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In the Rockies today, wolf hunts begin in Montana today and groups that sued to stop those hunts said they won't appeal a court decision that allowed the hunts in Idaho and Montana to proceed.
The Interior Department announced its new climate-change initiative on Monday, and a new U.S. Forest Service study of 43 rivers and streams across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana found that changes in precipitation did impact river flows in particularly dry years.
Another river-related study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that male fish in eight of the nine river basins, including the Yampa River in Colorado, exhibited feminine traits.
Rockies today
New USFS study on Northwest river run-off concerns scientists
U.S. Forest Service scientists reviewed changes in the flows of 43 rivers and streams across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana since 1948, and found that during particularly dry years, river flows decreased as much as 50 percent.
Portland Oregonian; Sept. 15
Salazar announces Interior Dept.'s climate-change initiative
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Monday that his department will create "regional climate change response centers" that will create strategies to respond to the changes in climate, including exploration of methods to sequester carbon and finding ways to cut the Department's greenhouse gas emissions.
Washington Post; Sept. 15
Groups won't appeal decision on Idaho, Montana wolf hunts
The 14 environmental and conservation groups that sought a preliminary injunction on wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana said they won't appeal the Montana federal district court decision that rejected that request, and will instead focus on their case seeking the species' return to the federal endangered species list.
Missoulian; Sept. 15
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Wolf hunts in wilderness areas of Montana begin today
Wolf season begins today in in the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wildernesses and the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness near Yellowstone National Park in Montana, with statewide hunting of wolves to begin Oct. 25, the same day as the big-game season kicks off.
Great Falls Tribune; Sept. 15
USGS study finds male bass with female traits in Colorado basin
A U.S. Geological Survey study of nine river basins, including the Colorado, Columbia, Rio Grande and Yukon basins, found that 70 percent of the male bass in the Yampa River in Colorado exhibited feminine traits, and that researchers found male fish with only male traits only in the Yukon Basin in Alaska.
Denver Post; Sept. 15
GAO: Interior Dept. ill-equipped to collect energy royalties
A Government Accountability Office report report issued Monday said that the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service royalty-in-kind program, in which producers pay their royalties in actual oil and natural gas, has resulted in lost revenue for the federal government because the MMS lacks the resources to ensure it's collecting the full amount due.
Casper Star-Tribune (Hearst Newspapers); Sept. 15
Federal appeals court says Asarco land swap in Arizona illegal
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an Arizona land exchange between the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Tucson-based Asarco LLC that would allow Asarco to expand its Ray copper mine 85 miles east of downtown Phoenix is illegal.
Arizona Republic (AP); Sept. 15
Opinion
Reprocessing nuclear waste not a solution but a dangerous detour
With the proposal to site a nuclear-waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain nearly dead, the U.S. must develop a plan to handle its spent nuclear fuel, but reprocessing that fuel is not the answer, since the process simply raises the cost of the fuel and still results in concentrated recycled plutonium that still needs to be stored. A guest column by physicist Frank von Hippel, who is a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University and co-chairs the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Los Angeles Times; Sept. 15
Beyond the region
Hawaii's resources provide living laboratory for renewable energy
Each of Hawaii's six main islands have at least one renewable source of energy being tapped: in Maui, it's wave energy; on Lanai and Molokai, it's wind energy; solar panels provide power in Oahu; a biomass project is underway Kauai, and on the Big Island, seawater is being turned into electricity.
New York Times; Sept. 15
Media blitz to confront Canada's prime minister in Washington D.C.
Environmental groups have bought online ads in the Washington Post, the New York Times and Politico.com, a website well-read by federal lawmakers, that attack Canada's stance on oilsands to coincide with Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
Christian Science Monitor; Sept. 15
Oregon's unemployment rate in August climbed to 12.2 percent
Government officials said Oregon's unemployment rate is probably closer to 14.8 percent than the official 12.2 percent reported for August because a lot of unemployed people have simply stopped looking for work, and if surveyors had taken into account those who had settled for part-time work, the actual rate would be in the neighborhood of 23.3 percent.
Portland Oregonian; Sept. 15
In depth
Subdivision wants Idaho's help to replace defunct water system
The 4 S Ranch subdivision in Hayden has severe water problems, with residents of the development trucking water in weekly, and now they are seeking money from Idaho to replace the system.
Coeur d'Alene Press; Sept. 15
Series examining Montana valley's water resources kicks off
On Wednesday, the first of four discussions hosted by the Bitter Root Water Forum will be held in Corvallis, and the subject will be the valley's groundwater resources, an apt topic given that the Bitterroot Basin is home to a square mile that has 200-plus wells, the most in Montana.
Ravalli Republic; Sept. 15
Colorado seminars tackle water issues this week
The Mesa County Water Association will host a public seminar in Grand Junction Thursday entitled "How Did our Desert Bloom? And What Happens Next?" and the Colorado River District’s annual water seminar on Friday in Grand Junction will address "Dust in the Wind and Other Winds of Change."
Grand Junction Sentinel; Sept. 15
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| "Cheat grass is a carbon source, and we'd rather see [the basin] as a carbon sink."
JMike Pellant, Great Basin Restoration Initiative coordinator, about the Interior Department's new climate-change initiative that could replace cheat grass in the basin that stretches into Nevada, western Utah, southern Idaho, southeastern Oregon and California with native sagebrush.
- Washington Post
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Nevada decision on gun permits draws Utah gun owners' ire
Montana governor: Trip to Europe sealed deals on wind power
Utah trial over disputed road begins
Lehman Brothers forecloses on Montana ski resort
Arizona, federal biologists release Chiricahua leopard frogs
Utah national monument may become national park
Montana rancher to pay fine for shooting grizzly bear
Wyoming lawmakers prepare to battle for AML funds
Wyoming, Iowa senators lay out concerns in Baucus' health care bill
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Exclusively
on Headwaters:
NewVoices/NewWest:
Keeping Safe: On Montana's Blackfeet Reservation, the Po'ka Ranch looks beyond bars and walls to help troubled youth.
June 18, 2009
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Regional Conferences
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Alternative Energy Resources Organization's Montana Energy Tours:
Oct. 12-13: NewWest.net's 4th annual
Real Estate and Development in the
Northern Rockies
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Headwaters
News is a program of the Center
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