CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Opponents of removing wolves from the federal endangered species protection in Wyoming far outnumbered supporters of delisting wolves at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public hearing on wolf management Tuesday.

...

Approximately 40* conservation group members who traveled from Boulder, Colo., and Fort Collins, Colo., to testify at the hearing made up a large percentage of those who spoke against the delisting of wolves.

...

"Wolves might be a national treasure but Wyoming has to live with this issue," Bob Wharf of Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife said during a break in testimony. "Once wolves are delisted, it will be solely on our dime."

Several hearing participants wished more residents from the western part of Wyoming had been at the meeting. They said that calving season and treacherous travel conditions had probably affected turnout.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he and other governors questioned Bush administration officials on issues from funding for children’s health insurance to the National Guard in Iraq during a National Governors Association conference here, but did not receive satisfying answers.

“I would say the conversations were all equally ambivalent and only time will tell whether we’re doing any good,” he said of talking with Washington officials. “I was only half kidding when I say these people are unable to form a simple declarative sentence.”

Freudenthal said despite all the polite conversation, he “did not come away with a sense that there’s much agreement” on many issues.

I don't concern myself with how Jesus was born
or if he was raised from the dead
It just comes down to the things that he said
-- Ray Wylie Hubbard

GILLETTE -- Feathers continue to bloom in the cap of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority. The state's revenue from natural gas production got another boost this month with the second major addition of export capacity in the Rockies Express Pipeline.

A segment of pipe from Wamsutter to the Cheyenne Hub opened on February 14, and although only Colorado gas is flowing through it right now, it has the effect of relieving overall competition for all Rockies gas trying to find its way out to lucrative markets in the western and eastern United States.

...

One major advantage of Rockies Express is that it is a "single straw" connection to eastern markets, and therefore requires only one fee for transport. Previously, gas had to travel on a network of different pipelines to get to eastern markets, which meant several fees were "pancaked" into the transportation cost.

Several pipeline companies vied for such a connection, but Wyoming officials believed that not all of the proposed blueprints would have benefited Wyoming's industry as well as Rockies Express.

That's where the Wyoming Pipeline Authority earned its accolades. When investors had several competing pipeline proposals before them, the authority committed its entire $3 billion in revenue bonding authority to Rockies Express. That show of faith was enough for Kinder Morgan and Sempra Energy to win the route entirely through market investment.

ROCK SPRINGS - All too often, project proposals to enhance wildlife habitat are slow to fruition because of bureaucratic red-tape and other paper impediments.

A new, ambitious initiative to restore and protect wildlife habitat in southwest Wyoming aims to get those projects on the ground a lot faster.

The recently-unveiled Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative will rely on the expertise of a host of participating state and federal agencies to ensure the most-needed habitat conservation and enhancement projects achieve tangible, on-the-ground results, officials involved in the effort said.

The initiative partners envision those projects could include riparian work, prescribed fire treatments, wildlife friendly fencing, weed control, mechanical treatments such as chaining, raptor nest construction, and the purchase of conservation easements, among others.

...

"This has to be a landscape scale effort if it's really going to benefit wildlife. And it has to be a long-term effort. It could be 30 years before we start seeing the real benefits." [Wyoming Game and Fish Deputy Director John Emmerich told a small crowd of Rock Springs residents during a meeting recently.]

...

The first step will be to develop and overlay maps showing areas of wildlife habitat, current oil and gas development, livestock grazing allotments and other pertinent data.

"This will give us a much better picture of what we're dealing with and provide direction for the work," he said.

Work on the initiative will be conducted from an office located at the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Rock Springs.

Emmerich said the office will act as a "central clearinghouse" of information. "It will bring all the information into one location so it can be accessible to anyone who wants it," he said.

Emmerich estimated actual project work could begin as early as the spring of 2008.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words from other languages; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
--James Nicoll, 1990

CHEYENNE -- Attorney General Pat Crank says the latest incarnation of a wolf management bill would send a message to the federal government: "Put up or shut up."

Unlike a similar bill that died in a House committee on Wednesday, House Bill 213 cleared the Senate on its first reading on Friday, opening a way for the plan to be considered on the Senate floor in detail on Monday.

The bill would provide a way for Wyoming to kill more wolves before they are removed from endangered species protection.

But first, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would have to accept the state's terms.

...

Speaking before the Senate vote, [Governor] Freudenthal said Friday he hopes the bill ultimately gets to his desk.

Freudenthal said he's heard this week the Fish and Wildlife Service is prepared to discuss giving the state some relief from the federal rule that restricts killing wolves that are having an unacceptable impact on wildlife.

CHEYENNE -- A House committee shot down a proposed wolf management bill on Wednesday, apparently snuffing out any hope that legislation to address the issue will pass this session.

The House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted unanimously to reject a Senate bill and associated amendments that would have accepted the federal government's proposal to designate a permanent wolf management area in northwestern Wyoming.

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"In a sense it strengthens my hand, because I can say, 'Look, if you think I'm hard to get along with, just look at these guys,'" Freudenthal said of legislators.

The Senate last month voted 21-8 to endorse a bill that prohibits Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages. Wyoming law already specifies that marriages performed in the state must be between a man and a woman.

Madison, North Carolina – As a result of comments made by Mr. Jim Zumbo in recent postings on his blog site, Remington Arms Company, Inc., has severed all sponsorship ties with Mr. Zumbo effective immediately. While Mr. Zumbo is entitled to his opinions and has the constitutional right to freely express those opinions, these comments are solely his, and do not reflect the views of Remington.

Additionally, Cabela's has not yet dropped their sponsorship of the Jim Zumbo Outdoors television show, Cabela's Frank Ross is being quoted as having said their legal department is "currently reviewing contractual obligations and commitments regarding our sponsorship of the Jim Zumbo Outdoors television show. "

"Jim's comments are as unfortunate as they are inappropriate," said National Shooting Sports Foundation president Doug Painter. "No one should divide firearms into good-gun, bad-gun categories."

...

With Congress reconsidering the Assault Weapon Ban and Connecticut and New Jersey considering legislation that would limit handgun purchases to one per month, this latest schism is already being used as further evidence of the "need" to regulate firearms -all firearms - more stringently.

JACKSON -- A little over a week after Wyoming leaders declared talks with the federal government over wolf management all but dead, momentum for such a deal may be building once again.

The regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday he was encouraged that Gov. Dave Freudenthal and lawmakers are discussing changes to the state's wolf management plan.

...

Those developments don't eliminate the biggest remaining obstacle to a state-federal agreement that would allow wolves in Wyoming to become part of the federal government's wolf delisting process: Wyoming's insistence that it be allowed to kill wolves to protect wildlife before delisting becomes final. But Mitch King, regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said he's willing to consider the issue further.

...

Previously, the Fish and Wildlife Service indicated that it had no way to allow the state to kill wolves to protect wildlife before delisting -- without amending the so-called "10(j)" rule guiding wolf management between the period of proposed delisting and actual state control.

But on Monday, King said he was encouraged by the governor's proposal last week because it means a wolf bill is "alive again" in the Wyoming Legislature. As a result, King said he would revisit the 10(j) issue.

"I'm certainly willing to sit down with our lawyers and talk about the 10(j) amendment process," King said.

He said he hasn't "had any real conversation with the governor," but if the Legislature is willing to move ahead with a wolf management proposal to allow the state to be part of delisting, "we should give some consideration to allowing a 10(j) rule" amendment.

ONE problem with global warming policy that too few people are talking about right now is what should be done with India and China? Together, they have nearly half the world's population, and they're growing fast. Worse, they're growing fast aided by big, polluting coal plants and other inefficient technologies. In less than a decade, China will outpace America as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gasses. In an ethics paper on distributional justice, this might be fair, but the climate doesn't care whether greenhouse gasses are emitted by rich Americans motoring to Tahoe for a minibreak, or poor Chinese farmers boosting the productivity of their paddies. It will warm up and flood Bangladesh just the same.

This matters because to a surprising extent*, energy resources are fungible. If America cuts down on its consumption of oil and natural gas, this will depress the price of these resources, allowing the Chinese and Indians to buy more of them. As anti-poverty policy, this may be excellent, but as environmental policy it is useless—possibly worse than useless, because inefficient Chinese equipment will get less energy per unit of carbon dioxide emitted, and produce more secondary pollutants.

I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.

I call them "assault" rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are "tackdrivers."

Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. We don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them, which is an obvious concern. I've always been comfortable with the statement that hunters don't use assault rifles. We've always been proud of our "sporting firearms."

This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries and woods.

What really bothers me are some of the unpatriotic comments leveled at me. I fly the flag 365 days a year in my front yard. Last year, through an essay contest, I hosted a soldier wounded in Iraq to a free hunt in Botswana. This year, through another essay contest, I'm taking two more soldiers on a free moose and elk hunt.

When I started blogging, I was told to write my thoughts, expressing my own opinion. The offensive blog I wrote was MY opinion, and no one else's. None of the companies that I deal with share that opinion, nor were they aware of what I had written until this firestorm started.

Believe it or not, I'm your best friend if you're a hunter or shooter, though it might not seem that way. ..."

Your attempt to throw me out of the sleigh, hoping that the wolves would be satisfied with my AR and would leave your precious bambi-zapper alone, is the most craven act of contemptible cowardice I've seen in a while. Now that I'm aware of your anti-gun nature, I'll be sure to cancel the one subscription to Outdoor Life that I have control over, and urge everyone else I know who subscribes to cancel theirs as well. Maybe after they ash-can you, you can go write policy columns for the Brady Center or the VPC.

When Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said last month he wanted to bid for the first wolf tag offered to hunters in his state, it prompted predictable righteous indignation.

Newspapers across the nation, including The New York Times, expressed doubts that the federal government should turn control over Idaho's remarkably productive wolf population to people like Otter. Wolf lovers around the world deluged the governor's office with e-mails, scolding him and Idahoans for a lack of understanding of this regal predator and its place in the ecosystem.

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As always, the debate will come down to clashing values. The New York Times is sure to chastise Westerners for not embracing federal protection of wolves at the same time the paper is unwilling to press for reintroduction in the East, where there remains excellent habitat. Meanwhile, many Idahoans are similar to people in Montana and Wyoming who want wolves back on the land. Previously, wolf opponents could count on support for their cause from residents who never like the federal government sticking its nose in their lives - no matter what the issue.

But here's what I think: Once wolves are delisted and management returned to the states, wolves will become "our" wolves and not the federal government's. Politicians like Otter who target wolves will have to deal with the potential of worldwide tourism boycotts and other sanctions, along with the expense of a major wolf kill-off. Inevitably, politics in the states will continue to change as places like Idaho become more like Oregon and California. Wolves are here to stay, and they and the wild lands they need to survive will play a larger role in the region as subdivisions sprawl up mountain valleys and fragment ranchlands.

...

The last confirmed killing of a wolf in [Colorado] was in 1935, and since then there's been only one confirmed sighting. In June 2004, the carcass of a young female wolf was found along Interstate 70 west of Idaho Springs. Her radio collar identified her as being from a pack in Yellowstone National Park.

There were wolf sightings near Walden in February 2004 and near Aspen last June, but wildlife officials couldn't confirm them. [emphasis added]

JACKSON -- In new language for a wolf bill, the state would seek assurances from the federal government it can manage for a limited number of wolves before control of the animal is formally transferred to the state.

The new language, submitted by Gov. Dave Freudenthal, would require the federal government to amend its rule guiding management of wolves in the interim period between proposed and formal delisting in the next year. The changes to the so-called 10(j) rule would say the state can kill wolves impacting big game herds as long as there are 17 breeding pairs in the recovery area of Wyoming, including national parks.

JACKSON -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal indicated Wednesday a state wolf bill may not be dead, as he submitted "language" to legislative leadership Tuesday that would structure a bill that could become effective before or after the wolf is removed from federal protection.

... He asked that legislators have a chance to review the language before releasing it publicly, and did not give any indication as to what the new language would be.

Freudenthal said from his perspective, the new geographic range outlined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December as trophy game area for wolves is "a pretty significant concession on their part."

JACKSON -- Wolves outside northwest Wyoming will likely receive predator status once the animals are removed from federal protection, because those wolves are considered "non essential" to conserving wolf populations, according to the Federal Register notice.

In its proposal to remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act, federal officials say most of Wyoming is not a "significant portion of the range" for wolves, and therefore upon delisting, those wolves will be "not listed." Wyoming has indicated it wants to classify wolves outside northwest Wyoming as predators, meaning they can be killed any time, by any means and for any reason.

The state must develop an acceptable wolf management strategy for post-delisting, which so far it has not done. If Wyoming does not, wolves in the northwest area will still be federally managed. But the remainder of the state's wolves will be removed from federal protection upon delisting. [emphasis added]

Hearing those sappy panegyrics about "our men and women in uniform" every 10 minutes always reminds me of Ludmilla Boriskova, heroine of the Soviet union, wrestling with fighter bomber propellers in a titanic struggle for the Motherland. Where are you now, O babushka?

...

I've encountered countless mediocre opportunists, groupers and communards among these militarists, and they don't wage war in my name, and they don't impress me. They serve the almighty Amurrican king Tex Shrub in a fascistic empire that knows next to nothing about rational restraint, checks and balances, or the consent of the governed. The more U.S. soldiers get killed, the more it hopefully hastens the humiliating defeat and inevitable breakup of this fraudulent, hypocritical and rotten-to-the-core nation-state, following the moribund trajectory of the Spanish, Dutch and British empires of yesteryear.

...

Why don't y'all kneel down with the Christian fascist chaplain and pray for a swift kick in the butt to hell and gone, soldier boys and girls? Down with the United States and its vaunted holy of holies armed services, and may the ever-growing list of global enemies eventually combine forces to kick its back teeth to Timbuktu.

KELLY HENNESSY, Cody

With marquee on-air voice Al Franken leaving to run for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, and up to its ears in debt, AAR went for the bargain-basement price of $4.25 million to New York real estate guy Stephen L. Green, who assumes control this week. He's also repaying up to $3.25 million in loans given to AAR, which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. AAR listed $20.2 million in debts in its Chapter 11 filing, meaning a lot of creditors won't see a dime.

Denver -- During the 5th Congressional District race last year, what Democrat Jay Fawcett saw when he attended YearlyKos, a June convention of progressive bloggers and other Internet denizens, reshaped his campaign.

"It's like the TV debates in 1960. Nothing's changed, and everything's changed, but we didn't really know that till '68," said Fawcett, whose defeat was the best showing by a Democrat since the district's formation in 1972. "You still have to be able to address the basics, communicate ideas to voters. But what I heard was not dogma or extreme positions. It was focused on solving problems." [emphasis added]

Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead.
Now it goes to school with her,
Between two hunks of bread.

There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good.
But when she was bad........
She got a fur coat, jewels, a waterfront condo, and a sports car.

Casper Star -- "Wee Bowhunter," the announcement reads. "There will be another bow hunter in the woods. Canyon Michael Eisenbraun left the blind on February 2 in Casper, to enjoy the great adventure. His hunting weight was 6 lbs. 14 ounces, and he had a draw length of 19.5 inches."

The announcement lists his parents (from Casper) and grandparents, sets from Casper, Upton and Clearmont.

"He is already a natural at squeaking like a varmint calf and will soon be stalking the woods," the announcement concludes.

CHEYENNE -- Bowhunters would be allowed to carry firearms for self-defense during archery-only hunting seasons if legislation unanimously endorsed by a House committee Friday becomes law. The bill now moves to the full House; it already has been approved by the Senate.

...

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, is sponsoring the legislation. He said allowing bowhunters to carry firearms is consistent with an individual's constitutional right to bear arms.

"I sorta think we should write laws that conform to the Constitution," Case said.

...

"I'm a bowhunter, and I want to be able to protect myself," [Dennis Biddle, a bowhunter from Lander] said. "I feel like the current law violates that right."

Steve Martin, vice president of Bowhunters of Wyoming, said the group is opposed to the measure because carrying firearms is contrary to the sport of archery hunting.

JACKSON -- The federal government can't legally allow Wyoming to kill wolves to protect big game until wolves are removed from federal protection, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says.

But state officials question whether the federal agency even tried to make such an accommodation.

...

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal seemed particularly bristled at a Friday news conference by the FWS's response, saying if federal officials "want to come to their senses, we're glad to talk to them."

He said federal officials allow the state to kill wolves impacting livestock, but not wildlife. That sentiment is based on politics, not science, he said.

...

Freudenthal characterized the FWS's response as "it's too much trouble for us to accommodate a change" in existing rules.

And, Freudenthal said before wolves are formally removed from the ESA, there could be 40 wolf packs eating exclusively elk that the state could not control.

In a high-spirited, often angry and name-calling press conference Friday in Cheyenne, [Wyoming Senate President John] Schiffer said it appears the Fish and Wildlife Service's idea of managing wildlife is to manage solely for wolves, and Freudenthal said he was surprised the federal agency appears to be the "Fish and Wolf Service."

"Basically what we were told is take a hike and go look at your elk while they're still alive," Schiffer said. "Because if the wolf population keeps growing, they (elk) are not going to be there that long. We find that very disappointing."

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., this week asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to hold a public meeting in northwest Wyoming on the proposed delisting of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency plans to hold such meetings in six states, including one in Cheyenne on Feb. 27. But Cubin wants an additional hearing that would be easier for people in the northern part of the state to attend.

...

"We are trying to hit large areas of population that are affected by this rule," [Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Sharon] Rose said. "We'll consider that request but haven't had time to look into it enough to give you a good answer."

Meetings will be held between Feb. 27 and March 8 in Cheyenne; Salt Lake City; Helena, Mont.; Boise, Idaho; Pendleton, Ore.; and Spokane Valley, Wash.

...

"These wolves were re-introduced against the wishes of local and state authorities and have cost Wyoming's livestock industry hundreds of thousands of dollars due to heavy predation, in addition to significant losses to our big game herds," [Cubin] wrote.

The wolf was brought into Wyoming with promises that Fish and Wildlife would closely monitor and track its whereabouts," Cubin wrote. "Unfortunately, this has proven nearly impossible and several industries in Wyoming have paid the price," she said.

"... It was hard letting go of a platform where I can just run my mouth, but the fate of the world is important enough that I’m willing to play nice."

The typical libertarian shorthand is that we are with the Democrats on social issues and with the Republicans on economic issues. In recent years, the Republicans betrayed us on economic issues. However, my sense is that many in the conservative movement are anxious to repent. On foreign policy, I think that we can gradually persuade more of them to come to their senses on the challenges of the Natural State.

Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be completely dug in to hard-left positions on economics. They lack any vision for foreign policy. I think we should stick with our marriage to conservatives, and try to make it work.