Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #54

Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #54

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           SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #54
                       3/9/97          

         SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
          silver city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1. SUIT FILED TO STOP EXOTIC SPECIES FROM ENTERING GILA AND SAN
   PEDRO RIVER SYSTEMS VIA CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT

2. 10TH CIRCUIT COURT THROWS OUT CRITICAL HABITAT FOR MEXICAN
   SPOTTED OWL

3. CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SHOWS LUKEWARM SUPPORT FOR KEMPTHORNE
   EXTINCTION BILL

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SUIT FILED TO STOP EXOTIC SPECIES FROM ENTERING GILA AND SAN PEDRO
RIVER SYSTEMS VIA CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT

Represented by Earthlaw, the Southwest Center has sued the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service for allowing exotic species to enter the
Gila River basin via the canals of the Central Arizona Project
(CAP).

CAP is a 5 billion dollar federal subsidy which transports water
from the Colorado River, 350 miles across Arizona to the Phoenix
and Tucson areas. The canal system is an exotic species
superhighway enabling fish, mollusks, bacteria, and disease to
travel from the heavily contaminated Colorado River to the Verde,
Salt, Gila and San Pedro Rivers. Exotic species feed upon,
compete with, and infect endangered native fish. Every native fish
in the Gila River is either threatened, endangered, or a candidate
species.

In 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that CAP will
jeopardize the continued existence of the Loach minnow,
Spikedace, Razorback sucker and Gila topminnow. To mitigate the
impact, the agency required the continued use of electronic
barriers and the building of check dams on the San Pedro River
and Aravaipa Creek to prevent the movement of exotic species,
and the transfer of $12.5 from the Bureau of Reclamation to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for unspecified fish recovery
efforts.

The Southwest Center filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife
Service because:

  - Check dams do not work during the frequent flood conditions in
  the Gila basin. Electronic barriers have also proven to be
  ineffective.

  - Check dams fragment river habitat, preventing upstream movement
  by native fish.

  - CAP's impact on the Hassayampa, Agua Fria, and Santa Cruz rivers
  was not taken into account.

  - CAP's impact on other endangered species such as the Bonytail
  chub was not taken into account.

  - There is no requirement to prevent exotic species from entering
  the CAP system.

  - There is no requirement to prohibit introduction of exotic
  species into the Gila River.


10TH CIRCUIT COURT THROWS OUT CRITICAL HABITAT FOR MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL

A 10th Circuit Federal judge has barred the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service from enforcing 4.8 million acres of critical habitat for the
Mexican spotted owl in Arizona and New Mexico. The judge ruled
that critical habitat designation must be done in accordance with
NEPA. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy states that separate
NEPA analyses are not necessary since the Endangered Species
Act requires and economic analysis for critical habitat. The ruling
was not a surprise since the 10th circuit in 1995 threw out critical
habitat for the Loach minnow and Spikedace on the same grounds.

Since the 9th Circuit has ruled that NEPA analysis is *not*
necessary, the issue is ripe for review by the supreme court. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to bring the Loach
minnow/Spikedace case to the Supreme Court, however, choosing
instead to penalize the two fish with no habitat protection. The
Southwest Center has filed notice that it will sue the agency for
failing to protect the habitat of the two fish.

Critical habitat was first designated for the Mexican spotted owl in
1995 as a result of lawsuit filed by the Southwest Center, Forest
Guardians, Maricopa Audubon Society, and Carson Forest Watch.
The plaintiffs were represented by Earthlaw


CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SHOWS LUKEWARM SUPPORT FOR KEMPTHORNE-CHAFEE
EXTINCTION BILL

In its first public comment on a draft ESA reauthorization bill
sponsored by Senator's Kempthorne and Chafee, the Clinton
Administration has disappointed environmentalists by showing
less than outright opposition. In a letter to the Providence Journal,
Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt criticizes portions of the bill,
but maintains it is the proper starting point for the ESA
reauthorization process:

  "Senators Kempthorne and Chafee circulated their proposal as a
  discussion document and we should consider it only a starting
  point.  Believe me, the draft has a long way to go before I could
  support it.  ...Those Americans, like Ms. Landen and myself, who
  believe strongly in the need to protect the Endangered Species Act
  should respond in kind, make our objections known in a constructive
  way and work together with Sen. Chafee and others in Congress to
  protect our wildlife.  I agree that the Kempthorne-Chafee proposal
  in its present form is not what Americans want or what our
  threatened wildlife needs.  But it is a starting point from which
  people acting in good faith can begin."

The Chafee-Kempthorne bill retains many of the objectionable portions
of last year's very controversial Industry-Environmental Defense Fund
bill.


_______________________________________________________________________________
Kieran Suckling                                       ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive Director                                    phone:  520-733-1391
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity        fax:    520-733-1404
POB 17839, Tucson, AZ 85731                      www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center