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BACKPACKER
MAGAZINE FEATURE ON THE CENTER:
"ONE OF THE MOST
POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE CONSERVATION
GROUPS IN THE COUNTRY"
The
current issue of Backpacker
Magazine features an extensive
profile of the Center for
Biological Diversity which
it calls "one of the
most powerful and effective
conservation groups in the
country." The story
chronicle's the Center's
battles to save endangered
species and wild landscapes.
ENDANGERED
SPECIES PROTECTION SOUGHT
FOR 12 PUGET SOUND & WILLAMETTE
VALLEY GRASSLAND SPECIES
On
12-12-02, a coalition of
conservation groups petitioned
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to list a bird, three
butterflies, and eight mammals
as endangered species
in Washington, Oregon, and
California. The species are
closely associated with grasslands,
prairies, and oak
woodlands in the Puget Sound
Basin and the Willamette
Valley. Over 90% of Puget
Sound prairies, grasslands
and oak woodlands have been
destroyed. Only 3% remain
in relative health. The Willamette
Valley suffered even
worse devastation: only one-tenth
of one percent of
its grasslands remain. These
habitats are one the most
endangered and forgotten
ecosystems in the West.
The
streaked horned lark
was formerly was a common
nesting species in grasslands
and prairies west of the
Cascade Mountains from southern
British Columbia, through
Washington and Oregon. It
was so abundant around Puget
Sound as to be a nuisance
to turn-of-the-century golfers.
The destruction of 95% of
native grasslands on the west
coast, however, caused cataclysmic
population declines.
The streaked horned lark
was likely extirpated from
British Columbia in 1990.
Though common around Puget
Sound up to the 1950's, it
is now extirpated from the
San Juan Islands. A total
about 100 pairs remain divided
between south Puget Sound
and islands near the mouth
of the Columbia River. In
the 1920's the streaked horned
lark was considered one of
Oregon's "characteristics
birds" and was fairly
common up to the 1970's.
It is now extirpated from
the Umpqua and Roque valleys
and occurs only in scattered
sites in the Willamette
Valley. The states entire
population is about 200 pairs.
The
island marble historically
occurred in grasslands
and Garry oak woodlands of
southern Vancouver Island,
the Gulf Islands, and the
San Juan Islands. It is now
extirpated from Vancouver
Island and the Gulf Islands.
Thought extinct since the
1920's, the island marble
was rediscovered on San Juan
Island in 1998.
The
Mardon skipper butterfly
once ranged across the
extensive fescue-dominated
grasslands of Washington,
Oregon, and northwest California.
Today, just four small,
geographically isolated areas
populations remain in
south Puget Sound, the Cascade
Mountains in southern
Washington, the Siskiyou
Mountains in southern Oregon,
and coastal northern California.
All of the sites are
small, with the majority
supporting less than 50 individuals.
It has recently been extirpated
from four sites in south
Puget Sound and one in the
southern Washington Cascades.
Taylor's
checkerspot butterfly
formerly occurred throughout
the extensive grasslands,
prairies, and oak woodlands
of Vancouver Island, the
Puget Sound basin, and the
Willamette Valley. As this
habitat has nearly disappeared,
so has Taylor's checkerspot:
only four populations remain
today, and only one of them
has over 50 individuals.
The
Cathlamet pocket gopher
is known only from the
type locality in Wahkiakum
County. It may now be extinct.
The Olympic pocket gopher
is found in the Olympic
National Park in Clallam
County where it is restricted
to subalpine habitat of the
higher Olympic Mountains.
One Shelton pocket gopher
population remains
at the Shelton airport in
Mason County. Another may
occur on penitentiary grounds
near Shelton. The Roy
Prairie pocket gopher is
known only from Roy Prairie
in Pierce County. The Olympia
pocket gopher is
known from Thurston County
where it occurs in small
numbers. The Tenino pocket
gopher is known from
Thurston County. It may now
be extinct. The Yelm
pocket gopher is known
from Thurston County. Several
relatively large populations
were detected on Johnson
and Weir prairies on Fort
Lewis near the town of Rainier.
The Tacoma pocket gopher
was known historically
from Pierce County. It may
now be extinct.
The
petitions were filed by the
Center for Biological Diversity,
Xerces Society, Friends of
the San Juans, ONRC, Norwest
Ecosystem Alliance, Gifford
Pinchot Task Force, and
the Northwest Environmental
Defense Center.
For
more information click
here.
SUIT FILED
TO PROTECT IDAHO GROUND
SQUIRREL
The Center for Biological
Diversity, Committee for
the High Desert and Western
Watershed Project filed
suit on 12-3-02 against the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
for failing to protect the
southern Idaho ground squirrel.
The agency is refusing to
process a 1-26-01 petition
to list the squirrel as an
endangered species.
The southern Idaho ground
squirrel has one of the smallest
ranges of any ground squirrel
and is a native of sagebrush
steppe communities. This
habitat has been decimated
by livestock grazing, and
invasive species, such as
medusa head and cheat grass.
A survey in the late 1990s
found that squirrels were
only present in about 30%
of sites located in the 1980s
and that where previously
thousands of squirrels would
have been observed only
one or two were now seen,
indicating a drastic population
crash.
SUIT FILED
TO PROTECT SEA TURTLES FROM
DRIFTNETTERS
On
12-3-02, the Center for Biological
Diversity and the
Turtle Island Restoration
Network filed suit against
the National Marine Fisheries
Service to close portions
of the California drift gillnet
fishery to protect loggerhead
sea turtles from drowning
in the fishery's mile-long
nets.
In
October 2000, following a
previous successful suit by
the Center and Turtle Island,
the Fisheries Service
issued a “biological
opinion” that the fishery
is jeopardizing the endangered
loggerhead and leatherback
sea turtles with extinction.
The opinion requires the
closure of certain portions
of the fishery north of
Point Conception for the
leatherback sea turtle. In
El Nino years, it requires
closure of the fishery south
of Point Conception for the
loggerhead sea turtle. The
agency belatedly implemented
the leatherback closure
after the Center and Turtle
Island threatened to sue,
but it continues to stall
on the loggerhead protections.
Loggerhead
sea turtles off the California
coast are thought to
nest in Japan. They are declining
rapidly, largely due
to entanglement in longline
and driftnet fishing gear.
In El Nino years, unusually
warm water off southern
California brings loggerheads
into the range of the
California drift gillnet
fishery where they are caught
and drowned in large numbers.
The
California drift gillnet
fishery targets swordfish but
also kills dozens of other
marine species. Each year
over ten thousand each of
blue sharks and mola or sunfish
are unintentionally killed
and discarded by the fishery.
Dozens of dolphins of various
species are also killed
each year, and virtually
every year one or more grey
whales, fin whales, minke
whales, sperm whales, or orcas
are entangled and drowned.
Drift gillnets have been
banned in the high seas by
the UN, on the Atlantic coast,
and by the state of Washington.
Inexplicably California
continues to let these curtains
of death be deployed
in the waters offshore each
fall and winter. The Center
and Turtle Island are committed
to seeing drift gillnets
banned from all US waters.
For
more information click
here.
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