No. 314, August 14, 2002
********************************** CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Biodiversity Activist No. 314 August 14, 2002 www.biologicaldiversity.org **********************************
JUDGE: REFUSAL TO LIST QUEEN CHARLOTTE GOSHAWK AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES SHOULD BE STRUCK DOWN
GILA CHUB PROPOSED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
FOUR OREGON TIMBER SALES STOPPED TO PROTECT BULL TROUT...FOR NOW
BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES PROTECTION FOR IMPERILED COASTAL CUTTHROAT TROUT
MASSIVE NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE STRUCK DOWN, SAVING OLD GROWTH
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JUDGE: REFUSAL TO LIST QUEEN CHARLOTTE GOSHAWK AS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES SHOULD BE STRUCK DOWN
A federal magistrate has issued a formal recommendation to a federal judge to strike down a decision by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to not list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an endangered species in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The magistrate found that the Wildlife Service did not heed its own research showing massive loss of old growth forests in British Columbia. The failure to consider whether the British Columbia population is a significant portion of the species' range violates the Endangered Species Act.
In 1994, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sitka Conservation Society, the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and others filed a formal petition to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an endangered species. The goshawk is extremely endangered by old growth logging, appearing even more vulnerable than the spotted owl and murrelet. Less than 50 pairs are know to have nested throughout the subspecies entire range in recent years.
The case is being argued by Kathy Meyer of Meyer and Glitzenstein. Co-plaintiffs include the Sitka Conservation Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation. A final decision in the case will be made by the end of August.
For more information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/goshawk/QCgoshawk.html
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GILA CHUB PROPOSED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
In response to a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Sky Island Watch on 6-4-98 and two lawsuits and a negotiated agreement to protect 29 species nationwide, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the Gila Chub (Gila intermedia) as an endangered species on 8-9-02. The Gila chub formerly occurred throughout the Gila Basin in southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and northern Sonora, but is now reduced to a small fraction of its historic range in small, isolated populations.
The Gila chub is threatened by a combination of non-native fish that compete and prey on the native fish, and habitat degradation related to livestock grazing, water diversion, groundwater pumping, dams, logging, mining, and recreation. These threats are driving native fish to extinction across the west. In the genus Gila alone, for example, one western species is already extinct and nine other species or subspecies are listed as threatened or endangered. In addition, the Center for Biological Diversity is currently preparing a petition to list two more species as endangered. The increasing number of listed aquatic species across the western U.S. highlights the need for landscape scale protection for rivers and streams.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has concurrently proposed to designate roughly 208 miles of critical habitat, primarily along small streams where the species already occurs. Because populations of Gila chub occur in a fraction of their historic range and remaining populations are isolated from one another, however, this strategy is unlikely to ensure the chub's conservation and recovery. Fish and Wildlife has also limited critical habitat to 300 feet on each side of designated streams, despite the fact that many factors that impact stream environments, such as logging, livestock grazing, or groundwater pumping occur further from streams.
Please write the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, indicate your support for listing of the Gila chub, and ask them to expand critical habitat to areas where the species presently doesn't occur, but could be recovered, and to whole watersheds rather than simply within 300 feet of streams. Comments should be sent by October 8, 2002 to:
Field Supervisor Arizona Ecological Services Field Office U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2321 West Royal Palm Road, Suite 103 Phoenix, AZ 85021-4951
For more information on the 29 species agreement: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/ESA/settlement.html
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FOUR OREGON TIMBER SALES STOPPED TO PROTECT BULL TROUT...FOR NOW
On 8-07-02, a federal judge issued a Preliminary Injunction which effectively halts logging on four damaging timber sales on the Willamette National Forest because of their impact on the threatened bull trout. The injunction is in force until, at least, the case is resolved. The sales are located in the Upper Willamette River Basin which supports the only remaining population of bull trout west of the Cascades in Oregon. They would befoul streams with sediment by logging 675 acres, building 3.5 miles of road, and reconstructing 42 miles of old roads. Bull trout are extremely sensitive to increased sediment levels and are suffering from high road densities in the Upper Willamette which are already double the level recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for conservation of bull trout.
The suit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Cascadia Wildlands Project, and Willamette Riverkeeper, represented by Cascade Resources Advocacy Group. Earlier this year, the Willamette National Forest withdrew the Simco Timber Sale after the groups threatened to sue on behalf of the bull trout. The withdrawn sale would have rebuilt 32 miles of road and logged nearly ten million board feet of trees on 480 acres, much of it on steep slopes and in roadless areas.
For more information on the Center's efforts to protect native trout, visit the website of the Western Native Trout Campaign: http://www.westerntrout.org
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BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES PROTECTION FOR IMPERILED COASTAL CUTTHROAT TROUT
On 6-26-02 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would not list coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki) in southwest Washington and northwest Oregon as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Oregon Natural Resources Council originally filed the petition to list the coastal cutthroat trout in December 1997. The announcement denying protection for the trout predated the availability of the final rule by more than a week, in an apparent effort to spin the politically-motivated decision before the public and press had access to the final rule.
Coastal cutthroat trout populations have undergone severe declines in range and numbers. All state and federal agencies concede that their habitats are widely and severely degraded by a combination of urbanization, agriculture, and logging. For these, and other reasons, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed to list these magnificent fish as "threatened" in April 1999. Information that has become available in the interim indicates that cutthroat trout face even greater threats to their persistence, warranting listing as "endangered" under the ESA.
Authority for the cutthroat listing was transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which failed to complete it until required to do so by 6-23-02, under an August 2001 landmark settlement between the Dept. of Interior, the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Native Plant Society and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project. This settlement required the Service to complete required listing efforts for 29 species.
For more information on western native trout: http://www.westerntrout.org , and settlement: http://endangeredearth.org/alerts/result-m.asp?index=1094
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MASSIVE NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE STRUCK DOWN, SAVING OLD GROWTH
In response to an appeal by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Regional Forester of the U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn the Sheep Basin Timber Sale on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. The timber sale would have logged over nine million board feet of ponderosa pine across 3,840 acres, including thousands of mature and old growth trees. In a bizarre twist of logic, the Forest admitted that the timber sale is not a "restoration" project, but insists on using the title regardless, "so as not to confuse the public."
The Center offered to withdraw the appeal if the Forest Service reduced the impacts of the project by only thinning small trees. Even the local citizens group agreed that only small trees should be thinned. But the Gila chose to ignore this agreement and increase controversy by insisting on logging some of the last big old trees in the area. The Gila plans to try to dress up their illegal analysis and avoid doing an Environmental Impact Statement on the huge amount of logging they have planned.
Sheep Basin is the first of 15 planned timber sales spanning 70,000 acres of the Negrito Watershed and consuming 90 million board feet of trees. The watershed is an important habitat area for several endangered species including the loach minnow, Mexican spotted owl and Chiricahua leopard frog. The Regional Forester found that despite the Forest's admission that such intensive logging could result in "long-term fragmentation of existing habitat" due to the "cumulative substantial loss of large trees," that the Forest did not analyze and thus ensure the mitigation of the loss.
This appeal victory illustrates that when environmentalists win appeals it is the Forest Service itself that determines they haven't followed the law, reinforcing the need for citizen involvement.
Call or write the Gila Forest Supervisor Marcia Andre and let her know it's unacceptable to log any of the few remaining big trees on the Gila National Forest.
Marcia Andre Gila National Forest Supervisor 3005 Camino Del Bosque 505-388-8201
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