From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent:
Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:50 PM
To: Recipient list
suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#212
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
11-11-99
#212
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
RELIGIOUS/ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE WINS PROTECTION FOR
IMPERILED
SPECIES HABITAT FROM CALIFORNIA TO ALASKA
§ COURT ORDERS ESA LISTING
DECISION FOR CALIFORNIA PLANT
§ WOLVES IN NM? OUTDOORS WRITER JOINS THE
PACK
§ TRANSFER OF COLORADO RIVER WATER RIGHTS
QUESTIONED
RELIGIOUS/ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE WINS PROTECTION
FOR
IMPERILED SPECIES HABITAT IN CALIFORNIA AND ALASKA
In response to a
lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and
Christians Caring For
Creation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has
agreed to address
critical habitat for seven endangered species in
California and Alaska.
Though all seven are listed under the ESA,
none have been afforded officially
mapped and protected "critical
habitat" areas.
The terms of the
11-3-99 settlement require the Fish & Wildlife Service
to withdraw its
decisions not to designate critical habitat for the seven
species and to
make new proposed and final critical habitat
determinations with specified
time periods:
SPECIES
HABITAT PROPOSAL HABITAT FINAL
Spectacled
eider
2/1/2000
12/1/200
Stellar’s
eider
3/1/2000 1/5/2001
Alameda
whipsnake
3/1/2000 9/1/2000
Arroyo southwestern
toad
6/1/2000 1/5/2001
Zayante band-winged grasshopper
7/1/2000 2/1/2001
Morro shoulderband
snail
7/1/2000 2/1/2000
San
Bernadino kangaroo
rat
12/1/2000 12/1/2000
Christians Caring for
Creation (Pasadena, CA) is dedicated to the
protection of all God’s
creation. It has a prayer network of over a 1000
people across the United
States who pray for the protection of the
environment and all species. The
plaintiffs were represented by Geoff
Hickcox of Kenna and Hickcox (Durango)
and Brendan Cummings
(Berkeley).
_______________
COURT ORDERS ESA LISTING DECISION FOR CALIFORNIA
PLANT
On 10-28-99, a San Diego federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife
has violated the Endangered Species Act in refusing to decide
whether to
propose the San Diego ambrosia as an endangered species. He gave
the
agency an unusually short deadline to issue a decision- two months-
perhaps because this is the second time it has been taken to court for
delaying action on the imperiled plant.
The Center for Biological
Diversity and the Native Plant Society petitioned
the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service to list the San Diego ambrosia under the
ESA in 1996. When
the agency refused to process the petition, we sued,
garnering an initial
positive rule in April, 1999. When the agency then
refused to issue a
proposed rule, we were forced to sued again.
The San Diego ambrosia was
once found in stream-side grasslands and
sage scrub in San Diego and
Riverside counties, and northern Baja
California. Urban and agricultural
development have obliterated most of its
habitat leaving only eleven viable
populations. A decision by Fish &
Wildlife Service to propose the
ambrosia for listing will cast serious doubt
on alleged protects afforded by
the San Diego Multiple Species
Conservation Program.
The case was
argued by Craig Sherman (San Diego).
_____________________
WOLVES IN NM? OUTDOORS WRITER JOINS THE PACK
In
his 11-4-99 outdoor column in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Wes
Smalling urged
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to introduce the
endangered Mexican gray
wolf directly into the Gila Wilderness in
southern New Mexico's Gila National
Forest. Noting that a female
wolf was recently found dead near a road on the
Arizona side of the
wolf recovery zone- the same road which earlier took the
life of
another female- he stated:
"The recovery plan
allows wolves already in the wild in Arizona to
be moved to New
Mexico, but does not allow them to be released
into New Mexico
directly from captivity. The Southwest Center for
Biological
Diversity has lobbied the Service to move the project to
the
Gila for some time now. For what it's worth, I support the move,
too."
The Gila/Aldo Leopold wilderness complex is the
largest forested
roadless area in the Southwest. Its deep canyons, lush
forests and
abundant streams contain plenty of prey, while its
extreme
remoteness will keep the lobo away from cars and guns. The
Center
is also pushing for Grizzly bear and Jaguar reintroduction to the Gila
Headwaters Bioregion.
_____________
TRANSFER OF COLORADO RIVER WATER RIGHTS QUESTIONED
The
Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife have formally
asked the Bureau of Reclamation to fully disclosure the environmental
effects of a proposed transfer of Colorado River water rights from Imperial
Valley farms to the highly urbanized coastal San Diego County. We
have
also asked to Bureau to comply with all analyses and protections
required by
the Endangered Species Act.
The transfer, in which Colorado water will be
diverted at Lake Havasu
instead of further downstream at Imperial Dam, would
greatly reduce
available water for restoration of Colorado River forests in
the U.S. and
Delta wetlands in Mexico. The transfer will also spawn more
urban
sprawl, with enough additional water delivered to San Diego to build a
new city the size of Las Vegas. Reclamation claims the pre-existing
San
Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program serves to meets
its ESA
requirements to protect and recover imperiled species, but
the program covers
only a small portion of the coastal area that will
suffer from additional
sprawl.
_____________________________________________________________
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