Subject: FW: SW Biodiversity Alert #9

Subject: SW Biodiversity Alert #9

***  ***  SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #10  *** ***

     southwest center for biological diversity
                 swcbd@igc.apc.org


GOSHAWK ESA VICTORY! JUDGE OVERTURNS FISH &
WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSAL TO CONSIDER NORTHERN
GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WESTERN UNITED
STATES.

     An Arizona Federal Judge (9th Circuit) has ruled that the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) acted arbitrarily, capriciously,
and contrary to law in refusing to consider listing the imperiled
Northern Goshawk as endangered in the western United States
(excluding Alaska).  He ordered the agency to prepare a new 90-
day finding under the ESA.
     The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and a coalition of 23
environmental groups from every state in the west.  In denying the
ESA petition, the FWS stated that although the goshawk and its
mature forest habitat are declining, the Western population of the
wide-ranging species is not "genetically distinct" and therefore, not
listable under the ESA.  Judge Bilby ruled that genetic distinctness
is not required for listing as a population.  Calling the FWS
argument "incredulous," Bilby noted that the agency arbitrarily
chose a definition of "distinct population" in order to support a
pre-
determined decision.  Before being over-ruled by Regional Office
bureaucrats, the FWS's goshawk biologist issued a draft finding in
favor of listing the goshawk.  In earlier oral arguments, Bilby
accused the FWS of having different listing standards for species
which depend on trees such as the goshawk and spotted owl, and
those which do not.


DAMS ALTER EARTH'S SPEED, AXIS AND
GRAVITATIONAL FIELD

     NASA has determined that the construction of 88 large
dams in the last 40 years, has sped up the Earth's rate of spin.
Though the speed up has been more than offset by the slowing
effect of lunar tidal drag, it is measurable.  Absent the lunar drag,
each day of the last 40 years would be .2 millionths of a second
shorter.
     The speed up is caused by 10 trillion tons of the Earth's
water being captured and stored at mid-latitudes near the Earth's
axis.  The weight redistribution, away from the oceans, has also
caused a slight tilt in the Earth's axis and a change in its
gravitational field.
     Worldwide, reservoirs now contain as much water as the
Earth's atmosphere.  NASA estimates that rise in ocean levels due
to global warming would be 1.2 inches higher if not for the
reservoirs.  {Arizona Daily Star, A11, 3/3/96}


BENEFITS OF JUNIPER CONTROL QUESTIONED

     A review article by Dr. A. Joy Belsky (ONRC Staff
Ecologist) questions the need and efficiency of juniper chaining in
the Northwest.  While junipers have increased in arid Northwest
ecosystems due to overgrazing, they have an ancient history of
range expansion and contraction.  There is very little evidence that
junipers in the Northwest, or pinyon-junipers in the Southwest,
have any deliterious effects on streamflow, aquatic species, soil
condition, or wildlife habitat.  Though not advocating a "no
control" approach to juniper encroachment, Belsky warns that the
historic chaining, bulldozing, and logging of tens of thousands of
acres of public land, has accomplished very little ecological
benefit.
Reduction or elimination of grazing should be given equal and/or
simultaneous consideration.
     {Belsky, A.J.  1996.  Viewpoint: Western juniper
expansion: Is it a threat to arid northwestern ecosystems?  Journal
of Range Management 49:53-59.}