Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #47

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #47

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~           SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #47             ~
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~       SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY        ~
~                ksuckling@sw-center.org                 ~
~           www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center            ~
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1. SAN DIEGO FAIRY SHRIMP LISTED AS ENDANGERED-
   ACTIVISTS POST WEEKEND GUARD AT IMPERILED WETLANDS

2. GILA RIVER DIKE PROJECT ABANDONED

3. FORESTS FOREVER! CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

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SAN DIEGO FAIRY SHRIMP LISTED AS ENDANGERED-
ACTIVISTS POST WEEKEND GUARD AT IMPERILED WETLANDS

In response to a 1992 Endangered Species Act petition by the
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity (and two  lawsuits), the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the San Diego fairy shrimp as
an Endangered species January 31, 1997. The shrimp is an obligate
and indicator species for southern California vernal pools- small,
often temporary, wetlands formed atop coastal mesas and inland
valleys. Ninety eight percent of vernal pools have been destroyed by
agrobusiness and urban  development. The shrimp will join a
number of vernal pool plants already listed under the ESA.

The listing was top TV, radio, and newspaper news in San  Diego
due to the threat of "midnight bulldozing" and the  Center's
announcement that volunteers would monitor controversial wetland
areas over the weekend to  prevent illegal grading. Developers have
in the past destroyed vernal pools during the night.

The Southwest Center plans to immediately challenge numerous
Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinions allowing the loss of
vernal pools. The U.S. Marine Corps, for example, plans to destroy
116 pools at the  Miramar Air Station. The Southwest Center also
plans to challenge an expected Fish and Wildlife Service
determination that the City of San Diego's Multiple Species
Conservation  Program will not jeopardize the species.


GILA RIVER DIKE PROJECT ABANDONED

The Gila National Forest has abandoned a controversial plan to
construct two massive dikes in the Gila River on the edge of the Gila
Wilderness in southwest New Mexico.  The Forest had proposed the
dikes and to divert the River to protect an ill placed bridge and road
leading to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National  Monument. Both the
bridge and road have been temporarily  washed out during past
floods due to natural river course changes.

The area's magical riparian aquatic habitat supports the threatened
loach minnow and spikedace and is proposed critical habitat  for the
endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. It is within the historic
range of the endangered Gila trout. After the Forest Service rejected
an alternative proposal by the Southwest Center to restore the
watershed without dikes or diversions through road realignment,
wetland creation and beaver reintroduction, a bitter battle ensued to
prevent any further degradation of the riverway.


FORESTS FOREVER! CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

The Southwest Forest Alliance has launched a new campaign to
restore biological and economic integrity to Arizona and New
Mexico's eleven National Forests. Their beautiful 32 page color
booklet, Forests Forever!, presents an overview of Southwestern
forests and the mismanagement they have suffered at the hands of the
Forest Service and timber, mining, and grazing industries. It
concludes with a plan to restore the forests and the human
communities which have come to depend on subsidized resources
extraction.

Forests Forever! exposes the rhetoric of "forest health," calling for
comprehensive mapping of forest communities and real ecosystem
restoration planning. It would prohibit the logging of all trees over
16" dbh, restore of old growth pines, and reintroduce native flowers
and grasses, native animals, and natural fire regimes. Trees under
14" dbh in pine thickets would be thinned. Cattle and roads would be
removed from priority watersheds. Erosion prevention and watershed
restoration techniques would be mandated. Cattle grazing and
pollution would be prohibited in wetlands.

Forests Forever! was written by the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity with maps by Forest Guardians.  To obtain copies, contact
the Southwest Forest Alliance:

swfa@igc.apc.org