Please note that all
links to the news stories below were accurate and working at the
time of posting and archiving, however, the Guardian
has no control on the length of time that a respective news
source will continue to maintain any story in its own archives,
so be advised that you may encounter non-working links - Bill
McKee - Editor.
Flora
fighting to prevent Front drilling Five
years ago, Gloria Flora made history when — as
Lewis and Clark National Forest supervisor —
she declared the Rocky Mountain Front off-limits
to new gas and oil leases. Today, Flora is
working as a private citizen to fight what she
believes is a national effort to undermine her
decision, which was widely supported in Montana
ELF
admits to arson [wrong
thing to be doing, but put this in context -
this arson cost $54million less than the USFS
employee Terry Barton's arson (the Hayman Fire)
in Colorado - Ed.]
Tuesday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +31F
and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +70F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on
our PR Temp &
Precip Data page
Monday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +30F
and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +65F.
No precipitation was recorded locally during the
last 24 hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local
min-max temp & precip charts may be
seen on our PR Temp
& Precip Data page
08-Sep-2002
Backlash Local
governments tackle an in-your-face rush on coalbed methane
Sunday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +38F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +60F.
0.1875" of rain was recorded during the last
24 hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Inslee:
Fire-prevention report skewed A
pair of House Democrats accused
the Forest Service on Wednesday of doctoring
numbers in a recent report on fire-prevention
treatments to
try to blame environmentalists for fires that
blackened huge swaths of the West.
"I think they cooked the books and they were
trying to drive an agenda that I'm not so sure the
public supports,"
said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.
New
charity program surfaces "100
Percent Way" spurred partly by United Way-Boy
Scout controversy
"The 100 Percent Way" is a program
designed to eliminate middleman costs for
employers and employees who want to support the
charity or charities of their choosing, said
organizer Nick Kaiser.
Federal
officials say wolves will be killed Federal
wildlife officials said Friday they hope to chase
down and kill the wolves that killed four sheep in
the Ninemile Valley west of here
State
unlikely to get money from Grace Filing
claims in bankruptcy court is the only hope
Montana has to get any money from W.R. Grace &
Co. for costs related to health and cleanup
problems created by asbestos contamination from
the company’s Libby mine, Attorney General Mike
McGrath said Friday.
There
was a one car rollover on the West Fork road
yesterday afternoon quite near mile marker 27.
There were three persons in the vehicle. It
appeared that one person had sustained a very
slight injury and all were out of the vehicle and
sitting on the side of the road talking with local
folks who had stopped to help by the time that
police and local emergency services arrived.
Saturday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +44F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +64F.
0.0625" of rain was recorded during the last
24 hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Shouting
wildfire
Bush plan long on rhetoric, short on reason Reading
only the "Healthy Forests" initiative,
one would conclude that environmentalists
gratuitously file administrative appeals and
lawsuits against most forest-thinning projects. The
administration claims that 48 percent of all
Forest Service "fuels reduction"
projects have been appealed since January 2001.
"Vital projects are often significantly
delayed and constrained by procedural delays and
litigation," the administration's document
says. But the non-partisan
Government Accounting Office, the investigative
arm of Congress, refutes that claim. Last year,
the U.S. Forest Service spent $205 million on
1,671 forest-thinning projects. Only 20 of those
(about 1 percent) were appealed. None generated a
lawsuit
Scientists
at odds over forest thinning plans While
President Bush pushes a plan to increased thinning
in the national forests and around homes, some
scientists are warning that there is little or no
evidence that forest thinning will prevent future
record-setting fires like the ones experienced
throughout the West in the last few summers.
“By and large we really don’t know enough to
make very definitive kinds of statements,” says
Jack Cohen of the U.S. Forest Service’s Fire
Science Lab in Missoula
Friday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +47F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +80F.
There is light rainfall this morning (after 6AM)
but no measurable amount of precipitation was
recorded during the last 24 hour period ending at
6AM. Daily local min-max temp & precip
charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Wilderness
helicopter shuttle under investigation The
U.S. Forest Service is investigating whether
wilderness trespass rules were violated last month
when the ALERT helicopter and a private helicopter
picked up a group of tired Kalispell Regional
Medical Center staffers in the Great Bear
Wilderness. "We
probably had unauthorized intrusions and landings
in the wilderness and a violation of party size
limits," said Deb Mucklow, Spotted Bear
District Ranger.
[Do you expect that these USFS wilderness trespass
rules will be uniformly or selectively 'enforced'?
We'll keep track of this story and see. - Ed.]
Think
that we need more drilling in parks and on
monument land? 40%
of Wyoming methane wells idle New
data from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission shows about 40 percent of the 12,700
coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin
aren't producing gas, likely because of low gas
prices
County
faces $2.6 million shortfall Ravalli
County commissioners are preparing for budget cuts
preliminarily estimated at more than $2.6 million.
[Excellent! - Ed.]
Thursday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +43F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +81F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Wednesday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +41F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +85F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
03-Sep-2002
Call
of the Wild Wolf Reintroduction
Pits Federal Power Against Local Ranchers - you
may wish to watch ABC's "In Search of
America" program tonight about wolves and
ranchers in the West
Travel
plan up for review A
proposed travel plan for the Rocky Mountain Ranger
District would limit motorized travel in areas to
protect grizzly bear habitat and to create a
buffer around existing wilderness areas
Tuesday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +44F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +81F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Yellowstone
National Park Group
disputes elk study A land
conservation organization is disputing a report by
the National Research Council which concluded that
elk in the park's northern reaches have not
damaged trees
Conservationists
appeal judge's ruling River users
and two conservation groups have appealed a
judge's decision not to halt construction of a
controversial golf and home development along the
Snake River
Monday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +42F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +77F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
Sunday
The local
overnight low temperature last night was +40F and
yesterday's afternoon high temp was +78F.
No precipitation was recorded during the last 24
hour period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our PR
Temp & Precip Data page
News
Archives
In order to keep the news page loading time short, we
regularly archive the stories appearing on this page. You can see other News,
Links, & Commentary stories by selecting the appropriate
available archive period in the table below.
In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in the stories above is
distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
About
the Painted Rocks Guardian's News, Links, & Commentary Section
It is
a daily look at environmentally related stories from around the country,
many of which are illustrative of the high level of incompetence (and
worse) existing within most of the government entities currently charged
with administering our nation's parks, forests, other public lands,
waterways, and airsheds. As you read these news stories from many
different sources, you will note that almost all environmental
protection/preservation efforts and programs to save our nation's public
treasures originate from private environmental organizations, often
times via court order, and NOT through the respective governmental
agencies with primary administration responsibilities. Most of these
governmental entities (e.g., the Forest Service) have become top heavy
with many levels of career bureaucrats who, instead of protecting and
preserving the nation's priceless resources, are 'busy' catering to
consumptive/extractive industry interests in the course of administering
politically designed social welfare employment programs and wealth
redistributionist grant programs. While the current system is almost
hopelessly corrupt at many levels, it is being increasingly understood
as such by the general public. Increased general public awareness of the
problem is necessary to trigger environmentally informed political
actions that will eventually save the nation's public treasures.
Effective solutions to the current situation will most likely involve
the deconstruction of several bureaucratic agencies as they exist today
with a functional redesign that will shift major policy development and
administrative direction authority into the hands of environmental
groups/organizations (as contrasted with agency hand-picked and selected
'citizen groups' dominated by consumptionists) and out of the hands of
self-interested bureaucrats and extractive industry interests.
- Bill McKee - Editor.
