From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 6:19 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #208
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

             www.sw-center.org      10-25-99      #208
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>

§ LAWSUIT PUTS THREE SOUTHWESTERN SPECIES ON
   ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST

§ SUIT CHALLENGES DEVELOPMENT ON SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN

§ 1999 NEW MEXICO CONFERENCE FOR ANIMALS

§ MEXICAN WOLF RECOVERY TEAM LEADER OUSTED-
   WOLF'S RETURN TO NEW MEXICO ENDANGERED
    ===> EMAILS NEEDED TODAY


LAWSUIT PUTS THREE SOUTHWESTERN SPECIES ON
ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
In response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has listed three southwestern species under
the Endangered Species Act. On 10-20-99, the agency listed the
Devil's River minnow as threatened in Texas and Mexico, the Pecos
Sunflower as threatened in Texas and New Mexico, and the Deseret
milkvetch as threatened in Utah. 

The Pecos sunflower is dependent on desert wetlands. It is known from
22 sites in Cibola, Valencia, Guadalupe, and Chaves counties, New
Mexico, and from 3 sites in Pecos and Reeves counties, Texas. It is
threatened by wetland filling and draining, overgrazing, and exotic
species. The Deseret milkvetch (Astragalus desereticus) was considered
extinct until its rediscovery in 1981. It exists in one small population in
Utah County, Utah. It is threatened by urban sprawl, overgrazing, and
highway construction.

The Devils River minnow is a small fish known from only three locations
in Val Verde and Kinney counties, Texas, and one drainage in Coahuila,
Mexico. It's range has been significantly reduced and fragmented due to
dam construction and spring dewatering. Once one of the most
abundant fish in the Devils River, the minnow is now of the rarest.

The Center was represented by Geoff Hickcox of Kenna & Hickcox.
     _______________________

SUIT CHALLENGES DEVELOPMENT ON SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN
On 10-18-99, San Bruno Mt. Watch and the Center for Biological Diversity
filed suit in a San Francisco Federal Court to stop construction of the
Terra Bay development on south San Francisco's San Bruno Mountain.
The Army Corps of Engineers issued permits approving the 300 acre
development without conducting an Environmental Impact Statement or
consulting with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service over the impacts to the
endangered Mission blue and Callipe silverspot butterflies. They also
failed to consider the impacts to water quality.

San Bruno Mountain was the nation's first "habitat conservation plan"
or permit allowing developers to kill or harm endangered species on
private lands. Despite promises of mitigation, the plan has failed
to recover the Callipe silverspot or the Mission Blue. The Army
Corps of Engineers, however, continues to authorize additional
developments and habitat loss.

The case is being argued by Deborah Sivas (Earthlaw, Palo Alto),
Brian Gaffney (Oakland) and Celeste Langille (Oakland).
     ____________________

1999 NEW MEXICO CONFERENCE FOR ANIMALS
Animal Protection of New Mexico will hold a conference between
November 5- 7 at the Radisson Hotel on Carlisle Blvd in Albuquerque.
The conference aims to strengthen effective activism for animals. 
Speakers and panelists include Roger Fouts, noted for breakthroughs
in communicating with chimpanzees through sign-language, Steven
Wise who teaches a controversial course on animal rights law at
Harvard University Law School, Alan Green, investigative journalist
and author of Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for
Rare and Exotic Species, and Michael Robinson of the Center for
Biological Diversity, speaking about the history of the federal wolf
extermination campaign and the current influence of the ranching
industry in subverting wolf recovery programs.

Contact APNM at 505-265-2322 for a complete agenda and
registration form or visit www.apnm.org.
     ____________________

MEXICAN WOLF RECOVERY TEAM LEADER OUSTED-
WOLF'S RETURN TO NEW MEXICO ENDANGERED
In a move that bodes ominous for the Mexican wolf recovery program,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has maneuvered the head of the
recovery team out of his job. Following standard agency cost cutting
procedures, Dave Parsons joined the federal early retirement program,
then re-applied for a short-term position continuing to direct the
recovery program with the understanding that he would be hired back
immediately. Though he was the only person to apply for the job,
however, the Fish & Wildlife Service refused to re-hire him.

In a Fish and Wildlife Service region notorious for allowing the cattle,
logging, real estate and power industries to run rampant over
endangered species, Parsons consistently sought to insulate the wolf
recovery program from political pressures. It may have cost him his
job. The timing was particularly poor for this coup: USFWS officials
are in the process of deciding whether to put wolves directly into the
Gila Wilderness, where they will be better protected from poachers
and the livestock industry. The Center has developed a "Wolf Safe
Haven Plan" which calls for the reintroduction of wolves directly into
the Gila/Aldo Leopold wilderness complex:
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/wolfhaven.html

Please email the director of the Fish & Wildlife Service. Tell her to
rehire Dave Parsons and reintroduce wolves to the Gila Wilderness:
jamie_clark@fws.gov

_____________________________________________________________

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