Subject: FW: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #225

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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.sw-center.org>      2-16-00      #225
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§ 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