Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #29

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #29

* ************* Southwest Biodiversity Alert #29 *****************
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*            southwest center for biological diversity           *
*                      ksuckling@sw-center.org                   *
*             http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center           *
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1.  SUIT FILED TO LIST FIVE RIPARIAN SPECIES AS
    ENDANGERED

2.  INTENT TO SUE OVER RIPARIAN PLANT FILED

3.  COAL MINE APPEALED

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SUIT FILED TO LIST FIVE RIPARIAN SPECIES AS
ENDANGERED

The Southwest Center has filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife
Service for failing to list the jaguar, cactus ferruginous pygmy owl,
Sonoran tiger salamander, Canelo Hills ladies' tresses (an orchid)
and the Huachuca water umbel as Endangered Species.  All are
threatened by overgrazing, development and dams.

Only two pygmy owl pairs remain in Arizona today though it was
once common in desert riparian areas. The jaguar, the largest cat in
the Americas, formerly ranged from southern California to
Louisiana to Colorado. It is now seen only sporadically in southern
Arizona. The salamander and both plants occur only in mid- elevation
wetlands in southeast Arizona.

 INTENT TO SUE OVER RIPARIAN PLANT FILED

The Southwest Center has formally notified the Fish & Wildlife
Service that it intends to sue the agency for its failure to list the
Huachuca dock as an Endangered Species  The imperiled plant lives
in high elevation wetlands in Arizona and New Mexico. It is
threatened by overgrazing and recreational development.

Although the plant is nearly extinct, the Fish & Wildlife Service has
refused to process a petition to list it as endangered. Shortly before
the Congressional moratorium on ESA listings expired, the Clinton
Administration imposed its own regulatory moratorium. The
politically dominated Fish & Wildlife Service has invoked the illegal
Clinton moratorium as reason for not processing the Huachuca
dock petition.

 COAL MINE APPEALED

The Southwest Center and a coalition of environmental groups has
appealed a proposal to permit a coal mine between the Gila National
Forest and the El Malpais National Monument. The Salt River Project's
Fence Lake mine would draw water from the aquifer which feeds the
sacred Zuni Salt Lake.  At least seven tribes, including the Ramah
Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Mescalero Apache make religious pilgrimages
to the Salt Lake.