In the Rockies today, the National Park Service proposes a 720-snowmobile daily limit this winter season in Yellowstone National Park; wild horses get a reprieve, and a tiny bug is laying waste to the Rocky Mountain West's forests.
In a surprise move Monday, the National Park Service dropped its plans to limit snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park to 318 each day, and announced it would keep the 720-snowmobile limit in place over the past three winters.
Conflicting federal court decisions were cited by NPS officials as the decision to return to the former limit.
In Nevada, at a public meeting on the fate of some 2,000 wild horses held in Bureau of Land Management's holding facilities that were deemed unadoptable, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens announced a dramatic rescue plan.
Not only would Madeleine Pickens adopt those 2,000 horses, but she and others said they would adopt nearly all 30,000 wild horses and burros held in BLM facilities.
And finally, across the Rocky Mountain West, pine beetle infestations are leaving wide swaths of dead and dying trees, changing the landscapes of Colorado, other Western states and Canada's western provinces.
Rockies today
NPS restores 720-snowmobille limit in Yellowstone National Park
Following a second, conflicting federal court decision, the National Park Service walked away from its proposal to allow 318 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone National Park and announced Monday that the 720-snowmobile limit allowed over the last three winters would be in place again this winter.
Billings Gazette (AP); Nov. 18
T. Boone Pickens' wife to adopt 30,000 wild horses from BLM
At a public hearing in Nevada on Monday, Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, announced that she intended to adopt most or all of the 30,000 or so wild horses and burros the Bureau of Land Management is holding in facilities, and that she is looking for land in the West for their new home.
Washington Post; Nov. 18
USFS, states, landowners scramble to remove beetle-killed trees
The current infestation of bark beetles in the Rocky Mountain West is changing the landscape, with predictions that virtually all of Colorado's lodgepole pine trees on 5 million acres will die in the next three to five years, and forests from Alberta and British Columbia, south along the Rocky Mountains to Arizona and New Mexico are all affected. Has a video with additional information.
New York Times; Nov. 18
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Whitebark pine trees in Northern Rockies are dying off, too
Canada has listed the whitebark pine as a species at risk, and the tree is a species of concern in western Washington, and in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where trees' seeds provide an important food source for grizzly bears, 56 percent of the whitebark pines monitored since 2002 have died.
Billings Gazette; Nov. 18
Canada reports 15th case of mad cow disease
A seven-year-old dairy cow on a farm in British Columbia is Canada's 15th reported case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy since 2003, born well after Canada banned feeding practices in 1997 thought to be a cause of BSE.
Vancouver Sun; Nov. 18
Interior Dept. sets royalty rates for oil-shale work in 3 states
On Monday, the Interior Department set a 5 percent royalty rate for the first five years of production in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado's oilshale fields, considerably lower than the 12.5 percent to 18.8 percent royalty rate on conventional oil and gas leases on federal lands, a reduction federal officials said was necessary to spur development while still giving taxpayers a fair rate of return.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP); Nov. 18
BLM releases details of last of six plans for Utah lands
The Bureau of Land Management's long-term plans for its 1.8 million acres of land in southeastern Utah restricts motorized travel on 6,000 acres previously open to unfettered off-road travel, reclassifies archaeological sites once protected as "areas of critical environmental concern" to "special recreation-management areas," and found 35.7 miles of the Colorado and San Juan rivers, as well as a portion of Dark Canyon suitable for recommendation to Congress for inclusion in the nation's Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Salt Lake Tribune; Nov. 18
Montana high court rules Mitchell Slough a public waterway
The Montana Supreme Court issued a decision Monday that overturned two previous state district court decisions, and said that the Mitchell Slough in the Bitterroot Valley followed a historic course of a waterway mapped more than 100 years ago and was therefore open to public access and required permitting like other natural waterways in the state.
Ravalli Republic; Nov. 18
Montana-Alberta transmission line gets federal go-ahead
The Department of Energy's permit for the $140 million Montana Alberta Tie Line, which will span 214 miles, 130 of those miles in Montana's Cascade, Teton, Pondera and Glacier counties, was the final hurdle for the transmission line that will connect electrical grids in Great Falls and Lethbridge, and is expected to spark development of new wind farms in northcentral Montana.
Great Falls Tribune; Nov. 18
Opinion
EPA needs to come clean on ethanol
The mandate to increase use of ethanol to 36 billion gallons by 2022 is one of the most troublesome provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency needs to devise an accurate way to measure direct and indirect emissions costs of the corn-based ethanol.
New York Times; Nov. 18
Beyond the region
USFS: Visitor numbers down, especially in the Northwest
Visits to the nation's national forests are declining, with total visits down 13 percent across the nation between 2004 and 2007, and visits to national forests in Oregon and Washington had the largest decline in visits: 27 percent for that period.
Portland Oregonian; Nov. 18
Canada's largest pipeline operator raises $1B in stock sale
In order to raise cash to build its Keystone pipeline to connect Alberta's oilsands to U.S. oil refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, TransCanada Corp. held a stock sale on Monday that raised $1 billion.
Toronto Globe & Mail; Nov. 18
California wildfires destroy more than 800 homes, damage 100 others
Fire managers were able to corral all three wildfires burning in Southern California, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requested a federal emergency declaration for four counties.
Los Angeles Times; Nov. 18
Oregon lost 14,100 jobs in October
The unemployment rate in Oregon in October rose to 7.3 percent, where 14,100 jobs were lost that month, the worst seasonally adjusted decrease seen in more than 26 years.
Portland Oregonian; Nov. 18
NPS considers closing rockslide-prone village in Yosemite
The Associated Press' examination of records indicates that rock falls have been occurring more frequently in and around Yosemite National Park's 600-cabin Curry Village, and an advisory committee could decide this week if a large portion of the village should be permanently shut down.
Seattle Times (AP); Nov. 18
In depth
University of Wyoming helps GE keep coal-gasification work private
General Electric's decision to team up with the University of Wyoming to create a new clean-coal research facility is grounded in GE's purchase of a company that spent a decade and $3 million in Department of Energy funding developing a pump for coal gasification and taking the technology private.
WyoFile.com; Nov. 17
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