Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #30
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Southwest Biodiversity Alert #30
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southwest center for biological
diversity
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ksuckling@sw-center.org
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http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
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1.
SOUTHWEST CENTER WINS PERMITS TO SALVAGE TIMBER SALE
2. BLM ADMITS
GRAZING HARMS ENDANGERED SPECIES ON GILA RIVER
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SOUTHWEST CENTER WINS PERMITS TO SALVAGE TIMBER
SALE
Members of the Southwest Center have been awarded permits to
log
the Rustler Salvage Timber Sale on the Coronado National Forest.
Thirty
members had pledged $8,000 to buy the permits and leave the
burned trees
standing. Not being able to distinguish Southwest Center
members from
loggers, the Coronado National Forest has awarded them
the rights to the
timber.
After losing a challenge to the sale by the Southwest Center
in
Decemeber, 1995, the Forest Service reissued it under the
Salvage
Rider. The Southwest Center has appealed a court ruling to allow
the
Salvage Rider timber sale to proceed even though the Forest
Service
lied about the presence of Mexican spotted owls and the existence
of
critical biological documents. No commercial logging has occured on
the
Coronado in three decades. The Rustler Sale is the first of many
sales the
Forest is planning despite the universal objections of
southern
Arizonans.
BLM ADMITS GRAZING HARMS ENDANGERED SPECIES ON GILA
RIVER
In response to a suit by the Southwest Center, the Safford
District
of the BLM has agreed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife
Service
on the effects of its entire grazing program on over a
dozen
endangered species. The BLM has since determined that 19
grazing
allotments along the Gila River and its tributaries
adversely
effect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, loach
minnow,
spikedace, Gila topminnow and desert pupfish.
The Southwest
Center is moving to remove cattle from the river until
the consultation is
complete.