In the Rockies today, a U.N. panel votes to investigate the threat proposed energy development in British Columbia may pose to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
The resolution directs a committee to travel to Canada to investigate the threat and directs Canada and U.S. to cooperate on a report on the threats coalbed methane and coal mining in southeastern B.C. present to the parks in Alberta and Montana by February.
Also in the news, on the heels of a report that the Rocky Mountain West could expect a normal, or below-normal wildfire season due in part to higher than average moisture, fire managers are watching the number of trees killed by pine-bark beetles grow.
The tiny bugs have killed trees on seven million acres from Colorado to Canada and predictions are that over the next 15 years, dead and dying forests will cover 22 million acres in the West.
A study released earlier this month faulted federal land agencies' fuel reduction efforts because only about 11 percent of the work done was done in the wildland-urban interface where communities were at highest risk from wildfires.
Last week, National Fire Director Tom Harbour countered that report with the U.S. Forest Service's analysis of fuels-reduction projects that found 43 percent of the work done was done in the wildland-urban interface.
Rockies today
UN panel votes to send study group to Montana, Alberta parks
At its meeting on Friday in Spain, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee passed a resolution to send representatives to Canada to evaluate the threat coal mining and coalbed methane in southeastern British Columbia may present to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta and Montana, and set a Feb. 1, 2010 deadline for submission of a report.
Helena Independent Record (AP); June 27
Beetle-killed timber changes fire dynamics in the West
Pine-bark beetles have all but killed seven million acres of forest between Colorado and Canada, and in Montana between Helena and Butte, three million acres of trees killed by beetles are standing dead, and fire managers are keeping their fingers crossed that this isn't the season that those trees ignite.
New York Times; June 29
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USFS offers up its own analysis of thinning efforts
National Fire Director Tom Harbour said Friday that nearly 44 percent of the thinning and fuels reduction work performed by the U.S. Forest Service in recent years occurred in the wildland-urban interface, a considerably higher percentage than the 11 percent reported in a study published earlier this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but Harbour said he could not explain the differences in the numbers.
Portland Oregonian (AP); June 27
U.S. turns its attention to saving the unlovely species as well
Ten of the fifteen species in the United States that have been deemed "recovered" since the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973 are the type that look good on a T-shirt: wolves, grizzly bears and bald eagles, and those species often garnered the lion's share of funding and effort to save them, but times are changing, and even the homely species are getting a boost away from the brink of extinction.
Washington Post; June 29
Asarco settlement funnels $10M into Montana dam cleanup
After a federal bankruptcy judge put his seal of approval on Asarco LLC's $1.1-billion plan to settle all of the environmental claims against the Arizona-based mining company, Montana heard it would receive $138 million, most of which will go to clean up the smelter in East Helena, but $10 million will be used to remove Mike Horse Dam and the 371,000 cubic foot of mining waste the dam holds in the headwaters of the Blackfoot River.
Great Falls Tribune; June 28
Law change makes capturing rainwater in Colorado legal
In the Four Corners region of the United States, there is a patchwork of regulations when it comes to the capture and use of rainwater, with laws in Utah making it illegal unless you own the underlying water rights; in one New Mexico city all new houses have a mandatory rainwater collection system, and now in Colorado, two new laws clear the way for a quarter-million residents to capture the rain and set up a larger pilot program for rainwater collection.
New York Times; June 28
Wyoming's carbon dioxide emissions give oil a boost
Oil companies are lining up for the carbon-dioxide emissions from two sour gas processing facilities in Wyoming to use to boost production from oilfields.
Casper Star-Tribune; June 29
Opinion
Middle ground on grazing debate turns ranchers into rangers
Ranchers that run their livestock on public lands and environmental groups that would like to see an end to grazing on public ground have been at loggerheads for years, a battle in which some on both sides of the issue are unwilling to give ground, but a compromise that pays ranchers to become rangers to patrol the land and do water and land restoration projects seems like a win-win situation.
Idaho Statesman; June 29
Obama, Congress appear to be ready for immigration reform
President Obama and key congressional leaders met Thursday to discuss immigration reform, and the path laid out by New York Sen. Charles Schumer seems solid footing for such reform, but the legislation must be passed this year or early next year, or it will be lost in the maw of election-year politics.
New York Times; June 27
Beyond the Region
U.S. House passes climate-change legislation
A bill designed to curb greenhouse gases that have been linked to climate change passed in the U.S. House late Friday on a 219-to-212 vote.
New York Times; June 27
President opposes trade-sanctions portion of climate-change bill
At a news conference Sunday, President Obama said that he disagreed with a provision in the climate-change legislation passed by the U.S. House late Friday night that imposed trade penalties on countries that do not have limits on global-warming pollution.
New York Times; June 29
Stimulus funds put teens to work in Washington state
Washington state got $19.9 million in federal stimulus funds to put teens between the ages of 16 to 19 to work this summer, and the northwest part of the state got a little more than $1 million of those funds.
Seattle Times; June 29
In depth
Economic downturn hit renewable energy sector as well
The promise of jobs, jobs and more jobs in the renewable energy sector has lulled a bit as the nation's economic downturn slammed the clean energy sector just as it did other sectors, but with the injection of federal stimulus funds, predictions are that hiring in the renewable energy fields will pick up later this year.
Salt Lake Tribune (AP); June 26
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Colorado city completes first phase of solar-power complex
Aurora purchased 1,762 acres of land five years ago for its Campus for Renewable Energy, a complex dedicated to the research and development of renewable energy resources, and this summer, the Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC), the first tenant of the Colorado city's complex, should move onto the campus.
Denver Post; June 29
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Colorado exhibits what clean-energy can do for economy
Clean-energy jobs have been touted as a remedy for the nation's economic ailments, and in the Denver-region of Colorado, where a trial run of this theory has been under way for the past several years, the investment in wind-turbine manufacturing and solar-energy components appears to support that theory.
Slate.org; June 27
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