Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #74
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#74
5/15/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1.
MEDIA: DENIAL OF UNLOGGING PETITION A MISTAKE?
2. MEDIA: SALVAGE
SALE SUFFERS FROM LACK OF SNAGS
3. ENVIROS FACE 45 WATER &
POWER LAWYERS IN HOOVER DAM HEARING
4. USFWS: FOUR MORE CALIFORNIA
CONDORS RELEASED
*** *** ***
*** ***
DENIAL OF UNLOGGING PETITION A
MISTAKE?
Logging rule means ``no saw, no stumps, no sale''
By
Scott Sonner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration
is still considering
environmentalists' plea for a rules change that would
allow them to
bid on national-forest timber sales to protect the trees rather
than cut
them.
A May 4 letter saying their request had been denied is
in error, an
official said today.
Agriculture Undersecretary James
Lyons confirmed that the letter
bearing his signature was sent to a lawyer
for the environmentalists
in Portland, Ore. It says the government is denying
the petition to
change the rule, which requires winning bidders on Forest
Service
timber sales to actually log the sites.
But in an interview
with The Associated Press this morning, Lyons
said the letter was a draft
that had been prepared by Forest Service
officials for his review.
He
said he returned it to the agency, seeking changes before a formal
decision
is made.
``I did not check off on the letter nor did my office authorize
its
release,'' Lyons said.
``It was prepared by people in the timber
shop at the Forest Service,''
he said.
He denied the letter reflected
his view of the matter.
``I don't know what the circumstances were that
led to this unfortunate
mistake, but I intend to get to the bottom of it,''
Lyons
said.
Conservation groups in Arizona, Oregon and Washington
state had
petitioned the USDA for the change so they could try to
outbid
loggers for tracts in national forests.
Lyons, who oversees the
Forest Service, said in the letter distributed
by the petitioners this week
that he was rejecting the request to
legalize ``non-harvesting bids,'' partly
because it would be a waste of
the money spent to determine environmental
impacts of the proposed
logging.
``While we find your proposal
interesting and novel, we do not
believe it is feasible,'' said the letter
bearing Lyons' signature that was
sent to attorney Peggy Hennessy.
The
conservationists reacted angrily to the letter on Wednesday.
``The
government just hung a big sign on the entrance to our
national forests. It
reads, `No Saw, No Stumps, No Service,'' said
Mitch Friedman, executive
director of the Northwest Ecosystem
Alliance in Bellingham,
Wash.
Lyons said today he was alerted by USDA press officers
Wednesday
night that the letter apparently had been mailed by
mistake.
``We have not rendered a decision on this petition yet. It is
still under
review and the position statement included in the letter does
not
represent administration policy,'' Lyons told AP.
`Unfortunately,
while we are still looking at the issue, a draft letter
was somehow
released,'' he said.
``It was auto-penned, so it had my signature on it.
But in fact, I never
signed it,'' he said.
The draft letter said the
Forest Service spends significant amounts of
money to assess the
environmental consequences of logging.
``It would be a wasteful use of
public monies and contrary to the
public interest to make such a substantial
investment, only to later
decide at the bidding stage not to proceed with the
project,'' the letter
said.
In addition, some timber sales are
intended to reduce fire risks and
improve wildlife habitat conditions in
addition to providing commercial
timber for saw mills, it said.
``If a
sale were awarded to a non-harvesting bidder, other benefits of
that sale
would also be forgone.''
Non-harvesting bidders also might enjoy ``an
unfair advantage over
bidders who are capable of and intent on harvesting
because
non-harvesting bidders would have few, if any, operating
or
personnel costs,'' the letter said.
Friedman, a former activist for
Earth First!, submitted the high bid --
$15,000 -- for a timber sale on the
Okanogan National Forest in
Washington state last year.
It was
rejected based on the Forest Service rule.
``The government seems to view
logging our national forests as a
public service,'' said Kieran Suckling,
executive director of the
Arizona-based Southwest Center for Biodiversity,
which also signed
the petition to change the rule.
It costs taxpayers
much more money to log national forests than to
keep them standing, said Ken
Rait, conservation director of the
Oregon Natural Resources Council in
Portland, Ore.
``As a taxpayer, it doesn't make me feel any better that
my forests
were looted along with my wallet,'' he said.
Chris West,
vice president of the Northwest Forestry Association in
Portland, Ore., said
his group urged the administration to keep the
rule.
``I don't think
anybody in their right mind would be willing to allow
someone who has no
intention of fulfilling the contract to be awarded
the work,'' West
said.
-----
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MEDIA: SALVAGE SALE SUFFERS FROM LACK OF SNAGS
Northern
Arizona Daily Sun
Friday, May 16, 1997
Agency hits snag on timber
salvage
By Lukas Velush
Timber salvage guidelines need to be clearer, the Coconino
National Forest
admits as debate rages over how many dead trees
should be left standing from
last summer's forest fires.
Biologists believe the dead trees, called snags, are important to
birds like
the endangered goshawk, woodpeckers, several species of
songbirds and other
animals who make their homes in the branches
and
trunks.
Although the Coconino
National Forest's own plans call for
leaving at least two snags per acre, its
proposal to log 38 percent of
the 10,700 acres that burned in the Horseshoe
Fire dips below that
threshold.
The Horseshoe Fire, which burned about 20 miles northwest of
Flagstaff, is
one of several huge fires that roared through northern
Arizona during the
height of last summer's drought.
The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, which says even
two snags per
acre is far too low, won't accept the Forest Service's
plans to dip below
that level.
"If they go forward
with the current plan, we will appeal it," said
Peter Galvin, member of the
Tucson-based Southwest Center.
But
the two-snag-per-acre requirement is only for forests that are
alive, said
Scott Ewers, timber staff officer for the Coconino Forest.
He said there's no
standard for how may snags ought to be left in
burned
areas.
"We would like to see a
standard for catastrophic fire," Ewers said.
"We're probably going to do
that, but right now we've got to get
these logs harvested before the wood
deteriorates. We get the most
out of it if we can harvest the wood this
season."
But that interpretation
doesn't fly with the Southwest Center,
which believes no harvesting should be
done in the logged area
because of the threat to birds and other
animals.
Logging the area would
also make it more prone to erosion and
make it tougher for new trees to take
root, Galvin said.
"It's like
mugging a burn victim," he said. "The area has already
suffered. Now they
want to go in and disturb it even further."
Arizona Game and Fish
also wants more snags left behind, but is less
vehement than the Southwest
Center.
"In some areas, they are
going to remove all the snags that are
commercial and leave some snags, in
some other areas," said Rick
Miller, regional habitat program manager for the
state agency that
looks after wildlife in Arizona. "Our preference is to
leave some
snags in every
area."
Although more research
needs to be done, Ewers said burned trees
may have less value to wildlife
than ones that die naturally because
they are much harder. Also, soft spots
on which woodpeckers and
other animals thrive are often burned
away.
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ENVIROS FACE 45 WATER &
POWER LAWYERS IN HOOVER DAM HEARING
Two pro-bono lawyers for the
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity squared off against 45 corporate
lawyers on May 15, 1997
at an oral hearing to decide a preliminary injunction
request to lower
Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam by 22 feet. High water
levels at the
lake were determined to be "catastrophic" to the
endangered
southwest willow flycatcher by U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
biologists who officially declared the species would be
jeopardized
by continued flooding of willows.
The gaggle of lawyers
represented the Bureau of Reclamation,
Department of Interior, and water and
power interests from CA, AZ,
NM, NV, UT, CO, and WY. More lawyers were
present at the
hearing than at any remaining flycatcher population.
A
decision on the injunction request is expected soon.
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FOUR MORE CALIFORNIA CONDORS RELEASED
>From
USFWS Press Release:
Four of the nine California condors being held atop
the 1000-foot
Vermilion Cliffs north of the Grand Canyon were released [on
May
14, 1997]. At 7:00 a.m., Peregrine Fund biologists lifted the door
of
the condor pen and the birds cautiously hopped from their shelter
and
onto the lip of the cliff. As the last bird emerged, all four
unfolded
their 9-foot wings to initiate their maiden
flights.
Peregrine Fund biologists, Mark Vekasy and Shawn Farry,
reported
that "the four made a number of short flights and are now perched
on
the talus slope near the base of the cliff."
The nine condors have
been held in a netted adjustment pen since
shortly after they were
transported from the Los Angeles Zoo to the
Bureau of Land Management
administered cliff site on April 29,
1997. The four most subordinate
condors were selected for release
today with the hope that they will
socialize more easily with the
existing birds. The remaining captive
birds will be released after
biologists evaluate their behavior, weather
conditions and the results
of today's release.
The two-year old
condors are the oldest to be released in the wild.
Since older, more mature
birds could immediately soar greater
distances than their younger
counterparts did when released last
December, biologists chose to release
them in small batches. "By
releasing these birds a few at a time, it
will give them the opportunity
to gradually assimilate with the existing
population. The younger
condors have performed well since their release
last December;
these older birds could learn much from the existing
birds as the two
groups begin to socialize" said Bill Heinrich, Species
Restoration
Manager of The Peregrine Fund. The Peregrine Fund is a
non-profit
conservation organization conducting the release in
northern
Arizona.
Since December, the five original condors have
greatly extended
their range. They have soared below the north rim of
the Grand
Canyon and been spotted over Lake Powell and Page, Arizona.
Each
of the five condors regularly returns to the Vermilion Cliffs and
has
inspected the new arrivals. Researchers will continue to monitor
the condors'
movements and study how the groups interact
and
assimilate.
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