Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #36
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Southwest Biodiversity Alert #36
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southwest center for biological
diversity
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ksuckling@sw-center.org
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http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
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1.
JUDGE THROWS OUT U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE DECISION NOT TO
LIST
GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED
2. JUDGE DENIES CONTEMPT MOTION, BUT
ALLOWS CHALLENGE TO FISH AND
WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSAL TO LIST NORTHERN
GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WEST
3. DECISION ON SALVAGE TIMBER SALE
DELAYED
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1. JUDGE THROWS OUT U.S.
FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE DECISION NOT TO LIST
GOSHAWK AS
ENDANGERED
A judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to redo
a
decision not to propose the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an
Endangered
Species. He ruled that reliance on a Forest Service "promise"
to
protect the goshawk violates the ESA which states requires
that
analyses must be based on actually existing management plans only.
In
its denial, the Fish and Wildlife Service admitted that the
goshawk was
imperiled, but concluded that it did not need listing
because the Forest
Service promised to protect it in a soon to be
released revision of the
Tongass National Forest Management Plan.
The Queen Charlotte goshawk is
an obligate of old growth temperate
rainforests from Southeast Alaska to
Vancouver Island and the
Olympic Peninsula, possibly the northern Oregon
coast as well. As part
of an effort to protect goshawks throughout the
western U.S., the
Southwest Center wrote a petition to list the subspecies as
endangered
in 1995.
The case was argued by Kathy Meyer and Kim Wally
of Meyer &
Glitzenstein (Washington, D.C.)
2. JUDGE
DENIES CONTEMPT MOTION, BUT ALLOWS CHALLENGE TO FISH AND
WILDLIFE SERVICE
REFUSAL TO LIST NORTHERN GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WEST
Earlier this year,
a judge threw out a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service decision not to list the
western population of the Northern
goshawk as endangered. The agency claim
that goshawks in the western
U.S. are not a "distinct population" and
therefore not eligible for
listing, was ruled arbitrary, inconsistent with
other listings, and
contrary to the Fish The agency has since come out with a
second
denial, again claiming that goshawks in the west are not a
"distinct
population." This time, they argue that a population cannot
include
more than one subspecies. The Southwest Center filed contempt
charges
since the agency again violated its own policy despite a court
order
to consider it. The judge refused to hear the contempt charge,
but
has allowed the Center to amend the original suit to challenge the
new
denial. This means he will retain jurisdiction over the
new
challenge.
The case was argued by Dan Rolf (Portland) and Matt
Kenna
(Durango).and Wildlife Service's policy for listing
populations.
3. DECISION ON SALVAGE TIMBER SALE
DELAYED
A decision on whether to log the Bridger Fire Salvage Sale on
the
Kaibab National Forest on the border of the Grand Canyon, has
been
delayed for a month. The Kaibab National Forest is realing from
three
full page, anti-salvage logging ads in the New York Times
(sponsored by
Southwest Center), a full page ad in the Northern
Arizona Daily Sun
coinciding with Clinton's visit to the Grand
Canyon (sponsored by Southwest
Forest Alliance), a Southwest Center
campout at the sale, and a logging
alternative proposed by the
Alliance.
Planned at 35 million board
feet, Bridger would be the largest sale in
the
Southwest.