There's about 30-35 of us filling a conference room, all facing the front. Have known more than half these folks for years. Others are new. The roughly 477 pages of planning alternatives that showed up in email last Tuesday are projected on the front screen and reviewed, one block at a time. Making decisions that will affect over 3 million acres of public land (that's over 4600 square miles) for the next decade or two.

It's going well, from the land management agency's point of view. We're ahead of schedule, and nobody's shot anybody else yet. Although we have had one cup of coffee spilled by some fist pounding on a table.

He learned his lesson. Next time, he lifted his neighbor's coffee off the table before starting to pound his fist.

There's a representative of the higher offices there. We'd been told before that the urgency and emphasis on facilitating oil and gas development (at the expense of the environment) has come from the Bush Administration. Yesterday, we were told it came from the White House itself.

What a surprise.

So, we're still under confidentiality clauses, but there's no secret how it's going.

Some of the more interesting stuff?

Well, got to see pictures of a friend's newest feline, a near-wild variety of cat, complete with spots. And learned its litter-mate found a home with one of the others in the room last week.

He's thrilled.

The best quote of the past two days, uttered when the group was trying to decide if an important wildlife area should be protected from mineral development, especially since there were no commercially valuable minerals in the area:

"We need to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze."

Two days down, three to go.