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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
3-22-00
#231
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§
SEVEN MORE IMPERILED CALIFORNIA PLANTS PROTECTED
§ LAWSUIT
CHALLENGES GRAZING ON 10.2 MILLION ACRES OF
CALIFORNIA DESERT TO
PROTECT 24 ENDANGERED SPECIES
§ SUIT FILED TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT
DOCUMENTS ON
CALIFORNIA DEVELOPMENT PERMITS
§
WOLVES RETURN TO THE GILA WILDERNESS AT LAST!
SEVEN MORE IMPERILED
CALIFORNIA PLANTS PROTECTED
In accordance with a legally binding settlement
agreement between the
Center for Biological Diversity, the California Native
Plant Society, and
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, seven plants from
California's central
coast bioregion were listed as threatened or endangered
on 3-20-00.
The Santa Cruz tarplant, Purple amole, and Camatta Canyon amole
were
listed as threatened species. The La Graciosa thistle, Nipomo
mesa
lupine, Lompoc yerba santa, and Gaviota tarplant were listed
as
endangered. In response to the same settlement, the Fish &
Wildlife
Service listed three other California plants as endangered
species
(Baker's larkspur, Yellow larkspur, and Kneeland Prairie
penny-cress).
Though most of these species have waiting since 1975 for
federal
protection, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service bowed to political
pressure,
leaving them in bureaucratic limbo until sued by the Center and the
Native
Plant Society in 1999. The Center's "Golden State Biodiversity
Program"
has successfully petitioned and litigated to protect 90 California
species
under the Endangered Species Act since 1993.
The Santa Cruz
tarplant has been reduced to 20 populations in Monterey
and Santa Cruz
counties. It is threatened by overgrazing, competition with
exotic plants,
and expansion of the Watsonville Airport. The Purple amole
occurs only on the
U.S. Army's Fort Hunter Liggett. The Camatta Canyon
amole occurs on private
lands and within the Los Padres National Forest.
They are threatened by
off-road vehicles, military training, cattle grazing,
and disruption of
natural fire regimes. The La Graciosa Thistle and Nipomo
mesa lupine occur in
the Guadalupe Dune area. They are threatened by oil
and water development.
The Lompoc yerba santa, a shrub in the waterleaf
family, has been reduced to
4 populations in western Santa Barbara County.
Two are on Vandenberg Air
Force Base, two others are on privately owned
oil fields. The Gaviota
tarplant, a member of the sunflower family, is limited
to a narrow strip of
coastal terrace between the Santa Ynez Mountains and
the ocean in Santa
Barbara County. It is threatened by oil pumping,
suburban sprawl, and
competition with invasive weeds.
The Center's "Golden State Biodiversity
Program" has successfully
petitioned and litigated to place 84 California
species under the
Endangered Species Act since 1993. The Center and CNPS
were
represented in this case by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and
Jay
Tutchton of Earthlaw (Denver, Palo
Alto).
_______________________
LAWSUIT
CHALLENGES GRAZING ON 10.2 MILLION ACRES OF
CALIFORNIA DESERT TO PROTECT 24
ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 3-16-00, the Center for Biological Diversity, the
Sierra Club, and Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed suit
against the Bureau
of Land Management, charging that the agency has refused
to reign in
overgrazing on 10.2 million acres of southern California desert,
pushing
24 endangered species toward extinction.
Congress established
the 10.2 million acre California Desert Conservation
Area in 1976, and
ordered the BLM to develop a conservation plan to
protect its wildlife. The
BLM developed a plan in 1980, but has not
implemented its conservation
elements, and never reviewed its impacts
on endangered species. The
Conservation Area stretches over 400 miles
from the US-Mexico border to Death
Valley and the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada. It includes some of
California's most scenic areas in Imperial,
San Diego, Los Angeles,
Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Inyo and
Mono counties.
Species
involved in the suit include:
Desert
tortoise Peninsular Ranges bighorn
sheep Mojave chub
Desert
pupfish Desert slender
salamander
Bald eagle
Yuma clapper rail Parish's
daisy
Arroyo toad
Least Bell's vireo California
condor
Amargosa vole
Cushenberry
milkvetch Lane Mountain
milkvetch
Inyo California
towhee Southwestern
willow flycatcher
Triple-ribbed
milkvetch Coachella
Valley fringe-toed lizard
Ash Meadows
gumplant Cushenberry
buckwheat
Amargosa
niterwort
Cushenberry oxytheca
Coachella Valley milkvetch
Peirson's milkvetch
The case is being argued by Brendan Cummings
(Berkeley) and
Jay Tutchton of Earthlaw (Denver and Palo Alto). Species and
habitat
photos and more case information is available at
www.sw-center.org
under late breaking news.
_____________________
SUIT FILED TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS ON
CALIFORNIA
DEVELOPMENT PERMITS
On 2-29-00, the Center for Biological
Diversity filed suit against the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers for refusing to
release public information
regarding Clean Water Act permits for the filling
of washes and
development in Peninsular bighorn sheep habitat and the filling
and
development of southern California vernal pools. Despite the
clear
requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, the Corps
of
Engineers has delayed releasing the information necessary to
assess the
cumulative impacts of its development permitting
program.
______________________
WOLVES RETURN
TO THE GILA WILDERNESS AT LAST
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has
finally issued a decision approving
the release of endangered Mexican gray
wolves directly into New
Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The Center developed
a "Wolf Safe Haven
Plan" in 1999 to encourage the agency to introduce wolves
to the Gila/
Aldo Leopold wilderness complex after five wolves were shot in
eastern
Arizona. New Mexico's Gila Wilderness area has few roads or
cattle,
but plenty of good wolf habitat and prey species. The plan and
our
New York Times ad promoting its adoption is available at:
<http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/wolf.html>
Most
of the 9,000 comments received on the Fish and Wildlife Service
proposal
supported reintroduction to the Gila.
Four wolves from the previously
re-captured Mule Pack were scheduled
to be placed in temporary on-site
acclimation pens in the Gila today
where they will be held for up to 30 days
before being released into the
wild. The pack consists of a male, a pregnant
female, and two pups. The
Pipestem pack will released in another portion of
the Gila Wilderness
later this month. It consists of a pregnant alpha pair,
three pups, and a
two year old female. The female may not be released as half
her leg
was amputated during her ill-conceived recapture.
Additional
wolves were also recently reintroduced to Arizona's Blue
Primitive Range. On
3-14-00, the Steeple Creek Pack, consisting of an
alpha pair and three pups,
was placed in an acclimation pen. They will
be released into the wild before
elk calves are born this spring. There are
currently 13 wolves in Arizona's
Blue Range, including the Steeple Creek
pack of five, the Campbell Blue Pack
of four, and the Hawk's Nest Pack of
four. A lone yearling from the Gavilan
pack has crossed from Arizona into
New Mexico and has been repeatedly
seen in northern portion of the Gila
National
Forest.
_____________________________________________________________
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