No. 335, June 4, 2003

MOTION FILED TO OVERTURN BUSH DECISION ALLOWING EXTINCTION OF PUGET SOUND ORCAS

   

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT MONTANA FLUVIAL ARCTIC GRAYLING

   

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT RARE DESERT PLANT

   

FEDS KILL MEXICAN GRAY WOLF TO APPEASE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

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MOTION FILED TO OVERTURN BUSH DECISION ALLOWING EXTINCTION OF PUGET SOUND ORCAS

The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups have filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in their suit challenging the Bush administration's refusal to protect Puget Sound’s killer whales under the Endangered Species Act. The administration admits that the whale population is unique and headed for extinction, but argues that its demise is "not significant."

The Bush administration is the first in the history of the Endangered Species Act to argue that extinction is insignificant. The Puget Sound killer whale was the first, but not the last, it also deemed the looming extinction of the Kootenai river burbot in Idaho to be insignificant.

If our motion is granted, the administration will be compelled to afford the fullest protections possible to save the orcas of Puget Sound, and to stop declaring that extinction is acceptable.

For more information.


SUIT FILED TO PROTECT MONTANA FLUVIAL ARCTIC GRAYLING

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and George Wuerthner sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 5-21-03 for failing to list the Montana fluvial arctic grayling as an endangered species. In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and Wuerthner, the Fish and Wildlife determined in 1994 that the fluvial (i.e. found in rivers) grayling warranted protection as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. However, the agency maintained that finalizing this status was "precluded" by higher priority actions.

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, comprising about 4% of its historic range. A primary factor in this range decline was, and continues to be, the dewatering of the grayling's stream habitat, and degradation of riparian areas. Extensive water withdrawls from the Big Hole river and four consecutive years of drought continue to threaten the Big Hole population with 2002 recording the lowest populations since monitoring began in 1978.

The suit seeks to force Fish and Wildlife to use their power to emergency list the species and prosecute landowners who have refused to cooperate with a voluntary plan to leave water in the Big Hole River during drought years. The groups are represented by Judi Brawer of Advocates for the West.


SUIT FILED TO PROTECT RARE DESERT PLANT

On 4-30-03, the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society filed suit against the Bush Administration for refusing to consider the desert cymopterus (Cymopterus deserticola) for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Also known as the desert spring parsley, the desert cymopterus lives only in the West Mojave desert. It has been extirpated from the Antelope and Victor Valleys due to urban sprawl, off-road vehicles and livestock grazing. The BLM's soon to be released West Mojave Plan fails to consider conservation for the cymopterus, assuring that it will continue spiraling toward extinction...unless it is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Like thousands of imperiled species, many of which have gone extinct, the desert cymopterus has bounced around federal waiting lists for almost 30 years. The Smithsonian Institution first petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list it as an endangered species in 1975. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list it in 1976, but never completed the process. Meanwhile its habitat has continued to disappear and the species has continued to decline.


SFEDS KILL MEXICAN GRAY WOLF TO APPEASE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service destroyed the Sycamore Pack of Mexican gray wolves, capturing the male on 5-21-03 and shooting the female on 5-27-03. She was the first Mexican gray wolf shot by the government since the Endangered Species Act was created in 1973. The pack was targeted from capture because they had chased cattle.

The female was originally released in February 2000 in the Apache National Forest of Arizona as part of the Campbell Blue Pack. She and her mate left the recovery area and thus were recaptured in July 2000. While in captivity, she broke her leg while trying to scale a chain-link fence. After receiving veterinary care, she and her mate were re-released in December 2000 in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico, but the previously cohesive pair split apart shortly after release. After re-uniting, on March 9 and May 25, 2001 they were found scavenging on livestock carcasses of animals they did not kill and shortly afterwards began killing cattle together -- for the first time. They were captured again on June 10, 2001. She was paired with a new mate and re-released again this Spring as the Sycamore Pack, but her attraction to cattle evidently remained.

Her killing and the low number of Mexican wolves in the wild today reflect systematic mismanagement of the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program stemming from policies demanded by the livestock industry and supported by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. These policies are at odds with recommendations by scientists and with past statements by Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican wolf recovery coordinator Brian Kelly that management will change according to a review of the program that was conducted two years ago.

In June, 2001, a committee of four independent scientists led by the renowned carnivore biologist Paul C. Paquet, Ph.D. of the University of Calgary recommended that wolves not be captured whenever they leave the two national forests that constitute their recovery area, but be allowed to roam freely just like other wildlife. Repeated recaptures of wolves, the report warned, might be undermining their social structure, an assessment consistent with the original Campbell Blue Pack's splitting apart after their re-release in 2000.

The Paquet Report also advised that carcasses of cattle and horses that die of other causes on the forests be removed or destroyed before wolves scavenge on them and become habituated to stock. Wolf 592 had shown no interest in cattle until she scavenged on carcasses. Almost all the Mexican wolves that have attacked livestock are known to have first scavenged on the carcasses of stock.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has not acted on either of these Paquet Report recommendations, despite the scientists' warning that failure to change course put the Mexican wolf population at a 39% chance of declines in numbers, rather than the increase in numbers intended in the reintroduction program. At the time their report was released two years ago there were 27 radio collared wolves in the wild, and today there are just 19, including two pairs in New Mexico. An unknown but small number of additional uncollared wolves also roam Arizona and New Mexico, and several females are also believed to be nursing pups born this year.

On December 5, 2002, a coalition of fifteen environmental, animal protection and religious groups wrote to Interior Secretary Gale Norton to request she halt the planned killing of two wild-born, uncollared Mexican wolves in Arizona. The wolves were never found or killed, and the predation on cattle of which they were suspected ceased nonetheless. But an Interior official wrote back on January 13, 2003 with a refusal to rescind the kill order, citing "data collected during the subsequent two breeding seasons" after the Paquet Report's release as reason to disregard the scientists' recommendations.

More Information: Center's Mexican Wolf Web


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