Western Politics

Judging by the mental feebleness of some of the regular commenters here at New West, I'm guessing that a few of you are believers in so-called intelligent design, so can one of you please explain to me what is so intelligent about the human neck? I ask because I've apparently caused grievous injury to mine with nothing more than pillows, which seems indicative of the kind of bug that never should have made it past beta testing.

The Conservation Reserve Program or CRP was established in 1985. Designed to keep marginal lands out of Ag production, CRP pays farmers and ranchers to retire acreage from commodity production in exchange for an annual rental fee. In 2007, the cost of the program was $1.8 billion. With the raising price for commodities like corn and other grains due to the ethanol boondoggle, farmers and ranchers are now crying to have their (CRP) contracts terminated. Farm producers are appealing to the Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, to terminate the contracts due to national emergencywhich they claim is the need to grow more food to reduce consumer pricesbut of course is really about growing farmer and rancher bank accounts. The effort to terminate contracts displays one of the greatest weaknesses of the CRP programits lack of permanence. CRP benefits are transitory with no permanence and come at a high price--$36 billion so far and counting. It's time to reconsider its future.

It was surprising to see Govs. Bill Ritter and Jon Huntsman show up yesterday in downtown Denver. Usually it takes a natural disaster or a major fundraising opportunity to get two Western governors, of two separate parties, together in the same room. But Colorado's Ritter and Huntsman, of Utah, showed up at a press briefing at the offices of a big Denver law firm yesterday to mark the debut of ... a new policy report.

The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land will be making presentations this week and next in Missoula County communities on the non-profits' purchase of 320,000 acres of Montana land owned by Plum Creek Timber Co., known as the Montana Legacy Project. The first meeting is tonight at 7:00 in Evaro. The full schedule is after the jump. For more on the Legacy Project, dubbed the largest land purchase, for conservation purposes, in American history" by Sen. Max Baucus, click here.

The Atlantic's summer fiction issue is out, and it includes a new story by Missoula's Aryn Kyle, who launched her career in that magazine in 2004 with "Foaling Season," which won a National Magazine Award. She later extended that story into her first novel, The God of Animals. Kyle's new story, "Nine," also features a young protagonist, and Kyle's deft way with children as characters is one of the subjects of an interview by Jessica Murphy Moo featured on The Atlantic's website. They also discuss the University of Montana's MFA program, which Kyle calls "an invaluable experience," and how Kyle was inspired by the changes in her home town, Grand Junction, Colo., to extend "Foaling Season" into the novel it became. The Rocky Mountain Land Series at the Tattered Cover in LoDo will feature Courtney White on Tuesday, July 29 at 7:30 p.m. White shared an excerpt from his new book, Revolution on the Range: The Rise of a New Ranch in the American West, with New West readers earlier this year. Also in the Roundup: Portland's "Writer's Edge" Conference, and Montana State's new literary magazine seeks submissions.

Carley Spielman was killed in a traffic accident on the outskirts of Missoula July 23, 2001. Not long after the accident her mother discovered a word document tucked away in the files of Carley's computer. The list contains seven rules Carley, apparently, felt everyone should live by. I had the pleasure of knowing Carley during her freshman year of college at the University of Montana. Five years ago Carley's mother sent me the list conjured from her daughter's mind. And 7 years after her death, I would like to share the seven rules Carley Spielman conducted her life by, with you.

Carley Spielman was killed in a traffic accident on the outskirts of Missoula July 23, 2001. Not long after the accident her mother discovered a word document tucked away in the files of Carley's computer. The list contains seven rules Carley, apparently, felt everyone should live by. I had the pleasure of knowing Carley during her freshman year of college at the University of Montana. Five years ago Carley's mother sent me the list conjured from her daughter's mind. And 7 years after her death, I would like to share the seven rules Carley Spielman conducted her life by, with you.

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development Monday released a list of recommendations that members said would allow for energy development in the West without sacrificing wildlife and water resources. Trout Unlimited's chief operating officer Chris Wood told Matt Joyce of the AP: "While there is little to no relationship between the price of gasoline and development of natural gas on public lands, our rush to produce short-term energy supplies can have a profound effect on the fish and wildlife habitats and water supplies that define the West."

People for Preservation of Our Western Heritage reports that at a City of Las Cruces meeting, Mr. Ed Roberson, Las Cruces BLM District Manager at the time, publicly stated "The ranchers are afraid of being 'eaten' one bite at a time." So why does it matter if ranchers like Mobley have to wait five months to make repairs? If they decide the hassle of wilderness and Wilderness Area Restrictions are too much and quit ranching? The answer: land. Ranchers who utilize federal lands own vast sections of land beside the areas we want to protect. The view sheds are open because ranching is happening on those lands. If the ranchers quit ranching because of wilderness restrictions, they will sell their land. Chances are good it will not be sold to another rancher, but to a developer. So instead of seeing a few cows, we can peep in people's windows and look at rooflines.

Interesting story this week from the Denver Post's Jason Blevins on who's feeling what parts of the housing downturn at Colorado's ritziest resorts. The nut: The number of home sales in Colorado's resort communities has plummeted anywhere from 30 percent to more than 50 percent, a rare downturn in a market that has historically flourished. Resort markets that include Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, Telluride and Breckenridge are enduring record declines, according to Land Title Guarantee, which tracks sales in the high country. Prices are still up though, and some are using those stats to maintain optimistic about the high-end Colorado market, and others say the highest of the high-end isn't feeling any pain at all.

The Pew Research Center released "The Changing Newsroom:Gains and Losses in Today's Papers," detailing the state of newspapers across the country.

A year ago in Missoula, it was another 90-plus degree day during a July that saw 30 of them, and the weather turned Western Montana into a tinderbox. Today, it's raining and a refreshing 68 degrees. And so there's not much fire activity around the state to report on, save a few that have popped up here and there. The Cactus Fire, nine miles west of Whitehall, is mapped at 518 acres and 65 percent contained. A Monday evening thunder cell brought strong downdraft winds on the fire and created a half-acre spot, said Terina Mullen of the Bureau of Land Management.

Welcome to Carlisle! We're the mosquito capital of the United States. The matronly farmer's wife was standing at our table, holding a plate piled high with her salad bar harvest. She'd come over to say hi as the dinner crowd (8:00 for the farming community) was starting to roll in to the pizza and salad joint we'd chosen for dinner. It was a hotel night for us, and we planned on hitting the road after dinner, and driving until we'd had enough for that day. Actually, I responded, I believe the mosquito capital of the world is at McClay Flats in Missoula. I took a ragged bite of my jalapeo and onion pizza for emphasis. Well, that might be true. But you don't want to camp around here. If you do want to camp, come over to my house. I have five red-headed grandchildren. She went on to add that they grow rice in that area, which finally explained what we'd been staring at for the last half hour. Enormous rice paddies lining both sides of the freeway, with evenly spaced, curved trenches cut through every 50 yards or so. I thought it was a huge Martian graveyard, or maybe hydroponic bonsai marijuana. See, I come from Missoula where the main crop is knapweed.

Charlie loves being held. He's no dummy. Who wouldn't like the unyielding affection and unquestionable adoration from everyone who crosses his path? Really, for the regular non-Hollywood star, when else in our life are we 100-percent certain that most every person we encounter will fall in love with us? Charlie has no doubts about this. His favorite place is tightly wrapped in someone's arms, anyone's arms. As a new mom, I like to believe mine are second-to-none, as my arms are the ones to calm the storm on most every occasion. However, much to my chagrin, Charlie seems to have no preferences. Any arms'll do, he seems to say. Bring 'em on! Here in Bend, there is no shortage.

Every Wednesday morning from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m., I'm a guest on Boise's All-Talk 63 KFXD radio on Jon Duane and Chris Kelly's long-running morning show. Most Wednesdays, I bring in some current political topics and talk about what we've written on NewWest.Net. That's the jumping-off point for Jon to provoke me into defending what he sometimes sees as indefensible positions about campaigns and elections but it's all with a good nature and the goal of open discussion. Chris is the moderating voice who provides the humor and breaks up the bar fights, and without her, I'd be lost. (I think Jon would say that, too.) But Tuesday and Wednesday this week are different. Jon is taking time off, and I will co-host with Chris for two days the whole four hours. Yikes! Former Congressman Larry LaRocco, Democratic candidate for Senate, will be in the studio with us Tuesday at 7:30, and Senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig will be on the air by telephone Wednesday morning at 6:15 and 6:40. There will be other guests as well. NewWest.Net readers: help! Call up the show and ask thoughtful questions please? You know, if we start to jabber about something like the merits of twist-ties or why goldfish make good thumbtacks, for crying out loud CALL. It's (208) 342-6363 between 6:00 and 10 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Or any day. The show is on M-F, and starts a lot of Boiseans off on the right foot every morning.

The U.S. Army is collaborating with honeybees, via Scott Debnam and other researchers working on the University of Montana Bee Project. Known as the "bee whisperer," Debnam spoke Monday at City Club Missoula forum at the Doubletree Hotel, enthusiastically conveying his love for bees and researchers' growing understanding of them -- even how they can assist the army in locating land mines and detecting poisons.

If you've stepped outside at all lately you are probably painfully aware of that pesky, pokey, hideously ugly, low-lying grass coating most of Missoula's Open Space (a good chunk of the West in general, really). You know, the stuff that lodges into any and all footwear rendering it borderline trash-worthy. Yep, cheat grass. This obnoxious (I move to upgrade the term from noxious on behalf of cheat-loathers everywhere, who's with me?), impossible to beat, fire-loving weed does more than ruin a good pair of socks. Cheat grass kills. I first caught wind of the cheat-grass-as-instrument-of-death concept at a potluck while listening to some dog-crazed woman go on about the many evils in the world threatening the life of her beloved four-legger. She regaled us with stories of the usuals: chocolate, chicken bones, anti-freeze, raisins, xylitol (an artificial sweetener), and, finally, cheat grass. I had never heard of this particular plant killer. It makes sense that a dog can die from ingesting something toxic, even if that thing seems rather benign. But cheat grass has an entirely different means of taking its victim.

Turns out Montana isn't the only state with contentious stream access issues. On Friday, the Utah Supreme court issued what sportsmen in the state are calling a landmark decision essentially giving the public the right to wade and fish natural streams. According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, the case stems from a running conflict between a group of landowners who own land on the Weber River and a couple, Kevin and Jodi Conatser, who like to float the river.

The persistent financial troubles of Tamarack Resort in Valley County, Idaho, have received another overhead smash. The Associated Press reports that champion tennis couple Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, along with other investors, have walked off the court and will not build a luxury hotel bearing their name at Tamarack.

HR 6300, proposed by U.S. Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) was inspired by the Valle Vidal Protection Act. Tom Mobley, a Doa Ana County rancher, took his grandson fishing in the Valle Vidal. The fishing trip inspired a school research report that the grandson later shared with Mobley. As Mobley looked over the report, he noticed the few paragraphs of legislation forever withdrawing the Valle Vidal from mineral leasing Mobley thought if a few paragraphs could protect a place as unique and beautiful as the Valle Vidal, surely the same could work for lands in Doa Ana County.