In the Rockies today, the focus is on Wyoming.
On Sunday, the Bureau of Land Management announced it was pulling back energy leases on 20,000 acres of BLM land on the Wyoming Range, and the U.S. Forest Service is reviewing leases on another 20,000 acres of its land on the range as well.
A proposed wind farm project on private land in the Cowboy State has a ranching family and their neighbors at odds with each other.
The ranching family says a wind farm will help keep the ranch in operation, but neighbors said the industrial-sized project and the transmission lines will forever change the landscape of the Laramie Range.
And the biennial count of sage grouse in Wyoming indicated the number of birds declined a bit between 2006 and 2008, but numbers have improved drastically since the 1990s.
Rockies today
BLM pulls back protested leases in the Wyoming Range
At a ceremony Sunday to celebrate the passage of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, Bureau of Land Management State Director Don Simpson announced that 23 energy leases on 24,000 acres on the Wyoming Range that had been protested would not be issued; and the U.S. Forest Service is also reviewing challenged leases on 20,000 acres of land it owns in the range.
Jackson Hole Daily; Aug. 24
Wyoming rancher embraces wind energy to keep ranch afloat
Richard Grant Jr.'s family has ranched in Wyoming for 123 years, and now he's working with a Utah-based wind-energy developer to put wind turbines and transmission lines on his property to generate additional income, a move some of his neighbors oppose.
Seattle Times (AP); Aug. 24
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Wyoming official: Burying transmission lines too expensive
Laura Ladd, energy economics adviser to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said burying transmission lines costs six times more than overhead transmission lines, making that out-of-sight method way too expensive.
Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 21
Biennial sage grouse count in Wyoming finds fewer birds
The average number of male sage grouse found in active leks in Wyoming in 2008 was 30, down from 39 found in 2006, but still higher than in the 1990s, when the average number was 12.
Casper Star-Tribune (AP); Aug. 22
Obama administration proposes fee increases for mining industry
The Obama administration has proposed several fee increases on the minerals industry to shore up the federal government's bottom line, including increasing the well-processing fee from $4,000 to $6,500 per well; and requiring that federal coal bonus bids be paid upfront in a lump sum at the time of the lease rather than spreading the payments out over five years.
Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 24
Salazar: Tour of Arizona a fact-finding mission
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited Arizona last Friday, where he reaffirmed a decision to put uranium mining on hold on a million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon, and heard about the economic benefits a proposed copper mine would bring to Superior and surrounding communities.
Arizona Republic; Aug. 22
EPA moves mercury deadline to Oct. 31
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection that the agency and environmental groups had agreed to give the EPA until the end of October to come up with national standards for mercury air emissions for the gold mining industry.
Mining Quarterly; Aug. 21
Tiny invaders bring down world's forests
Pine-bark beetles have invaded forests from Arizona north along the Rocky Mountains through British Columbia, the northern spruce engraver, the aspen leaf miner and the willow miner have munched their way through Yukon forests, and in Siberia, the highly destructive Siberian moth is making a meal of forests of pine, spruce, fir and larch.
Vail Daily (AP); Aug. 24
Opinion
Utah county commissioner's vision of urban farms a good one
Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley wants to turn unused county lands into urban gardens, and given the success of the existing community farms in the Utah county, Bradley's vision is one worth pursuing.
Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 24
Beyond the region
Mussels loom as next big threat to salmon recovery in Pacific Northwest
Quagga mussels haven't yet made it to the Columbia River, but when they do, the rapidly reproducing invaders will prove an expensive opponent for the operators of the dam system on the river in the Pacific Northwest.
Portland Oregonian; Aug. 21
Lightning sparks 2 major wildfires in central Washington
A 40,000-acre wildfire in central Washington state sparked by lightning Thursday evening burned the decades-old Silver Dollar Cafe on State Route 24, in an area known as "no man's land" as it is not covered by any fire district.
Yakima Herald-Republic; Aug. 24
Number of marijuana operations on federal lands on the rise
For decades, illegal marijuana growing operations have been found in national forests, but tightened border security has increased the number of such operations, and the 90,000-acre La Brea fire in California's Santa Barbara County, which was started by a drug workers' cooking fire, has focused the national spotlight on such operations.
New York Times; Aug. 21
California's hills fill with unemployed prospectors
The jobless are headed for the hills of California, reviving miners camps, as they try their hands at prospecting for gold.
Washington Post; Aug. 24
California launches ad blitz to counter Nevada campaign
California is responding to the ad campaign launched earlier this month by the Nevada Development Authority that urged Golden State companies to head east to Nevada with an ad campaign of its own.
Los Angeles Times; Aug. 24
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