NEWS ROUNDUP
Governor, U.S. Senators blame bureaucracy for Murphy blaze Response to the 600,000-acre-plus Murphy Complex fire near the Idaho-Nevada border was good but could have been better, Idaho’s U.S. Senate delegation and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said at a news conference in Boise today after touring the fire area. “We need to have much faster reaction from the federal government,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said at the event at Boise Airport. Federal bureaucratic delays prolonged the fire and enabled it to grow, officials said. Sen. Larry Craig,R-Idaho, said federal policies have limited grazing and contributed to the buildup of fire fuels. As for getting through the current fire season, potential solutions include arguing for more streamlined government decision making, and granting ranchers a waiver to graze animals on some current set-aside ground, officials said. “The key is flexibility of response right now,” Crapo said....
Political firestorm over wildfires grows Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo on Monday took up the cause of ranchers on the Idaho-Nevada border who blame federal grazing restrictions for allowing grass to grow tall on public land, which they say exacerbated the 1,030-square-mile Murphy Complex wildfires. That puts Otter and Craig, both ranchers, and Crapo, a lawyer, at odds with environmental groups that have fought in the courts to reduce livestock grazing in the region to help species such as the sage grouse. The Murphy fires were 98 percent contained Monday, said fire information officer Bill Watt in Castleford. Man-agers began releasing some of the 1,100 firefighters who were assigned to the blaze, touched off by lightning July 16. In all, 15 wildfires were burning Monday across Idaho, the most of any state. Two years ago, a federal judge ruled that half of the 1.7-million-acre Jarbidge resource area where the Murphy Com-plex has burned was no longer open to livestock grazing because the Bureau of Land Management didn't adequately determine the impact to sage grouse habitat in 28 livestock grazing allotments used by 11 ranchers. The ruling came after a lawsuit from Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group....
Washington State Prepares for Return of Wolves Even after scouring muddy logging roads for tracks and dousing the ground with canine urine, Scott Fisher didn't get his hopes up. The state biologist was sure that finding one of the West's most mysterious predators skulking about the forests of Pend Oreille County in northeastern Washington would, as usual, prove elusive. But late last month Fisher flipped open his laptop and downloaded pictures from a camera he had hung from a tree. There on the first frame were two eyes buried in a puff of dark fur. A gray wolf. "We weren't surprised it was there, just that we caught it on camera," said Fisher, a biologist with the Washington Department of Natural Resources. "It's so much better to be lucky than good."....
Life after man: a vision of the future Picture a world from which we all suddenly vanished. Tomorrow. Look around you at today's world. Your house, your city, the surrounding land, the pavement underneath, and the soil hidden below that. Leave it all in place, but extract the human beings. Wipe us out, and see what's left. How would the rest of nature respond if it were suddenly relieved of the relentless pressures we heap on it and our fellow organisms? How soon would, or could, the climate return to where it was before we fired up all our engines? How long would it take to recover lost ground and restore Eden to the way it must have gleamed and smelled the day before Adam, or Homo habilis, appeared? Could nature ever obliterate all our traces? On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house – or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the Earth. They all go....
Off-roaders take toll on public land For increasing numbers of Arizonans, the roar and rush of an off-road vehicle are just part of enjoying the desert landscape. But when those tires veer into places they're not supposed to go, the desert suffers the consequences. More people than ever are using off-road vehicles on Arizona's public lands. Registered off-road vehicles have increased more than fourfold in a decade, from 49,282 in 1998 to 237,953 through the end of June, according to the state Motor Vehicle Division. But as interest in the activity has grown, so have the numbers of people breaking the law by veering from designated roads onto renegade trails. Environmentalists say the desert is suffering as a result of improper use of off-road vehicles, also known as off-highway vehicles because dirt paths often count as roads on public lands....
Plan to thin timber gets approval A federal judge on Monday said a plan to log up to 2,500 acres to reduce forest fire dangers in the Gallatin National Forest can proceed, but blocked the construction of any new logging roads across prime grizzly bear habitat. A plaintiff in the case described the mixed ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy as a "victory for grizzly bears," while a U.S. Forest Service ranger said the ruling would affect only a small number of acres and not hamper the agency's overall objective. The Forest Service's fuels reduction project south of Big Timber is designed to slow major fires and give people a chance to flee along the area's sole evacuation route. By removing stands of fast-burning conifer trees and allowing less-flammable aspen to grow in their place, the service hopes to reduce the intensity of future fires within a corridor of recreation homes and campgrounds along the main fork of the Boulder River. The agency was sued last year by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council, which claimed the plan violated rules to protect grizzly bears and other wildlife....
Forest Service to unveil global warming forest plan Temperatures are rising and forests are drying out as a number of wildfires sweep through the West. Scientists are trying to figure out ways to combat what they believe are direct signs of global warming. Some time this year, the Forest Service is reportedly expected to unveil a new global warming related forest management plan. This comes in the wake of several devastating fires in our area. To date, the Tripod Fire, is the largest for Washington in more than a century. At its height, it took over more than 175,000 acres. Experts are now warning wildfires like this could become more common. According to published reports, high temperatures are adding stress to forests, stimulating the growth of underbrush and other fuels. In our area, experts say the greatest threat is east of the Cascade Mountains. Reports say later this year, the Forest Service is expected to unveil a new global warming related forest management plan. It could involve planting additional acres, thinning existing stands and burning the leftover debris....
BLM plans more horse roundups Last January, federal cowboys were able to round up about 920 wild horses in southwest Wyoming before bad weather shut down gathering operations. Federal managers are proposing to return to some of those wild horse herds in the region later this summer and gather more horses in their continuing effort to reduce overpopulated herds, Bureau of Land Management officials said. Horses will also be rounded up from the Divide Basin herd management area and on private lands within the three herd management units, BLM officials said in a "scoping" statement. The three units are located in eastern Sweetwater and western Carbon counties. Both proposed actions were analyzed and authorized in previous environmental assessments issued by the BLM in 2006 and 2007. BLM officials have long maintained that Wyoming's wild horse population is above desired numbers and is growing. Federal officials contend wild horses have no natural predators, and with a reproduction rate of about 15 to 20 percent annually, must be periodically removed from the range to achieve population objectives and to protect public rangelands from undue degradation....
Mexico seeks changes in border plan Mexico called on the United States to alter a plan to expand border fences designed to stem illegal immigration, saying the barriers would threaten migratory species accustomed to roaming freely across the frontier. Ways of minimizing environmental damage from the fences could include the creation of cross-border bridge areas so that ecosystems remain connected and "green corridors" of wilderness without roads that would be less attractive to smugglers, according to a report released Monday and prepared for the Mexican government by experts and activists from both nations. The report also suggested "live" fences of cactuses, removable fencing, and more permeable barriers to allow water, insects and pollen to cross the border. Ecologists say among the species affected would be Mexican jaguars and black bears, and the endangered, antelope-like Sonora Pronghorn. On Monday, Mexico's Environment Department said the proposed fences would seriously hurt species that cross the 1,952-mile border and that the United States needs to alter or mitigate the barriers where necessary....
Cheney to skip hearing on Klamath salmon die-off Charging that Vice President Dick Cheney contributed to a 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border, House Democrats planned a hearing Tuesday to explore his intervention in the Klamath River Basin. But some House Republicans say the hearing in the Natural Resources Committee could upset negotiations to end years of battling over the region, where drought in 2001 led to a cutoff of irrigation water — and then a diversion to help farmers. That diversion, directed in part by Cheney, resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West, Democrats say. At the very least, Cheney's actions to help farmers at the expense of threatened fish demonstrated the Bush administration's "penchant to favor politics over science in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the Natural Resources panel. Republicans counter that there is no evidence Cheney did anything improper and say the evidence doesn't support blaming his actions for the fish kill....
Senators Go to Global Warming's Front Lines A delegation of senators traveled by fishing boat and helicopter last weekend through a remote stretch of Greenland that's covered by a thick -- and receding -- sheet of glacial ice. The group of seven Democrats, two Republicans and one independent set out to explore firsthand the effects of climate change in a region where glacial melting and rising sea levels have already forced the human and animal population to adapt. The senators returned Sunday from the two-day trip, and Democrats, along with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke about their experiences in a press conference Monday. "After this trip ... I know I have a responsibility to move now to lessen the impacts of severe global warming," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "We can do it in a way that actually makes us stronger as a nation, and that is my goal." Marc Morano, GOP Environment and Public Works Committee spokesman, published a bulletin Monday morning refuting the notion of global warming. Titled "Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt," the blog entry lists a series of scientific studies that call into question the human element many view as the cause behind global warming. "The very latest research reveals massive Greenland melt fears are not sustainable. Current Greenland temperatures are neither alarming nor linked to a rise in man-made carbon dioxide emissions," wrote Morano....
Lightning strikes Boy Scouts in N.M.; none seriously hurt Nine Boy Scouts and two adults avoided serious injury after being struck by lightning as they were hiking on a 12,441-foot mountain at the Philmont Scout Ranch in northeastern New Mexico. The group was struck Sunday afternoon, and all were treated and returned to the ranch or were en route back by Monday morning, said John Van Dreese, associate director of programs for Philmont. The 11 were hiking toward the tree line after summiting Baldy Mountain when lightning struck, he said. Most were able to walk to a base camp at an elevation of 10,000 on Baldy Mountain, where Philmont vehicles and at least one ambulance took them to area health facilities, Philmont officials said. One was airlifted to Santa Fe for treatment....
Carnivore sex off the menu A new phenomenon in New Zealand is taking the idea of you are what you eat to the extreme. Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals. The co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, Annie Potts, said she coined the term after doing research on the lives of "cruelty-free consumers". Many female respondents described being attracted to people who ate meat, but said they did not want to have sex with meat-eaters because their bodies were made up of animal carcasses....
Businessman Don King dies Don King, the founder of King's Saddlery and King Ropes, died Saturday at Sheridan Memorial Hospital. He was 83 and had been suffering from cancer. King's businesses are well-known for manufacturing ropes and saddles for working cowboys. He founded the famous saddle and rope shop on Main Street in 1963. King worked as a cowboy around the West as he grew up. He began to support himself at age 14 by working odd jobs on ranches and rodeos and worked with leather in his spare time. King married Dorothy Clapp in 1944. He returned to Wyoming after his discharge from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945 and settled in Sheridan. King built ornamental saddles for Cheyenne Frontier Days and other events. His style of tooling, known as the Sheridan style, is characterized by wild roses arranged in scroll-like patterns of interlocking circles. King's family said that he developed and twisted a rope for left-handed ropers. He has also trained a number of top-notch saddle makers....
South Texas rancher finds mysterious animal Reports of blue, hairless creatures roaming the countryside from Elmendorf to Cuero. Ranchers talking of livestock being drained of blood. Put the two together, and it sounds like the legend of the chupacabra. One rancher says she has the evidence to back it up. What Canion wanted was the creature's head, and that's just what she's got in her freezer now. Canion said the animal has been lurking around the ranch for years, first snatching cats, and then chickens right through a wire cage. "(It) opened it, reached in, pulled the chicken head out, sucked all the blood out of the chicken, left the chicken in the cage," Canion said. At least two dozen chickens were sucked dry, with the meat left on the bone. Canion's neighbors speculated the blue-colored animal was a chupacabra. The name chupacabra translated from Spanish means goat-sucker, for the creature's habit of sucking the blood of livestock. Canion said her neighbors have reported goats drained of their blood. "Is (a chupacabra) what it is? We don't know what it is, but that's what we'll call it!" Canion said. And not just one, but three unknown animals have been spotted outside of town in recent days. All of them have blue skin, no hair and strange teeth....
Competition shows fairgoers a dog-herd-cow world Sunday was Ted's big day. The 6-year-old brown border collie was about to compete for the first time at the Stanislaus County Fair's Working Ranch Dog Competition. About a dozen dogs and their owners were timed as they worked to herd two cows into a pen. It's something these teams are used to doing — after all, it's part of everyday life on a ranch. While a laid-back Ted sat in the shade waiting his turn to compete, Ted's owner, Joann Freitas of Gustine, was nervous about his first show. "I'm apprehensive," Freitas said, as she watched one team herd both cows into the pen in under 47 seconds. "He does great at home, but it's tough to tell how he'll do out here." Ranchers commonly use dogs — most often border collies because of their working instinct — to herd cattle and sheep. Sunday's competition was designed to show off the ranch dogs' exceptional obedience and utility. "On a ranch, the goal is to get the cattle into the corral as fast as possible so you can do what you want to do with them," said Tony Xavier, the competition's cocoordinator. "In these trials, the dogs aren't judged — they're timed. It's about getting it done quickly and efficiently."....
Real-life wrangler ropes a bull on loose near Elko For at least 11 days, the Brahma bull wandered around farms near Elko, trying to get into corrals with cows, worrying ranchers and generally making a nuisance of himself. Every time the owner showed up with a trailer to retrieve him, the bull made a beeline for the woods. On Monday, ranchers had finally had enough. It looked like the bull's adventures might end with a bullet. Enter Damon Rogers, cowboy and rodeo clown. Handy with a rope and canny about cows, he talks with a drawl as wide as the Texas plains. When he lived in Texas, Rogers was often called by county officials to round up wandering cattle. But things changed two years ago when he married a Mayo Clinic nurse and moved to Rochester. He still shoes horses and works as a rodeo clown, but cattle-catching calls have been few and far between.....
Last real Coyote hunter: A man who wrestles coyotes doesn't much need to brag In the early 1900s, President Teddy Roosevelt came to Tillman County to go hunting with Jack Abernathy, a rancher who was famous from Texas to Wyoming for being "a real coyote hunter." He didn't shoot the coyotes -- dogs cornered them, then Abernathy wrestled the coyotes with his own hands. And to this day, Tillman County brags about Roosevelt coming to watch. "But Abernathy cheated," Eoff says. "He wore a glove with spikes in it and he'd ram that glove down the coyote's throat. The coyote never had a chance." When Eoff catches a coyote, he uses his bare hands. No gloves. No spikes. "If a coyote bites down on me," he says, "I don't panic." If you jerk your hand back, the coyote's teeth will rip flesh off the bone. So Eoff calmly digs a fingernail into the soft roof of the coyote's mouth. "When it lets go, grab it by the throat and yank it up," Eoff says. "When you get all four legs off the ground, the fight is over. You've won." He can't count how many fights he has won -- either against coyotes or other men....
It's All Trew: Conditioning a saddle into tiptop quality venture a guess that only one in 10 readers will be familiar with the term "Neatsfoot Oil." This oil has been a mainstay in saddle and harness maintenance for centuries. No old-time, self-respecting rancher, farmer or cowboy would be caught without a can sitting in his saddle or harness storage. This distinctive smell of the oil in a saddle house seems to say, "This man cares for his gear." The "neat" comes from an old English word meaning oxen. The oil part comes from an ancient recipe in which oxen shin bones were cooked to create the concoction. Being of livestock organic origin, the oil was thought to penetrate leather and retain flexibility better than other lightweight oils and make it more waterproof. Today, we have multiple soaps, lubricants, oils, waxes and cleaners all designed to clean and protect leather products. The price of today's saddles and leather gear encourages owners to take care of their tack. In the old days, a saddle was often the only financial asset many cowboys had. A friend who collects and deals in saddles and Old West tack says he cleans his dirty acquisitions by taking them to a car wash, where hot, soapy water under pressure does the job. When the leather is dry, he replaces the oils with new. He likes Neatsfoot Oil underneath and the new leather conditions out on top, giving a shiny look. Somehow this cleaning process conjures up the image of a cowboy leading his saddled horse into a car wash and inserting his coins. Maybe Baxter Black will use this as a subject someday....
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
FLE
House launches probe of Mexico The Mexican government's alleged intervention in the case of U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will be the focus of a hearing today by a House subcommittee. Ramos and Compean are serving 11- and 12-year prison sentences, respectively, after a jury convicted them last year of violating federal gun laws and covering up the shooting of a drug smuggler as he fled back to Mexico after driving across the border with more than 700 pounds of marijuana. The office of El Paso U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, immunity to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents. As WND reported, no criminal investigation of the agents began until after the Mexican consulate complained the agents violated Aldrete-Davila's civil rights by shooting him without warrant. The hearings were called after Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif., ranking member on Internal Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed concern about possible foreign influence in the prosecution. The government has not disclosed all communications between the Mexican Consulate and the U.S. government concerning the Ramos-Compean case....
Suspect ID'd in Border Patrol cap shooting Authorities in Colorado say they have issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected of shooting at a 7-Eleven store because the clerk had worn a cap – while off-duty – supporting the U.S. Border Patrol. The clerk, Bruno Kirchenwitz, who alleges he then was fired over the incident related to his opposition to illegal aliens, already had left the building and was unhurt in the shooting. Another cashier who was on duty and several customers were unhurt. But authorities in Basalt, where an estimated 75 percent of the convenience store's customers are Hispanic, have named Ricardo Ramirez, 22, as a suspect on counts of first-degree assault and felony menacing for the June 26 attack. Basalt police chief Keith Ikeda confirmed the name of the suspect, and police said they are working on the assumption the gunfire was in retaliation for the Border Patrol cap the clerk wore to protest illegal immigration. Basalt police said Ramirez made a purchase at the store with his credit card, then allegedly returned with another man after a few minutes to pump five shots at the store....
Lawmakers, Bush Target Eavesdropping Law Congress and President Bush's aides worked Monday to expand the government's surveillance authority without jeopardizing citizens' rights, aides to lawmakers and the White House said. Aides to senior congressional Democrats and Republicans say they recognize the threat and are willing to pass legislation to address it before Congress adjourns for a month next weekend. The new plan, offered late last week by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, would change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to allow surveillance without a warrant of terror suspects who are overseas. The Bush administration believes the FISA court now must approve such spying because many conversations and contacts taking place overseas are routed through U.S.-based communication carriers, satellites or Internet providers. The proposal is narrower than what the administration sought in April: a slew of changes to the 1978 law. For example, the new plan no longer immunizes from lawsuits the telecommunication companies that participate in the National Security Agency program. Details remained undecided, chiefly over whether after-the-fact court approval would be required for emergency surveillance, according to several congressional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks....
House launches probe of Mexico The Mexican government's alleged intervention in the case of U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will be the focus of a hearing today by a House subcommittee. Ramos and Compean are serving 11- and 12-year prison sentences, respectively, after a jury convicted them last year of violating federal gun laws and covering up the shooting of a drug smuggler as he fled back to Mexico after driving across the border with more than 700 pounds of marijuana. The office of El Paso U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, immunity to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents. As WND reported, no criminal investigation of the agents began until after the Mexican consulate complained the agents violated Aldrete-Davila's civil rights by shooting him without warrant. The hearings were called after Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif., ranking member on Internal Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed concern about possible foreign influence in the prosecution. The government has not disclosed all communications between the Mexican Consulate and the U.S. government concerning the Ramos-Compean case....
Suspect ID'd in Border Patrol cap shooting Authorities in Colorado say they have issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected of shooting at a 7-Eleven store because the clerk had worn a cap – while off-duty – supporting the U.S. Border Patrol. The clerk, Bruno Kirchenwitz, who alleges he then was fired over the incident related to his opposition to illegal aliens, already had left the building and was unhurt in the shooting. Another cashier who was on duty and several customers were unhurt. But authorities in Basalt, where an estimated 75 percent of the convenience store's customers are Hispanic, have named Ricardo Ramirez, 22, as a suspect on counts of first-degree assault and felony menacing for the June 26 attack. Basalt police chief Keith Ikeda confirmed the name of the suspect, and police said they are working on the assumption the gunfire was in retaliation for the Border Patrol cap the clerk wore to protest illegal immigration. Basalt police said Ramirez made a purchase at the store with his credit card, then allegedly returned with another man after a few minutes to pump five shots at the store....
Lawmakers, Bush Target Eavesdropping Law Congress and President Bush's aides worked Monday to expand the government's surveillance authority without jeopardizing citizens' rights, aides to lawmakers and the White House said. Aides to senior congressional Democrats and Republicans say they recognize the threat and are willing to pass legislation to address it before Congress adjourns for a month next weekend. The new plan, offered late last week by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, would change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to allow surveillance without a warrant of terror suspects who are overseas. The Bush administration believes the FISA court now must approve such spying because many conversations and contacts taking place overseas are routed through U.S.-based communication carriers, satellites or Internet providers. The proposal is narrower than what the administration sought in April: a slew of changes to the 1978 law. For example, the new plan no longer immunizes from lawsuits the telecommunication companies that participate in the National Security Agency program. Details remained undecided, chiefly over whether after-the-fact court approval would be required for emergency surveillance, according to several congressional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks....
Monday, July 30, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Environmental groups seek to invalidate N.M. county wolf law A federal court has been asked to strike down an ordinance that asserts Catron County's right to trap wild Mexican gray wolves that the county deems a threat to people. "The U.S. Constitution says federal law trumps state and local law when the two deal with the same issue," Melissa Hailey, an attorney for Forest Guardians, said Friday. The Santa Fe-based environmental group and Sinapu, a Boulder, Colo.-based carnivore activist group, sued the county commissioners Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe. The lawsuit alleges the county ordinance violates the federal Endangered Species Act and that the ordinance is invalid. The lawsuit seeks a court order halting the commission from taking any further action under the ordinance....
Wolves: Good with teriyaki sauce Currently, citizens in New Mexico's Catron County are considering making safety cages at bus stops to protect children waiting for school buses. How many children would have to die before all large predators would be eliminated from New Mexico? No children have been killed, yet. But, as an intellectual exercise in the theory of rights, what would be the governmental response to an animal predator killing a child? I suspect that the environmental lobby would paralyze the government officials since they are the most virulent force acting upon our government these days. With lawsuits and other intimidations no general response would follow the death of a child, only a specific one involving that individual predator. The New Mexico Legislature has considered banning all pit bull breeds of dogs in New Mexico because they are said to be dangerous. So why is there no move to ban wolves, mountain lions and bears who have even more potential for injury and death? Is being killed by a mountain lion somehow different than being killed by a pit bull? As to wolf reintroduction, I have gone 56 years without seeing a wolf in the wild and I can go another 56 years. But the wolf reintroduction is not really about the wolves....
Old growth species mandate lifted from Northwest Forest Plan Acting on an agreement with the timber industry, the Bush administration has decided to quit looking for little-known snails, lichens and other sensitive species before selling timber in Northwest national forests, setting up another round of litigation over a plan created to protect spotted owls and salmon. The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday that so-called "survey and manage" provisions have been eliminated from the Northwest Forest Plan by way of a final decision on an environmental impact statement signed by Assistant Secretary of Interior Steve Allred and Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey. The decision makes it easier to log islands of old growth timber that remain standing on areas of national forests and U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands designated for timber production in western Washington, Oregon and Northern California. "This decision is long overdue," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. "We are wasting our time and money to have government employees crawl on their hands and knees and turn over rocks to look for snails and lichens and other critters." West added that none of the species under the "survey and manage" provisions are protected by the Endangered Species Act, and the increase in logging will only fulfill the timber production promises of the Northwest Forest Plan....
So much for saving the spotted owl Two decades after the wrenching drive to save an obscure bird divided Oregonians, reshaped the economy and tore apart the political landscape, the northern spotted owl is disappearing anyway. Even the most optimistic biologists now admit that the docile owl -- revered and reviled as the most contentious symbol the Northwest has known -- will probably never fully recover. Intensive logging of the spotted owl's old-growth forest home threw the first punch that sent the species reeling. But the knockout blow is coming from a direction that scientists who drew up plans to save the owl didn't count on: nature itself. The versatile and voracious barred owl is proving far more adept at getting rid of the smaller owl than the Endangered Species Act was in saving it: Fewer than 25 spotted owls remain in British Columbia, the northern fringe of its range -- and where barred owls first moved into the West. Biologists say the best hope for Canada's spotted owls would be for zoos to capture and breed them, and perhaps someday return them to the wild. Spotted owls are vanishing inside Olympic National Park, where logging never disturbed them. A biologist looking for them says it sometimes seems like searching for the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker. Barred owl numbers, though, are "through the roof."....
To Oregon timber towns, it was the owl that roared In the late 1970s, some U.S. forest scientists became engrossed by a small, reclusive owl that fed on rodents in the wet, lush and steadily disappearing old-growth forests of Oregon. They determined that if the last of the old forests went away, so would the owl. Environmental groups, looking for a legal wedge in their increasingly aggressive crusade to halt old-growth logging, soon caught wind of the concerns and sued to list the northern spotted owl among the nation's endangered species. What followed was one of the most gut-grabbing economic and social upheavals in modern Oregon history. In the five years after 1990, timber employment dropped from 57,400 to 46,200 sending families to unemployment offices and food banks. Small communities across the state turned desperately to tourists or high-tech moguls to fill the economic void. "They were very emotional, very traumatic times," says Ray Wilkeson, public affairs director of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, a group that promotes logging. "A lot of damage was done to the social fabric of the state." The battle played out in courtrooms, headlines on the streets and in the forests. Loggers convoyed to Portland in a huge protest. On the other side, demonstrators dressed in feathers, sat in timber stands and refused to budge....
BLM monument planning process worries environmentalists Conservation groups are worried that resource-management plans being developed for 14 new national monuments don't do enough to protect the assets the monuments were created to protect. The monuments, most designated by President Bill Clinton during his final year in office, were created to protect a variety of natural and archeological treasures. The Bureau of Land Management has completed management plans for five of the Clinton national monuments. The nine others are being developed. For the next 10 to 20 years, these plans will dictate where visitors can drive their vehicles, where and when ranchers can graze livestock, how and where oil and gas companies can drill wells and when and where motorized boats can be used. The proclamations Clinton signed establishing the national monuments allow most of those traditional activities to continue, so long as they don't harm the monuments' treasures....
Forest Service considers poisoning prairie dogs The U.S. Forest Service is considering a proposal to allow the use of poison to help control prairie dogs on the Thunder Basin National Grassland in northeast Wyoming. The local landowner group that proposed the plan says the poisoning will lead to a more controlled and healthier ecosystem in the 572,000-acre grassland, while environmentalists berate the use of poison to control wildlife. The Forest Service expects to have a draft environmental impact statement complete within about two weeks, according to District Ranger Bob Sprentall in Douglas. "We're hoping to have the final out on this probably no later than the end of the year," Sprentall said Friday. The proposal being studied was offered by the Thunder Basin Grasslands Prairie Ecosystem Association, a group of private landowners in the area. The plan would allow for expanded use of rodenticide poison. Currently, poison can be used to control prairie dogs only if there is a human safety issue or if the animals threaten to damage cemeteries or structures, Sprentall said. Sprentall said current control methods, such as installing barriers and manipulating grass growth, haven't worked well in all situations....
In-situ mines draw federal regulators Federal regulators are planning a meeting here early next month to hear public comments and concerns about in-situ uranium mining. Recent increases in the price of uranium have sparked increased interest in the mining technique, in which chemicals are used to free uranium from the surrounding ore underground. Water holding the freed uranium is then pumped to the surface where it's refined. Four years ago, uranium oxide, or "yellowcake," sold for around $10 a pound. It has jumped to around $135 a pound, with prospects of even higher prices. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees the in-situ mining process. Faced with an increase in the number of applications from companies interested in building new facilities or expanding old ones, the agency is preparing a "generic environmental impact statement" to look at the effects of the in-situ mining technique. Dave McIntyre, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency expects so many new applications from companies interested in in-situ mining that, "if it all comes at once, there will be a resource problem." Preparing the generic environmental document will help to guide supplemental studies for individual projects, McIntyre said. "We want to get public input in case there's something we haven't thought of," he said....
Forest service learns to love fire a little bit Western public lands, including the Payette National Forest in Idaho, the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico and the Bitterroot National Forest that straddles the Montana-Idaho border, have become "let-it-burn laboratories," federal wildfire managers say. Sparse populations surrounding those forests make it possible to pursue some of the nation's most progressive fire management policies. An increasing number of wildfire managers are letting more lightning-caused fires on federal land burn, to help return forests to their natural state where wildfire and trees survived in equilibrium before modern man's arrival. The policy also keeps firefighters from harm's way — and could save millions of dollars otherwise spent fighting fires miles far from civilization. Environmental advocates favor these changes, saying they let Mother Nature take her course— even as some forest communities fear allowing more fires to burn is a recipe for disaster....
Forest Service gives boot to hopscotching squatters Home for Thomas "Hippie" Klinger used to be wherever he anchored his pea-green bus. The 57-year-old, Vietnam-era Army veteran hunkered down in the Ocala National Forest for months at a time, often among a grungy group of other free spirits and ne'er-do-wells whose perpetual presence prompted the U.S. Forest Service last year to sharply prune its length-of-stay rules in the federally managed wilderness. Under old rules, a visitor could stay in the forest indefinitely by hopscotching from campsite to campsite every two weeks. The new rules say visitors must leave after 14 days. Violators risk fines and permanent bans from all federal lands. Klinger was among those pushed out of the Ocala Forest by the new rules. Although he denies it, he also is counted among those furious about the changes, according to federal authorities who charged him with threatening to murder Forest Service Officer Chris Crain, who carried out the new rules. Klinger and co-defendant William Seagraves, 59, were acquitted recently of the charges that could have put both in federal prison for 10 years. Jurors said they sided with defense lawyers who suggested the two were harmless, frustrated men, whose overblown words about killing the burly Crain were just campfire braggadocio....
Wash. forest fires spark debate on climate change It was a monster fire — 175,000 acres of tinder-dry timber just south of the Canadian border in north-central Washington state. In places it burned with an intensity rarely seen, crowning through stands of Douglas fir and ponderosa and lodgepole pine that had been weakened by a bark beetle infestation. "It was clearly a firestorm," said David Peterson, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab in Seattle. At its height, 2,300 firefighters battled the blaze, including crews from New Zealand, Mexico and soldiers dispatched from Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Wash. Last year's Tripod fire, the largest in Washington state in more than a century, smoldered through the winter, and several small spot fires have kicked up this summer. Peterson and others scientists say the Tripod fire could be a sign of things to come in the Western forests. Rising temperatures brought on by global warming put added stress on trees, making them more susceptible to bugs and disease, and stimulating the growth of underbrush and other fuels to feed the blazes. Some studies suggest that the number of acres scorched by wildfire could increase fivefold by the end of the century....
Bill would end 1872 mining act On Thursday, lawmakers discussed a bill to dismantle the General Mining Act of 1872, signed by President Ulysses Grant and unchanged since. Under the law, private companies haven't paid royalties to taxpayers for an estimated $245 billion worth of minerals extracted from public lands in the last 135 years. The law also allows companies to buy public land for as little as $5 an acre. The General Mining Act elevates mining's importance above other uses of public land, making it difficult for agencies like the U.S. Forest Service to deny any mine applications, environmentalists say. Mining companies argue that they comply with the existing federal law, as well as state regulations, and say many existing mines have set aside adequate bonds worth millions to cover responsible cleanup and reclamation once their operations are shuttered. Industry problems, including abandoned mines that leak cyanide and heavy metals, make the timing right for change, critics say....
Archaeologist helps firefighters preserve ancient Indian sites When lightning sent flames ripping across a Southern California mountain ridge last summer, fire officials wanted to cut firebreaks with bulldozers. But first they called U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Doug McKay. McKay knew the remote area east of Big Bear Lake was the ancestral home of Serrano Indians and told fire crews to hold off. After walking around the area, McKay warned officials the bulldozers likely would churn up innumerable ancient sites, crushing pieces of history and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. Officials took his words to heart and instead had firefighters clear brush by hand. Using shovels, firefighters carved a 2-foot-wide buffer that helped stop the 361-acre fire near Arrastre Creek. In the end, they preserved 22 ancient Indian sites, where McKay has since found an 8,000-year-old projectile point -- akin to an arrowhead -- pottery and other historical cultural items....
Horse trainer bets her luck on mustang named Chance Horse trainer Vixen Barney nervously tightens the saddle's cinch on a wild mustang, shoves a boot deep into the stirrup and swings aboard. A morning ride last week marked the first time anybody had gotten on the 3-year-old bay gelding named Chance. "I truly, honestly expected him to buck, and he never did," said the 34-year-old horse trainer from Enterprise. "Today was a huge day." Barney is taking part in "Extreme Mustang Makeover," a contest giving 100 trainers from 30 states 100 days to gentle and ride 100 wild mustangs. It is organized by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the nonprofit Mustang Heritage Foundation of Bertram, Texas. When the work ends Sept. 22, the trainers will gather in Fort Worth, Texas, with the mustangs to determine who did the best job. The prize: $25,000. The mustangs will be judged on conditioning, ground work with a trainer walking beside them, and a course requiring mustang and rider to negotiate obstacles found on trails and in general riding....
Reseeding Wildfire Areas to Cost Utah Millions It will cost many millions of dollars to purchase and plant new seed on the more than 450-hundred thousand acres burned so far by Utah wildfires this summer. Governor's spokesman Mike Mower says the state will find the money: "Fortunately this has been a good year for Utah - and the Governor has spoken with top legislative leadership - and we believe the funds to help reseed these areas will be there," says Mower. State and private lands account for only 30 percent of the total land charred this year. The rest are federal lands and Utah is not responsible for reseeding that land. However, Mower says state officials want to be sure all of the land is replanted this fall to prevent more flammable grasses from taking root and perpetuating wildfires. Mower says Utah can't afford to wait for the federal government to take care of its share of the land: "The question is who can get the cash first to buy the seed," says Mower. "And remember we're only half way through the fire season. So the Governor's thought is to buy the seed now and work out reimbursement and redistribution of costs later."....
Bush appointee "burrows in" at the Interior Department "Burrowing in" is slang for what happens in D.C. toward the end of a presidential administration when political appointees destined for the dust bin become full-fledged career government officials. Once embedded and untouchable, they are like moles in one of John le Carré's spy novels, left behind to quietly stand guard over the outgoing administration's turf. The practice is legal, and a 2006 government report suggests it has increased in recent years. On July 23, Matthew McKeown, a political appointee under the Bush White House, began a new job as a high-ranking civil-service employee at the Department of the Interior. McKeown was a deputy attorney general in Idaho during the tenure of then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who is now the Secretary of the Interior. In 2001, the Bush White House appointed McKeown to a job in the Office of the Solicitor, the legal adviser for the Interior Department. In October 2004, McKeown called the Endangered Species Act a form of "permanent hospice care" at an annual conference of the Property Rights Foundation. He also pushed the Healthy Forest Initiative, which environmental proponents say would let loggers cut more trees....
Without U.S. Rules, Biotech Food Lacks Investors This little piggy’s manure causes less pollution. This little piggy produces extra milk for her babies. And this little piggy makes fatty acids normally found in fish, so that eating its bacon might actually be good for you. The three pigs, all now living in experimental farmyards, are among the genetically engineered animals whose meat might one day turn up on American dinner plates. Bioengineers have also developed salmon that grow to market weight in about half the typical time, disease-resistant cows and catfish needing fewer antibiotics, and goats whose milk might help ward off infections in children who drink it. Only now, though, do federal officials seem to be getting serious about drafting rules that would determine whether and how such meat, milk and filets can safely enter the nation’s food supply. Some scientists and biotechnology executives say that by having the Food and Drug Administration spell out the rules of the game, big investors would finally be willing to put up money to create a market in so-called transgenic livestock....
Old cowboy isn't the retiring sort Under the blazing July sun, rancher Rolf Flake looks over his beloved Corriente cattle. It's at least 117 degrees, a temperature seemingly unfit for any living thing to be outside, and beads of sweat drip from his forehead and glide along the lines of his weathered face to his neck. "They're a tough old breed," says Flake. For a moment it's unclear if the Gilbert man is talking about the Corrientes or cowboys like himself. At 76, Flake is the real deal, a true Arizona cowboy who lives his life on horseback tending cattle and watching the sky for rain. He's also a poet who writes about life on the ranch. National Cowboy Day was Saturday and Flake wants you to know that he and others like him are not a dying breed.
"In this urban society you just don't see them," says Flake. "They're off the road."....
Environmental groups seek to invalidate N.M. county wolf law A federal court has been asked to strike down an ordinance that asserts Catron County's right to trap wild Mexican gray wolves that the county deems a threat to people. "The U.S. Constitution says federal law trumps state and local law when the two deal with the same issue," Melissa Hailey, an attorney for Forest Guardians, said Friday. The Santa Fe-based environmental group and Sinapu, a Boulder, Colo.-based carnivore activist group, sued the county commissioners Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe. The lawsuit alleges the county ordinance violates the federal Endangered Species Act and that the ordinance is invalid. The lawsuit seeks a court order halting the commission from taking any further action under the ordinance....
Wolves: Good with teriyaki sauce Currently, citizens in New Mexico's Catron County are considering making safety cages at bus stops to protect children waiting for school buses. How many children would have to die before all large predators would be eliminated from New Mexico? No children have been killed, yet. But, as an intellectual exercise in the theory of rights, what would be the governmental response to an animal predator killing a child? I suspect that the environmental lobby would paralyze the government officials since they are the most virulent force acting upon our government these days. With lawsuits and other intimidations no general response would follow the death of a child, only a specific one involving that individual predator. The New Mexico Legislature has considered banning all pit bull breeds of dogs in New Mexico because they are said to be dangerous. So why is there no move to ban wolves, mountain lions and bears who have even more potential for injury and death? Is being killed by a mountain lion somehow different than being killed by a pit bull? As to wolf reintroduction, I have gone 56 years without seeing a wolf in the wild and I can go another 56 years. But the wolf reintroduction is not really about the wolves....
Old growth species mandate lifted from Northwest Forest Plan Acting on an agreement with the timber industry, the Bush administration has decided to quit looking for little-known snails, lichens and other sensitive species before selling timber in Northwest national forests, setting up another round of litigation over a plan created to protect spotted owls and salmon. The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday that so-called "survey and manage" provisions have been eliminated from the Northwest Forest Plan by way of a final decision on an environmental impact statement signed by Assistant Secretary of Interior Steve Allred and Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey. The decision makes it easier to log islands of old growth timber that remain standing on areas of national forests and U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands designated for timber production in western Washington, Oregon and Northern California. "This decision is long overdue," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. "We are wasting our time and money to have government employees crawl on their hands and knees and turn over rocks to look for snails and lichens and other critters." West added that none of the species under the "survey and manage" provisions are protected by the Endangered Species Act, and the increase in logging will only fulfill the timber production promises of the Northwest Forest Plan....
So much for saving the spotted owl Two decades after the wrenching drive to save an obscure bird divided Oregonians, reshaped the economy and tore apart the political landscape, the northern spotted owl is disappearing anyway. Even the most optimistic biologists now admit that the docile owl -- revered and reviled as the most contentious symbol the Northwest has known -- will probably never fully recover. Intensive logging of the spotted owl's old-growth forest home threw the first punch that sent the species reeling. But the knockout blow is coming from a direction that scientists who drew up plans to save the owl didn't count on: nature itself. The versatile and voracious barred owl is proving far more adept at getting rid of the smaller owl than the Endangered Species Act was in saving it: Fewer than 25 spotted owls remain in British Columbia, the northern fringe of its range -- and where barred owls first moved into the West. Biologists say the best hope for Canada's spotted owls would be for zoos to capture and breed them, and perhaps someday return them to the wild. Spotted owls are vanishing inside Olympic National Park, where logging never disturbed them. A biologist looking for them says it sometimes seems like searching for the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker. Barred owl numbers, though, are "through the roof."....
To Oregon timber towns, it was the owl that roared In the late 1970s, some U.S. forest scientists became engrossed by a small, reclusive owl that fed on rodents in the wet, lush and steadily disappearing old-growth forests of Oregon. They determined that if the last of the old forests went away, so would the owl. Environmental groups, looking for a legal wedge in their increasingly aggressive crusade to halt old-growth logging, soon caught wind of the concerns and sued to list the northern spotted owl among the nation's endangered species. What followed was one of the most gut-grabbing economic and social upheavals in modern Oregon history. In the five years after 1990, timber employment dropped from 57,400 to 46,200 sending families to unemployment offices and food banks. Small communities across the state turned desperately to tourists or high-tech moguls to fill the economic void. "They were very emotional, very traumatic times," says Ray Wilkeson, public affairs director of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, a group that promotes logging. "A lot of damage was done to the social fabric of the state." The battle played out in courtrooms, headlines on the streets and in the forests. Loggers convoyed to Portland in a huge protest. On the other side, demonstrators dressed in feathers, sat in timber stands and refused to budge....
BLM monument planning process worries environmentalists Conservation groups are worried that resource-management plans being developed for 14 new national monuments don't do enough to protect the assets the monuments were created to protect. The monuments, most designated by President Bill Clinton during his final year in office, were created to protect a variety of natural and archeological treasures. The Bureau of Land Management has completed management plans for five of the Clinton national monuments. The nine others are being developed. For the next 10 to 20 years, these plans will dictate where visitors can drive their vehicles, where and when ranchers can graze livestock, how and where oil and gas companies can drill wells and when and where motorized boats can be used. The proclamations Clinton signed establishing the national monuments allow most of those traditional activities to continue, so long as they don't harm the monuments' treasures....
Forest Service considers poisoning prairie dogs The U.S. Forest Service is considering a proposal to allow the use of poison to help control prairie dogs on the Thunder Basin National Grassland in northeast Wyoming. The local landowner group that proposed the plan says the poisoning will lead to a more controlled and healthier ecosystem in the 572,000-acre grassland, while environmentalists berate the use of poison to control wildlife. The Forest Service expects to have a draft environmental impact statement complete within about two weeks, according to District Ranger Bob Sprentall in Douglas. "We're hoping to have the final out on this probably no later than the end of the year," Sprentall said Friday. The proposal being studied was offered by the Thunder Basin Grasslands Prairie Ecosystem Association, a group of private landowners in the area. The plan would allow for expanded use of rodenticide poison. Currently, poison can be used to control prairie dogs only if there is a human safety issue or if the animals threaten to damage cemeteries or structures, Sprentall said. Sprentall said current control methods, such as installing barriers and manipulating grass growth, haven't worked well in all situations....
In-situ mines draw federal regulators Federal regulators are planning a meeting here early next month to hear public comments and concerns about in-situ uranium mining. Recent increases in the price of uranium have sparked increased interest in the mining technique, in which chemicals are used to free uranium from the surrounding ore underground. Water holding the freed uranium is then pumped to the surface where it's refined. Four years ago, uranium oxide, or "yellowcake," sold for around $10 a pound. It has jumped to around $135 a pound, with prospects of even higher prices. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees the in-situ mining process. Faced with an increase in the number of applications from companies interested in building new facilities or expanding old ones, the agency is preparing a "generic environmental impact statement" to look at the effects of the in-situ mining technique. Dave McIntyre, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency expects so many new applications from companies interested in in-situ mining that, "if it all comes at once, there will be a resource problem." Preparing the generic environmental document will help to guide supplemental studies for individual projects, McIntyre said. "We want to get public input in case there's something we haven't thought of," he said....
Forest service learns to love fire a little bit Western public lands, including the Payette National Forest in Idaho, the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico and the Bitterroot National Forest that straddles the Montana-Idaho border, have become "let-it-burn laboratories," federal wildfire managers say. Sparse populations surrounding those forests make it possible to pursue some of the nation's most progressive fire management policies. An increasing number of wildfire managers are letting more lightning-caused fires on federal land burn, to help return forests to their natural state where wildfire and trees survived in equilibrium before modern man's arrival. The policy also keeps firefighters from harm's way — and could save millions of dollars otherwise spent fighting fires miles far from civilization. Environmental advocates favor these changes, saying they let Mother Nature take her course— even as some forest communities fear allowing more fires to burn is a recipe for disaster....
Forest Service gives boot to hopscotching squatters Home for Thomas "Hippie" Klinger used to be wherever he anchored his pea-green bus. The 57-year-old, Vietnam-era Army veteran hunkered down in the Ocala National Forest for months at a time, often among a grungy group of other free spirits and ne'er-do-wells whose perpetual presence prompted the U.S. Forest Service last year to sharply prune its length-of-stay rules in the federally managed wilderness. Under old rules, a visitor could stay in the forest indefinitely by hopscotching from campsite to campsite every two weeks. The new rules say visitors must leave after 14 days. Violators risk fines and permanent bans from all federal lands. Klinger was among those pushed out of the Ocala Forest by the new rules. Although he denies it, he also is counted among those furious about the changes, according to federal authorities who charged him with threatening to murder Forest Service Officer Chris Crain, who carried out the new rules. Klinger and co-defendant William Seagraves, 59, were acquitted recently of the charges that could have put both in federal prison for 10 years. Jurors said they sided with defense lawyers who suggested the two were harmless, frustrated men, whose overblown words about killing the burly Crain were just campfire braggadocio....
Wash. forest fires spark debate on climate change It was a monster fire — 175,000 acres of tinder-dry timber just south of the Canadian border in north-central Washington state. In places it burned with an intensity rarely seen, crowning through stands of Douglas fir and ponderosa and lodgepole pine that had been weakened by a bark beetle infestation. "It was clearly a firestorm," said David Peterson, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab in Seattle. At its height, 2,300 firefighters battled the blaze, including crews from New Zealand, Mexico and soldiers dispatched from Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Wash. Last year's Tripod fire, the largest in Washington state in more than a century, smoldered through the winter, and several small spot fires have kicked up this summer. Peterson and others scientists say the Tripod fire could be a sign of things to come in the Western forests. Rising temperatures brought on by global warming put added stress on trees, making them more susceptible to bugs and disease, and stimulating the growth of underbrush and other fuels to feed the blazes. Some studies suggest that the number of acres scorched by wildfire could increase fivefold by the end of the century....
Bill would end 1872 mining act On Thursday, lawmakers discussed a bill to dismantle the General Mining Act of 1872, signed by President Ulysses Grant and unchanged since. Under the law, private companies haven't paid royalties to taxpayers for an estimated $245 billion worth of minerals extracted from public lands in the last 135 years. The law also allows companies to buy public land for as little as $5 an acre. The General Mining Act elevates mining's importance above other uses of public land, making it difficult for agencies like the U.S. Forest Service to deny any mine applications, environmentalists say. Mining companies argue that they comply with the existing federal law, as well as state regulations, and say many existing mines have set aside adequate bonds worth millions to cover responsible cleanup and reclamation once their operations are shuttered. Industry problems, including abandoned mines that leak cyanide and heavy metals, make the timing right for change, critics say....
Archaeologist helps firefighters preserve ancient Indian sites When lightning sent flames ripping across a Southern California mountain ridge last summer, fire officials wanted to cut firebreaks with bulldozers. But first they called U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Doug McKay. McKay knew the remote area east of Big Bear Lake was the ancestral home of Serrano Indians and told fire crews to hold off. After walking around the area, McKay warned officials the bulldozers likely would churn up innumerable ancient sites, crushing pieces of history and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. Officials took his words to heart and instead had firefighters clear brush by hand. Using shovels, firefighters carved a 2-foot-wide buffer that helped stop the 361-acre fire near Arrastre Creek. In the end, they preserved 22 ancient Indian sites, where McKay has since found an 8,000-year-old projectile point -- akin to an arrowhead -- pottery and other historical cultural items....
Horse trainer bets her luck on mustang named Chance Horse trainer Vixen Barney nervously tightens the saddle's cinch on a wild mustang, shoves a boot deep into the stirrup and swings aboard. A morning ride last week marked the first time anybody had gotten on the 3-year-old bay gelding named Chance. "I truly, honestly expected him to buck, and he never did," said the 34-year-old horse trainer from Enterprise. "Today was a huge day." Barney is taking part in "Extreme Mustang Makeover," a contest giving 100 trainers from 30 states 100 days to gentle and ride 100 wild mustangs. It is organized by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the nonprofit Mustang Heritage Foundation of Bertram, Texas. When the work ends Sept. 22, the trainers will gather in Fort Worth, Texas, with the mustangs to determine who did the best job. The prize: $25,000. The mustangs will be judged on conditioning, ground work with a trainer walking beside them, and a course requiring mustang and rider to negotiate obstacles found on trails and in general riding....
Reseeding Wildfire Areas to Cost Utah Millions It will cost many millions of dollars to purchase and plant new seed on the more than 450-hundred thousand acres burned so far by Utah wildfires this summer. Governor's spokesman Mike Mower says the state will find the money: "Fortunately this has been a good year for Utah - and the Governor has spoken with top legislative leadership - and we believe the funds to help reseed these areas will be there," says Mower. State and private lands account for only 30 percent of the total land charred this year. The rest are federal lands and Utah is not responsible for reseeding that land. However, Mower says state officials want to be sure all of the land is replanted this fall to prevent more flammable grasses from taking root and perpetuating wildfires. Mower says Utah can't afford to wait for the federal government to take care of its share of the land: "The question is who can get the cash first to buy the seed," says Mower. "And remember we're only half way through the fire season. So the Governor's thought is to buy the seed now and work out reimbursement and redistribution of costs later."....
Bush appointee "burrows in" at the Interior Department "Burrowing in" is slang for what happens in D.C. toward the end of a presidential administration when political appointees destined for the dust bin become full-fledged career government officials. Once embedded and untouchable, they are like moles in one of John le Carré's spy novels, left behind to quietly stand guard over the outgoing administration's turf. The practice is legal, and a 2006 government report suggests it has increased in recent years. On July 23, Matthew McKeown, a political appointee under the Bush White House, began a new job as a high-ranking civil-service employee at the Department of the Interior. McKeown was a deputy attorney general in Idaho during the tenure of then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who is now the Secretary of the Interior. In 2001, the Bush White House appointed McKeown to a job in the Office of the Solicitor, the legal adviser for the Interior Department. In October 2004, McKeown called the Endangered Species Act a form of "permanent hospice care" at an annual conference of the Property Rights Foundation. He also pushed the Healthy Forest Initiative, which environmental proponents say would let loggers cut more trees....
Without U.S. Rules, Biotech Food Lacks Investors This little piggy’s manure causes less pollution. This little piggy produces extra milk for her babies. And this little piggy makes fatty acids normally found in fish, so that eating its bacon might actually be good for you. The three pigs, all now living in experimental farmyards, are among the genetically engineered animals whose meat might one day turn up on American dinner plates. Bioengineers have also developed salmon that grow to market weight in about half the typical time, disease-resistant cows and catfish needing fewer antibiotics, and goats whose milk might help ward off infections in children who drink it. Only now, though, do federal officials seem to be getting serious about drafting rules that would determine whether and how such meat, milk and filets can safely enter the nation’s food supply. Some scientists and biotechnology executives say that by having the Food and Drug Administration spell out the rules of the game, big investors would finally be willing to put up money to create a market in so-called transgenic livestock....
Old cowboy isn't the retiring sort Under the blazing July sun, rancher Rolf Flake looks over his beloved Corriente cattle. It's at least 117 degrees, a temperature seemingly unfit for any living thing to be outside, and beads of sweat drip from his forehead and glide along the lines of his weathered face to his neck. "They're a tough old breed," says Flake. For a moment it's unclear if the Gilbert man is talking about the Corrientes or cowboys like himself. At 76, Flake is the real deal, a true Arizona cowboy who lives his life on horseback tending cattle and watching the sky for rain. He's also a poet who writes about life on the ranch. National Cowboy Day was Saturday and Flake wants you to know that he and others like him are not a dying breed.
"In this urban society you just don't see them," says Flake. "They're off the road."....
Sunday, July 29, 2007
GTT-Gone to Texas
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy
By Julie Carter
I have lived in two states that, by and large, give Texas and Texans a hard time. But I always have to admit, a good number of my best friends are Texans.
As I write this, I sit deep in the heart of Texas on the eve of my departure for home and New Mexico.
It has been a wonderful, if short, vacation to the land of green grass, swimming pools, pretty horses and people who have a flair for large-scale hospitality.
Texans are a very social culture. Anytime anyone runs over a possum, there is a party.
I tried to suggest photographing a road-kill armadillo today as we sped down the highway and my hostess assured me there would many other opportunities.
Now, I understand that a visit to Texas for most wouldn't include a tour of the area's indoor equestrian arenas, but I loved it.
The arenas ranged from the oldest still-standing and useable to a number of multi-million dollar complexes nicer than most state fairground facilities.
I liked driving down the web of Texas highways seeing endless bales of hay in every field and for miles in every direction.
Everywhere, I saw fat, slick cattle stocked nose-to-tail in belly-deep grass.
And of course, if you go to Texas, your tour guide will tell you it's mandatory to visit the world's largest honky tonk, Billy Bob's Texas.
With three acres of bars, dance floor and a bull riding arena inside plus 20 acres of parking, this place is big even by Texas standards.
A historical tour of the Fort Worth Stockyards and a few tales of how it "used to be in the old days" completed my Texas history lesson.
A walk through the new and very elegant Cowgirl Hall of Fame was also a must-see.
Lunch with the charming and witty editor of one of Texas' premier team roping magazines (that also happens to carry my column) was an eye-opener for me as to the magnitude of that particular cowboy sport in the state.
It is a huge industry nationally and headed for international popularity.
According to a survey, there are in the neighborhood of 25,000 active, competing team ropers in Texas alone.
The economical impact of that is staggering and it explains why a long list of towns, producers and suppliers of related equipment are wooing and catering to the sport.
Near Hamilton is the Circle T Arena with four acres under a roof. Amenities include a café, cantina, a stage for live music events, a saddlery and western store and a swimming pool.
It was suggested that a camera be placed in the arena so the ladies could sit by the pool and still watch their heroes rope via a monitor.
The reverse was also suggested indicating that some ropers might want to watch the poolside action while they waited to rope.
Privately owned, the comment is often repeated that someone started building an arena for his son and didn't know when to quit. It is Texas money well spent.
You know you are in Texas when you spend the day sightseeing and shopping and then return home to enjoy brie on crackers with a glass of wine while reading the latest issues of the Dally Times, Spin to Win and SuperLooper.
Poolside, of course.
I wonder what my mother will say when I tell her I'm moving to Texas to become a team roper?
Julie can be reached while shopping at the National Roper Supply store or visit her Web site at julie-carter.com.
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy
By Julie Carter
I have lived in two states that, by and large, give Texas and Texans a hard time. But I always have to admit, a good number of my best friends are Texans.
As I write this, I sit deep in the heart of Texas on the eve of my departure for home and New Mexico.
It has been a wonderful, if short, vacation to the land of green grass, swimming pools, pretty horses and people who have a flair for large-scale hospitality.
Texans are a very social culture. Anytime anyone runs over a possum, there is a party.
I tried to suggest photographing a road-kill armadillo today as we sped down the highway and my hostess assured me there would many other opportunities.
Now, I understand that a visit to Texas for most wouldn't include a tour of the area's indoor equestrian arenas, but I loved it.
The arenas ranged from the oldest still-standing and useable to a number of multi-million dollar complexes nicer than most state fairground facilities.
I liked driving down the web of Texas highways seeing endless bales of hay in every field and for miles in every direction.
Everywhere, I saw fat, slick cattle stocked nose-to-tail in belly-deep grass.
And of course, if you go to Texas, your tour guide will tell you it's mandatory to visit the world's largest honky tonk, Billy Bob's Texas.
With three acres of bars, dance floor and a bull riding arena inside plus 20 acres of parking, this place is big even by Texas standards.
A historical tour of the Fort Worth Stockyards and a few tales of how it "used to be in the old days" completed my Texas history lesson.
A walk through the new and very elegant Cowgirl Hall of Fame was also a must-see.
Lunch with the charming and witty editor of one of Texas' premier team roping magazines (that also happens to carry my column) was an eye-opener for me as to the magnitude of that particular cowboy sport in the state.
It is a huge industry nationally and headed for international popularity.
According to a survey, there are in the neighborhood of 25,000 active, competing team ropers in Texas alone.
The economical impact of that is staggering and it explains why a long list of towns, producers and suppliers of related equipment are wooing and catering to the sport.
Near Hamilton is the Circle T Arena with four acres under a roof. Amenities include a café, cantina, a stage for live music events, a saddlery and western store and a swimming pool.
It was suggested that a camera be placed in the arena so the ladies could sit by the pool and still watch their heroes rope via a monitor.
The reverse was also suggested indicating that some ropers might want to watch the poolside action while they waited to rope.
Privately owned, the comment is often repeated that someone started building an arena for his son and didn't know when to quit. It is Texas money well spent.
You know you are in Texas when you spend the day sightseeing and shopping and then return home to enjoy brie on crackers with a glass of wine while reading the latest issues of the Dally Times, Spin to Win and SuperLooper.
Poolside, of course.
I wonder what my mother will say when I tell her I'm moving to Texas to become a team roper?
Julie can be reached while shopping at the National Roper Supply store or visit her Web site at julie-carter.com.
FLE
Bush calls for easier wiretap rules US President George W. Bush on Saturday called for Congress to revise a US security law in order to ease restrictions on the government's secret communications surveillance of terror suspects. Amid furor over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's handling of the government's secret warrantless wiretap program, Bush urged legislators to pass the update of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) proposed in April. The changes would ease intelligence collection aimed at people plotting attacks on the United States, Bush said in his weekly radio address. Bushed urged lawmakers to work in a bipartisan manner to pass the legislation before leaving for August recess, saying: "Our national security depends on it." The FISA reform proposed by the White House in April would loosen restrictions on tapping into emails, phone calls and other communications inside the country and possibly allow the US to freely tap into international communications routed through the United States. It will also protect telecommunications companies who cooperate in the effort. Several major companies have been sued for helping with the wiretaps....
Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program. It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues. The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation. A half-dozen officials and former officials interviewed for this article would speak only on the condition of anonymity, in part because unauthorized disclosures about the classified program are already the subject of a criminal investigation. Some of the officials said the 2004 dispute involved other issues in addition to the data mining, but would not provide details. They would not say whether the differences were over how the databases were searched or how the resulting information was used. Nor would they explain what modifications to the surveillance program President Bush authorized to head off the threatened resignations by Justice Department officials. Government examination of the records, which allows intelligence analysts to trace relationships between callers and identify possible terrorist cells, is considered less intrusive than actual eavesdropping. But the N.S.A.’s eavesdropping targeted international calls and e-mail messages of people inside the United States, while the databases contain primarily domestic records. The conflict in 2004 appears to have turned on differing interpretations of the president’s power to bypass the FISA law and obtain access to the records....
CIA blunders outlined in new book The CIA thought it had an intelligence coup on its hands in 1994. Its friends in the Guatemalan military were bugging the bedroom of Marilyn McAfee, the American ambassador in that country, whom they regarded as suspect because she was fighting human rights abuses by the regime. Eavesdroppers heard her whispering sweet nothings to someone whom they took to be her secretary, another female diplomat - and the CIA set out to undermine Mrs McAfee by spreading rumours in Washington that she was a lesbian. There was just one problem. The ambassador, who was happily married, was not having an affair with her secretary. The secret microphones had instead recorded her "cooing endearments" to Murphy, her poodle. The mistake is just one example of bungling by the CIA chronicled in a new history of the agency by the Pulitzer prize-winning author, Tim Weiner, who has covered intelligence matters for The New York Times for two decades. His book draws on 50,000 documents in the CIA's archives, dating back to 1947, the year it was founded, and more than 300 interviews with staff, past and present, including 10 former directors. Weiner concludes that "the most powerful nation in the history of Western civilisation has failed to create a first-rate spy service" - a failure, he argues, that is a danger to American security....Also see A different sort of exposé: The CIA as rarely competent
Bush calls for easier wiretap rules US President George W. Bush on Saturday called for Congress to revise a US security law in order to ease restrictions on the government's secret communications surveillance of terror suspects. Amid furor over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's handling of the government's secret warrantless wiretap program, Bush urged legislators to pass the update of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) proposed in April. The changes would ease intelligence collection aimed at people plotting attacks on the United States, Bush said in his weekly radio address. Bushed urged lawmakers to work in a bipartisan manner to pass the legislation before leaving for August recess, saying: "Our national security depends on it." The FISA reform proposed by the White House in April would loosen restrictions on tapping into emails, phone calls and other communications inside the country and possibly allow the US to freely tap into international communications routed through the United States. It will also protect telecommunications companies who cooperate in the effort. Several major companies have been sued for helping with the wiretaps....
Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program. It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues. The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation. A half-dozen officials and former officials interviewed for this article would speak only on the condition of anonymity, in part because unauthorized disclosures about the classified program are already the subject of a criminal investigation. Some of the officials said the 2004 dispute involved other issues in addition to the data mining, but would not provide details. They would not say whether the differences were over how the databases were searched or how the resulting information was used. Nor would they explain what modifications to the surveillance program President Bush authorized to head off the threatened resignations by Justice Department officials. Government examination of the records, which allows intelligence analysts to trace relationships between callers and identify possible terrorist cells, is considered less intrusive than actual eavesdropping. But the N.S.A.’s eavesdropping targeted international calls and e-mail messages of people inside the United States, while the databases contain primarily domestic records. The conflict in 2004 appears to have turned on differing interpretations of the president’s power to bypass the FISA law and obtain access to the records....
CIA blunders outlined in new book The CIA thought it had an intelligence coup on its hands in 1994. Its friends in the Guatemalan military were bugging the bedroom of Marilyn McAfee, the American ambassador in that country, whom they regarded as suspect because she was fighting human rights abuses by the regime. Eavesdroppers heard her whispering sweet nothings to someone whom they took to be her secretary, another female diplomat - and the CIA set out to undermine Mrs McAfee by spreading rumours in Washington that she was a lesbian. There was just one problem. The ambassador, who was happily married, was not having an affair with her secretary. The secret microphones had instead recorded her "cooing endearments" to Murphy, her poodle. The mistake is just one example of bungling by the CIA chronicled in a new history of the agency by the Pulitzer prize-winning author, Tim Weiner, who has covered intelligence matters for The New York Times for two decades. His book draws on 50,000 documents in the CIA's archives, dating back to 1947, the year it was founded, and more than 300 interviews with staff, past and present, including 10 former directors. Weiner concludes that "the most powerful nation in the history of Western civilisation has failed to create a first-rate spy service" - a failure, he argues, that is a danger to American security....Also see A different sort of exposé: The CIA as rarely competent
Saturday, July 28, 2007
CATRON COUNTY SUED BY ENVIRO GROUPS
Forest Guardians claim injury due to County’s Ordinance
CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman
Contact: Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney
Phone 505.533.6265
Email: shortes2@gilanet.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RESERVE, N.M. On July 25, 2007, a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief was filed against Catron County in federal district court by the environmental groups Forest Guardians and Sinapu, who are claiming injury to themselves for violation of the Endangered Species Act by the County, and for the Countys enactment of a Mexican wolf related Ordinance.
This suit is a gross misrepresentation made in bad faith which distorts the facts and law, Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney said. It is a cheap theatrical trick used to lie to the public about what is actually going on in Catron County, about the failure of the wolf program and the great danger it poses to human beings.
Catron County, as of the opening of business offices on Friday morning, July 27, had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
When Catron County is properly served with the suit, which Forest Guardians has not bothered to do - another indication of bad faith - we will have the chance to address the issues, Shortes said. When we answer this within the time required by law, we will tell the judge and the public the truth about the facts and the law.
We are the county where they’ve released most of the wolves, so we’re the ones whose children are endangered the most, Shortes said. The Forest Guardians and Sinapu are composed of people who don’t even live here - Sinapu is a carnivore protection group focused on the Southern Rocky Mountains. These organizations aren’t suffering from the problems with the wolf program - we here in Catron County are. Even the wolves here are suffering more from this poorly managed program than the Forest Guardians and Sinapu are.
# # #
hat tip to wolfcrossing
Forest Guardians claim injury due to County’s Ordinance
CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman
Contact: Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney
Phone 505.533.6265
Email: shortes2@gilanet.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RESERVE, N.M. On July 25, 2007, a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief was filed against Catron County in federal district court by the environmental groups Forest Guardians and Sinapu, who are claiming injury to themselves for violation of the Endangered Species Act by the County, and for the Countys enactment of a Mexican wolf related Ordinance.
This suit is a gross misrepresentation made in bad faith which distorts the facts and law, Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney said. It is a cheap theatrical trick used to lie to the public about what is actually going on in Catron County, about the failure of the wolf program and the great danger it poses to human beings.
Catron County, as of the opening of business offices on Friday morning, July 27, had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
When Catron County is properly served with the suit, which Forest Guardians has not bothered to do - another indication of bad faith - we will have the chance to address the issues, Shortes said. When we answer this within the time required by law, we will tell the judge and the public the truth about the facts and the law.
We are the county where they’ve released most of the wolves, so we’re the ones whose children are endangered the most, Shortes said. The Forest Guardians and Sinapu are composed of people who don’t even live here - Sinapu is a carnivore protection group focused on the Southern Rocky Mountains. These organizations aren’t suffering from the problems with the wolf program - we here in Catron County are. Even the wolves here are suffering more from this poorly managed program than the Forest Guardians and Sinapu are.
# # #
hat tip to wolfcrossing
Senate Committee Passes a Parade of Pork - Threatens Property Rights
A cynic might view today's action in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as a rare example of congressional efficiency. The committee managed to pass a bevy of pork-barrel legislation that simultaneously expands the ever-growing federal estate and threatens the rights of private property owners. The Committee's timing is curious. Since the Supreme Court's dreadful ruling in "Kelo v. New London," Americans nationwide have clamored for stronger private property rights protections. Americans are also increasingly angry about wasteful spending and pork-barrel earmarks like the infamous "bridge to nowhere." So it makes perfect nonsense that the Senate Resources Committee would respond with a slew of pork barrel programs that threaten private property rights. Is it any wonder congressional approval ratings are so low? Among the bills passed today...
A cynic might view today's action in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as a rare example of congressional efficiency. The committee managed to pass a bevy of pork-barrel legislation that simultaneously expands the ever-growing federal estate and threatens the rights of private property owners. The Committee's timing is curious. Since the Supreme Court's dreadful ruling in "Kelo v. New London," Americans nationwide have clamored for stronger private property rights protections. Americans are also increasingly angry about wasteful spending and pork-barrel earmarks like the infamous "bridge to nowhere." So it makes perfect nonsense that the Senate Resources Committee would respond with a slew of pork barrel programs that threaten private property rights. Is it any wonder congressional approval ratings are so low? Among the bills passed today...
Friday, July 27, 2007
GAO
Federal Timber Sales: Forest Service Could Improve Efficiency of Field-Level Timber Sales Management by Maintaining More Detailed Data. GAO-07-764, June 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-764
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07764high.pdf
Federal Timber Sales: Forest Service Could Improve Efficiency of Field-Level Timber Sales Management by Maintaining More Detailed Data. GAO-07-764, June 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-764
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07764high.pdf
FLE
Border agent says China ordered his prosecution A Border Patrol agent who was acquitted of a charge of using excessive force during a 2004 arrest of a Chinese national on suspicion of drug smuggling is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $25 million. And in a companion lawsuit, Robert Rhodes is seeking another $25 million from three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the Office of Professional Responsibility. He says the agents disregarded their oaths by pursuing a politically motivated prosecution against him to appease their superiors, who allegedly were seeking to do what communist China wanted. "I was involved in a political prosecution that our government began at the demand of the government of communist China," Rhodes told WND. "The prosecution was promised to China by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge." His lawyer, Steven Cohen, concurs. "My client's prosecution was ordered by the Bush administration to appease the Chinese government," Cohen told WND....
Chinese spying a 'substantial' concern: FBI chief China's espionage operations are of "substantial concern," and the United States is taking new steps to address the threat, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday. Mueller was asked about Beijing's spying programs in the United States during a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, but said he could give few details in an unclassified setting. "I can say that it is a substantial concern," Mueller said. "China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in terms of its military technology but also the economic capability of China. "It is a substantial threat that we are addressing in the sense of putting -- building our program to address this threat."....
House votes for plan to free Ramos, Compean The House of Representatives has attached two amendments to spending bills intended to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean from prison and prohibit the Department of Transportation from spending any funds on the development of NAFTA Superhighways. Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, sponsored an amendment that was co-sponsored by Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., aimed at prohibiting the federal government from spending any federal funds to keep Ramos and Compean imprisoned. The amendment, which passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan voice vote, is designed to be a "get-out-of-jail now" maneuver forcing the Bureau of Prisons to release the two agents. "This amendment represents a novel concept," Poe told WND. "But the House had a lively, emotional, and intense debate on the floor and the more the debate proceeded the more I'm convinced we are winning a lot of people over."....
The Pardon Pander The House of Representatives is perched to equal or better the instruction of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney in sneering at the Constitution's separation of powers. In an amendment to the pending defense appropriations bill that passed last night on a voice vote, the House usurped the president's pardon authority by commuting the sentences of the two former Border Patrol agents convicted in 2005 of federal firearms violations and obstructing justice in connection with shooting an illegal-alien smuggler. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively. Their case has become a cause célèbre on the right. And now, Congress has responded to the outcry by subordinating the Constitution in defiance of the congressional oath of office. The amendment that passed last night, sponsored by Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., provides: "None of the funds made available under this Act shall be used by the Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate Ignacio Ramos or Jose Alonso Compean." But the Constitution entrusts the power to pardon offenses against the United States or to commute sentences exclusively to the president. The enumerated legislative powers do not hint at a concurrent authority in Congress. Pardons or commutations, moreover, have invariably been associated with law enforcement as opposed to law-making. In the 1872 case United States v. Klein, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional an attempt by Congress to subtract from the legal effect of a pardon. Contrary to a common assumption, the power of the purse does not give this amendment any greater claim to constitutionality....
Legal Brief Says Border Agents Were Charged With 'Non-Existent Crime' Two Border Patrol agents whose prosecution and sentences to lengthy prison terms triggered a political storm this year may have been charged with a "non-existent crime," according to a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court in May, and obtained by Cybercast News Service. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are serving 11- and 12-year sentences respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican national who was trying to escape after attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the Mexico-Texas border in February 2005. Although they were convicted on 11 counts, the crime carrying the lengthiest penalty was for the "discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence," a violation of section 924(c)(1)(a) of the U.S. Code. It carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence. Cybercast News Service obtained a copy of an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") legal brief filed by Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Virgil Goode (R-Va.), and Ted Poe (R-Texas) in the former agents' appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. They accuse the prosecution of "creating a purported criminal offense never enacted into law by Congress," and of charging Ramos and Compean with a "non-existent crime." Simply discharging a firearm near a violent crime is not illegal, the brief argued, saying the law they were convicted under is not a law at all, but a sentencing factor used to help a jury determine jail time after a conviction....
Senators agree to additional $3 billion in border security funds Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday to add $3 billion in technology and resources to the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security spending bill for border security and to crack down on illegal immigrants. The extra $3 billion would cover completion of 700 miles of border fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers. It also would pay for an additional 23,000 Border Patrol officers and increase the number of beds available to detain illegal immigrants to 45,000. It would also pay for 105 ground-based radars and surveillance towers along the border, along with four new unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the agreement reached with Cornyn, the funds can also be used to detain and remove foreigners who have overstayed their visas, criminal aliens and aliens who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported. It can also reimburse state and local governments for costs associated with border security. Cornyn said 45 percent of all illegal immigrants in the country are foreigners who came in legally and overstayed....
Judge Blocks City's Ordinances Against Illegal Immigration A federal judge issued a permanent injunction yesterday against restrictive anti-illegal-immigration ordinances in Hazleton, Pa., a city described by its mayor as "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America." In a strongly worded opinion handed down at the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., Judge James M. Munley ruled that federal law "prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions of its ordinances," which impose a $1,000-per-day fine on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, revoke the business license of any employer who hires them, declare English as the official language and bar city employees from translating documents to another language without approval. Civil liberties organizations sued on behalf of illegal and legal immigrant plaintiffs, including the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, saying that the city infringed on the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. But the opponents vowed to appeal the decision and to continue the fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Attorneys have already drafted appeal briefs," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Seeking to severely restrict immigration, the group strongly supported Hazleton's ordinances. In a statement, Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta said: "This fight is far from over. I have said it many times before: Hazleton is not going to back down. We are discouraged to see a federal judge has decided -- wrongly, we believe -- that Hazleton and cities like it around the nation cannot enact legislation to protect their citizens, their services, and their budgets."....
FBI ordered to pay $101.7m in false murder convictions A federal judge held the FBI "responsible for the framing of four innocent men" in a 1965 gangland murder in a landmark ruling yesterday and ordered the government to pay the men $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison. The award is believed to be the largest of its kind nationally. In a decision that was as dramatic as it was stern, US District Judge Nancy Gertner said from the bench that the FBI had deliberately withheld evidence that Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo were innocent, and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars and Tameleo and Greco died. "FBI officials up the line allowed their employees to break laws, violate rules, and ruin lives, interrupted only with the occasional burst of applause," said Gertner, berating the FBI for giving commendations and bonuses to the agents who helped send the men to prison for the killing in Chelsea of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum. "Sadly when law enforcement perverts its mission, the criminal justice system does not easily self-correct," Gertner said. "We understand that our system makes mistakes; we have appeals to address them. But this case goes beyond mistakes, beyond unavoidable errors of a fallible system." She added, "This case is about intentional misconduct, subornation of perjury, conspiracy, the framing of innocent men." Later in the day, Gertner released a 223-page decision detailing her findings. She found that the government, which was sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act, was liable for the malicious prosecution of the four men, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence....
Border agent says China ordered his prosecution A Border Patrol agent who was acquitted of a charge of using excessive force during a 2004 arrest of a Chinese national on suspicion of drug smuggling is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $25 million. And in a companion lawsuit, Robert Rhodes is seeking another $25 million from three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the Office of Professional Responsibility. He says the agents disregarded their oaths by pursuing a politically motivated prosecution against him to appease their superiors, who allegedly were seeking to do what communist China wanted. "I was involved in a political prosecution that our government began at the demand of the government of communist China," Rhodes told WND. "The prosecution was promised to China by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge." His lawyer, Steven Cohen, concurs. "My client's prosecution was ordered by the Bush administration to appease the Chinese government," Cohen told WND....
Chinese spying a 'substantial' concern: FBI chief China's espionage operations are of "substantial concern," and the United States is taking new steps to address the threat, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday. Mueller was asked about Beijing's spying programs in the United States during a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, but said he could give few details in an unclassified setting. "I can say that it is a substantial concern," Mueller said. "China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in terms of its military technology but also the economic capability of China. "It is a substantial threat that we are addressing in the sense of putting -- building our program to address this threat."....
House votes for plan to free Ramos, Compean The House of Representatives has attached two amendments to spending bills intended to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean from prison and prohibit the Department of Transportation from spending any funds on the development of NAFTA Superhighways. Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, sponsored an amendment that was co-sponsored by Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., aimed at prohibiting the federal government from spending any federal funds to keep Ramos and Compean imprisoned. The amendment, which passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan voice vote, is designed to be a "get-out-of-jail now" maneuver forcing the Bureau of Prisons to release the two agents. "This amendment represents a novel concept," Poe told WND. "But the House had a lively, emotional, and intense debate on the floor and the more the debate proceeded the more I'm convinced we are winning a lot of people over."....
The Pardon Pander The House of Representatives is perched to equal or better the instruction of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney in sneering at the Constitution's separation of powers. In an amendment to the pending defense appropriations bill that passed last night on a voice vote, the House usurped the president's pardon authority by commuting the sentences of the two former Border Patrol agents convicted in 2005 of federal firearms violations and obstructing justice in connection with shooting an illegal-alien smuggler. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively. Their case has become a cause célèbre on the right. And now, Congress has responded to the outcry by subordinating the Constitution in defiance of the congressional oath of office. The amendment that passed last night, sponsored by Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., provides: "None of the funds made available under this Act shall be used by the Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate Ignacio Ramos or Jose Alonso Compean." But the Constitution entrusts the power to pardon offenses against the United States or to commute sentences exclusively to the president. The enumerated legislative powers do not hint at a concurrent authority in Congress. Pardons or commutations, moreover, have invariably been associated with law enforcement as opposed to law-making. In the 1872 case United States v. Klein, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional an attempt by Congress to subtract from the legal effect of a pardon. Contrary to a common assumption, the power of the purse does not give this amendment any greater claim to constitutionality....
Legal Brief Says Border Agents Were Charged With 'Non-Existent Crime' Two Border Patrol agents whose prosecution and sentences to lengthy prison terms triggered a political storm this year may have been charged with a "non-existent crime," according to a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court in May, and obtained by Cybercast News Service. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are serving 11- and 12-year sentences respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican national who was trying to escape after attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the Mexico-Texas border in February 2005. Although they were convicted on 11 counts, the crime carrying the lengthiest penalty was for the "discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence," a violation of section 924(c)(1)(a) of the U.S. Code. It carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence. Cybercast News Service obtained a copy of an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") legal brief filed by Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Virgil Goode (R-Va.), and Ted Poe (R-Texas) in the former agents' appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. They accuse the prosecution of "creating a purported criminal offense never enacted into law by Congress," and of charging Ramos and Compean with a "non-existent crime." Simply discharging a firearm near a violent crime is not illegal, the brief argued, saying the law they were convicted under is not a law at all, but a sentencing factor used to help a jury determine jail time after a conviction....
Senators agree to additional $3 billion in border security funds Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday to add $3 billion in technology and resources to the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security spending bill for border security and to crack down on illegal immigrants. The extra $3 billion would cover completion of 700 miles of border fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers. It also would pay for an additional 23,000 Border Patrol officers and increase the number of beds available to detain illegal immigrants to 45,000. It would also pay for 105 ground-based radars and surveillance towers along the border, along with four new unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the agreement reached with Cornyn, the funds can also be used to detain and remove foreigners who have overstayed their visas, criminal aliens and aliens who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported. It can also reimburse state and local governments for costs associated with border security. Cornyn said 45 percent of all illegal immigrants in the country are foreigners who came in legally and overstayed....
Judge Blocks City's Ordinances Against Illegal Immigration A federal judge issued a permanent injunction yesterday against restrictive anti-illegal-immigration ordinances in Hazleton, Pa., a city described by its mayor as "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America." In a strongly worded opinion handed down at the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., Judge James M. Munley ruled that federal law "prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions of its ordinances," which impose a $1,000-per-day fine on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, revoke the business license of any employer who hires them, declare English as the official language and bar city employees from translating documents to another language without approval. Civil liberties organizations sued on behalf of illegal and legal immigrant plaintiffs, including the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, saying that the city infringed on the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. But the opponents vowed to appeal the decision and to continue the fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Attorneys have already drafted appeal briefs," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Seeking to severely restrict immigration, the group strongly supported Hazleton's ordinances. In a statement, Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta said: "This fight is far from over. I have said it many times before: Hazleton is not going to back down. We are discouraged to see a federal judge has decided -- wrongly, we believe -- that Hazleton and cities like it around the nation cannot enact legislation to protect their citizens, their services, and their budgets."....
FBI ordered to pay $101.7m in false murder convictions A federal judge held the FBI "responsible for the framing of four innocent men" in a 1965 gangland murder in a landmark ruling yesterday and ordered the government to pay the men $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison. The award is believed to be the largest of its kind nationally. In a decision that was as dramatic as it was stern, US District Judge Nancy Gertner said from the bench that the FBI had deliberately withheld evidence that Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo were innocent, and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars and Tameleo and Greco died. "FBI officials up the line allowed their employees to break laws, violate rules, and ruin lives, interrupted only with the occasional burst of applause," said Gertner, berating the FBI for giving commendations and bonuses to the agents who helped send the men to prison for the killing in Chelsea of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum. "Sadly when law enforcement perverts its mission, the criminal justice system does not easily self-correct," Gertner said. "We understand that our system makes mistakes; we have appeals to address them. But this case goes beyond mistakes, beyond unavoidable errors of a fallible system." She added, "This case is about intentional misconduct, subornation of perjury, conspiracy, the framing of innocent men." Later in the day, Gertner released a 223-page decision detailing her findings. She found that the government, which was sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act, was liable for the malicious prosecution of the four men, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Cattlemen respond to BLM impound notice After being served with a Bureau of Land Management notice of intent to impound their livestock last Friday, Bruce Bedke and his son Jared Bedke filed a complaint Tuesday in Cassia County Magistrate Court to stop the impoundment. Included in the Bedkes' suit is a request to withdraw from a 1963 agreement between BLM and ranchers on the Goose Creek range. The agreement separated the range into individual and group allotments and establishing a fund for improvements to the range. The Bedkes' grazing permit expired Feb. 28. The Bedkes said that in 2004 BLM changed the original terms of the 1963 agreement by dividing the Goose Creek Group allotment, which allowed the Bedkes and three other ranchers to collectively graze their animals on land east of Goose Creek, into private allotments where each rancher has exclusive grazing rights. Permit forms offered to the Bedkes require them to abide by terms and conditions established in that 2004 division. The Bedkes also say the Goose Creek range is not public land and is therefore not rightfully managed by BLM. They say their family has grazed cattle on the range since 1878. In 1955, final allotment of grazing rights was awarded to ranchers in the Goose Creek range according to their prior, established use of the land. Because the Bedkes' right was among those allotted at that time, they say they believe those rights exclude the property from being considered public land. The agreement in 1963 between ranchers and BLM, the family says, was designed to arbitrate the division of grazing allotments between groups and individuals, but did not surrender management of the range itself....Wanna bet the Feds first move will be to move this to Federal Court?
Mexican Wolf Program -- Tried and Failed For the last 10 years, New Mexico has been home to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. This program, which purports to restore Mexican Wolves to the communities surrounding the Blue Range Recovery Area, has not only failed, but it has become a detriment to the surrounding communities. I believe, the time has come to stop squandering taxpayer dollars on this wasted effort. Recently, I offered an amendment that would remove funding for the program entirely. Given the overwhelming evidence, I have concluded that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves in New Mexico. Beginning in 1998 captive bred habituated Mexican grey wolves were released into areas of Catron and Grant counties. In almost a decade, 58 wolves have been reintroduced at a cost of $14 million – over $241,000 per wolf. Of those, we are currently on pace to remove 12 in 2007 for being “problem wolves.” That means for every five wolves released into the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to spend additional resources removing one for multiple attacks on pets and livestock and threatening people. This is not the kind of track record that deserves further investment. More importantly, the problem has expanded beyond the control of the Fish and Wildlife Service. I continue to receive complaints from constituents who have witnessed wolves just yards from their front door. I have pictures of horses eaten to the bone by a pack of wolves in corrals. I have received a letter from a father who insists that his 13-year-old daughter carry a pistol while doing her chores....
Getting hotter The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic. During a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday, Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, confronted EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson about the strongly-worded letter written July 13 by Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) that was sent to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). "It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on." CEI does not dispute climate change, however it differs with certain environmental groups, including ACORE, on the causes. After Mr. Inhofe read Mr. Eckhart's comments, which were first reported by Inside the Beltway two weeks ago, the EPA chief promised to probe the matter. "Statements like this are of concern to me. I am a believer in cooperation and collaboration across all sectors," Mr. Johnson assured. "This is an area I will look into for the record." When Mr. Johnson confirmed that EPA is a member of ACORE, Mr. Inhofe asked if "it is appropriate to be a part of an organization that is headed up by a person who makes this statement."....
Ranchers Unite to Save Land Near Zion National Park The Nature Conservancy has signed option agreements with five ranchers to purchase conservation easements on 2,423 acres of agricultural land and critical wildlife habitat in southwestern Utah, adjacent to Zion National Park. The agreements are a key first step in the Virgin River Headwaters Project, which may eventually involve as many as 17 landowners and protect as much as 11,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy is now seeking public and private funds to purchase the conservation easements, which will protect the wildlife habitat and productive ranch land by preventing habitat fragmentation and development. Through the use of conservation easements, private lands will remain on the tax rolls and traditional land uses will continue. Once in place, the agreements are binding on all future landowners....
TPL bargains for Wilson access The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is negotiating with Silver Pick Basin landowner Rusty Nichols to buy his property and renew access to Wilson Peak. A recent Special Initiative Grant from the Telluride Foundation contributed $150,000 to the effort, which could speed up a deal. “It’s a key gift in allowing us to move forward,” said Jason Corzine, TPL’s project manager, who expects to close on the property in late October. A private conservation group, TPL will put the grant money toward the purchase of Nichols’ 220-acre parcel by Wilson Peak, including land near the summit. The purchase will also ensure an end to any potential mining on the land....
Bush opposes rewrite of mining law The Bush administration on Thursday came out against a proposed revision of a 135-year-old hard-rock mining law that would impose the first-ever royalty fees and environmental restrictions for mining on public land. Congressional plans to revise the mining law would let the government assess royalty fees for the first time on the extracted minerals. And it would give more power to environmentalists who think the mining industry has despoiled the environment for too long. The U.S, Bureau of Land Management says the proposed new regulations could hurt the mining industry, the economy and U.S. security....
Firefighting costs out of control, says panel Economists, foresters and federal officials debated Thursday how to lower the skyrocketing cost of fighting wildfires, mulling solutions that ranged from staying the course to abolishing the U.S. Forest Service. The agency's fire spending is “out of control,” said Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank. A forest economist, O'Toole released a policy paper suggesting a range of six alternatives to fix the problem. O'Toole said the Forest Service has had a virtual blank check to fight wildfires. After bad fire seasons or loss of life or homes in wildfires, Congress rewards the agency with more money, he said. “Fire has given the Forest Service money and power more than almost anything else,” O'Toole said. O'Toole proposes to stop funding the Forest Service with tax dollars. Instead, each forest's budget would come from its own user fees, including timber, grazing, mining and recreation. Individual forests' board of directors could choose whether to use the fees on fire suppression or to let more fires burn, he said. James Hubbard, deputy chief for state and private forestry with the Forest Service, said he wouldn't comment for or against specific alternatives. But he said staying the course isn't the answer. “I would just say that this suppression cost problem does need some type of a solution,” Hubbard said. “Whether we pursue that through different alternatives, through pilot (projects) that we test or through political solutions, one way or another, the Forest Service needs some help solving this problem.”
Fate of Clinton roadless rule back before Wyoming judge Wyoming's attempt to overturn a Clinton-era ban on logging and other development on millions of acres of federal forests nationwide is attracting opposition from other states who say the ban should stay. California, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon have filed papers in federal court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, arguing that the Clinton roadless rule should remain in effect, at least outside the boundaries of Wyoming. Environmental groups are also opposing Wyoming's position. US District Judge Clarence Brimmer is handling the case in which Wyoming is charging that the Clinton rule is improper and should be overturned. Brimmer sided with the state in a similar case in 2003. However, the federal appeals court in Denver never ruled on an appeal of Brimmer's ruling by environmentalist groups because the Bush administration issued a new roadless rule. Another federal judge in California recently tossed out the Bush rule, so Wyoming is again fighting the Clinton rule in Brimmer's court....
Groups seek 25 percent cut in Delta pumping Environmentalists have asked a judge to order enough water to supply 6 million people be used instead to protect an imperiled fish. The court papers filed late Monday are the latest attempt to dictate how the state's major water systems will continue to operate even though they lack legal permits required by state and federal endangered species laws. Lawyers for environmental groups said water cutbacks of 1.5 million acre-feet — or about 25percent — are needed to prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. And, they argued, a proposal made earlier this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not restrictive enough. A hearing on the competing proposals is scheduled Aug. 21, and U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could rule any time after that. "They can't simply ask him (Wanger) to trust them. That's sort of how we got here in the first place," said Andrea Treece, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which is representing environmental groups....
Biologists: Klamath Fish Still Need Help A panel has recommended continued federal protection for two kinds of fish in the Klamath Basin amid pressures to find solutions to regional water woes that led to a cutoff of irrigation water in 2001. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday the review by a panel of biologists found that one species in the upper basin, the short nosed sucker, is still at risk of extinction and should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lost River sucker is not at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, so it should be reclassified as a threatened species, the agency said. A panel of 12 scientists representing government agencies and interest groups reviewed various sources of information about the fish and made the recommendations to the fish and wildlife service. The review was prompted by a petition from a group called Interactive Citizens United to take the fish off the endangered species list. There is no specific timetable for when the agency might act on the recommendations, spokeswoman Alex Pitts said from Sacramento, Calif....
Zoo researchers use electronic eggs to help save threatened species This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest. The telemetric egg, placed in the nest after the mother has laid her eggs, contains sensors that record temperatures on four quadrants of the egg’s surface as well as in the egg’s interior. Motion detectors record how frequently the mother turns the egg during incubation. The data are recorded 24 hours a day and downloaded to a computer every 48 hours. National Zoo staff use the information to mimic natural incubation in a controlled setting in the lab....
N.M. Working on Rodent Recovery Plan Some might think fewer rodents would be a good thing, but scientists are concerned about the dwindling populations of two small furry creatures on New Mexico's list of endangered mammals. The state Department of Game and Fish says recent surveys show the number of New Mexican meadow jumping mice, known for their striking yellowish fur and well-developed hind feet, has dropped by at least two-thirds statewide - and possibly as much as 90 percent. Surveys show the Arizona montane vole also is found only in a very small region of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. "The thing in common between both is the loss of riparian habitat along streams and rivers in the Southwest," said Jim Stuart, an endangered species mammalogist with the Game and Fish Department. "Grazing is often jumped on as a reason, but there have also been climate factors involved like the dewatering of streams and rivers and the lowering of groundwater."....
Pipeline completed south of Fort Sumner A newly completed pipeline near Fort Sumner will allow more water to flow into the Pecos River, helping a threatened fish species and farmers and others along the river. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will lease groundwater pumped from the Vaughan family ranch where the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission owns some water rights. The water will be sent through the pipeline, which was built by the Interstate Stream Commission to supplement flows in the Pecos and benefit the Pecos bluntnose shiner, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. "This is our first partnership project with the state undertaken as part of New Mexico's strategic water initiative," said Connie Rupp, Albuquerque area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. The project and water lease agreement are examples of the state and the bureau working together to improve conditions along the Pecos without harming water users who rely on the river, Rupp said....
3-day stretch of heat, humidity kills 1,200 cattle in South Dakota More than 1,200 cattle died during a three-day blast of heat and humidity in northeast South Dakota, ranchers, feedlot owners and authorities reported, though the weather was expected to ease Thursday. The high Wednesday in Aberdeen was 96, at least the third straight day the city's temperature was in the 90s. The heat index, which is related to humidity, hit 109. Thursday's forecast called for a high in the low 80s and a 50 percent chance of rain, but agriculture authorities worried the heat wave might have caused long-term disabilities to some livestock. “I've never seen anything like it,” said feedlot operator Ivan Sjovall, 67, of Langford....
U.S. ranchers lobby asks Washington to rule if Canada violating BSE rules An American ranchers group that has been trying to restrict the import of Canadian cattle into the United States tried a new approach Thursday. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund - or R-CALF - wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns asking him to determine if Canada is in violation of the department's minimal-risk region rule. R-CALF said in a news release that Canada immediately needs to begin testing all known herd mates and feed mates of BSE-positive cattle in order to maintain its status as a "minimal risk" region under U.S. regulations. The lobby group suggested a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency implies such testing is not being done....
Cattlemen respond to BLM impound notice After being served with a Bureau of Land Management notice of intent to impound their livestock last Friday, Bruce Bedke and his son Jared Bedke filed a complaint Tuesday in Cassia County Magistrate Court to stop the impoundment. Included in the Bedkes' suit is a request to withdraw from a 1963 agreement between BLM and ranchers on the Goose Creek range. The agreement separated the range into individual and group allotments and establishing a fund for improvements to the range. The Bedkes' grazing permit expired Feb. 28. The Bedkes said that in 2004 BLM changed the original terms of the 1963 agreement by dividing the Goose Creek Group allotment, which allowed the Bedkes and three other ranchers to collectively graze their animals on land east of Goose Creek, into private allotments where each rancher has exclusive grazing rights. Permit forms offered to the Bedkes require them to abide by terms and conditions established in that 2004 division. The Bedkes also say the Goose Creek range is not public land and is therefore not rightfully managed by BLM. They say their family has grazed cattle on the range since 1878. In 1955, final allotment of grazing rights was awarded to ranchers in the Goose Creek range according to their prior, established use of the land. Because the Bedkes' right was among those allotted at that time, they say they believe those rights exclude the property from being considered public land. The agreement in 1963 between ranchers and BLM, the family says, was designed to arbitrate the division of grazing allotments between groups and individuals, but did not surrender management of the range itself....Wanna bet the Feds first move will be to move this to Federal Court?
Mexican Wolf Program -- Tried and Failed For the last 10 years, New Mexico has been home to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. This program, which purports to restore Mexican Wolves to the communities surrounding the Blue Range Recovery Area, has not only failed, but it has become a detriment to the surrounding communities. I believe, the time has come to stop squandering taxpayer dollars on this wasted effort. Recently, I offered an amendment that would remove funding for the program entirely. Given the overwhelming evidence, I have concluded that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves in New Mexico. Beginning in 1998 captive bred habituated Mexican grey wolves were released into areas of Catron and Grant counties. In almost a decade, 58 wolves have been reintroduced at a cost of $14 million – over $241,000 per wolf. Of those, we are currently on pace to remove 12 in 2007 for being “problem wolves.” That means for every five wolves released into the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to spend additional resources removing one for multiple attacks on pets and livestock and threatening people. This is not the kind of track record that deserves further investment. More importantly, the problem has expanded beyond the control of the Fish and Wildlife Service. I continue to receive complaints from constituents who have witnessed wolves just yards from their front door. I have pictures of horses eaten to the bone by a pack of wolves in corrals. I have received a letter from a father who insists that his 13-year-old daughter carry a pistol while doing her chores....
Getting hotter The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic. During a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday, Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, confronted EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson about the strongly-worded letter written July 13 by Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) that was sent to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). "It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on." CEI does not dispute climate change, however it differs with certain environmental groups, including ACORE, on the causes. After Mr. Inhofe read Mr. Eckhart's comments, which were first reported by Inside the Beltway two weeks ago, the EPA chief promised to probe the matter. "Statements like this are of concern to me. I am a believer in cooperation and collaboration across all sectors," Mr. Johnson assured. "This is an area I will look into for the record." When Mr. Johnson confirmed that EPA is a member of ACORE, Mr. Inhofe asked if "it is appropriate to be a part of an organization that is headed up by a person who makes this statement."....
Ranchers Unite to Save Land Near Zion National Park The Nature Conservancy has signed option agreements with five ranchers to purchase conservation easements on 2,423 acres of agricultural land and critical wildlife habitat in southwestern Utah, adjacent to Zion National Park. The agreements are a key first step in the Virgin River Headwaters Project, which may eventually involve as many as 17 landowners and protect as much as 11,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy is now seeking public and private funds to purchase the conservation easements, which will protect the wildlife habitat and productive ranch land by preventing habitat fragmentation and development. Through the use of conservation easements, private lands will remain on the tax rolls and traditional land uses will continue. Once in place, the agreements are binding on all future landowners....
TPL bargains for Wilson access The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is negotiating with Silver Pick Basin landowner Rusty Nichols to buy his property and renew access to Wilson Peak. A recent Special Initiative Grant from the Telluride Foundation contributed $150,000 to the effort, which could speed up a deal. “It’s a key gift in allowing us to move forward,” said Jason Corzine, TPL’s project manager, who expects to close on the property in late October. A private conservation group, TPL will put the grant money toward the purchase of Nichols’ 220-acre parcel by Wilson Peak, including land near the summit. The purchase will also ensure an end to any potential mining on the land....
Bush opposes rewrite of mining law The Bush administration on Thursday came out against a proposed revision of a 135-year-old hard-rock mining law that would impose the first-ever royalty fees and environmental restrictions for mining on public land. Congressional plans to revise the mining law would let the government assess royalty fees for the first time on the extracted minerals. And it would give more power to environmentalists who think the mining industry has despoiled the environment for too long. The U.S, Bureau of Land Management says the proposed new regulations could hurt the mining industry, the economy and U.S. security....
Firefighting costs out of control, says panel Economists, foresters and federal officials debated Thursday how to lower the skyrocketing cost of fighting wildfires, mulling solutions that ranged from staying the course to abolishing the U.S. Forest Service. The agency's fire spending is “out of control,” said Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank. A forest economist, O'Toole released a policy paper suggesting a range of six alternatives to fix the problem. O'Toole said the Forest Service has had a virtual blank check to fight wildfires. After bad fire seasons or loss of life or homes in wildfires, Congress rewards the agency with more money, he said. “Fire has given the Forest Service money and power more than almost anything else,” O'Toole said. O'Toole proposes to stop funding the Forest Service with tax dollars. Instead, each forest's budget would come from its own user fees, including timber, grazing, mining and recreation. Individual forests' board of directors could choose whether to use the fees on fire suppression or to let more fires burn, he said. James Hubbard, deputy chief for state and private forestry with the Forest Service, said he wouldn't comment for or against specific alternatives. But he said staying the course isn't the answer. “I would just say that this suppression cost problem does need some type of a solution,” Hubbard said. “Whether we pursue that through different alternatives, through pilot (projects) that we test or through political solutions, one way or another, the Forest Service needs some help solving this problem.”
Fate of Clinton roadless rule back before Wyoming judge Wyoming's attempt to overturn a Clinton-era ban on logging and other development on millions of acres of federal forests nationwide is attracting opposition from other states who say the ban should stay. California, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon have filed papers in federal court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, arguing that the Clinton roadless rule should remain in effect, at least outside the boundaries of Wyoming. Environmental groups are also opposing Wyoming's position. US District Judge Clarence Brimmer is handling the case in which Wyoming is charging that the Clinton rule is improper and should be overturned. Brimmer sided with the state in a similar case in 2003. However, the federal appeals court in Denver never ruled on an appeal of Brimmer's ruling by environmentalist groups because the Bush administration issued a new roadless rule. Another federal judge in California recently tossed out the Bush rule, so Wyoming is again fighting the Clinton rule in Brimmer's court....
Groups seek 25 percent cut in Delta pumping Environmentalists have asked a judge to order enough water to supply 6 million people be used instead to protect an imperiled fish. The court papers filed late Monday are the latest attempt to dictate how the state's major water systems will continue to operate even though they lack legal permits required by state and federal endangered species laws. Lawyers for environmental groups said water cutbacks of 1.5 million acre-feet — or about 25percent — are needed to prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. And, they argued, a proposal made earlier this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not restrictive enough. A hearing on the competing proposals is scheduled Aug. 21, and U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could rule any time after that. "They can't simply ask him (Wanger) to trust them. That's sort of how we got here in the first place," said Andrea Treece, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which is representing environmental groups....
Biologists: Klamath Fish Still Need Help A panel has recommended continued federal protection for two kinds of fish in the Klamath Basin amid pressures to find solutions to regional water woes that led to a cutoff of irrigation water in 2001. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday the review by a panel of biologists found that one species in the upper basin, the short nosed sucker, is still at risk of extinction and should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lost River sucker is not at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, so it should be reclassified as a threatened species, the agency said. A panel of 12 scientists representing government agencies and interest groups reviewed various sources of information about the fish and made the recommendations to the fish and wildlife service. The review was prompted by a petition from a group called Interactive Citizens United to take the fish off the endangered species list. There is no specific timetable for when the agency might act on the recommendations, spokeswoman Alex Pitts said from Sacramento, Calif....
Zoo researchers use electronic eggs to help save threatened species This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest. The telemetric egg, placed in the nest after the mother has laid her eggs, contains sensors that record temperatures on four quadrants of the egg’s surface as well as in the egg’s interior. Motion detectors record how frequently the mother turns the egg during incubation. The data are recorded 24 hours a day and downloaded to a computer every 48 hours. National Zoo staff use the information to mimic natural incubation in a controlled setting in the lab....
N.M. Working on Rodent Recovery Plan Some might think fewer rodents would be a good thing, but scientists are concerned about the dwindling populations of two small furry creatures on New Mexico's list of endangered mammals. The state Department of Game and Fish says recent surveys show the number of New Mexican meadow jumping mice, known for their striking yellowish fur and well-developed hind feet, has dropped by at least two-thirds statewide - and possibly as much as 90 percent. Surveys show the Arizona montane vole also is found only in a very small region of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. "The thing in common between both is the loss of riparian habitat along streams and rivers in the Southwest," said Jim Stuart, an endangered species mammalogist with the Game and Fish Department. "Grazing is often jumped on as a reason, but there have also been climate factors involved like the dewatering of streams and rivers and the lowering of groundwater."....
Pipeline completed south of Fort Sumner A newly completed pipeline near Fort Sumner will allow more water to flow into the Pecos River, helping a threatened fish species and farmers and others along the river. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will lease groundwater pumped from the Vaughan family ranch where the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission owns some water rights. The water will be sent through the pipeline, which was built by the Interstate Stream Commission to supplement flows in the Pecos and benefit the Pecos bluntnose shiner, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. "This is our first partnership project with the state undertaken as part of New Mexico's strategic water initiative," said Connie Rupp, Albuquerque area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. The project and water lease agreement are examples of the state and the bureau working together to improve conditions along the Pecos without harming water users who rely on the river, Rupp said....
3-day stretch of heat, humidity kills 1,200 cattle in South Dakota More than 1,200 cattle died during a three-day blast of heat and humidity in northeast South Dakota, ranchers, feedlot owners and authorities reported, though the weather was expected to ease Thursday. The high Wednesday in Aberdeen was 96, at least the third straight day the city's temperature was in the 90s. The heat index, which is related to humidity, hit 109. Thursday's forecast called for a high in the low 80s and a 50 percent chance of rain, but agriculture authorities worried the heat wave might have caused long-term disabilities to some livestock. “I've never seen anything like it,” said feedlot operator Ivan Sjovall, 67, of Langford....
U.S. ranchers lobby asks Washington to rule if Canada violating BSE rules An American ranchers group that has been trying to restrict the import of Canadian cattle into the United States tried a new approach Thursday. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund - or R-CALF - wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns asking him to determine if Canada is in violation of the department's minimal-risk region rule. R-CALF said in a news release that Canada immediately needs to begin testing all known herd mates and feed mates of BSE-positive cattle in order to maintain its status as a "minimal risk" region under U.S. regulations. The lobby group suggested a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency implies such testing is not being done....
Thursday, July 26, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Udall, DeGette sign on to push solar, wind Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy. The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel. A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress. By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass. Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources....
Environmentalism's Legal Legacy Environmental activists, policy scholars, and others claim that the environmental movement is in decline, suffering from attacks on the right on Capitol Hill and from the White House in recent years. Yet given some distinctive attributes associated with this issue, the progressive environmental cause is uniquely situated to ensure that it receives considerable attention in Washington. The result has been an uncommon expansion of government activity in a single issue area. And despite claims to contrary, progressive environmental policy making has continued to gain ground even in recent times—even under Republican leadership. This paper highlights legislative expansion of environmental law. It uses several datasets to document the growth of the environmental legal legacy. First, an analysis of congressional vote scoring by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) reveals that environmental pressure groups do relatively well even in a subset of close votes scored—winning a majority of the time in eight out of 17 congresses and winning 43 percent of these votes overall. It does indicate that environmental groups faced some real challenges in recent years, but it does not reveal how that affected public policy. The LCV scoring also shows that environmental groups are involved in policy making at a very detailed level. Two additional analyses reveal the importance of environmental issues vis-à-vis other issues on Capitol Hill. The fi rst focuses on congressional committee actions that produced public laws during 12 congresses. This analysis showed that environmental committees remained a center of legislative activity throughout the timeline studied, and that activity reached high points during the 1990s after the Republicans gained a majority in Congress....
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said. Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations....
ID lawmaker blames grazing restrictions for wildfire's size An Idaho state lawmaker-rancher is blaming federal grazing restrictions for the size and ferocity of a giant wildfire on the Idaho-Nevada border, a contention dismissed as baseless by the leader of a conservation group. The Murphy Complex fire has burned across nearly 975 square miles, burning up grassland and killing at least one cow that couldn't escape the flames. Two small communities were briefly under evacuation orders. The Murphy Complex fire killed at least one cow owned by Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, although officials say more dead cattle will likely be found. "This didn't have to happen," he told The Times-News as he stood over the charred body of a cow. Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel, he said. "I think we need to take a hard look at basic (grazing) policy issues because what we're doing just isn't working," Brackett said....
Feds Propose Habitat for Bighorn Sheep More than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the Eastern Sierra Nevada should serve as a protected habitat for an endangered mountain sheep rebounding from the threat of extinction, the federal government said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit by environmentalists, who claimed the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act. In their lawsuit, environmentalists singled out as a particular problem: the U.S. Forest Service's decision to allow ranchers to graze domesticated sheep on public lands thought to be crucial to the wild sheep's survival. Domestic sheep not only compete for the sedges and grasses that grow in the rugged, mountain landscape, but can spread diseases like pneumonia and scabies when bighorn rams try to mate with their domesticated cousins, government scientists said. Sheepherders dismissed assertions that their herd's proximity to the wild sheep played a role in their decline, and said the new designation could cause millions of dollars in losses to the $1 billion wool textiles and lamb industry. "The bighorn have been a very good surrogate tool to clear out areas of livestock grazing," said Tom McDonnell, a consultant for the American Sheep Industry Association, whose members graze their lambs and ewes in the Mono Lake area. "We will probably lose substantial amounts of grazing on private, state and federal ground."....
Governors sign agreement to form Blue Ribbon commission As a sign of unity in the wake of the Angora fire, the Lake Tahoe Basin's two state governors signed an agreement Wednesday to form a fire commission intended to review forest management practices in the Basin. California and Nevada Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Gibbons used the Lake Valley Fire station in Meyers as a backdrop to define the mission of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission. The fact-finding panel will consist of 17 voting members, each governor appointing eight and the U.S. Forest Service appointing one. Up to six additional non-voting members can be appointed by the governors. The commission will disband two months after delivering its report. Gibbons called the fire a learning experience on several fronts. Questions and tempers have been raised regarding forest fuel reduction practices and whether agencies tasked with sustaining the environment have created gridlock at removing the dead and dying trees and the undercover of flammable material....
Prosecutors mull charges in Zaca blaze Investigators have completed a report on the cause of a three-week-old Santa Barbara County wildfire and will forward it to local prosecutors for a decision on whether to file criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. The 31,000-acre blaze was started July 4 by workers grinding metal to repair a water pipeline on a private ranch in Bell Canyon, just west of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and Zaca Lake. Prosecutors were expected to decide by next week if any charges are warranted against the landowner. California Department of Forestry investigator Andy Andersen wouldn't disclose the recommendation in the investigators' report that was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office on Friday. The cost of suppression efforts has already exceed $33 million....
USFS venture aims to offset carbon emissions The U.S. Forest Service is teaming with a nonprofit foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old crop land....
Hood wilderness bill clears Senate panel, moves to floor A long-awaited and oft-troubled attempt to expand wilderness protection to nearly 125,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest gained new life Wednesday when a bill moved to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the "Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007" unanimously on a voice vote. A troubled land exchange between a ski area and the federal government had held the bill up for a year, among other difficulties. Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith co-sponsored the bill. "It's a new day for wilderness, and we are now poised to pass the protection that Mount Hood deserves," said Wyden. The bill would add to existing wilderness protections on the forest and grant Wild and Scenic River status to an additional 80 miles of rivers. Further, the bill would create more than 34,000 acres of a Mount Hood National Recreation Area with access for mountain biking and other recreation. Wilderness areas do not allow mountain biking and severely restrict most activities to retain the wild features of the land....
GE Launches 'Green' Credit Card General Electric Co., a longtime target of environmentalists that is working to bolster its "green" image, launched a credit card Wednesday that gives users a chance to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new card, the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, is being marketed as the nation's first to offer customers "rewards" that can go toward carbon emissions credits rather than more common perks such as cash-back payouts or airline miles. A joint venture between GE and electric power company AES Corp. will use the credits to pay for projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Both the card and the joint venture are part of GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, which the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate launched two years ago to boost sales of environmentally friendly technology and cut carbon emissions. Card users will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases toward emissions offsets. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive half in cash. Rewards will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credits each Earth Day, April 22. There will be no limit on the amount of credits customers can earn....
Salazar blocks BLM nominee U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has officially blocked the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management. He vowed Wednesday to relent only when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne pledges that the department's conflict with the state over energy development won't end in a "train wreck." Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said he outlined his concerns in a meeting with Kempthorne and asked for assurance that the federal government "would not be running roughshod over the Roan Plateau and Colorado's public lands." Specifically, Salazar wants the state to have "meaningful input" about the development of oil shale and for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to have time to review a plan to drill for natural gas on the scenic Roan Plateau. Salazar said that until then, he will prevent the Senate from voting on James Caswell's nomination to head the BLM....
Groups sue to block drilling People who think energy development is moving too quickly in the Pinedale area got a boost this week from two little-known environmental groups and several people in Wyoming. The Environmental Preservation Foundation and Habitat for Wildlife, both based in Utah, along with two Cokeville and two Kemmerer residents, filed suit against Bureau of Land Management officials, saying the agency has not conducted adequate environmental reviews to allow a boom in energy activity. The lawsuit calls for a cessation of new oil and gas drilling pending further environmental review that takes into account the cumulative impacts of drilling. It also called for the BLM to stop issuing waivers to companies to drill. And, the complaint calls for the Pinedale Anticline supplemental environmental impact statement to be stopped pending the outcome of the case. The BLM is currently finishing a supplemental analysis allowing for 4,399 new wells on the Anticline in a concentrated area, and a resource management plan for the broader Pinedale area. The groups say there should be "a regionwide EIS that contemplates all of the current and proposed oil and gas activities in the Pinedale Resource Area and connected areas." That includes the Jonah and Anticline fields....
Lightning hits 1,700 times in 7 hours The National Weather Service recorded approximately 1,700 lightning strikes in southeastern Montana in just seven hours Tuesday evening. Joe Lester, meteorologist with the Billings National Weather Service station, said that between 5 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, 1,700 strikes were counted in Rosebud, Powder River, Fallon, Custer and Carter counties. There were about 500 strikes between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. alone in that area Tuesday. The NWS receives lightning strike numbers for the previous 24 to 48 hours from a national lightning detection system, Lester said. The system uses ground sensors to detect and map ground strikes. Tuesday evening's storm brought a reprieve from 100-degree heat in the southeastern part of the state - Billings dropped from a high temperature of 102 degrees to 83 degrees around 6 p.m. - but may have ignited several fires. The Miles City Bureau of Land Management field office reported four lightning-caused fires Tuesday and another nine lightning-caused fires Wednesday....
Governor takes heat for stand on drilling When Gov. Bill Ritter asked the helicopter pilot to make an impromptu landing on a mountain in northwest Colorado, little did he know he would anger Moffat County commissioners and stir up his choppy relationship with the oil and gas industry. Last week, the county's three commissioners, all Republicans, fired off a scathing letter to the Democratic governor, criticizing his unannounced July 3 visit during a tour of oil and gas drilling sites in the region. He subsequently requested that the federal government exempt the scenic 77,000-acre Vermillion Basin from natural gas drilling. Ritter's request, the commissioners say, ignores years of hard work by local, federal and state agencies and activist groups to cobble together a drilling plan for the environmentally sensitive basin, which contains billions of dollars of natural gas reserves....
Erosion on Alaska coast eats into old oil wells Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them....
Wild horses found dead on Nevada range Wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management were found dead late last week and additional horses have died since the discovery. The cause of death for 40 wild horses is under investigation. The horses died near a water source in the extreme northwest portion of the herd management area, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is within the U.S. Air Force Nevada Test and Training Range. The military alerted BLM late Friday that they had seen some dead horses. The area is restricted to public access and the Air Force is providing access to the BLM. On Saturday, BLM went to the site and found 25 dead wild horses and an antelope. A water pond on a dry lake bed is suspected to be the source of the problem....
Bills Calls for Meat to be Labeled by Origin An ordinary trip to the supermarket meat department could turn into an experience in international comparison-shopping under House legislation scheduled to be debated today that for the first time would require meat products to be labeled by their country of origin. The farm bill House members will consider includes a provision mandating that meat -- including beef, pork and lamb -- include a label stating where it came from. Only meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States would be eligible for a domestic label. The measure aims to enforce a five-year-old law that has already been implemented for seafood but was delayed after meat packers, pork producers and grocery chains claimed it would create a costly bureaucratic and record-keeping nightmare. The issue reemerged this year after reports of safety problems with food and products from China spurred American consumers to seek more information about what they eat....
Commercial feed named as cause of Canada's 10th case of mad cow The mature dairy cow that became Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease was probably infected by commercial feed that it received after weaning, says a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Wednesday. The Holstein, which was destroyed earlier this year, had spent its entire life on the same dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. The most likely cause was commercial feed, which the cow would have eaten only during its first year, that got cross-contaminated with prohibited materials -- rendered products from other ruminant animals. The most likely source was cross-contamination of the heifer feed either at the feed mill or during transportation. The CFIA investigated 155 of the 66-month-old cow's herdmates, and their feed. "Only cattle in the feed cohort were implicated in the investigation," said Dr. Connie Argue, an epidemiologist and scientific adviser to the CFIA. Of those cattle, five have since been slaughtered for unrelated reasons. Another 87 had already been slaughtered -- and of those, five had tested negative for BSE. There were 23 animals that could not be traced, and the remaining 41 live animals have been quarantined and will be killed in the next few months....
Mule's foal fools genetics When it reportedly happened in Morocco five years ago, locals feared it signaled the end of the world. In Albania in 1994, it was thought to have unleashed the spawn of the devil on a small village. But on a Grand Mesa ranch, the once-in-a-million, genetically "impossible" occurrence of a mule giving birth has only drawn keen interest from the scientific world. That, and a stream of the locally curious driving up from the small town of Colbran to check out and snap pictures of a frisky, huge-eared, gangly-legged foal. "No one has run away in fear yet," laughed Laura Amos, the owner of the foal, along with her husband, Larry. The foal is being called a miracle because mules aren't supposed to give birth. Mules are a hybrid of two species - a female horse and a male donkey - so they end up with an odd number of chromosomes. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62. A mule inherits 63. An even number of chromosomes is needed to divide into pairs and reproduce. But those numbers added up to implausibility in late April when the Amoses awoke to a braying and whinnying ruckus in the corral behind their house....
Cowgirl is not horsing around You could say the 28-year-old Mussell was born in the wrong time period. She would have been right at home with the great cowgirl bronc riders of the 1920s and '30s: Tad Lucas, Ruth Roach and Alice Greenough, a.k.a. the Women of the West. The women were talented bronc riders and trick riders who drew headlines all over the world not only for their style but also for their daring. They competed before ranchers and kings in places ranging from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wembley Stadium in London. Eventually, women roughstock riders were phased out of rodeo. That is, until 2000, when Mussell discovered there were no rules preventing women from competing in roughstock events in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now, she is the only professional female saddle bronc rider in both the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. She filled her permit in 2003, which meant she won over a $1,000 in a year. In 2005, she moved from her native Canada to Stephenville, Texas, and now is competing on near equal footing with many of the men in the Texas Circuit, primarily at the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo....
Udall, DeGette sign on to push solar, wind Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy. The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel. A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress. By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass. Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources....
Environmentalism's Legal Legacy Environmental activists, policy scholars, and others claim that the environmental movement is in decline, suffering from attacks on the right on Capitol Hill and from the White House in recent years. Yet given some distinctive attributes associated with this issue, the progressive environmental cause is uniquely situated to ensure that it receives considerable attention in Washington. The result has been an uncommon expansion of government activity in a single issue area. And despite claims to contrary, progressive environmental policy making has continued to gain ground even in recent times—even under Republican leadership. This paper highlights legislative expansion of environmental law. It uses several datasets to document the growth of the environmental legal legacy. First, an analysis of congressional vote scoring by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) reveals that environmental pressure groups do relatively well even in a subset of close votes scored—winning a majority of the time in eight out of 17 congresses and winning 43 percent of these votes overall. It does indicate that environmental groups faced some real challenges in recent years, but it does not reveal how that affected public policy. The LCV scoring also shows that environmental groups are involved in policy making at a very detailed level. Two additional analyses reveal the importance of environmental issues vis-à-vis other issues on Capitol Hill. The fi rst focuses on congressional committee actions that produced public laws during 12 congresses. This analysis showed that environmental committees remained a center of legislative activity throughout the timeline studied, and that activity reached high points during the 1990s after the Republicans gained a majority in Congress....
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said. Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations....
ID lawmaker blames grazing restrictions for wildfire's size An Idaho state lawmaker-rancher is blaming federal grazing restrictions for the size and ferocity of a giant wildfire on the Idaho-Nevada border, a contention dismissed as baseless by the leader of a conservation group. The Murphy Complex fire has burned across nearly 975 square miles, burning up grassland and killing at least one cow that couldn't escape the flames. Two small communities were briefly under evacuation orders. The Murphy Complex fire killed at least one cow owned by Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, although officials say more dead cattle will likely be found. "This didn't have to happen," he told The Times-News as he stood over the charred body of a cow. Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel, he said. "I think we need to take a hard look at basic (grazing) policy issues because what we're doing just isn't working," Brackett said....
Feds Propose Habitat for Bighorn Sheep More than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the Eastern Sierra Nevada should serve as a protected habitat for an endangered mountain sheep rebounding from the threat of extinction, the federal government said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit by environmentalists, who claimed the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act. In their lawsuit, environmentalists singled out as a particular problem: the U.S. Forest Service's decision to allow ranchers to graze domesticated sheep on public lands thought to be crucial to the wild sheep's survival. Domestic sheep not only compete for the sedges and grasses that grow in the rugged, mountain landscape, but can spread diseases like pneumonia and scabies when bighorn rams try to mate with their domesticated cousins, government scientists said. Sheepherders dismissed assertions that their herd's proximity to the wild sheep played a role in their decline, and said the new designation could cause millions of dollars in losses to the $1 billion wool textiles and lamb industry. "The bighorn have been a very good surrogate tool to clear out areas of livestock grazing," said Tom McDonnell, a consultant for the American Sheep Industry Association, whose members graze their lambs and ewes in the Mono Lake area. "We will probably lose substantial amounts of grazing on private, state and federal ground."....
Governors sign agreement to form Blue Ribbon commission As a sign of unity in the wake of the Angora fire, the Lake Tahoe Basin's two state governors signed an agreement Wednesday to form a fire commission intended to review forest management practices in the Basin. California and Nevada Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Gibbons used the Lake Valley Fire station in Meyers as a backdrop to define the mission of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission. The fact-finding panel will consist of 17 voting members, each governor appointing eight and the U.S. Forest Service appointing one. Up to six additional non-voting members can be appointed by the governors. The commission will disband two months after delivering its report. Gibbons called the fire a learning experience on several fronts. Questions and tempers have been raised regarding forest fuel reduction practices and whether agencies tasked with sustaining the environment have created gridlock at removing the dead and dying trees and the undercover of flammable material....
Prosecutors mull charges in Zaca blaze Investigators have completed a report on the cause of a three-week-old Santa Barbara County wildfire and will forward it to local prosecutors for a decision on whether to file criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. The 31,000-acre blaze was started July 4 by workers grinding metal to repair a water pipeline on a private ranch in Bell Canyon, just west of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and Zaca Lake. Prosecutors were expected to decide by next week if any charges are warranted against the landowner. California Department of Forestry investigator Andy Andersen wouldn't disclose the recommendation in the investigators' report that was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office on Friday. The cost of suppression efforts has already exceed $33 million....
USFS venture aims to offset carbon emissions The U.S. Forest Service is teaming with a nonprofit foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old crop land....
Hood wilderness bill clears Senate panel, moves to floor A long-awaited and oft-troubled attempt to expand wilderness protection to nearly 125,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest gained new life Wednesday when a bill moved to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the "Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007" unanimously on a voice vote. A troubled land exchange between a ski area and the federal government had held the bill up for a year, among other difficulties. Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith co-sponsored the bill. "It's a new day for wilderness, and we are now poised to pass the protection that Mount Hood deserves," said Wyden. The bill would add to existing wilderness protections on the forest and grant Wild and Scenic River status to an additional 80 miles of rivers. Further, the bill would create more than 34,000 acres of a Mount Hood National Recreation Area with access for mountain biking and other recreation. Wilderness areas do not allow mountain biking and severely restrict most activities to retain the wild features of the land....
GE Launches 'Green' Credit Card General Electric Co., a longtime target of environmentalists that is working to bolster its "green" image, launched a credit card Wednesday that gives users a chance to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new card, the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, is being marketed as the nation's first to offer customers "rewards" that can go toward carbon emissions credits rather than more common perks such as cash-back payouts or airline miles. A joint venture between GE and electric power company AES Corp. will use the credits to pay for projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Both the card and the joint venture are part of GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, which the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate launched two years ago to boost sales of environmentally friendly technology and cut carbon emissions. Card users will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases toward emissions offsets. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive half in cash. Rewards will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credits each Earth Day, April 22. There will be no limit on the amount of credits customers can earn....
Salazar blocks BLM nominee U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has officially blocked the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management. He vowed Wednesday to relent only when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne pledges that the department's conflict with the state over energy development won't end in a "train wreck." Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said he outlined his concerns in a meeting with Kempthorne and asked for assurance that the federal government "would not be running roughshod over the Roan Plateau and Colorado's public lands." Specifically, Salazar wants the state to have "meaningful input" about the development of oil shale and for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to have time to review a plan to drill for natural gas on the scenic Roan Plateau. Salazar said that until then, he will prevent the Senate from voting on James Caswell's nomination to head the BLM....
Groups sue to block drilling People who think energy development is moving too quickly in the Pinedale area got a boost this week from two little-known environmental groups and several people in Wyoming. The Environmental Preservation Foundation and Habitat for Wildlife, both based in Utah, along with two Cokeville and two Kemmerer residents, filed suit against Bureau of Land Management officials, saying the agency has not conducted adequate environmental reviews to allow a boom in energy activity. The lawsuit calls for a cessation of new oil and gas drilling pending further environmental review that takes into account the cumulative impacts of drilling. It also called for the BLM to stop issuing waivers to companies to drill. And, the complaint calls for the Pinedale Anticline supplemental environmental impact statement to be stopped pending the outcome of the case. The BLM is currently finishing a supplemental analysis allowing for 4,399 new wells on the Anticline in a concentrated area, and a resource management plan for the broader Pinedale area. The groups say there should be "a regionwide EIS that contemplates all of the current and proposed oil and gas activities in the Pinedale Resource Area and connected areas." That includes the Jonah and Anticline fields....
Lightning hits 1,700 times in 7 hours The National Weather Service recorded approximately 1,700 lightning strikes in southeastern Montana in just seven hours Tuesday evening. Joe Lester, meteorologist with the Billings National Weather Service station, said that between 5 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, 1,700 strikes were counted in Rosebud, Powder River, Fallon, Custer and Carter counties. There were about 500 strikes between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. alone in that area Tuesday. The NWS receives lightning strike numbers for the previous 24 to 48 hours from a national lightning detection system, Lester said. The system uses ground sensors to detect and map ground strikes. Tuesday evening's storm brought a reprieve from 100-degree heat in the southeastern part of the state - Billings dropped from a high temperature of 102 degrees to 83 degrees around 6 p.m. - but may have ignited several fires. The Miles City Bureau of Land Management field office reported four lightning-caused fires Tuesday and another nine lightning-caused fires Wednesday....
Governor takes heat for stand on drilling When Gov. Bill Ritter asked the helicopter pilot to make an impromptu landing on a mountain in northwest Colorado, little did he know he would anger Moffat County commissioners and stir up his choppy relationship with the oil and gas industry. Last week, the county's three commissioners, all Republicans, fired off a scathing letter to the Democratic governor, criticizing his unannounced July 3 visit during a tour of oil and gas drilling sites in the region. He subsequently requested that the federal government exempt the scenic 77,000-acre Vermillion Basin from natural gas drilling. Ritter's request, the commissioners say, ignores years of hard work by local, federal and state agencies and activist groups to cobble together a drilling plan for the environmentally sensitive basin, which contains billions of dollars of natural gas reserves....
Erosion on Alaska coast eats into old oil wells Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them....
Wild horses found dead on Nevada range Wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management were found dead late last week and additional horses have died since the discovery. The cause of death for 40 wild horses is under investigation. The horses died near a water source in the extreme northwest portion of the herd management area, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is within the U.S. Air Force Nevada Test and Training Range. The military alerted BLM late Friday that they had seen some dead horses. The area is restricted to public access and the Air Force is providing access to the BLM. On Saturday, BLM went to the site and found 25 dead wild horses and an antelope. A water pond on a dry lake bed is suspected to be the source of the problem....
Bills Calls for Meat to be Labeled by Origin An ordinary trip to the supermarket meat department could turn into an experience in international comparison-shopping under House legislation scheduled to be debated today that for the first time would require meat products to be labeled by their country of origin. The farm bill House members will consider includes a provision mandating that meat -- including beef, pork and lamb -- include a label stating where it came from. Only meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States would be eligible for a domestic label. The measure aims to enforce a five-year-old law that has already been implemented for seafood but was delayed after meat packers, pork producers and grocery chains claimed it would create a costly bureaucratic and record-keeping nightmare. The issue reemerged this year after reports of safety problems with food and products from China spurred American consumers to seek more information about what they eat....
Commercial feed named as cause of Canada's 10th case of mad cow The mature dairy cow that became Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease was probably infected by commercial feed that it received after weaning, says a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Wednesday. The Holstein, which was destroyed earlier this year, had spent its entire life on the same dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. The most likely cause was commercial feed, which the cow would have eaten only during its first year, that got cross-contaminated with prohibited materials -- rendered products from other ruminant animals. The most likely source was cross-contamination of the heifer feed either at the feed mill or during transportation. The CFIA investigated 155 of the 66-month-old cow's herdmates, and their feed. "Only cattle in the feed cohort were implicated in the investigation," said Dr. Connie Argue, an epidemiologist and scientific adviser to the CFIA. Of those cattle, five have since been slaughtered for unrelated reasons. Another 87 had already been slaughtered -- and of those, five had tested negative for BSE. There were 23 animals that could not be traced, and the remaining 41 live animals have been quarantined and will be killed in the next few months....
Mule's foal fools genetics When it reportedly happened in Morocco five years ago, locals feared it signaled the end of the world. In Albania in 1994, it was thought to have unleashed the spawn of the devil on a small village. But on a Grand Mesa ranch, the once-in-a-million, genetically "impossible" occurrence of a mule giving birth has only drawn keen interest from the scientific world. That, and a stream of the locally curious driving up from the small town of Colbran to check out and snap pictures of a frisky, huge-eared, gangly-legged foal. "No one has run away in fear yet," laughed Laura Amos, the owner of the foal, along with her husband, Larry. The foal is being called a miracle because mules aren't supposed to give birth. Mules are a hybrid of two species - a female horse and a male donkey - so they end up with an odd number of chromosomes. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62. A mule inherits 63. An even number of chromosomes is needed to divide into pairs and reproduce. But those numbers added up to implausibility in late April when the Amoses awoke to a braying and whinnying ruckus in the corral behind their house....
Cowgirl is not horsing around You could say the 28-year-old Mussell was born in the wrong time period. She would have been right at home with the great cowgirl bronc riders of the 1920s and '30s: Tad Lucas, Ruth Roach and Alice Greenough, a.k.a. the Women of the West. The women were talented bronc riders and trick riders who drew headlines all over the world not only for their style but also for their daring. They competed before ranchers and kings in places ranging from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wembley Stadium in London. Eventually, women roughstock riders were phased out of rodeo. That is, until 2000, when Mussell discovered there were no rules preventing women from competing in roughstock events in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now, she is the only professional female saddle bronc rider in both the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. She filled her permit in 2003, which meant she won over a $1,000 in a year. In 2005, she moved from her native Canada to Stephenville, Texas, and now is competing on near equal footing with many of the men in the Texas Circuit, primarily at the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo....
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