From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 8:00 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT 218
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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.sw-center.org>      12-16-99      #218
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§ GROUPS TO SEEK TO SHUT DOWN CALIFORNIA GILLNET FISHERY

§ RELIGIOUS LEADERS/SCHOLARS MEET TO DISCUSS ENVIRONMENT,
   DESTRUCTION OF SACRED LANDS IN THE AMERICAS

§ FEDS OFFICIALLY PROPOSE TO RELEASE MEXICAN GRAY
   WOLVES INTO THE GILA WILDERNESS

§ BI-NATIONAL COALITION TO SUE FEDS OVER DESTRUCTION OF
  COLORADO RIVER DELTA, CIENEGA DE SANTA CLARA, AND
  ENDANGERED SPECIES


LAWSUIT TO PROTECT SEA TURTLES AND SPERM WHALES-
GROUPS TO SEEK TO SHUT DOWN CALIFORNIA GILLNET FISHERY

On December 16, 1999 the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sea Turtle
Restoration Project filed a formal 60-day notice of intent to sue the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the California Department of Fish and
Game (DFG) over the illegal killing of endangered Sea turtles and Sperm
whales by the California drift gillnet fishery. The fishery, which targets
swordfish and thresher sharks-- two species which themselves are facing
serious declines--also kills numerous dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, sea
turtles, sharks and sea birds. This fishing industry is among the worst in
terms of bycatch of any on the West Coast. Of greatest concern is that the
fishery has been killing large numbers of the critically endangered Leatherback
sea turtles.

The industry is also in violation of the Endangered Species Act for killing
protected Sperm whales.  Unless NMFS and California Department of Fish
and Game immediately place restrictions on the industry such that no
endangered sea turtles or whales are killed, the Center for Biological Diversity
and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project will bring suit and shut down gillnetting
in California.

The Center and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project are represented by
Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and Debbie Sevas of EARTHLAW (Palo Alto).
      ________________

RELIGIOUS LEADERS/SCHOLARS MEET TO DISCUSS ENVIRONMENT,
DESTRUCTION OF SACRED LANDS IN THE AMERICAS
Anthony Guy Lopez, of the Center for Biological Diversity's American Indian
and Endangered Species Program is attending the Parliament of World Religions
in Capetown, South Africa. Thousands of religious leaders and scholars from
around the world are gathering to discuss religion in the new millennium. Lopez
(Dakota) will join Huston Smith of the U.C. Berkeley, Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg),
Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), Frank Dayish (Dine), Charlotte Black Elk (Oglala
Lakota), Oren Lyons (Onondaga), Lenny Foster (Dine), and Tonya Gonnella
Frichner (Onondaga) in a symposium entitled AMERICA’S SHADOW STRUGGLE
addressing issues of Native American religious freedom. LaDuke's panel entitled
"Mother Earth-The Virgin Mother" will discuss pollution and clear cutting as
religious persecution.  Lopez's panel "The Jesuits Astrophysicists Say 'That
Mountain is Not Sacred'" discusses the efforts to the Vatican and the University
of Arizona to build observatories atop Mt. Graham, a sacred mountain to the
Apache people and home to the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel.
     _______________

FEDS OFFICIALLY PROPOSE TO RELEASE MEXICAN GRAY WOLVES
INTO THE GILA WILDERNESS
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has officially proposed to move the Pipestem
Wolf Pack, recently recaptured from the Blue Primitive Area in eastern
Arizona. into the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. The Gila National Forest
has received the proposal and will determine whether an "environmental
analysis" is necessary to build temporary holding pens in McKenna Park,
Chicken Coop Canyon, Miller Spring, and Half Moon Park. The Center believes
that no additional NEPA analysis needs to be conducted since the 1997
Wolf Reintroduction EIS already approved translocation of wolves from the
Blue to the Gila.

Barring political intervention, the Pipestem Pack, most of which has been
in captivity for several months, could be released into the wilderness by
February. The Center released its Wolf Safe Haven Plan in November,
1998 calling for the release of wolves directly into the safety of the
Gila Wilderness following the killing of several wolves in the more heavily
roaded and cow-burnt Blue Range. To the see Center's plan, check out:
<http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/wolfhaven.html>
      _________________

BI-NATIONAL COALITION TO SUE FEDS OVER DESTRUCTION OF
COLORADO RIVER DELTA, CIENEGA DE SANTA CLARA, AND
ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 11-15-99 a binational coalition of 14 environmental groups officially
informed a host of U.S. Federal agencies including the Bureau of Reclamation,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine
Fisheries Service, Department of State, and the International Boundary and
Water Commission, that it will file suit to protect endangered species on the
Colorado River and its massive delta on the Gulf of California in Mexico.
The agencies are responsible for the degradation of riverside forests, and the
near total destruction of the Delta. The Cienega de Santa Clara is also
threatened by government plans to divert its water source for use in the U.S.
So much water is currently dammed and diverted from the Colorado River for
urban and agricultural uses that it often runs dry before reaching the delta and
Gulf of California. Lack of fresh water has severely degraded what used to be
one the world's great estuaries. Native peoples as well as fish, birds,
mammals and mollusks have all been impacted, as have fisheries in the
northern Gulf.

Endangered species being driven to extinction by over-allocation of the river
include the Yuma clapper rail, Southwestern willow flycatcher, Totoaba (a
huge marine fish), Vaquita (a porpoise), and the Desert pupfish.

Joining the Center and Defenders of Wildlife on the notice were the American
Humane  Association, Asociación Ecológica de Usuarios del Río Hardy-
Colorado, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Bradshaw Mountain Wildlife
Association, Centro Regional de Estudios Ambientales y Socioeconomicos,
Earth Island Institute, El Centro de Derecho Ambiental y Integración
Económica del Sur, A.C., El Centro de Estudios de Desierto y Océanos,
Forest Guardians, The Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of
Animals, the Sierra Club, and Southwest Toxic Watch.
_____________________________________________________________

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