Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 3

wvKflDKI(s Friday, January 30, 2009 Managing Editor Ron Gullberg can be reached at (307) 266-0560, 1-800-559-0583 or ron.gyllbergtrib.com A3 Gov's budget bill decreases Appropriations Committee trims proposal by more than $5 million (kilter ent level government services in the next two-year budget cycle. Freudenthal early this month proposed $213 mil -lion in supplemental spending for the fiscal year that starts in July. His proposals would be in ad -dition to the $8 billion, two-year General Fund budget the state approved last year. The appropriations committee this week called for limiting supple -mental spending in the coming fiscal year to just more than $160 million. Big cuts proposed by the committee include calling for not funding $50 million the governor recommended for highway construction and cutting $39 million he proposed for residential property tax relief.

Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said the Legislature still may decide to fund property tax relief when it starts reviewing the budget bill on Feb. 9. Please see BUDGET, A4 cerns that Wyoming needs to save more money so it won't have to cut the pres 1 Mm 1 1 4 1 I By BEN NEARY Associated Press writer.

CHEYENNE The Joint Appropriations Committee has recommended trimming Gov. Dave Freuden-thal's proposed supple -mentalbudgetbymorethan $50 million. Several committee members say slumping energy prices have raised con- A mule deer doe appears correspondent) Federal faces A v. 9 in Jackson recently. (Mark to be contemplating a ride down the slide at a residence GockeStar Tribune WN BRIEF FROM STAFF 8 WIRE REPORTS Bk testing concludes for now BOULDER -For the third day inarow.state wfldlife officials were successful at trapping elk at a western Wyoming elk feedground for brucellosis testing.

OnThursday, 51 adult female elk were processed for testing at the Scab Creek elk feedground. The day prior, 60 cow elk were tested for brucellosis on the Muddy Creek feedground. Three of the elk had seropositive test results, so these animals 1 will be shipped to slaughter today, along wrthany of elk testing positive from Thursday's efforts. Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials had baited traps with hay at three Boulder-area eflc feedgrounds all week. With Thursday's effort, elk were captured and tested at afl three targeted feed -grounds.

On Tuesday, blood samples were taken from 122 cow elk on the Fall Creek feedground to test for brucellosis. Six of the animals were later sent to slaughter because of positive test results for the contagious disease. State wildlife officials have concluded this round of brucellosis testing, but wifl by again in mid-February before concluding the fourth year of the project. The brucellosis testing is undertaken as part of afrve-year pilot project recommended by Wyoming's Brucellosis Coordination Team to reduce the brucellosis seioprevalence rate in the Pinedale elk herd. Rio Tinto pays $48M for lease Cordero Mining, LLC, was the successful high-bidder for the North Mays-dorf federal coalleast tract the Powder River Basin on Thursday, submitting a bid of $48 million.

The coal tract contains an estimated 54.7 mfllion tons of mineable coaL whichmeans Cordero will pay about 88 cents per ton. Rio Tinto Energy America, hadofferedbids on the tract twice previously, but both ofthose bids had been rejected because they didn't meet the Bureau of Land Management's estimated fair market value. The tract is located in central Campbell County approximately tro miles east of State Highway 59, four miles south of Bishop Road, and is adjacent to the Belle Ayr and Cordero-Rojo coalmines. been 20 successful compet-rave coal tease sales in the Wyoming Powder River Basin, the large involving more than 718 mMon tons for nearly $611 mfllioa Half of the bonus bid and royalties generated from the public tracts of coal are paid to the state of Wyoming and half goto theU.S.Trea-surey. Lummisgets assignments CHEYENNE U.S.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis has been assigned to House subcommittees that deal with federal policy on energy, public lands and national parks. The Republican will serve on the Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee, as well as the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee. The two subcommittees fall under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Natural Resources, of which Lummis is a member. The Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee oversees the production of energy and mineral resources located on public lards owned or managed by the federal government, as wen as the collection of federal mineral royalties.

CBM document second appeal AGwill explain state's legal positions on wolves In an identical case brought by the same groups regarding coal-bed methane development on the Montana side of the Powder River Basin, the Montana BLM was forced to go back to the drawing board and consider phased development. By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter For the second time in two weeks, conservation groups have filed an appeal of the Bureau of Land Management's Powder River Basin Oil and Gas Environmental Impact Statement. The document, issued in 2003, opened the region up to more than 51,000 coal-bed methane gas wells, an action that the BLM estimates will transform much of the landscape into a "light industrial" area. This week the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and nature photographer George Wuerthner filed an appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn a November ruling by Judge Alan Johnson of the U.S. District Court of Wyoming.

The groups seek to protect sage grouse and black-tailed prairie dogs, alleging the BLM failed to consider phased development, which would presumably shrink the active footprint of the industry on the landscape, according to the appellants. "We've seen dramatic declines in sage grouse and prairie dog populations symptomatic of a broader ecosystem collapse that affects all native wildlife," said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. Peer-reviewed wildlife studies issued in 2007 cited the pace of coal-bed methane gas development in the basin was devastating sage grouse populations "over and above those of habitat loss caused by wildfire, sagebrush control, or conversion of sagebrush to pasture or cropland." Contacted Thursday afternoon, Wyoming BLM officials said they had just learned about the appeal and were not prepared to comment at the moment. Please see DOCUMENT, A4 mm 1 VIDEO CONFERENCE LOCATIONS: Hearing from 7 to 10 a.m. AFTON (Seating Capacity 10) Law EnforcementSheriff's Office, Public Health Nurses Office 421 Jefferson CODY (18) Workforce Center 1026 Blackburn JACKSON (12) Workforce Center 155 West Gill LANDER (20) State Training School, Rothwell Building, Atlantic Room 100 Meadow View Drive PINEDALE (10) Pinedale High School Basement 101 East Hennick impacted by wolves, bears and other animals.

The study, he said, indicates the elk calves and yearling bulls are being affected. "We are being hammered," he said. Elk herds remain large, he said, but are not OK because the young are being impacted by wolves, which paints an alarming picture for the future. Please see WOLVES, A4 By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg will explain Wyoming's current legal position on wolf management this morning during a public hearing on five bills dealing with the issue. "That might have a bearing on what bills we pass," said Rep.

Pat Childers, R-Cody. "Frankly there are five bills that go all over the place," he added. The proposals range from "totally rolling over" and doing what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to minor changes that do what the courts want, he said. Earlier this month Fish and Wildlife announced plans to turn over management of gray wolves to Montana and Idaho, but not Wyoming.

The federal agency said it would maintain federal control of wolves in Wyoming because of a dispute over the state's wolf management plan. Now the new Obama administration dropped everything, Childers said. 'We honestly do not know what they're going to do," Childers said in an Interview Thursday afternoon. Childers said the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission gave a pres -entation Thursday on a study on how elk in the Sunlight Basin have been Former state school superintendent dies at 91 held at Riverside Cemetery in Cody the following day. Born in New York City on Dec.

10, 1917, Roberts moved to Barnum and the Cross Ranch with his wife, Toni, in 1947. They raised five daughters and Roberts became a Barnum school board member and later was elected president of the Wyoming School Boards Association. In 1966 he was elected state school superintendent. In 1970, he ran on the Republican ticket for the U.S. House, but lost the election by 608 votes in a recount to Democrat Teno Roncalio.

Please see ROBERTS, A4 By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE K. Harrison "Harry" Roberts, a rancher and the first non-educator elected as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, died of natural causes Thursday at his winter home in Vero Beach, Florida He was 91. Friends remembered him Thursday as a "powerhouse," who hammered on the need for accountability and merit in the education and as an easterner who adapted quickly to the western lifestyle. Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb.

6 at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper. A private interment service will be fHifoyfjiH To the Wyoming Department of Transportation's statewide road cams, go to www.trib.comroad.