NOTE TO READERS
This is a shortened version of The Westerner, as will probably be the case tomorrow night. I've been asked to participate in the PRCA Turquoise Circuit Finals starting tomorrow and will be plenty busy through Sunday afternoon.
NEWS
Colorado in water crisis Russell George made a kind of sentimental journey to Glenwood Springs Tuesday when he spoke to a gathering of rancher and farmer conservationists. George, the executive director of the state Department of Natural Resources, grew up on a farm in Rifle. He spoke to the annual state meeting of the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts at the Hotel Colorado. Colorado is in a water crisis brought on by natural and social forces, George said. Situated on the eastern end of the Great American Desert, he said Colorado is naturally dry. In fact, it took the large irrigation projects of the 1880s when the state was being settled to allow a population to take root and grow to what it is today. Colorado has always contended with drought, but today it faces another form of drought, "a demand exceeds supply drought," he said. "It is my belief that we have a people-caused drought." Coloradans saw the effect of these two forces this summer when irrigation wells were shut down by the state along the South Platte River because of water shortages. The shutdown caused crops to fail. "We understand brutally and painfully the convergence of these two droughts ... where the demand has so far exceeded supply. It's tragic economically; it's tragic culturally," he said....
Conservation Groups Intervene in Wyoming Wolf Lawsuit Six conservation organizations filed legal papers in Wyoming federal court today seeking to prevent unregulated poisoning, trapping, and shooting of gray wolves across the vast majority of the species' range in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone National Park. The State of Wyoming filed suit in October, challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to approve Wyoming's wolf management plan and eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for the Northern Rockies population of gray wolves. The Wyoming plan proposes to classify wolves as "predators," which would legalize indiscriminate killing throughout 90% of the wolf's range in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Wyoming has requested a court order requiring the federal government to approve the Wyoming management plan and to immediately kill approximately 200 wolves in the state. "Wyoming seeks to turn back the clock on wolf recovery," said Steve Thomas of the Wyoming Sierra Club's Sheridan office....
Forest Service employee accused of embezzling firefighting money A U.S. Forest Service purchasing agent wrote government checks worth more than $642,000 to her live-in boyfriend, and then spent the money on gambling, restaurants and car and mortgage payments, according a federal indictment. Debra Durfey, 49, of Echo was arraigned Wednesday in Portland on charges of embezzlement and theft of public money. Court documents and prosecutors said she drew the money from a national pool of fire funds, where it was overlooked among the nearly $1 billion spent nationwide on firefighting each year. As coordinator of a federal charge card program for the Umatilla, Malheur and Wallowa-Whitman national forests in Eastern Oregon, Durfey had her own charge card account and was authorized to write government checks to small businesses that cannot accept federal charge cards....
Reauthorizing feedgrounds Officials with the Bridger-Teton National Forest are looking to reauthorize controversial elk feeding programs for this winter under a "categorical exclusion," typically reserved for extremely low-impact operations. In a letter posted on the agency's Web site and sent to "interested citizens," the Bridger-Teton said it is seeking public comment to allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to "maintain facilities and use (national forest) land in conjunction with its winter elk feeding program for the 2006/2007 winter season." No mention is made of a controversial test-and-slaughter program carried out last winter on the Muddy Creek feedground, and planned again for this winter....
A forest-plan expert provides perspective As the Coronado National Forest revamps its big management blueprint--or "vision statement," if you will--some experts offer an even beefier viewpoint. Among them is Paul Hirt, an associate professor of history at Arizona State University. Hirt is also board president of Tucson's Sky Island Alliance, and author of A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests Since World War II (Our Sustainable Future). He was a longtime resident of this fair city. And he's a grizzled veteran of the Coronado's last planning go-around in the 1980s, then as representative for Arizona's Sierra Club chapter. In his book, Hirt argues that the U.S. Forest Service failed its "sustainable yield" credo by allowing lumber companies to run amok for decades. When timber harvests subsequently crashed in the 1990s, that perhaps accelerated a change already occurring within the agency, where a preponderance of road engineers and timber honchos were giving way to ecologically oriented scientists....
Subdivisions, not logging, the real threat to wildlife Logging is not as much of a threat to wildlife habitat as rural residential development, Missoula County commissioners heard Monday. Roads can be closed and trees will grow back. But subdivisions just keep popping up in every valley of the west, causing loss of habitat, displacement of wildlife, and eventually, dead animals, said Chris Servheen. Our actions in guiding subdivision growth over the next 10 years will determine the fate of such sensitive wildlife species as the grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, and bull trout, he said. He recommended that development be restricted in known wildlife linkage zones. If it must occur, the home sites should be concentrated to preserve open space and to reduce the area of ecological disturbance, he suggested. Chris, the regional grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, offered a quick overview of his research in the Seeley-Swan area. He offered the guidelines for the commissioners because they have the final say in approving all subdivisions within the county....
Animal Terrorism Act Approved by Congress A measure designed to give federal authorities the ability to arrest and prosecute animal terrorists who use intimidation, threats and other tactics is expected to be signed by President Bush this month. On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006--which strengthens the ability of the Justice Department to prosecute animal rights terrorists who do damage to property or threaten individuals associated with an animal enterprise. Among some of the specifics of the bill include amending the Animal Enterprise Protection Act and enhances the effectiveness of the Department of Justice's response to recent trends in the eco/animal rights-related crime sprees and terror campaigns; addresses the third party targeting system used by animal rights terrorists by prohibiting the intentional damaging of property of a person or entity having a connection to an animal enterprise; prohibits veiled threats to individuals and their families; and increases penalties for intentionally causing economic disruption or damage and for intentionally causing a person bodily injury....
Seattle's Egan wins National Book Award Seattle author Timothy Egan has won the National Book Award for nonfiction for his harrowing account of America's Dust Bowl catastrophe, "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl." But for his prize-winning book, published by Houghton Mifflin, Egan went outside the Northwest. In an interview earlier this year with the Seattle Times, Egan said he got the idea for "The Worst Hard Time" after he did a series of stories for The New York Times, based on the 2000 census, that showed the southern Great Plains as "a giant black hole" of population loss. "Every county on the western edge of the Great Plains had lost population. I would hear people in the Southern Plains say, 'Yeah, it goes back to the Dust Bowl,'" Egan said. Then a New York editor approached him about writing a Dust Bowl book. Egan was skeptical that he could craft a narrative until he began to track down Dust Bowl survivors in the dwindling small towns of the region. "Once I had three or four of these people I knew I could follow them," he said. "They move in, they dig in, they rise to a degree of prosperity — then nature exacts its terrible revenge." Their stories, and the sheer scope of the economic and environmental disaster, drove Egan's impassioned account of the great swath of grassland – 100 million acres in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado – appropriated from the American Indians by cattle ranchers, who then sold to land speculators. The speculators then sold to farmers, who enjoyed bumper crops and a booming economy for a few rainy years. Then wet years turned to dry, and prairie land that should have never been plowed began to blow away, devastating both the land and the lives of the people who lived there....
City to dedicate new statue Casper residents and visitors will get to enjoy Navarro's latest sculpture called "20% Chance of Flurries," located in Pioneer Park at Center and "A" streets downtown. The sculpture will be unveiled at a ceremony today at 11:30 a.m. Navarro, 50, has been sculpting professionally for 26 years, though he has no formal art education. He started sculpting full time when he quit his job in the oil field and still likes to rope and ride his three horses. "I used to help out at the Robinett Ranch years ago," he said. "I asked Guy and Vern Robinett to model for me for a sculpture I was working on. We were driving out to go rope a calf on the ranch when Guy told me, 'You know, a 20 percent chance of flurries almost put me out of business.' I told him that's the title." The Robinetts lost about 2,500 livestock when a spring storm in 1980 dumped 3.5 feet of snow just after the sheep had been sheared. "There were dead sheep piled up everywhere," Navarro said. "That title says a lot about how man is tied in with nature, trying to save livestock in the middle of a spring storm. Man battling the elements."....
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Democrats to elevate global warming, other environmental issues The Democrats who will steer environment issues in the new Congress are polar opposites of their Republican predecessors, but changing environmental policy is like turning around an aircraft carrier _ it's very slow. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a liberal California Democrat and one of the biggest environmental advocates on Capitol Hill, was named Tuesday to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She replaces Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, who says global warming is a hoax and wanted to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency established by President Richard Nixon. On the House side, the approach to endangered species and opening public lands to private development will do an about-face with Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., expected to take over the House Resources Committee. He would replace GOP Rep. Richard Pombo, a California rancher, defeated for re-election last week after environmentalists spent nearly $2 million against him. "Our long national nightmare is close to being over," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, paraphrasing Gerald Ford on assuming the presidency after Nixon's resignation over Watergate. Democrats will focus on cutting pollution blamed for global warming, accelerating toxic waste cleanups, reversing Bush administration tax and regulatory breaks for energy producers and switching the government's course back to strict protections for endangered species....
BLM gets earful during session on oil, gas drilling permits The Bureau of Land Management billed meetings on a program for handling energy permits as listening sessions and it got an earful Tuesday from people who say the goal is speed above all else -- the environment, landowners' rights, wildlife. BLM officials scheduled two sessions at an east-Denver hotel to discuss and take comments on its year-old oil and gas pilot project, which beefed up staffs in seven regional offices in the Rockies to handle the explosion in applications to drill on federal land. Congress mandated the program in the 2005 energy bill, adding staffers and employees from other federal agencies in BLM offices in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in a kind of one-stop-shopping approach. "From a landowner's standpoint, there's no way for me to protect my land," said Steve Adami, a rancher near Buffalo, Wyo. Adami said energy companies were able to post a $2,000 bond when they failed to strike a deal with him and moved in rigs to drill 11 wells. He owns the land but not the minerals underneath, resulting in a so-called "split estate." Mineral owners can develop them or lease them to someone else. State and federal agencies encourage negotiations with landowners, but companies can post bonds and drill if an agreement isn't reached. Tweeti Blancett said the ranch she and her husband, Linn, have near Aztec in northwest New Mexico "is gone" because of impacts from oil and gas operations. Their ranch encompasses federal, state and private land. "There's plenty of money to do it right, but it's not being done right," Blancett said, whose husband's family has ranched in the same area for six generations. Speakers contended the pilot program's emphasis is on speeding approval of permits while well inspections, monitoring of water and other resources and enforcement go wanting....
Gas Prospectors Exploit Public Lands The first wave of the San Juan basin oil and gas boom came in the 1950s, and Linn Blancett's parents welcomed it. The oil and gas boys put money in the ranchers' pockets, and they opened roads into the backcountry that increased access to water and eased the hard work of tending and gathering cattle. The exploration drillers of that era sought petroleum and "sweet" gas, which is high-quality natural gas found in large reservoirs. The wells were widely scattered. The crews and pipelines were few. People like the Blancetts adapted and got along. Coal bed methane (CBM), which became a regional obsession in the late 1990s, changed everything. Every coal formation harbors a quantity of methane, the primary component of natural gas, but because the coal is dense and the seams and cavities in which the gas collects are small, each well taps a relatively small volume of the formation. It takes a lot of wells to pull the gas from a coal bed efficiently. In the canyons north and west of Aztec the wells go in on a grid so tight you can't stand at one and not see another -- even in broken country. It is the kind of density that in New York City would put about fifteen wells in Central Park, none much more than a quarter mile from its neighbors. And each well has to have a road and a pipeline, plus a compressor, probably a sump for the foul liquids that the drilling generates, plus maybe a pump jack, a dehydrator to separate gas from water, and a tank for still more foul liquids that come from the dehydrator once the well is producing. Before long, the sagebrush flats and junipered mesas of the San Juan basin groaned day and night with the rumbleroar of innumerable engines. The same region that bred the stoicism of the old-time Navajos and Utes had become a vast factory spread over hundreds of square miles, an industrialized wildland, no longer wild, producing hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of pipeline gas. Amid the seeming prosperity, however, the hemophilic soil eroded from bulldozed drill pads and road cuts, antifreeze dripped and lubricating oil pooled, and the chemicals and effluents of the drilling trade stained the earth....
Grizzly soon to be delisted A year ago today, government officials gathered on a stage in Washington, D.C., to say it's finally time to remove endangered species protections from grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding areas. Since then, more than 213,000 people - from scientists and schoolchildren to environmentalists and livestock groups - have registered their opinion of the idea. Sometime in the first half of 2007, the decision is expected to become final. But that won't be the end of the story for managing the estimated 600 grizzlies in and around Yellowstone. Instead, it will simply open the next chapter in the bears' long road to recovery, one that likely will include lawsuits, discussions of state-run grizzly hunts, intensified monitoring and state agencies deciding how the bruins should be managed....
Forest Service amends lynx plans The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday amended its environmental impact statement for the southern Rockies Canada lynx to include White River National Forest. The amendment modifies eight forest plans with an eye to conserve the threatened lynx on national forests in Colorado and southern Wyoming, according to Bob Vaught, the Forest Service's renewable resources director. The conservation measures would maintain connected stands of dense, young trees that support snowshoe hares (the lynx's main prey) and limit expansion of over-the-snow trails that compact snow and give competing predators access to lynx habitat in the winter. The Forest Service will take comments for 90 days, until Feb. 17. A final environmental impact statement and decision are expected in the fall of 2007....
Agency to revisit land pact Explosive rural real estate development is forcing land and wildlife managers to reconsider Swan Valley conservation deals that were struck with industry more than a decade ago. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would revisit a major land-use agreement signed in 1995 with Plum Creek Timber Co. That company is selling substantial portions of its industrial timberland base for real estate development, a change big enough to trigger renewed talks. The initial 1995 deal included Plum Creek, the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the U.S. Forest Service and FWS, the federal agency charged with oversight of threatened and endangered species. The intent was to “integrate timber management, recreational management and bear management practices in a manner that is both ecologically and economically sound in a mixed ownership environment.” But much has changed since the ink dried on that landmark Swan Valley Conservation Agreement.....
Four Caught In Canyon Avalanche, One Buried An early season avalanche on Tuesday swept away four experienced backcountry skiers, temporarily burying one. The skier, 27-year-old Salt Lake City resident Steve Lloyd, was among four in the upper Silver Fork basin, one mile west of Solitude Ski Resort. They were skiing more than a foot of fresh snow at an elevation of about 10,000 feet when an avalanche broke loose off a jagged ridge that separates Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. Authorities say Steve Lloyd was fully buried when his friends got to him. When they dug him out, he was blue and unconscious. However, rescue crews were able to revive him, and load him into an Airmed helicopter. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Paul Jaroscak said the skiers were experienced and had the necessary equipment to call for help.But much has changed since the ink dried on that landmark Swan Valley Conservation Agreement....
New bank angles for green niche The tide of green initiatives is set to wash over the Bay Area banking scene. New Resource Bank, which was founded by an East Bay entrepreneur, is formally launching a business that plans to finance companies and organizations that emphasize green or sustainable operations. "We want to finance sustainable resources in the community," Peter Liu, a Piedmont resident who is founder and vice chairman of the bank, said Monday. San Francisco-based New Resource Bank sees as inviting a number of industries in the green or sustainable arena, Liu said. "Organics, green energy, green buildings, are sectors that have been growing much more rapidly than the rest of the economy," Liu said. For example, the organics industry generates $15 billion in revenue and is growing at 20 percent a year, according to figures cited by the Organic Consumers Organization. Liu said the clean energy industry has been growing by 20 to 30 percent a year....
Slightly Higher Thanksgiving Dinner Cost This Year Despite a slight increase in price, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings remains affordable, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. AFBF’s 21st annual informal survey of the prices of basic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table pegs the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 at $38.10, a $1.32 price increase from last year’s average of $36.78. The AFBF survey shopping list includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and beverages of coffee and milk, all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10. The cost of a 16-pound turkey, at $15.70 or roughly 98 cents per pound, reflects an increase of 4 cents per pound, or a total of 59 cents per turkey compared to 2005. This is the largest contributor to the overall increase in the cost of the 2006 Thanksgiving dinner....
Earps, Clantons share county ties During my visits to Tombstone - most recently a couple of weeks ago during the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - I've become increasingly aware of how much in common that famous Arizona silver mining town had with San Bernardino County. Tombstone, notorious for its rowdy, mining- camp reputation during its heyday, had such honky-tonk establishments as the Bird Cage Theater, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental Saloon. The town of San Bernardino, a supply center for the gold mining ventures at Holcomb Valley during the 1860s, was noted during the same time period for its Whiskey Point at Third and D Streets - so named for hosting saloons at each corner. While Tombstone, with its thriving Chinatown, was infamously remembered for its prostitution district, San Bernardino's red-light district on D Street just below the city limits was pretty darn notorious, too. San Bernardino also had a flourishing Chinatown along Third Street between Arrowhead Avenue and Sierra Way. Tombstone was best known for its tough reputation with outlaws such as the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius. To protect the town's citizens, there were such well-known names as Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short and, of course, the Earp boys. San Bernardino also had its outlaw element - Hell Roaring Johnson, the Mason-Henry Gang, the Button Gang, and the El Monte Boys. Its townsfolk were protected by men like Ben Mathews, Rube Herring, John Ralphs - and, for a short time, the Earp boys....
Democrats to elevate global warming, other environmental issues The Democrats who will steer environment issues in the new Congress are polar opposites of their Republican predecessors, but changing environmental policy is like turning around an aircraft carrier _ it's very slow. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a liberal California Democrat and one of the biggest environmental advocates on Capitol Hill, was named Tuesday to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She replaces Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, who says global warming is a hoax and wanted to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency established by President Richard Nixon. On the House side, the approach to endangered species and opening public lands to private development will do an about-face with Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., expected to take over the House Resources Committee. He would replace GOP Rep. Richard Pombo, a California rancher, defeated for re-election last week after environmentalists spent nearly $2 million against him. "Our long national nightmare is close to being over," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, paraphrasing Gerald Ford on assuming the presidency after Nixon's resignation over Watergate. Democrats will focus on cutting pollution blamed for global warming, accelerating toxic waste cleanups, reversing Bush administration tax and regulatory breaks for energy producers and switching the government's course back to strict protections for endangered species....
BLM gets earful during session on oil, gas drilling permits The Bureau of Land Management billed meetings on a program for handling energy permits as listening sessions and it got an earful Tuesday from people who say the goal is speed above all else -- the environment, landowners' rights, wildlife. BLM officials scheduled two sessions at an east-Denver hotel to discuss and take comments on its year-old oil and gas pilot project, which beefed up staffs in seven regional offices in the Rockies to handle the explosion in applications to drill on federal land. Congress mandated the program in the 2005 energy bill, adding staffers and employees from other federal agencies in BLM offices in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in a kind of one-stop-shopping approach. "From a landowner's standpoint, there's no way for me to protect my land," said Steve Adami, a rancher near Buffalo, Wyo. Adami said energy companies were able to post a $2,000 bond when they failed to strike a deal with him and moved in rigs to drill 11 wells. He owns the land but not the minerals underneath, resulting in a so-called "split estate." Mineral owners can develop them or lease them to someone else. State and federal agencies encourage negotiations with landowners, but companies can post bonds and drill if an agreement isn't reached. Tweeti Blancett said the ranch she and her husband, Linn, have near Aztec in northwest New Mexico "is gone" because of impacts from oil and gas operations. Their ranch encompasses federal, state and private land. "There's plenty of money to do it right, but it's not being done right," Blancett said, whose husband's family has ranched in the same area for six generations. Speakers contended the pilot program's emphasis is on speeding approval of permits while well inspections, monitoring of water and other resources and enforcement go wanting....
Gas Prospectors Exploit Public Lands The first wave of the San Juan basin oil and gas boom came in the 1950s, and Linn Blancett's parents welcomed it. The oil and gas boys put money in the ranchers' pockets, and they opened roads into the backcountry that increased access to water and eased the hard work of tending and gathering cattle. The exploration drillers of that era sought petroleum and "sweet" gas, which is high-quality natural gas found in large reservoirs. The wells were widely scattered. The crews and pipelines were few. People like the Blancetts adapted and got along. Coal bed methane (CBM), which became a regional obsession in the late 1990s, changed everything. Every coal formation harbors a quantity of methane, the primary component of natural gas, but because the coal is dense and the seams and cavities in which the gas collects are small, each well taps a relatively small volume of the formation. It takes a lot of wells to pull the gas from a coal bed efficiently. In the canyons north and west of Aztec the wells go in on a grid so tight you can't stand at one and not see another -- even in broken country. It is the kind of density that in New York City would put about fifteen wells in Central Park, none much more than a quarter mile from its neighbors. And each well has to have a road and a pipeline, plus a compressor, probably a sump for the foul liquids that the drilling generates, plus maybe a pump jack, a dehydrator to separate gas from water, and a tank for still more foul liquids that come from the dehydrator once the well is producing. Before long, the sagebrush flats and junipered mesas of the San Juan basin groaned day and night with the rumbleroar of innumerable engines. The same region that bred the stoicism of the old-time Navajos and Utes had become a vast factory spread over hundreds of square miles, an industrialized wildland, no longer wild, producing hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of pipeline gas. Amid the seeming prosperity, however, the hemophilic soil eroded from bulldozed drill pads and road cuts, antifreeze dripped and lubricating oil pooled, and the chemicals and effluents of the drilling trade stained the earth....
Grizzly soon to be delisted A year ago today, government officials gathered on a stage in Washington, D.C., to say it's finally time to remove endangered species protections from grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding areas. Since then, more than 213,000 people - from scientists and schoolchildren to environmentalists and livestock groups - have registered their opinion of the idea. Sometime in the first half of 2007, the decision is expected to become final. But that won't be the end of the story for managing the estimated 600 grizzlies in and around Yellowstone. Instead, it will simply open the next chapter in the bears' long road to recovery, one that likely will include lawsuits, discussions of state-run grizzly hunts, intensified monitoring and state agencies deciding how the bruins should be managed....
Forest Service amends lynx plans The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday amended its environmental impact statement for the southern Rockies Canada lynx to include White River National Forest. The amendment modifies eight forest plans with an eye to conserve the threatened lynx on national forests in Colorado and southern Wyoming, according to Bob Vaught, the Forest Service's renewable resources director. The conservation measures would maintain connected stands of dense, young trees that support snowshoe hares (the lynx's main prey) and limit expansion of over-the-snow trails that compact snow and give competing predators access to lynx habitat in the winter. The Forest Service will take comments for 90 days, until Feb. 17. A final environmental impact statement and decision are expected in the fall of 2007....
Agency to revisit land pact Explosive rural real estate development is forcing land and wildlife managers to reconsider Swan Valley conservation deals that were struck with industry more than a decade ago. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would revisit a major land-use agreement signed in 1995 with Plum Creek Timber Co. That company is selling substantial portions of its industrial timberland base for real estate development, a change big enough to trigger renewed talks. The initial 1995 deal included Plum Creek, the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the U.S. Forest Service and FWS, the federal agency charged with oversight of threatened and endangered species. The intent was to “integrate timber management, recreational management and bear management practices in a manner that is both ecologically and economically sound in a mixed ownership environment.” But much has changed since the ink dried on that landmark Swan Valley Conservation Agreement.....
Four Caught In Canyon Avalanche, One Buried An early season avalanche on Tuesday swept away four experienced backcountry skiers, temporarily burying one. The skier, 27-year-old Salt Lake City resident Steve Lloyd, was among four in the upper Silver Fork basin, one mile west of Solitude Ski Resort. They were skiing more than a foot of fresh snow at an elevation of about 10,000 feet when an avalanche broke loose off a jagged ridge that separates Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. Authorities say Steve Lloyd was fully buried when his friends got to him. When they dug him out, he was blue and unconscious. However, rescue crews were able to revive him, and load him into an Airmed helicopter. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Paul Jaroscak said the skiers were experienced and had the necessary equipment to call for help.But much has changed since the ink dried on that landmark Swan Valley Conservation Agreement....
New bank angles for green niche The tide of green initiatives is set to wash over the Bay Area banking scene. New Resource Bank, which was founded by an East Bay entrepreneur, is formally launching a business that plans to finance companies and organizations that emphasize green or sustainable operations. "We want to finance sustainable resources in the community," Peter Liu, a Piedmont resident who is founder and vice chairman of the bank, said Monday. San Francisco-based New Resource Bank sees as inviting a number of industries in the green or sustainable arena, Liu said. "Organics, green energy, green buildings, are sectors that have been growing much more rapidly than the rest of the economy," Liu said. For example, the organics industry generates $15 billion in revenue and is growing at 20 percent a year, according to figures cited by the Organic Consumers Organization. Liu said the clean energy industry has been growing by 20 to 30 percent a year....
Slightly Higher Thanksgiving Dinner Cost This Year Despite a slight increase in price, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings remains affordable, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. AFBF’s 21st annual informal survey of the prices of basic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table pegs the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 at $38.10, a $1.32 price increase from last year’s average of $36.78. The AFBF survey shopping list includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and beverages of coffee and milk, all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10. The cost of a 16-pound turkey, at $15.70 or roughly 98 cents per pound, reflects an increase of 4 cents per pound, or a total of 59 cents per turkey compared to 2005. This is the largest contributor to the overall increase in the cost of the 2006 Thanksgiving dinner....
Earps, Clantons share county ties During my visits to Tombstone - most recently a couple of weeks ago during the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - I've become increasingly aware of how much in common that famous Arizona silver mining town had with San Bernardino County. Tombstone, notorious for its rowdy, mining- camp reputation during its heyday, had such honky-tonk establishments as the Bird Cage Theater, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental Saloon. The town of San Bernardino, a supply center for the gold mining ventures at Holcomb Valley during the 1860s, was noted during the same time period for its Whiskey Point at Third and D Streets - so named for hosting saloons at each corner. While Tombstone, with its thriving Chinatown, was infamously remembered for its prostitution district, San Bernardino's red-light district on D Street just below the city limits was pretty darn notorious, too. San Bernardino also had a flourishing Chinatown along Third Street between Arrowhead Avenue and Sierra Way. Tombstone was best known for its tough reputation with outlaws such as the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius. To protect the town's citizens, there were such well-known names as Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short and, of course, the Earp boys. San Bernardino also had its outlaw element - Hell Roaring Johnson, the Mason-Henry Gang, the Button Gang, and the El Monte Boys. Its townsfolk were protected by men like Ben Mathews, Rube Herring, John Ralphs - and, for a short time, the Earp boys....
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Greens Defeat Pombo By Running from Green Issues There's a line between political spin and outright deception. Environmental organizations crossed over that line in their post-election analysis of House Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Pombo's re-election defeat. Defenders of Wildlife and the League of Conservation Voters, among other environmental groups, want people to believe that Mr. Pombo's defeat was a referendum on his environmental record. While Pombo's efforts to fix the Endangered Species Act, overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act, and promote U.S. energy independence by opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf to environmentally-responsible oil exploration came up during the campaign, they were largely incidental to the Greens’ efforts. Instead of focusing on these issues, the Greens’ commercials and other campaign material focused -- largely unfairly -- on Pombo's ethics. Those fed up with Washington scandals found in Pombo a convenient target and took their frustrations out on him. Other incumbents -- including those who have been staunch allies of the Greens -- were swept out of office for the same reason. Rep. Jim Leach, who received a mere 27 percent rating from the League of Private Property Voters (LPPV) -- kind of the antithesis of the League of Conservation Voters -- lost re-election. So too did Lincoln Chafee (LPPV rating: 33), Nancy Johnson (LPPV rating: 36), Sue Kelly (LPPV rating: 18) and Michael Fitzpatrick (LPPV rating: 36). Are we to believe this was a referendum on their environmental positions, too? No. Richard Pombo and these other members did not lose on environmental issues....
Peninsula cows get second chance to graze Waiting till the cows come home? This winter, years after being removed from most of the Peninsula's public pastures, they're headed back. Reversing a no-cow trend, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has drafted a new policy that would reintroduce livestock to 5,000 grassy acres in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, perhaps even on the popular Russian Ridge and Monte Bello preserves. The goal is to reduce wildfire risk in an area that is too big to mow and too dangerous to burn -- and fend off the encroachment of forest. Inspired by successful grazing on San Jose's Coyote Ridge, district managers plan to present the policy for approval to their board of directors in January. ``The paradigm was to kick cattle off when you acquired property,'' said the district's Kirk Lenington, who is managing the project. Overgrazed, eroded and trampled pastures had alarmed the region's environmentalists. But further research brought a turnaround in thinking. Removing cattle from San Jose's Silver Creek Hills in the 1990s, for instance, led to depletion of wildflowers that are food for the endangered bay checkerspot butterfly. Wildflowers and butterflies are also largely gone from Santa Teresa County Park. ``Cattle are one of the few effective tools that are available to manage grasslands on a large scale,'' Lenington said....
Deal reveals holes that get in way of preserving land It seemed like a good idea, at least on paper. The federal government would trade some land it owned in northeast Oregon for riverside property along the North Fork of the John Day River. Oregonians would end up with protected wilderness areas along one of the state's more attractive waterways. Loggers and ranchers would gain access to some valuable land. And the federal outlay would be minimal: reimbursement of the costs for the company setting up the deal. But the Blue Mountain Land Exchange didn't work out as planned. Instead, its collapse last month -- after more than four years of negotiations -- offers some striking insights into the pitfalls of the government's favored approach for securing treasured national resources. The wreckage of the exchange also illuminates the tangle of conflicting interests that can arise when government functions are turned over to private entrepreneurs. The issue of land exchanges remains highly controversial in Oregon and other Western states, which face rising property values and development in what were once pristine natural areas. Federal agencies such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management rely on land trades -- which are assembled by private companies -- because they lack money to buy property outright. The swaps are the most direct means of protecting rivers such as the John Day from development or repairing environmental damage, offering the chance to trade isolated fragments of federal land for well-placed privately owned parcels....
Local Chefs Rally Behind Idaho Elk Ranchers There's been a lot of talk about the elk ranching industry lately, especially after nearly 100 elk escaped from a private hunting reserve in eastern Idaho in August. Some lawmakers have expressed concern over "shoot a bull" operations like that one, in which hunters pay thousands of dollars for a guaranteed kill. Local elk ranchers think that might lead to a ban on the industry, something they don't want to see happen. And they're not alone, local chefs are also rallying behind their cause. "If they close elk ranches in Idaho, we can't have it," said Randy King, Executive Chef at Crane Creek Country Club. Local chefs gathered at the Owyhee Plaza Hotel in Boise, home of the Gamekeeper restaurant, to show their support for elk ranching in the Gem State. "If we cannot have elk on the Idaho table, it diminishes our tourism value, our local restaurant value," said King....
Bison hunt to start Wed. The Montana hunt for bison that leave Yellowstone National Park opens on Wednesday, with the state providing nearly triple the licenses available last year. Shane Colton of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission said the increase to 140 licenses is a step toward better management of the bison herd. The activist group Buffalo Field Campaign opposes any hunting of Yellowstone bison and said the license increase simply worsens a bad idea. Hunters will be divided into two districts, one the Gardiner area near the park’s northern edge and the other near West Yellowstone, along the park’s western edge. Hunting will be staggered over a three-month span and will end Feb. 15. Montana’s first bison hunt in 15 years took place last fall and winter. The license increase and its focus on bison cows makes the hunt more of a herd management tool, Colton said....
Tiny fish, small space When an animal or plant is placed on the endangered species list, typically its habitat has dwindled or outside influences have dramatically threatened its survival. But in a remote lake outside Pinedale, there is a different endangered tale. The Kendall Warm Springs dace, a 1- to 2.5-inch fish, is thriving in its habitat. Still, it is listed on the endangered species list. The problem? Its habitat is about 900 feet of water on the entire planet. "Nine hundred feet in the whole world is not a good place to be," said Joe Neal, fisheries biologist for the Bridger-Teton National Forest's Pinedale office. "The springs are 1,200 feet, and they only live in the bottom 900 feet." Still, there are several thousand dace "doing quite well" in the warm springs....
Owens backs roadless areas Gov. Bill Owens on Monday asked the federal government to protect most of the state's 4.4 million acres of roadless areas from new development and permanent roads, ending a year-long review of U.S. forest lands in Colorado. In what is expected to be one of his last major acts as governor, Owens accepted the full recommendation of a 13-member bipartisan task force that held hearings around the state, considered more than 40,000 public comments and determined that the bulk of the natural lands should be preserved. "Few things are more important to Coloradans than the responsible stewardship of our National Forests. The scenic landscapes, abundant wildlife and mountain vistas make Colorado such a wonderful place to live ...," Owens wrote in his letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johans. The request - technically a petition that still must be approved by the U.S. Forest Service - is part of a state-by-state process established by the Bush administration to end the 30-year debate over roadless protections. But the rule, which overturned a previous blanket set of nationwide protections written in the waning days of Bill Clinton's presidency, remains in limbo in the federal courts amid numerous legal challenges....
Derby wildfire damages cutthroat trout habitat For some, fish may not rank high on the list of important casualties in a wildfire. But the thought of losing a robust group of Yellowstone cutthroat trout south of Big Timber troubled Jim Olsen. Those cutthroat are among "our best," said Olsen, a fisheries biologist for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. For weeks, he and other Montana fish biologists have been trying to save a population of cutthroat trout threatened by the aftermath of this year's gigantic Derby Mountain fire. In the Deer Creek drainage, wildlife officials fear that erosion could send tons of debris into the waterways and kill thousands of the cutthroats, already a species struggling in the northern Rocky Mountains. That might not have been a big deal, but these particular Yellowstone cutthroats are some of the heartiest in the area, partly because they've shown they're able to live alongside brown trout, which tend to out-compete cutthroats on their own turf. So, as the Derby Mountain fire still smoldered, state and U.S. Forest Service officials hatched a plan to get some of the fish out, take them to another creek not damaged by the fire and return them to Deer Creek once the threat of erosion had eased....
Global warming may fan wildfires Some scientists fear global warming could stoke ferocious wildland fires in parts of the world, disrupting fragile ecosystems and hampering efforts to protect communities. Recent studies have tied rising temperatures to an upswing in widespread forest fires, particularly in the Western United States, which has experienced an unusually high number of severe wildfires in recent decades. "There's really no happy side to this," said Thomas Swetnam, who heads the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Battling wildfires is an arduous and expensive task that has been complicated by thick forest undergrowth and the increasing encroachment of people near forest land. "You add on climate change, and it's going to make things that much worse," Swetnam said. Scientists are already seeing a change in wildfire behavior due to rising temperatures. Fire seasons have grown longer or more severe in parts of the Western United States, Siberian taiga and Canadian Rockies. If the trend continues, some predict frequent wildfire outbreaks that will be harder to put out....
Wildfire triggers multiple inquiries focusing on how safely it was fought At least one group of investigators has finished interviewing witnesses about the Esperanza Fire, which killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters last month. But it's unclear where two other federal investigations stand. Those are the inquiries that have some firefighters concerned about potential legal repercussions. One of the investigative agencies previously has pursued involuntary manslaughter charges against a fire commander after a fatal blaze. Forest Service spokesman Al Matecko, a member of the joint California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Forest Service inquiry, said investigators took statements from two dozen Forest Service employees and 10 CDF employees about the Esperanza Fire. The joint investigation team wants to improve firefighter safety, not find blame, Matecko said. Investigators hope to complete their inquiry in 45 days. The U.S. Agriculture Department's inspector general's office and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration are also looking into the fatal fire. If the inspector general's investigators find firefighter wrongdoing, criminal charges could be brought. OSHA, which investigates workplace deaths and safety issues, could issue citations and fines if it finds workplace rule violations....
Studies Find Danger to Forests in Thinning Without Burning Thinning forests without also burning accumulated brush and deadwood may increase forest fire damage rather than reduce it, researchers at the Forest Service reported in two recent studies. The findings cast doubt on how effective some of the thinning done under President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative will be at preventing fires if the forests are not also burned. The studies show that in forests that have been thinned but not treated with prescribed burning, tree mortality is much greater than in forests that have had thinning and burning and those that have been left alone. Another study, on Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in Northern California, had similar findings. The studies, combined with other recent research showing that climate change is reducing snowpack and making the fire season longer and more intense, have prompted researchers to urge the Forest Service to use prescribed fire more....
Kennard Firefighter Guilty of Arson United States Attorney Matthew D. Orwig announced today a 33-year-old Kennard firefighter has been convicted of setting three arson fires in the Davy Crockett National Forest. Ryan James Eff was found guilty today following a bench trial before United States District Judge Ron Clark. According to information presented by prosecutors, Eff was employed as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and assigned to perform firefighter duties in the federally owned Davy Crockett National Forest. Eff was indicted in May 2006, and charged with setting three arson fires. The indictment also noted that Eff was responsible for intentionally setting 23 arson fires in locations in or near the Davy Crockett National Forest from about May 2005 to April 2006. During each of these fires, USFS personnel responded and worked to suppress and extinguish the fires using aircraft and heavy equipment in extremely dangerous conditions....
Forest plans trails for ATVers Public meetings are scheduled this week in Cheyenne and Laramie regarding the Medicine Bow National Forest’s plan to establish more than 100 miles of trails for off-road vehicles on the eastern half of the Snowy Range. According to an environmental assessment of the plan, the chief of the Forest Service in 2004 recognized that unmanaged recreation, particularly off-road vehicle use, was one of the four major threats to the nation’s forests and grasslands. The intent of this proposal, according to the Medicine Bow's Melissa Martin, is to concentrate ORV use in two areas -- north of Mountain Home and west of Albany -- while closing 235 miles of unauthorized roads and 39 miles of unauthorized trails. Designating trail bike and four-wheeler trails will allow families, including children without driver’s licenses, to travel together on their machines, so long as each vehicle has an all-terrain vehicle permit from the state, Martin said. Presently, without designated trails, drivers of ATVs on the Laramie District roads must have driver’s licenses, she said. The ATV trails will allow machines up to 50 inches in width to pass the gates, Martin said....
Oil-shale leases OK'd The Bush administration Monday authorized oil-shale leases for five sites on public land in western Colorado, the first leases since the shale bust of the 1980s wrenched the region's economy. The approval was for relatively small-scale "research and development" leases, but it was the government's biggest endorsement yet of oil shale, a vast petroleum resource with a checkered past. Officials and boosters say shale development is key to reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Environmentalists say the impact on wildlife and water quality has not been sufficiently taken into account. "Our national and economic security depend on our developing domestic energy resources like the oil shale found in western Colorado," said Assistant Interior Secretary C. Stephen Allred. Oil shale is a black rock bound with organic material that turns into oil when heated. The 1.8 trillion barrels of oil believed to be trapped in the Green River formation in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah amount to more than three times the size of Saudi Arabia's proven reserves and could meet 25 percent of current U.S. demand for more than 400 years, advocates say....
Klamath Farmers Appeal Order Over Salmon Klamath Basin farmers are going ahead with their appeal of a federal court ruling that gave more water to salmon, raising doubts among salmon advocates that farmers are really interested in solving the region's environmental problems. Attorneys for the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents about 1,000 farms irrigated by the Klamath Reclamation Project, filed a brief Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in their appeal of an injunction speeding up the timetable for the government to increase Klamath River flows for threatened coho salmon. The appeal came after the Bush administration withdrew its own appeal and four weeks before a summit organized by the governors of Oregon and California to find solutions to the Klamath Basin's long-standing environmental problems, particularly four hydroelectric dams widely blamed for hurting struggling salmon runs. "While we're getting close to turning the corner and getting along a lot better, we're not quite there yet. Until we get there, we have to keep our options open," said Greg Addington, executive director of the association....
Group wants logging ban to protect owl Citing a "prolonged and accelerating decline" that halved Washington's spotted owl population since the early 1990s, a Seattle environmental group asked a federal judge Monday to bar logging on about 50,000 acres of private timberlands in Western Washington. The Seattle Audubon Society targeted four sites owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co. in southwest Washington where spotted owls have been seen. The group says these are examples of Western Washington sites where the court should order the state Forest Practices Board to halt all logging. Joined by the Kittitas Audubon Society, the Seattle group said state rules "offer no meaningful protection" for owls outside 13 "special emphasis" areas where the state chose to better protect the reclusive birds. A spokeswoman for the Forest Practices Board said the board tightened some rules affecting owls last year and is awaiting a new federal plan to restore owl populations. Weyerhaeuser said no owls have been seen for some time at two of the sites targeted in the suit, and the company does not plan to cut any timber at the other two sites....
Court pulls plug on power plant For now, the Medicine Lake highlands will remain free from geothermal power development. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week reversed a lower court ruling, rejecting federal leases for a proposed geothermal power plant near a volcano about 30 miles east of Mt. Shasta. The leases are held by Calpine, a San Jose-based energy company. While opponents of the plant, called the Fourmile Hill project, said the ruling was a major victory, representatives for the U.S. Forest Service and Calpine said their attorneys are still reviewing it to determine what to do next. The Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which had issued the leases to Calpine, were listed as defendants with the energy company in the lawsuit brought by the Pit River tribe and some environmental groups. Possible next steps include taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or starting the lease process anew, with environmental and cultural reviews 9th Circuit Judge Clifford Wallace said the original leases lacked. Calpine is also reviewing the ruling and will discus its options with the Forest Service and BLM, said spokeswoman Katherine Potter....
Gold Buckle Network Adds Dozens of Award-Winning HorseFlicks Programs to its Online Western Video Library Gold Buckle Network™ (GBN™) (www.goldbucklenetwork.com) announced today that is has added 37 new titles from award-winning production and marketing company HorseFlicks to its leading online western video library. The full-length shows include 12 episodes from the American Ranch Story TV series and 25 Horse Breed episodes. All 37 new HorseFlicks shows are currently available in the "Open Range" and "Western Travel" categories of the GBN online western video network. HorseFlicks is a Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex video production and marketing company specializing exclusively in equine television programming. HorseFlicks recently captured an unprecedented 14th Award of Excellence in equine TV production at the 2006 Aurora Awards Competition. HorseFlicks was honored with the Gold Award of Excellence for The Gypsy Vanner, which was produced for Magnolia Ranch in Katy, Texas. This and other programs are available in high-quality digital streaming video at www.goldbucklenetwork.com. GBN is an online TV network, music source, and department store for everything Western....
Lockeford man inducted into Cutting Horse Hall of Fame Graeme Stewart is a pioneer in cutting horse contests, at least on the West Coast. In the 1940s, the art of cutting cows away from the rest of the herd was popular in areas like Texas, but it wasn't until 1950 that a western chapter was formed. Although he didn't compete in contests in the 1940s, Stewart "cut" cattle on his ranches in Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. But once the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association was created in 1950, Stewart, then in his late 20s, decided to do it professionally. Stewart's love for horses and then cutting horse competitions led him to a 26-year career that led to his induction to the association's Hall of Fame on Nov. 1 in Reno, Nev....
It's All Trew: Settlers protected hay meadows Almost as important as water is adequate forage for working livestock that provided food and transportation for humans. The better the forage quality, the better the worker. To prove that forage is important, we merely point out the many wars and skirmishes fought over the grazing rights along our waterways. Settlements were born adjacent to creek meadows and fortunes established because of the never-failing hay production produced by sub-irrigated lands. Since most of our early day settlements began before the advent of barbed wire fences and with little timber available for rail fences, keeping stray livestock off your meadowland was a serious problem. Some owners went too extremes in their efforts. The book “Hidetown — The History of Wheeler County” tells of one hay meadow owner who hired a man to dig a moat by shovel around his property. Many a settler around Fort Elliott and other western forts made a living cutting, hauling and selling meadow hay to the military. All Spanish settlements in the Great Southwest and Mexico had to remove all livestock and large poultry from the creek bottoms during the growing season in order to grow and harvest hay, grain and other produce....
Greens Defeat Pombo By Running from Green Issues There's a line between political spin and outright deception. Environmental organizations crossed over that line in their post-election analysis of House Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Pombo's re-election defeat. Defenders of Wildlife and the League of Conservation Voters, among other environmental groups, want people to believe that Mr. Pombo's defeat was a referendum on his environmental record. While Pombo's efforts to fix the Endangered Species Act, overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act, and promote U.S. energy independence by opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf to environmentally-responsible oil exploration came up during the campaign, they were largely incidental to the Greens’ efforts. Instead of focusing on these issues, the Greens’ commercials and other campaign material focused -- largely unfairly -- on Pombo's ethics. Those fed up with Washington scandals found in Pombo a convenient target and took their frustrations out on him. Other incumbents -- including those who have been staunch allies of the Greens -- were swept out of office for the same reason. Rep. Jim Leach, who received a mere 27 percent rating from the League of Private Property Voters (LPPV) -- kind of the antithesis of the League of Conservation Voters -- lost re-election. So too did Lincoln Chafee (LPPV rating: 33), Nancy Johnson (LPPV rating: 36), Sue Kelly (LPPV rating: 18) and Michael Fitzpatrick (LPPV rating: 36). Are we to believe this was a referendum on their environmental positions, too? No. Richard Pombo and these other members did not lose on environmental issues....
Peninsula cows get second chance to graze Waiting till the cows come home? This winter, years after being removed from most of the Peninsula's public pastures, they're headed back. Reversing a no-cow trend, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has drafted a new policy that would reintroduce livestock to 5,000 grassy acres in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, perhaps even on the popular Russian Ridge and Monte Bello preserves. The goal is to reduce wildfire risk in an area that is too big to mow and too dangerous to burn -- and fend off the encroachment of forest. Inspired by successful grazing on San Jose's Coyote Ridge, district managers plan to present the policy for approval to their board of directors in January. ``The paradigm was to kick cattle off when you acquired property,'' said the district's Kirk Lenington, who is managing the project. Overgrazed, eroded and trampled pastures had alarmed the region's environmentalists. But further research brought a turnaround in thinking. Removing cattle from San Jose's Silver Creek Hills in the 1990s, for instance, led to depletion of wildflowers that are food for the endangered bay checkerspot butterfly. Wildflowers and butterflies are also largely gone from Santa Teresa County Park. ``Cattle are one of the few effective tools that are available to manage grasslands on a large scale,'' Lenington said....
Deal reveals holes that get in way of preserving land It seemed like a good idea, at least on paper. The federal government would trade some land it owned in northeast Oregon for riverside property along the North Fork of the John Day River. Oregonians would end up with protected wilderness areas along one of the state's more attractive waterways. Loggers and ranchers would gain access to some valuable land. And the federal outlay would be minimal: reimbursement of the costs for the company setting up the deal. But the Blue Mountain Land Exchange didn't work out as planned. Instead, its collapse last month -- after more than four years of negotiations -- offers some striking insights into the pitfalls of the government's favored approach for securing treasured national resources. The wreckage of the exchange also illuminates the tangle of conflicting interests that can arise when government functions are turned over to private entrepreneurs. The issue of land exchanges remains highly controversial in Oregon and other Western states, which face rising property values and development in what were once pristine natural areas. Federal agencies such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management rely on land trades -- which are assembled by private companies -- because they lack money to buy property outright. The swaps are the most direct means of protecting rivers such as the John Day from development or repairing environmental damage, offering the chance to trade isolated fragments of federal land for well-placed privately owned parcels....
Local Chefs Rally Behind Idaho Elk Ranchers There's been a lot of talk about the elk ranching industry lately, especially after nearly 100 elk escaped from a private hunting reserve in eastern Idaho in August. Some lawmakers have expressed concern over "shoot a bull" operations like that one, in which hunters pay thousands of dollars for a guaranteed kill. Local elk ranchers think that might lead to a ban on the industry, something they don't want to see happen. And they're not alone, local chefs are also rallying behind their cause. "If they close elk ranches in Idaho, we can't have it," said Randy King, Executive Chef at Crane Creek Country Club. Local chefs gathered at the Owyhee Plaza Hotel in Boise, home of the Gamekeeper restaurant, to show their support for elk ranching in the Gem State. "If we cannot have elk on the Idaho table, it diminishes our tourism value, our local restaurant value," said King....
Bison hunt to start Wed. The Montana hunt for bison that leave Yellowstone National Park opens on Wednesday, with the state providing nearly triple the licenses available last year. Shane Colton of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission said the increase to 140 licenses is a step toward better management of the bison herd. The activist group Buffalo Field Campaign opposes any hunting of Yellowstone bison and said the license increase simply worsens a bad idea. Hunters will be divided into two districts, one the Gardiner area near the park’s northern edge and the other near West Yellowstone, along the park’s western edge. Hunting will be staggered over a three-month span and will end Feb. 15. Montana’s first bison hunt in 15 years took place last fall and winter. The license increase and its focus on bison cows makes the hunt more of a herd management tool, Colton said....
Tiny fish, small space When an animal or plant is placed on the endangered species list, typically its habitat has dwindled or outside influences have dramatically threatened its survival. But in a remote lake outside Pinedale, there is a different endangered tale. The Kendall Warm Springs dace, a 1- to 2.5-inch fish, is thriving in its habitat. Still, it is listed on the endangered species list. The problem? Its habitat is about 900 feet of water on the entire planet. "Nine hundred feet in the whole world is not a good place to be," said Joe Neal, fisheries biologist for the Bridger-Teton National Forest's Pinedale office. "The springs are 1,200 feet, and they only live in the bottom 900 feet." Still, there are several thousand dace "doing quite well" in the warm springs....
Owens backs roadless areas Gov. Bill Owens on Monday asked the federal government to protect most of the state's 4.4 million acres of roadless areas from new development and permanent roads, ending a year-long review of U.S. forest lands in Colorado. In what is expected to be one of his last major acts as governor, Owens accepted the full recommendation of a 13-member bipartisan task force that held hearings around the state, considered more than 40,000 public comments and determined that the bulk of the natural lands should be preserved. "Few things are more important to Coloradans than the responsible stewardship of our National Forests. The scenic landscapes, abundant wildlife and mountain vistas make Colorado such a wonderful place to live ...," Owens wrote in his letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johans. The request - technically a petition that still must be approved by the U.S. Forest Service - is part of a state-by-state process established by the Bush administration to end the 30-year debate over roadless protections. But the rule, which overturned a previous blanket set of nationwide protections written in the waning days of Bill Clinton's presidency, remains in limbo in the federal courts amid numerous legal challenges....
Derby wildfire damages cutthroat trout habitat For some, fish may not rank high on the list of important casualties in a wildfire. But the thought of losing a robust group of Yellowstone cutthroat trout south of Big Timber troubled Jim Olsen. Those cutthroat are among "our best," said Olsen, a fisheries biologist for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. For weeks, he and other Montana fish biologists have been trying to save a population of cutthroat trout threatened by the aftermath of this year's gigantic Derby Mountain fire. In the Deer Creek drainage, wildlife officials fear that erosion could send tons of debris into the waterways and kill thousands of the cutthroats, already a species struggling in the northern Rocky Mountains. That might not have been a big deal, but these particular Yellowstone cutthroats are some of the heartiest in the area, partly because they've shown they're able to live alongside brown trout, which tend to out-compete cutthroats on their own turf. So, as the Derby Mountain fire still smoldered, state and U.S. Forest Service officials hatched a plan to get some of the fish out, take them to another creek not damaged by the fire and return them to Deer Creek once the threat of erosion had eased....
Global warming may fan wildfires Some scientists fear global warming could stoke ferocious wildland fires in parts of the world, disrupting fragile ecosystems and hampering efforts to protect communities. Recent studies have tied rising temperatures to an upswing in widespread forest fires, particularly in the Western United States, which has experienced an unusually high number of severe wildfires in recent decades. "There's really no happy side to this," said Thomas Swetnam, who heads the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Battling wildfires is an arduous and expensive task that has been complicated by thick forest undergrowth and the increasing encroachment of people near forest land. "You add on climate change, and it's going to make things that much worse," Swetnam said. Scientists are already seeing a change in wildfire behavior due to rising temperatures. Fire seasons have grown longer or more severe in parts of the Western United States, Siberian taiga and Canadian Rockies. If the trend continues, some predict frequent wildfire outbreaks that will be harder to put out....
Wildfire triggers multiple inquiries focusing on how safely it was fought At least one group of investigators has finished interviewing witnesses about the Esperanza Fire, which killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters last month. But it's unclear where two other federal investigations stand. Those are the inquiries that have some firefighters concerned about potential legal repercussions. One of the investigative agencies previously has pursued involuntary manslaughter charges against a fire commander after a fatal blaze. Forest Service spokesman Al Matecko, a member of the joint California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Forest Service inquiry, said investigators took statements from two dozen Forest Service employees and 10 CDF employees about the Esperanza Fire. The joint investigation team wants to improve firefighter safety, not find blame, Matecko said. Investigators hope to complete their inquiry in 45 days. The U.S. Agriculture Department's inspector general's office and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration are also looking into the fatal fire. If the inspector general's investigators find firefighter wrongdoing, criminal charges could be brought. OSHA, which investigates workplace deaths and safety issues, could issue citations and fines if it finds workplace rule violations....
Studies Find Danger to Forests in Thinning Without Burning Thinning forests without also burning accumulated brush and deadwood may increase forest fire damage rather than reduce it, researchers at the Forest Service reported in two recent studies. The findings cast doubt on how effective some of the thinning done under President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative will be at preventing fires if the forests are not also burned. The studies show that in forests that have been thinned but not treated with prescribed burning, tree mortality is much greater than in forests that have had thinning and burning and those that have been left alone. Another study, on Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in Northern California, had similar findings. The studies, combined with other recent research showing that climate change is reducing snowpack and making the fire season longer and more intense, have prompted researchers to urge the Forest Service to use prescribed fire more....
Kennard Firefighter Guilty of Arson United States Attorney Matthew D. Orwig announced today a 33-year-old Kennard firefighter has been convicted of setting three arson fires in the Davy Crockett National Forest. Ryan James Eff was found guilty today following a bench trial before United States District Judge Ron Clark. According to information presented by prosecutors, Eff was employed as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and assigned to perform firefighter duties in the federally owned Davy Crockett National Forest. Eff was indicted in May 2006, and charged with setting three arson fires. The indictment also noted that Eff was responsible for intentionally setting 23 arson fires in locations in or near the Davy Crockett National Forest from about May 2005 to April 2006. During each of these fires, USFS personnel responded and worked to suppress and extinguish the fires using aircraft and heavy equipment in extremely dangerous conditions....
Forest plans trails for ATVers Public meetings are scheduled this week in Cheyenne and Laramie regarding the Medicine Bow National Forest’s plan to establish more than 100 miles of trails for off-road vehicles on the eastern half of the Snowy Range. According to an environmental assessment of the plan, the chief of the Forest Service in 2004 recognized that unmanaged recreation, particularly off-road vehicle use, was one of the four major threats to the nation’s forests and grasslands. The intent of this proposal, according to the Medicine Bow's Melissa Martin, is to concentrate ORV use in two areas -- north of Mountain Home and west of Albany -- while closing 235 miles of unauthorized roads and 39 miles of unauthorized trails. Designating trail bike and four-wheeler trails will allow families, including children without driver’s licenses, to travel together on their machines, so long as each vehicle has an all-terrain vehicle permit from the state, Martin said. Presently, without designated trails, drivers of ATVs on the Laramie District roads must have driver’s licenses, she said. The ATV trails will allow machines up to 50 inches in width to pass the gates, Martin said....
Oil-shale leases OK'd The Bush administration Monday authorized oil-shale leases for five sites on public land in western Colorado, the first leases since the shale bust of the 1980s wrenched the region's economy. The approval was for relatively small-scale "research and development" leases, but it was the government's biggest endorsement yet of oil shale, a vast petroleum resource with a checkered past. Officials and boosters say shale development is key to reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Environmentalists say the impact on wildlife and water quality has not been sufficiently taken into account. "Our national and economic security depend on our developing domestic energy resources like the oil shale found in western Colorado," said Assistant Interior Secretary C. Stephen Allred. Oil shale is a black rock bound with organic material that turns into oil when heated. The 1.8 trillion barrels of oil believed to be trapped in the Green River formation in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah amount to more than three times the size of Saudi Arabia's proven reserves and could meet 25 percent of current U.S. demand for more than 400 years, advocates say....
Klamath Farmers Appeal Order Over Salmon Klamath Basin farmers are going ahead with their appeal of a federal court ruling that gave more water to salmon, raising doubts among salmon advocates that farmers are really interested in solving the region's environmental problems. Attorneys for the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents about 1,000 farms irrigated by the Klamath Reclamation Project, filed a brief Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in their appeal of an injunction speeding up the timetable for the government to increase Klamath River flows for threatened coho salmon. The appeal came after the Bush administration withdrew its own appeal and four weeks before a summit organized by the governors of Oregon and California to find solutions to the Klamath Basin's long-standing environmental problems, particularly four hydroelectric dams widely blamed for hurting struggling salmon runs. "While we're getting close to turning the corner and getting along a lot better, we're not quite there yet. Until we get there, we have to keep our options open," said Greg Addington, executive director of the association....
Group wants logging ban to protect owl Citing a "prolonged and accelerating decline" that halved Washington's spotted owl population since the early 1990s, a Seattle environmental group asked a federal judge Monday to bar logging on about 50,000 acres of private timberlands in Western Washington. The Seattle Audubon Society targeted four sites owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co. in southwest Washington where spotted owls have been seen. The group says these are examples of Western Washington sites where the court should order the state Forest Practices Board to halt all logging. Joined by the Kittitas Audubon Society, the Seattle group said state rules "offer no meaningful protection" for owls outside 13 "special emphasis" areas where the state chose to better protect the reclusive birds. A spokeswoman for the Forest Practices Board said the board tightened some rules affecting owls last year and is awaiting a new federal plan to restore owl populations. Weyerhaeuser said no owls have been seen for some time at two of the sites targeted in the suit, and the company does not plan to cut any timber at the other two sites....
Court pulls plug on power plant For now, the Medicine Lake highlands will remain free from geothermal power development. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week reversed a lower court ruling, rejecting federal leases for a proposed geothermal power plant near a volcano about 30 miles east of Mt. Shasta. The leases are held by Calpine, a San Jose-based energy company. While opponents of the plant, called the Fourmile Hill project, said the ruling was a major victory, representatives for the U.S. Forest Service and Calpine said their attorneys are still reviewing it to determine what to do next. The Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which had issued the leases to Calpine, were listed as defendants with the energy company in the lawsuit brought by the Pit River tribe and some environmental groups. Possible next steps include taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or starting the lease process anew, with environmental and cultural reviews 9th Circuit Judge Clifford Wallace said the original leases lacked. Calpine is also reviewing the ruling and will discus its options with the Forest Service and BLM, said spokeswoman Katherine Potter....
Gold Buckle Network Adds Dozens of Award-Winning HorseFlicks Programs to its Online Western Video Library Gold Buckle Network™ (GBN™) (www.goldbucklenetwork.com) announced today that is has added 37 new titles from award-winning production and marketing company HorseFlicks to its leading online western video library. The full-length shows include 12 episodes from the American Ranch Story TV series and 25 Horse Breed episodes. All 37 new HorseFlicks shows are currently available in the "Open Range" and "Western Travel" categories of the GBN online western video network. HorseFlicks is a Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex video production and marketing company specializing exclusively in equine television programming. HorseFlicks recently captured an unprecedented 14th Award of Excellence in equine TV production at the 2006 Aurora Awards Competition. HorseFlicks was honored with the Gold Award of Excellence for The Gypsy Vanner, which was produced for Magnolia Ranch in Katy, Texas. This and other programs are available in high-quality digital streaming video at www.goldbucklenetwork.com. GBN is an online TV network, music source, and department store for everything Western....
Lockeford man inducted into Cutting Horse Hall of Fame Graeme Stewart is a pioneer in cutting horse contests, at least on the West Coast. In the 1940s, the art of cutting cows away from the rest of the herd was popular in areas like Texas, but it wasn't until 1950 that a western chapter was formed. Although he didn't compete in contests in the 1940s, Stewart "cut" cattle on his ranches in Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. But once the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association was created in 1950, Stewart, then in his late 20s, decided to do it professionally. Stewart's love for horses and then cutting horse competitions led him to a 26-year career that led to his induction to the association's Hall of Fame on Nov. 1 in Reno, Nev....
It's All Trew: Settlers protected hay meadows Almost as important as water is adequate forage for working livestock that provided food and transportation for humans. The better the forage quality, the better the worker. To prove that forage is important, we merely point out the many wars and skirmishes fought over the grazing rights along our waterways. Settlements were born adjacent to creek meadows and fortunes established because of the never-failing hay production produced by sub-irrigated lands. Since most of our early day settlements began before the advent of barbed wire fences and with little timber available for rail fences, keeping stray livestock off your meadowland was a serious problem. Some owners went too extremes in their efforts. The book “Hidetown — The History of Wheeler County” tells of one hay meadow owner who hired a man to dig a moat by shovel around his property. Many a settler around Fort Elliott and other western forts made a living cutting, hauling and selling meadow hay to the military. All Spanish settlements in the Great Southwest and Mexico had to remove all livestock and large poultry from the creek bottoms during the growing season in order to grow and harvest hay, grain and other produce....
JIMMY CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT
A "lack of manpower"?? The Forest Service alone had 16 Federal officers to raid Kit Laney's ranch.
This statement by you is an outright and blatant lie!! Kit Laney threatened the Forest Service with 100 men with guns if they came and tried to remove his trespass cattle from the American Peoples public land wilderness area that happens to be the headwaters of the East Fork of the Gila River.
This allotment that Laney was trespassing on is not and never was "Laney's ranch"
My only regret at this time is that you do not provide the opportunity for readers of your blog to respond publicly for all the other readers to consider. As it is, YOU have the last word with your misinformation and spin..
Jimmy Witherington
Jimmy,
That is what the comments section at the end of each posting is for. Sorry you haven't been able to figure that out.
I'm more than happy to share your ignorance of the Laney situation with all my readers.
A "lack of manpower"?? The Forest Service alone had 16 Federal officers to raid Kit Laney's ranch.
This statement by you is an outright and blatant lie!! Kit Laney threatened the Forest Service with 100 men with guns if they came and tried to remove his trespass cattle from the American Peoples public land wilderness area that happens to be the headwaters of the East Fork of the Gila River.
This allotment that Laney was trespassing on is not and never was "Laney's ranch"
My only regret at this time is that you do not provide the opportunity for readers of your blog to respond publicly for all the other readers to consider. As it is, YOU have the last word with your misinformation and spin..
Jimmy Witherington
Jimmy,
That is what the comments section at the end of each posting is for. Sorry you haven't been able to figure that out.
I'm more than happy to share your ignorance of the Laney situation with all my readers.
Monday, November 13, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Humane Society jumps in political game Republican U.S. House members Heather Wilson and Richard Pombo already had enough problems in their re-election races when a new set of opponents surfaced: animal-rights activists. The Humane Society Legislative Fund, a new political arm of the Humane Society of the United States, decided in September to actively work for the election or defeat of lawmakers based on issues important to the animal-welfare movement, such as banning the slaughter of horses. The group then spent more than $200,000 in the final four weeks of the campaign, most of it targeted at defeating two lawmakers who were in tight races, Pombo in Northern California and Wilson in New Mexico. Win or lose, the Humane Society was sending a message: Lawmakers could pay a price for their votes on issues of animal welfare. Sara Amundson, executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, sees her group doing for animal welfare what organizations like the National Rifle Association and the League of Conservation Voters have done for gun owners and environmentalists....
Groups appeal Antelope Basin grazing ruling Groups that oppose grazing in the Antelope Basin of southwest Montana have filed notice with the federal government that they will appeal a federal judge's ruling allowing the grazing to continue. The Native Ecosystem's Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Wildwest Institute said they will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy concluded in a September decision that a Forest Service plan for livestock grazing in the area did not harm sage grouse. The ruling came in a case the groups filed against the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest to force a more thorough review of grazing in the area, which is located at the south end of the Gravelly Mountains. Michael Garrity of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies said Thursday that Molloy took parts of biologist Jack Connelly's work out of context. And Molloy's assertion that there are few sage grouse in the area ignores the fact that federal law requires land managers to consider management species when making decisions, regardless of the population's size, he said....
Neighbors, others want to protect sensitive area Several Powder River Basin ranchers say the Bureau of Land Management is relaxing lease stipulations for coal-bed methane development in a special-use area known as Fortification Creek, which is home to a large elk herd. Wyoming BLM Director Bob Bennett granted a formal review of the complaint, which took place on Thursday. Bennett is expected to make a decision early this week about whether to at least temporarily halt more than 100 permits under review. Rancher Robert Sorenson, who has a rangeland management degree from the University of Wyoming and has more than six years' experience dealing with coal-bed methane development in the region, said he believes there's no way to mitigate intense activity in Fortification Creek. "It is obvious to anyone that the area cannot be returned to its original condition," Sorenson said in his testimony to the BLM. "It is too rough, too erosive and too fragile, and it takes hundreds of years to grow juniper trees, decades to grow sagebrush. Is it worth it?" A BLM official said the claim that the agency is relaxing stipulations set forth in the federal leases simply is not true. Chris Hanson, field manager of BLM's Buffalo field office, said special lease stipulations -- such as coordinated plans of development and consolidated facilities -- apply to only the special management area in Fortification Creek....
APF, ranchers work to resolve issues surrounding bison reserve project Their goal is to establish an ecologically functioning prairie-based wildlife reserve in a portion of Montana where healthy populations of native wildlife still roam free and there are very few human inhabitants. However, The American Prairie Foundation (APF) is being met with both support and some skepticism about what they plan to do. A non-profit organization created solely for the purpose of building the American Prairie Reserve in northeastern Montana, APF is based in Bozeman, Mont. According to Scott Laird, director of field operations for APF, the temperate grasslands of the world are the least protected bio-landscapes in the world. As a result, there is a high rate of habitat loss continually taking place on the prairies in North America. APF is working in this part of Montana based on the results of two conservation assessments of the northern great plains conducted by The Nature Conservancy and later by the World Wildlife Fund that both identified Montana's northeastern plains as a place where significant prairie conservation could still take place, said Laird....
Blame in Esperanza fire deaths may shift to forest service employees Even though a jailed arson suspect is charged with murdering five firefighters in the Esperanza Fire, some Forest Service employees fear they too could be targeted for blame in the deaths. At least four separate investigations are under way to explain exactly what happened Oct. 26 on Gorgonio View Road, where the crew of Engine 57 perished in a burn-over while trying to protect a home. Some Forest Service employees are particularly wary of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of the Inspector General. Veteran firefighters and advocate groups worry the IG will assign blame in the Esperanza Fire deaths rather than identify lessons that can improve firefighter safety in future blazes. The Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, a lobbying and advocacy group, has started a legal defense fund for anyone who was in a decision-making position at the scene of the burn-over on Gorgonio View, from engine operators on up. "We were asked by some of our folks on the forest, San Bernardino, to look into availability of legal counsel," said Casey Judd, FWFSA business manager, who is based in Idaho....
Stolen artifacts shatter ancient culture In the dead of night, looters are destroying the history of America, desecrating sacred Indian ruins. An estimated 80 percent of the nation's ancient archaeological sites have been plundered or robbed by shovel-toting looters. Though some of the pillaging is done by amateurs who don't know any better, more serious damage is wrought by professionals who dig deep, sometimes even using backhoes. The motive is money. Indian artifacts are coveted worldwide by collectors willing to pay for trophy pieces of the past. Fine antiquities are displayed in glass cases at mansions and museums. Lesser objects wind up on fireplace mantels or stored in garages. Looters are just the first link in a chain that includes collectors, galleries, trade shows and Internet sites such as eBay. But stopping the black-market business is virtually impossible because of a lack of manpower for enforcement and loopholes in the law that make it hard to convict the few who get caught. A "lack of manpower"?? The Forest Service alone had 16 Federal officers to raid Kit Laney's ranch. If they put the same emphasis on protecting these artifacts as they do in throwing ranchers in jail, maybe they could solve their problem.
Logging sales picking up on Umpqua Timber sales on the Umpqua National Forest have gained momentum and aren’t expected to slow any time soon, said Cliff Dils at the Douglas Timber Operators’ breakfast meeting Thursday morning. The forest supervisor also said a newly elected Congress will not have any immediate effect on the finances of the U.S. Forest Service. No one, Dils said after the meeting, is saying just yet that more money is coming to the Forest Service. With the 2007 budget set, the federal agency is in a “wait-and-see mode.” “This year, like any election year, is just weird,” Dils said of the midterm results. Focus for the Umpqua forest, he said, must stay on working timber sales through the National Environmental Policy Act so when a sale gets bogged down, the entire forest doesn’t stop production. “We’ve got to get ahead of NEPA,” Dils said. The national policy requires public review of any major action taking place on federal land....
Off-road vehicles OK'd to return to northern part of Angelina NF An edict issued in August banning all off-road vehicles from the Angelina National Forest was repealed last week, re-opening the northern section of the forest under its former rules. At first, 2006 was looking to be the year the national forest would embrace engine-driven outdoor enthusiasts with an official trail. That was what former district forester Karen Tinkle had said hoped to accomplish prior to her departure to the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas. After all, the forest service has analyzed this recreational challenge since the 1970s. The forest service's 1996 plan said "we'd build a trail on the southern part of the Angelina," said Glenn Donnahoe, planning team leader for the national forests and grasslands of Texas. However, "over time we determined there were too many conflicts and environmental impacts — we decided we couldn't do that." In fact the entire southern portion of the Angelina was closed, and remains closed, to off-road vehicles. Focus switched to the northern portion of the Angelina, with the assistance of Stephen F. Austin State University professor Mike Legg who designed an off-road vehicle trail presented in a series of public meetings held in 2005....
700-plus burros, horses to be taken The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Vegas Field Office is proposing to gather and remove 240 wild horses and 540 burros from the Spring Mountains Herd Management Area Complex. The proposal is outlined in the Spring Mountains Herd Management Complex Preliminary Population Management Plan and Environmental Assessment which was released Nov. 7. Public comment will be accepted on the preliminary environmental assessment through Dec. 7. The Spring Mountains Herd Management Area Complex consists of three U.S. Forest Service wild horse territories -- Red Rock, Johnnie and Spring Mountains -- and three BLM Herd Management Areas -- Red Rock, Johnnie and Wheeler Pass. Wild horses and burros in the Spring Mountains Complex are jointly managed by BLM and the U.S. Forest Service. Because of a cooperative interagency agreement, BLM is taking the lead on the Population Management Plan and environmental assessment....
Open spaces' future open to debate As talks about public land conservation continue locally, you might be scratching your head, wondering what the different proposals entail for thousands of acres in Doña Ana County. Just how solid are any plans to set aside natural areas? What exactly are the differences between the wilderness that's been suggested for multiple spots around the county and the natural conservation area being planned for only the Organ Mountains? What could you do or not do in each? How big would these areas be? No plan for wilderness is final yet, but officials are in the midst of sorting through feedback for a draft. Las Cruces officials plan workshops with the public over the next few weeks to narrow public comment into a single plan that will be forwarded to the state's congressional delegation. Participants will hammer out details about the size and type of conservation areas they want in the area, and the result will serve as a basis for federal legislation....
Board to look at Klamath dams The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will consider whether to approve a resolution Tuesday calling for the removal of four dams — the Iron Gate, Copco I, Copco II and J.C. Boyle — on the upper stretches of the Klamath River. The matter was initiated as a result of a letter to the board from the Northcoast Environmental Center, which has called on the supervisors to pass the resolution calling for the immediate removal of the dams. As part of the ongoing re-licensing process for the four dams, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is accepting written comments, which are due no later than Dec. 1, on the agency’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Klamath Hydroelectric Project. According to the letter to the board from the NEC’s Erica Terence, the draft version of the federal agency’s DEIR “makes a mockery of the National Environmental Policy Act it was filed under by failing to even consider removal of four dams,” as well as proposes the “biologically insupportable solution” of trapping fish and driving them around the dams....
Winter drilling exceptions granted Despite objections from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the federal Bureau of Land Management so far has granted all requests for exceptions allowing more natural gas development on federal lands around Pinedale this winter. According to a table published on the BLM's Web site, 13 requests have been granted by the agency for winter drilling activity, with nine requests outstanding. In one request, Ultra Resources has asked to drill a deep well through May in crucial winter range for antelope. BLM officials have said they intend to grant that request. Dennis Stenger, Pinedale field manager for the BLM, said that proposal has "been on the desk for a long time." He said the well will be allowed, but Ultra and Shell will not drill three other wells they are permitted to drill in the winter. The BLM also indicated several mitigation factors will be implemented with the well, including busing crews, continued air quality analysis and "continued funding of antelope and sage grouse function."....
Son inherits BLM scrape It's time for Gary Haws to pack up and leave - and this time the feds mean it. For six years, the Bureau of Land Management has been trying to evict the recalcitrant resident from 2.5 acres of BLM turf in Boulder in southern Utah's Garfield County. But Haws hasn't budged. Now, armed with a fresh federal court order, BLM officers and U.S. Marshals have until Dec. 3 to remove Haws, a mobile home and other structures from the parcel. Melody Rydalch, a U.S. District Court spokeswoman in Salt Lake City, said negotiations are continuing with Haws, whose son, Ryan, now lives in a yellow mobile home on the disputed property with his wife, Shea, and sons Oakley, 6, and Ryker, 2. "We're working to put together a plan to have the [mobile home] moved," Rydalch said. "Everyone involved wants to bring about a peaceful resolution." But, she added, the time has come to resolve the drawn-out dispute. The whole uproar has Ryan Haws baffled....
Las Vegas closing in on full house Flying into this desert metropolis is as deceiving as a mirage. From 10,000 feet you see empty land in all directions and swear the pace of suburban sprawl could go on unchecked. You'd swear no end's in sight to subdivisions stretching for miles beyond the Strip, enclaves of single-family houses that draw thousands of Californians and other migrants a year. Look again. The valley that Las Vegas and 1.8 million residents call home is nearly built out. Mountains, national parks, military bases, an Indian community and a critter called the desert tortoise have Sin City hemmed in. At the current building pace in the USA's fastest-growing major metro area, available acreage will be gone in less than a decade, developers and real estate analysts say. Yet growth pressure and housing demand won't abate. Greater Las Vegas will add 1 million residents in the next 10 years, state estimates say, and hit 3 million by 2020. The Las Vegas stereotype of cheap housing, cheap labor and a limitless supply of cheap desert land is dying. The metro area has tripled in size since 1986, pushing close to public lands and critical tortoise habitat. A 1998 federal law that grew out of a legal settlement to protect habitat drew a boundary and set limits on future growth. The law authorized the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell land it owns inside the boundary when Clark County or its cities wanted to grow. About 75,000 acres were supposed to last 30 years, but two-thirds has been snapped up....
White House eyes dollars from Nevada land sale The Bush administration is trying to get its hands on millions of dollars generated from sales of federally owned land in Nevada in order to help pay down the deficit. As part of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which passed in 1998, Congress agreed to sell 13 million acres of land in Nevada. The key backers of thelaw -- Nevada Sens. John Ensign, a Republican, and Harry Reid, a Democrat -- estimated the sales would provide $350 million to improve federal landholdings, preserve endangered species, fund state education and encourage construction of affordable housing for low-income residents. But a real estate boom in the growing city of Las Vegas has helped the Bureau of Land Management, which is in charge of auctioning the land, bring in nearly $3 billion. The administration now wants some of the money transferred to the Treasury Department to help pay down the federal deficit, which hit a four-year low of $247.7 billion for the budget year that ended in September. The administration submitted a proposal to Congress earlier this year to modify the act in order to specify who should benefit from the land sales, but that proposal is being ignored, the Republican staffer said....
Obstacles unlikely to stop sprawl to Prescott Metropolitan Phoenix's onward growth could soon cut a swath down the middle of Arizona. Phoenix and Tucson connecting is no surprise. But for the first time, planners say the Valley's population could head north through high desert, national forests and mountains to Prescott. It's not an easy path. There are many roadblocks to growth toward Prescott or even deep into Yavapai County. A merger between Phoenix and Tucson is the more obvious and easier growth pattern, since the land between the state's two biggest metropolitan areas is flat farmland that is easy to build on. Still, the Valley is expected to stretch from Prescott, 85 miles north of Phoenix, all the way south to the Mexico border as early as 2040. The area already has garnered the designation of a megapolitan or "super-sized" metropolitan area. Urban researchers call it the "Arizona Sun Corridor" and rank it as one of the next 10 big U.S. growth hubs. That designation will help it get more growth funding and planning assistance from the federal government....
BLM manager says decisions are his The Bureau of Land Management won't consider an advisory group's recommendations about winter natural gas drilling exceptions until after the agency decides whether to grant companies' requests, the local BLM field manager said. During a meeting of the Pinedale Anticline Working Group last week, member-at-large Steve Duerr, also an attorney for Lower Valley Energy, asked if the group could make any recommendations to protect mule deer on the Pinedale Anticline, given their struggling numbers. "How does this tie together, and how do we deal with this, with something that's obviously a concern today?" Duerr asked BLM officials at the first meeting of a new PAWG board. "How do we know what you're thinking today?" Mule deer numbers have declined by 46 percent on the Anticline in recent years. Drought is thought to play a major role, though energy development is likely affecting the population.* Duerr asked if the group could recommend no new winter drilling in light of declining mule deer numbers. Dennis Stenger, BLM's Pinedale field manager, said the decision to allow winter drilling exceptions is his, not the PAWG's....
BLM sizes up gas project A draft environmental assessment for a natural gas project near Bonanza, Uinta County, lists several potential impacts but says they generally would be transitory or mild. Located on 12,699 acres about 40 miles south of Vernal, the Kerr-McGee Bonanza Project envisions development of 95 natural gas wells, 43.6 miles of roads, 77 miles of pipelines and two compressor sites with the facilities needed to move the gas. The statement, released by the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Vernal, says the project would have 16,080 horsepower of new compression, 20 miles of electrical power line from the gas field to the Deseret Generation and Transmission power plant, an electrical substation and a 14-acre evaporation pond. The development would be on land regulated by the BLM, with a smaller amount of state and private land. The agency determined the nearby White River meets criteria to be an area of critical environmental concern, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance proposed that it become such an area. About 7,325 acres of the nominated ACEC are within the project area. Considerable natural gas development already exists "throughout the project area," the draft says. Surface disturbance "would be visible to hunters, off-highway vehicle (OHV) users, people driving through the area to access the White River and the White River wilderness characteristics area," as well as to other recreationists....
Mayors ask BLM to reconsider plan Five mayors in Garfield and Pitkin counties want the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider a plan to allow oil and gas drilling on top of the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. The mayors said last month in a letter to state BLM Director Sally Wisely that the agency didn't listen to area communities when it approved a management plan opening the top to energy development. "We are concerned that the new proposed plan released by the BLM does not reflect what the communities in Garfield County have been asking for since the beginning of the planning process in 2001 - protection of the top of the Roan Plateau from drilling and responsible development at the base to protect the traditional values and uses on which local communities depend," Glenwood Springs Mayor Bruce Christensen wrote. The mayors of Silt, Carbondale, New Castle and Aspen signed the letter....
Oregon ecoterrorists plead guilty Environmental extremists in Oregon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson on Thursday for their roles in a streak of environmentally motivated arsons by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) over the course of five years. US federal prosecutors said they would ask for a five year sentence for one of the ecoterrorists and eight years each for the remaining three for their roles in the Pacific Northwest firebombings, which caused around $30 million in damage. From 1996 to 2001, the ALF and the ELF claimed responsibility for firebomb attacks on US Forest Service ranger stations, Bureau of Land Management wild horse facilities, meat processing companies, lumber companies, a high-tension power line, and SUV dealerships in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, and Wyoming. The group also targeted ski resort expansion into an endangered species habitat in Vail, Colorado. The extremists who pleaded guilty on Thursday included some of the ALF and ELF operatives who were indicted for those crimes in January. Three other ALF and ELF members were also indicted [JURIST report] in January for targeting a dam and fish hatchery in northern California. The two cells are not known to have been directly connected....
Cattle mutilation stymies ranchers, investigators Valier rancher John Peterson and his wife were recently headed out into the twilight to do chores when they spotted her. The healthy young cow lay dead in a stubble field, just off the road. Stopping the truck to investigate, they found the sickening, telltale signs. The cow's udder, genitals and rectum were cut out with stunning precision. The left side of her face was carved off, the exposed bones stripped as clean as if they'd been boiled. Peterson, who discovered a similarly mutilated cow on his neighbor's ranch five years ago, knew he was the latest victim in one of rural Montana's greatest mysteries. Since the 1970s, Montana ranchers have found dozens of cattle carved up in similar, macabre fashion. The first known incident was a mutilated steer reported near Sand Coulee in late August 1974. By December 1977, sheriff's deputies had investigated 67 mutilation cases in Cascade, Judith Basin, Chouteau, Teton and Pondera counties. In each case, the cuts were made with surgical precision, often in circular shapes....
Ranchers raise pheasants at hunting preserve along Heart River Fall work at the John and Marsha Wieglenda ranch southeast of Gladstone, N.D., this October includes more than the usual weaning of calves and moving the cows closer to home. The Wieglendas are also raising pheasants and chuckers for their value-added ag business, the Heart River Preserve. After John hauls hay to the barnyard for the Angus bulls, he heads over to the flyway and brooder house where hundreds of ring-tailed pheasants and chuckers, a partridge with unusual markings, need feeding. “They go through about 50 pounds of feed a day,” said John, a third-generation rancher on the farmstead that was originally homesteaded in the late 1880s. He and Marsha still live in the original 120-year-old stone home, while another, more modern home has been renovated into the lodge for the preserve guests. Heart River Preserve is located in an idyllic location for natural game birds with bush-covered rolling valleys and hills, tree-lined trails and draws that lead down to the gentle flowing river. But when the Wieglendas decided to turn their ranch into a preserve for hunters and visitors, they wanted to make sure there were plenty of birds available at all times....
Ag officials practice for crisis “Who is in charge here?” an agitated Jim Marra wanted to know. “I've got government people all over my property. What is going on?” Glenn Harruff, a member of a trio taking samples of grain on a nearby farm, identified himself and promised to put Marra in touch with those in charge of the sampling being done on his farm. He promised answers for all of the farmer's questions. The recent confrontation between the landowner and the federal agricultural official was only a drill. But the simulated exercise, held in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Montana Department of Agriculture, was aiming for real-life action. Approximately 60 people from the western U.S. took part in a three-day training and simulation of an incident response to a foreign agricultural pest that posed a potential threat to Montana's $700-million-a-year wheat crop....
Who's the real Shepherd of the Hills? Was there a real-life "Shepherd of the Hills"? Harold Bell Wright, author of the novel that put Branson on the tourism map almost a century ago, routinely insisted his characters were fictional composites of many people he knew or observed, fleshed out by his imagination. That denial failed to quell speculation, however. Names of real residents of Taney and Stone counties were linked to the fictional cast of "The Shepherd of the Hills" as soon as it was published in 1907. Recently, a mild debate has arisen over the possible identity of a model for the beloved title character of the novel. Wright, a clergyman at the time he penned the story, seems to have poured a great deal of himself into the shepherd's philosophical outlook, emphasizing moral fortitude and education. However, many who lived in the Branson area in the early 1900s thought they recognized neighbor Truman S. Powell in the personality of the shepherd. But in Lawrence County, researchers now are citing clues that point to another, James M. Wood, as a likely inspiration for the shepherd. Powell led a colorful life — soldier, newspaper publisher, cave explorer, innovative entrepreneur, tourism promoter and state legislator. Wood, on the other hand, was a typical farmer and rancher of a century ago, who really did herd sheep in the same "Mutton Hollow" featured in Wright's book....
Big Timber company promotes Old West style When she can’t reach Linda Story, a Greycliff-area rancher-seamstress, Patty Agnew on occasion has driven out to Story’s hayfield and flagged down the baler that Story was operating. Story is among the area women who stitch clothing for Agnew’s Big-Timber-based company, Women of the Wild West. Agnew started the business more than a decade ago to create clothing that tapped into Western tradition. Although she grew up in Connecticut, Agnew sank deep roots when she moved to Montana nearly 25 years ago. She takes pride in bucking the outsourcing trend by having all of her clothing made in the United States. Most of it is sewn locally. She first designed coats and vests made of shearling, tanned sheepskin that still has the wool left from shearing attached. When she saw a turn-of-the-century riding skirt in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., she got permission to replicate it. That led to making more clothing that would promote the history of women on the frontier....
Miss Rodeo North Dakota ready for Las Vegas after beating cancer Out there past the prairie grass of southwestern North Dakota, the neon horizon looms. Ashley Andrews doesn't have to squint to see it now. In just 12 days, the cowgirl from Bowman will leave for Las Vegas. Soon, the cold, quiet nights on the Northern Plains will give way to the Circus Circus of the big city. As the reigning Miss Rodeo North Dakota, Andrews will represent her state at the eight-day Miss Rodeo America pageant. It's a dream come true for a girl who grew up on a ranch and could ride a horse by age 2. A year ago, the Vegas pageant probably seemed like it would be the biggest competition of Andrews' life. It's got to be a distant second now. On Monday, Andrews had her first checkup since finishing chemotherapy this summer....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Does ignorance make you bad? Combine E. coli 0157:H7, "naturally" produced spinach, food poisoning, an organic foods purveyor and author, cows and the New York Times and you get - guess what? That's right, evil factory farming! No surprise. I have compassion for the ill and also for the California spinach growers. Like lots of farmers who are doing the best they know how, the roof still caves in on them. General Motors understands every time they have to recall a vehicle. It's the same for the organic food producers who have found a profitable niche market. Nor can I hold the New York Times responsible. They print opinion pieces by all manner of partisans who pretend to know what they're talking about and do not question their veracity. I could blame the author of the misleading, op-ed piece in the New York Times in which she promotes her organically correct New York City grocery store and new book by blithely stating that the E. coli 0157:H7 food poisoning outbreaks could be prevented if we just stop "feeding grain to cattle."....
Humane Society jumps in political game Republican U.S. House members Heather Wilson and Richard Pombo already had enough problems in their re-election races when a new set of opponents surfaced: animal-rights activists. The Humane Society Legislative Fund, a new political arm of the Humane Society of the United States, decided in September to actively work for the election or defeat of lawmakers based on issues important to the animal-welfare movement, such as banning the slaughter of horses. The group then spent more than $200,000 in the final four weeks of the campaign, most of it targeted at defeating two lawmakers who were in tight races, Pombo in Northern California and Wilson in New Mexico. Win or lose, the Humane Society was sending a message: Lawmakers could pay a price for their votes on issues of animal welfare. Sara Amundson, executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, sees her group doing for animal welfare what organizations like the National Rifle Association and the League of Conservation Voters have done for gun owners and environmentalists....
Groups appeal Antelope Basin grazing ruling Groups that oppose grazing in the Antelope Basin of southwest Montana have filed notice with the federal government that they will appeal a federal judge's ruling allowing the grazing to continue. The Native Ecosystem's Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Wildwest Institute said they will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy concluded in a September decision that a Forest Service plan for livestock grazing in the area did not harm sage grouse. The ruling came in a case the groups filed against the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest to force a more thorough review of grazing in the area, which is located at the south end of the Gravelly Mountains. Michael Garrity of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies said Thursday that Molloy took parts of biologist Jack Connelly's work out of context. And Molloy's assertion that there are few sage grouse in the area ignores the fact that federal law requires land managers to consider management species when making decisions, regardless of the population's size, he said....
Neighbors, others want to protect sensitive area Several Powder River Basin ranchers say the Bureau of Land Management is relaxing lease stipulations for coal-bed methane development in a special-use area known as Fortification Creek, which is home to a large elk herd. Wyoming BLM Director Bob Bennett granted a formal review of the complaint, which took place on Thursday. Bennett is expected to make a decision early this week about whether to at least temporarily halt more than 100 permits under review. Rancher Robert Sorenson, who has a rangeland management degree from the University of Wyoming and has more than six years' experience dealing with coal-bed methane development in the region, said he believes there's no way to mitigate intense activity in Fortification Creek. "It is obvious to anyone that the area cannot be returned to its original condition," Sorenson said in his testimony to the BLM. "It is too rough, too erosive and too fragile, and it takes hundreds of years to grow juniper trees, decades to grow sagebrush. Is it worth it?" A BLM official said the claim that the agency is relaxing stipulations set forth in the federal leases simply is not true. Chris Hanson, field manager of BLM's Buffalo field office, said special lease stipulations -- such as coordinated plans of development and consolidated facilities -- apply to only the special management area in Fortification Creek....
APF, ranchers work to resolve issues surrounding bison reserve project Their goal is to establish an ecologically functioning prairie-based wildlife reserve in a portion of Montana where healthy populations of native wildlife still roam free and there are very few human inhabitants. However, The American Prairie Foundation (APF) is being met with both support and some skepticism about what they plan to do. A non-profit organization created solely for the purpose of building the American Prairie Reserve in northeastern Montana, APF is based in Bozeman, Mont. According to Scott Laird, director of field operations for APF, the temperate grasslands of the world are the least protected bio-landscapes in the world. As a result, there is a high rate of habitat loss continually taking place on the prairies in North America. APF is working in this part of Montana based on the results of two conservation assessments of the northern great plains conducted by The Nature Conservancy and later by the World Wildlife Fund that both identified Montana's northeastern plains as a place where significant prairie conservation could still take place, said Laird....
Blame in Esperanza fire deaths may shift to forest service employees Even though a jailed arson suspect is charged with murdering five firefighters in the Esperanza Fire, some Forest Service employees fear they too could be targeted for blame in the deaths. At least four separate investigations are under way to explain exactly what happened Oct. 26 on Gorgonio View Road, where the crew of Engine 57 perished in a burn-over while trying to protect a home. Some Forest Service employees are particularly wary of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of the Inspector General. Veteran firefighters and advocate groups worry the IG will assign blame in the Esperanza Fire deaths rather than identify lessons that can improve firefighter safety in future blazes. The Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, a lobbying and advocacy group, has started a legal defense fund for anyone who was in a decision-making position at the scene of the burn-over on Gorgonio View, from engine operators on up. "We were asked by some of our folks on the forest, San Bernardino, to look into availability of legal counsel," said Casey Judd, FWFSA business manager, who is based in Idaho....
Stolen artifacts shatter ancient culture In the dead of night, looters are destroying the history of America, desecrating sacred Indian ruins. An estimated 80 percent of the nation's ancient archaeological sites have been plundered or robbed by shovel-toting looters. Though some of the pillaging is done by amateurs who don't know any better, more serious damage is wrought by professionals who dig deep, sometimes even using backhoes. The motive is money. Indian artifacts are coveted worldwide by collectors willing to pay for trophy pieces of the past. Fine antiquities are displayed in glass cases at mansions and museums. Lesser objects wind up on fireplace mantels or stored in garages. Looters are just the first link in a chain that includes collectors, galleries, trade shows and Internet sites such as eBay. But stopping the black-market business is virtually impossible because of a lack of manpower for enforcement and loopholes in the law that make it hard to convict the few who get caught. A "lack of manpower"?? The Forest Service alone had 16 Federal officers to raid Kit Laney's ranch. If they put the same emphasis on protecting these artifacts as they do in throwing ranchers in jail, maybe they could solve their problem.
Logging sales picking up on Umpqua Timber sales on the Umpqua National Forest have gained momentum and aren’t expected to slow any time soon, said Cliff Dils at the Douglas Timber Operators’ breakfast meeting Thursday morning. The forest supervisor also said a newly elected Congress will not have any immediate effect on the finances of the U.S. Forest Service. No one, Dils said after the meeting, is saying just yet that more money is coming to the Forest Service. With the 2007 budget set, the federal agency is in a “wait-and-see mode.” “This year, like any election year, is just weird,” Dils said of the midterm results. Focus for the Umpqua forest, he said, must stay on working timber sales through the National Environmental Policy Act so when a sale gets bogged down, the entire forest doesn’t stop production. “We’ve got to get ahead of NEPA,” Dils said. The national policy requires public review of any major action taking place on federal land....
Off-road vehicles OK'd to return to northern part of Angelina NF An edict issued in August banning all off-road vehicles from the Angelina National Forest was repealed last week, re-opening the northern section of the forest under its former rules. At first, 2006 was looking to be the year the national forest would embrace engine-driven outdoor enthusiasts with an official trail. That was what former district forester Karen Tinkle had said hoped to accomplish prior to her departure to the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas. After all, the forest service has analyzed this recreational challenge since the 1970s. The forest service's 1996 plan said "we'd build a trail on the southern part of the Angelina," said Glenn Donnahoe, planning team leader for the national forests and grasslands of Texas. However, "over time we determined there were too many conflicts and environmental impacts — we decided we couldn't do that." In fact the entire southern portion of the Angelina was closed, and remains closed, to off-road vehicles. Focus switched to the northern portion of the Angelina, with the assistance of Stephen F. Austin State University professor Mike Legg who designed an off-road vehicle trail presented in a series of public meetings held in 2005....
700-plus burros, horses to be taken The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Vegas Field Office is proposing to gather and remove 240 wild horses and 540 burros from the Spring Mountains Herd Management Area Complex. The proposal is outlined in the Spring Mountains Herd Management Complex Preliminary Population Management Plan and Environmental Assessment which was released Nov. 7. Public comment will be accepted on the preliminary environmental assessment through Dec. 7. The Spring Mountains Herd Management Area Complex consists of three U.S. Forest Service wild horse territories -- Red Rock, Johnnie and Spring Mountains -- and three BLM Herd Management Areas -- Red Rock, Johnnie and Wheeler Pass. Wild horses and burros in the Spring Mountains Complex are jointly managed by BLM and the U.S. Forest Service. Because of a cooperative interagency agreement, BLM is taking the lead on the Population Management Plan and environmental assessment....
Open spaces' future open to debate As talks about public land conservation continue locally, you might be scratching your head, wondering what the different proposals entail for thousands of acres in Doña Ana County. Just how solid are any plans to set aside natural areas? What exactly are the differences between the wilderness that's been suggested for multiple spots around the county and the natural conservation area being planned for only the Organ Mountains? What could you do or not do in each? How big would these areas be? No plan for wilderness is final yet, but officials are in the midst of sorting through feedback for a draft. Las Cruces officials plan workshops with the public over the next few weeks to narrow public comment into a single plan that will be forwarded to the state's congressional delegation. Participants will hammer out details about the size and type of conservation areas they want in the area, and the result will serve as a basis for federal legislation....
Board to look at Klamath dams The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will consider whether to approve a resolution Tuesday calling for the removal of four dams — the Iron Gate, Copco I, Copco II and J.C. Boyle — on the upper stretches of the Klamath River. The matter was initiated as a result of a letter to the board from the Northcoast Environmental Center, which has called on the supervisors to pass the resolution calling for the immediate removal of the dams. As part of the ongoing re-licensing process for the four dams, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is accepting written comments, which are due no later than Dec. 1, on the agency’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Klamath Hydroelectric Project. According to the letter to the board from the NEC’s Erica Terence, the draft version of the federal agency’s DEIR “makes a mockery of the National Environmental Policy Act it was filed under by failing to even consider removal of four dams,” as well as proposes the “biologically insupportable solution” of trapping fish and driving them around the dams....
Winter drilling exceptions granted Despite objections from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the federal Bureau of Land Management so far has granted all requests for exceptions allowing more natural gas development on federal lands around Pinedale this winter. According to a table published on the BLM's Web site, 13 requests have been granted by the agency for winter drilling activity, with nine requests outstanding. In one request, Ultra Resources has asked to drill a deep well through May in crucial winter range for antelope. BLM officials have said they intend to grant that request. Dennis Stenger, Pinedale field manager for the BLM, said that proposal has "been on the desk for a long time." He said the well will be allowed, but Ultra and Shell will not drill three other wells they are permitted to drill in the winter. The BLM also indicated several mitigation factors will be implemented with the well, including busing crews, continued air quality analysis and "continued funding of antelope and sage grouse function."....
Son inherits BLM scrape It's time for Gary Haws to pack up and leave - and this time the feds mean it. For six years, the Bureau of Land Management has been trying to evict the recalcitrant resident from 2.5 acres of BLM turf in Boulder in southern Utah's Garfield County. But Haws hasn't budged. Now, armed with a fresh federal court order, BLM officers and U.S. Marshals have until Dec. 3 to remove Haws, a mobile home and other structures from the parcel. Melody Rydalch, a U.S. District Court spokeswoman in Salt Lake City, said negotiations are continuing with Haws, whose son, Ryan, now lives in a yellow mobile home on the disputed property with his wife, Shea, and sons Oakley, 6, and Ryker, 2. "We're working to put together a plan to have the [mobile home] moved," Rydalch said. "Everyone involved wants to bring about a peaceful resolution." But, she added, the time has come to resolve the drawn-out dispute. The whole uproar has Ryan Haws baffled....
Las Vegas closing in on full house Flying into this desert metropolis is as deceiving as a mirage. From 10,000 feet you see empty land in all directions and swear the pace of suburban sprawl could go on unchecked. You'd swear no end's in sight to subdivisions stretching for miles beyond the Strip, enclaves of single-family houses that draw thousands of Californians and other migrants a year. Look again. The valley that Las Vegas and 1.8 million residents call home is nearly built out. Mountains, national parks, military bases, an Indian community and a critter called the desert tortoise have Sin City hemmed in. At the current building pace in the USA's fastest-growing major metro area, available acreage will be gone in less than a decade, developers and real estate analysts say. Yet growth pressure and housing demand won't abate. Greater Las Vegas will add 1 million residents in the next 10 years, state estimates say, and hit 3 million by 2020. The Las Vegas stereotype of cheap housing, cheap labor and a limitless supply of cheap desert land is dying. The metro area has tripled in size since 1986, pushing close to public lands and critical tortoise habitat. A 1998 federal law that grew out of a legal settlement to protect habitat drew a boundary and set limits on future growth. The law authorized the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell land it owns inside the boundary when Clark County or its cities wanted to grow. About 75,000 acres were supposed to last 30 years, but two-thirds has been snapped up....
White House eyes dollars from Nevada land sale The Bush administration is trying to get its hands on millions of dollars generated from sales of federally owned land in Nevada in order to help pay down the deficit. As part of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which passed in 1998, Congress agreed to sell 13 million acres of land in Nevada. The key backers of thelaw -- Nevada Sens. John Ensign, a Republican, and Harry Reid, a Democrat -- estimated the sales would provide $350 million to improve federal landholdings, preserve endangered species, fund state education and encourage construction of affordable housing for low-income residents. But a real estate boom in the growing city of Las Vegas has helped the Bureau of Land Management, which is in charge of auctioning the land, bring in nearly $3 billion. The administration now wants some of the money transferred to the Treasury Department to help pay down the federal deficit, which hit a four-year low of $247.7 billion for the budget year that ended in September. The administration submitted a proposal to Congress earlier this year to modify the act in order to specify who should benefit from the land sales, but that proposal is being ignored, the Republican staffer said....
Obstacles unlikely to stop sprawl to Prescott Metropolitan Phoenix's onward growth could soon cut a swath down the middle of Arizona. Phoenix and Tucson connecting is no surprise. But for the first time, planners say the Valley's population could head north through high desert, national forests and mountains to Prescott. It's not an easy path. There are many roadblocks to growth toward Prescott or even deep into Yavapai County. A merger between Phoenix and Tucson is the more obvious and easier growth pattern, since the land between the state's two biggest metropolitan areas is flat farmland that is easy to build on. Still, the Valley is expected to stretch from Prescott, 85 miles north of Phoenix, all the way south to the Mexico border as early as 2040. The area already has garnered the designation of a megapolitan or "super-sized" metropolitan area. Urban researchers call it the "Arizona Sun Corridor" and rank it as one of the next 10 big U.S. growth hubs. That designation will help it get more growth funding and planning assistance from the federal government....
BLM manager says decisions are his The Bureau of Land Management won't consider an advisory group's recommendations about winter natural gas drilling exceptions until after the agency decides whether to grant companies' requests, the local BLM field manager said. During a meeting of the Pinedale Anticline Working Group last week, member-at-large Steve Duerr, also an attorney for Lower Valley Energy, asked if the group could make any recommendations to protect mule deer on the Pinedale Anticline, given their struggling numbers. "How does this tie together, and how do we deal with this, with something that's obviously a concern today?" Duerr asked BLM officials at the first meeting of a new PAWG board. "How do we know what you're thinking today?" Mule deer numbers have declined by 46 percent on the Anticline in recent years. Drought is thought to play a major role, though energy development is likely affecting the population.* Duerr asked if the group could recommend no new winter drilling in light of declining mule deer numbers. Dennis Stenger, BLM's Pinedale field manager, said the decision to allow winter drilling exceptions is his, not the PAWG's....
BLM sizes up gas project A draft environmental assessment for a natural gas project near Bonanza, Uinta County, lists several potential impacts but says they generally would be transitory or mild. Located on 12,699 acres about 40 miles south of Vernal, the Kerr-McGee Bonanza Project envisions development of 95 natural gas wells, 43.6 miles of roads, 77 miles of pipelines and two compressor sites with the facilities needed to move the gas. The statement, released by the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Vernal, says the project would have 16,080 horsepower of new compression, 20 miles of electrical power line from the gas field to the Deseret Generation and Transmission power plant, an electrical substation and a 14-acre evaporation pond. The development would be on land regulated by the BLM, with a smaller amount of state and private land. The agency determined the nearby White River meets criteria to be an area of critical environmental concern, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance proposed that it become such an area. About 7,325 acres of the nominated ACEC are within the project area. Considerable natural gas development already exists "throughout the project area," the draft says. Surface disturbance "would be visible to hunters, off-highway vehicle (OHV) users, people driving through the area to access the White River and the White River wilderness characteristics area," as well as to other recreationists....
Mayors ask BLM to reconsider plan Five mayors in Garfield and Pitkin counties want the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider a plan to allow oil and gas drilling on top of the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. The mayors said last month in a letter to state BLM Director Sally Wisely that the agency didn't listen to area communities when it approved a management plan opening the top to energy development. "We are concerned that the new proposed plan released by the BLM does not reflect what the communities in Garfield County have been asking for since the beginning of the planning process in 2001 - protection of the top of the Roan Plateau from drilling and responsible development at the base to protect the traditional values and uses on which local communities depend," Glenwood Springs Mayor Bruce Christensen wrote. The mayors of Silt, Carbondale, New Castle and Aspen signed the letter....
Oregon ecoterrorists plead guilty Environmental extremists in Oregon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson on Thursday for their roles in a streak of environmentally motivated arsons by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) over the course of five years. US federal prosecutors said they would ask for a five year sentence for one of the ecoterrorists and eight years each for the remaining three for their roles in the Pacific Northwest firebombings, which caused around $30 million in damage. From 1996 to 2001, the ALF and the ELF claimed responsibility for firebomb attacks on US Forest Service ranger stations, Bureau of Land Management wild horse facilities, meat processing companies, lumber companies, a high-tension power line, and SUV dealerships in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, and Wyoming. The group also targeted ski resort expansion into an endangered species habitat in Vail, Colorado. The extremists who pleaded guilty on Thursday included some of the ALF and ELF operatives who were indicted for those crimes in January. Three other ALF and ELF members were also indicted [JURIST report] in January for targeting a dam and fish hatchery in northern California. The two cells are not known to have been directly connected....
Cattle mutilation stymies ranchers, investigators Valier rancher John Peterson and his wife were recently headed out into the twilight to do chores when they spotted her. The healthy young cow lay dead in a stubble field, just off the road. Stopping the truck to investigate, they found the sickening, telltale signs. The cow's udder, genitals and rectum were cut out with stunning precision. The left side of her face was carved off, the exposed bones stripped as clean as if they'd been boiled. Peterson, who discovered a similarly mutilated cow on his neighbor's ranch five years ago, knew he was the latest victim in one of rural Montana's greatest mysteries. Since the 1970s, Montana ranchers have found dozens of cattle carved up in similar, macabre fashion. The first known incident was a mutilated steer reported near Sand Coulee in late August 1974. By December 1977, sheriff's deputies had investigated 67 mutilation cases in Cascade, Judith Basin, Chouteau, Teton and Pondera counties. In each case, the cuts were made with surgical precision, often in circular shapes....
Ranchers raise pheasants at hunting preserve along Heart River Fall work at the John and Marsha Wieglenda ranch southeast of Gladstone, N.D., this October includes more than the usual weaning of calves and moving the cows closer to home. The Wieglendas are also raising pheasants and chuckers for their value-added ag business, the Heart River Preserve. After John hauls hay to the barnyard for the Angus bulls, he heads over to the flyway and brooder house where hundreds of ring-tailed pheasants and chuckers, a partridge with unusual markings, need feeding. “They go through about 50 pounds of feed a day,” said John, a third-generation rancher on the farmstead that was originally homesteaded in the late 1880s. He and Marsha still live in the original 120-year-old stone home, while another, more modern home has been renovated into the lodge for the preserve guests. Heart River Preserve is located in an idyllic location for natural game birds with bush-covered rolling valleys and hills, tree-lined trails and draws that lead down to the gentle flowing river. But when the Wieglendas decided to turn their ranch into a preserve for hunters and visitors, they wanted to make sure there were plenty of birds available at all times....
Ag officials practice for crisis “Who is in charge here?” an agitated Jim Marra wanted to know. “I've got government people all over my property. What is going on?” Glenn Harruff, a member of a trio taking samples of grain on a nearby farm, identified himself and promised to put Marra in touch with those in charge of the sampling being done on his farm. He promised answers for all of the farmer's questions. The recent confrontation between the landowner and the federal agricultural official was only a drill. But the simulated exercise, held in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Montana Department of Agriculture, was aiming for real-life action. Approximately 60 people from the western U.S. took part in a three-day training and simulation of an incident response to a foreign agricultural pest that posed a potential threat to Montana's $700-million-a-year wheat crop....
Who's the real Shepherd of the Hills? Was there a real-life "Shepherd of the Hills"? Harold Bell Wright, author of the novel that put Branson on the tourism map almost a century ago, routinely insisted his characters were fictional composites of many people he knew or observed, fleshed out by his imagination. That denial failed to quell speculation, however. Names of real residents of Taney and Stone counties were linked to the fictional cast of "The Shepherd of the Hills" as soon as it was published in 1907. Recently, a mild debate has arisen over the possible identity of a model for the beloved title character of the novel. Wright, a clergyman at the time he penned the story, seems to have poured a great deal of himself into the shepherd's philosophical outlook, emphasizing moral fortitude and education. However, many who lived in the Branson area in the early 1900s thought they recognized neighbor Truman S. Powell in the personality of the shepherd. But in Lawrence County, researchers now are citing clues that point to another, James M. Wood, as a likely inspiration for the shepherd. Powell led a colorful life — soldier, newspaper publisher, cave explorer, innovative entrepreneur, tourism promoter and state legislator. Wood, on the other hand, was a typical farmer and rancher of a century ago, who really did herd sheep in the same "Mutton Hollow" featured in Wright's book....
Big Timber company promotes Old West style When she can’t reach Linda Story, a Greycliff-area rancher-seamstress, Patty Agnew on occasion has driven out to Story’s hayfield and flagged down the baler that Story was operating. Story is among the area women who stitch clothing for Agnew’s Big-Timber-based company, Women of the Wild West. Agnew started the business more than a decade ago to create clothing that tapped into Western tradition. Although she grew up in Connecticut, Agnew sank deep roots when she moved to Montana nearly 25 years ago. She takes pride in bucking the outsourcing trend by having all of her clothing made in the United States. Most of it is sewn locally. She first designed coats and vests made of shearling, tanned sheepskin that still has the wool left from shearing attached. When she saw a turn-of-the-century riding skirt in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., she got permission to replicate it. That led to making more clothing that would promote the history of women on the frontier....
Miss Rodeo North Dakota ready for Las Vegas after beating cancer Out there past the prairie grass of southwestern North Dakota, the neon horizon looms. Ashley Andrews doesn't have to squint to see it now. In just 12 days, the cowgirl from Bowman will leave for Las Vegas. Soon, the cold, quiet nights on the Northern Plains will give way to the Circus Circus of the big city. As the reigning Miss Rodeo North Dakota, Andrews will represent her state at the eight-day Miss Rodeo America pageant. It's a dream come true for a girl who grew up on a ranch and could ride a horse by age 2. A year ago, the Vegas pageant probably seemed like it would be the biggest competition of Andrews' life. It's got to be a distant second now. On Monday, Andrews had her first checkup since finishing chemotherapy this summer....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Does ignorance make you bad? Combine E. coli 0157:H7, "naturally" produced spinach, food poisoning, an organic foods purveyor and author, cows and the New York Times and you get - guess what? That's right, evil factory farming! No surprise. I have compassion for the ill and also for the California spinach growers. Like lots of farmers who are doing the best they know how, the roof still caves in on them. General Motors understands every time they have to recall a vehicle. It's the same for the organic food producers who have found a profitable niche market. Nor can I hold the New York Times responsible. They print opinion pieces by all manner of partisans who pretend to know what they're talking about and do not question their veracity. I could blame the author of the misleading, op-ed piece in the New York Times in which she promotes her organically correct New York City grocery store and new book by blithely stating that the E. coli 0157:H7 food poisoning outbreaks could be prevented if we just stop "feeding grain to cattle."....
Trout Unlimited Gila Restoration
TROUT UNLIMITED IS HOSTING TWO OPEN HOUSES to kick off a major new restoration project on the Gila National Forest. The project will restore habitat and improve fish passage. It also will include fuel reduction activities to reduce fire risk and protect local communities. The open houses will take place: Tuesday, November 14th, at 7:30 p.m., in the Meeting Room of the Student Memorial Building at WNMU in Silver City; and Wednesday, November 15th, at 7:30 p.m., at the Glenwood Community Center in Glenwood. The open houses will be attended by key officials from the U.S. Forest Service, as well as local community organizations, conservation groups and citizens. Contact: Joe McGurrin, (410) 643-1976 or Kira Finkler, (703) 284-9408
TROUT UNLIMITED IS HOSTING TWO OPEN HOUSES to kick off a major new restoration project on the Gila National Forest. The project will restore habitat and improve fish passage. It also will include fuel reduction activities to reduce fire risk and protect local communities. The open houses will take place: Tuesday, November 14th, at 7:30 p.m., in the Meeting Room of the Student Memorial Building at WNMU in Silver City; and Wednesday, November 15th, at 7:30 p.m., at the Glenwood Community Center in Glenwood. The open houses will be attended by key officials from the U.S. Forest Service, as well as local community organizations, conservation groups and citizens. Contact: Joe McGurrin, (410) 643-1976 or Kira Finkler, (703) 284-9408
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Hear the call of the wild
By Julie Carter
They are here and they are everywhere. The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer, and elk.
Wal-Marts across hunting country are full of camo'd men talking on cell phones loading up with ammo, hard candy and beanie weenies.
They drive into town in big, powerful and very expensive vehicles pulling heavily loaded trailers full of all the essentials for a successful hunting camp.
This would include at least 17 gigantic coolers filled with plenty of fine camp cuisine including t-bone steaks and cold beer, a selection of brand new ATV's and camp trailers that completely take the "camp" out of camping.
Recent studies indicate that hunting and other wildlife-associated recreation bring more than $1 billion to New Mexico's economy, including $127 million from outfitting and guiding businesses.
What those numbers boil down to is the majority of that income comes from imported hunters. They come from every corner of the country wearing and owning every thing Cabela's has to offer.
They ride around in a big diesel truck hoping something with horns will jump out in the road before it gets dark.
They will pay $2,500 a gun to hunt in places game is so scare that the landowner does his hunting at the neighbors.
Small towns in the heart of hunting country offer free chili suppers or free breakfast for hunters.
One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn't a hunter, just an eater.
Signs will be posted "45 miles to the next ammo store" and if doesn't say ammo it says "beer."
While I mock the current state of the sport of hunting, it is not foreign to me and mine. I come from a long line of meat hunters who indeed hunted first for family sustenance and later as a family sport and somewhat a right of passage to manhood for my brothers.
The "locals" just gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer. While they have plenty of fun doing it, it is more a way of life than an epiphany for them.
I have a son who wore his first camouflage as a toddler. He is now 13 years old and the lure of hunting has only matched his growing size. He is a crooked-stick hunter (archery), as well as rifle, and is learning to do a little winter varmint trapping on the side.
The discovery of marketed "scents" to disguise his "people" smell while sitting in an hunting blind was an exciting find for him. Somehow, the idea of wearing elk urine scent on his clothing was completely entertaining to him at an age where he finds that anything gross is hysterically funny.
Like those that have come before him, he lives for the next hunt and the next hunting camp which is apparently as fun as the hunt itself.
"Look Mom, the new Cabela's catalog just came in the mail."
© Julie Carter 2006
Protecting Property Rights in a Landslide
Besides Democrats, and anyone hoping for gridlock in Washington, the big midterm winners were homeowners in the nine states that passed initiatives protecting property rights and reigning in government's power to take homes and businesses. These initiatives were sparked by the Supreme Court's controversial ruling in the Kelo vs. New London decision last summer, which gave the government a green light to use eminent domain to take private property and turn it over to developers for "economic development" purposes. Most Americans were rightfully incensed at the notion that government could arbitrarily evict people from their homes, businesses, and churches simply because it could generate more local tax revenue if these properties were redeveloped as condos, offices, and hotels. Traditionally, eminent domain was only used to acquire private land for clearly defined public uses—such as roads, parks, and public buildings—but Kelo opened the door for government to condemn property for almost anything that it could argue had a public "benefit." The backlash was immediate. In the year since the Kelo ruling, over two dozen states passed legislation to curb eminent domain abuse, and on Tuesday, voters passed a variety of measures intended to do the same thing. An overwhelming majority of voters in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Carolina approved constitutional amendments that forbid the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private party to another for economic development purposes, as did Louisiana voters last month. Similar voter-initiated constitutional amendments passed in both North Dakota and Nevada, though Nevadans will need to pass the same amendment in 2008 for it to take effect. Of all states, voters in Oregon have taken one of the strongest stands in recent years to protect their property rights. Measure 39, a statutory initiative that reigns in eminent domain abuse, passed yesterday by more than a two-thirds margin. Moreover, Measure 39 followed on the heels of voters' passage of Measure 37 in 2004, which was designed to protect Oregonians from "regulatory takings," a far more pervasive threat to private property rights than eminent domain abuse....
By Julie Carter
They are here and they are everywhere. The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer, and elk.
Wal-Marts across hunting country are full of camo'd men talking on cell phones loading up with ammo, hard candy and beanie weenies.
They drive into town in big, powerful and very expensive vehicles pulling heavily loaded trailers full of all the essentials for a successful hunting camp.
This would include at least 17 gigantic coolers filled with plenty of fine camp cuisine including t-bone steaks and cold beer, a selection of brand new ATV's and camp trailers that completely take the "camp" out of camping.
Recent studies indicate that hunting and other wildlife-associated recreation bring more than $1 billion to New Mexico's economy, including $127 million from outfitting and guiding businesses.
What those numbers boil down to is the majority of that income comes from imported hunters. They come from every corner of the country wearing and owning every thing Cabela's has to offer.
They ride around in a big diesel truck hoping something with horns will jump out in the road before it gets dark.
They will pay $2,500 a gun to hunt in places game is so scare that the landowner does his hunting at the neighbors.
Small towns in the heart of hunting country offer free chili suppers or free breakfast for hunters.
One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn't a hunter, just an eater.
Signs will be posted "45 miles to the next ammo store" and if doesn't say ammo it says "beer."
While I mock the current state of the sport of hunting, it is not foreign to me and mine. I come from a long line of meat hunters who indeed hunted first for family sustenance and later as a family sport and somewhat a right of passage to manhood for my brothers.
The "locals" just gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer. While they have plenty of fun doing it, it is more a way of life than an epiphany for them.
I have a son who wore his first camouflage as a toddler. He is now 13 years old and the lure of hunting has only matched his growing size. He is a crooked-stick hunter (archery), as well as rifle, and is learning to do a little winter varmint trapping on the side.
The discovery of marketed "scents" to disguise his "people" smell while sitting in an hunting blind was an exciting find for him. Somehow, the idea of wearing elk urine scent on his clothing was completely entertaining to him at an age where he finds that anything gross is hysterically funny.
Like those that have come before him, he lives for the next hunt and the next hunting camp which is apparently as fun as the hunt itself.
"Look Mom, the new Cabela's catalog just came in the mail."
© Julie Carter 2006
Protecting Property Rights in a Landslide
Besides Democrats, and anyone hoping for gridlock in Washington, the big midterm winners were homeowners in the nine states that passed initiatives protecting property rights and reigning in government's power to take homes and businesses. These initiatives were sparked by the Supreme Court's controversial ruling in the Kelo vs. New London decision last summer, which gave the government a green light to use eminent domain to take private property and turn it over to developers for "economic development" purposes. Most Americans were rightfully incensed at the notion that government could arbitrarily evict people from their homes, businesses, and churches simply because it could generate more local tax revenue if these properties were redeveloped as condos, offices, and hotels. Traditionally, eminent domain was only used to acquire private land for clearly defined public uses—such as roads, parks, and public buildings—but Kelo opened the door for government to condemn property for almost anything that it could argue had a public "benefit." The backlash was immediate. In the year since the Kelo ruling, over two dozen states passed legislation to curb eminent domain abuse, and on Tuesday, voters passed a variety of measures intended to do the same thing. An overwhelming majority of voters in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Carolina approved constitutional amendments that forbid the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private party to another for economic development purposes, as did Louisiana voters last month. Similar voter-initiated constitutional amendments passed in both North Dakota and Nevada, though Nevadans will need to pass the same amendment in 2008 for it to take effect. Of all states, voters in Oregon have taken one of the strongest stands in recent years to protect their property rights. Measure 39, a statutory initiative that reigns in eminent domain abuse, passed yesterday by more than a two-thirds margin. Moreover, Measure 39 followed on the heels of voters' passage of Measure 37 in 2004, which was designed to protect Oregonians from "regulatory takings," a far more pervasive threat to private property rights than eminent domain abuse....
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