6/29/1998 389

FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE REFUSES TO LIST GOSHAWK AS ENDANGERED-FIFTH SUIT TO BE FILED OVER IMPERILED OLD GROWTH RAPTOR

For the 3rd time, the Fish & Wildlife Service has bowed to political pressure, refusing to list the northern goshawk as an endangered species in the western U.S. It has already lost two lawsuits over previous denials. The agency lost a 3rd lawsuit over its refusal to list the Queen Charlotte goshawk as endangered in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska. The Southwest Center, Sitka Conservation Society, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance are already in court over the Queen Charlotte goshawk decision and the Southwest Center has pledged to build another coalition to sue over this most recent northern goshawk decision as well.

Despite being taken to task by a federal judge for refusing to work with the Southwest Center over controversial issues in its last illegal denial, the Fish & Wildlife Service admitted that it did not read a 75 page comment letter by the Southwest Center. It also refused to read a recent report by a University of Arizona ecologist proving the goshawk is endangered, or an affidavit by a University of Montana biologist showing Forest Service management plans are failing the goshawk. Instead, the agency put Richard Reynolds, a Forest Service biologist, on its status review team, asking him to judge the adequacy of a management plan which he himself wrote!