From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2001 6:43 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ACTIVIST #263

Importance: High
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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.biologicaldiversity.org>      1-20-00      #263
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§ 26.1 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR EIDERS IN ALASKA

§ 4.6 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR SPOTTED OWL IN AZ, NM,
   UT, CO -- LAWSUIT FOR MORE ACREAGE ALREADY LAUNCHED

§ 5,158 ACRES PROTECTED FOR RARE PLANT IN TEXAS

§ 6,137 ACRES TO BE PROTECTED FOR PLANT IN WASHINGTON

§ 1,000 ACRES OF DESERT PROTECTED FROM OFF-ROAD
   VEHICLES

§ ENDANGERED SPECIES IMPACT OF 7 OAKS DAM TO BE
   REVIEWED

26.1 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR ALASKA EIDERS
In response to a lawsuit and legal settlement with the Center for
Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service designated 40,832 square miles (26,133,120 acres) of
critical habitat in Alaska for the endangered spectacled and Steller's
eiders on 1-12-01.

Spectacled eiders declined by 98% in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta since
the 1970s and by 80% in Prudhoe Bay during the 1980s. Steller's eider
have declined by over 50% and have completely disappeared from western
Alaska (including Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta) and the eastern portion of the
North Slope. The spectacled eider was listed as a threatened species in
1993. Steller’s eider was listed in 1997.

Both species are threatened by oil and gas exploration, ingestion of lead
shot, and garbage dumps which increase populations and change
movement and predation patterns of arctic foxes. Complex changes in fish
and invertebrate populations in the Bering Sea may also be having an effect.
Bowing to the oil industry and their spokespersons (Murkowski and Young),
the final designation did not include Alaska’s North Slope, especially the
Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve.
Portions of these areas were in the proposed designation and would have
been protected from oil drilling had they been included in the final. The
Center may go to court to expand the designation to include ANWR.

For critical habitat maps, photos, and more information
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/eiders/index.html>
     __________________

4.6 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL
- LAWSUIT TO INCREASE ACREAGE ALREADY LAUNCHED
In response to a decade of litigation, petitions and organizing, the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service designated 4.6 million acres of critical habitat for
the Mexican spotted owl on 1-18-01. The designation includes 830,803
acres in AZ, 53,746 acres in NM, 524,731 acres in Colorado, and 3.2
million acres in UT.
        
The final designation is much less than the 13.5 million acres in the
proposed designation. It does not include any National Forests in Arizona
or New Mexico, even though 90% of all Mexican spotted owls live in those
forests. The Center has filed a formal notice-of-intent to sue the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to expand the designation by approximately nine million
acres to include all owl habitat on National Forests in AZ, NM, CO, and UT.

View critical habitat maps: <http://southwest.fws.gov/owlcriticalinfo.html>
     ________________

5,158 ACRES PROTECTED FOR RARE TEXAS PLANT
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service designated 5,158 acres of critical habitat for the
Zapata bladderpod (Lesquerella thamnophila) on 12-2-00. The bladderpod
is a rare plant listed as an endangered species due to a Center lawsuit on
12-22-99. 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 flood plain. 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.
     ___________________

6,137 ACRES TO BE PROTECTED FOR WASHINGTON PLANT
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service published a proposal on 1-18-01 to designate
6,137 acres of critical habitat for the Wenatchee Mountains checker-mallow
(Sidalcea oregana var. calva). The plant has been reduced to just
six small populations, all residing in forest wetlands and meadows in
Chelan County, WA. They are threatened by fire suppression, invasive
exotic species, off-road vehicles, and suburban sprawl.

The checker-mallow is a good example of the Fish & Wildlife Service's
chronic delay tactics harming imperiled species and forcing citizens to
intervene with lawsuits to head off extinction. The agency listed the mallow
as a "category 1" species in 1980, meaning that it possessed sufficient
information to list it as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It
waited seventeen years, however, to publish a listing proposal, during
which time one of the populations was bulldozed. It then sat on the listing
proposal for another two years until the Center for Biological Diversity filed
suit in 1999.
     ________________

1,000 ACRES OF DESERT PROTECTED FROM OFF-ROAD VEHICLES
Closing the second round of settlement talks in a suit brought by the
Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Public Employees for
Environment Responsibility, the BLM has agreed to close another 1,000
acres of desert to off road vehicles. The closure will protect the Coachella
Valley fringe-toed lizard, Coachella Valley milkvetch (Astragalus
lentiginosus var. coachellae)
, flat-tailed horned lizard, Palm Springs pocket
mouse, Coachella Valley/Palm Springs ground squirrel, Coachella Valley
Jerusalem cricket and Coachella giant sand treader cricket.

In the first round of the sweeping suit challenging grazing, mining, off road
vehicles and other damaging practices on 10.5 million acres of the
California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA), the BLM agreed to close
49,000 acres to off-road vehicles to protect endangered plants.

A third round of settlements will close thousands of miles damaging roads,
limit grazing, and protect dozens of endangered species.

To find out more about the CDCA suit:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/algodones.html>
     __________________

ENDANGERED SPECIES IMPACT OF 7 OAKS DAM TO BE REVIEWED
In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, Tri-county
Conservation League, and California Native Plant Society, the Army Corps
of Engineers has agreed to review the impact of Seven Oaks Dam on
endangered species including the San Bernardino kangaroo rat, Santa
Ana River wooly star, slender-horned spineflower, Santa Ana sucker,
California gnatcatcher, southwestern willow flycatcher and least Bell's
vireo.

The Corps has already agreed to purchase 750 acres of habitat within the
50 year flood plain for the wooly star which is dependent upon natural
flooding regimes. But it is refusing to mitigate impacts to the other species.
Even the wooly star mitigation is suspect, however, since new hydrology
reports indicated the protected areas are not within the flood plain.

The Center is pushing for full mitigation for all species and full accounting
of the effects to all species. The Corps is currently trying to limit the
analysis to 100 years. Since the dam is build to capture 350 year flood
events, the limitation of the temporal analysis to 100 years means
prevents the analysis from revealing the full impact of the dam on the
Santa Ana River flood regime and hydrology.