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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#138
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6-29-98
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
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1.
VICTORY AT BALLONA!
JUDGE STOPS SPIELBERG'S WETLANDS
NIGHTMARE-WORKS
2. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSES TO LIST GOSHAWK AS
ENDANGERED-
5th SUIT TO FILED OVER IMPERILED OLD GROWTH
RAPTOR
3. SKEEN TO CONVENE CONGRESSIONAL PANEL ON UNRANCHING
ACTIVITIES-
PROPOSES ANOTHER $400,000 RANCHING SUBSIDY
4.
NEWLY DISCOVERED FUNGUS MAY BE HARMING AMPHIBIANS
WORLD-WIDE
*****
***** ***** *****
VICTORY
AT BALLONA! JUDGE STOPS SPIELBERG'S WETLANDS
NIGHTMARE-WORKS
Just weeks
after the Army Corps of Engineers admitted that it did
not consider the
effects of the massive Playa Vista/Dreamworks
development on all
endangered species dependent upon Ballona
Wetlands, a federal judge has
ordered the Corps to stop
construction until a full Environmental Impact
Statement is
completed. On 6-26-98, Judge Ronald Lew found that the
Corps
illegally piecemealed the development into separate parts to
mask
the impact of the project as a whole, and that it illegally
concluded
that the development would have no "significant effect"
in order to avoid
having to conduct an Environmental Impact
Statement.
Ballona Wetlands
is one the last remaining coastal wetlands in the
Los Angeles area. Steven
Spielberg and host of developers want
to build 10,000 condos and five million
feet of commercial
business on it. Thanks to Wetlands Action Network, Cal
PIRG,
and Ballona Wetlands Lands Trust for years of perseverance.
The
plaintiff were represented by Steve Crandall.
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FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSES TO
LIST GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED-
FIFTH SUIT TO BE FILED OVER IMPERILED OLD GROWTH
RAPTOR
For the 3rd time, the Fish & Wildlife Service has bowed
to
political pressure, refusing to list the northern goshawk as
an
endangered species in the western U.S. It has already lost two
lawsuits
over previous denials. The agency lost a 3rd lawsuit over
its refusal to list
the Queen Charlotte goshawk as endangered in
the Pacific Northwest, British
Columbia, and Southeast Alaska.
The Southwest Center, Sitka Conservation
Society, Biodiversity
Legal Foundation, and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance are
already
in court over the Queen Charlotte goshawk decision and
the
Southwest Center has pledged to build another coalition to sue
over
this most recent northern goshawk decision as well.
Despite being taken
to task by a federal judge for refusing to
work with the Southwest Center
over controversial issues in its
last illegal denial, the Fish & Wildlife
Service admitted that
it did not read a 75 page comment letter by the
Southwest Center.
It also refused to read a recent report by a University
of
Arizona ecologist proving the goshawk is endangered, or an
affidavit by
a University of Montana biologist showing Forest
Service management plans are
failing the goshawk. Instead, the
agency put Richard Reynolds, a Forest
Service biologist, on its
status review team, asking him to judge the
adequacy of a
management plan which he himself
wrote!
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SKEEN TO
CONVENE CONGRESSIONAL PANEL ON "UNRANCHING ACTIVITIES"-
PROPOSES ANOTHER
$400,000 RANCHING SUBSIDY
In a 6-25-98 press release, Representative Joe
Skeen (R-NM)
announced that a July 15, 1998 congressional hearing "to
discuss
secret agreements between the Forest Service and the
Southwest
Center for Biological Diversity has been tentatively
approved."
Both he and Pete Domenici (R-NM) are concerned about
recent
settlements between the Southwest Center, Forest Guardians and
the
Forest Service, temporarily removing cattle from National
Forest streamsides.
Rather than admit they don't like the results,
they claim to be concerned
about the process. They have inserted
language into the Interior
Appropriations Bill stating:
"The Committee expresses strong
reservations over the process
used to obtain a stipulated agreement
entered into between the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and
the Forest Service
regarding endangered species management issues in
the Southwest
Region."
This is ironic since both Domenici and
Skeen have fought hard to
keep the public out of decisions to graze cattle on
public lands.
Both want to hand the NM ranching industry a $400,000
subsidy
to build fences and upland waters to implement our
agreements.
Remember the argument that public lands ranching fees are
cheap
because the ranchers pay for all the infrastructure
costs?
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NEWLY
DISCOVERED FUNGUS MAY BE HARMING AMPHIBIANS WORLD-WIDE
According an article
in the New Scientist, a rare fungus which
may be responsible for world-wide
crashes in amphibian
populations. A newly discovered, as yet unnamed genus
of
chytrids, has been found to coat the underside and legs of
imperiled
amphibians in Panama, Australia and southern
California. It has been
implicated in decline of 10 different
amphibian species and is thought to be
suffocating the animals.
Chytrids have not been previously been known to
harm
vertebrates.
Scientists are still not sure whether the fungus is
wholly
responsible, or whether it works in tandem with UV
radiation,
polluted water, habitat loss,
etc.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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