F Troop: The state of Utah and the Boy Scouts of America deserve a merit badge for diplomacy. Under the terms of a negotiated settlement, the BSA will pay the state $330,000 and plant 9,000 trees in compensation for a 2002 wildfire that burned 14,000 acres near the Bear River Scout Reservation. But the Scouts aren't out of the woods yet. The federal government is still seeking $13.3 million for firefighting expenses and land rehabilitation costs. Maybe the feds will settle for a revision of the Scout Oath? "On my honor I will do my best . . . to never start a wildfire."

Slippery slope: The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Oil Field? We like the old name better, and the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management seem to agree. The federal agencies, citing insufficient information, halted an environmental assessment last week, effectively blocking plans by a Denver-based firm to drill up to 55 oil wells in the recreation area. The estimated value of the oil: $24 billion. The Glen Canyon NRA: priceless.

Hello out there: Sometimes it's good to be in the dark at night, especially when you're trying to shed light on an age-old question: Is there life on other planets? The University of Utah may help find the answer. The school's College of Science hopes to build an observatory in southern Utah near Bryce Canyon National Park, one of the places with the least light pollution left in the United States. Southern Utah Observatory would feature a 32-inch diameter telescope that would focus on cosmic ray research, the search for Earth-like planets and other projects.