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. . . o Updates on this ruling are occurring daily. As oftoday's date the provisions of the ruling require that additional procedural steps be taken for processing applications. o FS guidance is to continue to work on easements. · Several (four at this date) Forests will receive FY06 funding above the base funding level to work on ditch bill easements. Randy Karstaedt will be coordinating the distribution of the additional budget, along with direction for meeting FY06 easement completion targets. · The Regional Office is considering outreach for a FS detail position for the Regional Ditch Bill Coordinator position. The current detail is scheduled to continue through November. Tentative plans are extend the detail through January. The extension ofthe detail position will help maintain focus on this priority, maintain momentum, and provide consistency in procedure and protocol in dealing with Ditch Bill easement applications in the R2 region. Seeretary Norton Applauds Senate Confirmadon of Dale Hall as V.S. FIsh and WUdBfe Service Director; On Oct. 10, Interior Secretary Gale Norton today applauded the Senate's confirmation ofH. Dale Hall to be director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hall replaces Steve Williams, who resigned to become president of the Wildlife Management Institute. A 27-year career employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hallluts served in Albuquerque, N.M. as the Southwest Regional Director since 200 I. During the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearings. Hall was criticized for not pushing more aggressively to protect threatened and endangered species in the Southwest. In May 2005, for example, he told agency biologists they should rely on the genetic science available at the time of a species' listing when deciding whether to recommend new safeguards for an imperiled plant or animal, even if that science dated back to the 1970s. During his tenure as regional director, Hall helped in bringing consensus to the Multi-Species Conservation Plan for the Lower Colorado River. That plan is a 50-yellr conservation initiative that provides more than $620 million in federal and local funding to protect fish and wildlife along 400 miles ofthe lower Colorado River, while meeting the needs of fanners, tribes, industries and urban residents who rely on the river for water and power supplies. Hall's experience includes a term as Deputy Regional Director in Atlanta, Ga. and one as Assistant Regional Director for Ecological Services in Portland, Ore. He started his career with the Service in 1978 when he did field work in wetlands ecology in Vicksburg, Miss. He continued in ecological services in Galveston and Houston where he worked as Outer Continental Shelf Coordinator with responsibility to work with Minerals Management Service to protect sensitive areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico. He was also the office supervisor in Texas for four years. Along the career path he worked as Deputy Assistant Director for Fisheries in Washington, D.C. Brian Person Seleeted as Area Mallager of Reelamadon's Northern CaUforma AreaOmce at Shasta Dam: On Oct. 31, Brian Person begins work as the new Area Manager of the Northern California Area Office in Redding. Mr. Person joins the Region from his position as Area Manager of the Eastern Colorado Area Office in Loveland, Colorado, part of Reclamation's Great Plains Region. House Passes HIstoric Endangered Speeles Act Improvemellt BIU: Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act passed by a vote of229-193 Sept. 29. For the fust time in more than a decade, the House of Representatives passed legislation introduced by Chainnan Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) and Representative Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) to update and modernize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. The Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA) of 2005 has more than 96 cosponsors from 30 states across the country. 5