Utah: Tribal Endangered Species Conference Unites Conservation Efforts on Tribal Lands 09/06/2005
As the owners and managers of 95 million acres across the United States, Americans Indians can play a unique and pivotal role in the effort to preserve America's endangered and threatened species. The Tribal Endangered Species Conference, held this week at the University of Utah and sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, was convened to unite conservation efforts on the nation's tribal lands. "There are so many tribes across the country doing good work, but we needed a way to facilitate this work so everybody can learn from each other," says Steve Torbit, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Tribal Lands Program. Tribal biologists and conservationists at the conference pointed out the vital roles American Indians already have played in reviving the nation's most endangered species. For example, the Nez Perce tribe has been an important cog in the reintroduction of the wolf to central Idaho.
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Colorado: 2005 Pollution Prevention Champion Awards 08/08/2005
The Colorado Pollution Prevention Program and Colorado Environmental Partnership are soliciting nominations for individuals or teams that lead their organizations to improve environmental performance through pollution prevention. Deadline is August 24th. Eligible nominations will be from industry, educational institutions, public interest groups, retail businesses, local, state or federal government, tourism and recreation organizations. Awards will be presented at a recognition event hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in October 2005.
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Montana: Land Sale Protects Ranch for Public Use 07/29/2005
Dolly and her brother, James "Bud" McMaster have sold their 5,636-acre ranch to the nonprofit Conservation Fund who then will sell it to the Bureau of Land Management. The ranch has long been coveted by developers who have wanted to subdivide the land. Now the ranch will become public property where people can ride bikes and horses, and be able to hike and hunt. The plan also calls for a portion of the Ranch, along with the 1,900 acres that abut the Missouri River between Eagle Bay Drive and Keir Road, to be managed as a grass bank. This will allow that during times of drought, wildfire or other difficulties, ranchers who run out of forage for their cattle can ask to graze their animals there.
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Montana: Funds Available For Gallatin River Assessment 07/18/2005
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has come up with $200,000 for an environmental assessment on the Gallatin River. The Board of Environmental Review directed the DEQ to conduct an EIS on the river to determine whether the Gallatin merits Outstanding Resource Water status for 38 miles from where it leaves Yellowstone National Park to the confluence with Spanish Creek.
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Final Clean Air Visibility Rule for Haze in National Parks 06/17/2005
The Clean Air Visibility Rule signed by the EPA will help achieve the Clean Air Act's long-term goal to restore visibility in America's national parks and wilderness areas. The states will be required to identify older industrial facilities and power plants that affect visibility in specially protected areas and then determine the types
of emission controls that those facilities must use to control their
emissions, resulting in improved visibility, air quality, and public
health.
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Colorado: University Heads Forest Restoration 06/14/2005
Colorado State University has been selected to develop the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, as a result from the passage of the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act enacted by Congress in 2004. Their purpose, is to restore the health of Colorado forests and reduce catastrophic wildfires by providing the best available science in forest ecology, restoration and management.
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Tribal Golf Courses Go Green 06/13/2005
(Indian Country Today) As tribal governments become more involved in recreation industries like casinos, they are also seeking to offer their patrons a challenging golf experience that is aesthetically and environmentally pleasing.
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World Wilderness Conference Highlights Native Lands Issues 06/07/2005
The 8th World Wilderness Congress (WWC) will be held September 30 - October 6, 2005 at the Egan Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The conference will bring together indigenous groups from the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Africa with the goal of forming an international Native Lands and Wilderness Council. Participating groups will present case studies of indigenous conservation initiatives, and groups that have developed or are developing conservation projects on their traditional wild areas will share their experiences. The Conference is sponsored by the WILD Foundation.
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Help for Improving National Beaches 05/26/2005
The EPA announced the availability of $10 million in federal grants to assist in monitoring for pathogens in recreational
waters. Congress passed the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) in October 2000 to make monitoring programs more consistent nationwide, improve water quality testing at the beach, and help beach managers better inform the public about water quality problems. The Clean Beaches Plan was finalized in April 2004 to help state, tribal, and local beach managers strengthen their
programs.
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Tribes Appeal Decision to Allow Snow Made from Wastewater 04/27/2005
(Arizona Daily Sun) Several tribes and environmental groups are appealing a decision by the Coconino National Forest supervisor to allow snowmaking with reclaimed wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks. The Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network and Save the Peaks Coalition, among others, have asked the U.S. Forest Service to consider shutting down the ski area. They maintain the national forest's decision is illegal. Among their complaints are the fact that the agency didn't consult every tribe, misinterpreted a 1970s legal case that allowed the ski area to operate alongside religious ceremonies on the Peaks and disregarded compromises that would have ruled out snowmaking.
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Mining Company Receives Award 04/25/2005
The Corporate Park Achievement Award has been given to Alcoa by the National Parks Conservation Association. This is the first time this award has been presented. Alcoa received this award because it has permanently set aside 10,000 acres of land for preservation. This land is adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee.
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Colorado: National Park Air Quality Subject at Meeting 03/17/2005
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission will hold a meeting on Friday with representatives from federal and state agencies, scientist and air quality experts. The meetings focus will be on air quality within the Rocky Mountain National Park. Experts from EPA's Region 8 along with CDPHE and Department of Interior's National Park Service will present information about current air quality and environmental conditions. The meeting is open to the public.
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Utah: Efforts to Reduce Haze in National Parks In Doubt 02/23/2005
A federal appeals court rejected a plan by four states including Utah and Wyoming, that would improve visibility in national parks by decreasing pollution. The court sided with a Virginia-based energy coalition concluding that the states' regional program to reduce haze was too similar to an EPA approach that the same court threw out three years ago.
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Wyoming: Grand Teton Lodge Company Strives for Sustainability 02/14/2005
The Grand Teton Lodge Company, the primary concessionaire in Grand Teton National Park, has made a commitment to protect, conserve, and preserve the resources of the park. They are doing this through Envision, a sustainability approach addressing environmental standards, quality management procedures, and health and safety guidelines. Their first sustainablity report explains who they are, what they do,and how they
perform as a company committed to sustainable operations.
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Colorado: Construction to Begin on Large Ski Resort 02/10/2005
Development will begin on what will be the largest ski resort village in Colorado. Opponents to the ski resort are trying to halt the construction saying that a draft study failed to address the resort’s impacts on the ski area, surrounding communities, and the ecosystem. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers still have to look at the project’s impacts to wildlife and wetlands before the Forest Service issues its final decision at the end of 2005.
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Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park Scheduled to Get More Funding in New Budget 02/08/2005
Yellowstone National Park is scheduled to get more funding from President Bush's proposed budget. Yellowstone's budget will increase from $29.8 million last year to $30.7 million next year. The budget also includes money to replace the wastewater treatment plant, and to replace the visitor center at Old Faithful.
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Great Lakes Legacy Funding Requested 02/04/2005
(U. S. EPA) President Bush is requesting $50 million in the FY 2006 Budget to implement the Great Lakes Legacy Act signed in May 2004. This will double past funding. Some of the new funding would go toward continuing remedial work and revitalization at the Black Lagoon near Trenton, Michigan. The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system on earth and are valued not only for their beauty and recreational possibilities; they supply more than 30 million Americans with drinking water. The intention to collaborate with tribes in the region to restore and make the Great Lakes cleaner will support the culture and ways of native communities.
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Utah: State and Interior OK Plan to Clear Air in Parks 01/27/2005
The Department of Interior and Utah agreed to a plan aimed at helping to reduce haze in Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks. The plan would allow the parks to notify state officials if high pollution operations, such as power plants, are not making progress in air quality.
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Report Examines Economic and Climatic Impacts of Storing Carbon in Trees 01/24/2005
Economists Robert Stavins of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Kenneth Richards of Indiana University, have written a report on the cost of U.S. forest-based carbon sequestration. This report investigates the potential for incorporating land-use changes into climate policy. The report looks at utilizing U.S. forest lands for carbon dioxide sequestration, in contrast with other productive uses. The report also examines the many factors that drive the economics of storing carbon in forests over long periods of time.
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Utah: Logging May Become Easier at Ski Resorts 01/05/2005
Ski resorts will have an easier time expanding thanks to a change in rules governing environmental and wildlife protection that will allow forest supervisors more leeway to make land-use decisions. Some critics believe that the new rules will reduce the public's role in development decisions. With the approval of the forest service, ski resorts will be able to conduct some logging in order to add ski lifts to their resorts.
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Colorado: Colorado State University Students Explore Innovative Energy Management Practices For Ski Resorts 11/16/2004
Three students from Colorado State University's Department of Mechanical Engineering are working extensively in a study with the ski industry to design and develop innovative energy management solutions. The students will research ways to develop methods of integrating existing ski area infrastructure to create a more flexible and sustainable energy cycle.
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Colorado, Montana, South Dakota & Utah Receive Funding for Endangered Species Projects 09/23/2004
The Department of the Interior has awarded more than $70 million in grants to 28 states and one territory to enable them to work with private landowners, conservation groups and other agencies in conservation planning efforts and to acquire and protect habitat to support the conservation of threatened and endangered species.
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Colorado: Fairgrounds Showcase Resource Efficiency 09/13/2004
Projects showcasing resource efficiency at the Rio Blanco and Mesa County Fairgrounds educate area residents and reduce pollutants and energy use in fairgrounds operations. Funded largely through a $115,000 supplemental environmental project grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the projects included installation of solar electric power system, insulation and lighting upgrades.
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Utah: Recreational Riverways Protected from New Hard Rock Mining Claims 09/13/2004
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton signed a protective order which withdraws nearly 200 miles of scenic riverways along the Green, Colorado, and Dolores Rivers in Southeastern Utah from the exploration and location of new mining claims.
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Colorado: Study Questions Ski Industry Sustainable Slopes Program 08/25/2004
The study claims the National Ski Areas Association's 4-year-old Sustainable Slopes Program is ineffective because it lacks outside oversight and does not require the 175 ski resort operators in the program to follow any specific or mandatory environmental policies.
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Comments Requested on Winter Use in National Parks 08/23/2004
The Park Service released a temporary winter use plan describing various options for winter use management in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway (JDR). The preferred alternative would allow 720 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone, all commercially guided and all with best available technology. Comments can be made on-line and are due by September 20, 2004.
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Montana: River Rules Survive Outfitters Challenge 08/17/2004
The rules managing recreation on the Big Hole and Beaverhead rivers enforced by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have survived a court challenge filed by an organization representing Montana's fishing outfitters.
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Potential Benefits to States of New Earth Observation System 08/17/2004
EPA discussed benefits to states and tribes of proposed coordination of an Earth Observation System. Methods used in various countries would be standardized in a world-wide network to gather and process ecological data to improve processing and dissemination. The web site below has more information about the proposed system and links to a map for information on benefits to specific areas.
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