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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#134
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6-4-98
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
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1.
VICTORY FOR BALLONA WETLANDS- ARMY CORPS AGREES TO NEW
EVALUATION
OF EFFECTS OF SPIELBERG'S DEVELOPMENT ON ENDANGERED
SPECIES
2. SUIT FILED TO LIST SACRAMENTO SPLITTAIL AS AN ENDANGERED
SPECIES
3. BACKPACKER MAGAZINE: SOUTHWEST CENTER CHANGING THE
RULES,
PROTECTING WILDLANDS
***** *****
***** *****
VICTORY FOR BALLONA WETLANDS- ARMY
CORPS AGREES TO NEW EVALUATION
OF EFFECTS OF SPIELBERG'S DEVELOPMENT ON
ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 1/26/97, the Wetlands Action Network, the Southwest
Center and
CALPIRG filed suit to stop Steven Spielberg and friends
from
building a massive development called "DreamWorks' Playa Vista"
on
one of Los Angeles'last remaining wetlands. The suit charges
the
developers with illegally killing and harassing endangered
species,
and the Army Corps of Engineers with failing to consider its
impacts
on 10 threatened and endangered species.
Now the Army Corps of
engineers has agreed to "re-evaluate" their
previous conclusion that the
monster development would have "no
effect" on endangered and threatened
species. In paper filed with
the court, the Army Corps said the re-evaluation
is necessary
because the suit provided new information about impact that
was
not provided by the developers.
The environmental coalition is
represented by: Sharon E. Duggan,
Law Offices of Sharon E. Duggan; Tara L.
Mueller, Environmental
Law Foundation; and David H. Williams, Public Interest
Lawyers
Group.
CALL STEVEN SPIELBERG'S SECRETARY
TODAY! 818-733-9760
TELL HIM KEEP HIS GRUBBY HANDS OFF
BALLONA
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SUIT
FILED TO LIST SACRAMENTO SPLITTAIL AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 6-1-98, the
Southwest Center and the Sierra Club file suit to
list the Sacramento
splittail as endangered species. Historically
found in large segments of the
Sacramento, San Joaquin, Feather and
American rivers, the splittail has been
extirpated from the
vast majority of its range. Today it is largely
restricted to the
Bay Delta, Suisun Bay, Suisun Marsh and Napa
Marsh.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposed to list the
splittail as
threatened on 1-6-94 because of dams, water diversions
and
withdrawals, wetland draining, and pollution from industrial
and
agricultural wastes. The agency, however, bowed to political
pressure
and refused to finalize the listing.
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BACKPACKER MAGAZINE: SOUTHWEST CENTER CHANGING
THE RULES,
PROTECTING WILDLANDS
The following article on the Southwest
Center appeared in the June
1998 edition of Backpacker
Magazine:
Changing the Rules: a Southwest David
is Taking on Wilderness
Hungry Goliaths and Winning
the Good Fight
When it comes to wilderness preservation, a small,
grassroots group
out of Tucson, Arizona, is proof that the big guys don't
always win.
In fact, when you look at the Southwest Center for
Biological
Diversity's track record, you realize that if this group comes
after
you, there's a fairly good chance you'll be on the losing
end.
Relying almost completely on the Endangered Species Act as a basis
for
litigation, the Center has files 80 lawsuits to stop
habitat
destruction on public lands caused by grazing, logging and other
form
of development. Out of 47 rulings to date, the Center has won 37,
all
with a staff of only 14 people (the director, the highest paid,
earns
$1,200 a month), a $380,000 annual budget, and a dedicated army
of
environmental attorneys working pro bono. Just as surprising is
that
the Center wins the environmental good fights without relying
on
monkey-wrenching or the tried-and-true black-tie fund
raisers.
"It's easy for environmental groups to just spin their wheels
and not
save acres," says executive director Kieran Suckling. The
Center'
success is built on what Suckling describes as the two strongest
arms
of the environmental movement: science and law. "The law says that
the
best possible science is to be used in managing our public lands.
So
we conduct our own scientific research to show that's not
happening,
then we litigate. It's an incredible amount of work, but with
an
honest judge you shut down a billion-dollar development in
a
heartbeat."
Among the fruits of the group's legal labors:
*
Halting all timber harvests on 21 million acres of national forest
in
Arizona and New Mexico for nearly two years, while the Forest
Service
came up with an adequate plan to protect the Mexican spotted
owl
habitat. The Forest Service recently signed a memorandum of
understanding, as part of the legal settlement, to adopt the
ecosystem-based management plan endorsed by the Southwest Center.
*
Lawsuits filed to protect riparian areas have led the Bureau of Land
Management to reduce grazing allotments throughout the Southwest,
curtailing the number of cattle in many areas by 80 percent.
* A lawsuit
to protect the habitat of the endangered pygmy owl (there
are only a
dozen left) forced developers in the Tucson area to
conduct
environmental surveys, which in some cases showed the land
couldn't be
developed.
* A court battle to protect the disappearing habitat of
the
Southwestern willow flycatcher is significantly
restricting
expansion of dams in the Colorado River basin, including
Hoover Dam.
Since it was founded seven years ago by Suckling, a former
Earth
First! activist, Peter Galvin, a conservation biologist, and
Robin
Silver, an emergency room physician, the Center's tireless
efforts
(most staff earn minimum wage, work 80 hour weeks, and some even
live
in the office) have preserved more than just a single wilderness
area.
They are saving entire ecosystems. For the first time since
European
immigrants initially wandered into the Southwest, consumptive
users
aren't being given free rein on Public
Land.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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