No. 329, February 14, 2003

DEVELOPMENT HALTED IN ARIZONA WILDERNESS...FOR NOW

   

NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE CHALLENGED TO PROTECT SPOTTED OWLS, ENDANGERED BUTTERFLY

   

SUIT TO CHALLENGE BUSH DELAY IN PROTECTING ENDANGERED SIERRA NEVADA AMPHIBIANS

   

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DEVELOPMENT HALTED IN ARIZONA WILDERNESS...FOR NOW

In response to an appeal filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Arizona Wilderness Coalition, Wilderness Watch and Maricopa Audubon Society, the Department of Interior has issued a stay halting a Bureau of Land Management decision to construct a road within the Mount Tipton Wilderness area. The road was requested by two California residents wishing to build an upscale, commercial horse ranch on a 60-acre inholding in the middle of the Wilderness.

Designated under the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990, the 31,000-acre Mount Tipton Wilderness lies in the Cerbat Mountains in remote western Arizona, north of Kingman. It ranges from Mohave desert scrub to a remnant stand of old-growth ponderosa pine near the summit of 7,148 foot Mount Tipton. It is home to bobcat, kit fox, several species of raptors, mule deer and Gamble’s quail. According to the BLM, over 1,100 vehicles would use the newly constructed road each year, and the lights and noise associated with the proposed horse ranch would directly impact thousands of acres within the Wilderness boundary.

There ared 311,500 acres of privately owned land within BLM Wilderness areas and an additional 132,600 acres within Forest Service Wilderness areas. Instead of approving road-building within Wilderness areas to develop these inholdings, federal agencies should purchase the lands through funds appropriated through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, other federal funds, or via private land trusts.


NEW MEXICO TIMBER SALE CHALLENGED TO PROTECT SPOTTED OWLS, ENDANGERED BUTTERFLY

The Center for Biological Diversity has appealed the proposed Rio Peñasco II timber sale on the Lincoln National Forest in south-central New Mexico. Rio Peñasco II would log over 8 million board feet of largely mixed-conifer trees from approximately 4,350 acres. Over 10 miles of “temporary” road would be constructed to facilitate the proposed logging, and over 40 miles of old road would be “re-opened.” Although termed a “thinning” project by the Forest Service, Rio Peñasco II would include extensive logging of mature and large overstory trees. CBD did not file an appeal of a separate decision authorizing thinning of small-diameter (smaller than 9 inches) trees on an additional 23,600 acres within the same analysis area.

The Sacramento Mountains, where the Rio Peñasco II timber sale is located, are a classic “sky island” range, harboring many rare and endemic species, and containing the second largest population of spotted owls in the U.S., with 110 known territories. The proposed Rio Peñasco II timber sale would authorize logging and road building within a staggering 38 spotted owl territories, and would directly impact at least 36 acres of occupied habitat and an additional 42 acres of proposed critical habitat for the highly imperiled Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly. While exact spotted owl populations are not currently known at this time, due to Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service failure to institute required population monitoring programs, recent studies suggest the population is declining at a rate of greater than 10% per year. The Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly is currently proposed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, but the Fish and Wildlife Service is over two years late in finalizing the designation.


SUIT TO CHALLENGE BUSH DELAY IN PROTECTING ENDANGERED SIERRA NEVADA AMPHIBIANS

The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers Council have notified the Bush administration that we will sue over a decision by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delay federal protection for the Sierra Nevada mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) and the Yosemite toad (Bufo canorus). The Wildlife Service declared both species to be biologically endangered, but refused to list them as endangered species, claiming it was too “busy” with higher priorities. The Bush administration, however, has the slowest rate of listing endangered species since Reagan in 1982.

The mountain yellow-legged frog, which inhabits high elevation lakes, ponds, and streams in the Sierra Nevada, has disappeared from 70-90 percent of its historic range. The Yosemite toad has disappeared from over half of its historical locations in the central Sierra.

Both are thought to be declining due to predation by introduced trout, habitat degradation caused by livestock grazing, and the impacts of drought and environmental changes caused by global warming. Disease has ravaged many frog populations recently ­ factors such as pesticide drift into the Sierra Nevada, acid precipitation, and increased ultraviolet radiation as a result of ozone depletion likely render amphibians much more susceptible to disease. Recent frog surveys in relatively pristine areas of the Sierra Nevada in the John Muir Wilderness and Kings Canyon National Park revealed an alarming extinction rate of over 40 percent in the last 5 to 7 years alone.


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