward. The ruling prevents the city from further attempts to stop the legally binding Consent Decree from taking effect.
The proposed Soledad Canyon quarry, on the backside of the mountain, is a vital source of sand and gravel for Southern California. Currently, Los Angeles County alone uses 34 million tons of aggregates each year for construction projects including building homes, schools, and hospitals, and constructing new roads to help alleviate traffic congestion. Once operational, the Soledad Canyon Project is allowed to produce between 1.4 million and 5 million tons each year, impacting only 177 acres or less over the life of the project. In its petition for certiorari, the city of Santa Clarita had alleged the Consent Decree intruded on the rights of the city. Under this Consent Decree, Los Angeles County agreed to cease opposing and delaying the issuance of county approvals for the development of the mine site after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had granted the company’s predecessor the rights to the sand and gravel on the 460-acre site in 2000. The Consent Decree also allows the county to complete its environmental review process, and to impose on the project a host of environmental and socially beneficial conditions not otherwise required. “We are pleased with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, which we feel clearly confirms that the Consent Decree is proper and consistent with all applicable laws,” said Gilberto Perez, President of CEMEX USA....
DWR sued by fishing alliance A coalition of fishing groups on Wednesday sued the state Department of Water Resources, alleging the agency never obtained the proper legal authority to kill fish while exporting north-state water to Southern California. Each year, thousands of fish die in pumps near Tracy in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Screens keep thousands more out of the pumps, but the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance claims DWR never obtained a permit that would set pumping rules and impose measures to restore the fish. The so-called "take permit" is required under the California Endangered Species Act, or CESA, and would be issued by the state Department of Fish and Game. Fish species cited in the lawsuit are the endangered winter-run chinook salmon, and the Delta smelt and spring-run chinook, both threatened....
Defenders of Wildlife Report Spotlights 10 National Wildlife Refuges Threatened by Global Warming Global warming is the single greatest challenge threatening the National Wildlife Refuge System as a whole, according to a Defenders of Wildlife report that identifies 10 refuges demonstrating the dire consequences from global warming. "Global warming is occurring rapidly and these climate changes pose serious threats to wildlife and habitat," stated Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "These changes can be seen throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System, which provides stark real-world examples of the effects of global warming today." The report, "Refuges at Risk, The Threat of Global Warming," is part of an annual assessment Defenders of Wildlife releases to gauge the state of the refuge system. "While this report focuses on the 10 most threatened refuges, the entire refuge system faces an uncertain future given the progress of global warming," said Schlickeisen. "To fulfill its wildlife conservation mission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must take immediate steps to deal with the impacts of global warming."....Go here to read the report.
Bush, Enviros Seek Ban on Bottom Trawling President George W. Bush Tuesday directed two of his Cabinet officials to work for an end to destructive fishing practices, such as unregulated bottom trawling on the high seas. Scientists say the practice is destroying some of the world's most sensitive ocean habitats. In a memorandum, the President directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in consultation with Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, to work with Regional Fishery Management Organizations, RFMOs, other countries and international organizations to establish rules to enhance sustainable fishing practices and to end destructive fishing practices. The memo specifies other practices that must be ended such as the use of explosives and chemicals that destroy the long-term productivity of ecosystems like seamounts, corals, and sponge fields. The President emphasized that it remains United States policy to support protection and use of sustainable fisheries as a food source and to meet the needs of commercial and recreational fishing. The President directed the Secretary of State to work with other countries to establish new institutional arrangements, including new RFMOs, to protect ecosystems in high seas areas where no such arrangement now exists....
Park Service unhappy with plan to shift funds to howitzer shelling For several years now, railroaders have wanted to shell Glacier National Park's wilderness with howitzers, hoping to blast potential avalanches away from above their increasingly busy tracks. Now, legislation moving through Congress could help make that happen - and could even compel the National Park Service to pay for the bombing. “This (proposal) would take the money directly out of the Park Service budget,” said Steve Thompson, Glacier program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Everyone knows they can't afford that.” The proposed legislation - already passed through the U.S. Senate and now working its way through the House with help from two key Alaska Republicans - seeks to “reduce the risks from and mitigate the effects of avalanches on recreational users of public lands.”....Won't that be cool if this becomes law. Reenactors can't point a fake gun at anybody, but by golly we can blow the hell out of the hillsides with howitzers. Our Federales at work.
Legislation and litigation for Santa Rosa Island Legislation and litigation could be the responses to the passage of an annual defense bill that includes language allowing deer and elk hunting on Santa Rosa Island to continue past a previously court-ordered deadline of 2011. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, authored the language and attempted in 2005 to have the island turned over to the United States Department of Defense for the use of military personnel and their guests — and with the intention that the visitors would be allowed to hunt deer and elk, game that is not native to the island. Hunter now envisions the island as a part-time private hunting ground for active service members, military retirees and veterans groups. The 50,000-plus-acre island is property of the National Park Service, which purchased the island in 1986 for $30 million from the Vail family. But Vail & Vickers, the Vail family’s company, still lays claim to the deer and elk. Until 1996, when the National Parks Conservation Association filed suit because of the continued hunting, the park service allowed the company to run a hunting business on the island. The defense bill’s approval ensures that the deer and elk can remain on the island indefinitely, despite the protests of environmental groups that contend the legislation is a direct violation of the Endangered Species Act....
Interior employess surf for sex and gambling Speaking of sex -- the topic du jour in Washington -- the Interior Department's inspector general has uncovered an impressive amount of time spent by department employees surfing porn, game, gambling and shopping Web sites. "Our review of one week of computer use logs revealed over 4,732 log entries relating to sexually explicit and gambling websites" by department computers, said IG Earl E. Devaney 's report -- titled "Excessive Indulgences." "More alarming," the report said, "was our finding regarding access to on-line game and auction websites: we discovered over 1 million log entries where 7,763 department computer users spent over 2,004 hours accessing game and auction sites during that same week." In a year, "these veritable shopping and gaming binges could account for 104,221 hours of lost productivity," equaling the amount of yearly work time put in by 50 employees. But it's likely worse, the report continued. "We believe that our estimates of inappropriate use activity are conservative, particularly the amount of time spent at pornographic and/or sexually explicit websites." This Internet use costs taxpayers more than $2 million in lost wages, the report said. (Officials yesterday were not sure how the 80,000-employee department compared with other agencies.)....

HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE AND MEDIA BIAS

As a person who knew and on occasion worked with Helen over the last 12 years, I have been appalled at the biased and in some cases despicable obituaries that have been written about this fine lady.

Apparently I'm not the only one who has noticed this bias. Amy Ridenour takes on the Washington Post here, Clay Waters the New York Times here, and Michael Bates the Chicago Tribune here. Good work by the folks at NewsBusters. At least the left-of-center New Republic manages to give a back-handed compliment here.

Helen was an intelligent, brave and loving soul who always came down on the side of Liberty. May she rest in peace.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Bill would boost power of counties, states to claim roads States and counties could take control of thousands of rural back roads across the West, potentially including routes across national parks, areas being considered for wilderness designation and defense installations, under legislation proposed by a New Mexico congressman. A state or county that wants to claim ownership of a road across federal land would only have to present any official map or aerial photograph showing the road existed prior to 1986, according to the bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. The legislation would not prevent counties from claiming a public right of way across a defense installation or training range or running through a national park, provided it shows up on a federal, state or county map. If the bill had exempted those, Pearce's spokesman, David Host, said Tuesday, it could have "destroyed rights that might be there." County leaders in Utah hailed the bill as a way to break the stalemate over Revised Statute 2477, a Civil War-era mining law that granted counties and municipalities continued use of traditional routes across federal land. The law was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in, sparking numerous ownership disputes....
Elk or energy? It’s early evening at the Trophy Mountain Outfitters hunting camp, and Wes Heb is sitting on a hillside, beer in hand, watching hunting guide Mike Johnson skin the head of the huge bull elk that Heb shot that morning. It was a picture-perfect kill. The land is prime elk habitat and, some say, holds the highest-quality mule deer in the state. Beneath the soil, the Wyoming Range also holds high-quality oil and natural gas deposits, and during the past year, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have leased about 40,000 acres here for development as an energy field. Four of those leases would put oil rigs within a mile of Child’s camp, a move he says would ruin his outfitter business. Child has joined a coalition of outfitters and sportsmen working to preserve their hunting ground....
Montana governor announces coal-liquids plant Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Monday announced Montana will have one of the nation's first coal-to-liquid fuel facilities, a $1.3 billion project that several companies have agreed to build in the state's midsection. DKRW Advanced Fuels, Arch Minerals and Bull Mountain Cos. plan to develop the project at the Bull Mountain mine 14 miles south of Roundup, in central Montana, Schweitzer said. The governor said that although he announced the project, the state is not a partner nor did the developers request tax breaks or other incentives. "This is a private deal between private companies," Schweitzer said, adding the state worked to help draw the companies together. The Montana project would use what is called integrated gas combined cycle technology to gasify coal, rather than ignite it. The project calls for converting a portion of the synthetic gas into a daily 22,000 barrels of diesel fuel, using the rest of the gas to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity....
100-plus against Santa Rita mining More than a hundred people called on the Pima County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to oppose mining in the Santa Rita Mountains. The National Forest Service will have the final say over whether Canadian-based Augusta Resource Corp. can mine copper at the Rosemont Ranch in the Santa Rita Mountains. The company owns some of the 4,000-acre site outright, and the Forest Service owns the rest. The company has promised an environmentally friendly mine with ongoing reclamation and imported water, but the opponents — as many as half of them from Green Valley and some from as far away as Sonoita — said the company should not be trusted. The county's review of the company's proposal won't be ready until later this week, but opponents packed the meeting room to tell the supervisors they shouldn't trust the company's promises....
Federal judge in Seattle upholds new rules for relicensing dams A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the Bush administration's interpretation of dam-relicensing rules in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, although critics had argued it could lead to lesser protections for the environment. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said the administration did not exceed its authority when it established procedures for letting dam operators challenge environmental requirements, such as installing fish ladders and monitoring water quality. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issues licenses to operate dams, and often those 30- or 50-year licenses incorporate conditions set by other federal agencies to protect wildlife. The Energy Policy Act lets dam operators challenge such conditions in a hearing before an administrative law judge. It also allows them to suggest alternative environmental measures, and requires the judge to approve those measures if they are "adequate" and will be less expensive or allow for greater electricity production. A coalition of environmental and recreational groups, led by Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers, did not challenge the law itself. Instead, the coalition challenged the Bush administration's decision to apply it to dam relicensing applications that were already under way when the law took effect. The opponents also said the administration did not conduct a proper public notice period before implementing the law. Pechman rejected those arguments. She said Congress didn't indicate whether it wanted the law applied to pending applications, and that it was within the administration's authority to apply it to them. Furthermore, she said, no public notice period was required....
Forest Service spends $1.5 billion to fight record fires Wildfires in the lower 48 states have burned a record number of acres this year, and with the scorched land comes a record bill, a federal official said Tuesday. The U.S. Forest Service's firefighting efforts for fiscal year 2006, which ended Sept. 30, cost more than $1.5 billion, at least $100 million over budget, said Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department undersecretary for natural resources and the environment. To cover the overage, money was transferred from other programs that had surpluses, including a reforestation program, said Kent Connaughton, a veteran Forest Service official now also serving as the agency's comptroller. The fiscal 2006 tab compares with $690 million spent out of a nearly $1.2 billion budget in 2005 and $726 million spent out of a $959 million budget in 2004, Forest Service spokesman Dan Jiron said. Both the 2004 and 2005 fire seasons were mild compared with the current fire season, he said. The wildfire season is not over yet, but so far 9.93 million acres have burned in the Lower 48, Rey said. That's the most acres burned since at least 1960, when the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center began keeping reliable records. The previous record was in 2005, when more than 8.6 million acres burned. The average of the past 10 years has been 4.9 million acres....
Mountain pine beetles killing S.D. trees Large colonies of mountain pine beetles have become established in the central Black Hills, and officials estimate that about 2 million trees have been lost in the last two years. The Black Hills Forest Resource Association says drought has made things worse because trees that lack water and nutrients are more vulnerable to the insect pests. The beetles lay eggs under the bark, which essentially kills trees by making it impossible to transport food from the needles to the roots. The best defense is preventative maintenance and thinning, Everett said. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that nearly half of the Black Hills National Forest - 440,000 acres - is at high risk for beetle infestations over the next several years....
Off-roaders fund trails for all Most people give little thought to the time and money it takes to maintain forest trails. It can be time-consuming and money is hard to come by with shrinking Forest Service budgets. Fortunately, off-roaders contributed almost $8 million in 2005 for Forest Service trails in California, which was 33 percent more than the combined contributions from all non-motorized groups. Yet, while off-highway vehicle (OHV) users provide the lion’s share of trail funding, only one-fifth of the trails allow motorized recreation. Off-road groups volunteer considerable time on National Forest multiple use tails to keep the trails in good condition and protect the environment. It is hard work clearing downed trees, repairing washed out trails and trimming back overgrown brush, but worthwhile to keep the land healthy and make the trails more enjoyable for everyone. We are very fortunate to have world-class multiple use motorized trail systems on National Forest lands. The Forest Service is currently revising their Motorized Trail Plan and it is very important for motorized users to be involved to insure existing historical motorized trails are kept open....
Column - The battle for conservation science Our ability to protect and preserve wild places like Yellowstone -- indeed, our ability to protect our civilization -- turns in large part on our ability to understand the amazingly complex biological and scientific dynamics at play. We can't fight global warming or beat back avian flu or protect our families from air pollution unless we understand the science behind these issues and put it to use. But as we've seen again and again through the annals of history, powerful political forces use corrupted science to support desired political results. Witness the Bush administration's proposal to remove the Yellowstone grizzly bear population from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. By the basic standards of fundamental ecology, that should be a non-starter because of the relatively small population size and the substantial threats the bear faces....
Vandals hit logging site Vandals caused almost $500,000 damage to heavy equipment owned by a Medford, Ore., logging company near this rural Siskiyou County logging site -- an attack that may close the firm until at least next year. The attack "devastated" Hilltop Logging Inc., the firm that owned at least nine bulldozers, graders, front-end loaders and other machines that were damaged, apparently over the weekend, said Susan Gravenkamp, spokeswoman for the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department. The company has about 20 employees, she said. Dirt and other debris were put into fuel and oil lines, belts and fuel lines were cut, computer systems were destroyed and gear linkages were sawed in half, she said....
BLM acknowledges harm from Piceance gas wells A proposed ExxonMobil natural gas field expansion project west of Meeker could slightly reduce water flows in Piceance Creek, impact area air quality and destroy sage grouse habitat, according to the Bureau of Land Management. But those impacts are typical of natural gas development in the region, agency spokesman David Boyd said. The BLM on Monday issued an environmental assessment of ExxonMobil’s plans to construct 1,080 new natural gas wells on 120 well pads in the 28,800-acre Piceance Basin Development Project Area, each containing up to nine wells per pad. ExxonMobil also proposes to construct a new gas plant and new pipelines in the area. If the BLM approves ExxonMobil’s expansion plans, approximately 1,740 acres could be disturbed with well pads, roads and other facilities for approximately 20 years. The area’s gas fields have been operating since the 1950s....
Idaho firefighter pleads guilty to arson A former firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management has pleaded guilty to solicitation of arson for financial gain in Idaho's Seventh District Court. Twenty-two-year-old Levi Miller admitted Friday that he offered to pay a teen to start a fire so he could make more money. He faces up to twelve-and-a-half years in prison and a fine of up to $ 25,000 when he is sentenced in November. Prosecutors said they had taped phone calls with Miller telling the teen to take a match or lighter to start a fire near a Salmon subdivision. The August 13th blaze burned a half-acre of grass and brush before crews extinguished it.
Wyoming: Wolf program analysis flawed The federal government's analysis of Wyoming's request to take over management of its gray wolves is flawed, according to a state game official. "Wyoming's plan will work," Terry Cleveland, state Game and Fish Department director, said in a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Mitch King. In July, the federal government rejected Wyoming's petition to remove wolves in the state from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. Federal officials said they can't remove protections until the state sets firm limits on how many wolves can be killed and agrees to a minimum population. The state is now home to an estimated 309 wolves. Cleveland said the Fish and Wildlife Service's denial of Wyoming's petition lacks "depth and understanding of several issues."....
Editorial - Efforts to save species backfire Regular readers of this page may have followed the plight of the Devil’s Hole pupfish, a rare creature confined to a single limestone cave in remote Death Valley, whose already tenuous existence has taken a turn for the worse since winning federal protection as an endangered species. Unlike many listed species, the pupfish really is a rarity — the kind of animal for which the much-misused Endangered Species Act was designed. We’ve followed its travails because the creature’s plummet toward extinction has actually accelerated under the care of bumbling wildlife bureaucrats, making a strong case that the worst thing that ever happened to the pupfish was federal protection. They were on a slow decline, but holding their own, until 2004, when wildlife biologists doing a pupfish census left fish traps improperly stored. The improperly stored traps were washed into the spring during a flash food and killed a third of the pupfish population. Desperate, federal officials moved some to a "refugium" near Hoover Dam, the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas and a fish hatchery in Nevada. The hope is to rebuild pupfish stocks with a captive breeding program, but even that effort has hit snails ... sorry, we meant snags. The pupfish had to be removed from the Hoover Dam refugium, according to a story published a few weeks back, after the tank became infested with invasive snails. How the invasion began is uncertain, but one theory is that the snails slipped in on nets used by federal caretakers. This isn’t necessarily a complete disaster for the pupfish. But they are never out of danger in federal hands....
“Critical Habitat” Proposed for Two Southern California Plants The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it is proposing formal designation of critical habitat for two imperiled plants in Riverside and San Diego counties as required by the Endangered Species Act. The proposal is the result of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and California Native Plant Society. The Vail Lake Ceanothus is a large shrub with showy light-blue flowers that lives only in three small patches in southern Riverside County. It is threatened by overly frequent fire at all locations and development at one. All populations inhabit land that is included in the West Riverside Habitat Conservation Plan. A population on private property was excluded from the critical habitat designation because it is targeted for conservation under the Habitat Conservation Plan. The Fish and Wildlife Service has never developed a recovery plan for the Vail Lake Ceanothus under the Endangered Species Act. The Mexican Flannelbush, a large shrub with gorgeous large golden-yellow flowers, is a species that is currently known from two small canyons in San Diego and two areas in Baja California....
U.S. government moves to protect whipsnake The U.S. government has set aside 154,834 acres in California's East Bay for a protected habitat for the endangered Alameda whipsnake. Environmental groups welcomed the move to protect the species but questioned whether the amount of land set aside by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be enough to save the snakes, Inside Bay Area reported Tuesday. "The good news is there is finally some critical habitat protection in place," said Jeff Miller, Bay Area wildlands coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's debatable if it's enough to recover the species." The habitat for the Alameda whipsnake, which has been considered an endangered species by the U.S. government since 1997 and a threatened species by California since 1971, has been driven from much of its natural habitat by residential development....
Center for Biological Diversity Supports Delisting of One, Downlisting of Two California Species The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the completion of Five-Year Reviews for thirteen endangered California species.* Based on the reviews, the Service stated that it intends to delist three species, downlist four to "threatened" status, and maintain the status quo on six. Proposed delistings: Island night lizard, elderberry longhorn beetle, and Chorro shoulderband snail Proposed downlistings: Least Bell's vireo, California least tern, Morro shoulderband snail, and Smith's blue butterfly No change: Western snowy plover, Kneeland Prairie pennycress, Hidden Lake bluecurls, Santa Cruz Island rock-cress, giant garter snake, San Francisco garter snake The Center for Biological Diversity supports the delisting of the island night lizard and the downlisting of least Bell's vireo and the California least tern....
To curb avalanches, railway wants to shell national park The famed symbol of the Great Northern Railway was a mountain goat perched on a rock in Glacier National Park. That railroad's successor, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, now wants to lob artillery shells into mountain-goat habitat inside the park, which straddles the Continental Divide here in northwest Montana. The shelling would help control avalanches that sometimes threaten Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight trains, about 40 of which pass daily through mountains just south of the park's border. Besides seeking federal permission for the occasional wintertime bombardment of the park, the highly profitable railroad stands to benefit from little-known legislation--passed in the Senate and pending in the House--that would spend as much as $75million in grants to pay for avalanche control. The legislation was introduced by two senior Republican lawmakers from Alaska and written, in part, by an avalanche expert who is a paid consultant to the railroad....
Ready, aim, hold it! In two weeks, Surrender Field will bear witness to the surrender of Gen. Charles Cornwallis to Gen. George Washington. Again. A vast reenactment is part of the 225th anniversary of the Siege of Yorktown, but it has its limitations. More than 2,600 men and many women will converge on Colonial National Historical Park to replay the beginning of the end of British rule in colonial America. This time around, the muskets and cannon from the opposing forces won't take aim at each other. Park Service policy forbids reenactment groups from pointing their weapons at others, even if they're fake or unloaded. Nor can they even pretend to fight, since the Park Service does not allow battle reenactments either. Instead, the battles will be held at Endview Plantation in Lee Hall....And now we know the Parkies are really infected with that PC disease. These are the people who are to interpret and preserve our history??
Bush helps Pombo raise $400K President George W. Bush told about 600 well-heeled supporters Tuesday to vote for seven-term Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, if they want to hold onto tax cuts, win the war in Iraq, and end the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. “We will fight in Iraq and we will win in Iraq,” said Bush to loud cheers at the breakfast fundraiser at the Stockton Civic Memorial Auditorium. Bush was in town to raise money for Pombo, who’s in a competitive race for the 11th Congressional District seat with Democrat Jerry McNerney, a Pleasanton wind-energy engineer. The fundraiser generated about $400,000, said Pombo campaign manager Carl Fogliani. Pombo has already been helped to at least a $2 million fundraising lead over McNerney, in part by local fundraisers featuring the vice president, speaker of the house and senate majority leader. Pombo easily beat McNerney in 2004, but separate polling published this week by anti-Pombo campaigners Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and the McNerney campaign suggest McNerney might be slightly ahead or level with the congressman....
Flags Fly At Half Staff To Honor Idaho's Helen Chenoweth-Hage From the tips of her boots up to the blue collar of her denim shirt, Helen Chenoweth-Hage approached every issue from a uniquely Western perspective. Many loved her, others hated her. Who can forget that rude protester who splattered Congressman Chenoweth with rotten salmon at a Montana hearing in 2000 -- an incident she handled with humor and grace. "She didn't want to stop the hearing," remembers daughter Meg Chenoweth Keenan. "She said, 'let's keep going with the hearing.'" Nobody in Idaho was indifferent about this Sagebrush Republican rebel, who died at age 68 in a one-car accident Monday in Nevada. Years ago we asked her why that was. "I really don't know," she said in 1996. "I find that much of what is said about me by the opposition is untrue." Now, as they cope with her sudden death, Chenoweth-Hage's daughter and son say the truth about their mom is simple. "She was a very real person, very genuine," said daughter Meg. "What you saw was really Helen Chenoweth. She had real passions,real loves, and she knew where all that came from."....
Texas regains crucial TB-free status Texas, the nation's largest producer and exporter of cattle, has regained its crucial tuberculosis-free status, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday. Returning to TB-free status eliminates the need to test cattle going to large shows and breeder animals moving across state lines, said Texas Animal Health Commission spokeswoman Carla Everett. The state had lost the TB-free status in 2002 after two infected herds were detected and twice received extensions from the USDA. The agency gave the state more than $4 million to carry out the testing. Since September 2003, more than 335,000 cows in Texas' 818 dairies, and nearly 129,000 beef cattle in 2,014 of the state's purebred herds had been tested for the disease to ensure all TB infection had been detected and eliminated....
Border Security, Job Market Leave Farms Short of Workers Bins of Granny Smith apples towered over two conveyor belts at P-R Farms' packing plant. But only one belt moved. P-R Farms, like farms up and down California and across the nation, does not have enough workers to process its fruit. "We're short by 50 to 75 people," said Pat Ricchiuti, 59, the third-generation owner of P-R Farms. "For the last three weeks, we're running at 50 percent capacity. We saw this coming a couple years ago, but last year and this year has really been terrible." Farmers of all types of specialty crops, from almonds to roses, have seen the immigrant labor supply they depend on dry up over the past year. Increased border security and competition from other industries are driving migrant laborers out of the fields, farmers say....
Wheat weaving a lost art Wheat weaving is a lost art that has slipped through the cracks of time. When the braiding or twisting of hair came into fashion, someone also thought up the idea of softening wheat by soaking it in water so it too could be woven and twisted to create a beautiful piece to save and cherish. Debbie Wagner, Culbertson, enjoys doing just that - wheat weaving. She creates wheat pieces instead of sending flowers in remembrance of loved ones. She also uses wheat art for wedding decorations or to send a small thank you to a friend. When planning for a wedding, think about decorating with wheat weaving. Some ideas are: instead of pew bows, make a braided or twisted heart with wheat heads and add ribbons and cording. Make a wheat cross for your church sanctuary or wheat flowers in a wheat vase in place of the floral altar bouquets. When a family member works the field day after day, an item created from the harvest will be cherished and can become a keepsake. Think about creating a corsage or boutonniere for a child of the farmer or rancher. These tokens will hold memories for a lifetime....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Rancher’s daughter fights Army with camera Stunning photos are Kaylinn Gilstrap’s weapon of choice against the Army’s proposed expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado. The proposed expansion of between 418,000 and 2.5 million acres directly threatens the land that the young photographer has always called home. Upon hearing the news that her family’s home, livelihood, and heritage are being threatened, Gilstrap began doing what she does best — telling stories, photographically. “I’m doing this because these are my people, and this is my home,” she explained. She plans to forward her photos on to a large media outlet in hopes that the local situation will reach people nationally. With several on-site photo shoots complete, Gilstrap is now looking to attract larger numbers of folks threatened by the expansion. Homesteaded in 1901 by her great-grandfather R.D. Louden, the Gilstrap Ranch has been the birthplace and lifelong home of Gilstrap, her siblings, her father, her grandmother, and a slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her great grandfather’s original family homestead is still standing and occupied by guests and visitors to the operational cattle ranch. “My father will not be able to replace what we have in southeastern Colorado,” Gilstrap said. “My parents and grandparents will have to leave the one place and the one thing they’ve done their entire lives.”....
South Dakota a focal point for ferrets Black-footed ferrets, once believed to be extinct, were rediscovered 25 years ago last week in northwest Wyoming by a ranch dog named Shep. Six years later, in 1987, the small, lone colony of the masked weasels that Shep discovered had dwindled to only 18 animals. All of them were in captivity by then to preserve the species. Since then, however, captive breeding programs and reintroductions into the wild have pulled black-footed ferrets from the brink of extinction. In the process, Conata Basin, 70 miles east of Rapid City, has become the ferret capital of North America. Ferret populations are also reproducing on the Cheyenne River and Rosebud Indian reservations. "South Dakota is absolutely the most successful state for ferret recovery," said Mike Lockhart of Fort Collins, Colo., who is the black-footed ferret recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But not everyone in South Dakota is wishing the ferrets a happy re-birthday....
Swift foxes return to Fort Peck Reservation An animal that tribal legend says was important to the survival of the Assiniboine people thousands of years ago is making its way back to the Fort Peck Reservation. Ten swift foxes were released last month in an effort to reintroduce the animal, after fur trappers and homesteaders helped exterminate it from the area beginning in the 1830s. "Our goal is to bring it back for further generations because it was around here before any of us were," said Les Bighorn, a Fort Peck Tribal Fish and Game officer in charge of the reintroduction effort. The swift fox, which weighs from 4 to 6 pounds and is the size of a house cat, is known for its black-tipped tail and ears and black markings on its face. The red fox, which is more common in Montana and the northern plains, has a white-tipped tail and is larger. They aren't called swift for nothing; this mostly-nocturnal fox can travel up to 60 mph....
Forest Service plans to protect Oregon wagon road from damage The U.S. Forest Service plans to mark trails for off-highway vehicle use near Santiam Pass on the Cascade Range to accommodate the motorcycles that have taken to the woods during the past two decades. Among other things, the agency hopes to protect the remnants of the Santiam Wagon Road, an important link between Eastern and Western Oregon from 1865 through the 1930s. The road, which largely parallels U.S. 20, was developed as a toll road to move settlers and livestock from the Willamette Valley to Eastern Oregon. The McKenzie River Ranger District is conducting an environmental assessment around Big Lake and Hoodoo Ski Mountain as a step toward a set of marked trails for off-highway vehicle use. Until now, the roads and trails have largely been unregulated, and riders have picked their own course through the high-elevation forest....
Ranch receives Game and Fish award Recognized for its contribution to wildlife, wildlife habitat, and the Wyoming sportsman, the E&B Landmark Ranch was awarded the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Cody Region Landowner of the Year. The formal announcement was made at the 2006 Hunting and Fishing Heritage Exposition in Casper. Two sisters, Elaine Moncur and Bobbie Rae Sessions, own the ranch, which is located about 15 miles north of Cody and 15 miles west of Powell. The ranch sits on the north side of Heart Mountain, a prominent feature of the Cody-Powell landscape. According to Dan Smith, Cody region access coordinator, the ranch has participated in various habitat projects including spring development, sagebrush mowing and burning to improve sage-grouse habitat, and improved grazing management-all of which were done to improve the habitat for wildlife and livestock. Smith nominated the sisters for the award. In 2002, the E&B Landmark Ranch joined the Department's Private Lands Public Wildlife Access Program by enrolling as a walk-in hunting area. In conjunction with The Nature Conservancy and Two-Dot Ranch, the walk-in area was converted to the Heart Mountain Hunter Management Area in 2005....
Two charged with killing wild horse Two Kemmerer men face a variety of charges after allegedly killing a wild horse by castrating it. Clint Proffit, 40, and James R. Hoffman, 41, made initial court appearances last week on charges of killing a wild horse, animal cruelty, conspiracy, property destruction and defacement. Both were released on their own recognizance. According to court documents, Bureau of Land Management officers interviewed Proffit, Hoffman and others who were present on Feb. 9, when the wild horse walked into a corral where livestock was being branded. Three other men, including Hoffman's brother Randy, of Woodruff, Utah, told investigators that Hoffman and Proffit participated in roping and castrating the horse....
Gas drilling increasing in rural areas of West Slope Thousands of new natural-gas wells are expected to be drilled in the Piceance Basin next year, while energy companies could begin to turn their sights to one of the Western Slope’s least explored energy reserves. The Paradox Basin of western Montrose County could be next in line for expanded oil and gas development, said Brian Macke, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. “The Paradox Basin is probably one of the most under-explored and under-developed parts of the state for oil and gas,” Macke said Monday. There will likely be an “elevated level of interest” among energy companies in developing there, he said. Most of the Western Slope’s energy development over the next year will be in the Piceance Basin, where thousands of gas wells now exist. As long as gas prices remain high — currently about $5 per million British thermal units — the commission expects at least 2,000 new natural gas wells to be drilled in northwestern Colorado annually....
Bush stumps for Pombo President Bush touched down aboard Air Force One in Stockton on Monday with Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, in tow. Before giving the campaigning congressman a lift by attending a $250-a-head breakfast fundraiser Tuesday, the president will sign a wetland protection bill into law at Stockton's Radisson Hotel. President George W. Bush will raise money today for two Republican allies in California’s Central Valley — Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, and 14-year incumbent Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who was shown in an environmental group’s poll to be running neck and neck with his opponent. The Republican Party has spent more than $400,000 on direct mail and dispatched a cavalcade of leaders including the president, vice-president, speaker of the house and senate majority leader to the district this year to shore up support for Pombo. Pombo’s ties to the Bush administration have fueled the ire of environmental activists, who have poured money and volunteers into the district and who use blogs in their efforts to defeat the congressman. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund’s Web site at www.pombointheirpocket.org, and its nine full-time staff members in Pleasanton, are charged with one simple goal — booting Pombo out of office. Campaign manager Ed Yoon said the group has spent more than $1 million dollars against the congressman this year, but the Pombo camp says lax laws make it hard to know where their money has come from....
Feds to study whether the wolverine is endangered The mysteriously shy and secretive wolverine will likely find itself under something of a public spotlight in coming months, with federal wildlife managers ordered to take a very careful look at how well its populations are faring. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - charged with implementing the nation's Endangered Species Act - had previously said it would not consider protections for the rarely-seen wolverine. But a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula has reversed that decision, ordering federal wildlife officials to at least consider whether protections might be warranted. “This court ruling gives the wolverine a fighting chance,” said Tim Preso, an attorney who represented Earthjustice and other environmental groups in a lawsuit challenging the FWS decision. “Everything we know about the wolverine tells us that this species is under siege from trapping in Montana and habitat disruption throughout its entire range. The court's decision means that the government can no longer ignore the threats to the wolverine.” Earthjustice was among six groups that, back in 2000, petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider whether wolverines required special attention. In his decision, Molloy noted that “historically wolverines inhabited the northern tier of the contiguous United States from Maine to Washington, with populations in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and California as well. Currently the wolverine inhabits Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon.” Molloy concluded, “Information presented in both the FWS's own finding and historical data from a peer-reviewed study indicate that the wolverine has been largely extirpated from its historic range.”....
Agency hails beetle comeback Federal wildlife officials said Monday they plan to remove the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the endangered species list. A five-year review showed its fortunes have improved. The dime-sized beetle, unique to the Central Valley, has been the bane of developers and flood-control officials since it was first listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1980. Since it relies on a single host plant, the relatively hardy valley elderberry, hundreds of construction projects have been required to take extraordinary steps when encountering the shrub. "Thank God. This is the happiest day of my career," said Joe Countryman, president of MBK Engineers, a Sacramento consulting firm that has repeatedly confronted the beetle issue. "It makes me want to cry to think of the amount of money that's been wasted on this thing." The beetle's status was reported Monday as part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review of 12 protected species in California. The beetle is the only one proposed for a complete delisting in its habitat....
Critical Habitat Reinstated for Alameda Whipsnake The Bush administration continued its trend of avoiding or cutting critical habitat protections for imperiled species, with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) today designating a dramatically reduced area of protected critical habitat for the threatened Alameda Whipsnake in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties. Today’s 154,834-acre critical habitat designation leaves out more than half the areas the USFWS previously determined were essential to the survival and recovery of the whipsnake and excludes tens of thousands of acres of occupied whipsnake habitat at risk of development. The USFWS originally designated more than 407,000 acres of critical habitat for the whipsnake in 2003, following settlement of a lawsuit the Center for Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation brought against the USFWS in 1999. The Homebuilders Association and other development interests filed a lawsuit in 2001 that challenged the economic analysis of the critical habitat designation. The Center intervened in the case, and although the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California vacated the critical habitat in 2003, it ordered the USFWS to re-designate the critical habitat. In October 2005 the USFWS proposed to designate only 203,000 acres of critical habitat, less than half the original acreage.
Today’s designation excludes more than 48,500 additional acres of occupied and suitable whipsnake habitat, including 42,731 acres in eastern Contra Costa County that is threatened by development and proposed for coverage in a draft East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservation Plan...
Senate Confirms New Park Service Chief Mary A. Bomar, a British native and career Interior Department employee, has been confirmed as director of the National Park Service. She was one of four Interior Department officials confirmed by the Senate at 2 a.m. Saturday as lawmakers rushed to finish work before leaving for recess. She succeeds Fran Mainella, who is stepping down for family reasons. Bomar, who became a U.S. citizen in 1977, has worked at the Park Service for 17 years, including posts as acting superintendent at Rocky Mountain National Park and superintendent at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. She has been the Park Service's Northeast regional director since 2005. She takes over as the Park Service is struggling with a backlog of maintenance and rehabilitation projects. Critics have complained that the Bush administration has favored recreation interests at the expense of conservation, though the agency has recently retreated from some of its most controversial plans....
Chambers Wins Privacy Act Ruling The long legal ordeal of Teresa Chambers has taken another turn as a federal judge has rejected the Interior Department’s motion to dismiss her civil lawsuit for violations of the Privacy Act, according to a court order released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Teresa Chambers filed the suit last year after the Interior Department said it no longer had the documents which show charges used to remove her as Chief of the U.S. Park Police were trumped up. Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that Interior’s actions in withholding key documents from Chambers “appears to have been improper” and asked her to submit evidence of the damages she has suffered. In a separate federal court action, Chambers is seeking restoration as Chief of the U.S. Park Police following her dismissal in 2004 after an interview she gave to The Washington Post concerning staff shortages. The key document being sought is a performance evaluation of Chambers prepared by Deputy Park Service Director Donald Murphy....
Too Much of a Good Thing? Visitors to Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park can blindly point a camera in nearly any direction and capture a handful of elk in a picture-postcard image without the aid of a telephoto lens. The thousands of elk scattered across the mountainous terrain and the neighboring community of Estes Park certainly do their share for visitors’ photo albums, but the health of individual animals is suffering, and the herd’s numbers are taking a toll on native vegetation and other wildlife that simply can’t compete. The problem has been a long time coming. About 100 years ago, elk had nearly vanished from the region, but in 1913 the species was reintroduced, largely for the sake of sport hunters. Wolves and grizzlies had already been eliminated from the region, and the creation of the park two years later quickly helped reestablish a healthy population and then some. From 1943 to 1968, a culling program kept their numbers in check, but public outcry finally brought it to an end, leaving hunting on adjacent public lands the only way to slow the inevitable. Over the ensuing years, continued development in the region ate up prime elk habitat. The result? Today more than 4,000 elk live in and around the park, an area that’s able to support about 2,500 ungulates by most accounts. "This is the typical problem you would expect in an environment without any hunting or any large predators," says Steve Torbit, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center in Colorado....
Hunting on Santa Rosa Island to continue despite outcry To the dismay of environmentalists and a local congresswoman, private hunting of deer and elk will continue indefinitely on Santa Rosa Island - closing off the scenic isle to the public for several months a year - under a last-minute addition to a defense-spending bill passed Friday by the House of Representatives and poised for Senate approval. The language inserted by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, contradicts a 1998 court settlement between the National Park Service and the island's former landowners calling for hunting to cease there by 2011. The Vail Family, which sold the 54,000-acre island off Santa Barbara to the federal government for $29.5 million in 1986, currently charges hunters up to $17,000 apiece. They had agreed to scale down hunting beginning in 2008 and discontinue it completely by 2011. All of the deer and elk were to be removed by then. Blasting Hunter's stated rationale for undoing that deadline - so that disabled veterans would have the opportunity to hunt on Santa Rosa - Congresswoman Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, labeled his provision a “special interest boondoggle.”....
Court Ruling Fuels Dispute in West Over Eminent Domain Libertarians and land developers have found populist fodder in a contentious Supreme Court decision from last year that favors eminent domain over private property. This fall, they are trying to harness anger over the ruling in an effort to pass state initiatives in the West and federal legislation that could unravel a long-standing fabric of state and local land-use regulations. Among other things, the rules control growth, limit sprawl, ensure open space and protect the environment. The property-rights movement, as it is known, has a major new benefactor -- Howard Rich, a wealthy libertarian real estate investor from Manhattan. He has spent millions -- estimates run as high as $11 million -- to support initiatives that will appear on ballots throughout much of the West. The initiatives -- and legislation approved Friday in the House -- have alarmed many city and state officials, along with environmental organizations, budget watchdog groups and smart-growth advocates. They complain about "bait-and-switch" tactics. The federal bill, which was approved in the House by a vote of 231 to 181, would revamp land-use regulation nationwide, allowing developers and property owners to challenge local and state rulings in federal court, rather than in state court. The National Association of Home Builders has been pushing the measure for years, but the Supreme Court's eminent-domain decision finally "brought the bill back into the limelight," said Jerry Howard, the association's chief executive. The bill's author, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, said property-rights disputes that can drag on for years deserve speedy resolution in federal court....
Goodlatte: EPA should reconsider dust regulation final rule The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to stop exempting farmers and ranchers from dust and coarse particulate matter regulations could force thousands of them out of business, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says. Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said outside experts have said that from 35 to 80 percent of the nation’s cattle producers would be unable to comply with the daily coarse particulate matter standard that farmers and ranchers must comply with under the final rule issued by EPA last month. “I am deeply concerned and troubled by the direction the EPA is taking to regulate dust and coarse particulate matter,” Rep. Goodlatte said. “What we are talking about here is dust, and despite the best efforts of farmers to minimize the impact of their operations on the environment the reality is: dust happens!” Goodlatte’s office issued a statement on the final rule after the issue was raised during a Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit and Rural Development hearing to review EPA pesticide programs....
Public Television telling the farmer’s story The challenge confronting agricultural communicators is how to tell agriculture's story to American consumers in a meaningful and tangible way. It simply is not feasible, affordable or effective to drop leaflets over a city, or buy a series of commercials during the Super Bowl, or even purchase the naming rights to a professional sports stadium – although some might think American Farmer and Rancher Stadium has a nice ring to it. In the search for an appropriate vehicle to not only give farmers a voice, but one that would attract the interest of consumers, last year, a new public television show came to fruition. America's Heartland, a national public television series, has been a resounding success. The show recently embarked on its second season of telling the story of America's farm and ranch families to a sophisticated, consumer-oriented public television audience. America’s Heartland celebrates the way of life, the state of mind and the rural pride that embodies American agriculture. The program does that through personal stories, rich in their depth and breadth, highlighting a special group of people – America’s farm and ranch families. During each episode, talented and dedicated journalists from KVIE public television in Sacramento, Calif., take their viewers on a journey paved with the stories of the families who help produce food, fiber and renewable fuel for America....
It's all Trew: 'Hoof highway' long forgotten Livestock Driveways are defined as “designated open trails or fenced lanes provided for the public to move livestock to and from market.” These public trails have existed here and abroad for almost as long as people have domesticated livestock. The practice is thought to have originated in Spain, was brought to Mexico by Spanish explorers and adapted to the needs of early colonies in the Americas. In the absence of fencing, early settlers used the practice of “transhumance” which is defined as, “the periodic removal of livestock from crop areas during the growing season so that planted grains and produce may be grown and harvested.” This practice required the communities to hold spring roundups of all livestock and large poultry, identify them by mark or brand, then divide them into communal herds that grazed on outlying lands through the summer months, and were guarded by young boys and old men. Livestock Driveways were decreed by community leaders along which the herds and flocks were driven to the outlying lands. During these drives, herdsmen and adjacent landowners tried to protect the nearby crops and gardens of the community to the best of their ability. There are three driveways existing but not used in the United States today. The most well known is located in Socorro County, New Mexico, beginning at Magdalena and extending some 65 miles west across the St. Augustin Plains to the state line of Arizona. The Magdalena Stock Driveway is from one to five miles wide and contains some 80,000 acres of grassland. The driveway began in 1915 when millions of acres of surrounding grasslands, grazing hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle, were forced to use Magdalena as their shipping point to distant markets. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad built a spur line and huge livestock loading facilities to serve these livestock owners. Some years, the Magdalena facilities shipped the largest number of livestock in the United States....

Former Idaho congresswoman Helen Chenoweth dies in car accident

Former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage died Monday in a car crash, her daughter said. Chenoweth-Hage, a Republican who was elected to Congress from Idaho in 1994 and served through 2000, was 68. Her daughter, Meg Chenoweth Keenan, said Chenoweth-Hage was a passenger in the Monday morning crash near Tonopah, Nev. No one else was seriously injured in the one-car crash, she said. Chenoweth had been married since 1999 to Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher who came to epitomize Nevada’s Sagebrush Rebellion as he battled for decades with the federal government over public lands and private property rights. He died in June at age 69. Born in Topeka, Kan., Chenoweth-Hage grew up in Grants Pass, Ore. and attended Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., before moving to the northern Idaho timber town of Orofino, where she worked at Northside Medical Center. She became a well-known political name in the state when she moved to Boise in the 1970s, serving as the executive director of the Idaho Republican Party and becoming U.S. Rep. Steven Symms’ chief of staff. She ran for Congress against incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco and gained national attention when she held “endangered salmon bakes,” serving canned salmon and ridiculing the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species during fundraisers. An advocate of smaller government and property rights, Chenoweth-Hage won the race and served a self-imposed three-term limit as a U.S. representative.

UPDATE

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Chenoweth-Hage was pronounced dead at the scene. Though other family members were in the car — including the driver, daughter-in-law Yelena Hage, 24, and Hage's 5-month-old son Bryan Hage — no one else was seriously injured. Trooper Rocky Gonzalez said Chenoweth-Hage was holding the baby and wasn't wearing a seat belt. Nevada law requires both seat belts and baby seats. He added both Chenoweth-Hage and the baby were thrown from the car but the child "miraculously" had only minor injuries.