From: owner-swcbdmembers@envirolink.org on behalf of Kierán
Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 1998
9:34 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: SW
BIODIVERSITY ALERT #157
X-Listprocessor-version: 8.2.07 -- ListProc(tm) by
CREN
____________________________________________________
\
SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #157 /
\ 10-20-98 /
\ /
\ SOUTHWEST CENTER
FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY /
\ http://www.sw-center.org
/
\________________________________________/
1. RALLY THIS FRIDAY
AGAINST FOREST SERVICE PLAN TO KILL
RARE APACHE GOSHAWK IN SOUTHERN
ARIZONA
2. CHRISTIAN ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION ENDORSES END
TO
COMMERCIAL LOGGING ON U.S. NATIONAL FORESTS
3. TUCSON MAY CURB
URBAN SPRAWL TO PROTECT PYGMY-OWL
4. UTAH NATIONAL FORESTS TO DEVELOP
GOSHAWK CONSERVATION PLAN-
LETTERS NEEDED TO INSURE OLD GROWTH
PROTECTION
***** ***** ***** *****
RALLY THIS FRIDAY AGAINST
FOREST SERVICE PLAN TO KILL
RARE APACHE GOSHAWK IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA
The
Southwest Center, Sky Island Watch, SEAC-SW, and
Maricopa Audubon Society
are hosting a rally this Friday,
October 23rd, at 12 noon outside the
Coronado National
Forest office in Tucson (300 W. Congress St.) to protest
the agency's plan to log one of the few remaining goshawk
nest stands in
southern Arizona.
On three previous occassions going back to 1995, the
Forest Service has decided to log an active goshawk nest
stand in order
to expand and pave a primative campground
on Mt. Graham, and to make a few
bucks on the old growth
pines and firs. Because logging an active goshawk
nest
stand violates their own guidelines, the Forest keeps
claiming an
exemption for purposes of "adaptive management."
Appeals and lawsuits have
stopped every proposal thus
far. The Forest Service retaliated by sending
out an
anti-goshawk press release which resulted in the male
being shot
and killed.
A new pair has moved onto the nest, and now the Forest
Service is proposing to log the nest stand for a fourth
time. The entire
Pinaleno Range likely has less than 10
Apache goshawk pairs. As few as 30
likely exist in all of
the U.S. Reports indicate they may be even rarer in
Mexico
since the onset of industrial logging in recent
decades.
____________________________________
CHRISTIAN ENVIRONMENTAL
COALITION ENDORSES END TO
COMMERCIAL LOGGING ON U.S. NATIONAL FORESTS
On
10-13-98, the Christian Environmental Council, a broad
national
inter-denominational coalition of Christian leaders,
voted unanimously for
the "end of all commercial
logging on U.S. National Forests," and the end of
all old
growth logging anywhere in the U.S.
"Our Scriptures clearly
teach that forests are a place where
God is present, and cares and provides
for his creatures who
inhabit them," said Ann Alexander, Chair of the CEC in
a press
release. "Paying timber companies nearly a billion dollars
every
year to needlessly decimate these irreplaceable forests,
which God created
and loves, is to commit a sin of greed and
waste."
_____________________________
TUCSON MAY CURB URBAN SPRAWL
TO PROTECT PYGMY-OWL
In response to pressure from the Southwest Center,
the
Sonoran Desert Alliance, Desert Watch, and others, Pima
County
Administrator Chuck Huckleberry today officially
recommended that the Board
of Supervisors protect Arthur
Pack Park from development threats by the Pima
County
Community College and the YMCA. The park contains very
important
habitat for the endangered cactus ferruginous
pygmy owl.
The
recommendation was contained in a wide ranging report
entitled "Sonoran
Desert Conservation Plan." The plan also
recommends amending land use
regulations, providing
incentives for habitat conservation near Tucson, and
raising money to buy important wildlife areas. The Board
of Supervisors
may vote on the recommendations as early as
next week.
The listing of
the pygmy owl as endangered and subsequent
litigation and organzing against
mindless sprawl, has
re-awakened the possibilily of growth control in the
Tucson
Basin. The new report may lead to tightening land use
regulations,
including a possible moratorium on large scale
development, to protect the
pygmy owl on private land
pending preparation of a regional endangered
species plan.
____________________________
UTAH NATIONAL FORESTS TO
DEVELOP GOSHAWK CONSERVATION PLAN-
LETTERS NEEDED TO INSURE OLD GROWTH
PROTECTION
Region 4 of the U.S. Forest Service is accepting comments
a
plan to amend its Regional Guide and six National Forest
Plans to adopt
interim protection measures for the Northern
goshawk. The plan, entitled
"Conservation Strategy and
Agreement for the Management of Northern Goshawk
Habitat in
Utah," would affect the Wasatch-Cache, Uinta, Ashley, Dixie,
Manti-LaSal, and Fishlake National Forests.
It is likely that R4 will
follow the lead of the Southwest
Region, adopting guidelines which focus on
nest stand
protection while allowing logging of old-growth in goshawk
foraging areas. The implementation of the SW plan has
resulted in steady
goshawk declines since 1991 in AZ and NM.
Please send comments to the
Regional Forester informing him
that the SW guidelines have lead to declines
on the Kaibab,
Apache-Sitgreave and Coronado National Forests, and all
six
of New Mexico's National Forests. Tell him to fully protect
6,000
acres of foraging habitat within every goshawk home
range, and to ban logging
of all old growth and mature trees
across the landscape.
Regional
Forester, U.S. Forest Service
Federal Building, 324 25th Street, Ogden, Utah
84401.
Past biodiversity alerts are archived @
http://www.sw-center.org/color>
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kierán
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
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