http://www.fresnobee.com/state_wire/story/...p-7425486c.html

Delay on protecting endangered frog is illegal, suit says

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
(Published Tuesday, April 1, 2003, 5:30 PM)


SACRAMENTO (AP) - The government's moratorium on new listings under the federal Endangered Species Act is illegally endangering a rare California amphibian, environmental groups claim in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imposed the moratorium in November 2000, citing a backlog of lawsuits over previous listings, and announced it would act only in response to court orders.

So environmental groups sued and won, forcing a decision on the Sierra Nevada population of the mountain yellow-legged frog. But the service decided in January that even though the frog merits protection, the service's employees and budget already are devoted to responding to other endangered species lawsuits.

"We agree the species is in trouble," said service spokeswoman Patricia Foulk. "But as of now, this is one more species that is, frankly, a victim of the litigation battles.

"One group sues us to take an action, another group sues us to back out of an action," Foulk said. "We're just chasing our tails around a tree. It's just tragic, really. I think conservation is the big loser."

In the meantime, she said, the service is working with the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest Service to try to protect the frogs' remaining habitat, which may be 10 percent of its original range in the highest Sierra lakes, ponds, and streams.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Rivers Council sued again Tuesday in federal court, this time to force the service to remove the species from what they called a "regulatory purgatory."

The decision leaves the frogs with no protection, nor is there a limit for the service to act. The average time a species has remained in that status before being added to the endangered species list is 17 years, the environmental groups said.

"They're basically saying the frog's nearing extinction, but we're not going to do anything about it," said Greg Loarie, who filed the suit for the environmental law firm Earthjustice.

The service reached a similar conclusion in December on the Yosemite toad, which has lost more than half its population in some areas, and the environmental groups are planning a similar lawsuit on that amphibian.

The yellow-legged frog was once the Sierra's most abundant species.

But the environmental groups - and the service itself - cite alarming declines in just the last few decades, which they blame on pesticides, air pollution, climate changes, disease, livestock grazing near streams and the stocking of nonnative fish like trout.

Population surveys in the John Muir Wilderness and Kings Canyon National Park showed a decline of more than 40 percent in just the last five to seven years. A population grouping of more than 2,000 frogs in 1996 had, by 1999, been reduced to just two frogs.

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And again here in AZ:

Group wants 2 fish put on the endangered list
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 2, 2003 12:00 AM


An environmental group is asking U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton to add two Southwestern fish to the endangered-species list.

The roundtail chub and the headwater chub have been pushed toward extinction by urban sprawl, cattle grazing, dam building and other forces that have allowed non-native fish species to take over their habitat, the Center for Biological Diversity states in a petition to be filed today with the Interior Department.

The group asks Norton to consider designating a large swath of Arizona as critical habitat for the fish.

The area would encompass virtually every major river in the state, as well as "appropriate tributaries."

"It would increase the area of critical habitat significantly," said Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist with the center's Montana office. Such a designation would mainly affect land-use decisions on government-owned land. Greenwald said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service often opts for smaller habitat areas than requested.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said the center's petition was expected, and added the agency has mulled whether to add the fish to the endangered list for some time.

But, she said, the agency prefers to see if voluntary actions would restore the fish species to healthy numbers.

"We decided there are ways we can protect it (the fish) without listing it," Slown said of proposed candidate conservation agreements.

The 20-inch-long roundtail chub is found in the Verde River, as well as tributaries of the Bill Williams and Little Colorado rivers.

It is listed as "threatened" in Arizona's roster of imperiled plants and animals.

There is no such listing for the headwater chub, which is slightly smaller than the roundtail and found mostly in upper tributaries of the Salt River.

C.B. "Doc" Lane, natural-resources director for the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association, said the center's petition is a ploy to further diminish ranching and cattle grazing.

"Their listing petitions are not aimed at saving a species, but at removing an activity they don't like," Lane charged.

Fish and Wildlife has 90 days to decide whether it will act on the chub petition.



Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-8963.

Bluesky told me those frogs taste like chicken. Maybe Foster Farms would be interested in saving the species. :wink:

Damn I get mad when people call the CBD an environmental group.

They file lawsuits that close public lands and limit private property use.

THEY DO NOT AND HAVE NOT EVER SAVED A SPECIES

and one of their mouthpieces has flat refused (several times) to lift a finger when he's had an opportunity for on-the-ground preservation.

The Center for Bad Decisions exploits the cause of the true environmentalist and as a result of their actions, the species outside their radar scopes suffer. They cannot move forward without lies and they sacrifice the very environment they claim to care for. Absolutely disgusting.

Vicki

Can I get mine extra crispy!!!!! :cheese:


LIVE FREE OR DIE!

I hope the CBD( center of Big D*ckheads) keeps filing lawsuits against everything and everybody, it'll keep them out of our hair for awhile. Maybe they can bring in some of their ever so reliable scientific data, or facts like, all the people who love to go on long hikes in the dunes :? These people are bored, born with silver spoons in mouth, and would'nt know reality if it JUMPED UP AND EFFFED EM IN THE A** >:< :!: :!: :!: >:<

Spicey or mild?

SPICEY BRO! >:< :wink: , you know!!! :wink:


LIVE FREE OR DIE!