Grant County ranchers fear financial hit from court-ordered loss of grazing territory
By Richard Cockle, The Oregonian January 30, 2011 [here]
John Day, Oregon - Rancher Ken Brooks is standing in his ranch yard near the ghost town of Fox , his eyes sweeping the timber-covered Malheur National Forest that holds the key to his future and that of 18 other Grant County ranching families.
“They’re all pretty angry,” he said. “We’re all in the same boat. We’re unsure what we’re going to do. And most of all, we’re unsure of the reason we have to do it.”
A December 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty prohibits the ranchers from turning their cattle out on seven summertime U.S. Forest Service grazing allotments to protect threatened Middle Columbia River steelhead.
The latest decision in a years-long battle over the effects of grazing on stream habitat bans cows on 16 percent of the 1.7 million-acre forest, which has one the largest grazing programs of any forest in the Pacific Northwest.
The ban starts in June and would affect almost 4,000 mother cows and their annual calf crop valued at $2.8 million, ranchers and forest officials said.
Environmentalists [The Oregon Natural Desert Association, Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project] who filed the steelhead lawsuit said the Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service must do a better job enforcing laws to preserve stream banks from roaming cattle. …
But outside the courtroom, Grant County is bracing for the economic repercussions, said county Commissioner Boyd Briton.
“There are families involved, there are employees,” Briton said. “All those cows, the feed stores, the Les Schwab tire store downtown, the grocery stores; it affects all of us.” …
The county already is coping with unemployment higher than 14 percent. The 19 ranchers affected by the judge’s decision represent about 20 percent of those who hold grazing permits on the Malheur.
The overall hit from the ban, perhaps 60 jobs, is the equivalent of losing roughly 7,000 jobs in Multnomah County, said Mark Webb, Grant County commission chairman. … [more]
Note: Last July the El Paso Corporation announced a $20 million contract between the company and the super-litigious environmental groups involved above. El Paso will pay $15 million over 10 years to the Western Watersheds Project and $5 million will be paid to the Oregon Natural Desert Association. See [here, here, here, here, here]
Thanks for the news tip to Julie Kay Smithson, Property Rights Research [here, here]
Sierra Snowpack 176 Percent of Normal
Sierra snowpack remains deep despite dry January
The Associated Press, Sacbee, Jan. 28, 2011 [here]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California officials expect to deliver more water to farms and cities than they did last year despite a relatively dry January.
The state Department of Water Resources conducted its second Sierra snow survey of the winter Friday, finding the snowpack along the 400-mile-long range remains above average. That is due to a series of storms from October through December.
Water content ranged from 108 percent of normal in the northern Sierra to 176 percent of normal in the southern Sierra, even though January snowfall was just 13 percent of average.
Sierra runoff provides about one-third of the water for California’s homes, businesses and farms. … [more]
Park County and Wyoming fight for right to sue feds
By C.J. Baker, The Powell Tribune, January 27, 2011 [here]
Park County and the state of Wyoming are fighting for their right to sue the federal government over lowered snowmobile limits in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
The county and state are appealing a September decision by federal District Court Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne that said they lacked the legal standing to challenge the National Park Service’s rules for winter use in the two parks.
“If anybody has standing, it’s Park County,” said Park County Commissioner Tim French in a Wednesday interview, adding later, “We should absolutely be allowed to argue our point of view in the court.”
Wyoming and Park County had challenged a 2009 Park Service decision which, in part, dropped Yellowstone snowmobile limits to no more than 318 commercially-guided trips per day — down from 720 in earlier years — and also lowered snowmobile levels in Grand Teton National Park.
The county and state argued the lower limits were environmentally unnecessary and would damage their tax base and tourism efforts, among other concerns.
However, siding with attorneys from the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association, an environmental group, Johnson found the state and county’s concerns of being harmed economically by lower snowmobile limits were “speculative, conjectural and hypothetical.”
Further, he said the state didn’t have the legal authority to sue on behalf of its citizens. Pointing to prior case law, Johnson wrote, “it is no part of its (the state’s) duty or power to enforce the rights of citizens in respect of their relations with the federal government.” … [more]
Thanks for the news tip to Julie Kay Smithson, Property Rights Research [here, here]
We Are All Funding Anti-Hunting Groups
Extremist environmental groups often get their legal fees reimbursed by the federal government under the Equal Justice Act
By David Hart, American Hunter, 1/12/2011 [here]
How would you like to make a donation to the anti-hunting movement? You wouldn’t, of course, but like it or not, you already have. In 2007, for example, $280,000 of your tax dollars went directly to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)—the nation’s preeminent anti-hunting group—after HSUS successfully stopped the delisting of wolves from the Endangered Species Act in Minnesota.
Yes, your tax money is going straight to anti-hunting groups that file lawsuits to end legal hunting opportunities. If that’s not enough, taxpayers gave more than $436,000 to anti-hunting groups for blocking wolf management in the northern Rockies. All told, 13 environmental and anti-hunting groups, like Defenders of Wildlife, sued the federal government 1,159 times in the last 10 years and were reimbursed an estimated $34 million in legal fees from the federal government. Many of those suits had a direct impact on your freedom to hunt.
“It’s the best-kept secret in the environmental community,” says Boone and Crockett Club president Lowell Baier.
Here’s how it works: Two sources of federal money provide reimbursement for legal fees for any individual or organization that files a lawsuit against the federal government and wins. One, called the Judgment Fund, is a congressional line-item appropriation used solely for cases related to the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, among others.
Karen Budd-Falen, a property-rights attorney from Wyoming who has tracked the rising tide of enviro-litigation, discovered that over $1 billion in payments from the Judgment Fund went out in just the first half of 2007 alone. Not all of it went to environmental groups, but plenty did.
“It’s hard to tell because the federal government is not required to track individual payments,” she says.
The second method is through the Equal Access to Justice Act, which was aimed at helping individuals and small businesses take on the federal government. The EAJA prohibits reimbursement to for-profit corporations worth more than $7 million; however, non-profit groups are exempt. It’s not as though the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which filed at least 409 lawsuits and 165 appeals in federal courts in the last 10 years, needs the money. They claimed a net income of $9 million and net assets of more than $6 million in 2008. Defenders of Wildlife raked in $30.7 million from members’ donations, from reimbursed legal fees and from other sources in 2008. HSUS then had about $162 million in net assets; nevertheless, HSUS received nearly $1.5 million from the federal government for 15 legal cases. … [more]
‘War on the West’: New Wild Lands designation could lock Wyoming residents out of public lands
By Brad Devereaux, Lovell Chronicle, January 26, 2011 [here]
Following an order by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in December, local officials in Big Horn County are asking questions and fighting back to make sure 256,000 acres of local land aren’t locked away with a new designation that would allow no surface occupancy.
Salazar’s Secretarial Order 3310 is “a war on the West,” Big Horn County Commissioner Keith Grant told the Chronicle Monday.
The order creates a new designation of “Wild Lands” that the BLM could use to classify its public lands. Wild Lands are defined as areas with wilderness characteristics and would be protected from any man-made occupancy in the future.
Gov. Matt Mead wrote a letter to Salazar dated Jan. 17, in which he states his opposition to Order 3310.
“A Wild Lands designation will further drag out (if not permanently halt) the permitting process while local economies suffer. The BLM currently does not have the appropriate resources or track record for approval of plans and projects; and this will make the problem greater and delays longer.
“Only the elected Congress is given the power, by law, to designate official wilderness areas. But, the policy seeks such designations by administrative fiat. With all due respect, the BLM cannot achieve these ends through this means.” … [more]
Centuries-Old Cave Reveals Secrets of Ancient Humans
Tools and teeth found in Israel could be oldest ever discovered
by Rosanne Skirbl, VOANews.com, Jan. 26, 2011 [here]
Israeli archeologists have discovered ancient artifacts in a cave outside of Tel Aviv that could shed new light on the theory of human origins. Tel Aviv University archeologist Ran Barkai says what his team has excavated at Qesem Cave show a much more advanced people than the accepted image of our Stone Age ancestors in the Middle Paleolithic period.
These early hominids hunted for food, cooked meat over fires and crafted a sophisticated array of flint tools. …
The archeologists also found human teeth in different strata in the cave. Barkai says scholars and dental anthropologists from Europe and the United States joined the Israelis to analyze the dental samples.
“It was clear from the comparison that the human teeth from Qesem Cave resembled most of the teeth of homo sapiens that lived in Israel much later, at an age of 100,000 years before present, at two caves, one in the Galilee and one in the Carmel.”
According to a widely accepted scientific theory, modern humans emerged from Africa around 200,000 years ago. Barkai says the teeth in Qesem Cave would predate those early human migrants. “We think that we are right. It is still only eight teeth or 10 teeth. So we need more evidence. It might imply that during this phase, maybe even a new hominid was living and this is another link or piece of the chain leading to modern humans.”
According to New York University paleo-dental anthropologist Shara Bailey, it may also represent another step in the evolution of man’s ancient human relatives, the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia around 200,000 years ago. …
But Bailey says whether the residents of Qesem Cave were like us or not, does not make the discoveries any less important. “Any new material that we find, especially from this poorly documented time period 200,000 to 400,000 years ago, is great and necessary for our ongoing interpretation of human evolution and Neanderthal evolution.” … [more]
Forest board names new Oregon state forester
By The Hillsboro Argus, January 28, 2011 [here]
SALEM — The state Board of Forestry Wednesday selected Doug Decker as Oregon’s next state forester. Decker will assume his duties Feb. 1, succeeding Marvin Brown, who resigned at the end of 2010.
Decker has been acting chief of the forestry department’s state forests division. He started working at the agency in 1987 as a public affairs specialist and served as public affairs director from 1990 to 1996.
He led development of the Tillamook Forest Center, an interpretive facility in the Tillamook State Forest, from 1996 to 2006. Most recently, he oversaw acquisition in Central Oregon of the Gilchrist State Forest, Oregon’s first new state forest in more than 60 years.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana.
As Oregon’s state forester, Decker oversees about 650 employees and a two-year budget of about $303 million.
Study ties pine beetle to severe Wash. wildfires
The Associated Press, Seattle Times, January 26, 2011 [here]
YAKIMA, Wash. — A new study mapping the mountain pine beetle outbreak in north-central Washington shows that infested areas were more likely to experience larger, more destructive forest fires.
The study, which was a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Forest Service, aimed to detect bark beetle infestations and to evaluate the link between them and forest fires in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
Satellite data showed regions of the forest experiencing water and vegetation stress, and analysis tied these regions to beetle infestations. Additional review showed highly infested areas that subsequently burned had more intense forest fires than areas without infestations.
The forest has experienced severe wildfires in recent years, including the Tripod Fire, which burned on more than 273 square miles.
Sea levels may have dropped in 2010
by John Kehr, The Inconvenient Skeptic, January 16, 2011 [here]
Based on the most current data it appears that 2010 is going to show the largest drop in global sea level ever recorded in the modern era. Since many followers of global warming believe that the rate of sea level rise is increasing, a significant drop in the global sea level highlights serious flaws in the IPCC projections. The oceans are truly the best indicator of climate. The oceans drive the world’s weather patterns. A drop in the ocean levels in a year that is being cited as proof that the global warming has arrived shows that there is still much to learned. If the ocean levels dropped in 2010, then there is something very wrong with the IPCC projections. …
2006 was the first year to show a drop in the global sea level. 2010 will be the 2nd year to show a decrease in sea level. That is correct, 2 of the past 5 years are going to show a decrease in sea level. 2010 could likely show a significant drop global sea level. By significant I mean it is possible that it will likely drop between 2-3 mm from 2009. Since the data has not been updated since August it is difficult to guess more precisely, but the data ends at the time of year that the seasonal drop begins to show up. If the drop does show up as expected, it is possible that 2010 will show the largest [annual] drop in sea level ever recorded. …
One fact is certain. A drop in sea level in 2 of the past 5 years is a strong indicator that a [rising] sea level is not a great concern. In order for the IPCC prediction to be correct of a 1 meter increase in sea level by 2100, the rate [of increase] must be almost 11 mm/yr every year for the next 89 years. Since the rate is dropping, it makes the prediction increasingly unlikely. Not even once in the past 20 years has that rate ever been achieved. …
This is yet another serious blow the accuracy of the official IPCC predictions for the coming century. The fact that CO2 levels have been higher in the last 5 years that have the lowest rate of rise than the years with lower CO2 levels is a strong indicator that the claims [made regarding] CO2 are grossly exaggerated. … [more]
Note: Oh no!!! Sea levels are dropping! Our ports will high and dry in no time! Obviously, it’s time to panic, albeit in the other direction.
Growing Membership Reaches New High for RMEF
For Immediate Release, RMEF, January 13, 2011 [here]
MISSOULA, Mont.—Hunters and sportsmen joined the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation at a rapid pace in 2010, pushing membership totals up by 12 percent to a record high of 178,000. The number of new members represents the largest single-year jump in RMEF history.
RMEF membership at the end of 2010 was nearly 30 percent higher than in 2008.
David Allen, RMEF president and CEO, attributes the growth to several factors.
“Our more aggressive attention to issues relevant to hunters and sportsmen is one primary reason for our growth,” he said. “We no longer sit on the fence when it comes to issues affecting the very core of our hunting heritage, the North American model of wildlife conservation, and our future. Our members expect us to stand up for them and we will.”
Allen added, “We are engaged alongside many other sportsman and agriculture groups in the fight to control wolves, and we will stay engaged until wolves are managed and controlled as they should be—by the states. There is no room left for compromise or complacency on this issue.”
“Landscapes in elk country also are changing quickly and more hunters are coming to appreciate the importance of habitat conservation and hunting access. Fighting habitat loss and improving access continue to be top priorities—in fact, in 2010 we passed the 5.9 million acre mark in lands conserved and topped 600,000 acres secured for public access. Our members expect us to focus on all of these issues and we are making every effort to do so, thus we are gaining in membership steadily. It is rewarding but we aren’t going to relax. We will continue to work for our members and what is important to them,” said Allen.
RMEF experienced the greatest membership growth in Oregon and Washington but added members in all 50 states.
Allen said RMEF also has improved its membership services, communications, promotions and overall visibility. Greater emphasis has been placed on a maturing process of the organization’s strategic focus since surpassing its first 25 years in 2008. … [more]
Judge ups protected turf for kangaroo rat
BY Michael J. Sorba, San Bernardino Sun, 01/11/2011 [here]
A federal judge’s ruling has increased critical habitat area for the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat from about 8,000 acres to over 33,000.
Wildlife advocates praised the decision and say it will do much to help the small mammal recover its numbers so it might one day be taken off the endangered species list.
“The latest court ruling gives this rare species a better chance at survival,” said Ileen Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
On Monday in Riverside, U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson overruled a 2008 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that reduced critical kangaroo rat habitat from 33,290 acres to 7,779, a center news release says.
It’s unclear what specific impacts the ruling will have on areas surrounding the habitat, but generally obtaining permits and clearance for economic or other types of development in critical habitat area is a costly, lengthy process.
“You can’t fight it,” said Highland Councilman Sam Racadio. “It’s the law and you just have to work within the process.”
The Wildlife Service is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the the Endangered Species Act, said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the agency’s Carlsbad office.
Development is not prohibited in critical habitat areas, but developers or any other entity building a project in such an area is required to mitigate impacts to the endangered species living there, said Hendron.
This usually includes purchasing alternate habitat land and brings long delays and significant added costs for development, Racadio said.
Mitigation costs for the kangaroo rat added about $650,000 to the Greenspot Road bridge project that was completed several years ago, Racadio said.
New bridges to replace the Boulder Avenue bridge over City Creek and the Greenspot Road bridge traversing the Santa Ana River are both slated to be built in critical habitat areas, said Dennis Barton, Highland’s assistant public works director.
Combined mitigation costs for both projects are estimated at $2.4million, Barton said. … [more]
Unequivocal Equivocation – an open letter to Dr. Trenberth
by Willis Eschenbach, Watts Up With That, January 15, 2011 [here]
I would like to take as my text the following quote from the recent paper [here] by Dr. Kevin Trenberth:
Given that global warming is “unequivocal”, to quote the 2007 IPCC report, the null hypothesis should now be reversed, thereby placing the burden of proof on showing that there is no human influence [on the climate].
The “null hypothesis” in science is the condition that would result if what you are trying to establish is not true. For example, if your hypothesis is that air pressure affects plant growth rates, the null hypothesis is that air pressure has no effect on plant growth rates. Once you have both hypotheses, then you can see which hypothesis is supported by the evidence.
In climate science, the AGW hypothesis states that human GHG emissions significantly affect the climate. As such, the null hypothesis is that human GHG emissions do not significantly affect the climate, that the climate variations are the result of natural processes. This null hypothesis is what Doctor T wants to reverse.
As Steve McIntyre has often commented, with these folks you really have to keep your eye on the pea under the walnut shell. These folks seem to have sub-specialties in the “three-card monte” sub-species of science. Did you notice when the pea went from under one walnut shell to another in Dr. T’s quotation above? Take another look at it.
The first part of Dr. T’s statement is true. There is general scientific agreement that the globe has been warming, in fits and starts of course, for the last three centuries or so. And since it has been thusly warming for centuries, the obvious null hypothesis would have to be that the half-degree of warming we experienced in the 20th century was a continuation of some long-term ongoing natural trend.
But thats not what Dr. Trenberth is doing here. Keep your eye on the pea. He has smoothly segued from the IPCC saying “global warming is unequivocal”, which is true, and stitched that idea so cleverly onto another idea, “and thus humans affect the climate”, that you can’t even see the seam.
The pea is already under the other walnut shell. He is implying that the IPCC says that scientists have “unequivocally” shown that humans are the cause of weather ills, and if I don’t take that as an article of faith, it’s my job to prove that we are not the cause of floods in Brisbane. … [more]
Note: Not only was Trenberth’s paper an abomination of science, but he shamelessly plagiarized large parts of it [here]. For additional discussion of this latest Alarmist eruption, see [here].
Band of bothers
Researchers’ flipper bands can seriously dent penguin survival, and also skew the results of research.
by Daniel Cressey, NatureNews, 12 January 2011 [here]
Attaching bands to penguins’ flippers makes them easier for scientists to study, but may also up the birds’ death rates and lower their chances of reproducing.
A team studying king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) has rekindled this debate, which has been running for more than 30 years, and thrown up an additional concern. Not only do bands placed around the birds’ flippers make life more difficult for penguins, their effects also undermine the conclusions drawn from such studies.
Biologists have long feared that the tags, bands and transmitters they attach to animals could have a negative effect on their study subjects. The debate has been especially fraught where penguins are concerned because some studies have found problems with bands whereas others have found none.
Yvon Le Maho at the University of Strasbourg in France, an author of the current study, published in Nature, says that the time has come for ecologists to embrace new technologies and abandon flipper bands, “certainly as a precautionary principle”.
His group’s paper also highlights a wider issue: studies on penguins can and are being used to look at the effects of climate change on ecosystems. Le Maho and colleagues have previously used electronic tagging of king penguins to show that just 0.26 ºC of warming in sea-surface temperatures could trigger a 9% decline in adult survival2. If banding were used in such studies, its consequences on a population could cripple attempts to extrapolate a climate-linked trend from the data. … [more]
Note: possible subtitle: When Wildlife Biologists Are Toxic To The Animals They Study
A common phenomenon. In Hawaii the USGS-BRD wye-byes study endangered birds by climbing ladders to nests and removing the chicks to weigh and measure them. Then they put the chicks back in the nests. Interestingly, 100% of the chicks thusly man-handled die within a few hours. Must be global warming, eh?
Australia floods inundate Brisbane, 67 missing
by By Ed Davies, Reuters, 01 11 2011 [here]
BRISBANE, Australia – Massive floods shut down the center of Australia’s third-largest city, sent thousands fleeing from their homes and sparked panic buying of food on Wednesday as rescuers searched desperately for nearly 70 people missing in floodwaters.
The biggest floods in a century have so far killed 16 people since starting their march across the northern mining state of Queensland last month, crippling the coking coal industry, destroying infrastructure, putting a brake on the economy and sending the local currency to four-week lows.
The flood surge is expected to peak in Brisbane, a riverine city of two million people, before sunrise on Thursday and last for days. However, the peak will arrive within the next few hours in Ipswich, a satellite town to the west.
“The water is rising and swallowing up the city. It’s really heartbreaking,” said Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale.
Brisbane residents on Wednesday pushed food-laden shopping carts through drowned streets, others waded in shoulder-high water to rescue possessions, while boats and pontoons were ripped from moorings in the Brisbane River and smashed into bridges as the muddy brown tide gathered strength.
At flooded intersections people paddled surfboards through floodwaters, balancing their possessions on the deck of the boards, while boats ferried evacuees to dry ground.
“I am feeling a sense of horror and awe at the power of the river. Sadly in coming hours we will see bits of people’s homes float down the river,” Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said, warning the torrent could take three to four days to subside. … [more]
Rescue crews took advantage of some rare sunshine to look for 67 people still missing from tsunami-like flash floods that tore through townships west of the city this week.
“We can take no comfort from that blue sky,” Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh told reporters, predicting almost 20,000 homes could be flooded at the river’s peak in what she called Queensland’s worst natural disaster. … [more]
Rights Group says 35 Dead in Tunisia Protests
by Lisa Bryant, Voice of America, 11 January 2011 [here]
An international rights group says at least 35 people have died in Tunisia during recent days of protests. Protests in Tunisia and in neighboring Algeria are raising questions about the hard-line governments in the two North African countries.
There are striking similarities in the protests that have swept through Tunisia and Algeria in recent weeks. Both were fueled by a toxic mix of high unemployment and rising the cost of food and other basic goods. Both cast a spotlight on a restive and marginalized youth - and their authoritarian governments. …
Reports say protests this past weekend left five people dead in Algeria. The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights says at least 35 people were killed in Tunisia during the same period.
The general secretary of the rights group, Khadija Cherif, is Tunisian by origin, says instead of trying to resolve the problem peacefully, Tunisian police fired on the protesters, accused them of terrorism and clamped down on freedom of expression, including the Internet.
The United States, the European Union and former colonial power France have expressed concern about the unrest in Tunisia and Algeria. … [more]