Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 8

Sunday, January 1Z 1997 A3 Casper Star-Tribune More than 1,500 cities have adopted plans HONOR: Was a guarantee that no black The historians, asked to find of species, climate change and political, instability. Christopher Flavin, a lead author of the report, calls the Earth Summit a "last hurrah" for the idea that sweeping government programs can cure a sick planet. Among WorldWatch's gloomiest conclusions: millions of acres of tropical and deciduous forest still disappear each year, carbon dioxide emissions are at would not violate Wyoming's Constitution Continued from Al behind me again." Baker said that until the Medal of Honor was recommended, he never considered whether he deserved it because he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest battlefield honor. "I did my job and was rewarded and as far as I was concerned that was it," Baker said. jj.

"As I told a group of high school kids, if vou were a ranch er and you had a gay hull what would you do with him? One kid said, 'I'd take the sucker to the packing plant'" Erb said, chuckling. Reps. Mike Bakev, Eli Bebout, Leo Garcia, Bruce Hinchey, R-Casper, Roger Huckfeldt, Louie Tomassi and "Teense" Willford, and Sens. Rich Cathcart, Gerald Geis, Carroll Miller, and Gail Zimmerman also co-sponsored the bill. Last year Republican Mike Enzi, then a state senator and now Wyoming's junior U.S.

senator, was one of the failed bill's co-sponsors. LANDS: Stockgrowers favor 9fryear lease would receive award heavily fortified Gothic Line. Baker, then a lieutenant, and his platoon of 25 men were ordered on April 5, 1945, to lead the fight for Castle Aghinolfi, a German stronghold. Baker destroyed three German machine-gun nests, a bunker, an artillery observation post and shot several other German soldiers. As Baker and his white company commander, Capt.

John F. Runyon, made plans to storm the castle, enemy artillery shells began to rain down on them. Runyon left with their radio man to get reinforcements, leaving Baker and the rest of the soldiers to face three enemy attacks. When it was clear reinforcements were not coming, Baker ordered the seven survivors to retreat, and on their way back to safety he used grenades to destroy two more enemy machine-gun nests. Twelve hours after the assault began, Baker said, he sat down and threw up.

Later, Runyon was nominated for the Medal of Honor, he nominated Baker for the Distinguished Service Cross, one notch lower. Baker, who had already earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, also was awarded the Italian Cross of Valor and the Polish Cross of Valor. idea was unanimous in its belief that maintaining the preferential right of lessees on sales would be a clear violation of the state's trust responsibilities. One of the major changes contained in the bill would allow only the board which consists of the state's five elected officials to nominate state trust lands for sale. Currently anyone may make sale nominations.

The bill would also expand the powers of the director of the State Land and Farm Loan Office, which Geringer acknowledged as one of the most controversial aspects of the measure. The director would appoint the state forester, a position currently appointed by the Board of Land Commissioners. The director would also issue all standard leases and permits which do not convey any permanent interest in state lands, plus approve lease assignments, sublease agreements, water right petitions and surface damage payments. These changes were suggested by the current director, Jim Ma-gagna, and recommended by the select committee. Geringer said they are designed to give the director more authority over the day-to-day operation of the office and allow the board to focus on setting policies, rules and regulations.

But Hoskins noted that unlike board members, the director is not a trustee with fiduciary duties. "With added authority and flexibility as well as less board supervision, it will be all too easy for the director to make a bad decision that becomes a fait accompli, regardless of subsequent actions of the board in overriding that decision," Hoskins said. (formiriii Natural Your Derby TICKETS AIjrXADT ON SALSII fi. lot rb. 24 22280 Rwr 230 Moots 472-3200 ZA INltjLodjbgAt LaW lrTf atfhflVMtp(WQ ffjf Amm THE I Anatotdeihatt imttWWtt THE LEGION SUPPER CLUB or PUMPERNICKS 2 Days swiaiaiiis at I COUPON ONLY! I I'Wff I PONT WAIT! iBBS SSBBI mWM CALL TODAY I DETAILS! r-C3S315 SilMi jl UUC RPO90 2 PASSES FOR i mm -s WORLDWATCH: Continued from Al "Unfortunately, few governments have even begun the policy changes that will be needed to put the wftrld on an environmentally sustainable path," the independent institute declares.

In what has become an annual litany of earth's ills, Worldwatch documents problems with food supply, crop-land depletion, chronic disease, loss MARRIAGE: Bill Continued from Al faith and credit" provision od the U.S. Consitution. But Anderson said he still feared the federal Defense of Marriage Act wouldn't adequately protect Wyoming from having to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. Anderson said he opposes same-sex marriage and was sponsoring the bill "mainly for economic reasons, so our companies will not have to give health insurance to (spouses in) those kind of marriages." Permitting same-sex marriages could lead to "all kind of abuses, not just homosexual mar RANCHERS Continued from Al could limit the conservation easement, to perhaps 50 years, in order not to lock future generations into today's They'd be much happier, Flitner said, with a short-term fix to the mcattle market that would enable long-term planning in the first place. But tax attorney Bill Hutton, one of the nation's top experts oh conservation easement law, said it's highly unlikely the Internal Revenue Service would allow a limited-term easement, calling it "too much of a good thing" although he has a strategy in mind for trying it, and is looking for a rancher willing to be the guinea pig.

Yet experts concurred that conservation easements are only right for a minority of land owners, though for that minority they may be the only way to limit estate taxes enough to eliminate the threat that future generations will have to sell out If society really wants to save open spaces in the West, it "needs to come forward with money on the table," said Reeves Brown, director of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association and a pioneer in protecting open space by preserving agriculture. He's fond of saying that "for ranchers, open space is not just an adventure it's a job." But, Brown cautioned, "there's not enough money printed to buy all the open space that's in trouble." Though the problem hasn't hit Wyoming with full force yet except in Teton County GYC Director Mike Clark said it's sure to. In the next 10 years, Clark predicted, 70,000 more people will move to the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, mostly people with no experience living pn the Those people will bring with them dogs, noise, dust and a host of other problems, Clark said, escalating a trend that's already underway in which ranchers find themselves surrounded by condos, and begin to lose the underpinnings of the ag economy. "Our elk quickly lose their glamor and welcome on landscaped suburban yards," ob-' served Bob Sharp, a rancher conservationist from the high desert of southeastern Ariiona. He and his neighbors in 1995 Vtctorlmn rmntmrny 1 (lib TCDAY-CUrTAYl 231D4eC Lex tins DOWNTOWN CASPER.

out if any blacks were improperly denied the Medal of Honor, said the political climate and common Army practices at the time guaranteed that no black soldier during World War II would ever receive the military's top award. Since the medals were announced, Baker's quiet life at St. Maries, Idaho, has been disrupted. "Very few people knew I was here," Baker said. "All of a sudden it's not private anymore." Baker was orphaned at age 4 when his parents died in ah auto accident.

He was raised' by. his grandparents, one of the few black families In Cheyenne. All-black Infantry After working as a railroad porter, Baker Joined the Army in 1941. When World War II broke out, the Army formed the all-black; 92nd Infantry, called the Buffalo Division. In October 1944, Baker was shot in the wrist by German, but managed to shoot back and kill the man.

By Del cember, he was back at the front After the invasion of Italy, the 92nd fought across the Arno River and stalled witl the rest of the Fifth Army along the mittee amended the bill to allow the board to issue leases for upt to 99 years. Currently grazing leases must be renewed every 10 years, while Commercial and industrial leases expire after 25 years. But Liz Fassett of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, who served on the select committee, noted that under Wyoming's Act of Admission to the United States, agricultural and grazing leases cannot be made for a period of more than 10 years. "Ostensibly it's an alternative to sales, but is this not a way to get around the lease terms?" Fassett asked. "This is the single worst provision in the bill," Hoskins said, calling the 99-year lease provision "a heartbeat Sway from a sale without the restrictions impinging on a sale." But Cindy Garretson-Welbel, executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said the long-term lease option 'certainly can be beneficial" by providing more incentive for lessees to make improvements on trust land.

The bill would also eliminate the preferential right of lessees to meet the high bid to purchase state trust lands. Leaseholders would still have the preferential right to renew leases. Garretson-Weibel said the WS-GA is "generally supportive" of maintaining the preferential rights of lessees in cases of sales. During the Joint Agriculture Committee's debate Rep. Frank Philp, R-Shoshoni, unsuccessfully attempted to restore the leaseholders' preferential right on parcels that are sold.

"It gives the lessee a reason to take care of the land," Philp said. But Sen. Rich Cathcart, D-Carpenter, who served on the select committee, said the panel aIwsrson Carpet I Culaitok ft Installation I I I I I I I Uf TO 400 0 FT. CouPO)j 21597 IliHI II MMI II vll Any Large CfOQQi rnmhltiirLfit. Pizza nr Not vtfcd wtfh tftf nltl i i litaMl 1fcra1ftS7 MTMCOUPON! record highs, and population growth is outpacing food production.

The report found hope in increasing numbers of grass-roots groups, particularly in Bangladesh and India. Also, more than 1,500 cities in 51 countries have adopted local plans and rules, often more stringent than their national governments proposed at Bio, the report said, i derson asserted, because state statutes already soecifv that marriage is' between a.wajnan. "We've defined marriage we're just saying our definition is going to stand," Anderson said. Anderson said the proposal "is certainly not a hate bill -the (state) law doesn't allow siblings or a father and daughter to marry, there's no hatred there." But another co-sponsor, Republican Dick Erb of Gillette, said he believes same-sex marriage should be illegal both because of the economics involved and because "I don't feel it's according to nature." Thomas, who lobbied for such -a law during four straight legislative sessions, losing at all four, is hopeful a rancher-conservationist coalition like the one that turned out for the Cody meeting could finally convince lawmakers to pass such authority on to counties. But, he lamented, "it's too late for Teton County" to fix its open space development problem.

Now the problem is spreading, he added, to Saratoga, and Buffalo, and Sheridan and the eastern Bighorn Basin. Brown's Colorado group, governed by more progressive state statutes, has formed a land trust that sees open space as a by product of keeping ranchers on the land. He painted a picture of conservation easements that leave the rancher with plenty of freedom to manage the operation independent of second-guessing from outsiders. Brown's group doesn't do business in Wyoming, unlike the Nature Conservancy. And TNC doesn't exactly push ranchers around, either, said Dave Neary, associate state director.

In addition to holding conservation easements, TNC works to' promote land swaps that eliminate the "checkerboard" landlocked public parcels within private TNC also recruits "conservation buyers" who buy properties outright, then donate easements. And in three cases, TNC has itself owned property the Red Canyon Ranch outside Lander, the Tensleep Preserve and part of Sweetwater Canyon -all of which are grazed. The biggest obstacles to the conservation easement movement, predicted tax lawyer Hutton, will be attorneys and realtors, "the so-called experts who may be unwilling to learn new tricks. But both ranchers arid greens said they'd keep trying to teach them. Jackson Hole Stay for only $39 SKI FREE at Snow King Rnott valid January 1 through February 7.

SUda and mater ttqr fraaaU Am when toying in tame room with two adum Mmre v. nOPLHVA wonnsnop Deaas Immmmrj 17 Public Is Graciously Invited! Jamaryl7 ltMWISfctrw af Jmrnmrnrj 18 riage," Anderson said. Heterosexual people of the same-sex might marry just to get health insurance coverage, he warned. He said he believes homosexuals "absolutely" should enjoy equal rights under the law, adding "I like those people I don't like their lifestyle but I don't have a problem with it we're not saying they can't live together, we're just saying they can't have the same privileges or responsibilities a man and woman have in marriage in the state of Wyoming." The bill wouldn't violate Wyoming's Constitution, which guarantees equal political and civil rights to men and women, An formed their own land trust, dedicated to protection of private property, future development compatible with the landscape, and tireless promotion of the agricultural economy. Governments, Sharp believes, should work harder to give ranchers a sense of long-term security in their land tenure.

"Why are Forest Service grazing permits for only 10 years when it takes 20 years to build a top herd and raise a family?" he asks. But longer-term leases, of 20 to 40 years, would ease short-term pressures on ranchers, freeing them up to plan for their own futures, Sharp counters. The tax benefits of conservation deeds do the same thing, he noted, by lowering the value of an estate to developers, so that when the elders of a ranch fam-ily pass away, their heirs aren't faced with nearly as much value upon which to pay estate taxes. Perpetuity not so scary Hutton answered the fears of Flitner and others that signing conservation compacts would mean signing away future generations. For starters, he explains, every conservation agreement is different, and the landowner can retain any rights he or she chooses to.

"You can sell your water rights, you can sell your mineral rights, you can sell your development rights over time," Arizona rancher Sharp explains -or you can retain them, as long as their exploitation is compatible with a healthy environment An agreement must be "perpetual" in order to qualify for the tax benefits, though tax attorney Hutton explained that "perpetual doesn't always mean forever." For instance, if a conservation easement were set up to protect an endangered species, and then the species went extinct, the courts would almost certainly nullify the agreement and return the land unencumbered. In most states, GYC suffer Steve Thomas explains, governments or land trusts can buy out specific development rights such as subdivision or commercial use. But In Wyoming, the lack of legislation means development rights aren't for sale. DineD innrfiw fin ii an mm ijl otit'sbesi! i i Continued from Al urn, which the Board of Land Commissioners established until March 31. House Bill 90, sponsored by Rep.

Mike Massie, D-Laramie, would extend the current moratorium until April 1, 1999 and ban the sale of state lands except those approved by the state Board of Land Commissioners before March 18. Exceptions would also be made for land nominated for sale by a state or federal agency or if the Board of Land Commissioners decides the sale is needed for economic development. A similar measure was approved by the Senate last year but never made it out of the House Agriculture Committee. Last month the Joint. Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Interim Committee voted 8-2 to sponsor a bill that combines the views of Gov.

Jim Geringer with the recommendations of the Select Committee on State Trust Lands. Geringer said the bill still gives the board the discretion to sell state trust lands but added, "It minimizes the opportunity for sales." Critics, however, said the measure does not go far enough to restrict sales while it adds a provision that would allow the board to approve leases for up to 99 years. Robert Hoskins of the Sierra Club's Wyoming chapter said the proposal fails to include adequate legislative intent for establishing sales criteria. Hoskins said the bill should include the select committee's general policy statement "that there is no constitutional requirement for state lands to be sold, and that they ought not be sold except under certain specified circumstances." The Joint Agriculture Corn- Lower Your Taxes WouM you Ha to be DiiJy ImtywWn? OY ONo WouH you Kkr to lapdr rrdun jour taaraf If you antwrrrd jn lo either of thnae urabom ral trm mimbrr now inr ruflhrr l-ttcvmtm eat SS9S IIAPPYIIsjUR i COfiaMiksnrory lonoon prow rVsf 4 fot SMiy) NSW PUMP ROOM MENU Smvd 1 1 AM-12 MkMgM MONDAY 7M 10M p.m. 80 Draw TUESDAY 7M- HMO pm IADKSNWT 80t Wi, Prow iWk Sn Up To On Our GOURMET a WINE CLU3 MAILING USTI 74QU rmif i way ii wi fcrf 2344531 11.