Biodiversity Activist, No. 325
Biodiversity Activist, No. 325 Center for Biological Diversity November 26, 2002 www.biologicaldiversity.org _______________________________
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 _______________________________
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 _______________________________
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 _______________________________
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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