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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