Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#61
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#61
3/25/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver city, tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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1.
DRAFT QUEEN CHARLOTTE GOSHAWK E.S.A. LISTING DECISION RELEASED-
LETTERS NEEDED
2. MEDIA STORY: NORTHERN GOSHAWK, OLD GROWTH PONDEROSA
PINE, GAME
AND FISH DEPARTMENT ALL
DECLINING
*** *** ***
***
DRAFT QUEEN CHARLOTTE GOSHAWK E.S.A. LISTING DECISION
RELEASED-
LETTERS NEEDED
Using the Freedom of Information Act, the
Southwest Center has
received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's draft
finding on whether
to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an endangered
species. The
draft does not include the agency's decision, but does present
its
assessment of the imperiled raptor's condition and the adequacy
of
Forest Service, State, and Canadian management efforts.
In 1994,
the Southwest Center, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation,
Northwest Ecosystem
Alliance and others petitioned to list the Queen
Charlotte goshawk as
endangered in Southeast Alaska, coastal British
Columbia, and the Olympic
Peninsula. In 1995, the Fish and Wildlife
decided the goshawk is imperiled,
but does not qualify for ESA listing
because of a promise by the Tongass
National Forest to develop an
adequate conservation plan in the future. In
1996 a Federal Court
overturned the denial and ordered the agency to prepare
a new finding
by May, 1997.
Write to the Fish and Wildlife Service,
tell them the final listing
decision should:
-Indicate that all
available evidence indicates the Olympic
Peninsula subspecies is the
Queen Charlotte goshawk.
-Compare the known adult goshawk survival
rate (72%) with
population models which have determined that 80% adult
survival is
the minimum necessary.
-Compare mortality
rates and home range sizes between birds in the
heavily logged
southern Tongass National Forest against the less
heavily logged
northern Tongass.
-Only consider the current Tongass goshawk
conservation plan
Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1011 E.
Tudor Rd., Anchorage, AK 99503- 6199
MEDIA: NORTHERN GOSHAWK, OLD
GROWTH PONDEROSA PINE, GAME AND FISH
DEPARTMENT ALL DECLINING
On March
20, 1997, the Arizona Republic ran the following article on
page
one:
BIRD OF PREY GOING AWAY: FATE OF GOSHAWK, STATE FORESTS
LINKED
Rarely seen in its mountain strongholds, the stealthy northern
goshawk
is considered by experts to be a barometer of the health of
Arizona's
forests....The battle over goshawks is one of the most hotly
debated in
scientific circles in the 1990s, akin to the spotted-owl wars of
the 80's.
The outcome could well decide the future of the logging industry
not
only in Arizona but across the entire West.
...
The largest
and fiercest of the birds of prey known as accipiters,
northern goshawks have
short, powerful wings and long, broad tails
and are superbly adapted for
slicing through dense forests and thick
brush, delivering lightning-quick
talon strikes to rabbits, small
mammal and birds.
Sitting near the top
of the food web, they are princes in the animal
hierarchy of ponderosa pine
forests, and as such are considered key
indicators of the health of those
systems.
As logging devastated the forests of Arizona and New
Mexico,
goshawk populations plummeted, according to some
researchers.
...
After six years of goshawk studies on the North
Kaibab Plateau,
[Forest Service goshawk researcher Richard] Reynolds said he
found
that intensive, almost clear-cut logging during the 1980s of
the
forests north of the Grand Canyon [Kaibab National Forest] wiped
out
habitat for goshawks and their prey. ... "Arizona Game and Fish
has
argued for years that goshawks are in trouble, and if they allow
the
take of even three young, it doesn't look good," Reynolds said.
As
recently as 1993 Game and Fish argued in a 150-page report that
goshawks were
in trouble. The state wildlife agency argued that Forest
Service policies
intended to benefit goshawks actually would devastate
the goshawks' forest
habitats in Arizona, especially north of the Grand
Canyon. The report
predicted that the Forest Service policy would
enable timber firms to
eliminate old growth - the large, uncut portions
of the forests favored by
goshawks and dozens of other creatures.
The report exemplified the tough
stand that Game and Fish was
willing to take to defend wildlife habitat. And
it was backed by
both New Mexico's Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife
Service....The Game and Fish mission statement calls on
the
department to conserve, enhance and restore wildlife habitats
through
"aggressive protection."
Although the agency once practiced confrontation
and litigation to
fulfill that mission, its director, Duane Shroufe now talks
about
bringing more rural interests into the agency's fold....In
1995,
[governor] Symington tried to pressure the Legislature into letting
him
hire and fire the members of boards and commissions at will,
without
cause...a Symington aid suggested in a memo that the [Game and
Fish]
commission was due a "day of reckoning." Symington said the
memo
simply meant that he needed to meet with commissioners.
"The day
of reckoning happened," said Peter Galvin of the Southwest
Center for
Biological Diversity, who contends that ever since
Symington's threat, the
Game and Fish Commission has succumbed to
pressures from developers and other
special interests." ... "Game and
Fish is an utterly neutered agency," said
Galvin. The Tucson
environmental group has filed dozens of mostly successful
suits to
force government agencies to enforce the Endangered Species
Act.
Environmentalists contend that the commission is jeopardizing
wildlife
in an attempt to placate those who profit from public land
use.
"They are under the guillotine of [governor] Symington's
henchmen,"
Galvin said of Game and Fish biologists, who he says are afraid
to
speak up for fear of being punished.
Graphic Inset: NORTHERN
GOSHAWK STUDY ON KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST
AND GRAND CANYON NATIONAL
PARK
1991 1992 1993
1994 1995 1996
Nest territories
under
study
37 64
82 88
100 107
Occupied, no
eggs
1 2
6 13
20 23
Occupied,
eggs
36 59
67 21
53 46
Successful
nests 72
106 109
25 64
56
_______________________________________________________________________________
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
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center