Subject: FW: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #194


============= 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

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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