A Threatened Snail in the Path of Rosemont Copper Mine

By Samantha Bare / Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it will begin a yearlong review to determine whether the Sonoran talussnail is threatened, specifically by the proposed Rosemont Copper mine.

The action is in response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, which claims that the snail is just one of several species of plants and animals threatened by the proposed mine southeast of Tucson.

“They’re going to blast a mile-wide open pit,” said Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist for the center. “That would literally just blow up the populations of the snail.”

Can a Tiny Purple Desert Orchid Stop a Massive Open-Pit Mine

Photo © Ron Coleman.

by the Center for Biological Diversity

TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the agency’s failure to protect Coleman’s coralroot under the Endangered Species Act. Coleman’s coralroot is an extremely rare purple orchid found on national forest land in the footprint of the proposed Rosemont copper mine outside Tucson. If protected, it would become one of at least 10 endangered species that would be harmed by the proposed mine. The mine would result in the direct loss of at least 6,500 acres of wildlife habitat and would cause indirect harm to more than 145,000 acres of habitat.

“You can’t blast a mile-wide open pit, produce 1,200 million tons of toxic waste and withdraw 33 billion gallons of water without leaving a permanent scar on this fragile landscape and the plants and animals that depend on it,” said Tierra Curry, a biologist with the Center. “Only Endangered Species Act protection can ensure this gorgeous, incredibly rare orchid isn’t wiped off the face of the Earth.”

Forest Service Approves Grand Canyon Uranium Mine Despite 26-year-old Environmental Review

by the Center for Biological Diversity

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK— The U.S. Forest Service announced late Monday that it will allow Denison Mines Corp. to begin excavating the “Canyon Mine” this fall without first updating the 26-year-old environmental impact statement for the uranium mine, located due south of Grand Canyon National Park on the Kaibab National Forest. The Service claims no new public review or analysis is needed because there is no new information or circumstances relevant to its original analysis.

“It is impossible to imagine how the Forest Service, with a straight face, can say that no additional environmental analysis is required for Canyon Mine, when the analysis is totally dated — more than 26 years old — and when so much has changed,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “This mine was and is hugely controversial as it threatens Native American cultural sites, groundwater and ultimately the springs of Grand Canyon, and numerous wildlife species. It is irresponsible to allow it to go forward without looking at these important issues and being honest with the public about the impacts.”

Fox Thought Extinct in Oregon Possibly Photographed on Mt. Hood

By Ian C. Campbell, The Oregonian

Photo from Cascadia Wild: A red fox photographed by motion-detecting infrared camera in Mt. Hood National Forest. The fox is thought to be a Sierra Nevada red fox, which hasn’t been found in Oregon in decades.

With an invisible flash of infrared light across the snow, motion-detecting cameras in the mountains of Oregon may have snapped evidence of a nocturnal fox not seen in the state in decades. These new photos provide hope for the survival of one of the rarest animals in North America.

Although the photos clearly reveal some kind of red fox, environmentalists still need to confirm this is Oregon’s lost fox. “We are operating under the assumption that these are the Sierra Nevada red fox because it is the only montane red fox that occurs in the mountains of Oregon,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Nearly 6,500 Acres Protected as Critical Habitat for Endangered Mississippi Gopher Frogs

by the Center for Biological Diversity

A Mississippi gopher frog (rana capito sevosa)

JACKSON, Miss.— In response to a lawsuit and advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated 6,477 acres of protected critical habitat for endangered Mississippi gopher frogs. The critical habitat, which includes areas in both Mississippi and Louisiana, is more than three times the acreage proposed by the Service in 2010.

Suit Filed Against Expansion of Navajo Coal Mine Polluting Four Corners Region

by the Center for Biological Diversity

Navajo Mine, by Kelly Michals

After decades of coal pollution from the 2040-megawatt Four Corners Power Plant and BHP Billiton’s 13,000-acre Navajo Coal Mine that supplies it, Navajo and conservation groups filed suit against the federal government late Tuesday for improperly rubber-stamping a proposal to expand strip-mining without full consideration of the damage and risks to health and the environment.

“The Navajo mine has torn up the land, polluted the air, and contaminated waters that families depend on,” said Anna Frazier of Diné CARE. “Residents in the area deserve a full and thorough impact analysis that is translated into the Navajo language to provide for real public participation, not another whitewash for the coal industry.”

Navajo Mine is located in San Juan County, N.M., on the Navajo Nation. Four Corners Power Plant, built in 1962, provides electricity to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and is the largest coal-fired power plant source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the United States. (NOx is associated with public-health impacts including respiratory disease, heart attacks and strokes). The legal action, brought under the National Environmental Policy Act, challenges the Office of Surface Mining’s decision to allow BHP Billiton to expand strip-mining operations into 714 acres of a portion of land designated “Area IV North” and the agency’s claim that the mine did not cause significant human health and environmental impacts.

The present Area IV mine expansion was proposed in the wake of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment v. Klein (Diné CARE), 747 F. Supp. 2d 1234, 1263-64 (D. Colo. 2010). In that case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled that a previous proposal to strip-mine all 3,800 acres of Area IV North violated the National Environmental Policy Act and ordered OSM to revisit its analysis under the Act.

Unfortunately, OSM’s new analysis only exacerbates the deficiencies of its first analysis. OSM’s analysis justified a finding of no significant impact in a vacuum by focusing only on a cursory analysis of impacts within the mine expansion’s perimeter and ignoring indirect and cumulative impacts from mercury, selenium, ozone, and other air and water pollutants caused by the combustion of coal at the Four Corners Power Plant and the plant’s disposal of coal ash waste generated by the coal mined from the expansion area.

New Keystone XL Route Is Environmental Disaster

by Center for Biological Diversity

After rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline proposal in January, President Obama gives a green light to its southern leg – a bid to ease a key bottleneck to new oil supplies and defuse critics on gas prices.

A new route for the Keystone XL pipeline that TransCanada will reportedly submit permit applications for as early as Friday avoids portions of the Sandhills in Nebraska but crosses the Ogallala Aquifer, as well as hundreds of other water bodies and habitat for a number of endangered species.

“The new Keystone route fails to avoid significant risks to an important aquifer and the rivers and streams that provide fresh water for millions of people and habitat for endangered species like the whooping crane, piping plover, and pallid sturgeon,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has worked to stop the destructive pipeline project. “It’s a game of environmental roulette, and the American public is being asked to bear all the risk for a pipeline that will mainly benefit big oil’s bottom line by allowing export of dirty tar-sands oil to the global market.”

If constructed Keystone XL will transport tar-sands oil 1,700 miles across six states and hundreds of waterways, posing an unacceptable risk of spill. An existing pipeline called Keystone 1 has already leaked 14 times since it started operating in June 2010, including one spill that dumped 21,000 gallons of tar-sands crude. Another tar-sands pipeline spilled 800,000 gallons in the Kalamazoo River.

Strip mining of oil from Alberta’s tar sands is also destroying tens of thousands of acres of boreal forest and polluting hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Athabasca River, in the process creating toxic ponds so large they can be seen from space. Extraction and refinement of tar-sands oil produces two to three times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil and represents a massive new source of fossil fuels that leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called “game over” for our ability to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Contact: Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495

 

Gray Wolfs Delisted in Midwest, Wolf Kills to Begin Soon

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it was removing Endangered Species Act protections for the wolf in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and portions of adjoining states.

After the announcement, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ordered the state Department of Natural Resources to implement a state wolf management plan.

Wolves – which can travel up to 30 miles a day – have reached a population of about 800 in Wisconsin. That exceeds the state’s goal of 350. There are now more than 4,000 wolves in the Midwest. The region, once considered a bastion of wolf reintroduction and protection, may soon witness aerial wolf hunts and wolf seasons akin to the US West.

Under the state management plan, the DNR or those acting on its behalf will be able to kill “problem wolves.”

The Center for Biological Diversity said the decision was premature, and contended that wolves remained threatened by disease and human persecution. It criticized Minnesota for using a bounty system to kill problem wolves, and said there should be less emphasis on lethal controls. The group said it supports the government’s conclusion to retain protections for wolves in the Northeast.

 As wolf numbers soared in recent years, the wolf became a lightning rod of controversy. Motorists bought Wisconsin license plates with its iconic image, but some deer hunters blamed wolves for reducing the deer population in parts of the north. At least seven wolves are believed to have been killed during the 2011 deer hunting season.

Despite their prevalence today, wolves were wiped off the state’s landscape between 1960 and 1974. In the mid-1970s, they began to migrate from Minnesota.

Two Florida Species Declared Extinct

South Florida Rainbow Snake: © JD Willson, 2006, Discoverlife.org

Earlier this month, October 5, 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that two Florida species, the South Florida rainbow snake and the Florida fairy shrimp, have been determined to be extinct. The finding came in response to a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2010 seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the rainbow snake, fairy shrimp and more than 400 aquatic species in the southeastern United States. Last week the Service announced that 374 other freshwater species in the petition, including 114 in Florida, may warrant protection under Act. All of those species will now get an in-depth review.

The South Florida rainbow snake was known only from Fisheating Creek, which flows into the west side of Lake Okeechobee. The snake was iridescent bluish-black with red stripes on its back and sides, red and yellow patches on its belly and throat, and a yellow chin. Adults were more than four feet long. It was last seen in 1952.

The Florida fairy shrimp was known from a single pond just south of Gainesville. The pond was destroyed by development, and the species hasn’t been detected elsewhere.

The full statement from Center for Biological Diversity can be found here.

Congressional Push to Gut Environmental Protections Along US Borders

TUCSON, AZ.— Under the guise of border security, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill today that would grant border-enforcement agencies free rein on federal lands within 300 miles of the US-Mexico border. After criticism from colleagues in his own party that the 300-mile limit went far beyond the scope of border-enforcement activities, McCain scaled it back to 100 miles, and the amendment was added to the bill.

“Politicians are playing games with important border-security legislation at the expense of laws that protect clean air, water and endangered species,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This amendment is unnecessary, unwanted and threatens significant harm to the wildlife, natural landscapes and people of the border region.”

Border fences like this one in the Otay Mountain wilderness in California can prevent animal populations from interbreeding and dispersing. Photo: Scott Nicol

Read full press release from Center for Biological Diversity.

*****

A study conducted at The University of Texas at Austin earlier this year has shown some of the greatest vulnerability of wildlife in the borderlands.

“Our study is the first comprehensive analysis of threats to species across the entire U.S.-Mexico border,” says Jesse Lasky, a graduate student in the laboratory of Tim Keitt, associate professor of integrative biology. “The scale at which these fences stretch across the landscape is large, so it’s important for us to also have a large-scale view of their effects across the continent.”

Coues' Rice Rat and Reticulated Collared Lizard are both Texas threatened species. Coue's Rice Rat occurs in Texas at the edge of its range and has most of its border range occupied by areas of high human impact and pedestrian fences. Reticulated Collared Lizards were identified as a species that would be at risk if extensive barriers were built across its range in the future. Image: Jesse Lasky

Among the species at risk include four species listed as threatened globally or by both the US and Mexico, and another 23 with small range sizes. The animals include the Arroyo toad, the California red-legged frog and the jaguarundi.

The study by Lasky, Keitt and coauthor Walter Jetz, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, and appeared earlier this year in the online the journal Diversity and Distributions.