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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
7-22-00
#245
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§
FEDS PROPOSE PROTECTION OF 13.5 MILLION ACRES OF
FOREST IN
AZ, NM, UT, AND CO FOR MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL
§ SUIT FILED TO CLEAN UP
DOZENS OF HAWAI'IAN RIVERS
§ REPORT: PACIFIC FISHER HEADING TOWARD
EXTINCTION IN
SIERRA NEVADA
§ FOREST SERVICE
REJECTS HELICOPTER HUNTING PLAN
§ CALLS AND LETTERS NEEDED TO STOP
BACKROOM ANIMAS-LA
PLATA DEAL
FEDS PROPOSE
PROTECTION OF 13.5 MILLION ACRES OF FOREST
IN AZ, NM, UT, AND CO FOR MEXICAN
SPOTTED OWL
In keeping with a court ordered obtained by the Center for
Biological
Diversity, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published a
proposed rule on
7-21-00 to designate and protect 13,487,544 acres of
"critical habitat" for
the Mexican spotted owl in AZ, NM, and the southern
forests of UT, and
CO. The proposal includes 5.0 million acres of
federal and tribal lands in
AZ, 4.6 million in NM, 3.3 million in UT, and .57
million in CO. A final rule
must be issued by 1-15-01. No private or state
lands were included.
The Mexican spotted owl was listed as a federally
"threatened" species in
1993 because of the planned liquidation of its old
growth forest habitat in
the American Southwest and Mexico. It has been
extirpated from
southern Mexico and low elevation riparian forests in Arizona
and New
Mexico. Only about 2,100 owls are thought to still exist north of
the
border.
Since 1993, the Center has won designation of 2,790 miles
of river
and 833,002 acres of land as "critical habitat" for a multitude
of
endangered species. It currently has 68.8 million acres under
proposal,
including 1.81 million acres in California, 13.5 million acres in
New
Mexico, and 53.5 million acres in
Alaska.
____________________________
SUIT FILED TO CLEAN UP DOZENS OF HAWAI'IAN
RIVERS
On 7-12-00, the Hïhïwai Stream Restoration Coalition and the Center
for
Biological Diversity filed suit to force the Environmental Protection
Agency
(EPA) to begin cleaning up dozens of polluted streams and rivers
on
the Hawai`ian Islands. The Clean Water Act requires that each
state
submit -- and EPA approve -- a list of all water bodies within the
state that
fail to meet or are not expected to meet state water quality
standards.
Once polluted waters are identified, the state must promulgate
Total
Maximum Daily Loads ("TMDLs") for each water body on the list. A
TMDL
is the maximum amount of a given pollutant that may be discharged
or
"loaded" into the water body from all sources without violating
water
quality standards.
In 1998, EPA approved a state list
identifying only 18 impaired water
bodies, even though it knew of at least 50
other water bodies that either
did not meet or were not expected to meet
water quality standards.
Moreover, EPA has allowed the state to drag its feet
in promulgating
TMDLs and has approved TMDLs that fail to comply with the
Clean
Water Act's stringent requirements.
The case is being argued by
Kapua Sproat of the Earthjustice Legal
Defense
Fund.
______________________
REPORT:
PACIFIC FISHER HEADING TOWARD EXTINCTION IN
SIERRA NEVADA
On 7-19-00, the
Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Nevada
Forest Protection
Campaign released a report on the status of the Pacific
fisher in
California's Sierra Nevada range. A relative of the mink and otter,
the
fisher is closely associated with old-growth forests. The Sierra
Nevada
population has been cut off from other populations on the West Coast
and
the Northern Rockies due to decades of heavy logging and trapping in
the
northern and central Sierras.
The Forest Service is currently
accepting comments on a plan (The Sierra
Nevada Framework) that is supposed
to maintain viable populations of
fishers, spotted owls, goshawks and other
forest dependent species.
According to the report, however, the plan falls
far short of what is needed
to keep the fisher from going extinct in the
Sierra Nevada. A recent study
by federal and academic biologists, for
example, concluded that unless
fishers are surviving and reproducing at rates
that are probably "extremely
optimistic and likely unrealistic...a steady
decline towards extinction
would occur."
To read the report and find
out more about the Center's efforts to save the
fisher, check out
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/fisher/fisherpr.html>
_______________________
FOREST SERVICE REJECTS HELICOPTER HUNTING
PLAN
Under formal threat of a lawsuit from the Center and the
Ventana
Wilderness Alliance, The Los Padres National Forest has denied
an
application for a special use permit to allow hunting guide outfitting
via
helicopter fly-ins in remote areas of the Los Padres National Forest
near
Big Sur. The proposal called for helicopters to land adjacent to
the
Ventana Wilderness area. The vicinity of at least two of the four
landing
sites are utilized by condors and condors are known to use the
projected
flight paths of the helicopter operations. Such low level flights
cause nest
abandonment, flushing from the nests and roosts, high stress
levels, and
lower reproductive success.
The Forest Service received
over 75 letters, emails and calls opposing the
proposal. Thanks to all who
wrote!
__________________________
CALLS
AND LETTERS NEEDED TO STOP BACKROOM ANIMAS-LA
PLATA DEAL
House Republicans
are pushing a backroom deal to limit debate and prevent
beneficial amendments
to a bill that would push through the controversial
Animas-La Plata project
in southern Colorado. One of last of the old time
dam and diversion projects,
the Animas-La Plata project would destroy some
of Colorado's most scenic and
biologically valuable rivers. Realizing that
public opposition to the project
is intense, republicans are trying to
engineer
a vote on the bill (HR 3112
) under a little known policy known as
"Suspension of the Rules". This would
kill any meaningful debate and likely
prevent attempts to amend HR
3112.
Please call the House leadership and tell them you oppose HR 3112,
that
it must be referred to the Rules Committee, and not be placed on
the
Suspension Calendar. The House leaders are
Tom
Delay (Republican Majority Whip)
202-225-5951,
202-225-5241(fax)
http//www.house.gov/writerep/
Dennis Hastert (Speaker of the
House)
202-225-2976,
202-225-0697(fax)
dhastert@mail.house.gov
Richard A. Gephardt (Minority
Leader) (ask for Shawn Kennedy)
202-225-2671, 202-225-7452 (fax)
gephardt@mail.house.gov
David E. Bonior (Minority
Whip)
202-225-2106, 202-226-1169
(fax)
david.bonior@mail.house.gov
A sample
letter that could be faxed or emailed is below
7/19/00
RE: HR
3112, Animas-La Plata Project
Dear ______
HR 3112 was approved by
the House Committee on Resources today,
and a request to have it placed on
the Suspension Calendar may be
made.
HR 3112 is a contentious bill
which is opposed by numerous
environmental and taxpayer groups and is not a
candidate for a
Suspension Vote. Similar legislation to authorize the
Animas-La Plata
Project was defeated on the floor of the House in 1996.
Many legislators
have grave doubts about the merit of this version of ALP, as
well.
Two amendments to HR 3112 were offered in the Resources
Committee
and the vote in favor of the bill was far from unanimous.
This bill deserves
careful consideration by the full House of
Representatives.
We hope you will deny any request that HR 3112 be placed
on the
Suspension Calendar and insist that the legislation proceed to the
Rules
Committee.
_____________________________________________________________
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@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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