Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 10

4C RENO TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2002 EPA backs ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone, Grand Teton parks I (Keep all of your insurance needs under one roof! That's why we specialize in providing auto, home ana life insurance policies baed on iff your needs. 7Tf. DRAKUUCH INSURANCE AGENCY wS -4 JohnT.Drakulieh I 1 '1 Bus: 775 35M372 Fax: 775 35W394 lsSsisSSSCn I iA. 2215 N. McCarran Blvd.

Sparks. NV 89431 I ifcn i I iohnejohndrakullch.com FARM 5 rate data provided by snowmobile manufacturers. The debate is an increasingly familiar one across the West. In the Reno-Tahoe area, the U.S. Forest Service decided last year to ban snowmobiles from most of the popular Tahoe Meadows area between west of Reno, citing conflicts with cross-country skiers and environmental impacts.

A similar debate is ongoing in parts of Alpine County, south of Lake Tahoe. Regarding Yellowstone and Grand Teton, the National Park Service is expected to decide this November whether to ban or WASHINGTON (AP) The Environmental Protection Agency is urging the complete ban or snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, saying even limited numbers of snowmobiles may violate clean air standards. The EPA released a report Monday repeating its assertion made three years ago that banning snowmobiles is the "best availableprotection" for air quality, wildlife and the health of people who work and visit the parks. Opponents of a snowmobile ban questioned the EPA's position, saying it failed to incorpo limit snowmobiles in the two Western parks. It is the second time the Park Service will make this decision.

An earlier decision during the final days of the Clinton administration would have begun phasing out snowmobiles beginning this past winter. However, that policy was put on hold by the Bush administration after snowmobile makers filed a lawsuit. As part of that settlement, the White House ordered the Park Service to conduct a second review of how snowmobiles affect the environment in the parks. George Hatjakes SPECIAUZING IN High End Multi-Family Investments 1031 Exchanges 815-7000 Dickson REALTY Email the photos? Or email the video? Decisions, decisions $50 million earmarked for Klamath water plan GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) Klamath Basin farmers will be able to tap $50 million in federal money to finance ecosystem improvements and water conservation to help avoid future conflicts between fish and farms.

After a weekend of haggling, Senate conferees in Washington, D.C., on Monday agreed to a House offer to hold that sum in within the 2002 farm bill, according to Rep. Greg Walden, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The money is far less than the 1 75 million that Wyden and Sen. Gordon Smith, had placed in the Senate version, but the Senate provision was opposed by House members.

The funding sprang from confrontations between farmers and the federal government during last year's drought, when water was cut to 1,400 farms irrigated by the Klamath Reclamation Project to protect endangered suckers and threatened salmon. Funding under Monday's amendment will go to projects offered by individual farmers for their own land. Farmers would pay 25 percent and the government 75 percent. The $175 million would have been controlled by a Bush administration task force. The bill now makes no mention of buying out farmers to reduce water demand.

Walden and the Klamath Water Users Association, the dominant farm group in the basin, had objected to buyout provisions of the Wyden-Smith amendment. The money will be available through the Agriculture Department's Natural Resources Conservation Service as soon as the farm bill is signed into law, perhaps in a month. Potential projects would include making irrigation systems more efficient, restoring wetlands, planting cover crops to control erosion and installing screens to keep fish out of irrigation canals. "Farmers have never had the opportunity to help with this restoration work," said Bob Gasser, a Klamath Basin fertilizer dealer and spokesman for the water users association. "Now we can finally do something." Rich Mclntyre of American Lands Conservancy, which has been working with farmers willing to sell their land to reduce water demand, said the compromise was shortsighted.

"The Klamath Basin could have desperately used the other $125 million to start addressing the real needs, which include demand reduction, increasing supply and cleaning up the ecosystem," he said. Sparks gets marina money at lower interest STAFF RFPORT The city of Sparks is moving forward with plans to finance improvements around the Sparks Marina Park. The City Council, acting as the redevelopment agency, agreed on Monday to sell $3.9 million in five-year bond anticipation notes as part of $14.5 million in securities it is selling for improvements around the marina. The redevelopment agency will review and likely approve a proposal to sell 20-year bonds in May. The city will sell the notes at 6 percent interest through U.S.

Bank. Earlier this year, with another bond firm, city officials feared they'd ha ve to sell the notes at 8 percent or more. Finance Director Terri Thomas could not be reached to say how much money the redevelopment agency saved by getting the notes at the lower rates. The main reason the city was able to move forward on the financing is that developer David Dahl was able to clear a default on a loan for some of the property at his Marina Village development, City Manager Shaun Carey confirmed. Dahl has plans for apartments, homes either along the marina or a canal extending from the marina, restaurants, stores and office space and a hotel at the northwest corner of the marina.

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