Subject: FW: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #193


============= 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   OUTDATED DAMS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