From: owner-swcbdmembers@envirolink.org on behalf of Kieran
Suckling [ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22,
2001 11:23 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject:
BIODIVERSITY ACTIVIST
#275
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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
5-22-01
#275
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§
500 MILES OF NEW MEXICO STREAMS FOUND ELIGIBLE FOR
PROTECTION
UNDER THE WILD & SCENIC RIVERS ACT
§ 27 MILLION ACRES OF BEAUFORT SEA
MAY BE DESIGNATED AS
CRITICAL HABITAT FOR ENDANGERED BOWHEAD
WHALE
§ SUIT BREWING TO PROTECT ARIZONA BALD EAGLES FROM
SPRAWL
§ FEDS FAIL TO MONITOR PEREGRINE FALCON POPULATION
YET
PERMIT TAKING OF 5% OF ALL WESTERN
NESTLINGS
500
MILES OF NEW MEXICO STREAMS FOUND ELIGIBLE FOR
PROTECTION UNDER THE WILD
& SCENIC RIVERS ACT
In keeping with a court ordered legal settlement with
the Center for
Biological Diversity and Amigos Bravos, four New Mexico
National Forests
have declared that 500 miles of streams and rivers within
their boundaries
qualify for protective status under the Wild & Scenic
Rivers Act. This
eligibility determination is the first step toward full
designation under the
Act which requires an act of Congress.
The
nation’s preeminent river protection law, the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act
is
intended to protect free flowing rivers from dam building, logging,
mining,
and cattle grazing. Similar to “wilderness study areas”, rivers
declared
“eligible” for protection must be managed to maintain their
eligibility until
Congress makes a final decision on their fate.
The Center and Amigos
Bravos brought suit against the Forest Service in
1997 because the Gila,
Lincoln, Cibola, and Carson National Forests
failed to inventory rivers
within their boundaries for protective status nearly
30 years after the Act
was passed. Though over 10,500 miles on 150 river
segments have been
protected under the Act nationwide, to date very few
New Mexico rivers have
been included: the east fork of the Jemez River,
Rio Chama, the Pecos River,
and segments of the Rio Grande and Red
River.
Rivers found eligible
through our litigation process include:
Gila National Forest:
East, Middle and West Forks of the Gila River,
Negrito Creek, Tularosa River, Animas Creek
Cibola National
Forest: Las Huertas Creek, Tajique Creek,
Canadian
River.
Lincoln National
Forest: Rio Peñasco, Sacramento River
The case was argued by Matt Bishop
of the Western Environmental Law
Center (Taos).
__________________
27 MILLION ACRES OF BEAUFORT SEA MAY BE DESIGNATED
AS
CRITICAL HABITAT FOR ENDANGERED BOWHEAD WHALE
Responding to a formal
petition submitted by the Center for Biological
Diversity, the National
Marine Fisheries Service announced on 5-22-01
that the designation of
approximately 26.5 million acres of the Beaufort
Sea as critical habitat for
the endangered bowhead whale may be
warranted. The area identified as
essential for the bowhead’s survival and
recovery by the Center include the
Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope
between Point Barrow and the Canadian
border, from mean high tide to
approximately 170 kilometers offshore. Once
designated, critical habitat
areas are protected from all federal actions,
including oil drilling, which
may destroy or degrade them.
Bowheads
were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century, and have
been listed as
an endangered species since 1970. Large-scale industrial
development
has proliferated within the proposed critical habitat area,
exposing bowheads
to disruptive noise, oil spills, and deadly collisions with
ships. The
Fisheries Service finding is particularly timely in the face of the
Bush
administration's reckless plan to line the pockets of his gas &
oil
campaign contributors by drilling for oil along Alaska's North
Shore.
A final decision on the petition is expected within 12 months. To
see a
copy of the petition
<www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/bowhead/petition.pdf>
The Center also has a petition
pending to designate critical habitat for the
northern right whale in
Alaska’s Bering Sea
<www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/right/nprw1.html>
Previous
Center actions have resulted in the designation of 26.1 million
acres of
Alaskan shoreline and ocean as critical habitat for the Steller’s
and
spectacled eider
<www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/eiders/index.html>
_________________
SUIT BREWING TO PROTECT ARIZONA BALD EAGLES
FROM
SPRAWL
On 5-8-01, the Center for Biological Diversity and Concerned
Citizens
About Responsible Environment formally notified the U.S. Army Corps
of
Engineers that we will sue over the agency’s approval of the Vista
Verde
development in northeast Maricopa County. The 856-acre Vista
Verde
development would place hundreds of houses and 36 golf holes within
a
mile of the Verde River and an active bald eagle nest. Over the
objections
of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Army Corps denies any
negative
impacts to the eagles.
Listed as a federally threatened
species, the bald eagle has achieved
remarkable recovery in many areas of the
country, yet only 40 breeding
sites exist in the Southwest. Due to its
precariously low numbers,
dependence upon human intervention to breed
successfully, and
continuing threats to its riverine habitat, the Center
opposes the proposed
delisting of the Southwestern population of the bald
eagle from
Endangered Species Act protection.
___________________
FEDS FAIL TO MONITOR PEREGRINE FALCON POPULATION
YET
PERMIT TAKING OF 5% OF ALL WESTERN NESTLINGS
On 5-22-01, the Center
for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife,
Portland Audubon Society,
Headwaters, and the Klamath-Siskiyou
Wildlands Center formally notified the
Department of Interior that it will file
suit over the agency’s failure to
monitor the population status of the
American peregrine falcon.
The
falcon was declared recovered and removed from the endangered
species list in
August, 1999. To ensure such species continue to recover,
the Endangered
Species Act requires that they be monitored for at least
five years. Yet
nearly two years later, the agency has still not drafted or
implemented a
comprehensive monitoring plan.
Despite ongoing habitat threats, poor
reproduction in some regions, and
lack of a monitoring plan, the Department
of Interior announced last week
that it is authorizing the take of 5% of all
peregrine nestlings in the western
states each year for falconry purposes.
Without monitoring, the agency will
not even know how many falcon nests
exists, much less whether 5, 10, or
20 percent of the nestlings are being
taken. Because it lacks monitoring
data, the department is “assuming” the
number of falcon nests and
productivity of each nest is the same as it was in
1998.
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710