Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #91


Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #91

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              SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #91
                           8/22/97          

          SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
           silver city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1. SUIT FILED TO DESIGNATE CRITICAL HABITAT FOR TWO IMPERILED FISH

2. THREE SALVAGE TIMBER SALES APPEALED-
   FIRE TRACED TO TIMBER CORPORATION

3. CENTER TO SUE STEVEN SPIELBERG, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS OVER
   LOS ANGELES DEVELOPMENT/THEME PARK

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SUIT FILED TO DESIGNATE CRITICAL HABITAT FOR TWO IMPERILED FISH

The Southwest Center has filed suit against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat for the
threatened loach minnow and spikedace. In 1994, the Center won
a lawsuit forcing the Service to designate 160 miles of critical
habitat for the two fish within the Gila River Basin including parts
of the Gila, San Francisco, Tularosa, and Verde Rivers. The
designation was subsequently thrown out by a 10th Circuit decision
that critical habitat designation must undergo National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis. Rather than go back
and do the required NEPA analysis, however, the Fish and Wildlife
Service has decided to penalize the fish by giving up on critical
habitat altogether. This inaction is particularly cynical since the
Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to a Southwest Center
petition, has concluded that the two fish are continuing to decline,
and now warrant listing as endangered species.
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THREE SALVAGE TIMBER SALES APPEALED-
FIRE TRACED TO TIMBER CORPORATION

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity has appealed three
salvage timber sales on the Coconino National Forest, AZ.
Located approximately 30 miles north of Flagstaff, on the north side
of the San Francisco Peaks, the sales will log over 4 million board
feet of timber, including tens of thousands of snags crucial to
songbirds and wildlife, created by the Hochderffer and Horseshoe fires.

The Coconino plans to log every old growth snag even though it
just amended its Forest Plan to require 2-3 snags and 3-4 reserve
snag trees per acre. With no legal basis whatsoever, the Forest
claims the amendment does not apply to burned areas.

The origin of the infamous Horseshoe fire was traced to a
smoldering Stone Container Corporation slash pile by Forest Service
investigators in 1996. If the sale goes to bid, it may well be
awarded to Stone, thus allowing multinational timber corporations
to set timber schedules through their own negligence.  While Stone
has not been billed for the multi-million dollar cost of fighting the
fire, the Coconino National Forest is demanding that the families of
two boys, ages 14 and 11, pay part of the $900,000 bill from a separate
fire started earlier in the summer.
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SUIT TO BE FILED AGAINST STEVEN SPIELBERG, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS OVER
LOS ANGELES DEVELOPMENT/THEME PARK

The Southwest Center, the Wetlands Action Network, the Ballona
Wetlands Land Trust and California PIRG have filed an official
60- day notice of intent to sue movie mogul Steven Spielberg,
developer Rob Maguire, and the Army Corps of Engineers for
destroying the habitat of 19 threatened and endangered species.

Spielberg and Maguire plan to build a Playa Vista/Dream Works, a
mega-development and special effects movie studio, on the 1,000
acre wetlands. It is incomprehensible that someone with as much
money as Spielberg, who could build his study anywhere on the
planet, has decided it must go in the middle of one the last
wetlands in the massively urbanized Las Angeles metro area. The
Lost World, will be considerably larger if he succeeds.


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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