White House puts warming threats on back burner

White House puts warming threats on back burner. It rejects the EPA staff’s findings on greenhouse gases and passes the issue on to the next president. By James Gerstenzang and Janet Wilson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers.

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Bush’s popularity is falling towards 20%; nothing can be done. Let’s face it, the Constitution needs to be amended to provide for the replacement of a failed President before the end of his term.

Most other democratic nations allow for “votes of no confidence,” and a new prime minister (probably from the other party or parties) can be brought in with a new cabinet to take over and move in a new direction.

Ralph Maughan

Suit to uncover human hazards of federal wildlife eradication

For Immediate Release: July 16, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

SUIT TO UNCOVER HUMAN HAZARDS OF FEDERAL WILDLIFE ERADICATION — Secret Agency Review of Poisonings, Crashes, Explosions and Terror Risks – PEER :

Washington, DC — What you don’t know surely can hurt you is the theory behind a lawsuit filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) against the federal agency which kills “nuisance” wildlife to force release of information about the inadvertent dangers of its activities to humans. The lawsuit seeks documentation on perils posed by agency operations ranging from stockpiles of high-powered poisons to airplane crashes during aerial coyote hunts.

The agency is Wildlife Services, an obscure, euphemistically-named arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which spent $108 million to kill more than 1.6 million animals in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available. Wildlife Services acts as an all-purpose exterminator for ranchers, farmers, and others by engaging in “lethal removal” of a Noah’s Ark of animals spanning the alphabet from armadillos and beavers to vultures, weasels, and wolves.

Druid pups cause great excitement crossing Soda Butte Creek

This is another great report by Kathie Lynch.

Unfortunately, it looks like wolf watching in the Park might now be pretty slow until autumn.

Ralph Maughan

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Yellowstone wolf field notes, July 8 -10. By © Kathie Lynch

The Druid Peak pack finally moved their pups to their rendezvous site! The action happened over three evenings, July 8-10, to the delight of the overflow crowd of watchers in the Footbridge turnout, at the south end of the Soda Butte Valley.

With all of the confusion of pups running helter skelter and struggling to swim Soda Butte Creek, we are still unsure as to exactly how many Druid pups there are. While the highest count by the Wolf Project plane was 14, watchers think there are perhaps as many as18 pups, or maybe even more. With 16 adults, and, hopefully, good pup survival, the Druids are definitely back!

Heedless rush by Bush on oil shale (opinion by Senator Ken Salazar)

We’ve seen this heedless rush to oil shale before, just ahead of the inevitable bust. By Senator Ken Salazar. Salt Lake Tribune (reprinted from the Washington Post).

Salazar is a U.S. Senator from Colorado, the state where much of the oil shale lies.

Idaho Fish and Game rules on two of three recent wolf killings

Under Idaho’s you-can-shoot-a-wolf-for-worrying-your-cow-dog-or-whatever law, Idaho Fish and Game has ruled that 2 of 3 shootings were justified.

It says a third is still under investigation.

Story.

According to rumors in Stanley, the third was a shooting of a Basin Butte wolf that came down to where the pack regularly hunted ground squirrels only to find the pasture filled with trucked in cattle. The wolf was shot while standing in the vicinity of the cattle.

There has also been a kill order out for another Stanley area pack, the Galena Pack, for allegedly killing a cow calf. This pack too stays low under later in the summer so it can hunt ground squirrels. The Idaho Fish and Game regional manager ordered one wolf taken.

I called him and suggested that instead the pack should have been hazed to its summer range in the higher elevations of the White Cloud Mountains.

After spending several days trying to trap a wolf, our observers noted WS has left the area. Whether they got a wolf is unknown. They may be coming back with aircraft gunships. The cost for the revenge killing of one calf??

Decisions on wolf killing in Idaho have been devolved from the state’s large carnivoire manager, Steve Nadeau to the F & G regional managers; although I get the impression that the federal agency Wildlife Services [as in wildlife killing] makes the call and the regional managers probably rubberstamps WS’s decision.

Same old for 20 more years on most WY Game and Fish elk feedgrounds

The Forest Service did deny the expansion in size of several of them and has imposed a few restrictions.

The Muddy Creek feedlot was the source of infection of elk to brucellosis several years back when Wyoming first lost its brucellosis free status.

Story. Elk feed areas get 20 years. Forest supervisor rejects additions to Fish Creek and Patrol Cabin in Gros Ventre. By Cory Hatch.  Jackson Hole News and Guide.

House passes the FLAME Act

“Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter”  Wildfires: House Passes Proactive (Really?) FLAME Act

“When it comes to being forward thinking, proactive and strategically-thinking, the last organization that comes to mind is Congress. But this time, with the FLAME Act, they’ve done it.”

By Joan McCarter, New West. 7-15-08

McCarter argues, correctly I think, that the Bush Administration has used wildlifes to starve the Forest Service budget so there is nothing left for recreation, wildlife, etc.

They do it by requesting a meager amount to fight fires. Then when the fire fighting costs “unexpectedly” exceed the appropriations, they take the money out of other Forest Service accounts.

Congress may put an end to this Administration effort to destroy the Forest Service.