Forest, Wildlife, and Climate News

Environmental staffers let go

Layoffs strike two attorneys and two other workers form the nonprofit Western Environmental Law Center

By Susan Palmer, The Register-Guard, Oct 26, 2009 [here]

In yet another sign that economic tough times continue to plague Lane County, a public interest environmental law firm will lay off four staff members by the end of the month.

The Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center has laid off two administrative staff members and attorney Charlie Tebbutt. Attorney Dave Bahr will also be let go sometime in the next few weeks. …

“It was a very unfortunate situation to find ourselves in,” said the law center Executive Director Greg Costello. Together, Bahr and Tebbutt represent more than 40 years of legal experience. The Western Environmental Law Center also has offices in Montana, New Mexico and Colorado, It employs nine attorneys.

While the nonprofit center expects to finish the year with about the same revenue it had in 2008 — $2 million — Costello anticipates a financial hit in 2010 to be as much as 20 percent. …

Foundation grants represent about 46 percent of WELC’s revenue, according to its 2008 annual report, with about 10 percent coming from individual donors and 42 percent from attorneys fees that are won in successful litigation. …

As foundations shift their focus, the law center is undertaking its own strategic adjustments. That played a part in the staff cuts, Costello said.

“Part of my view, and the board agrees with me, is that we unduly limit our ability to succeed by operating solely as a litigation firm,” he said.

The center is adding other projects to its environmental portfolio. It employed a conservation biologist this year to work on the development of wildlife corridors, an effort that has drawn interest from the state agencies and the Western Governors Association, and could lead future grant support, he said.

Tebbutt himself had recently headed a high-profile and successful campaign to persuade the Oregon Legislature to phase out field burning on grass seed farms in the Willamette Valley, an effort that did not involve the courts.

Costello estimates that WELC spent between $250,000 and $300,000 in staff and other costs on the campaign, but that it drew only about $20,000 in public support. It was a good strategic plan with a good result, but a failed business strategy, Costello said. “In the future, we need to align all three,” he said.

WELC isn’t the only local environmental nonprofit group struggling with the bottom line. Eugene-based Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics saw its revenues for the first nine months of 2009 decrease by 26 percent compared with the same period last year, said Executive Director Andy Stahl.

Stahl’s nonprofit group opted to take 15 percent across-the-board pay cuts and eliminated matching retirement contributions to avoid layoffs, he said. “Those cuts kept us from closing our doors,” he said. … [more]

Rancher ends public hunting in protest of wolf policies

By NICK GEVOCK, Montana Standard, October 23, 2009 [here]

BUTTE - A Big Hole Valley rancher has pulled his property out of a popular public hunting program in protest of Montana’s wolf management policies.

Fred Hirschy said Thursday he’s fed up with Montana allowing too many wolves to roam and wants the predators numbers dramatically brought down. And he blasted the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for what he said is a normally lackluster response when his cattle have been attacked.

“When I call them, they don’t do what I ask them to do anyway,” he said. “We want more people on the ground and we want the people on the ground that can shoot some wolves.”

He said after years of inaction by FWP following repeated attacks on his cattle, he saw no other option but to pull out of the block management program, which pays landowners to allow public hunting on their land. Hunters will lose access to 45,000 acres of Hirschy and his family ranches property west of Wisdom. Portions of the ranch have been enrolled in the program since 1996 and the cancellation of the contract will cost the Hirschys $12,000 this year.

Hirschy and other Big Hole ranchers met with Pat Flowers, regional FWP manager, Thursday in Wisdom to voice their frustrations with FWP over its wolf management.

“The sentiment expressed today is general frustration with the impacts that wolves are having on their livestock and I think that general frustration is not limited to the Big Hole Valley,” Flowers told The Montana Standard.

He added the loss of the Hirschy Ranch from block management is unfortunate and he hopes they can work down the road to reenroll the ranch in the program.

“I’m disappointed because he had some valuable block management parcels,” Flowers said. “He’s been good cooperator and those were some great opportunities for hunters.”

Hirschy said his ranch will have some hunting this season, but by permission only. Part of the ranch is under a FWP conservation easement that requires public hunting.

Although wolf hunting will open statewide Sunday, Hirschy doesn’t support the hunt. He said wolf numbers have grown so large that it’s beyond the point that hunters can effectively control the problem.

Instead, he supports classifying wolves as predators that can be shot on sight and having federal trappers kill more from the air. Only after bringing those numbers down would the wolf population be effectively reduced to the point where hunting should take place.

“They could give every hunter in the state a license and they wouldn’t get (control) of them,” he said. “They can grow them faster than we can take care of them.” … [more]

Mexico cuts down trees to save monarch butterflies

By Mark Stevenson, The Christian Science Monitor, October 21, 2009 [here]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities who have struggled to stop illegal logging in Mexico’s famed monarch butterfly reserve now are cutting down thousands of trees themselves to fight an unprecedented infestation of deadly bark beetles.

Biologists and park workers are racing to fell as many as 9,000 infected fir trees and bury or extract infested wood before the orange-and-black monarchs start arriving in late October to spend the winter bunched together on branches, carpeting the trees.

Environmentalists say the forest canopy of tall firs is essential to shelter the butterflies on their annual migration through Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The journey is tracked by scholars and schoolchildren across North America and draws tens of thousands of tourists to the reserve, a U.N. Heritage site.

But freezing rains and cold night air that can kill the monarchs at the high-altitude reserve, so the insects are threatened by a loss of trees, whether by loggers or the bark beetles.

Because the migration is an inherited trait — no butterfly lives to make the round-trip — it’s not clear whether they could find another wintering ground.

Experts say that an insecticide is the best way to control the beetles, but that would endanger the butterflies. Instead, park officials are fighting the plague tree by tree.

“It is obvious that in the medium and long term, if we do not act to adapt to the changes, then there could be a serious risk” to the butterflies’ migration, says reserve director Rosendo Caro, a forestry expert. “The forest is not going to disappear, but the conditions that make up the right environment for the wintering phenomenon could disappear.”

Beetles are devastating forests across the continent from Colorado to the Yukon, killing millions of acres of trees. In most places, the infestation is spurred by trees weakened by drought, and beetles that thrive in warmer weather. The dead trees increase the risk of forest fires, exacerbating the problem.

Bark beetles have long been present in the reserve monarch reserve, usually attacking a few trees in the driest months of early spring, before heavy seasonal rains that normally start in May.

But this year, little rain had fallen by July, and the trees were weakened. The beetles took advantage, burrowing in and robbing the trees of nutrients until they turned orange and die.

The infestation so far has affected 100 of the 33,482 acres in the reserve’s core mountaintop wintering grounds. … [more]

(Ed Note: 100/33482 = 0.3%, or 3 out of every 1,000 acres are infested. Hardly a catastrophe. No need to push the panic button. However, we strongly advise Reserve managers to institute restoration forestry to combat both the bark beetle and fire hazards, particularly the latter, because a severe fire could erase the entire reserve.)

Idaho’s first wolf tag fetches $8,000 at auction

Idaho Statesman, 10/20/09, [here]

BOISE, Idaho (AP) State wildlife officials say the first wolf hunting tag ever printed in the state has sold for $8,000 to the highest bidder.

The high bid came from North Carolina resident Jonny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops. Morris bought Wolf Tag No. 1 last week in an auction sponsored by the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation. Morris says he will give it to his son, who is planning to hunt in Idaho later this year.

The auction is one of six held by nonprofit groups around the nation to help raise money for wolf conservation. The special tags are good for bagging one wolf, but also commemorate the first public wolf hunt in Idaho history.

Tag No. 3 went for $1,700 at an event hosted by the Mule Deer Foundation, while tag No. 5 sold for just $350 at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation auction.

Tester Bill Will Increase Fire Danger

Letter to the editor, the Missoulian, October 20, 2009 [here]

Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009,” S1470, is touted as providing jobs and increased national forest timber harvest. Existing laws tell the Forest Service to manage for timber and all available resources: The 1897 Organic Act, the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960, the National Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 and the National Forest Management Act of 1976, and the Wilderness Act of 1964.

S1470 proposes 670,000 acres of new wilderness: no man-caused disturbance may take place, and no active forest or vegetation management is allowed within a wilderness, thus forest fuels will build up over time. Fire suppression is usually less aggressive in wilderness unless special authorization is obtained to use chain saws or dozers. Less aggressive suppression may result in increased risk of wildfire escaping from the many proposed wilderness areas, which raises a potential public safety issue. S1470 fails to speak to these issues.

Without aggressive action, wilderness of 80,000-100,000 acres may be required to contain wildfire within its boundaries. Only two of the 23 proposed wilderness areas under S1470 come anywhere close to this size, or are large enough to be seriously considered as legitimate Montana wilderness.

The Forest Service began to bring our national forests toward a managed state starting in the mid-1950s. By 1985, preservationists had managed to stymie active management. The preservationists now strive for wilderness designation for all inventoried roadless areas. S1470 provides for many of the wilderness areas and special management areas on the Lolo, Kootenai, and Beaverhead/Deerlodge national forests preservationists demand. In return, they “may allow” minor, short-term timber harvest and restoration activities. This response to preservationists’ demand for “wilderness first” is really response to coercion, and tantamount to eco-extortion. The Forest Service, the Congress and the public must not fall for it!

Roger C. Lund, Paradise

Navajo President Supports Hopi Council Resolution — Environmental Groups No Longer Welcome on Tribal Lands

by GEORGE HARDEEN, Navajo Nation Communications, 01 October 2009 [here]

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., said Wednesday that he strongly supports the Hopi Tribe’s resolution to declare local and national environmental groups unwelcome on Hopi land.

“I stand with the Hopi Nation,” President Shirley said. “Unlike ever before, environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination, and our quest for independence.”

“By their actions, environmentalists would have tribes remain dependent on the federal government, and that is not our choice. I want the leaders of all Native American nations to know this is our position, and I would ask for their support of our solidarity with the Hopi Nation in the protection of their sovereignty and self-determination, as well as ours.”

On Monday, the Hopi Tribal Council unanimously approved a resolution that stated environmentalists have worked to deprive the tribe of markets for its coal resources and the revenue it brings to sustain governmental services, provide jobs for Hopis, and secure the survival of Hopi culture and tradition.

As a result, the Hopi Council stated that the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Grand Canyon Trust and organizations affiliated with them are no longer welcome on Hopi land.

The Hopi Tribe’s resolution states that environmentalists “have manufactured and spread misinformation concerning the water and energy resources of the Hopi Tribe in an effort to instill unfounded fears into the hearts and minds of the Hopi public.”

The Council stated that these organizations have acted without regard for the tribe’s right to determine how best to develop and manage its natural resources on its land, nor have they shown concern for the future welfare of the tribe and its people. … [more]

Taxes fund environmental suits - Environmental law firms reap billions in fees to fund lawsuits

By Mitch Lies, Capital Press, October 15, 2009 [here]

The federal government has paid out billions of dollars to environmental groups for attorney fees and costs, according to data assembled by a Cheyenne, Wyoming, lawyer.

Karen Budd-Falen of Budd-Falen Law Offices said the government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms — and that’s just in the lawsuits she tracked.

The actual figure, she said, is far greater.

“I think we only found that the iceberg exists,” she said. “I don’t think we have any idea how much money is being spent. But I think it’s huge.”

In some cases, Budd-Falen said, intervening ranchers and farmers are paying for the defense of their farm and ranch practices and — through their taxes — paying for the opposing lawyers’ attorney fees.

“That money is not going into programs to protect people, wildlife, plants and animals,” Budd-Falen said, “but to fund more lawsuits.”

more »

Energy crisis is postponed as new gas rescues the world

Engineers have performed their magic once again. The world is not going to run short of energy as soon as feared.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,UK Telegraph , 11 Oct 2009 [here]

America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia’s grip on Europe’s gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all.

The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.

Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, said proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years’ supply – and rising fast.

“There has been a revolution in the gas fields of North America. Reserve estimates are rising sharply as technology unlocks unconventional resources,” he said. … [more]

After L.A. wildfire, danger of mudslides

The recent wildfire has left the area vulnerable to dangerous mud and debris slides in the coming months, a new report warns.

By Daniel B. Wood, The Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2009 [here]

Los Angeles - The miles of trees and other hillside vegetation scorched away by the recent wildfire here has left the towns and homes in the area vulnerable to mud and debris slides in the coming rainy season, warns a report from the US Geological Survey (USGS) released Wednesday.

The so-called Station fire blazed across 250 square miles of hillside in L.A. County last month. And without the natural barrier of trees, mud, rocks, and other debris could pour down the steep slopes to cover a football field 60 ft. deep, according to the report.

The USGS study estimated the probability and volume of debris-and-mud flow caused by a three-hour rainstorm – which has 100 percent chance of occurring every year – a one-hour rainstorm, and a 12-hour rainstorm, which is only likely to occur once in two years.

The probability of a dangerous debris flow is greater than 80 percent for a three-hour storm, the report says. Residents and officials should be bracing for significant impacts to homes, buildings, roads, bridges, culverts and reservoirs located in the burned out areas as well as downstream, the report says.

“Because of the fire, there’s a significant hazard posed by debris flows and this hazard will occur even in response to a wimpy little storm,” USGS research geologist Susan H. Cannon told the Associated Press.

The Los Angeles Dept. of Public Works is working overtime to clean out the several dozen catch basins in the area, and says the work will be completed by Oct. 15.

Debris flows after wildfires have been documented here for decades – a storm in 1934 triggered a mudslide that demolished 480 homes, killed 30 people, and brought a 60-ton boulder out of a canyon.

The USGS report is being used to map and prioritize where the problems would be worst and to help authorities design evacuation routes for residents.

Predicting debris flows and rain storms is difficult so residents should stay informed and take responsibility for protecting their own residences, cars, and families, Ms. Cannon told AP.

“If it starts raining hard and you know you are in a hazardous area, then just take your own initiative and leave,” she said. …[more]

Earliest Snow Day in Blaine Co. History

by Alyson Oüten, Wood River Valley News, October 7, 2009 [here]

BELLEVUE — Just one week ago, we were bracing for a “cool down” from the 80s to the 60s.

Now, it’s getting downright wintry. And in some parts of our viewing area, snow is piling up.

This may be one for the record books, not only how early this heavy fall snowstorm is, but the fact that it appears to have created the earliest snow day in the history of the Blaine County [Idaho] School District.

“We got dumped on last night, you can see that by looking around here. We weren’t quite ready for it. It did cause us some issues in the school district,” Lonnie Barber, Blaine County Superintendent.

Not just the school district, but throughout the county. At least 3,500 Idaho Power customers in the Wood River Valley were without electricty today. Utility officials blame heavy wet snow for knocking out power in Bellevue and Hailey. Outages were also reported in Fairfield and Carey.

Since the trees haven’t had time to shed their leaves, the snow accumulated and burdened the branches to their breaking point. Many of which landed on power lines. … [more]

BLM Employees Too Cozy with Advocacy Groups, IG Report Says

by Noelle Straub of Greenwire, The New York Times, October 5, 2009 [here]

Bureau of Land Management employees appeared to be “less than objective” and created the potential for illegal behavior when coordinating with environmental groups over the National Landscape Conservation System, the Interior inspector general has found.

The Interior IG investigated the interaction between federal employees and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) after receiving a complaint that NLCS directors were potentially engaged in inappropriate relationships with advocacy groups and possibly violated anti-lobbying statutes and policies. The report [here] focuses largely on interactions with the National Wildlife Federation.

“Our investigative efforts revealed that communication between NLCS and certain NGOs in these circumstances gave the appearance of federal employees being less than objective and created the potential for conflicts of interest or violations of law,” the IG report states. “We also uncovered a general disregard for establishing and maintaining boundaries among the various entities.”

The investigation found that numerous activities and communications took place between NLCS officials and advocacy groups, including discussions about the NLCS budget and the editing of brochures and production of fact sheets by BLM employees for the National Wildlife Federation.

The IG turned over the findings to the chief of public corruption at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who said that the law covering “lobbying with appropriated monies” has no criminal sanctions associated with it and thus declined to prosecute in lieu of administrative action.

BLM has 90 days to provide a written response outlining what actions it takes as a result of the IG findings. … [more]