The Center for Biological Diversity joined the Bluewater Network and other environmental groups in an ad campaign targeting the Ford Motor Company’s gas guzzling, global warming producing cars, trucks, and SUVs. A full-page ad in the New York Times on October 23, 2004 charges that Ford has the worst miles per gallon record of any major car manufacturer and that its new line of cars actually gets worse gas mileage than their older cars. The ad calls on Ford to live up to its "green" rhetoric and on car buyers to stop buying Ford gas guzzlers.

The Center and Bluewater Network have successfully sued the Bush administration for refusing to purchase alternative fuel vehicles in the wake of a progressive energy conservation law passed in the wake of the first Gulf War.

On October 20, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused an effort by the National Association of Home Builders to remove the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl from the endangered species list. A federal judge previously found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to protect the owl was flawed and ordered a new decision. Considering the extreme threats to the tiny owl, however, the judge required that it remain fully protected until the new review is completed. The developer’s lobby group appealed the decision, asking that the owl be immediately stripped of protection. With only 20 known owls remaining in Arizona, the population could be driven extinct very quickly if protections are lifted. The Appeal Court’s rejection of the developer’s case ensures the owl will be protected until its status is fully reviewed.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife intervened in the case on behalf of the pygmy owl and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In response to a court order obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to protect 1,557 miles of river as critical habitat for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. Though the Bush administration has opposed establishing critical habitat areas, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data shows that species with critical habitat are recovering twice as fast as those without it. The administration is the first in the history of the Endangered Species Act to have designated no critical habitat areas except under court order.

The protection proposal includes rivers and streams in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. It is considerably larger than a previous designation, but inexplicably excludes all unoccupied habitat and hundreds of miles of streams identified by the federal recovery plan as essential to the species survival.

On October 5, 2004, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the Bush administration for refusing to protect critical habitat for the world’s most endangered whale. The right whale has declined to the edge of extinction in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans due to hunting, boat collisions and entanglement in fishing gear. Critical habitat protects the species in the Atlantic, but the Bush administration has refused to implement the federal recovery plan’s recommendation to establish critical habitat in the Pacific. It has also ignored assertions by the National Marine Fisheries Service that critical habitat "is a necessary component of any effort to conserve and recover this species."

The Center has mapped out important habitat zones in the Bering Sea to help guide the protection of the right whale’s habitat.

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect two southern California butterflies under the Endangered Species Act.

Having lost 68 percent of its habitat to the 2003 wildfires near San Diego, Thorne’s hairstreak butterfly is on the brink of extinction. Just five small populations on one mountain top remain. The Hermes copper butterfly is more widespread, ranging from Fallbrook to northern Baja, but 39 percent of its habitat and 19 populations were destroyed by the 2003 fires. Just 18 populations remain. In addition to fire, both species are threatened by urban sprawl

Both species have been under federal review for protection for over a decade. But like hundreds of plants and animals, the decision-making process to save them has been hamstrung by politics and delayed by inadequate budgets. Under the Bush administration, the federal listing program has sunk to its lowest level in history.

"LOVE SONGS TO GLEN CANYON": A BENEFIT FOR THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

On November 17, 2004, Katie Lee will perform her show "Love Songs to Glen Canyon" in a benefit for the Center for Biological Diversity. Part slideshow, part poetry, part call to action, Katie Lee's performance is an homage to the magnificence of Glen Canyon before it was buried by Glen Canyon Dam.

Tickets are $10 ($8 for Center members). It starts at 7:30pm at Anjali Studio, 330 E.. 7th St., Tucson, AZ. For tickets and information, call Julie Miller (520-623-5252 x303) or go online.

Center for Biological Diversity | PO Box 710 Tucson, AZ 85702 | 520-623-5252 | [email protected]

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