Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

LAWSUIT CHALLENGES GRAZING ON 10.2 MILLION ACRES OF
CALIFORNIA DESERT TO PROTECT 24 ENDANGERED SPECIES

On 3-16-00, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and
Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed suit against the Bureau
of Land Management, charging that the agency has refused to reign in
overgrazing on 10.2 million acres of southern California desert, pushing
24 endangered species toward extinction.

Congress established the 10.2 million acre California Desert Conservation
Area in 1976, and ordered the BLM to develop a conservation plan to
protect its wildlife. The BLM developed a plan in 1980, but has not
implemented its conservation elements, and never reviewed its impacts
on endangered species. The Conservation Area stretches over 400 miles
from the US-Mexico border to Death Valley and the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada. It includes some of California's most scenic areas in Imperial,
San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Inyo and
Mono counties.

Species involved in the suit include:

  Desert tortoise        Peninsular Ranges bighorn sheep    Mojave chub
  Desert pupfish        Desert slender salamander              Bald eagle
  Yuma clapper rail    Parish's daisy                               Arroyo
toad
  Least Bell's vireo     California condor
Amargosa vole
  Cushenberry milkvetch          Lane Mountain milkvetch
  Inyo California towhee           Southwestern willow flycatcher
  Triple-ribbed milkvetch           Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard
  Ash Meadows gumplant        Cushenberry buckwheat
  Amargosa niterwort              Cushenberry oxytheca
  Coachella Valley milkvetch    Peirson's milkvetch

The case is being argued by Brendan Cummings (Berkeley) and
Jay Tutchton of Earthlaw (Denver and Palo Alto). Species and habitat
photos and more case information is available at www.sw-center.org
under late breaking news.
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