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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
4-10-00
#233
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§
URBAN HAWKS ARE BEING NEEDLESSLY ELECTROCUTED-
COME
TO A PANEL DISCUSSION ON APRIL 11TH TO LEARN
MORE
AND HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE
§ PETITION FILED TO LIST CALIFORNIA
SPOTTED OWL AS
AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
§
SUIT FILED TO PROTECT HABITAT FOR SEVEN PACIFIC
ISLANDS BIRDS AND MAMMALS
§ CALIFORNIA PRISON PLAN COULD JEOPARDIZE
IMPERILED
SPECIES
§ DISMANTLING OF NEW
MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME &
FISH NON-GAME
PROGRAM CONTINUES
URBAN HAWKS ARE BEING NEEDLESSLY
ELECTROCUTED-
COME TO A PANEL DISCUSSION ON APRIL 11TH TO LEARN
MORE AND
HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE
On Tuesday, April 11th, the Center for Biological
Diversity will present
a panel discussion and short video about the needless
and brutal
electrocution of Harris' hawks in and around Tucson.
Entitled
"Shocked to Death: The Plight of the Urban Harris' Hawk",
the
presentation will take place in the Lower Level Meeting Room
of
Tucson's Downtown Public Library (101 N. Stone Ave.) from 7 to 9
pm. We
are hoping to have a live Harris' hawk on hand.
Tucson and Phoenix are
blessed with some the densest urban raptor
populations in North America.
These graceful birds help to define our
community and remind us of all the
Sonoran Desert's wildlife.
Unfortunately, large raptors such as Harris' hawk
and Great horned
owls are frequently electrocuted as they perch on poorly
designed and
inadequately protected utility poles. Since Harris' hawks
roost
communally, an entire family can be electrocuted in one shot.
Young
birds are most frequently killed because older, larger birds
occupy
higher roosting positions, forcing the smaller birds to perch
down
among the cable connections.
Under pressure from
environmentalists, Tucson Electric Power has
taken some steps to insulate up
to 4% of its poles, but has chosen
to use the cheapest system available, even
though it is less than
effective. Between 1992 and 1995, 25% of all recorded
bird
electrocutions took place on insulated poles. The electric utility
has
refused to provide data from 1996-1999.
For more information,
contact Turtle at 623.5252 x.303.
______________________
PETITION FILED TO LIST CALIFORNIA SPOTTED OWL
AS
AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
On 4-4-00, the Center for Biological Diversity
and the Sierra Nevada
Forest Protection Campaign led a large coalition of
groups in the
filing of a formal petition to list the California spotted owl
under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act. The California spotted owl is
close
relative of the Northern and Mexican spotted owls. Though the
latter
two are already listed as "threatened" species, the California
spotted
owl is lacking federal protection. As a result, its old growth
habitat
continues to be destroyed by logging and other activities on
public
and private lands in the Sierra Nevada and the coastal mountains
of
Southern California.
Demographic studies indicate the California
spotted owl is declining
by 7-10% annually- a level that no species can
sustain for very long
without becoming extinct. In 1989, the Center filed a
successful
petition to list the Mexican spotted owl as a threatened species
in
Arizona, New Mexico, northern Mexico, and southern Utah and
Colorado.
The listing and hard work by activists across the region
have led to dramatic
declines in public lands logging. Listing of the
California spotted owl
should result in similarly increased protection
of old growth and mature
forests in California.
Also joining in the petition are the Center for
Sierra Nevada
Conservation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders
of
Wildlife, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Friends of the River,
Forest
Issues Group, Plumas Forest Project, Yahi Group of the Sierra
Club,
Lassen Forest Preservation Group, John Muir Project, Yosemite
Area
Audubon, American Lands Alliance and the Sequoia Forest
Alliance
_____________________
SUIT
FILED TO PROTECT HABITAT FOR SEVEN PACIFIC ISLANDS
BIRDS AND MAMMALS
On
4-3-00, The Center for Biological Diversity and the Marianas Audubon
Society
filed suit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for failing
to
protect the habitat of seven endangered species on Guam. The
Mariana
crow, Guam rail, Guam Micronesian kingfisher, Guam broadbill,
Guam
bridled white-eye, Mariana fruit bat, and little Mariana fruit bat
were
listed as federally endangered species in1984. The Fish &
Wildlife
Service, however, has refused to designate and protect "critical
habitat"
for any of them.
While all seven species were once common
throughout Guam, only two
(Mariana crow ("ĺga" in Chamoru) and Mariana fruit
bat (fanihi)) still occur
naturally in the wild, but are restricted to a few
distinct forested areas.
The Guam rail (ko'ko') and the Guam Micronesian
kingfisher (sihek)
have only avoided extinction due to a captive breeding
program. The rail
was recently been reintroduced to the northern part of
Guam. All of the
species are threatened by habitat fragmentation and
introduction of exotic
species, especially the brown tree snake.
The
Pacific Islands are both a biodiversity and an extinction hot
spot.
Scientists estimate that over 2,000 bird species -- 20% of all
avian
species on Earth -- have been driven to extinction on the islands.
About
800 species of flightless rails have perished. Eleven of Guam's
twelve
native birds are extinct or federally endangered.
The suit is
being argued by David Henkin of the Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund
(Honolulu).
____________________
CALIFORNIA PRISON PLAN ENDANGERS NATIVE
MAMMALS
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) is planning to build
a
new prison capable of holding 5,160 inmates on 480 acres near
Delano,
CA. Though its own figures show that the prison is not needed,
CDC is
pushing to build the prison on the home of one of the few
remaining
populations of the endangered Tipton kangaroo-rat. The
kangaroo rat has
already be extirpated from 96% of its historic range.
The site is also
foraging habitat for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox.
The Center has
advised CDC to cancel the pork-barrel project rather
than jeopardize
California's natural heritage. The agency must respond
to our objections and
review the project's impact on endangered species
before proceeding. It wants
to break ground by February 2001.
________________________
DISMANTLING OF NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME
& FISH
NON-GAME PROGRAM CONTINUES
The New Mexico Game & Fish
canceled its popular publication:
"PARTNERS, Conserving Endangered Species".
The magazine
began in 1996 under direction of Dr. James Bailey, then Head
of
State's Endangered Species Program. In 1997 it received
national
recognition for quality when it won a Maggie Award. Ironically,
Dr.
Bailey recently retired from the agency, and wrote an editorial
for
Defenders of Wildlife lamenting that New Mexico's endangered
species
laws are too weak, underfunded, and politically subverted
to provide adequate
protection. One of the few virtues of the state
program, he wrote, is that it
publicizes the plight of imperiled
species. Now even that effort is being
gutted.
In November of last year, the Assistant Chief of the
Conservation
Services Division also resigned. In a final memo to her
colleagues,
Amy Fischer wrote:
"I have had many rewarding
experiences in my 15 years here and
was gratified when my
work benefited the State's wildlife. I found,
however, that I could no longer stand by as my agency
consistently
made political expedient or biologically
unsound decisions to the
detriment of wildlife
conservation. I hope you will continue fighting
for
natural resources, despite the difficulties inherent in this
work
and the barriers to effective management in many
agencies."
25 of New Mexico's vertebrate species are extinct or
extirpated from
the state. 117 are listed as threatened or endangered by New
Mexico
Game and
Fish.
_____________________________________________________________
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
520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
<http://www.sw-center.org>
POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710