Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #102

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #102

      ******* SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #102 ***********
       *                    11/12/97                     *
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         *  SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY  *
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1. APPEAL VICTORY: MASSIVE SOUTHERN UTAH SALVAGE SALE STOPPED

2. APPEALS COURT ISSUES EMERGENCY INJUNCTION AGAINST BULLDOZING
   OF BALLONA WETLANDS

3. NINE CALIFORNIA PLANTS LISTED AS ENDANGERED

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

APPEAL VICTORY: MASSIVE SOUTHERN UTAH SALVAGE SALE STOPPED

The Southwest Center and the Wild Utah Forest Campaign have
won their separate appeals of the South Manti salvage timber sale
on the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The Forest tried to get away
with logging 22 million board feet without conducting an
environmental impact statement. The regional forester, however,
agreed that such a massive sale requires a full blown EIS.

In 1993, the Forest announced it would prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement on the sale, but canceled the review when Congress
passed the infamous Logging without Laws rider in 1995, allowing
them to log without public involvement or environmental restrictions.
This one sale would have been almost seven times larger than the
3.9 million board feet per year allowed by the Forest Plan.

This is the second salvage timber sale stopped by appeal in the SW
this month. The Lincoln National Forest in south central NM withdrew
the Sunspot salvage timber sale in Mexican spotted owl habitat after
an appeal by the Southwest Center.
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APPEALS COURT ISSUES EMERGENCY INJUNCTION AGAINST BULLDOZING OF
BALLONA WETLANDS

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on November 7, 1997, issued a
temporary restraining order blocking the bulldozing of riparian
wetlands occupied by the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher.
Ballona Wetlands, one of the last remaining wetlands in Los Angeles
is under assault by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Bill Gates, Paul
Allen and developers bent on building Playa Vista, a massive
development/special effects movie studio. The suit was brought by
The Wetlands Action Network, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, and
CALPIRG.

The appeals court will review declarations provided by Noah Greenwald,
ecologist for the Southwest Center, Dr. Rudi Mattoni, conservation
biologist and geography professor at UCLA, and Dr. Joy Zedler. Mattoni,
who conducted a biological review for the developers, has concluded
that its mitigation plans are a "fraud". The case is being argued by
Los Angeles environmental lawyer Steve Crandall.
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NINE CALIFORNIA PLANTS LISTED AS ENDANGERED

On October 22, 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed nine
California plants as endangered species. Clara Hunt's milkvetch, white
sedge, Sonoma alopecurus, Vine Hill clarkia, Pitkin Marsh lily, Kenwood
Marsh checkerbloom, Calistoga allocarya, Napa bluegrass, and showy
indian clover all inhabited wetlands and mesic habitats in the central
coast area. They are threatened by urban sprawl, cattle grazing,
agribusiness, exotic species, and road construction/maintenance.

The nine plants are among a group of 95 species the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has allowed to dwindle toward extinction by stalling on
final listing decisions. On May 13, 1997, the Southwest Center filed
official notice that would sue to list all 95 species as endangered unless
the Service took immediate action to protect them.  Since then, the Service
has scrambled to list 38 of the species as endangered.