Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #28
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Southwest Biodiversity Alert #28
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southwest center for biological
diversity
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ksuckling@sw-center.org
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http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
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1.
SUIT FILED TO LIST FIVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
SPECIES UNDER
E.S.A.
2. PETITION FILED TO REMOVE CATTLE FROM FLAGSTAFF MUNICIPAL
WATERSHED
3. GILA FIREFIGHTER PLEADS GUILTY TO FOREST
ARSON
4. KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST PROPOSES MASSIVE SALVAGE TIMBERS
SALE ON
THE BORDER OF THE GRAND
CANYON
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SUIT
FILED TO LIST FIVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SPECIES UNDER E.S.A.
The Southwest
Center has filed suit against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to list two
butterflies, a fairy shrimp, and two
plants as under the Endangered Species
Act. A similar suit filed by
the Center resulted in court order that
the Fish and Wildlife
Service make a listing decision on 6 other imperiled
Southern
California species.
The San Diego fairy shrimp, the Laguna Mountain
skipper butterfly, the
Quino checkerspot butterfly, the Cuyamaca
Lake downingia, and Parish's
meadowfoam are all Southern California
endemics. The skipper is
particularly endangered, being limited to
only three locations with a total
population of fewer than one
hundred individuals. Livestock grazing and
associated fire
suppression is to blame for the species
decline.
While millions of
individual fairy shrimp may still exist,
they are limited to a few dozen
vernal pools scattered around San
Diego County and northern Baja. All vernal
pools in southern
California are threatened by urbanization and associated
edge effects.
PETITION FILED TO REMOVE CATTLE FROM FLAGSTAFF
MUNICIPAL WATERSHED
The Southwest Center has filed an Administrative
Procedures Act
petition to remove cattle from a portion of a Forest Service
grazing
allotment which is polluting Flagstaff's municipal water
supply.
The City of Flagstaff supports removal of the cattle to protect
the
city from cryptosporiduim, a bacteria found in cattle
feces.
GILA FIREFIGHTER PLEADS GUILTY TO FOREST ARSON
A Forest
Service firefighter has pleaded guilty to felony charges of
lighting forest
fires on the Gila National Forest. He faces a
maximum penalty of five
years and a $250,000 fine.
The
Inspector General's office is continuing its investigation
into Forest
Service arson fires on the Gila National Forest. A second
investigation
requested by the Southwest Center is probing the
suspicious origin of the HB
Fire which was started the same day the
Salvage Rider was signed, and the
Gila National Forest's refusal to
combat the blaze until after it burned
through the old growth.
KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST PROPOSES MASSIVE SALVAGE
TIMBERS SALE ON THE BORDER OF THE GRAND CANYON
Following a 56,000 acre
fire which burned primarily through pinyon-
juniper woodlands, the Kaibab
National Forest plans to log 35
million board feet on 3,000 acres of
ponderosa pine. Though the
Forest seeded the burn area with exotic grasses
and plans to allow
continued cattle grazing, the logging plan is being billed
as
"ecosystem restoration."
Carried out under the Salvage Rider, the sale will not be
subject to
environmental laws, public review or appeal. The sale is
near the border of
the Grand Canyon.
The Southwest
Center has vowed to protest the sale through
litigation and civil
disobedience if necessary.
Please write the Kaibab, tell them no salvage
logging near the
Grand
Canyon:
Conny Frisch,
Forest Supervisor
Kaibab National
Forest
800 S. Sixth St., Williams,
AZ 86046
520.635.8200