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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
4-17-00
#234
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§
TWO UTAH CACTI PROPOSED FOR FEDERAL PROTECTION
§ 22 SCIENTISTS SUPPORT
PROTECTION OF YELLOW-BILLED
CUCKOO, ONRC FUND JOINS POTENTIAL
LAWSUIT
§ REPORT: LIVESTOCK A MAJOR CAUSE OF WEED INVASIONS
§
INVITATION TO LECTURE ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN
LOSS OF
BIOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
§ TWO UTAH CACTI PROPOSED FOR
FEDERAL PROTECTION
In response to a 6-2-99 petition from the Center for
Biological Diversity
and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the
U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service (on 4-12-00) proposed to list Holmgren's
milkvetch
(Astragulus holmgreniorum Barneby) and the Shivwit's
milkvetch
(Astragulus ampullarioides Welsh) as federally endangered
species.
Both species occur near St. George, UT and neighboring
Mohave
County, AZ. They are threatened by the rapid development around
St.
George, cattle grazing, and off-road vehicles.
Holmgren's
milkvetch occurs in just three areas within a 7-10 mile
radius to the south,
west and northeast of St. George. The majority
of its range is within
Washington County, UT, but it also occurs in
Mohave County, AZ. Only 5,000
individual plants remain. Shivwits
milkvetch occurs in just 5 sites in
Washington County, west and
northeast of St. George, and on and near the
Shivwits Indian
Reservation. There are only about 2,000 individual plants
left.
The Center's endangered species protection program has created
a
web of protected species and ecosystems across the West: 119
species
have been listed, and 4 have been proposed for threatened or
endangered
status; over 2,000 miles of rivers and 730,000 acres of land
have been
designated as critical habitat; and over 55 million acres of
land and 800
miles of river have been proposed as critical habitat.
Another 37 species and
critical habitat designations are in litigation,
under court order, or
awaiting petition findings.
__________________________________
22 SCIENTISTS SUPPORT
PROTECTION OF YELLOW-BILLED
CUCKOO, ONRC FUND JOINS POTENTIAL
LAWSUIT
In letter to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dated 4-14-00,
twenty-two
renowned ornithologists and conservation biologists supported
the
listing of the Yellow-billed cuckoo as an endangered
species
throughout North America. The cuckoo has declined to near
extinction
west of the Continental Divide, now being extirpated or nearly so
from
British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana,
Wyoming,
Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. In the West, it only occurs in
significant
numbers in Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora, Mexico. East of
the
Continental Divide, the cuckoo is not as imperiled, but is
declining
dramatically, in the past 18 years, its numbers have dropped
by
45%.
The Yellow-billed cuckoo, or "rain crow" has plummeted
toward
extinction as riparian forests and wetlands have disappeared
across
North America. Dams, diversions, cattle grazing, roads
and
excessive pumping have destroyed 90-95% of the riparian forests
which
once blanket streams in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
An international
team of scientists recently concluded that the
cuckoo's last stronghold in
the West, the San Pedro River, is
being pumped dry much faster than natural
aquifer recharge can
make up for, dooming it to the same barren state that
characterizes
rivers throughout the West.
Authors of the letter
included renowned cuckoo researcher, Dr.
Stephen Laymon, Dr. Peter Raven of
the Missouri Botanical
Gardens, Dr. John Terborgh of the Duke University
Center for
Tropical Conservation, Dr. Reed Noss, President of the
Society
for Conservation Biology, Dr. David Dobkin of the High
Desert
Ecological Research Institute, Janice Hughes of the Royal
Ontario
Museum, Dr. Thomas Smith of the San Francisco State
University Center for
Tropical Research, Dr. Peter Stacey of the
University of New Mexico, and Dr.
Robert Ohmart of Arizona
State University.
The full letter can be
viewed at
<http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/cuckoolet.html>.
ONRC
Fund has decided to join a potential lawsuit to ensure the
cuckoo is listed
as an endangered species throughout its range
in North America. The Oregon
Natural Resources Council (ONRC)
was a co-petitioner with the Center and
others to list the cuckoo
as endangered. Though the U.S. Fish & wildlife
Service is
considering a listing in the western U.S. it has refused to
consider
listing throughout the species'
range.
_____________________________
REPORT: LIVESTOCK A MAJOR CAUSE OF WEED
INVASIONS
The Oregon Natural Desert Association has released a new
report
demonstrating that cattle and sheep grazing is one of the major
causes
of rapidly exploding populations of introduced weedy species
throughout
grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands west of the Rocky
Mountains.
The report, "Livestock Grazing and Weed Invasions in the Arid
West",
was written by ONDA staff ecologist and grassland expert Joy
Belsky,
Ph.D., and Jon Gelbard, a graduate student at the University of
California
at Davis.
The spread of nonindigenous plant species, also
referred to as alien,
introduced, and exotic weeds, throughout arid and
semi-arid regions of the
West is one of the greatest threats facing the
region's native species and
ecosystems. Weeds outcompete native species,
reduce biodiversity,
increase fire frequency, increase soil erosion, and
degrade wildlife habitat.
Long-term monitoring suggests that these
weed-dominated plant
communities may never recover.
Important alien
weed species in the West are cheatgrass, medusahead,
yellow starthistle, and
leafy spurge. With continued grazing, these weeds
form monocultures that are
biological deserts.
A copy of the report is available at www.onda.org or
503-228-9720.
______________________
INVITATION TO LECTURE ON THE CONNECTION
BETWEEN
LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
Kieran Suckling of the
Center for Biological Diversity will give a
lecture entitled "Apocalypse Now:
On the Biological and Linguistic
Diversity Crisis" at North Texas University,
Denton, TX on Monday,
May 1, 2000 at 4pm.
An abstract of the lecture
is available at:
<http://www.phil.unt.edu/talks/suckling.htm
>
_____________________________________________________________
ENDANGERED
TOTEMS. Eleven of the twelve western states have adopted
imperiled species as
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, Montana 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
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