Free Republic

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

An environmental group went to court Thursday in an effort to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand a program to reintroduce the endangered Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has offices in both states, alleged in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., that Fish and Wildlife has refused to implement recommendations of a scientific panel that reviewed the program. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Vickie Fox of the agency's Albuquerque office said federal officials haven't had a chance to review the lawsuit and do not in general comment...

State wildlife officials take too long to authorize the killing of problem wolves, ranchers and others said Friday at a meeting of the agency oversight committee of the Environmental Quality Council. "It's like a guy's robbing a bank and you have to go get an arrest warrant,"... "It doesn't make a lot of sense." More than 50 people attended the meeting that drew Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener, agency biologists and several state legislators. People from Idaho and Wyoming and members of anti-wolf groups pushing for indiscriminate killing of the predators also attended. A few members of conservation...

Sheep don't mix well with grizzly bears and wolves. Now they won't mix at all on more than 70,000 acres in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment south of Big Timber in the Gallatin National Forest has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to move their sheep elsewhere... The agreement is the eighth -- and second-largest -- in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in recent years that has led to the retirement of about 300,000 acres from grazing. The latest involves the Ash Mountain and Iron Mountain allotments used for generations...

confirmed killed by wolves... the confirmed kills varied from the reported animal deaths and values, which came to 40 animals valued at roughly $40,000. He cautioned people not to draw conclusions about the confirmed numbers, because unconfirmed kills are often those in which the livestock is discovered too late to actually identify, by tracks, tooth marks or other means, the actual cause of death. Their agency is part of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though they often are mistaken for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the...

Public meetings are scheduled next month in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on the federal government's plans to remove federal protections for grizzly bears surrounding Yellowstone National Park. The move would put management of bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem into the hands of the three states and give them greater flexibility. It also could clear the way for limited hunting. Public meetings on the proposal are scheduled Jan. 9 at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman; Jan. 10 in Cody, Wyo.; Jan. 11 in Jackson, Wyo.; and Jan. 12 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Information on the plan will be provided, and...

Beluga ban boosts domestic caviar farming By Laura Zuckerman Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:25 AM ET HAGERMAN, Idaho (Reuters) - After more than a decade growing in the spring waters of a commercial fish farm in southern Idaho, five dozen white sturgeon are ready to give eggs that will be marketed to U.S. caviar connoisseurs. The timing could hardly be better. A recent U.S. ban on beluga caviar from the Caspian and Black seas has sparked a boom for U.S. fish farms, which are stepping in to provide gourmet stores and high-end restaurants the much-loved salted eggs, or roe, from...

Oregon Coast - The state's parks and recreation commission last week approved a scaled back version of its plan for protecting Western snowy plover habitat along Oregon's sandy beaches, but it wasn't enough to satisfy officials in affected counties, including Tillamook.

GRANTS TO STATES FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION FOR RELEASE: February 11, 2004CONTACTS:   Patricia Fisher, 202-208-1459            Don Morgan 703-358-2106       The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is seeking proposalsfrom states and U.S. territories interested in acquiring land or conductingconservation planning for endangered species. Congress has appropriated$71million for fiscal year 2004 to support grants awarded under theCooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund.       "These grant programs are important not only because they fundprojects that protect irreplaceable habitat for threatened and endangeredspecies, but also because they are the building blocks for ensuring strongconservation partnerships...

Three ferocious wildfire seasons in a row have sparked an equally heated debate about who or what is to blame for the infernos. Although decades of short-sighted federal fire suppression policies undoubtedly set the stage for the conflagrations, it’s also become clear that, more recently, “analysis paralysis” inside federal land agencies and the obstructionist tactics of environmental advocacy groups conspired to prevent the nation from moving faster to address the approaching danger. Although environmentalists and government officials vehemently denied the charges — arguing the real problem is allowing people to live too close to forests — recent evidence suggests such...

<p>The federal government wants to set aside 1.2 million acres of public and private Arizona land as critical habitat for 18 endangered pygmy owls, a move critics say threatens development of the land for private business and public recreation.</p> <p>Designating the Tucson land as a critical habitat for the tiny creatures, which span 6 inches and weigh 2 pounds, is necessary because they live in an area facing rapid growth and development, said Maeveen Behan, project director for Pima County.</p>