Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #30

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #30

* ************* Southwest Biodiversity Alert #30 *****************
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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.  SOUTHWEST CENTER WINS PERMITS TO SALVAGE TIMBER SALE

2.  BLM ADMITS GRAZING HARMS ENDANGERED SPECIES ON GILA RIVER

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SOUTHWEST CENTER WINS PERMITS TO SALVAGE TIMBER SALE

Members of the Southwest Center have been awarded permits to
log the Rustler Salvage Timber Sale on the Coronado National Forest.
Thirty members had pledged $8,000 to buy the permits and leave the
burned trees standing. Not being able to distinguish Southwest Center
members from loggers, the Coronado National Forest has awarded them
the rights to the timber.

After losing a challenge to the sale by the Southwest Center in
Decemeber, 1995, the Forest Service reissued it under the Salvage
Rider. The Southwest Center has appealed a court ruling to allow the
Salvage Rider timber sale to proceed even though the Forest Service
lied about the presence of Mexican spotted owls and the existence of
critical biological documents. No commercial logging has occured on
the Coronado in three decades. The Rustler Sale is the first of many
sales the Forest is planning despite the universal objections of
southern Arizonans.


BLM ADMITS GRAZING HARMS ENDANGERED SPECIES ON GILA RIVER

In response to a suit by the Southwest Center, the Safford District
of the BLM has agreed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service
on the effects of its entire grazing program on over a dozen
endangered species. The BLM has since determined that 19 grazing
allotments along the Gila River and its tributaries adversely
effect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, loach minnow,
spikedace, Gila topminnow and desert pupfish.

The Southwest Center is moving to remove cattle from the river until
the consultation is complete.