From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000
10:52 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST
#258
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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
10-25-00
#258
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§
ORVs TO BE PROHIBITED ON 48,000 ACRES TO PROTECT RARE
CALIFORNIA
DUNE ECOSYSTEM
§ 26,000 ACRES PROPOSED FOR BAY CHECKERSPOT
BUTTERFLY
§ FOREST SERVICE AGREES TO LOGGING BAN IN AZ TIMER
SALE
§ COLORADO BUTTERFLY PLANT DECLARED THREATENED
§ JUDGE BANS
WATER HOG INTERVENTION IN HISTORIC
INTERNATIONAL COLORADO
RIVER LAWSUIT
§ JOIN US IN TUCSON 10-29-00 TO KICK OFF THE “SPIRIT OF
THE
WOLF” MURAL PROJECT
ORVs TO BE PROHIBITED ON
48,000 ACRES TO PROTECT RARE
CALIFORNIA DUNE ECOSYSTEM
In the first round
of a massive lawsuit over the management of the 10.5
million acre California
Desert Conservation Area, the Bureau of Land
Management agreed on 10-20-00 to
temporarily ban off-road vehicles
from 48,000 acres of the Algodones Dunes.
Up to now, 77% of this rare
150,000 acre ecosystem has been degraded by the
yearly pilgrimage of
one million motorcycles, ATVs, dune buggies, jeeps, and
monster trucks.
Especially imperiled are the Peirson’s milk-vetch, a
beautiful but federally
threatened plant, the Colorado fringe-toad lizard,
Andrews dune scarab
beetle, and the Algodones Dunes sunflower. The ban will
remain in place
until a permanent plan is developed to protect the wildlife,
plants and
ancient dune ecosystem.
Wildlife are not the only ones
assaulted during massive ORV gatherings
at the dunes. The infamous and
growing melees are giving off-road
enthusiasts throughout California a bad
name. BLM rangers have been
threatened and deliberately run over by dune
buggies. They have had
beer bottles and bags of fecal matter thrown at them
by crowds
chanting “kill the cops.” Management of the dunes has become so
dangerous that a recent Department of Interior “Law Enforcement Special
Evaluation” concluded that Algodones is "unsafe for family recreation
activity due to the use of drugs and alcohol, and the problems of
lawlessness that occur with such use." It recommended that BLM rangers
be
issued riot helmets, batons, and gas masks for their own safety.
For more
information on the suit, Algodones Dunes, Peirson’s milk-vetch
and other neat
desert creatures:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/algodones.html>
The
case is being argued by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and
Jay Tutchton of
Earthjustice (Denver).
__________________ _____________________
26,000
ACRES PROPOSED FOR BAY CHECKERSPOT BUTTERFLY
In keeping with a court order
won by the Center for Biological Diversity,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service proposed on 10-16-00 to designate
26,182 acres of "critical habitat"
for the endangered Bay checkerspot
butterfly. Critical habitat includes all
areas necessary for the survival and
full recovery of the species. It is
protected from federal projects for
permits which would destroy or harm
it.
The Bay Checkerspot Butterfly depends on host plants which
grow
primarily in grasslands on serpentine soils, a bluish-green soil type
that is
naturally highly mineralized, high in magnesium, and low in nitrogen
and
calcium. This specialized soil system is very valuable
biologically
because it supports a high percentage of California’s endemic
species.
Unfortunately, the majority of the checkerspot's serpentine soil
habitat in
San Mateo and Santa Clara counties has been destroyed. It is
virtually
certain to go extinct if its remaining habitat is not
protected.
In a strongly-worded opinion, federal judge Samuel Conti
quoted
Congress to point out the connection between conserving
biological
diversity and human welfare: “From the most narrow possible point
of
view, it is in the best interests of mankind to minimize the losses
of
genetic variations....who knows, or can say, what potential cures
for
cancer or other scourges...may lie locked up in the structures of
plants
which may yet be undiscovered, much less analyzed?”
The
Center’s “Golden State Biodiversity Initiative” has won 530,899 acres
of
critical habitat in California since 1977, including 1,000 miles of
river.
Another seven million acres have be proposed and are awaiting
final
approval. To find out more about the Golden State Biodiversity
Initiative:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/goldenstate.html>
_______________
FOREST SERVICE AGREES TO LOGGING BAN IN AZ TIMER
SALE
The Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees
for
Environmental Responsibility have negotiated a partial settlement
with
the U.S. Forest Service prohibiting logging within a 12 square mile
area
pending the resolution over a lawsuit over the Baca Timber Sale.
The
settlement allows thinning of trees less than six inches in diameter
on
306 acres of fire prone forest next to a housing development.
The
lawsuit was filed against the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on
5-8-00 to
halt the cutting of 31 million board feet of ponderosa pine. This
is one of
the largest timber sales offered by the Forest Service in the
Southwest in
the last decade. Long-term research indicates that the
northern goshawk
population on the forest is in decline- population
viability models predict
localized extinction in 29 years, assuming a
closed population. Of the 44
remaining goshawk territories on the
Sitgreaves, five are contained within
the Baca timber sale. Four would be
logged.
The case is being argued
Jay Tutchton of Earthjustice(Denver) and Cliff
Levenson
(Phoenix).
_________________
COLORADO
BUTTERFLY PLANT DECLARED THREATENED
In response to a lawsuit by the Center
for Biological Diversity and the
Biodiversity Legal Foundation, the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service declared
the Colorado butterfly plan as an endangered
species on 10-18-00.
The butterfly plant is found only in southeastern
Wyoming, western
Nebraska, and northern Colorado. Only ten of the remaining
fourteen
populations are considered stable or increasing. Two occur in
a
“research natural area” on F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
The
remaining twelve are on private lands. It is threatened by
water
development, herbicide spaying, mowing and conversion of meadows
to
agriculture and suburban sprawl.
The suit was argued by Jay
Tutchton of Earthjustice (Denver).
_______________
JUDGE BANS WATER HOG INTERVENTION IN
HISTORIC,
INTERNATIONAL COLORADO RIVER LAWSUIT
A federal judge ruled on
10-13-00 that eight Arizona, California and
Nevada water, development and
agribusiness agencies can not
intervene in a lawsuit brought by Defenders of
Wildlife and the Center for
Biological Diversity over the management of the
Lower Colorado River.
The suit charges that the Bureau of Reclamation is
destroying the
Colorado River Delta at the northern tip of the Gulf of
California in
Mexico. So much water is dammed and diverted from the Colorado
River
for urban and agricultural use in the U.S. that it often runs dry
before
reaching the Mexican border or the Delta.
Lack of fresh water
inflow has severely degraded what used to be one
the world's great estuaries.
The Delta’s wetlands have decline from some
1.9 million acres to just
150,000. Native peoples as well as fish, birds,
mammals and mollusks have all
been impacted, as have fisheries in the
northern gulf. The Cienega de Santa
Clara is also threatened by
government plans to divert its water source for
use in the U.S. Numerous
endangered species are being impacted including the
totoaba (a large
predatory marine fish), the vaquita (the world's rarest
porpoise), and
the Southwestern willow flycatcher.
The suit is being
argued by Katherine Meyer of Meyer & Glitzenstein and
Bill Snape of
Defenders of Wildlife. It was joined by a coalition of U.S.
and Mexican
environmental groups.
________________
JOIN
US IN TUCSON 10-29-00 TO KICK OFF “SPIRIT OF THE WOLF”
MURAL PROJECT
The
Center’s “Spirit of the Wolf” mural project is getting its public kick off
on
October 29, 2000. The mural will start taking shape as artist
Michael
Schwartz begins painting a series of panels which will later be
installed
on an office building in downtown Tucson. Kids are welcome: there
will
be wolf mask making materials and apple cider.
Date:
October 29, 2-4 p.m.
Location: Tucson Arts Brigade Studio 901 N.
13th Ave Suite 131
Information: Stephanie, 623-5252 ext
305
_____________________________________________________________
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@biologicaldiversity.org
Science and Policy
Director 520.623.5252
phone
Center for Biological
Diversity 520.623.9797 fax
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710