In this April 25, 2012, file photo, a herd of bison move through land controlled by the American Prairie Reserve south of Malta, Mont. U.S. officials on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, announced approved of the reserve’s proposal to expand bison grazing on public lands in north-central Montana.
In this April 25, 2012, file photo, a herd of bison move through land controlled by the American Prairie Reserve south of Malta, Mont. U.S. officials on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, announced approved of the reserve’s proposal to expand bison grazing on public lands in north-central Montana.
US approves bison grazing on prairie amid criticism
BILLINGS — U.S. officials on March 30 announced approval of a conservation group's proposal to expand bison grazing on prairies in north-central Montana as part of a vast nature reserve over objections from some ranchers and elected officials.
The decision allows the American Prairie group to graze bison on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property and to remove about 30 miles of fences so the animals can roam more freely.
The Bozeman-based group already has more than 800 bison on a mix of public and private land. Its long-term goal is to piece together a 5,000-square-mile expanse that would include the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and have thousands of bison and other wildlife.
Some cattle ranches have sold property to the group as it amasses land to create the reserve, but others have fiercely opposed the effort. The critics worry that bison will displace cattle and that their agriculture-dependent communities will be forever altered.
Republicans including Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Gov. Greg Gianforte sharply criticized federal officials after American Prairie received preliminary approval for the reserve last August.
Knudsen said in a March 30 statement that the administration of President Joe Biden ignored local opposition to the proposal. Knudsen said federal officials instead catered to "radicals" who want to transform part of Montana into a wildlife viewing area.
Bureau of Land Management officials said they approved the proposal in accordance with the law after finding that bison grazing would not have significant negative effects on the land.
The proposal covered about 108 square miles south of the small community of Malta and will allow American Prairie to increase the size of its bison herd from 813 animals to about 1,000 by 2025, the group said.
Officials finish buried nuclear waste cleanup
ARCO — Work to dig up and remove radioactive and hazardous waste buried for decades in unlined pits at a nuclear facility that sits atop a giant aquifer in eastern Idaho has been completed, federal officials said.
The U.S. Department of Energy on March 30 held a celebration to mark the completion of removing specifically-targeted buried waste from a 97-acre landfill at its 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory.
Specifically, officials targeted just under 6 acres called the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Officials said the work was completed 18 months ahead of schedule.
The targeted radioactive waste included plutonium-contaminated filters, graphite molds, sludges containing solvents and oxidized uranium generated during nuclear weapons production work at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado during the Cold War.
The waste from Rocky Flats was packaged in storage drums and boxes before being sent from 1954 to 1970 to the high-desert, sagebrush steppe of eastern Idaho where it was buried in unlined pits and trenches.
The landfill sits above the Lake Erie-sized Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer that supplies farms and cities in the region. A 2020 U.S. Geological Survey report said radioactive and chemical contamination in the aquifer had decreased or remained constant in recent years.
Contamination reached the aquifer through injection wells, unlined percolation ponds, pits into which radioactive material from other states was dumped, and accidental spills mainly during the Cold War era before regulations to protect the environment were put in place.
The agency said it removed about 13,500 cubic yards of material — which is the equivalent of nearly 50,000 storage drums each containing 55 gallons. Some radioactive and hazardous remains in the Idaho landfill that will receive an earthen cover.
Most of the waste is being sent to the U.S. government's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal.
Army OKs $1.5M settlement for pollution at former depot
SANTA FE — The U.S. Army has reached an agreement with Zuni Pueblo, the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico to pay $1.5 million toward restoring environmental damage done at a former munitions depot.
The proposed settlement filed in federal court involves Fort Wingate, a former Army installation near Gallup that was used as a munitions storage and disposal site before being closed in 1993.
Under the proposed settlement announced by state officials in late March, about $1 million would go for restoration projects, $117,000 for cultural services damage and $314,000 to cover past and future costs of the state Natural Resources Trustee's Office.
Zuni Pueblo Gov. Val Panteah lauded the settlement, saying the tribe looks forward to working with the state's natural resources trustee and the Navajo Nation to "restore the health and productivity of these ancestral lands."
Both tribes have long-standing historical ties to the lands in and around the former munitions depot, which sits on about 24 square miles that is almost entirely surrounded by federally-owned or administered lands, including both national forest and tribal lands.
Pollution problems at the site include soil and water contaminated by hazardous waste and unexploded ordnance. The cleanup work involves finding, disarming and removing explosives.
US officials acknowledge damage to dinosaur tracks
MOAB — Dinosaur tracks from 112 million years ago have been damaged in southeastern Utah by heavy machinery used to rebuild a boardwalk at the popular tourist area, U.S. officials say.
The damage at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite is minor but some footprints had fractures around the rims, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently said in a report.
The agency also said an area where a prehistoric crocodile crossed a mud flat appeared to have been driven over multiple times by a backhoe, causing fracturing, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The site is considered among the most important dinosaur track areas in the nation, containing tracks from at least 10 different species.
The agency in the report said the project should be reevaluated, the area clearly marked and work crews briefed on where they can and can't go.
"To ensure this does not happen again, we will follow the recommendations in the assessment, seek public input, and work with the paleontology community as we collectively move forward on constructing boardwalks at the interpretive site," the agency said.
That revised report should be done this summer.
Flamingo that escaped zoo in 2005 spotted in Texas
WICHITA — One of two flamingos that escaped from a Kansas zoo during a storm 17 years ago has been spotted on the coast of Texas, wildlife officials said.
The Coastal Fisheries division of Texas Parks and Wildlife confirmed on March 29 to The Associated Press that the African flamingo — known as No. 492 because of the number on its leg band — was captured on video shot March 10 by an environmental activist near Port Lavaca, Texas, at Rhodes Point in Cox Bay. Officials were able to make out the bird's leg band on the video.
The bird and another flamingo escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita on a stormy night in June 2005. Employees had not yet clipped the birds' wings to prevent them from flying, which facilitated their escape.
While the other flamingo was never seen again, No. 492 has been spotted several times in Wisconsin, Louisiana and Texas, sometimes with other wild flamingos. Officials said it had been a year or two since the bird was last seen in Texas.
Zoo officials have never made plans to recapture No. 492, despite the sightings, saying there is no easy way to do so without disturbing other wildlife.
The escaped flamingos, known for their distinctive pink feathers and long legs and necks, were born in Africa then shipped to the Kansas zoo in 2004 with 39 other flamingos.
If you are like me (Ed: not very likely…) you look forward every week to the Colorado Politics section entitled Out West Roundup (we are in th…
Your comment has been submitted.
There was a problem reporting this.
Post a comment as Guest
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
Secure your subscription to Colorado’s premier political news journal, in continuous publication since 1898. You can be in the know right alongside Colorado’s political insiders. Want the real scoop? Subscribe to Colorado Politics today!