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SOUTHWEST
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
http//www.sw-center.org
6-18-99
#189
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§
ENVIRO & FISHING GROUPS SUE TO LIST RIO
GRANDE CUTTHROAT
TROUT AS ENDANGERED
§ GILA NATIONAL FOREST GRAZING PERMIT APPEALED
§ SUIT
TO CHALLENGE LARGEST MINE IN NATIONAL
PARK SYSTEM
§ COMMENTS
NEEDED TO STOP UTAH TIMBER SALE
***** ******
***** *****
ENVIRO & FISHING GROUPS SUE TO
LIST RIO GRANDE
CUTTHROAT TROUT AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 6-9-99, the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity,
Trout Unlimited (Rio Grande
Chapter), Southwest Trout,
Sierra Club (Rio Grande Chapter), Carson Forest
Watch and
the Biodiversity Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against
the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list New Mexico's state fish
as an
endangered species.
In February, 1998, the groups filed a comprehensive
status
review and petition demonstrating that the Rio Grande
cutthroat
trout has disappeared from 95% of its range and is continuing
to
decline due to logging, overgrazing, water diversions, and
competition
and hybridization with exotic game trout. Although
the Fish & Wildlife
Service agreed the species has declined
by 95%, it declared that the
extensive petition did not present
sufficient information to warrant further
study of the trout's
condition. Instead, the agency concluded that a
hodge-podge of
unimplemented draft conservation plans adequately protect
the
trout. It also illegally counted extirpated and hybridized
trout
"populations" in order to make the species's status look
marginally
better.
______________________
GILA NATIONAL
FOREST GRAZING PERMIT CHALLENGED
The Southwest Center has appealed the
re-issuance of a grazing
permit for the Corduroy allotment on the Gila
National Forest. The
plan would double the level of summer grazing in
the headwaters
of the East Fork of the Gila River, destroying important
habitat
for the loach minnow and spikedace, two threatened fish.
In
response to a Southwest Center petition, the two "threatened"
fish have been
declared to warranted uplisting to "endangered"
status. Though the Forest
agreed last year to remove cattle from
hundreds of miles of fish bearing
streams in response to a
barrage of lawsuits, it continues to allow grazing
on areas which
are not currently occupied by the loach minnow and
spikedace,
thereby ensuring the habitat will never recover and the
fish
will never return.
____________________
SUIT TO CHALLENGE LARGEST MINE IN NATIONAL
PARK
SYSTEM
On 5-9-99, the Southwest Center, National Parks and
Conservation
Association, Friends of Mojave National Park, and the
Western
Mining Action Project filed a formal notice of intent to sue the
U.S.
Park Service to shut down the largest mine within the 84 million
acre
National Park System.
The Cinder Cima Mine strips away 7,500 tons
of cinder each
year from one of the cinder cones "protected" in the Cinder
Cones
National Natural Landmark. Not only is the mine within the
Mojave
National Preserve, it is also destroying designated critical
habitat for the
endangered desert tortoise.
The Park Service inherited the mine in 1994
when Congress
created the Preserve. The mining company's "temporary
approval"
was revoked in 1996 because it refused to abide by
environmental
restrictions. Incredibly, the Park Service has allowed
the
corporation to continue mining in the Preserve with no permit,
plan,
or permission.
_______________
LETTERS NEEDED
TO STOP MASSIVE UTAH
TIMBER SALE
Utah's Manti-La Sal National Forest is
accepting comments on
the horrendous South Manti timber sale. Touted as a
response to
spruce beetle infestations, this salvage sale would log 40
million
board feet of "dead and dying" Engelmann spruce, construct
10
miles of road, reconstruct another 45 miles, and helicopter log
7
million board feet of timber from five designated roadless areas.
Over
60% of the Heliotrope roadless area would be logged. The
sale would impact
the imperiled northern goshawk, Utah's largest
elk herd (2,500 strong), and
several populations of the threatened
Heliotrope Milk-Vetch (Astragalus
montii).
The Southwest Center and the Wild Utah Forest
Campaign
successfully appealed and stopped the South Manti timber sale
in
1997. Since then the Washington office of the Forest Service
has
temporarily suspended road construction in roadless areas.
While flawed
in many ways, the intent of the policy is to protect
islands of intact
habitat within roaded, logged and degraded
landscapes. The use of helicopters
to log without building roads is
a cynical attempt to exploit loopholes in
the policy and carry on
business as usual.
Send comments by July 21.
Tell the Forest Service no logging in
roadless areas, no salvage logging, no
logging period on the
South Manti.
Ms. Janette Kaiser, Forest
Supervisor
Manti-La Sal National Forest
599 West Price River
Drive
Price, UT
84501
_________________________________________________________________
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
SW Center for Biological Diversity
520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-0710