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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
3-16-00
#230
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§
SUIT RESULTS IN PROPOSALS TO PROTECT 57 MILLION
ACRES OF
ALASKA FOR IMPERILED WATERFOWL
§ SUIT RESULTS IN PROPOSAL TO
PROTECT 36,500 ACRES
OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WETLANDS- MORE
NEEDED
§ JUDGE ORDERS PROTECTION FOR MEXICAN
SPOTTED
OWL- OVER 4 MILLION ACRES OF FOREST
PROTECTION
EXPECTED IN ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, COLORADO,
UTAH
§ SWITCH YOUR INTERNET/EMAIL SERVICE AND
ONEWORLD
ONLINE WILL GIVE $60 TO THE CENTER'S
ENDANGERED
SPECIES PROTECTION PROGRAM
SUIT
RESULTS IN PROPOSALS TO PROTECT 57 MILLION
ACRES OF ALASKA FOR IMPERILED
WATERFOWL
Keeping to a settlement agreement with the Center for
Biological
Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife
Service issued a proposal on 3-14-00 to formally designate 16.3
million
acres of "critical habitat" in Alaska for the endangered Steller's
eider.
The proposal identifies over 25,000 square miles of coastline and
marine
sanctuaries, including: 15,800 square miles of Alaska's North
Slope,
1,200 square miles of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, marine waters
in
Kuskokwim Bay and, 9,000 miles of coastline from Nunivak Island,
to
the eastern Aleutians, along the northern and southern shores of
the
Alaska Peninsula, and east to Kachemak Bay in Lower Cook Inlet
and the
Kodiak Archipelago.
In accord with the same settlement agreement, the
Fish & Wildlife
Service last month proposed to designate and protect 47
million acres
of critical habitat for the endangered Spectacled eider.
Excluding over-
lapping areas, the total area to be protected for the two
imperiled sea
ducks is approximately 57 million acres equaling 89,000 square
miles.
The full Steller's eider proposal is available at:
<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a000313c.html>
A
Spectacled eider fact sheet is available at:
<http://www.r7.fws.gov/ea/0002.html>
______________________________
SUIT RESULTS IN PROPOSAL TO PROTECT 36,500
ACRES
OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WETLANDS- MORE NEEDED
On 3-8-00, the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service published a proposal to
designate about 36,501
acres of "critical habitat" for the endangered
San Diego fairy shrimp. The
designated areas are in Orange and San
Diego counties, and the Camp Pendleton
and Miramar Marine bases.
If finalized, the proposal could place sweeping
limits on developments
which would destroy southern California's increasingly
rare vernal
pools. The Service's proposal fulfills the first part of a
legally binding
settlement agreement resolving a lawsuit brought by the
Center for
Biological Diversity. A previous Center suit resulted in listing
of the
shrimp as endangered.
To mollify developers and the powerful
City of San Diego, the proposal
arbitrarily excluded all vernal pools within
the area covered by the
San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program. The
Service
justifies the exclusion by saying the program itself provides
sufficient
protection for the pools and endangered wetland species. In
1997,
however, the agency's own biologists concluded just the
opposite.
Indeed, they refused to certify the program for endangered
wetland
species protection.
_____________________
JUDGE ORDERS PROTECTION FOR MEXICAN SPOTTED
OWL-
OVER 4 MILLION ACRES OF FOREST PROTECTION
EXPECTED IN ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO,
COLORADO, UTAH
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological
Diversity, a
New Mexico federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife
Service to designate "critical habitat" for the imperiled
Mexican
spotted owl. Citing systematic delays by the federal agency,
and
eleven years of intensive research, petitions, and lawsuits by
activists, the
judge ordered the agency to complete the designation
by January 2001. He also
commended the Center for is "valiant and
persistent efforts" to protect the
imperiled old growth forest owl.
The Center petitioned to list the
spotted owl as a threatened
species in 1989, because its old growth forest
habitat is being
liquidated on National Forests in Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado,
and Utah, as well as in Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains. The
owl
was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1993 and 4.6
million
acres of critical habitat were designated for it in 1995.
Combined with
increased Northern goshawk protections, this caused
old growth logging to
decline by 84% on Arizona and New Mexico's
National Forests between 1989 and
1997.
In 1997, however, the original critical habitat designation
was
withdrawn because of a legal technicality. Rather than fix the
problem,
the Fish & Wildlife Service gave up completely on protecting the
owl's
critical habitat. Predictably, the Forest Service began ramping up
its
logging program as soon as the protection was withdrawn. Based on
the
previous designation, we expect about 4.6 million acres of forest
to be
protected for the owl.
The suit was argued by Mark Hughes of Earthlaw
(Denver and Palo
Alto).
______________
SWITCH YOUR INTERNET/EMAIL SERVICE AND ONEWORLD
ONLINE
WILL GIVE $60 TO THE CENTER'S WOLF PROTECTION
CAMPAIGN
OneWorldOnline, a
competitively priced internet and email provider,
will give $60 to the Center
for Biological Diversity for every person
who signs up for internet service
through the Center's web site.
This contribution will be used to protect
endangered wolves and
their habitats. OneWorld's service is comparable to
AOL, MSN,
Earthlink, etc., but none of those companies fund our work to
protect
endangered species. OneWorld's monthly charge is $21.95 a
month,
probably about the same as you are paying now.
In addition to
internet/email service and charitable donations,
OneWorld has a unique
program which gives their customers
"community dollars" which can be used to
purchase products
at OneWorld's online shopping site. You will get $100
free
"community dollars" just for signing up, plus $22 community
dollars
every month. The community dollars can also be
donated to the
Center.
Please take a few minutes now to click on the link below and
sign
up for One World's internet access and email service- even if
you
only try it for only one month, the Center will get $60
toward
protecting wolves and their forest home. It's fast. It's simple.
We
think you will be very happy with the service you get, and
knowing that the
environment is benefiting from your use of the
OneWorld email and internet
service.
Click here to sign up, or for more information:
<http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/owol1.html>
_____________________________________________________________
ENDANGERED
TOTEMS. Eleven of the twelve western states have adopted
imperiled species as
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, Montana and Wyoming
(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