Research soil scientist Paul White of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Sugar Cane Research Unit in Houma, LA, participated on a team that studied whether adding the compost would provide the carbon needed to support healthy plant cover at damaged postmining sites where there is limited organic soil carbon.

A water dispute between Nevada and Utah is the tip of a controversy that’s likely to worsen as relentless drought grips much of the nation and large volumes of water are pumped from aquifers, dropping underground water levels to dangerously low depths.

Eastern Wyoming ranchers say they were blindsided in late 2010 when it was announced that a $500 million, 525-mile natural gas liquids pipeline would slice through their private land, mostly avoiding public lands. Construction of the pipeline now is under way in the Cowboy State, with completion expected in 2013.

The three-month investigation by the USDA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) turned up no other cases of BSE, commonly known as Mad Cow Disease. Marsh said he was impressed by the outstanding response of USDA and CDFA to the potentially disastrous incident.

Following 10 weeks of a preliminary bench trial in a Reno, NV, federal courthouse, U.S. District Court Chief District Judge Robert C. Jones ruled June 6 that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) engaged in an intentional conspiracy causing irreparable harm to family members and the estate of the late Wayne Hage.

As a relentless, historic drought continues to blister nearly 65 percent of the nation—decimating huge volumes of U.S. corn and other crops—livestock and dairy organizations are urging Congress to either sharply curtail or entirely eliminate a federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring 10 percent of the nation’s gasoline supply come from ethanol.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-ID, says he does not expect the full House of Representatives to soon consider an appropriations act that reins in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “overreaching” regulations and contains provisions essential for preserving reasonable livestock grazing access on public lands.

Monstrous, raging wildfires consuming massive swaths of parched land in western states, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate also are making conditions hotter than blazes for ranchers grazing livestock on the range and in dire need of expensive hay and scarce water for their cattle and sheep.

Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s sage grouse task force completed its recommendations for a conservation plan a week before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service conducted a June 19 workshop to address the controversial issue in Twin Falls.

A bill sponsored by the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) to exempt farmers, ranchers and their employees from needing commercial drivers’ licenses to operate heavy trucks and trailers within 150 miles of their farm operations died in committee, the week of June 4, to the disappointment of agriculture groups in the state.