Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #24
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Southwest Biodiversity Alert #23
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southwest center for biological
diversity
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ksuckling@sw-center.org
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http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
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1.
HB SALVAGE SALE STOPPED!! EAGLE PEAK ROADLESS
AREA
SAVED.
2. JUDGE ORDERS LISTING DECISION ON SIX
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA PLANTS- HELP MAY BE ON THE WAY
FOR
ENDANGERED MARITIME CHAPARRAL
ECOSYSTEM.
3. GRAND CANYON CONDOR RELEASE STALLED.
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1. HB SALVAGE SALE STOPPED!! EAGLE PEAK
ROADLESS
AREA SAVED.
In response to a recent
directive from the Secretary of Agriculture
limiting salvage logging in
roadless areas, the Gila National Forest is
withdrawing the proposed 10
million board foot HB salvage timber
sale.
The largest, ugliest timber
sale in the Southwest, HB has engendered
constant controversy since first
being proposed in August 1995. The
HB fire was started in an old growth
roadless area the day the Salvage
Rider was signed into law. The Forest
Service allowed it to burn
through the old growth and four spotted owl
territories before
attempting to stop the fire. Within two days of the fire's
start, and
many weeks before its end, the Forest Service had already proposed
the
sale. When the final Mexican spotted owl Recovery Plan forbid
salvage
logging in roadless areas, a Forest Service biologist illegally
altered
the plan before it reached the printer, deleting the
prohibition. At the
request of the Southwest Center, an investigation
was conducted into
the origin of the fire and the altering of the Recovery
Plan. A second
Inspector General investigation, meanwhile, is investigating
charges
of arson against Gila National Forest employees.
Special
thanks to Mark Hughes (Earthlaw) for brilliantly and continually
arguing the
Mexican spotted owl injunction which has halted all SW
logging since August,
1995. Without the injunction, the HB salvage sale
would have been sold
long before the Secretary of Agriculture's
directive. Thanks also to
Todd Schulke (Southwest Center) for his
relentless campaign against HB
including the first ever environmental
demonstration in Reserve, Catron
County, NM. Finally, thanks to WAFC
and everyone else who tirelessly
raised the roadless salvage logging
issue to the point of making the Glickman
directive possible.
2. JUDGE ORDERS LISTING DECISION ON SIX
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PLANTS-
HELP MAY BE ON THE WAY FOR
ENDANGERED MARITIME CHAPARRAL ECOSYSTEM.
A Federal Judge has ordered the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue
a ruling, by September 30, 1996, on
whether six southern California
plant species deserve listing under the
Endangered Species Act. The
imperiled plants are found only in the
remaining 2,500 acres of southern
maritime chaparral habitat between northern
San Diego County and southern
Orange County. Much of this acreage is
extremely fragmented- the two
largest patches are no more than 600 acres
each.
The big-leaved crown beard, Del Mar Manzanita, Del Mar sand
aster,
Encinitas baccharis, Orcutt's spineflower, and short-leaved dudleya
are
primarily threatened by developers (Pardee, a massive
development
corporation, tried unsuccessfully to intervene in the case). At
least
two plants are in immediate danger of extinction; fewer than
twenty
individual Orcutt's chorizanthe plants remain at one location, and
the
short-leaved dudleya is found at only five locations along a
highly
developed ten mile stretch of coastline.
3. GRAND
CANYON CONDOR RELEASE STALLED.
Due to opposition by ranchers and miners,
the Fish and Wildlife Service
has delayed plans to reintroduce endangered
California condors to the
Grand Canyon. Even if a decision were made
this week, it is too late in
the year to begin reintroduction
efforts.
Rumors have it that the FWS is trying to work out a special
"no
surprises" agreement which would guarantee area ranchers and miners
that
at no time in the future would condor conservation efforts impact
them.