WWPBlog

As Larry Craig’s political future looks like it is drawing to an end so to it marks the weakening of Idaho and the West’s welfare rancher’s direct line into Washington.

You may remember Idaho state representative Bert Brackett’s wailing about the Murphy Complex Fire being the fault of Western Watersheds Project. Well, until now, all welfare ranchers like Bert had to do was call up Senator Larry Craig to fix those pesky problems associated with adherance to environmental law.

Molly Ivans continues to remind us of one of many corrupt benefits that have been enabled by the arrangement when the expansion of an airforce bombing range included Bert Brackett’s public allotment:

Rancher Brackett can still run his cattle on the public land, but his cows could be traumatized, so Sen.
Craig wants to compensate him — with up to $1 million. Brackett’s daughter happens to work for Craig. Nice, hey?

Craig’s effectivesness is highlighted by Ralph Maughan in describing the coveted position in the Senate built with years of seniority held in subcommittees of political influence over public land management.

With the Murphy Complex Fire, Brackett was signalling Craig for help once again. Conservationists had been anticipating a sleezy back-door rider tacked to an appropriations bill this fall to justify more grazing on already denuded land. But with Craig’s diminished position, hope that these political manueverings will begin to fall with Craig have been given a new life.

Some good news for wildlife in Washington’s Little Pend Oreille refuge.

The refuge is an area of mixed-conifer forests with lakes, streams and wetlands that provides habitat for Canada lynxes, bald eagles, moose, minks, white-tailed deer and more than 200 species of birds.

A federal judge has blocked the Washington Cattlemen’s Association attempt to re-open the refuge to cattle grazing.

However, “Steve Fowler, assistant manager of the refuge, said grazing is not totally banned. ‘Grazing to benefit wildlife is what we are obligated to do,’ Fowler said.” Apparently, managers are still grasping to justify grazing by pointing to their use to treat weeds, an odd claim considering the disturbance of soil is usually what spread them. Cattle disturb soil.

The refuge will be looking for goats citing the lack of incentive to bring cows in.

This opinion piece was submitted to the Star News, a newspaper of McCall, Idaho, and mountain communities of West Central Idaho. It was written by Debra K. Ellers, Western Idaho Director of Western Watersheds Project :

The Star News article on August 23, 2007 “When they ‘cry wolf’ it is for real” glossed over the real problem: private interests grazing domestic sheep on public lands.
A few points about sheep on our local public lands:

• The Payette National Forest has about 12,000 domestic sheep permitted to graze on our public lands within a 50 mile radius of McCall. Grazing is allowed near popular recreation areas such as HazardLakes, Grassy Mountain Lakes, Loon Lake and Twenty Mile Creek. Folks out in these places to experience tranquility and fresh air may instead find barnyard noise, sheep manure and aggressive guard dogs.

• A band of sheep in one location often numbers over 1,000 head. The trailing and bedding of hundreds or thousands of sheep in one place can have substantial effects. For example, with the steep slopes and granite soils found in many places on the Payette, trampling from sheep can add excess sedimentation to salmon and bull trout spawning streams. Native grasses and wildflowers lose their vigor after being consumed year after year, and gradually diminish.

• A sheep operation pays only 27 cents per sheep per month to graze on federal lands. The Forest Service expends considerable resources in administering the grazing program, including staff salary and benefits, vehicles and office overhead, which grazing fees don’t come close to covering.

• It’s no secret that the Forest Service is strapped for funding. Money that funds grazing administration means less dollars for public uses, such as recreation, wildlife or fire safety. How many times have you tried to hike or ride down a trail in the Payette, only to find it impassable from deadfall, or even impossible to find? Recreation often gets short shrift compared to grazing funding.

• Domestic sheep cause big problems for native wildlife, such as bighorn sheep and wolves. Domestic sheep can give pasteurella, a pneumonia-like disease, to wild bighorn sheep. This disease has devastating impacts on bighorns. Bighorn sheep die or become weakened from this disease, and carry it back to other bighorns, who in turn become infected. The Payette National Forest is currently being sued for its failure to manage, in accordance with the best available science, the separation of domestic sheep from bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon and Salmon River areas.

• Domestic sheep have been responsible for elimination of wolves and other native predators. Wolves lived for thousands of years in our forests in balance with their prey. However, livestock operators or government agents trapped or killed millions of wolves in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, often through cruel methods such as strychnine poisoning or heavy leghold traps. After the reintroduction of wolves in the 1990’s, wolves once again were killed at the behest of livestock operators. For instance, federal agents killed several packs of wolves on public land in the Payette National Forest in 2004 and 2005, using taxpayer dollars, after the wolves targeted domestic sheep for easy prey.

None of my comments is meant to disparage livestock producers. Those operators still grazing on public lands are simply taking advantage of an anachronistic system which stems from frontier days, when few people lived in the West, and resources seemed unlimited.

Now, with booming human populations nearby, diminishing wildlife, and global warming, change is coming to our public lands. Voluntary buy-out programs or other transitional mechanisms should be made available to the few livestock operators still grazing on public lands, to help them find alternatives for their businesses on private lands. Public lands should be administered truly in the public interest, not for private profit.

The Billings Gazette and the Helena Independent both have stories on sage grouse.

It looks like different industry folk all over the West are tripping over themselves trying to put the blame for the sage grouse’s imperilled numbers on the other guy. The Billings Gazette features an oil industry consultant who pins the blame for reduced grouse numbers on drought rather than on oil and gas developement.

And it looks like Western Watersheds Projects lawsuit is already having a beneficial effect on sage grouse despite no decision as to whether to reconsider listing as of yet:

Julie Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary for minerals management at the Interior Department, said a lawsuit hanging over the agency has forced it to act before the bird can again become a candidate for the endangered species list.

This out of the Helena Independent Record’s story that Interior Dept. official says action must be taken on sage grouse. Another telling quote from the story baring some feelings of vulnerability from within Interior:

“We can’t simply sit back at the department level and wait” for a decision in the case, Jacobson told members of the Montana Petroleum Association during their annual meeting Monday. “We don’t have a very good record on ESA (endangered species act) legislation.”

The blogosphere is running with reports of Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s arrest for lewd conduct in a Minnesota airport.

Craig got busted, and plead guilty to disorderly conduct when after playing peek-a-boo through a crack in the stall and a self-proclaimed “wide stance” had him playing footsie with an undercover. Apparently, the officer “recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct.” The officer was there investigating previous complaints of less than wholesome activities. Roll Call broke the story (and my hat’s off to ‘em). The foot-play wasn’t all this officer was in store for, Craig felt compelled to reach under the wall of the stall and motion with his hand. Just how many bathroom-stall lewd-conduct coincidences is Larry Craig networked into ? Who knows…

Election Central has a wonderful follow up piece of Craig’s “A Bad Boy, A Naughty Boy” rhetoric toward Clinton in the past.

This reminds me of the pre-emptive public denial Craig felt compelled to make in the 80’s regarding a similar scandal even as no-one was named.

Idaho Statesman.

Other blogs with the news:

Daily Kos
Huffington Post