By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press Writer
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a new program that it hopes will improve the chances of finding homes for older wild mustangs and defray the costs of keeping the animals in holding facilities.
Wild horse populations have boomed across the West, putting pressure on the range. The BLM rounds up thousands of the animals each year in hopes of getting them adopted them and keeping the wild population in check, but the agency has had a hard time finding buyers in recent years.
With the new program, anyone who adopts a wild horse 4 years or older will be eligible for a $500 stipend at the end of their first year with the animal. The stipend is designed to help defray the adopter's initial cost of keeping a horse, BLM spokesman Paul McGuire said Thursday.
The program is being launched in the BLM region that includes New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, which McGuire described as a "robust market" for wild horse adoptions.
"It's really the ideal region to assess the efficacy of this kind of incentive. If it works here, we can assume it would be equally effective elsewhere around the country," he said. "That would eventually be the goal to expand the program nationally if it proves to be effective in terms of increasing adoptions of these targeted horses."
The stipend will be offered starting next month with an adoption at the Creek County Fairgrounds in Kellyville, Okla.
The BLM has placed more than 235,000 wild horses in approved homes over the past 36 years. But the adoption program has struggled in recent years due to drought affecting much of the rangeland in the West, skyrocketing fuel prices and now an economic collapse.
The agency, which is out of room at its long-term holding facilities, has been trying to come up with ways to manage wild horses without euthanizing any of the animals or selling them for slaughter. Still, the expenses of the wild horse and burro program continue to rise.
Last year, it cost the agency more than $28 million to hold 33,000 horses and burros. Unchecked, federal officials have said that could reach $77 million by 2012.
A horse in long-term holding costs the agency about $500 to feed and care for annually and that can reach up to $12,500 over the lifetime of the horse.
"Hopefully this incentive program will allow us to place a significant number of these horses into private ownership and avoid having to place them in long-term holding for anywhere from 20 to 25 years," McGuire said.
The program targets horses that would be imminently destined for long-term holding if not placed through adoption. McGuire estimates there are about 5,000 horses in the adoption pipeline that would meet the criteria for the incentive program.
The $500 stipend would not apply to younger horses, burros or those animals that have been trained.
The Texas-based Mustang Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization that partners with the BLM to boost adoptions, offers similar incentives in many of its programs.
"We've found that it really works if you offer them just a little bit to help pay for some feed costs and medical expenses and things like that," said Kali Sublett, an event coordinator with the foundation. "We know and the BLM knows that it's hard right now for everyone so any little bit that they can do can help."
McGuire said the BLM is excited about the incentive program and officials are hopeful the agency will reach its goal this year of adopting 3,295 mustangs. So far, 1,471 have been adopted, and the agency is just now entering its busiest period.
___
On the Net:
BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html
Mustang Heritage Foundation: http://www.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
3 Strikes "unadoptables" to be euthanised?
By now you have all probably heard about the mess of a situation with privately owned mustangs at "Three Strikes" Resuce in Tx. There are over 100 neglected mustangs taken out of there but now the word is that some deemed "unadoptable" are facing euthansia. At least one woker "on the ground" has reported that these "unadoptables" are far from needing to be put down. We are tryng to place them before that happens. Can you help?
For Immediate Release
Zuma's Rescue Ranch
http://www.zumasrescueranch.com/index2.html
Contact: Jodi Messenich
(720)635-2331
Denkai Animal Sanctuary
www.denkaisanctuary.org
info@denkaisanctuary.org
Urgent! 3 Strikes Horses Face Euthanasia
Alliance, NE - A phone call update this morning directly from Jodi
Messenich with Zuma's Rescue Ranch who has been on the ground in Alliance,
NE for the last couple of weeks brought gloomy news.
Jodi and her volunteers spent the day yesterday loading more than 60 horses
into trailers that have been transported to the local fairgrounds in
Nebraska where they are being housed until further notice. There are still
12 horses to move this morning as well as more in the field, so the
operations will continue today.
According to Jodi most of these horses just walked onto trailers and
followed a grain bucket, there are many that are halter trained and
workable if they could only have a chance to recover.
Gina Berg had overheard a conversation with Jerry Finch in which it was
stated of the sick horses; These horses are not adoptable, we are going to
have to euthanize them.
These horses are not beyond recovery according to Jodi Messenich. They
need a place to go and people who can afford to put the resources into
recovering them.
YOU CAN HELP! This can be prevented.
This need is Great and it is Urgent. Call Jerry Finch at: (409) 682-6621.
Let him know if you or anybody you know has the ability to take on some of
these horses. Please remember that they will need a lot of TLC and
recovery time and resources will be needed to care for these horses.
Should Rescue organizations or Sanctuaries step up to house these horses,
make sure that the funding is in place to care for them for months and even
years to come. Many of the mares are pregnant, two more newborn babies
were discovered on the range over the last day.
Help network this out and do it now, these horses do not have much time.
###
For Immediate Release
Zuma's Rescue Ranch
http://www.zumasrescueranch.com/index2.html
Contact: Jodi Messenich
(720)635-2331
Denkai Animal Sanctuary
www.denkaisanctuary.org
info@denkaisanctuary.org
Urgent! 3 Strikes Horses Face Euthanasia
Alliance, NE - A phone call update this morning directly from Jodi
Messenich with Zuma's Rescue Ranch who has been on the ground in Alliance,
NE for the last couple of weeks brought gloomy news.
Jodi and her volunteers spent the day yesterday loading more than 60 horses
into trailers that have been transported to the local fairgrounds in
Nebraska where they are being housed until further notice. There are still
12 horses to move this morning as well as more in the field, so the
operations will continue today.
According to Jodi most of these horses just walked onto trailers and
followed a grain bucket, there are many that are halter trained and
workable if they could only have a chance to recover.
Gina Berg had overheard a conversation with Jerry Finch in which it was
stated of the sick horses; These horses are not adoptable, we are going to
have to euthanize them.
These horses are not beyond recovery according to Jodi Messenich. They
need a place to go and people who can afford to put the resources into
recovering them.
YOU CAN HELP! This can be prevented.
This need is Great and it is Urgent. Call Jerry Finch at: (409) 682-6621.
Let him know if you or anybody you know has the ability to take on some of
these horses. Please remember that they will need a lot of TLC and
recovery time and resources will be needed to care for these horses.
Should Rescue organizations or Sanctuaries step up to house these horses,
make sure that the funding is in place to care for them for months and even
years to come. Many of the mares are pregnant, two more newborn babies
were discovered on the range over the last day.
Help network this out and do it now, these horses do not have much time.
###
Ca.'s New 09'er's : Headed for "Them there Hills"
April 21, 2009
Prospectors hope new Calif. gold rush will pan out
By TRACIE CONE Associated Press Writer
There's still gold in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, and a new rush is under way to find it.
Not since the Great Depression have so many hard-luck people been lured by prospecting, hoping to find their fortune tumbling down a mountain stream. The recession and high gold prices are helping to fuel the latest gold craze, especially among workers who have lost jobs.
"I guess there's always hope. At home, I don't have any right now," said Steve Biorck, a concrete finisher who headed west because construction work dried up in Tennessee. Now he spends days standing knee-deep in an icy creek coaxing gold flakes from a swirling pan of gravel.
Miners who locate an unclaimed area can pay a $170 fee to the federal government for access to the public land. Most claims are along the 120 miles of steep granite outcrops and rushing riverbeds that are part of California's Mother Lode, a narrow band of gold-rich terrain.
When Don Wetter was in the Army, he guarded Fort Knox in Kentucky, home of the U.S. Treasury's gold depository. Now that he's been discharged, Wetter hopes to find some gold of his own using an anticipated loan for a "grubstake," an old mining term for money to sustain the search.
Wetter, a 22-year-old tree trimmer from Troy, Mich., said he wanted to turn to hunt for gold because most of his customers lost their jobs or moved away.
Many would-be gold panners are drawn to the South Fork of the American River, where the 1849 discovery of nuggets at Sutter's Mill launched the largest human migration in the Western Hemisphere. The Depression brought another wave of miners in the 1930s.
"It's hard to keep my equipment in stock," said Albert Fausel, the third-generation owner of the nearby Old Placerville Hardware store, which was founded to sell sluices, picks and pans to the original '49ers.
Back then, the price of gold was $16 an ounce. Today it hovers around $1,000.
The store's wood floors used to creak under the weight of recreational rafters and fisherman. Now prospectors are some of the biggest shoppers.
"A lot of people are out of jobs and know where the gold holes are," Fausel said.
Between October 2007 and September 2008, the Bureau of Land Management in California issued gold miners 3,413 permits, or claims, to search for gold. That figure compared with 1,986 claims in 2006. So far this fiscal year, the agency has issued 1,444 claims.
Many miners believe that only 10 percent of the gold in the Sierra Nevada was discovered in the original gold rush. They are also excited by the prospect of stumbling onto buried treasure.
"A lady was walking over there, kicked a stone with her toe and picked up a nugget just like that," said Russ Kurz, who at 77 with a bushy white beard looks like a grizzled miner. He points to a sandbar on the American River near Coloma.
"I was walking my dog once and went to pick up a rock and pulled a long nugget straight out of the sand," he said. "It was worth about $6,500 — and that was 13 years ago."
Brent Shock of Jamestown now teaches the newbies he calls "the bonanza people." He says sandbars, cracks in bedrock and low-pressure eddies behind boulders are prime places to set up sluices, which are metal or plastic channels designed to catch gold.
Spring is the best time to hunt for gold as snow melt churns streams and rivers, potentially uncovering new riches.
"There's got to be a lot of it sitting around somewhere," said Eric Tring of Roseville as he panned with his 13-year-old daughter.
The gold fields are becoming so popular that Todd Osborne has had to guard a claim that has been in his family since the 1960s near a remote mountain creek.
A handmade sign with the image of a rifle and the words "private claim" dissuades most intruders, but novices often are unaware that miners can make a stake on public land.
"A couple of years ago there'd be nobody out here," said Osborne, 41, who began prospecting full-time last year when his work as an arborist slowed.
Osborne, who says both of his grandfathers turned to prospecting during the Depression, knows the people who sold supplies to miners were the ones who stayed rich. One of the most notable examples was denim maker Levi Strauss.
Osborne owns the patent on the Bazooka Gold Trap sluice that he builds with his prospecting partner, Adam Schiffner. The two can process up to 350 gallons of streambed gravel a day with it, yielding $100 to $1,000 in gold flakes, with an average of $150.
They are betting that the instability of the dollar will drive gold prices even higher and entice more people to use his sluice.
"Whether they get rich or not," Osborne said, "we've got part of their grubstake."
___
On the Net:
Bureau of Land Management page on obtaining a gold claim:
http://www.blm.gov/ca/caso/iac/faqmc.html
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=262182726&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090422-stolfiler-tn0206
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Millions Doled Out for Birds & Bugs But Nothing for Our Wild Horses
Fender's blue butterfly is one of Oregon's threatened native species that could be helped by federal grants to purchase and manage special habitats.---------------------
Now I like birds and bugs as well as any other animal but wild horses need to be protected too. Will somebody please tell these narrow minded tunnel-visioned eco-maniacs that it doesnt matter if horses are considered "native species" or not as they are part of our American History and Heritage regardless, and on that basis alone need to be protected & preserved. This is not just MHO it is the general concensus of the majority of the American People...so it is important that you listen to them. I hope you all do. If you are one of those environmentalist who thinks wild horses in America are an invasive species and you want them off of our publc lands,...this means YOU.
-------------
U.S. grants to help Oregon habitats, imperiled species
by Abby Haight, The Oregonian
Monday April 20, 2009, 8:13 PM
Oregon's threatened species and the special habitats they depend on got a $2.63 million lift Monday from the U.S. Department of Interior.
Five grants will help purchase or manage land in four counties and about 75,000 acres of state-managed highway rights-of-way.
Oregon's most imperiled species -- the northern spotted owl, coastal coho salmon, marbled murrelet, Oregon silverspot butterfly and several wildflowers -- could benefit from the grants, awarded through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"These are projects that fit into a bigger picture," said Phil Carroll, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland. "They fill in some significant gaps of land acquisition, lands that could go on the market and be lost forever to public ownership."
The projects tie together public lands to create larger habitat.
"They'll protect lots of different species that are not yet listed and help us to keep them from being listed," Carroll said.
Oregon's funding was part of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement Monday that 27 states would receive $57 million in grants for conservation planning, land purchase and management.
"They provide state agencies with much needed resources to empower landowners and communities to protect habitat and foster environmental stewardship for future generations," Salazar said in a statement.
Competition for the yearly grants runs high. The winning Oregon projects benefited a wide range of threatened species and tied together important properties, Carroll said.
The largest grant, for more than $1 million, will allow The Nature Conservancy to purchase 193 acres at Big Creek in Lane County -- habitat that is crucial for the Oregon silverspot butterfly, northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and coastal coho salmon.
The Nature Conservancy, working with the Oregon Department of State Lands, will receive $507,000 to help buy and manage 1,690 acres at Upper and Lower Table Rocks east of Gold Hill in southern Oregon. Seasonal ponds are home to the federally protected vernal pool fairy shrimp and the dwarf woolly meadowfoam. The mesa buttes also could be home to endangered large-flowered woolly meadowfoam and Gentner's fritillaria.
A $256,820 grant will purchase conservation easements for five parcels totaling 65.5 acres in the Cardwell Hill area of Benton County. The upland and riparian habitat protects Fender's blue butterfly and its host plant, Kincaid's lupine, and could be planted with Willamette daisy, Nelson's checkermallow and golden paintbrush.
Oregon departments of Agriculture and Transportation will use a $477,963 grant to inventory populations and create management plans for 28 listed and sensitive species on 75,000 acres of highway rights-of-way.
Yamhill County will use its $391,000 to provide long-term habitat conservation on county lands to minimize the impact of land use. Targeted species include the threatened Fender's blue butterfly and the streaked horned lark, a candidate for protective listing.
-- Abby Haight; abbyhaight@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/04/us_grants_to_help_oregon_habit.html
Public lands coalition plans to 'Take Back Utah'
*Make note that the "Public Lands Coalition" mentioned here is a coalition of special interest organizations representing agriculture, mining and environmentalists. Their views DO NOT reflect that of the majority of american people, the publc. In this instance, I am siding with the BLM. Gosh. I cant believe I said that!
-----------------
Public lands coalition plans to 'Take Back Utah'
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Deseret News
Published: Monday, April 20, 2009 11:41 p.m. MDT
The dust may have settled from the Obama-inspired tea party last week, but get ready for the next storm of rallying cries to sweep Utah's capital city.
Call it Sagebrush Rebellion Two.
Representatives from a variety of groups met Monday to plan the "Take Back Utah" Rally, a protest over federal rules, regulations, policies, laws and practices that critics say unfairly strip Utahns of their rights of access to public lands.
While dormant for several years, the Utah Public Lands Multiple Use Coalition has been reinvigorated by necessity driven by dismay over several key decisions made by newly-named Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Salazar earlier this year rescinded 77 parcels of BLM land that had been bid on for possible oil and gas development and also yanked from consideration multiple parcels up for oil shale research and development.
The decisions dismayed some Utah conservatives, bewildered Utah public land managers and were criticized by potential developers as the spectre of even more restrictive land-use practices to come.
"I really believe the federal government has lost its way," said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, who had a seat at Monday's planning meeting. "It's critical we have our voices heard with so much of our land locked up in a management system full of roadblocks, additional bureaucracy and impediments to prudent development policies."
Coalition member groups include the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, the Utah Wool Growers Association, the Utah Shared Access Alliance and the Utah Rural Electric Association.
Randy Parker, the farm bureau's chief executive officer, said the ultimate goal of the coalition is to ensure greater self determination for Utah.
"Utah is at a disadvantage because so much of our land is controlled by the federal government. We are subject to the political whims of the (presidential) administration and Congress."
Organizers say they expect 10,000-plus attendees at the Aug. 8 event, planned to begin at 500 South and end at the Capitol. They're hopeful even more people will show up.
"I am 100 percent convinced that groups like the SUWA (the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society are a very small, heavily funded minority interest in the state of Utah," Noel said, adding he believes the majority of Utahns desire responsible access.
The group, so far, has the ear of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, who attended the planning session and said there are "common sense" middle-ground solutions that balance environmental interests with responsible development.
"These are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Herbert also told the group that despite Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s views on climate change and other environmental issues, the Utah governor possesses the political savvy to broker change.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705298685/Public-lands-coalition-plans-to-Take-Back-Utah.html
-----------------
Public lands coalition plans to 'Take Back Utah'
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Deseret News
Published: Monday, April 20, 2009 11:41 p.m. MDT
The dust may have settled from the Obama-inspired tea party last week, but get ready for the next storm of rallying cries to sweep Utah's capital city.
Call it Sagebrush Rebellion Two.
Representatives from a variety of groups met Monday to plan the "Take Back Utah" Rally, a protest over federal rules, regulations, policies, laws and practices that critics say unfairly strip Utahns of their rights of access to public lands.
While dormant for several years, the Utah Public Lands Multiple Use Coalition has been reinvigorated by necessity driven by dismay over several key decisions made by newly-named Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Salazar earlier this year rescinded 77 parcels of BLM land that had been bid on for possible oil and gas development and also yanked from consideration multiple parcels up for oil shale research and development.
The decisions dismayed some Utah conservatives, bewildered Utah public land managers and were criticized by potential developers as the spectre of even more restrictive land-use practices to come.
"I really believe the federal government has lost its way," said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, who had a seat at Monday's planning meeting. "It's critical we have our voices heard with so much of our land locked up in a management system full of roadblocks, additional bureaucracy and impediments to prudent development policies."
Coalition member groups include the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, the Utah Wool Growers Association, the Utah Shared Access Alliance and the Utah Rural Electric Association.
Randy Parker, the farm bureau's chief executive officer, said the ultimate goal of the coalition is to ensure greater self determination for Utah.
"Utah is at a disadvantage because so much of our land is controlled by the federal government. We are subject to the political whims of the (presidential) administration and Congress."
Organizers say they expect 10,000-plus attendees at the Aug. 8 event, planned to begin at 500 South and end at the Capitol. They're hopeful even more people will show up.
"I am 100 percent convinced that groups like the SUWA (the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society are a very small, heavily funded minority interest in the state of Utah," Noel said, adding he believes the majority of Utahns desire responsible access.
The group, so far, has the ear of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, who attended the planning session and said there are "common sense" middle-ground solutions that balance environmental interests with responsible development.
"These are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Herbert also told the group that despite Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s views on climate change and other environmental issues, the Utah governor possesses the political savvy to broker change.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705298685/Public-lands-coalition-plans-to-Take-Back-Utah.html
New Database of Americas Protected Lands Goes Global
Technical Announcement:
What’s Protected, What’s Not: New Protected Areas Database for United States’ Land Now Available
Released: 4/21/2009 10:12:23 AM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192 John Mosesso
Phone: 703-648-4079
Catherine Puckett
Phone: 352-264-3532
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting a picture of the status of conservation efforts in the United States has just been made easier thanks to a just-released database that allows wildlife and conservation professionals to visit a single place to find comprehensive information on protected areas.
Several federal, state, and non-government agencies combined resources and data about public landholdings to create the Protected Areas Database - United States (PAD-US).
PAD-US, released in April 2009, is a national inventory of protected lands. In addition to providing comprehensive information about public lands in the United States, this geodatabase includes information that allows it to be incorporated into the United Nations' World Protected Areas Database (WDPA), thereby aiding a new perspective on conservation efforts worldwide.
PAD-US was prepared in collaboration with the PAD-US Partnership, a public-private planning consortium comprised of federal, state, and non-governmental organizations interested in the inventory and management of protected lands.
"This effort, which was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey's Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, seeks to provide the guidance and resources necessary to maintain protected lands data with greater accuracy and detail than previously possible," said John Mosesso, a USGS scientist involved with the project.
The first version of PAD-US contains information concerning more than 22,000 highly protected areas in the United States. The total acreage of these protected areas is more than 347.7 million acres, or 15 percent of the country's total land area (including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii). All sites meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) definition of protected and are permanently managed to maintain biodiversity.
"Both the PAD-US Partnership and the IUCN consider these lands essential for conserving species and habitats as well as for supporting other important open space purposes," said Mosesso. He noted that an additional 408 million acres of land (18 percent of the nation's land area), are permanently protected from conversion but allow extractive uses such as mining and logging. The lands in PAD-US, he said, also include some voluntarily provided private conservation lands, such as more than 1.8 million acres of The Nature Conservancy preserves and easements.
For each parcel, the database provides geographic boundaries, land classification (Federal, State, City, or Private), land owner or manager, management designation, holding name, IUCN category, WDPA Site Code, GAP status codes, and a suite of reference information.
One of the goals of the PAD-US Partnership is to provide a measure of management commitment for long-term biodiversity protection. Mosesso said that by providing such in-depth information, the database will facilitate a wide variety of conservation and land-management efforts such as regional ecological assessments, strategic conservation planning by land trusts, and the identification of species and habitats that are not afforded adequate long-term protection.
Key members of the PAD-US Partnership are the U. S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Program, Conservation Biology Institute, The Nature Conservancy U. S. Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Forest Service, and GreenInfo Network. The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program is hosting the data for the Partnership and will provide annual updates to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, part of the United Nations Environmental Programme. Coordinated by the USGS, the NBII is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. GAP is a vital NBII component.
A map of the stewardship data is available online.
More information on the PAD-US Partnership can be found online.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.
Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS feed.
**** www.usgs.gov ****
Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2201
What’s Protected, What’s Not: New Protected Areas Database for United States’ Land Now Available
Released: 4/21/2009 10:12:23 AM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192 John Mosesso
Phone: 703-648-4079
Catherine Puckett
Phone: 352-264-3532
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting a picture of the status of conservation efforts in the United States has just been made easier thanks to a just-released database that allows wildlife and conservation professionals to visit a single place to find comprehensive information on protected areas.
Several federal, state, and non-government agencies combined resources and data about public landholdings to create the Protected Areas Database - United States (PAD-US).
PAD-US, released in April 2009, is a national inventory of protected lands. In addition to providing comprehensive information about public lands in the United States, this geodatabase includes information that allows it to be incorporated into the United Nations' World Protected Areas Database (WDPA), thereby aiding a new perspective on conservation efforts worldwide.
PAD-US was prepared in collaboration with the PAD-US Partnership, a public-private planning consortium comprised of federal, state, and non-governmental organizations interested in the inventory and management of protected lands.
"This effort, which was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey's Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, seeks to provide the guidance and resources necessary to maintain protected lands data with greater accuracy and detail than previously possible," said John Mosesso, a USGS scientist involved with the project.
The first version of PAD-US contains information concerning more than 22,000 highly protected areas in the United States. The total acreage of these protected areas is more than 347.7 million acres, or 15 percent of the country's total land area (including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii). All sites meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) definition of protected and are permanently managed to maintain biodiversity.
"Both the PAD-US Partnership and the IUCN consider these lands essential for conserving species and habitats as well as for supporting other important open space purposes," said Mosesso. He noted that an additional 408 million acres of land (18 percent of the nation's land area), are permanently protected from conversion but allow extractive uses such as mining and logging. The lands in PAD-US, he said, also include some voluntarily provided private conservation lands, such as more than 1.8 million acres of The Nature Conservancy preserves and easements.
For each parcel, the database provides geographic boundaries, land classification (Federal, State, City, or Private), land owner or manager, management designation, holding name, IUCN category, WDPA Site Code, GAP status codes, and a suite of reference information.
One of the goals of the PAD-US Partnership is to provide a measure of management commitment for long-term biodiversity protection. Mosesso said that by providing such in-depth information, the database will facilitate a wide variety of conservation and land-management efforts such as regional ecological assessments, strategic conservation planning by land trusts, and the identification of species and habitats that are not afforded adequate long-term protection.
Key members of the PAD-US Partnership are the U. S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Program, Conservation Biology Institute, The Nature Conservancy U. S. Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Forest Service, and GreenInfo Network. The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program is hosting the data for the Partnership and will provide annual updates to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, part of the United Nations Environmental Programme. Coordinated by the USGS, the NBII is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. GAP is a vital NBII component.
A map of the stewardship data is available online.
More information on the PAD-US Partnership can be found online.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.
Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS feed.
**** www.usgs.gov ****
Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2201
Californias New Gold Rush: A Boon for the BLM
Prospectors hope new Calif. gold rush will pan out
By TRACIE CONE, The Associated Press
4:11 p.m. April 21, 2009
Todd Osborne pans for gold along a creek near Coloma, Calif., Thursday, April 16, 2009. With the downturn in the economy California's Sierra foothills have seen a rush of new prospectors trying to strike it rich by finding gold. Osborne began prospecting full-time last year when his work an an arborist slowed.
The recession and high gold prices are bringing on a new California Gold Rush. As AP's Haven Daley reports, the 1849 Gold Rush only removed an estimated 10 percent of the precious metal, so there's still plenty of gold "in them thar hills." (April 16)
by AP
More Videos
COLOMA, Calif. — There's still gold in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, and a new rush is under way to find it.
Not since the Great Depression have so many hard-luck people been lured by prospecting, hoping to find their fortune tumbling down a mountain stream. The recession and high gold prices are helping to fuel the latest gold craze, especially among workers who have lost jobs.
"I guess there's always hope. At home, I don't have any right now," said Steve Biorck, a concrete finisher who headed west because construction work dried up in Tennessee. Now he spends days standing knee-deep in an icy creek coaxing gold flakes from a swirling pan of gravel.
Miners who locate an unclaimed area can pay a $170 fee to the federal government for access to the public land. Most claims are along the 120 miles of steep granite outcrops and rushing riverbeds that are part of California's Mother Lode, a narrow band of gold-rich terrain.
When Don Wetter was in the Army, he guarded Fort Knox in Kentucky, home of the U.S. Treasury's gold depository. Now that he's been discharged, Wetter hopes to find some gold of his own using an anticipated loan for a "grubstake," an old mining term for money to sustain the search.
Wetter, a 22-year-old tree trimmer from Troy, Mich., said he wanted to turn to hunt for gold because most of his customers lost their jobs or moved away.
Many would-be gold panners are drawn to the South Fork of the American River, where the 1849 discovery of nuggets at Sutter's Mill launched the largest human migration in the Western Hemisphere. The Depression brought another wave of miners in the 1930s.
"It's hard to keep my equipment in stock," said Albert Fausel, the third-generation owner of the nearby Old Placerville Hardware store, which was founded to sell sluices, picks and pans to the original '49ers.
Back then, the price of gold was $16 an ounce. Today it hovers around $1,000.
The store's wood floors used to creak under the weight of recreational rafters and fisherman. Now prospectors are some of the biggest shoppers.
"A lot of people are out of jobs and know where the gold holes are," Fausel said.
Between October 2007 and September 2008, the Bureau of Land Management in California issued gold miners 3,413 permits, or claims, to search for gold. That figure compared with 1,986 claims in 2006. So far this fiscal year, the agency has issued 1,444 claims.
Many miners believe that only 10 percent of the gold in the Sierra Nevada was discovered in the original gold rush. They are also excited by the prospect of stumbling onto buried treasure.
"A lady was walking over there, kicked a stone with her toe and picked up a nugget just like that," said Russ Kurz, who at 77 with a bushy white beard looks like a grizzled miner. He points to a sandbar on the American River near Coloma.
"I was walking my dog once and went to pick up a rock and pulled a long nugget straight out of the sand," he said. "It was worth about $6,500 – and that was 13 years ago."
Brent Shock of Jamestown now teaches the newbies he calls "the bonanza people." He says sandbars, cracks in bedrock and low-pressure eddies behind boulders are prime places to set up sluices, which are metal or plastic channels designed to catch gold.
Spring is the best time to hunt for gold as snow melt churns streams and rivers, potentially uncovering new riches.
"There's got to be a lot of it sitting around somewhere," said Eric Tring of Roseville as he panned with his 13-year-old daughter.
The gold fields are becoming so popular that Todd Osborne has had to guard a claim that has been in his family since the 1960s near a remote mountain creek.
A handmade sign with the image of a rifle and the words "private claim" dissuades most intruders, but novices often are unaware that miners can make a stake on public land.
"A couple of years ago there'd be nobody out here," said Osborne, 41, who began prospecting full-time last year when his work as an arborist slowed.
Osborne, who says both of his grandfathers turned to prospecting during the Depression, knows the people who sold supplies to miners were the ones who stayed rich. One of the most notable examples was denim maker Levi Strauss.
Osborne owns the patent on the Bazooka Gold Trap sluice that he builds with his prospecting partner, Adam Schiffner. The two can process up to 350 gallons of streambed gravel a day with it, yielding $100 to $1,000 in gold flakes, with an average of $150.
They are betting that the instability of the dollar will drive gold prices even higher and entice more people to use his sluice.
"Whether they get rich or not," Osborne said, "we've got part of their grubstake."
–––
On the Net:
Click on title above to go to the BLMs page on obtaining a gold claim:
http://www.blm.gov/ca/caso/iac/faqmc.html
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/21/us-modern-day-gold-rush-042109/
BLM to Hold "Earth Day" Auction of Oil & Gas Leases on Public Land. Protests Planned.
For Immediate Release, April 21, 2009
Contact: Oscar Simpson, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, (505) 917-2134
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 751-0351 x 137
Jay Lininger, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 853-9929
Protest Filed Against Oil and Gas Leasing on New Mexico Public Lands
TAOS, N.M.— Allied conservationists and sportsmen today filed an administrative protest of a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sale for New Mexico. The Bureau will offer 49 lease parcels, totaling 41,635 acres, on April 22, 2009 – Earth Day. The protest challenges the government’s failure to address global warming in its oil and gas leases.
“Global warming hurts wildlife, our rivers and streams, and our heritage. But it’s still business as usual: Lease first, think later,” said Oscar Simpson with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. “BLM needs to get a plan in place to deal with the global warming issues directly tied to federal oil and natural gas leasing in New Mexico.”
Several other conservation and sportsmen groups, including Back Country Horsemen of New Mexico, Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and the Northern New Mexico Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation expressed support for the challenge.
“The support we’re getting from these groups reflects a groundswell of concern that the combined impacts of global warming and oil and gas development aren’t doing wildlife any favors,” Simpson said.
On the heels of the Environmental Protection Agency’s April 17, 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations,” the need for the federal government to address global warming is urgent. In New Mexico, oil and gas production contributes roughly 25 percent — and possibly more — of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the electricity sector.
“Methane emissions from gas production are one of the biggest sources. Natural gas may burn cleaner than coal, but leaks and dirty drilling practices in the production phase result in significant methane emissions to the atmosphere,” said Jeremy Nichols, director of climate and energy at WildEarth Guardians. “And methane’s global warming impact, molecule to molecule, is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”
There are cost-efficient technologies to keep methane out of the atmosphere and in pipelines for use in homes, schools, and businesses. These technologies have already proven effective. In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that its Natural Gas STAR program avoided annual greenhouse gas emissions equal to the amount emitted by 6.8 million passenger vehicles or 5 million homes per year, and added revenue of nearly $648 million in natural gas sales. But the program relies on industry self-regulation and has been hampered by the Bureau of Land Management’s failure to require these measures as a condition of owning a federal oil and gas lease.
“Fossil fuel combustion is producing a critical mass of greenhouse gases that has already shifted the planet’s climate system into dangerous territory,” said Jay Lininger, ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a cruel irony that the Bureau of Land Management would lease more climate-threatening oil and gas on Earth Day.”
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/oil-and-gas-04-21-2009.html
Contact: Oscar Simpson, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, (505) 917-2134
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 751-0351 x 137
Jay Lininger, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 853-9929
Protest Filed Against Oil and Gas Leasing on New Mexico Public Lands
TAOS, N.M.— Allied conservationists and sportsmen today filed an administrative protest of a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sale for New Mexico. The Bureau will offer 49 lease parcels, totaling 41,635 acres, on April 22, 2009 – Earth Day. The protest challenges the government’s failure to address global warming in its oil and gas leases.
“Global warming hurts wildlife, our rivers and streams, and our heritage. But it’s still business as usual: Lease first, think later,” said Oscar Simpson with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. “BLM needs to get a plan in place to deal with the global warming issues directly tied to federal oil and natural gas leasing in New Mexico.”
Several other conservation and sportsmen groups, including Back Country Horsemen of New Mexico, Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and the Northern New Mexico Chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation expressed support for the challenge.
“The support we’re getting from these groups reflects a groundswell of concern that the combined impacts of global warming and oil and gas development aren’t doing wildlife any favors,” Simpson said.
On the heels of the Environmental Protection Agency’s April 17, 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations,” the need for the federal government to address global warming is urgent. In New Mexico, oil and gas production contributes roughly 25 percent — and possibly more — of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the electricity sector.
“Methane emissions from gas production are one of the biggest sources. Natural gas may burn cleaner than coal, but leaks and dirty drilling practices in the production phase result in significant methane emissions to the atmosphere,” said Jeremy Nichols, director of climate and energy at WildEarth Guardians. “And methane’s global warming impact, molecule to molecule, is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”
There are cost-efficient technologies to keep methane out of the atmosphere and in pipelines for use in homes, schools, and businesses. These technologies have already proven effective. In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that its Natural Gas STAR program avoided annual greenhouse gas emissions equal to the amount emitted by 6.8 million passenger vehicles or 5 million homes per year, and added revenue of nearly $648 million in natural gas sales. But the program relies on industry self-regulation and has been hampered by the Bureau of Land Management’s failure to require these measures as a condition of owning a federal oil and gas lease.
“Fossil fuel combustion is producing a critical mass of greenhouse gases that has already shifted the planet’s climate system into dangerous territory,” said Jay Lininger, ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a cruel irony that the Bureau of Land Management would lease more climate-threatening oil and gas on Earth Day.”
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/oil-and-gas-04-21-2009.html
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A National School-Childrens "Save Our Wild Horse Campaign?"
Wild Horses Crammed in Holding Pens
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Wild Horses in the Wild
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Congress counts each letter received as the opinion of ten people! The battle for our Wild Mustangs will be won in the court of public opinion. The Department of Interior, its Bureau of Land Management need to face a sustained public outcry over its wild horse management practices.
Contact Your Legislators in D.C.
Call or e-mail your Representative, ask him or her to co-sponsor, HR1018 and HR503. The House of Representatives link is below. You have to take action now and you have to follow it up, even if it means e-mailing your House Representative once a week you have to stay on top of it. Ask you Representative to respond... Or the wild Mustangs will be gone. If not for yourself do it for your grandchildren.
Contact Your Representative, ask them to co-sponsor HR1018 and HR503.. Call or Write your two Senators ask then to co-sponsors S727 Ask for a reply.
Link for Congress .http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Sign Petition http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-indian-ponies-wild-mustangs.html
Write to the Department of the Interior
Mailing Address:
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
E-Mail: feedback@ios.doi.gov
Write to the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Director: Mike Pool (Acting)
E-mail: Mike_Pool@blm.gov
Deputy Director (Operations): Mike Nedd (Acting)
E-mail: Mike_Nedd@blm.gov
Chief of Staff: Janet Lin
E-mail: janet_lin@blm.gov
Denounce the aggressive Wild Mustang removal campaign currently under way at the behest of special interest groups and at the cost of millions of our tax-dollars. Tell them that your tax-dollars would be better spent on an “in the wild” management program not based on removal.
Call for a moratorium on round-ups. Let Bureau of Land Management officials know how you feel about their adoption program. Denounce the continued mismanagement of our Wild Mustangs and request an “in the wild” management program. Now more than ever, we need to put public pressure on the BLM for the sake of our Wild Mustangs and Burros. Tell them to accept Madeline Pickens offer from The National Wild Horse Foundation. Free Our Wild Mustangs and Burros.
Spread the Word! Our strength is in numbers. Here are suggestions on how to help spread the word about our Campaign and the plight of our Wild Mustangs. Alert the media, local and national. Write letters to the editor expressing your outrage. E-Mail a copy of this page to your family, friends, neighbors, and contacts urge them to take action. Add a link to our group page on your email also on your website.
In 1952 Velma Johnston. "Wild Horse Annie", as she was later known, led a grass roots campaign, which involved school children writing letters to Congress, in protest of the treatment of the horses. Public outrage and the innumerable letters written to Congress, resulted in the passing of legislation that banned the use of aircraft and land vehicles in the capture of wild horses. In 1971, former President Nixon signed into law the Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act, which banned the capture, branding, and death of wild horses on public lands. It was this unprecedented letter-writing campaign conducted by schoolchildren across the country that became instrumental in securing the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Some of the letters were eloquent in their simplicity, showing more wisdom and common sense than all of the testimony of the scientists and wildlife managers combined.
*Encourage your local school board to help create a school-childrens save-our-wild-horses campaign. Remind them of Wild Horse Annes work with school children. Encourage them to engage the children in a letter-writing campaigns to the president, encourage the boardmembers to hold "wild horse" art and/or essay contests for the students to engage in. Encourage them to encourage the children to get involved. Tell the members about the dangers our wild horses are facing today...and remind them that wild horses are part of our National Heritage and should be preserved. We must convince them enough to care, to see the good of this fight. Make them feel proud to be a part of it, if only they would. What can it hurt to try?
Thank you for taking action,
Haviland R. Gordineer
Parsons, TN
JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Click on title above to go to our website;
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/wildmustangs
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Native Americans to Get Wild Horse Processing Plants?
CROSSPOSTING:
Wild Horse meat processiing plants planned for
NW tribes
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 6:55 PM
To Whom It May Concern,
The Confederated tribes of the Umatilla, the Yakama tribe, Colville tribe, Nez Perce tribe, Warm Springs tribe, along with the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the U.S. Dept of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
and the BIA are planning on building a horse meat processing plant as a meens to do away with the wild mustangs.
Native people of the United States and Canada, don't let this happen to our wild horse brothers - we cant afford to lose them, to lose another part of our culture. These horses could easily be adopted out to Native people in
the U.S. and Canada, and it would even be better to adopt them out to non-native owners instead of destroying them. Or if the tribes are set on making a profit, it would even be better to sell the wild mustangs for redeo stock
rather than killing them.
For more information on this issue, go to _http://www.umatilla .nsn.us/cuj.
html_ (http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/cuj.html) and click on confederated umatilla journalmagazine, then home page, then click on march 2009 and you can
go page by page to page 10 "NW tribes want to reduce horse numbers." Also April 2009, front page "Tribes unite over feral horse issue," and page 41 "Tribal horse coalition."
This story needs to get out asap so the slaughter of our wild horses can be stopped. Everyone needs to know whats going on with our wild horses.
------------
Maybe I will have to revise this petition to include NW / Candian tribes?
Click on title above to see and sign petition;
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/south-dakota-sioux-to-slaughter-horses
CJ/MK
Wild Horse meat processiing plants planned for
NW tribes
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 6:55 PM
To Whom It May Concern,
The Confederated tribes of the Umatilla, the Yakama tribe, Colville tribe, Nez Perce tribe, Warm Springs tribe, along with the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the U.S. Dept of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
and the BIA are planning on building a horse meat processing plant as a meens to do away with the wild mustangs.
Native people of the United States and Canada, don't let this happen to our wild horse brothers - we cant afford to lose them, to lose another part of our culture. These horses could easily be adopted out to Native people in
the U.S. and Canada, and it would even be better to adopt them out to non-native owners instead of destroying them. Or if the tribes are set on making a profit, it would even be better to sell the wild mustangs for redeo stock
rather than killing them.
For more information on this issue, go to _http://www.umatilla .nsn.us/cuj.
html_ (http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/cuj.html) and click on confederated umatilla journalmagazine, then home page, then click on march 2009 and you can
go page by page to page 10 "NW tribes want to reduce horse numbers." Also April 2009, front page "Tribes unite over feral horse issue," and page 41 "Tribal horse coalition."
This story needs to get out asap so the slaughter of our wild horses can be stopped. Everyone needs to know whats going on with our wild horses.
------------
Maybe I will have to revise this petition to include NW / Candian tribes?
Click on title above to see and sign petition;
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/south-dakota-sioux-to-slaughter-horses
CJ/MK
Friday, April 17, 2009
Deadly Domestic Sheep Disease Threatens Endangered Sierra Nevada Bighorn
Published on Apr 16, 2009 - 10:33:44 AM
Email this article Printer friendly page
By: Center for Biological Diversity
SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2009 - The Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility today notified the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management of their intent to file a lawsuit against the agencies for failure to adequately protect endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep from potentially deadly disease transmission. High-risk domestic sheep allotments must be closed in order to adequately protect Sierra Nevada bighorns from disease transmission that can occur when they come into contact with domestic sheep.
"The agencies must act now to address this significant threat to the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn," said Justin Augustine, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The scientific studies conducted over the last 20 years, especially the recent Recovery Plan and associated Risk Assessment, confirm what history has already shown: that domestic sheep grazing is incompatible with long-term survival and recovery of bighorn sheep."
"These animals, more than any other, represent the beauty and ruggedness, but also the fragility, of the Sierra Nevada. The government's action or inaction to ensure their survival is an indicator of the future of the Sierra," said Karen Schambach, California director of PEER.
Six domestic sheep grazing allotments in Mono County were identified in the Recovery Plan as creating the greatest risk of disease transmission and were recommended for closure. The 60-day notice takes the agencies to task for failing to close these allotments this year, before the 2009 grazing season begins, and for failing to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. The agencies have also failed to analyze the long-term impacts of domestic sheep grazing on the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn or to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service on other management actions affecting the species.
The endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is one of the most iconic species of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The sheep inhabit steep eastern slopes and high alpine meadows in the central Sierra Nevada, from north of Yosemite National Park to south of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Sierra Nevada bighorn are usually found above 5,500 feet in elevation and can range up to 14,000 feet among the highest peaks. The northernmost herd of bighorn, found in Mono County and affected by these allotments, inhabit parts of Yosemite National Park and surrounding public lands to the east.
Over the past 20 years, the state of California, National Park Service, and conservation groups have dedicated substantial resources to bring Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep back from the brink of extinction. However, bighorn numbers continued to decline until its emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1999. At that time, there were as few as 125 adult bighorn in the Sierra Nevada; today there are more than 300. While the Sierra Nevada bighorn population is slowly expanding, its numbers remain precariously low, particularly in the northern part of its range. This is due to the herd's aversion to wintering in areas below 7,000 feet to avoid predation, noise and other disturbances. As the northern herd has repopulated north and east of Yosemite National Park, they've moved into the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest where domestic sheep grazing threatens the transmission of fatal disease.
The conservation groups seek to have the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management comply with the Endangered Species Act and the Recovery Plan to reduce the risks to bighorn from domestic sheep grazing that may threaten the species' survival and recovery. The notice of intent gives the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management 60 days to correct the alleged violations before the Center may pursue legal action.
More information is available from the Center for Biological Diversity:
www.biologicaldiversity.org
http://yubanet.com/regional/Deadly-Domestic-Sheep-Disease-Threatens-Endangered-Sierra-Nevada-Bighorn.php
Email this article Printer friendly page
By: Center for Biological Diversity
SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2009 - The Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility today notified the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management of their intent to file a lawsuit against the agencies for failure to adequately protect endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep from potentially deadly disease transmission. High-risk domestic sheep allotments must be closed in order to adequately protect Sierra Nevada bighorns from disease transmission that can occur when they come into contact with domestic sheep.
"The agencies must act now to address this significant threat to the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn," said Justin Augustine, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The scientific studies conducted over the last 20 years, especially the recent Recovery Plan and associated Risk Assessment, confirm what history has already shown: that domestic sheep grazing is incompatible with long-term survival and recovery of bighorn sheep."
"These animals, more than any other, represent the beauty and ruggedness, but also the fragility, of the Sierra Nevada. The government's action or inaction to ensure their survival is an indicator of the future of the Sierra," said Karen Schambach, California director of PEER.
Six domestic sheep grazing allotments in Mono County were identified in the Recovery Plan as creating the greatest risk of disease transmission and were recommended for closure. The 60-day notice takes the agencies to task for failing to close these allotments this year, before the 2009 grazing season begins, and for failing to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. The agencies have also failed to analyze the long-term impacts of domestic sheep grazing on the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn or to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service on other management actions affecting the species.
The endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is one of the most iconic species of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The sheep inhabit steep eastern slopes and high alpine meadows in the central Sierra Nevada, from north of Yosemite National Park to south of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Sierra Nevada bighorn are usually found above 5,500 feet in elevation and can range up to 14,000 feet among the highest peaks. The northernmost herd of bighorn, found in Mono County and affected by these allotments, inhabit parts of Yosemite National Park and surrounding public lands to the east.
Over the past 20 years, the state of California, National Park Service, and conservation groups have dedicated substantial resources to bring Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep back from the brink of extinction. However, bighorn numbers continued to decline until its emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1999. At that time, there were as few as 125 adult bighorn in the Sierra Nevada; today there are more than 300. While the Sierra Nevada bighorn population is slowly expanding, its numbers remain precariously low, particularly in the northern part of its range. This is due to the herd's aversion to wintering in areas below 7,000 feet to avoid predation, noise and other disturbances. As the northern herd has repopulated north and east of Yosemite National Park, they've moved into the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest where domestic sheep grazing threatens the transmission of fatal disease.
The conservation groups seek to have the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management comply with the Endangered Species Act and the Recovery Plan to reduce the risks to bighorn from domestic sheep grazing that may threaten the species' survival and recovery. The notice of intent gives the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management 60 days to correct the alleged violations before the Center may pursue legal action.
More information is available from the Center for Biological Diversity:
www.biologicaldiversity.org
http://yubanet.com/regional/Deadly-Domestic-Sheep-Disease-Threatens-Endangered-Sierra-Nevada-Bighorn.php
Ex-BLM worker pleads not guilty to child sex-abuse charges
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/16/2009 03:24:58 PM MDT
Rex Lee Smart, a former field manager for the Bureau of Land Management in Kanab who faces numerous counts of sexually abusing a girl, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday.
Smart entered his plea before 6th District Judge Marvin Bagley, who scheduled a trial date of Sept. 28-Oct. 15 before Judge Wallace A. Lee.
Smart was charged in January 2008 for the crimes that allegedly took place between June 2005 and September 2006 at Smart's house and at the rodeo grounds in Kanab. They involve the same girl when she was 9 and 10 years old.
He faces seven counts of sex abuse of a child, two counts of sodomy on a child and a single count of rape of a child, all first-degree felonies.
Since his arrest, Smart has been free on $125,000 bond.
-- Mark Havnes
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12157328
Updated: 04/16/2009 03:24:58 PM MDT
Rex Lee Smart, a former field manager for the Bureau of Land Management in Kanab who faces numerous counts of sexually abusing a girl, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday.
Smart entered his plea before 6th District Judge Marvin Bagley, who scheduled a trial date of Sept. 28-Oct. 15 before Judge Wallace A. Lee.
Smart was charged in January 2008 for the crimes that allegedly took place between June 2005 and September 2006 at Smart's house and at the rodeo grounds in Kanab. They involve the same girl when she was 9 and 10 years old.
He faces seven counts of sex abuse of a child, two counts of sodomy on a child and a single count of rape of a child, all first-degree felonies.
Since his arrest, Smart has been free on $125,000 bond.
-- Mark Havnes
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12157328
John Rickman, teacher, calls wild horses parasites, recommends "shooting them all."
"... I say shoot them all. They are an alien species that steal habitat from indigenous species and must be supported artificially by feeding programs. Without humans they would have disappeared decades ago.
They are small because grass fed horses HAVE to be small. There is not enough nutrition in plain grass to support large horses. While doing research for an article I just did on medieval horse archers I found that a lactating mare above 14 hands high cannot eat enough grass in a 48 hour period to supply the nutritional needs of just 24 hours. Only grain can provide that sort of nutrition.
These foreign parasites need to be removed from the ecology so that native species have a chance to survive...."
------------
Click on title above to go to article "They Shoot Horses, Dont They" and see Rickmans comment here and leave your own;
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271052#tab=comments&sc=0&contribute=&local=
Rickmans "Blind Pig" website;
http://john-blindpigs.blogspot.com/
They are small because grass fed horses HAVE to be small. There is not enough nutrition in plain grass to support large horses. While doing research for an article I just did on medieval horse archers I found that a lactating mare above 14 hands high cannot eat enough grass in a 48 hour period to supply the nutritional needs of just 24 hours. Only grain can provide that sort of nutrition.
These foreign parasites need to be removed from the ecology so that native species have a chance to survive...."
------------
Click on title above to go to article "They Shoot Horses, Dont They" and see Rickmans comment here and leave your own;
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271052#tab=comments&sc=0&contribute=&local=
Rickmans "Blind Pig" website;
http://john-blindpigs.blogspot.com/
Georgetown Divide group seeks land for work with wild horses
By Cathy Locke
clocke@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 17, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
A home on the range might be best for the iconic mustang. But a stopover on El Dorado County's Georgetown Divide could make the transition to domestic life easier for wild horses removed from public lands.
It also could provide a retreat for suburbanites looking to connect with their agrarian heritage, an educational center for schoolchildren and business opportunities for residents of the rural region.
"The horses will never pay for themselves," said Pilot Hill resident LaDonna Smith, president of the American Mustang Foundation. "We're trying to build a small economy around them."
Established by a group of equestrians on the Georgetown Divide, the foundation aims to develop a center to train mustangs to make them more adoptable. But to sustain the operation and serve the economic needs of the Divide, the project would incorporate a number of features to promote agricultural tourism.
The foundation seeks to acquire up to 200 acres and is looking at properties near the Highway 49 corridor, close to equestrian trails in El Dorado County as well as the Western States Trail in Placer County, site of the annual 100-mile Tevis Cup Ride.
The business plan calls for a regional equestrian center with spectator and training arenas, classrooms and instructional areas, and overnight lodging for horses and their owners. It also envisions income from a working farm, selling meat and produce, and providing agricultural tours and educational programs.
Smith, who has a degree in agriculture education, and other foundation members, including horse trainer Scott Drake of Placerville and landscape architect Kit Veerkamp of Cool, are pursuing on their own property many of the activities planned for the proposed "legacy ranch."
Mustangs GT and Pilot share a corral on Smith's small ranch.
Seven-year-old GT spent his first four years roaming the range south of Elko, Nev., before Smith acquired him through the federal Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program. He's responded well to training. Smith's 6-year-old daughter rides GT, and earlier this week he looked on tolerantly as 3-week-old piglets raced around him in the corral.
Pilot is about 5 years old and was removed from state-owned lands in Nevada. He was adopted, "but he didn't get people who were very confident," Smith said. "He was just a captive wild (horse)."
Smith has been working with him for about six months, and now she can saddle and bridle him.
"One of the biggest goals," she said, "is to clear up the mustang myth that they are wild, crazy animals that you can't do much with."
Jason Williams, a Folsom-based compliance specialist with the BLM program, said the proposed center would be a boon for the federal agency.
"It would really help us out in finding homes for horses," he said.
Nearly 32,000 wild horses and burros removed from federal lands are fed and cared for in short- and long-term holding facilities.
The agency seeks to place animals in private care through adoptions and sales, but adoptions fell from 5,701 in fiscal year 2005 to 3,706 in 2008, according to the bureau's Web site.
The American Mustang Foundation's proposal is ambitious, but Shermain Hardesty, director of the University of California, Davis, Small Farm Program, said agritourism has significant public appeal.
"It's so novel, because we've moved so far away from this type of experience," she said.
Such a project would require plenty of working capital, Hardesty said, and regulatory requirements are common hurdles.
Sam Driggers, county economic development director, sees the project as just the spark the area needs. The county's Economic Development Advisory Committee and Agricultural Commission have endorsed the proposal.
"It's a game changer," Driggers said, explaining that the equestrian center and farm could attract businesses ranging from bed and breakfast inns to veterinary clinics.
The foundation's business plan estimates $10 million to $12 million will be needed to acquire land and develop facilities.
Driggers doesn't see funding as a major obstacle, citing various grant and loan opportunities for nonprofit organizations.
There may be some naysayers, Driggers said, but he predicted the project would go through the county planning approval process with little opposition.
"If anyone is going to try to develop a project in El Dorado County," he said, "I think this is the way they should do it."
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1787200.html
clocke@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Apr. 17, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
A home on the range might be best for the iconic mustang. But a stopover on El Dorado County's Georgetown Divide could make the transition to domestic life easier for wild horses removed from public lands.
It also could provide a retreat for suburbanites looking to connect with their agrarian heritage, an educational center for schoolchildren and business opportunities for residents of the rural region.
"The horses will never pay for themselves," said Pilot Hill resident LaDonna Smith, president of the American Mustang Foundation. "We're trying to build a small economy around them."
Established by a group of equestrians on the Georgetown Divide, the foundation aims to develop a center to train mustangs to make them more adoptable. But to sustain the operation and serve the economic needs of the Divide, the project would incorporate a number of features to promote agricultural tourism.
The foundation seeks to acquire up to 200 acres and is looking at properties near the Highway 49 corridor, close to equestrian trails in El Dorado County as well as the Western States Trail in Placer County, site of the annual 100-mile Tevis Cup Ride.
The business plan calls for a regional equestrian center with spectator and training arenas, classrooms and instructional areas, and overnight lodging for horses and their owners. It also envisions income from a working farm, selling meat and produce, and providing agricultural tours and educational programs.
Smith, who has a degree in agriculture education, and other foundation members, including horse trainer Scott Drake of Placerville and landscape architect Kit Veerkamp of Cool, are pursuing on their own property many of the activities planned for the proposed "legacy ranch."
Mustangs GT and Pilot share a corral on Smith's small ranch.
Seven-year-old GT spent his first four years roaming the range south of Elko, Nev., before Smith acquired him through the federal Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program. He's responded well to training. Smith's 6-year-old daughter rides GT, and earlier this week he looked on tolerantly as 3-week-old piglets raced around him in the corral.
Pilot is about 5 years old and was removed from state-owned lands in Nevada. He was adopted, "but he didn't get people who were very confident," Smith said. "He was just a captive wild (horse)."
Smith has been working with him for about six months, and now she can saddle and bridle him.
"One of the biggest goals," she said, "is to clear up the mustang myth that they are wild, crazy animals that you can't do much with."
Jason Williams, a Folsom-based compliance specialist with the BLM program, said the proposed center would be a boon for the federal agency.
"It would really help us out in finding homes for horses," he said.
Nearly 32,000 wild horses and burros removed from federal lands are fed and cared for in short- and long-term holding facilities.
The agency seeks to place animals in private care through adoptions and sales, but adoptions fell from 5,701 in fiscal year 2005 to 3,706 in 2008, according to the bureau's Web site.
The American Mustang Foundation's proposal is ambitious, but Shermain Hardesty, director of the University of California, Davis, Small Farm Program, said agritourism has significant public appeal.
"It's so novel, because we've moved so far away from this type of experience," she said.
Such a project would require plenty of working capital, Hardesty said, and regulatory requirements are common hurdles.
Sam Driggers, county economic development director, sees the project as just the spark the area needs. The county's Economic Development Advisory Committee and Agricultural Commission have endorsed the proposal.
"It's a game changer," Driggers said, explaining that the equestrian center and farm could attract businesses ranging from bed and breakfast inns to veterinary clinics.
The foundation's business plan estimates $10 million to $12 million will be needed to acquire land and develop facilities.
Driggers doesn't see funding as a major obstacle, citing various grant and loan opportunities for nonprofit organizations.
There may be some naysayers, Driggers said, but he predicted the project would go through the county planning approval process with little opposition.
"If anyone is going to try to develop a project in El Dorado County," he said, "I think this is the way they should do it."
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1787200.html
Umpqua National Forest Seeks Comments on Proposed Action in Or.
Umpqua National Forest, located in southwestern Oregon, has released a Proposed Action to develop a Travel Management Plan.
The Forest Service (FS) is seeking your input to help them analyze the potential environmental effects of the Proposed Action for their Environmental Assessment (EA). Over-the-snow vehicles are excluded from this Proposed Action.
The Proposed Action would:
Amend the Forest Plan to make it consistent with the Travel Management Rule;
Designate approximately 360 miles of National Forest System (NFS) roads open to highway legal vehicles only;
Designate approximately 3,175 miles of NFS roads open to mixed use;
Designate approximately 721 miles of NFS trails open to class 1 and class 3 non highway legal vehicles;
Designate approximately 517 miles of dispersed camping corridors along motorized routes;
Close the Forest to cross-country motorized travel. Change approximately 426,589 acres from open yearlong to closed and approximately 197,780 acres from open seasonally to closed;
Maps illustrating the Proposed Action can be found on the Umpqua National Forest Travel Management website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/umpqua/projects/travel/index.shtmI. In addition, maps will be available for viewing at the Forest Supervisor's Office, as well as each of the Ranger District offices.
Public involvement will be ongoing throughout the EA process. However, written and electronic comments to be considered in the preparation of the EA should be submitted by May 15, 2009.
Your comments will help the FS assess the Proposed Action, develop alternatives and prepare the EA. Site-specific comments are the most helpful. For example, simply stating that you are opposed to road closures is not as helpful as telling them which road you would like left open and why.
Send written comments to:
Umpqua National Forest
Attn: Scott Elefritz
2900 NW Stewart Parkway
Roseburg, OR 97471
You may also hand deliver your comments to any of the Forest Service offices during normal business hours, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.
Email comments to:
comments-pacificnorthwest-umpqua@fs.fed.us
Please put "Travel Management Plan" in the subject line.
COMMENT DEADLINE IS MAY 15, 2009
If you have any questions concerning this proposal, please contact Scott Elefritz, Natural Resource Specialist, at (541) 957-3437.
JUST REMEMBER, PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IS CRUCIAL TO KEEP RECREATION AREAS OPEN, PLEASE GET INVOLVED!
Thanks in advance for your support,
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107
The Forest Service (FS) is seeking your input to help them analyze the potential environmental effects of the Proposed Action for their Environmental Assessment (EA). Over-the-snow vehicles are excluded from this Proposed Action.
The Proposed Action would:
Amend the Forest Plan to make it consistent with the Travel Management Rule;
Designate approximately 360 miles of National Forest System (NFS) roads open to highway legal vehicles only;
Designate approximately 3,175 miles of NFS roads open to mixed use;
Designate approximately 721 miles of NFS trails open to class 1 and class 3 non highway legal vehicles;
Designate approximately 517 miles of dispersed camping corridors along motorized routes;
Close the Forest to cross-country motorized travel. Change approximately 426,589 acres from open yearlong to closed and approximately 197,780 acres from open seasonally to closed;
Maps illustrating the Proposed Action can be found on the Umpqua National Forest Travel Management website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/umpqua/projects/travel/index.shtmI. In addition, maps will be available for viewing at the Forest Supervisor's Office, as well as each of the Ranger District offices.
Public involvement will be ongoing throughout the EA process. However, written and electronic comments to be considered in the preparation of the EA should be submitted by May 15, 2009.
Your comments will help the FS assess the Proposed Action, develop alternatives and prepare the EA. Site-specific comments are the most helpful. For example, simply stating that you are opposed to road closures is not as helpful as telling them which road you would like left open and why.
Send written comments to:
Umpqua National Forest
Attn: Scott Elefritz
2900 NW Stewart Parkway
Roseburg, OR 97471
You may also hand deliver your comments to any of the Forest Service offices during normal business hours, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.
Email comments to:
comments-pacificnorthwest-umpqua@fs.fed.us
Please put "Travel Management Plan" in the subject line.
COMMENT DEADLINE IS MAY 15, 2009
If you have any questions concerning this proposal, please contact Scott Elefritz, Natural Resource Specialist, at (541) 957-3437.
JUST REMEMBER, PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IS CRUCIAL TO KEEP RECREATION AREAS OPEN, PLEASE GET INVOLVED!
Thanks in advance for your support,
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107
Thursday, April 16, 2009
DANCING WITH WILD HORSES Opens 4/30, Features Jennifer Muller's Island
Monday, April 13, 2009; Posted: 04:04 PM - by BWW News Desk
Roberto Dutesco, Peter Tunney and Jennifer Muller/The Works present DANCING WITH WILD HORSES, a multi-arts installation featuring Jennifer Muller's Island, inspired by Roberto Dutesco's passionate photography of the Wild Horses of Sable Island on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 7:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm) at 530 W. 27th Street (formerly Spirit and Twilo nightclubs), NYC. Suggested donation is $20, benefiting The Works' New Choreography Fund. Reservations are requested by phone at 212-691-3803 or by email at czummo@jmtw.org.
Peter Tunney has created a dynamic environment showcasing a 40-foot long installation of photography of the haunting images of Sable Island created by Roberto Dutesco. The Works will perform Island in front of the dramatically lit installation. Island premiered at The Joyce Theater in 2005.
Roberto Dutesco created haunting images of the horses on Sable Island - horses that existed without human intervention or interference since their shipwrecked arrival on the island. Taking its cue from the physical motion, social interaction and imagery of these wild horses and what they represent as an increasingly rare natural phenomenon, the piece is a paean to an unfettered, untamed state of being. This atmosphere of abandonment is contrasted with an "island reality" of being trapped within a proscribed and confined space. The piece opens with a lone stallion, soon to be joined by a herd of horses. As the dance progresses, the horse imagery transforms into symbolic human interaction characterized by passion, yearning and a desire to be free.
Original music by Marty Beller, costumes by designer Sonja Nuttall with wigs by Vidal Sassoon, lighting design by Jeff Croiter.
ABOUT Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS
Throughout its history of 35 years, contemporary dance company Jennifer Muller/The Works has strived to reach ever-broadening audiences with works that celebrate and illuminate the human spirit. Artistic Director Jennifer Muller creates exhilarating dances that are evocative, passionate and engaging. The Works has appeared in the world's preeminent theaters and festivals in 39 countries on four continents. In December 2008, The Works performed to rave reviews at the Sixth Beijing International Theater & Dance Festival, presented by China's National Center for the Performing Arts. The Works has performed in 30 states in the U.S. and has self-produced 20 New York City Seasons.
Jennifer Muller, an influence in the dance world for over 40 years, is known for her visionary approach and innovations in dance / theater, multi-discipline productions, incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist-inspired decor and unusual production elements. She has created over 100 works including 6 full-evening productions. Ms. Muller's choreography has been commissioned by 24 international repertory companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Nederlands Dans Theater, NDT3, Ballet de Nord and Ballet Contemporaneo Argentina. Her work for theater includes such venues as The Public Theater, Second Stage, New York Stage and Film and the Metropolitan Opera. Creating work since she was 7 years old, her work has now been seen in 44 countries.
For more information on Jennifer Muller/The Works, visit www.jmtw.org.
Roberto Dutesco, Peter Tunney and Jennifer Muller/The Works present DANCING WITH WILD HORSES, a multi-arts installation featuring Jennifer Muller's Island, inspired by Roberto Dutesco's passionate photography of the Wild Horses of Sable Island on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 7:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm) at 530 W. 27th Street (formerly Spirit and Twilo nightclubs), NYC. Suggested donation is $20, benefiting The Works' New Choreography Fund. Reservations are requested by phone at 212-691-3803 or by email at czummo@jmtw.org.
Peter Tunney has created a dynamic environment showcasing a 40-foot long installation of photography of the haunting images of Sable Island created by Roberto Dutesco. The Works will perform Island in front of the dramatically lit installation. Island premiered at The Joyce Theater in 2005.
Roberto Dutesco created haunting images of the horses on Sable Island - horses that existed without human intervention or interference since their shipwrecked arrival on the island. Taking its cue from the physical motion, social interaction and imagery of these wild horses and what they represent as an increasingly rare natural phenomenon, the piece is a paean to an unfettered, untamed state of being. This atmosphere of abandonment is contrasted with an "island reality" of being trapped within a proscribed and confined space. The piece opens with a lone stallion, soon to be joined by a herd of horses. As the dance progresses, the horse imagery transforms into symbolic human interaction characterized by passion, yearning and a desire to be free.
Original music by Marty Beller, costumes by designer Sonja Nuttall with wigs by Vidal Sassoon, lighting design by Jeff Croiter.
ABOUT Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS
Throughout its history of 35 years, contemporary dance company Jennifer Muller/The Works has strived to reach ever-broadening audiences with works that celebrate and illuminate the human spirit. Artistic Director Jennifer Muller creates exhilarating dances that are evocative, passionate and engaging. The Works has appeared in the world's preeminent theaters and festivals in 39 countries on four continents. In December 2008, The Works performed to rave reviews at the Sixth Beijing International Theater & Dance Festival, presented by China's National Center for the Performing Arts. The Works has performed in 30 states in the U.S. and has self-produced 20 New York City Seasons.
Jennifer Muller, an influence in the dance world for over 40 years, is known for her visionary approach and innovations in dance / theater, multi-discipline productions, incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist-inspired decor and unusual production elements. She has created over 100 works including 6 full-evening productions. Ms. Muller's choreography has been commissioned by 24 international repertory companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Nederlands Dans Theater, NDT3, Ballet de Nord and Ballet Contemporaneo Argentina. Her work for theater includes such venues as The Public Theater, Second Stage, New York Stage and Film and the Metropolitan Opera. Creating work since she was 7 years old, her work has now been seen in 44 countries.
For more information on Jennifer Muller/The Works, visit www.jmtw.org.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Montana to Lease its Public Lands to Private Interests?
April 15, 2009
Coal mines leases could bring $1.4B for Montana
By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press Writer
A new appraisal of vast state-owned coal reserves in southeastern Montana finds the state would reap $1.4 billion in royalty payments over the next four decades if it leases the property for mining.
Development of the Otter Creek tracts — more than a billion tons of coal co-owned by the state and Great Northern Properties — could open the door to a dramatic expansion of the region's coal industry. It also could facilitate construction of a long-delayed rail line, the Tongue River Railroad.
Both projects are fiercely contested by environmentalists and some Montana property owners, including billionaire Forrest Mars Jr. of the Mars candy business.
Developing the tracts has been pushed by private industry and the Montana Rural Education Association. Any royalty payments would go toward the state's public schools.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday he wants a mine built, but only if the state gets top dollar for its assets. He said any environmental concerns were superseded by the state's obligation to bring in revenues from its land.
"We can only sell it one time," Schweitzer said. "We have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize the value of school trust land."
The Otter Creek appraisal was prepared for the state by Norwest Corp., a Salt Lake City consultant to the mining and energy industries. It will be heard April 20 by the Montana Land Board, which consists of Montana's top five elected officials, who ultimately will decide whether the state will lease the tracts.
Montana's 610 million tons of coal are spread over 9,500 acres near Ashland. The tracts are interspersed in a checkerboard fashion with land owned by Great Northern Properties, which controls a similar amount of coal.
The appraisal estimates that developing a coal mine at Otter Creek and building the Tongue River Railroad would cost $1 billion. The appraisal says the state could expect an upfront bonus of at least $37 million.
The estimate of $1.4 billion in royalties over coming decades was based on an assumption that 33 million tons of coal would be mined annually.
That would mark a 75 percent increase in Montana coal production — at a time when the slowing economy is decreasing demand for the fuel nationwide.
But Monte Mason with the state Department of Natural Resources, which sought the appraisal, said mining companies already are showing interest. He declined to name the companies.
The state's ownership stake in the project could significantly complicate development efforts by giving opponents a political forum for their objections. Mike Scott, Montana representative of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, said his group is gearing up to make those objections known.
"The small profit the state can make off these coal tracts is greatly overshadowed by the environmental consequences of mining and burning coal," Scott said. "It just doesn't add up."
Great Northern President Charles Kerr said his company is "highly motivated to make it work" by finding a company willing to invest in a mine.
"It's going to be a polarized process. There's major politics," said Kerr, whose office is in Houston.
Kerr described the outcome of political debate in the state capital of Helena as "a coin toss." And he said the Northern Cheyenne tribe also would have to weigh in.
Leaders from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, due west of the Otter Creek coal tracts, historically have opposed the Tongue River Railroad but have not adopted a clear line on mining.
The Otter Creek tracts were given to the state by the federal government in 2002 as part of a federally brokered deal to shut down the New World gold mine proposed near Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s. The tracts were intended as compensation for revenues the state would have received from the gold mine.
If the Land Board puts the coal tracts out for bid and then authorizes a lease auction, a winning bidder could be announced by September, said the DNRC's Mason.
Schweitzer said he would be willing to hold multiple auctions, if needed, to get a fair value for the coal. He warned that if the price were set too low, mining companies in neighboring Wyoming could acquire the lease just to prevent the tracts from being developed.
Tongue River Railroad developer Mike Gustafson said Monday that the appraisal marked a "catalytic event" in his long-stalled effort to build his line, which would connect to an existing a Burlington Northern Santa Fe route through Miles City.
Gustafson's railroad received final approval from the Surface Transportation Board in 2007. It remains embroiled in a lengthy federal court challenge brought by conservation groups and landowners.
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=254077480&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090413-stolfiler-nd012
Coal mines leases could bring $1.4B for Montana
By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press Writer
A new appraisal of vast state-owned coal reserves in southeastern Montana finds the state would reap $1.4 billion in royalty payments over the next four decades if it leases the property for mining.
Development of the Otter Creek tracts — more than a billion tons of coal co-owned by the state and Great Northern Properties — could open the door to a dramatic expansion of the region's coal industry. It also could facilitate construction of a long-delayed rail line, the Tongue River Railroad.
Both projects are fiercely contested by environmentalists and some Montana property owners, including billionaire Forrest Mars Jr. of the Mars candy business.
Developing the tracts has been pushed by private industry and the Montana Rural Education Association. Any royalty payments would go toward the state's public schools.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday he wants a mine built, but only if the state gets top dollar for its assets. He said any environmental concerns were superseded by the state's obligation to bring in revenues from its land.
"We can only sell it one time," Schweitzer said. "We have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize the value of school trust land."
The Otter Creek appraisal was prepared for the state by Norwest Corp., a Salt Lake City consultant to the mining and energy industries. It will be heard April 20 by the Montana Land Board, which consists of Montana's top five elected officials, who ultimately will decide whether the state will lease the tracts.
Montana's 610 million tons of coal are spread over 9,500 acres near Ashland. The tracts are interspersed in a checkerboard fashion with land owned by Great Northern Properties, which controls a similar amount of coal.
The appraisal estimates that developing a coal mine at Otter Creek and building the Tongue River Railroad would cost $1 billion. The appraisal says the state could expect an upfront bonus of at least $37 million.
The estimate of $1.4 billion in royalties over coming decades was based on an assumption that 33 million tons of coal would be mined annually.
That would mark a 75 percent increase in Montana coal production — at a time when the slowing economy is decreasing demand for the fuel nationwide.
But Monte Mason with the state Department of Natural Resources, which sought the appraisal, said mining companies already are showing interest. He declined to name the companies.
The state's ownership stake in the project could significantly complicate development efforts by giving opponents a political forum for their objections. Mike Scott, Montana representative of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, said his group is gearing up to make those objections known.
"The small profit the state can make off these coal tracts is greatly overshadowed by the environmental consequences of mining and burning coal," Scott said. "It just doesn't add up."
Great Northern President Charles Kerr said his company is "highly motivated to make it work" by finding a company willing to invest in a mine.
"It's going to be a polarized process. There's major politics," said Kerr, whose office is in Houston.
Kerr described the outcome of political debate in the state capital of Helena as "a coin toss." And he said the Northern Cheyenne tribe also would have to weigh in.
Leaders from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, due west of the Otter Creek coal tracts, historically have opposed the Tongue River Railroad but have not adopted a clear line on mining.
The Otter Creek tracts were given to the state by the federal government in 2002 as part of a federally brokered deal to shut down the New World gold mine proposed near Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s. The tracts were intended as compensation for revenues the state would have received from the gold mine.
If the Land Board puts the coal tracts out for bid and then authorizes a lease auction, a winning bidder could be announced by September, said the DNRC's Mason.
Schweitzer said he would be willing to hold multiple auctions, if needed, to get a fair value for the coal. He warned that if the price were set too low, mining companies in neighboring Wyoming could acquire the lease just to prevent the tracts from being developed.
Tongue River Railroad developer Mike Gustafson said Monday that the appraisal marked a "catalytic event" in his long-stalled effort to build his line, which would connect to an existing a Burlington Northern Santa Fe route through Miles City.
Gustafson's railroad received final approval from the Surface Transportation Board in 2007. It remains embroiled in a lengthy federal court challenge brought by conservation groups and landowners.
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=254077480&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090413-stolfiler-nd012
Sunday, April 12, 2009
BLM to Sue "Public Lands" Hero (Tim DeChristopher)
BLM auction saboteur gets BIG bill
Published: April 7, 2009 at 7:37 PM
SALT LAKE CITY, April 7 (UPI) --
The U.S. government is demanding $81,000 from a Utah man who is facing felony prosecution for allegedly bogus oil and gas lease auction bids.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which sent Tim DeChristopher a demand letter, says the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City was responsible for the request for payment, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney for Utah spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch, however, disagreed.
"The 'bill' to DeChristopher is not a part of our criminal case," Rydalch told the newspaper. "It's a BLM administrative action taken independent of our criminal case."
DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah student, was indicted last week. He is accused of bidding on government land parcel leases with the intent of not paying for the 11 auctions he won.
"You have lost the opportunity to obtain these lease parcels," the letter demand said. "Regardless, the amounts specified above are still required to be remitted."
------------
Tim is schedualed to appear in court on April 28, 2009, to face charges and stands to get up to 10 yrs in prision. Click on title above to go to his website (Bidder70.Org.) to give him your support, and maybe even contribute to his legal defense fund.
Thanks
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Tribe Sues Gov't over Destruction of Native Land
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe is filing a lawsuit against Department of The Interior; Department of Agriculture; United States Forest Service; Bureau of Reclamation; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Land Management; Ken Salazar, Secretary of The Interior; Assistant Secretary for Water and Science; Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in The Department of Agriculture; and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture asking for redress for decades of injustices and harm related to federal land management policies which have destroyed Winnemem cultural practices and sacred places.
Click on title above for full article; http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/10/18587500.php
NM wild horses get contraceptive shots
AP - April 10, 2009 4:25 PM ET
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A handful of wild horses on the Carson National Forest have become the first mustangs injected with a contraceptive by the U.S. Forest Service as another method for controlling herd sizes.
Karen Herman pushed a long metal tube to the hindquarter of 1 of the colorful mares to inject the birth control last week.
The mares are among the estimated 400 wild horses that roam 76,000 acres of the Jicarilla Ranger District in northwestern New Mexico.
The district needs to bring the numbers down to 100 to meet its management plan.
Herman, who runs the Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary, hopes the birth control injections represent a shift in how the Forest Service manages its wild horses.
She says it's time for different solutions rather than just round-up and removal
http://www.kdbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10165159&nav=menu608_2_3
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A handful of wild horses on the Carson National Forest have become the first mustangs injected with a contraceptive by the U.S. Forest Service as another method for controlling herd sizes.
Karen Herman pushed a long metal tube to the hindquarter of 1 of the colorful mares to inject the birth control last week.
The mares are among the estimated 400 wild horses that roam 76,000 acres of the Jicarilla Ranger District in northwestern New Mexico.
The district needs to bring the numbers down to 100 to meet its management plan.
Herman, who runs the Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary, hopes the birth control injections represent a shift in how the Forest Service manages its wild horses.
She says it's time for different solutions rather than just round-up and removal
http://www.kdbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10165159&nav=menu608_2_3
U.S. Taxpayers pay $400,000 for 1.7 acres of land!!
April 7, 2009
USFS buys 1.7 acres at Tahoe for $400,000
The U.S. Forest Service has purchased five urban lots on the south end of Lake Tahoe for $400,000 as part of an effort to preserve open space and protect environmentally sensitive land.
The five privately owned parcels total 1.7 acres in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., along the Powerline Trail near Ski Run Boulevard south of U.S. Highway 50.
Deputy Supervisor Eli Ilano said Tuesday the Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has had its eye on the land since 1991. The lots were purchased as part of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act funded by the sale of surplus federal land in the Las Vegas area.
It's part of an effort to protect highly erodible soils on steep hills to reduce runoff into Lake Tahoe.
USFS buys 1.7 acres at Tahoe for $400,000
The U.S. Forest Service has purchased five urban lots on the south end of Lake Tahoe for $400,000 as part of an effort to preserve open space and protect environmentally sensitive land.
The five privately owned parcels total 1.7 acres in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., along the Powerline Trail near Ski Run Boulevard south of U.S. Highway 50.
Deputy Supervisor Eli Ilano said Tuesday the Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has had its eye on the land since 1991. The lots were purchased as part of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act funded by the sale of surplus federal land in the Las Vegas area.
It's part of an effort to protect highly erodible soils on steep hills to reduce runoff into Lake Tahoe.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
1872 Mining Law to Get with the Times
Measure would revamp 1872 mining law
By SUE MAJOR HOLMES Associated Press Writer
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman says there's no justification for continuing hard-rock mining on public land under a law passed well over a century ago.
Bingaman, D-N.M., has introduced a measure that would set royalties on hard-rock mining on federal lands for the first time, establish a fund to reclaim abandoned hard-rock mines and eliminate patenting — which has conveyed title to mining companies to develop mines on public land for as little as $2.50 an acre. Congress has passed annual moratoriums on further mineral patent applications since October 1994.
Mining for metals such as gold, silver and copper currently is governed by a law passed in 1872 after the California gold rush, when Congress was trying to encourage settlement by offering free minerals and land to those willing to go West and mine.
"We don't have that for coal, we don't have that for oil and gas," said Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The 137-year-old law needs reform, particularly in light of today's economy and the health, safety and environmental issues raised by mining and abandoned mines, he said Friday.
"We need to keep a healthy mining industry, but there's no way to justify continuing to operate under this law. ... There's some general agreement about that. The question is can we get agreement on the right set of changes," he said.
For decades, both Republicans and Democrats have introduced bills to change the mining law, but Bingaman said none has passed the Senate in the 27 years he's been in Washington.
In 1995, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt highlighted the law by rolling out a large Christmas-wrapped box with "$2.9 billion" stamped on the side when mining rights estimated to be worth that much were turned over to a private company for $1,745.
Bingaman's proposal calls for royalties, to be determined by the interior secretary, of between 2 percent and 5 percent of the value of the mine's production. The amount is comparable to what Canada, several Canadian provinces and several states, including New Mexico, charge in royalties, he said.
Royalties could be reduced for all or part of a mining operation if the mining company shows clear and convincing evidence that production would not occur without a reduction. Royalties would not be collected on land producing in commercial quantities at the time the law is enacted.
The revenue would go into a reclamation fund.
Mineral activities on federal land also would require a permit and financial assurance for reclamation.
The National Mining Association said it supports an update of the mining law.
"We believe that would help provide some greater level of predictability on where federal mining legislation is going to be," said Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the agency.
She said the association will look at the proposed royalties "in light of the new economic environment."
Past efforts to reform the law have run into problems because of the gap between House and Senate proposals, particularly in the area of royalties, Raulston said.
In recent sessions, the House has proposed 8 percent royalties, which Raulston said would be the highest government royalties in the world. She said that would harm the competitiveness of the American industry, "since all these commodities are sold on the world market and the price is set on the world market."
Jeremy Vesbach, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said Bingaman's measure is a big step forward.
"This will bring us more into the modern age of mining, similar to oil and gas, where they lease the land but not own it," he said.
Royalties would mean some money to restore land and water as well, Vesbach said.
The proposal also addresses reclamation, establishing a program to reclaim abandoned hard-rock mines in 14 western states, partly funded by a fee based on the value of production.
Raulston said the Washington, D.C.-based mining association was pleased by the cleanup provisions.
The measure would set up a grant program for states for reclamation projects and for public entities and nonprofit organizations for collaborative restoration projects to improve fish and wildlife habitat affected by past hard-rock mining.
State Mining and Minerals Director Bill Brancard said his agency appreciates the effort to fund cleanup.
"New Mexico's long history of mining has left a legacy of thousands of abandoned mine features that pose a threat to public health and safety," Brancard said in a statement.
The bill also directs the secretaries of interior and agriculture to work together to prevent "undue degradation" in administering mining activities on national forests.
-------------------------------
How about a royalty tax on the breeding of domestic equines?
The equine industry in the USA has a long history of over-production resulting in so many "unwanted" horses they pose a threat to public health and safety, cause an undue burden on equine rescues and devalues the worth of the American horse in general. Therefore, the breeding of equines should be subject to a tax of some kind, in hopes to compel less, but better, breeding.
CJ
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=244973900&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090403-stolfiler-nm0476
By SUE MAJOR HOLMES Associated Press Writer
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman says there's no justification for continuing hard-rock mining on public land under a law passed well over a century ago.
Bingaman, D-N.M., has introduced a measure that would set royalties on hard-rock mining on federal lands for the first time, establish a fund to reclaim abandoned hard-rock mines and eliminate patenting — which has conveyed title to mining companies to develop mines on public land for as little as $2.50 an acre. Congress has passed annual moratoriums on further mineral patent applications since October 1994.
Mining for metals such as gold, silver and copper currently is governed by a law passed in 1872 after the California gold rush, when Congress was trying to encourage settlement by offering free minerals and land to those willing to go West and mine.
"We don't have that for coal, we don't have that for oil and gas," said Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The 137-year-old law needs reform, particularly in light of today's economy and the health, safety and environmental issues raised by mining and abandoned mines, he said Friday.
"We need to keep a healthy mining industry, but there's no way to justify continuing to operate under this law. ... There's some general agreement about that. The question is can we get agreement on the right set of changes," he said.
For decades, both Republicans and Democrats have introduced bills to change the mining law, but Bingaman said none has passed the Senate in the 27 years he's been in Washington.
In 1995, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt highlighted the law by rolling out a large Christmas-wrapped box with "$2.9 billion" stamped on the side when mining rights estimated to be worth that much were turned over to a private company for $1,745.
Bingaman's proposal calls for royalties, to be determined by the interior secretary, of between 2 percent and 5 percent of the value of the mine's production. The amount is comparable to what Canada, several Canadian provinces and several states, including New Mexico, charge in royalties, he said.
Royalties could be reduced for all or part of a mining operation if the mining company shows clear and convincing evidence that production would not occur without a reduction. Royalties would not be collected on land producing in commercial quantities at the time the law is enacted.
The revenue would go into a reclamation fund.
Mineral activities on federal land also would require a permit and financial assurance for reclamation.
The National Mining Association said it supports an update of the mining law.
"We believe that would help provide some greater level of predictability on where federal mining legislation is going to be," said Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the agency.
She said the association will look at the proposed royalties "in light of the new economic environment."
Past efforts to reform the law have run into problems because of the gap between House and Senate proposals, particularly in the area of royalties, Raulston said.
In recent sessions, the House has proposed 8 percent royalties, which Raulston said would be the highest government royalties in the world. She said that would harm the competitiveness of the American industry, "since all these commodities are sold on the world market and the price is set on the world market."
Jeremy Vesbach, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said Bingaman's measure is a big step forward.
"This will bring us more into the modern age of mining, similar to oil and gas, where they lease the land but not own it," he said.
Royalties would mean some money to restore land and water as well, Vesbach said.
The proposal also addresses reclamation, establishing a program to reclaim abandoned hard-rock mines in 14 western states, partly funded by a fee based on the value of production.
Raulston said the Washington, D.C.-based mining association was pleased by the cleanup provisions.
The measure would set up a grant program for states for reclamation projects and for public entities and nonprofit organizations for collaborative restoration projects to improve fish and wildlife habitat affected by past hard-rock mining.
State Mining and Minerals Director Bill Brancard said his agency appreciates the effort to fund cleanup.
"New Mexico's long history of mining has left a legacy of thousands of abandoned mine features that pose a threat to public health and safety," Brancard said in a statement.
The bill also directs the secretaries of interior and agriculture to work together to prevent "undue degradation" in administering mining activities on national forests.
-------------------------------
How about a royalty tax on the breeding of domestic equines?
The equine industry in the USA has a long history of over-production resulting in so many "unwanted" horses they pose a threat to public health and safety, cause an undue burden on equine rescues and devalues the worth of the American horse in general. Therefore, the breeding of equines should be subject to a tax of some kind, in hopes to compel less, but better, breeding.
CJ
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?clipid=244973900&mode=cnc&tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id%3D20090403-stolfiler-nm0476
Friday, April 3, 2009
Montana Dept. of Livestock Offending Neighbors
This article is nearly a year old, but I am posting it here so everyone can see that it is not just wild horses that the ranchers want off of our land, its anything that gets in their way, for any reason, and paying for the removals with OUR tax-dollars!
PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS VIOLATED BY LIVESTOCK AGENTS HAZING WILD BISON
Property Owners Welcome Bison, Not Dept. of Livestock, on Cattle-Free Horse Butte
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 29, 2008
Press Contacts:
Janae & Rob Galanis, 406-646-4848
Ed & Vicky Millspaugh, Hebgen Lake Estates, 406-646-9176, (cell) 406-580-0321
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0070
WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT - With horses, a helicopter, state and federal law enforcement, and U.S tax dollars to spend, Montana Department of Livestock agents have descended upon the cattle-free Horse Butte Peninsula, violating private property rights and upsetting human and wildlife residents in an attempt to chase wild American bison out of Montana and into Yellowstone National Park.
"These actions underscore the arrogance of the Department of Livestock, cattle industry, and agencies carrying out the Interagency Bison Management Plan," said Mike Mease, co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. "There are no cattle out here and the landowners want the buffalo around, yet the government-funded cowboys act like the only private property rights that matter are those pertaining to cattle."
The Horse Butte peninsula is a 26,000-acre landscape encompassing both public (Gallatin National Forest) and private property. It is 100% cattle-free at all times of the year. Horse Butte provides critical winter range and calving grounds for American bison. The majority of Horse Butte residents welcome bison, but do not welcome the presence of the Montana Department of Livestock. Homeowners have expressed their wishes that the DOL refrain from chasing bison off of their land, but these wishes continue to be ignored.
Buffalo Field Campaign documented Department of Livestock agents harassing wild bison, including newborn calves, chasing them off of the Galanis property using a helicopter, which they flew at about 20 feet above the ground, violating airspace. Fence lines were damaged in the opereation.
The Galanis family, shaken and distraught over today's actions by the DOL, refrained from immediate comment until they are able to assess the damage caused by the operation. As soon as the Galanis family took ownership of the former Munns' Ranch, they immediately placed signs around their 700+-acre property defining it as a "Buffalo Safe Zone," the largest in Montana.
"The Galanis family removed the problem by removing the cattle on Horse Butte," said Stephany Seay, a spokeswoman for Buffalo Field Campaign. "Now we need to remove the Department of Livestock."
Buffalo Field Campaign also documented as DOL agent Shane Grube and another DOL agent, both on horseback, chased one wild bull bison off of other private properties within Yellowstone Village housing area. Residents came from their homes to scorn the DOL's actions and asked them to leave the premises. The residents were ignored.
"The Interagency Bison Management Plan is supposed to be adaptive, so adapt!" said Mease. "The fact that there are no cattle on Horse Butte is a significant change and it means the Department of Livestock has absolutely no reason to be there harassing bison!"
In March of 2008, Horse Butte homeowners, Buffalo Field Campaign, and Earthjustice called on state and federal officials to stop hazing, capturing, and killing bison that migrate onto Horse Butte. View the letter and press release at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0708/pressreleases0708/030408.html.
There are no cattle currently grazing in the Hebgen Lake region, and they may not be trucked into the region until early July. There is no risk of brucellosis transmission at this time. There has never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle.
More than 1,700 wild American bison have been eliminated from the remaining wild population this winter under actions carried out under the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), as well as state and treaty hunts. Bison are a migratory species native to vast expanses of North America and are ecologically extinct everywhere in the United States outside of Yellowstone National Park. Buffalo Field Campaign strongly opposes the Interagency Bison Management Plan and maintains that wild bison should be respected as a valued native wildlife species and allowed to naturally and fully recover themselves throughout their historic native range, especially on public lands.
Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field, every day, to stop the slaughter of the wild American buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo and their habitat and advocate for their lasting protection. BFC has proposed real alternatives to the current mismanagement of American bison that can be viewed at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/solutions.html. For more information, video clips and photos visit: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
http://buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0708/pressreleases0708/052908.html
PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS VIOLATED BY LIVESTOCK AGENTS HAZING WILD BISON
Property Owners Welcome Bison, Not Dept. of Livestock, on Cattle-Free Horse Butte
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 29, 2008
Press Contacts:
Janae & Rob Galanis, 406-646-4848
Ed & Vicky Millspaugh, Hebgen Lake Estates, 406-646-9176, (cell) 406-580-0321
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0070
WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT - With horses, a helicopter, state and federal law enforcement, and U.S tax dollars to spend, Montana Department of Livestock agents have descended upon the cattle-free Horse Butte Peninsula, violating private property rights and upsetting human and wildlife residents in an attempt to chase wild American bison out of Montana and into Yellowstone National Park.
"These actions underscore the arrogance of the Department of Livestock, cattle industry, and agencies carrying out the Interagency Bison Management Plan," said Mike Mease, co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. "There are no cattle out here and the landowners want the buffalo around, yet the government-funded cowboys act like the only private property rights that matter are those pertaining to cattle."
The Horse Butte peninsula is a 26,000-acre landscape encompassing both public (Gallatin National Forest) and private property. It is 100% cattle-free at all times of the year. Horse Butte provides critical winter range and calving grounds for American bison. The majority of Horse Butte residents welcome bison, but do not welcome the presence of the Montana Department of Livestock. Homeowners have expressed their wishes that the DOL refrain from chasing bison off of their land, but these wishes continue to be ignored.
Buffalo Field Campaign documented Department of Livestock agents harassing wild bison, including newborn calves, chasing them off of the Galanis property using a helicopter, which they flew at about 20 feet above the ground, violating airspace. Fence lines were damaged in the opereation.
The Galanis family, shaken and distraught over today's actions by the DOL, refrained from immediate comment until they are able to assess the damage caused by the operation. As soon as the Galanis family took ownership of the former Munns' Ranch, they immediately placed signs around their 700+-acre property defining it as a "Buffalo Safe Zone," the largest in Montana.
"The Galanis family removed the problem by removing the cattle on Horse Butte," said Stephany Seay, a spokeswoman for Buffalo Field Campaign. "Now we need to remove the Department of Livestock."
Buffalo Field Campaign also documented as DOL agent Shane Grube and another DOL agent, both on horseback, chased one wild bull bison off of other private properties within Yellowstone Village housing area. Residents came from their homes to scorn the DOL's actions and asked them to leave the premises. The residents were ignored.
"The Interagency Bison Management Plan is supposed to be adaptive, so adapt!" said Mease. "The fact that there are no cattle on Horse Butte is a significant change and it means the Department of Livestock has absolutely no reason to be there harassing bison!"
In March of 2008, Horse Butte homeowners, Buffalo Field Campaign, and Earthjustice called on state and federal officials to stop hazing, capturing, and killing bison that migrate onto Horse Butte. View the letter and press release at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0708/pressreleases0708/030408.html.
There are no cattle currently grazing in the Hebgen Lake region, and they may not be trucked into the region until early July. There is no risk of brucellosis transmission at this time. There has never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle.
More than 1,700 wild American bison have been eliminated from the remaining wild population this winter under actions carried out under the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), as well as state and treaty hunts. Bison are a migratory species native to vast expanses of North America and are ecologically extinct everywhere in the United States outside of Yellowstone National Park. Buffalo Field Campaign strongly opposes the Interagency Bison Management Plan and maintains that wild bison should be respected as a valued native wildlife species and allowed to naturally and fully recover themselves throughout their historic native range, especially on public lands.
Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field, every day, to stop the slaughter of the wild American buffalo. Volunteers defend the buffalo and their habitat and advocate for their lasting protection. BFC has proposed real alternatives to the current mismanagement of American bison that can be viewed at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/solutions.html. For more information, video clips and photos visit: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
http://buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0708/pressreleases0708/052908.html
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