____________________________________________________
\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#136
/
\
6-17-98
/
\
/
\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\__________________________________________/
1.
NAFTA SCIENTIFIC PANEL: SAN PEDRO RIVER BEING SUCKED DRY
COMPREHENSIVE WATER USE PLAN NEEDED FOR UPPER BASIN
2. U.S. FISH &
WILDLIFE SERVICE LETS WOLF KILLER OF SCOT-FREE
OPENS DOOR TO
MORE WOLF KILLINGS.
****
***** ***** *****
NAFTA
SCIENTIFIC PANEL: SAN PEDRO RIVER BEING SUCKED DRY
COMPREHENSIVE WATER USE
PLAN NEEDED FOR UPPER BASIN
On 6-15-98, NAFTA's Commission for Environmental
Cooperation released
a public review draft of its long awaited scientific
assessment of
water depletion in the upper San Pedro River. Entitled
"Sustaining and
Enhancing Riparian Migratory Bird Habitat on the Upper San
Pedro
River," the report concludes that the river will dry up, destroying
the
nation's first Riparian National Conservation area if serious
efforts
are not taken to curtail urban sprawl, superfluous agriculture,
and
excessive water pumping.
This is the first time the NAFTA panel
has reviewed an environmental
problem in the United States. It did so in
response to a petition
under Article 13 by the Southwest Center represented
by EarthLaw. Public
comments on the draft are being accepted until August 14,
1998. You
can read the report and submit comments from the Southwest
Center's
web page http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/sanpedro.html
Please
comment: the CEC is only soliciting comments from within
the river basin
itself, which is dominated by developers and the
military, thereby attempting
to stack the weight of comments against
major policy reforms.
As the
last undamned river in the Southwest, the San Pedro is home to
over 400 bird
species, 100 butterfly species, has the second highest
mammalian diversity in
the world and is the principal recovery area for
the endangered jaguar,
Southwestern willow flycatcher, desert pupfish,
Huachuca tiger salamander,
loach minnow and numerous other threatened
and endangered species. The
largest threat to the San Pedro is ground
water pumping from Sierra
Vista/Fort Huachuca area.
____________________________
U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE LETS WOLF
KILLER OF SCOT-FREE
OPENS DOOR TO MORE WOLF KILLINGS.
The U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service has declared that a camper who
killed an endangered Mexican
grey wolf in the Gila Headwaters
Ecosystem acted in "self-defense" and
therefore did not violate the
Endangered Species Act. The ruling is
outrageous, because the killer
repeatedly said he killed the wolf because it
attacked his dog, which
is definitely not "self-defense". In its endless
quest to avoid
controversy at the expense of endangered species, the agency
allowed
the killer to change his story in order to claim self-defense
because
the wolf approached to within 50 feet of his wife.
There is no
indication that the wolf was going to attack. No healthy
wolf has ever
attacked a human in North
America.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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