From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 10:35 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ACTIVIST #268
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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.biologicaldiversity.org>      3-8-01      #268
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§ 4.1 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR RED-LEGGED FROG

§ SUIT FILED TO SAVE NEW MEXICO BUTTERFLY

§ APPEAL CHALLENGES COWS AND CONDOS WILDERNESS
    INVASION
                                                                
§ LETTERS, PUBLIC TESTIMONY NEEDED FOR HISTORIC
   RE-PLANNING OF 6 MILLION ACRES OF CA NATIONAL FORESTS

§ LETTERS NEEDED TO PROTECT 12,000 ACRES FOR
   ENDANGERED RIVERSIDE FAIRY SHRIMP

§ LETTERS NEEDED TO SAVE PINTO CREEK

4.1 MILLION ACRES PROTECTED FOR RED-LEGGED FROG
In a hard fought victory involving over a thousand supporting letters from
the public and a federal lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity won the
designation of 4,138,064 acres of "critical habitat" for the endangered
California red-legged frog on March 6, 2001. The designation includes 29
separate areas spanning 28 counties and over 500 miles of streams and
rivers.

The designation is the largest in the state of California and one of the
largest in the nation. It was brought about by a lawsuit by the Center, the
Jumping Frog Research Institute, Pacific Rivers Council, and the Center
for Sierra Nevada Conservation. The case was argued by the EarthJustice
Legal Defense Fund.

Made famous by Mark Twain as the “celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras
County,” the California red-legged frog was listed under the Endangered
Species Act in 1996. Once common from Point  Reyes National Seashore,
inland to Redding and southward to northwestern Baja California, Mexico,
it has been extirpated from 70% of its range and its population has
declined by at least 90%. It currently occupies coastal drainages in central
California and scattered streams in the Sierra Nevada. A single population
remains in Southern California. Range-wide, only four populations contain
more than 350 adults.

In the past six years, the Center was won 39 million acres of critical habitat
in AK, OR, CO, UT, CA, NM, AZ, and TX. It has ongoing federal proposals
to designate another 600,000 acres of critical habitat in MT, CA, NM, and
OK.

To learn more about the red-legged frog and its habitat:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/rlfrog/rlfrog.html>

To learn more about the Center’s Golden State Biodiversity Initiative:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/goldenstate.html>
     __________________

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS
CHECKERSPOT BUTTERFLY
On 3-6-2001, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service for refusing to issue a proposed rule listing the
Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly as an endangered species.
The Center petitioned to list the species on 1/28/99 because sprawl, road
construction, livestock grazing, invasive plants, climate change, and
pesticide spraying are driving it to extinction.

The Fish & Wildlife Service issued an initial finding that endangered status
may be warranted, but has issued a moratorium on addition of new
species to the federal list during 2001. Research conducted by the Center
shows that the only reason the agency does not have enough money for
listing is because it purposefully did not request enough funding from
Congress. See our report at
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/ESA/moratorium.html>

The case is being argued by Matt Kenna of Kenna & Hickcox (Durango).
     ___________________

APPEAL CHALLENGES COWS AND CONDOS WILDERNESS
INVASION
Putting to rest the myth that westerners have to choose between cows and
condos, a real estate company has convinced the Coronado National
Forest Service to issue it a grazing permit so that it can sell high priced
home lots next to the forest with the gimmick that the homeowners will be
partners in the ranching operation. We can have cows and condos! Even
worse, the allotment has not been grazed since 1994 and includes 3,900
acres of the Rincon Wilderness. The permit include a plan to put two new
stock tanks in the wilderness, one of which would be placed in an agave
rich area which provides nectar for the endangered lesser long-nosed bat.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Sky Islands Alliance and the Sierra
Club have appealed this monstrosity. The “choice” between cows and
condos is a false and dangerous distortion of what is actually driving
sprawl in the west. The answer should not be to encourage both
overgrazing and condos, but to say “no” to both.
     ___________________

LETTERS, PUBLIC TESTIMONY NEEDED FOR HISTORIC REVISION
OF SIX MILLION ACRES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NATIONAL
FORESTS
Your input is urgently needed to shape upcoming southern California
National Forest Management Plan revisions to favor maximum ecosystem
protection over harmful exploitation. Workshops are scheduled for a
southern California town near you over the next four weeks and the Forest
Service needs to hear from you! Write a letter. Go to the public hearings.

Due to a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity over
endangered species, all four of southern California’s national forests
(Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino) are rewriting their
forest plans. We have initiated the process- now its your turn to speak out
for protection of oak woodlands, pine forests, grasslands and chaparral.

Please attend as many of the Forest Service workshops as possible and
speak out in favor of biological diversity and low-impact recreation, and
against new off-road vehicle playgrounds, mining, grazing and other
abuses. Please also consider sending a letter to the editor of your local paper.

To find where, when and how:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/forestwkshops.html>
     ____________________

LETTERS NEEDED TO PROTECT 12,000 ACRES FOR RIVERSIDE
FAIRY SHRIMP
Your letters are needed to support and expand a proposal by the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service to protect over 12,060 acres of critical habitat for the
endangered Riverside fairy shrimp.

The fairy shrimp was listed as an endangered species 1993 due to urban
sprawl, agribusiness, off-road vehicles, livestock grazing, and wetland
draining. Its habitat has been reduced to just 25 vernal pool complexes in
coastal southern California.

Please send a letter to the Service no later than March 30, 2001:

- Support designation of critical habitat for the Riverside fairy shrimp.
- Expand the proposal to include all Riverside shrimp vernal pool habitat
   included in the Service’s "Recovery Plan for Vernal Pools of Southern
   California."
- Expand the proposal to include all Riverside shrimp vernal pool habitat
   located within the boundaries of existing so called “Habitat Conservation
   Plans.”
- Support designation of Riverside shrimp critical habitat on Marine Corps
   bases Camp Pendleton and Miramar.

Please send your letter to:

   Mr. Ken Berg, Field Supervisor
   Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office
   U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
   2730 Loker Avenue West
   Carlsbad, CA 92008

To see a sample letter
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/fshrimp/index.html>
     __________________

LETTERS NEEDED TO SAVE PINTO CREEK
Please send a letter today to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck
supporting a federal buyout of the proposed Carlota copper mine on the
Tonto National Forest.  A buyout would keep a massively destructive mine
out of Pinto Creek, a beautiful public lands stream 70 miles east of
Phoenix.  It would mean no 450-foot high ore-rock heaps, no 17
truckloads of sulfuric acid daily for 20 years filling two miles of a valley, no
airborne dust or sulfur deposition impacting the nearby Superstition
Wilderness Area, no toxic one-mile pit lake evaporating 300 gallons of
precious high desert water per minute in perpetuity, and no “accidental”
leaks or massive spills

Please write or email Dombeck today!

   Mike Dombeck, Forest Service Chief
   201 14th St., SW,
   Washington, D.C. 20250
   mdombeck@fs.fed.us

To find out more <http://aspin.asu.edu/pintocreek/>