No.
309, July 10, 2002
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WILD &
SCENIC RIVERS: 531 RIVER MILES PROTECTED IN NEW MEXICO
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WILD &
SCENIC RIVERS: SUIT SEEKS 500 MILES OF RIVER PROTECTION IN MICHIGAN
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SAN DIEGO
AMBROSIA LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROG LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
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HABITAT PROTECTION
ORDERED FOR EIGHT CALIFORNIA PLANTS
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SUIT CHALLENGES
AUCTION OF MOJAVE DESERT PUBLIC LANDS TO DEVELOPERS
WILD
& SCENIC RIVERS: OVER 500 RIVER MILES PROTECTED IN NEW MEXICO
In keeping with a legal
settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Amigos Bravos, the Carson
National Forest amended its Forest Plan on 6-26-02 to protect 531 miles of streams
and rivers in northern New Mexico. The Carson was one of four New Mexico National
Forests sued by the Center and Amigos Bravos in 1997 for failing to identify
and protect rivers that are eligible for designation as wild, scenic,
or recreational under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest
concluded that 67 river segments are eligible for protection under the Act,
and now must manage them so as to maintain their eligibility until Congress
votes on whether to formally add them to the list of wild and scenic rivers.
Though over 10,500 miles
on 150 river segments have been protected under the Act nationwide, very few
New Mexico rivers have been included. Combined with those determined to be eligible
by the Gila, Lincoln, and Cibola National Forests, the suit has brought protection
to over 800 miles of public rivers in New Mexico. On the Carson Forest, these
include the Rio Tusas, Rio Vallecitos, Rio Pueblo, Arroyo Hondo, Canjilon Creek,
El Rito Creek, Rio Chama, and the Red River; on the Gila Forest they include
the Gila, Tularosa, and Negrito rivers; on the Cibola Forest they include the
Canadian River; and on the Lincoln Forest they include the Sacramento River
and Rio Peñasco.
Many of the eligibility
determinations were based on the presence of imperiled native trout including
the Gila trout on the Gila National Forest and the Rio Grande cutthroat trout
on the Carson National Forest.
The case was argued by
Matt Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center (Taos).
To learn more about the
Centers Wild and Scenic River Campaign in NM, CO, AZ, CA, and MI click
here.
WILD
& SCENIC RIVERS: SUIT SEEKS 500 MILES OF RIVER PROTECTION IN MICHIGAN
On 11-15-01, the Center
for Biological Diversity, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, and the Superior Wilderness
Action Network sued the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan for refusing to protect
300 miles of the Black, Ontonagon, Paint, Presque Isle, Sturgeon, and Yellow
Dog Rivers. All were all protected by Congress under the Wild & Scenic Rivers
Act in 1992, but the National Forest has continued to log the forests along
their banks and has refused to develop a management plan to ensure their complete
protection.
The nearly one million
acre Ottawa National Forest is located in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula,
and contains some of the best wildlife habitat in the state. Over 500,000 acres
of second-growth hardwood forests are found within the Forest. They are just
beginning to mature and regain characteristics of old-growth forest after being
devastated by the logging era that ended in the 1930s. Since the inception of
the Ottawa's management plan in 1986, hardwood forests have been overcut by
at least 60%. Timbering and road building in and near the Wild and Scenic Rivers
have major impacts on imperiled species such as Canada lynx, American bittern,
American bald eagle, Northern goshawk, red-shouldered hawk, and Eastern timber
wolf.
In June, 2002 the suit
was expanded to protect 200 miles of the Whitefish and Tahquamenon Rivers on
the Hiawatha National Forests, also in Michigan. The suit is being argued by
Brent Plater of the Center for Biological Diversity.
To learn more about the
Centers Wild and Scenic River Campaign in NM, CO, AZ, CA, and MI click
here.
SAN DIEGO
AMBROSIA LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
In keeping with a legal
agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, California Native Plant
Society, and Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service listed the San Diego (Ambrosia pumila) ambrosia as an endangered
species on 7-2-02. A member of the sunflower family, the ambrosia has declined
from at least 40 populations to just 15 in San Diego and Riverside counties
and northern Baja California. Major threats to the species survival include
road construction and maintenance, urban and suburban sprawl, encroachment by
exotic plants, and livestock.
Though the Smithsonian Institution
petitioned to list the San Diego ambrosia as an endangered species in 1978,
the Fish & Wildlife Service repeatedly delayed its protection, allowing
it to dwindle to extinctions edge before taking action. Indeed, its listing
this month required a 1997 petition by the Center and two lawsuits filed in
1999 and 2001. This delay-until-sued pattern has characterized the agencys
management of thousands of imperiled species, especially plants. More than 30
species have gone extinct while waiting to be protected under the Endangered
Species Act.
Numerous ambrosia populations
disappeared since the 1978 Smithsonian petition, and even since the 1997 Center
petition.
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROG LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
In keeping with a legal
agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, California Native Plant
Society, and Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service listed the Southern California mountain yellow-legged frog
as an endangered species on 7-2-02. With a total known population of only 79
adults, the Southern California mountain yellow-legged frog is probably North
Americas most endangered amphibian. It has disappeared from 99% of its
range and now occurs in just seven populations.
As is so often the case,
the road to federal protection for the frog was long, delayed, and only accomplished
with the intervention of citizen petitions and lawsuits. It was first designated
a candidate for protection by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1991. When this
failed to result in movement toward protection, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation
filed a formal listing petition in 1995. But no action was taken until two lawsuits
were filed by BLF and the Center. Finally in 2002, eleven years after being
placed on the candidate list, the frog has been given the protection of the
Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, it has suffered such dramatic declines
between 1991 and 2002 that its recovery will be more difficult and more expensive
than if done promptly and properly.
The Center has also petitioned
to list the mountain yellow-legged frog as an endangered species throughout
its entire range in California and Nevada and is working to protect the Chiricahua
leopard frog, relict leopard frog, California red-legged frog, Mississippi gopher
frog, Yosemite toad, Sonora tiger salamander, California tiger salamander, Sonoma
tiger salamander, and Santa Barbara tiger salamander.
Learn more about amphibian
declines click
here.
HABITAT
PROTECTION ORDERED FOR EIGHT CALIFORNIA PLANTS
In response to a lawsuit
filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant
Society, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to
designate and protect critical habitat areas for eight endangered California
plants in San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino,
Inyo and Mono counties of southern California.
While 37% of endangered
vertebrate species have been awarded critical habitat designation, only 4% of
endangered plants have been given it. The eight plants to be given habitat protection
are:
The Lane Mountain milk-vetch
(Astragalus jaegerianus) is only known to occur at four western Mojave
Desert sites north of Barstow, CA, near the Ft. Irwin tank base in San Bernardino
County. It has cream to purple flowers and silvery leaves, and is widely scattered
at each site. This endangered plant is threatened by proposed U.S. Army Ft.
Irwin expansion, with related tank training, military vehicle trespass on to
off-limits BLM lands, dry wash recreational gold mining, off-road vehicle use,
increasing fire frequency, and associated fire suppression activities.
The Coachella valley milk-vetch
(Astragalus lentiginosus var. coachellae) grows on loose wind-blown and
alluvial sands on dunes and flats in the Coachella Valley area of the Sonoran
Desert near Palm Springs. It has deep pink-purple flowers, and a mottled fruit
or pod. Urban sprawl either directly destroys lands on which this endangered
plant occurs, or reduces the source and transport of the blow sands that maintain
its habitats. Roads and off-road vehicle use also damage habitat.
Peirson's milk-vetch (Astragalus
magdalenae var. peirsonii) is located at Algodones Sand Dunes, in the Sonoran
Desert of eastern Imperial County, CA, and is listed as threatened. It grows
in sandy and gravelly soils, and has white or pale flowers. Its main threats
are destruction of habitat from intensive off-road vehicle use, water projects
and pipelines.
Fish slough milk-vetch
(Astragalus lentiginosus var. piscinensis) is a threatened plant occurring
in the Great Basin Desert northwest of Bishop, CA, in Inyo and Mono counties.
It is restricted to a six-mile stretch of alkaline flats paralleling Fish Slough,
a desert wetland ecosystem. Trampling and grazing by cattle, roads and off-road
vehicle use, modification of wetlands, the Red Willow Dam and related expansion
of Fish Slough Lake are all threats.
Spreading navarretia (Navarretia
fossalis) occurs primarily in vernal pool ecosystems, and, in 1998, had
fewer than 30 populations left. Nearly 60% are concentrated in three locations:
Otay Mesa in southern San Diego County, along the San Jacinto River in western
Riverside County, and near Hemet in Riverside County. It is an annual in the
Phlox family, and is threatened by ongoing degradation and destruction of vernal
pools due to urbanization, agricultural practices, off-road vehicles, flood
control and widespread habitat loss.
Munz's onion (Allium
munzii) is an endangered perennial in the Lily family, with only 13 populations
located in western Riverside County, CA, including the Gavilan Hills, Harford
Springs County, Paloma Valley, Skunk Hollow, Domenigoni Hills, Bachelor Mountain,
and the Elsinore Mountains.
San Jacinto Valley crownscale
(Atriplex coronata var. notatior) is an endangered plant reduced to just
12 populations, primarily associated with the San Jacinto River and Old Salt
Creek tributary drainages in the San Jacinto, Perris, Menifee and Elsinore Valleys
of western Riverside County, CA.
Thread-leaved brodiaea
(Brodiaea filifolia) is a member of the lily family, with violet flowers.
It is listed as threatened, and in 1998, just 37 populations were known in southern
California. 15 are in the cities of Vista, San Marcos and Carlsbad in northern
San Diego County. The remaining 22 populations are scattered within Orange,
Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties.
For more information on
the suit and species click
here.
AUCTION
OF PUBLIC LAND TO PRIVATE DEVELOPERS IN MOJAVE DESERT CHALLENGED
The Center for Biological
Diversity, the Western Land Exchange Project and Committee for Idaho's High
Desert filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management on 6-26-02 to stop the
auction of 6,500 acres of public land in the Mojave Desert northeast of Las
Vegas. Much of the public land near this area is designated critical habitat
that is essential to the survival and recovery of the threatened desert tortoise.
The combined impact of
this and several other development plans on the fragile Mojave Desert and Virgin
River would harm water supplies, water and air quality, and endangered species.
In addition to the desert tortoise, which would have its habitat bulldozed,
at least five other endangered species are threatened by the water mining that
would occur if this parcel of public land is sold to developers: the woundfin,
Virgin River chub, Pahranagat roundtail chub, Southwestern willow flycatcher
and Least Bell's vireo.
The Center and Western
Land Exchange Project filed an appeal of these proposed sales in October 2001,
just days before a BLM auction. The resulting uncertainty caused developers
not to bid, but the Bush Administration redoubled its liquidation efforts and
is set to offer the habitat again for sale. The Center is represented in this
case by attorneys Christopher Krupp of the Western Land Exchange Project in
Seattle and Henry Egghart of Reno.
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