Oregon ranchers cry for wolf hearings
The Olympian, April 17, 2009, [here]
Baker City, Oregon - Ranchers are pressing the Oregon Legislature for legislation to let them track and kill wolves that attack livestock.
The Baker City Herald said that earlier this week, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) confirmed that wolves had killed sheep at a Baker County ranch in two attacks, the first such since wolves began re-entering the state from Idaho.
Rancher Curt Jacobs says the death toll is now 24.
Endangered species laws forbid ranchers to kill wolves caught in the act of attacking livestock — leaving that to wildlife agents.
Ranchers and others at a meeting Thursday in Baker City made plans to lobby the Legislature to hold hearings on a bill that would expand ranchers’ options in wolf control and amend it to spell out their right to track and kill the predators.
During the packed meeting of the Baker County Livestock Association, Jacobs narrated a video showing the bodies of dead lambs, with close-up footage of bite wounds.
Before a motion-sensing camera caught the wolves in the act, Jacobs said the ODFW investigation appeared to be focused on pinning the blame on his dogs, a neighbor’s dogs or coyotes. … [more]
US Forest Service riles local crowd at Lake Isabella
Steve Merlo, The Bakersfield Californian, Mar 27 2009 [here]
They came to lead the lambs to slaughter, but when the smoke cleared, the United States Forest Service found itself facing an angry pack of civilian wolves hellbent on tossing the governmental agency back into the woods. The 200-plus throng of concerned citizens first filled the Lake Isabella Senior Citizen hall last Monday evening, then overflowed into the foyers, each person wanting to make their point regarding government intrusion into their Kern River Valley livelihoods and recreational opportunities.
In a move that riled the normally laid-back local populace, the USFS has been proposing to shut off most vehicular access around Isabella Lake and the surrounding national forest mountains and substitute unpopular, mandated government plans to overtake these hunting, fishing, recreation and tourist attractions. The meeting, the supposed fifth in a series that went largely ignored until last Monday evening due to lack of proper USFS advertising, united the community to gather and repulse the direct threat against them.
There’s no doubt that Tina Terrel, USFS supervisor for the Sequoia National Forest, has a tough job. …Ms. Terrel’s maps and proposed changes were proven to be an outright and deliberate inaccuracy by several of the audience who happened to have their own legitimate map overlays directly contradicting the ones she and her staff displayed. … [more]
Note: see Stewards of the Sequoia [here] for more information on this and other public forest issues.
Ruling requires Marin County, CA trees to be removed
Mark Prado, Marin Independent Journal, 04/01/2009 [here]
The owner of 45 blue gum eucalyptus trees in Larkspur will be required to chop down 28 of them because they are a “clear and continuing hazard,” according to a tentative ruling issued Wednesday by a Marin Superior Court judge.
But property owner Dr. Anne Wolff, whose trees are at the center of a neighborhood dispute, vowed she will not take them down, and she said she will appeal the ruling.
“There is no way I’m taking 28 trees down; they are part of a forest,” Wolff said. “This sets a bad precedent. Now anyone can hire an arborist and go onto someone’s property, say the trees are unsafe and get them taken down.”
The grove of massive trees took center stage in a February trial pitting neighbors against each other over the touchy subjects of property rights, safety and civility.
Judge Michael Dufficy, who heard the case without a jury, ruled against Wolff, who lives on Bayview Avenue in the Palm Hill neighborhood of Larkspur.
“From its own observations, the court concludes the defendant’s trees present a substantial and real hazard to both (plaintiffs’) homes,” wrote Dufficy, who visited the tree site during the course of the trial. … [more]
Decision issued for Warm Fire recovery plan
Grand Canyon News, April 01, 2009 [here]
WILLIAMS - The Kaibab National Forest has released the Record of Decision and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Warm Fire Recovery Project on the North Kaibab Ranger District.
Both documents are available at www.fs.fed.us/r3/kai/projects/warm under “Post Fire Recovery, Recovery EIS.”
The Warm Fire was started by lightning on June 8, 2007. … The forest managed the Warm Fire as a wildland fire use fire [whoofoo] for approximately two and a half weeks.
However, the fire escaped the boundaries prescribed for wildland fire use and burned about 40,000 acres in the central part of the Kaibab Plateau… Much of that area burned at a high intensity and suffered severe fire effects.
The Record of Decision documents the decision to implement Alternative Two, which results in the following activities in portions of the burned area:
• Harvesting fire-killed trees,
• Establishing conifer seedlings,
• Fuel reduction work along certain open roads and trails to meet scenic and recreation objectives.
Fire-killed trees will be harvested using stewardship contracts and timber sale contracts on 9,114 acres. Conifer trees will be planted on 9,978 acres in order to accelerate the return of forested conditions. … [more]
See whether you can spot the lunacy
by Patrick McIlheran, Journal Sentinel, Mar. 31, 2009 [here]
Anastasios Tsonis is not a lunatic, and no serious person says he is.
He is a scientist, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee whose specialty is climate. He and a colleague say they’ve figured out why the Earth is cooling.
It has been cooling, since about 2001, and Tsonis and a colleague say temperatures may go on cooling for 10 or 20 more years. Climate, says Tsonis, is heavily affected by a few well-known oscillating systems - El Niño, in the Pacific, is one - and from time to time, four big oscillations synchronize.
When they do, he says, they become coupled, as if synchronized swimmers tried holding hands, and this messes up the dance. There is, then, a sudden shift in trends. If it had been getting hotter, it gets cooler, and vice versa. This happened in 1943, in the 1970s, in 2001, and it will happen again, he says.
Though this doesn’t mean humans aren’t also pushing temperatures up. The trend “might be on top of something we’re doing” with carbon dioxide, he says. Some laymen skeptical about climate Armageddon read too much into his work, says Tsonis.
Willie Soon is not a lunatic, either, nor a “denier,” though militants use the word to slander him. He is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The data, he says, show the Earth has been getting warmer - and the data show, further, that this is linked to solar output. Blame our variable sun.
“The sun is not a constant light bulb,” he says.
Roads to recreation could soon be closed
Adherence to the national Travel Management Rule could close forest roads and limit motorized access to public lands
By Mike Stahlberg, Register-Guard, Mar 31, 2009 [here]
OAKRIDGE — Willamette National forest officials will soon be telling motorized forest users exactly where they can go.
Disgruntled trail riders, hunters, anglers, campers, mushroom pickers and other recreation enthusiasts upset by reduced motor vehicle access might be tempted to respond in kind.
Controversy over closing forest roads and other restrictions on motorized access to public lands is erupting as local forest managers work to implement the national Travel Management Rule of 2005. The rule requires all national forests to publish, by year’s end, maps showing precisely where motor vehicles are allowed.
Cross-country travel and driving on any route not on the map will be illegal.
Currently, motor vehicles may be driven anywhere they are not specifically prohibited.
On March 13, the Willamette National Forest issued a “request for public comments” on its travel management plan as part of its “initial scoping” process under the National Environmental Protection Act. The deadline for comments is April 15. …
In Oakridge, a former lumber town literally surrounded by Willamette National Forest lands, grumbling about reduced access is extensive.
“I’m just fed up with government intervention in our lives,” said Floyd Staley, a long-time volunteer active in high lakes fish stocking and forest clean-up work.
“The regulation of our freedoms to use the forest and outdoors is the ultimate insult as far as I’m concerned,” Staley said. “That’s why a lot of people live in Oakridge — to have immediate access to what belongs to the American citizens.” …
John Cape, an Oakridge resident since 1971, says the Forest Service is spending thousands of dollars to excavate “waterbars” (trenches) across unmaintained roads to discourage their use.
“They’re spending money to ruin roads now so they don’t have to spend money on maintenance in the future,” Cape said. “If they’d just leave the road alone, eventually Mother Nature is going to take it back and then we won’t be able to use it. But why can’t we use it up to that point? We paid to have them built.” …
“I wish I could have had a little more to say about it,” said Doug Devorak, a member of the Emerald Trail Riders. “They brought this all on and they didn’t ask the public what we really thought about it.” … [more]
Senate blow to climate change laws
By Andrew Ward and Sarah O’Connor, Financial Times, April 2, 2009 [here]
President Barack Obama’s plan to push through climate change legislation as part of his $3,600bn federal budget appeared all but dead on Thursday after the Senate ruled out fast-track action on the issue.
A Republican-sponsored amendment passed on Wednesday night ruled that Congress should not try to set up a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as part of the budget “reconciliation” process.
It also underscored the difficulty that Mr Obama will face winning support for his proposed cap-and-trade system even outside of the budget process, raising the possibility of the US arriving empty-handed at the next round of United Nations talks on climate change in Copenhagen in December.
Mr Obama had wanted legislation either passed or making progress before the Copenhagen meeting to signal US commitment to reducing carbon emissions and to encourage other nations to take action.
Draft climate change legislation was unveiled by senior Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday in a sign that party leaders were determined to press on whether it was included in the budget or not.
But opposition is mounting as Republicans and some Democrats raise fears that cap-and-trade would undermine economic recovery by increasing energy costs. John Boehner, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said the proposals would “raise taxes on every American who drives a car, flips on a light switch or buys a product manufactured in the United States.” … [more]
Rogue River dam removal moves forward
by Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian, April 02, 2009 [here]
The removal of Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River will take another step forward next week.
The 39-foot high dam east of Grants Pass is one of several scheduled for decommissioning on the southern Oregon river, which before long could run unimpeded for 157 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascade foothills.
On Tuesday, construction will begin on a cofferdam around the six northern bays of the dam, the next step in the $40 million project.
Once the coffer dam is in place, demolition of the 88-year old dam will begin. The north side of the dam is expected to be removed by October, and salmon, whose path was blocked by the dam, will be able to migrate freely for the first time in decades.
The federal government estimates the number of salmon reaching spawning grounds will increase by nearly a quarter once the dam comes out.
The dam was used by the Grants Pass Irrigation District to draw water from the river for its customers, but now that purpose will be served by new pumps, which are scheduled for final testing this month. … [more]
Canada pays U.S. $46.7 million
Forest Talk, Apr 1, 2009 [here]
To comply with the London court’s softwood lumber ruling, Canada will pay the U.S. $46.7 million.
Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day said Ottawa is making the money “available” to Washington to fulfill the country’s obligations after the London Court of International Arbitration ruled in February that Canada had to impose a 10 per cent duty on its softwood lumber exports.
“Maintaining the Softwood Lumber Agreement is a priority for the Canadian government and industry,” said Day. “We recognize our commitments under this agreement, and we have honoured them.”
“[The Ontario Forest Industry Association and Québec Forest Industry Council] stand behind the Canadian government and believe that Minister Day is acting in accordance with the rules of the International Tribunal by paying a lump sum and … [waiting] for clarification prior to undertaking further steps,” said Jamie Lim, president of the OFIA and Guy Chevrette, the QFIC’s president and chief executive officer, in a joint press release.
The U.S. is not happy with the amount Canada has decided to pay.
Steve Swanson, Chairman of the U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, stated that he is “shocked and appalled by Canada’s provocative and contemptuous decision to ignore the tribunal’s clear direction.” “Unfortunately this latest flouting of its obligations under the softwood lumber agreement is consistent with Canada’s approach to this trade agreement,” said Mr. Swanson.
See also: Coalition For Fair Lumber Imports [here]
Federal judge throws out cougar management lawsuit
by Mateusz Perkowski, Capital Press, 3/31/2009 [here]
A federal district court judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups that aimed to stop the USDA from assisting in Oregon’s cougar management efforts.
U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty dismissed the lawsuit Monday, March 30, because the six plaintiffs lacked legal standing to make the complaint.
The groups initially filed suit in January 2008, claiming that USDA’s Wildlife Services unit violated federal environmental law by helping the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife kill cougars.
Oregon’s final cougar management plan was developed in 2006 to reduce conflicts between people and the animals.
The plan called for the state’s cougar population to be maintained at above 3,000 cats.
Because the current population tops 5,000, the plaintiffs opposed the plan, alleging that it would arbitrarily kill 40 percent of the state’s cougars.
In 2007, Oregon contracted with the USDA’s Wildlife Services unit to help enact the plan.
That prompted the plaintiffs to file suit in federal court, arguing that the federal agency had not thoroughly evaluated the negative environment impact of its assistance.
In December 2008, a U.S. magistrate judge recommended that the case be dismissed, since the Oregon Department of of Fish and Wildlife would reduce cougar populations with or without the federal government’s help.
“The underlying injury in this action, the killing of cougars, has not been caused by defendants’ actions,” according to the recommendation. “Instead, plaintiffs’ harm has been caused by the acts of a third party not before this court, ODFW.”
The plaintiffs objected to the recommendation, but Haggerty decided that it was based on correct legal reasoning and so dismissed the case.
Plaintiffs included the Center for Biological Diversity, Big Wildlife, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Umpqua Watersheds, Mountain Lion Foundation and Goat Ranchers of Oregon.