MONTANA

Judge says fire retardant drops are polluting streams, allows continued use

BILLINGS – The U.S. government can keep using chemical retardant dropped from aircraft to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law, a judge ruled on May 26.

Halting the use of the red slurry material could have resulted in greater environmental damage from wildfires, said U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana.

The judge agreed with U.S. Forest Service officials who said dropping retardant into areas with waterways was sometimes necessary to protect lives and property.

The ruling came after came after environmentalists sued following revelations that the Forest Service dropped retardant into waterways hundreds of times over the past decade.

More than 200 loads of retardant got into waterways over the past decade. Federal officials say those situations usually occurred by mistake and in less than 1% of the thousands of loads annually.

A coalition that includes Paradise, California – where a 2018 blaze killed 85 people and destroyed the town – had said a court ruling that stopped the use of retardant would have put lives, homes and forests at risk.

Fire retardant is a specialized mixture of water and chemicals including inorganic fertilizers or salts. It’s designed to alter the way fire burns, making blazes less intense and slowing their advance.

The Oregon-based group Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics argued in its lawsuit filed last year that the Forest Service was disregarding the Act by continuing to use retardant without taking adequate precautions to protect streams and rivers.

Christensen said stopping the use of fire retardant would “conceivably result in greater harm from wildfires – including to human life and property and to the environment.” The judge said his ruling was limited to 10 western states where members of the plaintiff’s group alleged harm from pollution into waterways that they use.

After the lawsuit was filed the Forest Service applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for a permit that would allow it to continue using retardant without breaking the law. The process could take several years.

OKLAHOMA

Legislature overrides governor’s veto of tribal regalia bill

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Legislature on May 25 overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that would allow students to wear Native American regalia during high school and college graduations.

The state House and Senate easily cleared the two-thirds threshold needed to uphold the measure, which takes effect July 1 and had strong support from many Oklahoma-based tribes and Native American citizens.

It would allow any student at a public school, including colleges, universities and technology centers, to wear tribal regalia such as traditional garments, jewelry or other adornments during official graduation ceremonies. Weapons such as a bow and arrow, tomahawk or war hammer are specifically prohibited.

Stitt, a Cherokee Nation citizen who has feuded with many Oklahoma-based Native American tribes throughout his two terms in office, vetoed the bill earlier in May, saying at the time that the decision should be up to individual districts.

Stitt suggested the bill would allow other groups to “demand special favor to wear whatever they please at a formal ceremony.”

Kamryn Yanchick, a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, was denied the opportunity to wear a decorated cap with a beaded pattern when she graduated from her high school in 2018.

A Native American former student sued Broken Arrow Public Schools and two employees in May after she was forced to remove an eagle feather from her graduation cap prior to her high school commencement ceremony.

NEW MEXICO

State convenes commission to disrupt organized crime

SANTA FE – New Mexico’s governor announced a new effort to confront organized crime on May 24 by convening a specialized commission of local prosecutors and leading law enforcement officials.

Organized crime in New Mexico has recently spurred the adoption of criminal penalties for coordinated retail theft, federal raids on stash houses to rescue migrants and efforts to disrupt fentanyl rings.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is reviving the state’s Organized Crime Commission under provisions of a 1970s-era statute. A commission hasn’t been convened since the administration of former Gov. Bill Richardson, who served from 2003 until 2011.

Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman will lead the eight-member group that will provide an annual report to the state Legislature and governor.

“New Mexico, like the rest of the country, has a crime problem, whether it’s guns, drugs or human trafficking,” Bregman said. “Much of it gets its origin, means and methods from criminal organizations. … The purpose of this commission is to forestall, check and prevent the infiltration and encroachment of organized crime.”

Commission members include Republican former state Supreme Court Justice Judith Nakamura, U.S. Marshal Sonya Chavez, state Public Safety Secretary Jason Bowie and Democratic Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen.

WYOMING

Environmental groups prevail on plan to limit grizzly bear death

CHEYENNE – An appeals court is sending a plan to allow continued cattle grazing in a vast, mountainous area of western Wyoming back to federal forest and wildlife officials, telling them to consider limiting how many of the area’s female grizzly bears may be killed for preying on livestock.

The May 25 ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver sides largely with environmental groups who sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service in 2020 over female grizzly deaths – a key factor in the species’ survival in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Many consider the Yellowstone region’s grizzlies a conservation success story. While they remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, their numbers have surged as much as tenfold, to as many as 1,000 animals, since the 1970s.

Hunters sometimes mistake grizzlies for legal-to-hunt black bears or kill grizzlies in self-defense – and wildlife managers often kill grizzlies that prey on cattle and sheep.

The plan said wildlife managers could kill up to 72 grizzlies – or about seven bears a year – over 10 years of grizzlies continuing to attack grazing livestock. The total would be double the number of grizzlies killed in the area over the previous 20 years.

Environmental groups sued, saying the plan should specify limits on killing female grizzlies, whose numbers are especially critical to the species’ success since they bear cubs.

Previous grazing plans for the area had put limits on killing female grizzlies, the three-judge appeals court panel pointed out, but the latest offered no explanation for not doing so again.

The judges upheld part of the plan that seeks to reduce deadly encounters between grizzlies and livestock, such as by requiring those tending to the cattle to carry bear-repellent spray.

Truck driver’s day turns sour after massive limes spill

Wyomingites might have had a harder time finding a key ingredient in many Memorial Day drinks after “thousands of limes” dumped onto Interstate 25 over the weekend, the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office said.

A semi-truck carrying 70,000 pounds of limes crashed on the night of May 20 in Natrona County, and the cargo went rolling everywhere, said spokesperson Kiera Grogan.

“I just know my guys were out there cleaning up limes,” she said.

Even some of the people who drove by the spill were attempting to stop and pick up limes off the road, said Grogan.

The crash happened between Casper and Midwest at milepost 204, and the northbound section of the interstate was forced to close at 6:26 p.m.

It took more than six hours to clean up the mess.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol was concentrating on the investigation, Grogan said.