MONTANA

Feds send $930 million to curb ‘crisis’ of US West wildfires

BILLINGS – The U.S. is directing $930 million toward reducing wildfire dangers in 10 western states by clearing trees and underbrush from national forests, the Biden administration announced Jan. 19, as officials struggle to protect communities from destructive infernos being made worse by climate change.

Under a strategy now entering its second year, the U.S. Forest Service is trying to prevent out-of-control fires that start on public lands from raging through communities. But in an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged that the shortage of workers that has been plaguing other sectors of the economy is hindering the agency’s wildfire efforts.

He warned that “draconian” budget cuts floated by some Republicans, who control the U.S. House, could also undermine the Democratic administration’s plans to lower wildfire risks across almost 80,000 square miles of public and private lands over the next decade.

The work is projected to cost up to $50 billion. Last year’s climate and infrastructure bills combined directed about $5 billion to the effort.

Vilsack said that fires on public lands will continue to threaten the West, after burning about 115,000 square miles over the past decade – an area larger than Arizona – and destroying about 80,000 houses, businesses and other structures, according to government statistics and the nonpartisan research group Headwaters Economics.

The idea is to remove many trees and other flammable material from hotspots that make up only a small portion of fire-prone areas but account for about 80% of risk to communities. Vilsack said officials will seek to restore ” old-growth forest conditions ” – meaning fewer but larger trees that can be resilient against fires.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman said he was glad to see the Biden administration taking “long-overdue action” and streamlining forest management rules. But Westerman questioned why more money will be spent this year even as new projects include fewer acres compared with last year, according to administration documents.

NEW MEXICO

Mexican gray wolf that roamed beyond recovery area captured

ALBUQUERQUE – A female Mexican gray wolf that roamed beyond the endangered species’ recovery area into the more northern reaches of New Mexico has been captured, authorities said Jan. 23.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish used a helicopter to locate and capture the wolf a day earlier.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in Albuquerque said the wolf will be held temporarily in captivity and paired with a male Mexican wolf “for transfer as a pair to Mexico later this year.”

They said the female wolf first moved north of the arbitrary Interstate 40 boundary in New Mexico on Jan. 2 and then showed no signs of returning to the experimental population recovery area.

Authorities said last week that a map showed the wolf near Taos and south of the Colorado border.

The wolf, from the Rocky Prairie Pack of Arizona, was named “Asha” by school children.

Her roaming reignited a debate over whether the predators should be confined to a certain stretch of the southwestern U.S. as wildlife managers work to boost the population.

Wolf-livestock conflicts have been a major challenge of the reintroduction program over the past two decades, with ranchers saying the killing of livestock by wolves remains a threat to their livelihood despite efforts by wildlife managers to scare the wolves away and reimburse some of the losses.

Lawmakers aim to attract hydrogen investments

SANTA FE – New Mexico state lawmakers will consider public incentives aimed at attracting investments in hydrogen production and distribution as a potential new source of industrial employment and an alternative for vehicles and factories that rely on climate-warming fossil fuels, as the legislature convenes in January.

Democratic state Rep. Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup, the lead House budget negotiator, said she planned to introduce a bill aimed at setting aside money for public-private partnerships for hydrogen projects.

New Mexico has teamed up with Wyoming, Utah and Colorado to vie for a slice of federal funds set aside to support regional hydrogen hubs that would step up hydrogen production and distribution.

Lundstrom says her initiative is aimed at giving New Mexico a competitive edge in its bid to attract federal and private investments.

A similar proposal from Lundstrom last year stalled amid withering criticism from environmentalists who are wary of the impacts of producing hydrogen from natural gas, a process that creates greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide.

The 2021 federal infrastructure law included $8 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the regional hubs.

Legislators are desperately searching for new sources of employment as New Mexico reels from the recent retirement of coal-fired power plants, amid efforts to fight climate change by requiring more carbon-free sources of electricity.

WYOMING

Bill allocating $10 million for school crosswalks advances

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Senate advanced a bill that would allocate $10 million for school crosswalk improvements and pedestrian bridges after passing the Senate Appropriations Committee on Jan. 18.

The legislation is sponsored by the Joint Judiciary Committee, which studied crosswalk safety as an interim topic in response to statewide community concerns. Pedestrian accidents were brought to legislators’ attention, including the death of a junior high student in Cheyenne who was struck and killed while using a crosswalk outside of his school more than a year ago.

Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said the bill was the result of the surprising statistics surrounding the number of children who were coming into contact with traffic on Wyoming roads.

The bill has been backed not just by Cheyenne lawmakers seeking improved safety for students, but the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Officials have focused on a crosswalk safety awareness campaign in the past year and are looking for ways to use the funding to improve their systems. This could be in the form of an underpass or overpass, a high-amplitude blinker system or additional signage.

Janelle Jones, the mother of the McCormick Junior High student who was killed, came before legislators to push for the funding. She started a nonprofit organization, ForMak, that was named in honor of her son.

KANSAS

Senator’s reelection campaign scammed out of $690K

TOPEKA – Someone scammed U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s reelection campaign out of $690,000 by getting the Kansas Republican’s accounting firm to wire the money to fraudulent bank accounts, his office said Jan. 23.

Moran’s campaign treasurer, Timothy Gottschalk, notified the Federal Election Commission by electronic letter Dec. 8 of “fraudulent activity by a third-party cyber-criminal.” The letter said that after the campaign notified a local sheriff’s office on Nov. 16, the case was forwarded to the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

The letter said the campaign received two fraudulent invoices that appeared to be from SRCP Media Inc., a Washington area company hired to handle Moran’s broadcast advertising. The letter said the campaign organization wired $345,000 on Oct. 25 and another $345,000 on Nov. 9.

The campaign’s electronic letter to the FEC said that as of Dec. 8, the campaign had recovered $168,184.

Moran won his third six-year term in the Senate in November with 60% of the vote against Democrat Mark Holland, a former Kansas City, Kansas, mayor. His reelection campaign raised more than $7.3 million and spent more than $5.1 million through Nov. 28, according to a finance report it filed with the FEC, also on Dec. 8.