(Note: The litigious ones are at it yet ... and the language deception runs rife throughout.)

September 8, 2003

Center for Biological Diversity (also known as the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity) - "Nature's Legal Eagles. Protecting biodiversity -- 'endangered species and wild places' -- through science, policy, education, and environmental law.

No. 342

http://www.endangeredearth.org/index.html

"Contact Us" webpage:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/aboutus/staff.html

On 9-3-03, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and a coalition of environmental and fishing groups reached a legal agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service that will ensure the designation and protection of "critical habitat" areas for 19 endangered Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead trout. The designation will cover more than 10,000 miles of rivers stretching from Southern California to Puget Sound and inland to Idaho. Under the legal agreement, proposed critical habitat designations must be issued by June 2004 and completed by January 2005.

In contrast to the claims of the Bush administration, data gathered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that species with critical habitat are more likely to be declining than species without it.

The nineteen trout and salmon species previously had critical habitat, but lost it April 2002 when the Bush administration refused to defend the Fisheries Service against a lawsuit brought by the National Association of Home Builders.

Developers contributed heavily to the Bush election campaign and won big when the administration simply withdrew the habitat protections rather than defend its own wildlife agency against their charges.

The species to be protected are:

California Coast Chinook [salmon] Central California steelhead [trout] Central Valley spring run Chinook [salmon] Central Valley Steelhead [trout] Lower Columbia River steelhead [trout] Puget Sound Chinook [salmon] Middle Columbia River Steelhead [trout] Upper Columbia River spring run chinook [salmon] Snake River Steelhead [trout] Upper Willamette River Chinook [salmon] South-central California Steelhead [trout] Columbia River Chum [salmon] Southern California steelhead [trout] Hood Canal summer run chum [salmon] Upper Columbia River Steelhead [trout] Oregon Coast Coho [salmon] Upper Willamette River Steelhead [trout] Ozette Lake Sockeye [salmon]

The coalition also included the Environmental Protection Information Center, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, and Pacific Rivers Council.

http://www.endangeredearth.org/alerts/result.asp?index=1278

The following quotes are important to remember when reading such stories:

"In 30 years of implementing the Endangered Species Act, the Service has found that the designation of critical habitat provides little additional protection to most listed species, while preventing the Service from using scarce conservation resources for activities with greater conservation benefits. In almost all cases, recovery of listed species will come through voluntary cooperative partnerships, not regulatory measures such as critical habitat." - From: Joan_Jewett@r1.fws.gov.  You can cite the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the source of the critical habitat language. June 23, 2003 (On June 19, 2003, the comment to my inquiry as to the author of this quote was: "These statements were written in Interior Secretary Gale Norton's office. I do not know the exact author.")

"When we make critical habitat designations, we just designate everything as critical, without an analysis of how much habitat an evolutionary significant unit needs." - Donna Darm, the acting NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) Regional Administrator for the Northwest, in a 1998 intra-agency memorandum.

"What we have learned is that you can't do these issues one species at a time." - Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt (former Secretary, Department Of Interior) http://www.rcip.org/conservation.htm