From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000
10:57 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST
#255
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
10-09-00
#255
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§
FOSSIL CREEK VICTORY! AGREEMENT REACHED TO
DECOMMISSION POWER
PLANT, REMOVE DIVERSION DAM
INFRASTRUCTURE AND RESTORE
VEGETATION
§ 406,598 ACRES DESIGNATED TO SAVE ALAMEDA WHIPSNAKE
§ 5,000
ACRES TO BE PROTECTED FOR IMPERILED TEXAS PLANT
§ DISPERSING MEXICAN GRAY
WOLF HIT BY CAR
§ TWO NEW MEXICO SPRING SNAILS LISTED AS
ENDANGERED
FOSSIL CREEK VICTORY! AGREEMENT REACHED TO
DECOMMISSION
POWER PLANT, REMOVE DIVERSION DAM
INFRASTRUCTURE AND RESTORE
VEGETATION
After years of grassroots activity, legal notices and intense
negotiations,
the Center for Biological Diversity, a coalition of
environmental groups
and the Yavapai-Apache Nation have secured a legal
agreement to
restore water flows to Fossil Creek in central Arizona. Fossil
Creek is fed
by artesian springs at an amazing rate of 320 gallons per
second, but for
over 90 years, the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) has
dammed
the creek to feed the Childs-Irving hydropower plant. This has left
the
entire 14-mile length of the creek dry and the surrounding
ecosystem
damaged.
APS had applied to renew its dam license for 30
years, but under the
terms of the agreement will withdraw the application.
The power plant
will be decommissioned by 12-31-04 and the site restored by
2009.
Some minor structures will be left for historical reference, but the
entire
aboveground flume system, bridges, penstocks, and the top six feet of
the dam including the intake structure will be removed. The maintenance
road will be restored to a hiking trail and three small bridges will be
removed to eliminate potential ORV routes. Underground tunnels will be
fitted with bat friendly grates.
The final, legally binding
agreement, including the how-to prescription,
has been signed by APS, the
Center for Biological Diversity, the Yavapai-
Apache Nation, American Rivers,
The Nature Conservancy, Northern
Arizona Audubon Society, and the Arizona
Riparian Council.
________________
406,598
ACRES DESIGNATED TO SAVE ALAMEDA WHIPSNAKE
On 10-4-00, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service designated of 406,598 acres
of “critical habitat” for the
Alameda whipsnake in the San Francisco Bay
area. The whipsnake was listed as
a “threatened” species under the
Endangered Species Act in 1997 due to a
threatened lawsuit by the
Center for Biological Diversity. The Fish &
Wildlife Service refused to
map and protect the snake’s habitat, however,
prompting a suit by the
Center and Christians Caring for Creation. That suit
was settled with an
agreement by the Service to designate critical habitat
for the whipsnake
and six other endangered species.
The Alameda
whipsnake is a gorgeous part of California’s natural
heritage. It is slender
and black, with yellow-orange racing stripes on its
sides. Adults grow to
three or four feet in length and are extremely fast,
holding their heads up
cobra-style while hunting for lizards, small
mammals, birds, and other
snakes.
Whipsnake use coastal scrub and chaparral for cover,
adjacent
grasslands for hunting, and rock outcrops for basking to control
their
body temperature. Their habitat and numbers have been
severely
reduced and fragmented by urban sprawl, road construction,
livestock
grazing, and fire suppression. The critical habitat designation
includes
parts of Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin, and Santa Clara
Counties.
To find out more about the Alameda whipsnake and its
habitat:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/whipsnake/whipsnake.html
_______________
5,330 ACRES TO BE PROTECTED FOR IMPERILED TEXAS
PLANT
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, a
rare
Texas plant called the Zapata bladderpod (Lesquerella thamnophila)
was
listed as an endangered species on 12-22-99. As the Endangered
Species
Act requires (except in rare instances) that critical habitat areas
be mapped
out and protected for all threatened and endangered species,
the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service has proposed to designate 5,330 acres
for the plant in
southern Texas. Seven critical habitat areas have been
proposed on the Lower
Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in
Starr County, one on private
land in Starr County, and two along the
Texas Department of Transportation's
Highway 83 right-of-way in Zapata
County.
All known Zapata bladderpod
populations are on terraces above the Rio
Grande river floodplain. Only three
populations appear to have survived
the impacts of livestock grazing,
introduction of exotic pasture grasses,
urban sprawl, oil development, and
natural gas development.
____________
DISPERSING MEXICAN GRAY WOLF HIT BY CAR
A lone female
Mexican gray wolf has been struck and killed by a car. The
exact location is
not known, but prior to the accident she moved several
hundred miles from her
release site in eastern Arizona, across the
Mogollon Plateau, to the
outskirts of Flagstaff.
______________
TWO
NEW MEXICO SPRING SNAILS LISTED AS ENDANGERED
The State of New Mexico has
uplisted two fragile springsnails from
threatened to endangered species/ The
Alamosa tryonia (formerly
Alamosa springsnail) lives only in Socorro
County while Koster's tryonia
(formerly Koster's springsnail) lives only in
Chaves County. Both are
restricted to small springs and could be quickly
driven extinct by changes
in water quality, temperature, or quantity. The
Center previously filed suit
to list Koster’s springsnail as endangered at
the federal level under the
Endangered Species Act.
_____________________________________________________________
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