Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #168

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        SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
                 http://www.sw-center.org
        #168                              1-18-98
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o GILA TROUT MAY BE INTRODUCED TO ARIZONA STREAMS-
  LETTERS, CALLS OF SUPPORT NEEDED

o FOREST PESTICIDES KILL JUVENILE SALMON-
  ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS SUSPECTED

o FOREST SERVICE LOGGING COST TAXPAYERS $2.1 BILLION

o RANGE MAGAZINE: SW CENTER "ULTRA-EFFECTIVE"

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GILA TROUT MAY BE INTRODUCED TO ARIZONA STREAMS-
LETTERS, CALLS OF SUPPORT NEEDED
The Arizona Department of Game and Fish has proposed to
reintroduce the endangered Gila Trout to the headwaters
of the Verde River system in central Arizona. The species
is currently extirpated from the entire state of Arizona,
and is hanging on in just a few small populations in New
Mexico's Gila National Forest.

Listed as endangered in 1967 in the precursor to the
Endangered Species Act, the Gila trout is threatened by
road construction, overgrazing, logging, and hybridization
with exotic trout.

Call or write the Tonto National Forest today. Tell them
you support reintroducing Gila trout into Dude Creek and
other streams within the Verde River system:

  Payson Ranger District, Tonto National Forest
  1009 E. Highway 260, Payson, AZ 85541
  Tel 1-520-474-7900

Better yet, come to the public meetings and speak out
for trout:

  Payson Town Hall, Payson, AZ
  January 26   7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

  La Quinta Inn, Phoenix, AZ
  2510 W. Greenway Rd. (I-17 freeway and Greenway Road)
  January 28   7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
    ____________________________________________

FOREST PESTICIDES KILL JUVENILE SALMON- ANOTHER
CASE OF ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS SUSPECTED
A new study by researchers with Canada's federal Department
of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment has determined that
chemicals sprayed to control spruce budworm are killing
salmon. The scientists found a strong, negative relationship
between the amount of chemicals sprayed, and the amount of
Atlantic salmon which return from the ocean to the watershed
to spawn.

Spruce budworm pesticides contain nonylphenol, a potent
chemical which mimics estrogen, a female hormone. It is one
of many chemicals which have recently been discovered to
affect the gender and physical development of frogs,
crocodiles and other species. Endocrine disrupters cause
developmental mutations, often characterized by males with
distorted or female-like reproductive organs. In this case,
scientists believe nonyphenol may disrupt the salmon's ability
to successfully smolt, i.e. change from a freshwater fish to
a saltwater fish as they leave their birth streams for the
open ocean.

To find out more ==>
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience/990112_salmon.html
    ________________________________________

FOREST SERVICE SUBSIZED TIMBER COMPANIES $2.1 BILLION
According to a recent Government Accounty Office report,
the U.S. Forest Service lost $2.1 billion on its timber 
program between 1992 and 1997. Over this same time period,
the Southwest Region lost over $88 million. Despite huge
declines in logging, the Southwest Region consistently
lost between $13 and $18 million per year. Indeed, the
more it logged, the more money it lost.

For more detailed information on the national and
Southwest program ==>
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/fs2billion.html
      _________________________________________

RANGE MAGAZINE: SW CENTER "ULTRA-EFFECTIVE"
The current issue of Range Magazine contains an interesting
profile of the Southwest Center by J. Zane Walley. Though
hardly an advocate of environmental protection, Walley's
article is funny, somewhat insightful, and not entirely
biased.

A few paragraphs from the introduction are presented below.
The full article can be read at:
http://www.range4u.com/stories/winter99

  Playing Outside the Rules
 
  "Hundreds, if not thousands, of public land ranchers, loggers
  and miners have had their livelihoods destroyed by the ultra-
  effective strategies of the Southwest Center for Biological
  Diversity (SWC). They move like a band of guerrilla insurgents
  in their battle for public lands...The leaders and the workers
  live Spartan, almost monastic existences. The environmental
  cause seems viewed as a spiritual calling that dominates their
  personal lives beyond money, families, and the stuff of ordinary
  people...Their "manic" guerrilla tactics have been efficient,
  damn efficient. The group's active litigation record-84 lawsuits
  in five years-on everything from waterways to woodlands to dams
  has attained national attention. The group says it has won 77
  percent of final judgments. Suckling declares their success is
  built on what he describes as the two strongest forces of the
  environmental movement: science and law. "

_____________________________________________________________________________

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