In the Rockies today, water, energy and federal lands are in the news.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be in Montana today to talk at a water forum, and the farmers and ranchers in the Teton River basin say that Montana basin presents a clear example of the state's worsening water situation.
The river often runs dry in mid-July, leaving irrigators between Carter and Fort Benton with no water for their crops, but upstream users around Choteau say they're just taking what a 100-year-old court decision allows them to take.
In Utah, where energy leases have been a particularly contentious issue over recent months, am Associated Press investigation found that the federal government is sitting on about $40 million in such leases, where development has been stalled by protests or lawsuits.
And in Salt Lake City on Saturday, about 3,000 folks drove their off-road vehicles, coal and oil trucks, mountain bikes and sheep trailers up State Street to the steps of Utah's Capitol to showcase growing opposition to management decisions made on federal lands.
Rockies today
AP: Federal gov't sitting on millions of dollars of energy leases
The Associated Press has calculated that energy companies have paid nearly $100 million to the federal government for energy leases that have yet to be developed due to protests and lawsuits, about $40 million of which is for energy leases in Utah.
Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 10
Off-road, anti-fed rally draws 3,000 in Salt Lake City
More than 3,000 off-road vehicle enthusiasts rode their all-terrain vehicles up State Street to the steps of Utah's state Capitol on Saturday in a "Take Back Utah" event, espousing anger at how federal lands in the Beehive State are managed.
Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 10
BPA takes salmon count in Idaho rivers aloft
The Bonneville Power Administration will use thermal and video images captured in Monday and Tuesday's overflights of endangered salmon spawning grounds in the Lemhi and Pahsimeroi rivers in Idaho to determine where the federal hydropower company should spend its streamside restoration funds.
Idaho Statesman (AP); Aug. 9
Teton River leads the way in Montana water fight
Downstream users of Teton River water in Montana say upstream users take so much water out early in the season that the river runs dry in mid-July, leaving the downstream ranchers without irrigation water, but the Choteau-area ranchers said they're just taking what they're entitled to take under a 100-year-old agreement.
Great Falls Tribune; Aug. 9
Wyoming land board endorses sage grouse decision
The Wyoming board of Land Commissioners voted Friday to pull about 1 million acres of state land located within core areas of sage grouse habitat from wind-energy development.
Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 9
Colorado forges ahead on beetle release to kill tamarisk
The federal government suspended the release of yellow-striped Diorhabda beetles on stretches of tamarisk in eight Western states after a lawsuit that charged the beetles threaten habitat for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher in New Mexico and Arizona, but Colorado officials are continuing to use the bug to battle the water-guzzling plant on the Arkansas River.
Denver Post; Aug. 10
Western Colorado prepares for resurgence of uranium mining
Uranium mining brought prosperity to Western Colorado decades ago, and plans to reopen the mines and build a new mill in Naturita, between Durango and Grand Junction, will bring some of those jobs back, but others are concerned about the health effects of the uranium industry. First in a series.
Durango Herald; Aug. 9
Opinion
Mercury storage issue on the agenda of Obama's Colorado visit
President Obama will be in Colorado's Grand Valley on Saturday, and the Department of Energy's proposal to store 17,000 tons of mercury at a site near Whitewater is sure to come up, and the president should listen carefully to the state's opposition to the proposal.
Grand Junction Sentinel; Aug. 10
Obama has it wrong on Alaska national forest project
The owner of Alaska-based Pacific Log & Lumber agrees that there's no future in logging old growth forests and has proposed selectively logging regrowth in the Tongass National Forest, but while he waits for the regrowth to reach harvestable levels, he was awarded a contract to log 381 acres of old-growth forest in the Tongass--a decision made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to protect jobs--and a bad one at that.
Los Angeles TImes; Aug. 10
Beyond the region
USFS faces deadline on air tankers used to fight wildfires
There are only 19 air tankers still being used to combat wildfires, and four of them are based at Moses Lakes, Wash., this year, where officials said that the planes have been instrumental in battling the 100 or so lightning-sparked wildfires, but in three years, the 19 planes will be too old to fly or too costly to repair, and the U.S. Forest Service has to convince Congress it's necessary to replace the planes.
Seattle Times; Aug. 10
Obama takes a page out of the Bush playbook on signing statements
President Bush raised Congress' ire in 2006 when he began issuing signing statements -- directives to executive officials on what parts of legislation he signed into law should be enforced and how -- and although Barack Obama called such actions "abuse" when he was campaigning for president, he is now using such statements as well.
New York Times; Aug. 10
In depth
Wildfire in SW Colorado burns across 5,000 acres
The lightning-caused Narraguinnep Fire in southwest Colorado scorched more than 5,000 acres on Sunday.
Durango Herald; Aug. 10
Crews have Utah's largest wildfire 55 percent contained
Cooler, calmer weather helped crews from around the nation gain the upper hand on the 44,200-acre Big Pole fire in Utah.
Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 10
Wildfires continue to rage across British Columbia
Many of the hundreds of residents of British Columbia communities forced from their homes by wildfires last week have returned home, but thousands more have their bags packed and ready to go as wildfires continue to burn across much of the Canadian province.
Vancouver Sun; Aug. 10
|
