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\ SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#166
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\
1-6-98
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\ SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
/
\ http://www.sw-center.org
/
\________________________________________/
1. 730,565 ACRES PROPOSED AS
PROTECTED HABITAT FOR
IMPERILED PYGMY OWL
2. SOUTHEAST
ARIZONA WETLANDS AND STREAMS PROPOSED AS
PROTECTED HABITAT FOR
IMPERILED PLANT
3. JUDGE ORDERS AGENCY TO PROTECT SACRAMENTO
SPLITTAIL-
INVITES INVESTIGATION INTO NEEDED HABITAT
PROTECTION
4. TWO MORE WOLF PACKS TO BE RELEASED IN ARIZONA NEXT
WEEK
*****
***** *****
730,565 ACRES PROPOSED AS PROTECTED
HABITAT FOR IMPERILED
PYGMY OWL
On 12-30-98, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service proposed to
designate 730,000 acres of "critical habitat" for
the
endangered Cactus ferruginous pygmy owl in southeast Arizona.
The
proposal includes a complex of corridors connecting
habitat along the Mexican
border, to habitat in northwest
Tucson, to habitat along the Gila and San
Pedro Rivers.
The Southwest Center petitioned the Fish & Wildlife
Service
to the list the pygmy owl as endangered in 1993 because of
loss of
riparian forests and native Sonoran Desert
vegetation. Following three
successful lawsuits, the tiny
owl was listed in 1997. Two additional lawsuits
were
required, however, to make the Fish & Wildlife Service
designate
critical habitat. We are represented by Geoff
Hickcox of Kenna & Hickcox
in the latest suit.
_______________________
SOUTHEAST ARIZONA WETLANDS AND STREAMS PROPOSED
AS
PROTECTED HABITAT FOR IMPERILED PLANT
On 12-30-98, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service proposed to
designate 34 miles of the San Pedro River and
portions of
the Santa Cruz River, Sonoita Creek, Garden Canyon, and
other
streams as "critical habitat" for the Huachuca water
umbel, an endangered,
semi-aquatic plant.
The Southwest Center petitioned to list a suite of
three
wetland species (the umbel, the Canelo Hills ladies'
tresses, and
the Sonoran tiger salamander) as endangered
in 1993 because of massive losses
in wetlands and
functioning river systems in southern Arizona.
Following
two successful lawsuits, the all three were listed in 1997.
An
additional suit was necessarly, however, to make the
Service designate
critical habitat for the umbel.
___________________________
JUDGE ORDERS AGENCY TO PROTECT SACRAMENTO
SPLITTAIL-
INVITES INVESTIGATION INTO NEEDED HABITAT PROTECTION
On
12-24-98, a San Diego Federal Judge ordered the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife
Service to list the Sacramento splittail
under the Endangered Species Act by
February 1, 1998. She
also ordered the agency to propose critical habitat for
the
imperiled fish within one year and finalize it within
two.
Historically found in large segments of the Sacramento,
San
Joaquin, Feather and American Rivers, the splittail
has been extirpated from
the vast majority of its range.
Today it is largely restricted to the San
Francisco Bay
Delta, Suisun Bay, Suisun Marsh and Napa Marsh.
The
judge invited the Southwest Center and the Sierra
Club to seek a "discovery"
order allowing us to obtain
information and documents to prove the critical
habitat
could be designated sooner.
________________________
TWO MORE WOLF PACKS TO BE RELEASED IN ARIZONA
NEXT WEEK
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has announced it will
place
two new wolf packs in release pens in the Blue
Range of the Apache National
Forest within the Gila
Headwaters Ecosystem. The two packs, totalling
nine
wolves will be released from the pens in March after
becoming
acclimated.
Four Mexican gray wolves are currently in the wild: a
pair
and single male and female which recently
split
apart.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kierán
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