Reporter's Notes

BSE

 A six-year-old Holstein dairy cow from British Columbia is believed to be Canada’s fifth case of bovine spongiformencephalopathy since May 2003. Canadian veterinary authorities suspect contaminated feed will prove to be the source of the infection, should BSE be confirmed. No part of the animal entered the human or animal feed system. If confirmed, the case could be significant because the animal was born at least two years after the imposition of a ban on cattle parts in feed meant for cattle, the suspected source of BSE infection.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement: “With the confirmation of a new BSE case in Canada, Minister Strahl has invited the United States to participate in the epidemiologic investigation. Information gathered through this investigation will help us to determine what, if any, impact this should haveon our beef and live cattle trade with Canada. Based on the information available, I do not anticipate a change in the status of our trade.

“It is important to note that Canada’s monitoring system identified this animal as one that should be removed from the food and feed supply chain, ensuring food safety continues to be protected.”

Inholdings

The U.S. Forest Service announced new regulations that will provide a more consistent and balanced approach for managing the 14,500 recreation residences in national forests. The new regulations, under the Cabin User Fee Fairness Act of 2000, address the annual fee paid by permit holders, the time frame and process for appraisals to be conducted, and the definition ofa recreation residence lot.

“These residences are one of the oldest recreation uses authorized on national forest system lands,” said Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. “The new guidelines provide updated and consistent procedures nationwide for managing these permits.”

Permit holders will continue to pay a yearly fee of 5 percent of the appraised market value of a typical lot. The fee will be adjusted each year based on the Implicit Price Deflator-Gross Domestic Product.

Appraisals will now be conducted every 10 years rather than every 20 years. The last appraisal cycle to determine the yearly fee paid by a permit holder was completed by the Forest Service in 2000; the next appraisal cycle is slated to begin this year.

However, the new regulations allow permit holders to have an opportunity over the next two years to request a new appraisal or a peer review. Otherwise, after the two-year period ends, the fee will be based on the last appraisal.

Recreation residences are privately owned, limited-use cabins in national forests under 20-year special-use permits. The tracts were authorized in 1915 to encourage recreation in national forests. Many have been used by the same family for generations.

BLM blocks migration

The Wildlife Management Institute takes the Pinedale office Bureau of Land Management to task in its current newsletter for the agency contracting to construct a new office building “within a narrow corridor used by an already seriously stressed segment of migratory pronghorn.”

WMI reported: “They are on the verge of building a new Pinedale field office directly in the path of about 1,500 pronghorn that pass each spring and fall through a narrow 200-yard wide gap of remaining habitat (referred to as “antelope alley”) between the town of Pinedale and massive development in the Pinedale Anticline gas field. Pinedale and Sublette County officials also have contributed to constriction of the migration route by repeatedly allowing new subdivisions and even municipal buildings to be constructed in the path of the pronghorn.”