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Hotter, drier times ahead: The Clark Fork Coalition crunches the data to bring the impact of global climate change home to Montana's Clark Fork River basin.
July 24, 2008
- Group details how climate change affects Montana river basin
A new report issued by the Clark Fork Coalition provides details on how climate change is affecting Montana's Clark Fork River basin.
Missoulian; 07/21/2008
- Groups warn warmer Wyoming waters will hit fish hard
A report issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Trout Unlimited said that water temperatures in Wyoming's trout fisheries have already increased by 2 degrees, and if they continue to increase, fishing opportunities could be halved in the state over the next 90 or so years.
Jackson Hole Daily; 07/24/2008
- Report details climate change's melting effects on Colorado resorts
A report issued Wednesday by the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland said that, by 2085, Colorado's snow season could be 30 days shorter and that the state's snowline will be 328 feet higher, to 1,312 feet, putting the state's ski industry and its attendant real estate market at risk.
Vail Daily News; 07/25/2008
- Report: Climate change poses serious threat to Nevada's water supply
A report released this week by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Center for Integrative Environmental Research said that climate change could cause a profound drought in Nevada which will have a serious effect on the state's water supplies, affecting growth and tourism which will impact state revenue.
Reno Gazette-Journal; 07/25/2008
- Western states launch regional cap-and-trade emissions plan
The Western Climate Initiative rolled out Wednesday by seven western states and four Canadian provinces proposes to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the region by 2020 to a level that is 15 percent lower than in 2005.
Christian Science Monitor; 07/25/2008
Fact & Fiction and the Bookstore at the University of Montana offer a review of Deborah Richie Oberbillig's Bird Feats of Montana
July 11, 2008
BLM public meetings on geothermal energy development:
July 28: Seattle, Wash.; Seattle Public Library, University Branch, 5009 Roosevelt Way, N.E.
July 29: Portland, Ore.; Multnomah County Library, Central Branch, 801 SW 10th Avenue
Sept. 8-11: The U.S. Geological Survey's Third Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds, Estes Park, Colo. Read a preview.
Interior Dept.'s proposed rules on oil-shale includes lower royalties
Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said establishing lower royalty rates would make extraction of oil from rocky deposits in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado more attractive to energy companies and spur investment and research into commercially viable ways to get the oil out.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); 07/23/2008
- Oil-shale proposal elicits bipartisan skepticism
Even stalwart Republicans were skeptical that the Interior Department's proposal to ramp up oil-shale development by lowering royalties would do much to address the high cost of fuel, given that such development will take massive amounts of water which simply might not exist, and U.S. refineries are currently not set up to process the kerogen from the oil shale. Another look.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/23/2008
Montana governor says Wyoming feedgrounds breed brucellosis
In a July 18 letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer criticized the U.S. Forest Service's decision to renew Wyoming's permits for five elk feedgrounds, a decision Schweitzer said ignores the feedgrounds' role in the transmission of brucellosis.
Jackson Hole Daily; 07/25/2008
- Federal report says DNA links Montana brucellosis to elk
A report issued Thursday by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa said the strain of brucellosis found in a cow in Montana was similar to strains found in bison and elk, but according to Montana officials, the cow had no contact with bison leaving elk as the culprit.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); 07/25/2008
- Montana again raises split-state brucellosis proposal
At a meeting Tuesday, the Montana Board of Livestock revived a proposal to divide Montana into two regions as one potential solution for dealing with brucellosis outbreaks.
Helena Independent Record (AP); 07/23/2008
West's 'megapolitan' areas and future challenges detailed in report
The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution's latest report details the challenges facing the Intermountain West's fastest-growing megapolitan areas: Colorado's Front Range; Utah's Wasatch Front linking Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo; Arizona's Sun Corridor linking Tucson, Phoenix and Prescott; Greater Las Vegas; and Northern New Mexico linking Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties.
Denver Post; 07/21/2008
RealtyTrac: 1 in every 171 U.S. households in some stage of foreclosure
According to a report issued today by the California company that tracks the nation's mortgage market, the number of foreclosure filings during the second quarter of this year is double that reported in the same quarter in 2007, and that Nevada led the nation in foreclosures this quarter, with 1 in every 43 households receiving a foreclosure filing.
Denver Post; 07/25/2008
Report pegs cost of Colorado-Wyoming commuter rail at $1M per mile
Bob Briggs of the Colorado-based nonprofit group Front Range Commuter Rail said he was encouraged by a Wyoming report that said it would cost between $1 million and $1.5 million per mile to upgrade existing railroad tracks between Casper, Wyo., and Fort Collins, Colo., to support passenger rail service, as Briggs said he thought it would cost more than that.
Casper Star-Tribune; 07/25/2008
N.M. state engineer appeals court ruling on domestic water wells
The appeal filed by the Office of State Engineer will put a New Mexico District Court ruling that would have rewrote the rules for drilling home water wells in the state. You may have to view an ad to read this article.
Albuquerque Journal; 07/25/2008
Utah university fires up nuclear-engineering program
The University of Utah's nuclear-engineering program was one of 29 around the nation to survive after Three Mile Island, the Pennsylvania nuclear-power plant where a reactor had a partial core meltdown in 1979, and now that nuclear energy is again on the table, the Utah university is ramping up its program.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/22/2008
Idaho laboratory gets mission to find way to reuse spent nuclear fuel
Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois will team up on the Department of Energy's "Deep Burn" project, a $7.3 million study designed to develop a process to capture energy while destroying plutonium and other materials from spent nuclear fuel.
Associated Press (Idaho Falls Post-Register); 07/25/2008
GAO audit finds millions of dollars of equipment missing at IHS
A Government Accountability Office audit of the Indian Health Service found $15.8 million worth of equipment unaccounted for, including a desktop computer stolen from an IHS hospital in New Mexico that contained sensitive personal information about 829 uranium miners.
Farmington Daily-Times; 07/22/2008
Federal appeals court upholds Montana hunting rule on reservations
Under Montana law, non-Indians cannot hunt for big game on the state's seven Indian reservations, even if they are on their own private late located within the reservations' boundaries, and last week a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state's law was legal.
Billings Gazette (AP); 07/23/2008
Nez Perce, 11 other tribes seek class-action certification in trust fund case
The Nez Perce Tribe is the lead plaintiff in litigation filed by the Idaho tribe and 11 others against the Interior Department seeking a complete accounting of funds held in trust for them over the past 188 years, and today those plaintiffs will ask the court to grant class-action certification for all 250 tribes whose funds are managed by the federal government.
Casper Star-Tribune; 07/24/2008
Montana senators sponsor legislation to combat crime on reservations
Montana's U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester are among the bipartisan group of senators that introduced legislation designed to improve public safety and combat crime on the nation's 400 Indian reservations.
Great Falls Tribune; 07/24/2008
Federal judge puts wolves in 3 western states back on endangered list
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy granted on Friday a request for a preliminary injunction and restored endangered species protections to wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Missoulian; 07/19/2008
Utah high court rules public entitled to streambed access
The Utah Supreme Court issued a decision Friday that said stream- and riverbeds are open to the public, no matter whose private lands they flow through, and while anglers and rafters applauded the decision, some landowners were less than enthusiastic.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/21/2008
Wildfires consume ever-larger chunk of federal agencies' time, money
Wildfires in the West have become larger, more intense and much more costly to fight, and as more dollars are diverted to dousing the flames, federal agencies' money and manpower are funneled away from recreational, fuel reduction and timber sales projects. Another in a series.
Idaho Statesman; 07/23/2008
Groups say Colorado's roadless plan will open 300K acres to development
A coalition of sportsmen and conservation groups are urging Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter not to sign off on the state's proposal for the 1.4 million acres of federal roadless forest lands in the state.
Denver Post; 07/23/2008
Nature Conservancy Canada buys German duke's B.C. refuge
The 550-square-mile estate of the Duke of Wuerttemberg, purchased by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, is one of the most biodiverse areas in the country, containing stands of old-growth forests, subalpine meadows, the shoreline of Kootenay Lake and a thriving herd of mountain caribou.
Vancouver Sun; 07/25/2008
Judge sets limits on grazing, hay production on CRP lands
A federal judge ruled Thursday that farmers and ranchers who received approval by July 8 to participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Critical Feed Program," or have spent $4,500 or more on the expectation they would be able to either graze cattle or hay lands set aside in the federal Conservation Reserve Program, will be able to go forward with their plans for the set-aside lands.
Seattle Times; 07/25/2008
BLM: Nitrate poisoning killed Nevada wild horses
A former worker at the Tonopah Test Range disputed a long-awaited study from the Desert Research Institute that Bureau of Land Management officials said linked the deaths of 71 wild horses in 2007 near the Nevada airfield to naturally occurring nitrate which poisoned the horses, rather than to de-icer used on planes and runways.
Las Vegas Review-Journal; 07/22/2008
BLM tests dust-control method in petroglyph-rich Utah canyon
After concerns that use of magnesium chloride to suppress dust kicked up by drilling rigs in Utah's Nine-Mile Canyon could be harming the ancient petroglyphs on canyon walls were raised, the Bureau of Land Management is testing Pennzsuppress D, which contains materials similar to pine resin and soap.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/24/2008
Montana grizzly gets a new home in the Cabinet Mountains
A young female grizzly bear captured in Montana's Whitefish Range will be transported and released in the Cabinet Mountains in the state's effort to bolster grizzly bear populations in that area of Montana.
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake; 07/24/2008
Time is ripe for Congress to pass wilderness bills
President Bush has indicated that he'll sign any wilderness bills that reach his desk in the waning months of his term, and since there are currently a dozen or so bills in the hopper in Congress that would designate two million acres of land as wilderness, it appears the time for federal lawmakers to act is now.
New York Times; 07/21/2008
It's Wyoming's fault that wolves are back on endangered list
If anyone is looking for someone to blame for last week's federal court decision to return wolves to the endangered species list, Idahoans need only look across the border to its neighbor Wyoming and its faulty management plan.
Idaho Statesman; 07/22/2008
Utah high court should have set limits on streambed access
The Utah Supreme Court's decision that said the public is entitled to use the state's streambeds, provided they access the waterways from public property, should have gone a step further and defined just how far that access could go, using perhaps the standard other states use: the high water mark of the river or stream.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/23/2008
Interior Dept.'s oil-shale royalty plan OK, but should wait on leases
There is still too much uncertainty about the technology and effect oil-shale development will have on the land and water quality in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming for the Interior Department to move forward on leasing lands for such development, but a proposed royalty plan will give interested companies a starting point on figuring out the economic side.
Grand Junction Sentinel; 07/24/2008
U.S., Idaho need agencies to direct where energy projects are built
The nation's political and business sectors appear to be willing to allow energy projects to crop up wherever and whenever the market seems to support them, and in Idaho that means wherever an approving county commission can be found, but energy projects have long-term and profound effects and the nation and Idaho need specific, expert bodies to make siting decisions.
Idaho Mountain Express (Sun Valley); 07/25/2008
White House weighed in on Wyoming, NPS Sylvan Pass fight
According to officials familiar with the dispute between the National Park Service and the state of Wyoming over keeping Sylvan Pass open in the winter, the White House intervened to keep the pass open.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); 07/25/2008
McCain takes presidential campaign home to Arizona
Presidential candidates generally can count on the support of voters in their home states, with Al Gore's loss in 2000 in Tennessee an exception, but changing demographics in Arizona, where the number of independent voters and those registering as Democrats have increased dramatically, Republican Sen. John McCain is spending more campaigning in his home state.
New York Times; 07/24/2008
Colorado senator's bill expands compensation for Rocky Flats workers
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar criticized the Department of Labor's management of programs designed to compensate workers who have fallen ill from being exposed to radioactive materials on the job, and said he was submitting legislation that would provide coverage to more such workers, including those who worked at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado.
Denver Post; 07/24/2008
Polygamy focus of U.S. Senate panel hearing today
At the request of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and a Mormon convert, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing today to review efforts to crack down on crimes associated with polygamy.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/25/2008
NCSL: Nevada's economic problems among nation's worst
An assessment of states' revenues done by the National Conference of State Legislatures said Nevada had the third-worst drop in revenues in the nation, with only Florida and Oregon reporting larger decreases, and a Nevada economist said the state's housing slump and fast-rising energy costs were to blame for the poor economic showing.
Reno Gazette-Journal; 07/25/2008
Report details dismal state of Canada's forestry sector
A report released Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers that examined the world's 100 largest forest, paper and fiber-based packaging companies in the world said that losses among Canada's 13 largest lumber companies, six of which are located in British Columbia, increased 560 percent between 2006 and 2007.
Vancouver Sun; 07/24/2008
Reports: Crandall Canyon mine in Utah designed to fail
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, where six miners and three rescuers died last August, found that the mine was poorly engineered and that federal inspectors repeatedly failed to catch its flaws, and a Department of Labor report criticized the MSHA's role in the disaster for its failure to catch the mine's structural problems.
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/25/2008
Alberta oilsands companies' profits total $5 billion in 2nd quarter
EnCana Corp., Petro-Canada, Husky Energy Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. profits for the second quarter of this year totaled $5 billion, and analysts said the oil companies must now figure out how to spend that money.
Toronto Globe and Mail; 07/25/2008
B.C. company buys Idaho's Sunshine Mine
Vancouver, B.C.-based Minco Silver Corp.'s offer to buy the Sunshine Mine in Idaho, one of the nation's richest silver mines, must still be approved by shareholders, but is expected to close in December.
Twin Falls Times-News (AP); 07/24/2008
N.M., Air Force, cities team up on push for renewable energy
New Mexico, the U.S. Air Force and three cities in the state have signed memoranda of understanding to create renewable energy projects in the state which could supply electricity to the Air Force's three military bases.
Santa Fe New Mexican (AP); 07/24/2008
Sockeye salmon numbers in Columbia River highest since 1955
The number of sockeye salmon swimming upstream in the Columbia River is the highest since the last major dam was built on the river, and no one seems to be able to explain just why.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); 07/25/2008
USGS: Arctic may contain 90 billion barrels of oil
The U.S. Geological Survey spent four years surveying the Arctic's energy potential, and its report issued Wednesday said that there may be as much as 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves, and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
New York Times; 07/24/2008
Texas asks EPA to waive ethanol mandate
The governor of Texas wants the federal Environmental Protection Agency to grant his state an emergency waiver cutting the 9 billion gallons of ethanol required this year to be blended with gasoline to 4.5 billion gallons and to keep the mandate at that level for 2009.
New York Times; 07/23/2008
Energy giants join the quest to turn waste into fuel
The concept of turning wood chips, forage or even garbage into fuel for vehicles is not new, scientists have known it was possible for decades, but now that fuel prices have surpassed $4-a-gallon, the processes make more sense economically, and Honeywell, Dupont, General Motors, Shell and BP are wading into the effort to wring fuel out of biomass. Another in a series.
New York Times; 07/24/2008
Washington state Farm Bureau drafts guest-worker plan
Washington state farmers and producers said the national H2A guest worker program is expensive, difficult to navigate and fails to supply them with a reliable source of workers, and the state Farm Bureau has prepared a proposal for a guest-worker pilot program it hopes the state legislature will endorse next year.
Tri-City Herald; 07/25/2008
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