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