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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
9-19-00
#252
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§
SANTA BARBARA TIGER SALAMANDER LISTED AS ENDANGERED
§ PETITION FILED TO
PROTECT PACIFIC POCKET MOUSE HABITAT
§ SUIT TO CHALLENGE DEVELOPMENT TO
SAVE IMPERILED
FROGS, KIT FOX, SALAMANDER, AND FAIRY
SHRIMP
§ 16 CONDORS TREATED FOR LEAD POISONING, RELEASED
SANTA
BARBARA TIGER SALAMANDER LISTED AS ENDANGERED
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service has issued a final rule listing the Santa
Barbara population of the
California tiger salamander as an endangered
species. It was temporarily
listed on an emergency basis on 1-19-00 in
response to a lawsuit by the
Center for Biological Diversity.
The Santa Barbara tiger salamander has
been pushed to the brink of
extinction by destruction of vernal pools,
grasslands, oak woodlands, and
coastal scrub. Urban sprawl, agribusiness
clearing, and agricultural
pollution runoff are the main threats. Of the 14
remaining breeding sites
in the county, half have been destroyed or have
suffered severe
degradation in the last 24 months.
The Center was
represented by Brendan Cummings and Sharon Duggan
of Berkeley,
California.
___________
PETITION FILED
TO PROTECT POCKET MOUSE HABITAT
The Center for Biological Diversity, the
Endangered Habitats League and
the Natural Resources Defense Council
petitioned the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service on 9-19-00 to map out and
protect "critical habitat" areas
for the endangered Pacific pocket
mouse.
The Pacific pocket mouse is one of the most endangered mammals
in
North America. Despite its listing as an endangered species
in
September, 1994, however, little habitat protection has been
provided
and plans are proceeding destroy even more through the construction
of
the massive Foothills South Tollroad. The tollroad would pass
through
essential pocket mouse habitat on the Camp Pendleton Marine
Corps
base. The petition requests that the base and other areas in Orange
and
San Diego counties be designated and protected as critical
habitat.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife declined to designate critical
habitat for the
Pacific pocket mouse in 1994, arguing that such a designation
is not
effective on private lands, and that it could harm the mouse by
publicly
revealing its location. Conditions have since changed with the
discovery
of two pocket mouse populations on Camp Pendleton. Additionally,
the
destruction of mouse habitat by the tollroad on private land will
require
federal permits subject to protection of critical
habitat.
Previous petitions and suits by the Center have resulted in
federal
proposals to designated 7.2 million acres of critical habitat in
California
for the Peninsular bighorn sheep, California red-legged frog,
Monterey
spineflower, Arroyo southwestern toad, Alameda whipsnake,
Bay
checkerspot butterfly, Zayante band-winged grasshopper and
other
species.
To learn more, see the petition, and find out which
mice species have
visited outer space, check out the Center's Pacific pocket
mouse page at:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/pacmouse/pacmouse.html>
_______________
SUIT TO CHALLENGE DEVELOPMENT TO SAVE IMPERILED
FROGS,
KIT FOX, SALAMANDER, AND FAIRY SHRIMP
On 8-19-00, Save Our Danville
Creeks, the Center for Biological
Diversity, and the Alameda Creek Alliance
filed a formal notice of intent
to sue to halt the Army Corps of Engineers
and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service to halt the Wendt development
project along East Alamo Creek
in Danville, in the East San Francisco Bay
Area.
Though the development would impact a seasonal wetland and
creeks
inhabited by endangered California red-legged frogs and the
California
tiger salamanders, the Army Corps of Engineers issued
Shapell
Industries a Clean Water Permit to build 272 houses without requiring
a
full environmental assessment and habitat protection measures.
The
area has been proposed as critical habitat for the California red-legged
frog
and is potential habitat for the San Joaquin kit fox and two species
of
vernal pool fairy shrimp. The plaintiffs are represented by Wild
Earth
Advocates attorneys Julia Olson of San Francisco and Jamie
Jefferson of
Portland.
To learn more about the California red-legged frog:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/rlfrog/rlfrog.html>
______________
16 CONDORS TREATED FOR LEAD POISONING, RELEASED
Sixteen
California condors will be re-released this week following
recapture and
treatment for lead poisoning. This past April and May, five
condors died from
ingesting lead shot after feeding on carrion near
Grand Canyon National Park.
The sixteen recaptured birds had nearly
lethal doses of lead and suffered
from extreme weight loss. Lead
poisoning is a major threat to carrion eating
birds such as the
condor.
_____________________________________________________________
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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