<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
7-13-00
#244
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
ANOTHER 2,566 ACRES ALONG CALIFORNIA COAST PROPOSED
AS
"CRITICAL HABITAT" FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES
§ GOVERNOR DAVIS VETOS 125 TOLL
ROAD
§ SUIT IN WORKS TO STOP CALIFORNIA LONGLINE FISHING
FLEET
FROM KILLING SEA TURTLES, MARINE MAMMALS AND
SEABIRDS
§ SUIT IN WORKS TO SAVE CONDORS FROM HELICOPTER
HUNTING
ON LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST
§ NEW MEXICO
RANCHERS SLAUGHTER ELK TO FEED COWS
ANOTHER 2,566 ACRES ALONG CALIFORNIA
COAST PROPOSED
AS "CRITICAL HABITAT" FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES
In accordance
with legal settlement with the Center and Christians Caring
for Creation, the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposed to map out and
protect 2,566 acres
for the endangered Morro shoulderband snail. Found
only in western San Luis
Obispo County, the snail was listed under the
Endangered Species Actin 1994
because its coastal dune, scrub, and
maritime chaparral habitat is being
destroyed by unplanned sprawl,
off-highway vehicles, and invasion by
non-native species such as veldt
grass (Ehrharta calycino). Pesticides and
non-native predatory snails may
also be a problem.
The Center's
"Golden State Biodiversity Initiative" has obtained federal
protection for 96
species and proposed critical habitat designation for
1.81 million acres of
land.
______________________
GOVERNOR
DAVIS VETOS 125 TOLL ROAD
In response to overwhelming opposition, California
governor Gray Davis has
vetoed $8.6 million in funding to construct the 125
toll road. The ten mile
highway from San Miguel Road to Otay Mesa road would
have created even
more sprawl in Southern California while fragmenting open
space and wildlife
habitat. Thanks to everyone who wrote letters and made
phone calls!
___________________
SUIT
IN WORKS TO STOP CALIFORNIA LONGLINE FISHING FLEET
FROM KILLING SEA TURTLES,
MARINE MAMMALS AND SEABIRDS
On 7-6-00, the Center for Biological Diversity,
the Sea Turtle Restoration
Project, and the Recreational Fishing Alliance
formally notified the National
Marine Fisheries Service ("NMFS") that they
will sue over the agency's
failure to properly manage U.S. commercial boats
fishing for swordfish in
the Pacific. If NMFS does not act with 60 days to
eliminate the take of
threatened and endangered species by this fishery, the
coalition will file
suit to shut down the fishery.
The
California-based longline fishing fleet operates in international
waters
where it kills, as bycatch, many endangered species including
leatherback
sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, green sea turtles, olive
ridley sea
turtles, Steller's sea lions, Guadalupe fur seals, Hawaiian monk
seals, and
short-tailed albatrosses. Killing of the critically endangered
leatherback sea
turtle is especially egregious- the prestigious science
journal "Nature" last
month published an article predicting extinction for
the Pacific leatherback
within a few years if fisheries bycatch is not
greatly reduced (see alert
below).
U.S. fishing vessels operating in
international waters must obtain permits
from NMFS pursuant to the High Seas
Fishing Compliance Act. Despite
the fact that the California-based
longline fishery is known to be catching
and killing endangered species, NMFS
has refused to analyze the impact
of, or limit killing under these
permits.
_________________________
SUIT
IN WORKS TO SAVE CONDORS FROM HELICOPTER HUNTING
ON LOS PADRES NATIONAL
FOREST
On 6-7-00, 2000, the Center for Biological Diversity and the
Ventana
Wilderness Alliance filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Los
Padres
National Forest over a special use permit allowing hunting
guide
outfitters to helicopter clients into remote areas of the forest near
Big Sur.
The noise and disturbance of low level flights, including
helicopters, cause
birds to abandon nests and roosts, lessening their chances
of reproductive
success. The proposal calls for helicopters to land adjacent
to the Ventana
Wilderness Area and at least two of the four landing sites are
known to be
utilized by the endangered California condor. Studies show that
condors
use the projected flight paths of the helicopters.
Click here
to email Los Padres National Forest, Monterey District
Ranger Will Metz
urging him to not approve the special use
permit.
<Metz_William/r5_lospadres@fs.fed.us>
______________________
NEW MEXICO RANCHERS SLAUGHTER ELK TO FEED
COWS
Continuing their century old practice of slaughtering all
wildlife
perceived to
prey upon, compete with, or disturb their cattle,
New Mexico ranchers are
brutally killing elk under a corrupt 1997 state law.
Pushed through by the
livestock industry, the law allows the killing of an
unlimited number of
elk, if
they are so rash as to eat grass on private
lands. One Catron County
rancher, Narciso Baca, has shot 50 elk this year,
many of them pregnant
females, and many of them at night with a spotlight.
Though the law attempts
to encourage the salvaging of the elk meat by the
State, ranchers rarely
notify the Game and Fish Department in time, causing
the carcasses to
waste. If Baca was hunting under state game laws such
tactics would be
illegal as well as unethical, but under the 1997 law it is
perfectly
legal.
_____________________________________________________________
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
</x-flowed>