No. 314, August 14, 2002

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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Biodiversity Activist No. 314
August 14, 2002
www.biologicaldiversity.org
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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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