From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 10:44
PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST
#269
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
3-23-01
#269
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
CRITICAL HABITAT PROTECTION UPDATE
To justify its illegal
Endangered Species moratorium U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service bureaucrats
claim the agency's budget has been
usurped by court orders requiring the
designation of critical habitat
areas which are of no conservation value.
The following critical habitat victories won in just the past few weeks
show the bureaucrats are wrong on both the facts and the law.
Activists
have spurred the closure of mines, roads, grazing allotments,
and ORV
playgrounds on millions of acres of critical habitat creating
an unparalleled
opportunity for endangered species recovery. As
one member of the Fish &
Wildlife Service Desert Tortoise
Recovery Team wrote to the
Center:
"you guys are really kickin....!; seems like you are
achieving
more legal protection/enforcement in one year than
previous
efforts did in 20! ( and you can quote
me)."
Habitat protection is clearly the road to recovery. Without
critical
habitat, endangered species will continue to languish in an
emergency room condition subverting the intent of the ESA.
§ MILLIONS
OF ACRES OF CRITICAL HABITAT PROTECTED,
THOUSANDS OF MILES OF
ROADS CLOSED IN HISTORIC
CALIFORNIA DESERT LEGAL
SETTLEMENT
§ CATTLE REMOVED FROM 244,000 ACRES OF CRITICAL
HABITAT
INCLUDING THE NEW SANTA ROSA NATIONAL MONUMENT
§
CRITICAL HABITAT PUTS BAY AREA DEVELOPMENT ON HOLD
§ COURT STRIKES DOWN
FEDERAL REGULATIONS UNDERMINING
PROTECTION OF CRITICAL HABITAT
AREAS
MILLIONS OF ACRES PROTECTED, THOUSANDS OF MILES OF
ROADS CLOSED
IN HISTORIC CALIFORNIA DESERT LEGAL
SETTLEMENT
On 3-20-01, a federal judge
approved a legal settlement between the
Center for Biological Diversity,
Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, the Sierra Club, and the
Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) instituting sweeping biodiversity reforms
within the California
Desert Conservation Area. The area was established in
1976 but has
continued to be roaded, grazed, mined, and ORVed to death. But
on
3-16-00, the Center filed suit to protect 24 endangered species and
their
critical habitat areas including the Desert tortoise, Peninsular
Ranges
bighorn sheep, Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Arroyo toad,
Desert
pupfish, Inyo California towhee, Ash Meadows gumplant,
and
Cushenberry buckwheat.
The settlement requires BLM
to:
- prohibit new or expanded mining on 3.4 million acres of
Desert tortoise
critical habitat,
- immediately close
over 4,500 miles of roads and the eventually close,
thousands
more within Desert tortoise critical habitat,
- fence riparian areas to
exclude livestock and burros,
- close a sand & gravel mine
threatening the arroyo southwestern toad,
- prohibit ORVs on over
550,000 acres of sensitive habitat areas,
- educate the public about
desert conservation,
- protect Peninsular Ranges desert bighorn sheep
habitat and
populations,
- raptor proof power
lines,
- use wildlife-safe engine coolant in all BLM
vehicles,
- increase wildlife surveying and population monitoring,
and
- update imperiled species conservation plans
Previous
settlements in the case required the removal or reduction of
cattle within
1.9 million acres of Desert tortoise critical habitat, the
banning of ORVs
from 49,310 acres of the Algodones Sand Dunes to
protect Peirson's
milk-vetch, and the closure of 1,000 acres of Windy
Point to ORVs.
The
suit was argued by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and Jay
Tuchton of
Earthjustice (Denver).
For more on the suit, settlement and the Center’s
efforts to protect the
California Desert Conservation Area visit:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/cdca/>
__________________
CATTLE REMOVED FROM 244,000 ACRES OF BIGHORN
CRITICAL
HABITAT INCLUDING THE NEW SANTA ROSA NATIONAL
MONUMENT
In
response to a formal notice of intent to sue from the Center for
Biological
Diversity, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has agreed
to remove cattle
from 226,026 acres of designated critical habitat for the
endangered
Peninsular ranges desert bighorn sheep. This is all bighorn
critical habitat
managed by the BLM in California, including its 189,423
acre share of the
recently designated Santa Rosa Mountains National
Monument.
A
previous suit by the Center resulted in a legal settlement removing
livestock
from the 17,982 acres of bighorn critical habitat within the San
Bernardino
National Forest. Through the two legal actions, livestock have
been removed
from all federally managed desert bighorn critical habitat.
Livestock
threaten the sheep by grazing off desert grasses and spreading
wildlife
diseases.
____________________
CRITICAL
HABITAT PUTS BAY AREA DEVELOPMENT ON HOLD
In response to a lawsuit by the
Center for Biological Diversity and the
Hayward Area Planning Association,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
has agreed to withdraw a permit for the Blue
Rock Country Club, a 614
luxury home, 18 holes golf course complex. Also a
defendant in the suit,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has agreed to
review the development’s
impact on official “critical habitat” areas for the
California red-legged frog
and the Alameda whipsnake.
The suit
originally concerned the reversal by Fish & Wildlife Service
bureaucrats
of a prior conclusion that the massive development would
jeopardize the
whipsnake if allowed to proceed. Once critical habitat was
designated for the
two species, however, both agencies agreed to review
the project anew under
the more stringent federal requirements that
critical habitat not be
“destroyed or adversely modified.”
The critical habitat areas were
recently designated in response to legal
settlements reached by the Center,
Christians Caring for Creations, The
Jumping Frog Research Institute and
other groups. Blue Rock is the first
previously-approved development in the
Bay Area that has been stopped
to protect a listed species' critical
habitat.
The case was argued by Deborah Reames of Earthjustice Legal
Defense
Fund.
California red-legged frog and habitat
information:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/rlfrog/rlfrog.html>
Alameda
whipsnake and habitat information:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/whipsnake/whipsnake.html>
___________________
COURT STRIKES DOWN FEDERAL REGULATIONS
PREVENTING
PROTECTION OF CRITICAL HABITAT AREAS
On 3-15-01, a federal
appeals court in Louisiana struck down a U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service and
the National Marine Fisheries Service
regulation which weakened the
protection of “critical habitat” areas to
such an extent that the agencies
have systematically refused to protect or
even designate it.
The
Endangered Species Act distinguishes between the minimal need to
avoid
driving species extinct and the more proactive requirement to
recover them to
non-endangered status. Critical habitat is defined in
terms of recovery and
was clearly intended to provide great protection
than mere avoidance of
extinction. Nonetheless, federal agencies
developed their own regulations
limiting critical habitat protection to
situations where species are
threatened with extinction. This has prevented
the agencies from preventing
most habitat loss or reducing a species's
likelihood of recovery.
The
appeals court struck down the regulation, stating that it “sets the bar
too
high,” undermining critical habitat’s proactive value. According to
the
court, “Conservation is a much broader concept than mere survival,”
and
kicks in habitat protection much sooner.
According to Robert
Wiygul who argued the case for Earthjustice,
"This decision is a return to
the original intent of the ESA – to recover
species and move them off the
list. The ESA has been criticized for not
recovering enough species, but this
decision tells us the Act has never
been given a fair chance." Indeed, the
refusal of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service to designate or protect
critical habitat areas is probably the single
greatest threat to endangered
species in the United States. It has
blocked the most basic level of
protection for the 84% of imperiled
species which are threatened with
habitat loss.
To view the court order:
<http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/00/00-30117-cv0.htm>