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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#151
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\
9-10-98
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\ http://www.sw-center.org
/
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1. A COALITION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL, HUNTING AND FISHING GROUPS FILED A
LAWSUIT
YESTERDAY TO HALT LOGGING ON ALL U.S. NATIONAL FORESTS
2. BABBITT DENIES
PROTECTION FOR RIO GRANDE CUTTHROAT TROUT--
SOUTHWEST CENTER TO
SUE LAWLESS AGENCY
3. ACTION ALERT! NEW MEXICO'S BIG HATCHET WILDERNESS
UNDER ASSAULT
*****
***** ***** ******
A COALITION
OF ENVIRONMENTAL, HUNTING AND FISHING GROUPS FILED A
LAWSUIT YESTERDAY TO
HALT LOGGING ON ALL U.S. NATIONAL FORESTS
More than 20 groups from around
the U.S. filed suit over the U.S.
Forest Service's failure to finalize a
nationwide Forest Plan and
prepare an Environmental Study of the effects of
logging and other
activities on more than 191 million acres of National
Forest land.
This failure is a violation of the Renewable Resources Planning
Act
Program (RPA) and a failure to comply with the National
Environmental
Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act which requires
a
detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the 1995
RPA
Program.
The draft Forest Service 1995 RPA program concluded that
recreation,
fishing, hunting and other non-commodity activities contributed
32
times more jobs and income than did logging on the National
Forest
system. Industry groups and anti-environmental members of
Congress
viewed the 1995 Draft RPA Program with alarm, as the Forest
Service
draft document acknowledged the huge money losses associated with
the
timber program and the massive economic input the U.S. receives
from
hiking, bird watching, rafting, fishing and hunting on
National
Forests.
In 1997, Congress at the request of panicked
industry groups passed a
rider prohibiting the Forest Service from finalizing
the 1995 RPA
Program until September 30, 1998. With the September 30,
1998
deadline looming, the coalition of environmental, fishing and
hunting groups
has decided to take the issue directly to Federal
Court to force the Forest
Service to finalize the 1995 RPA Program
and finally admit to the public that
the commercial timber program on
the National Forest system does not make
economic or ecological sense
and that it costs the U.S. economy hundreds of
millions of dollars
annually in subsidies and lost income from prime
recreational,
fishing and hunting grounds destroyed by logging and
road-building
for logging
The lawsuit is the first ever in the U.S. to
demand a halt to
additional commercial logging on the entire National Forest
system.
Plaintiffs in the coalition include the following and are
represented
by attorney Matt Kenna of Kenna and Hickocks in Durango, Colorado
and
by attorney Brendan Cummings of Berkeley, California: (The group's
primary
area of focus are in parentheses)
Southwest Center for
Biological Diversity (Arizona, New Mexico, California)
Heartwood (Kentucky,
Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio)
Idaho Sporting Congress
(Idaho)
Western Gamebird Alliance (western U.S.)
Native Forest Network
(international)
Environmental Protection Information Center
(California)
Southwest Trout (New Mexico, Arizona)
Klamath-Siskiyou
Wildlands Center (Oregon, California)
Allegheny Defense Project
(Pennsylvania)
Wild Alabama (Alabama)
Wild South (the southeastern
U.S.)
The Ecology Center (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming)
Missouri Heartwood
(Missouri)
Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists (Missouri,
Illinois)
Sky Island Watch (Arizona, New Mexico)
Common Roots
(Alaska)
League of Wilderness Defenders (Oregon)
Buckeye Forest Council
(Ohio)
Ancient Forest Rescue (Colorado)
Southern Appalachian Biodiversity
Project (southern Appalachians)
Blue Mountain Native Forest Alliance
(Oregon)
Rex Johnson, a fishing guide outfitter (New Mexico,
Arizona)
__________
BABBITT DENIES PROTECTION FOR RIO GRANDE CUTTHROAT
TROUT SOUTHWEST
CENTER TO SUE LAWLESS AGENCY
In response to a petition
filed earlier this year by the Southwest
Center for Biological Diversity,
Southwest Trout, Biodiversity Legal
Foundation, Carson Forest Watch and
Ancient Forest Rescue, Secretary
of Interior Bruce Babbitt announced
yesterday the Rio Grande
cutthroat trout will not be protected under the
Endangered Species
Act. Southwest Center notified the Secretary and Fish and
Wildlife of
intent to sue the agency over their
decision.
The Rio Grande cutthroat formally occurred in all
cold clear streams
of the Rio Grande from southern Colorado to at least
southern New
Mexico. Today, it is reduced to less than 5% of its historic
range
because of habitat loss to livestock grazing, logging, water use
and
introduction of exotic fish, such as the rainbow trout, which
readily
interbreeds with the Rio Grande cutthroat. Babbitt's decision is
yet
another example of the agencies' deference to politics over the
need
to protect critically endangered species.
Listing under the
Endangered Species Act would have resulted in
needed protection for the
cutthroat, not provided by the voluntary
measures Babbitt advocates. Such
protection would include removal of
cattle and exotic fish from streams and
restriction of logging on
steep slopes above Rio Grande inhabited watersheds.
It will also
bring needed federal monies for stream restoration projects in
New
Mexico and Colorado. Listing will not, however, result in
the
preclusion of fishing for the Rio Grande cutthroat, rather careful
and
well guided fishery management.
__________
ACTION ALERT! NEW
MEXICO'S BIG HATCHET WILDERNESS UNDER ASSAULT
The BLM is proposing to
lease oil and gas rights within the proposed
Big Hatchet Wilderness Area.
This is one of New Mexico's flagship
areas in the effort to protect wild BLM
lands. The Big Hatchets are
a spectacular example of "sky island"
bio-geography, as they rise
thousands of feet above the surrounding desert
grasslands. This place
of sublime beauty is also potential jaguar and Mexican
wolf habitat,
and is home to one of only two native desert bighorn herds in
the
state! During a NM Game & Fish study of this herd, its
population
declined by 50% as a result of the increased human activity in
the
area. Oil and Gas exploration, with its bulldozers and
seizmic
exploration, could chase these last native bighorns from their
home.
The area also provides habitat for the Peregrine Falcon and
Aplomado
Falcon, as well as some species of concern such as Cave
Myotis,
Fringed Myotis, Pale Townsend's Big-eared Bat, Ferruginous
Hawk,
Western Burrowing Owl, Contra Yerba, and Night-blooming
Cereus.
The Big Hatchets are one of the Southwest's
wildest treasures and
cannot be compromised. Please write the BLM before Sept
21and tell
them to impose the "No action" alternative (ie no drilling)
from
their Environmental Assessment.
Send letters to:
Bill Merhege,
Bureau of Land Management,
1800 Marquess St.
Las Cruces, NM
88005
re: Proposed Oil and Gas Leasing in Hildago County,
Environmental
Assessment NM-036-98
For more information call;
Bob Tafanelli - New
Mexico Wilderness Alliance
505-526-9380
btafanel@nmsu.edu
_____________________________________________________________________
Shane
Jimerfield
Assistant Director
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity
Tel: 520.623.5252, ext
302
Fax: 520.623.9797
PO Box 710, Tucson AZ
85702-0710
http://www.sw-center.org