Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #69
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#69
4/29/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1.
INVESTIGATION OF ILLEGAL GRAZING ON SAN PEDRO RIVER SOUGHT-
NATIVE AMERICAN SITES AT RISK
2. SCIENTIFIC STUDY LINKS FOREST
DEGRADATION TO OVERGRAZING
3. SUIT FILED TO ALLOW RANGER TO APPEAL TIMBER
SALE
*** *** ***
INVESTIGATION OF ILLEGAL
GRAZING ON SAN PEDRO RIVER SOUGHT-
NATIVE AMERICAN SITES AT RISK
The
Southwest Center of Biological Diversity has requested that the
U.S. Attorney
investigate violations of the Archaeological Resources
Protection Act,
Antiquities Act, and American Indian Religious
Freedom Act by the BLM in
allowing illegal grazing on the San
Pedro River National Riparian
Conservation Area (NRCA).
The San Pedro is the Nation's first
congressionally designated
National Riparian Conservation Areas. Cattle
grazing, mining, and
ORVs were banned from 40 miles of the river in 1989.
Illegal cattle
grazing on the river has been constant problem, however,
threatening
300 known and over 1,000 expected Native American sites
belonging
to the Mogollon, Babocomari, and Sobaipuri people. The
Southwest
Center has documented trampling and erosion of sites dating
back
11,500 years. Also at risk are five world class wooly mammoth
sites
including hunting camps and butchering areas.
SCIENTIFIC
STUDY LINKS FOREST DEGRADATION TO OVERGRAZING
An article published in
April, 1997 in Conservation Biology, links
overgrazing to tree crowding in
Western forests, especially ponderosa
pine. In a review of scientific
literature dating back to the 1920's, Dr.
Joy Belsky of the Oregon Natural
Desert Association shows that by
removing vigorous native grasses, cattle
shifted the competitive
advantage from grass to trees, causing an explosion
in the number of
pine trees in western forests. Since grass was the primary
vector for
frequent, cool burning fires in pre-settlement forests,
overgrazing also
drastically reduced the number of fires. Numerous studies
show the
frequency of fires dropping off dramatically when cattle
were
introduced, long before active fire suppression. Without fire,
the
unnaturally dense forests lacked any natural pruning
mechanism.
The study questions the widely accepted view that active fire
suppression
is the primary cause of overstocking in western forests.
It
shows that ungrazed forests with near total fire suppression for
100
years did not develop pine thickets, while paired grazed forests
did.
Several examples are given of forests which returned to nearer-to-
normal
fire patterns and tree densities upon decrease and/or removal
of
cattle.
For a copy of the study contact
<jbelsky@teleport.com>
In 1995, the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity, Oregon
Natural Resources Council and fifty other environmental
groups sent
a letter to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service citing these
studies, and
requesting an EIS on the impact of grazing on forest ecosystems
in the
11 western states. The Forest Service did not respond.
For a copy of the letter, see the resources section of our
homepage:
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
The
Southwest Center and ONDA are preparing an Administrative
Procedures Act
Petition to more forcefully request that the Forest
Service review the
impacts of overgrazing on western forests. To sign
on, send email to:
<ksuckling@sw-center.org>
SUIT FILED TO ALLOW RANGER TO APPEAL
TIMBER SALE (from GREENWIRE)
A US Forest Service employee and [Forest
Service Employees for
Environmental Ethics] on 4/17 sued the agency in
federal court in a
challenge to the USFS's policy that prohibits employees
from filing
"citizen" appeals of agency actions.
The USFS suspended
biologist Mary Dalton for 30 days and
reassigned her after she filed a formal
administrative appeal
challenging an agency decision to sell timber from the
Tongass
National Forest in Alaska. Dalton had been "surprised" that
the
agency's environmental impact statement omitted most of her
research
concerning deer and bear habitat, which she said would be harmed
by
the proposed logging.
In a letter to Dalton, the USFS's Phil Janik
said "employees may not
participate as appellants or interested parties" in
USFS decisions. The
agency next eliminated her position and reassigned
her to fight forest
fires in Arizona.
Andy Stahl, a lawyer for Eugene,
OR-based Assn. of Forest Service
Employees for Environmental Ethics, which
filed suit with Dalton,
said the court challenge is the first of its
kind. Stahl: "They really
hammered her. Most Forest Service
employees understand that the
agency shoots its messengers" (Scott Sonner,
AP/S.F.
CHRONICLE/EXAMINER online, 4/20).
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