Subject: Biodiversity Alert
Biodiversity Alert
AN
END TO DESTRUCTIVE SUBSIDIES?
In observance of
Earth Day, environmental groups and major
newspapers around the Southwest are
calling for an end to subsidized
destruction of public lands. Citing the $1
billion lost by the Forest
Service on its timber program over the last three
years, as well as
millions spent on grazing and mining, the Southwest Forest
Alliance
took out a full page ad in the New York Times on April
15.
Volunteers also spent the week before Earth Day distributing
door
hangars throughout Flagstaff and Albuquerque that asked homeowners
to
send the attached card to Congressmen J.D. Hayworth and Steve
Schiff,
demanding an end to taxpayer subsidized destruction of public
lands. Copies
of the advertisement were distributed to taxpayers
dropping off their returns
at Post Offices throughout the Southwest on
Tax Day, as
well.
Picking up on
this theme, the April 18 Arizona Republic reported
on nationwide attacks on
the 104th Congress' environmental record.
Besides the efforts of the
Southwest Forest Alliance, the Republic also
related the following:
1.
A report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group linking $47
million in
campaign contributions from industries to $23 billion in tax
subsidies.
2.
A six-month campaign by the Sierra Club and League of
Conservation Voters,
called "Hypocrisy Watch," which intends to
unmask efforts by politicians to
hide their anti-environmental votes
behind seemingly eco-friendly events such
as treeplantings.
3. And the Stonyfield Farm of Londonderry, NH has printed
the
message "Congress, have you flipped your lids?" on their
yogurt
containers.
The Arizona Daily Star
also attacked public lands subsidies in an
editorial on April 22, Earth Day.
Besides the outlandish amounts spent
to destroy public assets, the Star also
said "the debs grow even more
troubling when the analysis includes their
unaccounted social and
environmental costs. . . Government mismanagement
contrives the
double trick of wasting the taxpayers' money on subsidies that
also
cause serious ecological damage. Surely deficit hawks,
free
marketeers, and environmentalists all can find common ground
in
requiring stringent reform of such
mismanagement."
Now that the people that elect
Congress are starting to make some
noise about where their tax dollars are
going, hopefully Congress itself
will wake up and follow the will of the
people, rather than the
corporations that continue to flood their election
coffers.
SOUTHWEST CENTER CHALLENGES
BLUE RIDGE DAM
On April 8, the Southwest Center
filed suit against the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the
Forest Service for
violating the Endangered Species Act with respect to the
Spinedace, an
endangered Arizona fish. SWCBD claims in its suit that the
agencies
failed to consider the effect of ongoing operations of the dam on
the
Spinedace, as required by Section 7 of the ESA. Moreover, operation
of
the dam continues to harm the Spinedace, in violation of Section
9.
As early as March of 1992, Fish and Wildlife
Service warned
FERC and the Forest Service that they were concerned about
the
effects of the dam on the Spinedace. Although several more
warnings
were given by SWCBD, the agencies continued to ignore the
situation,
prompting this lawsuit. "It's a shame that a non-profit group
has to spend
its time and resources to force these federal agencies to
comply with the
law," said Landi Fernley, SWCBD's appeals
coordinator.
ZUNI TRIBE
OPPOSES HB SALVAGE SALE
In a March 22 letter to
Forest Supervisor Abel Camarena, the Zuni
tribe of New Mexico stated it's
unequivocal opposition to the HB
Salvage Sale on the Gila National Forest.
"The Tribe remains steadfast
in its position that all cultural resources,
historic and prehistoric,
near Eagle Peak should not be disturbed by
development. It is the desire
of the Zuni Tribe that the Gila National Forest
should afford
protection to the fullest extent to this and all areas of
significance to
the Zuni People" the letter states. The proposed sale
is within the
aboriginal land use area of the Zuni, known to them
as
"K'yak'yali an yalanne." It has been occupied since at
least 5000 BC,
and the tribe still uses the area for traditional
hunting, plant and mineral
gathering.
MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL:
AFFIDAVIT CLAIMS FOREST SERVICE
BIOLOGICAL OPINION A SHAM
Recently, the Forest
Service released its Draft Biological Opinion
on the Mexican Spotted Owl, as
required by Judge Muecke in order to
end the current injunction on logging in
Southwestern National Forests.
Unfortunately, as pointed out in an affidavit
filed in Muecke's court by
a prominent ecologist from the Northwest, the
Draft BO is not really a
BO at all because it doesn't meet the requirements
of the ESA. First,
rather than reaching the required "jeopardy/no jeopardy"
decision,
the document uses "conditional jeopardy" language that was
soundly
rejected for salmon in the Northwest. The Draft BO also
uses
"management recommendations," which are not binding, as opposed
the
ESA's requirement for "terms and conditions." This allows the
Forest
Service to ignore any substantive goals in the BO, resulting in
more harm to
the Mexican spotted
owl.