============= CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
http://www.sw-center.org
ALERT
#194 7-22-99 =============================
§ COURT
RULES IN FAVOR OF AK, BC, WA, AND OR
GOSHAWKS- ORDERS REVIEW OF
LOGGING
§ LAWSUIT TARGETS MINES TO PROTECT SALMON
§ ARIZONA
CONSIDERS JAGUAR & GRIZZLY
REINTRODUCTION- LETTERS NEEDED
TODAY!
§ 6,000,000,000 SERVED- HUMAN POPULATION
RECORD
*****
***** ***** *****
COURT
RULES IN FAVOR OF AK, BC, WA, AND
OR GOSHAWKS
For the 4th consecutive
time, a federal judge has overturned
a decision by the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service not to list
goshawks as endangered species. On 7-20-99,
Judge Stanley
Sporkin threw out the agency's decision not to list the
Queen
Charlotte goshawk as endangered in southeast Alaska, insular
British
Columbia, the Olympic Peninsula, and possibly coastal
Washington and Oregon.
While the agency argued that the
1997 Tongass National Forest plan would
adequately protect
the goshawk from logging, we submitted sworn declarations
by
the agency's own avowed experts showing that it misused
their
methodology. The judge agreed that the agency did not use the
best
science in making its decision.
In 1994, the Center for Biological
Diversity, the Sitka
Conservation Society, the Northwest Ecosystem
Alliance
and others filed a formal petition to list the Queen
Charlotte
goshawk as an endangered species. The old growth
dependent bird
lives in rain forests from the Tongass
National Forest, along the British
Columbia coast to the
Olympic Peninsula. It also is the likely subspecies
inhabitating
the remaining old growth forest coastal Washington
State,
Oregon, and perhaps even northern California. The goshawk
is
extremely endangered by old growth logging, appearing
even more vulnerable
than the spotted owl and murrelet.
Less than 40 pairs were known to nest in
1998 in all of
Alaska, British Columbia, and the Olympic Peninsula.
In
a related case, the Center for Biological Diversity and a
large coalition of
groups are in court to list the Northern and
Apache goshawks as an endangered
species in every western
state from South Dakota to Washington, to
California, and
Texas. The Center's western goshawk campaign seeks to
save
all three goshawks from extinction by permanently ending
all old
growth and late seral logging in every western state.
The Queen Charlotte
suit was argued by Kathy Meyer of
Meyer & Glitzenstein (Washington,
D.C.). The Northern and
Apache goshawk case is being argued by Dan Rohlf of
the
Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (Portland) and Matt
Kenna of
Kenna & Hickcox (Durango).
_____________________
LAWSUIT TARGETS MINES TO PROTECT SALMON
On
7-22-99, the Environmental Protection Information Center
and the Center for
Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit
challenging government approval of
instream gravel mining
operations in Humboldt County, CA that will kill coho
salmon.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in San
Francisco,
alleges that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the
Army
Corps of Engineers violated the Endangered Species
Act by refusing to set a
limit on the amount of coho that can be
killed by the mining
corporations.
Under the ESA, the National Marine Fisheries Service is
must
review all projects that are likely to harm threatened or
endangered
coho. The agency may approve plans that kill a
limited number of fish, but it
must set a clear limit. If the limit is
surpassed, the mining must stop, and
the project must be
reanalyzed by the Fisheries Service. By refusing to set a
limit,
the agency has left open a door of endless abuse.
More gravel
is extracted from Humboldt County than any other
area its size on the entire
Pacific Coast. Extensive mining
operations occur in several major river
systems critical to the
recovery of threatened salmon, including the Eel
River, the Van
Duzen River, the Mad River and the Klamath River.
An
estimated 400,000 coho salmon once returned to spawn every
year in
these and other California rivers. Due largely to habitat
degradation, only
about 10,000 naturally spawning coho remain-
a 94% reduction in northern
California populations in the past
50 years.
The suit is being
argued by Ginny Brannon of Earthlaw
(Denver, Palo Alto) and Sharon Duggan
(San Francisco).
__________________
ARIZONA
TO CONSIDER JAGUAR & GRIZZLY
REINTRODUCTION
On 8-6-7, the Arizona Game
& Fish Commission will meet
in the Pinetop/Lakeside Town Council Chamber
to discuss,
among other things, "future department involvement
in
reintroduction efforts for jaguar and grizzly bear in Arizona."
In 1994
and again in 1996, the Center for Biological
Diversity filed successful
lawsuits resulting in the jaguar
being listed as an endangered species in
southern
California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. As a member
of the
Jaguar Conservation Team, the Center has been
pushing for a jaguar recovery
plan which includes bringing
the magnificent cat back to Gila Headwaters/Sky
Island
bioregion of southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona.
In
1998, the Center announced it would sue the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service
for developing a grizzly bear recovery plan
which focuses entirely on the
Northern Rockies. Until
grizzlies are reintroduced across their range,
including the
Southwest, they can never be considered recovered.
The
announcement catapulted the grizzly onto the front page
after decades
of being completely forgotten in the Southwest.
The Center has teamed up with
Sky Island Alliance to conduct
a grizzly bear habitat and prey base analysis
in the Gila
Headwaters/Sky Island Bioregion to determine whether the
area
is still capable of supporting a viable grizzly population.
Please write
to Arizona Game and Fish, tell them grizzlies
and jaguars belong in the
Southwest. The state should be
leading the pack for wild predators, not
lagging behind.
Duane Shroufe, Director, Arizona Game & Fish
Dept.
2221 West Greenway Rd., Phoenix, AZ
85023-4399
__________________
6,000,000,000
SERVED
According to U.N. officials, the human population likely
crossed
the 6 billion mark this week. As old growth forests,
open space, desert
vistas, and coastal wetlands disappear, the
human population keeps increasing
well beyond the capacity
of the planet to provide for it and all the other
species which
have evolved in the past 4 billion
years.
_________________________________________________________________
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