No. 376, December 4, 2006

  COMEBACK KID #7: INYO CALIFORNIA TOWHEE
   
  CRITICAL WHALE HABITAT PROTECTED: 2,500 SQUARE MILES DESIGNATED FOR PUGET SOUND KILLER WHALE
   
  SUPREME COURT HEARS CENTER'S GLOBAL WARMING CASE, BUSH ARGUES U.S. CAR EMISSIONS UNIMPORTANT
   
  UNHAPPY FEET: PETITION FILED TO LIST MORE THAN HALF OF WORLD'S PENGUINS AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
   
  SUIT CHALLENGES EMISSIONS FROM MASSIVE DEVELOPMENT
   
  FEDS KILL ANOTHER MEXICAN GRAY WOLF
   
  GET THE LEAD OUT: SUIT FILED TO BAN LEAD BULLETS IN CONDOR RECOVERY ZONE

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COMEBACK KID #7: INYO CALIFORNIA TOWHEE

The Inyo California Towhee is endemic to a small area in southern California where it is threatened by cattle, feral horses, burros, off-road vehicles, campers and hikers. When listed as an endangered species in 1987, the towhee’s population stood at 100-200 birds. By 2004 it had grown to about 725 birds due to protection of its critical habitat by the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Defense. If the population level is maintained and management agreements are established, the towhee may qualify for delisting from the Endangered Species Act in the near future.


CRITICAL WHALE HABITAT PROTECTED: 2,500 SQUARE MILES DESIGNATED FOR PUGET SOUND KILLER WHALE

On Nov. 28 the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration designated 2,500 square miles of Puget Sound, Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca as critical habitat for the Puget Sound Killer Whale. In response to a petition and lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Killer Whale population was placed on the federal endangered species list in November 2005.

The Killer Whale population peaked in the 1990s at 97 animals, declined to 78 in 2001, and now stands at about 87. Contrary to Bush administration claims, scientific studies indicate that species with critical habitat are twice as likely to be progressing toward recovery as those without it.


SUPREME COURT HEARS CENTER’S GLOBAL WARMING CASE, BUSH ARGUES U.S. CAR EMISSIONS UNIMPORTANT

On Nov. 29, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a global warming case brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and a large coalition of states, cities and environmental groups. The case revolves around the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars. The Center maintains that the Clean Air Act requires the agency to regulate all pollutants that endanger public health or welfare, and that by causing catastrophic environmental effects, carbon dioxide emissions have clearly endangered public health.

The Bush administration argues that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant because it does not directly harm humans. And the administration contends that even if it is a pollutant, the Center and others have no right to enforce the Clean Air Act because 1) the harm is to all of humanity, not to our members specifically, and 2) curbing U.S. car emissions would not stop all global warming and therefore is not worth doing. In the administration’s twisted logic, the more threatening global warming is, the less responsibility it has to address it.


UNHAPPY FEET: PETITION FILED TO LIST MORE THAN HALF OF WORLD’S PENGUINS AS ENDANGERED SPECIES

On Nov. 28, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a scientific petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect 12 penguin species under the Endangered Species Act.

The Emperor Penguin colony at Pointe Geologie, featured in the film ”March of the Penguins,” has already declined by 70 percent because of global warming. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, continued warming over the next several decades will affect, dramatically and adversely, Antarctica, the Sub-Antarctic islands, and the Southern Ocean. Other threats to penguins include oil spills, pollution and industrial fishing.


SUIT CHALLENGES EMISSIONS FROM MASSIVE DEVELOPMENT

On Nov. 11, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the city of Banning, Calif. for approving a sprawling 1,500-home development at the edge of the San Bernardino Mountains. In addition to challenging the project’s impact on wildlife, the suit takes the city to task for failing to require mitigation of the project’s greenhouse gas emissions. The action claims that Banning failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), one of California’s bedrock environmental statutes. The Act requires careful examination and disclosure of all environmental impacts of proposed developments.


FEDS KILL ANOTHER MEXICAN GRAY WOLF

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shot and killed an endangered Mexican Gray Wolf on Nov. 22 as part of its continuing program of appeasing anti-wolf ranchers regardless of how intensively it undermines the federal recovery program. The wild population was projected to reach 102 by the end of this year, but will be only half that number due to the purposeful and accidental killing of many wolves by the Fish and Wildlife Service and its refusal to adopt tighter conservation measures proposed by wolf scientists.


GET THE LEAD OUT: SUIT FILED TO BAN LEAD BULLETS IN CONDOR RECOVERY ZONE

A broad coalition of hunters, Native Americans, and health and conservation organizations filed suit Nov. 30 against the California Fish and Game Commission and California Department of Fish and Game for continuing to allow toxic lead ammunition to be used by hunters within recovery areas of the endangered California Condor. Lead poisoning is one of the primary threats to the condor. Birds are poisoned as they feed on the carcass of deer and other animals shot with lead bullets. The state has refused requests to ban lead bullets in condor areas even though safe, reliable non-lead bullets and shot are readily available.

The Center for Biological Diversity was joined in the suit by the Wishtoyo Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Natural Resources Defense Council and hunters.

“The safety of our families and healthy wildlife are important to hunters across California,” said Anthony Prieto, a hunter and plaintiff in the case. “There’s a simple solution that lets hunters hunt while protecting condors, eagles and other wildlife; it’s lead-free ammo. I know from experience that these bullets are safe and ballistically outperform bullets made from lead.”

“Condors are critical to our culture and to our religion,” said Mati Waiya, a Chumash ceremonial leader and the executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation, a Native American organization in central California. “But they will not survive so long as we continue to allow them to be poisoned by lead. We can solve this with the use of safe and effective nontoxic ammunition that will allow hunters to continue their activities and, at the same time, protect condors.”


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