September, 23 2008, 12:43pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017
Southwest Forest Proposes End to Baiting of Endangered Mexican Wolves
The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona, where
Mexican gray wolves roam, has proposed a new policy requiring proper
disposal of livestock carcasses - the first time livestock owners would
be tasked with a responsibility to prevent conflicts with wolves.
If the remains of cattle (and sometimes horses and sheep) that have
died of non-wolf causes are not made inedible or removed, they can
attract wolves to prey on live cattle that may be nearby the carcass,
and habituate them to domestic animals instead of their natural prey.
SILVER CITY, N.M. -
The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona, where
Mexican gray wolves roam, has proposed a new policy requiring proper
disposal of livestock carcasses - the first time livestock owners would
be tasked with a responsibility to prevent conflicts with wolves.
If the remains of cattle (and sometimes horses and sheep) that have
died of non-wolf causes are not made inedible or removed, they can
attract wolves to prey on live cattle that may be nearby the carcass,
and habituate them to domestic animals instead of their natural prey.
The new policy would effectively ban the practice of baiting wolves
into preying on domestic animals, which can lead to wolves being
trapped or shot by the government in retribution. Such "predator
control" actions are undermining recovery of the Mexican wolf, North
America's most imperiled mammal. The proposed change would help the
beleaguered species recover.
Michael Robinson, a
conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity in
Silver City, N.M., commended the Forest Service for the proposal.
"Ensuring that cattle and horses that die of non-wolf causes don't
entice Mexican wolves into scavenging was recommended by independent
scientists and is just plain common sense," Robinson said.
"If wolves and livestock are to coexist, we must strive to prevent
conflicts rather than blame the wolves once they have already become
used to regarding domestic animals as prey," he said.
The Apache-Sitgreaves is one of several Southwestern national forests
updating their 10-year forest plans, and is the first unit of
government to propose a livestock carcass clean-up policy in the
Southwest. The policy was instituted from the outset of the successful
reintroduction of northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves to Yellowstone
National Park and central Idaho (see background information, below).
Cattle, sheep and horses on public lands die from many causes. During
drought years especially, animals stressed by poor nutrition feed on
poisonous plants. Others forage on steep slopes, from which they fall
to their deaths. Disease, lightning - a surprisingly common cause of death.-
collisions with vehicles, predators, and birth-related deaths also take
a toll. When there is access via roads, the livestock carcasses can be
hauled away or buried. In remote areas, depending on conditions,
carcasses can be made inedible by using corrosive lime, fire or even
dynamite.
The Forest Service's proposal comes in
the form of a line of text in its Draft Desired Conditions for the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests' Revised Forest Plan: "Livestock
carcasses are not available for scavenging within the Mexican Wolf
Recovery Zone." (See https://www.fs.fed.us/r3/asnf/plan-revision/documents/ASNF-Draft-DC-2008-08-15.pdf, p. 25.)
The proposal's brevity and informality - there is a Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, but no official recovery "zone" -
belies its significance as a condition to be implemented through new
terms written into livestock grazing permits, once the plan is
finalized.
The Center for Biological Diversity is
requesting that the provision be applied not just in the Apache
National Forest portion of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, which
consists of the combined Gila and Apache National Forests, but also on
all lands governed by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests' Revised
Forest Plan. The Sitgreaves National Forest is important wolf habitat
in its own right and could serve as a travel corridor for wolves to
enable them to reach the Grand Canyon ecosystem. Including the
Sitgreaves National Forest would also take into account an ongoing U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service rule-change process intended to allow wolves
to roam beyond the current boundaries.
The Forest Plan Revision Team is inviting public comment on the proposed changes through October 15th via e-mail at: Asnf.planning@fs.fed.us
Background
Several instances have come to light involving Mexican gray wolves that
originally preyed on elk and ignored cows beginning to prey on cows and
ignoring elk after scavenging on already-dead cattle. This was a
problem largely averted in reintroducing northern Rocky Mountain gray
wolves to Yellowstone and Idaho just three years before the
Southwestern wolf-reintroduction program was begun.
The rule governing the 1995 reintroduction of wolves to the northern
Rocky Mountains stated: "If livestock carrion or carcasses are not
being used as bait for an authorized control action on Federal lands,
it must be removed or otherwise disposed of so that they do not attract
wolves." The northern Rockies rule further specified that evidence of
artificial or intentional feeding of wolves would preclude labeling a
wolf in the vicinity a "problem wolf," subject to removal.
But the 1998 rule governing the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction
included no such protections. The regulatory disparity is part of the
reason that, while the northern Rockies now support around 1,450
wolves, the Mexican wolves reintroduced to the Southwest in 1998 number
around 50 animals still in the wild.
The June 2001
Three-Year Review (aka Paquet Report) of the Mexican wolf
reintroduction program, written by a panel of independent scientists
contracted by the Fish and Wildlife Service, advised "Requir[ing]
livestock operators on public land to take some responsibility for
carcass management/disposal to reduce the likelihood that wolves become
habituated to feeding on livestock."
The American
Society of Mammalogists in June 2007 urged "protect[ing] wolves from
the consequences of scavenging on livestock carcasses."
Until now, no government agency would accept responsibility for this.
The Forest Service, which manages the land, has pointed at the Fish and
Wildlife Service as the agency that sets wolf policy. And the Fish and
Wildlife Service defers to a group of six government agencies,
including itself and the Forest Service, which opposes making owners of
stock responsible in any way for preventing scavenging and habituation.
This Catch-22 has been deadly for the wolves.
Despite the abundance of livestock, 88 percent of what the Mexican
wolves eat consists of native ungulates, such as elk and deer, and only
4 percent is livestock (including that which they scavenged but did not
kill), according to the only study on the wolves' diet conducted since
their reintroduction in 1998. But the wolf population is so low and the
rules so draconian that the official responses to even the occasional
livestock depredation serve to thwart recovery.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
"The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over," said one environmental campaigner.
Apr 23, 2024
Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
"In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May," said Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
"MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall," she continued.
"Requesting an in-service decision by May 23 leaves the company very little time to implement the safety measures required by its agreement with PHMSA," Sims added. "There is no rush, other than to satisfy MVP's capacity customers' contracts—a situation of the company's own making. We remain deeply concerned about the construction methods and the safety of communities along the route of MVP."
Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
"During construction, MVP has contaminated our water sources, destroyed our streams, and split the earth beneath our homes. Now they want to run methane gas through their degraded pipes and shoddy work," Chisholm added. "The MVP is a glaring human rights violation that is indicative of the widespread failures of our government to act on the climate crisis in service of the fossil fuel industry."
POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
"Federal, state, and local elected officials have spoken out against this unneeded proposal to ship more methane gas into North Carolina," said Sierra Club senior field organizer Caroline Hansley. "The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over. After MVP Southgate requested a time extension for a project that it no longer plans to construct, it should be sent back to the drawing board for this newly proposed project."
David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
"FERC has again failed to protect the public interest, instead favoring a profit-making corporation," Sligh added.
Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
"The endangered bats, fish, mussels, and plants in this boondoggle's path of destruction deserve to be protected from killing and habitat destruction by a project that never received proper approvals in the first place," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Perrin de Jong said. "Our organization will continue fighting this terrible idea to the bitter end."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Seismic Win for Workers': FTC Bans Noncompete Clauses
Advocates praised the FTC "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
Apr 23, 2024
U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
"These agreements are ubiquitous," she noted, applauding the ban. "EPI research finds that more than 1 out of every 4 private-sector workers—including low-wage workers—are required to enter noncompete agreements as a condition of employment."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
Still, the Democratic commissioners' vote was still heralded as a "seismic win for workers." Echoing Khan's critiques of such noncompetes, Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert declared that such clauses "inflict devastating harms on tens of millions of workers across the economy."
"The pervasive use of noncompete clauses limits worker mobility, drives down wages, keeps Americans from pursuing entrepreneurial dreams and creating new businesses, causes more concentrated markets, and keeps workers stuck in unsafe or hostile workplaces," she said. "Noncompete clauses are both an unfair method of competition and aggressively harmful to regular people. The FTC was right to tackle this issue and to finalize this strong rule."
Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
While such agreements are common across various industries, Teófilo Reyes, chief of staff at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said that "many restaurant workers have been stuck at their job, earning as low as $2.13 per hour, because of the noncompete clause that they agreed to have in their contract."
"They didn't know that it would affect their wages and livelihood," Reyes stressed. "Most workers cannot negotiate their way out of a noncompete clause because noncompetes are buried in the fine print of employment contracts. A full third of noncompete clauses are presented after a worker has accepted a job."
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) executive director Mike Pierce pointed out that the FTC on Tuesday "recognized the harmful role debt plays in the workplace, including the growing use of training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs, and took action to outlaw TRAPs and all other employer-driven debt that serve the same functions as noncompete agreements."
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at Open Markets Institute, highlighted that the addition came after his group, SBPC, and others submitted comments on the "significant gap" in the commission's initial January 2023 proposal, and also welcomed that "the final rule prohibits both conventional noncompete clauses and newfangled versions like TRAPs."
Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
Among those applauding was Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, who said that "the new FTC rule will limit the ability of employers to use debt to lock nurses into unsafe jobs and will protect their role as patient advocates."
Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action, also cheered the effort to stop corporations from holding employees "hostage," saying that "this rule is a critical step for protecting our nation's workers and making labor markets fairer and more competitive."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Discriminatory' North Carolina Law Criminalizing Felon Voting Struck Down
One plaintiffs' attorney said the ruling "makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society."
Apr 23, 2024
Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
"We are ecstatic that the court found in our favor and struck down this racially discriminatory law that has been arbitrarily enforced over time," Action NC executive director Pat McCoy said in a statement. "We will now be able to help more people become civically engaged without fear of prosecution for innocent mistakes. Democracy truly won today!"
Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
However, Mitchell Brown, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, said that "Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to reengage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
North Carolina officials have not said whether they will appeal Biggs' ruling. The state Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision.
According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
The group notes that in 44 North Carolina counties, "the disenfranchisement rate for Black people is more than three times the rate of the white population."
"Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to re-engage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
In what one civil rights leader called "the largest expansion of voting rights in this state since the 1965 Voting Rights Act," a three-judge state court panel voted 2-1 in 2021 to restore voting rights to approximately 55,000 formerly incarcerated felons. The decision made North Carolina the only Southern state to automatically restore former felons' voting rights.
Republican state legislators appealed that ruling to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which in 2022 granted their request for a stay—but only temporarily, as the court allowed a previous injunction against any felony disenfranchisement based on fees or fines to stand.
However, last April the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the three-judge panel decision, stripping voting rights from thousands of North Carolinians previously convicted of felonies. Dissenting Justice Anita Earls opined that "the majority's decision in this case will one day be repudiated on two grounds."
"First, because it seeks to justify the denial of a basic human right to citizens and thereby perpetuates a vestige of slavery, and second, because the majority violates a basic tenant of appellate review by ignoring the facts as found by the trial court and substituting its own," she wrote.
As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
Currently, only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow all incarcerated people to vote behind bars.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular