Legislative News

Petitions to List Butterfly and Goshawk

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity 2/11 announced it joined with several Califiornian groups to file an emergency petition for the listing of the Santa Monica hairstreak butterfly as an endangered species. The butterfly depends on Coast live oak habitat, which is threatened by development. On 2/12 SWCBD, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, and the Sitka Conservation Society filed a motion to force the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as an endangered species. The goshawk's habitat in the old growth rainforest's of Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest is being destroyed by clearcutting. (GREENLines, 22 Feb. 1999)

USFWS Sued for Delays in Revisions to Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan

The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund 2/5 announced it is suing the US Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of 19 other environmental organizations. The groups say the government failed to comply with a 1995 court order to address deficiencies in the grizzly bear recovery plan. The agency was supposed to find a better way to count grizzly populations. One plaintiff said, "We are paricularly concerned with the agency's continued reliance on methods of measuring grizzly populations that are simply not accurate". Environmentalists insist on an accurate count before the species can be considered for delisting from the Endangered Species Act. (GREENLines, 10 Feb. 1999)

Salmon Species Listed in the Pacific Northwest

Nine Northwest salmon and trout species today will be listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, the first time such a listing will affect a major metropolitan area (Reuters/Washington Post). The listings, which go into effect within 60 days, will extend protections to wild salmon found in nearly every watershed in Washington state, as well as in parts of Oregon's Willamette Valley (Sam Howe Verhovek, New York Times). Washington Gov. Gary Locke (D): "Nothing like this has ever happened anywhere in the US. Virtually every county and every citizen in the state will be affected" (David Whitman, US News & World Report, 3/22/99 issue). The fish to be listed include the Puget Sound chinook, the Lower Columbia River chinook, Upper Columbia spring chinook, Lake Ozette sockeye, Hood Canal summer chum, Lower Columbia chum and the mid-Columbia steelhead. The National Marine Fisheries Service plans to defer unitl 9/99 decisions on wheter to extend similar protection to four other salmon runs in California and Oregon (Verhovek, New York Times). (GREENLines, 15 March 1999).