In the Rockies today, the U.S. Forest Service may get a new home.
The Washington Post reports that a House subcommittee asked the Government Accountability Office to see if moving the Forest Service over to the Department of Interior makes sense.
The agency is now contained within the Department of Agriculture, but some federal lawmakers said that now that the agency is less focused on managing lands for timber harvest and more focused on preservation of natural resources, the Department of Interior may be a better home.
The Interior Department already oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, bureaucratic cousins of the Forest Service.
The proposal has been considered before: in 1983, a commission appointed by President Ronald Reagan recommended combining the BLM and the USFS, and in 1991, a California congressman proposed combining the Interior, Agriculture and Energy departments into a new federal Department of Natural Resources.
Rockies today
GAO studies moving USFS to Dept. of Interior
The U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies has asked the Government Accountability Office to examine moving the U.S. Forest Service, which is now part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to the Department of Interior, where it would reside with National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Washington Post; March 25
Friday's the day Wyoming, Idaho and Montana take the reins on wolves
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will officially take wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana off the federal endangered species list on Friday, and those states are ready to take over management of wolves.
Idaho Statesman; March 25
BLM estimates Wyoming drilling plan will exceed ozone limits
According to the Bureau of Land Management projections, the plan to allow 4,400 new natural gas wells in the Pinedale Anticline in Wyoming's Sublette County will boost ozone levels to 77 parts per billion, higher than the new federal air quality standard of 75 ppb, but producers said that the BLM's computer modeling is overly simplified and that once year-round drilling operations are allowed, which will make less-polluting methods more economically feasible, emissions will drop.
Casper Star-Tribune; March 25
Spring melt sends remnants of Colo. oil, gas operations trickling down
Residents of Parachute don't know what's in the milky gray water that's trickling down mountain from a frozen waterfall of gunk in a remote gulch in the Colorado mountains, but their concerns are mirrored by countless other residents as spring melts heavy snowpack and threatens to overwhelm oil-field pits across the state.
Denver Post; March 25
Appeals court rejects Idaho county's RICO immigration suit
Canyon County's legal effort to use the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations to sue four agribusinesses in Idaho for allegedly hiring and aiding undocumented workers was tossed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Idaho Statesman; March 25
Montana landowner makes pre-emptive purchase to save viewshed
A landowner whose property abuts a proposed development in Montana's Paradise Valley purchased roughly 4,000 acres of the land included in the Ameya Preserve to protect his viewshed from development.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle; March 25
Opinion
Congress should allocate the $8 million needed to protect Yellowstone
The Trust for Public Land has struck a deal with the family that owns land and mineral rights in the mountains above Yellowstone that would protect those acres from development and mining in perpetuity for a mere $8 million, a mere blip in the $2 trillion federal budget, and Congress should fork out the cash to protect the land.
New York Times; March 25
Colorado law puts more eyes on ATV use in the state
Colorado's new law that gives state wildlife officials authority to enforce off-road vehicle laws on federal law will provide federal officials some much-needed assistance in keeping OHV use on the right track in the state.
Grand Junction Sentinel; March 25
Magazine's methodology for "Best Place" overly simplistic
The inclusion of many Rocky Mountain West communities on Outdoor Life's "200 Best Places to Live," isn't surprising, but the magazine gave extra weight to hunting and fishing opportunities in determining those rankings, and the methodology ignores what's truly happening in many small communities in Montana, Idaho and the rest of the Rocky Mountain West: families are moving away, school enrollments are dropping and stores that provide the staples of life are closing.
NewWest.net; March 24
Beyond the region
Washington state, tribes fight sea lions for fish on Columbia River
Washington state and tribal officials spend nearly $250,000 each year to haze sea lions away from the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to keep the sea lions from feasting on the salmon and steelhead as they try to make their way up fish ladders up the river.
Yakima Herald; March 25
New report details soot's 2nd place ranking in climate change impact
A new study calculates that black carbon pollution, or soot, contributes to climate change at about 60 percent carbon dioxide does.
Los Angeles Times; March 25
DOE preservation plan boots Washington state observatory
The Department of Energy notified the Alliance for the Advancement of Science Through Astronomy, or AASTA, that the Rattlesnake Mountain observatory, Washington state's largest observatory, must be removed from the mountain, but AASTA officials say removing the observatory and relocating it will be too expensive, and are hoping to negotiate a lease with the DOE.
Tri-City Herald; March 25
In depth
Lower interest rates, prices help bump up housing sales
The median price of a home in the United States fell to $195,900 in February, down 8.2 percent from a year ago, and sales of existing homes bumped up 2.9 percent from January, the result of sellers dropping their prices and lower mortgage interest rates.
USA Today; March 25
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Housing sales perk up in Utah
A Salt Lake Board of Realtors' report said that housing sales increased in the Utah county 19 percent from January to February of this year, some good news even though the 744 sales of existing homes in February was considerably lower than the 1,143 sales reported in February of last year, or the record-setting total of 1,203 set in February, 2006.
Deseret News; March 25
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Existing home sales up 10 percent in Arizona valley
The median price of an existing home fell another $10,000 to $220,00 in February in the Phoenix metro area, and an early estimate from the Phoenix real-estate data firm Information Market indicated existing home sales in March would top those in February.
Arizona Republic; March 25
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