From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2000 8:30
PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST
#243
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
7-8-00
#243
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
876,000 ACRES PROPOSED AS "CRITICAL HABITAT" FOR
PENINSULAR
BIGHORN SHEEP IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
§ 10,500 ACRES PROPOSED AS "CRITICAL
HABITAT" FOR
ZAYANTE BAND-WINGED GRASSHOPPER
§
BI-NATIONAL COALITION FILES HISTORIC SUIT TO PROTECT
COLORADO
RIVER DELTA FROM U.S. WATER DIVERSIONS
§ LETTERS
NEEDED! FRITO-LAY DESTROYING NORTH
AMERICA'S LARGEST
PRAIRIE DOG COLONY
876,000 ACRES PROPOSED AS "CRITICAL HABITAT"
FOR
PENINSULAR BIGHORN SHEEP IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In accord with a legal
settlement obtained by the Center for Biological
Diversity and Desert
Survivors, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
published a proposal on
7-5-00 to designate 875,613 acres of critical
habitat in southern California
for the endangered Peninsular bighorn
sheep. Reduced from 1,200 in the 1970's
to just 335 today, the
Peninsular bighorn ranges from the San Jacinto
Mountains of southern
California to the Volcan Tres Virgenes Mountains near
Santa Rosalia
in Baja California.
In 1997, golf courses outnumbered
bighorn in the Palm Springs area
91 to 75. Dozens of additional golf courses
and developments are
scheduled to destroy the bighorn's dwindling habitat in
the next few
years. Transmission of disease from sheep and cattle ranching
also
threaten bighorn populations. Once the critical habitat designation
is
finalized later this year, however, no federally permitted or
funded
project (including large private developments) will be permitted
to
"adversely modify" the sheep's habitat.
Since 1993, the Center has
won designation of 2,790 miles of river
and 833,002 acres of land as
"critical habitat" for endangered
species. An additional 1,160 miles of river
and 55.3 million acres
of land have been proposed as critical habitat for a
great diversity
of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and
insects.
______________________________
10,500
ACRES PROPOSED AS "CRITICAL HABITAT" FOR
ZAYANTE BAND-WINGED
GRASSHOPPER
In accordance with a legal settlement with the Center for
Biological
Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife
Service published a proposal to designate 10,560 acres of "critical
habitat" for the Zayante band-winged grasshopper on 7-7-00. Occurring
only in Santa Cruz County,California, the Zayante band-winged
grass-
hopper was first described in 1984. It has evolved to live in
relatively open,
sandy areas, but over 60% of its habitat in the Zayante
sand hills has
been destroyed by sand mining, urban sprawl, and
agribusiness.
The California Academy of Sciences petitioned to list the
grasshopper
as an endangered species in 1992. The Fish & Wildlife
Service listed
in 1997, but refused to map out and protect specific areas as
"critical
habitat" thus habitat loss continued to occur despite the listing.
In
1999, the Center and Christians Caring for Creation filed suit to ensure
habitat protection for this rare and wonderful part of California's natural
heritage.
The Center's "Golden State Biodiversity Initiative" has
successfully
obtained endangered species listings for 96 plants and
animals
ranging from the Del Mar manzinita and Coachella Valley
milk-vetch,
to the Jaguar, Laguna Mountain skipper butterfly, and San
Diego
Fairy shrimp. Over 1.8 million acres of California's wildlands
have
been formally proposed as critical habitat to protect threatened
and
endangered species.
_______________________________
BI-NATIONAL COALITION FILES HISTORIC SUIT
TO PROTECT
COLORADO RIVER DELTA FROM U.S. WATER DIVERSIONS
A binational
coalition of eight environmental groups led by the Center
for Biological
Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed suit on 6-28-00
to obtain
guaranteed water flows in the Colorado River to restore the
dwindling
Colorado River Delta, Cienega de Santa Clara, and several
endangered species
including the Southwestern willow flycatcher,
Vaquita (the world's rarest
porpoise) and the Totoaba (a large fish).
So much water is dammed and
diverted from the Colorado River for
urban and agricultural use in the U.S.,
that it often runs dry before
reaching the Delta and Gulf of California in
Mexico. Lack of fresh water
inflow has severely degraded what used to be one
the world's great
estuaries. Its wetlands have decline from some 1.9 million
acres to just
150,000. Native peoples as well as fish, birds, mammals and
mollusks
have all been impacted, as have fisheries in the northern gulf. The
Cienega de Santa Clara is also threatened by government plans to
divert
its water source for use in the U.S.
The suit was brought against the
Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Dept.
of Interior, U.S. Department of Commerce,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
It asserts that the
Endangered Species Act applies to federal agencies which
are
causing habitat loss and take of endangered species, even in
foreign
countries. Joining the Center and Defenders in the suit are the
Asociación
Ecológica de Usuarios del Río Hardy-Colorado, Centro
Regional de Estudios
Ambientales y Socioeconomicos, Defenders of
Wildlife, El Centro de Derecho
Ambiental y Integración Económica del
Sur, A.C., Consejo Coordinador
Empresarial De Mexicali, A.C., the
Humane Society of the United States and
the Sierra Club.
In other efforts to change a hundred year long history
of dewatering the
Colorado River, the Center, Defenders and others have
published a
scientific study identifying the minimum water needs of the
Delta,
organized a coalition representing eight million U.S. and Mexican
citizens calling for an amendment to the 1944 Colorado River water
treaty to permanently allocate water for the conservation and restoration
of the Delta, and continue to watchdog the water developer dominated
"Lower Colorado River Multiple Species Conservation Program."
The
suit is being argued by Katherine Meyer of Meyer &
Glitzenstein
(Washington, D.C.) and Bill Snape of Defenders of
Wildlife.
_____________________
LETTERS
NEEDED! FRITO-LAY DESTROYING NORTH AMERICA'S
LARGEST PRAIRIE DOG
COLONY
North America's largest black-tailed prairie dog complex is
located
just north of Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, Mexico. The areas
has
been under siege by intensive livestock grazing for decades,
causing
the area inhabited by prairie dogs to decrease by 60-80%
between
1988 and 2000. In February, 2000, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
declared that the black-tailed prairie dog warranted listing under
the
Endangered Species Act, but was allegedly unable to complete the
listing because of higher priorities.
While ranching was the primary
cause of decline from 1988 to 1996,
expansion of potato fields has since
because the major cause of
habitat loss. Frito-Lay's Mexican operations are
one of the driving
forces behind the expansion. Please write Frito-Lay today
demanding
they stop all destruction of prairie dog habitat in Chihuahua and
restore areas already lost to potato farming:
Bill Moore,
Environmental Program Manager
Frito-Lay Corporation
P.O. box
660634
Dallas, TX 75266-0634
If you haven't
already, please become a member of the Center for
Biological Diversity
today:
<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