Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #126

      ____________________________________________________
      \       SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #126          /
       \                    4-8-98                      /
        \                                              /
         \ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY  /
          \__________________________________________/
         
1. INJUNCTION SOUGHT TO STOP GRAZING ON 80 NATIONAL FOREST ALLOTMENTS-
   2.2 MILLION ACRES OF THE GILA AND LITTLE COLORADO RIVER BASINS COULD
   BE FREED OF CATTLE IMPACTS!
2. MILITARY FORCED TO WEIGH ITS EFFECTS ON SAN PEDRO RIVER
3. FOREST SERVICE BIOLOGISTS: AGENCY ENSLAVED TO TIMBER AND CATTLE
4. EDITORIAL: FOREST SERVICE RESIGNATIONS A WARNING FOR WILDLIFE

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

INJUNCTION SOUGHT TO STOP GRAZING ON 80 NATIONAL FOREST ALLOTMENTS-
2.2 MILLION ACRES OF THE GILA AND LITTLE COLORADO RIVER BASINS COULD
BE FREED OF CATTLE IMPACTS!

On 4-6-98, the Southwest Center requested a preliminary injunction
against grazing on 80 allotments in the Gila and Little Colorado River
Basins which are harming endangered species. The Southwestern willow
flycatcher, loach minnow, spikedace, Little Colorado River spinedace,
Sonora Chub, Razorback Sucker, Gila Trout, Apache trout, Bald eagle,
Hualapai Mountain vole are being driven to extinction by overgrazing
on AZ and NM National Forests. The Forest Service, however, has refused
to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the effects
grazing on these 80 allotments.

The Southwest Center is represented by Jay Touchton of EarthLaw (Denver).
Forest Guardians is also asking for an injunction in a similar suit.
Altogether, some 150 grazing allotments are under litigation in the
Gila Headwaters and Sky Islands ecosystems.
     ___________________________

MILITARY FORCED TO WEIGH ITS EFFECTS ON SAN PEDRO RIVER

The Army's Fort Huachuca has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
to review its effects on threatened and endangered species dependent
upon the San Pedro River and its upland habitats. The Army admitted
it may be harming the Mexican spotted owl, Sonora tiger salamander,
the Huachuca water umbel, Lesser long-nosed bat, and the American
peregrine falcon. It continues to deny, however, that it is drying up
the San Pedro River, pushing the Southwestern willow flycatcher closer
yet to extinction.

The request, following years of protest, is designed to help the
Army escape an active lawsuit by the Southwest Center charging that
Fort Huachuca is violating the Endangered Species Act. The Center is
represented by Mark Hughes of EarthLaw (Denver, CO) in the case and
in its NAFTA petition which has forced an international review of the
drying up of the San Pedro. A final report on the river's status is
due soon.
     ___________________________

FOREST SERVICE BIOLOGISTS: AGENCY ENSLAVED TO TIMBER AND CATTLE

The following story appeared in the Albuquerque Tribune on 3-6-98. Check
out our Forest Service whistle blowers page for more articles and reports:
http://www.sw-center.org

        Biologists resign, blast Forest Service practices

  SANTA FE — Two top Forest Service biologists have quit, charging
that the agency's Southwest Region emphasizes logging and grazing at
the expense of wildlife.
  Biologists Leon Fager and Jim Cooper — former heads of the
endangered species and fisheries programs for the region, allege
senior managers are enslaved to commercial interests.
  Gilbert Vigil, acting Southwest regional forester, said the region
does a good job of protecting resources.
  "Considering our ecosystems, which includes our communities, we
don't just move in there and make drastic changes overnight," he said.
"I think we're making progress."
  Fager, a 31-year agency veteran, has urged Forest Service chief Mike
Dombeck to have an independent team of scientists and economists study
the financial and ecological effects of grazing in the Southwest.
  "The region is now 'circling the wagons' and spending millions of
taxpayer dollars to defend a livestock grazing program that has
outlived its value and needs to be phased out as an inappropriate use
of national forests in the 21st century," Fager wrote Dombeck last
week.
  "Livestock grazing on Southwestern National Forests is the major
reason that ecosystems are deteriorating, species are near extinction
and watersheds have lost much of their ability to yield high quality
and quantities of water," he wrote.
   Fager urged Dombeck to fire Southwest line managers who show
"unwillingness to manage resources for the public good instead of the
financial benefit of the livestock industry."
  Cooper, who took early retirement in January as the region's fisheries
chief, said that after 28 years of government work, he felt increasingly
frustrated at what he saw as the agency's habit of reacting to, rather
than preventing, crises over wildlife and habitat.
  "We took all of our people out of the field and put tremendous
emphasis on proving the Mexican spotted owl did not need to be listed
(as endangered). And the reason we did that was because it was a
threat to the timber program," Cooper said. "Congress is shrinking the
dollars down, and we are putting all our effort into saving the timber
industry and the range (grazing) program."
  He said he was after defending a team of fisheries biologists who
blasted grazing and its damage to riverside forests and grasses last
year.
  The so-called riparian habitat,  corridors of water and greenery
make up less than 1 percent of the Forest Service's 21 million acres
in New Mexico and Arizona.
  Eighty-four percent of the riparian areas fail the Forest Service's
grade for ecosystem health. The statistic is critical considering that
about 70 percent of the Southwest's rare plants and animals live in
riparian areas or rely on them for food, shelter or breeding ground.
  "There's a lot of rhetoric being tossed around about recreation and
riparian areas being so valued. I hear a lot of talk but I don't see
the walk," Cooper said. "While we're talking out of one side of our
mouths, internally we're slam-dunking any biologist who speaks up and
says, 'Hey, there's something wrong.'...And that's basically why I
left. I spoke up a few times too often."
  The Southwest Region has been attacked by citizen lawsuits over
timber and grazing. Agency insiders began joining the criticisms last
year.
  Fager said he hopes Dombeck or the agency's incoming Southwest
regional forester, Eleanor S. Towns, will replace Jim Lloyd, the
region's director of Wildlife, Fish and Rare Plants.
    "He does not support the sensitive species program, hinders those
working for him and seems to always support continued livestock grazing
regardless of its faults," Fager wrote Dombeck. "He sees himself as a
'team player' and a defender of the status quo,"
  Lloyd said Fager and Cooper were valued employees and agreed that
"timber and range have taken a higher seat at the table" than protecting
natural resources.
  "We've been in litigation, we've been trying to change," Lloyd said.
"But the funding has decreased. We're grossly understaffed. It's been a
tremendous workload, and things don't happen overnight."
     ___________________________

EDITORIAL: FOREST SERVICE RESIGNATIONS A WARNING FOR WILDLIFE

The following editorial appeared in the Albuquerque Tribune on 3-7-98. Check
out our Forest Service whistle blowers page for more articles and reports:
http://www.sw-center.org

   Forest Service Resignations are a Call from the Wild

   Perhaps you were among the lucky New Mexicans who got a glimpse of our
visitors from the North this winter — two gawky whooping cranes struggling
to overcome their species' endangered status.
   Perhaps you've lounged in a mountain meadow and marveled at our sapphire
sky.
   Perhaps you've followed paths through the forest and dreamed of the
other creatures that once nosed along the trail.
   If so, perhaps you understand the gravity of two resignations this
week from the National Forest Service.
   Biologists Leon Fager and Jim Cooper, former heads of the endangered
species and fisheries programs for the agency's Southwest Region,
abandoned careers that spanned three decades because they charged senior
managers are enslaved to commercial interests.
  "Livestock grazing on Southwestern national forests is the major reason
that ecosystems are deteriorating, species are near extinction and
watersheds have lost much of their ability to yield high quality and
quantities of water," Fager said.
  Forest Service officials defended their management of the public's land —
acreage that has become an unfortunate battleground between those who seek a
living and those who seek a primeval paradise.
  Fager and Cooper have sounded a sobering shot in that battle.
  The plight of small ranchers, miners and loggers dependent on the bounties
of national forests presents a compelling case.
  But the slow resurgence of the whooping crane, the lazy hours in a meadow
and the now-and- future status of the beasts of the woods should underscore
these resignations: We are stewards of the land; we must take care.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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