Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#112
******* SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#112 ***********
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1/21/98
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* SOUTHWEST CENTER
FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
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1. APPEAL VICTORY: CLEAR
CREEK TIMBER SALE TAKEN DOWN...FOR NOW
2. SEVEN BLM GRAZING ALLOTMENTS
CHALLENGED BECAUSE OF THREAT TO
ENDANGERED DESERT TORTOISE
3.
PROTESTS FORCE CANCELLATION OF "EXTREME" PREDATOR HUNT
4. LOBBYIST WITH TIES
TO GORE CONVINCED BABBITT TO APPROVE TAKE OF
ENDANGERED SEA
TURTLES
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APPEAL VICTORY: CLEAR CREEK TIMBER SALE TAKEN
DOWN...FOR NOW
The Coconino National Forest was ordered to withdraw the Clear
Creek
Timber Sale on 1/13/97. The regional office affirmed the
Southwest
Center's appeal because the selected alternative was not contained
in
the Environemental Assessement. The sale would have logged 1,067
acres,
including 182 acres of "overstory removal," a near clearcut
condition.
It would have damaged habitat for goshawks, spotted owls,
flamulated
owls, migratory songbirds, and wild turkey.
The Coconino
decision would have logged 26,342 trees, 188 of them
ponderosa pines over 18
inches in diameter.
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SEVEN BLM GRAZING ALLOTMENTS CHALLENGED BECAUSE
OF THREAT TO
ENDANGERED DESERT TORTOISE
On 1/16/98, the Southwest Center
filed an official "protest" challenging
seven BLM grazing allotments within
critical habitat for the endangered
desert tortoise in southeast California.
The Desert Tortoise Recovery
Plan expressly calls for an end to grazing
within tortoise habitat:
"...there are no data showing that
continued livestock grazing is
compatible with recovery of the desert
tortoise... Because tortoise
recovery is the goal of management within
DWMAs, until such data are
forthcoming, no grazing should be permitted
within the DWMAs."
The BLM's own biologists recommended closing the Ord
Mountain allotment
because it is so badly overgrazed:
"is
insufficient to support continued livestock grazing without
causing further negative impact to the vegetative resources and
continued violation of healthy rangeland fallback standards and
guidelines."
They were overuled by agency bureaucrats, however. Separate
protests were
filed by NRDC, Spirit of the Sage Council, Desert
Tortoise Council,
Desert Protective Council, and the Desert Tortoise Preserve
Committee.
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PROTESTS
FORCE CANCELLATION OF "EXTREME" PREDATOR HUNT
Following massive public
outcry, the organizers of "Predator Hunt Extreme
98" have cancelled their
sickening $10,000 contest to see who can kill
the most wildlife in two days.
According to the rules, hunters would
accrue points by killing bobcats,
mountain lions, coyotes, and fox. A
dead female bobcat is worth 60 points, a
male mountain lion 100 points,
a female fox 15 points,
etc.
__________________________
LOBBYIST WITH
TIES TO GORE CONVINCED BABBITT TO APPROVE TAKE OF
ENDANGERED SEA
TURTLES
According to Greenlines, an alert service by GREEN: "The 1/11 New
York Times
reported Volusia County, FL, hired a Democratic
fundraiser/lobbyist with
close ties to Vice-President Al Gore to obtain a US
Fish and Wildlife Service
permit allowing "incidental" killing of endangered
sea turtles.
Environmentalists say the measure is insufficient to
protect nesting
turtles and hatchlings. The lobbyist met twice with
Interior Secretary
Babbitt. Local lawyer Lesley Blackner and others
implied the
lobbyist's meetings with Babbitt influenced the agency's
decision.
Said Blackner: 'We trusted the system. We thought we'd
get a fair day
in court and that the permit application would be evaluated by
the
rules. But once [the lobbyist] came on the scene it became
apparent
that no one was playing by the rules and that the rules didn't
matter.'"
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-710