Subject: SW Biodiversity Alert #23
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Southwest Biodiversity Alert #23
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southwest center for biological
diversity
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ksuckling@sw-center.org
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http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
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1.
SPOTTED OWL FIASCO CONTINUES: FOREST SERVICE CHANGES
PLAN AFTER E.S.A. APPROVAL, ALLOWS LOGGING OF
OLD
GROWTH & STEEP SLOPES- LOGGING BAN MAY BE
EXTENDED
YET AGAIN
2. MEDIA:
OVERGRAZING CAUSES WILDFIRE, HINDERS PRESCRIBED
BURNING - ENDANGERED SPECIES HELP REDUCE CATTLE AND
WILDFIRE
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1. SPOTTED OWL FIASCO CONTINUES: FOREST SERVICE
CHANGES
PLAN AFTER E.S.A. APPROVAL, ALLOWS
LOGGING OF OLD
GROWTH & STEEP SLOPES- LOGGING
BAN MAY BE EXTENDED
YET AGAIN
Logging on the
Southwest's 11 National Forests and the Navajo Nation
was halted by a federal
judge in August, 1995, until the U.S. Forest
Service consults with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service over the effects
of all Forest Plans and
ammendments on the Threatened Mexican spotted
owl.
Attempts to rush,
manipulate, and falsify the consultation have been
repeatedly and
successfully challenged by environmentalists, resulting
in the injunction
being dragged out for 11 months.
In the latest twist, the Forest Service,
*after* recieving a no jeopardy
opinion on Forest Plan amendments, changed
the amendments to delete
prohibitions on old growth and steep slope
logging. An affidavit filed
by John Talbert of the Forest Conservation
Council, reveals that these
changes were made after complaints by the timber
industry.
Redoing the Biological Opinion yet again will delay the
completion of
the consultation and the lifting of the logging
injunction.
2. MEDIA: OVERGRAZING CAUSES WILDFIRE,
HINDERS
PRESCRIBED BURNING - ENDANGERED SPECIES
HELP
REDUCE CATTLE AND WILDFIRE
Showdown
Looms: Do Cattle Increase Threat OF Wildfires?
Arizona Republic, July 6,
1996, A1
For more than a century, cattle and
sheep have browsed the
wilderness of Arizona, leveling the grasses that
ranchers say would
otherwise feed the wildfires.
Were it not for the cows, they assert, this year's fire danger,
made severe
by the worst drought of the century, would be
even
worse.
But environmentalists and a growing
pool of scientists say
that's pure bull.
Cattle
and sheep, in fact, have helped cause the problems by
eating away grasses
that prevent the growth of thickets of smaller
trees and bush which choke
forests and feed bigger, hotter, more
dangerous
wildfires.
In addition, nearly a century of rushing
to put out every fire
has led to an unintended consequence: a potential
catastrophic
buildup of fire-prone vegetation.
"Unless, and until, intensive grazing of the National Forests
end...(this)
crisis cannot be resolved," said Dennis Morgan, research
associate for the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity.
But
because of a sharp reduction in herds in recent years,
the dangers posed by
grazing may be abating. Since 1980, the
number of cattle and sheep on federal
land in the Southwest has
fallen by a third, to fewer than 270,000 head from
more than 400,000.
Among the reasons are growing
calls for habitat protection
and preservation of endangered wildlife. Stands
of old growth
forest are needed for nesting Mexican spotted owls. And high-
mountain,
cold-water streams, which environmentalists say are
ravaged by
cattle, are essential for Arizona's dwindling number of
endangered native
fish, such as Apache trout.
One of the biggest
reasons for the reduced herds is urban
sprawl, as the recreational needs of
an exploding number of city
residents - wanting to tube, hike and hunt -
compete with ranching.
The Southwest Forest
Alliance, a coalition of 50 environmental
groups, is calling for less
grazing, not just because of
the drought, but because much of the Southwest
is simply too dry
to support ranching.
Most of
the nearly 1,670 ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico who
have permits to graze
livestock on pubic lands are removing animals
during the
drought.
But as many as 50 ranchers in both states
have refused, setting
up a possible show in coming weeks with federal
agents.
Adding tension is the charge that cattle are
to blame for the
threat of fires.
Steve Brophy,
treasurer of the Arizona Cattle grower's
Association, said the notion that
cattle contribute to fire danger is
laughable. "I don't know how anybody
under the sun could possibly blame
a cow," said Brophy, whose family runs
several ranches in eastern
Arizona."
...
"Grazing also heightens fire dangers by
aggravating the drought,
some experts say.
Robert
Ohmart, a professor of ecology at Arizona State
University's Center for
Environmental Studies, maintains that cattle
may be harming the watershed of
rivers that flow to the Valley.
Instead of absorbing
rains like a sponge and slowly releasing
them through springs, Ohmart said,
the damaged land acts as a frying
pan, so bare and hot that it causes much of
the water to evaporate."
Earlier this year, Ohmart
wrote a scathing review of a report
published by the New Mexico Department of
Agriculture, which called for
more cattle grazing in wilderness areas. The
report concluded that
"economically, it might shield the ranchers and
surrounding communities
from bankruptcy."
The
report was also dismissed by Charles Cartwright Jr., the
Southwest's Regional
Forester for the Forest Service. Instead of more
grazing, Cartwright said,
forest lands need to be thinned through
prescribed burns, ignited during
moist period so they can be controlled.
Dave
Stewart, a range-management official for the U.S. Forest
Service in
Albuquerque, said a lack of grass in some areas recently has
prevented the
agency from setting controlled burns.
Grasses carry
fast-moving spot fires that clear out the
abundance of brush, needles and
small pines while leaving unharmed the
mature fire resistant trees with their
thick bark. Spot fires return
nutrients to the soil, and grasses quickly
sprout back.
A review conducted by the Forest
Service last year concluded
that the lack of culling fires threatens to
"unravel and destroy"
wilderness areas."
...
"A measure before Congress known as the
Livestock Grazing Act,
backed by the Cattle Grower's Association would ensure
that ranching
continues and that government regulation is
limited.
President Clinton has vowed to veto the
measure."