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• The U.S. Forest Service currently manages more than 190 million acres of land used for multiple purposes that must comply with strict rules on land use changes spelled out in the federal Wilderness Act and National Environmental Policy Act.
• The roadless rule enacted under Clinton in 2001 had been upheld earlier by both the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit in separate cases.
• The 10th Circuit overturned Cheyenne-based U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer who had decided the rule created a de facto wilderness area.
• The years of legal wrangling led to a variation of the national rule in Colorado, which developed its own regulations for the state's 4.2 million acres of roadless areas. Its regulations, approved by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in July, are less stringent, allowing more flexibility to allow for the thinning of forests to help ski resort expansion and coal mining in the North Fork region.
• Colorado Mining Association President Stuart Sanderson said the Supreme Court action is disappointing but limited development of coal in some Colorado national forest areas will continue.
• "The mines in this region employ more than 1,000 workers, those jobs must be preserved," Sanderson said.
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Ideal weather helps rapid pace of row crop harvest
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Agriculture officials say ideal weather conditions in South Dakota have pushed the row crop harvest far ahead of last year's pace and the five-year average.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in its weekly crop report that 55 percent of corn for grain has been harvested, ahead of the five-year average and last year's mark of 6 percent. About 96 percent of corn was in the mature stage.
• Seventy-nine percent of soybeans had been harvested, ahead of the five-year average of 16 percent. Sunflowers were 14 percent harvested, compared to the five-year average of 1 percent.
• The report says winter wheat was 50 percent planted.
• Range and pasture conditions were rated 44 percent very poor, 34 percent poor, 19 percent fair and 3 percent good.
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CenturyLink workers in 13 states authorize strike
• DENVER (AP) -- CenturyLink workers in 13 states in the West and Midwest are authorizing a strike, if union leaders and the telecommunications company can't (Continued on page 32)
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