Subject: SW Biodiversity Alert
#8
**** **** SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #9
**** ****
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity
pob 17839, tucson,
az 85731
swcbd@igc.apc.org
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION AGREES TO CONSULT ON
LOWER COLORADO RIVER
OPERATIONS - STILL VIOLATES ESA
Following the
submission of 60-day notices of intent to sue by the
Southwest Center
(December 11, 1995) and Defenders of Wildlife
(February 6, 1996), the Bureau
of Reclamation has agreed to
reinitiate a stalled Endangered Species Act
consultation process for
operations and maintenance activities on the Lower
Colorado River.
BuRec had earlier taken steps to consult with the Fish and
Wildlife
Service ("Service") over its impacts on endangered species
including
the razorback sucker, bonytail chub and southwestern
willow
flycatcher. It cancelled the potentially devastating
consultation,
however, in favor of a Lower Colorado Multi-Species
Conservation
Program being developed by the states of California, Arizona
and
Nevada.
BuRec re-committed to the consultation within days of the
Southwest
Center's 60-day notice becoming ripe. It thus narrowly
avoided the
same kind of programatic ESA consultation litigation which has
held
up logging on the Southwest's eleven National Forests since
August,
1995.
The planned consultation, however, is an orchestrated
sham which
continues to violate the heart of the ESA. Since it
will
inevitably result in jeopardy opinions on endangered
Southwestern
fish, the consultation should also produce a Reasonable and
Prudent
Alternative (RPA) to the continued destruction of the Lower
Colorado
River. This would be a historic turning point in western
river
conservation efforts.
In order to avoid such an outcome (and the
threat it would pose to
very, very powerful water interests) BuRec, the Fish
and Wildife
Service, and the states of California, Arizona and Nevada have
signed
a Memorandum of Agreement which essentially guts protection
for
endangered species on the river. The MOA pre-determines
that
"sufficient progress" on the Multi-Species Conservation plan is
to
serve as the RPA for all consultations. In other words, BuRec and
the
Fish and Wildlife Service have given control of the future of
the
entire Lower Colorado River to water developers. Say hello to
state
implementation of the ESA!
The good new is that the Southwest
Center's ripe notice of intent to
sue, also includes the illegal MOA.
We plan to have BuRec, Fish and
Wildlife, and the states in court within a
few weeks.
GRAZING PERMITS APPEALED TO SAVE THREATENED APACHE
TROUT
The Southwest Center has appealed 15 grazing permits renewals on
the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The allotments contain
recovery
habitat for the Apache trout, a federally threatened species
endemic
to the White Mountains of east-central Arizona.
In response to
heavy pressure from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Forest Service
previously agreed to a Apache Trout Habitat
Improvement Project mandating the
fencing off more than a dozen
Priority 1 stream reaches vital to the recovery
of Apache trout. The
Forest Service, however, has refused to implement the
Project despite
condemnation from the FWS. Recovery efforts for the Apache
trout are
futile while the Forest Service permits continued destruction
of
habitat in designated recovery
streams.