<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
5-25-00
#238
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE APPEALED- GILA NATIONAL
FOREST
CLAIMS DEAD TREES ARE NOT REALLY TREES
§ KIDS' "NAME A WOLF PUP CONTEST"
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
§ KIDS' "SPIRIT OF THE WOLF QUILT" TOURS LIBRARIES AND
SCHOOLS
§ COURT ASKED TO HALT LOGGING TO SAVE IMPERILED SALMON
§
126 GAS AND OIL LEASES WITHDRAWN TO PROTECT IMPERILED
ALASKAN BELUGA WHALE
§ BLM REFUSES TO CONSIDER CRITICAL DESERT HABITAT
FOR
"WILDERNESS" PROTECTION- SEND AN EMAIL MESSAGE
TODAY!
NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE APPEALED- GILA NATIONAL FOREST
CLAIMS
DEAD TREES ARE NOT REALLY TREES
On 5-11-00, the Center for Biological
Diversity, Forest Conservation Council,
and the National Forest Protection
Alliance appealed the Corner Mountain
salvage timber sale on the Gila
National Forest. Though clearcutting is very
unusual in the Southwest today,
the sale would clearcut 340 acres of
ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir,
including 7,000 trees over 16 inches in
diameter.
The Corner Mountain
salvage sale has cast a dark shadow over the Gila's
otherwise progressive
burn program because it seeks to log an area that
burned two years ago when
the Forest Service lost control of a prescribed
natural fire. Among
other illegalities, the Gila is ignoring its own
Forest Plan
by failing to
retain at least 2-3 snags per acre and is violating the Mexican
spotted owl
recovery plan by logging 2,500 trees over 24 inches in diameter.
In an
unusual defense of the project, Gila forester Scott Hill has told
local
newspapers that the logging is permitted because the Forest Service is
not
a "preservation service." Even more telling, he claims that the 2.5
million
board feet of timber which will be logged on Corner Mountain "are not
trees."
Having missed the last 50 years of ecological research, the Gila
National
Forest believes that once dead, a tree is no longer a
tree.
___________________________
"NAME A WOLF PUP CONTEST" WINNERS
ANNOUNCED
Three children were chosen as winners of the Name-A-Wolf Pup
Contest
sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity. Over 900 students
from
schools throughout the Southwest sent in entries to help welcome
the
Southwest's newest wild born wolf pups into the world. Participants
were
asked draw a Mexican gray wolf in its forest habitat, submit a wolf pup
name,
and explain why they thought it was important to have wolves in the
wild. The
winning entries can be seen at:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/wolf/contestend.html>
The
three winners and their families will be treated to an all expense
paid
weekend in Wolf Country at the Wilderness Lodge and Hot Springs
located
in Gila Hot Springs, NM. The winners are:
K-2
Grade Winner: Caleb Spegman. Pup Name "Keesa"
Suzanne
McCullough's Kindergarten Class at St. Francis Pre-School and
Kindergarten, Tucson, AZ.
3-5 Grade Winner: Tanner Houtz.
Pup name: "Rocky"
Mr. Matchett's 5th Grade Class, Lulu Walker
Elem. School, Tucson, AZ
6-8 Grade Winner: Marcela VillaReal
Amador. Pup Name "Lirpa"
Aaron Parker's 8th Grade Class at Our
Lady of the Lourdes Catholic Middle
School-Nogales,
AZ.
2nd, 3rd and 4th place runners up were selected from each of the
three age
categories. All 12 finalists' artwork and the Spirit of the
Wolf Quilt (also
created by children) will be on display at the Temple of Art
Gallery at the
Tucson Children's Museum September through October.
The
alpha females of the Mule Pack and the Pipestem Pack are currently
tending to
their new born pups in their dens, we hope to see them
soon.
_________________________
"SPIRIT OF THE WOLF QUILT" TOURS LIBRARIES AND
SCHOOLS
The "Spirit of the Wolf Quilt", created by children in 1999 with the
help of
the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildlife Damage Review,
is
traveling to
schools and public libraries throughout southern Arizona.
The quilt celebrates
the return of the Mexican gray wolf to the wilds of
Arizona and New Mexico.
The images remind us that wolves are an important
part of a healthy natural
world as seen through the eyes of our younger
generation. The quilt has
provided wonderful inspiration for stories, songs,
and art.
See the Spirit of the Wolf Quilt online at
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/wolf/quilt.html>
or
at any of the following
locations:
June
2000....Valencia Public Library, 202 W Valencia Rd,
Tucson
July 2000....Woods
Memorial Public Library, 3455 N First Ave,
Tucson
August 2000....Wilmot
Public Library, 530 N Wilmot Rd,
Tucson
September
2000....Tucson Children's Museum, Tucson
The Tucson Children's Museum
showing will also children's artwork created
for the successful "Name a Wolf
Pup Contest". For more information on
bringing the wolf quilt to your
community's school, library, or neighborhood
center, contact the Center at:
520.623.5252
x.303.
______________________________
COURT ASKED TO HALT LOGGING TO SAVE
IMPERILED SALMON
On 5-19-00, the Environmental Protection Information Center
(EPIC) and
nearly twenty conservation, fisheries and Native American
organizations,
including the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a motion
in federal court
seeking to enjoin logging operations that illegally "take"
(kill or harm) coho
salmon. Coho are protected species under the U.S.
Endangered Species
Act. The request for a preliminary injunction marks the
first substantive
action in a lawsuit filed 3-1-00 against the California
Department of
Forestry,
Board of Forestry and Resources
Agency.
Scientists and federal officials have roundly criticized
California's Forest
Practice Rules for failing to adequately protect coho
from harm caused by
logging. Recent changes to the Rules, negotiated by
Governor Davis and
adopted by the Board of Forestry in March are insufficient
to address the
crisis facing California's salmon. These inadequate rules are
only temporary
and will expire at the end of December.
The preliminary
injunction motion cites overwhelming evidence that the
state's logging rules
do not protect coho. The motion points to much
more extensive logging
restrictions employed on federal lands. It also cites
studies by the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the federal agency
responsible for
recovering the coho, showing that California logging rules
regularly permit
destruction of coho habitat. Four noted scientific
experts, in
disciplines
ranging from geomorphology to fisheries biology, filed
declarations
with
the court explaining how the state's logging rules allow habitat
modification
as well as direct harm to the imperiled
fish.
_______________________
126 GAS AND OIL LEASES WITHDRAWN TO PROTECT
IMPERILED
ALASKAN BELUGA WHALE
On 5-1-00, in response to a suit by Cook
Inlet Keeper and five other
conservation groups, an Alaska Superior Court
judge ruled that the state's
new oil and gas leasing rules are not sufficient
to protect the imperiled Cook
Inlet beluga whale from noise and pollution.
Judge Murphy not only refused to
lift his year old order excluding 70 tracts
from oil and gas leasing, he added
56 more tracts recently identified as
important whale gathering sites by the
National Marine Fisheries Service. The
original 70 tracts were at the mouths
of rivers in the Upper Inlet,
especially in the Turnagain and Knik arms. The
newly protected tracts
are in the Middle Inlet, including the mouth of the
Kenai and Kasilof
rivers.
Though the leases could still theoretically be issued under
strong
environmental limitations, the state has decided not to issue them at
all.
The Cook Inlet beluga whale has declined from over 1,000 individuals
to
about 350 in recent years. It is threatened by oil development,
commercial
fishing, and discharge of urban and industrial wastes. In March
1999, the
Center for Biological Diversity, Trustees for Alaska, Center for
Marine
Conservation, and former native whale hunter, Joel Blatchford,
petitioned the
Fisheries Service to list the beluga as an endangered species.
The Service
issued a positive initial finding, but has stalled in proposing
the whale for
listing. In order to break the political gridlock, the
petitioners filed
suit on
5-8-00, demanding that the Service rule on the
petition before the beluga
declines even
farther.
_________________________________
BLM REFUSES TO CONSIDER CRITICAL DESERT
HABITAT FOR
PROTECTION AS "WILDERNESS"- SEND AN EMAIL MESSAGE TODAY!
The
Sand Tank Mountains, covering 80,000 spectacular acres in southwest
Arizona,
is one of several large chunks of the Sonoran Desert that the US
Department
of Defense formerly managed, but no longer needs. The Bureau
of Land
Management (BLM) was charged last year with evaluating how best
to manage
this gorgeous desert country. The agency, however, is refusing to
inventory
the Sand Tanks for wilderness potential. Please click the link
below to send
the BLM a message that Sand Tanks need to be protected
as
wilderness:
<http://www.wilderness.org/ccc/fourcorners/sandtanks.htm>
Comment
are due by May 31,
2000.
_____________________________________________________________
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
Science and Policy
Director 520.623.5252
phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797
fax
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
POB 710, Tucson, AZ
85702-0710
</x-flowed>