NEWS ROUNDUP
A losing battle As a result, this is our national wildfire policy today: If lightning strikes, we allow the wildfire to burn only if we have a detailed local fire plan in place that allows fire in that particular spot. The weather must be not too hot, dry or windy, the fuels situation must be right, the smoke must not be too thick in towns hundreds of miles away. We must have fire monitors and firefighters tending it, to make sure it doesn’t escape whatever boundaries we have set. And as soon as a major wildfire burns out of control elsewhere and strains the overall firefighting resources, or the moment that lives are lost anywhere on the front lines, the word goes out around the West to quell all fires until things quiet down. In other words, our policy is "let it burn, except for almost everything." We snuff out more than 99 percent of wildfires. Even with the National Fire Plan increasing the use of prescribed fires, the rules keep each of those fires small and polite. In a good year, in the entire West outside of Alaska, only 600,000 to 700,000 acres are allowed to burn — a small fraction of what is aching to ignite....
Roadless debate returns to Wyo court The state of Wyoming plans to ask a federal judge today to revive an order that struck down a Clinton-era ban on logging and other development in roadless areas of national forests. U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer has scheduled a hearing on a request from the Wyoming attorney general's office to reinstate an injunction that the judge originally issued in 2003 against the Clinton administration's controversial roadless rule. The rule, enacted in 2001, placed more than 50 million acres of federal land off-limits for new road construction and other development. While conservation groups promise a speedy appeal if Brimmer grants the state's request, such a ruling would present federal land management agencies with two contradictory court orders concerning whether the Clinton roadless rule is binding. A federal judge in California ruled last fall the rule is valid, while Brimmer could rule this week that it's not. In response to Wyoming's original challenge, Brimmer found that the Clinton roadless rule was void because it violated federal land management laws. Although conservation groups challenged that ruling, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver decided that Brimmer's decision was moot after the Bush administration adopted its new roadless policy in 2005....
Animal rights radical gets 12 years for arson A federal judge Thursday sentenced Animal Liberation Front arsonist Kevin Tubbs to prison for more than 12 years, rejecting arguments that he was a minor player just trying to save animals and protect the earth. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken declared that four of the nine fires Tubbs was involved in – a forest ranger station, a police substation, a dealership selling SUVs and a tree farm – were acts of terrorism intended to influence the conduct of the government or retaliate for government acts. "Fear and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," Aiken told Tubbs twice for emphasis before sentencing him to 12 years and seven months in federal prison. Tubbs is the second of 10 members of The Family, a Eugene-based cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, to face sentencing in federal court after pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson charges connected to a string of 20 arsons in five states that did a total of $40 million in damage....
State, feds note wolf concessions Before they could create an acceptable wolf management plan, state and federal officials had to make concessions on both sides. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to classify wolves in most of Wyoming as predators that could be shot on sight -- a compromise once considered impossible. The state, meanwhile, will manage wolves as trophy game in a portion of northwest Wyoming, despite the presence there of private ranchland. Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the compromises, including the trophy game zone, were necessary for the process to move forward. “I'm not prepared to hold up the entire process of delisting trying to negotiate an item that they have said is nonnegotiable,” Freudenthal said, referring to the trophy game zone. “You never get everything you want ... but I think ultimately it's consistent with the spirit of the Endangered Species Act.” The governor and federal officials announced Thursday they have reached an agreement to remove Endangered Species Act protection for wolves, which were reintroduced in the Yellowstone region in the 1990s....
Wolf deal meets with praise, criticism Ranchers, livestock groups and environmentalists Thursday responded to new a state-federal accord on wolf management with eye-rolling skepticism or harsh criticism. By contrast, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation praised the agreement. “The time to delist the wolf is now,” said Enzi, who was long pushed to remove the Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection. “Delisting would allow for proper management, which will allow us to protect our ranchers and big game herds.” After years of bare-knuckle negotiating, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on litigation, Gov. Dave Freudenthal announced the revised plan at a news conference in Cheyenne. State and federal officials hope the deal will eventually allow the state to take over management of wolves within its borders. Environmental groups have already threatened more litigation....
Multiplying split estates The subdivision of large ranches into hundreds of 35-plus-acre lots may render as quaint the split-estate disputes of the past decade between a single rancher and an energy producer, participants in a legislative committee said this week. "Dividing surface ownership would make (oil and gas development) complicated," John Robitaille of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming told the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee. Split estates occur when different people own the surface land and the minerals underneath. Mineral rights are dominant over fee or surface rights, said Frank Falen, a Cheyenne lawyer who specializes in property rights law. That point of law frequently came to a head when energy developers sought to drill for coal-bed methane under Powder River Basin ranches. In 2005, the Legislature passed the Split Estates Act to level negotiations between producers and the surface owners who don't hold title to the minerals below their land. If the parties could not agree on voluntary contracts with monetary compensation to the landowners, then the parties can seek administrative decisions. Subdividing a large ranch multiplies that problem, Falen said. "Mineral owners don't like to deal with multiple parties, because they'll have more costs for compensation."...
Mauling victim had been cited before A 57-year-old nature writer and photographer was identified Thursday as the victim of a Wednesday grizzly bear mauling in Yellowstone National Park. The victim was Jim Cole of Bozeman, Mont., who has published books on the lives of grizzly bears in Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. ole was charged with, and later acquitted of, approaching within 20 yards of a grizzly bear family in 2004 in the Gardner Hole area of Yellowstone. News reports at the time indicated that prosecutors wanted to ban him from the park for a year, plus impose a fine and a suspended jail sentence. This is the second time Cole has been seriously hurt in a bear encounter. He walked out of the backcountry and took himself to the hospital after being injured by a grizzly in Glacier National Park in September 1993....
The Pronghorn Federal wildlife biologist Mike Coffeen is ecstatic these days. His efforts to save North America's fastest mammal -- the endangered Sonoran pronghorn -- are succeeding beyond expectations. Five years after drought whittled the pronghorn population to a handful, pushing it to the brink of extinction, the animal's numbers are back above 100. The goat-sized pronghorn, which are often mistaken for antelope but are genetically distinct, live only in the harsh deserts of southwestern Arizona and in northern Mexico. They resemble deer and can run at speeds approaching 60 mph....
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Grizzly mauls man in Yellowstone A Montana man was attacked by a grizzly bear Wednesday in Yellowstone National Park. The man, whose name and hometown were not released, suffered severe facial injuries and was being treated at an Idaho hospital Wednesday evening. The man, in his 50s, was alone and taking photos of bears along Trout Creek in Hayden Valley, park officials said. He told rangers he was attacked by a female bear with a cub. He hiked 2 to 3 miles east to the Grand Loop Road, where visitors found him around 1 p.m., the park said. He was taken by ambulance to West Yellowstone, then transferred to an Air Idaho helicopter and taken to Eastern Idaho Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Information on his condition was not available Wednesday evening. "He was conscious, breathing and talking to rangers" before he was taken to the hospital, said Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman. Further details of the attack weren't immediately available....
Earth Liberation Front arsonist sentenced to 13 years Declaring fires set at a police station, an SUV dealership and a tree farm acts of terrorism, a federal judge Wednesday sentenced the first of 10 members of a radical environmental group to 13 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken commended Stanislas Meyerhoff for having the courage to "do the right thing" by informing on his fellow arsonists after his arrest. But he declared his efforts to save the earth by setting fires were misguided and cowardly, and contributed to an unfair characterization of others working legally to protect the environment as radicals. "It was your intent to scare and frighten other people through a very dangerous and psychological act — arson," Aiken told Meyerhoff. "Your actions included elements of terrorism to achieve your goal. Meyerhoff, 29, has admitted to being a member of a Eugene cell of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) known as The Family, which was responsible for more than 20 arsons from 1996 through 2001 in five Western states that did $40 million in damage....
'Direct Action' Attacks: Terrorism by Another Name? The people involved with ALF/ELF can be roughly divided into four groups. The first group, one of the smallest, is made up of those who surreptitiously engage in illegal direct action activities, such as arson, assault, etc. The groups' wealthy, anonymous donors also make up a small second group. The third, larger group is made up of activists who publicly engage in legal actions, attend rallies and collect and disseminate the personal information of potential targets. In the fourth and largest group are the mainly passive sympathizers who identify with environmental or animal rights issues. Because neither ELF nor ALF has a formal membership list, the numbers are in no way fixed -- meaning anyone can read about them, identify with their cause and then engage in an illegal activity that propels them directly into the first group. The structures of ALF and ELF are amorphous and nonhierarchical, and the individual activists who act on behalf of the organizations control their own activities. Small groups of activists, however, have been known to band together to form autonomous cells -- sometimes referred to as affinity groups -- that have a little more structure and leadership. Overall, however, there is no centralized leadership to tie the anonymous activists or cells together....
Copter assists hazing of bison Montana officials near West Yellowstone used a helicopter Wednesday to steer 285 bison back into Yellowstone National Park. The work, the most aggressive hazing operation this year, pushed the bison about seven miles into the park, where there's more food and access to water. In recent days, many bison hazed back into the park by state agents have simply turned around and left Yellowstone for private and public land northwest of West Yellowstone. Bison were supposed to be inside the park early last week in preparation for the arrival of cattle in the area. The bison are moved as part of a state and federal plan to reduce the risk of transmitting brucellosis, a contagious disease that can cause abortions, from bison to cows....
Administration fights bill that would alter energy policy Saying the bill could drive up the cost of fuel, administration officials objected Wednesday to new legislation that would change how the government approves some oil and gas drilling projects on public lands and would alter other federal energy policies. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced the legislation last week and held a hearing Wednesday for administration officials to raise their objections to it. The bill addresses numerous topics on which the panel and its subcommittees have held hearings, including energy corridors, Minerals Management Service audits and carbon capture. The bill would amend the 2005 Energy Policy Act to eliminate the use of exemptions from some environmental analysis for certain oil and gas drilling projects. The act allows "categorical exclusions" to exempt certain projects requiring an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. The new bill would eliminate categorical exclusions now used for projects in areas with land-use plans approved within the previous five years, or with surface disturbance limited to 5 acres and a previous project with a National Environmental Policy Act decision. Supporters of the provision say it would return balance to administration policy that has favored drilling over other public land uses....
County talks trails The Otero County Commission work session Wednesday was filled with notable issues, which included road jurisdiction, wildlife management, the current defoliation crisis, medical claims and a fire ban. "We are currently looking at maps of the county to study all roads, especially in Lincoln National Forest," said commission Chairman Doug Moore. The review will be to determine which roads would be affected by RS2477, a revised federal statute enacted in 1866 that governs the jurisdiction of all "developed roads, trails, paths and grazing courses," Moore said. "What this means is that the Forest Service or BLM cannot legally close any of the RS2477 roads," County Attorney Dan Bryant added. "It grants a right of way across public lands for all roads." Bryant said Otero County is looking to make a declaration regarding these forest roads in as early as two to three weeks....
Forest Service ocean view homes for sale in Waldport Three homes on a 2.81 acre parcel of land with ocean view adjacent to the Central Oregon Coast Ranger District-Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area office in Waldport are for sale. These homes were used as temporary housing for Siuslaw National Forest employees, according to Forest Realty Specialist Chuck Gladney. "We project no further use for the residences and will use proceeds to help maintain other administrative buildings," he added. The property and houses are located south of Waldport and just north and adjacent to the existing Waldport office. Houses will not be sold separately, but in one package including the acreage. The properties are for sale through a competitive online auction with the General Services Administration (GSA). A Minimum Bid and Bid Deposit have been established for the property....
Moratorium on mesa? Sen. Pete Domenici joined the growing chorus of voices calling for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Otero Mesa. Domenici, R-N.M., said in a news release issued Wednesday that he has written to the Bureau of Land Management, asking that no drilling be allowed until a U.S. Geological Survey study of the Salt Basin aquifer is completed. Domenici issued the statement after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill Wednesday he co-sponsored with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration. It designates several areas in New Mexico, including Otero Mesa and the Tularosa Basin, that will be studied concerning the extent of groundwater resources available. "We identify the Salt Basin as a priority aquifer to study, including an investigation of the susceptibility of the water to contamination," Domenici said in the news release. "This sort of review would provide us with critical information on the possible effect of oil and gas development in the Otero Mesa on the Salt Basin aquifer." The bill authorizes an analysis of aquifers throughout New Mexico. It will look at the availability of groundwater, the salinity, the interaction between groundwater and surface water and will examine surface and bedrock geology. A study in 2006 by USGS estimated that the Salt Basin may contain as much as 57 million acre feet of water, including 15 million that is potable. An acre foot is enough water to supply a family of four for an entire year....
A plot both wide and thick ASTRIDE his horse, Benjamin Coates could gaze across 21,400 acres and see the sweep of his power reflected in nature. A riot of mesas and meadows laced with gurgling streams. Miles of chaparral and clusters of stately oaks. A mountain that Native Americans considered a deity. Herds of deer, golden eagles overhead, enough wildlife to stock a zoo. And not another soul in sight. This was Xanadu and it belonged to Coates. The Pennsylvania-born businessman collected property the way others accumulate Hummel figurines. He owned a Manhattan office building, a hunting estate in Scotland, a Swiss chalet, apartments in Paris, New York and Tokyo. But above all else, he prized Rancho Guejito, Southern California's last undivided Mexican land grant. Most people have never heard of Rancho Guejito, in northern San Diego County. Few have seen it. Shielded from view by ridgelines, with only one road leading to a locked gate and a security guard, the ranch is a time capsule from 1845, when Mexico's California governor awarded the core of it to San Diego's customs inspector. Since then, a series of wealthy men ran cattle and used Rancho Guejito (pronounced Weh-HEE-toh) as a private playground. Coates was the last. It was the jewel of a billion-dollar-plus fortune the 86-year-old aristocrat planned to pass down to generations of heirs with instructions that it never be developed....
Emigrant ranch cattle are free of brucellosis The second tests for exposure to brucellosis conducted on yearling heifers on a ranch near Emigrant are negative. Rancher and Republican State Rep. Bruce Malcolm said he got the call at 11:40 a.m. today. "It means that this place up here is free from brucellosis. No reactors. No positive ones," he said. "Every animal we have is negative." The first tests run on 75 cow/calf pairs on the Malcolm ranch came back negative on Tuesday. Brucellosis bacteria can cause fertility problems and abortions in pregnant cows, elk, bison and hogs. Seven cows that originally came from the Malcolm ranch near Emigrant but were living on another family ranch near Bridger tested positive for the disease, so that herd is quarantined and probably will be destroyed during the next six weeks. The tests mean that, unless other herds test positive in the "trace-back" investigation, Montana will retain its coveted brucellosis-free status....
USCA Urges USDA & Interior Department To Implement Wildlife Brucellosis Control The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA), during a board of directors meeting on Monday, May 21, unanimously approved a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to undertake an aggressive, long-term brucellosis control and eradication program related to bison, elk and moose in Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association is urging both agencies to implement an indemnification program to compensate ranchers for losses suffered as a result of infection by wildlife. Bison numbers within the park exceed forage production, causing over-grazing and migration of infected bison, elk and moose from the park’s boundaries. "Cattle producers have worked for more than half a century at enormous cost to eradicate brucellosis in cattle herds across the country," said Chuck Kiker, Texas, USCA’s Animal Health Committee chairman. "One of the greatest risks of infection for cattle today is exposure to infected ruminant wildlife. An investigation is underway in Montana by federal and state animal health officials, and it’s important to let that play out. However, evidence demonstrates that the region surrounding Yellowstone National Park is a consistent hot-bed for brucellosis outbreaks threatening an entire sector of the economy. It is incumbent upon the Department of the Interior and USDA to take an aggressive approach that will lead to total eradication of this disease."....
OIE U.S. Meat Safety Classification “The American Farm Bureau Federation is pleased with the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) decision to classify the U.S. as a ‘controlled risk’ for meat safety. We expect this classification rating to jumpstart U.S. beef exports, which have been down since a 2003 incident of bovine spongiform encephalopathy found in a U.S. cow. The OIE classification validates that beef produced by U.S. farmers and ranchers is safe and that U.S. food safety mechanisms are working. “We are optimistic that this classification will encourage other countries, such as South Korea and Japan, to fully reopen their market to U.S. beef. We expect these countries, which were once a large export market for U.S. beef, to follow this new classification and change their import guidelines to accept safe U.S. beef. America’s farmers and ranchers will not rest until full beef trade resumes.”
Skeleton of bear-like creature found in Badlands The skeleton of a bear-like creature believed to be about 60 million years old has been found in the North Dakota Badlands, the state paleontologist says. The titanoides fossil was found during a survey of an oil drilling site north of Belfield, paleontologist John Hoganson said. Partial skeletons have been found before in North Dakota, but the latest discovery could be complete or close to it, he said. The landscape was much different when the titanoides roamed the area, Hoganson said. "It was subtropical, for example, and it was a forested swampland. So during the time, it was somewhat similar to southern Florida today, and this titanoides actually lived in these forested habitats," he said. Hoganson said the titanoides was about 5 feet long, weighing between 200 and 300 pounds....
Lamb and Wool Fest Friday The lamb and wool growers association of Utah, along with Utah Humanities Council and Meadow Gold again present the annual Lamb and Wool Festival, but this year it includes storytellers and a special traveling photography exhibit. Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev., and the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, will share songs and stories of shepherding between 7 and 8 p.m. Friday, with Tony Norris. Cannon has published a dozen books and recordings on the folk arts of the West, including his best-selling anthology, "Cowboy Poetry, A Gathering." More recently Cannon has been producing public television and radio features on the culture and folklife of the American West. Norris is a regular at storytelling festivals, cowboy poetry gatherings, schools, campfires and corporate conferences. With the accompaniment of his big Martin guitar and healthy doses of humor, he invites the adventurous to leave the everyday world behind and journey into the old West. Also on Friday from 4-5 p.m., Ryan Paul, the director of "Think Sheep!," explores the life of an Iron County sheep ranching family in a film documentary. Ryan is a board member of the Utah Museum Association, the Iron County Historical Society, the Early American Industries Association, the Utah State Historical Society, the Organization of American Historical and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Trailing the Year: The Human Landscape of Sheep Ranching in the American West" is a photo exhibit of ranchers and shepherds in the Sanpete Valley produced by Peter Goss. Produced as part of the Western Folklife Center's "Sheep Ranching in the American West" project, the exhibit presents work as experienced in the Intermountain and Great Basin West and is on exhibit through June 1....
Grizzly mauls man in Yellowstone A Montana man was attacked by a grizzly bear Wednesday in Yellowstone National Park. The man, whose name and hometown were not released, suffered severe facial injuries and was being treated at an Idaho hospital Wednesday evening. The man, in his 50s, was alone and taking photos of bears along Trout Creek in Hayden Valley, park officials said. He told rangers he was attacked by a female bear with a cub. He hiked 2 to 3 miles east to the Grand Loop Road, where visitors found him around 1 p.m., the park said. He was taken by ambulance to West Yellowstone, then transferred to an Air Idaho helicopter and taken to Eastern Idaho Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Information on his condition was not available Wednesday evening. "He was conscious, breathing and talking to rangers" before he was taken to the hospital, said Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman. Further details of the attack weren't immediately available....
Earth Liberation Front arsonist sentenced to 13 years Declaring fires set at a police station, an SUV dealership and a tree farm acts of terrorism, a federal judge Wednesday sentenced the first of 10 members of a radical environmental group to 13 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken commended Stanislas Meyerhoff for having the courage to "do the right thing" by informing on his fellow arsonists after his arrest. But he declared his efforts to save the earth by setting fires were misguided and cowardly, and contributed to an unfair characterization of others working legally to protect the environment as radicals. "It was your intent to scare and frighten other people through a very dangerous and psychological act — arson," Aiken told Meyerhoff. "Your actions included elements of terrorism to achieve your goal. Meyerhoff, 29, has admitted to being a member of a Eugene cell of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) known as The Family, which was responsible for more than 20 arsons from 1996 through 2001 in five Western states that did $40 million in damage....
'Direct Action' Attacks: Terrorism by Another Name? The people involved with ALF/ELF can be roughly divided into four groups. The first group, one of the smallest, is made up of those who surreptitiously engage in illegal direct action activities, such as arson, assault, etc. The groups' wealthy, anonymous donors also make up a small second group. The third, larger group is made up of activists who publicly engage in legal actions, attend rallies and collect and disseminate the personal information of potential targets. In the fourth and largest group are the mainly passive sympathizers who identify with environmental or animal rights issues. Because neither ELF nor ALF has a formal membership list, the numbers are in no way fixed -- meaning anyone can read about them, identify with their cause and then engage in an illegal activity that propels them directly into the first group. The structures of ALF and ELF are amorphous and nonhierarchical, and the individual activists who act on behalf of the organizations control their own activities. Small groups of activists, however, have been known to band together to form autonomous cells -- sometimes referred to as affinity groups -- that have a little more structure and leadership. Overall, however, there is no centralized leadership to tie the anonymous activists or cells together....
Copter assists hazing of bison Montana officials near West Yellowstone used a helicopter Wednesday to steer 285 bison back into Yellowstone National Park. The work, the most aggressive hazing operation this year, pushed the bison about seven miles into the park, where there's more food and access to water. In recent days, many bison hazed back into the park by state agents have simply turned around and left Yellowstone for private and public land northwest of West Yellowstone. Bison were supposed to be inside the park early last week in preparation for the arrival of cattle in the area. The bison are moved as part of a state and federal plan to reduce the risk of transmitting brucellosis, a contagious disease that can cause abortions, from bison to cows....
Administration fights bill that would alter energy policy Saying the bill could drive up the cost of fuel, administration officials objected Wednesday to new legislation that would change how the government approves some oil and gas drilling projects on public lands and would alter other federal energy policies. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced the legislation last week and held a hearing Wednesday for administration officials to raise their objections to it. The bill addresses numerous topics on which the panel and its subcommittees have held hearings, including energy corridors, Minerals Management Service audits and carbon capture. The bill would amend the 2005 Energy Policy Act to eliminate the use of exemptions from some environmental analysis for certain oil and gas drilling projects. The act allows "categorical exclusions" to exempt certain projects requiring an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. The new bill would eliminate categorical exclusions now used for projects in areas with land-use plans approved within the previous five years, or with surface disturbance limited to 5 acres and a previous project with a National Environmental Policy Act decision. Supporters of the provision say it would return balance to administration policy that has favored drilling over other public land uses....
County talks trails The Otero County Commission work session Wednesday was filled with notable issues, which included road jurisdiction, wildlife management, the current defoliation crisis, medical claims and a fire ban. "We are currently looking at maps of the county to study all roads, especially in Lincoln National Forest," said commission Chairman Doug Moore. The review will be to determine which roads would be affected by RS2477, a revised federal statute enacted in 1866 that governs the jurisdiction of all "developed roads, trails, paths and grazing courses," Moore said. "What this means is that the Forest Service or BLM cannot legally close any of the RS2477 roads," County Attorney Dan Bryant added. "It grants a right of way across public lands for all roads." Bryant said Otero County is looking to make a declaration regarding these forest roads in as early as two to three weeks....
Forest Service ocean view homes for sale in Waldport Three homes on a 2.81 acre parcel of land with ocean view adjacent to the Central Oregon Coast Ranger District-Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area office in Waldport are for sale. These homes were used as temporary housing for Siuslaw National Forest employees, according to Forest Realty Specialist Chuck Gladney. "We project no further use for the residences and will use proceeds to help maintain other administrative buildings," he added. The property and houses are located south of Waldport and just north and adjacent to the existing Waldport office. Houses will not be sold separately, but in one package including the acreage. The properties are for sale through a competitive online auction with the General Services Administration (GSA). A Minimum Bid and Bid Deposit have been established for the property....
Moratorium on mesa? Sen. Pete Domenici joined the growing chorus of voices calling for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Otero Mesa. Domenici, R-N.M., said in a news release issued Wednesday that he has written to the Bureau of Land Management, asking that no drilling be allowed until a U.S. Geological Survey study of the Salt Basin aquifer is completed. Domenici issued the statement after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill Wednesday he co-sponsored with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration. It designates several areas in New Mexico, including Otero Mesa and the Tularosa Basin, that will be studied concerning the extent of groundwater resources available. "We identify the Salt Basin as a priority aquifer to study, including an investigation of the susceptibility of the water to contamination," Domenici said in the news release. "This sort of review would provide us with critical information on the possible effect of oil and gas development in the Otero Mesa on the Salt Basin aquifer." The bill authorizes an analysis of aquifers throughout New Mexico. It will look at the availability of groundwater, the salinity, the interaction between groundwater and surface water and will examine surface and bedrock geology. A study in 2006 by USGS estimated that the Salt Basin may contain as much as 57 million acre feet of water, including 15 million that is potable. An acre foot is enough water to supply a family of four for an entire year....
A plot both wide and thick ASTRIDE his horse, Benjamin Coates could gaze across 21,400 acres and see the sweep of his power reflected in nature. A riot of mesas and meadows laced with gurgling streams. Miles of chaparral and clusters of stately oaks. A mountain that Native Americans considered a deity. Herds of deer, golden eagles overhead, enough wildlife to stock a zoo. And not another soul in sight. This was Xanadu and it belonged to Coates. The Pennsylvania-born businessman collected property the way others accumulate Hummel figurines. He owned a Manhattan office building, a hunting estate in Scotland, a Swiss chalet, apartments in Paris, New York and Tokyo. But above all else, he prized Rancho Guejito, Southern California's last undivided Mexican land grant. Most people have never heard of Rancho Guejito, in northern San Diego County. Few have seen it. Shielded from view by ridgelines, with only one road leading to a locked gate and a security guard, the ranch is a time capsule from 1845, when Mexico's California governor awarded the core of it to San Diego's customs inspector. Since then, a series of wealthy men ran cattle and used Rancho Guejito (pronounced Weh-HEE-toh) as a private playground. Coates was the last. It was the jewel of a billion-dollar-plus fortune the 86-year-old aristocrat planned to pass down to generations of heirs with instructions that it never be developed....
Emigrant ranch cattle are free of brucellosis The second tests for exposure to brucellosis conducted on yearling heifers on a ranch near Emigrant are negative. Rancher and Republican State Rep. Bruce Malcolm said he got the call at 11:40 a.m. today. "It means that this place up here is free from brucellosis. No reactors. No positive ones," he said. "Every animal we have is negative." The first tests run on 75 cow/calf pairs on the Malcolm ranch came back negative on Tuesday. Brucellosis bacteria can cause fertility problems and abortions in pregnant cows, elk, bison and hogs. Seven cows that originally came from the Malcolm ranch near Emigrant but were living on another family ranch near Bridger tested positive for the disease, so that herd is quarantined and probably will be destroyed during the next six weeks. The tests mean that, unless other herds test positive in the "trace-back" investigation, Montana will retain its coveted brucellosis-free status....
USCA Urges USDA & Interior Department To Implement Wildlife Brucellosis Control The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA), during a board of directors meeting on Monday, May 21, unanimously approved a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to undertake an aggressive, long-term brucellosis control and eradication program related to bison, elk and moose in Yellowstone National Park. The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association is urging both agencies to implement an indemnification program to compensate ranchers for losses suffered as a result of infection by wildlife. Bison numbers within the park exceed forage production, causing over-grazing and migration of infected bison, elk and moose from the park’s boundaries. "Cattle producers have worked for more than half a century at enormous cost to eradicate brucellosis in cattle herds across the country," said Chuck Kiker, Texas, USCA’s Animal Health Committee chairman. "One of the greatest risks of infection for cattle today is exposure to infected ruminant wildlife. An investigation is underway in Montana by federal and state animal health officials, and it’s important to let that play out. However, evidence demonstrates that the region surrounding Yellowstone National Park is a consistent hot-bed for brucellosis outbreaks threatening an entire sector of the economy. It is incumbent upon the Department of the Interior and USDA to take an aggressive approach that will lead to total eradication of this disease."....
OIE U.S. Meat Safety Classification “The American Farm Bureau Federation is pleased with the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) decision to classify the U.S. as a ‘controlled risk’ for meat safety. We expect this classification rating to jumpstart U.S. beef exports, which have been down since a 2003 incident of bovine spongiform encephalopathy found in a U.S. cow. The OIE classification validates that beef produced by U.S. farmers and ranchers is safe and that U.S. food safety mechanisms are working. “We are optimistic that this classification will encourage other countries, such as South Korea and Japan, to fully reopen their market to U.S. beef. We expect these countries, which were once a large export market for U.S. beef, to follow this new classification and change their import guidelines to accept safe U.S. beef. America’s farmers and ranchers will not rest until full beef trade resumes.”
Skeleton of bear-like creature found in Badlands The skeleton of a bear-like creature believed to be about 60 million years old has been found in the North Dakota Badlands, the state paleontologist says. The titanoides fossil was found during a survey of an oil drilling site north of Belfield, paleontologist John Hoganson said. Partial skeletons have been found before in North Dakota, but the latest discovery could be complete or close to it, he said. The landscape was much different when the titanoides roamed the area, Hoganson said. "It was subtropical, for example, and it was a forested swampland. So during the time, it was somewhat similar to southern Florida today, and this titanoides actually lived in these forested habitats," he said. Hoganson said the titanoides was about 5 feet long, weighing between 200 and 300 pounds....
Lamb and Wool Fest Friday The lamb and wool growers association of Utah, along with Utah Humanities Council and Meadow Gold again present the annual Lamb and Wool Festival, but this year it includes storytellers and a special traveling photography exhibit. Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev., and the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, will share songs and stories of shepherding between 7 and 8 p.m. Friday, with Tony Norris. Cannon has published a dozen books and recordings on the folk arts of the West, including his best-selling anthology, "Cowboy Poetry, A Gathering." More recently Cannon has been producing public television and radio features on the culture and folklife of the American West. Norris is a regular at storytelling festivals, cowboy poetry gatherings, schools, campfires and corporate conferences. With the accompaniment of his big Martin guitar and healthy doses of humor, he invites the adventurous to leave the everyday world behind and journey into the old West. Also on Friday from 4-5 p.m., Ryan Paul, the director of "Think Sheep!," explores the life of an Iron County sheep ranching family in a film documentary. Ryan is a board member of the Utah Museum Association, the Iron County Historical Society, the Early American Industries Association, the Utah State Historical Society, the Organization of American Historical and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Trailing the Year: The Human Landscape of Sheep Ranching in the American West" is a photo exhibit of ranchers and shepherds in the Sanpete Valley produced by Peter Goss. Produced as part of the Western Folklife Center's "Sheep Ranching in the American West" project, the exhibit presents work as experienced in the Intermountain and Great Basin West and is on exhibit through June 1....
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Global warming debunked Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week. Man's contribution to the greenhouse gases was so small we couldn't change the climate if we tried, he maintained. "We're all going to survive this. It's all going to be a joke in five years," he said. A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin had created the current hysteria and it was time to put a stop to it. "It is time to attack the myth of global warming," he said. Water vapour was responsible for 95 per cent of the greenhouse effect, an effect which was vital to keep the world warm, he explained. "If we didn't have the greenhouse effect the planet would be at minus 18 deg C but because we do have the greenhouse effect it is plus 15 deg C, all the time." The other greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and various others including CFCs, contributed only five per cent of the effect, carbon dioxide being by far the greatest contributor at 3.6 per cent. However, carbon dioxide as a result of man's activities was only 3.2 per cent of that, hence only 0.12 per cent of the greenhouse gases in total. Human-related methane, nitrogen dioxide and CFCs etc made similarly minuscule contributions to the effect: 0.066, 0.047 and 0.046 per cent respectively. "That ought to be the end of the argument, there and then," he said....
Human error alleged in firefighters' deaths Risky decisions, failure to plan an escape and pressure to ignore hazards may have led to the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters last year, according to the findings of an investigation released Tuesday. "The human elements are critical factors in the evaluation of this investigation," said the report on the so-called Esperanza fire. "A risky decision or a series of risky decisions appears to have contributed to this dangerous situation from which there was no room for error." The arson fire ignited Oct. 26 and was spread by fierce Santa Ana winds. The five firefighters and their engine were overrun by flames as they tried to protect a house in a mountain community about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. The blaze eventually charred more than 60 square miles and destroyed 34 homes. Forest Service Chief Forester Gail Kimbell said at a news conference Tuesday that two main factors led to the tragedy. "There was a loss of situational awareness concerning the dangers associated with potential fire behavior while in a complex urban wild land situation," Kimbell said. Decisions by command officers and supervisors to try to protect buildings also were a factor, Kimbell said. "They underestimated, accepted or misjudged the risk to firefighter safety," Kimbell said. The individuals who made those decisions were not identified. Officials with the Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection refused to answer questions about the contents of the report or to elaborate on the findings....
Lawyers: Findings could affect arson trial Tactical mistakes made by five firefighters battling the Esperanza blaze could be cited later as reasons not to execute the man charged with setting the fire that killed them, his attorney and a legal expert agreed Tuesday. Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, of Beaumont, faces trial on five counts of murder along with 40 arson-related charges. Those include the Esperanza Fire in October as well as 22 fires that authorities say he set in the Banning Pass area from May through October of last year. Tuesday's report also said the firefighters did not properly scout out escape routes, were not properly supervised and used a radio frequency that could not be monitored by incident commanders. And fire officials had determined years earlier that the house the firefighters died trying to protect was "non-defensible." The district attorney's office received the 118-page report on Tuesday, and declined to comment on it. It was prepared by Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service. "We need to take time to review the report and see what if any impact it may have on the Oyler case," said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Oyler's attorney, Mark R. McDonald, said that "the defense position is Oyler didn't start the fire to begin with." Because of that, the defense doesn't plan to cite results of the probe during the guilt phase of Oyler's trial....
Questions haunt mother of fallen firefighter The mother of one of the five U.S. Forest Service firefighters who died in the Esperanza blaze believes the fire investigation report released Tuesday absolves the firefighters of wrongdoing, but it left her with unanswered questions. Bonnie McKay, mother of firefighter Jason McKay, said she can't understand why no one told her son and the other Engine 57 firefighters that the house they were protecting when they died had been identified by a Cal Fire map as an undefendable structure. In 2002, fire officials created a fire contingency map that noted structure location and defensibility, but the map was not used for strategic planning during the Esperanza Fire, according to the investigation report. "I truly believe they would have survived if they had known," said McKay, who said she still was studying the report late Tuesday afternoon. "That upset me very much." Pat Boss, a retired U.S. Forest Service firefighter and liaison for the family of Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, attended Tuesday's briefing for families. Family members were told there was no way the crew could have anticipated the course of events, despite the report's conclusion that there was a "loss of awareness" concerning the dangers of the environment, Boss said....
Lumber's grinding halt The raw supply for Gene Dayton's fancy wood lathe, which transforms dying trees into perfectly cut Lincoln Logs, has been reduced to a mere dozen thick pines, piled next to the industrial machine. "I hate to think how many good trees are in that," Dayton says, pointing to a nearby heap of wood chips 20 feet high and as long as a football field. "Every day, I see truck after truck bringing more." In Summit County and throughout Colorado, tens of thousands of beetle-infested pine trees are being shredded rather than used for lumber because there is little timber industry remaining in the state. Despite pioneering efforts at burning the wood as fuel for biomass- heating systems or turning it into beautiful products through boutique log-furniture and log-home companies such as Dayton's, the pine-beetle epidemic is so widespread and the costs of limbing, shipping and sawing the trees in far-flung mills are so high that most high-country logging companies are opting for the quick-and-cheap approach of chipping....
Bighorn resorts put on auction block Ever wanted to own a resort on national forest land? Now may be your chance, and it's a highest-bid-takes-all game. Four resorts in the Bighorn Mountains will be on the auction block at the end of June, and only one has a "reserve" price that must be met in order for it to sell. Deer Haven, Meadowlark and the Big Horn Ski Resort will all be sold to the highest bidder in a sealed auction, and the Wilderness Ranch will have a reserve. The resorts can be purchased together or individually. The impending auction was announced this week, the same time Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality cited the owner of Big Horn Mountain Resorts for wastewater violations at two of the resorts. Earlier this spring, employees videotaped sewage discharge into Ten Sleep Creek. According to the current owner of the resorts, the sale is being offered because of the need for money for other businesses. The auction-style sale gives a "time definite" when the properties will be sold, Big Horn Mountain Resorts representatives said via e-mail. But the highest bidder will have to be approved by the U.S. Forest Service in order to take over the businesses....
Groups file appeals protesting drilling Environmentalists, residents and elected officials opposed to new gas wells in the San Juan Basin of southwestern Colorado have appealed plans for new wells on federal land, including roadless forest areas. The appeal filed Monday says the U.S. Forest Service violated federal laws by inadequately assessing the energy development's potential impacts on air quality, wildlife, old-growth forests, water and human health and safety. The plan approved earlier this year by the Forest Service would allow up to 127 new natural gas well pads and accompanying roads and facilities over 125,000 acres in the northern San Juan Basin. One pad can have several wells. The regional Forest Service office in Denver has 45 days to consider the appeals....
Forest Service Outsourcing Plan Produces Big Losses The U.S. Forest Service ended up costing itself more than nine times what it claims to have saved by streamlining its information technology operation, according to figures jointly released by the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Forest Service Council and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Facing another busy fire season, the cash-strapped Forest Service devoted $292 million more last year to perform basic IT functions than was previously required. This perverse result springs from President Bush's so-called competitive sourcing initiative, which requires all agencies to put a high proportion of their positions out to bid against private contractors. Under what is called the "A-76" process (named for a particular Office of Management & Budget circular), federal employees reorganize themselves into quasi-contractual entities called Most Efficient Organizations (MEO) to perform the targeted agency operations. A MEO, like a government contractor, is not directly answerable to agency line-management, but only to the terms of its contract. The Forest Service reorganized its IT infrastructure into an MEO in 2005, reducing the number of staff handling computer and communications work. Based on this downsizing, the agency claimed "on the books" savings of $35.2 million during FY 2005 and 2006. However, according to agency documents, the restructuring resulted in many more Forest Service employees outside the MEO spending substantially more time performing IT tasks, costing the agency $327 million - a net operational loss of $292 million....
On the trail of the Basin Butte wolf pack For wolf B312 and the rest of the Basin Butte wolf pack, home is a sweeping stretch of central Idaho backcountry. Covering some 250 square miles where the Sawtooth, White Cloud and Salmon River mountains meet the lower Stanley Basin, the area is a mosaic of aspen and conifer forests, sagebrush-covered hillsides and wide open grassy flats. No surprise, then, that it's also a landscape rich with elk, mule deer and other prey, one that any wolf would love. Biologists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game first confirmed the presence of the seven-member Basin Butte pack after they were linked to a livestock depredation incident in the spring of 2006, Fish and Game Large Carnivore Manager Steve Nadeau said Monday. The pack is named for nearby 8,854-foot Basin Butte, which lies north of Stanley in the southern Salmon River Mountains....
Controversial wolf rule could be revised Proposed changes in a federal rule would expand the situations in which wolves can be killed for depredations and to achieve wildlife management objectives. The rule that governs management of wolves in portions of the northern Rockies under the federal Endangered Species Act is in the process of being rewritten, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Bureau Chief Jim Unsworth said in Sun Valley on Thursday. Unsworth was speaking to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission during its quarterly meeting, held over a three-day period last week. The changes mentioned by Unsworth are proposed for the federal 10(j) rule, which allows wolves attacking livestock and herding and guarding animals to be killed under certain circumstances. The existing rule was published in the Federal Register in 2005 and applies to areas south of U.S. Interstate 90 in Idaho and Montana. Under the proposed changes—which the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—the rule would further allow the killing of wolves in areas where ungulate populations are not meeting the state's management objectives. The rule change would also allow the shooting of wolves that attack dogs on public land....
New salmon recovery proposal does not consider dam breaching The latest court-ordered federal plan for balancing salmon against hydroelectric dams in the Columbia Basin calls for stepping up efforts to control predators such as sea lions, using hatcheries more effectively, and installing more improvements to help young fish avoid turbines. Salmon advocates and Indian tribes blasted the draft proposal for failing to consider major changes to the hydroelectric dams, such as breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. "Maybe they think the third time will be the charm," Todd True, an attorney for Earth Justice, which represents a coalition of conservation groups and salmon fishermen, said Tuesday from Seattle. "This is basically the same action we saw in 2000 and 2004 analyzed a different way." Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the federal agencies were "getting it half right. What needs to get done is hydro reform. That's the hardest thing to change." U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland, Ore., ruled two years ago that the Bush administration's 2004 plan for making the hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia safe for salmon violated the Endangered Species Act, in part because it considered the dams as part of the landscape and only considered changes in how the dams were operated. Last month he was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals....
Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout to Be Considered Again for Protection Under Endangered Species Act In response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will again consider the Rio Grande cutthroat trout for protection as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The Center first petitioned to have the Rio Grande cutthroat trout protected in 1998, and despite the fact that the trout is gone from 99 percent of its historic range and threatened by multiple factors, the Fish and Wildlife Service has steadfastly refused to provide protection. “Without the protections of the Endangered Species Act, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout may be lost forever to extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We have a duty to protect the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and the rivers and streams it depends on.” Under the Endangered Species Act, an endangered species is defined as any species that is at risk of extinction in “all or a significant portion of range.” In a 2002 decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the Rio Grande cutthroat trout was gone or threatened from the vast majority of its range, but because it was not at risk of extinction in all of its range, it did not warrant protection. In response to the Center’s lawsuit, the agency has now admitted that this decision violated the law and agreed to reconsider protection for the rare trout....
Lynx kitten count begins A handful of Colorado Division of Wildlife teams will be fanning out across the southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains during the next few weeks to try and count newborn lynx kittens, an endangered cat often threatened by development. “A lot of people will be eager to see what reproduction is like this year,” said Division of Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski. In the spring of 2006, the reproduction rate dropped significantly from the previous two years, he said. Last year, biologists found four dens with 11 kittens. Only 10 percent of tracked females were found with litters in 2006, down from 41 percent in 2005. Between 2003 and 2006, researchers found a total of 37 dens. Some speculated that the continued releases of new lynx in the San Juans may have disrupted existing social networks among the rare cats, listed by the state and federal government as an endangered species. As a result, the Division of Wildlife curtailed releases this year. The spring of 2007 marked the first time since 1999 that no new lynx were released into the wilds of Colorado....
Emigrant herd tests show up negative When the federal veterinarian told Emigrant rancher Bruce Malcolm on Tuesday that his first round of tests for brucellosis came back negative, ranch hands and vets celebrated. "We had a lot of high-fives in the corral today," Malcolm said. A negative test means the cattle tested first have not been exposed to the brucellosis bacteria that can cause fertility problems and abortions in cows, elks, bison and hogs. Malcolm said blood samples drawn Monday from about 50 cows with nursing calves and another 25 cow-calf pairs owned by an employee went to the Montana State Laboratory in Bozeman. The good news came back Tuesday afternoon. Then Malcolm said he and his ranch hands helped veterinarians draw blood samples from 140 yearling heifers on his ranch. Those results are expected back today. If they test negative, Malcolm's herd will be in the clear. Seven cows from a herd in Bridger owned by Malcolm's daughter and son-in-law tested positive for brucellosis last week and are under quarantine. If two more cows from a separate herd test positive, Montana will lose its brucellosis-free status....
18th Annual Cody Old West Show & Auction Yellowstone, fishing, horseback riding, rodeo, mountain climbing, wildlife, so much to enjoy and see but the focus on the 4th weekend in June is again Western Antiques and Art. Cody has become the place to be for fans of the old west, historical antique collectors and art lovers. This summer offers the 18th annual Cody Old West Show and Auction with a chance for the public to see, buy, sell, and trade the finest of the west with the top dealers in the world. The THURSDAY 400+ item AUCTION offers the best in cowboy, cowgirl and Native American antiques and collectibles along with fine western art, graphic memorabilia and furnishings. This year's Thursday sale on the 21st of June will feature important historical material including the cowboy gear of an Iron Mountain, Wyoming rancher. A rare Buffalo Bill Wild West lithograph, a G.S. Garcia presentation saddle and a rare offering of Molesworth western furniture from the Valley Ranch in Wyoming. A large collection of Luis Ortega braided items will be of great interest. Will James, Frank Tenney Johnson, E.S. Paxson, Herman Hansen, Nick Eggenhofer, and Edward Borein are among the artists represented in the sale. Other notable contemporary artists include Joe Beeler, Dave Powell, Harry Jackson, and John Moyers. As always the mainstay of the Cody sale is the quality spurs, bits, saddles, chaps, hats and other cowboy or cowgirl regalia. Makers represented at this time include G.S. Garcia, Visalia, F.A. Meanea, R.T. Frazier and G.A. Bischoff. Saddles include the personal Edward H Bohlin show saddle of Hollywood icon and past owner of Bohlin Saddlery, Snuff Garrett....
Mustangs, Cowhunts & Vaqueros Long before the ranch roundups, there were "cow hunts" in South Texas. Neighbors would gather and go out as a group -- called a crowd -- looking for each other's cattle, which could stray for a great distance when there were no fences. Sometimes a dozen or more men would form a cow-hunting crowd. They would take extra horses and provisions, which were carried in a wallet, a sack with both ends tied and an opening in the middle. The cow hunters would ride over a large territory accumulating a herd of their own and their neighbors' cattle. The herd would be driven to the closest corral where the cattle belonging to the men on the hunt would be cut out, marked, branded, and altered. Joseph Almond, a rancher in what was then western Nueces County, often wrote about cow hunts in his diary of ranch life during the 1860s and 1870s. In diary entries for 1862 and 1863, Almond described cow hunts that lasted for several days and covered a large territory. In the process of roping one calf, Almond broke its neck. Horses were often crippled or gored by a mad bull, which is why each rider took a string of two or three horses. It was dangerous work; those long horns weren't there for decoration....
Global warming debunked Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week. Man's contribution to the greenhouse gases was so small we couldn't change the climate if we tried, he maintained. "We're all going to survive this. It's all going to be a joke in five years," he said. A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin had created the current hysteria and it was time to put a stop to it. "It is time to attack the myth of global warming," he said. Water vapour was responsible for 95 per cent of the greenhouse effect, an effect which was vital to keep the world warm, he explained. "If we didn't have the greenhouse effect the planet would be at minus 18 deg C but because we do have the greenhouse effect it is plus 15 deg C, all the time." The other greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, and various others including CFCs, contributed only five per cent of the effect, carbon dioxide being by far the greatest contributor at 3.6 per cent. However, carbon dioxide as a result of man's activities was only 3.2 per cent of that, hence only 0.12 per cent of the greenhouse gases in total. Human-related methane, nitrogen dioxide and CFCs etc made similarly minuscule contributions to the effect: 0.066, 0.047 and 0.046 per cent respectively. "That ought to be the end of the argument, there and then," he said....
Human error alleged in firefighters' deaths Risky decisions, failure to plan an escape and pressure to ignore hazards may have led to the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters last year, according to the findings of an investigation released Tuesday. "The human elements are critical factors in the evaluation of this investigation," said the report on the so-called Esperanza fire. "A risky decision or a series of risky decisions appears to have contributed to this dangerous situation from which there was no room for error." The arson fire ignited Oct. 26 and was spread by fierce Santa Ana winds. The five firefighters and their engine were overrun by flames as they tried to protect a house in a mountain community about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. The blaze eventually charred more than 60 square miles and destroyed 34 homes. Forest Service Chief Forester Gail Kimbell said at a news conference Tuesday that two main factors led to the tragedy. "There was a loss of situational awareness concerning the dangers associated with potential fire behavior while in a complex urban wild land situation," Kimbell said. Decisions by command officers and supervisors to try to protect buildings also were a factor, Kimbell said. "They underestimated, accepted or misjudged the risk to firefighter safety," Kimbell said. The individuals who made those decisions were not identified. Officials with the Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection refused to answer questions about the contents of the report or to elaborate on the findings....
Lawyers: Findings could affect arson trial Tactical mistakes made by five firefighters battling the Esperanza blaze could be cited later as reasons not to execute the man charged with setting the fire that killed them, his attorney and a legal expert agreed Tuesday. Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, of Beaumont, faces trial on five counts of murder along with 40 arson-related charges. Those include the Esperanza Fire in October as well as 22 fires that authorities say he set in the Banning Pass area from May through October of last year. Tuesday's report also said the firefighters did not properly scout out escape routes, were not properly supervised and used a radio frequency that could not be monitored by incident commanders. And fire officials had determined years earlier that the house the firefighters died trying to protect was "non-defensible." The district attorney's office received the 118-page report on Tuesday, and declined to comment on it. It was prepared by Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service. "We need to take time to review the report and see what if any impact it may have on the Oyler case," said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Oyler's attorney, Mark R. McDonald, said that "the defense position is Oyler didn't start the fire to begin with." Because of that, the defense doesn't plan to cite results of the probe during the guilt phase of Oyler's trial....
Questions haunt mother of fallen firefighter The mother of one of the five U.S. Forest Service firefighters who died in the Esperanza blaze believes the fire investigation report released Tuesday absolves the firefighters of wrongdoing, but it left her with unanswered questions. Bonnie McKay, mother of firefighter Jason McKay, said she can't understand why no one told her son and the other Engine 57 firefighters that the house they were protecting when they died had been identified by a Cal Fire map as an undefendable structure. In 2002, fire officials created a fire contingency map that noted structure location and defensibility, but the map was not used for strategic planning during the Esperanza Fire, according to the investigation report. "I truly believe they would have survived if they had known," said McKay, who said she still was studying the report late Tuesday afternoon. "That upset me very much." Pat Boss, a retired U.S. Forest Service firefighter and liaison for the family of Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, attended Tuesday's briefing for families. Family members were told there was no way the crew could have anticipated the course of events, despite the report's conclusion that there was a "loss of awareness" concerning the dangers of the environment, Boss said....
Lumber's grinding halt The raw supply for Gene Dayton's fancy wood lathe, which transforms dying trees into perfectly cut Lincoln Logs, has been reduced to a mere dozen thick pines, piled next to the industrial machine. "I hate to think how many good trees are in that," Dayton says, pointing to a nearby heap of wood chips 20 feet high and as long as a football field. "Every day, I see truck after truck bringing more." In Summit County and throughout Colorado, tens of thousands of beetle-infested pine trees are being shredded rather than used for lumber because there is little timber industry remaining in the state. Despite pioneering efforts at burning the wood as fuel for biomass- heating systems or turning it into beautiful products through boutique log-furniture and log-home companies such as Dayton's, the pine-beetle epidemic is so widespread and the costs of limbing, shipping and sawing the trees in far-flung mills are so high that most high-country logging companies are opting for the quick-and-cheap approach of chipping....
Bighorn resorts put on auction block Ever wanted to own a resort on national forest land? Now may be your chance, and it's a highest-bid-takes-all game. Four resorts in the Bighorn Mountains will be on the auction block at the end of June, and only one has a "reserve" price that must be met in order for it to sell. Deer Haven, Meadowlark and the Big Horn Ski Resort will all be sold to the highest bidder in a sealed auction, and the Wilderness Ranch will have a reserve. The resorts can be purchased together or individually. The impending auction was announced this week, the same time Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality cited the owner of Big Horn Mountain Resorts for wastewater violations at two of the resorts. Earlier this spring, employees videotaped sewage discharge into Ten Sleep Creek. According to the current owner of the resorts, the sale is being offered because of the need for money for other businesses. The auction-style sale gives a "time definite" when the properties will be sold, Big Horn Mountain Resorts representatives said via e-mail. But the highest bidder will have to be approved by the U.S. Forest Service in order to take over the businesses....
Groups file appeals protesting drilling Environmentalists, residents and elected officials opposed to new gas wells in the San Juan Basin of southwestern Colorado have appealed plans for new wells on federal land, including roadless forest areas. The appeal filed Monday says the U.S. Forest Service violated federal laws by inadequately assessing the energy development's potential impacts on air quality, wildlife, old-growth forests, water and human health and safety. The plan approved earlier this year by the Forest Service would allow up to 127 new natural gas well pads and accompanying roads and facilities over 125,000 acres in the northern San Juan Basin. One pad can have several wells. The regional Forest Service office in Denver has 45 days to consider the appeals....
Forest Service Outsourcing Plan Produces Big Losses The U.S. Forest Service ended up costing itself more than nine times what it claims to have saved by streamlining its information technology operation, according to figures jointly released by the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Forest Service Council and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Facing another busy fire season, the cash-strapped Forest Service devoted $292 million more last year to perform basic IT functions than was previously required. This perverse result springs from President Bush's so-called competitive sourcing initiative, which requires all agencies to put a high proportion of their positions out to bid against private contractors. Under what is called the "A-76" process (named for a particular Office of Management & Budget circular), federal employees reorganize themselves into quasi-contractual entities called Most Efficient Organizations (MEO) to perform the targeted agency operations. A MEO, like a government contractor, is not directly answerable to agency line-management, but only to the terms of its contract. The Forest Service reorganized its IT infrastructure into an MEO in 2005, reducing the number of staff handling computer and communications work. Based on this downsizing, the agency claimed "on the books" savings of $35.2 million during FY 2005 and 2006. However, according to agency documents, the restructuring resulted in many more Forest Service employees outside the MEO spending substantially more time performing IT tasks, costing the agency $327 million - a net operational loss of $292 million....
On the trail of the Basin Butte wolf pack For wolf B312 and the rest of the Basin Butte wolf pack, home is a sweeping stretch of central Idaho backcountry. Covering some 250 square miles where the Sawtooth, White Cloud and Salmon River mountains meet the lower Stanley Basin, the area is a mosaic of aspen and conifer forests, sagebrush-covered hillsides and wide open grassy flats. No surprise, then, that it's also a landscape rich with elk, mule deer and other prey, one that any wolf would love. Biologists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game first confirmed the presence of the seven-member Basin Butte pack after they were linked to a livestock depredation incident in the spring of 2006, Fish and Game Large Carnivore Manager Steve Nadeau said Monday. The pack is named for nearby 8,854-foot Basin Butte, which lies north of Stanley in the southern Salmon River Mountains....
Controversial wolf rule could be revised Proposed changes in a federal rule would expand the situations in which wolves can be killed for depredations and to achieve wildlife management objectives. The rule that governs management of wolves in portions of the northern Rockies under the federal Endangered Species Act is in the process of being rewritten, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Bureau Chief Jim Unsworth said in Sun Valley on Thursday. Unsworth was speaking to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission during its quarterly meeting, held over a three-day period last week. The changes mentioned by Unsworth are proposed for the federal 10(j) rule, which allows wolves attacking livestock and herding and guarding animals to be killed under certain circumstances. The existing rule was published in the Federal Register in 2005 and applies to areas south of U.S. Interstate 90 in Idaho and Montana. Under the proposed changes—which the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—the rule would further allow the killing of wolves in areas where ungulate populations are not meeting the state's management objectives. The rule change would also allow the shooting of wolves that attack dogs on public land....
New salmon recovery proposal does not consider dam breaching The latest court-ordered federal plan for balancing salmon against hydroelectric dams in the Columbia Basin calls for stepping up efforts to control predators such as sea lions, using hatcheries more effectively, and installing more improvements to help young fish avoid turbines. Salmon advocates and Indian tribes blasted the draft proposal for failing to consider major changes to the hydroelectric dams, such as breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. "Maybe they think the third time will be the charm," Todd True, an attorney for Earth Justice, which represents a coalition of conservation groups and salmon fishermen, said Tuesday from Seattle. "This is basically the same action we saw in 2000 and 2004 analyzed a different way." Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the federal agencies were "getting it half right. What needs to get done is hydro reform. That's the hardest thing to change." U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland, Ore., ruled two years ago that the Bush administration's 2004 plan for making the hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia safe for salmon violated the Endangered Species Act, in part because it considered the dams as part of the landscape and only considered changes in how the dams were operated. Last month he was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals....
Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout to Be Considered Again for Protection Under Endangered Species Act In response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will again consider the Rio Grande cutthroat trout for protection as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The Center first petitioned to have the Rio Grande cutthroat trout protected in 1998, and despite the fact that the trout is gone from 99 percent of its historic range and threatened by multiple factors, the Fish and Wildlife Service has steadfastly refused to provide protection. “Without the protections of the Endangered Species Act, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout may be lost forever to extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We have a duty to protect the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and the rivers and streams it depends on.” Under the Endangered Species Act, an endangered species is defined as any species that is at risk of extinction in “all or a significant portion of range.” In a 2002 decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the Rio Grande cutthroat trout was gone or threatened from the vast majority of its range, but because it was not at risk of extinction in all of its range, it did not warrant protection. In response to the Center’s lawsuit, the agency has now admitted that this decision violated the law and agreed to reconsider protection for the rare trout....
Lynx kitten count begins A handful of Colorado Division of Wildlife teams will be fanning out across the southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains during the next few weeks to try and count newborn lynx kittens, an endangered cat often threatened by development. “A lot of people will be eager to see what reproduction is like this year,” said Division of Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski. In the spring of 2006, the reproduction rate dropped significantly from the previous two years, he said. Last year, biologists found four dens with 11 kittens. Only 10 percent of tracked females were found with litters in 2006, down from 41 percent in 2005. Between 2003 and 2006, researchers found a total of 37 dens. Some speculated that the continued releases of new lynx in the San Juans may have disrupted existing social networks among the rare cats, listed by the state and federal government as an endangered species. As a result, the Division of Wildlife curtailed releases this year. The spring of 2007 marked the first time since 1999 that no new lynx were released into the wilds of Colorado....
Emigrant herd tests show up negative When the federal veterinarian told Emigrant rancher Bruce Malcolm on Tuesday that his first round of tests for brucellosis came back negative, ranch hands and vets celebrated. "We had a lot of high-fives in the corral today," Malcolm said. A negative test means the cattle tested first have not been exposed to the brucellosis bacteria that can cause fertility problems and abortions in cows, elks, bison and hogs. Malcolm said blood samples drawn Monday from about 50 cows with nursing calves and another 25 cow-calf pairs owned by an employee went to the Montana State Laboratory in Bozeman. The good news came back Tuesday afternoon. Then Malcolm said he and his ranch hands helped veterinarians draw blood samples from 140 yearling heifers on his ranch. Those results are expected back today. If they test negative, Malcolm's herd will be in the clear. Seven cows from a herd in Bridger owned by Malcolm's daughter and son-in-law tested positive for brucellosis last week and are under quarantine. If two more cows from a separate herd test positive, Montana will lose its brucellosis-free status....
18th Annual Cody Old West Show & Auction Yellowstone, fishing, horseback riding, rodeo, mountain climbing, wildlife, so much to enjoy and see but the focus on the 4th weekend in June is again Western Antiques and Art. Cody has become the place to be for fans of the old west, historical antique collectors and art lovers. This summer offers the 18th annual Cody Old West Show and Auction with a chance for the public to see, buy, sell, and trade the finest of the west with the top dealers in the world. The THURSDAY 400+ item AUCTION offers the best in cowboy, cowgirl and Native American antiques and collectibles along with fine western art, graphic memorabilia and furnishings. This year's Thursday sale on the 21st of June will feature important historical material including the cowboy gear of an Iron Mountain, Wyoming rancher. A rare Buffalo Bill Wild West lithograph, a G.S. Garcia presentation saddle and a rare offering of Molesworth western furniture from the Valley Ranch in Wyoming. A large collection of Luis Ortega braided items will be of great interest. Will James, Frank Tenney Johnson, E.S. Paxson, Herman Hansen, Nick Eggenhofer, and Edward Borein are among the artists represented in the sale. Other notable contemporary artists include Joe Beeler, Dave Powell, Harry Jackson, and John Moyers. As always the mainstay of the Cody sale is the quality spurs, bits, saddles, chaps, hats and other cowboy or cowgirl regalia. Makers represented at this time include G.S. Garcia, Visalia, F.A. Meanea, R.T. Frazier and G.A. Bischoff. Saddles include the personal Edward H Bohlin show saddle of Hollywood icon and past owner of Bohlin Saddlery, Snuff Garrett....
Mustangs, Cowhunts & Vaqueros Long before the ranch roundups, there were "cow hunts" in South Texas. Neighbors would gather and go out as a group -- called a crowd -- looking for each other's cattle, which could stray for a great distance when there were no fences. Sometimes a dozen or more men would form a cow-hunting crowd. They would take extra horses and provisions, which were carried in a wallet, a sack with both ends tied and an opening in the middle. The cow hunters would ride over a large territory accumulating a herd of their own and their neighbors' cattle. The herd would be driven to the closest corral where the cattle belonging to the men on the hunt would be cut out, marked, branded, and altered. Joseph Almond, a rancher in what was then western Nueces County, often wrote about cow hunts in his diary of ranch life during the 1860s and 1870s. In diary entries for 1862 and 1863, Almond described cow hunts that lasted for several days and covered a large territory. In the process of roping one calf, Almond broke its neck. Horses were often crippled or gored by a mad bull, which is why each rider took a string of two or three horses. It was dangerous work; those long horns weren't there for decoration....
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Package
by The Heritage Foundation
Working behind closed doors for months, a handful of Democratic and Republican staffers, along with a few senators and principals from the Administration, have been drafting a "comprehensive immigration reform package." Until Saturday morning, the legislation was unavailable to any other senators or staff, let alone the media, policy analysts, or the general public.
This legislation would be the most significant reform of immigration policy in 40 years, affecting not only our national security and homeland defense but the fiscal, economic, and social future of the United States for several generations.
For the sake of open deliberation and public education, The Heritage Foundation is making this legislation publicly available to encourage widespread debate and discussion.
Download Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (PDF, 1 MB)
by The Heritage Foundation
Working behind closed doors for months, a handful of Democratic and Republican staffers, along with a few senators and principals from the Administration, have been drafting a "comprehensive immigration reform package." Until Saturday morning, the legislation was unavailable to any other senators or staff, let alone the media, policy analysts, or the general public.
This legislation would be the most significant reform of immigration policy in 40 years, affecting not only our national security and homeland defense but the fiscal, economic, and social future of the United States for several generations.
For the sake of open deliberation and public education, The Heritage Foundation is making this legislation publicly available to encourage widespread debate and discussion.
Download Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (PDF, 1 MB)
New Mexico Wolves Prefer Deeded Land Ranches
I have been kind of sitting on the following letters because these are two of my nearest neighbors and it is hard to know what to do with them. It seems like all my neighbors have wolves these days and all of them have their own individual plan for dealing with the politics of wolves. Generally most of them usually realize sooner or later that no matter how nice they are to the wolf managers, they don’t ever see the end of the wolves. But still, I have to acquiesce when someone asks me to just lay low on their problem and I did for a while but it is time to point out some of the issues. Things haven’t changed much, there are still a lot of wolves in our area, the lower half of the Aspen horse killer pack has moved north to the Slash Adobe ranches and are in the same area as the saddle and Durango packs, Durango is homing in on a private residence on the ranch regularly and is badly habituated to people and residences one ranch house reports wolf howls for the past three nights near the home. The cowboys in this area ride every day and see wolves every single day in livestock pastures sometimes as close as 50 feet away. The wolves on the Diamond land, two of which are also Aspen horse killers, are still denning and all 4 collared packs are using deeded land way out of the wilderness. All four have bad livestock kill records....
Laura also posts the letters to G&F
I have been kind of sitting on the following letters because these are two of my nearest neighbors and it is hard to know what to do with them. It seems like all my neighbors have wolves these days and all of them have their own individual plan for dealing with the politics of wolves. Generally most of them usually realize sooner or later that no matter how nice they are to the wolf managers, they don’t ever see the end of the wolves. But still, I have to acquiesce when someone asks me to just lay low on their problem and I did for a while but it is time to point out some of the issues. Things haven’t changed much, there are still a lot of wolves in our area, the lower half of the Aspen horse killer pack has moved north to the Slash Adobe ranches and are in the same area as the saddle and Durango packs, Durango is homing in on a private residence on the ranch regularly and is badly habituated to people and residences one ranch house reports wolf howls for the past three nights near the home. The cowboys in this area ride every day and see wolves every single day in livestock pastures sometimes as close as 50 feet away. The wolves on the Diamond land, two of which are also Aspen horse killers, are still denning and all 4 collared packs are using deeded land way out of the wilderness. All four have bad livestock kill records....
Laura also posts the letters to G&F
NEWS ROUNDUP
U.S. Forest Service aims to get kids out into the woods more Students from New York to Alaska will be exploring forests and wetlands this year as part of an effort by the U.S. Forest Service to get kids out of the classroom and into the woods. The US$1.5 million (€1.12 million) "Kids in the Woods" program is aimed at a growing problem among American school children: a lack of direct experience with nature that experts say can contribute to childhood obesity, diabetes and even attention deficit disorder. The program also is intended to nurture future environmental scientists and other Forest Service workers — an acute need for an agency with a graying work force, said Deputy Forest Service Chief Ann Bartuska. "It's an opportunity to connect kids to our national forests and to other outdoor settings," she said. The grant program, to be announced at a news conference Tuesday, includes 24 projects in 15 states. More than 23,000 children were expected to participate in the program, which is supported by a host of private groups, as well as state, federal and local agencies....
INDEPENDENT STUDY FINDS FOREST SERVICE EXERCISED APPROPRIATE AND ADEQUATE FISCAL CONTROLS IN 2006 FIRE SEASON The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that an independent Brookings Institution panel found the USDA Forest Service exercised appropriate and adequate fiscal diligence in suppressing wildfires during the record breaking 2006 fire season. The panel reviewed 19 large fires that burned more than 1.1 million acres and cost $470 million dollars to suppress. The review panel also identified several "issue areas" to help the Forest Service contain the rising costs of firefighting. Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Mark Rey said the recommendations of the panel will be acted upon immediately. "The cost of firefighting is rapidly approaching half of the Forest Service entire budget for caring for the nation's 193 million acres of national forests," Rey said. "We are doing everything we can to curb the costs of firefighting while taking every step to protect the safety of our firefighters and ensure they have appropriate tools to do their job. The panel's recommendations will help us control costs."....
Insurance firms tighten rules in wildfire areas Spooked by devastating wildfire seasons, the nation's top insurers are inspecting homes in high-risk areas throughout the West and threatening to cancel coverage if owners don't clear brush or take other precautions. The inspections have angered homeowners and watchdog groups that accuse the companies of trying to cut risk at the expense of customers, even while industry profits soar. "It certainly isn't fair for these insurers to be dumping these last-minute requirements on homeowners," said Carmen Balber of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. "It does make sense to require homeowners to take reasonable precautions, but some of the excessive demands that we've heard from homeowners are over the top." The requirements can range from clearing brush to cutting down trees or even installing a fireproof roof. Insurers and industry groups counter that making people take responsibility for living in the highest-risk fire areas is just sound business....
Colorado, feds start crafting rules on roadless forest land A top federal official says 4.1 million acres of roadless national forests in Colorado will remain off-limits to most development while state and federal land managers develop rules to manage the areas. The assurance came from Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. Forest Service policy. Rey and regional Forest Service officials met with state officials about a petition from Gov. Bill Ritter seeking protection for most of the Colorado acres in question. Rey, in an interview with The Associated Press, said it will likely take 16 to 18 months to complete the rules. In the interim, he said, the federal government will work with Colorado to protect the roadless areas if a court decision banning development on them is overturned. The fate of the roadless areas in Colorado and other states is uncertain after six years of court and policy battles....
Feds OK coalbed expansion Federal land managers have approved the Atlantic Rim coalbed methane gas project, opening the door for up to 1,800 new coalbed methane wells and 200 conventional oil and gas wells near Rawlins. The development will occur in the south-central region of the state where producers have already received the green light for up to 2,780 conventional gas wells, and where another 10,190 wells are pending approval. The Bureau of Land Management announced its decision on Monday, underscoring the economic payoff expected from exploiting the gas reserves. The project is expected to yield some 1.35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - enough to heat nearly 20 million homes for a year, according to the BLM. The Atlantic Rim project is expected to generate $6.4 billion in economic activity, including $320 million in federal royalties. Half of the federal royalties will be directed to Wyoming state coffers. State severance taxes should generate an additional $271 million, according to the BLM. Drilling is expected to last about 20 years, with a project life span of 30 to 50 years....
Congress Investigates MacDonald's Farm Two senior House Democrats launched an inquiry today into reports that a Bush political appointee may have improperly removed a California fish from a list of threatened species in order to protect her own financial interests. Julie MacDonald, who resigned this month as Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, was actively involved in removing the Sacramento splittail fish from the federal threatened and endangered species list at the same time that she was profiting from her ownership of a farm that lies within the habitat area of the threatened fish, according to an investigative report published Sunday by the "Contra Costa Times" newspaper. MacDonald's financial disclosure statement shows that she earns as much as $1 million per year from her ownership of the 80 acre active farm in Dixon, California. Federal law bars federal employees from participating in decisions on matters in which they have a personal financial interest....
Group: Border fence threatens wildlife Nancy Brown drives the government truck slowly past mossy ponds, thick shrouds of beard-like Spanish moss and majestic ebony trees, gleefully identifying the song of the kiskadee and the gurgling call of the chachalaca. As the truck rounds a bend near the greenish-brown Rio Grande, a bobcat scampers ahead, disappearing into the lush subtropical foliage. Lizards dart about. A tortoise lazes in the sun. Somewhere in the forest, well-camouflaged by evolution, are ocelots and jaguarundi, both of them endangered species of cats. These are some of the natural wonders in the Rio Grande Valley that Brown and other wildlife enthusiasts fear could be spoiled by the fences and adjacent roads the U.S. government plans to erect along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants and smugglers. Environmentalists have spent decades acquiring and preserving 90,000 riverfront acres of Texas scrub and forest and protecting their wildlife. Now they fear the hundreds of miles of border fences will undo their work and kill some land animals by cutting them off from the Rio Grande, the only source of fresh water....
‘Hefner’ bunnies threatened by feral felines Quick, guess which American magazine publisher has a species of rabbit named after him. Hugh Hefner? You peeked! The population of Hef’s own breed of bunnies on Big Pine Key has dwindled by about 50 percent in the past two years and is in danger of being wiped out by predatory kitty cats. The rabbit’s Latin name is Sylvilagus palustris hefneri. The Playboy magazine founder got the honors after he financed research that identified the species in 1980. That probably had nothing to do with his intense interest in . . . bunnies. The medium-sized, dark brown cottontail with a grayish-white belly was put on the endangered species list in 1990 when the population was estimated at 200. Wildlife officials plan to begin trapping feral cats that prey on the rabbits next week. Activists in cat suits protested when the program was announced a month ago. Refuge officials said the cats will be “humanely trapped alive” and taken to animal shelters. No word on whether anyone has shown up in a bunny suit.
Monkey dead from bubonic plague in Denver A Denver Zoo monkey has died of bubonic plague, apparently after eating a squirrel stricken with the disease, Colorado health and zoo officials said on Monday. Five squirrels and a rabbit found dead on zoo grounds tested positive for the flea-borne disease in recent weeks, Denver Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie said. Zookeepers on May 15 noticed the 8-year-old hooded capuchin monkey was lethargic, and the next day it was found dead in its enclosure. Zoo veterinarians sent tissue samples to a state laboratory where it was determined the animal died of the plague. The death was announced on Monday. Zoo veterinarian Dave Kenny said that the risk of plague spreading to humans was extremely low but that visitors were being urged to avoid squirrels and rabbits....
Rowdies grow out of control at Little Sahara, say critics Was it just another Easter weekend at the dunes? Or is there a problem at Little Sahara Recreation Area? An environmental group has charged that the popular gathering spot for off-highway vehicle enthusiasts in Juab County, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, has gotten out of control. As proof, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) cites a federal law enforcement report that described "near riot conditions" on two separate nights over the April 6-8 holiday weekend, plus 37 instances in which medical assistance was rendered and a final tally of 300 incidents that resulted in arrests or citations. Altogether, an estimated 35,000 people visited Little Sahara over Easter, lured as always, by the wide open and hilly terrain the dunes provide for motorized recreation. "People need to know what is happening," said Daniel Patterson, PEER's southwest director and a former BLM staffer. "I have to sound a warning about this, because we've seen it in other places, like the Imperial Sand Dunes in California, where things really got out of hand and they had big problems, even murders. "Utah doesn't want that kind of a situation," said Patterson, an ecologist. "But if BLM doesn't act soon, that's exactly the kind of situation they're going to find themselves in."....
Religious leaders urge action on warming Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are urging President George W. Bush and Congress to take action against global warming, declaring that the changing climate is a "moral and spiritual issue." In an open letter to be published on Tuesday, more than 20 religious groups urged U.S. leaders to limit greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources. "Global warming is real, it is human-induced and we have the responsibility to act," says the letter, which will run in Roll Call and the Politico, two Capitol Hill newspapers. "We are mobilizing a religious force that will persuade our legislators to take immediate action to curb greenhouse gases," it says. The letter is signed by top officials of the National Council of Churches, the Islamic Society of North America and the political arm of the Reform branch of Judaism. Top officials from several mainline Christian denominations, including the Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church and Alliance of Baptists also signed the letter, along with leaders of regional organizations and individual churches....
Mo. Supreme Court to hear Centene case The Missouri Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that pits three Clayton property owners against Centene Corp.'s use of eminent domain in Clayton, Mo. Centene planned to begin construction on the $210 million office and retail complex project this summer. Arguments in the case of Centene Plaza Redevelopment Corp. v. Mint Properties are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. May 22. The hearing is an appeal of a St. Louis County Court ruling in January that gave deference to Clayton's Board of Aldermen, which determined the redevelopment area near Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet is blighted. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, ruled April 24 that the lower court's decision authorizing the use of condemnation should be halted. The three Clayton property owners -- David Danforth, Dan Sheehan and Debbie Pyzyk -- are fighting Centene's efforts to acquire their properties on Forsyth Boulevard within the redevelopment area....
The Nature Conservancy Acquires Conservation Easement on Central Florida Ranch The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with the Bass family, have protected land that will help save Florida scrub-jays, gopher tortoises and numerous other species. The Conservancy and the USDA through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) purchased a conservation easement over 945 acres on Bass Ranch, a working cattle ranch located in Highlands County. The acquisition was accomplished using funds donated to the Conservancy by private donors and NRCS funds under the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) of the Farm Bill. FRPP is a voluntary program that helps farmers and ranchers keep their land in agriculture. A portion of the easement was also donated by the Bass family. The easement helps to establish a habitat connection between the public lands of the Avon Park Air Force Range and Carter Creek, part of the Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife and Environmental Area. Establishing the link between these two public lands is important for the protection of wide-ranging species, such as the Florida black bear and Florida panther, and the continuation of land management with prescribed fire....
Brucellosis probe continues Bruce Malcolm, a rancher and Republican state representative from Emigrant, said Monday that seven of the cows that tested positive for the disease brucellosis came from his herd and that he supplied bulls to the herd under quarantine in Bridger. More blood was drawn from his herd Monday, he said, and yearlings will be tested this morning. Then it’s all over but the waiting. “We’ve worked with these cows all our life, it’s like losing a member of our family,” Malcolm said. Tests are being conducted on at least two herds in the Paradise Valley and if two cows from a second herd test positive, Montana will lose its brucellosis-free status, which will be a serious economic hit to the state’s largest industry. “We’re still looking at probably the end of the week before we have test results,” said Teresa Howes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Humans can get a form of brucellosis called undulate fever if they come in contact with infected live animals or birth material, so veterinarians and ranchers are most at risk....
End It, Don't Mend It Congress is fundamentally a gathering of horse-traders, and the body always seems to find a way to put pork into its already-lavish spending bills. When recent reports revealed that the supplemental spending bills for Iraq contained funding for peanut storage and spinach growers, Congress finally caved—apparently that was a bridge too far. But that won’t be the last we hear from farm commodity groups this year. The current farm bill, a multi-year spending program for commodity and rural programs, is due for renewal in September, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns is causing a stir by becoming the first ag head in recent memory to submit a draft proposal of his own. Farm bills historically have been settled in back-room deals between members of Congress and commodity groups, with taxpayers, consumers and food processors left out of the loop until it was too late. The United States was founded on the idea of limited government, but somewhere along the line agriculture came to be seen as "special," and deserving of state programs and market interventions. No government agency, no matter how well-funded and extravagantly staffed, can possibly have all the knowledge to manage markets efficiently; it is better that they get out of the business altogether. That’s easier said than done though, as anyone who has seen the powerful farm lobby in action can attest. But a confluence of events this year—a Doha round of free trade agreements in need of a kick-start, budget pressures and renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility from the Democrats in Congress, and growing public awareness of the failures of farm programs—all point to the need for reform. The question is: with what do we replace the current expensive and outdated programs? How about nothing?....
It's All Trew: Measuring systems of the past During a recent parts-buying effort the "metric-measure" demon raised its ugly head again. Though the metric system is used worldwide and goes way back in history, efforts to force the United States to use the system are slow going. I know of no one personally except a few computer people who use the system on a regular basis. Sadly, I find many young people don't know the basic weights and measures chart. My father and grandfather could quote the standard weights and measurements by heart as that was a required part of their limited education. Research tells us at first all measurements, lengths and weights were determined by using human body parts. An example is, 12 hands high, two pinches of salt and four steps long. The capacity of containers were measured by counting the seeds the container would hold. An example, today's "carat" used to measure gems is derived from counting carob seed in a container. When mathematics became common numbers, decimals began to be used. The English, involved in worldwide trade for centuries, spread their weights and measurements system throughout the world including the new colonies in America....
U.S. Forest Service aims to get kids out into the woods more Students from New York to Alaska will be exploring forests and wetlands this year as part of an effort by the U.S. Forest Service to get kids out of the classroom and into the woods. The US$1.5 million (€1.12 million) "Kids in the Woods" program is aimed at a growing problem among American school children: a lack of direct experience with nature that experts say can contribute to childhood obesity, diabetes and even attention deficit disorder. The program also is intended to nurture future environmental scientists and other Forest Service workers — an acute need for an agency with a graying work force, said Deputy Forest Service Chief Ann Bartuska. "It's an opportunity to connect kids to our national forests and to other outdoor settings," she said. The grant program, to be announced at a news conference Tuesday, includes 24 projects in 15 states. More than 23,000 children were expected to participate in the program, which is supported by a host of private groups, as well as state, federal and local agencies....
INDEPENDENT STUDY FINDS FOREST SERVICE EXERCISED APPROPRIATE AND ADEQUATE FISCAL CONTROLS IN 2006 FIRE SEASON The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that an independent Brookings Institution panel found the USDA Forest Service exercised appropriate and adequate fiscal diligence in suppressing wildfires during the record breaking 2006 fire season. The panel reviewed 19 large fires that burned more than 1.1 million acres and cost $470 million dollars to suppress. The review panel also identified several "issue areas" to help the Forest Service contain the rising costs of firefighting. Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Mark Rey said the recommendations of the panel will be acted upon immediately. "The cost of firefighting is rapidly approaching half of the Forest Service entire budget for caring for the nation's 193 million acres of national forests," Rey said. "We are doing everything we can to curb the costs of firefighting while taking every step to protect the safety of our firefighters and ensure they have appropriate tools to do their job. The panel's recommendations will help us control costs."....
Insurance firms tighten rules in wildfire areas Spooked by devastating wildfire seasons, the nation's top insurers are inspecting homes in high-risk areas throughout the West and threatening to cancel coverage if owners don't clear brush or take other precautions. The inspections have angered homeowners and watchdog groups that accuse the companies of trying to cut risk at the expense of customers, even while industry profits soar. "It certainly isn't fair for these insurers to be dumping these last-minute requirements on homeowners," said Carmen Balber of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. "It does make sense to require homeowners to take reasonable precautions, but some of the excessive demands that we've heard from homeowners are over the top." The requirements can range from clearing brush to cutting down trees or even installing a fireproof roof. Insurers and industry groups counter that making people take responsibility for living in the highest-risk fire areas is just sound business....
Colorado, feds start crafting rules on roadless forest land A top federal official says 4.1 million acres of roadless national forests in Colorado will remain off-limits to most development while state and federal land managers develop rules to manage the areas. The assurance came from Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. Forest Service policy. Rey and regional Forest Service officials met with state officials about a petition from Gov. Bill Ritter seeking protection for most of the Colorado acres in question. Rey, in an interview with The Associated Press, said it will likely take 16 to 18 months to complete the rules. In the interim, he said, the federal government will work with Colorado to protect the roadless areas if a court decision banning development on them is overturned. The fate of the roadless areas in Colorado and other states is uncertain after six years of court and policy battles....
Feds OK coalbed expansion Federal land managers have approved the Atlantic Rim coalbed methane gas project, opening the door for up to 1,800 new coalbed methane wells and 200 conventional oil and gas wells near Rawlins. The development will occur in the south-central region of the state where producers have already received the green light for up to 2,780 conventional gas wells, and where another 10,190 wells are pending approval. The Bureau of Land Management announced its decision on Monday, underscoring the economic payoff expected from exploiting the gas reserves. The project is expected to yield some 1.35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - enough to heat nearly 20 million homes for a year, according to the BLM. The Atlantic Rim project is expected to generate $6.4 billion in economic activity, including $320 million in federal royalties. Half of the federal royalties will be directed to Wyoming state coffers. State severance taxes should generate an additional $271 million, according to the BLM. Drilling is expected to last about 20 years, with a project life span of 30 to 50 years....
Congress Investigates MacDonald's Farm Two senior House Democrats launched an inquiry today into reports that a Bush political appointee may have improperly removed a California fish from a list of threatened species in order to protect her own financial interests. Julie MacDonald, who resigned this month as Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, was actively involved in removing the Sacramento splittail fish from the federal threatened and endangered species list at the same time that she was profiting from her ownership of a farm that lies within the habitat area of the threatened fish, according to an investigative report published Sunday by the "Contra Costa Times" newspaper. MacDonald's financial disclosure statement shows that she earns as much as $1 million per year from her ownership of the 80 acre active farm in Dixon, California. Federal law bars federal employees from participating in decisions on matters in which they have a personal financial interest....
Group: Border fence threatens wildlife Nancy Brown drives the government truck slowly past mossy ponds, thick shrouds of beard-like Spanish moss and majestic ebony trees, gleefully identifying the song of the kiskadee and the gurgling call of the chachalaca. As the truck rounds a bend near the greenish-brown Rio Grande, a bobcat scampers ahead, disappearing into the lush subtropical foliage. Lizards dart about. A tortoise lazes in the sun. Somewhere in the forest, well-camouflaged by evolution, are ocelots and jaguarundi, both of them endangered species of cats. These are some of the natural wonders in the Rio Grande Valley that Brown and other wildlife enthusiasts fear could be spoiled by the fences and adjacent roads the U.S. government plans to erect along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants and smugglers. Environmentalists have spent decades acquiring and preserving 90,000 riverfront acres of Texas scrub and forest and protecting their wildlife. Now they fear the hundreds of miles of border fences will undo their work and kill some land animals by cutting them off from the Rio Grande, the only source of fresh water....
‘Hefner’ bunnies threatened by feral felines Quick, guess which American magazine publisher has a species of rabbit named after him. Hugh Hefner? You peeked! The population of Hef’s own breed of bunnies on Big Pine Key has dwindled by about 50 percent in the past two years and is in danger of being wiped out by predatory kitty cats. The rabbit’s Latin name is Sylvilagus palustris hefneri. The Playboy magazine founder got the honors after he financed research that identified the species in 1980. That probably had nothing to do with his intense interest in . . . bunnies. The medium-sized, dark brown cottontail with a grayish-white belly was put on the endangered species list in 1990 when the population was estimated at 200. Wildlife officials plan to begin trapping feral cats that prey on the rabbits next week. Activists in cat suits protested when the program was announced a month ago. Refuge officials said the cats will be “humanely trapped alive” and taken to animal shelters. No word on whether anyone has shown up in a bunny suit.
Monkey dead from bubonic plague in Denver A Denver Zoo monkey has died of bubonic plague, apparently after eating a squirrel stricken with the disease, Colorado health and zoo officials said on Monday. Five squirrels and a rabbit found dead on zoo grounds tested positive for the flea-borne disease in recent weeks, Denver Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie said. Zookeepers on May 15 noticed the 8-year-old hooded capuchin monkey was lethargic, and the next day it was found dead in its enclosure. Zoo veterinarians sent tissue samples to a state laboratory where it was determined the animal died of the plague. The death was announced on Monday. Zoo veterinarian Dave Kenny said that the risk of plague spreading to humans was extremely low but that visitors were being urged to avoid squirrels and rabbits....
Rowdies grow out of control at Little Sahara, say critics Was it just another Easter weekend at the dunes? Or is there a problem at Little Sahara Recreation Area? An environmental group has charged that the popular gathering spot for off-highway vehicle enthusiasts in Juab County, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, has gotten out of control. As proof, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) cites a federal law enforcement report that described "near riot conditions" on two separate nights over the April 6-8 holiday weekend, plus 37 instances in which medical assistance was rendered and a final tally of 300 incidents that resulted in arrests or citations. Altogether, an estimated 35,000 people visited Little Sahara over Easter, lured as always, by the wide open and hilly terrain the dunes provide for motorized recreation. "People need to know what is happening," said Daniel Patterson, PEER's southwest director and a former BLM staffer. "I have to sound a warning about this, because we've seen it in other places, like the Imperial Sand Dunes in California, where things really got out of hand and they had big problems, even murders. "Utah doesn't want that kind of a situation," said Patterson, an ecologist. "But if BLM doesn't act soon, that's exactly the kind of situation they're going to find themselves in."....
Religious leaders urge action on warming Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are urging President George W. Bush and Congress to take action against global warming, declaring that the changing climate is a "moral and spiritual issue." In an open letter to be published on Tuesday, more than 20 religious groups urged U.S. leaders to limit greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources. "Global warming is real, it is human-induced and we have the responsibility to act," says the letter, which will run in Roll Call and the Politico, two Capitol Hill newspapers. "We are mobilizing a religious force that will persuade our legislators to take immediate action to curb greenhouse gases," it says. The letter is signed by top officials of the National Council of Churches, the Islamic Society of North America and the political arm of the Reform branch of Judaism. Top officials from several mainline Christian denominations, including the Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church and Alliance of Baptists also signed the letter, along with leaders of regional organizations and individual churches....
Mo. Supreme Court to hear Centene case The Missouri Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that pits three Clayton property owners against Centene Corp.'s use of eminent domain in Clayton, Mo. Centene planned to begin construction on the $210 million office and retail complex project this summer. Arguments in the case of Centene Plaza Redevelopment Corp. v. Mint Properties are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. May 22. The hearing is an appeal of a St. Louis County Court ruling in January that gave deference to Clayton's Board of Aldermen, which determined the redevelopment area near Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet is blighted. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, ruled April 24 that the lower court's decision authorizing the use of condemnation should be halted. The three Clayton property owners -- David Danforth, Dan Sheehan and Debbie Pyzyk -- are fighting Centene's efforts to acquire their properties on Forsyth Boulevard within the redevelopment area....
The Nature Conservancy Acquires Conservation Easement on Central Florida Ranch The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with the Bass family, have protected land that will help save Florida scrub-jays, gopher tortoises and numerous other species. The Conservancy and the USDA through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) purchased a conservation easement over 945 acres on Bass Ranch, a working cattle ranch located in Highlands County. The acquisition was accomplished using funds donated to the Conservancy by private donors and NRCS funds under the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) of the Farm Bill. FRPP is a voluntary program that helps farmers and ranchers keep their land in agriculture. A portion of the easement was also donated by the Bass family. The easement helps to establish a habitat connection between the public lands of the Avon Park Air Force Range and Carter Creek, part of the Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife and Environmental Area. Establishing the link between these two public lands is important for the protection of wide-ranging species, such as the Florida black bear and Florida panther, and the continuation of land management with prescribed fire....
Brucellosis probe continues Bruce Malcolm, a rancher and Republican state representative from Emigrant, said Monday that seven of the cows that tested positive for the disease brucellosis came from his herd and that he supplied bulls to the herd under quarantine in Bridger. More blood was drawn from his herd Monday, he said, and yearlings will be tested this morning. Then it’s all over but the waiting. “We’ve worked with these cows all our life, it’s like losing a member of our family,” Malcolm said. Tests are being conducted on at least two herds in the Paradise Valley and if two cows from a second herd test positive, Montana will lose its brucellosis-free status, which will be a serious economic hit to the state’s largest industry. “We’re still looking at probably the end of the week before we have test results,” said Teresa Howes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Humans can get a form of brucellosis called undulate fever if they come in contact with infected live animals or birth material, so veterinarians and ranchers are most at risk....
End It, Don't Mend It Congress is fundamentally a gathering of horse-traders, and the body always seems to find a way to put pork into its already-lavish spending bills. When recent reports revealed that the supplemental spending bills for Iraq contained funding for peanut storage and spinach growers, Congress finally caved—apparently that was a bridge too far. But that won’t be the last we hear from farm commodity groups this year. The current farm bill, a multi-year spending program for commodity and rural programs, is due for renewal in September, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns is causing a stir by becoming the first ag head in recent memory to submit a draft proposal of his own. Farm bills historically have been settled in back-room deals between members of Congress and commodity groups, with taxpayers, consumers and food processors left out of the loop until it was too late. The United States was founded on the idea of limited government, but somewhere along the line agriculture came to be seen as "special," and deserving of state programs and market interventions. No government agency, no matter how well-funded and extravagantly staffed, can possibly have all the knowledge to manage markets efficiently; it is better that they get out of the business altogether. That’s easier said than done though, as anyone who has seen the powerful farm lobby in action can attest. But a confluence of events this year—a Doha round of free trade agreements in need of a kick-start, budget pressures and renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility from the Democrats in Congress, and growing public awareness of the failures of farm programs—all point to the need for reform. The question is: with what do we replace the current expensive and outdated programs? How about nothing?....
It's All Trew: Measuring systems of the past During a recent parts-buying effort the "metric-measure" demon raised its ugly head again. Though the metric system is used worldwide and goes way back in history, efforts to force the United States to use the system are slow going. I know of no one personally except a few computer people who use the system on a regular basis. Sadly, I find many young people don't know the basic weights and measures chart. My father and grandfather could quote the standard weights and measurements by heart as that was a required part of their limited education. Research tells us at first all measurements, lengths and weights were determined by using human body parts. An example is, 12 hands high, two pinches of salt and four steps long. The capacity of containers were measured by counting the seeds the container would hold. An example, today's "carat" used to measure gems is derived from counting carob seed in a container. When mathematics became common numbers, decimals began to be used. The English, involved in worldwide trade for centuries, spread their weights and measurements system throughout the world including the new colonies in America....
Monday, May 21, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
In rural Colorado, a way of life in peril Just a few miles south of town on Colorado 109 the flat farm fields descend into the wide valley of the Purgatoire River, flanked by low buttes, green with spring grass, stretching for miles to the southwestern horizon. Along the highway, junipered bluffs mingle with grassy meadows, where clusters of black cows roam with frisky calves. It is another springtime in southeastern Colorado, and a drive through this land leaves no question why it is indelibly stamped on the hearts of ranchers and farmers who have lived on it for generations. "People don't understand the tie to the land. People don't realize there are fourth and fifth generation ranchers, and their families homesteaded there," said Otero County Commissioner Kevin Karney, who ranches 16,000 acres south of La Junta. "There's ranchers out there who you could offer any amount of money, and they'll say no," he said. "It's not about the money. It's their way of life." Their way of life is now at risk. In February the Army confirmed long-standing rumors, announcing that it would acquire another 418,000 acres adjacent to its current 238,000-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad...Lewis, the chairwoman of the private property rights committee of the national Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF, has organized or attended more than 50 meetings in the last two years to inform area residents of the Army's plan. They do not trust the Army, which has already broken promises made during the original Piñon Canyon expansion, said Lewis, holding former Sen. Hank Brown's copy of the 1983 Environmental Impact Statement. "In 1983 they said they'd never increase Piñon Canyon's size, and the EIS statement said no live rounds. Well now they've changed their tune on both of those statements," Lewis said. There is more than just broken promises, she said. Lewis points to what she describes as a Defense Department map that outlines an 18-year timetable beginning in 2010 to obtain not just the latest 418,000 acres, but 2.5 million acres, stretching south to the New Mexico and Oklahoma borders and east through Baca County almost to the Kansas border....
Biofuels Could Do More Harm Than Good, UN Report Warns The global boom in biofuels is laden with environmental and social risks, even as it presents strong new prospects for mitigating human-caused global warming, a new UN study says. The study also suggests that biofuels—energy sources derived from plant matter like corn or sugarcane—would serve better for heating and industrial power than for cars and buses, as is the current trend. "The use of modern biomass for energy production has the potential to significantly reduce anthropogenic green house gas emissions," reads the report, released yesterday by the cross-agency UN Energy working group. Biofuels such as ethanol can be a cleaner job-generating energy source for 1.6 billion people who live without access to electricity, the authors say. But the study, titled "Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers," also warns that an unregulated biofuels boom will spawn deforestation, deplete soil nutrients, and undermine food security by monopolizing farmland....
Biodiesel industry seeks more subsidies Biodiesel producers are asking Congress for an additional subsidy to go with the $1-a-gallon tax credit that the fuel additive already receives. In testimony to the Senate Agriculture Committee, the chief executive of an Iowa biodiesel plant said the additional subsidy is needed to protect U.S. producers from imported biodiesel. The subsidy would be set at a level to offset what the U.S. industry sees as a tax break for biodiesel exporters in Argentina, which taxes biodiesel shipments at a lower level than those of soybean oil. At current soybean oil prices, the proposed subsidy would be worth 43 cents a gallon. Neil Rich of Riksch BioFuels at Crawfordsville said the new subsidy should be included in the 2007 farm bill. At this year’s projected production level of 250 million to 300 million gallons, the subsidy could cost up to $129 million, but the industry continues to grow. Iowa has 10 biodiesel plants with a production capacity of 167.5 million gallons a year, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Four additional plants now under construction could produce an additional 150 million gallons annually....
Keeping it Wild Bruce Gordon isn’t familiar with the Missoula airport and he’s muttering in “pilot-ese” to the radio tower that he hopes the third time’s the charm in his effort to find the right runway for takeoff. He’s got a full load of people in his six-seater Cessna 210 — tail-number 7-6-1-echo-X-ray-echo — which includes a senator’s aide, a rancher, a photographer and two reporters. Gordon has been hired this morning by The Wilderness Society, which has learned through the years that reality beats out a paper map and a list of talking points to try to get its story told. Today, the goal is to bring to life a paper plan that would add 87,000 acres to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain wilderness areas. The plan includes opening 2,000 acres to snowmobilers and building a $7 million biomass plant to generate electricity for a timber mill and possibly portions of the small town of Seeley Lake. It seeks $400,000 in federal funds per year, for the next 10 years, for restoration projects, which would be matched dollar for dollar from private funds. An additional $350,000 per year n again, for the next 10 years n would pay for planning, management and monitoring of the restoration projects. Seeley Lake Rancher Jack Rich knows that’s a big order. He’s seated in the Cessna next to Gordon, his broad body towering above the pilot. Rich is here to point out landmarks and explain the value of the landscape that provides the backdrop to his life....
Column - BLM balance needed Federal land managers have a difficult job, but it's made particularly tough when direction comes from Washington, D.C., to put oil and gas development ahead of all else. In the late 1990s, when I was Colorado director of the Bureau of Land Management, balancing conservation and development was the main part of my work. I learned firsthand that it is possible to have a vibrant oil and gas program and at the same time protect our wildlife, air, water and places to hunt, fish, recreate and enjoy wilderness. Back then, managers had the flexibility to avoid leasing in sensitive lands that were roadless or of wilderness quality. Today, it seems, those are the very places targeted. Oil and gas development in itself is not the problem. The problem is that over the past six years, oil and gas development has become the predominant use wherever those resources might exist. The BLM by law is supposed to be a "multiple-use" agency, and while oil and gas may be an important natural resource, so are those now taking a back seat - from wildlife and fisheries to recreation and cultural history....
Column - Serengeti in the Dakotas So what do you make of an idea like Pleistocene rewilding? It manages to be both crazy and not crazy at the same time. As the article by C. Josh Donlan beginning on page 70 describes, a team of biologists has proposed a decades-long project to restock North America with large mammal species like those that roamed the continent before humans crossed the Bering Strait--species such as camels, lions and elephants (the nearest thing to mammoths). The undertaking would culminate in a vast national park--1,000 square miles or more--stretching across the Great Plains. The plains states are depopulating anyway, whereas Africa and Asia are filling up. So the project would transplant wildlife from where it gets in the way to where it would have plenty of room. To be sure, Midwesterners might not see it that way. Elephant families running free under big skies sounds romantic--unless you have to dodge them on your morning commute. Lion cubs are so very cute--except when they wander into your backyard. Farmers worry about rampaging rogues, cattle ranchers about novel diseases. Proponents have addressed some of the concerns but clearly have a lot more work to do. Whether or not cheetahs ever chase pronghorn across the continent again, the rewilding concept has drawn attention to the fact that the loss of biodiversity is not just a problem for the rain forest; it affects less exotic locations, too. The demise of large animals has thrown entire ecosystems out of balance. Even if humans decided now to leave these ecosystems alone, they are too far gone to recover on their own. The prairie would revert not to its Pleistocene glory but to a scraggly weedland. Instead of merely bemoaning nature's plight, the proponents of rewilding are doing something about it....
100 years as ranchers, Idaho tribe now breeding fat trophy trout Shoshone and Northern Paiute Indians whose ancestors were exiled to this 450-square-mile reservation amid 19th-century hostilities with the U.S. Cavalry have raised Angus and Hereford cattle on the Idaho-Nevada border for more than a 100 years. The descendants of those 1878 Bannock War survivors now have turned to a new breed to help boost their economy: 5-pound trophy rainbow trout in an artificial lake on a flooded lava rock-and-sage plain that's also a migrating-bird haven. Fly-fishing-only, catch-and-release Lake Billy Shaw was built in 1998 with federal money that paid for the tribe to divert water from the Owyhee River. It's now attracting anglers from as far as California, Western Washington and Arizona, as word-of-mouth on fat rainbows up to 28 inches long has put Billy Shaw on the map of traveling fly fishermen....
BLM plan would scrap target-shooting at park At the base of a small hill, many saguaros are pockmarked with bullet holes. So are signs warning "No dumping." A few saguaro arms are scattered on the ground. So are remnants of dead cholla cacti, fragments of clay pigeons and scores of spent shotgun shells. These sights are among the reasons that the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to ban target and other forms of recreational shooting inside this 129,000-acre monument. Hunting would still be allowed, but people could no longer fire bullets at discarded computers, TV sets or stoves and leave behind their shotgun shells as trash. "People are bringing their trash out and shooting their trash, or they shoot someone else's trash," said Patrick Madigan, who oversees management of the Ironwood monument northwest of Marana. "That's a law enforcement issue — littering — but we're stretched so thin that we have no staff to deal with the trash." The proposal has drawn opposition from the National Rifle Association, which has tried to make it a national issue. The ban would mark the first step toward kicking hunting and all other gun uses off all national monuments and other public lands around the country, an NRA spokesman said....
Mexican crew puts in long hours planting trees in the Bitterroots The blackened slopes high in the headwaters of Nemote Creek are filled this early morning with the steady sound of hoedads striking stone. Ping. Ping. Ping. Just down off the steep edge of this remote Lolo National Forest road, Enrique Moreno's Mexican crew is scrambling over unsteady terrain. Packing heavy 30-pound loads of ponderosa pine seedlings wrapped in wet burlap, the men stretch out single file across the hillside. Every few steps, they stop for a moment to swing their sharpened tools hard into the rocky soil. Ping. Ping. Ping. Pulling back on the 6-inch slice of steel opens another hole in the earth. The men reach down into their bag for the next bare-root seedling. With the seemingly effortless motion that comes from countless hours of repetition, a tree is placed into its new home. On a good day - when the ground isn't filled with rocks - the men might plant upward of 700 trees. “This reforestation work is really important, especially in areas that have burned really hot like this one,” said Garry Edson, the Lolo National Forest's Ninemile District ranger....
So how did An Inconvenient Truth become required classroom viewing? First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," says McKenzie (his parents asked that his last name not be used). "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two-sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on." McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate- change controversy to know that the Al Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact. Even scientists who back Mr. Gore's message admit they're uncomfortable with liberties the politician takes with "science" in the film....
DiCaprio warns human race faces extinction Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has warned that humans face extinction because of global warming. The heartthrob has made a film, the 11th Hour, warning that the human race could be wiped out as a result of the environmental crisis. After a screening of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, The Blood Diamond actor, 32, attacked US President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement." The Titanic star's film, which he narrates, follows another environmental warming documentary by former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Today DiCaprio defended Gore from criticism over the amount of energy he has been reportedly using to jet around the world and to run his home. "Don't shoot the messenger", he said. "This person is trying to relay a message to the public and the way that he travels should not be splayed out like that."...
DiCaprio bites back over eco 'hypocrisy' Leonardo DiCaprio hit back at charges of hypocrisy Saturday as he unveiled an eco-documentary he wrote, produced and narrated at the Cannes film festival. Asked after the premiere of "The 11th Hour" whether he had taken a fuel-guzzling jet on his way to the French Riviera, the "Titanic" star spat back sarcastically: "No, I took a train across the Atlantic." When the British journalist followed up, saying that many stars used emission-heavy private jets while touting environmental protection, a testy DiCaprio countered that he had taken a commercial flight from New York. "I try to travel commercial as much as I can," he said. DiCaprio later came back to the reporter, saying that he was irritated with the media for going after prominent environmentalists such as former US vice president Al Gore (whose own film on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth" picked up an Oscar this year) for supposed inconsistency in their private lives. "We're all trying the best we can, truly, we really are," he said....
An Advocate Rallies to Unify GOP on Immigration Immigration policy is one of the few issues that split conservatives and the business lobby. It's the "shut the borders" pack vs. the "we need workers" crowd. Conservative activist Tamar Jacoby has dedicated herself to bringing the two together. The outcome could determine whether key conservative members of Congress stand back and allow an overhaul of immigration law this year. Jacoby has been busy. She has helped to light a fire under previously disengaged business owners in places such as Texas, Arizona and Colorado, where immigrants -- legal and illegal -- are a large part of the workforce. She has flown to those states to hold policy briefings and to encourage employers to tell their tales to conservative lawmakers in Washington. She talks daily to small-business owners. "The most important thing is the temporary-worker program," Jacoby told them. Lawmakers "are going to go all out to cut it in half and unless business goes all out, like D-Day, they will surely win." Ray Prewett, who lives in Mission, Tex., and runs a trade group for citrus farmers, leaned in. Without enough immigrant workers "all the farms will move to Mexico," said Prewett, who was preparing to meet with Sen. John Cornyn (R). The senator has said that he has serious concerns about the immigration deal, and last year he voted against comprehensive restructuring. "We need to go into these offices and say we need this now. . . . We know they won't vote for it, but we have to tell them not to stand in the way," Prewett said. That is the kind of argument that could ultimately win the votes to revise the immigration law, lobbyists pushing to pass a bill say....
High corn price mean pigs eat candy bars, french fries Near record high prices for corn mean that farmers are feeding their pigs "people food" according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. With demand for ethanol booming, American farmers are facing a dilemma when it comes to feeding their livestock. The Wall Street Journal, reports that some farmers are increasingly relying on food waste to feed their animals. "Besides trail mix, pigs and cattle are downing cookies, licorice, cheese curls, candy bars, french fries, frosted wheat cereal and peanut-butter cups. Some farmers mix chocolate powder with cereal and feed it to baby pigs," writes Lauren Etter. "California farmers are feeding farm animals grape-skins from vineyards and lemon-pulp from citrus groves. Cattle ranchers in spud-rich Idaho are buying truckloads of uncooked french fries, Tater Tots and hash browns."....
Brucellosis confirmed in Montana herd It's finally happened. Brucellosis was confirmed this week in domestic cattle in Montana, in a herd near Bridger. Since 1985, the state's beef herds have been certified as free of the disease, which causes cattle to abort their first calf after infection. Fear of brucellosis drives most of Montana's controversial efforts to limit bison moving into the state from Yellowstone National Park. However, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday that it doesn't appear the outbreak is linked to bison. “These are not cattle that ever commingled with buffalo,” he said by telephone Friday. The outbreak affects seven cows traced to a ranch in Bridger, a small town south of Laurel and far from any Yellowstone bison. Schweitzer said some of the infected cattle might have spent time in the Emigrant area in Paradise Valley, about 25 miles from the park's northern boundary. “That still doesn't mean buffalo” are the source of the disease, he said. “Buffalo don't make it to Emigrant.”....
Defined by road apples Drivers on Western Slope roads in the spring and fall often encounter herds of cattle being driven to or from the high country. Inevitably, the residue of their passing is readily apparent. Not long ago, a newspaper published a letter from a resident who complained about the resulting smell and the mess it left on her car. The odor has the smell of history in it. The complaining letter's scent reflects some of today's reality on the Western Slope. Neither is especially bad. Traffic jams near the small towns over here are often the result of those herds of cattle being patiently prodded by cowboys and cowgirls from summer range to winter feeding, and back again in the spring. They are who we used to be. They represent the ranchers, miners, farmers and merchants of the Western Slope of the recent past. Today's ranchers follow many time-honored methods of raising cattle, with an added touch of technology that helps them with business plans and keeping cattle healthy. But it's a difficult, thankless, smelly, cold-in-winter, hot-in-summer kind of job that doesn't pay well and has as many ups and downs as the West Elk Mountains. Still, they see a lot of beautiful sunrises and sunsets, they live in some of the finest country on Earth, and most of them seem pretty happy with who and where they are....
Idaho's extinct Hagerman horse to ride again US shipping company U-Haul is featuring the extinct Hagerman Horse on 1800 of its new 26-foot moving vans. The Hagerman Horse was a precursor of the modern horse and roamed the land more than three million years ago along the shores of the now extinct Lake Idaho. The official unveiling is on Friday, part of U-Haul's "Venture Across America" campaign, at Coltharp Park in Hagerman, Idaho, and will kick off the opening ceremonies for this year's Hagerman Fossil Days Celebration. With horses lying at the heart of one of North America's greatest mysteries, the uncovering of ancient, mysterious bones from the animal dubbed the "Hagerman Horse" was an extremely important find. In 1928 cattle rancher Elmer Cook discovered some fossil bones on his land in in Hagerman, Idaho. He showed them to Dr H.T. Stearns of the U.S. Geological Survey who then passed them on to Dr. J. W. Gidley at the Smithsonian Institution. Identified as bones belonging to an extinct horse, the area where the fossils were discovered was excavated and three tons of specimens were sent back to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC....
Living History: A lesson in heeding flood warnings A wet spring had filled the reservoir at what was then called Hatchtown, Garfield County, to the top of its spillway, and on May 25, 1914, its earthen dam held back about 14,000 acre feet of Sevier River water. All was well when caretaker A.W. Huntington made his routine morning inspection. At 2 p.m. he discovered a muddy ooze below the dam and summoned help. For hours he sought the source of the leak. The ooze increased to a stream, and the ground above began to cave, first in small slabs, then large, until the dam gave way entirely at 8 p.m. Water burst through the five-story-high breach with the pressure of a fire hose, scouring farmland far beyond the river banks as the flood rushed northward. Nine minutes later, the flood crashed into the W.R. Riggs house. Most of the family's belongings had already been moved to higher ground. As the Riggses ran, 10-year-old Ernest carried the last items to be saved - loaves of his mother's new-baked bread. Four miles downstream, Panguitch was high enough to escape damage. Two dozen low-lying farms to the north were in danger, however. Telephone operators had been busy, and George West, a traveling salesman from Ogden, set out in his automobile to alert isolated farmsteads....
Texas historian probes Cynthia Ann Parker fantasy, facts The tale is a familiar one for generations of Texas schoolchildren and all fans of Western lore: the Indian captivity of young Cynthia Ann Parker, who eventually gave birth to the Comanches’ last great war chief, Quanah Parker. On May 19, 1836 — mere weeks after Texas won its independence from Mexico — the family’s isolated outpost, Fort Parker, near present-day Groesbeck, was attacked by a band of Comanches and Kiowas. Five men were killed and five women and children captured before 21 terrified survivors made their way over six nights some 90 miles down the Navasota River to safety. Almost 25 years passed before the last of the Comanches’ prisoners were recovered. The saga of that search and its aftermath are the focus of the new book, RETURN: The Parker Story, by Texas historian Jack K. Selden. Selden, of Palestine, says the story is more than a historic reverie for him, it’s family history. In 1952 he married Gloria McCracken, a granddaughter of Ben. J. Parker, himself a great-great-grandson of Elder John Parker — grandfather of Cynthia Ann Parker — who was killed in the massacre at the fort. RETURN relates the story of the large Parker clan from its arrival in Texas in 1830 through the events that brought Anglo-Texan Parkers and the Indian-Oklahoman Parkers together via the first joint family reunion in Mexia in 1953....
Elmer Kelton's 'Sandhills Boy' Unlike the pulp shoot-'em-ups of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Elmer Kelton's Westerns tend to be as unpredictable as the West Texas weather they often take place amid. As Kelton states in his new memoir, "Sandhills Boy," "I have often been asked how my characters differ from the traditional larger-than-life heroes of the mythical west. Those, I reply, are seven feet tall and invincible. My characters are five-eight and nervous." Born April 29, 1926, on the Five Wells Ranch a few miles east of Andrews, Kelton knew the cowboy way of life from the cradle onward. In 1929, his 5-foot-8 father, Buck Kelton, was hired onto the McElroy Ranch, eventually becoming its foreman. Growing up on the ranch around cowboys like Happy Smith, a bootlegger who enjoyed a brief stint as a stunt man in Hollywood's silent film world, and Manerd Galer, a trick roper in the Will Rogers tradition who once toured Europe as part of Tex Austin's rodeo troupe, Kelton was given lifelong fodder for his future stories. Many of the old cowboys from Kelton's youth fondly recalled the open range days, having reluctantly become accustomed to the world's modern barbed wire environs, for them an unwelcome change. Inspired by their struggles, Kelton has usually written about men who must deal with a world in a constant state of flux. In his signature works "The Time it Never Rained" and "The Good Old Boys," Kelton's protagonists cope with the difficult transitions between drought and flood, open range and fences. In "Sandhills Boy," Kelton says he simply wrote about what he knew. "Insofar as possible I like to have a story grow out of some historical reality, an event, a situation, a period of change in which an old order is challenged by something new," he writes. "Not all stories have a happy ending. Life is not that kind to us." Like fellow Texas novelist Larry McMurtry (whose essay collection "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" recalls his own ranching heritage), Kelton was inept as a cowboy and regarded literature as an escape from the physical world. An advanced reader, Kelton graduated from high school at the age of 16 and went on to study journalism at the University of Texas, despite his father's protestations that "a pile of papers did not count, as these could not be eaten, worn, ridden, or driven."....
A celebrity tossed in the slammer? That's old news Just as celebrity watchers swoon over the saga of socialite Paris Hilton, facing jail for driving with a suspended license, another glamorous traffic scofflaw received similar treatment 86 years ago. And she did Hilton one better: She scored another movie role out of her time in the slammer. In March 1921, 18-year-old silent screen vamp Bebe Daniels drew a 10-day sentence for speeding through Santa Ana at 56.25 mph — more than 20 mph over the limit. She was driving a Marmon Roadster, whose other Jazz Age owners included F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Her arrest and trial touched off a comic legal circus and accorded Daniels the dubious honor of being the first woman convicted of speeding in Orange County. The events made the Saturday Evening Post and led to her starring in the comedy "The Speed Girl," shot on location at the Romanesque courthouse where she was tried. In January 1921, Daniels was behind the wheel of her high-powered speedster, racing through Santa Ana, when motorcycle officer Vernon "Shorty" Myers or Meyers — his name was spelled both ways in news stories — pulled her over. Daniels' mother, Phyllis, was in the back seat. A friend, middleweight boxer Marty Farrell, rode shotgun, The Times reported. (Some reports said it was her boyfriend, heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey.)....
Baxter Black - For sale: A home on the range The ad read: For sale - 30-acre ranchette with two wells, year-round creek, round pen, loading chute, run-in shelter, paddocks, corrals, granary and poultry condo, a perfect place to watch people and critters grow and thrive in a Montana atmosphere! Poultry condo? That would clinch it for me. When the housing market declines, real estate agents resort to more diverse enticements to lure prospective buyers. The most stubborn example I can recall is an ad I saw running in comic books, Western magazines and pamphlets since my youth called the Deming ranchettes. Described in my memory as "A beautiful four-acre piece of Heaven, in the shadow of rugged mountains with abundant wild life and exotic flora." These ranchettes were on the mesa and easily seen from the freeway, and I have driven by them for more than 40 years now. It is a fairly barren piece of scrub mesquite and grease wood. Ah, but the lure of the west....
In rural Colorado, a way of life in peril Just a few miles south of town on Colorado 109 the flat farm fields descend into the wide valley of the Purgatoire River, flanked by low buttes, green with spring grass, stretching for miles to the southwestern horizon. Along the highway, junipered bluffs mingle with grassy meadows, where clusters of black cows roam with frisky calves. It is another springtime in southeastern Colorado, and a drive through this land leaves no question why it is indelibly stamped on the hearts of ranchers and farmers who have lived on it for generations. "People don't understand the tie to the land. People don't realize there are fourth and fifth generation ranchers, and their families homesteaded there," said Otero County Commissioner Kevin Karney, who ranches 16,000 acres south of La Junta. "There's ranchers out there who you could offer any amount of money, and they'll say no," he said. "It's not about the money. It's their way of life." Their way of life is now at risk. In February the Army confirmed long-standing rumors, announcing that it would acquire another 418,000 acres adjacent to its current 238,000-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad...Lewis, the chairwoman of the private property rights committee of the national Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF, has organized or attended more than 50 meetings in the last two years to inform area residents of the Army's plan. They do not trust the Army, which has already broken promises made during the original Piñon Canyon expansion, said Lewis, holding former Sen. Hank Brown's copy of the 1983 Environmental Impact Statement. "In 1983 they said they'd never increase Piñon Canyon's size, and the EIS statement said no live rounds. Well now they've changed their tune on both of those statements," Lewis said. There is more than just broken promises, she said. Lewis points to what she describes as a Defense Department map that outlines an 18-year timetable beginning in 2010 to obtain not just the latest 418,000 acres, but 2.5 million acres, stretching south to the New Mexico and Oklahoma borders and east through Baca County almost to the Kansas border....
Biofuels Could Do More Harm Than Good, UN Report Warns The global boom in biofuels is laden with environmental and social risks, even as it presents strong new prospects for mitigating human-caused global warming, a new UN study says. The study also suggests that biofuels—energy sources derived from plant matter like corn or sugarcane—would serve better for heating and industrial power than for cars and buses, as is the current trend. "The use of modern biomass for energy production has the potential to significantly reduce anthropogenic green house gas emissions," reads the report, released yesterday by the cross-agency UN Energy working group. Biofuels such as ethanol can be a cleaner job-generating energy source for 1.6 billion people who live without access to electricity, the authors say. But the study, titled "Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers," also warns that an unregulated biofuels boom will spawn deforestation, deplete soil nutrients, and undermine food security by monopolizing farmland....
Biodiesel industry seeks more subsidies Biodiesel producers are asking Congress for an additional subsidy to go with the $1-a-gallon tax credit that the fuel additive already receives. In testimony to the Senate Agriculture Committee, the chief executive of an Iowa biodiesel plant said the additional subsidy is needed to protect U.S. producers from imported biodiesel. The subsidy would be set at a level to offset what the U.S. industry sees as a tax break for biodiesel exporters in Argentina, which taxes biodiesel shipments at a lower level than those of soybean oil. At current soybean oil prices, the proposed subsidy would be worth 43 cents a gallon. Neil Rich of Riksch BioFuels at Crawfordsville said the new subsidy should be included in the 2007 farm bill. At this year’s projected production level of 250 million to 300 million gallons, the subsidy could cost up to $129 million, but the industry continues to grow. Iowa has 10 biodiesel plants with a production capacity of 167.5 million gallons a year, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Four additional plants now under construction could produce an additional 150 million gallons annually....
Keeping it Wild Bruce Gordon isn’t familiar with the Missoula airport and he’s muttering in “pilot-ese” to the radio tower that he hopes the third time’s the charm in his effort to find the right runway for takeoff. He’s got a full load of people in his six-seater Cessna 210 — tail-number 7-6-1-echo-X-ray-echo — which includes a senator’s aide, a rancher, a photographer and two reporters. Gordon has been hired this morning by The Wilderness Society, which has learned through the years that reality beats out a paper map and a list of talking points to try to get its story told. Today, the goal is to bring to life a paper plan that would add 87,000 acres to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain wilderness areas. The plan includes opening 2,000 acres to snowmobilers and building a $7 million biomass plant to generate electricity for a timber mill and possibly portions of the small town of Seeley Lake. It seeks $400,000 in federal funds per year, for the next 10 years, for restoration projects, which would be matched dollar for dollar from private funds. An additional $350,000 per year n again, for the next 10 years n would pay for planning, management and monitoring of the restoration projects. Seeley Lake Rancher Jack Rich knows that’s a big order. He’s seated in the Cessna next to Gordon, his broad body towering above the pilot. Rich is here to point out landmarks and explain the value of the landscape that provides the backdrop to his life....
Column - BLM balance needed Federal land managers have a difficult job, but it's made particularly tough when direction comes from Washington, D.C., to put oil and gas development ahead of all else. In the late 1990s, when I was Colorado director of the Bureau of Land Management, balancing conservation and development was the main part of my work. I learned firsthand that it is possible to have a vibrant oil and gas program and at the same time protect our wildlife, air, water and places to hunt, fish, recreate and enjoy wilderness. Back then, managers had the flexibility to avoid leasing in sensitive lands that were roadless or of wilderness quality. Today, it seems, those are the very places targeted. Oil and gas development in itself is not the problem. The problem is that over the past six years, oil and gas development has become the predominant use wherever those resources might exist. The BLM by law is supposed to be a "multiple-use" agency, and while oil and gas may be an important natural resource, so are those now taking a back seat - from wildlife and fisheries to recreation and cultural history....
Column - Serengeti in the Dakotas So what do you make of an idea like Pleistocene rewilding? It manages to be both crazy and not crazy at the same time. As the article by C. Josh Donlan beginning on page 70 describes, a team of biologists has proposed a decades-long project to restock North America with large mammal species like those that roamed the continent before humans crossed the Bering Strait--species such as camels, lions and elephants (the nearest thing to mammoths). The undertaking would culminate in a vast national park--1,000 square miles or more--stretching across the Great Plains. The plains states are depopulating anyway, whereas Africa and Asia are filling up. So the project would transplant wildlife from where it gets in the way to where it would have plenty of room. To be sure, Midwesterners might not see it that way. Elephant families running free under big skies sounds romantic--unless you have to dodge them on your morning commute. Lion cubs are so very cute--except when they wander into your backyard. Farmers worry about rampaging rogues, cattle ranchers about novel diseases. Proponents have addressed some of the concerns but clearly have a lot more work to do. Whether or not cheetahs ever chase pronghorn across the continent again, the rewilding concept has drawn attention to the fact that the loss of biodiversity is not just a problem for the rain forest; it affects less exotic locations, too. The demise of large animals has thrown entire ecosystems out of balance. Even if humans decided now to leave these ecosystems alone, they are too far gone to recover on their own. The prairie would revert not to its Pleistocene glory but to a scraggly weedland. Instead of merely bemoaning nature's plight, the proponents of rewilding are doing something about it....
100 years as ranchers, Idaho tribe now breeding fat trophy trout Shoshone and Northern Paiute Indians whose ancestors were exiled to this 450-square-mile reservation amid 19th-century hostilities with the U.S. Cavalry have raised Angus and Hereford cattle on the Idaho-Nevada border for more than a 100 years. The descendants of those 1878 Bannock War survivors now have turned to a new breed to help boost their economy: 5-pound trophy rainbow trout in an artificial lake on a flooded lava rock-and-sage plain that's also a migrating-bird haven. Fly-fishing-only, catch-and-release Lake Billy Shaw was built in 1998 with federal money that paid for the tribe to divert water from the Owyhee River. It's now attracting anglers from as far as California, Western Washington and Arizona, as word-of-mouth on fat rainbows up to 28 inches long has put Billy Shaw on the map of traveling fly fishermen....
BLM plan would scrap target-shooting at park At the base of a small hill, many saguaros are pockmarked with bullet holes. So are signs warning "No dumping." A few saguaro arms are scattered on the ground. So are remnants of dead cholla cacti, fragments of clay pigeons and scores of spent shotgun shells. These sights are among the reasons that the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to ban target and other forms of recreational shooting inside this 129,000-acre monument. Hunting would still be allowed, but people could no longer fire bullets at discarded computers, TV sets or stoves and leave behind their shotgun shells as trash. "People are bringing their trash out and shooting their trash, or they shoot someone else's trash," said Patrick Madigan, who oversees management of the Ironwood monument northwest of Marana. "That's a law enforcement issue — littering — but we're stretched so thin that we have no staff to deal with the trash." The proposal has drawn opposition from the National Rifle Association, which has tried to make it a national issue. The ban would mark the first step toward kicking hunting and all other gun uses off all national monuments and other public lands around the country, an NRA spokesman said....
Mexican crew puts in long hours planting trees in the Bitterroots The blackened slopes high in the headwaters of Nemote Creek are filled this early morning with the steady sound of hoedads striking stone. Ping. Ping. Ping. Just down off the steep edge of this remote Lolo National Forest road, Enrique Moreno's Mexican crew is scrambling over unsteady terrain. Packing heavy 30-pound loads of ponderosa pine seedlings wrapped in wet burlap, the men stretch out single file across the hillside. Every few steps, they stop for a moment to swing their sharpened tools hard into the rocky soil. Ping. Ping. Ping. Pulling back on the 6-inch slice of steel opens another hole in the earth. The men reach down into their bag for the next bare-root seedling. With the seemingly effortless motion that comes from countless hours of repetition, a tree is placed into its new home. On a good day - when the ground isn't filled with rocks - the men might plant upward of 700 trees. “This reforestation work is really important, especially in areas that have burned really hot like this one,” said Garry Edson, the Lolo National Forest's Ninemile District ranger....
So how did An Inconvenient Truth become required classroom viewing? First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," says McKenzie (his parents asked that his last name not be used). "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two-sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on." McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate- change controversy to know that the Al Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact. Even scientists who back Mr. Gore's message admit they're uncomfortable with liberties the politician takes with "science" in the film....
DiCaprio warns human race faces extinction Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has warned that humans face extinction because of global warming. The heartthrob has made a film, the 11th Hour, warning that the human race could be wiped out as a result of the environmental crisis. After a screening of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, The Blood Diamond actor, 32, attacked US President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement." The Titanic star's film, which he narrates, follows another environmental warming documentary by former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Today DiCaprio defended Gore from criticism over the amount of energy he has been reportedly using to jet around the world and to run his home. "Don't shoot the messenger", he said. "This person is trying to relay a message to the public and the way that he travels should not be splayed out like that."...
DiCaprio bites back over eco 'hypocrisy' Leonardo DiCaprio hit back at charges of hypocrisy Saturday as he unveiled an eco-documentary he wrote, produced and narrated at the Cannes film festival. Asked after the premiere of "The 11th Hour" whether he had taken a fuel-guzzling jet on his way to the French Riviera, the "Titanic" star spat back sarcastically: "No, I took a train across the Atlantic." When the British journalist followed up, saying that many stars used emission-heavy private jets while touting environmental protection, a testy DiCaprio countered that he had taken a commercial flight from New York. "I try to travel commercial as much as I can," he said. DiCaprio later came back to the reporter, saying that he was irritated with the media for going after prominent environmentalists such as former US vice president Al Gore (whose own film on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth" picked up an Oscar this year) for supposed inconsistency in their private lives. "We're all trying the best we can, truly, we really are," he said....
An Advocate Rallies to Unify GOP on Immigration Immigration policy is one of the few issues that split conservatives and the business lobby. It's the "shut the borders" pack vs. the "we need workers" crowd. Conservative activist Tamar Jacoby has dedicated herself to bringing the two together. The outcome could determine whether key conservative members of Congress stand back and allow an overhaul of immigration law this year. Jacoby has been busy. She has helped to light a fire under previously disengaged business owners in places such as Texas, Arizona and Colorado, where immigrants -- legal and illegal -- are a large part of the workforce. She has flown to those states to hold policy briefings and to encourage employers to tell their tales to conservative lawmakers in Washington. She talks daily to small-business owners. "The most important thing is the temporary-worker program," Jacoby told them. Lawmakers "are going to go all out to cut it in half and unless business goes all out, like D-Day, they will surely win." Ray Prewett, who lives in Mission, Tex., and runs a trade group for citrus farmers, leaned in. Without enough immigrant workers "all the farms will move to Mexico," said Prewett, who was preparing to meet with Sen. John Cornyn (R). The senator has said that he has serious concerns about the immigration deal, and last year he voted against comprehensive restructuring. "We need to go into these offices and say we need this now. . . . We know they won't vote for it, but we have to tell them not to stand in the way," Prewett said. That is the kind of argument that could ultimately win the votes to revise the immigration law, lobbyists pushing to pass a bill say....
High corn price mean pigs eat candy bars, french fries Near record high prices for corn mean that farmers are feeding their pigs "people food" according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. With demand for ethanol booming, American farmers are facing a dilemma when it comes to feeding their livestock. The Wall Street Journal, reports that some farmers are increasingly relying on food waste to feed their animals. "Besides trail mix, pigs and cattle are downing cookies, licorice, cheese curls, candy bars, french fries, frosted wheat cereal and peanut-butter cups. Some farmers mix chocolate powder with cereal and feed it to baby pigs," writes Lauren Etter. "California farmers are feeding farm animals grape-skins from vineyards and lemon-pulp from citrus groves. Cattle ranchers in spud-rich Idaho are buying truckloads of uncooked french fries, Tater Tots and hash browns."....
Brucellosis confirmed in Montana herd It's finally happened. Brucellosis was confirmed this week in domestic cattle in Montana, in a herd near Bridger. Since 1985, the state's beef herds have been certified as free of the disease, which causes cattle to abort their first calf after infection. Fear of brucellosis drives most of Montana's controversial efforts to limit bison moving into the state from Yellowstone National Park. However, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday that it doesn't appear the outbreak is linked to bison. “These are not cattle that ever commingled with buffalo,” he said by telephone Friday. The outbreak affects seven cows traced to a ranch in Bridger, a small town south of Laurel and far from any Yellowstone bison. Schweitzer said some of the infected cattle might have spent time in the Emigrant area in Paradise Valley, about 25 miles from the park's northern boundary. “That still doesn't mean buffalo” are the source of the disease, he said. “Buffalo don't make it to Emigrant.”....
Defined by road apples Drivers on Western Slope roads in the spring and fall often encounter herds of cattle being driven to or from the high country. Inevitably, the residue of their passing is readily apparent. Not long ago, a newspaper published a letter from a resident who complained about the resulting smell and the mess it left on her car. The odor has the smell of history in it. The complaining letter's scent reflects some of today's reality on the Western Slope. Neither is especially bad. Traffic jams near the small towns over here are often the result of those herds of cattle being patiently prodded by cowboys and cowgirls from summer range to winter feeding, and back again in the spring. They are who we used to be. They represent the ranchers, miners, farmers and merchants of the Western Slope of the recent past. Today's ranchers follow many time-honored methods of raising cattle, with an added touch of technology that helps them with business plans and keeping cattle healthy. But it's a difficult, thankless, smelly, cold-in-winter, hot-in-summer kind of job that doesn't pay well and has as many ups and downs as the West Elk Mountains. Still, they see a lot of beautiful sunrises and sunsets, they live in some of the finest country on Earth, and most of them seem pretty happy with who and where they are....
Idaho's extinct Hagerman horse to ride again US shipping company U-Haul is featuring the extinct Hagerman Horse on 1800 of its new 26-foot moving vans. The Hagerman Horse was a precursor of the modern horse and roamed the land more than three million years ago along the shores of the now extinct Lake Idaho. The official unveiling is on Friday, part of U-Haul's "Venture Across America" campaign, at Coltharp Park in Hagerman, Idaho, and will kick off the opening ceremonies for this year's Hagerman Fossil Days Celebration. With horses lying at the heart of one of North America's greatest mysteries, the uncovering of ancient, mysterious bones from the animal dubbed the "Hagerman Horse" was an extremely important find. In 1928 cattle rancher Elmer Cook discovered some fossil bones on his land in in Hagerman, Idaho. He showed them to Dr H.T. Stearns of the U.S. Geological Survey who then passed them on to Dr. J. W. Gidley at the Smithsonian Institution. Identified as bones belonging to an extinct horse, the area where the fossils were discovered was excavated and three tons of specimens were sent back to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC....
Living History: A lesson in heeding flood warnings A wet spring had filled the reservoir at what was then called Hatchtown, Garfield County, to the top of its spillway, and on May 25, 1914, its earthen dam held back about 14,000 acre feet of Sevier River water. All was well when caretaker A.W. Huntington made his routine morning inspection. At 2 p.m. he discovered a muddy ooze below the dam and summoned help. For hours he sought the source of the leak. The ooze increased to a stream, and the ground above began to cave, first in small slabs, then large, until the dam gave way entirely at 8 p.m. Water burst through the five-story-high breach with the pressure of a fire hose, scouring farmland far beyond the river banks as the flood rushed northward. Nine minutes later, the flood crashed into the W.R. Riggs house. Most of the family's belongings had already been moved to higher ground. As the Riggses ran, 10-year-old Ernest carried the last items to be saved - loaves of his mother's new-baked bread. Four miles downstream, Panguitch was high enough to escape damage. Two dozen low-lying farms to the north were in danger, however. Telephone operators had been busy, and George West, a traveling salesman from Ogden, set out in his automobile to alert isolated farmsteads....
Texas historian probes Cynthia Ann Parker fantasy, facts The tale is a familiar one for generations of Texas schoolchildren and all fans of Western lore: the Indian captivity of young Cynthia Ann Parker, who eventually gave birth to the Comanches’ last great war chief, Quanah Parker. On May 19, 1836 — mere weeks after Texas won its independence from Mexico — the family’s isolated outpost, Fort Parker, near present-day Groesbeck, was attacked by a band of Comanches and Kiowas. Five men were killed and five women and children captured before 21 terrified survivors made their way over six nights some 90 miles down the Navasota River to safety. Almost 25 years passed before the last of the Comanches’ prisoners were recovered. The saga of that search and its aftermath are the focus of the new book, RETURN: The Parker Story, by Texas historian Jack K. Selden. Selden, of Palestine, says the story is more than a historic reverie for him, it’s family history. In 1952 he married Gloria McCracken, a granddaughter of Ben. J. Parker, himself a great-great-grandson of Elder John Parker — grandfather of Cynthia Ann Parker — who was killed in the massacre at the fort. RETURN relates the story of the large Parker clan from its arrival in Texas in 1830 through the events that brought Anglo-Texan Parkers and the Indian-Oklahoman Parkers together via the first joint family reunion in Mexia in 1953....
Elmer Kelton's 'Sandhills Boy' Unlike the pulp shoot-'em-ups of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Elmer Kelton's Westerns tend to be as unpredictable as the West Texas weather they often take place amid. As Kelton states in his new memoir, "Sandhills Boy," "I have often been asked how my characters differ from the traditional larger-than-life heroes of the mythical west. Those, I reply, are seven feet tall and invincible. My characters are five-eight and nervous." Born April 29, 1926, on the Five Wells Ranch a few miles east of Andrews, Kelton knew the cowboy way of life from the cradle onward. In 1929, his 5-foot-8 father, Buck Kelton, was hired onto the McElroy Ranch, eventually becoming its foreman. Growing up on the ranch around cowboys like Happy Smith, a bootlegger who enjoyed a brief stint as a stunt man in Hollywood's silent film world, and Manerd Galer, a trick roper in the Will Rogers tradition who once toured Europe as part of Tex Austin's rodeo troupe, Kelton was given lifelong fodder for his future stories. Many of the old cowboys from Kelton's youth fondly recalled the open range days, having reluctantly become accustomed to the world's modern barbed wire environs, for them an unwelcome change. Inspired by their struggles, Kelton has usually written about men who must deal with a world in a constant state of flux. In his signature works "The Time it Never Rained" and "The Good Old Boys," Kelton's protagonists cope with the difficult transitions between drought and flood, open range and fences. In "Sandhills Boy," Kelton says he simply wrote about what he knew. "Insofar as possible I like to have a story grow out of some historical reality, an event, a situation, a period of change in which an old order is challenged by something new," he writes. "Not all stories have a happy ending. Life is not that kind to us." Like fellow Texas novelist Larry McMurtry (whose essay collection "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" recalls his own ranching heritage), Kelton was inept as a cowboy and regarded literature as an escape from the physical world. An advanced reader, Kelton graduated from high school at the age of 16 and went on to study journalism at the University of Texas, despite his father's protestations that "a pile of papers did not count, as these could not be eaten, worn, ridden, or driven."....
A celebrity tossed in the slammer? That's old news Just as celebrity watchers swoon over the saga of socialite Paris Hilton, facing jail for driving with a suspended license, another glamorous traffic scofflaw received similar treatment 86 years ago. And she did Hilton one better: She scored another movie role out of her time in the slammer. In March 1921, 18-year-old silent screen vamp Bebe Daniels drew a 10-day sentence for speeding through Santa Ana at 56.25 mph — more than 20 mph over the limit. She was driving a Marmon Roadster, whose other Jazz Age owners included F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Her arrest and trial touched off a comic legal circus and accorded Daniels the dubious honor of being the first woman convicted of speeding in Orange County. The events made the Saturday Evening Post and led to her starring in the comedy "The Speed Girl," shot on location at the Romanesque courthouse where she was tried. In January 1921, Daniels was behind the wheel of her high-powered speedster, racing through Santa Ana, when motorcycle officer Vernon "Shorty" Myers or Meyers — his name was spelled both ways in news stories — pulled her over. Daniels' mother, Phyllis, was in the back seat. A friend, middleweight boxer Marty Farrell, rode shotgun, The Times reported. (Some reports said it was her boyfriend, heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey.)....
Baxter Black - For sale: A home on the range The ad read: For sale - 30-acre ranchette with two wells, year-round creek, round pen, loading chute, run-in shelter, paddocks, corrals, granary and poultry condo, a perfect place to watch people and critters grow and thrive in a Montana atmosphere! Poultry condo? That would clinch it for me. When the housing market declines, real estate agents resort to more diverse enticements to lure prospective buyers. The most stubborn example I can recall is an ad I saw running in comic books, Western magazines and pamphlets since my youth called the Deming ranchettes. Described in my memory as "A beautiful four-acre piece of Heaven, in the shadow of rugged mountains with abundant wild life and exotic flora." These ranchettes were on the mesa and easily seen from the freeway, and I have driven by them for more than 40 years now. It is a fairly barren piece of scrub mesquite and grease wood. Ah, but the lure of the west....
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