Animal Groups Team Up with Cattlemen to Depopulate
Wild Horses and Burros from the West
By Wayne Pacelle
October 2, 2019
Wild horses and burros face unprecedented mass removal from our public lands in the West, after a key Senate committee appropriated tens of millions in new monies to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to carry out a plan cooked up by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), ASPCA, and the so-called American Mustang Foundation. The unexpected alignment of ranching interests and two prominent animal protection groups has disoriented the normal band of lawmakers who’d fight for the preservation and humane management of wild horses and burros, giving Republican lawmakers in the West a nearly unhindered political opportunity to execute on their long-held ambition to depopulate wild horses and burros dotting the sagebrush-flecked landscapes of the BLM.
At a time when most programs to protect endangered wildlife or enforce other animal protection laws are being flat-lined or defunded – with the Senate Appropriations Committee not even matching a House action to set aside just $2 million for an Animal Cruelty Crimes unit at the Department of Justice to enforce all of our federal anti-cruelty laws – the Senate Committee added an eye-popping $35 million to the BLM’s $80 million wild horse and burro program budget. That’s nearly a 50 percent increase to $115 million – an unheard-of, single-year spending hike. (The House version of the bill added $6 million to BLM’s wild horse and burro program – an amount that wild horse protection groups weeks ago decried as a dangerous spending boost to an agency that cannot be trusted to manage the animals humanely.)
With an $80 million budget for its wild horse and burro program, the BLM in 2018 rounded up more than 10,000 wild equids last year, running them to exhaustion at full gallop in helicopter chases and separating family groups before corralling and then shipping them off to short-term and long-term holding facilities. With its round-up culture and fealty to the ranching industry, the BLM could use all or nearly all of this new money to round up even more horses. The fear is, the agency will round up as many as 20,000 or more horses a year, swelling the number of horses in holding facilities. With 50,000 wild horses burros already in holding facilities, that number would balloon to 100,000 in two or three years. The holding operation already eats up two-thirds of BLM’s budget and doubling or tripling the numbers would have a budget-busting effect.
I have negotiated hundreds of animal welfare agreements with industry and lawmakers during my career in our field. So, it’s anything but my instinct to scold animal welfare parties for trying to find common ground with adversaries. Indeed, securing an agreement from parties or industries doing harm may be the best pathway to reduce violence against animals.
It’s the terms of the deal that matter. Especially so when dealing with adversaries with an entirely different world view and political constituency. A good deal must have specificity, clearly articulated benefits to animals, and leverage on enforcement.
In this case, the deal has none of that. The cattlemen’s association took the animal groups to the cleaners.
Here’s why.
We have a federal agency, in the form of the BLM, that has long been an enabler of the cattle industry, turning the arid West into a free-for-all when it comes to public lands grazing. There are already 20 cattle and sheep for every wild horse on BLM lands. Christopher Ketcham’s new book, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism and Corruption Are Ruining the American West, is a devastating indictment of how the cattlemen have turned BLM into a bystander as they despoil our public lands and menace horses and other wildlife inhabiting these lands.
The BLM’s deference to the cattle industry has transcended any single administration, but it’s as bad now as ever, with the leadership of the agency embracing an extreme philosophy of deregulation (the number of horses rounded up in 2018 was the biggest number in a decade). The hopeful assumption by the HSUS and ASPCA that this BLM would broadly embrace humane fertility control and apply it across the range of wild horses and burros is a far-out hope, not a practical expectation. The Bureau's personnel don’t have the experience or the know-how or the will.
HSUS and the ASPCA tout that, with this accord, they have won a concession from their adversaries not to send wild horses and burros to slaughter. In this year’s Agriculture and Interior department spending bills, there is language to forbid USDA from using funds to conduct federal inspections of horses for slaughter and to forbid BLM from allowing the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter. Good news. But while we never take the insertion of that language for granted, animal advocates have secured this language year after year. The continuation of a one-year extension of narrow anti-slaughter language has, in the last decade, been nothing new.
What we haven’t seen in the wake of this agreement is the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association endorsement of comprehensive anti-horse slaughter legislation, the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act. That bill is the key to saving America’s hoses and would forbid horse slaughtering operations in the U.S. and also the transport of wild or domesticated horses and burros to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. Don’t hold your breath waiting for NCBA to endorse that bill.
In short, the raison d’etre for this agreement – a one-year, no-slaughter wild horse and burro provision – was already baked. We’ve been able to secure that language year after year, even when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress. With Democrats controlling the House, and a supermajority of lawmakers opposing horse slaughter after the 2018 mid-term elections, never has there been so little risk that the Congress would suspend its annual prohibition on slaughtering wild horse and burros. That’s like people, having seen the forecast promising a storm, doing a rain dance and claiming victory as the ground is soaked.
The appropriations process is among the least transparent of ways to address a complicated, multi-dimensional plan like the one proposed. There is no singular lawmaker heading the appropriations process, and the final language of whatever comes out of that process gets folded into a multi-billion-dollar, must-pass spending bill. The vast majority of lawmakers will favor or oppose the bill based on a much larger set of policy and spending priorities, and our allies may have little power to take off barnacles that got attached during the bill's back-room formulations.
BLM and the Interior Department have a history of slow-walking and even fighting contraception. BLM has treated contraception as a “do-gooder” idea that cannot be broadly applied in the field. A small number of their field staff have been enthusiastic endorsers of contraception for a few horse and burro herds and participated in contraception programs largely driven by volunteers and animal protection groups. But many key agency personnel have warned that most herds cannot be contracepted because of the unsuitability of the terrain, the behavioral wariness of the horses in many herds, and for other reasons. This proposal asks the BLM, whose leadership is being moved from Washington DC to the West to be closer to the lands they manage, to transform its culture in a head-snapping moment. Ain’t gonna happen.
This proposal and accompanying legislation lack safeguards and suffers from terminal vagueness. If any of this turns out to be positive for horses, it won’t be because of its terms. While the backers of the proposal say that application of human fertility control is central to their plan, the legislative language doesn’t guarantee that even one dime will be used to treat horse and burros to treat horses on the ground. Nor does it bar surgical sterilization, an inhumane procedure that removes the ovaries while the mare is conscious.
And remember, BLM is housed in the same agency (the Department of the Interior) that is seeking to remove federal protections for wolves and grizzlies in the West, that is working to gut the Endangered Species Act, scuttling a prior agreement between industry and conservation groups on sage grouse, and promoting oil and gas development on these same lands at a time when the planet faces a climate crisis. Do we really think that BLM is suddenly going to turn into a savior for wild horses and burros because of a loose guidance in a single open-ended paragraph in an annual spending bill that accompanies the additional hand-over of $35 million in taxpayer monies?
The best and most rational step forward is for the Congress to require, in very specific terms, BLM to expand its contraception programs and to fund that work for dozens of herds. If BLM demonstrates an ability to apply a humane fertility control program in a majority of Herd Management Areas, then it’s time to talk about a broader plan for managing horses and burros given the presence of a more trusted and reliable government agency.
I’ve been immersed in the wild horse and burro debate for years and have worked with players on all sides of it and been on the ground to see the federal government’s management actions and a number of contraception programs, largely conducted by outside groups with a minor assist from BLM field staff. The management of these animals in the complicated political environment is a Rubik’s Cube, and I’ve come to see many colors and angles of it. But it doesn’t take that kind of first-hand knowledge to know that “A Path Forward” as their plan is known, is leading us off a cliff.
And why give away this money in the final year of the first term of the Trump Administration? This is a hand-off to people who've already dramatically stepped up round-ups in 2018 and are committed to deregulation. This plan, with the current set of BLM leaders in place, is a prescription for depopulation of our wild horse and burros and the only thing that can save it in year two is a new President who comes in and cleans house AT BLM. Giving away the keys to the bank now will produce looting in 2020.
Wayne Pacelle is a two-time New York Times best selling author of The Bond and Humane Economy and founder of Animal Wellness Action in Washington, D.C.
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Wildlife Board approves bighorn sheep unit management plans
SALT LAKE CITY — The 10-year statewide management plan for bighorn sheep in Utah was approved in November 2018, and on Thursday, the Utah Wildlife Board approved plans for each of the specific regions in Utah that have bighorn sheep populations.
Eighteen unit management plans were approved during the Wildlife Board meeting: 11 for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and seven for desert bighorn sheep. The combined population objective for these 18 units is a total of 8,850 bighorn sheep. Currently, there are approximately 4,150 bighorn sheep in Utah, and the specific unit management plans include proposals for how to increase the population in each area in a sustainable way.
“There has been some struggle with our bighorn sheep populations recently because of respiratory disease,” Jace Taylor, the bighorn sheep and mountain goat biologist for DWR, said. “Part of our objective is to expand bighorn sheep populations where possible and to maintain the overall population in a sustainable and healthy way across Utah to provide quality opportunities for wildlife viewing and hunting.”
The number of sheep approved for each unit varies, due to the available habitat, water supply and necessary space needed to separate the animals if they get sick. Habitat projects are also included in some of the plans, which will help provide additional suitable habitat for bighorn populations. DWR biologists also plan to regularly test each of Utah’s bighorn sheep populations for respiratory disease.
One of the specific units included in the unit management plans is Antelope Island. The bighorn sheep population on the island experienced a disease outbreak in November 2018, and the entire population there was removed. Part of the management plan for this specific area includes Antelope Island State Park building a fence on the south end of the island before the DWR reintroduces a healthy population of bighorn sheep to the island.
DWR biologists hope to release about 35 wild bighorn sheep on the island in January 2020 and will closely monitor the population for disease. They hope to eventually grow a healthy population of 125 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep on the island.
Here are the approved totals for bighorn sheep populations on all 18 units:
Unit Name
Current Bighorn Sheep Population
Bighorn Sheep Population Goal
Antelope Island
0
125
Book Cliffs, South
230
450
Box Elder, Newfoundland Mountain
310
350
Box Elder, Pilot Mountain
60
125
Central Mountains, Nebo
50
125
Fillmore, Oak Creek
130
300
Henry Mountains
150
200
Kaiparowits
950
1,350
La Sal, Potash/South Cisco
220
300
Nine Mile
440
1,000
Oquirrh-Stansbury, West
70
500
Pine Valley
170
650
San Juan
320
750
San Rafael
540
1,200
Uinta Mountains
160
450
Wasatch Mountains, Avintaquin
20
350
Wasatch Mountains, West
80
250
Zion
250
375
See all of the approved unit management plans on the DWR website, and watch the full Utah Wildlife Board meeting here.
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USDA Invests $11M In Research That Will Support Specialty Crop Farmers
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2019 – U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary Scott Hutchins announced today that the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has invested $11 million in research that will support specialty crop farmers.
“This collaborative public-private research effort will focus on applying innovative solutions to pest management problems that often are otherwise not available to specialty crop farmers,” said Hutchins, who leads USDA’s Research, Education and Economics (REE) mission area. “Practical and economic crop management solutions may make all the difference between thriving and just surviving financially during the growing season.”
This investment is made through the Minor Crop Pest Management Program (known as the Interregional Research Project, IR-4). The IR-4 program enables crop protection technology often designed for field crops, but equally safe, effective and economical for growers of minor/specialty crops—including fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture) – to be evaluated and registered for use.
As part of this funding investment, four universities across different U.S. growing regions will lead regional IR-4 programs that will generate additional data for registration of conventional and bio-based crop protection technology for specialty and minor crops in the United States. These efforts require effective collaborations among grower organizations, federal agencies, the private sector, and land-grant colleges and universities.
NIFA’s Pest Management Programs invest in research that supports integrated pest management strategies, including coordinating the use of pest biology, environmental information, and available technology to prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means, while minimizing risk to people, property, resources, and the environment.
A 2017 Michigan State University Center for Economic Analysis study (PDF, 640 KB) concluded that “IR-4’s partnership with agriculture has contributed to 95,261 jobs with a total labor income of $5.6 billion, and annual contributions to the gross domestic product totaling about $9.4 billion.”
A list of the four universities (five awards total) and their research projects is available on the NIFA website.
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Good morning, members of the media!
We have an awesome new website that highlights data from our bird banding work and shows how far some of the birds we banded in Utah have traveled (some were found in Russia and near Hawaii!) We think this information will be of interest to the public and appreciate you spreading the word!
For Immediate Release
Oct. 8, 2019
DWR launches new website highlighting waterfowl migration data
SALT LAKE CITY — Each spring and summer, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employees spend several days riding on airboats and plucking geese and ducks out of the water before placing little metal bands on their legs and then releasing them back into the wild. This work has been going on for decades, and the data collected from these banding efforts provide valuable information about the migration patterns of many waterfowl species. Now, for the first time, that information will be available to the public as well.
Waterfowl banding began in Utah in 1912, and since then, 211,860 waterfowl have had little metal bands placed on them while they migrated through the Beehive State. The DWR places these bands on roughly 5,000 ducks, geese and swans — about 10-12 species — in Utah every year. Many of those bands were later located and reported in a federal database, and that data has been compiled in an interactive website to show how far the bird traveled before it was found.
DWR started building the “Utah’s Waterfowl Band Returns” website in March, and it was publicly launched on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
“The intent of this website is to show people how far waterfowl migrate,” Blair Stringham, DWR migratory game bird program coordinator, said. “It also emphasizes how important Utah is to migratory birds. Millions of birds move through Utah during their annual migrations, and most are journeying from other states, countries and even continents.”
Whenever a duck or goose is harvested during a hunt, or perhaps found dead from natural causes, the person who locates the band should report the band number, date and location on the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory website. That information is then available to all the federal and state wildlife agencies to help guide their decisions on waterfowl management.
“We have been banding birds for a long time, and over the years, we have learned some incredible things about bird migration from this banding data,” Stringham said. “This information allows us to identify areas that are important for birds, and we can direct resources to those areas to improve habitat conditions for those species. We also learn about the timing of migration and have been able to structure our hunting seasons to coincide with peaks of migrations for some species. For other species, like trumpeter swans, we have used banding data to close seasons and specific areas to hunting to avoid impacting that species.”
The website allows users to see where the majority of the birds are banded in Utah, and also where nine of the bird species have been found across the world.
“I truly enjoyed glimpsing snapshots about individual birds as I organized this data and created the website,” DWR senior GIS analyst Liz Moore said. “At first glance, a data point appears to be an error, but upon further investigation, it turns out to actually be a band returned from a rather unlikely place. For example, one data point appeared to have been mistakenly placed in the middle of the ocean, but zooming in further reveals it was a northern pintail duck that was recovered at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, an atoll south of Hawaii.”
“Every time I see a bird, I think about where it may have come from and where it might be heading,” Stringham said. “A bird you see today could easily have come from Montana a few days before, and by next week, it could be in Mexico. The ability that birds have to move such great distances is truly incredible to me.”
Several of Utah’s waterfowl hunting seasons opened Oct. 5. Check the DWR website for the opening dates for each species.
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Your Business Has 99 Problems
And Communication Is All Of Them
Businesses face a multitude of vexing situations every day.
Sometimes these are quickly remedied, such as a missed phone call that must be rescheduled, or an unhappy customer who needs to be soothed.
At other times, there’s a total breakdown and turmoil erupts, as in the recent GM strike where 50,000 auto workers walked out, venting their anger over a number of decisions by the company.
But, small or large, of minor importance or potentially ruinous, every cause for concern that a business encounters originates from the same place.
“All problems are communication problems,” says Bill Higgs (culturecodechampionspodcast.com), an authority on corporate culture and author of the upcoming book Culture Code Champions: 7 Steps to Scale & Succeed in Your Business.
“How well you communicate is tied to your organization’s culture, which raises the question: What is your current culture costing you?”
Higgs says it’s common in the business world to be in a situation where someone asks or tells you to do something, you think you understand what they want, but when it’s done, it’s not right.
“When you both review what happened, you realize there was a communication breakdown at the outset,” he says.
Higgs recommends a few ways businesses can improve communications – and in the process avoid everything from minor mishaps to major disputes:
“Don’t let your people shut themselves off in their offices or workspaces, and don’t create such a hierarchy that people can communicate only through pre-approved channels,” Higgs says. “Effective teamwork requires good communication – and lots of it.”
About Bill Higgs
Bill Higgs, an authority on corporate culture, is the author of the upcoming book Culture Code Champions: 7 Steps to Scale & Succeed in Your Business. He recently launched the Culture Code Champions podcast (culturecodechampionspodcast.com). Higgs is also retired CEO of Mustang Engineering Inc., which he and two partners started in Houston, Texas in 1987 to design and build offshore oil platforms. Over the next 20 years, they grew the company from their initial $15,000 investment and three people to a billion-dollar company with 6,500 people worldwide; since then, it has grown to a $2 billion company with more than 12,000 people. Higgs is a distinguished 1974 graduate (top 5 percent academically) of the United States Military Academy at West Point and runner up for a Rhodes scholarship.
Dear Editor:
Please consider this piece by Robert Koehler, asking us all to consider impeaching but not stopping there in our work on America. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
`~~~~~
Impeaching the symptom, not the disease
by Robert C. Koehler
838 words
I feel like I’m watching a sitcom called “America.” Next episode: Will they impeach the president? Stay tuned!
“Impeachment is therefore imperative, not only to protect the integrity of next year’s elections but to secure America’s continued democratic existence. If the House does its job, it will fall to Senate Republicans to reveal, in their decision to convict (or not), their preferred flavor of republic: constitutional or banana.”
So writes Will Wilkinson in a recent New York Times op-ed, making the case that Donald Trump definitely stepped over the line on July 25, when he pushed Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to come up with some dirt on Joe Biden so that his country could receive $391 million in promised U.S. military aid. And yes, yes, this is as blatant, raw and slimy as corruption gets — like, my God, here’s a big-city political boss running the world! Impeach now or else . . .
And yes, I get it and don’t disagree. Trump is a shameless buffoon, a racist, a threat to the country and the planet and definitely should not be in the position of Most Powerful Man in the World.
But as I read about Ukraine-gate (or whatever this is) — all the shock, all the outrage — something keeps me from jumping wholeheartedly into the impeachment furor: the unspoken assumption that the United States is a solid, integrity-fortified democracy and force for good on Planet Earth, and Trump alone endangers this. In other words, this ain’t no banana republic (and let us quietly avoid thinking about all the banana republics we’ve supported and helped create over the years).
Trump may be a pioneer in bringing reckless, unrestrained narcissism into the role of national leadership, but he’s also a symptom of something wrong with this country that far transcends his stumbling ineptitude.
For instance . . . in case you’ve forgotten . . . we’re still engaged in pointless wars that no leader knows how to — or is allowed to — end, which have faded conveniently into background noise, except for occasional spurts of reportage, e.g.:
“A US drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State hideout in Afghanistan has killed at least 30 civilians who were resting after harvesting pine nuts.”
So Reuters informed us several weeks ago, adding: “Forty people were also injured in the attack on Wednesday night which struck farmers and laborers who had just finished their day’s work at the mountainous Wazir Tangi in eastern Nangarhar province. . . .
“‘The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them,’” a tribal elder told Reuters.
In a slightly different context — say the killings had been committed at a Walmart’s in El Paso, not a forest outside Jalalabad, and the weapon had been an automatic rifle rather than a drone — this would be called mass murder. Instead we call it war, and forget about it.
Or, as a U.S. military spokesman said: “We are aware of allegations of the death of non-combatants and are working with local officials to determine the facts.”
That’s reassuring!
Finally, the story points out: “The United Nations says nearly 4,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the first half of the year. That included a big increase in casualties inflicted by government and U.S.-led foreign forces.”
So 18 years on, we’re still fighting some kind of war in Afghanistan, or combating terrorists, though in the process we’re killing more civilians than they are. We’re also fighting and funding wars throughout the Middle East, including in Iraq. That was the war — remember? — birthed in lies so damning they bury Trump’s stream of “alternative facts” under a million corpses.
This starts to get at something. There was never an impeachment bandwagon aimed at George W. Bush, Dick Cheney or the other liars who fabricated the excuse for a little shock and awe. Indeed, while there were worldwide protests against the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the mainstream American media were all for it, turning prewar coverage into Operation Groupthink and marginalizing everyone who had his or her doubts about it.
Indeed, militarism and the pursuit of empire have been the norm for a long time. In April 1953, three months into his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower cried out to the American public about the insanity of military spending: “This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” Yet the Cold War, and military spending, grew during the Eisenhower presidency and continued thereafter, as though driven by a hidden, uncontainable force.
This is a force that has seldom made an appearance in presidential debates or campaigns. Certainly it’s one of the forces behind gerrymandering and voter suppression. As far as I can tell, it’s not a force within the reach of democracy.
Impeaching Trump would . . get rid of Trump, or at least begin the process to do so. That’s about it. The rest of our problems would remain in place.
–end–
Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Crystal Young-Otterstrom
801-368-6108
-or-
Barbara Schmiett
801-557-6704
October Welcomes National Arts and Humanities Month – Utah Celebrates with a Governor’s Proclamation and a Month of Community Events and Activities
Creative Industries Contributed $327 Million to Utah’s General Fund through Sales Tax in 2018
Salt Lake City, UT, October 1, 2019 -- Utah Humanities, Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Utah Museums Association and the Utah Cultural Alliance have joined forces to raise awareness of the country’s largest annual collective celebration of arts and humanities and the value the events bring to our communities statewide. The month focuses attention on the diverse activities available throughout the state, all found on Nowplayingutah.com, an events calendar with all things arts and culture - aimed at introducing Utah audiences to new forms of art in their hometown.
Utahns are encouraged to search and use the hashtags #artshumanitiesUT, #showyourart and #showyourhumanities throughout October to find cultural activities to celebrate the month. Notable activities include the 22nd annual Utah Humanities' Book Festival offering 122 events in 16 communities, and featuring over 100 authors. “We've expanded our reach by partnering with libraries, community centers, cultural organizations, and more to serve upwards of 12,000 Utahns every fall,” said Jodi Graham, Executive Director of Utah Humanities.
“Arts and Humanities Month in Utah as proclaimed by Governor Gary R. Herbert, gives us a chance to celebrate the often overlooked economic, educational and civic engagement values that the humanities and arts impart in our daily lives,” said Crystal Young-Otterstom, Executive Director of the Utah Cultural Alliance. “We already knew Utah leads the country for live arts participation per capita. Now we know the creative industries brought $327 million back to the state’s general fund in sales tax in 2018.”
The impact number was reported this week to the Utah Cultural Alliance (UCA) as part of the State of Utah Culture Report. UCA works with economic consultants to calculate sales tax impact and additional rankings were provided through Western State Arts Federation’s (WESTAF) Creative Vitality Suite (CVS). CVS is a cloud-based data tool that measures earnings, jobs, wages, demographics, and sales of the creative businesses. CVS pulls 97 creative industries (NAICS) and 85 creative occupations (SOC) codes sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis. Data from CV Suite is not self-reported data.
“The arts and our museums allow us to explore ideas, express emotions and better appreciate cultures from around the world,” said Victoria Panella Bourns, director of the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. Museums participated for the first time in this year’s annual raffle for a free night of art in which hundreds of free tickets to arts events and museums were distributed in advance of the October celebration. “Museums play a crucial role throughout the state in bettering our communities through the humanities and arts,” said Kaia Michaelis, Utah Museums Association Board President. “We hope everyone in the state will find some way to take part in the celebration this month.”
About Utah Arts & Museums: Utah Arts & Museums is a division of the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts with a mission to connect people and communities through arts and museums. The division provides funding, education, and technical services to individuals and organizations statewide so all Utahns, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic status, can access, understand, and receive the benefits of arts and culture. Additional information on programs and services can be found at artsandmuseums.utah.gov or by calling 801.236.7555.
About Utah Humanities: Utah Humanities empowers Utahns to improve their communities through active engagement in the humanities. Utah Humanities is an independent non profit established in 1975. With a small, dedicated staff and volunteer board of directors, we offer public humanities programs across the state that involve thousands of people and organizations. To do our work, we partner with organizations that want to improve their communities through the humanities. Our partnerships span Utah and focus on literature, heritage, education, conversations, and local humanities ideas. For more information, visit www.utahhumanities.org or www.facebook.com/utahhumanitiescouncil.
About Utah Museums Association
The Utah Museums Association is committed to building the capacity of all Utah museums to serve their communities. Founded in 1972, UMA is a 501(c)(3) professional membership organization for museum staff and volunteers. We serve museums of all sizes and disciplines throughout Utah. Our mission is to provide professional development and networking opportunities to build the capacity of Utah's museums; connect museums to professional resources and best practice; and serve as an advocate for Utah museums. For more information, visit www.utahmuseums.org.
About Utah Cultural Alliance
Founded in March 1980, Utah Cultural Alliance (UCA) is the statewide advocate for the humanities and arts. We amplify culture’s contributions to Utah's economic, family, and community life. You can read more about our mission at www.utculture.org Utah Cultural Alliance is also the manager of NowPlayingUtah.com, the statewide calendar of everything to see and do in Utah with a heavy emphasis on the arts and humanities. The site sees 1.3 million unique visitors a year.
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
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New children's fiction tells the tale of Ozzie the ostrich
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – First-time author Brenda Butler marks her debut in the literary world with the release of “The Bird Who Couldn't Fly” (published by Xlibris), an illustrated children’s book that invites young readers to follow the adventures of Ozzie the ostrich.
Ozzie the ostrich is finally old enough to go to school. He gets so excited he could hardly wait. On the first day of school, Ozzie meets different kinds of birds. From pigeons, owls, hawks, sparrows and more — Ozzie made friends with them all. However, there is one thing he is unable to do. While other birds can fly, Ozzie the ostrich cannot. Will he be able to find his worth?
“My story was based on my daughter’s struggles with ADHD. But you can replace ADHD with numerous different afflictions and the story is still the same,” Butler shares. “[The book] is about discovering yourself and your own talents. Add determination and you can go far in life.”
“The Bird Who Couldn't Fly” veers from the traditional way of teaching moral lessons with the use of a relatable and simple story that kids can easily understand. The book celebrates individuality and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. It also reminds young readers that the world will be a much better place if people will focus more on the person’s soul.
“The Bird Who Couldn't Fly”
By Brenda Butler
Softcover | 8.5 x 11in | 24 pages | ISBN 9781796053548
E-Book | 24 pages | ISBN 9781796053531
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Brenda Butler is from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she lives with her husband. She enjoys traveling, photography and helping animals. Most of all, she loves spending time with her family. She volunteers at a local nonprofit organization that rehabilitates neglected and abused horses. When she is not home, she is traveling the back roads of America, exploring all it has to offer. Butler is now retired from a local school district after working 28 years as a nutrition services manager. “The Bird Who Couldn't Fly” is her first published book. She is currently working on a historical fiction and a friend’s biography about their optimistic outlook despite personal tragedies.
Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news.
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Contact: Richard Mylott, mylott.richard@epa.gov, 303-312-6654
EPA awards $9.7 million for air quality projects in Utah
Targeted Airshed Grants to Utah DEQ to reduce emissions from passenger vehicles and oil and gas equipment
Salt Lake City (October 2, 2019) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) $9.7 million for projects to improve air quality in the Salt Lake City area and the Uinta Basin. The EPA grants, part of the agency’s Targeted Airshed Grants program, support state and locally-led efforts to reduce emissions in areas facing air quality challenges associated with ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), commonly known as smog and soot.
“Utah DEQ has demonstrated consistent leadership in working with local interests to make progress on air quality challenges and enhance public health,” said EPA Regional Administrator Gregory Sopkin. “These grants will help our partners in Utah continue to improve air quality in communities affected by air pollution.”
“We are grateful for these airshed grants that demonstrate our continued partnership in funding programs that will improve air quality and public health," said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Executive Director Scott Baird. "We're looking forward to putting this funding to use in helping those areas and people most in need."
EPA will provide Utah DEQ with grants for the following projects:
• Salt Lake City area – $4.7 million to repair and replace passenger vehicles that fail emissions tests. Utah DEQ will work with the Davis County Health Department, the Salt Lake City Health Department and the Weber-Morgan Health Department to implement the project which will focus on assisting low-income individuals with vehicles that have failed emissions inspections.
• Uinta Basin– $5 million to replace natural gas engines used in energy production equipment in the Uinta Basin with new, cleaner-burning engines. Utah DEQ will work directly with the Ute Tribe and oil and gas companies operating in the Uinta Basin to identify applicants and eligible equipment.
These projects will reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ground-level ozone formation, and fine particulates. EPA’s Targeted Airshed Grant program offers competitive grants to reduce air pollution in areas working to meet national air quality standards for ozone and fine particulates.
For more information, visit: https://www.epa.gov/grants/2018-targeted-airshed-grant-program-closed-announcement-fy-2019
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*** Media Advisory for Tomorrow, October 3, 2019 ***
CONTACT
Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director
Center for Western Priorities
aaron@westernpriorities.org
720-279-0019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2019
DENVER—The Center for Western Priorities will release a new Winning the West 2019 poll this Thursday showing the growing influence of the “Outdoor Voting Bloc” in Mountain West swing states (Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico).
A media conference call will share the views of Western voters around energy, conservation, and funding issues on public lands. Panelists will also discuss how strong conservation and balanced energy policies are received by persuadable Western voters and influence how voters choose candidates.
What: Media conference call of new Winning the West 2019 poll results
When: Thursday, October 3rd, 9:30 am MDT, 11:30 am EDT
Where: Dial-in: (844) 349-9427, Passcode: 5347079
Slide show: https://slides.com/westernpriorities/winning/live/Who: Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director, Center for Western Priorities
Brian Gottlieb, Founder & President, Gottlieb Strategic ResearchNote: The complete poll results for each of the five states surveyed will be available immediately following the call.
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To speak with an expert on public lands, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org.
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State Engineer, Director of the Utah Division of Water Rights
Announces Retirement
SALT LAKE CITY (Oct. 2, 2019)–Kent L. Jones, P.E., the current state engineer and director of the Utah Division of Water Rights, has announced that he will retire from public service Nov. 16. Jones has spent almost 39 years with the division.
The governor appoints and the Utah Legislature approves the position of state engineer. Efforts are underway to identify and consider potential candidates.
Jones began his career with the division in 1981. While with the division, he has served in various roles, including assistant regional engineer for Utah Lake/Jordan River, regional engineer for the Weber River and West Desert, directing engineer for appropriations and title, and many more.
Jones was initially appointed state engineer by Gov. Jon Huntsman in 2009, and then reappointed to two additional four-year terms by Gov. Gary R. Herbert.
“I appreciate Kent’s commitment and years of dedication and service to the state of Utah,” said Gov. Herbert. “His leadership has played a vital role in the state’s ability to solve complex water challenges, and our ability to administer the appropriation and distribution of Utah’s water.”
As state engineer, Jones has represented the state and division through 11 legislative sessions and has been involved in a significant number of water right bills and adopted legislation. He has served as a technical advisor to the Utah Water Task Force and on the governor’s water strategy team.
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USMCA will spur medical breakthroughs
By Kenneth E. Thorpe
Mexico recently ratified the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the mammoth trade deal that could replace NAFTA. U.S. lawmakers would be wise to follow suit -- the pact could save and improve millions of Americans' lives by spurring the development of cutting-edge medicines.
One of the deal's most important provisions would strengthen intellectual property protections for an innovative class of medicines called biologics. Biotech companies manufacture these large-molecule drugs from living organisms like animal or plant cells.
Doctors use biologics to treat everything from cancer and diabetes to blindness. They're a beacon of hope for patients living with Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and a host of currently incurable diseases. Such cures could ultimately save our healthcare system hundreds of billions of dollars by eliminating costly chronic diseases.
It's not easy to develop these medicines. Less than 12 percent of biologics that enter clinical trials ultimately receive FDA approval. It takes almost $3 billion, on average, to research, develop, and secure regulatory approval for a single drug. Few entrepreneurs have the patience to exhaust that kind of capital.
Strong IP laws incentivize companies to research these long-shot cures and treatments.
Without such protections, rival pharmaceutical firms could copy an innovator's drug design and sell the treatment for pennies on the dollar. Investors wouldn't be able to recoup their development costs. Research spending would soon dry up. And the drug development pipeline would cease to churn out new cures.
USMCA would usher in the next generation of biologic medicines by bringing Canada's and Mexico's IP standards closer to our own standards. Currently, U.S. law grants companies a dozen years of "regulatory data protection" on any new biologics. During that time, rival companies can't use an innovators' lab or clinical trial data to create their own knockoff medicines.
Under the new deal, Canada and Mexico must offer at least a decade of regulatory data protection. That's a two-year increase over the status quo in Canada and a 10-year increase in Mexico, which currently offers no data protection to biologic medicines.
The stronger protections would encourage American drug innovators to pour even more money into researching and developing treatments.
Medical breakthroughs represent our best hope of solving America's chronic disease epidemic. More than 191 million Americans live with at least one chronic condition. These folks account for 81 percent of hospital admissions and cost the United States nearly $3 trillion annually in medical expenses and lost productivity.
Unfortunately, some lawmakers believe that stronger IP protections will raise health costs for patients and government programs.
The opposite is true. By incentivizing companies to discover new cures, USMCA will improve patient health outcomes and prevent patients from needing more costly medical care down the line.
USMCA would lead to more lifesaving treatments and cures for devastating chronic diseases. Let's hope our congressmen and women ratify the deal pronto.
Kenneth E. Thorpe is a professor of health policy at Emory University and chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.
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