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.