Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#67
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#67
4/15/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver city,
tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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1.
OLD GROWTH TIMBER SALE ON COCONINO NATIONAL FOREST APPEALED-
THREE MILES OF NEW ROADPROPOSED NEXT TO OAK CREEK CANYON
2. FEMA PLANS
$40 MILLION SUBSIDY TO DESTROYERS OF LOWER GILA
RIVER
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OLD
GROWTH TIMBER SALE ON COCONINO NATIONAL FOREST APPEALED-
THREE MILES OF NEW
ROAD PROPOSED NEXT TO OAK CREEK CANYON
The Southwest Center for
Biological Diversity appealed today, the
Ritter Timber Sale, bordering Oak
Creek Canyon on the Coconino
National Forest, 20 miles south of Flagstaff,
AZ. The 4.3 million
board foot timber sale would log ponderosa pines on 2,540
acres,
including 1,383 old growth pines over 18 inches in diameter.
The
Arizona Game and Fish Department has objected to the removal of
any
more large trees from the area since so many have been logged
off
already. It also warned of the negative effects of new road
construction on
native turkey populations.
The Forest Service plans to go ahead with the
sale although its
goshawk and spotted owl surveys are years out of date. The
agency
refuses to disclose how much money it will lose on the sale, but
the
Center estimates it will run to several hundred thousand dollars due
to
the road construction.
Please write or call the Forest Service and
ask them to withdraw the
Ritter sale and not to cut any large trees
period!
Bruce Greco, District Ranger, Mormon Lake Ranger District
4825
South Lake Mary Road Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 Ph. (520) 527-
3650
FEMA PLANS $40 MILLION SUBSIDY TO DESTROYERS OF LOWER GILA
RIVER
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is proposing
to
give $40 million to the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District to
reimburse it
for previous construction, and allow it to complete the
channelization of 56
miles of the Gila River near Yuma, Arizona.
The project is the largest such
action in recent Arizona history and
will destroy vast amounts of
riparian and wetland habitat. The
habitat was created by a 1993 flood which
brought the dessicated
Gila River back to life while destroying many instream
irrigation and
levee systems.
In direct violation of the National
Environmental Policy Act, FEMA's
environmental analysis contains no
alternatives to fully funding the
district, not even a no-action alternative!
There is no cost-benefit
analysis even though FEMA admits the project will
not survive a 100
year flood- two of which have occured in the last 15
years.
One of the best known pork barrel irrigation projects in the West,
the
Wellton-Mohawk project has managed to suck up over $600 million
in
the last 40 years- about $6.4 million per farming unit. Defenders
of
Wildlife and the Southwest Center sued Army Corps in 1996 for
authorizing the
destruction, but were thrown out on standing. The suit
is currently under
appeal.
Tell FEMA no more subsidies to destroy the Gila
River:
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Region IX
Presidio of San
Francisco, Building 105
San Francisco, CA 94129 Ph.
(415) 923-
7100 Fax (415) 923-7270
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.733.1391 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.733.1404 fax
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
pob 17839, tucson, az 85731