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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
2-18-00
#226
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§
GEORGE BUSH'S ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISOR: "AUCTION OFF
ALL FEDERAL
LANDS INCLUDING NATIONAL PARKS"
§ CUCKOO MOVES TOWARD ENDANGERED SPECIES
LIST-
RIPARIAN FORESTS ACROSS WEST COULD BE PROTECTED
§
SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT OF ROAD IMPACTS AVAILABLE
§ INTERNATIONAL DAY
OF ACTION AGAINST DAMS-
CELEBRATE IN FLAGSTAFF, PROTEST AT
GLEN CANYON
DAM
GEORGE BUSH'S ENVIRONMENTAL
ADVISOR: "AUCTION OFF ALL
FEDERAL LANDS INCLUDING NATIONAL PARKS"
Terry L.
Anderson, environmental advisor to George W. Bush Jr., has
proposed to
auction off all 600 million acres of federal public lands in the
U.S. over
the next 20-40 years. This not only incudes every National
Forest, National
Wildlife Refuge, and BLM District, it also includes every
National Park and
Monument. Under his proposal, non-profit
environmental groups could bid on
the free market against the likes of
Exxon to obtain the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, or against
Weyerhouser to obtain Yellowstone National Park,
or against Phelps
Dodge to obtain Grand Canyon National Park. Any bets on how
the
bidding will go?
Anderson is closely associated with several
conservative think tanks
pushing for the privatization and/or
commercialization of public lands.
He is the director of the Political
Economy Research Center, a
senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. PERC's
website links to the
Thoreau Institute which has proposed, among other
nonsense, to
privatize ownership of endangered species. Anderson's proposal
was
published by the CATO institute and can be viewed at
<http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-363es.html>
Anderson
freely admits that his corporate take-over agenda would
be wildly unpopular
with the American public. In an interview with the
National Journal
(10-23-99) he said that Bush is watching the polls
and will not likely
announce any radical public land agendas during
the campaign. But
after????
____________________
CUCKOO
MOVES TOWARD ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST-
RIPARIAN FORESTS ACROSS WEST COULD BE
PROTECTED
On 2-17-00, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published an
initial
positive finding (i.e. 90-day) on the Center's petition to list
the
Yellow-billed as an endangered species west of the Continental
Divide.
The Yellow-billed cuckoo is an indicator species for healthy,
mature
cottonwood/willow forests. According to the finding, 90-95%
of the West's
riparian forests have been decimated in the last
century. Not surprisingly,
the vast majority of threatened and
endangered species in the West are
obligates of riparian forests,
wetlands and aquatic ecosystems. The cuckoo
has been extirpated
from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern
California.
It exists at extremely low numbers in the rest of the West,
and
continues to decline in its one stronghold, the San Pedro River
in
southeast Arizona. The San Pedro, meanwhile, is being sucked
dry by the
U.S. military and unchecked suburban sprawl.
The listing petition was
consigned by: Maricopa Audubon Society,
Tucson Audubon Society,
Huachuca Audubon Society, White
Mountain Audubon Society, White
Mountain Conservation League,
Wildlife Damage Review, Sky Island Alliance,
San Pedro 100, Zane
Grey Chapter of Trout Unlimited, T and E Inc.,
Biodiversity Legal
Foundation, Environmental Protection Information Center,
Sierra
Nevada Alliance, Wetlands Action Network, Rangewatch,
Oregon
Natural Desert Association, Oregon Natural Resources
Center,
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Southern Utah
Wilderness
Alliance, Wild Utah Forest Campaign, Friends of
Nevada
Wilderness, and the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Even as
the cuckoo has spiraled toward extinction, activists have
had to battle the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for 12 years to
reach yesterday's finding.
The battle will surely continue: in its
finding, the agency asserts that the
complete extinction of the
cuckoo in every western state is "not significant"
because it is
only declining, not endangered, east of the continental divide.
The
Center was represented by the Pacific Environmental Advocacy
Center
(Portland) in its suit to make the Fish & Wildlife Service
issue
yesterday's finding.
___________________________
SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT OF ROAD IMPACTS
AVAILABLE
The February 2000 issue of Conservation Biology contains
eight
articles devoted to the adverse ecological effects of roads.
Included
is an article by Stephen Trombulak and Christopher
Frissel,
"Review of Ecological Effects of Roads on Terrestrial and
Aquatic
Communities" and Richard Forman "Estimate of the Area
Affected
Ecologically by the Road System in the United States."
Marion
Hourdequin, former Co-Director of Wildlands CPR, is the
guest
editor. Wildlands CPR maintains a searchable database of
6,000
scientific articles on the impacts of roads on watersheds
and
wildlife: (WildlandsCPR@wildlandsCPR.org).
Copies of the February
issue of Conservation Biology can be
obtained
through:
Blackwell Science, Inc.
Commerce Place, 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148-5018
1-888-661-5800
______________________________
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST
DAMS-
CELEBRATE IN FLAGSTAFF, PROTEST AT GLEN CANYON
The 3rd Annual
International Day of Action Against Dams and for
Rivers, Water and Life is
happening March 13-14. It is being
sponsored by Glen Canyon Action Network,
the Center for Biological
Diversity, International Rivers Network and many
other groups.
Dams have destroyed wild rivers, wildlife, and native
cultures
throughout the world. But a movement is afoot to dismantle
outdated,
environmentally destructive dams throughout the U.S. The
Snake
River dams, Glen Canyon Dam, Elwa Dam, and Matilaja Dam all
need to
come down to restore endangered steelhead trout, salmon,
disappearing
beaches, and Native American cultural sites.
Take part as we launch the
"Century of River Restoration." Join us
March 13th and 14 in Flagstaff and at
the notorious Glen Canyon
Dam along with former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert
Hass and David
Brower, president of Earth Island Institute.
A
Teach-in On The Restoration of Glen Canyon
12:00 - 5:00 pm, Monday,
March 13, 2000
Kaibab Room, University Union Field House
Northern Arizona University Campus, Flagstaff
Colorado River
Revival Concert and Rally
7:00 - 9:00 pm, Monday, March 13,
2000
Cline Library Auditorium
Northern Arizona University
Campus, Flagstaff
Caravan with us to Glen Canyon the following
morning for:
A Restoration Rally and Rendezvous
Carl Hayden
Visitor Center, Glen Canyon Dam
12:00 Noon, Tuesday, March 14,
2000
For more information, see www.drainit.com or contact Lisa
Force
at
lforce@sw-center.org
_____________________________________________________________
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