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Defenders of
Wildlife on February 5 dropped a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force, a month
after the Air Force quit low-level flights, bombing, strafing, and rocketing at
the South Tactical Air Command Range in the Sonoran desert––a critical
habitat for the endangered Sonoran pronghorn. |
| The Air
Force also agreed to check for pronghorns before rocketing or bombing another
nearby range. Only about 100 Sonoran pronghorns remain in the U.S. Small herds
also roam an adjacent Mexican biosphere reserve. Also in the region, but not the
immediate vicinity, are the Sonora tiger salamander, the Canelo Hills ladies
tresses orchid, and the Huachuca water umbel, a floating plant, all added to the
Endangered Species List on January 6. The resolution of Defenders v. Air Force
may have implications for Navy bombing of Farallon de
Medinilla. |
| A
Washington D.C. Judicial Circuit panel ruled January 10 in Animal Legal
Defense Fund v. Shalala and National Academy of the Sciences that expert
committees advising NAS may not work in secrecy, and that NAS proceeded
improperly in excluding the public from meetings of the experts who have advised
the National Institutes of Health in producing the seven editions of the NIH
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published since 1963. |
| Jasper Carlton of the
Biodiversity Legal Foundation on December 27 sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and Department of the Interior for failing to respond in a timely manner
to an October 1995 petition seeking to list the Colorado lesser prairie chicken
as an endangered species. The lesser prairie chicken population has dropped by
97% since the turn of the century. The related greater prairie chicken, now
numbering about 10,000, has been subject of a successful reintroduction by the
Colorado Division of Wildlife.
|
Photo by Phyllis Staff |
Photo by Glenn Basey |
The Fund for Animals
and the Department of the Interior on January 22 announced resolution of
disputes over fulfillment over the 1992 settlement of a lawsuit demanding
expedited listing decisions on behalf of species nominated for Endangered
Species Act protection. Interior agreed to make listing decisions on 41
candidate species by April 1, 1998, including the spotted frog, Northern Idaho
ground squirrel, and riparian brush rabbit. Another 43 listing decisions are due
by December 31, 1998, along with action to protect the Florida black bear. |
