Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#97
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#97
10/21/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver
city, tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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1.
SUIT FILED TO LIST RARE WETLAND PLANT AS ENDANGERED
2. ENVIROS, HUNTERS
OCCUPY REP. KOLBE'S OFFICE-
DAILY STAR EDITORIALIZES
AGAINST KOLBE RIDER
3. APPEALS COURT REJECTS TIMBER COMPANY BID TO INTERVENE
IN SW
LOGGING AND GRAZING INJUNCTION
4.
WILDERNESS SOCIETY BOARD MEMBER FIGHTS LOGGING
INJUNCTION
SUPPORTS LOGGING OF OLD
GROWTH
*****
***** ***** *****
SUIT
FILED TO LIST RARE WETLAND PLANT AS ENDANGERED
The Southwest Center has
filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service for refusing to
act on a petition to list the
Huachuca dock as an endangered species. The
dock is an obligate of
high elevation cienegas (wetlands) on the
Apache-Sitgreaves, Tonto,
and Coronado National Forest. It has declined
dramatically in recent
years due to overgrazing, road construction, and
inappropriate
campground placement.
The suit was filed in a federal
court in Phoenix, AZ. The Center
is represented by Matt Kenna of Kenna &
Associates (Durango).
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ENVIROS, HUNTERS OCCUPY REP. KOLBE'S
OFFICE-
DAILY STAR EDITORIALIZES AGAINST KOLBE RIDER
On October 4,
1997, 30 protesters from the Southwest Center, Sky Island
Watch and the
Western Game Bird Alliance occupied the Tucson office of
Representative Jim
Kolbe, in protest of his support for a rider by
Senators Kyl and Domenici,
effectively overruling a Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals injunction on logging
and grazing which violate
Forest Plan standards and guidelines.
On
October 16, 1997, the Arizona Daily star blasted Kolbe and Kyl for
helping
Republicans to "load a raft of anti-environmental riders onto
the basic
Interior Department funding bill." Citing congressional
"perversion,"
"sleaze," and "malicious maneuvering," and a
"monstrosity of decadent
lawmaking," the Star called on Clinton to
veto the
bill.
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_____ _____ _____
APPEALS COURT
REJECTS TIMBER COMPANY BID TO INTERVENE IN SW LOGGING
AND GRAZING
INJUNCTION
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a bid by
Precision
Pine and Timber Inc. to intervene in the lawsuit by Forest
Guardians
and the Southwest Center which has resulted in a temporary
injunction
against logging and grazing in the Southwest. Precision Pine
was
twice rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme court in similar motions.
The
Southwest Center has asked the U.S. Attorney to file perjury
charges against
Lewis Tenney, owner of Precision Pine, for declaring
that the injunction will
drive him out of business when the company
actually has a year's supply of
timber which it won't cut because of
market conditions. Three days after
closing its Winslow, AZ mill,
Tenney was paid over $300,000 in timber sale
cancellation fees.
None of it was shared with the worker's Tenney professes
to care so
much about.
Forest Guardians and SW Center are represented
in the case by
EarthLaw (Denver).
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WILDERNESS SOCIETY BOARD MEMBER FIGHTS LOGGING
INJUNCTION
SUPPORTS LOGGING OF OLD GROWTH
Wilderness Society board
member and lawyer Charles Wilkinson, has
filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals on behalf
of a timber corporation, opposing an injunction on
logging
which violates National Forest plans in Arizona and New
Mexico.
The brief specifically targets the La Manga timber sale
in
northern New Mexico for release from the injunction. La Manga is
the
worst active timber sale in the Southwest. It will cut enormous
trees in one
of the few remaining intact old growth ponderosa pine
stands in the
Southwest. Wilkinson believes that the trees should be
cut regardless of
their beauty, ecological value, or rarity simply
because the timber company
is a local Hispanic operation.
Even worse in the long run, Wilkinson
makes a highly technical argument
that could deal a terrible blow to alliance
and coalition building in
the environmental movement. He argues that if one
member of a coalition
independently brings a lawsuit, then all members of the
coalition
should be banned from bringing similar suits in the future. He
is
trying to establish a legal precedent that all networked
environmental
groups have exactly the same legal interests, a strategy, which
if
successful, will keep many environmentalists from joining
alliances.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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