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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
10-26-01
#287
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§
FENCE LAKE MINE APPROVAL STALLED BY FAX BLITZ AND
TRIBAL
PRESSURE
§ AGREEMENT CANCELS TIMBER SALE BIDDING TO
PROTECT
GOSHAWKS
§ SUIT FILED TO STOP NEW MEXICO SALVAGE
SALE
§ FEDERAL LAND SALE CHALLENGED TO SAVE NEW MEXICO
BUTTERFLY FROM EXTINCTION
§ GRAZING ON 634,000 ACRES CHALLENGED TO
SAVE
ENDANGERED ARIZONA SPECIES
FENCE LAKE MINE APPROVAL STALLED BY FAX BLITZ AND
TRIBAL
PRESSURE
In a major victory for the Zuni Pueblo and
environmentalists, the
Department of Interior has made an 11th hour decision
against
granting federal approval to the Salt River Project’s proposed
Fence
Lake coal mine. The approval was expected on 10-24-01 and would
have
allowed SRP to immediately break ground on the 18,000 acre
mine in remote
western New Mexico. Hydrological studies have
repeatedly demonstrated that
groundwater pumping associated with
the mine would drain the Zuni Salt Lake,
a unique desert ecosystem
as well as central cultural site and salt gathering
area for the Zuni
Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Navajo and Hopi tribes, and others.
SRP had worked out approval of their mining permit in a series
of
secret meetings with the Department of Interior. Contrary to
Secretary
of Interior Gale Norton’s pledge to facilitate dialogue
between the tribes,
SRP, and the state of New Mexico, both the
tribes and environmentalists were
excluded from the meetings.
Representing Interior in these negotiations was
Norton’s second in
command Steven J. Griles, a top official under Interior
Secretary
James Watt during the Reagan administration and long-time
mining
industry employee. Before being appointed to the Deputy
Secretary
position this summer, Griles worked as a consultant to the
American
Mining Association, an umbrella trade organization for
mining
corporations.
Opposition by the Zuni Pueblo and environmental
organizing,
including 1,000 faxes sent by Center members and supporters
to
Norton in less than 24 hours, convinced Interior to hold up approval
of
the mining permit. The permit can still be approved in the future,
however,
so your help may be needed again soon!
To join the Center’s fax action
network:
http://actionnetwork.org/BIODIVERSITY/home.html
______________________
AGREEMENT CANCELS TIMBER
SALE BIDDING TO PROTECT
GOSHAWKS
On 9-5-00, the Center for
Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club
filed suit over a U.S. Forest
Service goshawk plan guiding logging on
eight million acres of forest in
Arizona and New Mexico. We intend to
seek an injunction against all logging
within the Southwestern Region
of the Forest Service until a new and improved
goshawk
conservation plan is developed.
As part of ongoing settlement
negotiations, the Forest Service has
agreed to cancel the contract bidding
process on the Dry Park timber
sale. Dry Park, located on the Kaibab National
Forest, would log
between 6-8 million board feet on the Kaibab Plateau near
the North
Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab Plateau contains the
most
extensive stands of old-growth ponderosa pine forest in the
Southwest
and the densest population of goshawks in North America.
The case is
being argued by Mike Lozeau of Earthjustice.
For more information on the
suit:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/goshawk/swgoshawk.html
____________________________
SUIT FILED TO STOP
NEW MEXICO SALVAGE SALE
On 9-24-01 the Center for Biological
Diversity filed suit against the
Forest Service to halt the Corner Mountain
“salvage” timber sale on
the Gila National Forest. The sale would clearcut
2.5 million board
feet of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fire on 340 acres,
including
7,000 trees over 16 inches. The trees to be logged were burned
three
years ago when the Forest Service lost control of a
prescribed
natural fire. Despite two successful Center appeals of the sale,
the
Forest Service has never adequately analyzed the effects of
the
proposed logging on soils, erosion and sedimentation, and
wildlife.
“Salvage” logging of trees killed by fire, insects, disease,
windstorm
and other natural processes has long been used as an excuse by
the
Forest Service to enter areas that are otherwise off-limits due to
the
presence of endangered species, roadless areas, or land that is
simply
unsuitable for logging. The Gila National Forest continues this
trend on the
Corner Mountain timber sale by cutting over 2,500 trees
larger than 24 inches
and by logging in a Mexican spotted owl
territory, both violations of both
the Gila Forest Plan and the
Spotted Owl Recovery Plan.
Matthew Bishop
of the Western Environmental Law Center (Taos) is
arguing the
case.
___________________________
FEDERAL LAND SALE CHALLENGED TO SAVE NEW MEXICO
BUTTERFLY
FROM EXTINCTION
On 10-15-01, the Center for Biological Diversity
appealed a proposal
by the Lincoln National Forest to sell 80 acres of land
to the Village of
Cloudcroft in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains. The
Village
intends to use the land, for sports fields, “green belts,” and
a
wastewater treatment plant. Three of the five parcels are occupied
habitat for the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, an
endemic
species proposed for listing under the Endangered Species
Act. The listing
resulted from a petition and lawsuit by the Center.
The checkerspot
butterfly’s remarkably limited range encompasses a
33 square mile area
centered around Cloudcroft. The species
currently occupies only 5,200 acres,
approximately 50% of which is
private land open to development. Relying on
open meadows
between 8,000 and 9,000 feet in elevation, the checkerspot
is
threatened by destruction of habitat from private and
commercial
development, livestock grazing, over-collection, and fire
suppression.
Fish and Wildlife Service, in its proposed rule, states that the
butterfly
is particularly vulnerable to habitat disturbances which could lead
to
extinction, explicitly noting the Cloudcroft land sale as a
threat.
Despite this precarious, the Forest Service failed to analyze
the
implications of trading away occupied butterfly habitat, or
consider
the cumulative effects to the butterfly from the intensive
residential
and commercial growth occurring in Cloudcroft, which has
recently
approved enough development to double the current population
of
600.
The development pressures on private land checkerspot
habitat
make it imperative that the Forest Service give full protection to
all
occupied and suitable butterfly public land habitat. Thus, the
Center’s
appeal not only seeks to halt the proposed land sale, but asks
the
Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately
and
permanently safeguard all occupied and unoccupied suitable
butterfly
habitat on public lands.
__________________________
GRAZING ON 634,000
ACRES CHALLENGED TO SAVE
ENDANGERED ARIZONA SPECIES
After a
yearlong investigation into violations of the Endangered
Species Act on fifty
five U.S. Forest Service grazing allotments, the
Center for Biological
Diversity and Forest Guardians filed suit on
10-19-01 challenging continued
grazing of 13,000 cattle on 633,870
acres of public land in Arizona. The suit
seeks to prevent livestock
damage to six endangered species on Coronado,
Coconino, and
Tonto National Forests: the Gila topminnow, razorback sucker,
Little
Colorado spinedace, lesser long-nosed bat, cactus ferruginous
pygmy
owl, and Huachuca water umbel. The Coronado National
Forest is responsible
for fifty three of the illegal allotments.
The new suit follows a string
of earlier suits which resulted in the
closure of over 250 miles of public
rivers to cattle and a host of
mandatory restrictions set by the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service.
Despite its continued impact to endangered species
and clean water,
the Forest Service has ignored the Fish & Wildlife
Service’s
environmental restrictions.
The case is being argued by
Kenna and Hickcox of Durango, CO.
Press release
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/coronado10-2001.html
Map
of illegal grazing allotments:
www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/Programs/grazing/bosuit/index.html
Copy
of lawsuit:
www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/Programs/grazing/BO-suit-10-18-01.pdf