In the Rockies today, wolves in Montana, a desire for wolves in a Colorado national park, and more troubling numbers from the Nevada housing market.
The seven members of Montana's Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board met for the first time last week to draft administrative rules on compensating livestock owners for wolf predation losses.
The seven member board has five members with livestock interests and two representing wildlife concerns, and will take over a program funded by the Defenders of Wildlife for the past two decades.
In Colorado, a conservation group says it will sue to make the National Park Service reconsider its decision to use sharpshooters rather than wolves to reduce the number of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park.
And in Nevada, a new report said foreclosures in Las Vegas outnumbered new and existing home sales in January.
Rockies today
Montana wolf-compensation board holds first meeting
Defenders of Wildlife and the Bailey Wildlife Foundation Wolf Compensation Trust provided $100,000 in seed money for the Montana Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board whose seven members will determine compensation payments for ranchers who lose livestock to wolves.
Missoulian; Feb. 19
Group says they'll sue NPS over decision to cull elk herd in Colo. park
WildEarth Guardians officials said the National Park Service didn't give the option of using wolves to keep the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park under control sufficient consideration, and said they would sue the federal agency over its decision to use sharpshooters to cull 200 elk a year in the Colorado park.
Denver Rocky Mountain News; Feb. 19
Foreclosures in Nevada city surpassed sales in January
Sales of new and existing homes usually surpass foreclosures by a large margin, but in January, foreclosures in Las Vegas outnumbered sales.
Las Vegas Sun; Feb. 19
Los Alamos scientists' process removes CO2 from air, makes fuel
F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said the process by which they can remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into fuel uses technology already in existence, but it takes a tremendous amount of power, and that nuclear power would be the best, most cost-effective way to power the technology.
New York Times; Feb. 19
Out-of-state companies woo Colorado's laid-off aircraft workers
Over just three months, Colorado's much-touted aircraft-development industry has nearly disappeared, but the hundreds of workers that lost their jobs when Centennial-based Adam Aircraft shut its doors have plenty of job opportunities in other states.
Denver Post; Feb. 19
Weyerhauser shuts down B.C. sawmill, sells timber interests
Weyerhauser Co. announced it would close its Kamloops sawmill, idling near 200 workers, and sold its three related timber tenures to West Fraser Timber, which announced it was selling one of those tenures to Interfor, a deal that significantly changes the face of British Columbia's interior forest industry.
Vancouver Sun; Feb. 19
Group: USFS's plan to log Wyoming forest won't stop beetles
The U.S. Forest Service proposal to log a portion of the Medicine Bow National Forest to address an infestation of pine bark beetles is overkill, according to the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.
Casper Star-Tribune; Feb. 19
Opinion
Letter to the editor:
Montana has a lot at stake in B.C. mining plan
A license to conduct exploratory coalbed methane operations in British Columbia is tantamount to full-fledged development, and allowing such work on the outskirts of the Waterton-Glacier Peace Park underscores the Canadian province's lack of governance of the industry.
Dave Hadden, Flathead Coalition; Feb. 19
Colorado governor takes right approach on health-care coverage
Gov. Bill Ritter has always been clear about how he feels about the lack of health-care coverage in Colorado, and his efforts to extend coverage to those who need it most while not losing sight of his long-term goal to provide coverage to all Coloradans is commendable and pragmatic given fiscal constraints.
Durango Herald; Feb. 18
Congress should invest more funds in Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park isn't alone in its dire need for more funding to repair buildings and trails and upgrade infrastructure, but if Congress took another look at the financial arrangements it has with concessionaires in the Arizona and other national parks, perhaps more funding could be found to address these woes.
Arizona Republic; Feb. 19
Beyond the region
UCLA scientists develop process to trap CO2 emissions
UCLA scientists have developed zeolitic imidazolate frameworks--grids of metal atoms and organic molecules--that trap carbon dioxide emissions, but the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that lining the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants with the absorbent crystals would at least double the cost of generating electricity.
Los Angeles Times; Feb. 19
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