Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #101


Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #101

      ******* SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #101 ***********
       *                    11/7/97                      *
        *                                               *
         *  SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY  *
          *                                           *
           *******************************************

1. SOUTHWEST CENTER AND BARRIO SAN ANTONIO TO SUE ARMY
   CORPS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND WILDLIFE VIOLATIONS

2. JUDGE ORDERS U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TO RELEASE
   GAG ORDER TO SOUTHWEST CENTER

3. CLINTON VETOES $10 MILLION FOR MOUNT GRAHAM TELESCOPES

     *****     *****     ******     *****

SOUTHWEST CENTER AND BARRIO SAN ANTONIO TO SUE ARMY CORPS
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND WILDLIFE VIOLATIONS
The Southwest Center and Barrio San Antonio residents Anna
Acuna and Margaretta Rosenberg Ortiz threatened to sue the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over a proposal to take over
open space in Barrio San Antonio for use as detention basin
to control flooding in downtown Tucson. Though one of the
basins would be 500 feet from a state superfund site, the
Corps Environmental Impact Statement does not even mention it.

The detention basins would destroy Arroyo Chico, one the
last urban wildlife corridors in downtown Tucson. Maria
Cadaxa, vice president of the Barrio Association read a
statement concluding "We believe the natural state of the
Arroyo Chico to be an irreplaceable asset in the inner
city ecology of Tucson. Not only is it home to a variety
of desert flora and fauna, it is the repository of traditions
and memories that stretch back generations. To change the
Arroyo Chico threatens the body and spirit of our barrio."

The Center and the Barrio allege that the project violates
the National Environmental Policy Act for ignoring the
superfund site and a presidential order on Environmental
justice in minority and
low income populations.
     _____     _____     _____     _____

JUDGE ORDERS U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TO TURN OVER
GAG ORDER TO SOUTHWEST CENTER
A federal judge has found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
in violation of the Freedom of Information Act for refusing
to turn over an administrative gag order prohibiting biologist
in the Arizona and New Mexico from talking to "potential
Litigants" (i.e. the Southwest Center). The agency claimed it
did not have the provide the order under the Freedom of
Information Act because it was a "draft." The Court, however,
found that the order must be released, draft or not, because it
is in effect.

The gag order was an attempt to squelch Fish and Wildlife Service
biologists and prevent the public from obtain information about
federal management of endangered species.
     _____     _____     _____     _____

CLINTON VETOES $10 MILLION FOR MOUNT GRAHAM TELESCOPES
On November 1, 1997, President Clinton used the line-item veto
to remove $10 million from the VA-HUD bill earmarked for the
University of Arizona's Mt. Graham telescope project. The
appropriation was stealthily placed on the unrelated by Arizona
congressman Jim Kolbe.

Mt. Graham is home to the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel
and is sacred to the San Carlos Apache people. Environmentalists,
Native Americans, and religious rights groups have fought the
telescope project for ten years. Kolbe has spearheaded two
previous riders exempting the telescope project from
environmental laws.

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