The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • 9

-A9 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 The Spectrum WEST Temperatures plunge across Rockies as storm front moves You are living longer. Are you living better? Relieve pain 1 Promote healing 1 Feel more energy Researchers fight against artificial Christmas trees (ft Robin Loznak AP Two Hutterite women, who asked not to be identified, brave blowing snow and freezing temperatures as they walk outside a shopping center in Great Falls, Mont. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning and a wind chill advisory for the area Monday. They and others supported by funds from wholesale tree growers don't believe they will ever develop the perfect Christmas tree. But they're convinced they can breed trees that last longer, stay fresher and smell more Christmasy than what's now available.

Barney researches which varieties of trees grow best and fastest in the Inland Northwest an area with lower Christmas tree production than many other parts of the country. Chastagner focuses on developing improved versions of conifers that smell fresher and remain greener after being harvested and sent to retail lots. Both agree that there is no "Great Green Hope" a perfect variety of tree that will please all customers. But they've found some populations of firs that hold up better than others, said Chastagner. Both Barney and Chastagner spend much of their time working with noble and Fraser firs, two conifers that retain moisture well and lose fewer needles once placed inside a home or shopping mall.

Both also are focusing on identifying more than two or three types of conifers for area farmers to grow, on the theory that diversity of choice always pays dividends. "Consumer tastes are always changing," Barney said. "Scotch pine used to be the main choice, but it's not anymore. To be competitive, growers have to find the cutting edge." ter day." John Zuck, a 47-year-old ski coach from Sun Valley, Idaho, was at Winter Park for a freestyle event and was enjoying the empty slopes. "The weather is cold and snowing and it's perfect," he said.

big deal, Stanko said. "I guess maybe some ranchers panic and hit the panic button," he said. "But I think most of us that have been in the business I mean we start planning for this back in October, and if you're set for it, you usually get through it in pretty good shape," he said. As a steady snow fell in Denver and the temperature dropped into the single digests, horse trainer Cinnamon Ricker, 36, stood outside a grocery store and shrugged. "I love this weather," she said.

"The horses don't mind it, so I don't mind it either." Added Laurie Harrison, decked out in leopard print vest and matching hat: "I'm glad it's snowing. And you know this state it'll be blue skies and sunshine tomorrow." Skiers and snowboarders Who ventured into the cold were rewarded with near-empty slopes and fresh flakes. "It's the best I've ever seen it," said Jason Emery, 37, an oil field worker from Houston who stopped to ski at Winter Park west of Denver. "It started snowing about 8 a.m. and hasn't stopped since.

It's a nice, powdery, just soft snow that makes the skiing just incredible. I don't think we could have picked a bet- By CATHERINE TSAI Associated Press DENVER A storm front packing the potential for up to 16 inches of snow pushed into Colorado on Tuesday, bringing ith it bitterly cold arctic air that has sent temperatures plummeting throughout much of the Rockies. The mercury dropped below zero before sunset in Casper, and Gunnison, was bracing for another frigid night after a low of 24 degrees below zero overnight Monday. The Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs, basking in heavy snow, was forecasting a low of 25 below early today while the forecast high in Grand Junction wasn't expected to reach 10 above. "Colorado is one of the most beautiful places, but this is too much," complained Manuel Urbano, 30, who moved to Denver from Colombia in South America about six years ago.

Hands stuffed in his pockets and pacing to keep warm as he waited to fill up his car's gas tank, Urbano said the tropical climate was calling. "I liked it at the beginning, but now I'm ready to get out of here," he said. The storm front has been creeping southward since the weekend, dropping temperatures from Montana into the Midwest, where a late afternoon wind made it feel like 15-below in Sioux Falls, S.D., and today's forecast high was a miserly 5 above. Jackson, was expecting an overnight low of 17-below by this morning, while the forecast for Bozeman, was 13-below. It was cold enough in Denver that the Denver Rescue Mission was opening all available space for the homeless.

"Those temperatures alone are enough to do damage to exposed body parts," National Weather Service hydrologist Brian Avery said. When Jim Stanko woke up, it was 14 degrees at his cattle ranch west of Steamboat Springs and there were 5 or 6 inches of snow on his truck. He started the day breaking ice off water tanks and making sure his cows had enough hay. "A cow, if you keep her belly full, will stay warm and do pretty decently," he said. "But when she doesn't have enough feed, that's when they start running into trouble." As long as cattle have been fed well since fall, a cold day is no CALL FOR FREE CONSULTATION MUIR CHIROPRACTIC 634-9584 16 years of experience Most insurances accepted Dr.

David Muir 285 W. Tabernacle St. Suite 307 St. George PAGE By TOM SOWA Accnriatprl SANDPOINT, Idaho People like Danny Barney and Gary Chastagner stay in touch this time of year, comparing notes on how the battle is going. The two are university researchers who are both trying to hold the line against a common foe: artificial Christmas trees.

Their fociis is on produc- ing the ideal fresh Christmas tree, which would help tree growers in this part of the country. i The two researchers, one in jSandpoint with the University of Idaho and the other in Puyallup with Washington i State University, know that live Christmas trees have seen better days. Since 1986 the U.S. popula- tion has grown by about 50 mil-; lion people, but the number of 1 live trees cut and sold has fall-'en from 36 million each year to about 27 million. 1 "Clearly, the market growth 1 has been ith the artificial tree industry," said Chastagner, a plant pathologist with the WSU extension office in Puyallup who's known widely as "Mr.

Christmas Tree." Researchers around the world turn to Chastagner to dis-1 cuss ideas on seed germination or other methods of devising a better tree, said Barney, a UI horticulture professor who heads that school's research 1and extension center in Sandpoint. West In Nearly 2,000 expected at Pearl Harbor memorial PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii Survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 64 years ago are expected to join sailors, community leaders, and guests in observing the anniversary. of the assault today. A crowd expected at' nearly 2.000 is due to observe a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the exact moment the attack began in 1941. A U.S.

Navy ship will honor the USS Arizona, which remains submerged in Pearl Harbor with the bodies of hundreds of sailors still aboard. The Hawaii Air National Guard will fly F-15s in missing man formation over the harbor. The Navy's chief uniformed i officer, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, will address the crowd along with Sen.

Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who saw and heard Japanese planes drop bombs on Oahu as a teenager in Honolulu, 1LDS missionary killed I in train accident i MESA, Ariz. A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1 missionary from Mesa has been killed in a train accident in Argentina, accordins to his Benjamin Ellsworth, 19, died Friday when he fell while getting i onto a train and was pulled under it, said his father, Cory Ellsworth of Mesa. Ellsworth reported in June to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, and arrived in I Argentina in August. He had completed about 5'i months of his two-year mission.

Ellsworth trained eight months in the U.S. Marines before taking a two-year leave to go on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Exxon Valdez plaintiffs still awaiting decision ANCHOR AfiF. Alaska The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Jan.

27 in San Francisco over whether plaintiffs should get $4.5 billion plus interest in punitive damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound. Plaintiff Steve Vanek, a Ninilchik commercial fisherman, is not expecting an answer soon. "It will be another year or a car and a half before that bloody 9lh Circuit makes a deci- OF ST. GEORGE 66They'rG still taBEdng about his gift why?" Brief sion," Vanek predicted. "I won't count on it until I see the check." It's impossible to predict when the 9th Circuit will rule, said attorney David Oesting.

Each year fewer fishermen, Native subsistence gatherers and other plaintiffs are still alive to track the court case. Oesting said he believes that around 3,000 plaintiffs have died while waiting for the billions in punitive damages a jury first ordered Exxon, now Exxon Mobil, to pay in 1994. More than 30,000 plaintiffs from oiled areas remain, Oesting said. Associated Press Li 1 1 1 1 1 I il i'Ji IJ i i ii Comuli your tlcf maulgiM tmmtdittlr my mwi nuAvi pigmented exhibit: Asymmetry hw fctt unUu- the 'Mho hll. 'L.

MIUllllW.WTOl,HIUlllpuliiLiilijlljir.vili This holiday, give your favorite people some real conversation starters, with a 13-week subscription to the Ttii They'll get all the who, what, when and where of their local community delivered to their door daily. So they won't miss out on all the things that matter most. And they'll never run out of things to talk about. TheSpectrum Southern Utah's home Border l0r "71 IKM, How you know. rmotlgy.