Subject: SW Biodiversity Alert #9
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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.}