Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #167

      #167  <>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>
                    
        SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
                  http://www.sw-center.org       
      <>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<> 1-16-98

o  SUIT FILED TO PROTECT BIGHORN SHEEP HABITAT

o  SUIT FILED TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA AND OREGON RIVERS
   FOR ENDANGERED SALMON

o  PIMA COUNTY REJECTS FIRST MAJOR REZONING SINCE 1973

o  U.S. FOREST SERVICE VIOLATED MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL
   RECOVERY PLAN AGAIN - SW CENTER THREATENS SUIT TO
   PROTECT OLD GROWTH FORESTS

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT BIGHORN SHEEP HABITAT
On 12-21-98, the Southwest Center and Desert Survivors
filed suit in San Diego to compel the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service to designate critical habitat for the endangered
Peninsular bighorn sheep. Though the agency is required
by law to designate and protect specific critical habitat
areas for each listed species, it never does so without
be sue. Because critical habitat, unlike a species
listing, requires protection of ecosystems regardless of
whether the species is currently present, it is opposed
industrial profiteers  and conservative legislators.
Between April, 1996 and September, 1998, the agency
listed 179 species under the ESA. In every case is
refused to designate critical habitat.

Reduced from 1,200 pairs in 1971 to just 280 in 1997, the
Peninsular bighorn ranges from the San Jacinto Mountains
of southern California to the Volcan Tres Virgenes
Mountains near Santa Rosalia in Baja California. In 1997,
golf courses outnumbered bighorn in the Palm Springs area
91 to 75. Dozens of additional golf courses and
developments are scheduled to destroy the bighorn's
dwindling habitat in the next few years. Transmission of
disease from sheep and cattle ranching also threaten
bighorn populations.

"I think it is incumbent upon us as biologists to draw
some lines on some maps," said Mark Jorgensen, resource
ecologist for the state Department of Parks and Recreation
at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. "If you were a
developer who wanted to go out and speculate on some
property, I think you should be given some information
on what lands biologists think are totally off limits for
development."

The Southwest Center and Desert Survivors are represented
by Brendan Cummings and Geoff Hickcox of Kenna & Hickcox.
       _____________________________________

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA AND OREGON RIVERS
FOR ENDANGERED SALMON
On 1-13-98, the Southwest Center and EPIC filed suit in
San Francisco to force the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) to finalize designation and protection of
critical habitat for threatened Coho salmon in central
California, northern California, and southern Oregon.

Formerly abundant throughout the Columbia River Basin and
along west coast streams from Washington to central
California, Coho are today extinct in the eastern half of
their range. In California, they have declined by 94%.
Only 10,000 individuals return to streams in southern
Oregona and northern California. Central Oregon only
supports 6,000 fish.

The Coho were were listed as threatened in May 1997 because
of habitat destruction caused by logging, dam building and
cattle grazing. Since that time, NMFS has authorized
additional habitat loss without first determining what
areas are necessary for the survival and recovery of the
species.

The Southwest Center and EPIC are represented by Brendan
Cummings and Sharon Dugan.
       _____________________________________

U.S. FOREST SERVICE VIOLATED MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL
RECOVERY PLAN AGAIN - SW CENTER THREATENS SUIT TO
PROTECT OLD GROWTH FORESTS
On 1-6-98, the Southwest Center officially notified the
U.S. Forest Service that it will file suit in 60 days to
ban logging on the Southwest's eleven National Forests
until the agency implements the population and habitat
monitoring system required by the Mexican Spotted Owl
Recovery Plan. In December, 1996, the Forest Service got
out from under a 16 month logging injunction by
promising to implement the Recovery Plan. Failure to do
so will re-institute the ban.

On 11-25-97, the Forest Service missed three deadlines
for establishing a monitoring plan. When the SW Center
threatened to file suit, the Forest Service convinced
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the
deadline. On 9-22-98, however, the Forest Service
announced that it will fail to meet the already extended
deadline.
       _____________________________________

PIMA COUNTY REJECTS FIRST MAJOR REZONING SINCE 1973
On 1-12-98, the Pima County Board of Supervisors rejected
a proposal to rezone 3,186 acres of Sonoran desert along
the Santa Cruz River. The rezoning would have increased
the current development potential from 1,200 homes to
6,100, and added two golf courses, a shopping center, a
hotel, and an airstrip.

A sign of the county's increasing intolerance for
sprawl, this is the first major rezoning rejected since
1973. Supervisor Bronson noted that the rezoning would
not comply with the Sonoran Desert Protection Plan, a
desert conservation plan outlined by the Southwest Center
and the Alliance for the Sonaran Desert Conservation Plan.
The Plan was endorsed by the county supervisors in 1997.
It will be completed in 1999.



_____________________________________________________________________________

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