Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#92
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#92
9/3/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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1.
SYMINGTON CONVICTED ON SEVEN COUNTS! PARTY AT THE BUFFET
2. SOUTHWEST
CENTER TO SUE OVER SAN DIEGO M.S.C.P.
3. APPEAL FILED IN LAKE MEAD
CASE
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SYMINGTON CONVICTED ON SEVEN COUNTS! PARTY AT THE BUFFET
The
Southwest Center invites all its members to the Buffet (Tucson, AZ) at
6pm on
Wednesday, September 3rd to celebrate the conviction of Fife
Symington,
erstwhile governor of Arizona, on federal charges. Symington, who
pledged to
shoot spotted owls, and once compared the Southwest Center's
efforts to save
the San Pedro River as an "environmental drive-by shooting"
was convicted on
seven counts, including bank and wire
fraud.
Symington resigned as governor at 5pm, happy hour begins at
6pm.
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SOUTHWEST CENTER TO SUE OVER SAN DIEGO M.S.C.P.
On August
15, 1997, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity notified
the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service it will sue over the agency's failure
to protect
San Diego County's wildlife via the Multiple Species
Conservation Program
(MSCP). Politicians, developers, and agency officials
continue to
intentionally misrepresent the MSCP, fraudulently labeling it
"a gift to
species and habitat." In reality, the underlying motivation
pushing the
MSCP forward at an alarming rate, has been purposefully
downplayed: The
MSCP is a program that creates a loophole for developers
to avoid compliance
with the Endangered Species Act, America's premiere
wildlife protection
law.
Implementing the MSCP was not one the charges brought against
Symington.
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APPEAL
FILED IN LAKE MEAD CASE
The Southwest Center, on September 2, 1997,
appealed a district court decision
affirming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's biological opinion on Bureau of
Reclamation operations on the Lower
Colorado River. The Fish and Wildlife
Service
authorized the complete
destruction of the endangered southwestern willow
flycatcher population at
Lake Mead, even though it has permitted the destruction
of 25% of the entire
subspecies in the last two years.
Ex-governor Symington appointed Rita
Pearson to the Arizona Department of Water
Resources, which subsequently
opposed efforts by the Southwest Center and
Defenders of Wildlife to save the
flycatcher population at Lake Mead. Pearson
was appointed from the law firm
of Snell and Wilmer, which represented
Symington
in his financial
"problems" which eventually led to his conviction. Snell
and Wilmer
did
not collect its full share of fees from Symington, but enjoyed
$365,000
worth
of government contracts and the appointment of Pearson to
Arizona's highest
water
managment
post.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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