From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 3:13 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ACTIVIST #247
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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.biologicaldiversity.org>      8-23-00      #247
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§ GOSHAWK DECLINES SHARPEN IN SOUTHWEST
§ SCIENTISTS: FIRE THREAT NO REASON TO LOG LARGE TREES
§ SUIT TO PROTECT SIERRA NEVADA OWL, FROG AND TOAD
§ INSECT EXTINCTIONS THREATEN HUMAN LIFE
§ FAXES NEEDED TODAY TO KEEP KILLER HOBBY COWS OUT
   OF WOLF RECOVERY AREA

GOSHAWK DECLINES SHARPEN IN SOUTHWEST
A dissertation based six years of intensive monitoring on the Sitgreaves
National Forest (1993-1998) has concluded that the forest’s goshawk
population is suffering from very low occupancy and reproduction rates.
Only 44 territories were located on the entire forest, with most of them not
successfully producing young each year. If the current death rate among
adult birds continues, and the population is separate from other
goshawks, it would go extinct in 29 years.  As the population is
connected to goshawks, however, it will likely persist longer, but act as a
“biological sink” into which birds immigrate and die but fail to reproduce.

The author, Dr. Michael Ingraldi, warns that the population’s status may
be due to “fragmentation of suitable foraging and nesting habitat, low
prey populations, or dry weather conditions.”

The Center is currently suing the Sitgreaves National Forest for
approving the Baca Timber Sale and logging within multiple goshawk
territories without any consideration of Ingraldi’s research or the
goshawk’s dire situation on the Forest.
     ________________

SCIENTISTS: FIRE THREAT NO REASON TO LOG LARGE TREES
In testimony before the timber industry dominated House Subcommittee
on Forests and Forest Health, three university scientists concluded the
logging of large trees and roadless areas is not necessary to reduce the
threat of un-naturally intense forest fires in the West. Dr. Penny Morgan
(University of Idaho), Dr. Leon Neuenschwander (University of Idaho), and
Dr. Thomas Swetnam (University of Arizona) testified 6-7-00 that logging
is not an ecological substitute for fire, that large trees are important for
wildlife and do not pose a fire threat, and that restoration efforts should
focus on the recent encroachment of small trees even though they are of
little value to the timber industry.

To see the testimony and graphic images:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/morgantestimony.htm>
     ____________________

SUIT TO PROTECT SIERRA NEVADA OWL, FROG AND TOAD
On 8-10-00, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources
Defense Council and the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign
formally notified the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service they will file suit if
necessary to secure federal protection for the California spotted owl,
Sierra Nevada population of the mountain yellow-legged frog, and the
Yosemite toad. The Center and other groups petitioned to list the
imperiled species under the Endangered Species Act because logging,
livestock grazing, uncontrolled sprawl are pushing them toward extinction.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, however, has failed to respond to the
petitions. Under intense political pressure, the Service rarely protects
any species under the ESA unless ordered to do so by a federal judge.

The Center’s Golden State Biodiversity Initiative seeks to protect all
native plants and animals in California- not one more human caused
extinction.
     ___________________

INSECT EXTINCTIONS THREATEN HUMAN LIFE
An 8-8-00 report by English Nature, a quasi-governmental agency,
concludes that 7% of England’s insect species have become extinct in
the past 100 years. The Essex emerald moth (Thetidea smaragdaria)
was driven to extinction by draining of salt marshes, the blackveined
white butterfly (Aporia crataegi) by eradication of hedgerows and
shrublands, and the large tortoiseshell butterfly by habitat loss. While still
common in other European countries, Prostemma guttula and the
shorthaired bumble bee (Bombus subterraneus) are now extinct in
Britain. Once common species such as the large garden bumblebee
(Bombus ruderatus) and the scarlet malachite beetle (Malachius aeneus)
are now endangered, as are 25% of Britain’s 267 bee species. A
separate study by the Oxford Museum of Natural History found the local
extinction rate in Warwickshire to be 20% since 1904.

British insects are the best cataloged insect group in the world. While
much less is known about insects in North America, the English data is a
strong indication that insect populations are crashing throughout the
developed world. For more information on the extinction and
conservation of invertebrates in North America, check out the Xerces
Society <http://www.xerces.org/>.

As insects and other invertebrates often play a more profound roll in
ecological maintenance than larger, more well known species, scientists
warn that the fundamental processes of the ecosystems on which
humans depend are eroding and could completely collapse if the
extinction spasm continues. A third of all human food, for example, is
produced by the pollination of wild, unmanaged bees. For more
information on the conservation and importance of wild pollinators, check
out the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum
<http://desertmuseum.org/mp/index.html>.
     ___________

FAXES NEEDED TODAY TO KEEP KILLER HOBBY COWS OUT OF
WOLF RECOVERY AREA
The Lower Campbell-Blue grazing allotment on the Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest recently had 200 cattle on 4,717 acres. This intense
grazing pressure devastated not only public streams and riparian forests,
but uplands as well. The allotment lies within the primary recovery area
for the Mexican gray wolf, critical habitat for the loach minnow, and
proposed critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl. Due to activist
petitions, lawsuits and complaints, all cattle were excluded in 1998.

The Forest Service is now proposing to restock the allotment with 29
cows. This number of cows is way below that needed to sustain a
livestock operation and is nothing more than hobby ranching- an increasing
occurrence in the Southwest. There is no economic or environmental
justification for allowing cattle back into these recovery streams just to
appease a hobby rancher. If endangered wolves approach these cows,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will harass, capture and move the wolves.
There is no reason to threaten wolves to support hobby ranching.

Please fax or call the Forest Service TODAY. Comments are due August
24th. Tell them no cattle should be allowed on the Lower Campbell-Blue
allotment. It should be protected and restored for clean water, recreation,
and imperiled wildlife.

   Buck McKinney, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
   Ph 520-339-4384    Fax 520-339-4323
_____________________________________________________________

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