Subject: FW: BIODIVERSITY ACTIVIST #256

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
              CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

            <www.biologicaldiversity.org>      10-19-00      #256
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>

§ WATER USE REFORM SOUGHT FOR SAN PEDRO RIVER IN AZ

§ PETITION FILED TO PROTECT RIGHT WHALE HABITAT IN AK

§ PETITION TO BE FILED TO PROTECT KILLER WHALES IN WA

§ FEDERAL WOLF SLAUGHTER TO BE CHALLENGED IN MT

§ SPOTTED OWL INCHES TOWARD FEDERAL PROTECTION IN CA

§ YOSEMITE TOAD & YELLOW-LEGGED FROG MAY BE
    PROTECTED IN SIERRA NEVADA

WATER USE REFORM SOUGHT FOR SAN PEDRO RIVER
On 10-11-00, the San Pedro Alliance filed a petition with the Arizona
Department of Water Resources to designate the Upper San Pedro River
Basin an "Active Management Area".  This state designation requires that
a plan be developed and implemented to ensure a hundred year water
supply. While most Arizona urban areas were designated as Active
Management Areas by the state legislature, Sierra Vista was exempted
after heavy lobbying by the growth industry. Urban and suburban sprawl
is desiccating the San Pedro, the Southwest's largest undammed river,
and will eventually destroy the West's largest remaining contiguous
cottonwood-willow forest.

Lacking an Active Management Area, there are essentially no restrictions
on drilling wells or withdrawing groundwater in the Upper San Pedro
River Basin.  From 1990 to 1998, water companies increased the amount
of groundwater sold to their customers by 23%. In spite of this dramatic
increase in deficit groundwater pumping, local governments have
implemented no significant mechanism to control deficit groundwater
pumping.

The Center for Biology is a founding member of the San Pedro Alliance,
an international coalition of more than 50 organizations.
      ______________________

PETITION FILED TO PROTECT RIGHT WHALE HABITAT IN ALASKA
On 10-4-00, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a formal petition
to designate critical habitat for the endangered Northern right whale in
the southeast portion of the Bering Sea near Bristol Bay, Alaska. The
Northern right whale is the most endangered whale in the world: there
may be only 300 left in the Atlantic Ocean, and perhaps only 100 in the
Pacific. It received its name from commercial whalers to indicate it was
the "right whale" to hunt. And hunt it they did. The pacific population was
so decimated during the 19th century that it was once thought extinct. For
the past five summers, however, it has been found in the southeast
Bering Sea.

There is still a chance to save this magnificent whale. Although no longer
hunted, Northern right whales are killed by humans every year. Collisions
with ships and entanglement with fishing gear are the main causes of
right whale mortality, but it is also threatened by industrial pollution and
habitat destruction.

To learn more about the right whale, read the petition, and see a map of
the proposed critical habitat area:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/right/nprw1.html
      ________________

FEDERAL WOLF SLAUGHTER TO BE CHALLENGED IN MONTANA
On 10-10-00, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Humane Society of the United States, and
A Hunters Voice filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and Wildlife Services (formerly Animal Damage Control) for
killing endangered wolves in northwest Montana. Though the Fish &
Wildlife Service has invested millions in an attempt to undo a century of
wolf slaughter, it is undermining those efforts by continuing to kill wolves
at the behest of the very force that drove them to extinction's door in the
first place: the livestock industry. The agencies have killed 41 wolves
since 1987. In 1996-97, they killed 18 wolves, representing approximately
25 percent of the total population. Four wolves were killed in 1998, nine in
1999, and four so far in 2000. Even wolves with no apparent involvement in
cattle deaths have been killed and trapped.

The effect on wolf recovery has been devastating. The recovery goal for
the Northwest Montana component of the federal wolf recovery plan is
ten breeding pairs sustained over three years. But recovery has been
stalled at only five breeding pairs for the past three years. Wolf control in
response to livestock depredations is the leading cause of wolf mortality.

The case will be argued by Tim Preso of the Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund.
      _______________

PETITION TO BE FILED TO PROTECT KILLER WHALES IN WA
MSNBC.com has posted an excellent story on the Center for Biological
Diversity's research and plans to list the killer whales (i.e. orcas) of
Washington State and British Columbia as endangered species. Puget
Sound is home to a unique population of killer whales called "southern
residents". These whales have declined due to historic capture for
museum and commercial exhibits, loss of salmon and other prey species,
exposure to high levels of PCBs, and harassment by commercial and
private whale watchers.

In the last five years, the southern resident population declined by 17%.
It was listed as a threatened species in British Columbia in 1999 and
meets the international standard of endangerment established by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

To read the MSNBC story: <http://www.msnbc.com/news/327797.asp>
      __________________

SPOTTED OWL INCHES TOWARD FEDERAL PROTECTION IN CA
On 10-12-00, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published an initial positive
finding on a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra
Nevada Forest Protection Campaign to list the California spotted owl as
an endangered species. The California spotted owl lives in old growth
throughout the Sierra Nevada and sky island forests of southern
California. It is declining by 7-10% annually as logging, urban sprawl,
livestock grazing and road construction encroach on its habitat.

Also joining the petition were the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection
Campaign, the Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, Wilderness Society,
Sierra Club, Friends of the River, Forest Issues Group, Plumas  Forest
Project, Yahi Group of the Sierra Club, Lassen Forest Preservation
Group, John Muir Project, Yosemite Area Audubon, American Lands
Alliance and the Sequoia Forest Alliance.

To learn more about the spotted owl and the petition:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/cso/casowl.html>
      _____________________

YOSEMITE TOAD & YELLOW-LEGGED FROG MAY BE PROTECTED
IN SIERRA NEVADA
On 10-12-00, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published initial positive
findings on petitions by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific
Rivers Council to list the Yosemite toad and Sierra Nevada population of
the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered species.

Both the Yosemite toad and the yellow-legged frog have declined
precipitously because of habitat loss, pesticides and other pollutants,
predation due to stocking of non-native fish, and environmental stresses
which render amphibians susceptible to aquatic diseases.  A recent
survey found that the Yosemite toad has disappeared from 47% of
historic locations throughout the high Sierra. Most remaining populations
are small and greatly reduced in number from historical occurrence.

Formerly one of the most common amphibians in the high Sierra lakes
and streams, the Mountain yellow-legged frog has declined precipitously
due to stocking of non-native fish, pesticide drift from Central Valley
agribusiness, livestock grazing and habitat loss. It has declined by up
to 90%, with only a few dozen large populations remaining. Two of the
largest known populations crashed dramatically in the past few years,
going from over 2,000 adults in 1996 to only 2 in 1999.

To find out more about Center's campaign to protect the Yosemite toad,
yellow-legged frog and other amphibians:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/herps/amphibians.html>
_____________________________________________________________

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

</x-flowed>