10/21/1998 457

RALLY THIS FRIDAY AGAINST FOREST SERVICE PLAN TO KILL RARE APACHE GOSHAWK IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA

The Southwest Center, Sky Island Watch, SEAC-SW, and Maricopa Audubon Society are hosting a rally this Friday, October 23rd, at 12 noon outside the Coronado National Forest office in Tucson (300 W. Congress St.) to protest the agency's plan to log one of the few remaining goshawk nest stands in southern Arizona.

On three previous occassions going back to 1995, the Forest Service has decided to log an active goshawk nest stand in order to expand and pave a primative campground on Mt. Graham, and to make a few bucks on the old growth pines and firs. Because logging an active goshawk nest stand violates their own guidelines, the Forest keeps claiming an exemption for purposes of "adaptive management." Appeals and lawsuits have stopped every proposal thus far. The Forest Service retaliated by sending out an anti-goshawk press release which resulted in the male being shot and killed.

A new pair has moved onto the nest, and now the Forest Service is proposing to log the nest stand for a fourth time. The entire Pinaleno Range likely has less than 10 Apache goshawk pairs. As few as 30 likely exist in all of the U.S. Reports indicate they may be even rarer in Mexico since the onset of industrial logging in recent decades.