Biodiversity Activist, No. 325

Biodiversity Activist, No. 325
Center for Biological Diversity
November 26, 2002
www.biologicaldiversity.org
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1.2 MILLION ACRES PROPOSED TO PROTECT PYGMY OWL IN AZ

ARIZONA LAW PREVENTING CONSERVATION STRUCK DOWN

JUDGE ORDERS NEW CRITICAL HABITAT FOR FROG, TOAD, AND SHRIMP IN
CA

COLORADO DELTA BOOK TOUR/SLIDE SHOW: LOS ANGELES, 12-1-02

PUBLIC LANDS GRAZING ROAD SHOW HITS CALIFORNIA

NEW TEXAS SNAKE DISCOVERED

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1.2 MILLION ACRES PROPOSED TO PROTECT PYGMY OWL IN AZ

In keeping with a legal agreement negotiated by the Center for
Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife proposed the designation of 1,208,001 acres of
"critical habitat" for the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy
owl on 11-26-02. Owl habitat on federal land within the critical
habitat zone--as well as private or state land requiring federal
permits--may not be destroyed or degraded.

The pygmy owl was once common in Arizona from the New River
(north of Phoenix) to the Mexican border. Habitat destruction at
the hands of developers, irrigators, miners, and the livestock
industry have reduced the species to just 18 adults in Arizona
in 2002. The tiny owl was listed as an endangered species in
1997 in response to a scientific petition and litigation by the
Center.

While the new designation is 470,000 acres larger than the
original 1999 designation, it excludes important and greatly
threatened habitat in northwest Tucson, the San Pedro River, and
around Phoenix. The exclusion of these areas contradicts the
Fish and Wildlife Service's own draft Pygmy Owl Recovery plan.

For more information:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/pygmyowl/index.html
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ARIZONA LAW PREVENTING CONSERVATION STRUCK DOWN

The Arizona Court of Appeals has sided with Pima County in its
bid to strike down a state law preventing downzoning. In
response to progressive zoning ordinances in Pima County to
protect open space and endangered species -- especially the
cactus ferruginous pygmy owl -- the Arizona legislature passed a
developer-written law in 1998 forbidding counties from reducing
the allowed number of houses that can be built on a property
without the landowner's approval. It allowed the counties to
increase the number of allowed houses even if landowners
objected. The appeals court ruled that the law is
unconstitutional because it gives individual landowners veto
power over public policy decisions.

In response to recent endangered species controversies, Pima
County, which is politically dominated by Tucson yet spreads
across millions of acres of the Sonoran Desert, has arisen as
one of the most environmentally progressive counties in the
West. It is embarking on an ambitious plan to protect large
swaths of the county for endangered species though a series of
land-use plans including zoning, purchases, and a habitat
conservation plan.

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JUDGE ORDERS NEW CRITICAL HABITAT FOR FROG, TOAD, AND SHRIMP IN
CA

Taking a cue from the Bush administration, developers, loggers,
and ranchers have filed lawsuits to strike down critical habitat
areas across the western U.S. They know the Bush administration
will agree to have the Clinton-designated critical habitats
abandoned rather than try to defend them in court. The Center
for Biological Diversity has intervened in many of these suits
to ensure that the courts respond to Bush backpedaling practices
by ordering new critical habitat designations. Otherwise, the
backdoor deals between the administration and extraction
industries will result in habitat protections disappearing
forever.

In the California red-legged frog case, 3.9 million acres of
critical habitat were struck down, while approximately 200,000
were left in place. The Fish and Wildlife Service must
re-propose critical habitat by March 2004 and finalize the
designation by November 2005.

In a case involving the southwestern arroyo toad and Riverside
fairy shrimp, the critical habitat areas were struck down at the
request of the Bush administration, but must be re-designated by
7-30-04.

The Center was represented by Earthjustice in both cases.

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COLORADO DELTA BOOK TOUR/SLIDE SHOW - LOS ANGELES, 12-1-02

Charles Bergman, the author of "Red Delta: Fighting for Life at
the End of the Colorado River," will host a slide show, reading
and book-signing event free of charge on December 1st in Los
Angeles. Sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife, the event will
review one of the most remarkable environmental stories on the
continent: the unexpected and accidental revival of delta
wetland ecosystems, delta natural history, and the binational
efforts to protect and restore this special landscape.

Once one of the most spectacular desert deltas in the world, the
Colorado River delta in Mexico now offers some of the greatest
conservation and restoration opportunities in North America. All
that is required is water, placing the delta squarely in the
middle of intense western water conflicts.

The book can be purchased at this event, through your local
bookstore or by calling the publisher at 1-800-992-2908.

LA slideshow and book signing:

12-1-02, 2:00-3:30 pm
Los Angeles River Center
570 W. Avenue 26

Call Melinda Booth of Defenders of Wildlife with any questions
at (916) 313-5805.

More information on the delta is available on the Center's
website:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/watersheds/lcr/index.html
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PUBLIC LANDS GRAZING ROAD SHOW HITS CALIFORNIA

The Public Lands Grazing Road Show is celebrating the release of
George Wuerthner's new book "Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized
Destruction of the American West" and video by the Center for
Biological Diversity and Sierra Club entitled "Desert or
Pasture? Cattle and the American Southwest."

Come to San Diego, Los Angeles and Palm Springs to learn
everything you always wanted to know about the fantastically
subsidized, amazingly abusive, and nearly forgotten public lands
livestock grazing industry. The shows are free of charge.

San Diego
12-6-02, 7:30-9:00 pm
San Diego Zoo's Otto Center
2920 Zoo Drive

Los Angeles/West Hollywood
12-7-02, 7:30-9:00 pm
Plummer Park
7377 Santa Monica Boulevard

Palm Springs
12-9-02, 7:30-9:00 pm
Palm Springs Leisure Center Community Room
401 South Pavillion Way

For more information contact AJ Schneller at 520-623-5252 x314,
ajs@grazing.org or Daniel Patterson at 909-659-6053 x306,
dpatterson@biologicaldiversity.org

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/events/welfare-ranching.html
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NEW TEXAS SNAKE DISCOVERED

HerpDigest reports that a new species of snake, Slowinski's corn
snake, has been discovered in north-central Louisiana and
eastern Texas by Dr. Frank T. Burbrink. The new species has been
formally named Elaphe slowinskii, in memory of the late Dr.
Joseph B. Slowinski, who was curator of herpetology at the
California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Dr. Slowinski
was bitten by a venomous krait in Burma on September 11, 2001,
and died the next day.

The new species is most closely related to the Eastern corn
snake (Elaphe guttata), found east of the Mississippi River in
the southeastern U.S., and to the Great Plains rat snake (Elaphe
emoryi), found on the Great Plains from Texas north to Utah and
Nebraska.

The discovery of this relatively large vertebrate in a highly
studied industrial nation is testament to how little we know of
biological diversity even as the human race plunges headlong
into the sixth-greatest extinction spasm in the planet's
history.

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