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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