Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#95
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#95
10/1/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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1.
SEVEN ARRESTED AT GOSHAWK/WOLF DEMO IN ALASKA-
BABBITT PUT ON
TRIAL, SENT TO WOLVES
2. MASSIVE SOUTHERN UTAH SALVAGE SALE
APPEALED
3. NEW MEXICO SALVAGE SALE APPEALED
4. RIDER UNDERCUTTING
SW GRAZING INJUNCTION SURVIVES
HOUSE/SENATE CONFERENCE
COMMITTEE
*****
***** ******
*****
SEVEN ARRESTED AT GOSHAWK/WOLF DEMO IN ALASKA-
BABBITT PUT ON
TRIAL, SENT TO WOLVES
On September 29, 1997, the Southwest Center and the
Sitka
Conservation Society sponsored a protest at the U.S. Fish
and
Wildlife headquarters in Anchorage, AK to opposed the agency's
refusal
to protect the Queen Charlotte goshawk and Alexander
Archipelago wolf under
the ESA. Six protestors locked together
at the necks were arrested inside the
building, while a seventh
was arrested outside.
Arrestees included a
76 year old Sitka woman, a 50 year old
bookstore owner, the president of the
Sitka Conservation Society,
and organizers with Greenpeace, the Alaska
Wildlife Alliance,
and Common Roots. Television news programs ran clips for
two
days featuring a mock trial in which Bruce Babbitt, wearing
a
"Secretary of Extinction" sign was put on trial for devastating
the
wolf, goshawk, and the ESA itself. Babbitt was sentenced to
be eaten by
wolves.
The Southwest Center petitioned to list the Queen
Charlotte
goshawk as endangered in 1995 as part of a campaign to
protect
goshawks and their old growth forests in every western
state.
__________________________
MASSIVE
SOUTHERN UTAH SALVAGE SALE APPEALED-
FOREST SERVICE TRIES TO EXTEND SALVAGE
RIDER
The Southwest Center has appealed the South Manti salvage
timber
sale on the Manti-La Sal National Forest in southern
Utah. The Forest Service
wants to log 22 million board feet of
trees because of "beetle epidemics,"
even though it admits logging
will not control the infestation.
In
1993, the Forest announced it would prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement
on the sale, but canceled the review when Congress
passed the infamous
Logging without Laws rider in 1995, allowing
them to log without public
involvement or environmental restrictions.
Fifty million board feet were
wiped out before the rider expired.
The Forest now wants to go back for an
additional 22 million board
feet, but wants to use the same vacuous analysis
it was able to
get away with under the salvage rider.
The sale was
independently appealed by the Wild Utah Forest
Campaign.
__________________
NEW MEXICO
SALVAGE SALE APPEALED
The Southwest Center has appealed the Sunspot
Salvage on the
Lincoln National Forest in south-central New Mexico. The
sale
will supposedly "control" a round-headed pine beetle
infestation.
Although many large live trees will be cut, including habitat
for
the threatened Mexican spotted owl, the Forest excluded the sale
from
environmental review. By carefully designing the sale to be
just under 1
million board feet, the Forest is trying to exploit
a loophole in Forest
Service NEPA regulations which allow timber
sales under 1 million board fee,
which do not affect endangered
species, from environmental
review.
_____________________
RIDER
UNDERCUTTING SW GRAZING INJUNCTION SURVIVES HOUSE/SENATE
CONFERENCE
COMMITTEE
A rider attached to the Senate Interior Appropriations
Committee which
would undercut a Ninth Circuit Appeals Court grazing
injunction, has
survived the House/Senate conference committee and will go to
a full
vote before both houses.
The rider, attached by Jon Kyl (R, AZ)
and Pete Dominici (R, NM),
forbids the U.S. Forest Service from spending
money to implement
a temporary injunction against grazing permits which
violate Forest
Plan standards and guidelines which limit grazing to
protect
endangered
species.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-710