From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2001
3:46 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST #262
Importance:
High
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
1-07-00
#262
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
§
ARACHNID XMAS: NINE TEXAS INVERTEBRATES PROTECTED
§ CRITICAL HABITAT
PROPOSED FOR KOOTENAI RIVER WHITE
STURGEON- BUT NOT ENOUGH TO
WARD OFF EXTINCTION
§ FEDS AGREE TO EXTEND PROTECTED RANGE FOR
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA STEELHEAD TROUT- BUT NOT NEARLY
ENOUGH
§ NEW MEXICO OLD GROWTH TIMBER SALE APPEALED
§ ARIZONA
“RESTORATION” TIMBER PROJECT APPEALED
ARACHNID XMAS: NINE TEXAS
INVERTEBRATES PROTECTED
UNDER E.S.A.
Eight years and one lawsuit after
receiving a petition to list nine Texas
spiders, beetles, and harvestmen as
endangered species, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service placed them on the
endangered species list on 12-21-00.
The nine Bexar County species
include:
Rhadine exilis (no common name)
Rhadine infernalis (no common name),
Batrisodes venyivi (Helotes
mold beetle),
Texella cokendolpheri (Robber Baron Cave
harvestman)
Cicurina baronia (Robber Baron cave
spider),
Cicurina madla (Madla's cave spider),
Cicurina venii (no common name),
Cicurina vespera (vesper cave
spider),
Neoleptoneta microps (Government Canyon cave
spider)
All nine inhabit karst features (limestone formations containing
caves,
sinks, and fissures) near San Antonio, Texas. Threats to the
species
include destruction and/or deterioration of habitat by construction,
filling of
caves, loss of permeable cover, and contamination from septic
effluent,
sewer leaks, runoff, and pesticides.
The Center is
represented in the suit by Geoff Hickcox of Kenna &
Hickcox
(Durango).
__________________
CRITICAL
HABITAT PROPOSED FOR KOOTENAI RIVER WHITE
STURGEON- BUT NOT ENOUGH TO WARD
OFF EXTINCTION
When the Libby Dam was built on the Kootenai River in Montana
in 1974,
the Kootenai River White Sturgeon began to plummet. Living in
close
connection with the environment it evolved in, the sturgeon only
spawns
when cued by seasonal flooding. In a classic story of hubris, the dam
was
built to eradicate natural flooding patterns so that federally
subsidized
farmers and ranchers can produce excess crops. While the river no
longer
rises each spring, the farm subsidies flood Montana and Idaho each
year
in greater and greater levels.
The sturgeon stopped spawning in 1974.
Virtually all remaining fish are at
least 25 years old. If the ecosystem is
not restored, the sturgeon will go
extinct due to old age in about 2025. In
1995, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service declared that the dam would drive
the sturgeon extinct. Yet
nothing was done. In December, 2000 the Fish &
Wildlife Service again
concluded that the dam will drive the sturgeon
extinct. This time it has
proposed tinkering with the system to, at best,
keep the sturgeon in a
perpetual emergency room state. Its primary concern is
politics, not saving
the sturgeon.
The Center won a court order in
2000 requiring the Fish & Wildlife Service
to map out and protect
specific “critical habitat” areas for the Kootenai
White River Sturgeon. On
12-27-00, the agency published a proposal to
designate 11 miles of the river
near Bonner’s Ferry as critical habitat. The
area is owned by the state, and
was chosen not because of its ecological
importance, but in order to avoid
political controversy. There is simply no
way the sturgeon can survive if it
is to be limited to 11 miles of river. The
Center will pursue a much expanded
critical habitat zone.
Map of habitat area: <http://pacific.fws.gov/kws/map.gif>
Sturgeon
summary: <http://pacific.fws.gov/kws/Q&A.PDF>
Jeopardy
decision: <http://pacific.fws.gov/finalbiop/Summary.PDF>
__________________
FEDS AGREE TO EXTEND PROTECTED RANGE FOR
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA STEELHEAD TROUT- BUT NOT NEARLY ENOUGH
In response to
a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and other
groups, the
National Marine Fisheries Service on 12/19/00 proposed to
expand Endangered
Species Act protections for Southern Steelhead Trout
to include rivers south
of Malibu Creek (L.A. County) to San Mateo Creek
in northern San Diego
County. Previously, Endangered Species Act
protection stopped at Malibu
Creek.
The proposed expansion, will not resolve the lawsuit, however,
because it
still leaves the southernmost portion of the steelhead’s historic
range
unprotected. This includes all of coastal southern California and
northern
Baja Norte, Mexico. It also arbitrarily stops upstream protection at
the first
dam in each river, even though the species used to range far beyond
the
dams. The ESA does not allow arbitrary protection boundaries to
be
drawn, or the sacrificing of huge portions of a species’s historic
range.
Without removal of unnecessary and antiquated dams,
southern
steelhead cannot be recovered. Without recovery south of San
Mateo
Creek, they will remain forever absent from a large portion of their
historic
range.
Steelhead are a unique form of rainbow trout. Like
salmon, they spent
most of their adult life in the ocean, but spawn in
freshwater streams and
rivers. Tens of thousands of the prized sport fish
used to return to
southern California streams every year. Dams, urban
development, and
livestock grazing have decimated steelhead runs and today
only a few
hundred fish make the yearly
pilgrimage.
__________________
NEW MEXICO OLD
GROWTH TIMBER SALE APPEALED
The Center for Biological Diversity on 12-19-00
filed its second appeal
against the Corner Mountain fire salvage sale on the
Gila National Forest.
The sale would clearcut 2 million board feet of
ponderosa pine and
Douglas-fir on 340 acres, including 7,000 trees over 16
inches and 2,500
trees over 24 inches.
Corner Mountain
needlessly threatens the Gila’s celebrated prescribed
burn program—the most
aggressive in the country—by logging an area
which burned two years ago when
the Forest Service lost control of a
prescribed natural fire.
Prescribed burns are designed to restore natural
forest processes by slowly
reintroducing fire into forested areas. Salvage
logging in prescribed
burn areas undermines these restoration goals by
impeding forest recovery,
damaging fragile soils, harming wildlife, and
promoting arson.
The Center has actively fought Corner Mountain since its inception
two
years ago. Aggressive Center opposition in 1999 caused the
Forest
Service to greatly scale back its original plan to salvage log nearly
5 million
board feet on 1,000 acres. In June 2000, the Center
successfully
appealed the sale due to the Forest Service’s failure to analyze
logging’s
effects on wildlife, including elk, deer, Mexican vole, and
hairy
woodpecker. The Center will litigate against the Corner Mountain
salvage
sale if this second appeal is denied.
_______________
ARIZONA “RESTORATION” TIMBER
PROJECT APPEALED
On 11-3-00, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra
Club, and the
Southwest Forest Alliance appealed the Fort Valley “ecosystem
restoration
project” on the Coconino National Forest. Using the
“pre-settlement”
model developed by Northern Arizona University professor
Wallace
Covington, the Fort Valley project would thin approximately 4,700
acres of
ponderosa pine forest outside the city of Flagstaff in an attempt to
re-create
mid-19th century forest structure and to reduce fire danger.
While
the Center supports forest restoration efforts, including the thinning
of
small trees where necessary, we believe the Fort Valley project is
much
too heavy a cut, disturbs wildlife habitat too much, and fails to
adequately
account for the fact that forests change over time. The strict
adherence to
recreating conditions that occurred in one moment in time, 140
years ago,
is a scientifically controversial approach to restoration. The
Center
believes restoration should be based on existing forest structure
and
current ecological needs (such as those of declining species), with
the
past condition used as touchstone rather than an anchor.
Previous
logging conducted under the pre-settlement model has removed
up to 90% of
existing trees, including many large trees, compacted soil,
and may have
caused one of two known northern goshawks on Mt.
Trumbull within the newly
designated Grand Canyon-Parashant National
Monument to abandon its
territory.
Over 100 years of logging, fire suppression, and domestic
livestock
grazing have transformed much of the Southwest’s majestic
ponderosa
pine forests into overly dense thickets prone to unnaturally
intense and
damaging crown fires. The Center, Sierra Club and the
Forest Alliance
are developing and testing restoration strategies designed to
improve forest
health and reduce crown fire danger through prescribed
burning and
conservative thinning which retains all large trees, emphasizes
the
protection of wildlife and biodiversity, and focuses on forest
processes
such as restoration of natural fire regimes as well as forest
structure.