Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #36


Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #36

* ************* Southwest Biodiversity Alert #36 *****************
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*            southwest center for biological diversity           *
*                      ksuckling@sw-center.org                   *
*             http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center           *
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1. JUDGE THROWS OUT U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE DECISION NOT TO LIST
GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED

2.  JUDGE DENIES CONTEMPT MOTION, BUT ALLOWS CHALLENGE TO FISH AND
WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSAL TO LIST NORTHERN GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WEST

3.  DECISION ON SALVAGE TIMBER SALE DELAYED

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1. JUDGE THROWS OUT U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE DECISION NOT TO LIST
GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED

A judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to redo a
decision not to propose the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an Endangered
Species. He ruled that reliance on a Forest Service "promise" to
protect the goshawk violates the ESA which states requires that
analyses must be based on actually existing management plans only.
In its denial, the Fish and Wildlife Service admitted that the
goshawk was imperiled, but concluded that it did not need listing
because the Forest Service promised to protect it in a soon to be
released revision of the Tongass National Forest Management Plan.

The Queen Charlotte goshawk is an obligate of old growth temperate
rainforests from Southeast Alaska to Vancouver Island and the
Olympic Peninsula, possibly the northern Oregon coast as well. As part
of an effort to protect goshawks throughout the western U.S., the
Southwest Center wrote a petition to list the subspecies as endangered
in 1995.

The case was argued by Kathy Meyer and Kim Wally of Meyer &
Glitzenstein (Washington, D.C.)


2.  JUDGE DENIES CONTEMPT MOTION, BUT ALLOWS CHALLENGE TO FISH AND
WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSAL TO LIST NORTHERN GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED IN WEST

Earlier this year, a judge threw out a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service decision not to list the western population of the Northern
goshawk as endangered. The agency claim that goshawks in the western
U.S. are not a "distinct population" and therefore not eligible for
listing, was ruled arbitrary, inconsistent with other listings, and
contrary to the Fish The agency has since come out with a second
denial, again claiming that goshawks in the west are not a "distinct
population." This time, they argue that a population cannot include
more than one subspecies. The Southwest Center filed contempt charges
since the agency again violated its own policy despite a court order
to consider it.  The judge refused to hear the contempt charge, but
has allowed the Center to amend the original suit to challenge the
new denial. This means he will retain jurisdiction over the new
challenge.

The case was argued by Dan Rolf (Portland) and Matt Kenna
(Durango).and Wildlife Service's policy for listing populations.


3.  DECISION ON SALVAGE TIMBER SALE DELAYED

A decision on whether to log the Bridger Fire Salvage Sale on the
Kaibab National Forest on the border of the Grand Canyon, has been
delayed for a month. The Kaibab National Forest is realing from
three full page, anti-salvage logging ads in the New York Times
(sponsored by Southwest Center), a full page ad in the Northern
Arizona Daily Sun coinciding with Clinton's visit to the Grand
Canyon (sponsored by Southwest Forest Alliance), a Southwest Center
campout at the sale, and a logging alternative proposed by the
Alliance.

Planned at 35 million board feet, Bridger would be the largest sale in
the Southwest.