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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
3-1-00
#228
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§
PETITION FILED TO PROTECT YOSEMITE TOAD UNDER THE
ENDANGERED
SPECIES ACT
§ COALITION FORMS TO SAVE STEELHEAD TROUT,
REMOVE
UNNECESSARY DAMS
§ BABBITT FAVORS REMOVAL OF
MATILAJA DAM TO SAVE
STEELHEAD- WOULD BE LARGE DAM REMOVAL TO
DATE
§ INJUNCTION SOUGHT TO PROTECT HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL
§ FEDERAL
GRAZING FEES TO REMAIN AT $1.35/MONTH
PETITION FILED TO PROTECT YOSEMITE
TOAD UNDER THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
On 2-29-00, the Center for
Biological Diversity and the Pacific Rivers
Council filed a formal petition
with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to
list the Yosemite toad as an
endangered species. This action follows
a 2-8-00 petition by both groups to
list the Sierra Nevada population
of the mountain yellow-legged frog as an
endangered species. Both
the Yosemite toad and the yellow-legged frog have
declined
precipitously because of habitat loss, pesticides and other
pollutants,
predation due to stocking of non-native fish, and environmental
stresses
which render amphibians susceptible to aquatic diseases. A
recent
survey found that the Yosemite toad has disappeared from 47% of
historic
locations throughout the high Sierra. Most remaining populations
are
small and greatly reduced in number from historical occurrence.
The
alarming decline of the Yosemite toad, the mountain yellow-legged
frog,
and other amphibians in the Sierra Nevada indicates that
aquatic
ecosystems have been significantly disrupted by human activity, even
in
supposedly protected areas such as National
Parks.
________________________
COALITION
FORMS TO SAVE STEELHEAD TROUT, REMOVE
UNNECESSARY DAMS
The "Southern
California Steelhead Recovery Coalition," a new alliance
of 25 conservation,
surfing, sport fishing and commercial fishing groups,
including the Center
for Biological Diversity, San Diego Trout, and
California Trout, have formed
a coalition to save southern California's
steelhead trout from extinction.
Together, the groups represent over
220,000 Californians.
Steelhead
populations in southern California range from San Luis Obispo
County to San
Diego County. They have declined over 99% since the
turn of the century,
resulting in their listing as an endangered species in
1997. Dams have
blocked their migration routes while urban sprawl has
dewater, diverted, and
polluted the streams the live in. A host of federal
and state agencies have
thus far failed to stop the steelhead's decline.
The coalition has
developed a ten point action plan to recovery steelhead
runs including
removal of Matilija Dam on the Ventura River and Rindge
Dam on Malibu Creek.
The coalition is also calling for full Endangered
Species Act protection for
steelhead trout found upstream of dams and
south of Malibu Creek. Currently,
the National Marine Fisheries Service
has arbitrarily decided not to protect
or recover trout south of Malibu
Creek, even though they are the nearest to
extinction. It is also refusing
to consider restoration of historic migration
corridors now blocked by
dams. The Center and several coalition member groups
will soon sue
the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to fully
protect all
southern California steelhead
populations.
_________________
BABBITT FAVORS
REMOVAL OF MATILAJA DAM TO SAVE
STEELHEAD- WOULD BE LARGE DAM REMOVAL TO
DATE
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, fresh from presiding over
the
breaching of a small dam in the Maine, has endorsed a growing call
to
remove the 190 foot tall Matilija Dam in southern California. The
dam is
blocking endangered steelhead trout runs and robbing
downstream beaches of
much needed sand. The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and
Army Corps of Engineers
are conducting studies on how to remove the dam.
Babbitt recently
told the Los Angeles Times: "We need to get the study back
to make
sure there are no insoluble problems, then work on financing
issues."
The 52-year-old Matilaja dam was built to store drinking
and
agricultural water for the Ojai Valley and to reduce flood hazards
on
the Ventura River. Today, however, it is full of mud, provides little
water
and is falling apart. Though decaying sections have been removed,
it
still stands 190 feet tall and 620 feet wide.The cost of removal
has
been estimated at between $3 million and $150
million.
__________________
INJUNCTION SOUGHT
TO PROTECT HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL
The Center for Biological Diversity, Sea Turtle
Restoration Project and
the Greenpeace Foundation filed a preliminary
injunction request last
week in the recently filed federal lawsuit to protect
the endangered
Hawaiian monk seal. The coalition is asking the federal court
to halt
the opening of the commercial lobster fishery season- the leading
threat
to the rapidly declining and critically endangered monk seal.
The
motion is scheduled to be heard April 21, 2000.
The monk seal has
been reduce to about 1,350 individuals, and is
steadily declining because the
pups are starving to death. At the same
time, however, lobster boats (which
set up to 1,000 traps each night) are
allowed to remove hundreds of thousands
of spiny and slipper lobsters
from the monk seal's officially designated, and
supposedly protected,
critical habitat.
The case is being argued by
Paul Achitoff of the Earthjustice Legal
Defense Fund
(Honolulu).
________________________
FEDERAL
GRAZING FEES TO REMAIN AT $1.35/MONTH IN 2000
Continuing one of the west's
most absurd and damaging corporate
welfare traditions, the Bureau of Land
Management has decided to
continue charging the lowest possible fee allowed
by law for
grazing leases on the U.S. National Forests and BLM Districts
in
2000. Though you can't feed a goldfish on $1.35/month, the
federal
government "charges" ranchers that much to allow a cow and
a calf, one horse,
or five sheep to denude millions of acres of
public lands in the West. The
agencies, not surprisingly, loose
hundreds of millions of dollars each year
administering their
grazing program.
The $1.35 figure is based on a
fee formula not updated since 1966.
It has been held in place by the
political power of the livestock
industry, which regardless of its rantings
about the evils of the
federal governments is one of the most bloated and
effective
advocates of corporate
welfare.
_____________________________________________________________
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