Crowdog
11-17-2001, 04:22 PM
This is from the ASA * MediaNews Group
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This is an example of the CBD's tactics that we all need to pay attention to. When the CBD realized that the Desert Tortoise was no longer usefull in their fight to stop the expansion of Fort Irwin, because of a compromise reached between the US Army and the US Department of the Interior, brokered I might add by my very own Congressman Jerry Lewis (My Vote) and believe it or not, Sen Dianne Fienstien herself. The CBD simply chose another species they already had waiting in the Bullpen, aka The Endanered Species List.
This is the same tactic they will use in the ISDRA as soon as they come to the realization that the PMV is no longer an effective weapon. You can bet on it! This is why the poorly written Endangered Species Act itself is where the true battle lies! ~ Guy
Friday, November 16, 2001
Lawsuit aims to protect plants
Ecologist: 'We want the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the law and designate critical habitat for these eight species.'
Chuck Mueller
Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to designate critical habitat to protect eight imperiled plant species.
The suit, filed in federal court in San Diego, said the plants, which include the Lane Mountain milk-vetch in the Mojave Desert and the San Bernardino Valley's thread-leaved brodiaea, have been listed for nearly two years as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
"We want the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the law and designate critical habitat for these eight species," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist Center for Biological Diversity based in Tuscon, Ariz.
The California Native Plant Society joined in the suit, which Patterson said is part of an ongoing effort to improve state and federal conservation practices.
"We have a moral obligation to protect all species, and want the wildlife service to identify habitat needed to prevent these plants from becoming extinct," said Illeene Anderson, a Los Angeles botanist with the native plant society.
Jenny Valdivia, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service's western regional office in Portland, Ore., said she could not comment on an active lawsuit.
"In the past, we have put funds into the listing of species as threatened or endangered," she said. "We have found that designating critical habitat is not as important as listing of a species, although that provides another level of protection."
Critical habitat designation identifies areas essential to the survival and recovery of listed species and establishes a way to protect the habitat from destruction.
"It requires federal agencies to consult with us about an activity that could affect a species or its habitat," Valdivia said.
Critical habitat has been designated for only 11 percent of federally listed species, said botanist Jim Andre, director of the University of California Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center.
In California, critical habitat has been earmarked for fewer than 5 percent of endangered plants, he said, compared to 28 percent of the state's federally listed animals.
"Neglect of plants in conservation programs makes no sense because plants are the foundation of all ecosystems," Andre said.
The lawsuit calls for designating critical habitat for the Lane Mountain milk-vetch, a rare plant found at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, north of Barstow.
"It's an endemic species found nowhere else in the world," Anderson said. "It's a member of the pea family a perennial that flowers in the spring with light pink blossoms and produces bean-like fruit.
"From our perspective, it's a treasured plant. We want to know how much area it needs to avoid extinction."
The vetch is found at widely scattered sites on Fort Irwin, and environmentalists fear the proposed expansion of the training center will further endanger the rare plant.
Maj. Rob Ali, spokesman for the fort, said the habitat is south of the area planned for expansion.
"Part of a compromise reached between the Army and the U.S. Department of Interior excluded the area and adjacent Paradise Valley in the expansion plan," he said.
Anderson countered that the vetch also has been found to the west, in Superior Valley, which is included in the fort's proposed enlargement.
The thread-leaved brodiaea is found in clay soils in the San Bernardino Valley and four other counties. It is a threatened species that persists for years in a bulb form, sprouting threadlike leaves with pink flowers.
Offroad vehicles threaten Peirson's milk-vetch, a plant found in the Imperial sand dunes, the lawsuit said. Urban sprawl in the Coachella Valley may be affecting the survival of the Coachella Valley milk-vetch, listed as endangered.
Patterson said the eight species were selected because the plants are found on federal public land or areas under federal jurisdiction, such as wetlands.
No species found on private land were included, according to the laws"uit"
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© 1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc.
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This is an example of the CBD's tactics that we all need to pay attention to. When the CBD realized that the Desert Tortoise was no longer usefull in their fight to stop the expansion of Fort Irwin, because of a compromise reached between the US Army and the US Department of the Interior, brokered I might add by my very own Congressman Jerry Lewis (My Vote) and believe it or not, Sen Dianne Fienstien herself. The CBD simply chose another species they already had waiting in the Bullpen, aka The Endanered Species List.
This is the same tactic they will use in the ISDRA as soon as they come to the realization that the PMV is no longer an effective weapon. You can bet on it! This is why the poorly written Endangered Species Act itself is where the true battle lies! ~ Guy
Friday, November 16, 2001
Lawsuit aims to protect plants
Ecologist: 'We want the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the law and designate critical habitat for these eight species.'
Chuck Mueller
Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to designate critical habitat to protect eight imperiled plant species.
The suit, filed in federal court in San Diego, said the plants, which include the Lane Mountain milk-vetch in the Mojave Desert and the San Bernardino Valley's thread-leaved brodiaea, have been listed for nearly two years as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
"We want the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the law and designate critical habitat for these eight species," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist Center for Biological Diversity based in Tuscon, Ariz.
The California Native Plant Society joined in the suit, which Patterson said is part of an ongoing effort to improve state and federal conservation practices.
"We have a moral obligation to protect all species, and want the wildlife service to identify habitat needed to prevent these plants from becoming extinct," said Illeene Anderson, a Los Angeles botanist with the native plant society.
Jenny Valdivia, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service's western regional office in Portland, Ore., said she could not comment on an active lawsuit.
"In the past, we have put funds into the listing of species as threatened or endangered," she said. "We have found that designating critical habitat is not as important as listing of a species, although that provides another level of protection."
Critical habitat designation identifies areas essential to the survival and recovery of listed species and establishes a way to protect the habitat from destruction.
"It requires federal agencies to consult with us about an activity that could affect a species or its habitat," Valdivia said.
Critical habitat has been designated for only 11 percent of federally listed species, said botanist Jim Andre, director of the University of California Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center.
In California, critical habitat has been earmarked for fewer than 5 percent of endangered plants, he said, compared to 28 percent of the state's federally listed animals.
"Neglect of plants in conservation programs makes no sense because plants are the foundation of all ecosystems," Andre said.
The lawsuit calls for designating critical habitat for the Lane Mountain milk-vetch, a rare plant found at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, north of Barstow.
"It's an endemic species found nowhere else in the world," Anderson said. "It's a member of the pea family a perennial that flowers in the spring with light pink blossoms and produces bean-like fruit.
"From our perspective, it's a treasured plant. We want to know how much area it needs to avoid extinction."
The vetch is found at widely scattered sites on Fort Irwin, and environmentalists fear the proposed expansion of the training center will further endanger the rare plant.
Maj. Rob Ali, spokesman for the fort, said the habitat is south of the area planned for expansion.
"Part of a compromise reached between the Army and the U.S. Department of Interior excluded the area and adjacent Paradise Valley in the expansion plan," he said.
Anderson countered that the vetch also has been found to the west, in Superior Valley, which is included in the fort's proposed enlargement.
The thread-leaved brodiaea is found in clay soils in the San Bernardino Valley and four other counties. It is a threatened species that persists for years in a bulb form, sprouting threadlike leaves with pink flowers.
Offroad vehicles threaten Peirson's milk-vetch, a plant found in the Imperial sand dunes, the lawsuit said. Urban sprawl in the Coachella Valley may be affecting the survival of the Coachella Valley milk-vetch, listed as endangered.
Patterson said the eight species were selected because the plants are found on federal public land or areas under federal jurisdiction, such as wetlands.
No species found on private land were included, according to the laws"uit"
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© 1999-2001 MediaNews Group, Inc.