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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
6-2-00
#239
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FOXES,
WHALES, SPIDERS, GOSHAWKS, AND LOBSTERS...
§ PETITION FILED TO PROTECT
FOUR FOX SUBSPECIES
UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES
ACT
§ COOK INLET BELUGA WHALE TO BE PROTECTED FROM
HUNTING
§ LOGGING PLAN ON 8 MILLION ACRES OF UT, CO, AND
WY
FORESTS CHALLENGED TO PROTECT GOSHAWKS
§ TEXAS
SPIDERS GOING EXTINCT, SUIT WILL SEEK PROTECTION
§ SUIT SPURS FEDERAL
PROPOSAL TO CLOSE DECLINING
HAWAIIAN LOBSTER
FISHERY
§ SUPPORT ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION: SEND EMAIL
TODAY
PETITION FILED TO PROTECT FOUR FOX SUBSPECIES UNDER
THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
On 6-1-00, the Center for Biological Diversity and the
Institute for
Wildlife Studies filed a formal petition to list the San Miguel
Island
fox, Santa Cruz Island fox, Santa Rosa Island fox, and the
San
Clemente Island fox as endangered species. They represent four
of the
six subspecies of island fox which are endemic to southern
California's
Channel Islands. Foxes thrived on the islands for 16,000
years, but within
the past five have suffered cataclysmic declines.
The San Miguel Island
population has dropped from 400 in 1994 to
just 15 in 1999. In desperation to
stave off extinction, biologists
placed 14 of the foxes in protective pens,
leaving just one in the
wild. Only five males remain in the entire
subspecies. The Santa
Catalina Island fox declined by about 90% between
1998 and 1999.
The reason for the declines is not fully understood but
includes
habitat loss do to overgrazing of livestock and game animals,
canine
distemper transmitted by pet dogs, and heavy predation by
golden
eagles. When bald eagles inhabited the Channel Islands, they
preyed
on fish rather than mammals, and they prevented golden
eagles from nesting on
the islands. With the extirpation of the bald
eagle due to DDT poisoning,
golden eagles colonized the islands for
the first time, thriving on feral
pigs. The eagles are now preying on
foxes which have not evolved effective
defenses against them.
National Park Service and Institute for Wildlife
Studies biologists
are translocating golden eagles to the mainland,
reintroducing bald
eagles, and removing the feral pigs.
To see
pictures of the island fox and to learn more:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/fox.html>
_______________________
COOK INLET BELUGA WHALE TO BE PROTECTED
FROM
HUNTING
On 5-31-00, the National Marine Fisheries Service officially
designated
the Cook Inlet beluga whale as a "depleted species" under the
Marine
Mammal Protection Act. The designation comes in response to
a
petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and others to list
the
whale as an endangered species in March, 1999. The
"depleted"
designation will likely lead to the eventual banning of all
hunting
for the declining species.
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.
The Fisheries Service has issued an initial positive
finding on the
listing petition, but has stalled in formally proposing the
whale for
listing. In order to break the political gridlock, the Center and
others
sued on 5-8-00, demanding that the Service rule on the
petition
before the beluga declines even
farther.
_______________________
LOGGING PLAN ON 8 MILLION ACRES OF UT, CO, AND
WY
FORESTS CHALLENGED TO PROTECT GOSHAWKS
On 5-22-00, the Center formally
appealed a decision by the U.S.
Forest Service to continue logging goshawk
habitat on 8.1 million
acre of forest in UT, CO, and WY. The appeal was
joined by the
Wild Utah Forest Campaign, Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance,
Maricopa Audubon Society, Southwest Forest Alliance,
Willow
Creek Ecology and Citizens for the Protection of Logan
Canyon.
In the name of "consistently managing" goshawk habitat in
the
five Utah National Forests (including small portions of CO, and
WY),
the Forest Service choose to adopt a nine year old, highly
controversial
goshawk management plan. Though the plan is
long out of date, and has been
roundly criticized by the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, the Dept. of
Interior, academic scientists,
state Game and Fish scientists, and even a
Forest Service
scientist, the Utah National Forests chose to adopt it with
no
response to the criticisms.
_______________________
TEXAS SPIDERS GOING EXTINCT, SUIT WILL
SEEK
PROTECTION
On 5-30-00, the Center filed a formal notice of intent to
sue
the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service for delaying federal
protection
of nine Bexar County, Texas spiders:
Rhadine exilis (no common name)
Rhadine infernalis (no common
name),
Batrisodes venyivi (Helotes mold beetle),
Texella cokendolpheri (Robber Baron Cave harvestman)
Cicurina
baronia (Robber Baron cave spider),
Cicurina madla (Madla's cave
spider),
Cicurina venii (no common name),
Cicurina vespera (vesper cave spider),
Neoleptoneta microps
(Government Canyon cave spider)
All nine are cave spiders inhabiting
karst features (limestone
formations containing caves, sinks, and fissures)
near San
Antonio, Texas. Threats to the species and their habitat
include
destruction and/or deterioration of habitat by construction,
filling
of caves, loss of permeable cover, and contamination from
septic
effluent, sewer leaks, runoff, and pesticides.
The spiders were
the subject of a formal listing petition in 1992,
but as usual, the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service has bent to political
pressure and illegally delayed
making a decision about their fate.
The agency is now 6 years overdue in
listing the species.
_____________________________
SUIT SPURS FEDERAL PROPOSAL TO CLOSE
DECLINING
HAWAIIAN LOBSTER FISHERY
Just a week after oral hearings in a
lawsuit brought by the Greenpeace
Foundation, the Center for Biological
Diversity, and Turtle Island
Restoration Network, the National Marine
Fisheries Service proposed
an emergency closure of the northwest Hawaiian
lobster fishery on
4-28-00. The suit was filed on 1-26-00 to prevent the
extinction of the
highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal which depends on
the
lobsters for its sustenance. Monk seal pups are starving to death
even
as lobster boats (which set up to 1,000 traps each night) remove
hundreds of
thousands of spiny and slipper lobsters from the monk
seal's formally
designated critical habitat each year.
The Hawaiian monk seal is one of
the world's most endangered marine
mammals. The plaintiffs are represented in
the action by Paul Achitoff
of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund
(Honolulu).
_________________________
SUPPORT ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION: SEND EMAIL
TODAY
On 5-9-00, the U.S. Forest Service issued a draft plan which was
supposed
to protect the few remaining roadless areas left in the National
Forest
system from logging. The plan, however, falls far short of the
protections
necessary to protect watersheds and wildlife. The plan only
prohibits road
building in inventoried roadless areas greater than 5,000
acres, does not
prohibit logging, ORV use, mining or livestock grazing. Many
ecologically
important roadless areas have never been inventoried or are
between 1,000
and 5,000 acres and thus are excluded from even this limited
protection.
The plan also completely excludes the Tongass National Forest
in Alaska,
which has more roadless areas than any other National Forest. In
the next
five years, the Tongass plans to construct 564 miles of road and log
300
million board feet in roadless areas. This is two-thirds of their
planned
cutting and half of the national total for cutting in roadless
areas.
Feeling pressure as his less than stellar environmental record
has
become the topic of public debate, Al Gore has promised to end all
logging
in roadless areas. Why wait for the election? The Forest Service can
do
it now. Visit our website to easily send an email to the Forest
Service
demanding full protection of all roadless areas:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/roadless.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
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
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