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SOUTHWEST
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
http//www.sw-center.org
#185
5-20-99
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§
PETITION FILED TO REVAMP ARIZONA DAM
§ SUIT TO PROTECT STREAM FOR RARE
CALIFORNIA FISH
§ CALLS NEEDED: SOUTHWEST WILDLIFE REFUGES
UNDER ATTACK
§ BIOTECH CORN POISONING MONARCH BUTTERFLIES
PETITION
FILED TO REVAMP ARIZONA DAM
On 5-20-99, the Southwest Center filed a formal
petition with Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington, D.C.
to compel the agency to
protect the endangered Little Colorado River
spinedace. FERC has jurisdiction
over the Blue Ridge Dam on East Clear Creek,
50 miles southeast of Flagstaff,
AZ. The petition requests that FERC submit
the dam's impacts to the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service for review, and
release more water to ensure the survival of
the spinedace. Currently, the
dam releases only 2.5 cfs during low flows. Low
water levels and elimination
of natural flood cycles are two of the major
threats to the
species.
The dam was constructed on the Coconino in 1963 by miniming
conglomerate Phelps
Dodge to facilitate a complex interbasin water transfer.
It allows water to be
pumped from East Clear Creek (Little Colorado River
Basin) into the East Verde
River, a tributary of the Gila River. Having put
more water in the Gila River
Basin, Phelps Dodge is then permitted to pump
water out of the Black River to
its massive Morenci Mine in southeast
Arizona.
The Little Colorado River spinedace occurs in only six streams
in the upper
Little Colorado River Basin, including East Clear Creek, Red
Creek, Nutrioso
Creek, the mainstem of the Little Colorado River, Silver
Creek and Chevlon
Canyon. The Center is respresented by Gloria D. Smith, a
San Francisco
Attorney.
__________________
SUIT TO PROTECT HABITAT FOR RARE CALIFORNIA FISH
On
5-10-99, the Southwest Center formally notified the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife
Service that it will file suit to obtain protected "critical
habitat" from the
unarmored threespine stickleback, an extremeley rare fish
which occurs in only
a few streams inside and adjacent to the San Bernadino
and Angeles National
Forests in southern California. The stickleback was
listed as endangered in
1970. The agency proposed to designate critical
habitat for it ten years later,
but dropped the proposal due to political
pressure.
The stickleback's habitat is being destroyed by stream
channelization,
urbanization, groundwater pumping, and agricultural run-off.
It is also
threatened by introduction of non-native fish. It has disappeared
from most of
its range including lower portions of the Los Angeles, San
Gabriel, and Santa
Ana Rivers.
_________________________
BIOTECH CORN ENDANGERS MONARCH BUTTERFLY
A
genetically altered commercial corn designed to exude a poison deadly
to
corn-boring caterillers, is killing monarch butterflies according to a
5-20-99
story in the Huston Chronicle. Introduced in 1996, the killer corn
now accounts
for more than one quarter of the nation's crop. Much of the crop
lies along the
monarch's annual migration route.
The corn's poison
laden pollen is carried by the wind to nearby milweed plants,
the exclusive
food source of monarch larvae. The larvae are killed by the
poison.
Scientists from Cornell University predicted the monarch could become
an
endangered species because of the EPA approved biotechnology
crop.
___________________
CALLS NEEDED:
SOUTHWEST WILDLIFE REFUGES UNDER ATTACK
Arizona Senator John McCain has
announced plans to attach a rider to the
Defense Appropriations Bill that
could *permanently* cede use of over 3
million acres of federal land,
including the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife
Refuge (AZ) and the McGregor
Range (NM) to the military. The land is currently
used by the military, but
its tenure must be reviewed and reauthorized every 15
years. McCain's rider
would give the military permant control of the land.
On the Goldwater
Range in Arizona, the rider would put a halt to the military's
willingness to
give up more than 80,000 acres of unique wildlife habitat and
potential
wilderness. It would indefinately prolong the military's control of
virtually
all of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness. The
U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service has requested that the military return the
Cabeza
Prieta, the largest Refuge Wilderness in the lower 48, because it is
the
largest intact desert ecosystem in North America.
Also affected
would be the McGregor Range in southeastern New exico, where a
permanent
withdrawal would expedite the
construction of a bombing range in the heart of
the presently undisturbed
grassland at Otero Mesa, largely to serve
training
desires of the German Air Force. The Range supports pronghorn
antelope and deer
herds, a Wilderness Study Area, and habitat for the
endangered aplomado falcon
and mountain plover.
Call and email
McCain's office - Tell him wildlife refuges are wildlife,
not
jets.
Phone: 202-224-2235 fax
202-228-2862
Email:
senator_mccain@mccain.senate.gov
_____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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