Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALTER
#87
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#87
8/5/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1. FOREST
SERVICE ADMITS INJUNCTION MAY AFFECT HALF OF ALL
SOUTHWEST
GRAZING ALLOTMENTS-
Asks Appeals Court To Delay
Injunction
2. SONGBIRD MELTDOWN: LITIGATION DRIVEN FOREST SERVICE STUDY
WARNS
OF PONDEROSA PINE BIRD DECLINES-
Salvage
Logging, Old Growth Logging, Overgrazing To
Blame
*****
***** *****
*****
FOREST SERVICE ADMITS COURT INJUNCTION MAY AFFECT HALF OF
ALL
SOUTHWEST GRAZING PERMITS-
ASKS APPEALS COURT TO DELAY
INJUNCTION
On July 25, 1997, the 9th Circuit Appeals Court issued
an
emergency injunction barring over 20 timber sales and an unknown
number
of grazing permits for violating Forest Plan standards and
guidelines.
On August 3rd, the Forest Service asked the court to
clarify the intent of
the injunction and postpone it until the Forest
Service determines exactly
how many grazing permits in AZ and
NM violate their own Forest
Plans.
The Forest Service estimates that as many as 50% of the
region's
1,365 allotments may be covered by the injunction. The
Southwest
Center, using the Forest Service's own databases, determined
that
88 of 145 permits on the Gila National Forest and 98 of 119
permits
on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest violate the their
Forest
Plans.
Grazing allotments cover 19 million of the Forest Service's
21
million acres in the Southwest
______ ______
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SONGBIRD MELTDOWN: LITIGATION DRIVEN
FOREST SERVICE STUDY WARNS OF
PONDEROSA PINE BIRD DECLINES-
SALVAGE
LOGGING, OLD GROWTH LOGGING, OVERGRAZING TO BLAME
During negotiations
which cemented the 16 month logging moratorium
on SW National Forests,
environmentalists forced the Forest Service
to fund the Rocky Mountain
Research Station to conduct scientific
studies to 1) identify research for
Southwest Forests, and 2) review
the state of songbirds in Southwest
ponderosa pine forests. We expanded
the logging-centered negotiations to
include research because Research
in the Southwest is greatly underfunded and
we saw an opportunity to
focus research toward immediate conservation
needs.
This summer, the Research Station published both reports.
The
first, "Research Needs for Forest and Rangeland Management in
Arizona
and New Mexico" is self-explanatory. Hopefully it will
lead to further
research.
The second, "Songbird Ecology in Southwestern Ponderosa
Pine
Forests: A Literature Review," is a bombshell. We pressed for
this
study because the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity
had
already put together a study showing extensive songbird declines
in
logged forests, but the Forest Service has refused to acknowledge
the
problem. We supplied the Research Station biologists with the
same
information and, not surprisingly, they came to many of the
same
conclusions:
- 77% (46 of 61) of all songbirds in NM for
which sufficient
information exists, have declined
significantly since 1964.
In AZ and NM combined, 66% have
declined since 1964.
- The majority of species in all nesting and
migration guilds have
declined, including 100% of all
coniferous nesting and permanent
resident
guilds.
- Since songbirds primarily feed on forest insects, their
decline
may lead to outbreaks of "forest pests"
-
Logging (particularly of snags and large pines) and
overgrazing
(by reducing grass habitat and causing pine
thickets) are the
biggest threats to forest
songbirds.
- A few quotes:
"Intense burns can
create numerous snags that provide foraging
and nesting
resources for many birds"
"Fire-killed trees are
frequently left standing after a natural fire,
providing
nesting and foraging habitat for many bird species,
whereas salvage logging deliberately culls trees killed by
fire,
disease, and insect
infestations."
"Whether or not dead and dying trees
should be removed from a site is
possibly the most
controversial aspect of forest health
management
today...Regardless of the reason for a salvage
operation,
the result is the removal of dead and dying trees from a
forest stand. Bird species that depend on dead and dying
trees
(snags) are most impacted by any type of salvage
logging, whether
it be selective harvest of individual
trees or complete stand
removal. Cavity nesters in
ponderosa pine forests of the
Southwest, such as the acorn
woodpecker, hairy woodpecker,
northern flicker, pygmy
nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch,
western bluebird,
mountain chickadee, house wren, Cordilleran
flycatcher and
violet-green swallow will potentially be affected the
most. Snags also provide important habitat features for
other
species."
"Pre-European
forests of the Southwest tended toward a wider
range and
diversity of tree sizes and ages, health states, patch
ages,
structural stages, inter- and intra-patch diversity,
and landscape
designs than do contemporary ponderosa pine
forests...Bird
species that historically preferred open,
park-like ponderosa pine
forests are likely to be
negatively affected by contemporary forest
management that
emphasizes continuous or long-term grazing in
combination
with fire exclusion because these practices produce a
closed forest of dense, young to mid-aged trees with few
grasses,
forbs, or shrubs...In addition, modern-day
culling and salvage
logging of snags, diseased trees, and
old trees, and clearing of old
growth patches reduces the
diversity and heterogeneity of stand
ages and structures,
intensifying the trend toward younger, more
uniform,
even-aged forests."
"Species of concern that are
likely to be negatively affected by
forest management that
emphasizes continuous grazing, fire
exclusion, and
post-fire salvage logging include those that nest in
or
forage on, or from, standing dead trees or large, old trees
in
open forests; for example, the three-toed woodpecker,
pygmy
nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch, and mountain and
western
bluebirds."
"Species
whose abundances in Southwestern ponderosa pine are
known
or suspected to decline in relation to burns, clearcuts,
natural clearings, or partial-logging, for example, the
pygmy
nuthatch, mountain chickadee, red-faced warbler,
hermit thrush,
violet-green swallow, Cordilleran
flycatcher, pine grosbeak, and
black-headed grosbeak may
respond negatively to local
management implemented for
economic gain or to benefit open- forest
species."
To obtain a free copy of the study, send email
to:
/s=r.schneider/ou1=s28a@mhs-fswa.attmail.com
(the "l" is a "one")
Ask for:
Songbird Ecology in
Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests: A Literature Review
RM-GTR-292
Research Needs for Forest and Rangeland
Management in Arizona and New Mexico
RM-GTR-291
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-710