============= CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
http://www.sw-center.org
BIODIVERSITY
ALERT #193 7-19-99 ================
§ SUIT FILED TO PROTECT
BUTTERFLIES, SHRIMP,
FISH AND PLANTS FROM MONTANA TO
TEXAS
§ MASSIVE PERMIT TO KILL SAN DIEGO ENDANGERED
SPECIES CHALLENGED FOR 2ND TIME
§ GILA NATIONAL FOREST BANS CATTLE FROM
SAN
FRANCISCO RIVER TO PROTECT WILDLIFE
§ CENTER PROPOSES
TO INCREASE STEELHEAD
HABITAT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,
REMOVE
OUTDATED DAMS
§ APPEAL FILED ON SALE OF
CALIFORNIA
WILDLIFE AREA TO OIL
COMPANY
*****
****** ***** *****
SUIT
FILED TO PROTECT BUTTERFLIES, SHRIMP, FISH
AND PLANTS FROM MONTANA TO
TEXAS
On 6-29-99 the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in a
San
Francisco federal court to force the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
to officially designated and protect "critical habitat" for
seven
imperiled species ranging from Montana and Idaho to
southern
California and Texas.
Though all of the species are
endangered by habitat loss, the
Fish & Wildlife Service has succumbed to
political pressure
and refused to official map out areas necessary for the
full
recovery of the following
species:
CALIFORNIA
TEXAS & NEW MEXICO
Bay checkerspot
butterfly Arkansas River
shiner
Quino checkerspot butterfly
Riverside fairy
shrimp
IDAHO AND MONTANA
Monterey
spineflower
Kootenai River white sturgeon
Robust spineflower
The Center is
represented by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley)
and Geoff Hickcox (Kenna &
Hickcox, Durango).
__________________
MASSIVE
PERMIT TO KILL SAN DIEGO ENDANGERED
SPECIES CHALLENGED FOR 2ND TIME
On
7-16-99, the California Native Plan Society and the Center for
Biological
Diversity filed a second lawsuit challenging the San
Diego Multiple Species
Conservation Plan. Touted as a win-win
option for developers and endangered
species, the plan is being
touted a national model for resolving urban sprawl
conflicts. The
plan, however, is severely flawed and will likely drive
several
species extinct in order to allow continued urban sprawl. In a
suit
filed 12-10-98, the Center, the California Native Plant society and
a
large coalition of environmental groups presented evidence that
the plan will
jeopardize the San Diego fairy shrimp. In this suit, we
argue that the Otay
tarplant will be jeopardized if its last remaining
habitats are allowed to be
developed.
Though the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service claims the San
Diego
plan will help recover the Otay tarplant, it is clear that the
rare
species will be pushed right up to extinction's door if not through
it.
Indeed, one the agency's own biologists complained that the plan
could
jeopardize the tarplant because it threatens six of the seven
populations
remaining on the planet. The largest of the populations,
located on the San
Miguel Ranch development, will suffer a loss of
71%. The biologist's warnings
were ignored, because they
conflicted with the demands of Southern
California's powerful
development lobby.
The Otay tarplant is a member
of the sunflower family and is
dependent on rare clay soils amidst grasslands
in southern San
Diego County. The Fish & Wildlife Service recognized the
tarplant
was imperiled as early as 1975, but did not list it under
the
Endangered Species Act until sued by the Center. It was listed as
a
threatened species in 1998.
The case is being argued by Craig
Sherman.
______________________
GILA NATIONAL
FOREST BANS CATTLE FROM SAN
FRANCISCO RIVER TO PROTECT WILDLIFE
The Gila
National Forest has temporarily removed all cattle from
the Frisco Plaza
Allotment on the San Francisco River in order to
comply with a settlement
agreement and biological opinion requiring
protection of the imperiled
Southwestern willow flycatcher, loach
minnow and spikedace. The Center for
Biological Diversity
petitioned to list all three species as endangered and
filed multiple
lawsuits to obtain protected critical habitat protection for
them. Last
year, the Center, Forest Guardians and the U.S. Forest
Service
signed a settlement agreement to keep cattle out of the
species'
habitats.
The Forest Service proposed to fence the San
Francisco River to
comply with the settlement agreement, but the Center
opposed the
fencing because of its enormous cost to taxpayers and its effects
on
wildlife, river rafters, and hikers. Barring a resolution to the
fencing
debate, the Forest Service has removed all cattle from the
allotment
until November.
______________________
CENTER PROPOSES TO INCREASE STEELHEAD
HABITAT
IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, REMOVE OUTDATED DAMS
In its comments on
the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed
plan to designate critical
habitat for endangered steelhead trout in
California, Oregon and Washington,
the Center for Biological
Diversity has asked the agency to expand the
proposal to protect
steelhead spawning habitat above numerous dams. Even
though
dams are one the greatest threats to steelhead, the agency
only
designated habitat below dams as "critical," thereby hoping to
avoid
having to remove or re-engineer dams which are driving
the steelhead
extinct.
The Center also believes the agency is required to
designate
additional streams in Orange and San Diego Counties as
officially
protected steelhead habitat. Steelhead were historically found
as
far south as the Rio del Santo Domingo in northern Baja California.
The
agency, however, has proposed to only protect streams north
of Malibu Creek
in Los Angles County.
Steelhead habitat protection south of Los Angeles
has become
increasingly important with the rediscovery of the species this
spring
on Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in northern San Diego
County.
The Center is now pursuing a strategy in cooperation with
several
environmental and fishing organizations to secure Endangered
Species
Act protection for this new found
population.
______________
APPEAL FILED ON
SALE OF CALIFORNIA WILDLIFE
AREA TO OIL COMPANY
On 6-16-99, the Center for
Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club
appealed a federal court decision
allowing the Department of Energy
to sell an enormously important wildlife
area to a private corporation
without considering the impacts on endangered
species. The DOE sold
Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 to Occidental Petroleum
without
reviewing the likely impacts of oil and eventual suburban
development
on Hoover's woolystars, Kern mallows, San Joaquin
woolythreads,
San Joaquin kit foxes, Giant kangaroo rats, Tipton kangaroo
rats, and
bluntnosed leopard lizards.
The sale of this crucial
wildlife area flies in the face of the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service's
draft Recovery Plan for San Joaquin Valley Upland
Species which recommends
protection of the Reserve "in perpetuity" to
avoid extinction and promote
recovery of the species. It also violates
a 1995 Biological Opinion which
expressly requires the Department of
Energy to consult on impacts to the
species if it ever attempts to
privatize the Reserve.
The case is
being argued by Daniel Rohlf of the Pacific Environmental
Advocacy Center
(Portland) and Tara Mueller of the Environmental
Law Foundation (San
Francisco).
_________________________________________________________________
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-0710