Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #175

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        SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
                 http//www.sw-center.org
        #175                               3-3-99
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o GROUPS PETITION TO LIST BELUGA WHALE
o NEW SOUTHWEST CENTER REPORT: LACK OF FRESH WATER
  FLOWS HAS HARMED COLORADO RIVER DELTA CLAM
o SALVAGE SALE, GILA N.F. LIGHTS IT AND NOW WANTS TO LOG IT
o 5 GRAZING ALLOTMENTS NEED YOUR COMMENTS
o SOUTHWEST CENTER THREATENS U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE WITH
  LAWSUIT IF 30 RARE SPECIES ARE NOT PROTECTED
o TOOLS FOR THE ACTIVIST: GRAZING ABSTRACT-BIBLIOGRAPHY
  RELEASED­GET YOUR COPY NOW!

     *****     *****     *****     *****
INUPIAT HUNTER SEEKS STRICTER LIMITS ON BELUGA HARVESTING:
ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION ASKS FOR EMERGENCY LISTING OF
BELUGA WHALE AS "ENDANGERED"

In a petition filed 3/3/99, Joel Blatchford, an Inupiat and former
whale hunter, and a coalition of conservation groups asked the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list the Cook Inlet
beluga under the Endangered Species Act.

The petition to the Secretary of Commerce was hand-delivered in
Anchorage. Petitioners joining Joel Blatchford include the Center
for Biological Diversity, Alaska Center for the Environment, Alaska
Community Action on Toxics, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Center for
Marine Conservation, National Audubon Society, and Trustees for
Alaska.

Formerly seen throughout the northern Gulf of Alaska from Cook
Inlet to Yakutat Bay, the beluga is now restricted to Cook Inlet.
Even there, it has become very rare in the lower inlet and is
continuing to decline in the upper inlet. The National Marine
Fisheries Service estimates that the 1994 population of 653 whales
dropped to 347 by 1998. In the 1970s it was common to see 450 or
more whales in a single day.

Commercial and subsistence hunting is taking a heavy toll on the
declining whale. In a 1998 report, the NMFS concluded that "the
current level of human caused mortality is not sustainable." The
Cook Inlet Marine Management Council estimates that a minimum of 65
whales were either killed or struck by hunters in 1995, and up to
147 were killed by hunters in 1996. Because of unregulated and
unreported hunting, some subsistence, some commercial, the full
yearly take is not known.


For more information visit our web site at
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/beluga.html
     ____________________________

NEW SOUTHWEST CENTER REPORT LACK OF FRESH WATER
FLOWS HAS HARMED COLORADO RIVER DELTA CLAM

A report sponsored by the Southwest Center and National Science
Foundation has found that reduced flows from the U.S. have driven a
clam from the Colorado River Delta to the brink of extinction. The
report found that the Delta clam is likely a distinct species found
only near the mouth of the River. It also documented for the first
time a historic mixing zone of River and sea water reaching as far
as 40 km into the Gulf from the River's mouth, providing rich
estuary habitat for a variety of marine species.

The Delta clam was once abundant. Roughly 500 billion shells of the
species make up the Delta's beaches. Today, only one tiny
population remains.

Despite growing information demonstrating the importance of
restored Colorado flows to the Mexican Delta, a Multi-Species
Program for the River pushed by Secretary Babbitt and Colorado
River water and power hogs has repeatedly rejected calls to alter
U.S. river management. Conservationists have resigned from the
program as a result.

The report was prepared for the Southwest Center by University of
Arizona researchers Dr. Karl Flessa and Graduate Student Carlie
Rodriguez.
     ____________________________

SALVAGE SALE, GILA N.F. LIGHTS IT AND NOW WANTS TO LOG IT

Evoking memories of the extremely controversial HB salvage sale
(Eagle Peak roadless area), the Gila National Forest intends to log
four million board feet of timber burned in last fall's BS/Corner
Mountain Fire. The fire, located northwest of Glenwood near Bear
Wallow Mountain, burned nearly 7,000 acres of forest after a 200
acre Forest Service controlled burn became uncontrolled. 

By proposing the sale, the Gila N.F. threatens support for the
prescribed burn program. It also invites arson in a region already
prone to such temptations. In 1996, a Forest Service firefighter
pleaded guilty to felony charges of lighting forest fires after the
Southwest Center demanded investigations into several suspicious
fires on the Gila.

In addition to these serious issues, the Forest Service admits that
at least half a dozen Mexican spotted owl nest sites lie within
BS/Corner Mountain. In its eagerness to log HB, the Gila N.F.
pressured the spotted owl recovery team to lift restrictions on
steep slope and roadless area logging. It was eventually shown that
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel bowed to that pressure,
deleting the offensive prohibitions after the recovery plan was
signed.

Write the Gila National Forest and tell them to preserve the
integrity of its fire program, not to encourage arson for profit,
and not to involve itself in another salvage sale scandal.

  Mr. Abel Camarena, Forest Supervisor
  Gila National Forest
  3005 E. Camino del Bosque
  Silver City, NM  88061

     ____________________________

5 GRAZING ALLOTMENTS NEED YOUR COMMENTS

The Chino Valley Ranger District of the Prescott National Forest is
currently accepting comments on a proposal to reduce livestock
numbers, limit the grazing season to cool season only, and lower
utilization levels on the Antelope Hills, China Dam, Muldoon,
Perkinsville, and Sand Flat allotments (known as the Chino 5).
Predictably, this proposal has enraged local ranchers, who have
already asked Senators McCain and Kyl to intervene on their behalf.

Each of the Chino 5 allotments lies along the upper Verde River.
The upper Verde is one stretch of the over 250 miles of
Southwestern rivers and streams which are now excluded from cattle
as a result of a Southwest Center lawsuit to protect endangered
species, including the Southwestern willow flycatcher, spikedace,
and loach minnow. The river has shown remarkable recovery in the
short time it has been protected.

The comment period on this proposal has recently been extended to
May 1. Please write to the District Ranger and let him know that
you support his use of sound science, and the effort to reduce
livestock numbers, limit the grazing season, and lower utilization
levels on the Chino 5.

  Mark Johnson, District Ranger
  Chino Valley Ranger District
  Prescott National Forest
  PO Box 485
  Prescott, AZ 86323
  Phone(520) 636-2302
  Or e-mail your comments to  fsnepa/r3_prescott@fs.fed.us

     ____________________________

SOUTHWEST CENTER THREATENS U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE WITH
LAWSUIT IF 33 RARE SPECIES ARE NOT PROTECTED

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity (Southwest Center)
and the Center for Biological Diversity formally notified Secretary
of Interior Bruce Babbitt that the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is in violation of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) for failure to protect 33 species of
plants and animals under the ESA. The ESA gives the FWS one year
from the date it proposes a species for listing under the ESA to
finalize that listing. All of the species involved in the notice of
intent to sue are past the mandatory deadline for final listing.
Some of the species in question have languished for over four years
past the legally required deadline for protection.

The species include ten Hawaiian plants threatened by habitat loss
and destruction from feral animals, a fish in Utah threatened by
water diversions and habitat loss, a rabbit and a woodrat in
California's central valley imperiled by livestock grazing and
development, several plants in California, Oregon and Washington
threatened by livestock grazing and development, and a snake in
Ohio threatened by development.

Zapata Bladderpod (Lesquerella thamnophila)-Texas
Least Chub (Iotichthys phlegethontis)-Utah
Baker's Larkspur (Delphinium bakeri)-California
Yellow Larkspur (Delphinium luteum)-California
Ione Manzanita (Arctostaphylos myrtifolia)-California
Ione (Irish Hill) buckwheat (Eriogonum apricum (incl. vars.
apricum, prostratum)-California
Keck's Checkermallow (Sidalcea keckii)-California
Riparian Woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes riparia)-California
Riparian Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani riparius)-California
Rough Popcornflower (Plagiobothrys hirtus)-Oregon
Howell's Spectacular Thelypody (Thelypodium howellii var.
spectabilis)-Oregon
Wenatchee Mountains Checkermallow (Sidalcea oregana var. calva)-
Washington
Kauai Cave Wolf Spider (Adelocosa anops)-Hawaii
(Hedyotis schlechtendahliana var. remyi) {Plant-no common name}-
Hawaii
Alani (Melicope munroi)-Hawaii
Haha (Cyanea glabra)-Hawaii
Kamakahala (Labordia triflora)-Hawaii
Haha (Cyanea copelandii ssp. haleakalaensis)-Hawaii
Haha (Cyanea hamatiflora ssp. hamatiflora)-Hawaii
Kohe malama malama o kanaloa (Kanaloa kahoolawensis)-Hawaii
Kamakahala (Labordia tinifolia var. lanaiensis)-Hawaii
Oha Wai (Clermontia samuelii)-Hawaii
Newcomb's Snail (Erinna newcombi)-Hawaii
Blackburn's sphinx moth (Manduca blackburni)-Hawaii
Na'ena'e (Dubautia plantaginea ssp. humilis)-Hawaii
Kauai Cave Amphipod (Spelaeorchestia koloana)-Hawaii
Lake Erie Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon insularum)-Ohio, Canada
(Catesbaea melanocarpa){Plant-no common name}-Puerto Rico, U.S.
Virgin Islands
Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum)-Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Miss., South Car.

The center is represented in the case by Brendan Cummings of
Berkeley, CA and Geoff Hickcox of Kenna and Hickcox in Durango, CO.
     ____________________________

TOOLS FOR THE ACTIVIST: GRAZING ABSTRACT-BIBLIOGRAPHY
RELEASED­GET YOUR COPY NOW!

This bibliography was created in full by the Southwest Center for
Biological Diversity it contains details of 679 scientific
articles, conference proceedings, government agency documents and
newspaper media dating from 1849 to 1996. It includes  436
abstracts written with the activist in mind. Topics range from:
Avifauna (Gamebirds, Raptors, Rangeland birds, and water birds),
Biodiversity, BLM permits, Cattle behavior, Cattle prices,
Desertification, Erosion, Fence impacts, Fire, Fisheries, Forest
Structure, Grazing Fees, Grazing systems, Herpetofauna, Historical
conditions, Large Mammals, Law, Overviews and Bibliographies,
Prairies, Rangeland Management and Ecology, Small Mammals, Soil,
Vegetation (Silviculture, Succession, and Plant vigor), Water
Quality and Riparian issues, Wildlife.

The database is available in two formats (MS Access 97 and
Filemaker Pro)  for download via our web page.
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/grazing/grazingbib.html
________________________________________________________________
Shane Jimerfield
Assistant Director
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity
Tel: 520.623.5252, ext 302              Fax: 520.623.9797
PO Box 710, Tucson AZ 85702-0710              http://www.sw-center.org