No. 330, February 19, 2003

BUSH ADMINISTRATION SUED FOR REFUSING TO IMPLEMENT CLINTON DECISION TO PROTECT ENDANGERED STURGEON FROM MONTANA DAM

   

PETITION FILED TO PROTECT ENDANGERED DUNES BEETLE

   

SUIT TO PROTECT ISLAND FOX

   

SUIT TO PROTECT MONTANA ARCTIC GRAYLING

   

FEDS DENY PROTECTION TO CALIFORNIA SPOTTED OWL

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BUSH ADMINISTRATION SUED FOR REFUSING TO IMPLEMENT CLINTON DECISION TO PROTECT ENDANGERED STURGEON FROM MONTANA DAM

The Center for Biological Diversity and Ecology Center filed suit 2-18-03 against the Army Corps of Engineers for refusing to implement conservation measures established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save the Kootenai River white sturgeon from the river killing effects of Libby Dam. We also sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for restricting the sturgeon’s critical habitat area to a tiny portion of the river which contains no habitat for the species.

Kootenai River white sturgeon, which were listed as endangered in 1994, require large spring flows and gravel riverbed conditions to successfully spawn. Following completion of Libby Dam in 1974, natural flooding ceased and silt covered over gravel beds in the lower portion of the river. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the Army Corps was driving the sturgeon to extinction. It established mandatory reforms to dam management, but the Army Corps ignored them. In December 2000, the Fish and Wildlife Service again declared that Army Corps is jeopardizing the sturgeon, and again established mandatory dam reforms. The Army Corps are again refusing to implement them.

The Fish and Wildlife plan requires Army Corps to release at least 35,000 cubic feet of water from Libby Dam in the spring. This would mimic natural flood levels, allowing the sturgeon to swim upstream to gravel beds suitable for spawning. Army Corps, however, plans to release only 26,000 cfs from the dam and has refused to begin a mandatory study on re-engineering the dam to allow more water to pass through its turbines.

Subsequent to the Clinton era BO, the Fish and Wildlife designated critical habitat for the sturgeon. This designation, however, only included 11.5 miles of river and did not include gravelly sections despite the fact that the whole purpose of their BO was to attract sturgeon to these sections. Under the Bush administration, both agencies have retreated from sturgeon recovery efforts in order to placate agribusiness and power production interests.

The suit is being argued by Geoff Hickcox of Kenna & Hickcox.

For more about the Center’s efforts to save the sturgeon, click here.


PETITION FILED TO PROTECT ENDANGERED DUNES BEETLE

On 12-12-02, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition with the Department of Interior to list the Andrews dunes scarab beetle (Pseudocotalpa andrewsi Hardy) as an endangered species and to designate critical habitat for it. The beetle occurs in the Algodones Dunes in the Sonoran Desert of Imperial County and Baja California, Mexico.

The Andrews dunes scarab beetle is endangered by extensive off-road vehicle (ORV) use on the Algodones Dunes. The dunes can experience upwards of 240,000 ORVers on a single busy weekend. A pending Bush administration decision would roll back environmental protections on nearly 50,000 acres, opening 85% of the beetle’s habitat to ORV damage. Pesticide drift from Imperial Valley agricultural spraying is also likely harming beetles.

ORVs at the Algodones Dunes use special tires that cut deeply into the sand, directly killing beetles and wrecking habitat. Beetles are most active February through April, a biologically critical time that coincides with the season of heavy ORV use on the dunes.

As with hundreds of imperiled species, the road to Endangered Species Act protection has been fraught with lengthy delays. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to protect in 1978, but later withdrew the proposal because it was not finalized in time. But they took no further steps to rectify the mistake, allowing the Bureau of Land Management to continue encouraging ORV damage to the dunes for 24 years. Currently, BLM is proposing a new management plan that fails to protect the beetle and eliminates ORV closures designed to protect the threatened Peirson’s milk-vetch.


SUIT TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA ISLAND FOX

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Department of Interior for failing to protect four subspecies of the island fox under the Endangered Species Act. In response to a Center petition and lawsuit, Fish and Wildlife proposed to list the foxes on 12-10-01, but has failed to finalize the protection.

The San Miguel Island fox, Santa Rosa Island fox, Santa Cruz Island fox, and Santa Catalina Island fox are endemic to California’s Channel Islands. All four have suffered dramatic population declines. On San Miguel Island, for example, the population declined to just 15 animals, after which 14 were captured for captive breeding, leaving only one individual in the wild.

Threats to the four subspecies include introduced disease (canine distemper), habitat loss related to overgrazing by exotic cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, deer, elk, pigs, and horses, and predation by golden eagles, which have recently colonized the Islands in response to the loss of bald eagles and introduction of new prey items (pigs).

For more information on the Center’s efforts to protect the island fox, click here.


SUIT TO PROTECT MONTANA ARCTIC GRAYLING

On 2-10-03, the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and George Wuerthner filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the Montana fluvial arctic grayling under the Endangered Species Act. In 1994, the agency used a loophole in the law to indefinitely delay listing of the grayling as an endangered species while at the same time declaring that listing was necessary. Since then the grayling has continued to decline and is now threatened with rapid extinction.

Once found throughout the upper Missouri River drainage above Great Falls, the fluvial arctic grayling has been reduced to a single self-sustaining population in a short stretch of the Big Hole River above Divide Dam. A primary factor in this range decline was dewatering of rivers for irrigation. Continued irrigation in combination with four consecutive years of drought have resulted in drastic declines in the remaining population in the Big Hole River.

A member of the salmon family, arctic grayling are widely distributed across Canada and Alaska. Populations of arctic grayling have also been established in many lakes in Montana and other states, where previously they did not exist. Historically, fluvial [i.e. river-dwelling] populations of arctic grayling existed in only two places in the lower 48 states: Michigan and the upper Missouri River of Montana. The Michigan population went extinct by the 1930s, and populations in Montana were restricted to the Big Hole River by the end of the 1970s.


FEDS DENY PROTECTION TO CALIFORNIA SPOTTED OWL

In response to a petition and lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on 2-10-03 that it will not protect the California spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act. Bizarrely, the agency claimed that the Clinton era “Sierra Nevada Framework” plan is sufficient to protect the owl, even though the Bush administration has announced that it wants to gut the plan, including removal of logging restrictions to protect the owl.

The California spotted owl is the only subspecies of spotted owl without protection under the ESA. Like its close relatives the Mexican and northern spotted owl, it is dependent on old growth and mature forests. A century of logging and development in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California have degraded most old growth forests. Long-term studies indicate poor adult survival and persistent owl population declines.

For more information on the Center’s efforts to protect the California spotted owl and its habitats, click here.


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