<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
2-16-00
#225
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
SIERRA NEVADA FOOTHILLS PLANT LISTED AS ENDANGERED
§ CALIFORNIA TIGER
BEETLE PROPOSED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
§ NATIONAL MONUMENT TO PROTECT
SEQUOIAS FROM LOGGING?
§ VICTORY FOR MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE: PIMA
CINDER MINE
TO REMAIN CLOSED
§ FEDS REMOVE ANOTHER WOLF
PACK FROM WILD TO APPEASE
LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY- ALPHA FEMALE'S LEG
MAIMED,
AMPUTATED DURING CAPTURE
SIERRA NEVADA FOOTHILLS
PLANT LISTED AS ENDANGERED
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for
Biological Diversity and the
California Native Plant Society, the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service listed
Keck's checker-mallow (Sidalcea keckii) as an
endangered species on
2-16-99. The mallow survives in only two small
populations in Tulare and
Fresno counties, California. Both are in foothill
grasslands of the central
western Sierra Nevada Mountains and are threatened
by overgrazing,
urban sprawl, and agricultural expansion.
The mallow
is one of ten California plants federal judge Charles Beyer
ordered the Fish
& Wildlife Service to protect. On 2-9-00, the agency
listed the
Kneeland Prairie penny-cress as endangered. It has until
3-15-00 to make
final listing decision for the Santa Cruz tarplant, Baker's
larkspur, Yellow
larkspur, La Graciosa thistle, Lompoc yerba santa,
Gaviota tarplant, and two
species of Purple amole.
The Center's "Golden State Biodiversity Program"
has successfully
petitioned and litigated to place 82 California species
under the
Endangered Species Act since 1993. This suit was argued
by
Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and Jay Tutchton of Earthlaw (Palo
Alto and
Denver).
_____________________
CALIFORNIA
TIGER BEETLE PROPOSED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
In response to a lawsuit by the
Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra
Club, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service issued a formal proposal to list the
Ohlone tiger beetle
(Cicindela ohlone) as an endangered species on 2-11-00.
Only five populations
of Ohlone tiger beetles are known to exist, all in Santa
Cruz County,
California on coastal terraces supporting remnant stands of
native grassland.
The species is threatened by urban sprawl and exotic
species.
Center
member and researcher Grey Hayes petitioned the Fish & Wildlife
Service
to list the tiger beetle under the Endangered Species Act in 1994.
The case
was argued by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and Kimberly
Burr (Santa
Rosa).
_______________________
NATIONAL
MONUMENT TO PROTECT SEQUOIAS FROM LOGGING?
The Clinton Administration today
announced it may use the Antiquities
Act to designate between 330,000 -
440,000 acres of the Sequoia National
Forest as a new national monument. This
is about a third of the forest.
The monument designation should protect the
ancient trees from logging,
but that will depend upon the final wording of
the designation. The
administration has given the U.S. Forest Service 60 days
to prepare a
statement on whether the national monument should be
designated,
how large it should be, and where its exact boundaries should
fall.
____________________-
VICTORY FOR
MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE:
PIMA CINDER MINE TO REMAIN CLOSED
On 1-24-00,
the National Park Service rejected an appeal by the
operators of the Cima
Cinder Mine to an order to cease all mining
operations within the new Mojave
National Preserve. The Park
Service ordered a halt to all mining on 8-10-99
after the Center for
Biological Diversity, Friends of Mojave National Park,
and the National
Parks and Conservation Association filed a formal notice of
intent to
sue under the Endangered Species Act and the National
Environmental
Policy Act on behalf of the
The mine had been operating
illegally and without a permit since 1995.
Although it was within a National
Preserve, a National Natural Landmark,
and designated critical habitat for
the endangered desert tortoise, the
National Park Service took no action to
halt the mining or even
determine its affects until the threatened lawsuit.
The mine operators
have until mid-February to appeal the Regional Director's
decision to
the Director of the Park Service in Washington, D.C.
Roger
Flynn and Jeff Parsons of Western Mining Action Project, and
Debbie Sivas of
Earthlaw (Palo Alto, Denver), prepared the
legal
action.
________________________
FEDS
REMOVE ANOTHER WOLF PACK FROM WILD TO APPEASE
LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY- ALPHA
FEMALE'S LEG MAIMED,
AMPUTATED DURING CAPTURE
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service rounded up the Mule wolf pack after
pack members scavenged a dead cow
that was left on their home range
in the Apache National Forest. Officials
apparently feared that the wolves
would learn to prey on the overstocked
cattle plaguing the National
Forest. In political twist of logic, they
planned to relocate the native
wolves, rather than the commercial livestock.
During the course of
trapping, the alpha female was left in a non-padded,
non-offset, steel-
jawed leghold trap overnight. She suffered frostbite and
half her leg had
to be amputated. The entire pack is now in
captivity.
This is the second disaster caused by the Fish & Wildlife
Service
bending to the political power of the livestock industry. In 1999,
it
rounded up the Pipestem Pack which was the first (and so far only)
pack
to successfully reproduce in the Southwest wild in over 70 years.
Three of
the wildborn pups died of parvo while in captivity. According to
a report of
a veterinarian with the recovery team, the parvo was likely
set off due to
the stress of the capture. To obtain the report, the Center
was forced to sue
the Fish & Wildlife Service under the Freedom of
Information
Act.
Only eight wolves now roam the wild in the Southwest. The Fish
&
Wildlife Service, meanwhile, is trying to trap the Gavilan Pack
yearling
which escaped into the Gila National Forest on his own. It has tried
to
hunt elk, but also fed on two cattle carcasses which were left to rot
by
ranchers on the National Forest for over a month. Whether devious
or
just plain lazy, cattle ranchers are jeopardizing the wolf
recovery
program by allowing their animals to lay dead for months on end
on
public land.
The Fish & Wildlife Service states that it plans
to re-release the
Mule Pack, possibly in the Gila Wilderness once it
completes an
environmental assessment on such translocations. The agency
plans
to release the injured female if she is judged able to survive. Of
course,
agency had also intended to quickly re-release the Pipestem
Pack
into the Gila Wilderness after it was rounded up- the pack,
however,
has remained in pens since last
summer.
_____________________________________________________________
ENDANGERED
TOTEMS. Ten of the eleven western states have imperiled species
for their
state fish: New Mexico (Rio Grande cutthroat trout), Arizona
(Apache trout),
Colorado (Greenback cutthroat trout), Utah (Bonneville
cutthroat trout),
Nevada (Lahontan cutthroat trout), California (Golden
trout), Oregon (Chinook
salmon), Washington (Steelhead trout), Idaho
(Cutthroat trout), and Montana
(Cutthroat trout).
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