|
57
RIVERS PROTECTED IN ARIZONA
On 7-7-01, the 9th Circuit Court
of
Appeals ruled in favor
of a lawsuit brought by the
Center for Biological
Diversity and Central Arizona
Paddlers Club to force
the U.S. Forest Service to
protect 57 Arizona rivers
totaling 750 miles. The rivers
occur on all six of
Arizona’s National
Forests and flow through an
incredible diversity of habitats,
from mountaintop
spruce-fir forests to Sonoran
desert cottonwood-willow
riparian forests. Among them
are Tonto and Pinto creeks
(Tonto National Forest),
the Black River and Blue River
(Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forest), Oak Creek and
West Clear Creek (Coconino
National Forest), and Sabino
Creek, Grant Creek, and Sycamore
Creek (Coronado National
Forest).
The Forest Service identified
the 57 rivers as being
eligible for congressional
designation as Wild or Scenic
in 1993. This requires them
to protect the rivers from
dams, roads, powerline, livestock
grazing, and logging
until congressional action
is completed. The Forest
Service ignored the requirement
for nine years until
sued by the Center, then
argued in court that the 1993
study was not a real eligibility
determination. Reading
the plain language of the
report, the Appeals Court
disagreed.
The case was argued by Matt
Bishop of the Western
Environmental Law Center.
For more information on the
Center’s Wild
& Scenic
Rivers Campaign.
PACIFIC
FISHER MOVES TOWARD
ENDANGERED STATUS IN CA,
OR, WA
On 7-10-03, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service issued
an initial positive decision
that the Pacific fisher
qualifies as an endangered
species in the forests for
California, Oregon, and Washington.
The decision came
in response to a scientific
petition authored by the
Center for Biological Diversity,
the Sierra Nevada
Forest Protection campaign
and 16 other environmental
groups.
The pacific fisher is a mink-like
predator dependent
upon mature and old growth
forests. Logging has extirpated
it from most of its historic
habitat on the west coast.
Only three small, isolated
populations remain, including
native populations in northern
California and the southern
Sierra Nevada and a reintroduced
population in the
southern Oregon Cascades.
To learn more about the Center’s
campaign to save the fisher
and other old growth
dependant species click
here.
BUSH REVERSAL
OF PROTECTION FOR
ALGODONES DUNES CHALLENGED
On
6-30-03, the Center for
Biological Diversity led
a coalition of 12 groups
including
the California Native
Plant Society, Defenders
of Wildlife and The Wilderness
Society in a legal challenge
to the Bush Administration’s
plans to open 49,300 acres
of endangered species habitat
on the Algodones Dunes to
intensive off-road vehicle
use. The Bush plans overturns
a historic Clinton era
decision to protect the dunes.
Located
in the Sonoran desert of
southeastern California’s
Imperial County, the Algodones
Dunes are the largest
dune ecosystem in the U.S.
They harbor at least 160
different animal and plant
species, many of which are
found nowhere else on earth.
The dunes also are heavily
impacted by as many as 240,000
off-roaders on some
weekends. This intensive
use destroys vegetation and
wildlife habitat, pollutes
the air, and creates criminal
problems that stress law
enforcement. BLM closed 49,300
acres to ORVs in Nov. 2000
to protect endangered species,
but 68,000 acres have always
remained open to ORVs
-- an huge area twice the
size of the city of San Francisco.
For more information on the
Center's Algodones
Dunes Campaign.
GROUPS CHALLENGE
INDUSTRY EFFORT TO
STRIKE DOWN OLD GROWTH PROTECTION
ON 30 MILLION ACRES
On 6-24-03, the Center for Biological
Diversity and environmental
groups from across the
west filed an
opposition to a backdoor
timber industry challenge
to old growth forest protection
guidelines instituted
by the Clinton administration.
In response to the Center’s
efforts to list the northern
goshawk as endangered
species, the Forest Service
developed landscape level
forest protection guidelines
for the goshawk on over
on over 30 million acres
of forest in New Mexico, Arizona,
Utah, South Dakota, and Alaska.
The timber industry
is asking its friends in
the Bush administration to
strike down those protections
under a little know law
called the Quality of Information
Act. The law was
written by industry lobbyists,
is overseen by a former
industry lobbyist, and is
being aggressively used to
bog down human safety and
environmental protection
regulations.
While ostensibly designed to
ensure that information
distributed by the U.S. Government
is accurate, the
Quality of Information Act
is being used by the timber
industry to demand that the
Bush administration withdraw
forest protection decisions
and the scientific reports
underpinning the protection
of mature and old growth
forests from Alaska to New
Mexico. The Bush administration
routinely gives into legal
challenges from its industry
supporters and thus can not
be trusted to defend these
decisions made by the Forest
Service under the Clinton
administration.
Joining the Center in opposing
the industry challenge
are the Sitka Conservation
Society, Alaska Center for
the Environment, Alaska Chapter
of the Sierra Club,
Biodiversity Conservation
Alliance, Southwest Forest
Alliance, Forest Guardians,
Center for Native Ecosystems,
Maricopa Audubon Society,
and White Mountain Conservation
League.
For more information on the
Center's Goshawk
Campaigns.
Click
now and become a member of
the Center for Biological
Diversity, and ensure a future
for wildlife and habitat.
This message was sent to [email]. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop ALL email from Center for Biological Diversity - Biodiversity Activist, click to remove yourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line).
|
