____________________________________________________
\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#147
/
\
8-16-98
/
\
/
\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\__________________________________________/
1.
LAWSUIT CALLS FOR NEW GILA TROUT RECOVERY PLAN
2. FIVE CALIFORNIA PLANTS
GET E.S.A. PROTECTION
3. NATIVE AMERICANS HOLD SACRED RUN ON MT. GRAHAM,
REFUSE
UNIVERSITY DEMAND TO GET PERMITS TO PRAY ON SACRED
MOUNTAIN
4. COUNTIES WITHDRAW LAWSUIT TO KICK MEXICAN SPOTTED
OWL
OFF ENDANGERED SPECIES SPECIES LIST
5. WASHINGTON
TIMES COVERS DON YOUNG'S ENVIRONMENTAL WITCH
HUNT
*****
***** ***** *****
LAWSUIT
CALLS FOR NEW GILA TROUT RECOVERY PLAN
The Southwest Center has filed suit
against the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service in an effort to breath new life
into a moribund
recovery program for the Gila trout. The goal of the
current
recovery plan is only to down list the trout to threatened, not
to
completely recover and delist it as required by the Endangered
Species Act.
The suit would require the agency to rewrite the
plan, changing its goals to
completely recover the Gila trout.
The Gila trout was listed as an
endangered species in 1967, prior
to the passage of the modern Endangered
Species Act. Thirty years
later the species teeters on the brink of
extinction. Of five relict
natural populations which existed at the time of
listing, only three
remain. The Gila National Forest has stonewalled efforts
to
establish new populations and protect the Gila trout from the
effects
of grazing and non-native trout stocking.
The Southwest Center is
represented in this case by Matt Kenna
of Kenna &
Hickcox.
________________________
FIVE
CALIFORNIA PLANTS GET E.S.A. PROTECTION
In response to a court order
requiring the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service to make final listing
decisions on 44 imperiled species,
the agency listed four plants as
endangered and one as threatened
on 8-12-98: Astragalus tener var. titi
(coastal dunes milk-vetch),
Piperia yadonii (Yadon's piperia), Potentilla
hickmanii (Hickman's
potentilla) and Trifolium trichocalyx (Monterey clover)
were listed
as endangered, Cupressus goveniana ssp. goveniana (Gowen
cypress)
was listed as threatened.
The five plants primarily occur
along the coast of northern Monterey
County including the Monterey Peninsula.
The historical range of
several stretched into southern California.
They are threatened by
suburban sprawl, fire suppression, exotic species, and
inappropriate
recreation development.
The Southwest Center is
represented by Jay Tuchton of EarthLaw.
__________________________
NATIVE AMERICANS HOLD SACRED RUN ON MT.
GRAHAM, REFUSE
UNIVERSITY DEMAND TO GET PERMITS TO PRAY ON SACRED
MOUNTAIN
On 8-15-98, members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and
other
Native Americans held a sacred run up Mount Graham in
southeast
Arizona. The top of the mountain has been closed to the
public,
including the Apache people, because the University of Arizona
and
the Vatican have established massive, controversial
telescope sites
there.
The runners refused to get Forest Service permits for the
run
because Mount Graham is sacred to the San Carlos Apache.
The
University of Arizona not only attempted to make the runners
get
permits, they tried to convince the Forest Service to
transfer control of the
permitting process to the university
which has fought against both protection
of endangered species
and religious freedom on Mt. Graham. The Forest Service
has
not agreed to the request.
_____________________________
COUNTIES WITHDRAW LAWSUIT TO KICK MEXICAN
SPOTTED OWL
OFF ENDANGERED SPECIES SPECIES LIST
On 8-11-98, the
Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties dropped
their appeal of a federal
judge's ruling that the listing of the
Mexican spotted owl was fully
justified. The Mexican spotted owl
was listed as threatened in 1993 in
response to a 1989 petition by
the Southwest Center. Dr. Robin Silver
intervened in the case
on behalf of the owl.
___________________________
WASHINGTON TIMES COVERS DON YOUNG'S
ENVIRONMENTAL WITCH HUNT
Forest Service workers irked by Young's
inquiry
By Valerie Richardson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
8-14-98
The chairman of the House Resources
Committee has been accused of
conducting a "witch hunt" after asking the U.S.
Forest Service's
southwestern office to disclose whether its employees are
active in the
environmental movement.
In a July
28 letter, Rep. Don Young, Alaska Republican, asked
whether the office's
workers are members of or contribute money to
environmental groups that were
involved in a recent deal with the Forest
Service to restrict grazing near
bodies of water in Arizona and New
Mexico.
The
letter came after a July 15 committee hearing at which ranchers
complained
they were excluded from negotiations over the restrictions,
which have made
it more difficult for their herds to reach water.
"It [Mr. Young's letter] is absolutely appropriate," said Erik
Ness,
communications director for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock
Bureau. "If
they've got this raging conflict of interest, they should
recuse themselves.
Judges and congressmen do it all the time -- why
shouldn't
they?"
But environmentalists have likened Mr.
Young's letter to
McCarthyism and warned that his inquiry threatens the
employees' First
Amendment right to freedom of
association.
"What's next? Library records?
Video-store rentals? Church
membership? We don't need any more big brotherism
in this country," said
William H. Meadows, president of the Wilderness
Society. "It will be a
sad day when we have to start telling our bosses which
groups we belong
to."
Eleanor Towns, forester for
the Forest Service's southwestern
region, is drafting a response to Mr.
Young's letter, but a list of
employee memberships is unlikely to be
included, said a colleague.
"We're not aware of our
employees' political affiliations -- that
isn't something we would collect,"
said regional spokeswoman Carolyn
Bye. "And we're concerned about their First
Amendment rights. He asked
us if we're aware, and our response will be that
we're not aware."
Mr. Young's inquiry was one of 19
questions addressed to Mrs. Towns
stemming from agreements reached last
spring after environmentalists
sued to force the Forest Service to comply
with the Endangered Species
Act.
The Southwest
Center for Biological Diversity and Forest Guardians
argued that the agency
had failed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife
Service over grazing's
impact on a half-dozen endangered fish and bird
species. Most of the species
are located in the vast Gila National
Forest in New Mexico and the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in
Arizona.
Rather than go to court, the Forest Service struck a deal in April
with the
environmental organizations that called for fencing off the
most vulnerable
riparian areas.
Ranchers tried to stop the deal in
court with a temporary
restraining order, but their motion was denied a week
later. They
accused the agency of leaking documents to the environmentalists
and
excluding ranchers from talks over the
agreement.
Dave Stewart, the Forest Service's acting
regional director for
rangeland management, said the documents were available
to
environmentalists under the Freedom of Information Act. As for
excluding
the ranchers who held the grazing permits, it wasn't necessary
to
include them because they weren't directly involved in the lawsuit,
he
said.
Mr. Stewart said he doubted the
restrictions had caused much
hardship because many of the areas were already
fenced or had no cattle.
The grazing restrictions affected eight of the
region's 11 national
forests and about 80 ranches, he
said.
Angry ranchers held two rallies last month in
New Mexico to protest
the restrictions.
"We don't
think it's appropriate for the Forest Service to be doing
backroom deals that
put people out of business without talking to the
people vested in the case,"
said Mr. Ness.
Mr. Stewart said he hoped to ease
some of the ranchers' fears at a
meeting with the Farm Bureau next week. As
for charges that the Forest
Service is too closely allied with
environmentalists, he said "it's
possible" that some employees are Sierra
Club members.
"I personally do not know of anyone
who belongs to these groups,
but we're a large organization, so I can't say
we don't," said Mr.
Stewart. "But it certainly isn't a conscious decision or
an
institutional
decision."
_____________________________________________________________________________
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