Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsOil companies have colluded with the Idaho’s and Montana’s governors so they can make even more profits than if they built the machinery for the toxic Alberta tar sands mining in Canada.
20 most profitable companies. CNN Money.
Desert Tortoise © Dr. Michael Connor, WWP
NRG Energy CEO David Crane, lead investor in the controversial Ivanpah Solar Thermal Energy Project, discusses why giant utility-scale renewable energy projects are economically viable and what the future might look like for renewables with a reduction of government subsidies:
NRG Energy’s CEO Discusses Q4 2010 Results – Earnings Call Transcript – Seeking Alpha
[We] fully recognize that the current generation of utility-sized solar and wind projects in the United States is largely enabled by favorable government policies and financial assistance. It seems likely that much of that special assistance is going to be phased out over the next few years, leaving renewable technologies to fend for themselves in the open market. We do not believe that this will be the end of the flourishing market for solar generation. We do believe it will lead to a stronger and more accelerated transition from an industry that is currently biased towards utility-sized solar plants to one that’s focused more on distributed and even residential solar solutions on rooftops and in parking lots.
While there are several plants called “tumbleweed,” the one most commonly called that is prickly Russian Thistle. It has been around for almost 150 years and Hollywood probably convinced people it is an essential element of the “Old West.”
A couple of fungal blights from Asia Minor now show great promise in reducing its prevalence. Introduction of plant diseases, however, can be very dangerous and controversial. So far these look to be very host specific. I hope these work out if they are approved. To me the prickly tumbleweed of the West has no redeeming value.
High Noon for Tumbleweed? By Emiline Ostlind. WyoFile
Russian Thistle in detail. Copyright Salle Engelhardt
Photo Courtesy USFWS
Previous efforts to recovery pygmy rabbits to habitat in central Washington state have been conducted without success. Now, biologists hope that releasing more captive rabbits into the wild will mean greater success:
Pygmy Rabbits Face Possible Last Stand In Washington – OPB News
In north central Washington, scientists are trying once again to reintroduce a tiny endangered rabbit species into a big, predator-ridden landscape.
You may remember a previous post in which we reported Dr. Steve Herman’s experience of efforts to restore pygmy rabbits in Washington.
Ah, some credit to two average folks fighting the international oil companies to try to save the economy, scenery, fish and wildlife of the area around U.S. Highway 12.
Idaho megaload foes win Dalton Open Government Award. By Dan Popkey. Idaho Statesman
“The Max Dalton Open Government Award has been given each year since 1999 to a citizen or group judged to be an outspoken advocate of openness in either public records or public meetings on the state or local level.”
Among many other activities trying to kill the megaload shipments across the scenic, narrow, north central Idaho highway, the Daltons exposed Butch Otter’s secret deal with the oil companies to turn Highway 12 into an industrial corridor on the way to the Alberta tar sand pits.
Already reeling from the massive Jonah gas field, now a new field covering 4 times as much area is planned. The “Normally Pressured Lance” natural gas field” (Son of Jonah, as some call it) comes at a time when the formerly pristine air of the Green River Basin has wintertime air so dirty it violates the standards.
Encana project could add 3,500 gas wells in Wyo. Mead Gruver, Associated Press
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management needs to asked how new drilling of this huge magnitude can be done until the agency can be sure the residents are being protected from the activities that are already underway.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council has a story on the project too (and a map). Agency needs to protect the residents of the Upper Green River Valley. By Bruce Pendery
A new study is confirming what many have been suggesting all along; We don’t need to sacrifice wild-lands and pristine wildlife habitat to facilitate renewable energy, it’s all about proper siting.
Win-Win for Wind and Wildlife: A Vision to Facilitate Sustainable Development – Kiesecker JM, Evans JS, Fargione J, Doherty K, Foresman KR, et al. 2011 – PLoS ONE
[From Abstract]
We estimate there are ~7,700 GW of potential wind energy available across the U.S., with ~3,500 GW on disturbed lands. In addition, a disturbance-focused development strategy would avert the development of ~2.3 million hectares of undisturbed lands while generating the same amount of energy as development based solely on maximizing wind potential.
Desert Tortoise, Dr. Michael Connor
The Ivanpah solar thermal project consists of 5.4 square miles of high quality habitat for the Endangered Species Act protected desert tortoise, a fact that developers (and some investors) underestimated resulting in the temporary suspension of activities on phases 2 and 3 of the project site due to construction activities exceeding the incidental take limit (number of tortoises allowed to be disturbed) the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set at 38 Endangered Species Act protected desert tortoises.
The temporary suspension of activities prompted the Bureau of Land Management to take a closer look, and issue a Revised Biological Assessment (
) estimating the number of desert tortoise the project may impact given what we now know. As it turns out, the initial incidental take limit of 38 was off the mark to the tune of thousands of desert tortoises:
More than 3,000 desert tortoises would be disturbed by a solar project in northeast San Bernardino County and as many as 700 young ones would be killed during three years of building, says a federal assessment issued Tuesday.
Oil sands of Alberta are bad enough, but they look good compared to Western oil shale. Its development will produce little, if any, net energy, while leaving much waste and giant pits. It takes a lot of water too, and the deposits are in the driest part of the United States.
BLM hearing in Salt Lake City sees much opposition to oil shale. Salt Lake Tribune. By Brandon Loomis.
The finite availability of western water is part of the reason Ralph Maughan previously posed the question : Will the resource sucking “sin city” be reclaimed by the desert ? Perhaps eventually, but in the meantime – despite setbacks, the Southern Nevada Water Authority keeps stretching its tentacles in a continuing effort to draw-down surrounding water resources:
Hundreds Protest Las Vegas Water Grab – Great Basin Water Network Press Release
Nevadans and Utahns made it clear once again that Las Vegas won’t take water from rural Nevada without a fight.
This at a time when the Interior Department has announced a report commissioned by the Bureau of Reclamation – which has presumably brushed up on its 9th grade math – highlighting the impacts of climate change to western water resources – including a projection of an 8 to 20 percent decrease in average annual stream flow in several river basins, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin.
Interior Releases Report Highlighting Impacts of Climate Change to Western Water Resources – Interior Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released a report that assesses climate change risks and how these risks could impact water operations, hydropower, flood control, and fish and wildlife in the western United States. The report to Congress, prepared by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, represents the first consistent and coordinated assessment of risks to future water supplies across eight major Reclamation river basins, including the Colorado, Rio Grande and Missouri river basins.
Residents on Highway 12 and recreation businesses are rallying against the megaloads.
Fate of ExxonMobil megaloads at stake in Boise hearings. By John Miller. AP in the Missoulian.
Recently we posted an article how Lake Mead would soon fall to a level that it would no longer be able to generate power. I recently visited (see photo). The drawdown was amazing, but the extreme wet winter and spring upriver will raise the lake for a year for the first time in a decade. The future is still probably bleak for the river’s many water consumers and the downriver wildlife.
Lake Mead replenished by snowfall. Arizona Republic. By Shaun McKinnon.
"Bathtub ring" at Hoover Dam shows the water level of Lake Mead in March 2011. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan
This is good news, although likely temporary.
The turnouts constructed on the Montana side of Lolo Pass appear to be larger than the oil giant said and closer to Lolo Creek which already suffers from highway runoff.
Judge stops construction of big-rig turnouts in western Montana. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian
We just received notice that the BLM has suspended construction of some of the the Ivanpah Solar Thermal Power Plant due to the project reaching its upper limit number of tortoise killed for the Biological Opinion and incidental take limits established in approving the project.
BLM halts some construction at Ivanpah Power Plant – Decision
George Wuerthner wrote this now apt essay over a year ago, published in New West last September, suggesting that should anti-wolf interests succeed in delisting wolves and fail to exercise restraint in killing wolves that it would ultimately backfire.
Wolf Restoration is a Challenge to West’s Old Guard – George Wuerthner – NewWest.net
Demographically the country is changing to a more diverse racial, religious and age structure. The majority of Americans who do not hunt only accept hunting if they believe the hunter is killing an animal to eat it. Public support for hunting declines rapidly if hunters kill animals for trophy mounts. When it comes to shooting an animal just to kill it as would be the case for hunters shooting wolves—and/or worse as a matter of vindication as in predator control, public support turns to public opposition.
Similarly, without the ESA ‘hook’ extending legal protection for wolves, some of the last, best remaining legal angles to protect wolves will be in preventing conflict with livestock on public lands that is ultimately responsible for government trapping and slaughter of entire packs of wolves.
Increased public scrutiny over public lands ranching at the land-use level – demanding that ranchers implement preventative measures as a condition of permit to use public lands to graze cattle and sheep is one tangible avenue wolf-advocates might pursue to accomplish wolf protections.
One thing is for sure – if wolves are to persist on the landscape in the ecologically relevant numbers that advocates have been promoting for years, outrage over the wanton slaughter of wolves must be felt by those responsible.
Google announces its private investment in Brightsource Energy, the proponent of the controversial Ivanpah Solar Thermal Project:
Google Solar Project: Google Invests $168 Million In Mojave Power Plant – Huffington Post
The commitment announced Monday is part of the financing that BrightSource Energy needs to build a solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert.
A BrightSource contractor working on the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station in California’s Mojave Desert kills a Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) that was likely between 400-800 years old.
Megaloads have no place in Idaho. By Bill Sedivy. Idaho Statesman.
The Bureau of Land Management has increased the estimate of how many desert tortoises will be displaced by the Ivanpah solar plant in southern California just southwest of Las Vegas. The previous estimate was that there would only be 32-38 tortoises displaced by the development. They now estimate that there will be 140 of the endangered tortoises displaced by the 5.6 square mile development. The new estimate has required the BLM to seek new consultations with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Previous attempts at moving tortoises to new locations have resulted in half of the tortoises dying and similar number of resident tortoises dying at the relocation site due to displacement. If this relocation effort has similar results then it would result in 140 dead tortoises.
Tortoises are long living creatures that mature at age 15 and can live up to 80 years or more. They have declined by as much as 90% since the 1980’s due to habitat destruction and increased predation by ravens which thrive in areas where they previously didn’t because of human trash and livestock which die or leave birthing materials in the spring. They also are illegally collected by people who want them as pets. Land development, such as BrightSource’s Ivanpah solar plant, are also becoming threats to their survival.
Ivanpah solar project could displace 140 tortoises.
The Press Enterprise
National Wildlife Federation Prepared to Sue Montana Over Mega-loads. By George Prentice. Boise Weekly.
Exxon is now getting ready to test taking the megaloads up Highway 12 and through Montana. There could be as many as 200 gigantic loads from Exxon sent to Alberta. Some, however, are being broken down into smaller loads so they don’t have to travel on beautiful Highway 12.
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Here is some good news on the struggle fighting the tar sand oil. Ottawa fights EU’s dirty fuel label on oil sands. Climate Connections. The EU is going to label it as a dirty fuel.
Today’s announcement that a number of plaintiffs in the wolf delisting case are seeking a settlement with the Department of Interior they hope Judge Molloy will approve does represent a difference in strategy how to proceed in the current political environment.
Three groups, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Western Watersheds and Friends of the Clearwater are standing firm.
Western Watershed’s Executive Director, Jon Marvel, today told me the reasons for the group’s firm stance.
Western Watersheds stresses that this settlement is only with the Department of Interior. No one, including Senator Jon Tester of Montana, has indicated that in response to the settlement they will withdraw or modify any legislation they have introduced to delist the wolves by law, nor do Secretary of Interior Salazar or President Obama make any promise or even say they oppose such legislation, much less veto it if it passes.
There is nothing in return from this settlement except the promise to keep the scant number of wolves in Utah, Oregon and Washington on the endangered species list.
Western Watersheds believes that having won the case in the first place, the groups should not then ask that the judge approve the violation of the law and his own decision (delisting the NRM wolf by state boundaries).
Battle-proof Wind Farms Survive Japan’s Trial by Fire. By Kelly Rigg. Huffington Post.
An unprecedented number of comments came in on the Plains Exploration & Production Co.’s (PXP) plan for up to 136 gas wells south of Bondurant near Noble Basin. Most of the Wyoming and adjacent Salt River Range has been withdrawn from oil and gas leasing/drilling by act of Congress, but the PXP leases slipped through before the leasing was shut down by the Wyoming Range Legacy Act.
My experience in the Noble Basin and adjacent area is of some of the finest elk and moose country in Wyoming. A domestic sheep beleagered bighorn sheep herd is nearby. The huge number of comments seem to have strengthened the views of new Wyoming governor Matt Mead on the subject of drilling, after maybe fracking the area.
Wyoming Range drilling project garners 40,000 comments. By Environment & Energy Daily in WyoFile.
We haven’t covered this for a while, but as many predicted the movement is not going smoothly.
1 megaload reaches Lolo; 1 stuck on Highway 12. By Jamie Kelly. Missoulian.
Click to view in Google Maps
On February 28, 2011 Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the United States District Court for Idaho agreed with Western Watersheds Project and reimposed an injunction stopping livestock grazing on 17 grazing allotments covering over 450,000 acres of public land in the Jarbidge Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management in southern Idaho.
The allotments closed under this injunction contain some of the most important remaining habitat for sage grouse, California bighorn sheep, the threatened plant species slickspot peppergrass as well as native redband trout, pygmy rabbits and pronghorn antelope.
March 4 news story added. Federal judge shuts down some Jarbidge grazing allotments. By Laura Lundquist. Magic Valley Times News
Here is Western Watersheds Project’s News Release on this important victory:
Western Watersheds Project Wins A Federal Court Injunction Stopping Livestock Grazing on over 450,000 Acres of Public Land in Southern Idaho
Greater sage grouse, pygmy rabbit and Slickspot peppergrass have won a reprieve from livestock grazing which has decimated their populations and destroyed their habitat. Late yesterday, Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the federal District for Idaho held BLM, various Simplot corporate entities, and other corporate ranching operations to the terms of an earlier agreement, and again enjoined livestock grazing on 17 livestock grazing allotments in southern Idaho. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t think it will, not as the so-called conservatives in office today look at the world. However, back in the world of facts where Lake Mead isn’t far from the level of “dead pool,” there will be enormous consequences for all the Colorado River Basin states: Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, California.
Salazar: Colorado River issue could push conservatives to face climate change. By Karoun Demirjian. Las Vegas Sun
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego places Lake Mead at a 50% chance to run dry by 2020, with its enormous power production inoperative by 2017. They gave a 10% chance it would be inoperable by 2014.
If you have tried to visit Hoover Dam the last decade, you know it has been one huge traffic jam. However, the dam by-pass and a widened U.S. 93 is now complete and with what looks like great benefits to the desert bighorn sheep the inhabit the very rugged Black Mountains near the dam. Of course, the traffic will now increase.
Project gives bighorn sheep safe passage over busy highway. Las Vegas Sun. By Dylan Scott
Energy development poses challenge to wildlife habitat. By Larry Johnson. Las Vegas Review-Journal.
And unsaid is the continuing bad idea of centralized energy generation, even if it is said to be renewable.
After 40 public meetings that drew 3,000 participants and 25,000 comments, the Forest Services has issued new draft rules governing the entire national forest system. Conservation groups are focusing on what they consider to be changes to the wildlife portion that would give too much discretion to local forest supervisors about conserving and improving wildlife habitat.
National forests plan would expand local discretion over wildlife management. By Darryl Fears. Washington Post.
The fact that conservation groups are comparing the new rules unfavorably to the old rules from Ronald Reagan would seem to be telling as Reagan was no favorite of conservation groups. On the other hand as the Missoulian points out, “Forest Service looks to add recreation, wildlife, water to management principles. By Rob Chaney. Missoulian.
Maybe, the best initial comment was “The devil, or the angel, is in the details.” We will have to look more closely.
Here are the FS draft regulations. pdf
The deadly collapse of the Teton Dam east of Rexburg, Idaho, in June 1976 was one of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s worst moments. Conservationists had been fighting the dam as a waste of money and destruction of a beautiful fishing stream. The canyon was also filled with wildlife, especially in the winter.
No one thought it would collapse, but the dam fell apart as soon as they filled it. Eleven people drowned and there was a billion dollars damage. Incredible as it my seem, some local irrigators started agitating to rebuild. It was an unpleasant joke, but most forgot about it until recently when some “penny pinching” members of the Idaho legislature starting saying it should be rebuilt, hopefully by Uncle Sucker.
American Rivers commissioned a poll in the area. They found a slight majority in favored of rebuilding the dam, but when presented with an alternative, greater efficiency of water use, the number were strongly against it.
Given the economic climate it is hard to see how Congress would appropriate a billion dollars to rebuild this structure. Rocky Barker has a full story on his blog in the Idaho Statesman.
The practice of fracking, or hydraulic fracture drilling has been a highly damaging practice wherever it is used and now Congress is asking the EPA to take a harder look.
Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law.
New York Times
Having lost before the Idaho Department of Transportation, opponents of the oil megaloads will no longer try to stop the first four of them. These are bound for the existing oil refinery in Billings, Montana. The next 200 megaloads (not approved for now) are for what many see as the tar sand pits from hell in Alberta, Canada.
Movement of the first four should reveal much about who is right about them? Will the loads have great difficulty getting up the highway and over Lolo Pass? Will there be an accident? Will they be safely parked during the day, or will they end up blocking traffic? Will the megaloads harm the highway surface or warp the bridges? Will the megaloads generate any local employment beyond a few people holding signs and public revenues going to pay for highway patrol escorts?
Idaho megaload opponents: Let big rigs roll to Billings. By Kim Briggeman of Missoulian. missoulian.com
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Feb. 1, 2011 update. As Megaloads Roll, What Two of Three Plaintiffs Learned About Opposition. New West (feature article). By Steve Bunk. New West has done an outstanding job covering the megaloads issue. This is their latest feature article.
I was particularly impressed with this quote in the article, “Referring to state troopers who accompany megaloads through Idaho, Laughy remarked, ‘I find it particularly interesting that our state could be contracting out our police to the South Korean government.’ ” I say it’s a good example what happens when we (the United States) are well on our way to being a colony of the corporations of other parts of the world (thanks to the work of people like provincial governor Butch Otter).
Folks in NW Wyoming are rejoicing that the Bridger-Teton National Forest has announced the rejection of some of the last of the requested natural gas leases in the Wyoming Mountain Range 20 miles NW of Pinedale (30 miles southeast of Jackson Hole). Forest rejects oil, gas leases in Wyo. Range. “[Forest supervisor] Buchanan follows [former supervisor] Hamilton’s draft, decides against development 35 miles south of Jackson.” By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole News and Guide.
Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2009
The beautiful and wildlife rich mountain range’s protection from massive natural gas development has united different kinds of folks in northwestern Wyoming. In August 2009, most of the Wyoming Range and the adjacent Salt River Range (1.2 million acres) were withdrawn by Act of Congress from oil and gas development in the “Wyoming Range Legacy Act,” sponsored by most of Wyoming’s congressional delegation.
The Wyoming Range is still not entirely protected-
This does not mean the mountain range is entirely protected. Among the very first gas wells developed in the general area were in the foothills of the Wyoming Range way back in the late 1970s at Riley Ridge, which has been massively industrialized. As proposals to explore multiplied citizens organized to head off massive development of the entire mountainous area along the the Idaho/Wyoming border. Slightly less than 50,000 acres south of Bondurant slipped through — were leased — in the 1990s.
The Noble Basin drilling controversy-
Now PXP Energy wants to drill 136 wells in the area near Boundurant (referred to as the “Noble Basin” area) much to the outrage of local and non-so-local residents. At a hearing in Jackson, Wyoming last week about 98% of the testimony opposed the Noble Basin development. 1/20/11. Noble Basin sparks anger. Jackson Hole Daily. The advantage lies with PXP, however, because the act of leasing public land is the most critical stage of oil and gas development. That’s because a lease creates a private property right that can only be extinguished by purchasing it back. PXP’s drilling probably can’t be stopped by any action except public opinion or very restrictive stipulations imposed in the actual drilling.
Citizens can send their comments on regulation of the drilling to the Bridger-Teton National Forest, supervisor Jacqueline Buchanan, P.O. Box 1888, Jackson, WY 83001. Comments can be emailed to comments-intermtn-bridger-teton-big-piney@fs.fed.us with the subject line “Eagle Prospect and Noble Basin MDP DEIS.” The plan is available at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/btnf/projects/. Comments are due Mar. 10.
Not all opposed to drilling the range-
Of course, the oil and gas industry supports drilling the area as does Wyoming’s lone member of the U.S. House, Republican Cynthia Lummis. Lummis, while nominally a U.S. Representative, in practice pretty much represents oil rather than the state.
We have posted quite a few articles on protecting the Wyoming Range, but the blog hasn’t shown much interest.
I think this might be because the very name, Wyoming Range, might prompt those not from Wyoming to think the article is about rangeland in Wyoming rather than a large chain of mountains which are full of wildlife, especially elk. The range also has a small and declining bighorn sheep herd that is constantly threatened by disease from domestic sheep grazing. Western Watersheds has been trying to improve the livestock grazing in the area through the organization’s Wyoming Office.
As some have mentioned, it might also be that the area is psychologically hidden because the Tetons, Yellowstone, and the Wind River Mountains immediately come to mind when folks think of the state of Wyoming.
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More information
For immediate release – January 25, 2011
| Contacts: | Jon Marvel, Executive Director Western Watersheds Project, 208.788.2290 |
| Rob Mrowka, Center for Biological Diversity, 702.249.5821 |
LAS VEGAS, Nev – Two conservation groups and three Indian Tribes filed suit today to protect a pristine mountain valley adjacent to Great Basin National Park in Nevada from a poorly-sited 8000 acre industrial wind energy project, approved by the Department of the Interior with minimal environmental review. The valley is home to rare and imperiled wildlife such as the greater sage grouse, and sensitive species including golden eagles and free-tailed bats. The project area is also a sacred site to Western Shoshone Tribes.
“We hope this litigation will lead the federal government to choose less damaging locations for wind power developments,” said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
“Renewable energy is nationally and globally important for addressing the growing threats from climate change,” said Rob Mrowka, an ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the parties in the suit. “But, renewable projects must be properly located with careful consideration of the values of not only the site but also of the surrounding area”.
On October 15, 2010 the Bureau of Land Management approved a proposal by Spring Valley Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Pattern Energy of San Francisco, to construct the project on public lands in northeastern Nevada just north of Great Basin National Park. BLM approved the project over the objections of state and federal wildlife officials, nearby tribes, and conservation groups. Rather than carrying out a detailed review involving the preparation of an environmental impact statement, BLM instead prepared only a cursory environmental assessment.
“The best ways to avoid negative impacts of renewable energy projects are to carry out a thorough environmental review and site them carefully. Unfortunately, in this case BLM did neither,” noted Mrowka.
Obama Administration Refuses to Reform Public-lands Grazing Fee
For immediate release – January 18, 2011
Contacts: Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, 520.623.1878
Mark Salvo, WildEarth Guardians, 503.757.4221
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, 928.310.6713
Brent Fenty, Oregon Natural Desert Association, 541.330.2638
Ronni Egan, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, 970.385.9577
Tucson, Ariz. – After a lengthy delay, five conservation organizations finally received an answer today from the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture concerning the artificially low fee federal agencies charge for livestock grazing on public lands. Claiming higher priorities, both agencies declined to address the outdated grazing fee formula. The government’s response was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Oregon Natural Desert Association.
Conservation organizations submitted a petition in 2005, asking the government to address the grazing fee formula and adjust the fee in order to cover the costs of the federal grazing program, which costs taxpayers at least $115 million dollars annually according to a Government Accountability Office report. Conservationists contend that Americans lose even more in compromised wildlife habitat, water quality, scenic views, and native vegetation.
“Today’s long-awaited answer was a huge disappointment,” said Greta Anderson, Arizona Director for Western Watersheds Project. “Year after year, we watch as the government gives a sweetheart deal to public lands ranchers at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. We had hoped the Obama Administration would have done better, but it’s business-as-usual for the western livestock industry.”
“Subsidizing the livestock industry at the cost of species, ecosystems, and taxpayers is plainly bad public land policy,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director with the Center for Biological Diversity, “Today’s choice to continue that policy is both a disappointment and a blight on the Obama administration’s environmental record.” Read the rest of this entry »
The megaloads for the Billings, MT oil refinery now have a go ahead from Idaho, and will probably get one quickly from Montana. Highway 12 itself has been slippery to very slippery except in its lower portion. Parts of it have also been briefly closed to reduced to one lane due to rockslides.
Idaho official signs off on Highway 12 megaload permits. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian missoulian.com
Female desert tortoise resting on the apron of her burrow about to get a power plant built on her doorstep. (2010) © Michael J. Connor
For several months we’ve been covering the progress of the, now approved, solar power plant at Ivanpah near Las Vegas on the California side of the Nevada/California border. Initial construction has begun and biologists have rounded up as many desert tortoises as they can to prepare the site for what essentially amounts to sterilization. In past studies where desert tortoises had been moved, half of them died while an equal number of tortoises at the site where they were moved to were subsequently displaced and died.
The energy company BrightSource Energy says that they want to mitigate the loss of the desert tortoise by restoring Castle Mountain Venture land and mining claims in an area to the north and add them to the Mojave National Preserve. This is all well and good but the lands are very poor desert tortoise habitat and would not compensate for the habitat lost due to the destruction that the new solar plant will cause.
It’s hard to call a project like this “green” when there is no corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emitting coal or natural gas power plants and when the habitat destruction being caused further imperils the endangered desert tortoise and other species. This project keeps power generation in the hands of big corporations at the expense of taxpayers who would benefit more from subsidized use of less environmentally damaging rooftop solar.
One article, by the solar industry news site Solar Novus Today, about the lawsuit editorializes about the solar plant this way:
“One begins to wonder, aren’t we all on the same side? One of the main purposes of renewable energy is to protect the environment and help halt global warming. True, making money is a prime desire as well but if it wipes out the environmental concerns, we have, so to speak, thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Do we really need to put solar plants on pristine desert landscapes or on Native American sacred sites? It may take more time, effort and a little more money to research other less obvious sites, such as brownfields, but solar plants in these locations will accomplish both goals: keeping the environment safe and making money.”
Biofuel Grasslands Better for Birds. Science Daily.
Idaho’ federal judge Ed Lodge rarely rules in favor of conservation groups, but the defective job the BLM did on these 4 grazing allotments provoked a complete victory for WWP and an strong rebuke to the manager of the BLM’s Challis Field Office, David Rosenkrance. Rosenkrance has been criticized for years for running an incestuous, good old boy operation in this beautiful, if degraded, potentially terrific wildlife area. Fortunately last week was the end date for Rosenkrance in Idaho. He has been moved off to the BLM in Colorado.
Judge Lodge ruled that all three of the plaintiff”s claims were valid: that BLM violated the law by not analyzing the impacts to endangered bull trout, by refusing to consider a no- or low- grazing alternative when evaluating the impacts, and by failing to study the cumulative impacts of grazing in the area.
I understand there are similar appeals out there that will succeed because of this decision.
Here is a link to decision at the Advocates for the West web site.
The high Pahsimeroi Mtns from the east (Pahsimeroi Valley). BLM Grouse Creek Allotment. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan
Here is an interactive Google Map of the 4 grazing allotments (created by Western Watersheds Project).
Update. An AP story just came out on the decision. Judge rules against BLM on Idaho grazing permits. By Keith Ridler. Jan. 10, 2011 By The Associated Press
Buffalo calf at Stephens Creek capture facility, Yellowstone National Park.
Articles about how the perennial saga of hazing, capturing, slaughtering, and hunting bison is starting once again in and around Yellowstone National Park. There is one change this year though that has left me scratching my head. This is the first year where bison leaving Yellowstone from the northern entrance of the Park near Gardiner, Montana are going to be allowed to use the Church Universal and Triumphant’s (CUT) Royal Teton Ranch (RTR) under an agreement with the National Park Service, Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, and National Wildlife Federation.
The $3 million $3.3 million deal would initially allow 25 bison to use the RTR but only after they have been captured in the Stephens Creek capture facility just inside the Park boundary. They then would be subjected to squeeze chutes where they would have blood samples, fecal samples, taken from them and pregnant females would have vaginal transmitters placed in them so that biologists would be informed of the location where they give birth. Over time the deal might eventually allow up to 100 untested bison each year.
Brown's Bench, RES America proposes to put hundreds of giant wind turbines on this southern Idaho landscape © Brian Ertz 2010
Some of the really great things I enjoy about living in the west are the obscure landscapes/mountain ranges. Unlike national parks, ‘W‘ilderness areas, National Monuments and other landscapes prominently highlighted on any western map, there are many public landscapes less conspicuous, maybe not even labeled on a common roadmap, belonging to all of us that are best known by the locals ~ sportsmen, anglers, ranchers, really hardcore conservationists and recreationists. Landscapes that harbor habitat and wildlife that exemplify its original nature.
West of 93 on the ID/NV line
These less conspicuous areas are where I learned to hunt and fish with my brothers, places I continue to frequent to hike, botanize and view wildlife with my kids. Public lands that have served countless generations in such an economically intangible way, uplifting our spirit and serving our truly unique and blessed standard of living. If you’re reading this, it’s likely you know what I mean.
Increasingly, these places find themselves under threat by new energy technologies which extend the reach of our human ability to extract resources into places otherwise overlooked by industry yesteryear.
In southern Idaho, just west of Highway 93 on the Idaho/Nevada line, Brown’s Bench is just such a place.
Concerned about grouse, groups ask China Mountain developer to reconsider – Opposition Rises as Wind Farm Study Nears – Times-News
One by one, organizations weighing the land against the wind are concluding that more green energy doesn’t outweigh the risk to sage grouse.
The American Bird Conservancy weighs in on wind farms and their concerns for many rare bird species.
Wind Development Threatens Iconic American Birds.
American Bird Conservancy Press Release
Over the years, we have written about the Trapper’s Point pronghorn migration bottleneck a number of times. There has been growing awareness that the thousands-of-year-old antelope migration from the Wyoming high desert over the Gros Ventre each year, down into Jackson Hole could easily be severed by increasing development.
I had heard something was being done. This summer I visited Trappers Point, walked all around, took photos, but saw no changes to the situation had been made. Today the Jackson Hole News and Guide has some good news. There will be an expansive and expensive overpass built at Trappers Point and another at a dangerous highway crossing about 5 miles to the NW, north of Daniel Junction.
Of course, these overpasses will benefit other kinds of wildlife hit on the highways in this area of increasing traffic and development from the gas fields and subdivisions.
State to spend $9.7M to protect pronghorn: Plan would build fences, highway underpasses and overpasses in Sublette County (WY). By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole News and Guide.
Medusahead grass has the ability to take over a landscape like cheatgrass but nothing will eat it after it dies and dries out in the early summer months. It is becoming a huge problem in some areas and I’ve seen allotments with vast expanses where it is about the only thing that grows. Of course, if you’re the BLM, what else is there to do but renew the grazing permit and continue the degradation?
Anatomy of a medusahead invasion.
High Country News
An opportunity like this only comes along every ten years or so. I know a lot of people have been furious for years about the cattle grazing in the Bannock Range immediately west and south of Pocatello, Idaho.
Western Watersheds/Portneuf Valley Audubon Society new release on the grazing comment opportunity. Conservation groups want Mink Creek closed to cows.
Every ten years or so the Forest Service is supposed to revise its grazing allotment plans. One alternative they have to consider is no grazing. I know a lot of the folks I know here in Pocatello would say, “yes, yes” to reduced or elimination of grazing. There are a few beauty area closed, but about 1200 AUMs graze most of the area from June 1 until Oct. 10 each year (actually until the owners of the cattle bother to pick them up). That only leaves the month of May for an ungrazed experience in this key recreation area on Pocatello’s doorstep.
Here is the scoping document from the Forest Service showing the location of the allotments. PortneufAllotScoping11-22-2010
Send to your comments to Ranger Jeff Hammes, Westside Ranger District at this email address: comments-intermtn-caribou-targhee-westside@fs.fed.us. Tell why you are interested, give the information you have about the cows and what you think should be done. The formal name of document being prepared is the Lower Portneuf Grazing EA.
I took the photo below of a cow covered with houndstongue stickers on the Pocatello Grazing Allotment in the summer of 2009. The poor cow’s condition is not unusual, and of course their omnipresence keep the obnoxious weed spreading and spreading.
Houndstongue infested cow. Pocatello Grazing Allotment. Photo by Ralph Maughan. Public domain
Sonoran Desert Tortoise
The Sonoran desert tortoise is the next in a long line of imperiled species that the Obama administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has determined is “Warranted, but precluded” from the comprehensive federal protections of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Sonoran desert tortoise now an endangered species candidate – KVOA.com
“Much like the Saguaro cactus, the Sonoran desert tortoise is symbolic of the rich Southwestern desert,” said Steve Spangle, the Service’s Arizona field supervisor. “A collection of various conservation partners have made great strides to better understand and protect the Sonoran desert tortoise, but our comprehensive analysis shows an increasing magnitude of threats is offsetting some conservation efforts. This candidate conservation status should increase opportunities for reversing this trend.”
It will be interesting to see how the alternative “candidate conservation status” measures will bring much needed protections to the tortoise, particularly given the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s acknowledgement that those conservation measures deployed have already fallen short.
Tortoise Takes Place in Line For Federal Listing – News Release 12/13/10
In his finding, Secretary Salazar determined that the Sonoran desert tortoises may be threatened by all five factors the agency uses in deciding whether a species qualifies for Endangered Species Act protection: 1) habitat loss and destruction; 2) overutilization; 3) disease or predation; 4) inadequate legal protections; and 5) other factors. Under the Act, the tortoise needs only to qualify under one of these factors to warrant listing.
Spring Valley, NV ~ Katie Fite, WWP
Eagle Concerns Stymie Wind Farms – AP
The only project approved is the Spring Valley wind farm in Nevada where the nearest eagle nest was over four miles away. Gina Jones, BLM’s project leader, said the company agreed to extensive mitigation, such as putting “anti-perch” devices on transmission poles within two miles of the wind farm.
You may remember that we’ve considered Spring Valley, Nevada on this site. Having worked a little bit on the project, and considering the experts regard for the “extensive mitigation” measures that agency is accepting for these giant projects, it seems a bit disingenuous to suggest that BLM is doing a thorough job of genuinely considering the impacts. Here you have big Wind putting in a farm at the mouth of the largest bat roost in the Great Basin Ecosystem and smack-dab in a sub-basin between two ranges that serve as parallel corridors for eagles. Read the rest of this entry »
Having won a hard fought battle to intervene on the decision whether to allow the first megaloads of oil equipment up Highway 12 and over Lolo Pass, the full hearing last week pitted local residents and the Boise based law firm, Advocates for the West against ConocoPhillips oil.
Steve Bunk has a lengthy article about the hearing in New West. Dec. 10
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the hearing: “It . . . was confirmed during questioning that the Conoco employees at the hearing were being paid by the company to attend in lieu of going to work. Moreover, Conoco had hired lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and for Idaho and Montana, and was placing newspaper advertisements about the loads to counteract the public outcry and interviews [intervenor’s attorney Laird] Lucas had given.”
Few people seem to like the proposal to build a dam on the upper Green River above Warren Bridge. The state Water Development Commission voted 7-1 against it, but powerful interest groups are trying sidestep public opinion and push the unpopular prop0sal in the Wyoming state legislature.
Legislators to have next say on Green River dam. So far, project is not in bill to be considered by committee Dec. 15. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.
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Here is our earlier story on this proposed dam. Wyoming Water Development Commission against proposed Green River dam. November 11, 2010. Commission calls it “too expensive, unnecessary and bad for recreation and the environment”-
Western Fly Fishing Journal doesn’t like this dam. A Dam On The Green River?
A lot of folks thought the tremendous victory of The Wyoming Range Legacy Act signed by President Obama last year stopping new oil or gas leasing on 1.2 million acres in the Wyoming Range and Salt River Ranges put the drilling to rest, but no. 77,000 acres in the wildlife rich NW corner of the Wyoming Range had already been leased.
Because the government creates private property rights (out of public land) when it leases, to stop drilling an oil company has to give up or sell the leases. As a result a number of conservation interests are seeking to try a buy out.
Saving these mountain ranges from drilling has been an issue that generally unites conservationists of all types, including hunting groups. May this rare success continue!
Story: Groups consider drilling lease buyouts in Wyoming Range. By Mead Gruver. Associated Press.
The Center for Public Integrity has issued a stinging report on how the Obama Administration has bypassed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when issuing permits for energy and other projects which involve federal lands or funds. Over and over we have seen that projects are rushed through without any public oversight and in areas where they have severe environmental impacts. Wind farms on public lands without analysis of their impacts on bats, sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other wildlife; solar plants on public lands without sufficient analysis on endangered desert tortoise and other imperiled wildlife; power lines and other utilities permitted outside of established corridors without analysis of impacts on wildlife; offshore oil rigs in deep water without proper understanding of how to deal with catastrophic failures. All of these uses are being given a pass under NEPA.
Salazar = Extractive Industries' 'BFF'
What is the problem with this you might ask. Well, I’m sure you remember what happened in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. The Deepwater Horizon was permitted under a categorical exclusion.
In contrast livestock grazing permits are not even renewed under categorical exclusions, they require at least an Environmental Assessment that must undergo public review and can be appealed, in fact I do it all of the time.
These projects also only benefit those with existing power and money while projects, such as rooftop solar and energy efficiency improvements on existing structures which would benefit real people and not come at the expense of irreplaceable wildlife and land resources, are being forgone. It’s all about keeping the wealthy in control of our resources at the public expense.
What is next? Well in Nevada, the scourge of ranchers and water mining entities like the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ancient forests made up of old growth pinyon pine and junipers are being eyed by the energy companies as a source of biomass to fuel turbines. More on that later.
Big Polluters Freed from Environmental Oversight by Stimulus
The Center for Public Integrity
Lenticular clouds over Spring Valley, NV ~ Fall 2010 Katie Fite, WWP
Where NOT to hastily site an Industrial-scale Wind Energy Project
Just north of Great Basin National Park, east of Ely in Eastern Nevada, lies a public landscape called Spring Valley.
Spring Valley is a miraculous place, renowned for its magnificent skies and as critical habitat for sagebrush obligate species such as sage grouse and pygmy rabbit.
Unfortunately, like so many obscure public places around the west, the innumerable environmental values Spring Valley harbors are under threat, ironically by so-called “green energy” projects.
George Wuerthner nails it again, questioning the chief assumption that informs livestock-wolf conflict management.
Do ranchers have a right to predator free landscape? – George Wuethner, NewWest
One of the unquestioned and unspoken assumptions heard across the West is that ranchers have a right to a predator free environment. Even environmental groups like Defenders of Wildlife more or less legitimize this perspective by supporting unqualified compensation for livestock losses to bears and wolves.
Only when the answer to George’s question is “yes” do any of the management prescriptions currently taking place, including compensation, “control”/eradication via tax-payer appropriations to Wildlife Services (sic), and other absurd de facto subsidies make any sense at all ~ particularly *but not uniquely* on public lands that belong to all of us.
It was a wonderful thing when the Nature Conservancy purchased most of Henry’s Lake Flat in the 1970s to protect Henry’s Lake Outlet (stream), which is a major component of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River headwaters. This also protected much of the sometimes beautiful flat from what would probably be very obnoxious sub-divisions.
The Conservancy fenced off Henry’s Lake Outlet from cattle, and its banks have been restored. However, they could have removed the cattle from the the flat. As a result the dominant use of the flat is cattle, not wildlife. These compromises were made no doubt to please the Fremont County Commission. I’m not impressed with this “working ranch” stuff. When you drive by on the highway to West Yellowstone you can sometimes see deer and pronghorn . . . sandhill crane too, but overwhelmingly you see a flat full of cows.
The other day I stopped by and took a photo of this for Google Earth. Idaho “wildife” 😉 on Henry’s Lake Flat. View is to the east.
It’s good to see a little more protection for wildlife in the area has now been obtained. Here is the news release from the Nature Conservancy. Conservation Easement Protects Henry’s Lake Ranch
University of Calgary researchers provide answers to the mysterious deaths of bats and wind turbine facilities in southern Alberta, Canada.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Barotrauma – Wikipedia.org
Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between an air space inside or beside the body and the surrounding fluid.
Barotrauma typically occurs to air spaces within a body when that body moves to or from a higher pressure environment, such as when a SCUBA diver, a free-diving diver or an airplane passenger ascends or descends, or during uncontrolled decompression of a pressure vessel.
As everyone knows, very little prairie has been conserved or restored. This is an effort said to be the model for the 21st century. This might be true in the sense that it seems like the kind of thing that would appeal to some kinds of conservatives. Most what was done came during the Great Depression and was short grass prairie.
New wildlife refuge set in Flint Hills of Kansas. By Roxana Hegeman. The Associated Press. It will be named the Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area and a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System
There is a Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve of about 10,000 acres. It was established in 1996. This was the culmination of about 70 years of efforts to create a tallgrass prairie national park, monument, preserve, conservation area or whatever. Most of this national preserve is, oddly enough, the result of purchases by the Nature Conservancy and remains in their hands.
James Nedresky. Photographs of the Flint Hills.
Note: the hearing will be on Friday, Nov. 19 in Boise. The hearing will be at ITD Headquarters in Boise, 3311 W. State Street. (208) 334-8000
Advocates for the West won a brief victory Friday on behalf of local residents of Highway 12. These temporarily block the first 4 shipments (which go to Billings not Canada). They are for ConocoPhillips. Later ExxonMobil seeks to move over 200 giant shipments over the highway, which parallels the Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers, over Lolo Pass and through Montana to Alberta.
“Each of the Exxon loads would weigh 300 tons, stretch 227 feet long, reach 27 feet high and 29 feet in width – wide enough to take up both lanes of the highway. Trucks would move only at night and pull over in newly designed turnouts during the day.” Read more of this AP story by Todd Dvorak.
It has been discovered that oil companies plan to use scenic, narrow Highway 12 for at least a decade for hauling giant equipment, so this will be a continuing issue if big oil wins.
This proposal is so obnoxious I couldn’t believe it was real the first time I heard about it. This is a world class fishing river and the reservoir would cut off the famed pronghorn migration route from the Red Desert to Grand Teton National Park that so many have worked on to keep open.
Nov. 10. Commission against Green dam. State legislators will make final decision on $750,000 proposal in December. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.
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Recent background on this Nov. 4. Green River dam up for vote. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole Daily.
Part of the Green River that would be impounded. Copyright Ralph Maughan. 2010
The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are losing sage grouse fast. So fast, that the birds may disappear entirely from the Canadian landscape.
Industry blamed for bird’s demise – Sage grouse on path to extinction – Edmonton Journal
Unrestrained gas development in southern Alberta could drive the sage grouse to extinction in this province within two years, says a University of Alberta scientist.
Mark Boyce has studied sage grouse since 1977,first in Wyoming and for the last decade in Alberta. He might be lacking a study subject soon, though. It’s estimated only 90 birds remain in the province.
This is part of what makes Obama/Salazar appear tone deaf to what occurred during the Gulf Oil Spill and I think it played a big part in people’s loss of faith in his administration and big losses seen in the Congress by Democrats. Rather than using this as an opportunity to impose real regulation on big oil they downplayed what the real implications of the spill were and, some would say, actively covered up how much oil was leaked and how much damaged was caused.
Meanwhile BP claimed big quarterly profits.
And you wonder why voters are so cynical……
Coral, Marine-Life Devastation Near BP Oil Spill Indicates Much Worse Long-Term Damage Than Feds Had Admitted.
Associated Press
Update 11/10. I read this today. . . Ralph Maughan. Oil from the BP Disaster May Remain Thick on the Seafloor. Scientific American. The sea floor is covered with what is thought to be oil topped off with something they term “slime snot.” This is probably a layer of bacteria eating the oil. My thought is, disgusting, but maybe hopeful.
The drumbeat behind the “green energy” movement is beating louder for wind farms across the landscape, especially on public lands. At the rate that things are going there may be huge effects on bats and birds of many types. Oregon Field Guide has done a segment investigating the impacts on bats in particular and they are severe.
I fail to see how something that causes such negative impacts on wildlife could be called “green”.
Oregon Field Guide — Wind and Bats
Oregon Public Broadcasting.
It seems to me that this will not be a one time event because the passage of this huge equipment through north central Idaho and then Montana will be ongoing for many years.
Missoula demonstrators protest big rigs, fossil fuels at Exxon station. By Gwen Florio. Missoulian
Idaho’s Gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred, challenger to “Butch” Otter, recently drew a distinction between wildlife management on public versus private land, standing behind Idaho sportsmen on the bighorn sheep issue :
Candidate’s Comments Cause for Concern – Frank Priestley, Idaho Farm Bureau President
During the October 9th discussion between Allred and members of the Idaho Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council, the subject of bighorn sheep management came up. Following are Allred’s comments verbatim:
“My family a hundred years ago was driving sheep and cattle up to the Sawtooth Valley and running sheep. So I’d like to see a viable sheep industry. But we also have a long enough family history that we remember when there (were) much more substantial bighorn sheep populations in Idaho than there are now. So how do you manage those competing perspectives? Here’s one kind of distinction I would draw: On public lands, to me, wildlife populations have to take priority over individual private interests, really economic interests, and grazing. On private lands then private property owners need to take priority.”
(Emphasis added)
This recognition that wildlife management on public lands ought reflect all Idahoans’ interest, and ought preserve Idaho’s wildlife heritage is threatening to some.
To most, it’s just plain common sense.
UPDATE: Allred Licks the Boot 10/29/10 : Statement on Bighorn and Domestic Sheep – Keith Allred, Ag Weekly
From Keith Allred – I’m sorry to have inappropriately applied the distinction between public and private land to bighorn and domestic sheep questions in recent comments I made to the Sportsman’s Caucus. I’d like to clarify my points and suggest a solution.
[More…]
Island Park, Idaho boasts the longest main street in America. This simply means it is a small population, incorporated community hugging a federal highway for a long way through wildlife rich forest. A lot of folks on this blog are familiar with Island Park.
You don’t really appear to be in town in most of the drive. There’s just scattered sprawl amidst the trees, and few places of more development, e.g., “Last Chance.” The highway is straight and the speed limit high, and big animals pop out of the dense lodgepole pine onto this heavily travelled route.
I drove through just two weeks ago. I see a major pine cutting operation is currently underway to remove the new, thick pine growth back to about 100 yards from the highway.
A detailed study of the road kill is also going on, as this article describes. Roadkill Problem on America’s Longest Main Street Studied. Discovery News.
Oil Sands Effort Turns on a Fight Over a Road. By Tom Zelller. New York Times.
I wish the NYT had also exposed the sellout to the oil companies by the states’ politicians.
When the chestnut blight hit in the 1950s, there were probably 3 billion American chestnut trees in the United States. Now there are perhaps only about a hundred trees in its natural range. The demise of the chestnut was a blow to wildlife that ate their prolific and reliable nut crop. The current die off of whitebark pine from a blight and bark beetles is a more recent catastrope.
There is now good news for the return of the American chestnut, The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback. By Juliet Elperin. Washington Post. Of course, it will take a hundred years for a widespread restoration, one that will have big ecological benefits.
The American chestnut’s blight resistance was created by crossing it with the highly resistant Chinese chestnut in way that retained essentially all the details of the American chestnut. Perhaps a similar restoration can be done for the whitebark pine, although I suppose the preferred method might be direct genetic manipulation of survivors because of a lack of closely related pines.
I think we will need more and more genetic science to keep our ecosystems from unravelling in this rapidly changing world.
The EPA is considering lowering allowable particulate matter from 150 micrograms per cubic meter to the range of 65 to 85 micrograms. This would be a very good outcome for many reason ranging from health, soil erosion and snow melt runoff.
Recently a study implicated dust, primarily from western livestock grazing, as a big cause behind earlier and faster snow melt runoff in the Colorado Rockies which resulted in 5% less water in the Colorado River. Under current law there is little regulation on agricultural practices, especially livestock grazing, which could help mitigate this very real problem.
Of course the livestock industry is up in arms over the proposal and have gotten their lackey politicians involved.
“As usual, the EPA has failed to recognize the real-world impacts of their regulations,” [Mike] Simpson said in a press release.
Well, it looks like they are starting to recognize the impacts of their regulations. It now appears that they have seen the failure of their current regulations to protect long term public values over short term profits of the livestock industry. Let’s hope they make the change soon.
Proposed limits on dust irk farmers.
Capital Press agriculture news
“If we weren’t getting to them, they’d brush us off like a fly. After all, we’re just a little organization with 14 or 15 people, but they act like what we do is the end of the world.”
Dennis Higman does a profile on Jon for NewWest.
Fortunate for all of us who care about western public lands and wildlife, the degree to which ranchers and their politician lap-dogs whine about WWP is in direct proportion to the degree at which the organization is bringing much needed change and restoration to the western public landscape.
The Guy Idaho Ranchers Love to Hate – NewWest.net
There are two topics you don’t want to bring up with most Idaho ranchers: wolves and Jon Marvel, the white-haired, 63-year-old founder and executive director of the Western Watersheds Project.
Beavers
On June 26th, 2010, I inspected the South Fork of Mink Creek to document conditions of the Box Canyon road culvert that was being plugged by beaver. Like many roads throughout the west, the South Fork Road parallels the creek and so problems with the road-creek interface are, at best, managed. From its confluence with the West Fork of Mink Creek, the South Fork extends to its headwaters near the southern flank Scout Mountain in southwest Bannock County. In the spring of 2010, I had seen no less than 25 beaver dams as far as the headwaters. I was eager to see how the beaver were doing.
As I followed the South Fork upstream, I noticed that the dams I had seen the previous spring were failing, a sign that the beaver were no longer working in the area. As I rode towards the Box Canyon Crossing, I observed more and more abandoned dams and receding water levels. By the time I reached the end of the road, four out of five colonies were abandoned.
I continued riding through the canyon up to the gentle plateau that forms the upper South Fork drainage. It was here that I hoped to see again the massive beaver ponds and the expanded willow acreage that ten years earlier was little more than dead sticks surrounding a marginal trampled, eroded stream. Now, these colonies were also gone. What once was a stream with approximately 35 potential cutthroat rearing ponds is now a silty, slithering stream, losing velocity and flowing muddily towards the Portneuf River.
Clear the land of life for power generation that could be achieved by installing solar panels on rooftops where it is used. The bulldozers, fences, and powerlines are next.
The science shows that half of these endangered desert tortoises will die and an equal number of the tortoises that will be displaced but the moved tortoises will die as well. It’s all a charade under the guise of GREEN ENERGY that is being greenwashed by many of the big “conservation” groups.
Other alternatives were never examined because that would get in the way of the profits of those big power companies who will profit at the expense of the taxpayers and more importantly habitat and wildlife. There is a playa just across the freeway where Bob Abbey, the director of the BLM, likes to landsail. It was never considered as an alternative site.
The effort in San Bernardino County’s panoramic Ivanpah Valley, just north of Interstate 15 and about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, disrupted complex tortoise social networks and blood lines linked for centuries by dusty trails, shelters and hibernation burrows.
Biologists scour Mojave in desert tortoise roundup
Los Angeles Times
The Missoulian reports that a subsidiary of the national oil company of Korea now wants to use scenic U.S. Highway 12 through north central Idaho and over Lolo Pass to transport numerous giant oil (tar sands) equipment to Alberta.
Despite worthless assurances about this kind of activity being a one time thing, it’s plainly obvious that as predicted the oil companies mean to make the highway along this asphalt ribbon through the wilderness an equipment hauling route.
This will slowly ruin the lives to downstream residents who have to endure these highway blockages, disrupt traffic into Montana, harm the Lochsa, and Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, and make recreational and timber cutting access into the surrounding mountains slow and difficult by requiring long alternative routes.
Third oil company looks to bring big rigs over U.S. Highway 12. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian.
The Lochsa River. North Central Idaho. Copyright Ralph Maughan
While Highway 12 through Idaho is just a 2-line highway, its improvement over the years (a gravel road until the 1960s) has long disrupted the lives of people. In the past it was Montana. A number of abandoned Eastern Montana towns came to their end as transport of their grain changed from the railroads to trucks going in the opposite direction down Highway 12.
I remember when this interest group held enormous power, rivaling the livestock associations, although they were not rivals, of course.
Timber association will disband after 75 years. By Becky Kramer. Spokesman-Review.
Pygmy rabbit
The declining condition of the Sagebrush Sea has been highlighted on a couple of occasions over the past couple of weeks. In recent Washington state news we learned that jackrabbits in sagebrush habitats are diminishing. Pygmy rabbits were rejected ESA protections by the Obama administration last week, and earlier last year Dr. Steven Herman remorsefully described his account of the extinction of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit:
Science is seldom followed in these endangered species “interventions”. Politics trumps science -and conservation.
We need to remember the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit as an example of a form lost in part to the the insanity of Public Grazing.
Significant threats to sagebrush habitat across the western landscape continue to threaten and diminish a variety of sagebrush obligate species.
Sagebrush habitat is among the most imperiled ecosystems in North America and the rate at which our unique western wildlife and fish communities are declining is truly alarming.
Attempting to bring the most relief in the least amount of time, environmentalists continue to push for Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for a number of umbrella species endemic to sagebrush habitats, including the grand-master of the Sagebrush Sea: the Greater Sage grouse.
Prioritizing these “umbrella” species is important, because when successfully listed, the protections secured these species will blanket entire ecosystems positively affecting the diversity of fish, wildlife, and environmental values which share the explicitly protected individuals’ habitat. It’s like hitting a plethora of birds with one stone (bad analogy).
Ken Cole (age 11) holds pygmy rabbit
So it is with the charismatic, imperiled pygmy rabbit, North America’s tinniest bunny, and the only arboreal rabbit (climbs sagebrush) on Earth !
In 2003, a coalition of conservation groups petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list pygmy rabbits under the ESA.
In early 2008, the USFWS, responding to legal pressure from conservation groups, finally issued a positive 90-day finding for pygmy rabbits, initiating a more thorough assessment of whether to protect the bunny under the ESA.
The agency dragged its feet again, prompting Western Watersheds Project et al to provide a legal reminder, again, of its court ordered obligation to the bunny …
“We find there has been some loss and degradation of pygmy rabbit habitat range-wide, but not to the magnitude that constitutes a significant threat to the species,” Bob Williams, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, said in a statement.
Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
California Director
Western Watersheds Project
Ancient Mojave yuccas on the Ivanpah power plant site. (2009) © Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
Secretary of the Interior Salazar is about to initial a series of major giveaways of public lands in California to industrial-scale solar power producers. These “fast-tracked” power plant projects have had truncated environmental reviews in the current administration’s rush to place huge chunks of public land in the hands of developers to build on them at public expense.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant project is a prime example. The project’s proponent, BrightSource Energy, will build an experimental “power tower” solar power plant on over five and a half square miles of high quality desert tortoise habitat in California’s Ivanpah Valley. The 1.7 billion dollar project will be primed with $1.3 billion in public “economic stimulus” funds provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
The project is the first of a number of power plants proposed for public lands in the Ivanpah Valley. A photovoltaic plant is planned right next door to the Ivanpah power plant. Just down the valley over the Nevada border is the proposed Silver State power plant. These and other projects will block off the Ivanpah Valley, turn the North Ivanpah Valley into an industrial zone, and will have major consequences for rare and endangered wildlife. Although the ESA-listed desert tortoise population is declining, the Ivanpah power plant will split the North Ivanpah Valley, eliminate desert tortoise habitat, require that resident tortoises be relocated placing them and any resident tortoises at the relocation site in danger, and will severely compromise connectivity and gene flow between important desert tortoise populations. It will also impact foraging for bighorn sheep and other wildlife, a number of rare plants, and an assemblage of barrel cactus unrivaled elsewhere in the Golden State. Native Americans cultural remains including unusual stone structures will be stranded in a sea of mirrors. The agencies don’t know what these structures are, so how can they be important? No matter that the local Chemehuevi Indians don’t share that view.
Every once in awhile you come across a Letter to the Editor that just really hits it out of the park:
Wolves: Only lazy ranchers blame predator – Missoulian LTE
Cameras show wildlife use Highway 93 North overpass and tunnel. By Vince Devlin. Missoulian
Not the first time we have posted a story on these tunnels, but their use keeps growing.
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
The ongoing assault on the Sagebrush Sea claims another victim: Jackrabbits
Another animal most commonly considered a pest and valued by the western Cowboy “Custom & Culture” for little more than target-practice, jackrabbits, are disappearing from the landscape:
Jack Rabbit Populations Are Under Study In Washington State – OPB News
Larson says both black-tail and white-tail jack rabbits are now candidates for listing as threatened or endangered in Washington.
Audio via OPB News
Big Fuel Spill from Rig on U.S. 12. By George Prentice. Boise Weekly.
Tanker crashes and spills fuel along US Highway 12. Associated Press
Will this possible disaster (the oil hasn’t yet run into the river) influence the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision whether to overturn the injunction by 2nd District Judge John Bradbury to halt the oversized loads of massive tar sands equipment bound for Alberta?
This idea has been around for a while but it could have profound impacts that aren’t well understood. I find these kinds of stories fascinating and I think they relate to the discussions we have here.
Questions that aren’t addressed here are what effect would this have on climate? Yes, it could obviate the need for new sources of power but what about the effects of the beam itself? What about transmission lines and who would control it once it gets here? No doubt it would be controlled by some megacorporation if past history is any guide.
Other practical questions are how do you protect such a large object from space debris? What would such an object do to the night sky?
Solar Or Wind Power? Why Not Both?
Discovery News
Grizzly feeding on elk © Ken Cole
Doug Peacock continues to enrich the debate over grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem :
Global Warming, Killer Bears? Doug Peacock, Counterpunch
Biologists sometimes like to quibble that losing the grizzly because of the collapse of whitebark pine forests may be the least of our ecological worries. Ecosystems are, of course, founded on the backs of bugs and bacteria not bears. But there is another argument, less scientific, for keeping a few grizzlies around: the American grizzly bear, especially the isolated population marooned on the island of Yellowstone Park, stands alone in defiance of human arrogance. It is the single North American animal who challenges our dominion, reminds us that we are not top dog in the wilderness or within the food pyramid.
One of the main criticisms I’ve heard is that the story fails to mention studies indicating measurable changes in willow growth. Willows, a riparian species, have really made a comeback in many areas where wolves are present and have increased the habitat for birds, beavers and fish.
Elk, aspen & wolves: a complicated food triangle.
BRETT FRENCH – Billings Gazette
An interesting study has been released by the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies which explains that spring runoff from the Colorado Rockies has been compressed into a shorter period of time due to high levels of dust found on the mountain’s snowbanks.
“Runoff comes from the mountains in a more compressed period, which makes water management more difficult than if the water came more slowly out of the mountains.”
Evaporation and sublimation of the warmer snow itself–then transpiration from the earlier-exposed vegetation–results in water losses to the atmosphere, losses that then don’t go into runoff.
According to the study, the dust loading is five times greater than normal due to human activities such as livestock grazing, activities associated to livestock grazing such as vegetation treatments like these pictured in Nevada, and other disturbances.
After the Mower/Chopper Cave Valley, Nevada © Ken Cole
The US Forest Service and the National Park Service are violating the law by not allowing bison the use of public lands. The grazing allotments provide the excuse the Montana Department of Livestock wants for their annual abuse of buffalo inside and outside of Yellowstone National Park.
Keep in mind, this issue has nothing to do with brucellosis, it is about political control of western lands and wildlife and about who gets to use the grass. It has always been about the noble landed elite showing the rest of us who is boss.
In the winter and spring of 2007-2008, the National Park Service “oversaw and carried out the slaughter of approximately 1,434 bison from (Yellowstone National Park), which represented approximately one third of the existing population of wild bison in the (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem),” the group wrote in their complaint. “Such management, and ongoing commitment of NPS resources, severely restricts wild bison migrations, impacts their natural behaviors, maintains bison populations at artificially low numbers and negatively influences the evolutionary potential of bison as a wildlife species in the ecosystem.”
Hearing over hazing set for Tuesday.
Eve Byron – Helena Independent Record
The tar sand pits have been called the world’s greatest on-going environmental disaster. Many are fingering the pits as the cause of hideously deformed fish showing up downstream.
Mutant fish lead to calls for Ottawa to monitor oil sands. Bob Weber. Edmonton — The Canadian Press. “The fish are hard to look at.”
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New blog. Dirty Oil Sands
DeFazio says tar sands over-sized shipments cost all American taxpayers. By Rocky Barker. Letters from the West. Idaho Statesman.
Any comments about this will be welcome. The story says the burn could last as few as 6 days but as long as 6 weeks. So what about folks who live nearby?
Prescribed burn set for Lower Slide Lake area. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., Jackson Hole News and Guide.
This well was in production, unlike the Deepwater Horizon, BP disaster. It tells me that major oil pollution might have become a permanent feature of the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil sheen spreading from Gulf platform explosion. By Alan Levin and Julie Schmit, USA Today
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Added Sept. 3. There was an interesting article in the NYT today on this. Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium. By John Collins Rudolf. From Green, NYT’s blog about energy and the environment.
The rig was owned by Mariner Energy and it is interesting that some of their executives were busy in Houston protesting against the moratorium on new deepwater drilling. The moratorium lasts until the end of November. It also seems these folks would rather engage in political protest rather than clean up their act. Certainly a bad omen for the future.
Guess what. There’s shit in the air and water around these facilities and people are getting sick.
“High nitrate levels in water can cause brain damage in infants and has been associated with reproductive problems and cancer, according to researchers”
But you don’t get to know the details because:
“The Idaho Legislature labeled stats on cow shit “proprietary information,” exempt from public disclosure.”
If you want to know more and be active in stopping the shit, check out Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment (I.C.A.R.E.)
Cow Country: The Rise of the CAFO in Idaho | As mega-dairies and feedlots make up more of Idaho’s dairy industry, the conflicts between people and cattle are increasing.
by Scott Weaver Boise Weekly
Despite these “minor” delays, this is a bit of very good news.
Contract to remove Elwha dams goes to Montana firm. By Lynda V. Mapes. Seattle Times staff reporter
Domestic sheep spread deadly disease to wild bighorn sheep
It’s been a bad year for bighorn sheep in Montana.
Spread of Bighorn Sheep Pneumonia Continues – New West
While we see an increasing amount of media attention that bighorns are dying of disease, unfortunately, with this article, there is a familiar omission of context regarding a likely source of disease for bighorns in general; namely, domestic sheep.
This is worth pointing out over and over again, as it has significant policy implications.
Earlier, Ken Cole put together a comprehensive illustration of a WAFWA report that summarizes bighorn outbreaks this past year. It’s worth looking at.
Well, at least a delay on the oil company monopolization of U.S. Highway 12 across north central Idaho. The suit was brought by aggrieved local residents such as Peter Grubb, a guide and lodge owner on Highway 12. Advocates for the West represented the plaintiffs.
IDOT was clearly violating its own regulations in issuing these permits to the oil companies, probably under intense pressure from Governor Otter who thinks this is the route to economic improvement in the state’s pathetic economy.
Idaho judge halts wide loads on Highway 12. By Todd Dvorak. Bloomberg/Business Week
The Columbus method of grazing, where cattle are put out for months on end and then “discovered” at the end of the grazing season, gets a spank.
You can read the decision from April here.
Rancher loses grazing appeal.
Written by Dee Holzel – Silver Pinyon Journal
Kinda’ puts the whole “Canadian wolves are a threat to our ‘livelihood'” argument into perspective:
30 cows die in S. Idaho after eating larkspur – Idaho Statesman via Associated Press
Perhaps they will spend millions of tax-payer’s dollars to commission a federal agency to crop-dust our public lands with herbicide such that this “threat” to the Livestock custom and culture can be eradicated.
Landscape covered in threatening, monstrous larkspur (of the deep, dark night) Photograph © Katie Fite 2008
'Larkspur Rebellion'
Elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, upland game birds, small nongame birds, and small mammals all eat Low larkspur. However, for reasons not entirely known, its alkaloid methyllycaconitine can cause motor paralysis in cattle (and humans) – leading to death from asphyxiation. Much effort has been spent trying to breed the vulnerability out of cattle – or at least get them to stop eating it. (Sourced Info via Idaho Native Plant Society)
Visit AGRO’s ‘Cattle Losses’ page to learn the proportion of cattle killed by predators versus the number killed by respiratory, digestive, poison, and other problems.
Western Watersheds Project wins a great legal victory for wilderness and endangered fish.~ Jon Marvel On July 30th, 2010 Idaho Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued an Order in Western Watersheds Project‘s favor overturning a Bureau of Land Management decision to build fencing within the Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area (WSA) on the Burnt Creek Allotment in central Idaho’s Pahsimeroi River Watershed. Read the rest of this entry » |
Growing of marijuana in the woods on both public and private land keeps expanding and using more and more nasty chemicals and violence — a menace to wildlife, hikers, campers, and hunters. This election year might be the year to put an end to the enormously costly, politically corrupting, polluting, and ineffective “war” against this not very harmful drug.
‘Just Say Now’: Left-Right Coalition Launches Campaign To Legalize Pot. Huffington Post. By Ryan Grim.
I should add that for the huge number of people who are concerned about U.S./Mexico border problems, ending the war on drugs will do as much as any fence to stop the violence.
Lolo National Forest rescinds power line burial decision for big rig route. By Kim Briggeman. Missoulian
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Grousing at windmills | Need to Know | PBS
(opinion) Put the brakes on massive trucks on the U.S. 12 corridor in N. Idaho. Pete Zimowsky. Idaho Statesman. Link fixed
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My view.
Butch Otter thinks this is the way to perk up Idaho’s feeble economy. Is closing down Highway 12 the way to do it?
Am I going to visit the Selway, Lochsa, or Lolo this year? Not to spend a day stuck behind oil equipment moving at 5 mph.
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More on July 26. Idaho, Montana Groups Challenge Oil Equipment Transport. By Associated Press.
Livestock–the elephant in the room when it comes to weeds. By George Wuerthner. New West.
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My comments:
Weeds are of great harm to ungulates.
Rangeland cattle in particular are culprits. They cause bare patches of soil where weeds get started. They trample the seeds in. They move them to new places in their cow flops. I took this photo last year and posted it here. I think it makes the point.
The Buffalo Gap National Grassland of South Dakota doesn’t have buffalo any more but it certainly has a handful of ranchers with a strong sense of entitlement. They are worrying that wilderness designation will “steal” control that they seem to believe they should have over these publicly owned lands. Amazingly, the new wilderness designation leaves their control in place and allows them to continue grazing.
In the article ranchers bring up the tired old argument that Easterners are telling them what to do with “their” land but it’s not their land and the idea to designate it as wilderness, as the article points out, came from people who live there too.
“These outsiders from New York and New Jersey are telling us what to do, all these special interests,” Hermosa rancher Denise Baker said. “They’ll get the designation, pat themselves on the back and leave. And us? We’re stuck with it.”
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