NEW MEXICO

Trade posts in Four Corners fight to stay open amid changes

FARMINGTON – The trading posts, once a staple in the Four Corners region that connected Navajo weavers and artists to buyers, are facing challenges to their survival.

Trading posts are facing increased competition from online retailers as well as a large regional grocery store chain and working to navigate changing demands, the Farmington Daily Times reports.

Tom Wheeler, who will mark his 50th year of ownership of the Hogback Trading Co. in Waterflow next year, focuses on Navajo rugs, art, jewelry, drums and cradleboards, having made the transition away from the traditional model early in his tenure as the proprietor. His family has owned the trading post since 1871, but Wheeler took it on himself as a young man to shake things up.

Wheeler began his changes by building and operating a shopping center next door that offered many of the goods and services that had fallen under the umbrella of the trading post for so many years. Then he notified the Navajo weavers and artists who had done business with his family for generations that he was closing their charge accounts, forgiving whatever debt they had accumulated and compensating them on a cash-only basis from that point on.

That brought to an end to the “trading” model that the business had engaged in for a century, but the response to his decision was overwhelmingly positive, Wheeler said.

MONTANA

Court fight could affect future of bison in state

HELENA – The Democratic governor of Montana who is running for president and the Republican secretary of state who wants his job were locked in a constitutional dispute over a uniquely Western issue that lies at the intersection of politics, wildlife, agriculture and property rights.

The argument between Gov. Steve Bullock and Secretary of State Corey Stapleton could hamper plans to build a sanctuary where thousands of buffalo would roam. It escalated into a legal battle over whether Stapleton has the power to overrule Bullock’s veto of state legislation on a technicality.

A judge who heard arguments in the case ruled that Stapleton lacks that authority and blocked the vetoed legislation from becoming law for now.

The fight between Bullock and Stapleton centers on an effort to change the state’s legal definition of “wild bison.”

Some Republican lawmakers say the changes are necessary to close gaps in the law. The measure has support from ranchers and landowners, including the United Property Owners of Montana, who worry that an expansion of bison rangeland would increase the risk of disease to their livestock and damage to their property.

Democratic opponents fear the changes would, at best, create confusion over the status of bison living in Yellowstone National Park, the National Bison Range and with tribes, or, at worst, snuff out any hopes that wild bison will again roam freely in the state outside of Yellowstone.

The Legislature passed the measure over Democrats’ protests, and Bullock vetoed it on April 29. Stapleton said Bullock missed a 10-day deadline to physically turn in the veto to his office and that the bill became law.

Bullock said no such deadline exists and that he followed the law in issuing the veto. The governor sued after Stapleton took the first step toward publishing the legislation into law.

IDAHO

Study: Prescribed burns underused to reduce wildfire risks

LEWISTON – A study indicates that land management agencies are underutilizing prescribed burns to reduce wildfire threats in the western U.S.

The Lewiston Tribune reported that the University of Idaho study shows that the use of prescribed burns has decreased over the last two decades in the West while it has ramped up in southeastern states.

Professor Crystal Kolden, who authored the study, says there is less social acceptance for the practice in the western states because of the smoke, lack of funding and the occasional fire that escapes control.

Kolden says the controlled burns reduce the buildup of hazardous fuel in forests and help restore fire-prone ecosystems.

Kolden says the practice might gain better acceptance if people see its potential to improve big game habitat.

WYOMING

Mayor says governor cursed, slammed fists in meeting

CHEYENNE – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon used foul language and “his physical presence in an aggressive and threatening manner” in a meeting with the mayor of Wyoming’s capital city, the mayor said.

Gordon slammed his fists on a table and shouted “F— you, mayor” in the meeting, said Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr, who like Gordon is a Republican.

Orr said she considered walking out of the meeting with Gordon about a possible visit to Wyoming in July for a Taiwanese government delegation during Cheyenne Frontier Days.

In a statement after Orr leveled the accusations, Gordon apologized for what he said but denied using intimidating body language.

Orr, a former lobbyist whose husband helped with Gordon’s 2018 campaign for governor, backed him last year but said she “wouldn’t have endorsed him last fall had I known that he was capable of this.”

The episode involved a generally noncontroversial topic for Wyoming: Ongoing efforts to encourage beef exports to Taiwan, where the state recently opened a trade office. Foreign officials visiting the U.S. often visit Cheyenne during Frontier Days, a two-week festival of rodeo, country music and celebration of the state’s cowboy culture.

NEW MEXICO

Groups ready to sue over fuel spill at air base

ALBUQUERQUE – A coalition of state lawmakers and nonprofit groups have taken the first step toward suing the U.S. Air Force, saying it wants firm deadlines for cleaning up jet fuel contamination at a base bordering New Mexico’s largest city.

The coalition filed a notice of intent to sue, saying the contamination at Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque is a danger to public health and the environment. It wants an agreement that sets a cleanup schedule with clear deadlines and penalties.

Air Force officials say they’re committed to cleaning up the contamination.

A fuel leak – believed to have been seeping into the ground for decades – was detected in 1999. The Air Force already has spent $125 million cleaning up soil and water around the site, but the coalition contends there are no enforceable requirements in place.

While state and military officials say drinking wells are protected, community watchdog groups argue that there are gaps in the data. They are pushing for an independent review of the yearslong, multimillion-dollar cleanup project.

The leaking fuel contained the additive ethylene dibromide, or EDB. While the effects on people haven’t been well documented, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says animal studies indicate that chronic exposure may result in toxic effects to the liver, kidney and reproductive organs.