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But over the last 13 years, construction of a home-furnishings store, a pizza joint, and a state Department of Transportation barn has narrowed that migration route from at least a mile wide to 240 feet wide — earning those meadows the nickname "Antelope Alley." And in the last six months, construction crews have begun to build a motel and roads and houses for a half-dozen new subdivisions on the remaining open ground.
The developers promise to limit fencing and dogs. But Wyoming Game and Fish Department Regional Supervisor Bernie Holz expects that the herd of 300 to 1,000 pronghorn will quit using Antelope Alley. "They're a high-strung animal," sensitive to human presence, he says. "They'll be very reluctant to pass through that area." Over time, he adds, the herd may find another route skirting the town.
It's ironic: Major newspapers from The New York Times to the Los Angeles Times have reported a different problem around here. Their headlines warn that the area's spectacular wildlife community — which includes tens of thousands of pronghorn and deer, and one of the West's largest populations of sage grouse — is threatened by a spectacular rush to extract natural gas.
Huge corporations, including EnCana and Shell, draw more than a billion cubic feet of gas per day from more than 3,000 wells in the area, and they plan to triple the number of wells within 15 years. The energy development fragments wildlife habitat and may sever some of the dozens of migration routes that thread from the mountains to the valley floor (HCN, 8/18/03: Where the Antelope and the Oil Companies Play).
But that's only half the story.
The gas rush targets several hundred thousand acres so far, mostly sagebrush in the valley managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. But the energy development has been tempered by opposition from conservation groups, including the Upper Green River Valley Coalition. As a result, the BLM and the energy companies are taking steps to leave room for wildlife.
In November, the BLM gave permission for one company, Questar, to expand its drilling in critical winter range for deer, even though an ongoing study shows that deer are driven away by drilling activity. But Questar is paying for the deer study, and limiting the amount of land it disturbs by using more directional drilling, in which several wells are drilled from each pad. Questar is also building pipelines that will reduce truck traffic. Other companies are using directional drilling and working to limit air pollution from diesel engines.
In September, Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Republican Sen. Craig Thomas helped persuade the Bridger-Teton National Forest to pull back from leasing 157,000 acres for gas drilling (HCN, 9/27/04: Energy companies rush the West).
Some locals believe that residential development poses at least as much of a threat as the energy boom. Pinedale is the biggest town in Sublette County, which still feels rural; about 6,400 people are scattered over its 3 million acres. However, Sublette is growing faster than any other Wyoming county; the population has soared 30 percent since 1990. Gas-field workers are pouring in, along with affluent people from California and other states, attracted by the grand scenery, recreation and small-town lifestyle.
The Pinedale city and Sublette County governments approved more than 200 new lots within a mile of town last year alone. Ranches are being broken up into two- to 10-acre ranchettes. An American Farmland Trust study in 2002 ranked Sublette County tops in Wyoming in the amount of ranch land threatened by development. By 2020, 336,000 acres of ranch land may be converted to residential use. Nonetheless, officials in Sublette County have been reluctant to do anything to slow the rapid development of private land.
Local officials view restrictions on subdivisions as an infringement of private-property rights. They also say the new subdivisions are needed to provide more affordable housing, as an antidote to soaring real estate prices.
"We have that issue (impacts on wildlife) rear its ugly head every time we talk about building in Sublette County," said County Commissioner Betty Fear in May, voting for an Antelope Alley subdivision. "We have to look at habitat for humans as well."
The county government struggled to create a Purchase of Development Rights program, which would use oil and gas taxes to pay ranchers not to subdivide. But the first major purchase has been stalled by a lawsuit, pressed by a retired engineer and the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a Denver-based property-rights law firm.
The Green River Valley Land Trust, formed in 2000, has helped ranchers put conservation easements on about 10,000 acres, but progress is slow. In general, rural homesteads and subdivisions reduce the populations of native birds and mammals, says Andy Hansen, a Montana State University ecology professor. Such impacts can last "hundreds of years," he says.
Biologists are still trying to determine how antelope and deer will react to both the real estate boom and the gas rush. "The gas fields fall on critical winter range. Most of the subdivisions currently are falling along the migration pathways," says Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society biologist. "So it's a double whammy."
Noah Brenner writes from Pinedale. Ray Ring,
HCN's editor in the field, contributed to
this story.
Upper Green River Valley
Coalition in Pinedale, www.uppergreen.org, 307-367-3670
Green River Valley Land Trust in Pinedale, www.grvlandtrust.org, 307-367-7007]]>
The long-standing conflict between Robbins and the BLM has flared up again recently, and this time it could have dire consequences for one of the lower 48's largest bighorn sheep populations.
After Robbins' protest in 2000, he took his grievances to Washington, D.C. and accepted a settlement that forgave him for nine years of alleged grazing violations. In return, he agreed to allow BLM employees to access public land through his property.
But Robbins' acrimony towards the agency continued, and his cow-calf operation and dude ranch garnered many complaints over the years. As High Country News reported in 2003, that included "cattle trespassing on the private property of neighbors and on the neighbors' BLM grazing allotments; grazing too early, too late, and putting too many cattle on his allotments; blocking a neighbor's use of a cattle-drive trail; claiming his cattle were on private pasture when they were on BLM pastures; refusing to obtain recreation permits for his dude ranch trail drives over BLM lands; and refusing to modify his grazing practices during drought."
So the BLM pulled all of Robbins' 14 cattle grazing leases again in the mid-2000s, and he had to shrink his herd to what his 75,000 acre ranch would support. The BLM did offer to return some of the cattle leases to Robbins, but he refused the deal.
Instead, a few years ago he started running domestic sheep on his ranch. The problem is that Robbins' ranch is smack dab in the middle of prime habitat for 600 to 800 bighorns, and those sheep intermingle with even more herds. It's well established that bighorn sheep can catch pneumonia from domestic sheep — often with fatal consequences for adults and newborns.
Robbins recently told the Casper Star-Tribune that the sheep were an economic necessity after the agency rescinded his public-land grazing permit, since sheep require less land than cattle. But it also looks like the decision was a form of protest against the agency. The Star-Tribune reported that he sent the BLM a letter in April 2012 stating, "Since you decided not to return the permit in whole we have decided to go forward with sheep."
"If and when a bighorn die-off occurs I want you to know that we feel we have done everything that we have been ask (sic) and been patient for years and you will have to answer for what happens," Robbins wrote.
In the worst cases pneumonia from domestic sheep can obliterate bighorn herds, erasing years of work on the part of biologists, agencies and cooperative landowners. For example, in 2008, after some public land squatters brought domestic sheep and goats into Montana's Elkhorn Mountains, a bighorn herd that biologists had been nursing along for over a decade crashed by 90 percent.
Thanks to reintroductions, habitat protection and restricted hunting, bighorn sheep have been making a comeback since they reached a low point of several thousand in the lower 48 around 1900. But there are still many populations that are perilously small, and many places that once harbored bighorns that no longer do.
Along with habitat loss, pneumonia is one of the biggest challenges for continued bighorn conservation. The main microbe responsible for the disease wasn't identified until recently and scientists still have many questions, like why some herds are more susceptible than others. Researchers are learning that even when adult sheep survive and become immune, some populations struggle to recover, likely because the lambs continue to die from pneumonia before they are weaned. But since lamb carcasses don't last long, that's a very difficult phenomenon for biologists to observe. Efforts to develop a vaccine have been unsuccessful so far.
In short, pneumonia is insidious, dooming many of the West's burliest mountain-dwellers to a mucous-y death. And wildlife biologists are at their wits' end over it. The most obvious solution is to keep domestic and wild sheep separated.
That's why wildlife conservation groups like the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation are so worried about Robbins' domestic sheep. It's also why they, and many others from the ag and wildlife community, spent almost five years working on a plan for domestic and wild sheep to coexist in Wyoming. Now that work is at risk of unraveling. "We think the best thing for all of us is to have a good, viable domestic sheep industry in the state and a viable bighorn population," says Steve Kilpatrick, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. "This just flies in the face of that."
Furthermore, Wyoming Game and Fish has documented Robbins' sheep trespassing on federal land, the Star-Tribune reported — a violation that could result in fines and even livestock impoundment. But the BLM says its staffers need to document the trespassing themselves for it to count against Robbins. The BLM even suspended one of its biologists for insubordination after he asked a state biologist to check on Robbins' leases for trespass during an aerial survey of grizzly bears, the Star-Tribune reported.
Now, the BLM is looking at restoring some of Robbins' cattle grazing leases. Bighorn conservationists are asking the agency to move through that decision-making process quickly, and address the ongoing trespassing issue. If Robbins is permitted to run cattle again, they hope he will stop running sheep on the intermingled BLM and private lands near the top of the watershed -- that's where bighorns are more likely to interact with domestic sheep. That could take years to play out, though."We're not willing to sit and fold our hands on the domestic sheep issue," says Kilpatrick. "The bighorn sheep simply can't afford continuous years of trespass and potential commingling (with domestic sheep)."
The sheep versus sheep struggle, while still a reality throughout the West isn't always a completely intractable feud. Similar to Wyoming, the woolgrower's association in Montana has participated in bighorn conservation planning. Montana wildlife officials would like to reintroduce more bighorns to mountains throughout the state, but they've still struggled to find locations sufficiently far from domestic sheep. After fits and starts, they took a big step forward earlier this month, by releasing 52 bighorns to start a new herd in Southwest Montana's Madison range.
Sarah Jane Keller is a High Country News contributor based in Bozeman, Mont. Follow her @sjanekeller.]]>
Now, the Obama administration is trying again — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has proposed an additional administrative fee of $2.50 per animal unit month (the forage needed to sustain one cow and calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month).
The fee would provide $16.5 million in 2016 for the BLM — a $13.5 million net gain, considering a proposed $3 million decrease in rangeland management funding. Currently the BLM spends over seven times as much money on rangeland management and improvement programs as it collects in grazing fees; that's $89 million versus $12 million. (The rangeland programs include things like permit administration, weed management, water development and vegetation restoration.) Income from the new fee would go toward rangeland health efforts, as well as help address a massive backlog of grazing permit renewals.
Jewell's proposal would bump the feds' income from grazers by 148 percent, but, because it's a separate administrative tax, it doesn't violate the requirement that the baseline grazing fee (for the BLM, $1.69 per AUM this year) can't increase by more than 25 percent annually. The move, which Interior has attempted in similar forms since 2012, appears to be a last resort to get around bitter political resistance to baseline fee increases. But the attempt has been repeatedly thwarted — stripped from Obama's budget before being passed each fall.
If the fee were to pass — an unlikely scenario, since it has to push through committee, including the Natural Resources Committee, chaired by conservative Utah Republican Rob Bishop — it would have a huge effect on Western ranchers. "If expenses for your business go up over 100 percent, that's a big impact," says Utah Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President Brent Tanner. And in Tanner's state, most ranchers use at least some federal land to graze their cattle, so would be affected by the new fee.
Yet conservationists have long cited the grazing fee as far too low, considering the ecological cost of livestock on public lands. The formula takes into account private land lease rates, beef cattle prices and production costs like gasoline and equipment. Thus, ranchers are supposed to pay more when conditions are good and less when conditions are worse. But that's not what's happened since the fee was implemented with the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act. The rate crested the two-dollar mark just once, in 1981, and was at the legal minimum ($1.35) every year from 2007 to 2014.Grazing fees on public land were always meant to be lower than those on private land because the former often provides poorer quality forage and ranchers usually have to maintain their own fencing and irrigation infrastructure. When grazing fees were established, they were supposed to increase over time, trailing private rates. But the opposite has happened, and the gap between public and private land lease rates has increased over time. "The 2015 fee is just 8 percent of what it would cost to graze livestock on private grazing lands," reads an economic study conducted on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity. "In 1981, when the federal fee first went into effect, it was 23.79 percent."
So why aren't public land grazing fees naturally going up? That can be traced to how cattle prices and cost of production figure into the fee formula; adding these two elements to the formula did not improve its ability to predict annual forage values, says a 2001 academic paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Range Management. "In fact, adding these two indices ruined the predictive ability of the formula and… grazing fees have fallen further and further behind the private land lease rates through time."
Part of the reason that grazing fees have provoked such fury from politically conservative ranchers is that they're imposed by the federal government. And yet the BLM funnels 12 percent of its income from fees back to the states they came from. (For lands outside of grazing districts, it's 50 percent.) The rest of the income goes to a rangeland betterment fund and the U.S. Treasury. For the Forest Service, 25 percent goes back to the states and 50 percent to rangeland betterment.Some conservationists, like John Horning from WildEarth Guardians, think that working with ranchers to retire grazing permits altogether may be a more realistic way to protect rangeland health than increasing fees, which at the moment, is a political non-starter. "There are two things that have eclipsed (the grazing fee debate)," Horning says, "the public lands movement, which is all about acres of protection; the second is climate change. Grazing is just barely on the radar."
Tay Wiles is the online editor at High Country News. Follow @taywiles]]>
A few feet from a natural gas well known as Riddle #8S, delicate shoots of alabaster rice grass spring up from a swath of sandy loam. To the casual observer it's just another scraggly patch of bleached-out grass, but to Sherrie Landon, it's a biological triumph.
"This looks good," says Landon, a reclamation specialist with the Bureau of Land Management's Farmington, N.M., field office. "The vegetation is coming back very well."
The same can't be said for the dirt around a nearby older well, Riddle WH 3C. Here, only 50 yards away, the seeds didn't take. The lifeless, eroding hillside stands as a cruel reminder of the challenge of growing anything in the desert.
"Our level of success when it comes to re-vegetating just has to vary," says Landon, a solidly built blonde who likes to spend her weekends hunting oryx, an exotic African antelope introduced to New Mexico. "It's very challenging."
The San Juan Basin is the nation's second-largest natural gas basin. Unfortunately, the West's most productive fossil fuel basins -- the San Juan, the Powder River on the Wyoming/Montana border, Colorado's Piceance and southeastern New Mexico's Permian -- share another distinction: They are some of the harshest and most biologically stubborn environments to reclaim after drilling. If it doesn't rain, or if it rains at the wrong time, a season of work can be wasted.
Part of the challenge of healing this land is strictly biological. But another part is political and financial. As anyone who has flown over or driven through a natural gas hotspot can attest, this boom -- with its expanding networks of roads, well pads, waste ponds and pipeline corridors -- is leaving immense and ever-growing scars on the landscape. It will take as much energy and commitment to erase them as it took to create them. So far, however, reclamation has remained on the back burner, with the BLM, the industry, and even environmentalists putting most of their focus on the drilling boom itself.
But that may be starting to change. In 2005, Congress passed the National Energy Policy Act, which authorized new resources for the BLM to expedite reclamation efforts in energy hotspots. Since then, Landon and her five-member reclamation team have been on the ground ensuring that the industry cleans up as it develops new wells. To a lesser extent, they also oversee the reclamation of older well sites. Landon's team visits hundreds of sites each year -- first to talk over the reclamation plan with the gas company, then to check on the progress of the project, which is almost always carried out and paid for by the companies themselves.
Six other BLM "pilot" reclamation teams have formed under the new law, based in Carlsbad, N.M., Vernal, Utah, Glenwood Springs, Colo., Rawlins, Wyo., Buffalo, Wyo., and Miles City, Mont. Agency officials say the federal government's strengthened commitment to reclamation has fostered a cooperative new attitude in the energy industry. Reclamation has gone from an often-neglected afterthought to part of the standard way of doing business.
"One day these fields will have produced everything they can, and what will be there is the land and the wildlife," says Tony Herrell, deputy director of BLM's New Mexico state office. "So we need to return them to where they were before."
But successfully reclaiming oil and gas fields in the West will take a whole lot more money and personnel than are currently deployed. One observer likens the BLM's efforts to a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. If the federal government wants to avoid the kind of scars that still linger from long-ago mining and logging, it will have to scale up its work, and do so in a hurry.
One reason for skepticism is that the BLM, which oversees the development of all federally owned minerals on both public and private lands, has an abysmal track record. Across the West, some 109,000 abandoned oil and gas wells, developed before modern environmental laws, languish like open wounds, surrounded by bare, eroding well pads, contaminated soil and rutted roads.
The BLM estimates that just 15,472 -- less than 15 percent -- of these wells have been reclaimed. In the San Juan Basin alone, the agency has reclaimed only 103 of about 2,000 abandoned wells. And short of a large infusion of new cash and personnel, most of the abandoned wells will continue to suffer from neglect, says Tom Lahti, a landscape architect with the BLM's Wyoming state office.
"It's a workload that's out there that we need to do, but the priority sometimes isn't there to bring everything up to speed with our current requirements," says Lahti. And when the agency does tackle older, messier fields, "we have to work a little harder, or we may have to lessen our standards." He adds, "I'm not saying I agree with that, but that's what happens."
Even as the BLM struggles to clean up the past, it is racing headlong into the future. Currently, the BLM manages approximately 80,000 active wells on public lands in the West -- about 30,000 in the San Juan alone. In the next 15 to 20 years, the agency expects to permit an additional 126,000 wells, 10,000 of them in the San Juan Basin. The Wilderness Society estimates that more than a million acres will be graded, drilled or otherwise disturbed by new oil and gas development over the next two decades. When all of these wells run dry -- the average well has a lifespan of 30 years -- federal managers will have a truly massive reclamation job on their hands.
Yet BLM officials and industry leaders are confident that they can get on top of the current boom. They point to the agency's newly minted set of reclamation standards. Known as the "Gold Book," it directs companies to submit a plan outlining how they will reclaim the land, and to post bonds in the event of future bankruptcy. It emphasizes "ecosystem restoration" and includes a list of requirements, such as re-vegetating graded areas with native plants and re-contouring well pads. It also, for the first time, includes guidelines for reclaiming areas while a well is still active. Such "interim" reclamation includes shrinking the well's footprint from up to three acres to about one acre or less after drilling equipment is removed, before the well enters the production phase.
Most new permits have the new standards, says Bill Gewecke, a senior petroleum engineer for inspection and enforcement at BLM headquarters in Washington, D.C., although the decision to include them still rests with local BLM managers. But because most permits did not have these standards until a few years ago, the BLM has little regulatory authority to force industry to reclaim tens of thousands of already active wells to the new, higher standards.
Chris Hanson, manager of BLM's Buffalo, Wyo., field office, has required interim reclamation for every new well since 2003, but he says companies didn't start taking the directive seriously until 2005, when funding received under the pilot program allowed him to hire four new reclamation specialists. Last year, 18 percent of their inspections found violations of reclamation requirements, down from 57 percent in 2005.
The industry has come to accept the new way of doing things, says Stephanie Tomkinson, a biologist with Questar, an energy company with thousands of wells in production across the Interior West, particularly in Wyoming. These days, it's not unusual for an energy company to have two or three biologists or ecologists on staff, she says.
"Questar is not just a bunch of fat, whisky-drinking, cigar-smoking guys with their feet up on their desk," she said, during a BLM fluid minerals conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in May. "We interact with wildlife, we are ranchers, and we are hunters. That's why it's so important for us to focus on multiple use."
Roger Alexander of the BLM's Wyo-ming state office says there's also a strong financial incentive for industry to keep disturbance to a minimum. "It may cost more up front," he says, "but it saves them money down the road on reclamation."
Cooperative companies also reap a big PR benefit. Both the companies and the BLM are aware that the public wants its land taken care of, says Dave Evans, associate field manager for the agency's Carlsbad office. "The companies know they're under the microscope, like we are, and they know it's to their advantage to be seen in a better light."
In the San Juan Basin, Landon says that the industry has only recently begun to accept reclamation. "It took a long time to get the old oilfield mentality of 'push the dirt' changed," says Landon. But about two years ago, "they realized we were going to hold them to these standards, and now it's a successful effort."
Not everyone believes that the energy industry has turned over a new leaf. The major players may be doing some good reclamation, but most wells are drilled by small operators, and "the majority are doing a very shoddy job," says Jim Kuipers, a former mining engineer who now works as a consultant for environmental groups.
"They're not putting the land back together -- they're putting a Band-Aid on it," says Kuipers, who wrote a 2005 report for the Western Organization of Resources Councils on reclamation problems in the oil and gas industry.
BLM officials agree that small operators are a problem. "They're trying to make a dollar the best they can, they're on a tighter budget, so there's not much benefit for them (to reclaim the land)," says BLM's Bill Gewecke. "With the larger companies, they have a larger profile, and they can say, 'Look, we're being good stewards of the land.'"
The feds are falling down on enforcement, too. A 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that in 2004, the Buffalo, Wyo., field office achieved just 27 percent of its inspection goals. Seven out of the eight BLM field offices GAO staff visited had a backlog of reclamation inspections, and all eight offices had conducted only half of the inspections planned for the previous six years.
"Why should oil and gas companies step up and be responsible when BLM doesn't enforce it?" asks rancher and activist Tweeti Blancett, who has fought energy companies on her property in the San Juan Basin for years.
Don Likwartz, the oil and gas supervisor for the state of Wyoming, says that even when local BLM officials want to increase enforcement of reclamation guidelines, their bosses in Washington, D.C., have other priorities.
"In some recent years, with the pressure on to get more drilling permits issued, BLM has used those (inspection) people to issue permits instead of inspect sites," he says.
Gewecke acknowledges that reclamation is not the first priority. The BLM has its hands full just trying to make sure that all those new wells are drilled according to agency standards, and that companies pay the royalties they owe, which has been a major problem in recent years. The new pilot project is a good start, but it's only a handful of offices. The agency's reclamation efforts are still hamstrung by a lack of resources.
"We've been trying to get more funding for all the offices, but since it's an appropriation, it's hit or miss," he says. This year's budget saw only a slight increase in enforcement funding -- $30 million, compared to $28 million last year.
That's just not enough, Gewecke says. "To do what we feel we should be doing, it should be higher," he says, although he declines to specify how much money he thinks is necessary.
"We've always had an emphasis on reclamation, but it's just one of the things that gets pushed down the priority list pretty quickly when it comes to funding," he says. "We try to keep it going the best we can."
The money set aside to clean up abandoned well sites is also less than adequate much of the time. According to the Gold Book, companies are required to post a bond, or damage deposit, of at least $10,000 to cover reclamation costs on a lease in the event the company goes bankrupt or otherwise fails to pay for the work. But it costs around twice that much -- about $20,000 on average -- to actually reclaim a well, and there can be more than one well on the same lease.
The bonding system works like this: A company with leases throughout a particular state has to post a minimum $25,000 bond, and a company that operates nationwide posts at least a $150,000 bond, which covers all of its wells. How much a company's bond is depends on a variety of factors, including how many wells it has and where it operates. In Colorado, EnCana Oil and Gas has 3,652 wells, but its statewide bond is $235,000, which amounts to about $64 a well, according to Jim Kuipers. His 2005 study found that in five case studies, bonds fell short every time, to the tune of $120,000 to $6.8 million.
In one example of bonding gone wrong, Emerald Restoration and Production Company went bankrupt in 2001, leaving the Wyoming BLM holding the bag for $3.9 million in reclamation costs for 120 wells. The agency ended up suing the company. But Tom Lahti says that case was a rarity; most companies, he says, reclaim their wells without incident.
Companies these days rarely default on a bond because it's bad for business, says Tony Herrell, deputy director of BLM's New Mexico state office. "A reputable company is not going to default, because it would put them out of business," he says. "They would not be able to operate anywhere if they defaulted."
Both the shortcomings and strengths of the reclamation process are on display during an afternoon's drive around the San Juan Basin. Conoco-Phillips is the area's largest operator, with 10,000 active wells and leases covering half the acreage in the basin. The company is eager to display its leaner, greener approach. On a hill overlooking the San Juan Valley, reclamation specialist Virgil Chavez surveys a recent reclamation project on an active gas well. A burgeoning swath of blue grama grass covers the site of a former half-acre waste pit, looking for all the world like a hair transplant. When this well was drilled and the waste pit dug, the company saved the top 6 inches of soil, which contains all the nutrients that the plants need to grow. Once the pit was filled in, the workers put it back on top.
"Basically, everything we look at is a snapshot -- a short-term disturbance," Chavez says.
Along the transplant's edge runs a half-moon of tire tracks, cutting through the newly planted grass. John Zent, Conoco-Phillips' project development manager, says those were left by trucks circling too wide when leaving the well. "That's the kind of thing we're trying to avoid," he says.
Shirley McNall is a self-proclaimed "freelance activist" in Aztec, N.M., who has one well on her property but successfully fought off another one, which now stands on BLM land across the road. She commends Conoco-Phillips for its environmental work, but notes that the company, which acquired Burlington Resources last year, faces a big challenge fixing up all its newly acquired wells. Many of them have problems, she says, ranging from erosion to leakage.
An afternoon's worth of wandering through the sun-bleached basin, from private property on Crouch Mesa to federal land near Aztec, brings on a case of the reclamation blues. At least five well sites show no signs of recent TLC -- just two- to three-acre tracts of barren earth, punctuated by juniper-green wellheads, storage tanks and compressors. The reclamation revolution isn't over yet, it seems.
Zent acknowledges that the older wells are "a challenge." But he says that the company, encouraged by the BLM's San Juan Basin reclamation team, is dealing with them even as it drills new wells nearby, taking care of reclamation for both at the same time.
Down in New Mexico's pancake-flat Permian Basin, not far from the Texas border, reclamation is also getting more respect. Local operators -- the Carlsbad, N.M., phone book lists 87 oil and gas-related companies, including 10 oil producers, four oil and gas exploration and development companies, and 31 oilfield service contractors -- have come around to the idea, thanks in large part to a slow, delicate courtship, according to Jim Stovall, manager of the Carlsbad Field Office.
"I think it's the relationships we've built and the change of attitude, and realizing the need to look down the road," Stovall says. "There are some wonderful resources out there, and we need to make sure they're taken care of. We've gotta be just as high or higher on the environmental end as we are on the development side of things."
Still, Stovall, whose office processes about 750 drilling applications each year, acknowledges the challenge of juggling energy development with competing mandates to protect biodiversity and scenic values. The impacts of gas development extend far beyond the well pads themselves, he notes.
"We may reclaim x number of acres, but fragmentation affects many more acres of habitat" for the lesser prairie chicken, sand dune lizard and other species, says Stovall. "It's much more than just those acres disturbed."
That's exactly why the BLM should avoid leasing and developing intact wildlands, says Liz Thomas of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "I don't think you can put wildlife habitat back," she says. "Once you've lost a species, that's it. The habitat fragments (due to roads and wells) and it takes decades, sometimes hundreds of years, to get flora and fauna to come back."
Other critics argue that the BLM needs to demonstrate that it's able to heal industrialized lands before it considers new development. "I don't think we've seen enough successful interim and final reclamation that would justify using it as a wide-scale management approach," says Nada Culver of The Wilderness Society's Rocky Mountain regional office in Denver.
But the BLM is increasingly using the promise of reclamation to justify opening up ecologically sensitive areas. Last May, BLM National Director Jim Caswell said that his agency and the industry now have the means to carefully develop millions of additional acres of energy-rich public lands currently off-limits for environmental reasons. "With the means to make energy development a temporary use of the land, we don't have to choose between energy security and healthy lands," he said.
As an example, BLM officials point to plans for energy development on western Colorado's Roan Plateau. Although environmentalists criticize the agency's plan for allowing drilling on the top of the plateau, it does limit surface disturbance to 350 acres at any one time. That effectively forces operators to reclaim parts of well pads while they're still active before moving on to the next area. The BLM has adopted a similar approach for southern New Mexico's Otero Mesa, home of one of the few remaining intact expanses of Chihuahuan grasslands.
"It creates a big incentive for the operator to keep that footprint as much to a minimum as they can," says David Boyd of BLM's northwestern Colorado office in Glenwood Springs.
"Obviously that's a better approach than just opening an area, so I don't want to say don't try that," says Culver. "But we should try it in places where it makes sense and see what happens, not in a place where there's risk of irreversible destruction."
Jim Kuipers believes the oil and gas industry needs the same kind of standardized, mandatory reclamation requirements as the mining industry, which has a legal obligation to put the land back together under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. But BLM officials say new laws aren't likely -- or necessary.
"I don't think reclamation has really gotten out of hand," says the BLM's Bill Gewecke. "It's one of those things where we have a tendency at times to put it down at a lower priority or have in the past, but we're trying to get it to where we're doing a better job."
In Wyoming, the BLM's Tom Lahti has put together statewide reclamation standards that go further than the ones in the Gold Book. They are intended to ensure that all operators on federal lands re-contour the site after production ends, enhance the soil, re-establish "self-perpetuating" plant communities, keep invasive plants from taking hold and monitor the site to make sure everything is going according to plan.
Lahti notes that Wyoming's standards do not specify the methods to be used, because those can vary from place-to-place depending on site conditions; they simply mandate the end results. But Lahti stops short of predicting that this approach to reclamation will gain favor West-wide. "People are afraid to cross boundary lines," he says. "I'd probably say that this won't be the norm, but I think there's a benefit to doing it agency-wide."
Lahti believes the best way to make sure reclamation gets done is through the planning process. Many field offices are in the midst of revising their management plans, which are updated every 15 years or so. If strict standards are incorporated into these plans, then every operator will have a legal obligation to abide by them. "I think there's an opportunity there."
But the land will likely still be recovering long after those plans come up for revision again -- and long after all the natural gas has been pumped out. Aesthetics can be improved within a growing season or two, but re-creating a healthy landscape can take a lifetime -- or several lifetimes. "To get to the point where the land will evolve toward that pre-disturbance condition, it will take centuries," Lahti says. "It's that human mark on the landscape."
Out here on the wine- and alabaster-colored mesas of the San Juan Basin, Sherrie Landon has been coaxing grass to grow under the unforgiving New Mexico sun for six and a half years now, determined to make that mark a little less visible. "We fight a hard battle here," she says. "But we will win."
This story was funded by a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation.]]>
Utah is ground zero this year for an attempt by some Western states to claim federal lands. The professors argued that public-land management by federal agencies, however messy it might appear, remains necessary, given the costs and the myriad interests involved, and that a land transfer would certainly fail in court. Lockhart replied that federal mismanagement was responsible for bark beetle infestations and devastating wildfires. Flashing a photograph of a dead bull elk that had been caught in a fire, she railed: "This is a representation of the animals that are slaughtered because of lack of management." Ivory pointed to a map of the United States that contrasted the West's vast public lands with the East's obvious lack of them. "Why the difference?" he asked, rhetorically.
The answer, of course, has to do with federal land purchases from France, Mexico and Russia, between 1781 and 1867, as well as the seizures of territory from Native Americans, all of which created U.S. public lands. But Ivory, a business lawyer and the newest champion of federal-to-state land transfers, did not delve into any of that. Instead, he denounced the federal government's "one-size fails all" management policy, saying the states could do better on their own.
Ivory sponsored Utah's Transfer of Public Lands Act, which was signed into law in 2012 and insists that the feds turn over 20 million acres of public land. He claims the government promised to some day transfer land to the states, pointing to ambiguous language in Utah's statehood legislation. During the Cedar City debate, McCool, who is the director of the University of Utah's Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, told the crowd no such "magic promise" exists. "These lands right now belong to all of us, all 314 million Americans," he said. "I think that's a pretty good setup."
Keiter, a law professor and director of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land, Resources, and the Environment at the University of Utah, explained later that Ivory's legal argument, if it were to ever find support in the courts, would give all federal land in the West to the states, which have similar statehood legislation. "The entire public-land system that we all know, and most of us greatly appreciate, (would be) gone," he said.
In Utah, some polls show more than half of voters support a public-land transfer. But regionwide, there is less enthusiasm. A recent poll by the Center for American Progress found 52 percent opposed to the idea, compared to 42 percent in favor. And while Westerners still like to gripe about the federal government overall, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Forest Service all had approval ratings higher than 70 percent. (The Bureau of Land Management had a rating of only 48 percent.)
So it would be easy to dismiss Ivory's vision of a Brave New West as a pipedream, perfectly timed to fire up the far-right base for a midterm election. But 42 percent in favor is not a small number. And while Western states have made similar demands in the past that have gone nowhere, this recent iteration is worthy of attention: It is backed by big money, and it is gaining quiet momentum.
Over the last two years, eight Western states have pursued this idea in one way or another. Wyoming has a task force currently studying legal avenues for a land transfer. Arizona passed a bill like Utah's in 2012, but Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it. And last month, Montana lawmakers tabled their own version; it remains to be seen whether its next Legislature will take up the issue.
Proponents often point to Ivory's legislation as a model. Ivory has championed the idea in speeches across the region as president of the American Lands Council, a nonprofit that supports public-land transfers. Council members include 46 county boards of commissioners, who pay heavy dues with taxpayer dollars, as well as private interests, including Canyon Construction, a mining construction company, the Nevada Cattlemen's Association and Deseret Power. Americans for Prosperity, a powerful dark-money group founded by the billionaires Charles and David Koch, is also a member of the group.
Ivory's rhetoric, meanwhile, resembles the language put out by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a consortium of corporations that produces "model" legislation for ultra-conservative state lawmakers across the country. Federal ownership of the land "prevents the states from accessing the abundant natural resources contained on those lands," ALEC claims in one such model. "This resolution seeks to remedy this situation."
Examined closely, though, the "remedy" looks more like snake oil. Keiter, the law professor, points out that historically, in land transfers and exchanges, the federal government did not grant mineral rights to known reserves. Without mineral rights, the states could not afford to manage the lands they'd obtain under the scheme. The Denver-based Center for Western Priorities notes in a recent study that the burdens of fighting wildfires alone could easily overwhelm states. In Idaho in 2012, for instance, the U.S. Forest Service spent $169 million on fire suppression — more than three times the state's law-enforcement spending.
"Proponents of this measure are conveniently silent on how they would afford these costs without raising taxes or selling the land or throwing it open to mining and drilling," says Jessica Goad, advocacy director at the center. Indeed, those with the most to gain from land transfers are the corporations that back Ivory's nonprofit.
In an interview, Ivory said that Utah has put aside $2 million to prepare potential litigation against the feds, and that the state will want mineral rights, too. "When you manage land, you manage the whole estate," he said.
His allies are still looking for ways to make the transfer work — or at least get people excited about the prospect. On Oct. 9, the American Lands Council hosted more than 80 officials from 14 states to discuss the land-transfer initiative. That kind of support means the issue is not going away, Ivory said. "The genie is out of the bottle."
This story was originally titled "Bad medicine" in the print edition.]]>
"The intent of the bill is to once and for all settle the question about who owns public lands in Utah," Dabakis, a Democrat who opposes the transfer act, told me last week. "We all just want finality."
The land transfer movement, which has existed in Utah since the 1930s, was most recently resurrected in the 2012 Transfer of Public Lands Act. Opponents say the act is legally dubious and would fail in court, if tested.
But Sen. Dabakis insists the purpose of his bill is not necessarily to halt the transfer act, but to end the decades-long broader movement—whether that happens through the court upholding or killing the act.
"[The bill] has nothing to do with my position on the act," he said in a recent interview. "It's about forcing the hand of everybody. It's about forcing the hand of those who've made careers out of this dispute."
That's a reference to the fact that Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, who sponsored the 2012 act and also works full-time chairing an organization (the American Lands Council) that advocates for land transfers across the West, is professionally vested in this issue.
Ivory did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. But he told Utah's Fox 13 News earlier this month that he opposes Dabakis' bill.
"I would speculate that Ken Ivory knows he'd lose in court, and Senator Dabakis has called the bluff," said Jessica Goad, advocacy director at the progressive nonprofit Center for Western Priorities. "Representative Ivory says he's working on the strategy in Congress, instead, but frankly I'd say that doesn't stand much of a chance either…. Utah's taxpayers are losing with this fight that's been going on for so long. The sooner it ends, the better for them."
But Ivory's commitment to the transfer movement, along with Utah's history of animosity toward the federal government, suggests the fight may not end soon, no matter what happens.The idea of transferring public lands has persisted, despite the endeavor's repeated failures, dating back to the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act, which made the feds responsible for setting grazing rules. That federal law caused a stir among Utah members of the American National Livestock Association, who wanted the more acquiescent state government to control grazing rights on public land.
A turnover of public lands from the feds would transform the West. But scholars say the legal hook to turn them over doesn't exist.
"The Constitution gives the federal government the authority to retain and manage that land," said John Ruple, a professor at the University of Utah's College of Law. Transfer advocates say state enabling acts—foundational documents for state governments—require the feds to hand over control of public land to states. But Ruple and other opponents of transfers disagree: "We don't think the state can make that claim. The state's enabling act does not create an obligation, and in fact [in the act] the state is disclaiming any future claims to federal lands."
And the argument that state governments can do a better job of managing public land would be irrelevant in court.
"Legally, it's like saying because your neighbor doesn't take good care of his house, his lawn is overgrown and his car is on blocks, and you think you could do better, that means you have the right to take over his property," Ruple said.
Still, Ivory is keeping the argument alive. The same year he introduced the Transfer of Public Lands Act, he founded the American Lands Council, a non-profit that coordinates advocacy and lobbying for federal-to-state land transfers across the West. Since 2012, counties from at least nine of the 11 contiguous Western states have become paying members of the council, and several other Western states have drafted legislation to pave the way for transfers. The American Lands Council claimed revenue of $228,000 on its 2013 taxes, according to research by the Center for Western Priorities, up from about $123,000 in 2012. The ALC also claimed $95,000 for Ivory's salary in 2013.
"I think Representative Ken Ivory is very committed to this cause," Goad said. "He works on it more than 40 hours a week. We also know from looking at the tax forms that he's personally benefitting, making money off of this cause. So he's committed to the cause, but he's also committed personally to there being a cause."
Ivory's interests not withstanding, Dabakis' bill is gaining traction. Earlier this month, it passed Utah's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee with support from both Democrats and Republicans, including Rep. Keven Stratton, who co-sponsors two other bills that make way for a land transfer.
"Some of the TPLA supporters, I think, are optimistic the court might order the feds to turn over the deed," Dabakis said. "And my guess is, win, lose or draw, they also just want finality."Among Western states, the land transfer movement has made the most ground in Utah. But it's certainly not the only state where the movement is taking place. Here's what's happening elsewhere:
Kindra McQuillan is an editorial intern at High Country News.]]>
On Nov. 12, the Interior Department approved the 990-mile long Gateway West line, but left the door open for the Bureau of Land Management to reject proposed sections through southwest Idaho that might impact private farmland and a national conservation area. Though it remains uncertain whether Gateway will be built in its entirety, proponents say this is an important step in a larger project: the $6 billion, 2,000-mile Energy Gateway transmission line, which could strengthen the grid in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Gateway West is scheduled for completion by 2021.
Thousands of locals -- mostly Navajos, Hispanics and Pueblo Indians, many of whom live in poverty -- use the region's piñon-juniper forests for cooking and heating, collecting dead trees with a permit. But green juniper is the firewood of choice in the region, and demand seems to have surged in recent years, perhaps due to economic hardships or rising propane prices. BLM officials have cracked down over the last year, hiring veterans to patrol the land, issuing citations, confiscating chainsaws, and opening a hotline to report illegal cutting. They're also trying to find ways to help locals lessen fuel needs through increased energy efficiency.
That has helped slow the killing, but the juniper poachers are creative and tenacious, says Rio Puerco Field Office Manager Tom Gow, and they have taken to doing their sawing at night to elude patrols. Still, he says, "We're going to catch them, it's just a matter of time."
Regional environmentalists, meanwhile, are pushing for stronger protections for the badlands. The Rio Puerco BLM Field Office's new draft of its resource management plan is now open to public comment.]]>
Cedar Mesa is just one of the places that would lose protection under six proposed resource management plans recently released by Utah's BLM. The documents cement a 20-year management strategy for wilderness, cultural resource preservation, energy development, hiking, grazing and motorized recreation across about 11 million acres of public land, including nearly all of the state's red-rock country.
In their current forms, the plans open about 80 percent of this land to energy development. Nearly half a million acres of unique natural and cultural sites, like Cedar Mesa, will lose their status as areas of critical environmental concern. That means more visitors and fewer protective measures. Off-road vehicles will be able to crisscross the delicate desert landscape on more than 17,000 miles of designated routes. The vast majority of roadless areas with wilderness value will be opened to both motorized recreation and oil and gas drilling.
"It's the Bush administration's last stand to make sure Utah's public lands are open for development," says Liz Thomas, attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. To make matters worse, it's nearly impossible for the public to participate in the process because the BLM is rushing the changes through.
"We've been buried," Thomas says. "The drafts came out bam, bam, bam, right at Christmas. … And then bam! This summer, we have six (proposed) plans out."
Even if the next administration changes the management priorities for public lands, it will be difficult to change these plans because amending them is an onerous process.
It took years for the six plans to reach draft form — as long as seven in some cases. Then, over a seven-week period, the BLM released each 1,000-plus-page document on the heels of another, giving those who wanted to read and comment just a week or two to do so before the next one was made public. "It's a shame that the whole thing couldn't have been handled with … more input from the community," says Dale Parriott, executive director of Ride with Respect, a Moab-based organization that promotes responsible off-road recreation.
Why the hurry? "We really need to get these wrapped up because we're running out of money," explains Don Ogaard, lead planner for the Utah BLM. The fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, and the Utah BLM cannot suck any more money out of the national coffers for the plans, he says. All of the records of decision will be signed by the end of October.
Those who've managed to read and comment on the resource management plans have pointed out the numerous impacts that the flurry of energy development would have on wildlife and natural and cultural resources. Dust and magnesium chloride, kicked up by the increased traffic that accompanies oil and gas drilling, could irreparably damage cultural artifacts like ancient rock art. Dust and emissions from drilling will likely degrade air quality — not just on public lands, but in the national parks they surround, and the additional lighting from the drill rigs will brighten night skies. The increased energy development will fragment the habitat of mule deer and bighorn sheep, and disrupt fragile desert soils. Despite all these concerns, the BLM — which is also working under intense time pressure — has made few substantive changes to its plans.
Wilderness and cultural resource advocates applaud the agency for moving from an open system, which allowed off-roaders to ride anywhere, to restricting traffic to particular routes. But they worry that there are just too many routes, and that the vehicles will further disrupt and fragment vulnerable soils, artifacts and habitats.
According to Jerry Spangler, executive director of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, the BLM has surveyed no more than 5 or 6 percent of the land in question, meaning that the agency doesn't even know what cultural resources exist on the land it oversees. As a result, the BLM could unwittingly allow off road vehicles to cut through and damage unidentified archaeological sites.
"You know, that's a real concern," Ogaard agrees. But he says the agency simply doesn't have the resources to conduct comprehensive surveys. The lack of money makes the hasty wrap-up of the management plans a challenge for the BLM as well as the public. "This isn't the way we wanted things to work out either," he says.]]>
If the connection between logging and closing libraries isn't clear to you, then you don't live in Oregon. Here, the connection is the stuff of crisis, the subject of daily news stories and of increasingly desperate political maneuvering. It is a crisis that reveals much about changing expectations and attitudes concerning government services, taxes and public-land management in the West.
In Oregon, over half of all land is in the hands of the federal government, primarily the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. This situation is repeated throughout the West: For example, publicly owned lands cover 48 percent of Arizona, 50 percent of Idaho, 57 percent of Utah, and 84 percent of Nevada. Since federal land can't be taxed, counties with high percentages of federal land have reduced tax bases, making it a challenge to fund public services.
For almost 90 years, this problem was resolved in Oregon and other Western states by a deal with the federal government, whereby rural counties received a share of the revenues generated by logging on federal land. It was an abundant income stream, and it supported excellent schools and libraries, while allowing property tax rates to remain low.
In the 1990s, that system broke down. Logging on federal land fell sharply, partly due to environmental regulations built into the Northwest Forest Plan, and partly due to the changing economics of the timber industry. At the same time, the Western taxpayer revolt was in full swing, resulting in tight restrictions on local governments' ability to raise revenue.
By 2000, timber-dependent counties in Oregon and throughout the West were facing a full-blown funding crisis. In response, Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act to provide transitional assistance to these communities. Oregon counties, with the greatest loss in timber receipts, received the lion's share of the grants -- over $220 million per year. The funding was never intended to be a permanent, however, and it expired in September 2006. Efforts by Oregon's congressional delegation to pass an extension of the law have so far failed.
The Bush administration has proposed its own solution, which would pay for a four-year extension of county payments "through the sale of identified national forest system lands," says the Forest Service. But Western legislators have declared this privatization scheme — one of several the Bush administration has proposed — as "dead on arrival." So whether or not a last-minute deal is made to extend federal payments, it seems clear that rural counties face a future without this source of income.
The immediate consequences for county budgets and public services will be catastrophic. Coos County, on the Oregon coast, will lose over half of its discretionary budget. Josephine County will be reduced to one sheriff vehicle to patrol an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Jackson County, where I live, will completely shut down each of its 15 libraries.
It is tempting to blame this crisis on over-zealous environmentalists, and indeed, local newspapers are full of letters-to-the-editor doing just that. Just return logging to 1980s levels, the writers declare, and our problems would be solved. This ignores the unsustainable intensity of that logging, as well as drastic changes in the timber industry in the past 15 years. It also avoids taking a hard look at our own responsibilities as citizens and taxpayers.
According to the Tax Foundation, Oregon ranks 36th among the 50 states in per capita total tax burden. Residents of Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and Idaho, for example, all pay more. Oregon has never had a state sales tax, and through the 1990s, voters passed several measures limiting property taxes.
There was little planning, at either the state or county level, for how to adapt to the end of the federal "transitional payments" in 2006, even though many formerly timber-dependent counties in Oregon have successfully made the transition to more diversified economies. My county, for example, is now a regional center for retail and health care services, and is a magnet for retirees. Many of our new residents cannot imagine a county without libraries.
Rural counties in Oregon and throughout the West face some big decisions. We must decide what level of public services — police, schools and libraries, among others — we consider essential. Then, with traditional Western self-reliance, we must pay for those services. With few exceptions, we have the means. The question is, do we have the will?
The message to the BLM: Beef up your conservation efforts. Under the agency's mandate to manage for "multiple use and sustained yield," grazing, mining and drilling have historically trumped conservation, while lands with significant scenic, biological or cultural resources were usually relinquished to the National Park Service.
Then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tried to change that in 2000 when he created the National Landscape Conservation System, now totaling 27 million acres of national monuments, wilderness study areas, wild and scenic rivers, and historic trails. It's like a more rugged version of the national parks, complete with scenery, wildlife, and archaeological and cultural sites. But NLCS lands are typically more arid, at lower elevations and less developed, lacking visitor centers, interpretive signs and paved roads. They're also less restricted: Dogs, mountain bikes, fishing and hunting are allowed. Babbitt hoped these areas would foster an agency-wide conservation ethic.
But the NLCS wasn't even officially recognized by Congress until 2009. Although national conservation lands make up more than 10 percent of BLM holdings, only about 3 percent of the agency's budget goes to them. Over the last 10 years, the BLM has tried to standardize the system's management and raise its public profile. However, locals often protest designations that might limit use, say, if off-road vehicle access is restricted to protect natural or cultural resources.
Feeding such anxiety, an internal Interior Department investigation last year found that NLCS officials worked too closely with environmental groups, particularly the National Wildlife Federation. On the other hand, without an official mandate, NLCS managers have often given conservation low priority. A resource management plan issued this summer allows 121 new oil, natural gas and carbon dioxide drill sites in Colorado's Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, 80 percent of which is leased for mineral development.
Salazar's order outlines how the BLM can better "conserve, protect, and restore" national conservation lands, but some doubt that it will have much impact. Greg Mumm, director of the Blue-Ribbon Coalition, an ORV advocacy group, calls the order "red meat for the extreme environmental groups. I don't see how it changes much on the ground." And NLCS Director Carl Rountree admits that the part of the order that gives his office directorate status within the BLM is mostly "about perception" -- a symbolic promotion that won't affect how he does his job.
But many believe Salazar's order is a milestone for the system's evolution into a recognizable type of protected public land with real conservation and economic value. Patty Limerick, faculty director of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, says the order is "a very big deal," because it gives BLM managers clear authority to prioritize conservation on designated lands. Brian O'Donnell, director of the Conservation Lands Foundation, agrees, calling it "pretty innovative." For example, while federal lands are typically protected as islands -- a national park here, a national forest there -- the order directs the BLM to work with adjacent public and private landowners to enable wildlife to move between protected areas.
Whether Salazar's decree will yield results on the ground remains to be seen. Kevin Mack, The Wilderness Society's NLCS campaign director, says BLM Director Bob Abbey will have to clarify how the agency will implement it.
After the order's signing, participants at the Las Vegas gathering brainstormed ways to integrate science into management and build community partnerships. And many escaped the gleaming hotel corridors to hike or bike at the nearby Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. One of almost 900 pieces of the NLCS, Red Rock hosts some of the best winter rock climbing on the continent. Among its cliffs and dirt trails, Salazar's words resonated: "We know that healthy ecosystems and healthy economies are interrelated -- and this is especially true for the West."]]>


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Kerry L. Skinner
67 N Marshside Pl
The Woodlands, TX 77389
Think LifeChange Missionaries
Joe Horner has teamed together with Dr. Kerry Skinner to promote the message of sin, repentance, and revival in America. Joe Horner serves as Dean of Online Training to help promote the message and to provide training for churches in the areas of marriage and family.
|Joe Horner
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Christening Gift
jenson13October 27, 2012
Need ideas for a christening gift for a baby girl. Haven't been to one in many a moon. Its for a friend's baby. Only want to spend about $20/25.
There is a web site, Baby Heirlooms, that has some good choices. We've given the Tower of Time (for 5 years of handprints on the baby's birthday) to lots of folks and it has always been a big hit. There are lots of other gifts to choose from, too.
Here is a link that might be useful: Baby Heirlooms


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Base metal chain sold by the foot.
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Search the collections
Where is it from?
- A Place & Date Depicted Batesford, Australia
Similar items over time
Negative - Batesford District, Victoria, circa 1928 Reg. No: MM 7022
- Description Of Content:
- Men cutting their winter supply of fire wood.
- Acquisition Information:
- Copied from A. Bucher, 1988
- Acknowledgement:
- The Biggest Family Album of Australia, Museum Victoria
More information
|Tagged with:
|agricultural workers, farms, logging, oil engines, saw benches
|Themes this item is part of:
|Engineering Collection, Images & Image Making Collection, Sustainable Futures Collection, The Biggest Family Album in Australia Collection
|Primary Classification:
|Secondary Classification:
|Heating & Cooling
|Tertiary Classification:
|firewood collection
|People Depicted:
|Buchter Family
|Negative: Black & White; 35 mm
|Place & Date Depicted:
|Batesford District, Victoria, Australia, circa 1928
This item is part of the following themes:
Similar items
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Read the criteria and submit a hot site!
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Cash For Sex Tape is a one of a kind, highly entertaining site. It follows real couples on their wild adventures including their sex life. Maggie recently gave them a big score increase and the $15 dollar savings is an added bonus.
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One of our favorite networks, Brazzers Network, is turning 10, and to celebrate, they're offering up a special discount price of just $10 for your first month's access to their collection of sites which scored 91 in our last look.
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In their highest review to date, Maggie just bumped up Naughty America to a 91.0 today. With a huge collection of porn scenes that people seem to love, daily updates, and new 4K videos, it's easy to see why!
Duke bumped the Bangbros Network back up to 90.0 today in our latest review for the network. As expected, he loved the years of archives here, the fun reality scenes, plus the daily updates to make sure they continue to grow.
Brazzers.com amazingly continued their upward climb with their latest review released today, and they've hit a 92.0 from Duke this time around. It's all thanks to the huge collection and updates, and awesome quality and options.
What more can we say about Reality Kings? They had another review today, and they continued to dominate the field with a 93.0. Expect tons of content, a wide variety of fun scenes, and awesome quality these days.
Maggie got a chance to take another look at Fast Times At NAU today and kept them strong with another 80.0 this time around. They have fun hardcore scenes, good numbers, decent quality, and even a discount waiting for you.
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Hot Review: Real Wife Stories (85.0) - Review - Visit Site


text:
How to tell if injured by cold?
Hi, so this has been my first year with figs.
I bought 2 chicago hardy on a trip to NYC last year. (I live faaar upstate) They grew like weeds. (filling a gallon, 3 gallon and finally going into a 5 gallon pot before the end of growing season) I got 7 fruit off of each plant around September and let them stay outside until we got our first frost. They've been out on our unheated porch ever since.
I've read that Chicago hardy will take more cold than any other fig and die back to roots if too cold, but I can't find any reliable info about WHEN this happens. We've had an unseasonably warm winter.(for zone 4 in upstate, that's one day of -15 w/ windchill, as opposed to a couple days of -30 w/ windchill)I went out and checked them yesterday and the trees looked exactly as I had left them a couple of months ago. I took a razor slice cut of bark off of one and it was green underneath. Does that mean they've survived without dieback? Does anyone know exactly what their cold threshhold is? And How much cold they can take before dieback?
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for any answers!
In Order for the branches to be alive the leaf buds have to be alive on the green ,live branches.
You need to dissect dormant buds and see if they are green or brown inside.
The branch is alive to the point where you find the first live bud.
If buds are dead the branch will eventually die later,even if green now.!


text:
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WE appreciated that Chuck was willing to meet us on Sunday for a pick-up and return on Sunday eve was easy w/ the "key drop" Also received the correct credit card charge right away today. thanks!!!!
It was a very easy process. Thank you.
The vehicle was ready 30 minutes early. The process of renting the truck was easy. The size was perfect for our needs.
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Jimmy's robot dog, Goddard, is like a hi-tech, barking, Swiss army knife. He can transform into all sorts of useful tools and gets his puppy-like energy from the wall outlet, into which he's plugged to recharge. Did we mention he's a portable phone booth, too? Or that he can simulate Jimmy's voice? Well he is...and he can! He may be the ultimate in cybernetics, but like any dog, he can't resist chasing cats, begging for treats, or burying a really fine chrome bone.
Goddard Pictures
- Nicktoons: Dance Off, Clash On!
Baddies are crashing the Nicktoons par-tay. Dance them back out the door!
- Which SpongeBob Character Are You?
Want to know who YOU would be if you lived under the sea? Quiz it now!


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The Bizarre Life and Troubling Death of DarkSide
By Anna Merlan
The Ten Most Badass Band Names in DFW
By Lee Escobedo
The Cheap Bastard Guide to Dallas
By Alice Laussade
Patio Drunk: Ten Of Dallas' Best Patios
By Scott Reitz
What Will Happen to All the Books?
By Claire Lawton
Snoop Dogg is Headlining our St. Patrick's Day Concert
By Kiernan Maletsky
The Ticket's Sean Bass and His Sobering Stance on...
By Anna Merlan
Once one overcomes the powerful urge to ring up Mr. von Trier and introduce him to wild new concepts such as "tripod," "dolly," and "steadicam" (as well as "script" and "logic"), it becomes marginally possible to settle into his latest effort, a thudding and profoundly nonsensical tear-jerker set (rather arbitrarily) in an imaginary America (a country, word has it, that von Trier has never actually visited...but fair enough--odds are, George Lucas has never been to Naboo, either). It's 1962 in a small town in Washington State, and a symbol of feminine determination and innocence by the name of Selma (pop singer Björk, whose name, for the record, rhymes with "smirk," not "fork") has arrived from Czechoslovakia to starve pathetically with her hopeful 10-year-old son, Gene (Vladica Kostic). Perhaps the lessons in Cockney dialect cost her a pretty penny (the chanteuse herself has commented that her accent is "pretty fucked"), or perhaps finding employment in the only sheet-metal shop in lumber country exhausted her resources, but for whatever reason, Selma and son are forced to squat in a little shack on the property of struggling policeman Bill (Dave Morse) and his spendthrift wife, Linda (Cara Seymour), who are basically a Ward-and-June unit with the denial showing. Oh yeah, and Selma is going blind.
When she's not risking life and limb banging out stainless-steel sinks, Selma focuses on her life's one true passion--senseless self-sacrifice. Oops, make that musicals--that's right, musicals--because "nothing dreadful ever happens" in them. (This peculiar opinion is shared by von Trier in the press notes. Do they not have access to Sondheim in Europe?) A creature of joy and light and wonder and rainbows trapped in an austere, oppressive environment, Selma lives for musicals, a passion she shares with her equally dialectically challenged friend and co-worker, Kathy (Catherine Deneuve). When Selma isn't busily staving off the utterly unmotivated advances of local yokel Jeff (Peter Stormare), she and Kathy attend musicals at the local cinema, where, to the annoyance of other audience members who "paid good money" to get in, Kathy provides a running commentary on the imagery Selma's failing eyes can no longer see. In some of the very few plausible (and genuinely moving) dramatic sequences, Kathy also aids Selma in their rehearsals of an amateur production of The Sound of Music, in which the gibbering, thick-skulled simpleton portrays a very unlikely Maria.
The thrust of the drama--such that it is--comes from Selma's unhappy dilemma. She has grown comfortable with her encroaching blindness--a genetic disorder that has her tapping the railroad tracks with her foot to find her way home, or finger-testing a water glass to see if it's full--but she cannot accept a similar fate for Gene. "In Czechoslovakia, I saw a film," she explains to her neighbors, "and they were eating candy from a tin just like this, and I was thinking how wonderful it must be in the United States!" When Bill and Linda give her the container of Almond Roca, she uses it to conceal her paltry stash of cash, which she's been socking away to pay for Gene's operation--a vague situation she steadfastly refuses to explain to anyone, not even her son. Criticized for being a communist and browbeaten for being a bad mother (despite her affection for her bountiful new homeland, she takes no joy in her son receiving a shiny new bicycle), Selma sees her life become a sort of monomania, to work her fingers to the bone so that her son might see.
Of course, if this all worked out, we'd have soap opera melodrama but no movie, so von Trier has spiked the punch with ridiculous and volatile plot points. But to her credit, Björk holds the movie together, and while she's about as much of an actress as Bruce Willis is a pop star, her natural charisma and the overwhelming intensity of her emotions should blind a lot of viewers to the ludicrousness of the story and the intentionally rotten videography by veteran director of photography Robby Müller (known for his work with Jim Jarmusch, Alex Cox, and Wim Wenders). Truly, it is a crying shame that the musical segments in Dancer in the Dark were not preserved in Cinemascope and Technicolor, because they're not only the best parts of the movie (brilliantly choreographed by Vincent Patterson, who has helped Madonna and Michael Jackson get a groove on), they are, in both senses, moving pieces of art.
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Regular Article
Dynamics of hyporheic flow and heat transport across a bed-to-bank continuum in a large regulated river
Article first published online: 22 MAR 2011
Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.
Water Resources Research
Volume 47, Issue 3, March 2011
Additional Information
How to Cite
2011), Dynamics of hyporheic flow and heat transport across a bed-to-bank continuum in a large regulated river, Water Resour. Res., 47, W03524, doi:10.1029/2010WR009794., , , , , and (
Publication History
- Issue published online: 22 MAR 2011
- Article first published online: 22 MAR 2011
- Manuscript Accepted: 11 JAN 2011
- Manuscript Revised: 28 DEC 2010
- Manuscript Received: 24 JUL 2010
- hyporheic zone;
- regulated river;
- heat;
- riverbed;
- riparian;
- temperature
[1] The lower Colorado River (LCR) near Austin, Texas is heavily regulated for hydropower generation. Daily water releases from a dam located 23 km upstream of our study site in the LCR caused the stage to fluctuate by more than 1.5 m about a mean depth of 1.3 m. As a result, the river switches from gaining to losing over a dam storage-release cycle, driving exchange between river water and groundwater. We assessed the hydrologic impacts of this by simultaneous temperature and head monitoring across a bed-to-bank transect. River-groundwater exchange flux is largest close to the bank and decreases away from the bank. Correspondingly, both the depth of the hyporheic zone and the exchange time are largest close to the bank. Adjacent to the bank, the streambed head response is hysteretic, with the hysteresis disappearing with distance from the bank, indicating that transient bank storage affects the magnitude and direction of vertical exchange close to the bank. Pronounced changes in streambed temperature are observed down to a meter. When the river stage is high, which coincides with when the river is coldest, downward advection of heat from a previous cycles' warm-water pulse warms the streambed. When the river is at its lowest stage but warmest temperature, upwelling groundwater cools the streambed. Future research should consider and focus on a more thorough understanding of the impacts of dam regulation on the hydrologic, thermal, biogeochemical, and ecologic dynamics of rivers and their hyporheic and riparian zones.


text:
Remove the center chokes with a knife or grapefruit spoon.
Aglaia Kremezi
turns to Mediterranean traditions for ways to keep up with an unlikely crop in
In Greece, Home Is Where the Artichoke Is .
A filmmaker animated hundreds of still photographs to create this Big Apple flip book
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