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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
7-3-00
#242
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§
1,160 RIVER MILES, 42,600 ACRES TO BE PROTECTED FOR
ENDANGERED FISH IN NM, TX, OK, KA
§ NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE STOPPED TO
PROTECT
SONGBIRDS AND MAMMALS
§ BLM LAND SWAP
WITH MINING GIANT ASARCO/ GRUPO
MEXICO
CHALLENGED
§ BALD EAGLE REMAINS ON ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
§ SUIT
FILED TO STOP MT. GRAHAM POWERLINE
§ JOIN THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY TODAY!
1,160 RIVER MILES, 42,600 ACRES TO BE PROTECTED
FOR
ENDANGERED FISH IN NM, TX, OK, KA
In keeping with a legal settlement
with the Center for Biological Diversity,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service published a proposed rule on 6-30-00
to designate 1,160 river miles
as "critical habitat" for the endangered
Arkansas River shiner, including
42,600 acres of riparian forest. The
areas proposed for protection include
portions of the Arkansas River in
Kansas, the Cimarron River in Kansas and
Oklahoma, the Beaver/North
Canadian River in Oklahoma, and the Canadian/South
Canadian River in
New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.
The Arkansas River
shiner was listed as an endangered species in
1998 because dams, water
diversions, water pumping, and pollution
have drastically reduced its
population size and range and will soon
drive the species to extinction if
not halted. The Fish & Wildlife
Service, however, declared that it was
"not prudent" to protect the
shiners habitat, leading to a lawsuit by the
Center and an eventual
settlement in which the agency agreed to review its
previous
decision.
___________________________
NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE STOPPED TO
PROTECT
SONGBIRDS AND MAMMALS
In response to an appeal filed by the Center
for Biological Diversity,
Forest Conservation Council and National Forest
Protection Alliance,
U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn the Corner Mountain
fire "salvage"
timber sale on New Mexico's Gila National Forest. The sale
would
have clearcut 2 ˝ million board feet of ponderosa pine and
Douglas-fir
on 340 acres. The Forest Service, however, failed to analyze
the
effects of logging on "management indicator species"
including
songbirds such as the hairy woodpecker, pygmy nuthatch,
violet-green
swallow, and purple martin. A recent Forest Service report
published as
part of a legal settlement between the Center, Forest Guardians,
and the
Forest Service, found that 100% of "coniferous nesting" and
"permanent
resident" songbirds in New Mexico to be in decline. The Forest
Service
also failed to consider the negative effects of logging on
mammals
such as elk, wild turkey, and Abert's squirrels. Finally, the
timber sale
also violated the Gila National Forest Plan.
The trees to
be logged burned in 1998 when the Forest Service lost
control of a 200 acre
prescribed natural fire. When implemented properly,
prescribed burns are an
important tool to begin reintroduction of natural
fire regimes, restore
ecological integrity, and reduce the threat of
catastrophic fire to forest
communities. The Gila conducts the Forest
Service's most aggressive
prescribed burn policy and eventually hopes
to burn one million areas a year.
Salvage logging in prescribed burn
areas, however, undermines the Forest
Service's own restoration goals,
creates a conflict of interest, and promotes
arson.
_____________________
BLM PLANS
LAND SWAP WITH MINING GIANT ASARCO/GRUPO
MEXICO
On 6-29-00, the Center for
Biological Diversity, Western Land Exchange
Project, and the Sierra Club
Grand Canyon Chapter formally protested the
Ray land exchange decision, in
which the BLM would give mining giant
ASARCO (now a wholly owned subsidiary
of Grupo Mexico) 10,000 acres
of land in exchange for 7,000 of its private
holdings. The public land to be
given away borders the spectacular White
Canyon Wilderness, contain
rare perennial waters and riparian deciduous
forest, are a priority
reintroduction site for bighorn sheep, and lie within
designated critical
habitat for the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl.
ASARCO would use the
land to expand its already enormous Ray copper mine near
Hayden,
Arizona, resulting in degradation of the beleaguered Gila River
and
threatening the recovery of river dependent species such as
the
Southwestern willow flycatcher.
The protest was submitted by
attorneys Roger Flynn and Jeff Parsons of
the Western Mining Action Project
(Boulder).
__________________________
BALD EAGLE REMAINS ON ENDANGERED SPECIES
LIST
In July, 1999, the Clinton Administration announced that the
American
bald eagle had recovered after nearly three decades as an
endangered
species and would be removed from protection under the
Endangered
Species Act on July 4, 2000. A delisting proposal was published,
but
has not been finalized. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials now
say
the delisting has been delayed for an indefinite period of
time.
The Center has actively opposed the delisting of the
southwestern
population, known as the Southern bald eagle. Only 40 pairs
remain
along southern Arizona and New Mexico rivers. The population is
far
from self-sufficient, depending upon intensive human intervention to
breed
successfully. On a national level, official delisting criteria have not
been
met for two of the five regional recovery plans. Bald eagles have still
not
been successfully re-introduced to southern California's Channel
Islands
from which they were extirpated because of DDT poisoning. The
recovery
of the gravely imperiled Island fox may be dependent upon
reintroduction
of bald eagles to the islands- the bald eagle (a fish eater)
would displace
the golden eagle (a mammal eater), thus reducing predation
pressure on
young foxes. The Center and the Institute for Wildlife Studies
filed a
petition to list the Island fox as an endangered species in on
6-1-00:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/fox.html>
_______________________
SUIT FILED TO STOP MT. GRAHAM
POWERLINE
Joining with the Apache Survival Coalition, Apaches for
Cultural
Preservation, the Maricopa Audubon Society, and Scientists for
the
Preservation of Mount Graham, the Center for Biological Diversity
has
filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service to stop construction of
a
powerline from the base to the top of Mt. Graham. Despite the fact
that
the federal observatory regulations specifically state that the 18-mile
long,
high-voltage powerline is subject to environmental and cultural
protection
laws, the University of Arizona and the Forest Service have
pushed the
project forward without any environmental review.
Mt. Graham is an
important sacred area to the San Carlos and White
Mountain Apache. It is a
unique desert "sky island" ecosystem with at
least 18 endemic animals and
plants, including the Mt. Graham red
squirrel. According to Ola Cassadore
Davis, Apache elder at the San
Carlos Apache Reservation "They took our
homeland. They cause real
pain to our mountain with their telescopes and
powerlines."
_____________________________
JOIN THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
TODAY!
If you are not already of member of the Center, and you enjoy
these
free alerts and being part of an aggressive effort to rewild
western
North American and protect is imperiled wildlife, please click
the
link below and join the Center. Our successful campaigns
protect
millions of acres of forests, deserts, grasslands, and rivers
are
dependent upon the support of our members.
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/membership/member.html>
_____________________________________________________________
PLEASE
NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.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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