#167
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SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
http://www.sw-center.org
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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