From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent:
Monday, October 18, 1999 11:38 PM
To: Recipient list
suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSTY ALERT #206
***** CENTER FOR
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
*****
http://www.sw-center.org
ALERT #206
10-18-99
§ DEVELOPMENT PERMITS SHUT DOWN
ACROSS ALL OF ARIZONA-
JUDGE ORDERS REGIONAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT,
PROTECTION
FOR ENDANGERED PYGMY OWL
§ MASSIVE QUINCY LOGGING PROJECT
CHALLENGED
§ NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE
CHALLENGED
§ 1ST ANNUAL
JOHNNY CASH BIODIVERSITY BENEFIT A SUCCESS
*****
***** *****
DEVELOPMENT PERMITS SHUT DOWN ACROSS
ALL OF ARIZONA-
JUDGE ORDERS REGIONAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT, PROTECTION
FOR
ENDANGERED PYGMY OWL
Just three months after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service designated 731,000
acres of critical habitat for the endangered
Cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, a
federal judge has issued a sweeping
injunction against virtually all federal
building permits in Arizona. On
10-8-99, judge Alfredo Marquez barred the
Army Corps of Engineers from
issuing “nation-wide” permits under the Clean
Water Act until the agency
completes a environmental review of all
development permits in Arizona, and
until it consults with the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service over the
cumulative impacts of development to the pygmy
owl and its critical
habitat.
Most large-scale development, construction, and river control
projects require
a Clean Water Act permit because of their effects on
wetlands, washes,
rivers, and headwaters. Rather than obtain individual
permits, however, most
developers seek to qualify for automatic approval
under “nation-wide” permits.
Such permits are issued without environmental
review or public scrutiny
because they are defined in advance as having
virtually no negative effect
on waterways. This exemption for tiny projects,
has been institutionalized
as a loophole for major developments. Of the 500
Clean Water Act permits
issued in Arizona last year, all but 16 were done
without environmental or
public review under nation-wide permits.
Developments of hundreds to
thousands of houses at a time are routinely
rubber stamped under nation-
wide permits.
Under the order, the Army
Corps is not permitted to issue permits for bank
stabilization (NWP 13),
road crossings (NWP 14), or impacts to headwaters
or isolated waters (NWP
26) until is systematically reviews the cumulative
impacts of all its
permits on the natural and human environment. The Army
Corps has interpreted
to decision to apply to all of Arizona. Such a review
will likely take 18-24
months.
The suit was brought by Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for
Biological
Diversity by John Fritschie.
_________________
MASSIVE QUINCY LOGGING PROJECT CHALLENGED
The Center
for Biological Diversity has joined two coalitions challenging
the Quincy
logging project which would double logging levels on the
Plumas, Lassen and
part of the Tahoe National Forest. The legislatively
mandated project would
devastate the forests of the California’s northern
Sierra Nevada,
jeopardizing the existence of the Northern goshawk,
American marten, and
Pacific fisher.
The Center wrote the goshawk analysis for the Sierra
Nevada Forest
Protection Campaign and a separate coalition including the
American
Land Alliance, Forest Conservation Council, National Forest
Protection
Campaign, and the South Yuba River Citizen’s League.
Intense organizing pressure from the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection
Campaign, including a scientific assessment of the declining status of
the California spotted owl by the Center for Biological Diversity, resulted
in a last minute Forest Service decision to prohibit all logging in spotted
owl nesting and foraging habitat. While good news for the forests on the
wet, westside of the Sierra Nevada, the decision will increase logging on
the drier, eastside forests. Unfortunately, this is prime goshawk habitat.
Our appeal presents overwhelming data, including reports by the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and
the U.S. Forest Service that the goshawk is being driven to extinction by
logging in the Sierra Nevadas.
___________
NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE CHALLENGED
On 10-1-99, the Center
for Biological Diversity appealed the Rio Peñasco
timber sale on the Lincoln
National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains
of south-central New Mexico. Rio
Peñasco would log up to 12 million board
feet of fir and ponderosa pine
across 4,400 acres. The Forest Service falsely
claims the project is needed
to reduce fire danger to private residences
within the forest. It provided
no evidence that large trees prevent any fire
hazard.
Only 275 acres
are at issue in the present appeal because required
cultural resource
surveys have not been completed.
___________________
1ST ANNUAL JOHNNY CASH BIODIVERSITY
BENEFIT A SUCCESS
The Nimbus Brewery Company sponsored a Johnny Cash Festival
for the
Center for Biological Diversity on 10-17-99. Though Johnny did not
make it
this year, over a dozen impersonators including Caliche Con Carne,
Blues
Crushers, Tim Gallagher, and the Hillbilly Hurricanes turned out in
cowboy
hats and black leather.
The Center respectfully points out
that Johnny Cash is not a public lands
rancher, receives no outrageous
government subsidies that we know of, and
does not appear to have
contributed to the demise of any rivers, native trout
or sage
grouse.
_____________________________________________________________
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