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