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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 19, 2004 Enviro groups call for new endangered species listing By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings A coalition of environmental groups has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the Siskiyou Mountains salamander to the Endangered Species List after the amphibian lost protections from Northwest Forest Plan survey and manage requirements. That petition, filed this week, could be the first of a flood of petitions to list 106 species if the requirements are not reinstated, according to the environmental groups. In March, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management eliminated the rules that required the agencies to survey for rare species before activities such as logging, and to set up habitat buffer zones if the species were found. "With the current changes the Bush Administration has placed on the Northwest Forest Plan, we're very concerned about the myriad of species connected to old growth forests," said Joseph Vaile, campaign coordinator for the Ashland and Williams-based Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, covering the western portions of Oregon, Washington and northern California, was meant to provide a sustainable timber harvest while protecting rare species. But the forest service and BLM have repeatedly fallen short of their timber harvest goals and some species, like the northern spotted owl, show continued population declines. Elimination of the survey and manage requirements could lead to nearly a doubling of timber harvest levels, agency officials estimate, although lawsuits and other factors could constrain logging. Agency officials said rare species still will have protections under forest service Sensitive Species and BLM Special Status Species programs. Additionally, the Northwest Forest Plan's system of old growth, riparian and other reserves - which cover 80 percent of the land under the plan - remain intact, according to Rex Holloway, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service Regional Office in Portland. "We still feel comfortable that most species will be protected by the network of reserves and that will provide for the long-term preservation of the species," Holloway said. He said it is unlikely that the forest service and BLM will reinstate the survey and manage program. The Siskiyou Mountains salamander, which inhabits rocky slopes beneath mature and old growth trees, occurs mostly outside Northwest Forest Plan reserves, according to members of the petitioning environmental groups. The likelihood that the salamander will be added to the Endangered Species List remains in doubt. Because of budgetary constraints, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is focusing on petitions that it has been ordered to review by courts, according to David Patte, assistant regional director for external affairs in the agency's Pacific Region office. "We have a nation-wide workload that extends beyond our budget," Patte said, noting that the agency did expect to receive listing petitions if survey and manage requirements were eliminated. The Pacific Region office generally receives about 13 to 25 new petitions to list species per year, he said. That amount is far below the 106 petitions the agency could see from the coalition of environmental groups, which includes the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Siskiyou Regional Education Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, American Lands Alliance, Cascadia Wildlands Project and the Environmental Protection Information Center. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams