************* CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
*************
http://www.sw-center.org
ALERT #203 9-16-99
§ GROUPS UNITE TO SAVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
STEELHEAD
§ ACTION ALERT: SOUTHWEST POPULATION OF BALD EAGLE
NEEDS
YOUR HELP
§ COMMENTS NEEDED ON GOLDEN TROUT WILDERNESS
GRAZING PERMIT
RENEWAL
§ AD WARNS OF EXTINCTION
CRISIS
_____________________
GROUPS UNITE TO SAVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
STEELHEAD
Several environmental, fishing and water
quality
organizations have joined forces for conservation of
southern
California steelhead trout. The Center for
Biological Diversity, CalTrout,
Heal the Bay, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Santa Monica
Mountains
Conservancy, and the Sierra Club met recently to set
priorities
for protection and recovery of steelhead trout.
The Southern California
Steelhead Recovery Coalition is
dedicated to restoring free-flowing rivers
and streams,
riparian habitat, and watersheds in order to foster the
full
recovery of the Southern steelhead and other native aquatic
and
riparian species of Southern California.
Steelhead trout historically
occurred from the Kamchatka
Peninsula in Asia to the Baja Peninsula. Southern
steelhead
were listed as endangered by the National Marine
Fisheries
Service in 1997 and are found from the Santa Maria River in
San
Luis Obispo County to northern Baja. Less than one
thousand southern
steelhead remain, yet the Fisheries
Service has done little to conserve the
species. In 1999,
the agency abandoned protection of steelhead south of
Malibu
Creek or upstream of dams in critical headwater
spawning
habitat.
Contact David Hogan of the Center for Biological
Diversity,
(760) 782-9244 or dhogan@sw-center for information on how
your
organization can join the Southern California Steelhead
Recovery
Coalition.
_____________________
ACTION ALERT: SOUTHWEST POPULATION OF
BALD EAGLE NEEDS YOUR
HELP
Please attend the public hearing on
removing the Bald Eagle
from the endangered species list and speak in
opposition to
delisting the precariously-established
Southwestern
population.
Hearing to be held on: Thurs, Sept 23, 6:30
p.m., Phoenix
Public Library
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has
announced its intention
to remove the bald eagle from the federal lists
of
threatened and endangered species. Included in the proposed
action is
the isolated Southwest desert nesting population
of bald eagles. While
eagles in other regions of the United
States may meet the requirements for
delisting, the
Southwest population still needs protection.
· The
Southwest desert nesting population of bald eagles is
few in numbers,
geographically isolated and faces unique
threats to its continued
existence.
· Of the approximately 5500 known bald eagle breeding
areas
in the lower 48 states, only 40 are in the Southwest.
· With a
single exception, the entire Southwest desert
nesting population of bald
eagles is isolated in central
Arizona, Sonoran Desert habitat, below 4400
feet elevation.
· Nearly all recruitment of breeding bald eagles in
the
Southwest comes from within the small isolated population.
· The
Southwest desert nesting population of bald eagles is
behaviorally distinct.
They nest earlier in the season than
do bald eagles elsewhere and they
utilize cliffs as nest
sites more frequently than other populations.
·
The Southwest desert nesting bald eagle population faces
unique pressures to
its survival. It suffers unusually high
adult mortality, high nestling
mortality from both natural
and human sources, and is dependent upon
management programs
currently underway to ensure its survival.
· The
nest productivity of the southwestern bald eagle
population is declining. In
1998, the 40 pairs produced 23
nestlings, for a nest productivity of
.59. Nest
productivity in 1997 was .68; in 1996 it was .85.
·
Only the Endangered Species Act provides protection for
the critical habitat
southwestern bald eagles require.
Funding to continue the vital management
programs that
support southwestern bald eagles, such as the
Arizona
Nestwatch Program, has not been guaranteed in the absence of
the
listing under the Endangered Species Act. In fact
several agency documents
state that funding would be
discontinued upon delisting the bald
eagle.
If you can not attend the meeting please send your
comments
to
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Secretary Bruce
Babbitt
Dept. of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC
20240
FAX: 202-208-4561
Email: bruce_babbitt@ios.doi.gov
For more
information, contact: Robin Silver, the Center for
Biological Diversity,
Phoenix Office,
602-246-4170;
rsilver@sw-center.org
_____________________
COMMENTS
NEEDED ON GOLDEN TROUT WILDERNESS GRAZING PERMIT
RENEWAL
The Inyo
National Forest is soliciting comments on a grazing
permit renewal for
allotments containing streams that
comprise half the remaining range of the
rare California
golden trout. The golden trout is California's state
fish
and the namesake of the Golden Trout Wilderness, where the
allotments
are located, on the southern flank of the Sierra
Nevada. Continued
utilization of the allotments by Anheuser
Busch--the St. Louis-based
multinational that has been
grazing its cattle in the Golden Trout Wilderness
since 1987
and has already done considerable damage to the area's
natural
resources -will significantly increase the trout's
short-term extinction
risk, and if permitted as the scoping
document proposes will violate the
recently signed
Conservation Strategy for the critically imperiled
fish.
Please contact the Forest Service at the address below
before
September 30th and tell them that they should:
(1) Remove all cattle from the
Templeton and Whitney
allotments and rest the
allotments, as recommended
in the Service's own Conservation
Strategy; and (2) Agree to prepare an
Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) rather than a scaled-down
Environmental
Assessment (EA) on continued grazing in these areas.
For
more information http://www.caltrout.org
Inyo National
Forest
Mt. Whitney Ranger Station
Attn: Range Management
P.O. Box
8
Lone Pine CA 93545
TEL: (760) 876-6200
Email:
inyovis/r5_inyo@fs.fed.us
_____________________
AD WARNS OF EXTINCTION
CRISIS
In the first of a series of ads in the New York Times,
the
Turning Point Project (http://www.turnpoint.com) warns that
"50
percent of all plant and animals species could vanish
from the Earth within
50 years" because of human activity.
"Our planet is undergoing the greatest
die-off of animals
and plants in 65 million years. THE CAUSES: Habitat
loss,
bioinvasions, global trade, new technology, industrial
development,
global warming, i.e., human activity."
The Turning Point Project formed
specifically to design and
produce a series of educational advertisements
concerning
the major issues of the new millennium. The ads will appear
in
The New York Times and other newspapers through spring of
2000.
The ad
is sponsored by several organizations, including the
Center for Biological
Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife,
Earth Island Institute, Greenpeace,
Rainforest Action
Network and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (Sept.
13).
_____________________
Please consider making a donation to
support our efforts to
protect endangered species and wild places.
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/membership/member.html
___________________________________________________________
Shane
Jimerfield
Assistant Director
Center for Biological Diversity
Tel:
520.623.5252, ext
302
Fax: 520.623.9797
PO Box 710, Tucson AZ
85702-0710 http://www.sw-center.org