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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#149
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\
8-26-98
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\ http://www.sw-center.org
/
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1. TWO TIMBER SALES APPEALED
IN NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA
2. SOUTHWEST CENTER GEARS UP TO PROTECT HABITAT
FOR 38 CALIFORNIA
ANIMALS
3. BABBITT RESISTS ESA
PROTECTION FOR RIO GRANDE CUTTHROAT TROUT
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TWO TIMBER SALES APPEALED IN NEW
MEXICO AND ARIZONA
The Southwest Center has appealed two timber sales.
The Prescott
Basin "Vegetation Management Project" would log approximately
five
million board feet on the Prescott National Forest in the
Bradshaw
Mountains. Although only approximately 3% of the area
contains
remnant stands of large trees, the sale would still log thousands
of
trees over 16" in diameter. In addition, the analysis area contains
one
of several newly discovered populations of the endangered
Hualapai Mexican
vole, a species which had only one confirmed
population when listed under the
Endangered Species Act in 1987.
Unfortunately, and in violation of the ESA,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Forest Service are inexplicably
denying protection to
the new populations, instead of using this important
opportunity to
recover an imperiled species.
The Quemado "Salvage and
Sanitation" Sales would authorize hundreds
of small timber sales across the
Quemado and the former Luna Ranger
District on the Gila National Forest.
Approximately 100,000 of the
Districts' 250,000 acres of ponderosa pine
habitat, a staggering 40%,
would be opened to logging. Despite this fact, and
despite the
presence of many threatened, endangered, and Forest Service
sensitive
species, the Forest Service claims these sales may proceed under
a
Categorical Exclusion (CE), a regulatory exemption to NEPA. CE's
are
designed for routine administrative activities such as lawn mowing
or
repaving a parking lot, not controversial "salvage" timber sales
in
endangered species' habitat.
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SOUTHWEST CENTER GEARS
UP TO PROTECT HABITAT FOR 38 CALIFORNIA
ANIMALS
The Southwest Center
has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
of intent to sue over the
agency's failure to designate critical
habitat for 38 animal species found
throughout the State of
California. A successful critical habitat lawsuit for
these species
will result in a prohibition against "destruction or
adverse
modification" of ecosystems throughout the State ranging from
vernal
pools to rivers, redwoods to sage scrub, and sand dunes to
estuaries.
Recent cases indicate a strong likelihood of success in this
lawsuit.
The Service in three recent cases has been ordered to
reconsider
bogus conclusions that critical habitat is "not prudent" for
245
Hawaii plants and the California gnatcatcher. For these species,
and
many of those listed in the Center's recent notices, the Service
has
bizarrely maintained that critical habitat designation would do
more
harm than good without providing any documentation in support of
this
conclusion.
The Center is represented in this case by Brendan
Cummings
Species included in recent Center notices include:
San
Clemente loggerhead shrike * San Clemente sage sparrow
California least tern
* Tidewater goby
Coho Salmon * Steelhead trout
Lost River Sucker *
Shortnose Sucker
Laguna Mountains skipper butterfly * Quino checkerspot
butterfly
El Segundo blue butterfly * Bay checkerspot butterfly
Behren's
silverspot butterfly * Callippe silverspot butterfly
Myrtle's silverspot
butterfly * Kern primrose sphinx moth
Zayante band-winged grasshopper *
Alameda whipsnake
Island night lizard * Southwestern arroyo
toad
California red-legged frog * San Diego fairy shrimp
Riverside fairy
shrimp * California freshwater shrimp
Shasta crayfish * Conservancy fairy
shrimp
Longhorn fairy shrimp * Vernal pool tadpole shrimp
Delhi Sands
flower-loving fly * Stephan's kangaroo rat
San Bernardino kangaroo rat *
Pacific pocket mouse
Giant kangaroo rat * Tipton kangaroo rat
Point Arena
mountain beaver * Morro shoulderband Snail
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BABBITT RESISTS
ESA PROTECTION FOR RIO GRANDE CUTTHROAT TROUT
At a meeting last week in
northern New Mexico, Secretary of Interior
Bruce Babbitt publically announced
plans to avoid listing the
cutthroat as an endangered species, stating "I am
hopeful that
increasingly in the future that we can defer listing as a result
of
conservation efforts that are underway."
Though current
conservation efforts, such as those being conducted by
Turner Ranches,
are
commendable, they are no substitute for the rangewide protection
provided by
the ESA, which is required to protect the trout against
further habitat
degradation from livestock grazing and logging.
Babbitt wishes to avoid
listing of the Rio Grande as an endangered
species not because this will best
conserve the species, but because
he wishes to avoid political backlash from
the ranching and timber
industries.
In February of this year the
Southwest Center, Southwest Trout,
Carson Forest Watch, Biodiversity Legal
Foundation, and Ancient
Forest Rescue petitioned the Secretary to list the
cutthroat trout as
an endangered species. The cutthroat, which is the state
fish of New
Mexico, formerly occurred throughout the higher elevations of the
Rio
Grande river basin from southern New Mexico (and possibly Texas)
to
southern Colorado. It has disappeared from 95% of its range because
of
overgrazing, logging, water diversions, and
competition/hybridization with
introduced game trout.