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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#152
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\
9-16-98
/
\
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\ http://www.sw-center.org
/
\________________________________________/
1. ACTION ALERT! ESA
THREATENED BY INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL
2. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE
SERVICE FAILS TO OBEY FEDERAL JUDGE'S ORDER
3. CALIFORNIA SPECIES LISTED,
OTHERS DENIED PROTECTION
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ACTION ALERT! ESA THREATENED BY INTERIOR
APPROPRIATIONS BILL
Among many anti-environmental riders already attached
to the Interior
Appropriations bill the Senate will vote – most likely –
today on
whether to attach Senator Kempthorne's Endangered Species
Extinction
bill (S. 1180). If passed and signed into law, this would
completely
gut the ESA. If you have already called your Senators regarding
the
riders, please call them again and ask them to vote against
attaching
the Kempthorne Extinction rider and ask them to remove
other
anti-environmental riders. If you haven't called yet, please do
it
NOW! The entire Endangered Species Act is now at risk!
Ask
your Senators to support all the amendments that strip
anti-environmental
riders and to vote against the bill until all the
anti-environmental riders
are removed.
The Capital Switchboard number: (202) 224-3121
For a
complete listing of Congress visit
http://www.defenders.org/stat.html
Don't
forget your calls and e-mails to the President reminding him to
veto until
the Congress "gets it right." Remind the President of his
multiple promises
to veto the Interior Appropriations bill and remind
him of his Statement of
Administration Policy regarding the Interior
Appropriations bill. The White
House Comment Line is: (202) 456-1111
__________
U.S. FISH AND
WILDLIFE SERVICE FAILS TO OBEY FEDERAL JUDGE'S ORDER
As result of a suit
brought by the Southwest Center, Federal Judge
Alfredo Marquez of Tucson
issued a ruling ordering the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to make a final
determination on listing the San
Xavier talussnail as an endangered species.
The Southwest Center had
sued the USFWS for failure to make a final
determination on listing
the talussnail.
The USFWS proposed listing
the talussnail as endangered in 1994 but
never finalized the proposal. The
judge ordered the USFWS to publish
in the Federal Register by Sept. 15th
their final decision. Sept.
15th came and no decision has been issued. The
Southwest Center will
be seeking contempt of court charges against the USFWS
if delays
continue.
The talussnail is a small land snail which occurs
only in one 50 by
100 foot locality about 15 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ.
Threats to
the talussnail include mining, off-road vehicles and road
maintenance
activities.
Southwest Center filed the suit on 1/9/98 and
is represented by Geoff
Hickcox of Kenna and Hickcox in Durango,
Colorado.
__________
CALIFORNIA SPECIES LISTED, OTHERS DENIED
PROTECTION
In a case filed earlier this year by the Southwest Center
seeking
protection for 44 imperiled species in California, Federal
Judge
Judith Keep ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make
a
final determination on their listings. On September 14, 1998
final
determination for seventeen of these species were made, seven
were
not listed and ten were.
Johnston's rock-cress (Arabis
Johnstonii) was proposed as Threatened
and denied. The rock-cress occurs on
the San Bernadino National
Forest among other places. The USFWS says since
the Forest Service is
limiting grazing the need to list is obviated. The
Southwest Center
disagrees and will follow up by filing another
suit.
Six plant species in the Sierra Nevada were also denied
listing:
Mariposa lupine and Kelso Creek monkeyflower had been proposed
as
endangered; Rawhide Hill onion, carpenteria, Greenhorn adobe lily,
and
Piute Mountain navarretia had been proposed as threatened. USFWS
has changed
position since proposing the species for listing, now
saying that listing is
not warranted. The Southwest Center disagrees
and will file subsequent
lawsuit to list these species.
The Chinese camp brodiaea, Mariposa
pussypaws, Springville clarkia,
and California vervain were listed as
threatened. The plants are
threatened by urbanization, roadway maintenance
activities,
off-highway vehicle use, mining, and livestock grazing. These
species
all occur in the Sierra Nevada.
The San Bernadino bluegrass,
and California taraxacum, were listed as
Endangered, and the Bear Valley
sandwort, ash-gray Indian paintbrush,
southern mountain wild buckwheat, and
Hidden Lake bluecurls were
listed as Threatened. These plants occur in the
San Bernadino, San
Jacinto, Laguna, and Palomar mountains of Southern
California, and
are imperiled by urbanization, and livestock
grazing.
The Southwest Center is represented in the cal 44 species case
by Jay
Tutchton of Earthlaw in Denver,
CO.
_____________________________________________________________________
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