Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALTERT #45

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALTERT #45

* ************* SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #45 *****************
*        *****                 *****               *****         *   
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*            SOUTWHEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY           *
*                      ksuckling@sw-center.org                   *
*             http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center           *
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1.  NAFTA COMMISSION ORDERS U.S. TO RESPOND TO CHARGES OF VIOLATING
    AMERICAN LAWS PROTECTING SAN PEDRO RIVER

2.  TWO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BUTTERFLIES LISTED AS ENDANGERED-
    IMPERILED FAIRY SHRIMP STILL IN LIMBO.

3.  COURT MOTION FILED TO LIST GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WESTERN U.S.

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1.  NAFTA COMMISSION ORDERS U.S. TO RESPOND TO CHARGES OF VIOLATING
    AMERICAN LAWS PROTECTING SAN PEDRO RIVER

NAFTA's Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental
Cooperation has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
to respond to a petition filed by the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity charging that the U.S. Government has refused to enforce
its own environmental laws. Though six environmental petitions
have been filed under NAFTA, this is the first time the Secretariat
has ordered the U.S. to respond to charges. The petition was filed by
Earthlaw on behalf of the Southwest Center.

The San Pedro River flows northward from Sonora Mexico into
southern Arizona where it is being sucked dry by the massive
expansion of the Army's Fort Huachuca and associated development.
In 1996, a Federal Court found that the expansion violates of NEPA
because the Army refused to analyze its impacts on the dwindling
river. The Court also ruled, however, that the Southwest Center was
not permitted to sue the military because it was too late. The Army,
the U.S. Attorney General, the Presidential Base Realignment and
Closure Commission, and the U.S. Department of Interior have since
failed to force compliance with NEPA.

The San Pedro River has been designated as one of America's most
Threatened rivers by American Rivers, one the World's Eight Last
Great Places by the Nature Conservancy, one the World's Birding
Hot Spots by Birding Magazine, and a Globally Important Birding
Area by the American Bird Conservancy.  It is Arizona's last
undammed river, and the largest remaining riparian forest in the
Southwest. Hydrologists predict it will be dry within 10 years if
current level of water withdrawal continue.

The full text of the petition can be found at:   www.earthlaw.org


2.  TWO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BUTTERFLIES LISTED AS ENDANGERED-
    IMPERILED FAIRY SHRIMP STILL IN LIMBO.

In response to a petition and a lawsuit by the Southwest Center, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Quino Checkerspot
Butterfly and Laguna Mountains Skipper as Endangered Species.
Laguna Mountains skipper numbers have been reduced to around
250 individuals primarily as a result of grazing in delicate  San Diego
County mountain meadow habitat. Eight checkerspot  populations
are known to remain in Riverside and San Diego  counties, and Baja
California. All are threatened by  development, grazing, and
predacious earwigs. The checkerspot  was also the subject of a
recent study which for the first  time proved the range of an entire
species has shifted as a  result of global warming.

A Federal Court has given the Fish and Wildlife Service has until
February 1, 1997 to decide whether it will list the San Diego Fairy
Shrimp as Endangered. Found only in San Diego County and Baja
California vernal pools on flat (highly developable) coastal  mesas,
the fairy shrimp occupies some of the most valuable acreage in the
U.S. 97% of all vernal pool habitat has been lost and today the
shrimp is threatened by additional pool losses and habitat
fragmentation.


3.  COURT MOTION FILED TO LIST GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WESTERN U.S.

On behalf of a coalition of environmental groups from every western
state, the Southwest Center has filed a summary judgement motion
seeking to overturn the Fish and Wildlife Services' refusal to even
consider listing the Northern Goshawk as Endangered in the western
United States.  The Center filed a petition to list the western
population in 1992.  In 1996, a Federal Court ruled that the Fish and
Wildlife Service had concocted an arbitrary listing hurdle in
requiring absolute proof of genetic distinction between western
goshawk and eastern goshawks. He threw out the Agency's negative
finding and ordered it produce a new one. It then produced a new
negative finding, based on the exact opposite argument. Where
before, the western population was not isolated enough, now it is
too isolated: it does not qualify as a "population" the agency claims,
because there are several isolated subspecies in the West. Though
they admit the species is declining in the West, they have refused to even consider listing.

This case has been argued by Dan Rolf (Portland) and Matt Kenna and
Associates (Durango).