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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
3-11-00
#229
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§
TWO MEN CHARGED IN KILLING OF MEXICAN GRAY WOLF,
MAY BE
PART OF LOCAL RANCHING FAMILY
§ 400,000 ACRES OF "CRITICAL HABITAT"
PROPOSED TO
PROTECT THE ENDANGERED ALAMEDA
WHIPSNAKE
§ LANDMARK AGREEMENT TO PROTECT OVER
50
ENDANGERED SPECIES ON CALIFORNIA NATIONAL
FORESTS
§ CALIFORNIA FORESTRY DEPARTMENT SUED FOR
ALLOWING
ENDANGERED SALMON TO BE KILLED BY
LOGGING
TWO MEN CHARGED IN KILLING OF MEXICAN GRAY WOLF, MAY
BE PART
OF LOCAL RANCHING FAMILY
On 3-10-00, special agents with the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service charged
two men from Eager, AZ with last year's shooting of
an endangered Mexican
gray wolf on the Apache National Forest. James Michael
Rogers, 21, and
an unnamed juvenile were charged with killing a female member
of the
Hawk's Nest Pack near Nutrioso, AZ. Her body was driven across
state
lines and dumped in Catron County, NM to conceal the location of
the
shooting. Rogers appears to be a member of a ranching family with
private
ranches and National Forest allotments in the Alpine-Nutrioso area on
the
Arizona-New Mexico border.
If convicted of violations of the
Endangered Species and Lacey acts,
Rogers and his accomplice could be fined
up to $125,000 and sentenced
to a year in prison.
_________________
400,000 ACRES OF "CRITICAL HABITAT" PROPOSED TO
PROTECT
THE ENDANGERED ALAMEDA WHIPSNAKE
On 3-8-00, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service officially proposed to designate
and protect over 400,000
acres of "critical habitat" for the endangered
Alameda whipsnake. The
whipsnake has declined dramatically due to
habitat loss and fragmentation in
the East Bay Hills surrounding
San Francisco, CA. The designation includes
areas within Contra Costa,
Alameda, San Joaquin, and Santa Clara Counties. It
was proposed in
accordance with a legal settlement agreement between the Fish
&
Wildlife Service, the Center for Biological Diversity, and
Christians
Caring for Creation.
The Center's "Golden State
Biodiversity Initiative" has produced over
100 species listings, critical
habitat proposals, endangered species
status reviews, and habitat protection
lawsuits since 1993.
____________________
LANDMARK AGREEMENT TO PROTECT OVER 50
ENDANGERED
SPECIES ON CALIFORNIA NATIONAL FORESTS
In a landmark settlement
between the Center for Biological Diversity and
the U.S. Forest Service, over
50 endangered species will be protected by
sweeping changes to southern
California's four national forests. Combined,
the Los Padres, Angeles, San
Bernadino and Cleveland National Forests
contain 6.1 million acres stretching
from just north of the Mexican border
to near Monterey, CA.
The Center
sued the Forest Service on 6-18-98, charging that the agency
had
systematically failed to protect a host of endangered species
including the
California condor, bald eagle, California red-legged frog,
Steelhead trout,
Arroyo toad, Southwestern willow flycatcher, California
gnatcatcher, Least
Bell's vireo, San Bernadino Mountains bladderpod, Laguna
Mountains skipper,
Smith's blue butterfly, Unarmored three-spined stickleback
and the California
jewel-flower. According to the terms of the settlement, the
Forest Service
mustamend all four forest plans to ensure the protection and
recovery of
imperiled species by 2002. In the meantime, the agency must
immediate enact a
long list of protective actions including:
- Closing off nearly
five square miles of forest, including a poorly planned
campground and 17 miles of off-road vehicle trails upstream of
Littlerock
Reservoir on the Angels National
Forest;
- Removing livestock from all Peninsular bighorn sheep
habitat on
the Wellman grazing allotment on the San
Bernadino National Forest;
- Removing livestock from Los
Padres National Forest's Cone Peak
Botanical
Research Natural Area;
- Removing cattle from dozens of miles of
streams and riparian areas
throughout the
forests;
- Closing and obliterating roads throughout the
forests;
- Banning Forest Service use of ethylocol-based
antifreeze-this type of
antifreeze is deadly to California
condors, pets, and wildlife. The
Forest Service must also
conduct an education campaign urging the public
to stop
using lethal antifreeze and instead use one of the
readily
available
alternative brands;
-
Installation of anti-perching devices on all electronic communication
sites
within the current range of the California condor on
the Angeles and Los
Padres National Forests- this is to
prevent sterilization of condors
and other
birds;
- All new and re-permitted power transmission lines
must be made bird-safe
within five years. This
requires adding grounding devices to stop bird
electrocutions, a major cause of mortality to the California
condor.
- The Los Padres National Forest must close
approximately 10% of the
campgrounds on the Forest
to protect Arroyo toad and California
red-legged
frog habitat.
- The Los Padres National Forest must close access
sites near the Sespe
Wilderness and stop placer mining on
Piru Creek to protect Arroyo toad
and Steelhead
trout.
- Creation of an education campaign to inform hunters about
the deadly
impact of lead poisoning to California condors
which feed on carcasses
shot with lead bullets. The Forest
Service must also promote alternatives
to lead
bullets.
The Center was represented by Jay Tutchton of Earthlaw (Denver)
and
Brendan Cummings (Berkeley).
_______________________
CALIFORNIA FORESTRY DEPARTMENT SUED FOR
ALLOWING
ENDANGERED SALMON TO BE KILLED BY LOGGING
On 3-1-00, a coalition
of nineteen fisheries, Native American and conservation
organizations led by
the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)
and including the
Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit in federal
district court
charging the California Department of Forestry and the
California
Board of
Forestry with illegally approving logging operations that
kill
threatened
Coho salmon throughout the north and central coasts of
California. Though
the Coho has been listed as a federally "threatened"
species for several years,
the State of California has continued to implement
the same logging practices
rules which led to its decline. The National
Marine Fisheries Service, the
federal agency charged with restoring
endangered salmon runs, has
determined that the current state rules, as well
as proposed changes to them,
are inadequate to prevent the continued decline
of Coho from Santa Cruz
to the Oregon border.
State officials have
permitted logging operations on approximately 200,000
acres in dozens of
coastal watersheds since California coho were first listed
under the ESA in
1996 and 1997. Some watersheds have been almost
completely liquidated
of forests - with full agency approval - in the space
of just a few
years.
Joining EPIC in the suit are the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's
Associations, Northern California Association of River Guides,
the Center
for Biological Diversity, Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance,
Native
American Coalition for Headwaters, Santa Cruz Biodiversity Project,
Albion
River Watershed Protection Association, Friends of the Garcia River,
Piercy
Watershed Association, Friends of Gilham Butte, Richard Gienger,
Coast
Action Group, Coastside Habitat Coalition, Greenwood Watershed
Association,
Guardians of Elk Creek Old Growth, Friends of Big River &
Daugherty Creek,
Mendocino Environmental Center, Friends of the Garcia River
and the Friends
of Enchanted Meadow.
The coalition is
represented by Dan Rohlf of the Pacific Environmental
Advocacy Center
(Portland), Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and Sharon
Duggan (San
Francisco).
_____________________________________________________________
ENDANGERED
TOTEMS. All eleven western states have imperiled species for
their state
fish: New Mexico (Rio Grande cutthroat trout), Arizona (Apache
trout),
Colorado (Greenback cutthroat trout), Utah (Bonneville cutthroat
trout),
Nevada (Lahontan cutthroat trout), California (Golden trout),
Oregon (Chinook
salmon), Washington (Steelhead trout), Idaho (Cutthroat
trout), Montana
(Cutthroat trout), and Wyoming (Cutthroat trout).
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
<http://www.sw-center.org>
POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710