The Westerner's Radio Theater #034

First up on Ranch Radio is Country Music Time with special guest star Warner Mack.

It's hot hear, and there are wolves in what's left of the Gila.  So here is a program with cold weather and wolves, the 12/28/1946 of Red Ryder titled The Treacherous Wolf.  Maybe it will cool you off a bit.   

Little Bear fire causes evacuations north of Ruidoso; crosses State Highway 48

A lightning-sparked blaze that jumped its containment lines raced through thick conifer forest in southern New Mexico on Saturday, and fire managers estimated that more than a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed. Spanning only a few acres on Wednesday, the Little Bear fire began to grow Friday as spot fires formed outside established fire lines due to windy conditions. By Saturday morning, about 10,000 acres had been charred. Fire information officers said summer homes and campgrounds in the area about 15 miles north of Ruidoso were evacuated late Friday. There was no immediate word on how many people were evacuated. Two shelters were set up at churches in nearby Ruidoso and Capitan. Officials said in a morning briefing that an estimated 15 to 20 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fire. They could not say whether the structures were homes, sheds or other buildings since crews haven't had a chance to do a formal damage assessment. The fire was burning in steep, rocky, inaccessible terrain in the White Mountain Wilderness of the Lincoln National Forest, which is home to Smokey Bear, the little black cub that became the nation's symbol of fire prevention decades ago...more

Feds consider regional challenges in fire planning + Update on Gila

Federal officials on Thursday released the latest iteration of their national wildfire management strategy as they deal with limited resources and an active fire season that already has blackened hundreds of square miles in states from New Mexico to Michigan. The U.S Department of Agriculture and the Interior Department have been working for more than a year to develop the strategy. The latest phase covers assessments done for the West, the Northeast and the Southeast that identify population trends, climate changes and different priorities that will help with the creation of action plans due next spring. With the increase in larger, more catastrophic wildfires over the past decade, USDA Under Secretary Harris Sherman told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday that setting priorities will be key. "It's not going away," Sherman said of the threat of wildfire. "We're going to have to be more comprehensive and smarter in how we deal with these issues in the future." He noted the need for government agencies to be proactive in their efforts to protect not only property but vital resources such as watersheds that provide drinking water...more

Wow! The gov't must be "more comprehensive", "smarter" and "proactive" on this. Doesn't that make you feel safe and secure? Actually this is standard, gov't-issue bullshit. Comprehensive and Proactive are right out of the liberal handbook, and since when did the feds get Smarter about anything.  The Urban Brand is on the land.

The same AP story had this update on the Gila:

Development of the strategy comes as firefighters grapple with overgrown forests and another consecutive year of dry, windy conditions. Currently, they are battling 20 large fires across the country. They range from a few hundred acres in South Dakota to more than 263,500 acres in New Mexico. The New Mexico blaze has finally stalled at about 412 square miles in the Gila National Forest after burning for weeks. Nearly 1,000 firefighters continue to patrol the lines and watch for flare-ups on the fire, the largest in the state's recorded history. A dozen cabins were destroyed by the lightning-sparked fire, and surrounding communities are concerned about flooding that could result from summer rains washing ash, soil and charred debris down steep, denuded mountainsides. In northern New Mexico, crews were making progress against a pair of fires burning in the Santa Fe National Forest. The blazes were threatening no communities, but they sent up plumes of smoke that sparked memories of last year's record-setting season. Firefighters were wrapping up a 227-acre wildfire in northern Colorado on Thursday, while extreme weather caused problems for crews trying to corral a 6,000-acre blaze in Wyoming's Medicine Bow National Forest.

National Historic Park possible in San Luis Valley

Representatives from various organizations addressed two separate crowds during public meetings this past week in regards to designating a National Historic Park (NHP) in the San Luis Valley. Alan Ragins with the National Park Service facilitated the meetings. Alan Gilbert, with Secretary Ken Salazar's office, spoke on how the initiative got started and how the concept of a NHS in the Valley is linked to American Latino Heritage Initiative. "The purpose of a NHP is to tell a story about the area and preserve it," said Gilbert. Greg Kendrick and Chris Whitacre, also with the National Park Service, gave a 30 minute presentation on what a NHP is and is not, examples of some parks in other states and how they operate, and some identified sites in the Valley. Whitacre said that Salazar asked NPS to identify sites of America's Latino Heritage. Currently only four percent of all sites represent such heritage.  "This is a gap that needs to be addressed, as it's an integral part of our national history that needs to be represented," said Whitacre. Some possible sites identified by the two month study were as follows...more

Indian casino proposal ignites turf wars in NM

AKELA FLATS, N.M. — It's a 30-acre tract along Interstate 10 with a temporary building where travelers can stop for a burger and beer. It's also the nation's newest Indian reservation, designated as such last year for the Fort Sill Apache. But as the tribe moves forward with controversial plans to use the reservation to build a casino that could capture truckers and drivers ready for a break halfway between Los Angeles and Dallas, it has reignited old turf wars with the state and with other tribes concerned about competition for gamblers. The tribe recently won a first hurdle in its quest to build the casino with a ruling from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the 30 acres the tribe has been trying to develop into a gambling operation for years is indeed eligible. But the roadside reservation is only big enough for a casino and possibly a hotel, raising questions about the tribe's sincerity in seeking the reservation status as part of its quest to return to its New Mexico homelands. Fort Sill Apache Tribal Chairman Jeff Haozous says it's a bit of chicken-and-egg question. The tribe, currently based in southwest Oklahoma, needs the casino to get income to buy more land to help its members return, he said.
"The goal is to repatriate the tribe," Haozous said. "Obviously that would require more than 30 acres. But that would also require more economic resources. With more resources, we can buy more land and develop more businesses." The Fort Sill Apache Tribe has roughly 685 members...more

Food stamp spending up 100 percent since Obama took office

The vast majority of federal spending in the Senate farm bill, which is estimated to cost over $100 billion annually, is going toward food stamps, representing a 100 percent increase since President Barack Obama took office, according to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions. “The legislation will spend $82 billion on food stamps next year, $82 billion and an estimated $770 billion over the next ten years. So, to put these figures in perspective, and they’re so large it’s difficult to comprehend, we will spend next year $40 billion on the federal highway program,” said Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. “Food stamp spending has more than quadrupled, four times, it’s increased fourfold since the year 2001. It has increased 100 percent since President Obama took office,” he said...more

EPA Official Showers Love on Anti-Fossil Fuel Activists

This time it’s Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman, a veteran attorney who has litigated environmental cases as part of the University of Maryland Environmental Law Center, as counsel for the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and as senior assistant attorney general in the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Last August she joined dozens of activists outside her Chicago office to celebrate the expected implementation of EPA’s Mercury Air Toxics Standard, which was released in December. Bloomberg reported that the rule would cost utilities an estimated $9.6 billion per year in compliance costs, fulfilling the president’s campaign promise to make electricity costs “necessarily skyrocket.” “We really appreciate your enthusiastic support for this rule,” Hedman gushed before a crowd of 90-or-so eco-activists. “It’s quite literally a breath of fresh air compared with what’s going on in the nation’s capital these days,” she added, referring to a “tough political climate” for EPA. Region 5 covers Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Among the groups represented at the rally, which gathered on the final day EPA accepted public comments on the rule (as though comments would change anything), were Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Environment Illinois and several others. Health care representatives also participated, claiming the Clean Air Act that the rule would amend achieved data-specific milestones that are unverifiable. “Thank you especially for this last group of comments coming in on the last day of our comment period on the new (MATS),” Hedman said in a congratulatory tone, holding up a huge stack of papers. “Really (emphasis hers) appreciate these. We’ll review these comments along with the other 600,000 comments that we’ve received in Washington, and we plan to have a final rule issued by November.” Watch the video – do you think Hedman would have behaved similarly if groups of coal and utility workers held a publicity stunt about their own MATS comments in front of her Chicago office? Would you consider her, and EPA in general, a fair evaluator of all the comments they received on MATS?...more

Wildlife groups sue US over lead bullets

Seven US conservation groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, accusing the government of failing to regulate the use of toxic lead bullets in hunting. Lead bullets have been shown to fragment upon impact, leaving bits behind in carcasses that other animals scavenge. The practice can cause lead poisoning in species such as the endangered California condor, eagles, swans and more. A petition by 100 environmental groups to the EPA in March, asking for the agency to regulate the components of ammunition used in hunting under the Toxic Substances Control Act, was refused amid strong opposition by gun rights groups. "The EPA has the ability to immediately end the unintended killing of eagles, swans, loons, condors and other wildlife," said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the seven groups filing the latest suit...more

Sometimes, environmental justice is neither

For years, special-interest groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club have changed the American business landscape under the premise of advancing environmental justice. But in many cases, those changes have done more harm than good for the people they are designed to protect. Mr. Driessen recounted a case from 1998, when Shintech Inc. had planned to build a plastics factory in the poor, black community of Convent, La. Sierra Club activists opposed it, raising fears that dioxins from the factory could lead to increased cancer rates among minority residents there. EPA denied approval of a construction permit, so the company built its factory in a largely white community in nearby Plaquemine instead. The company had been expected to bring 2,000 jobs to Convent, Mr. Driessen said. Not only did those people lose the chance for employment, but they also lost the health care benefits that would have come with those jobs. “You are denying people the jobs and better living standards and better health that comes from that,” he said. “Where is the environmental justice in denying them access" to those things? Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and of Project 21, a network of black conservatives, remembers speaking with residents of Convent. “Folks were very upset, a lot of folks that had come from hundreds of miles away,” he said. “A lot of do-gooders came in, were successful in shutting down the plant, and scores of families who depended on the plant for their livelihoods were left without jobs.”  The Sierra Club never actually had to prove its cancer claims to prevent the factory from being built. In fact, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said in a July 1997 environmental impact statement that “dioxins were never detected … from these manufacturing facilities.” Mr. Driessen said this is not unusual outcome, and that he often questions data from what he considers to be biased environmental groups — including the EPA itself...more

Song Of The Day #854

We are Out West on Ranch Radio this week and here is Shug Fisher & His Ranchmen Trio with Lonesome Train Blues.

Deer charging people, dogs in the Berkeley hills

Violent crime has been decreasing in Berkeley in recent years — that is, when the perpetrators in question are humans. Wildlife is another matter. Two Berkeleyside readers recently reported incidents of deer charging at pedestrians in the Berkeley hills in late May. Animal Services confirms there have been multiple cases. On May 29, a deer charged several times at a hiker at the intersection of Oak Path and Oak Street, said Berkeley Path Wanderers Association President Keith Skinner. The deer left the scene only when another person and a dog arrived. The victim of the attack “called Animal Control and was told to avoid the area for the next few months, but it doesn’t seem that the city is taking any other precautionary steps to alert people,” wrote Skinner in an email to Berkeleyside...more

Solar Company Hired Biden Staffer to Help Secure $1.6 Billion Federal Loan

Internal emails show that BrightSource Energy, which received the largest federal loan for a solar energy project under President Obama’s stimulus package, leveraged its considerable political connections with top Democratic policymakers to secure its $1.6 billion in taxpayer backing. BrightSource energy faced a “do-or-die moment,” according to a report in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, as the Energy Department weighed a federal loan for its massive Ivanpah solar farm in the California Mojave Desert. To spur the administration to approve the loan, BrightSource beefed up its lobbying presence, most notably by hiring Bernie Toon, former chief of staff for then-Senator Joe Biden, to lobby on its behalf. Toon was paid $40,000 for his efforts, according to disclosure forms. Toon’s connections immediately paid dividends:

On March 9, 2011, just days after being hired, Mr. Toon went to the White House with three BrightSource executives, according to Senate and White House records. There he visited a former colleague, Alan Hoffman, now the top aide to Mr. Biden, whose office was working on green-energy programs, the records show. The White House didn’t make Mr. Hoffman available for comment.

Overall, BrightSource dropped half a million dollars on lobbyists in the run-up to DOE’s decision on the Ivanpah loan. But its lobbyists were hardly the extent of BrightSource’s connections. Its chairman at the time, John Bryson, is now Obama’s Commerce Secretary. But even before his cabinet post, BrightSource considered leveraging Bryson’s considerable political clout to push Ivanpah approval...more

Dismembered bodies of 14 reported dumped in northern Mexico

The remains of at least 14 bodies were found Thursday in an abandoned vehicle in a northern Mexican state that has been the scene of a gruesome war between drug-trafficking gangs, according to news reports. Early reports said authorities found the abandoned cargo truck in Ciudad Mante, about 250 miles south of the U.S. border in northeastern Tamaulipas state. The Spanish news agency Efe, quoting an unnamed official, said the dead included 11 men and three women. The mutilated bodies were accompanied by a banner taking credit for the killings, but the official did not disclose its contents. Tamaulipas, which is next to Texas, has been rocked for months by a feud between the Gulf cartel and an ultra-violent gang of former allies known as the Zetas. The struggle has grown more bloody as a trafficking group led by Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, from the northwestern state of Sinaloa, has apparently joined the fight against the Zetas as  part of a wider struggle. On May 4, the turf war left 23 people dead in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. Nine of the dead were hanged from a bridge; 14 others were mutilated and dumped...more

Innocence is Priceless

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque.

It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the Pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Alex.'

'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is this?’

The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.'

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked...

             

            'Which service, the 8:45 or the 11:00?'

.

Former EPA official avoids his own crucifixion

An EPA official who resigned in disgrace after making controversial remarks that he would “crucify” energy companies avoided his own crucifixion Wednesday by cancelling his appearance before a panel of angry House lawmakers. Al Armendariz, EPA’s region six administrator, was scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy and power. His lawyer cancelled the appearance late Tuesday afternoon and said Armendariz was no longer willing to testify, prompting lawmakers to expand their initial inquiry to determine if the White House pressured the ex-official to drop out of the hearing. “Why, several weeks after he had agreed to testify, did he retain counsel and withdraw?” asked Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) chairman of the full committee. “Did the Obama administration urge him not to appear?”Other witnesses who appeared before the panel testified about conflicts with Armendariz’s enforcement efforts, including one incident where the ex EPA official blamed water pollution on a natural gas company. The case was dropped after a year, but the company was forced to spend $4 million defending itself. Allen Short, general manager of the Modesto Irrigation District in California’s Central Valley, said the EPA is requiring them to implement a plan to reduce regional haze that is expected to cost $800 million – far above the EPA’s estimated cost of $345 million. “It would remove only slightly more haze and the improvement would be virtually imperceptible to the human eye,” Short said. “It’s a visibility issue, not a health issue.” Robert Sullivan Jr., chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, said Armendariz spoke to his group in 2010 and showed his bias against fossil fuel...more

BLM burro roundup in Arizona starts amid criticism

The Bureau of Land Management is conducting a burro roundup in southern Arizona despite objections from animal advocates as well as a congressman. BLM spokeswoman Deborah Stevens said the agency started a two-week roundup Wednesday of 350 wild Arizona burros in the Yuma desert. The roundups are done using a helicopter. In a video of a roundup that took place in southern Arizona, a burro was chased in circles and even knocked over at one point. The BLM says there's a good reason for this -- overgrazing is preventing the regrowth of vegetation. Some are calling it abuse. "It is everything that I have in me to watch animal abuse. For the BLM to claim there is no abuse. You actually see the skids of the helicopter and exhausted confused tired burro. This is very very upsetting," said Julianne French. Rep. Raul Grijalva and animal preservation groups have criticized the BLM for not postponing the roundup. They say roundup activity should stop at 90 degrees because of possible dehydration and other dangers...more

Here is the Fox News affiliate's report. One of the hosts has seen burros "perched" on the hillsides.  Have you ever seen a burro "perch"?  And check out that helicopter pilot - all he needs is a good heeler.

$10.56 million Henderson land sale funds BLM program

The Bureau of Land Management generated $10.56 million on Monday through the sale of 480 acres of public land in southeast Henderson by modified competitive sealed bid sale. The high bidder, Silver State Land LLC, was the sole bidder on the parcel, which was sold under the authority of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. Funds generated through the sale of public land under SNPLMA are used for parks, trails and natural areas; capital improvements; conservation initiatives; purchase of environmentally sensitive lands; eastern Nevada landscape restoration projects, hazardous fuels reduction, multi-species habitat conservation projects, and projects. Additionally, 10 percent of the funds raised will go to the Southern Nevada Water Authority and five percent will go to the Nevada State General Education Fund...more

BLM to start emergency wild horse gather in Jackson Mountains

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Winnemucca District, Black Rock Field Office has issued a Decision Record for an environmental assessment (EA) for the Jackson Mountains wild horse gather. The decision is issued in full force and effect to begin gathering 630 excess wild horses on June 8 because of drought conditions in the herd management area (HMA) which is about 60 miles northwest of Winnemucca in Humboldt and Pershing counties. “The BLM is closely monitoring the condition of the wild horses in the southern end of the Jackson Mountain HMA,” said District Manager Gene Seidlitz. “It is necessary for the health of the horses to get the excess animals off the range now before their condition worsens.” “The BLM started hauling water to troughs last month,” Seidlitz added. “There is minimal to no green up occurring on this year’s forge. The wild horses in the southern end of the HMA are foraging on last year’s cheatgrass and shrubs and their condition is declining.” The estimated population is 930 wild horses, which includes the 2012 foal crop. The Appropriate Management Level (AML) for the Jackson Mountains HMA is 130 to 217 wild horses. This gather will not achieve the desired low AML of 130 wild horses on the range, and there will be two to three follow-up gathers over the next 10 years...more

Oglala Sioux move closer to establishing first tribal national park

Reclaiming tribal lands and focusing on the future of the tribe was the theme of the day when the Oglala Sioux Tribe, in a historic moment of agreement with the United States Government, signed a document that propels forward the vision of the first ever Tribal national Park. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis presented the final General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the South Unit of Badlands National Park, which recommends the establishment of the nation’s first tribal national park. In a statement released about the announcement, Salazar said, “Our National Park System is one of America’s greatest story tellers. As we seek to tell a more inclusive story of America, a tribal national park would help celebrate and honor the history and culture of the Oglala Sioux people. Working closely with the Tribe, Congress, and the public, the Park Service will work to develop a legislative proposal to make the South Unit a tribal national park.” The National Park Service is expected to sign the Record of Decision this summer, however, congressional legislation is necessary before the Service can implement the Plan’s Preferred Management Option. Depending on congressional action, the South Unit could be being administered through a variety of options, including as a unit of the National Park System managed by tribal members hired as NPS employees or managed by tribal members as employees of the Tribe...more

My advice to the Sioux:

° Make sure tribal lands remain tribal lands - do not transfer lands to NPS.
° Park should be managed and run by the tribe, not the NPS.
° Do not accept language in the federal legislation which in any way restricts your management options

Wyoming could put grizzlies in the crosshairs

The governor of Wyoming wants the feds to take grizzly bears off their endangered list, a move that could open the door to hunting the fearsome animals, which have been blamed for at least four fatal attacks in the last two years in and around Yellowstone National Park. Gov. Matt Mead recently wrote Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking that he remove federal protection of the grizzly bear under the Endangered Species Act. The May 24 letter, which Salazar's office said is being reviewed, said grizzly bears have "unquestionably recovered within the Yellowstone Ecosystem" and an official close to Mead acknowledged that managed hunts may be needed to control the population. "At some point in time, we would envision hunting grizzlies," Steve Farrell, a policy adviser to Mead, told FoxNews.com. "It's an important tool for population management, just like it is for whitetail deer and elk." But, Farrell claims, the effort to remove the bears from the endangered species list is not solely "driven by this need to hunt them." Grizzlies are relatively common in Canada and Alaska, but are also found in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. Adult males can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and stand as tall as 10 feet on their hind legs. While there were no fatal grizzly attacks from 1986 until 2010 in Yellowstone National Park, at least four people have been killed by them in the area in the last two years:

- August 2011: The remains of a 59-year-old hiker named John Wallace were found by hikers on the Mary Mountain Trail, not far from Old Faithful. Wallace had been hiking alone and an autopsy determined he was killed by a grizzly.

- July 2011: Brian Matayoshi and his wife were hiking a trail in Yellowstone when they encountered a mother grizzly. When they turned to walk away, the bear charged, killing Matayoshi. His wife tried to hide, but was picked up and dropped by the bear, according to reports. She was able to survive by playing dead. Experts said the couple's deadly mistake was retreating.

- July 2010: A 48-year-old camper was dragged out of his tent in Montana's Gallatin National Forest by a mother grizzly. Two other campers at nearby sites also were attacked. The bear was trapped and killed, and scientists said its predatory behavior was unusual and alarming.

- June 2010: A 70-year-old botanist was mauled to death by a grizzly while hiking in the Shoshone National Forest, just east of Yellowstone. Two days later, wildlife officers shot and killed the bear from a helicopter.

The rebounding population of grizzlies - experts estimate there are at least 600 in the area - partially explains the spike in fatal attacks, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen. "We have more bears in more places, so the encounter frequency is going up, the probability of running into a bear is going up," Servheen told OutsideOnline.com...more

Tomorrowland meets Texas - Futuristic freight system planned for I-35 corridor

Freight normally hauled by trucks could one day soon be shipped on an electric-powered, overhead guideway across Texas. It may seem like an idea more suitable for Tomorrowland – and artist renderings of the project do resemble Disney’s famed monorail system – but Texas officials are encouraging a privately-funded business to get the project up and running, perhaps within six years. "We think it’s happening at just the right time in our country,” said Stephen Roop, an assistant director at Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute, and developer of the so-called Freight Shuttle concept. “It can operate in the air space of a highway median.” Roop and his colleagues have formed Freight Shuttle International, a company that is cobbling together the estimated $2.5 billion needed to build the first leg of this futuristic transportation system. The guideways would be built within the existing right-of-way of Interstate 35, initially stretching about 250 miles from San Antonio to Waxahachie – but eventually extending north through Dallas-Fort Worth, and south to the Mexican border. Ultimately, Freight Shuttle guideways could be built on more than 2,000 miles of highway right-of-way across the state, he said. The system would haul cargo of various sizes, packed in both intermodal containers and freight trailers. Terminals would be built at each end of the route, so that trucks could load and off-load their goods onto the Freight Shuttle guideways. The shipments would be placed on unmanned transporters powered by linear induction motors using electricity and a magnetic field. They would glide on steel wheels across the guideways at about 60 mph, Roop told members of the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition during a meeting Wednesday in Fort Worth. Shippers would be able to get their goods across the state for pennies on the dollar compared to what it costs to haul freight in tractor-trailers, said Ken Allen, a retired logistics executive for grocery giant H-E-B Stores and chief executive officer of Freight Shuttle International’s operations unit...more

Forest Service & Ad Counci launch national campaign encouraging Americans to adapt and prepare for wildland fires

In the midst of wildfire season throughout much of the country, the U.S. Forest Service, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Ad Council announce the launch of a new public service advertising (PSAs) campaign, Fire Adapted Communities, which aims to help individuals prepare their homes and communities for the threat of wildfire. Created pro bono by advertising agency Draftfcb, this campaign addresses the issue of proactively mitigating wildfire damage in fire-prone communities. Nearly 70,000 communities nationwide are at risk from wildfire, according to the National Association of State Foresters. Embers from a wildfire travel great distances, often causing new wildfires more than a mile from their origin. It can take years for communities and local ecosystems to recover from a wildfire. In addition, wildfires cost government, businesses and individuals billions of dollars each year in suppression costs and damage to homes, infrastructure, the economy and resources. The television, radio, print, outdoor and Web PSAs aim to empower residents to proactively take the steps to make their communities fire adapted by reinforcing that “you can’t control where a wildfire ember will land – but you can control what happens when it does.” The ads direct audiences to visit a new comprehensive Website, www.FireAdapted.org, where they can find a host of resources on how to prepare for wildfires. The new web portal is a one-stop shop for the latest developments in wildfire safety, best practices, toolkits and programs of the nation’s leading wildfire organizations...more

How fortunate we are to have the Forest Service to tell us how to manage our property.  What's really needed is a national program to make Forest Service land "fire adapted".

Here's their video ad:

Song Of The Day #853

Ranch Radio stays Out West with Roamin' In Wyoming by Andy Parker & The Plainsmen.

Send In The Drones: Obama Spies On America

News the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers goes against our grain. Freedom means freedom of movement and the presumption of innocence. How can we have it if every move is monitored by government? America is awash in surveillance cameras, from red-light cameras at intersections to cameras in and outside businesses. For the most part, we tolerate their intrusiveness if the pictures are triggered by actual lawbreakers or are in a public place for legitimate security purposes where the expectation of privacy does not exist. But a drone flying over farmer Jones' farmhouse seems a stretch that sets a dangerous precedent. A federal policy promotes the use of drones by local law enforcement, and drone manufacturers are now pushing their products to the nation's 18,000 police jurisdictions. This raises the question of whether drones will be allowed to capture information normally requiring a search warrant authorized by a judge? Syndicated columnist and IBD contributor Charles Krauthammer calls drones instruments of war suited for war. They should not be used domestically, he says. He notes that you can hear a police helicopter but not a drone over your house, and argues that "the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country."...more

Armed EPA Agents Visit Asheville Man

Sometimes a small incident says volumes about a large government agency. In this case, it's the Environmental Protection Agency. Around 1:45 PM on May 23, Ashville, North Carolina resident Larry Keller was in the midst of an international call which he had to cut short in order to answer his front door. He found two armed agents of the EPA who were accompanied by an Ashville Police officer. According to a May 24 news story in the Ashville Tribune, a weekly newspaper to which I am a contributing columnist, the agents had blocked his and his neighbor's driveways with their cars. They had driven all the way from Raleigh to confront him. What had he done? The unannounced visit had been occasioned by news that Dr. Al Armendariz, a regional EPA administrator whose 2010 lecture had been videotaped and been released by the office of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on April 25th. In the lecture, Dr. Amendariz had said that the agency's "general philosophy" was to "crucify" oil and gas producers. Keller, who describes himself as "a bit of a political activist" had emailed the EPA Director of External Affairs, Dr. David Gray, saying "Hello Mr. Gray. Do you have Mr. Armendariz's contact information so we can say hello?" That was enough to dispatch two armed agents to his front door. He was told by one agent that ".my choice of words in the email could be interpreted in many ways." They did not identify themselves, but asked if he had ever been arrested. He responded swiftly that he had not. When he asked for a copy of his email, they refused to provide it because "the case was still under investigation." The Ashville Tribune by Catherine Hunter quoted Keller who described their attitude as "accusatory" reporting that he compared "their tactics to those of Nazi Germany SS methods." Keller's email inquiry to contact Dr. Armendariz was treated as a threat when it clearly was not. Since when is trying to contact an EPA administrator a crime? "I want the world to know," said Keller, "the government is reaching into the privacy of our homes and computers. I've never been so offended by the power of government in my life." Do we really want an EPA that uses such tactics against a citizen who has merely indicated an interest in contacting one of their administrators to comment on what he had said during a lecture?...more

UN: Consumption driving 'unprecedented' environment damage

Population growth and unsustainable consumption are driving Earth towards "unprecedented" environmental destruction, the UN said in a report Wednesday ahead of the Rio Summit. Of 90 key goals to protect the environment, only four have seen good progress, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a planetary assessment issued only every five years. "If current trends continue, if current patterns of production and consumption of natural resources prevail and cannot be reversed and 'decoupled,' then governments will preside over unprecedented levels of damage and degradation," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. The phonebook-sized report, the fifth edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO), was issued ahead of the June 20-22 UN Conference on Sustainable Development -- the 20-year follow-up to the landmark Earth Summit, also in Rio. Preceded by a series of forums gathering as many as 50,000 policymakers, business executives and activists, the summit aims at plotting a course for green development over the next two decades...more

Porta-Potties to Antiques: The Curious Journey of Obama’s ‘Green Jobs’

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), questioning a panel today about how the Labor Department counts “green jobs,” noted that he recently visited a huge wind farm and found that it employed just 12 people. But the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing also revealed that the department has some interesting ideas about exactly what constitutes a green job. “You’ll recall the DOL received $500 million in stimulus funds to train workers for so-called green skills,” said Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “But an audit by the inspector general found the program to be an utter failure and represented a tremendous loss to the taxpayer.” And the Labor Department, he charged, is “using the guise of green jobs to justify ongoing funding of the president’s green agenda.” What counts as green? Newspaper reporters who write on environmental issues. Think-tank wonks who study environmental policy. College professors teaching about the environment and lobbyists are counted. “There’s a lot of green with lobbyists; none of it should be counted as an environmentally green job,” Issa quipped. Even welders and sheet-metal workers, he noted, are suddenly colored green “after hundreds of years of being around as a profession.” “There are 33 times as many so-called green jobs in the septic tank — and you can’t make these things up, guys — septic tank and portable toilet servicing industry as there are in solar energy and utility areas,” Issa said...more

Stimulus Money for New Mexico Spent On Studying Beaver Dams in Yellowstone

One of the first New Mexico projects to receive funds from the Obama stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, had nothing to do with New Mexico. It was a $184,986 study of beaver dams in Yellowstone National Park, which is located not in the Land of Enchantment, but in the Cowboy State, in northwestern Wyoming. With money from the stimulus package, the National Science Foundation awarded the grant to the University of New Mexico “to document beaver-related sediments in floodplains of small streams in the greater Yellowstone area, in deposits dating from the present back to the end of the last glaciation about 12,000 years ago (the Holocene epoch).”  The Albuquerque Journal noticed this grant that seemed out place for New Mexico economic stimulus spending back in 2010. Its editorial board wondered what benefit to the state’s economy would be derived from spending federal funds to study beaver dams in Yellowstone National Park. Now we know. Not much. Grantees of stimulus funds are required to report to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board on a quarterly basis the number of jobs created or saved by their application of stimulus funding. Those results are published at recovery.gov. We now have eleven quarters of reporting on this grant. It tells us that this project has created or saved less than 1/3 full time job on average during the three years the grant has been active...more

State of Colorado to get water-law rewrite?

The Southwestern Water Conservation District has joined other agencies in opposing two ballot initiatives that would overturn 160 years of Colorado water law. No longer could individuals claim water under the current “first in time, first in line” standard. Instead, the public-trust doctrine, which dates to ancient Roman law that puts the general interest first, would hold sway. Initiative 3 says that public ownership of water trumps water contracts and property law. Initiative 45 would curtail appropriated water rights and require water users to return the resource unimpaired for public use. Steve Harris, Durango water engineer, said if voters approve the initiatives, no one with a water right could be sure it would stand. It would require starting over, Harris said. Recasting 160 years of legislation and water-case law would probably fall to legislators or the courts, he said. “Whatever they decided probably would not be what we have now,” Harris said. “This affects everyone in the state because everyone uses water one way or another.” Nancy Agro, a water attorney in Durango, said application of the public-trust doctrine could lead almost anywhere. “Even if you have a water right you might not be able to exercise it if the state decided it wanted water in a stream for recreation, wildlife or simply for esthetics,” Agro said. Even the right to store water in reservoirs or the issue of public access to the bed and banks of streams could fall under the public trust doctrine, Agro said...more

House votes to block enforcement of energy efficient light bulb standards

The House approved two amendments to a 2013 spending bill late Tuesday night that would prohibit the government from enforcing federal light bulb standards that Republicans say are too intrusive. In a voice vote, the House approved an amendment to the Energy and Water spending bill for 2013 that would prevent the Department of Energy from spending money to enforce a 2007 law that sets bulb efficiency standards. The law bans the sale of 100 watt incandescent bulbs and will ban the sale of 75 watt traditional bulbs in July 2013. The House also approved an amendment from Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.) that would prevent the Department of Energy from spending money to enforce current language that requires universities and other recipients of department grants of $1 million or more to replace all their bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs...more

Facts Get In The Way–Again–Of A Good Global Warming Story

Hillary Clinton made a well-publicized trip last week to the Arctic to see for herself the impact of global warming. Less well known, however, are two reports that contradict the climate-change alarmists. Upon her return from Saturday's tour of the Norwegian coastline, the secretary of state announced that "many of the predictions about warming in the Arctic are being surpassed by the actual data." But she omitted a couple of important points: First, polar ice is now the heaviest "in more than a decade," reports the Los Angeles Times. It is, in fact, so plentiful it could postpone Shell's "start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August." The Times says the National Weather Service explains it in these terms: "A high pressure zone over the coast of Alaska, cold winter temperatures and certain ocean currents have combined to bring unusually large amounts of ice not only along Alaska's northern coast, but farther south in the Bering Sea as well." Second, photos taken in the 1930s by Danish explorers "show glaciers in Greenland retreating faster than they are today, according to researchers," tech publication The Register reported. "It now appears that the glaciers were retreating even faster 80 years ago" when man's carbon output was far less than today's, "but nobody worried about it, and the ice subsequently came back again."...more

Papers show Justice was told about tactics in gunrunning

Court-sealed wiretap applications obtained by a House committee show that senior Justice Department officials in Washington, contrary to previous denials, were given specific information about the “reckless tactics” in the botched Fast and Furious gunrunning investigation, the panel’s chairman said Tuesday. In a letter, Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, rebuked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for what he called Mr. Holder’s “continuing efforts to mislead Congress” about the content of the wiretap applications and details of who knew about and gave approval for the operation. Wiretaps used in the Fast and Furious operation were intended to let investigators in Arizona listen to the phone calls of suspected drug traffickers in order to find evidence of involvement by high-level Mexican cartel associates, Mr. Issa said. He said six applications for wiretaps obtained by the committee, which had been sealed by a federal judge as part of ongoing criminal cases, detail specific actions taken by Fast and Furious agents, including “conscious decisions not to interdict weapons that agents knew were illegally purchased by smugglers taking weapons to Mexico.” He said the applications were approved by senior Justice Department officials in March, April, May, June and July of 2010. The wiretaps, as required by federal law, were submitted to Washington for approval by senior Justice Department officials, Mr. Issa said, adding that they were approved under the authority of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer...more

Ariz. sheriff criticized for rush to tie deaths to border

An Arizona sheriff was quick to blame Mexican cartels for the grisly deaths of five people in a case that suburban Phoenix law-enforcement authorities are convinced is a murder-suicide unrelated to the bloody drug war south of the border. For more than three days after a torched Ford SUV was discovered in Pinal County's remote Vekol Valley, a well-known drug- and immigrant-smuggling corridor, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu repeatedly linked the deaths to Mexican drug violence. Babeu, a Republican who rose to prominence as a border-security hawk, even took a politically charged swipe at Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "All information is pointing that this is connected to the violent drug cartel smuggling in this high smuggling area," Babeu said Saturday via his Facebook page. "The border is NOT more secure than ever Ms. Napolitano!" Through Tuesday, Babeu and his office continued to draw a connection between the five deaths and drug-cartel smuggling violence, even after receiving information from Tempe, Ariz., police Monday that seemed to shift the focus of the investigation to a missing family whom Tempe police suspected may have died in a murder-suicide incident...more

Calmer winds help crews battle massive New Mexico wildfire

Firefighters battling the largest wildfire in New Mexico's history reported some progress Wednesday, saying slower winds have helped containment efforts. The Whitewater-Baldy Fire was 22 percent contained as of early Wednesday, and the town of Glenwood was not at risk even though the fire continues to burn nearby, said Gerry Perry with the Gladiator Fire Incident Management Team. Perry told New Mexico public radio station KUNM that crews think containment will steadily increase this week. The fire has been raging since May 16, sparked by lightning in the Gila National Forest, in the southwest corner of the state. According to Perry, winds in the area have slowed and flames have moved out of rugged ponderosa and conifer forests into juniper and pinon landscapes that "are less fire-friendly," KUNM reported. The blaze has already burned some 263,000 acres to become the largest wildfire in New Mexico history...more

Song Of The Day #851

Ranch Radio stays Out West this week with Roy Rogers performing When A Cowboy Sings A Song.

The tune was recorded in Los Angeles on March 30, 1938 and was released as Vocalion 04050.

Neptune slurry bombers return to aerial firefighting duty

Neptune Aviation’s fleet of P2V retardant bombers returned to the air Tuesday, after one of its planes crashed in Utah on Sunday, killing two pilots. “As a company, we’re dealing with the loss, but as to our core direction, we’re still the same company,” Neptune president Dan Snyder said by phone from Cedar City, Utah, on Tuesday. “We’re still moving forward. And we still plan on adding two more 146s this summer.” Neptune has developed a BAe-146 jet plane for firefighting and won an interim contract from the U.S. Forest Service to use it this year. The Missoula-based company is waiting for word from the U.S. Forest Service on how many contracts for next-generation aircraft it will award this year. “Even if the contracts don’t come on line, we have every intention to bring those aircraft on and offer them to the Forest Service,” Snyder said. “The plan is as the BAe’s come on, we start retiring the P2s. We’ll do that according to our ability to maintain them. We don’t want to move too fast as a company.” Neptune has seven remaining P2Vs on contract with the Forest Service. They vary in age, although all are around 50 years old. Tanker 11 – which crashed Sunday – was built in 1962. The planes were originally designed for anti-submarine combat in the Korean War. For years, Neptune’s Missoula facility has been manufacturing its own parts and equipment to keep the fleet airworthy...more

JBS Accused Of Buying Cattle From Ranchers Accused of Deforestation

Seven of JBS's leather and beef customers--including German clothing maker adidas AG (ADDYY, ADS.XE), Swedish furniture chain IKEA International A/S, and U.K. supermarket chains J Sainsbury PLC (JSAIY, SBRY.LN) and Asda Group Ltd.--canceled their business with JBS in response to recent findings linking the Brazilian company to deforestation and other illegal practices, Greenpeace said in a statement. JBS, the world's largest beef producer, purchases live cattle from independent suppliers and brings them to slaughter. The company says it has a tracking system that allows it to guarantee the origin of animals and avoid purchasing from ranchers blacklisted for deforestation, use of slave labor or raising cattle on protected land. But Greenpeace said it discovered JBS bought cattle last year from five farms accused of illegal deforestation by federal environmental agency Ibama. The company also hasn't done enough to monitor indirect suppliers, among other issues, Greenpeace said...more

Deepest pit found in Lechuguilla Cave

In early May, a team of experienced cave explorers climbed more than 410 feet into a high dome in Lechuguilla Cave, led by Derek Bristol of Colorado. Upon reaching the top, lead climber James Hunter discovered a maze of previously unknown passages, pits and large rooms, which they called collectively, Oz. One large room measured 600 feet long, 100 to 150 feet wide, and 75 to 150 feet high. It was dubbed Munchkin Land. Lechuguilla Cave is an extensive cave system in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, known worldwide for its large rooms, unusual minerals, massive and fragile cave formations, and importance in scientific study. This discovery heralds new areas for physical and scientific exploration. Since mapping began in 1986, explorers have surveyed more than 134.6 miles of cave passages in Lechuguilla Cave. Because of its delicate environment and scientific importance, only about 100 people, usually vetted explorers and scientists, are permitted to enter the cave every year. Ten cavers from Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, California and Arizona participated in the eight-day underground expedition that made the latest discoveries, the greatest amount of distance added to the survey in one day since 1989. "To understand the sheer size of this space, imagine that a 51-story tower could fit inside," explained Stan Allison, Carlsbad Caverns National Park cave technician...more

Cows help manage Glacial Ridge National Refuge

A herd of cattle will help improve the habitat for wildlife by grazing on a northwestern Minnesota refuge. Glacial Ridge National Refuge is the largest prairie restoration project in the country. Experts say it's also the largest research project using livestock to manage the prairie. Herds of cows are not what visitors would expect to see or hear on a national wildlife refuge. But on 24,000 acres of prairie and wetlands east of Crookston, Minn., a half-dozen ranchers on horses and all-terrain vehicles recently moved 150 cows and their six-week-old calves through a gate. The cattle will be on a 2,000-acre fenced section of the refuge all summer, part of something called patch-burn grazing. After refuge managers burn a section of the prairie, the animals are attracted to new grass that sprouts in the burned area and begin to graze there. This is the second year cattle have grazed Glacial Ridge. Allowing them to do so is important, because they keep the grass short and give other plants, like prairie smoke or coneflower, a chance to grow, said wildlife biologist Jessica Dowler, who works on the refuge. Dowler said there is evidence that the mix of tall and short prairie also attracts important bird species...more

Forest Service Agrees to Review of Key Sierra Species

Conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service have agreed to have an independent science panel evaluate the service’s selection of plant and animal species as indicators of the overall health of the Sierra Nevada forests. The agreement settles a legal dispute over management of the national forests in California’s greatest mountain range. The groups brought the suit to restore safeguards for a variety of Sierra Nevada wildlife, such as the Pacific fisher and northern goshawk. The lawsuit challenged the Bush administration’s 2007 decision to dramatically reduce the number of species monitored on the Sierra Nevada national forests—increasing the risk that industrial activities, such as logging, will harm sensitive wildlife and fragile habitat. “We were forced to go to court in 2008 when the Forest Service weakened wildlife protections in the Sierra by eliminating monitoring of dozens of species,” explains attorney Erin Tobin with the public interest law firm Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups. “This settlement is a positive sign that the Forest Service is willing to listen to sound science, and we applaud the agency for that.”...more

20 sea lions shot to death along Washington, Oregon coasts

The bodies of about 20 sea lions have been discovered along the coasts of Oregon and Washington over the last two months, most of them shot to death. Who did it? No one knows, but there are a few guesses as to why—the playful but voracious creatures have long been blamed by fishermen and others for lunching on prized stocks of salmon and sturgeon, which swim along the Pacific Coast and up the Columbia River. The sea lions have grown increasingly bold about fishing near Bonneville Dam, where large numbers of salmon protected under the federal Endangered Species Act make their way toward the sea. The salmon plunder was so worrisome that the National Marine Fisheries Service has sought in recent years to lethally remove some of the biggest problem predators, in addition to hazing and trapping the animals...more