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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Center For Biological Diversity |
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Suit Filed To Protect 13 Species In Four States
Julie MacDonald, Other Bureaucrats, Slashed 4.2 Million Acres From Proposals by Agency Scientists |
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WASHINGTON, DC - December 19 --The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups filed lawsuits today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to properly designate and protect “critical habitat” areas for 13 endangered species in Oregon, California, New Mexico and North Carolina. The suits are part of broader effort by the Center to challenge political corruption harming 55 endangered species and over 8.5 million acres of wildlife habitat. It filed simultaneous lawsuits challenging six other decisions in November. Today’s lawsuits challenge the slashing of 4,223,036 acres of critical habitat for the California red-legged frog, arroyo toad, three plants in California and four invertebrates in New Mexico, and the failure to even consider critical habitat protection for four additional plants in California, Oregon and North Carolina. Many of the flawed decisions in today’s 13 suits were engineered by Julie MacDonald, the disgraced former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior who resigned in March following a scathing report by the Inspector General. The Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General are currently conducting investigations political meddling in scientific decisions by MacDonald and other high level official in the Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Habitat loss is the number one killer of endangered species. These species won’t survive unless we protect their habitat,” said Michael Senatore, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Julie MacDonald’s is an endangered species death star. Her overruling of scientists is inexcusable.” “The red-legged frog, arroyo toad and golden sedge have evolved over millions of years,” said Senatore, “It is immoral to sacrifice them for political gain. Federal scientists are doing their best to save endangered species, but are overruled at every turn by Bush administration bureaucrats.” “The political problems in the Department of Interior run much deeper than MacDonald. The agency has descended into a culture of corruption the likes of which I’ve never seen before,” said Senatore. Today’s suits were filed by attorneys at the Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice. Forest Guardians is a co-plaintiff in the New Mexico invertebrates case. Species Information California red-legged frog. Made famous in the Mark Twain story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, the California red-legged frog has lost more than 70% of its historic habitat from just about every imaginable threat, from urbanization to exotic species. It is believed extinct in the Central Valley and 99% extirpated from its Sierra Nevada range. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed it as threatened in 1996. It published a proposed rule to designate 4,138,064 acres of critical habitat on 4/13/04. In response to a lawsuit by developers, the Service published a revised proposal to designate only 737,912 acres on 11/3/05, and finalized the rule with just 450,288 acres on 4/13/2006; a reduction of 90% from the original proposed rule. In its 6/29/07 regional review of decisions potentially tainted by Julie Macdonald, the California/Nevada Operations office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the decision was invalid and should be redone. Director Dale Hall, in a memo to Assistant Secretary of Interior Lynn Scarlett confirmed the frog as one of the decisions “that should be re-evaluated.” Arroyo toad. The Arroyo toad has lost three-quarters of its historic habitat to development and degradation of its riparian habitat in central and southern California. It was listed as an endangered species in 1994. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule to designate 478,400 acres of critical habitat on 6/8/00 and finalized the decision with just 182,360 acres on 1/7/01. In response to an industry lawsuit, the agency reproposed to designate 138,713 acres on 4/28/04 and finalized the decision with just 11,695 acres on 4/13/2005, a reduction of 98%. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists bitterly complained about interference in the designation by Julie MacDonald: Now that the AT fCH (=arroyo toad final critical habitat) has been published, it is being covered in the media. Not surprisingly, some people and organizations are dismayed by the extent of the exclusions…We felt a lot of pressure during the last few months of drafting the final rule to reduce the total cost and therefore acreage… We also felt pressure to justify all of the acreage we had proposed… However the scrutiny is not from scientific peers in this case and the approach to critical habitat by DOI [Department of Interior] leads to some ways of doing things that make biologists uneasy. For example, DOI (i.e. Julie M.) has a very narrow definition of "occupied habitat" . . . this led to removing all areas > .7 mile above the uppermost AT observation . . .It seems to me the era of erring on the side of the species is clearly over; the burden of proof is on us. The other somewhat bizarre unofficial guidance we have that makes no biological sense to me is that we should base boundaries on average numbers (e.g. average distances moved). Does that mean we should protect the amount of space the average toad uses? If this were ever equated to protecting 1/2 the area used by toads, or the area needed to sustain 50% of a population, then we would eventually lose most populations over time (the guidance is not clear)." Email by Creed Clayton to Rick Farris, 4/15/05. Spreading navarretia, thread-leaved brodiaea. The spreading navarretia and thread-leaved brodiaea were listed as threatened species in 1998. They occur only in southern California and have lost nearly 90% of their vernal pool habitat to fragmentation, development and destruction. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists proposed to designate 31,086 acres of critical habitat the navarretia and 4,690 acres for the brodiaea in 2004. In final decision in 2005 slashed the navarretia habitat to 652 acres and the brodiaea habitat to just 597 acres; reductions of 98% and 87%, respectively. Lane Mountain m ilkvetch. The Lane Mountain milkvetch is native to dry, sandy soils in California’s Mohave Desert. It was listed as an endangered species in 1998. U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists proposed to designate 29,522 acres of critical habitat for it on 4/6/2004. When the rule was finalized on 6/7/05, agency bureaucrats deleted 100% of the proposal, leaving the milkvetch with no critical habitat. San Diego ambrosia. San Diego ambrosia is endemic to San Diego County. It declined from 49 populations in 1998 to just 15 in 2002. Although the Endangered Species Act requires the designation of critical habitat areas at the time species are placed on the endangered list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to establish critical habitat for the plant. Cook’s lomatium and large-flowered woolly meadowfoam. Listed as endangered species in 2002, these two plants are found in Jackson and Josephine counties, Oregon. Destruction of their vernal pool habitat from development, agriculture, herbicides and non-native species remains their primary threat. Although the Endangered Species Act requires the designation of critical habitat areas at the time species are placed on the endangered list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to establish critical habitat for either plant. Four New Mexico invertebrates. The Roswell springsnail, Koster’s springsnail, and Noel's amphipod (a freshwater shrimp), are found nowhere else but the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The Pecos assiminea snail is found on the refuge and also in limited areas in Texas. In 2002, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists proposed to designate 1,523 acres of critical habitat for the Pecos assiminea snail and 1,127 acres for each of the other three species. When the decision was finalized by agency bureaucrats in 2005, the Pecos assiminea snail’s habitat was slashed by 74% to just 397 acres in Texas. 100% of the habitat was slashed for the other three species, leaving them with no critical habitat. In 2006, Yates Petroleum Company filed applications for two gas wells on the Wildlife Refuge, one of which was located just 200-300 yards upstream of habitat occupied by the endangered invertebrates. Also in 2006, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan that would allow up to 91 additional oil and gas wells to be drilled upstream of the refuge, potentially affect damaging downstream water quality. Golden sedge. Listed as an endangered species in 2002, the golden sedge occurs in only eight populations within a 2-mile radius of the Onslow/Pender County line in southeastern North Carolina. Although the Endangered Species Act requires the designation of critical habitat areas at the time species are placed on the endangered list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has refused to establish critical habitat for the plant.### |
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