____________________________________________________
\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#139
/
\
7-6-98
/
\
/
\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\__________________________________________/
1.
APPEALS COURT ENJOINS DEVELOPMENT TO PROTECT PYGMY OWL
2. SUIT TO BE
FILED TO PROTECT IMPERILED CUTTHROAT TROUT
3. "THIS IS NOT GOOD NEWS"-
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL BRISTLES AT
SOUTHWEST CENTER PROPOSAL TO BAN
CATTLE FROM PUBLIC RIVERS
4. REALTOR BLOCKS GROWTH CONTROLS, IS OUSTED
FROM PANEL-
COUNTY SUPERVISORS TO GET REFORMS BACK ON
TRACK
5. LETTERS NEEDED TO SAVE EUREKA SAND
DUNES
*****
***** *****
******
APPEALS COURT PROTECTS PYGMY OWL-
ENJOINS CONSTRUCTION UNTIL
FINAL RULING
On 7-1-98, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved
an
emergency injunction motion filed by Defenders of Wildlife
and the
Southwest Center to bar construction at the proposed
Amphitheater school site
until the court issues a final decision
as to whether destruction of the site
will take endangered
pygmy owls. A district level court agreed that owls are
present
at the site, but ruled that Defenders and Center did not
prove
they would be harmed. The same judge, however, would not
allow
Fish& Wildlife Service and independent scientists to
testify about
potential harm to the owl.
The case is being argued by John Fritschie
(Defenders) and
Eric Glitzenstein (Meyers &
Glitzenstein).
____________________________
SUIT TO
BE FILED TO PROTECT IMPERILED CUTTHROAT TROUT-
USFWS REFUSES TO ISSUE ESA
RULING
The Southwest Center has filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue
the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for refusing to issue a ruling
on whether it
will process a petition to list the Rio Grande
cutthroat trout as an
endangered species. On 2-5-98, the
Southwest Center, Southwest Trout, Carson
Forest Watch, the
Biodiversity Legal Foundation, and Ancient Forest
Rescue
petitioned the agency to protect the trout because a century
of
livestock grazing, logging, water pumping and exotic
species
transplants have driven it from 95% of its original range.
The
Fish & Wildlife Service was legally required to determine
within
90 days if the petition presented enough information to
proceed
with a full Endangered Species Act review. As usual, however,
the
agency is allowing the species to languish rather than make
a
politically charged ESA decision.
___________________________
"THIS IS NOT GOOD NEWS"- ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
BRISTLES AT SOUTHWEST
CENTER PROPOSAL TO BAN CATTLE FROM ALL RIVERS
On
6-8-98, the Albuquerque Journal opined against shifting the
battle against
overgrazing to complete protection for all rivers
and streams on public
lands:
"Environmental advocates are on a winning
streak in using
environmental laws and the courts to protect
endangered species
and restrict use of public lands. They have
successfully
curtailed logging and cattle grazing in the
Southwest.
Last year, the U.S. Forest Service was ordered
by the court to
curtail logging to protect the Mexican spotted owl and
just
recently the Forest Service agreed, without court order, to
pull
cattle from hundreds of miles of specified riparian habitat
on
about 60 grazing allotments to protect rare species protected
by
the Endangered Species Act.
Now, the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity has announced
that it is
going to file petitions to have cows removed from all
Southwestern
streams and rivers.
This is not good news. It looks less
like a focused effort to
protect identified critical habitat than an
aggressive campaign
whose objective is to ride the Southwest of
industries that have
long been a part of economic history
here.
Ranchers has long asserted that environmentalists'
real agenda
was to drive them completely out of business. This
threatened
major legal assault lends credence to their fears. It
knocks the
props our from under moderates on both sides of the issue.
It
puts the Forest Service in an impossible position if the
federal
policy of multiple use of public lands still has any credence
in
the Department of Agriculture.
If the fight
is about protecting the environment, that is one
thing; if it is
really about running ranchers off public land
everywhere, it is
another thing entirely. Policies governing the
stewardship of public
lands in the West should not be abdicated
to environmental groups,
they should be made by Congress and the
executive branch agencies
charged with carrying them out."
_________________________
REALTOR BLOCKS GROWTH CONTROLS, IS OUSTED FROM
PANEL-
COUNTY SUPERVISORS TO GET REFORMS BACK ON TRACK
Pima County
Supervisor Ray Carroll will oust realtor Bill Arnold
from the Planning and
Zoning Commission because Arnold led a charge
to stall a plan to limit
development along canyon slopes, washes
and near public lands. By sending the
plan into study session
rather than approving it, the zoning commission
ensured that it
would not take effect until after a state law is instituted
which
effectively prevents counties from instituting growth controls.
The
supervisors are expected to make the zoning commission approve
the ordinances
before the developer's first law begins on 8-21-98.
__________________________
LETTERS NEEDED TO PROTECT EUREKA SAND
DUNES
The Eureka Dunes are located in the southern end of Eureka Valley
in
Inyo County, California. They support three plants that occur
nowhere
else in the world -- Eureka Dunes evening-primrose
(Oenothera californica
ssp. eurekensis), Eureka Valley dune grass
(Swallenia alexandrae), and
shining milk-vetch (Astragalus
lentiginosus var. micans). Threats to
the plants include a non-
native thistle, off-road vehicle trespass, and the
nascent
sport of "sandboarding." The Dunes were recently transferred
from
BLM to Death Valley National Park, but management and monitoring
of
the rare species is lacking. Letters are needed to Death
Valley
National Park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
encourage
better protection for the sensitive endemic plants of the
Eureka
Dunes!
Background information, images, discussion points for
letters,
and mailing addresses are available on the CNPS Rare Plant
Program
web site at: http://www.cnps.org/rpp/Conservation/eureka_dunes.htm
_____________________________________________________________________________
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