************* CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
*************
http://www.sw-center.org
ALERT #204 9-24-99
§ CENTER FILES SUIT TO PROTECT RARE WASHINGTON
PLANT
§ CENTER WINS HABITAT PROTECTION SETTLEMENT FOR BIGHORN,
FAIRY
SHRIMP
§ CENTER FILES SUIT TO GAIN PROTECTION FOR TEN
IMPERILED
WILDLIFE SPECIES THROUGHOUT WEST
§ CENTER HELPS FUND
MEXICO BIOSPHERE RESERVE PROTECTION
_____________________
CENTER FILES
SUIT TO PROTECT RARE WASHINGTON PLANT
The Center for Biological Diversity
filed suit 9/20/99 in
Portland, Oregon to compel Secretary of Interior,
Bruce
Babbitt, to take final action to list the Wenatchee
Mountains
checker-mallow as an endangered species under the
Endangered Species
Act.
The Wenatchee checker-mallow (Sidalcea oregana var. calva)
is a
plant in the mallow family (Malvaceae) that is endemic
to meadows that have
surface water or saturated soil in the
spring and early summer at middle
elevations in the
Wenatchee Mountains of Chelan County, Washington.
Conversion
of land to residential development and orchards, and
associated
habitat modifications such as alterations in
hydrology, increased nutrient
loads into the meadow from
septic systems, introduction of non-native
grasses, access
road construction, trampling by people and
off-road
vehicles, lack of adequate protective regulations and
other
factors, have resulted in the plant's extirpation from
numerous
historical locations and the restriction of the
species' current population
to only five sites.
This case is represented by attorneys Geoff Hickcox
of Kenna
and Hickcox of Durango, Colorado, and Marianne Dugan of
Facaros,
Dugan & Ross of Eugene, Oregon.
_____________________
CENTER WINS
HABITAT PROTECTION SETTLEMENT FOR BIGHORN, FAIRY
SHRIMP
The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider
its decision to withhold
habitat protection for the
endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep and San Diego
fairy
shrimp of southern California. The agreement stems from
settlement
of two lawsuits filed by the Center against the
wildlife agency in 1998
seeking mandatory Endangered Species
Act habitat protections for the
species.
Both the bighorn and fairy shrimp have declined as
urban
sprawl chews up their last remaining habitats in San Diego
and
Riverside counties. The bighorn are today found along
the eastern escarpment
of the Peninsular ranges of southern
California and are endangered by golf
resort and residential
development around Palm Springs. San Diego fairy
shrimp live
only in mesa-top ephemeral wetlands near San Diego known
as
vernal pools, a habitat reduced by 97% in California.
Habitat
designation could significantly scale back
development in important
areas.
In its decision to withhold habitat protection, Fish
and
Wildlife had presented the position that critical habitat
would
increase threats to both species. The same excuse has
been used by the
agencies for hundreds of other species
since 1996 and essentially serves as
an informal policy to
thwart habitat protection mandates of the ESA. The
agency's
settlement serves as a tacit agreement that its
previous
decisions were arbitrary and unsupported by internal
agency
documents.
The Center was represented in the bighorn and shrimp
cases
by attorneys Neil Levine and Jay Tutchton of Earthlaw,
Denver,
Colorado, and attorney Brendan Cummings of
Berkeley,
California.
_____________________
CENTER FILES SUIT TO
GAIN PROTECTION FOR TEN IMPERILED
WILDLIFE SPECIES THROUGHOUT WEST
The
Center for Biological Diversity filed another lawsuit
9/21/99 in Federal
District Court in San Francisco,
California to compel the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service
(USFWS) to make a final determination to protect
ten
wildlife species under the federal Endangered Species
Act
(ESA).
The ten species involved in the suit are Cagle's Map
Turtle
(Texas), the Great Basin population of the Columbia Spotted
Frog
(Idaho, Oregon, Nevada), the West Coast population of
the Oregon Spotted Frog
(Washington, Oregon, California),
the California Tiger Salamander
(California) and six species
of springsnails (New
Mexico).
The ESA mandates the
USFWS to make a final determination on
whether to add a species to the
protections of the ESA list
within two years of the submission of a petition
to list a
species. In the cases of all ten species which are
the
subject of the suit, the USFWS has illegally delayed making
a final
determination to protect the species. The USFWS has
claimed that the
species warrant protection under the ESA,
but that their protection is
precluded by other higher
priority actions. For some of the species,
the illegal
listing delay has been 15 years.
This case is represented
by attorneys Brendan Cummings and
Sharon Duggan of Berkeley,
California.
_____________________
CENTER HELPS FUND MEXICO BIOSPHERE
RESERVE PROTECTION
The Center has secured funds for the Reserva de la
Biosfera
Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Rio Colorado (Upper
Gulf of
California and Colorado River Biosphere Reserve) of
Mexico to assist in
protective management. The funds will
narrow the gap of government funding
shortfalls and will be
used to purchase fuel for boat patrols to enforce a
fishing
ban and a new run of educational Reserve brochures.
The Upper
Gulf of California and Colorado River Biosphere
Reserve was established by
the Mexican government in 1992 in
an effort to reverse a decades long decline
in upper Gulf
fisheries and protect riparian and marsh habitats
scattered
throughout the former terminus of the Colorado River.
Increased
funding is necessary to fully implement protective
Reserve management. Even
more important, the U.S. and Mexico
must establish a new international water
allocation
agreement so that the Colorado River may once again flow to
the
sea.
___________________________________________________________
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